PLAY MUSE’S “UPRISING” IN MINUTES! ® www.keyboardmag.com Yamaha S70XS Go-To Gig Axe M-Audio Axiom Pro Control Freak Dave Smith Tetra Poly Analog Monster A NEWBAY MEDIA PUBLICATION JANUARY 2010 $5.99US $6.99CAN 01 Pianoteq Pro Modeling 0 09281 01011 1 Magic ColumbiaCollegeChicago ...it keeps getting better! Nathan MFA Candidate Music Composition for the Screen MFA MusicComposition for the Screen You’re talented, creative, and serious about making it. You’re ready for a graduateprogram that understands your ambition and is focused on your success. ColumbiaCollegeChicago’s MFA program inMusic Composition for the Screen is a complete education in the art and business of composing and producing music forfilm, television, and new media. COLUM.EDU/ SCREENMUSIC NOW ACCEPTING 312.369.7260 APPLICATIONS FOR GRADSTUDIES COLUM.EDU Fall 2010 Photoby Nolan Wells Introducing the silent rehearsal studio Play anywhere, anytime. Unprecedented 3-time Neighbors can’t hear it. Parents can’t hear it. Cops can’t hear it. Best in Show Winner But you won’t believe what the band can hear. Every band has the same problem: rehearsing is too loud for most locations and studio space is expensive. But now you can play anywhere, anytime virtually silent to the outside world: quietly enough for your bedroom, dorm room, apartment or hotel room. JamHub™ was created to let you play more, and the experience rocks. Just pick a color section and plug in your instruments, mics and headphones. Then control your own individual mixes with new clarity, and no volume wars. You’ll hear yourself like never before, and improve faster. JamHub is also portable and affordable. And whether you’re a garage band or touring professionals, there’s a JamHub model designed for you. So start jamming more without disturbing the peace. ©2009 BreezSong LLC. JamHub.com FUTURE CLASSIC The Poly Evolver Keyboard is a nearly-knob-per-function knockout that sounds unlike any other synth. 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JANUARY 2010 CONTENTS KEYSPACE MUGA MUYAHARA 12 ARTISTS ALEX BROWN JAMES TALK BROOKE WAGGONER UNSIGNED ARTIST OF THE MONTH ADVICE QUICK TIPS: RACHAEL SAGE SESSION SENSEI CAREER COUNSELOR COMMUNITY CD REVIEWS GO SEE WEEKEND WARRIOR FEATURES 26 HIROMI The fleet-fingered fusion master returns with a stunning solo PLAY IT! piano album — and takes Oscar Peterson to Vegas in the 42 POP process. Learn all about the inspiration, composition, and Play the signature synth riff from Muse’s “Uprising.” technique behind Place To Be, right here. 44 AMERICANA Get close and comfortable with the Floyd Cramer 32 ADAM FREELAND country slip-note. Check out the plug-in tricks and production secrets the 46 JAZZ reigning king of breakbeat used on his slammin’ new Spice up your voicings with upper-structure triad textures. album Cope™. 38 JACK’S MANNEQUIN Piano rocker Andrew McMahon on songwriting roots DO IT! and the resurgence of the piano as a rock instrument. 48 DANCE MIX Think you can’t change vocal melodies when sculpting remixes? Learn how to re-pitch the vocal and keep the feel here. MORE ON THE WEB 50 N OTATI O N @keyboardmag.com Harness the power of ReWire with Notion 3. B-3 MASTERS CHECK OUT 52 SOUND DESIGN CLONEWHEELS Eleven essential tips for recording your own sample library. Booker T. Jones, Chester Thompson, and 54 SOFT SYNTHS Tom Coster converged on our offices to Rock down to “Electric Avenue” and re-create the “motor” discuss the influence of the B-3 organ on sound from Eddy Grant’s one-hit wonder. their musical lives, and compare some of the latest clonewheels. Learn from some of the best organists to ever hit the keys in LINKS our exclusive videos. 8 EDITOR’S NOTE GEAR iGOT RHYTHM 56 YAMAHA S70XS 10 LETTERS Continuing his iPhone music app blog, 60 DAVE SMITH electronica guru Francis Preve focuses on INSTRUMENTS TETRA 20 NEW GEAR groove and beat-oriented apps in this 62 MODARTT installment. PIANOTEQ PRO 71 PRODUCT 68 M-AUDIO AXIOM PRO SPOTLIGHT 72 SAMPLE LOGIC GEEK OUT MORPHESTRA 73 CLASSIFIED 74 Warfus “Moon” Powell has 75 keyboard ADS and rack synths in his studio. We fit Cover photo by Pak Ok Sun as many as we could onto one page. 01.2010 KEYBOARD 7 FROM THE EDITOR eyboard VOL. 36, NO. 1 #406 JANUARY 2010 EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Stephen Fortner SENIOR EDITOR: Michael Gallant MANAGING EDITOR: Debbie Greenberg EDITOR AT LARGE: Craig Anderton ART DIRECTOR: Patrick Wong MUSIC COPYIST: Elizabeth Ledgerwood GROUP PUBLISHER: Joe Perry [email protected], 770.343.9978 ADVERTISING DIRECTOR, NORTHWEST, NORTHEAST, CANADA, & NEW BUSINESS DEV.: Greg Sutton Music or [email protected], 925.425.9967 Stephen Fortner ADVERTISING DIRECTOR, MIDWEST, MID- EXECUTIVE EDITOR ATLANTIC, & SOUTHEAST: Technology? Jessica Sullivan [email protected], 661.255.2719 ADVERTISING DIRECTOR, SOUTHWEST: Yes! Albert Margolis [email protected], 949.582.2753 When someone asks me “What’s your players. The point? The instrument we see SPECIALTY SALES ASSOCIATE, NORTH: Reggie Singh New Year’s resolution?” I usually say, “To the today as the epitome of musical purism was [email protected], 650.238.0296 root major seventh, recorded at 192kHz” with- once seen by some as a technological cheat. SPECIALTY SALES ASSOCIATE, SOUTH: Will Sheng out blinking. If they don’t begin backing away Let’s ride the wayback machine even fur- [email protected], 650.238.0325 PRODUCTION MANAGER: Amy Santana slowly, I know I’ve found a kindred spirit who’s ther. Pythagoras wasn’t just the reason you into both music and technology. had to study all those triangles in freshman MUSIC PLAYER NETWORK VICE PRESIDENT: John Pledger The pun between the music theory and geometry. He was a musician, and was so EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Michael Molenda SENIOR FINANCIAL ANALYST: Bob Jenkins audio recording meanings of “resolution” points impressed by the correspondence between PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT MANAGER: to an identity issue that always faces tech-savvy musical intervals and the physical world — cut Beatrice Kim DIRECTOR OF SALES OPERATIONS: keyboardists. It’s the old dichotomy of “Are you a string in half and the pitch goes up an Lauren Gerber WEB DIRECTOR: Max Sidman more about music, or more about technology?” octave, hit a fret two-thirds of the way down MOTION GRAPHICS DESIGNER: Tim Tsuruda In the case of guitarists, bassists, and horn play- the string and you get a fifth, to take just two MARKETING DESIGNER: Joelle Katcher SYSTEMS ENGINEER: John Meneses ers, causal observers tend to perceive that it’s of his observations — that he saw music as the ASSOCIATE CONSUMER MARKETING DIRECTOR: Christopher Dyson mainly about the player and his or her talent — purest expression of the mathematical secrets whatever technology is involved (whether that’s that drove the universe itself. To put it another NEWBAY MEDIA CORPORATE PRESIDENT & CEO: Steve Palm an amp, guitar synth, etc.) is seen as being way, technology didn’t make music — music CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER: Paul Mastronardi there to improve the listeners’ experience of was the source of all technology. VP WEB DEVELOPMENT: Joe Ferrick what’s already being performed on the instru- If technology is the use of tools to improve CIRCULATION DIRECTOR: Denise Robbins HR MANAGER: Ray Vollmer ment. Stand behind something that has black our lives, then the first time a caveman hit IT DIRECTOR: Greg Topf ’n’ whites and a power cord, though, and at something with something else, then hit it CONTROLLER: Jack Liedke SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS? best, you have to answer some version of the again, then again, just because the sound 800-289-9919 (in the U.S. only) 978-667-0364 [email protected] above question. (I get “So do you play piano, or and vibrations felt good, that was an applica- Keyboard Magazine, Box 9158, Lowell, MA 01853 keyboard?” a lot.) At worst, you’re a button- tion of technology. Find a back issue pusher, a cheat. Why the waxing philosophical? Because the 800-289-9919 or 978-667-0364 [email protected] You’re in good company. In our cover story next time you get some form of that recurring beginning on page 26, Hiromi points out that annoying question, I’d like to suggest an alter- Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited manuscripts, photos, or artwork. the piano lets you think of your fingers as different native to showing them you can play Rachmani- KEYBOARD (ISSN 0730-0158) is published monthly players in an orchestra. That’s precisely why noff, Keith Emerson, or “Giant Steps.” That just by NewBay Media, LLC 1111 Bayhill Drive, Suite 125, San Bruno, CA 94066. All material published in KEY- even the stately, highbrow acoustic piano was plays into the “either-or” of it, where the above BOARD is copyrighted © 2009 by NewBay Media. All rights reserved. Reproduction of material appearing in KEYBOARD is forbidden without permission. KEY- once a technological controversy, believe it or examples prove it’s more of an “and.” Instead, BOARD is a registered trademark of NewBay Media.