Keyboard Magazine - October 2009

DRUM UM REPLACE RE PLACERS RS STUDI STUDIOO-TEST TESTEE D! 5 DR

®

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Apple

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Imogen Heap

Casio

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Ring Light Encoders Superior LCD Strip Brightly lit LED rings and buttons provide instant status visual feedback for all controls.

Extra-large brilliantly lit screen provides all the information you need at a glance.

Tetra is the next-generation analog poly synth from master synth designer Dave Smith. Tetra takes the award-winning sound and features of Mopho, multiplies them by four, and packs them in a box less than half an inch larger! Tetra has multiple personalities. It is a four-voice, analog poly synth, a “Prophet-4.” It’s a four-part, multitimbral synth, essentially four Mophos in one very compact box. And it’s a voice expander for other Tetras or the Prophet ’08. • Affordable, fully programmable poly synth with a 100% analo g signal path. • Classic, real analog sound—including legendary Curtis analog low-pass filters. • Four-part multitimbral capability with four separate outputs. • Combo Mode for huge unison patches, stacked sequences, and “modular-style” poly sounds . • Expandable: poly c hain with other Tetras, Prophet ‘08, and Mopho for expanded polyphony. •  Just 7.9” x 5” (20.07 cm x 12.7 cm). • USB 2.0. • Free editor for Mac OS and Windows.

For specs, demos, and more, visit davesmithinstruments.com.

Celebrating 30 years of innovative synth design.

On Mo ve The

ghtweight  Dura b le yet li  l lows you to construction a e. tra ve l with eas e with ytime, anywher an y  la  P hesizer is ttery - powered t n  ba y t S n e ie   l n i  ve   b o n  M co  Di anywhere o The new J UNO g o t d e n g i s o peration. e d d n a r e t   v h o g  lightwei a l l pro, with  V, AIFF, s i . A d r oa  p lays  W  b r y ye e  k  la  P s i g d on Th n S u .  B  US you go , rea ltime so s g trac ks via d n in u   k c so  ba F ty  M r i S e  l  l a or  M P3  1000 to p -q u  MI DI contro l e  l   b i x e  l f d n f lash memory. no bs, a

modify k st -timer or r i f a e ’r ou y i is sure mode. Whether   D   o n u J e h t r, orme seasoned perf sic mo ve. u m r u o y e  k a to m

on the road  Put your show

ed effects at ic ed d th wi t  pu  Mic in mer’s dream. or rf  pe o   l so a is

- i. Juno  D om /  .c S  U d an   l o .R w w w  Di at with the J UNO -

CONTENTS

O C TO B E R 2 0 0 9

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22

ARTISTS THE HARD LESSONS  JOAKIM DANIEL MINTSERIS  JASON REBELLO UNSIGNED ARTIST OF THE MONTH ADVICE CAREER COUNSELOR SESSION SENSEI COMMUNITY  CD REVIEWS GO SEE  WEEKEND WARRIOR

 30

FEATURES 22

BRUCE HORNSBY 

From bluegrass to hip-hop, the Americana hero incorporates a melting pot’s worth of influences — and reinvents them in his unmistakable style. Learn the secrets behind his stunning new album Levitate in our exclusive interview.  30

IMOGEN HEAP 

The pop-rock ingénue returns with the keyboard-heavy Ellipse — and some of the most creative sound design this side of Hawaii.  36

REDONE

Learn what inspires the man behind Lady Gaga’s ubiquitous pop hits.

PLAY IT!  38

MASTER CLASS: STRIDE

Stride piano isn’t for the faint of heart. But if you have the guts to give it a try, resident expert Scott Healy jumpstarts you here. 42

JAZZ

Picking up from last month, go deeper into the whole tone scale with the second part of Andy LaVerne’s exclusive lesson.

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M  E    G   A   N   H    O   L   M  E    S  

CONTENTS

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MORE ON THE WEB @keyboardmag.com

GEAR 50

DRUM REPLACEMENT SOFTWARE ROUNDUP 

60

APPLE LOGIC STUDIO

68

CASIO PRIVIA PX-330

DO IT! 44

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DANCE MIX  CREATIVE VOCAL PROCESSING, PART 2 Learn Francis Preve’s “digital glossolalia” technique for turning existing vocal tracks into otherworldly rhythmic hooks. SOFT SYNTHS MICHAEL JACKSON’S “BEAT IT” GONG Don’t have a Synclavier lying around? Here’s how to get that tasty tone with modern tools. PRODUCTION MANUAL DRUM REPLACEMENT IN PRO TOOLS AND LOGIC Don’t want to use one of the drum replacement apps we round up on page 50? Here’s how to get the same results using old-school methodology.

GEEK OUT 72

Erik Norlander’s sci-fi analog monster.

GARY GO The British, keyboard-based songwriter’s “Wonderful” grabbed coveted Single of the Week status on iTunes, and his selftitled U.S. debut album has been climbing the charts. Check out the video performance at the Keyboard  office, and learn about Gary’s favorite iPhone music apps! BRUCE HORNSBY  Executive Editor Stephen Fortner goes backstage with the legend, rolls tape, and talks pianos, synths, and hits. REDONE Keyboard ’s Robbie Gennet hangs with super-producer RedOne. Go deep with the dance-pop powerhouse in exclusive video supplements to the story in this issue. KEYBOARD 

 WEBSITE R EDESIGN! After much work and research, keyboard mag.com has been reborn with a smoother interface, more video, and more than a few cool surprises. Check it out!

LINKS 8

FROM THE EDITOR

10 LETTERS 20 NEW GEAR 70 PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT 71 CLASSIFIED ADS

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F R O M T H E E D I TO R

eyboard  VOL. 35, NO. 10 #403 OCTOBER 2009 EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Stephen Fortner SENIOR EDITOR: Michael Gallant MANAGING EDITOR: Debbie Greenberg EDITORAT LARGE: Craig Anderton

Stephen Fortner EXECUTIVE EDITOR

IT’S GREAT TO BE WRONG

 ART DIRECTOR: Patrick Wong MUSIC COPYIST: Elizabeth Ledgerwood GROUP PUBLISHER: Joe Perry  [email protected], 770.343.9978  ADVERTISIN G DIRECTOR, NORTHWEST, NORTHEAST, CANADA, & NEW BUSINESS DEV.: Greg Sutton

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Sometimes, the best way to expand our

so much more — one of the great American

horizons is to have ou r expectations confounded. Recently, I had the privilege of seeing Bruce Hornsby play a solo show in a small, intimate theater in California wine country. Not even listening to Bruce’s entire catalog in the weeks preceding — as stylistically diverse as it is — prepared me for the experience of hearing him sans band, accompanying himself solely on piano. Add in the most thoughtfully cynical lyrics I can recall since I was first old enough to understand what Steely Dan was talking about, and it was like seeing a new Mose Allison — only with hints of Vince Guaraldi’s harmonic adventures and Mike Garson’s easy virtuosity throughout. (Hornsby and Guaraldi have something in common: The iconic tunes that everyone hums are the tips of deep-reaching icebergs of work — it’s good that everyone can see the tips from a distance, but be sure to look deeper once you get closer.) Most strikingly, Bruce seemed to feel  every song as though he were playing it for the first time. Point being, I went in expecting a well-crafted and nostalgic pop piano concert, and left knowing I’d been treated to

musical storytellers of our time. About a week later, I did a backstage interview with the keyboardist for a certain country megastar. Said megastar is synonymous with patriotism and pickup trucks. Now I think I’m pretty patriotic, but I have to confess I was worried about the reception my shaved-headed, earring-wearin’, import-drivin’, coastal-dwellin’, funk and techno-listenin’ butt would get from these folks. Guess what? It was the most warmly and graciously I’ve been treated as a  journalist at any backstage hang ever — by a comfortable margin. Not only that, but I learned that the keyboardist came up in the Memphis soul scene and that he and I share a childhood hero in Booker T. Jones. Is there a moral? Maybe it’s to t ake being pleasantly surprised by others as a cue to surprise ourselves more often. Ever shy away from a musical opportunity while saying “I’m not a  _____ player” to yourself? I know I have. Next time you hear that voice, make it a point to woodshed a book of _____ music (or a _____  Play It! lesson in Keyboard ) and see what happens. It might be a revelation, and may fill in a blank you didn’t even know you had.

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KEYBOARD (ISSN 0730-0158) is published monthly by NewBay Media, LLC 1111 Bayhill Drive, Suite 125, San Bruno, CA 94066. All material published in KEYBOARD is copyrighted © 2009 by NewBay Media. All rights reserved. Reproduction of material appearing in KEYBOARD is forbidden without permission. KEYBOARD is a registered trademark of NewBay Media. Periodicals Postage Paid at San Bruno, CA and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to KEYBOARD P.O. Box 9158, Lowell, MA 01853. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608. Canada Returns to be sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2 .

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LETTERS

FAREWELL TO THE KING

Instead of boycotting the tabloid press [as Mike McKnight suggests in his Sept. ’09 guest editorial], those of us who make music should respond to Michael Jackson’s death by searching our souls and acting locally. Mike McKnight states that it was “a shock” that Michael Jackson’s body finally gave out under the obvious mistreatment it had received for decades. Yet these gossip magazines and blogs had been sounding the alarm about his health for years. Jackson himself admonished us to ignore the tabloids. But criticizing the messenger, even one as tacky and as crass as the tabloid press, won’t help us learn from this tragedy. How many of us st arving musicians have looked the other way at a charismatic band member’s risky behaviors, perhaps assuming that their questionable decision-making and impulsive personal choices were inseparable from their talent and musical zeal? The best lesson we could take from this tragedy is that we should actively nudge our bandmates towards a healthy lifestyle, even if it’s not the popular thing to do. —Douglas Shannon

Many musical greats might still be alive and  making music if only more people close to them had spoken up as you suggest. It’s a sad truth of the entertainment industry — or   professional sports, for that matter — that  the more famous (and lucrative) a star is, the greater is the pressure not to do so. Should we all check ourselves and do better, from buddies in bar bands to top record  label execs? Absolutely. As to the media, it’s one thing to call  for concern about someone’s health or  behavior. It’s another to turn that person’s  problems into a form of entertainment through speculation, rhetorical questions, mock indignation, constant repetition of  video footage, or other circus-sideshow  techniques designed to get ratings. Knowing Mike McKnight as we do, it’s the latter  he was condemning in his guest editorial. We also think that, from the standpoint of  the musicians and techs on the new  shows, who saw Jackson in his true element and at his best, shock at his death

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 jazz/quartal harmonization, blues, gospel, was a perfectly legitimate thing to feel. and vaudeville/circus, to name a few. It was Thanks very much for your letter. The insight and sentiment behind it is definitely  like listening to a kaleidoscope of great players and composers. Think Bill Payne something people need to hear. —Stephen Fortner, Executive Editor  meets Chick Corea meets Gershwin; blend in a bit of Victor Borge and Scott Joplin as well. I could’ve listened to much more of Jim’s improvisation — awesome playing and FAST FINGER FACTS creative inspiration. I’ve been reading Keyboard for decades I think it’s time for an “Americana” issue. now and I intend to keep my subscription I’ve been heavily influenced by the likes of current. I enjoy the stories on new gear and Bill Payne, Matt Rollings, Benmont Tench, studio techniques but the “how to play” Craig Doerge, and so on. Much of that articles, particularly Andy LaVerne’s, are the influence comes through in my work with most useful. One crucial thing that is misscountry and variety gigs here in the Denver ing from these is fingering, especially when area. I’ve met many fellow players who you want to play fast. If you didn’t know have similar influences as well. Over the how to finger “The Flight of the Bumblebee” years, many of my piano students have or “Bumble Bee Boogie,” the music would asked me for chord voicings, riffs, and licks seem nearly impossible to make haste with. from that school of playing. So, I suspect Chopin’s alternate fingering for the chrothat there’s a hunger out there for a Keymatic scale is like an afterburner. Good finboard issue that covers Americana keys. gering is full of secrets and I wish Andy There are some great players who could would give up some of his. I need them. —Mike Moran share their insights. It would be educational and fun for a lot of folks. —Allan Evett I’m a very long-time subscriber and always enjoy Andy LaVerne’s columns. Being a Allan, thanks for the feedback! As luck   jazz lover, I particularly enjoyed the “Play would have it, our cover story this month Really, Really Fast” lesson. My only request features an Americana hero, Bruce (other than asking for more like this) is to Hornsby, and we have more in the works please include fingering suggestions. One for you, including a feature on Benmont  of the hardest things for me is trying to Tench very soon. Keep an eye on future come up with the best fingering to use issues. . . . while playing fast passages. Thanks, and —Michael Gallant, Senior Editor  keep up the great work! —Robert Liberman

We hear you loud and clear. Starting with the coming issue, we’re making an increased effort to include fingering guides with all lessons. –Michael Gallant, Senior Editor  AMERICANA ADULATION

I just saw Lyle Lovett and his Large Band at Red Rocks in Denver. Once again, Jim Cox was holding down the keyboard chair for the act — and doing a terrific job. In particular, his work on “I’ve Been To Memphis” was outstanding — especially the piano solo at the very end. He went a bit beyond Matt Rollings’ original outro stylings: as well as stride, he flew in snippets of modern

LET’S HEAR FROM YOU

Contact the editors [email protected] Keyboard Magazine 1111 Bayhill Dr., Suite 125 San Bruno, CA 94066 Subscription questions

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“The M3 sounds brilliant. My other synths are crying for attention because my M3 took it all away.”  MARC DELCORE Britney Spears

M3 XPANDED YOUR SOUND IS YOUR SIGNATURE.

Experience the signature sound of the M3 XPanded at your Korg dealer today. www.korg.com/m3

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A R T I S TS , A D V I C E , C O M M U N I T Y

THE HARD LESSONS Korin Louise Visocchi’s Indie Rock Keys

If the term “indie rock” makes you think  of shoegazing litanies that hold little to no keyboard interest, run, don’t walk, and pick  up Arms Forest by the Hard Lessons. It ranges from Weezer-gets-a-Hammond power pop on “See You Again” to Janis Joplin blue-eyed soul on “Talk It Over” to the buzzing synth bass and roboAutotuned vocals of “Roma Termini” — a track that hits a hitherto unimagined golden mean between Goldfrapp and Cake. Through all the stylistic swings, Arms Forest maintains an unmistakable sonic identity, thanks to two things: Detroit newlyweds Augie and Korin Visocchi’s endless supply of indelible hooks, and Korin’s atmospheric and always-just-right keyboarding. Here are highlights from our conversation with Korin about what has become our favorite indie album of 2009. For much more, listen to the raw audio file of this interview at keyboardmag.com. What was your earliest exposure to keyboards? The Hammond organ at my grandparents’ house. It was a spinet with a little built-in Leslie by your knees. I just pushed but-

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tons. I just liked the way it sounded — it was the first time I experienced a volume pedal and I remember that being really key. As a ten-year-old I could play “Amazing Grace” or “Jingle Bells,” then all of a sudden I was playing songs like Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T.,” teaching myself radio songs on organ or piano. In a county across Michigan, a young boy my same age — my husband who I hadn’t met yet — was playing Nirvana on his first instrument, the mandolin. Augie grew up in a house with Italian folk musicians; I came from a family of singers. So we were growing up in similar ways, but on different instruments. Name some early songwriting influences. Just to touch on growing up with a barbershop quartet in my family, I love interesting harmonies. I love interesting “tags.” For example, instead of just playing A, G , E , I might throw in a F # minor to add a little spice, but sing over it more traditionally. I also love old country music — Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn. Whereas my husband probably has 400 guitar riffs in his back  pocket just waiting to be put into a song,

so we’re a little bit different. He writes with his instrument first and I write with my voice first. What live gear do you take onstage? I play two Alesis Micron synths. One, which I play with my left hand, runs through an 8 X 10 Ampeg SVT bass amp, so I’m playing really heavy bass onstage. I run the other through a Fender Twin. The live configuration is me, Augie, and o ur drummer, Ryan. The biggest compliment I’ve ever heard is that we sound like way more than three people. On the album, I also want to credit a fantastic organ player — pretty much the B-3 guy in Detroit — Bobby Emmett. Does the industrial character of your native Detroit affect its music? Your music? Definitely — the idea of factories, of pistons going up and down, the giant collapsing buildings that are our skyline. It affects your brain. Both Augie’s parents worked at General Motors. My dad works in industrial plumbing and when there’s no industry, nobody needs plumbing. We both have parents who came home dirty and tired. Stephen Fortner

MORE ON KEYBOARDMAG.COM

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 JOAKIM Radical Disco Webpage: myspace.com/jimibazzouka Influences: Disco, kraut rock, pop, noise,

folk, ambient. Blue, red, green, black. The sound of the city. Drones. Angst and love. Newest project: A new album called Milky Ways, released in September, plus many projects on my label Tigersushi. I’m also setting up a new studio now, which is really exciting. Favorite Gear: Korg MS-20. I could cite a lot of other things like EQs, compressors, and effects, because I’m a gear maniac. I’m not a fetishist, but I love what great gear does. I love everything analog because there’s magic in old machines that you can’t find in the digital world. But I also love what digital can do — early grainy digital as well as today’s powerful tools. Both worlds work  best when put together in a creative way.

But among all my synths, the MS-20 is my favorite. It’s the one I use for my live shows, and it’s the only synth that can weep like a guitar. It’s simple, stable, and super-powerful. Favorite song: “State Trooper” by Bruce Springsteen. Play by ear or play as written: Both. I learned how to read music when I was a kid, I used to go to a music school for years, learning classical piano. They also teach you how to play music by ear in these schools. But I hardly use any of these abilities when I work on my music. I don’t write it down except when I need to tell a musician what he needs to play precisely. Favorite artist we’ve probably never heard of: Obviously, I don’t know him yet. Words of wisdom: Food is better than you. Francis Preve

DANIEL MINTSERIS Sideman Extraordinaire Webpage: myspace.com/mindlessinertia The music: I’m a sideman and session

musician first and foremost. For me, that’s a natural way to be creative. My musical expression is always tailored to the project, while hopefully reflecting my overall sensibilities and rising above genre boundaries. When context allows, and in occasional writing and solo projects, I gravitate toward the quirky and the obscure, staying away from the flashy and the athletic. Main influences: The Beatles, Jon Brion, Björk, Claude Debussy. Musical background: I grew up in Lithuania, behind the Iron Curtain, so I had limited access to a very odd assortment of music. I idolized the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Michael Jackson, was into Russian underground singer-songwriters, heard my parents’ tapes of European pop and old Hebrew and Yiddish songs, discovered Billie Holiday and Coleman Hawkins, and studied Bach, Scarlatti, and Hindemith in music school.

Favorite keyboard gear: I love a rich,

expressive, reserved grand piano. I like my Wurlitzer so much that I sampled it, so we never have to be apart. I’m very attached to my vintage and toy instruments — Clavinet, Pianet, Indian harmonium, melodica, xylophone, etc. I like samplers, especially their older counterparts (Mellotrons, Chamberlins, Optigans). I’m constantly glued to my MacBook Pro and have been a devoted Ableton Live fan since version 1. Latest projects: I’ve recently been touring with New York’s own Peter Cincotti (we  just played the Montreux Jazz Festival), as well as the talented and delightful Teddy Thompson. Upcoming are some Summerstage performances with Martha Wainwright and the Morphoses ballet company. I’ve also completed an experimental improvisational project with cellist Dave Eggar called æ, and scored a short animated film. Words of wisdom: In performance, I like listening at least as much as playing,

maybe more. Skill and style are important, but years of touring with Marianne Faithfull taught me the joy of humbly serving the song and daringly seeking magical moments. For the rest of this interview: Visit keyboardmag.com. Jon Regen

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 JASON REBELLO British Jazz-Pop Keyboard Ace

British keyboard wizard Jason Rebello

has been at the forefront of modern improvised music for over two decades. From fabled sideman gigs with Sting and Jeff Beck to his heralded work as a leader, Rebello’s live and recorded output continues to demonstrate why he is still one of the world’s most in-demand musicians. And that demand started before he even graduated music school. “I was studying jazz and classical at the Guildhall School of Music in London,” Rebello tells me from his home in Southwest England, just days after returning from a summer tour with Jeff Beck. “I was playing  jazz, and getting really into Herbie Hancock.

I was obsessed with him. In fact, I went to see his electric Rockit band when I was around 14. He played the middle bit of ‘Chameleon’ on the Rhodes, and it completely blew me away. From then on I wanted to find out more about him, and I started tracing his history backwards, all from that concert.” “In my last year at the Guildhall,” Rebello continues, “I was actually approached by the Novus label at BMG to do a jazz album as a leader. I felt I wasn’t really ready to do one just yet, so I told them ‘Give me a year.’ I spent the next year writing tunes and practicing hard, and very luckily, as soon as I finished college, I had a record deal. I

ended up doing three albums for them.” Rebello’s next big break would come by word of mouth, with a recommendation from one of his musical heroes, the late pianist Kenny Kirkland. “Kenny and I had met each other a few times,” Rebello says. “He was a great guy. Still to this day when I hear his playing it makes me smile. It’s got that  joy in it. I think Kenny had said some good things about me to Sting, because one day I got an email from Sting, completely unexpectedly, asking me to come over to Italy and play. We ended up getting on well, and suddenly I was playing with him for the next six years. It was amazing.” Rebello has been busy with a multitude of projects of late, playing with renowned drummer (and fellow Sting alum) Manu Katché, his cousin, classical percussionist Simone Rebello, his own band Actual Spoof (featuring bassist Pino Palladino, and brothers Jeremy and Paul Stacey on drums and guitar), and of course, guitar legend Jeff Beck. “The Jeff Beck gig is fun and  challenging, especially playing with drummer Vinnie Colaiuta. He can do anything. He’s always completely on the money. It’s been great for me — I’ve learned so much.” And what does this road-ready, U.K. keyboard master use these days for his touring rig? “A Korg Triton Extreme, an Apple MacBook Pro running Logic and Mainstage, Synthogy’s Ivory [grand piano] and Arturia vintage synth plug-ins, and a Korg CX-3 tonewheel organ.” Jon Regen

UNSIGNED ARTIST OF THE MONTH Coto Pincheira

Even amongst the excellent Unsigned Artists of the Month we’ve featured here, composer and pianist Coto Pincheira’s The Sonido Moderno Project  stands out as a keyboard album of stellar skill and spirit. The Afro-Cuban jazz album’s burning montunos, vibrant percussion, and joyously intricate melodies remind me of my first Arturo S andoval/Joey Calderazzo concert, an explosive performance that had the sold-out crowd dancing in the aisles. While upbeat tracks like “Danzon For A Night” and “Tribute To A Generation” will no doubt cause a similar reaction when performed live, more mellow cuts like “Wendy’s Ballad” smolder with wistful pianistic runs and a dead-on sense of groove. If he continues to approach his music with this level of originality and skill, Coto will have a spot guaranteed for himself in the pantheon of Afro-Cuban piano greats. Michael Gallant Cotopincheira.com

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Introducing

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 Neighbors can’t hear it. Parents can’t hear it. Cops can’t hear it. 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

KEYSPACE

A R T I S TS , A D V I C E , C O M M U N I T Y

Session Sensei IT’S ALL GOOD by Scott Healy, keyboardist for The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien .

Last week I was producing a session, and I was stressed. A nagging technical glitch was threatening to derail us. We’re talking two solid hours of tech, right at the time when cats were chompin’, ready to rock. We couldn’t get the headphone mix and click track volume happening — when the click was soft enough for the singer to feel comfortable, the drummer couldn’t hear it. Here’s what I had to step back and remind myself, so as not to let the stress affect my own musicianship and performance: You might be in charge, but it’s not about you. Don’t take it personally when

things go south, especially when it’s  your  session, because everyone looks at you for their cue. Keep your cool and smile. Everyone’s on the same page. From the

savant engineer to the lowly bass player, the primary goal is get the job done and

perform at the highest possible level. Don’t ever assume that anyone’s not with you. Everyone knows that their performance, whether musical or technical, will live forever. So will the memory of a bad session. Take a break and regroup. Seems obvi-

ous, right? In the moment, we sometimes don’t think clearly. After three takes of one tune, we broke for lunch to let the tech guys try to solve the headphone issue. I was about to lose it, and stomp around outside with my cell phone to my ear, telling my wife all the nasty things I thought I wanted to tell the engineer. I’m really glad I didn’t do that. Stay in the moment, and don’t forget the big picture. In the scope of an entire

project, a few extra hours is a mere blip. My chill west coast bass player cooled out my New York temper: “It’s all good, man.

These things happen. We’ve got all day .” This guy is on about a thousand records. “I think it sounds pretty good, let’s listen to what we just did.” As it turned out, the first take with the lousy headphone mix was great. Somehow the drummer, while not fully hearing the click  track, played incredibly sensitively, and the dynamics and emotions of his performance were off the chart. The rest of the band had followed him, and we got a stunning, raw take. The singer, while being blasted with a cowbell click in his ear, had dug hard into the piano and sang his song stronger than ever. I looked around and cats were smiling, chomping on their sandwiches, and sipping their lattés. The California sun was shining. The day was still young and we had a record to make.

Career Counselor  Six Tips To Reignite Your Musical Drive by Jon Regen, recording artist of critically acclaimed album, Let It Go  It happens to all of us, often without warning: We find ourselves creatively challenged. We’re out of ideas, the energy to look for new stories to tell. It’s times like these that make us realize we need a battle plan to reignite the musical fire within us. Not too long ago, for a brief moment, I lost my musical way. A plethora of simultaneous personal and career-related disappointments left me feeling uninspired and unsure of my next creative steps. But within seconds of starting a sound check in London recently with my band, I remembered why I chose this sometimes-slippery path: There’s nothing as soul-affirming as making music. And from that moment on, I’ve made it a daily priority to re-energize my musical self. No matter what else is going on, I make sure to write, listen to, and practice new music every day. I do the work, and the work shows me the way.

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So for all of you who’ve hit the creative wall, (or those of you just seconds from impact), here are six tips to help you get musically re-inspired. Get up, stand up! Want a sure-fire way to

unfunk your musical drive? Move yourself! Nothing breeds career and creative misery like inactivity. Get out of your house. Go to a free concert. Jam with friends, old and new. Be your own drill sergeant. Pretend

you’re on deadline in a university class, and that you have homework due every  day. Make it a daily point to write new music, and listen to artists that inspire you. Think outside the box. Musical inspira-

tion can come from non-musical places. Go to a museum. See a play. Watch a dance recital. Seeing great artists

succeed in other disciplines makes you stronger in yours. Find a partner. Are you finding it hard to

get inspired on your own? Collaborate with someone new. Find a co-writer for that next song of yours. New musical blood will take you places you haven’t been before.  Ask for help. Sometimes, the first step is

telling those around you that you need a helping hand. Get the word out that you’re looking for a new start. Help may be closer than you think! Be grateful. No matter how uncertain you

may feel creatively, you’re lucky to know what makes you fly. Give thanks for the talents you have; they’ve propelled you this far. With a little determination, you’ll find your way!

Yamaha’s MSR-Series powered loudspeakers, to be exact… MSR100, MSR250, and MSR400. Subtle, professional appearance, high-performance drivers, stand mount/floor wedge capability, fly points, and unparalleled audio reproduction are shared by all. See each model’s specifics detailed to the right. So, regardless of how critical your application, there’s definitely an MSR model to more than meet the challenge. Stop by your favorite Yamaha Live Sound dealer for a wallet-openingdemonstration.

MSR100

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8” long-throw woofer / 1” titanium-diaphragm compression driver 100W Class H amplifier 2 input mixer with two-band EQ Light, polypropylene enclosure…under 24 lbs.

MSR250

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10” long-throw woofer / 1” titanium-dome compression driver 250W Class D amplifier (max power) Dual inputs, each with its own two-band EQ and level controls Light, polypropylene enclosure…under 30 lbs.

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12” long-throw woofer / 1.75” high-frequency horn driver 400W Class AB bi-amplified system (max power) Single input channel with two-band EQ Light, polypropylene enclosure…under 50 lbs.

MSR800W

• 15” 800W (max power) subwoofer can be added to any of the above • For more details, go to www.yamaha.com/livesound ©2009 Yamaha Corporation of America. All rights reserved. www.yamaha.com/livesound

KEYSPACE

A R T I S TS , A D V I C E , C O M M U N I T Y

CD REVIEWS

MUTEMATH  Armistice

A little bit Incubus, the Bravery, Depeche Mode, and Maroon Five, Mutemath’s alt-rock  and new wave album Armistice is one of the most sophisticated, yet accessible, recordings we’ve heard all year. And while the band drives dance-worthy vehicles like the opening “The Nerve” with strength and conviction, it’s the quieter moments on Armistice that go above and beyond. “Clipping” pulsates beautifully, buoyed up by flowing piano arpeggios and artfully punctuated by a string section breakdown; supported by tasty EP voicings and synth strings, “No Response” elicits an entrancing, Foo Fighters-gone-sensitive vibe. And “Pins and Needles” is another hypnotic Rhodes piece, supported by sinuous, insistent percussion. This is a new flavor of keyboard rock — and one well worth tasting. Michael Gallant (Warner Brothers, mutemath.com)

STEVE KUHN TRIO  WITH JOE LOVANO

MATT BECK   ANYTH ING W HICH G IVE S YOU 

MARK LEVINE AND THE LATIN TINGE

MOSTLY COLTRANE

PLEASURE

OFF AND ON 

Steve Kuhn’s stunning new disc Mostly Coltrane opens with the master pianist starkly stating the theme to John Coltrane’s “Welcome.” Like church bells ringing out across a town square, Kuhn’s plaintive, single-note melodic call is the perfect beginning to an album full of serenity and surprise. As the original pianist in the John Coltrane Quartet, Kuhn has a perspective on ’Trane’s repertoire that few others possess. Here, accompanied sympathetically by saxophonist Joe Lovano, bassist David Finck, and drummer Joey Baron, Kuhn breathes new life into familiar tunes. On “Crescent,” his assured touch and orchestral use of the piano impart the music with a cinematic sense of drama. And on “The Night Has A Thousand Eyes,” his dynamic comping and motifically-charged solos lift Lovano and company to new heights. Coltrane would approve. Jon Regen (ECM, stevekuhnmusic.com)

Esteemed sideman and musical director Matt Beck steps out as a leader with Anything Which Gives You Pleasure, a 12-song strut through Beck’s manic, musical mind. Recorded almost entirely in hotel rooms while Beck was on tour with Rod Stewart, the album is an impressive romp across a wide sonic canvas. From the soaring, Beach Boysinspired a capella harmonies on “Prelude” to the loping groove and Wurlitzer stabs on “Nothing Ever Comes of It,” Matt shines on vocals, guitar, and assorted keys. A decade and a half of solid side work has clearly rubbed off on him, with each of the tunes telling its own singular story. Proof positive that sidemen are more than their day jobs, AWGYP is an impressive debut by a talented artist who’s just getting started. Jon Regen (Mattunes, myspace.com/mattbecktwenty)

Grammy nominee and The Jazz Piano Book  author Mark Levine’s latest offering, Off and On , celebrates the songbook  of revered Brazilian composer Moacir Santos, and features the same buoyant band interplay Levine has become known for. From the simmering opener “Nana,” (featuring impressive flute work by Mary Fettig), Levine displays a commanding technique, and an impressive harmonic conception — he steps easily between hard-bop, Horace Silver-esque piano fills, and convincing Latin montunos. And on Kathy , he grooves with the authenticity of a native Brazilian, demonstrating that this potent pianist and author indeed practices what he teaches. Off and On is worth putting on your music player of choice. Jon Regen (Left Coast Clave, marklevine.com)

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MORE ON KEYBOARDMAG.COM

Go See

 WEEKEND WARRIOR

Check out these keyboard-heavy acts, on tour this month.

BILL DEMPSEY  Webpage: theambitions.com Day job: I work for the United Food

and Commercial Workers Union, which organizes low-wage workers to get family-supporting wages and health insurance. Last year I worked on the Obama campaign in a couple of states, which was very inspiring. How I got started: My grandmother, mom, and sister all played the piano, and I imitated them from an early age. In high school, I was taken in by a ’60s soul cover band called Sal Fortunata and his Fabulous Stingrays. Eventually I moved to Milwaukee, where I played in all kinds of bands. The highlight was the Thousandaires, a genre-crossing group that was equal parts Sly Stone, Kraftwerk, the Heptones, and Serge Gainsbourg. Bands: I’m based in Washington, DC. My current projects include the Ambitions, an original rock ’n’ soul band. My other big gig is with Eastern Standard Time, a ska-jazz band. Both bands make the East Coast club rounds like the Knitting Factory in New York City, World Café in Philadelphia, Ottobar in Baltimore, and the DC clubs such as the Black  Cat and the 9:30 Club. I do occasional soundtracks for indie films and the rare TV show. Influences: My all-time favorite player is the great Jamaican keyboardist Jackie Mittoo. Another big influence has been all the old Parliament/Funkadelic records. Bernie

Worrell’s keyboard playing to this day blows my mind. I was influenced by a lot of music films like Prince’s Purple Rain, and the Band’s The Last Waltz , which introduced me to the Staples Singers. Lately I’ve been listening to lots of Indian Bollywood film soundtracks, as well as DJ remixers such as Girl Talk, and Terrestre, which is led by Mexican electronica producer Fernando Corona. Why I play: A while ago I was at a party honoring Bill T. Jones, the choreographer behind Still/Here, a performance based on the stories of AIDS victims. The DJ had everyone on that dance floor, breaking down so many barriers between people. I’m sure I’ll never lose the

Chick Corea chickcorea.com

desire for that kind of feeling — where you play a show, or go to someone else’s show, get hot and sweaty, and stop caring about how you look or how others perceive you, or what someone said at work. I don’t drink or do drugs because I can’t imagine a better high than that. Ed Coury

The Killers thekillersmusic.com

Medeski Martin and Wood mmw.net

Booker T bookert.com

Bill Dempsey’s typical keyboard rig for his band, the Ambitions. “I love my old Farfisas and Crumars,” he says. “I have a bunch of those, and an old Vox organ. I sometimes haul a Wurlitzer 200A, or a Helpinstill piano, which is an acoustic piano stuck inside a road case with these unbelievably fabulous pickups. I have a Hammond at home, but for gigs I use a Korg CX-3. When it comes to effects, my favorite is an ancient Echoplex.”

Herbie Hancock  herbiehancock.com

Jackie Mittoo and The Soul Brothers, Last Train To Skaville (Soul Jazz)

The late Jackie Mittoo has been called one of the most important artists in the history of Jamaican music. The founding member of the legendary Skatalites has been a major inspiration for weekend warrior Bill Dempsey. You can hear Mittoo’s keyboard artistry on several classic recordings included on the CD Last Train To Skaville.

10.2009

Phoenix myspace.com/ wearephoenix K E YB OA R D

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NEW GEAR

by Stephen Fortner 

 YAMAHA PSR-S910 ADVANCED ARRANGER

Sounds, backing styles, and features from the flagship Tyros3 workstation packed into Yamaha’s second-highest-end portable arranger keyboard. THE BIG DEAL It’s the first Yamaha keyboard to offer M P3 playback, and records a stereo mix of everything — accompaniment, mic input, you name it — to a USB stick. Direct Internet connection for getting new styles and songs.  WE THINK You really do get most of what you’d buy a Tyros3 for — only for a lot less money. $1,999 list, yamaha.com and arrangerworkstation.com THE PITCH

BIG FISH AUDIO MOJO HORN SECTION

The ultimate pop, funk, and big band horn section software instrument. THE BIG DEAL Extensive Kontakt scripting is used to manage articulations so you don’ t ha ve to. Ensemble knob gives instant, realtime control over the number of players in a section.  WE THINK The virtual horn battlefield is getting really interesting. We smell roundup. $499.95, bigfishaudio.com THE PITCH

SONIK ARCHITECTS SONIFI REMIX IT LIKE BT

BT creates the first true “live remixing” app for iPhone and iPod Touch. THE BIG DEAL Freely re-arrange song sections on four stereo tracks: bass, beats, synth/FX, and melody. Move and shake your phone for filter effects and those stutter edits for which BT is famous.  WE THINK This is a killer app, and we’ve got a video where BT explains it better than we could — check it out at keyboardmag.com. $4.99 at iTunes App Store, sonik architects.com THE PITCH

CAKEWALK SONAR 8.5 PR ODUCER READY TO ROCK ON WINDOWS 7

AudioSnap, Step Sequencer, and Session Drummer all get major upgrades. Matrix view allows live, nonlinear arr anging and remixing. Media browser puts all your production files in one place. BitBridge XR runs 32-bit plug-ins on a 64-bit OS.  WE THINK DAWs continuously leapfrog each other in terms of features you can see, but the underthe-hood stuff is what makes Sonar a powerhouse for music production on Windows. $619 list/$499 street; upgrade from Sonar 8: $99 download, cakewalk.com BIG NE W FEATURES

Want to check out the same press releases that we see about new gear, as soon as we receive them?

Go to keyboardmag.com/news 20

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10.2009

NEW GEAR

 VENTURA TX-5 NEW CLONEWHEEL FROM BRAZIL

All-modeling, no-sampling approach simulates different models and conditions of vintage tonewheel organs. THE BIG DEAL All sonic aspects are highly tweakable. Killer rotary simulation with adjustable rotor speeds, rise and fall times, spin directions, and virtual mic placement.  WE THINK We’ve had one for a couple of months, and we’re impressed — this one’s a sleeper. Look for it in a clonewheel roundup in a near-future issue. $2,600 list/$2,079 street, venturakeyboards.com THE PITCH

 WAVES EDDIE KRAMER COLLECTION FOR YOUR EDDIE-FICATION . . .

Five plug-ins co-designed with the engineer who created the sound of classic rock. THE BIG DEAL Four are channel strips for specific sources: drums, bass, guitar, and vocals (shown). The fifth does Eddie’s favorite effects, including 15ips tape delay and EMT plate reverb.  WE THINK Waves has virtualized Tony Maserati, Chris Lord-Alge, and now Eddie. If we ever do end up living in The Matrix , we’ll have great recording engineers. $800 list, waves.com THE PITCH

ROLAND F-110 IF IKEA MADE A DIGITAL PIANO . . .

Pro-quality digital piano sound in a form that blends in to your “cozy” musician’s living space. THE BIG DEAL Graded action. Folding lid turns it into a console table. Polyphony of 128 voices. For “Ivory Feel” keys and classier ebony finish, you can step up to the DP-990R model.  WE THINK All that’s missing is a cute Ikea name like “Brübek” or “Eltonn.” $1,999 list/approx. $1,500 street, rolandus.com THE PITCH

 JAMHUB SLICK SILENT STUDIO

Custom mixer for rehearsing a full band through headphones. THE BIG DEAL Each wedge-shaped section has audio inputs and a monitor mixer to dial in your own mix of the whole band. TourBus model (shown) builds in a stereo SD card recorder.  WE THINK Any silent practice means the drummer needs an electronic kit. That said, this puts everything else you need — separate monitor mixes, guitar and mic inputs, and lots of headphone jacks — under one roof. BedRoom: $400 list/approx. $300 street; GreenRoom: $600 list/approx. $500 street; TourBus: $850 list/approx. $700 street, jamhub.com THE PITCH

10.2009

K E YB OA R D

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M  E    G   A   N   H    O   L   M  E    S  

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What’s your favorite Bruce Hornsby musical moment? Share your thoughts on our forums at keyboardmag.com.

Bruce

Hornsby  Pop Piano’s Premier Iconoclast Rises  to New Musical Heights with  Levitate by Jon Regen “I describe my sound as Bill Evans

meets the hymnbook,” Bruce Hornsby tells me, just a few hours before hitting the concert stage in Northern California. “There’s also some riverboat and ragtime thrown in there as well, sometimes alongside the fourth-chord angle of McCoy Tyner.” With an immediately identifiable piano sound that seamlessly merges the influences of Appalachian Americana with post-bop jazz — and more recently, hip-hop-ified funk beats — the three-time Grammy winner is always on the prowl for new sonic stories to tell. Since bursting onto the scene with his smash 1986 debut album The Way It Is, Bruce Hornsby has become a musical fixture, challenging both himself and his listeners to chart new musical courses. That album’s title track scored a Top Ten hit, sticking two extended, quartal harmony,

 jazz-inflected piano solos in a five-minute pop song. He co-wrote and played piano on Don Henley’s 1989 classic “The End of The Innocence,” and added his signature keyboard work to Bonnie Raitt’s somber smash “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” But Hornsby’s deft pianistic prowess extends far beyond the realm of the typical pop song. He toured with the Grateful Dead, cut a jazz trio album with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Jack DeJohnette, and most recently, released and toured a bluegrass-tinged duo album with country fretboard ace Ricky Skaggs. Trying to classify Hornsby’s ever-changing musical tra jectory is akin to putting too much stock in the weather forecast — you might as well  just enjoy every moment, because you never know what’s coming next. This month, Hornsby releases his tenth

studio album, Levitate, on Verve Forecast. Featuring dynamic support from his longtime touring band the Noisemakers, Levitate finds Hornsby pushing the aural envelope once again — an historical narrative over an accordion drone on “The Black Rats of London,” the country-meets-Kanye vibe of “Prairie Dog Town,” the majestic, Irish-tinged waltz of “Continents Drift,” and the Eric Clapton guitar explorations on “Space Is the Place.” If there’s an overarching musical theme on Levitate, it’s Hornsby’s relentless pursuit of the unexplored. Bruce Hornsby and I shared a piano teacher at the University of Miami. On the eve of his new record’s release, Hornsby takes time out of his busy summer concert schedule to share his thoughts on the songs of Levitate, and his remarkable career in music. 10.2009

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Levitate is your first record without extended piano solos. Was there a real determination on your part to focus on the writing and structure of the songs themselves?

It’s always been about the song for me first, but then I always wanted to find a place for the piano playing. This time I felt like, “Okay, it’s just going to be purely about the songs.” Because I think sometimes, in my situation, the level of the songwriting gets obscured by the playing. People think “Oh, Bruce Hornsby the piano player . And he also writes songs.” But for me, it’s always been the reverse. And that’s what I liked about [playing in] the Grateful Dead. My favorite aspect of their music is their songs. They’re totally underrated as songwriters, and I think  their songwriting has been underappreciated because of all the other elements that were so unique in the music world. Where else can you play one song for an hour? So this was just the time, and it was also a reaction to the last two records I made — the bluegrass record [ Ricky  Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby ] and the jazz record [Camp Meeting], which were really about playing the instrument intensely. You did a lot of playing on Halcyon Days too. There’s a ton of piano on that album.

BRUCE-OLOGY Selected albums as a leader: Levitate (Verve), Camp Meeting (Legacy), Halcyon Days (Sony), Big Swing Face (RCA), Spirit Trail (RCA), Hot House (RCA), Harbor  Lights (RCA), A Night On The Town (RCA), Scenes From the Southside (RCA), The Way It Is (RCA). Selected recording collaborations: Ricky Skaggs, Marian McPartland, Bonnie

Raitt, the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Don Henley.  Albums sold worldwide: Over 11 million. Special guest on Levitate: Eric Clapton wailing on “Space Is the Place.” Bruce Hornsby wrote the score for a musical? Yup. It’s called SCKBSTD and is directed by Kathleen Marshall of Chicago fame. For the latest, visit sckbstrd.blogspot.com. For more on Bruce: Visit brucehornsby.com and keyboardmag.com, where you’ll find a bonus video interview. On all my records, really. Even on Big Swing Face, which had no piano on it, I played a lot of Wurlitzer and synth solos. So this is the first time that I thought, “You know, I don’t need to do this. And the boxed set [Intersections 1985-2005] was really about stretching. So I thought this was the time for that. Also, probably influencing this decision was the fact that fully eight of the 12 songs on the record are from [the Hornsbyscored Broadway musical] SCKBSTD and obviously, when you’re writing a musical play, it’s totally about the song, with no regard to some long, improvisational section.

 Al Pacino had a great quote recently where he said “You’re as good as the chances you take.” You seem to be a working example of this — you make a pop record, then a jazz record, followed by a bluegrass one. You’re not interested in retracing the same  steps you’ve already taken.

I’m a lifelong music student. I, like you, went to the University of Miami, and for me, it’s always been about developing and improving, broadening my range and my ability stylistically. Just becoming more proficient as a singer, as a writer and as a player. So if that’s your aim, you can’t help but continue to evolve and grow.

Bruce Hornsby’s Gear and Sounds To see Bruce Hornsby play solo is to experience one of the great American musical storytellers of our time. Whether solo or with his band the Noisemakers, Bruce can be found at a Steinway grand piano — sometimes a model D, sometimes a B. “Though personalities vary from piano to piano, I find the quality of Steinways to be very consistent,” he says. Last year, he hand-selected ten Steinway grands at the factory based on touch and tone; these became the Bruce Hornsby Signature Series. What piano tone does Bruce prefer? “Between mellow and bright,” is his answer. “Something that can be delicate, but ‘speak’ more aggressively if I need it to. You know, the piano sound associated with ’80s hits like ‘The Way It Is’ — that’s actually a lot brighter than what I like to play.” So does Bruce tour with a favorite piano? “Hell, no!” he laughs. “I have to make friends with a different one every night!” A Moog Piano Bar MIDI sensor straddles the Steinway’s keyboard, and a Korg M1 sits on top. The Piano Bar triggers the “Warm Strings” patch from Korg’s Wavestation plug-in, hosted in Apple MainStage on a MacBook. Numerous sounds are played from the M1. “I’ve always really been partial to the M1’s ‘Overture’ patch,” he explains. “It gives me some textural variety, and to my ears, has always managed to be ‘orchestral’ without sounding too synthetic, so I still use it.” Bruce’s engineer Wayne Pooley adds, “These days, we use the M1 just as a controller, and recreate two favorite M1 sounds — ‘Overture’ and ‘MultiBass’ — with the M1-Le plug-in from Korg’s Legacy Collection. Also hosted in MainStage are EVP88, which we use for the Wurly EP sound on songs from the album Big Swing Face, and a filter-swept organ sound in Native Instruments FM8 that we used on ‘Invisible’ from the new record. Bruce also used to work with [guitarist] Steve Kimock, and really loved his tone and wanted to be able to play it chordally. So, we sampled Steve, and have two patches that started out in an Akai sampler but now live in the EXS24 plug-in.” For more on Bruce’s live setup, check out our exclusive backstage video interview at keyboardmag.com. Stephen Fortner 24

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Record You Do you carry a song inside?

Music that's just dying to get out? A well designed recording tool should help you take that music as far as you like, when you feel like it. Propellerhead Software’s Record is that tool. With one-click audio recording and a straightforward interface, Record was designed with musicians in mind. Because capturing an idea should be easy. Turning it into great music should be inspiring. This is recording done right. www.recordyou.com

For the last several years, I’ve been really interested in twentieth century classical music. So I work on Elliot Carter, Schoenberg, Barber, and Ives pieces. Also Webern and Messiaen. That can’t help but influence the writing. So consequently on this record, there are two songs that are way more dissonant in their harmonic and melodic content. I’m talking about “Paper Boy” and “Michael Raphael.” I think of “Paper Boy” as sort of Schoenberg meets the Beatles. And I think of “Michael Raphael” as chromatic, melodic movement meets the Beach Boys. Ten years ago I would not have been as well-versed in that harmonic language, and so consequently, I would not have been able to broaden my songwriting palette with it. The lyrical content on Levitate finds you stretching out as well. There’s a line on the song Invisible where you  say, “Get the feeling I ain’t doing nothing but sucking.” Right. [Laughs. ] Self-doubt is a really universal emotion, but few people have the guts to express those kinds of thoughts so bluntly in their songs.

There’s self-deprecation throughout my music increasingly. On the last album Halcyon Days, the “hit” was a tune called “Gonna Be Some Changes Made” and had the lyric, “Look in the mirror, see a clown’s face.” It’s all through it, but there’s more of it here. Years ago, I heard an interview with Randy Newman, where he said he was writing a love song on assignment for Frank Sinatra Jr., and thought he “just couldn’t take it anymore.” From that point on, he made a conscious decision to write beyond the form of straight love songs. He wanted the songs to have characters as developed as other art forms, like literature and theater. I hear a mix of both on Levitate — songs with seemingly simple themes, and those that push the song format into new territory.

It’s interesting you bring up Randy talking about love songs. I have the same feeling. On this record, there actually is one love song. It’s one of the songs I’m most proud of, and my band members’ favorite song. It’s a love song, but it’s using the language

of physics. It’s called “Here We Are Again.” I’m always looking for a unique take. I’ll write a love song if I feel like I’m doing something that takes it to a different place and puts a different slant on it. In this case, I felt like I was able to find a slant that was interesting to me, sort of a time travel fantasy that a guy who’s lost his wife is having. So his fantasy is traveling back through time. “Seven times around the world in a single second, I will swirl.” That’s referring to the speed of light. I just felt that was an interesting way to write a love song. And so because of that, it’s one of the songs I’m most proud of on a lyrical level. Also, on the comedic level, you have “The Black Rats of London,” which is sort of Randy Newman-esque. I wrote that after reading an article in National Geographic  that talked about the bacterial strains and rodents that came over on ships and infected the locals, and then in the revolution infected the British, and allowed us to prevail over them. I guess people don’t realize that something had gotten in the water or in the food of the British around Yorktown time, and they were really sick.

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And it helped us, well, basically like the song says, “Parasites decimated the red army of Cornwall and his flock, standing weakly on Yorktown’s battlefield with measles and smallpox.” Once again, as I get older, I’m more interested in sardonic, hopefully amusing commentary, sort of trying to range far afield to find interesting subject matter. There’s also a strong injection of modern, hip-hop inflected beats on the record.

Oh yeah. I love that. That’s something that you’ve

incorporated for a long time. I remember as far back as 1993’s Har bor Lights, with the song that Spike Lee directed the video for, “Talk of the Town,” that you had a penchant for using them in your music.

Yeah, it’s like Appalachia meets Kanye West.

“Talk of the Town” was probably the first one like that. And then through the years there have been others, certainly on Big Swing Face there were several. And on this one Levitate you would say is certainly one of those. Even “Prairie Dog Town” has a real hip-hop loop, but I’m playing dulcimer over it. [ Laughs. ]

The kids sound great, guest-rapping on “Space Is The Place,” by the way.

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Exactly. I just like it. You know, Ludacris is a very creative writer. And there are so many other great artists like that. My kids turn me on to these guys.

They’re very funny. And then Clapton takes over. It’s great — my 11-year-old son’s into Clapton. When I was listening to the new record, I was again struck by how you’ve created a harmonic and melodic  language on the piano that’s all your own. The intro to “Cyclone,” for instance, reminded me of the introduction you played on “Every Little Kiss.”

You know, through the years, as I’ve listened to music and been turned on to music by friends, or by something I’ve read — whenever something would get under my skin and really give me chills, I would explore it. And transcribe it. And figure out what it was about this that was so intoxicating, so sensuous, and so moving to me. I guess it’s about years of exploring music and realizing fairly simply what moves me, and putting it into my own little sort of gumbo — and having it come out the other end as something that is identifiable stylistically. The influences can come from a really broad range of places. A guy who I have been turned on to for the last many years is Paul Brady, the great Irish songwriter and singer. And his record of Irish folk songs called Welcome Here Kind Stranger is just stunning and moves me completely. And so that’s an area I would draw from. It’s not necessarily pianistic. It can come from any source. I was always into bluegrass and folk music, old traditional music. Hanging out with [Grateful Dead singer and guitarist Jerry] Garcia got me more immersed in that, because he was a walking encyclopedia of folk music, and he turned me on to lots of things that totally moved me. So I would find a way to deal with that on the piano. In fact, one of the bonus tracks on this record that will at some point be available is my piano version of an old traditional song called “I Truly Understand,” that I learned from the New Lost City Ramblers. Garcia did it with David Grisman a few years ago too. It’s also taking areas of music that have nothing to do with piano, and finding a way to deal with them on the piano, that has contributed to my style.

Has Twitter or other online interaction helped you make music like it did for Imogen Heap? Let us know on the forum at keyboardmag.com, or tweet us up @keyboardmag, and you might wind up featured in print or online.

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Much has been said about piano and

synth ingénue Imogen Heap’s connecting with fans via Twitter during the making of her latest release, Ellipse. It’s been championed as the latest example of the “new music business model,” where devoted fans enjoy a new level of access to their favorite artist. Heap does not disappoint, as her over four hundred thousand followers on Twitter can attest. From studio session microblogs to video diaries and even live meetups, Heap’s fans have been a  part  of her album. Here, Imogen reflects on the  journey, which started in the virtual world and took her around the real one. What made the process of making Ellipse unique, compared to your past works?

The main difference was that I consciously decided to write the songs first and get the body of work before I went into the studio. The main reason for that was that I didn’t have a studio. I’d just gotten back off tour, and then within an hour of being home on my couch with all my bags around and my gear in tatters, I just didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to have go back into normal life. I knew I had to write a new album, but I felt like I wanted to go som ewhere else. And I thought, “Well, I don’t need to write it in the studio. Why don’t I  just go somewhere pretty, somewhere I’d love to visit?” So, I spun Google Earth around a few times and decided to find the place furthest away from any other landmass, and that turned out to be Hawaii. I then went into Google and typed in “luxury apartment; self-catering; grand piano; Hawaii” and I found this brilliant place which is on the rainy side of Maui. It was really like a honeymoon place, but it was  just me and my beloved music. It was the first time that I’d ever been away on my own and I think the first time that I’d really come to terms with what just happened, because since I was 17, it’s  just been completely non-stop. I haven’t had any holidays. The songs I wrote were very different from  Speak For  Yourself . [This is all] a long way of saying that I wrote the songs before I went into the studio. What gear did you bring with you, or made sure you had, when you traveled to write the songs?

I wanted to have the piano because I wanted to get the essence of a song written before I started work on it [in the studio]. That was a real conscious decision, ’cause for the last record I didn’t do that. I wrote it all and programmed everything all at the same time. It was a big mess. And as a result of that, I would sometimes finish the backing track before I’d even come up with the lyrics, or vocals, or anything. And then I would have to crowbar in a melody around what I’d written, and as a result, it wasn’t really meshed together. I like the vocals and the music to all move around each other, and it’s not just a lead line with the backing track. They all intertwine. So, yeah, I had real troubles on the last record with this one song called “Daylight Robbery,” and I didn’t want to go there again. But I had the opposite problem with this one, because I wrote the songs, and then had trouble deciding what kind of backing tracks to go with them, or what I should do with them. The piano was the main thing, just to write. But I also brought my laptop, GarageBand — to throw down quick ideas – and Pro Tools. I had Ableton Live 7, which I found really useful. I think it’s brilliant. I had a little Korg MicroKontrol and a couple of mics — one for the piano, one for my voice — and I took my Sonic Studios DSM-6S/EH microphones with me. They look like headphones, but they’re really microphones. And I had a preamp and a little 24-bit WAV recorder, so I could walk down the beach, or into Tokyo, and record the songs. What happened when you went into the studio with your songs?

When I got back to London, I made this big decision to take on my family house, which is a big deal emotionally, and monetarily as well. I then proceeded to take all of m y gear in and for eight months, I built the studio from scratch in my old playroom. I bought a ridiculously large desk — a Digidesign Icon — and I thought, “Yeah, that’s basically like a big remote control for Pro Tools.” I have to be honest and say that I don’t actually use it because I’m just so fast inside Pro Tools with quick keys and editing. The way I work, it doesn’t fit with getting up, finding the track. and turning the knob. I’d like to think that I could do that and get faster at it, but no matter how fast I got, nothing’s as quick as just going boop inside the computer. But it looks very

impressive! And I love the scrub wheel. That’s my favorite bit of the desk. So I built the studio. I designed it and we got carpenters and acoustic paneling and funny plaster in the ceiling. I thought it would take a month and I’d be at work finishing the album within a year, and it took eight months. So all that time I was frustrated because I wanted to be working on the record, but there were people working in the house.  And once the studio was finished?

Where do you start? I needed some limitations. I needed to be reinforced like bookends so I could work within it, because it’s impossible to create with a completely blank  canvas, with no edges to it. So, I decided to start recording the sounds of the house. I recorded the sound of me just running around it, as I did as a kid. And I took the steps and the rhythm of how fast I ran to be the first song, “Not Now But Soon,” which actually didn’t go on the album, but it went on the Heroes soundtrack. The song “Bad Body Double” uses  some interesting human body and vocal sounds for rhythms. What inspired that, and how did you capture the sounds?

In the beginning I thought it’d be amusing to use my body and my voice to do all of the sounds of “Bad Body Double” because I wanted to have it a capella. Actually, it ended up being fully produced. When I started to work on it, I was doing the beat and the bass line with my voice and clapping and clicking. I got ten people jumping around on squeaky floors in my hallway. In the beginning, I just have one hand-slap, but it sounded not quite strong enough, so I tracked up a few [hands] slapping my ass. I wrote it when I was in Japan. I was surrounded by beautiful women, beautiful skin, and gorgeous hair, just looking fantastic and eating very healthily. I was feeling, “What happened to my body?” I guess after years of the studio, touring, no exercise at all, and just eating on the fly, I felt like this wasn’t the body that I should have. I’m not even 30, and this isn’t fair. So, it’s as if I have this nice 19-year-old body that’s not sagging yet and has no wrinkles or grey hair. But then, when I get out of the shower, there’s my bad body double, this other person that comes in front of the mirror and looks a bit like me, but haggard, and she’s trying to put on creams to 10.2009

K E YB OA R D

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Imogen Heap

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look like how I look. Sometimes she comes into the bedroom and disturbs me when I’m with a man, and the man can’t tell the difference. He just thinks it’s me, but it’s not me. It’s my bad body double. What other techniques did you use to get the sounds just right, especially with pianos?

I went around the house, recording all the different sounds of the pianos. And on “Half Life,” there was a mic in the hallway, a mic at the end of the dining room, and a mic in the piano, so I’m switching between them. Sometimes I did far away, sometimes I did close. I wanted to get the [mechanical] sound of the keys, so I took out the hammer action from one of my pianos — the one that’s out of tune and will never be in tune — and I  just recorded the sound of the keys. I went over every single note and added the sound of the keys so that it sounds more close. There’re more examples of things in the house. I use the tap dripping — I got the drops and then tuned it to make it fit. And you can hear me running a drumstick  across the banisters. What will your live setup be for the Ellipse tour?

I don’t know at the moment, but it will 32

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Heap Help Selected Discography: I Mega phone, Details (with Frou Frou), Speak For Yourself , Ellipse. Website: imogenheap.com Twitter: twitter.com/imogenheap  Video: youtube.com/imogenheap

involve a glass harmonica and a Waterphone, and some looping device — maybe just Ableton Live. I don’t know what kind of gear is out there r ecently, but I imagine it’s much faster and smoother than it was four years ago. So I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do with it. I’ll take my Perspex piano, the clear piano that I had built, which I keep my computer in, a keyboard, my looping stuff, little drum machines to build stuff live, and a little mixing desk. And then I’ll have another station which has my mbira on it, and [ Roland AX-1] shoulder-strap keyboard, and then I’ll have my hang [tuned resonating bowl]. With the level of interaction you’ve facilitated with Twitter and your video blogs, how did it affect the process of making the album?

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I think it’s very insular working on your own in the studio and you easily get lost in it. And I like having this kind of presence, knowing that there was my Tweetdeck program in the corner of the studio, that there’s this hovering bubble of people, waiting, there and ready. When I was working in the studio and feeling like I was not really getting anywhere and needed a little break, making a tweet and having a little chat refreshed me, and I could go back to the computer and carry on. Otherwise, there’s nothing to break me off from working, and that’s when I can get lost and spend six, seven, eight hours working on a sound and not get anywhere. When it came time to record the album, did you encounter dead ends, or do you feel like you’ve learned enough to avoid them? Fifty percent of the time I just think, “I’m completely  bluffing this. I’ve no idea what I’m doing. How have I managed to con everyone, and myself, into thinking that I can actually finish this record?” Sometimes I go into the studio and everything just feels really difficult. Nothing’s working, nothing’s talking to anything else, I can’t really get anything decent out of my head, and I can’t make an interesting sound. It just all sounds like crap. And other days, I don’t even remember the process. It just flowed. I don’t really do very much stuff in MIDI. It’s all audio, ’cause I get annoyed by the kind of small micro-shifting that MIDI does. It irritates me, and I have to go into every single point and have it so it’s dead-on, ’cause I’m really anal like that. Pretty much all of my sound design is done in Pro Tools, processing and playing around with the audio like Play-Doh and building blocks. I don’t have to think about it. I know where everything is. It comes like a train of thought and I’m not hindered by not knowing how to do something in Pro Tools. So I can work for five or six hours on some sound and build something out of just one noise, but it turns into 20 tracks of that same noise. And by the end of the evening, like five in the morning, it’s dawn. I’ve got no idea how I did it, but it’s there, and I really like it. Visit keyboardmag.com for exclusive video of Imo-

®

gen Heap discussing the songs of Ellipse and more!

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Want to weigh in on RedOne’s work as a producer and keyboardist? board ist? Post you r comments comme nts on our forum forum at keyboardmag.com keyboar dmag.com and we may feature you in print or online.

You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone

who hasn’t heard Lady Gaga’s now-ubiquitous tune “Just Dance” or the equally catchy “Poker Face.” Both of those tunes were produced by globally-grounded producer 36

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RedOne, who received a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording for “Just Dance.” His upward trajectory may have brought him to the top of the charts, but his musical roots span continents and genres.

RedOne (born Nadir Khayat) grew up in Morocco where his siblings turned him on to American classic rock and soul music, which was juxtaposed with the traditional music they played around the house. He

played guitar and piano as a child, and by age 16, knew he wanted to pursue music professionally. So he did the only thing a kid from Morocco could do: Go to Sweden! “I loved the group Europe,” he explains. “My brother was studying in France then and he brought me their record. So I was actually the first in Morocco to hear that. I loved it because it was a mixture of melodic rock and pop, and I love melodies. When I heard that record, I really wanted to become a rock star!” Once in Sweden, he started woodshedding on guitar and keyboards, inspired by the small country’s immense talent pool. “Europe, Abba, Yngwie Malmsteen, John Norum, and Roxette were all coming from the same country,” he says. “It’s a little country of nine million people and there was so much good music coming out of there that I really wanted to go there. And to meet Europe, too!” RedOne eventually met Europe’s singer Joey Tempest and played some songs with him, fulfilling a childhood rock ’n’ roll fantasy. However, RedOne knew that fantasy alone wouldn’t bring fame, so he went to music school and studied his craft. “You have music in you but you need to learn the bridge to what you have in you and learn the way to do it and do it right,” he says. “That’s the perfect match. ma tch.” RedOne started started his career in production around 1994 with a friend named Rami who had been working with legendary songwriter Max Martin. Rami taught him some music production details and got him into Apple Logic, which has been his main DAW for over a decade. At first, they worked on RedOne’s solo project but soon he became enamored with producing. “I  just loved the way I could do all kinds kinds of music without having to do just one thing as an artist,” he says. “And then I just decided I didn’t want to be an artist. I only want to do production and do songs for every single artist and switch up my style.” Red and Rami had their first big hit with the A*Teens’ “Step Up,” winning a Swedish Grammy as well as the Scandinavian Song of of the Year Year award. RedOne followed that up working with artists such as Christina Milan and 3LW, but he soon decided that Sweden had its limits. “I felt like I had success in Sweden and I wanted to take it to the next level in the U.S.,” he says. “Sweden is only nine million people and if you make a hit, you’re lucky the songs get out of Scandinavia. But if you get a hit in the U.S., it goes goes everywhere everywhere else. else. I came

to the U.S. to do the same thing, but it’s harder to make it here. here.” However hard it seemed, seemed , his big break was just around the corner. “Bamboo” and Beyond In 2006, RedOne’s song “Bamboo” was selected as the official melody for that year’s FIFA World Cup of Soccer, and was used in all their global marketing and promotion. That led to him producing the official song for World Cup Soccer, a mashup of “Bamboo” with Shakira’s hit “Hips Don’t Lie” — which was heard by almost half the planet when Shakira and Wyclef Jean performed it live to an estimated television audience of 2.3 billion people. That success brought him more meetings with major A&R executives, which led to him producing Kat Deluna’s album and hit single “Wind Up.” “We got together and did five songs in five days, including ‘Wind Up’ and all the singles,” he says. “The only thing I had for ‘Wind Up’ was the beat, but all the other songs most of the time I created on the spot.” His work as a producer involves a lot of collaboration with the artist. “I always talk to the artists so I see what they’re about, what they’re thinking,” he says. “You have to make them excited and know what’s in their head to create something around that. A friend of mine always says ‘It’s not that serious. It’s fun. Just create and have fun. Don’t complicate it.’ The moment you start overthinking it, it just becomes a problem and you never get what you want.” What RedOne truly wants is simplicity and a good melody, even more so than a great lyric, and for a poignant reason. “The melodies are very important,” he says. “If you’re thinking about the U.S., the lyrics are important. But for the rest of the world, most countries don’t speak English. When I grew up in Morocco, I didn’t speak English at all, but I still loved American pop. If you have good melodies, you’re hooked. Of course if you have a killer lyric that’s simple and has good concept, that’s the perfect marriage.” Onward and Upward After his success with DeLuna, RedOne began writing and producing for artists such as Enrique Iglesias, Lionel Richie, the Cheetah Girls, and Brandy, to name a few. He was all over New Kids on the Block’s 2008 comeback album The Block , which robustly debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200. And along the way, RedOne

hooked up with chart-topping singer/producer Akon to write and produce music under the label RedOneKonvict. Once you have a smash or two under your belt, how much pressure is there to create the next hit? According to RedOne, that depends on your own originality. “In my opinion, the only key to making it big is to try to be your own thing,” he says. “Compromise a little bit, but try to create the next level where people are going to copy you instead of you copying other people. I copied, too, earlier in my career. You hear something and try to copy it and what happens is that by the time your song is going to come out in six months, that style’s already over. A lot of people are calling me, big producers, asking what synth and drums I used on ‘Just Dance’ because sonically it’s different from whatever’s going on.” He also notes that he never divulges the tricks of the trade, though he’s more than willing to share that he does almost everything in Logic on his MacBook Pro. “Logic is magic to me,” he says, “and it’s  just getting getting better better and better. better. There There are so many synths in there it’s crazy. The beautiful thing is you can always tweak the sounds and make them yours. All the sounds in Logic are amazing already, but I know everybody has them so I tweak them and make them mine.” In his studio, RedOne’s workdesk is free from clutter as most of his mixes take place inside the box. “Logic has made my life much easier. I play guitars and keys, but then you can tweak everything. In addition to the MacBook and Logic, I have my Apogee Ensemble and Duet interfaces, plus a two-octave M-Audio Oxygen MIDI keyboard. Sometimes I use a bigger keyboard if I need more keys to play, but when I program, it’s all on the Oxygen. Less is more. My workspace is very Swedish/European, in that it’s minimalist. You You don’t need a lot of gear to make great music.” Though RedOne has hit the proverbial “big time,” time,” he’s still full of the enthusiasm and fire he had as a kid dreaming of music in Morocco, or as the budding young producer in Sweden, when he first believed that instead of just listening to an international smash hit, he’d someday be producing one. Check out our exclusive “Just “Just Dance” Play It! lesson in the September ’09 issue of Keyboard , and a video interview with RedOne at keyboardmag.com. 10.2009

K E YB OA R D

37

PLAY IT!

M A S TE R C L A S S : S T R I D E Can you play stride like nobody since Art Tatum? Post a link to your playing on our forums at keyboardmag.com and you may be featured in print or online.

STRIDE PIANO by Scott Healy

Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of

piano players like the mention of stride piano. This seemingly impossible old style is like ragtime on steroids, and pushes jazz pianists to the limit. The left hand alternates a low bass, frequently played in tenths, with close position midrange chords, while the right hand provides

melody, syncopations, lines, and runs. The total effect is a relentless, locked-down swing eighth-note feel. Even if you can’t invest the hours necessary to master stride, studying its f undamentals will increase your harmonic language skills and center your time feel. Plus, there’s nothing wrong with gaining an

appreciation of an almost-lost art that has inspired everyone from Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, and Oscar Peterson to Dick Hyman, Marcus Roberts, Kenny Werner, and Bill Charlap. Beyond the flash and the bluster of stride is a deep awareness of song structure, chord voicing, root movement and harmony, and most of all, swing.

Ex. 1. When playing stride, your left hand is the rhythm section, and it never lets up. Practice getting used to the motion of your left arm, aiming low with your fifth finger to hit the bass note, then moving quickly to the middle register to grab a chord. In example 1a, the chords move from I to V7, F  to C7 , using an alternating bass note on beats 1 and 3. One trick: Start the V7 ( C7 ) on the fifth (G ) of the chord instead of the root. This way you don’t have to repeat a note ( C ). Make your bass line more melodic in 1b by starting the F6  on the third ( A ) in the second measure, then move down to the V7 through a passing diminished chord ( A bdim7 ). Since you start the V7 on the fifth ( G ), substitute Gm7  and make a ii7-V7. Upstairs, notice the chord voicings in the last two measures. The top notes in each chord create a nice melody — D , E , D , C  — and you can use your thumb to bring these out.

                    4    4                    a)

b)

F6

C7

F6

F6/A

A dim7

Gm7

C7

1 2 3 5

5

Ex. 2. Most of the great stride players like James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, Earl Himes, and Art Tatum played tenths in the left hand, and sometimes added a third note with the second or third finger. The top thumb note adds a tenor voice and a rich counter-line; the effect is harmonically dense and exponentially more difficult to play. Give it a shot but don’t push it.

           4      4     F

1 2 or 3 5

38

KEYBOARD

F/A

10.2009



A dim7

Gm7

F dim7

Gm7

C7

PLAY IT!

M A S TE R C L A S S : S T R I D E

Ex. 3. Try the same constructions show in Example 2 with two hands, to make things a bit smipler. It’s not cheating to break up the tenth and, at fast tempos, this is an effective technique. Here is a complete eighth-bar A-section with a turnaround, using the passing diminished and ii7-V7.

                          4                 4                     F

F

A dim7 Gm7

1 1 3 or 2

1 2

F dim7

Gm7

C7

Gm7

F dim7 Gm7

C7

F

A dim7 Gm7

C7

()

Ex. 4. If you can handle tenths, here’s how it’s done. Notice the embellishing pickup at the end of bar 4 —

E  to F  .

                                   4          4               F6

F6/A

A dim7

Gm7

F dim7

Gm7

()

C7/G

E

F

()

Ex. 5. The right hand in stride is based on swing eighth-note lines, usually built on broken-up chord tones. Practice this example with simple chords in the left hand and get used to really swinging the right-hand line.

                      4                    4                    4           4 F6

F6

5

4

3

2

1

A dim7

5

4

5

1

4

C7

Gm

5

4

2

1

Gm7

3

1

1

2

1

4

C7

5

4

1

3

Ex. 6. Using the same chords in the left hand, add some thirds. The off-beat accents really make the riffs pop, and any syncopation in the right hand will play against the pumping quarter notes of the left hand — when you add them in with the next example!

                                                   4                             4 F6

3 1

F6

4 2

5 3

4 2

5 3

A dim7

5 3

1

2

4 2

1

4 2

Gm7

1

C7

2

Gm

4 2

5 1 3

5 3

C7

4 2

3 1

( )

Ex. 7. Syncopate the right hand and you’re in full stride. In measure 1, the left hand walks up in tenths; in measure 2, the right-hand syncopations push agai nst the quarter note pulse. You can grab an octave in the right hand whenever you want for emphasis.

                                                       4                              4                                  4           4               F6

F6/A

A dim7

Gm7

F dim7

2

1

Gm7

2

3

( )

40

KEYBOARD

10.2009

C7 9

PLAY IT!

JAZZ Share some of your own killer whole tone playing on our forums at keyboardmag.com and you may just be featured in a future issue of Keyboard !

 WHOLE TONE TIPS, PART 2 by Andy LaVerne

month, we go deeper, using the whole tone scale for more complex melodies and figures. Remember to dial up the metronome

Last month, we dove into the theory

behind the whole tone scale and explored some creative ways to play with it. This

and start slowly — and don’t forget to listen to masters like McCoy Tyner and John Coltrane for inspiration!

Ex. 1. In 1a, the right hand can be played up an octave, or in the middle of the treble clef. The G common tones anchor the moving voicings. This type of movement can be heard on some Coltrane recordings, with McCoy Tyner. With a slight adjustment in 1b, we now have two-hand voicings which contain all six notes of the whole tone scale.

                         4      4                4    4       44              44        a)

b)

Ex. 2. Scale tone triads (in this case all augmented triads), which move up in whole steps, can be an effective melodic device. In 2a, we make a four-note pattern out of three notes. Don’t neglect the opposing whole tone scale — 2b shows another exercise with scale tone chords, this time ascending and descending in triplets. 2c shows another scale tone triad pattern, played by McCoy.

       4                                 4      4               4     4     4            4 4 4  4  4   4                       a)

b)

c)

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

 Want to learn more about whole tone scales?

CDs: John Coltrane, One Down, One Up (Impulse); Wayne Shorter, Ju Ju

(Blue Note) Book: Chords in Motion,

Andy LaVerne (Jamey Aebersold Jazz)

3

Ex. 3. In 3a, we have a line that outlines a scale tone triad ( D baug ), and continues with a scalar passage. With the addition of two chromatic tones (D n and A b) in 3b, we can tie two augmented triads ( Gaug and D naug ) together in a line.

                                  4 4      4 4               4 4    4   4   a)

b)

Ex. 4. Taking Example 3 a step further, we now outline three augmented triads ( Gaug , Baug , and E baug ), linking them with chromatic tones ( C , F , and E ), to create a triplet-based line which floats over the chords in 4a. These three augmented triads are actually the same one, in its inversions. When you get comfortable in the use of whole tone scales, the next step is to play opposing whole tone scales within the same line, to create even more intensity. You can also play the whole tone scale over minor chords; just use the whole tone scale built on the fifth of the minor chord. Example 4b could be used over a Cm7 , as well as a G7aug . With whole tone scales, the sky’s the limit!

    44                        4          4                               44        44   a)

b)

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For audio examples of this lesson, visit keyboardmag.com. Visit Andy online at andylaverne.com

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AES CONVENTION MAKE THE RIGHT CONNECTIONS October 9-12, 2009 Jacob K. Javits Convention Center New York, NY www.AESshow.com

DO IT!

DANCE Hear this tutorial with audio examples at keyboardmag.com. Got your own vocal remix trick? Click on “Forum” and let us know — if we like your idea, you could wind up in the magazine or on our site!

CREATIVE VOCAL PROCESSING, PART 2 by Francis Preve

Last month, we used editing and effects

to turn a phrase from a lead vocal into a padlike cloud of sound. This month, we’ll ratchet things up. Longtime Keyboard readers know I’m a fan of a technique I call “digital

glossolalia.” Literally, the term refers to the phenomenon of “speaking in tongues.” In an electronic dance music context, it takes an existing vocal (that, naturally, is in tune with the original track), and edits it into an entirely

Step 1. We’ll start by placing the vocal sample, as-is (unsynced) over the Apple Loop from last month’s example.

Step 3. Once you’ve got everything sliced, it should look  something like this.

Step 5. Here’s where the real fun begins. As your drums play, experiment with reordering your slices. For best results, try to create a one-measure loop out of the most compatible slices, then copy that loop for four measures, changing the fourth measure subtly for a “turnaround” at the end.

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new hook. I cover this technique in my book  The Remixer’s Bible (Hal Leonard), and a few years back, I used it to create a hook for the remix of Martijn Ten Velden’s “I Wish You Would.” Here’s how it was done.

Step 2. Next, we split that vocal into smaller segments using Logic’s “Split Regions by Playhead” function, which uses a single keystroke: \ (backslash). You could split each segment into varying note lengths, but for this example, we’ll stick to equal eighth-note slices.

Step 4. Now, delete a bunch of slices, listening for both cool vowels and  melodic notes to leave in. Certain consonants can be problematic, depending on your objectives, so keep that in mind as well. After you’ve made the deletions, your remaining slices may look something like this.

Step 6. Once you’ve got a pattern you like, try adding rhythmic effects. For this type of process, tempo-synced delays are a tried-and-true technique. Here’s an example.

One final note to Ableton Live users: Glossolalia effects like this can be whipped up in record time by simply using the “Slice to new MI DI track” option on a vocal segment. Use eighth- or sixteenth-note intervals, then rearrange the MIDI events into a similarly rhythmic loop. Presto!

DO IT!

SOFT SYNTHS

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Got another way of creating this sound? Share it on our forum at keyboardmag.com, where you’ll also find this tutorial with audio examples!

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MICHAEL JACKSON’S “BEAT IT” GONG by Mitchell Sigman

bright and rich, yet not too heavy on atonal high harmonics (check out my web audio examples for help). I chose the “Fuzz Wave” wavetable in Largo.

Continuing last month’s tribute to

Michael Jackson, let’s recreate the instantly recognizable intro of “Beat It.” Back in ’82, Michael and producer Quincy Jones employed a dream team of keyboardists and synth programmers, including heavyweights Greg Phillinganes, Steve Porcaro (of Toto fame), and Michael Boddicker, who wrote last month that this was originally a factory demo sound, played by Tom Bähler, from a Synclavier. In addition to high-resolution sampling, the Synclavier had powerful additive and FM digital synthesis, plus multitrack sequencing. Fully-loaded systems could cost upwards of $200,000. Not having a vintage Synclavier around, I let Waldorf Largo (reviewed last month) provide the metallic mayhem. You could also try other “digital-sounding” virtual synths such as the Prophet-VS mode of Arturia Prophet V, PPG Wave 2.V (part of Waldorf Edition, reviewed Dec. ’07), or Image-Line Ogun (reviewed Mar. ’09). 1.

 3.

4.

Start with an initialized patch. In Largo,  just click the Edit button above the patch name and select “Init Program.”

2.

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Select an appropriate basic waveform. This is trial-and-error — you want it

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5.

Largo’s PPG-style wavetable synthesis lets you sweep through waveforms, either manually or using a mod source, for tonal variation. I manually honed in on a variation by setting the wave number in the top corner of the wave form display to 60. I selected the “Chorus 2” wavetable on oscillator 2, tuned one octave higher (with wave number 44), and used envelope 3 to modulate the wave number for timbral motion. Configure the mod routing by clicking the pop-up menu next to the word “Wave,” select “Env3,” and slide the slider up to a value of 50 — Largo displays parameters and associated values at the top of the window as you mouse over them. Click the Envelopes button and set Env3’s attack to 89, decay to 0, and sustain and release full up. Experiment with the oscillator volumes in the mixer section; oscillator 1 gives

more fundamental and oscillator 2 will give more movement and high end. 6.

I decided to forgo filtering, but discovered that Largo’s filter drive still affects the sound, so crank that guy up to around 51. Bypass the actual filtering by pressing the round “power switch” at the left of the Filter section.

7.

In the Envelopes section, set the amp envelope’s attack to 0, decay to 85, sustain to 28, and release to 100.

8.

It’s still pretty bland — time for the mojo! Click the Common button. Set Unisono [sic.] to 6, detune to 18, and spread full up. Now we’re triggering six stereo detuned voices with every note. Yeah!

9.

I used Largo’s high shelf EQ to kick up the high end a touch, and added some channel bus reverb using Audio Damage’s monster new reverb plug-in, EOS.

Now play the familiar note sequence: | G , G , E , E  | G , G , D, D | in octaves, and you’ll be showin’ ’em how funky and strong is your fight!

Studio Solutions for creative musicians everywhere

With their expert knowledge, product selection and passion for music,  Apple Pro Audio Resellers are the perfect destination to build your dream studio.

To locate an Apple Pro Audio Reseller near you, please go to: musicplayer.com/appleaudioresellers

Michael Duff is a singer/songwriter/producer living in Los Angeles and is the former lead singer/songwriter of Chalk FarM  Apple – Logic Studio, Mac Pro & MacBook Pro Euphonix – MC Mix controller Apogee – Duet audio interface  Avalon – VT-737SP processor M-Audio – Axiom 61 USB keyboard Zoom – H2 recorder Digidesign – 002 Rack with Pro Tools LE Line 6 – Pod & Bass Pod Pro Marshall Electronics – MXL V77 tube mic Fender & Taylor – guitars Tannoy – speakers ©2009 E U P H O N I X  I NC . A LL  R I G H T S  R E S E R V E D . MC M IX IS  A  T R A D E M A R K OF  E U P H O N I X  I NC .  A P P L E , L O G I C  S T U D I O , M AC  P RO  AN D  M AC B OO K  P RO  AR E T R A D E M A R K S OF  A P P L E  I NC .  A LL O T H E R T R A D E M A R K S  AR E P R O P E R T Y OF T H E I R R E S P E C T I V E O W N E R S .

DO IT!

PRODUCTION What’s your favorite technique for replacing bum sounds? Let us know on the forum at keyboardmag.com.

MANUAL DRUM REPLACEMENT IN PRO TOOLS AND LOGIC by Jason Scott Alexander

On page 50 of this issue,  Keyboard 

rounds up five state-of-the-art drum replacer apps that do most of the work for you. However, not everyone has jumped on this bandwagon — many of today’s top producers and mixing engineers continue to use time-proven techniques that are decidedly old-school. Take New York City-based engineer Cooper Anderson (Kanye West, John Legend, Ghostface Killah), who admits to never having used any of the software in this issue’s roundup. “I have a cool way of doing it in Pro Tools and Logic Pro,” he says. “Neither requires any additional software, but the Pro Tools method is slightly easier with the help of SoundReplacer.” Nearly a decade old, Digidesign’s Sound Replacer (shown) is no longer marketed as a drum replacer app per se; Digidesign’s 2006 acquisition of TL Drum Rehab from Trillium Lane Labs (see page 53) has since filled that bill. Still, Sound Replacer is huge in pro mixing circles, with some engineers preferring to use it in a more manual process of replacing drum hits. This all begins with making a trigger track from a duplicate of the kick or snare track in question. “With Tab-to-Transient enabled and the

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Commands Keyboard Focus mode turned on in Pro Tools, I’ll tab the edit point to the first hit to be triggered and set the nudge value to a 64th-note,” explains Anderson. “Using the region ‘Trim Start to Insertion’ command, I trim everything to the left of the trigger and nudge the edit point one 64thnote to the right. This should leave a little bit of the beginning of the drum hit. Next, I split the region using the Separate command, then tab to the next trigger, and repeat.” When you tab through the transients, the edit point may stop in between desired drum hits. If you’re not sure whether a transient is supposed to be there, you can always hit Play to find out — you won’t lose your place. After the triggers have been trimmed, consolidate the track. “You can now use Sound Replacer to make a really accurate replacement track,” says Anderson. “If you don’t have Sound Replacer, you can use the focus mode and Tab to Transient to paste in samples on a new track.” In Logic Pro, Anderson also creates a trigger track, but needs no replacement plug-in. To do this, start by making a physical copy of the drum track in the Audio Bin, then open the new audio file in the Sample

Edit window. Next, carefully select all audio found in between the drum hits. You’ll need to both visually and aurally audition the part as you move along, ensuring that you don’t miss a hit or mistake a background transient for the drum you’re trying to replace. “You can even clip most of the decay off the drum,” notes Anderson. “All it needs for the trigger is a little bit at the very beginning. Then use the Silence command. I’ve assigned the F8 key command to this.” Once you have the audio file stripped, drag it onto a track in the arrange window, making sure to drop it on a bar line. Put the SPL (song position line or “play head”) on that bar line. Select a MIDI or instrument track and open the audio file in the Sample Edit window once again, then select the Audio to Score command. “Scroll through the audio file to make sure there are no false or missing triggers,” says Anderson. “When everything is ready,  just hit Process. You’ll then have a MIDI track you can use to trigger drums from any instrument plug-in. Logic’s MI DI Transform commands can be used in any of the MIDI editing windows to put all of the triggers on the same note, adjust velocity weighting, or make numerous other useful tweaks.”

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HOW DRUM REPLACERS CAN SAVE  YOUR SESSION

Keep the groove. Improve the sound. We rounded up five of the leading drum replacement apps and discovered that each offers something unique. by Jason Scott Alexander 

 Anytime I talk with my techie friends about drum

replacement, it’s all about fitting square pegs into round holes. You know, switching out a hip-hop kick that’s lacking boom for the clubs. Or replacing a fat acrylic snare that could really  rock  the track “if only it were a Pearl brass piccolo.” Granted, many of these folks are mix engineers and don’t have the luxury of calling drummers back to re-record. However, drum replacement is useful for any musician working from a home or desktop studio. A wise producer once told me, “Much like love, magical moments in the studio tend to come and go when you least expect . . . so capture them when they happen, and cherish those recordings once they’re gone.” That’s so true — early scratch takes and casual jam sessions captured under less-than-ideal acoustic or technical conditions

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often have emotional impact that’s difficult to recapture in subsequent big-studio sessions. Thanks to modern software, though, we can improve the sound quality while retaining much, if not all, of the original emotion. This is a crucial advancement. We put the five most popular drum replacer apps to the test. While they all basically work via filters and trigger thresholds, three — WaveMachine Labs’ Drumagog, Digidesign’s TL Drum Rehab, and ApulSoft ApTrigga 2 — are s ample-based and get inserted as realtime plug-ins on a channel in your DAW. The other two — DTM from Massey a nd Drumtracker from Toontrack — work offline to export MIDI files you can later use to play your virtual drum instrument of choice. Most importantly, it’s each product’s unique detection and sensitivity controls that make it best suited for a particular job.

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    P     U     D     N  WAVEMACHINE LABS     U DRUMAGOG 4 PLATINUM     O For the past eight years, Drumagog has been one of the most     R highly regarded drum replacers out there. To this day, competitors are seen borrowing from its feature set and trying to match the scope and finesse of its detection engine. Incorporating a 4GB library of highly expressive acoustic and electronic kicks, snares, toms, hi-hats, and cymbals, played with brushes as well as sticks, proprietary GOG files can each contain upwards of 4 8 velocity and positional multi-samples. You can also import WAV, AIF, SD-II and GIG samples to create custom GOGs; this lets you arrange and save your own sample sets in a single file that’s easily exchanged with others online. Some of the best sounding GOGs come from users in the Drumagog forums. Using it is a simple matter of inserting the plug-in onto a mono or stereo drum track, selecting a replacement sound, and letting Drumagog do the rest. You can adjust the mix of original and replacement audio. Incoming audio shows up as a scrolling half-height waveform, with crosshair-style controls superimposed for trigger sensitivity (the volume threshold for incoming peaks) and resolution (the minimum space between peaks that will separately cause triggers). In this way, you can quickly teach Drumagog how to react to incoming drum sounds that hit very close to one another — e.g., flams, paradiddles, and rolls — or, conversely, to ignore errant ghost notes by widening or narrowing the resolution in milliseconds. Audio that scores a “hit” (a candidate for replacement) is displayed as a white dot, so it’s easy to see a history of exactly which peaks caused Drumagog to trigger. This turned out to be the most intuitive and flexible method for automating peak detection of any app in this roundup. Note, though, that Drumagog’s detections are always automatic and don’t let you add or remove triggers manually. If the source audio is complex enough that you need to roll up your sleeves, you’ll find plenty of parameters for fine-tuning the detection process. In the pre-trigger filter section, there’s a choice of high-, low-, bandpass, and notch filters, each with adjustable frequency, Q (bandwidth), and input levels. I really like that there’s an audition button here, letting you hear exactly how much source signal is actually making its way through to the detection engine. The intriguingly named “Stealth mode” allows all the original audio to pass through unchanged, until the trigger threshold is reached. This could be especially useful for home studio recordings where limited microphone availability causes both the snare and hi-hat to end up on a single track. Drumagog will pass the hi-hat through, quickly crossfade into the replaced snare sample when the snare drum is triggered, then crossfade back into the hi-hat again! Wanting to test this in a different way, I threw a pretty extreme case at it: A song’s floor tom wasn’t directly miked, but instead, picked up only by the overheads. I needed to replace

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the tom, but didn’t want to jeopardize the rest of the overhead content. With the detection filter tuned to the frequency range of the floor tom, Stealth mode allowed the rest of the kit to pass through around  it. I was totally impressed by the seamless and completely natural-sounding results, especially once I’d blended them back into the full mix. A pitch control lets you fine-tune replacement samples. Especially in urban, pop, and dance music, sometimes all that an acoustic drum sound needs is a little embellishment to make it fit in with an electronic arrangement. For this, the Synth section is a wonderful inclusion, as it lets you blend in a pure waveform (sine, square, sawtooth, three types of triangle, and noise) and tune its level, frequency, attack and decay. Whether adding sub to a kick, buzz to a snare, or putting shaped “fuzz” on handclaps, only Drumagog has this feature. Drumagog’s sample engine can discern whether the drummer was playing fast enough to warrant an extra “hand;” if so, Drumagog alternates between different samples for the left and right hands, making the replacement sound very realistic during rolls and fills. Drumagog is available in three versions, starting with Basic at $199. If you own a copy of FXpansions’s BFD or BFD2, Drumagog Platinum (reviewed here) can trigger BFD samples directly, without the need for MIDI or complicated routing setups.

SAVE YOUR SESSIO N

TRILLIUM LANE LABS TL DRUM REHAB

• The sounds of the Motif ES • Both a song and a loop-based pattern sequencer for everything from making beats to complete arrangements

Combining the best aspects of both a scrupulous user-input process and more hands-off automated approach, Drum Rehab is a Pro Tools-only (RTAS) solution that can detect and replace drum hits, with sample-level accuracy, completely on the fly. Due to it being specifically designed for Pro Tools, the integration feels extremely slick, with the interface sporting an attractive detection waveform view that tightly follows playback as selected from Pro Tools’ Edit window. Drum Rehab listens to the source audio, analyzing it in real time for trigger points, then storing these internally along a sort of waveform “map.” This lets you  jump back and forth within an audio file as Drum Rehab remembers the detected trigger points from sections where you’ve already been. In practice, audio with reasonably consistent peaks (such as a welldefined kick track) need only be analyzed over a short, two- or three-bar section in order to get your detection parameters suitable for the entire song. In these simplest of circumstances, you can pretty much set the trigger threshold and let Drum Rehab do its thing. The four basic detection modes are: Snare 1, Snare 2, Kick, and Tom. Dynamic variation in the source audio can be emphasized or minimized (down to “No Dynamic Tracking”), and a handy ducking option lets you set the amount of gain reduction that will be applied to the

source audio upon output, when a drum sound is triggered. Naturally, you can also blend the input and replacement audio levels to suit. For audio suffering from excessive bleed or wild dynamics, you’ll need Expert mode. Here, you can address any mistakes made by the detection engine, such as adding missed notes, deleting false triggers, or moving a trigger a smidge to get its peak in the r ight place. However, before you can edit anything, triggers must be “committed” to the timeline so as not to be re-detected every time you play back a region. You can always “uncommit” triggers — should you wish to try a different threshold setting, for instance — freeing them for redetection. Because committed triggers are written into the waveform map, none of your painstaking work is lost after you close the session or plug-in window. The Expert panel also lets you quantize triggers to Pro Tools’ grid, from halfnote to 64th-note, but it’s only as accurate as your session’s tempo map. For ultra-fine placement, click-holding a trigger point zooms you in to the sample level, highlighting the replacement transient on the waveform in bright green. From here, you can correct for any phase issues a sample might have when blended against the original, offset the timing of the trigger, or adjust its amplitude. This is one leg TL Drum

• All the hook-ups to use the MO with your computer including built-in stereo digital out, complete remote control of your computer software and even Studio Connections compatibility so you can treat the MO just like a VSTi software instrument • A great price! That’s all there is to say. All there is to do now is––make MO’ music.

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Rehab definitely has up on the competition — the program brilliantly combines an “offline” approach to getting maximum precision with the conveniences of realtime processing. A large horizontal velocity map lets you define how samples get mapped to the 16 possible zones, which can be resized and crossfaded. Voicing modes are “Choke,” where any newly triggered drum sound terminates playback of the previous one, or “Free,” where samples can play over one another. Two entirely different sets of sounds can be loaded at a time, each with their own set of attack, sustain, and EQ controls. This is great for programming hits on multiple drum head positions or mimicking a dual mic setup (say, top and bottom mics on a snare), and the Blend A/B control (which you can

HOW DRUM R EPLACERS CAN

automate in Pro Tools) lets you crossfade between them. Sadly, there is no sample pitch control — a fairly major omission — and Drum Rehab doesn’t support stereo samples or panning of mono samples. One very cool, if inadvertent, use that comes from Rehab having not only a minimum but also a maximum trigger threshold setting (none of the others in this roundup do) is that you can focus on any tiny or incidental percussion that might be buried in a track. This let me replace a lackluster shaker, recorded amidst a sea of hand drums, with one that had more gusto. I also augmented a rather drab hi-hat, recorded in a Beatles-style single-track drum take, with a clangorous tambourine sample, which gave the track much more sonic interest.

APULSOFT APTRIGGA2

Rounding out the realtime replacers, ApTrigga2 also gives instant results, but you’re completely dependent on the plugin’s automatic detection to identify beats in the source audio. Short of fine-tuning the detection parameters, there’s little you can do to correct false triggers, add missing beats, or tighten up timing. Since it comes only in AU or VST formats, Pro Tools users will need FXpansion’s VST-to-RTAS Adapter, available from fxpansion.com. The interface has four main sections. A Filter pane has lowand high-cut bands with conjoined EQ frequency, gain, and bandwidth settings. The Trigger section lets you set threshold within a convenient peak-hold style input metering display. You can also adjust trigger hold time and “smoothing,” which determines how fast the trigger reacts to signal changes. Other trigger modes include One-Shot — which always plays samples to their ends unless they are triggered again — and Loop mode. Although it doesn’t ship with a factory library, you can quickly drag-and-drop any combination of AIFF, WAV, or SD-II sound files into the S ample pane. Up to nine mono or stereo files can be here at a time. Naturally, these slots are intended as velocity layers for a single instrument ( i.e. snare), but nothing stops you from loading in s amples of differing drum types for multi-instrument replacement based

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on discrete trigger thresholds. You can adjust an individual sample’s level and pitch (up to one octave higher or lower in very fine steps), as well as its panning in a stereo instance of the plug-in. ApTrigga can convert MIDI note-ons into trigger events, making it possible to audition samples with a controller keyboard. As a special feature, it’s also possible to modulate ApTrigga’s engine with a controller such as a pitch wheel. This means you can “play” volume, filter cutoff, pitch, and dynamic sample selection all while the sample is being played back. This is exclusive among our roundup candidates. I found the GUI a bit too small, especially when trying to maneuver a bunch of velocity crossfade handles in the crammed dynamics bar. I also wish there were separate input filters for each sample slot so that I could hone in on the warm, woody timbre of a snare with one sample, for instance, and use the more crisp, sidestick portion of the sound to trigger another sample. Nonetheless, ApTrigga 2 gives more options in multisample mode than any other replacer. Aside from typical dynamic, random, and round-robin playback modes, you can stack all loaded samples to be mixed and played back at once; stack samples according to velocity intensity; or manually select samples using an automatable control.

SAVE YOUR SESSIO N

MASSEY PLUG-INS

The MM Series synthesizers combine sounds

DTM

from the Motif, street smart grooves from around the world and a simple to use interface in a portable package. Whether you’re just  jamming with friends, making songs on board or with the bundled Cubase software, the MM Series lets you hit the streets in style. The MM6 is the perfect choice for musicians on the go, while the Graded Hammer action on the 88-key MM8 delivers natural touch and expressive control over the complete piano range.

• Key sounds from the Motif line including piano, guitars, drums & more • Real Time Knobs for controlling filte and EG • Built-in grooves with drums, drums and bass or complete backing tracks • Performance Mode let’s you play layers or split sounds along with grooves

Formerly an employee at Trillium Lane Labs and a major figure behind TL Drum Rehab, Steven Massey recently broke away as an independent, producing his own line of elite plug-ins at ridiculously low prices. And, in the case of Drum to MIDI (DTM), you can’t get any lowerpriced than free! DTM is remarkably uncomplicated. In fact, it’s the simplest of the lot. Available only for Pro Tools as an AudioSuite plugin, DTM analyzes the selected audio track  offline and converts it to MIDI data, which you can then drag back onto a Pro Tools MIDI track. Though it won’t save files directly for use in other programs, you can easily export the resulting track as a MIDI file from Pro Tools. The interface consists of a waveform analysis window that shows the currently highlighted section of audio (which is why in the screenshot above, it’s shown in the context of a Pro Tools session), along with automatically detected trigger points. Beyond a simple threshold control, fine-tuning the sensitivity slider will ultimately affect the number of detected

triggers. A “compression” dial scales the dynamic range of MIDI velocities generated, which can be a bit of a blind effort since you can’t do audible auditions in DTM. False trigger points can be erased, but you can’t manually adjust the triggers for placement or velocity. Once it came time to drag the generated data onto a track, I discovered a rather irksome behavior having to do with the fact that Pro Tools imports MIDI as an entire track. If you’re replacing a short region, or want to work in sections, you’re forced to work from the end of the song and progress your way toward the front, with Pro Tools’ edit mode set to “Spot.” Otherwise, you’ll be forever slicing the empty front sections and adjusting MIDI data into place. The good news: DTM’s final results are very accurate. On difficult jazz snare and triplet hi-hats, the detection algorithm tracked beautifully, duplicating tiny dynamic details with razor-sharp peak  alignment, nearly every time. Unfortunately, if a “buried” trigger manages to fly under the radar (common with all drum replacers),

• Cubase AI 48 track audio/ MIDI DAW software included

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you can’t add triggers in DTM. Sure, you can insert an extra MIDI note here and there using Pro Tools’ MIDI editor, but it’d make life easier if you could add triggers in the plug-in itself. A feature that really blew me away — once I discovered its undocumented powers — is that the Clear button essentially makes certain triggers invisible to detection. This comes in handy for removing interfering bleed signals from a track. One of

HOW DRUM R EPLACERS CAN

my snare tracks actually had a kick bleed that was louder than the snare’s ghost notes, causing all sorts of unwanted triggering and replacement. With an instance of the kick bleed selected, I clicked “Learn Drum” — causing all kick instances to come into focus — then I hit Clear. When I flipped back to the primary trigger view, the triggers that had resulted from the kick bleeds were totally  excluded. Way cool.

TOONTRACK  DRUMTRACKER Taking the attitude that to do the job right, you must break away from the confines of host software, Drumtracker is a standalone program. The interface is split into a waveform pane on top and file inputs section below, divided by a horizontal transport and navigation bar. Like DTM, it generates MI DI files, not audio. But the similarities end there. What immediately sets Drumtracker apart is that it can load multiple audio files (mono or stereo) at once; these get listed as “parts.” This lets you work with the source tracks of an entire multitracked drum kit, and hear the part you’re working on in context, as you would if using a plug-in replacer in your host DAW. Only one part can be in focus at a time, though. Three pre-trigger filter presets are given — optimized for snare, kick, and hi-hat — while adjustable controls let you set the filter to high- or low-frequency detection, tune its bandwidth, adjust its overall attack sensitivity and trigger resolution (filter hold value), and save your settings as a user preset. For an even bigger trick, Drumtracker analyzes audio  poly phonically . I immediately dreamt of this being useful in situations calling for individual drums in a kit to “break out” from a track  recorded with overhead or room mics. As much as I like to believe in miracles, this isn’t very practical. While each input file lets you assign upwards of ten separate instrument detection tracks, only a single instrument (snare, kick, hi-hat, etc.) can be filtered per selection of audio, and these selections can’t overlap. Therefore, if multiple drum types fall on the same beat, it won’t work. Not to mention, it took me ages to manually separate envelopes per region and modify varying detection thresholds along the timeline. To its credit, the polyphonic detection method can be a useful means of extracting articulations from a single instrument file. On snare drum, for example, I used it to distinguish the “regular” hits from any sidesticks or press-hits. Though this is time-consuming, it works quite well. You can set independent mappings for each articulation, with a MIDI note corresponding to the relevant sample in your drum module. MIDI mapping templates are offered for XLN Audio Addictive Drums, FXpansion BFD 1 and 2, Toontrack EZ Drummer and Superior Drummer 1 and 2, General MIDI, GM Extended, and generic note numbers. The 24 factory sounds are good enough for auditioning purposes only (as intended). Very usefully, you

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can run a standalone instrument, such as Superior Drummer, alongside Drumtracker via a virtual MI DI port in the settings dialog. Do this, and you’ll be able to hear the track exactly as it will sound when you import the MI DI back into your DAW project. I found it took a bit of finagling to get consistent, positive results from Drumtracker. Particularly on very rapid playing or rolls, I had to manually discern hits and their velocities, often zooming in on very small sections. Letting the detection engine loose on an entire song-length drum track was rarely successful, unless the playing was extremely basic, with clearly-defined space between hits. I also tried processing the snare track with kick bleed that I’d used to test Massey DTM. With that track, false triggering caused by confusion between soft snare hits and the kick bleed was unavoidable, no matter the filter or threshold settings. I think that rather than Drumtracker’s simple high/lowpass filter, a more elaborate parametric filter that could hone in on a drum’s entire tonal fingerprint (not just the transient portion) could improve this situation greatly, so I’d suggest that to Toontrack as a future upgrade. I like that you bring in the DAW session tempo map at the final export stage, so that all the newly generated MIDI events are correctly referenced against your project timeline. This worked wonderfully on sessions having even the most wildly varying tempo and time signature changes. By default, Drumtracker converts files to MIDI type 1 format, though type 0 and “split instruments” (one MIDI file per instrument or articulation) are export options.

SAVE YOUR SESSIO N

See page 4 8 for old-school ways to replace sounds without any of the plug-ins in this roundup. For a look at the new drum replacer feature in Logic Pro 9, see our review on page 60.

CONCLUSIONS While all products in this roundup can handle basic drum and sound replacement duties with ease, each has demonstrated a unique ability or function best suited for a specific task. If generating MIDI notes is your objective, the choice is between DTM, Drumtracker, and Drumagog. Unlike “offline” solutions — which create entirely new MIDI tracks or audio files — TL Drum Rehab, ApTrigga 2, and Drumagog each stream their outputs as an inline effect; should you wish to turn that into a permanent audio file, you can bus its output to a new track and record it — or solo the drum track and do a bounce-to-disk. Whether MIDI or sample-based, all drum replacers depend greatly on the expressiveness of the replacement sounds. A lackluster multisample won’t replicate the expressiveness of a drummer, no matter how accurate the detection engine is. To this end, I found the proprietary sample set, programming provisions, and automatable position control in Drumagog to be tops, with TL Drum Rehab riding a very close second. We need to call out ApTrigga2 for bang-for-buck. At a street price of just over $50, it delivers a solid performance that could only be made better if there were user-adjustable trigger points, MIDI export, and an RTAS version for Pro Tools users. Massey DTM’s sample-accuracy for peak alignment really impressed me, and it offers the fastest, most reliable workflow of anything in this roundup — even over the realtime plug-ins. True, some extra work is needed to insert the odd missed trigger, but it’s a fantastic tool and you won’t mind having to buy any of Massey’s other commercial plug-ins to  join the “registered users club” so you

can download DTM for free. As the only standalone program reviewed, Drumtracker benefits from being completely host- and plug-in format-independent. Multitrack mode conveniently lets you hear a part you’re working on in context with the rest of the kit, just as you would in a DAW environment. Polyphonic mode, though far from perfect, is useful for extracting drum articulations, and lays groundwork for what I hope will be an improved set of polydetection algorithms in future versions. Currently best suited for working on wellisolated and non-compounded tracks, Drumtracker could easily become the “killer app” with a more powerful filter section and the ability to learn triggers from their entire sonic fingerprints, rather than just the frequency range of the initial hit. One to watch, for sure. Ultimately, and true to its near-decade of praise, I found Drumagog stayed the truest to the nuances of original performances, and could solve virtually any of my replacement needs. It also handled fast playing the best, thanks in part to its variable resolution. Beyond fixing drum and percussion tracks, Drumagog also proved valuable on certain instrumental material. Automating the resonant prefilter together with the visual trigger display, I could pinpoint and follow individual elements within a submix or sample loop, and replace or contort them in real time. It was quite cool to “ghost” percussion samples to follow the distinct rhythms of instrumental parts such as guitar, or to make single-cycle synth waves dance to the beat and dynamics of the original drum groove. In terms of quality, features, and ease of use, Drumagog is still very much the trailblazer.

Xpanded Articulation sounds inspire your creativity. Performance Recording with 4 intelligent arpeggiators instantly capture your ideas. An Integrated Sampling Sequencer with studio style mixing and VCM effects let you create complete MIDI/audio productions. Computer connectivity and Cubase AI software expand your possibilities. With the NEW direct to USB stereo recording feature making great sounding music has never been easier.

• New UI with large color LCD and 8 knobs and sliders • Xpanded Articulation Synth engine with 355 MB of wave ROM • Studio style mixing environment with Virtual Circuitry Modeling effects • 4 intelligent Arpeggiators with instant Performance Recording • Integrated Sampling Sequencer with 1 GB of optional memory • Total Computer Integration and Cubase AI software included

©2009 Yamaha Corporation of America www.yamaha.com

www.motifator.com

Ever have a project where drum replacement saved the day? Let us know what you did, and what you used, on the forum at keyboardmag.com.

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A P P L E LO G I C S T U D I O Using MainStage in your live rig? Tell us about it on the forum at keyboardmag.com.

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APPLE LOGIC STUDIO Mac Daddy  by Dominic Milano and Ernie Rideout

PROS

 Apple has done a fantas tic job of

Flex Time and Varispeed improve the editing and creation process. Amp Designer and Pedalboard add very high-quality guitar amp and stompbox modeling. MainStage’s MIDI out and other new features kick ass. STP’s kinks are ironed out, and it’s better for sound-to-picture. As with first Logic Studio release, bang-for-buck is tremendous.

surprising us with Logic’s previous “left of decimal” releases. Logic Pro 7 introduced a bunch of amazing virtual instruments and a decidedly improved user interface. Version 8 (reviewed Jan. ’08) included every plug-in and Jam Pack, plus the sound-to-picture app Soundtrack  Pro and the groundbreaking MainStage — all at half the price of what Logic Pro used to cost by itself. The surprise this time was the release itself: Unexpected whole-number versions of Logic Pro, MainStage, and Soundtrack. Many new features are deep-in-themenus enhancements that improve workflow. Some are in-your-face, such as the powerhouse of audio editing features collectively known as Flex Time, and the ultracool Amp Designer, Pedalboard, Playback,

CONS

As of press time, some Looper and Playback features in MainStage are a little buggy. As in previous versions, performance meter doesn’t always give fair warning of impending audio engine errors on big projects. INFO

$499; $199 upgrade from previous Logic Pro/Studio versions; $299 upgrade from Logic Express, apple.com

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and Loopback plug-ins. Others improve professional utility, such as the addition of MIDI output to MainStage. There are no substantial user interface changes, and other than new templates for new projects, no new shortcuts to the depth that gives Logic much of its musical power even as it may intimidate the unini tiated. You still get all the virtual instruments and effects, the tons of loops, the notation editor, and, yes, one of the most powerful audio production programs in the world. Instead of the huge printed manual, a searchable, HTML-based quicklink  system is built in to the Help menu. Former Keyboard  editors in chief Dominic Milano and Ernie Rideout dove in to see how all the new stuff impacts the way you make music.

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Click here to activate Flex View, which lets you see the Flex edits you make. Even with Flex View turned off, you can still move audio like putty using the Flex Tool. Set the Flex mode for each track by choosing the mode from this contextual menu; you can disable Flex Time for individual regions if you like. In this comping session, we’ve deactivated Quick  Swipe by clicking on this icon; all takes are now ready for editing. Move this individual note by dragging on the automatically-set handles. The Varispeed function shows up as this button on the transport. To control Varispeed, drag up or down on this display. This vocal track was selected and then “converted to sampler instrument.” These are the REX-like MIDI files corresponding to the new sampler instrument slices of the vocal. Here’s the vocal track loaded into EXS24, and the edit window, where you control keymapping, pitch, and reverse playback of each slice. The Notes tool lets you write notes for the entire project and for each track.

 WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

This is a non-trivial question. A completely clean install takes up about 47GB. Before you cry “bloatware,” remember what Logic Studio encompasses: five standalone apps (Logic Pro 9, MainStage 2, Sountrack Pro 3, WaveBurner 1.6, and Compressor 3.5), a couple of cool utilities, all of Apple’s Jam Packs (over 20,000 loops), 80 effects plug-ins, about 1,700 sampled instruments, and 40 virtual instruments. Fortunately, you can put much of the included content on an external hard drive; the apps that need to live on the same drive as the OS take up about 17GB. On our main test machine — a new 15" MacBook Pro with a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 7200rpm hard drive — a full installation took a few hours but was otherwise painless.

Tempo Import/Export. You select a Flex mode from the contextual menu (different modes for different audio material) under the track name. When using the Flex Tool or clicking in the lower portion of the waveform display in Flex View, Flex markers are added automatically at the nearest transient. You can also manually place markers. Transients generally occur at the beginning of drum hits, notes, or words in a vocal line. Markers define the area that will be affected by a Flex edit. Dragging a marker expands/contracts the audio between it and the nearest or adjacent marker — audio beyond the nearest marker is unaffected. This lets you do all sorts of fun things. For instance, you can change the length of words or phrases in recorded vocals by dragging the beginning and end points of the automaticallymarked waveform; you can also give a vocal line an entirely different rhythm that still sounds natural. Also, you can manually line up tracks that were played slightly out of time. The Flex features can also automatically quantize one or more audio tracks utilizing the full range of Logic’s MIDI quantize levels, add varying degrees of swing, extract a groove template from one or more tracks, and more. There’s even a “tempophone” function (Speed Mode) if you want to sound like you’re changing the playback speed (and pitch) on a turntable or tape recorder. Flex Time works well and it’s way cool. All that’s missing now is a Flex Pitch mode, a la the polyphonic version of Melodyne.  Varispeed. This lets you convince your friends you can play faster than Jordan Rudess by recording at whatever percentage of full speed you choose, then playing back at normal speed. While

NEED TO KNOW 

Do the new features really make this a “left-of-decimal” update? In

the case of MainStage 2, absolutely. Though Logic Pro 9 isn’t that different visually , Flex Time, improved comping, and drum replacement are just some of the robust new features under the hood. How guitar-centric are the guitar amps, tab, and c hord symbols?

Very; the amps and effects will please all but the most severe tone freaks. Bass players will feel left out, as there are no new bass amp models. Keyboardists will love the amps and Pedalboard, though. How does Flex Time compare to other DAWs’ audio stretching?

Sound quality-wise, it’s on par with the best such tools in the industry. For ease of use, it’s tops. Can I control an external MIDI  stage rig with MainStage 2?

Absolutely. Multiple interfaces. Multiple racks. Go for it. Is Soundtrack Pro 3 a big improvement over version 2? If you

do sound for picture, the enhanced noise reduction, time stretch, and surround tools will make your life easier. recording, playback is slowed but pitch is unchanged. You first have to add Varispeed to the transport bar: Controlclick the transport bar, and choose “Customize Transport Bar.” Once the “-/+” button appears, engaging it gives you a “Speed Only” section of the transport with a percentage you can change by dragging. Slick.

NEW AUDIO FEATURES IN LOGIC 9

Flex Time. This is actually a group of fea-

tures, and one of the most t alked-about new perks. These include Flex editing, the Flex Tool, Audio Quantize, and multiple tempo tools: Varispeed, Speed Fades, and

Fig. 1. Amp models are faithful and detailed; so are the graphics. Most guitarists will recognize the sound, but even the Logic logo treatment on each of the 25 models gives a huge clue as to the real amp that was modeled. You can mix and match heads and cabinets, and choose and position the virtual mic model.

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Fig. 2. Been wanting to run EVB3 through multiple Leslie sims? With Pedalboard, now you can. We cranked drive on these to nail the “Keith Emerson’s wall of Leslies” tone. Drag and drop from the collection of groovy stompboxes on the right to build your virtual pedalboard on the left. Click the arrow in the lower left corner to open Macro Assignments, which let you control your virtual pedals with physical ones. Quick Swipe. This was introduced in

Logic 8 as a way to comp multiple takes together quickly. It was brilliant, except for one problem: You could slice and select from among as many takes as you wanted to create your ideal comp at the top of the take bin — but you couldn’t edit any of the audio until after you had exported the comp to a new track. That meant you couldn’t move a single word in an otherwise perfect vocal composite just to see if it worked better. In Logic 9, you can disable Quick  Swipe mode once you’ve created a comp, and doing so makes all of your takes editable with the usual audio tools — and with the new Flex tools, too! This means you can move a word in, s ay, take 22, and the change will be reflected in your comp. This is a huge improvement. AMP DESIGNER AND PEDALBOARD

Logic 7 gave you Guitar Amp Pro, with its configurable heads, cabinets, and mic placement. Now, the Amp Designer plug-in is billed as a guitarist’s dream — 25 classic heads, 25 cabinets, 10 classic reverbs, three mics, all lovingly rendered with amazing graphics — but it’s also a boon for us keyboard players (see Figure 1 on page 61). Used in conjunction with the 30 coolsounding and groovy-looking pedals in the new Pedalboard plug-in (see Figure 2 above), you’ve got physical models of just about every guitar amp and stompbox known. Routing whatever you can think of, even a Roland V-Piano, through a crankedup, modeled amp will produce interesting sounds. Really — we tried honky-tonk V-

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Piano into a slightly distorted brown-face “Fender” with moderate tremolo, and it was perfect for a Beatles-esque track. Putting a virtual (or real) Wurly, Rhodes, ARP String Ensemble, Minimoog, or Hammond through a bunch of stompboxes yields everything from classic tones to experimental bliss. The blogosphere has complained that some of the amps are noisy (when they’re cranked up, they are), but hey, so are real guitar amps when turned up. Pedalboard is more fun when you use real pedals to control its virtual effects. You can assign Macros to control pedal parameters. Open up the Macro window by clicking on the triangle in the lower left of the window, and select which effect parameter you want to control. You can also assign a physical controller using Learn Mode; command-click  on a screen parameter, and the Controller Assignments dialog appears. Wiggle your control, and it automatically makes the connection. We had some challenges setting up an expression pedal to control a wah effect using Learn Mode; when it didn’t work right off the bat, we were flummoxed by parameters in the Controller Assignments such as Format, for which the choices are “unsigned,” “2’s complement,” and “sign magnitude,” as well as a Mode choice that offered “scaled,” “direct,” “X-OR,” and other such engineerspeak. Fortunately, using the Macro window avoids all this, making things much easier. So, how do the models sound? Dominic loved Spin Box, a cool Leslie simulator that you can instantiate multiple times. As he puts it, “In the real world, there’s something magical about running a Hammond through a guitar amp plus a Leslie or two. EVB3

[Logic’s organ] gets nice and growly through a couple of Spin Boxes and the Small Tweed amp with a Vintage Brit 4 x 12 cabinet. I just wish a single switch could toggle rotor speeds on multiple Spin Boxes.” “Running the EVP88 [Logic’s electric piano] through a Blackface amp with the spring reverb setting is amazing,” says Ernie. “It really has a convincing spring sound and amp warmth; it reminded me of my Rhodes through my old Fender Twin.” Bottom line: The Amp Designer amp and cabinet models are super-convincing. They respond very musically and naturally to guitar, keyboard, and soft synth audio. Overall, they’re the equal of any other amp models available.  WOR KFLOW 

In Logic 9, new features t ake the tedium out of mundane tasks and make life easier. Selective Track Import, for example, imports portions of projects from the Media Browser. Say you’ve got a favorite drum setup and want to use its channel strip configuration in new project. In the Browser, opening the project that includes your drum setup gives you options for importing individual channel strips; the entire kit’s channel strips; one, some, or all track contents; plug-ins, sends, and I/O setups; and automation data. This is also handy for moving audio tracks between sessions recorded at different times, say, when you prefer the groove the rhythm section recorded yesterday. When you import this way, track content naturally retains its position relative to the first beat of the first bar. We do wish there was an “import at play head” option, as this would save you time jockeying tracks around to assemble tunes one section at a time. Drum Replacer, located in the Track  menu of the Arrange window, is another new feature, and an alternative to the dedicated replacers rounded up on page 50. It lets you replace or double recorded drum parts with sounds from an extensive sample library that opens up in the Media Browser. Because the trigger threshold is variable, you can, for example, double only the primary strikes, leaving buzz rolls and other fills unaltered. Settings optimized for typical snare or tomtom playing are provided. You can use Drum Replacer on other sources — for example, to lock a kick drum to a pulsing bass line. Copy

GEAR and paste the bass track onto a new track, select that track, then apply Drum Replacer, set the threshold to taste, and you’ve got a new kick drum part. You’ll find other handy additions hidden around the interface. Bounce in Place is new to the Region edit menu, and it

provides a simple way to bounce a virtual track to a new audio track, without having to resort to the File menu. Convert to Sampler is found in the Audio menu in the Arrange window, and it’s really a gas: Select a region of an audio track, and it creates a program in EXS24 [Logic’s soft sampler] for you,

instantiated in a track, with each transient, note, or word sliced and associated with a MIDI track. This is a blast, as it lets you edit any audio material within EXS itself, using all the EXS parameters and keymapping edit view. Among other things, this is good for some quick, REX-like slicing fun.

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In its first version, MainStage was a nice way to organize and map virtual instruments and effects so you could use your Mac as your sound source for live gigs. It could host Logic instrument or effect plug-ins as well as third-party AU plug-ins, but lacked MIDI output for controlling external gear. Mainstage 2 (MS2) now has MIDI output, and can control a large, complex MIDI rig. We loaded up a MacBook Pro with a couple of MIDI interfaces, an audio interface with MIDI, and some MIDI controllers, and hooked up so many keyboards and sound modules to the various ports that it was starting to look like a Rick Wakeman gig. Using MS2, we sent program changes with MSB and LSB bank messages to all this gear. We set up ridiculous keyboard layers and splits that combined virtual and hardware synths. We created screen controls that sent different controllers to differ-

ent modules at once. Every time we changed patches in MS2, it configured the whole system. It works, and kicks much ass. All this is due to a new entity exclusive to MS2: the External Instrument Channel Strip. It works just like setting up a zone on a powerful MIDI controller keyboard: Set the output port, MIDI channel, program and bank changes, and key range, and bam — you’re controlling an external instrument. If you have spare inputs on your audio interface, you can even route the thing’s audio through the same channel strip to make it part of your MS2 mix. There’s no limit to layers, zones, or strips in a patch, other than CPU power. In practice, we made ten non-EXS soft synths work alongside the external gear without any noticeable screwiness. MS2 lets you control your Concerts (the main project files MainStage saves), sets, and patches with multiple physical controllers

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In MainStage 2’s edit window, you can tell the new External Instrument channel strips by their huge MIDI plug icons. Mainstage can now be a ReWire host. ReWire is the selected input on this channel. Switch patches, and MS2 sends out program change, bank select, and all data to configure your whole rig; set this up in the MI DI output tab of the Inspector. In the Patch List, cursoring up or down syncs up all program changes you’ve set for soft synths and external MI DI gear alike. In the Workspace, the Loopback window is visible; working with Loopback’s plug-in interface (see Figure 3 on page 64) is more fun.

— with judicious assigning, we found this to work well, with one exception. We used an Akai EWI-4000 wind controller to control a Yamaha VL-1m synth we’d layered with some virtual instruments, but pitchbend from

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the EWI (which is always there, as the mouthpiece and pitch plates transmit it) sounded like garbage. We alerted Apple, and found out they’re aware of the pitchbend issue and already working on a fix for the very next update. For the time being, we used MS2’s handy MIDI filters feature to screen out pitchbend info, and it sounded fine. We still wanted the bend, so we hooked the EWI directly to the VL-1m, but still had MS2 send program changes — a logical solution. However, it turns out that when you set a channel strip to receive no MIDI input (since we controlled the VL-1m directly), MS2 no longer sends anything via its corresponding MIDI out. The workaround was to create an unused MIDI object in the layout, and assign it to be the MIDI input for the channel. Mixing and matching your real and virtual instruments and effects with this kind of control is fantastic. But MS2 has even more fun things: Playback and Loopback (see Figure 3 at right). Playback lets you load an audio file, which plays back in sync with your Concert tempo. We set one up at the Concert level, then changed patches to play completely different rig configurations over different sections of the song. Very cool. We also set up four Playbacks in one patch and loaded backing horn tracks from a multitrack  Fig. 3. Playback and Loopback look and work similarly, but the former is a virtual instrument and the latter is a delay effect. Playback (top) imports audio tracks, with markers, and lets you add markers and Logic session — looped and controlled from rearrange the track on the fly. Loopback (bottom) is an Echoplex-style looping delay, and a bit tricky to the keyboard, they rocked. In another patch, master, but powerful when you do. we loaded in full-song rhythm section parts back doesn’t adjust your loop points to from the same session — wow! dimension to MS2, but they’re not without match the tempo, and if you’re off by a tick  Loopback is an audio looper that allows issues. Playback won’t import anything from or two, your loops will drift out of sync. multiple loops in the same patch. It can iTunes, and some audio tracks import full of ReWire hosting is another huge addisync to the Concert tempo, or not. You can digital garbage even when iTunes and other apps play them fine. It does import and add tion to MS2, though there’s still no client specify the loop length in advance, or let markers, but we couldn’t navigate behavior. We set up patches that mixed your foot- or button-taps determine the backwards through markers to play back  Logic and Reason soft synths right next to length. It has reverse, undo, and fade-out section 3, then 2, then 1, for example, using each other — awesome! We got Live tracks functions that make it work very much like to flow into MS2, and though it took some an Echoplex. You can import audio, and you the marker function in Playback’s window. The workaround is to set up screen buttons doing, even mixed Ableton Live’s Looper can export your loop creations. In one in Layout mode and assign them to choose instrument with Loopback. (Though Looppatch, we ran the Ultrabeat drum plug-in, back is very good, we find Looper in Live to some virtual keyboards, live guitar, and a Playback’s marker locations — buttons to be the virtual loop recorder pedal to beat. live vocal into one Loopback: instant song jump forward and backward one marker, for It’s more powerful and super-fun to use.) writing fun or one-man-band. (Tip: If you get example. Loopback’s onscreen controls A good controller really improves the noise when you add a mic or guitar channel seem straightforward, but sometimes it ReWire/MS 2 experience; we used the in MS2, insert a Noise Gate or De-Noiser seems to make no difference what their setM-Audio Axiom Pro 49, which constantly plug-in, and the hum and buzz are gone!) tings are — the loop might be at the wrong kept us informed with Looper function keys, We then set up multiple loops in the same tempo or not synced with the Concert MS2 synth parameters, and Reason synth patch, looping synth rhythms in one and tempo. If this happens, the solution is to clear the previous loop info. Setting loop parameters, all displayed on its LCD while vocal overdubs in another. Yeah! Playback and Loopback add a huge new length with your own tapping is tricky: Loop- MS2 was in ReWire mode.

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SOUNDTRACK PRO 3

Fig. 4. Using SoundTrack Pro 3’s new clipped signal repair function yields contrary results: before (on the left, note only two clipped signals) and after (on the right, clipping was added by the effect).

Soundtrack Pro (STP) is Apple’s sound-formoving-pictures complement to Logic and its popular Final Cut Pro (FCP) nonlinear video editing software. STP3 has significant workflow enhancements, among them additional ways to scroll the play head and QWERTY shortcuts for selected tracks’ Record Arm, Mute, and Solo buttons. iXML metadata support enhances pros’ ability to search for footage based on attributes such as location, shoot date, and so forth. As before, you can roundtrip FCP video sequences, complete with scoring reference

markers, open them in STP, save them as flattened files, and send them back to FCP. The Lift and Stamp functions added in STP2 let you copy and paste EQ attributes from one clip to others, which streamlined matching audio quality between video clips. In STP3, Lift and Stamp gain the ability to sample volume levels. The concept is a lot like Adobe Soundbooth CS4’s Voice Level Match feature, except that STP3’s Volume Match can’t match dialogue within clips. This could be a major limitation if your source

material is an interview, and the dialogue lives on a single mono audio track or the people speaking aren’t isolated on separate channels. If the people don’t talk over each other, it’s simple enough to razor-tool a single audio clip into multiple clips, but it’s a step Soundbooth CS4 users don’t have to worry about. In our tests, STP3 overcompensated for quieter voices, raising background noise along with speech. Saving each dialogue track as a separate audio file before matching levels produced better results. We found

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GEAR that if there’s even the slightest difference in room tone or background noise, it will be accentuated when level match is applied. STP3’s noise reduction helped, but didn’t completely mitigate the problem. Also, if you’re compensating for certain natural level mismatches, say, someone whispering versus a natural speaking voice, you may be better served using other tools such as mixer automation. Beware the Clipped Signal Analysis tool — in our test (see Figure 4 on page 65), it introduced clipping instead of eliminating it. Thankfully, the effects in STP3 are nondestructive, so undoing the damage was simple and painless. The noise reduction algorithms have also been tweaked to let you automatically eliminate common audio glitches such as pops, clicks, and hum. We thought we’d throw something a little more challenging at it: a skydiving video whose audio was recorded with no windscreen on the mic! The wind noise drowned out dialogue from people standing about a foot away from the mic. Three passes through the NR removed about 99 percent of the

A P P L E LO G I C S T U D I O

noise. Some barely audible, R2D2-like high-frequency artifacts remained, but this torture test proves that for more typical noise removal needs, STP3 is more than up to the task. You may recall from our Jan. ’08 review that sending XML files between Logic and STP2 didn’t work. So we tried exporting a stereo mix of a 16-track audio project that included a QuickTime video from Logic to FCP. The XML opened in FCP without a hitch. However, when we sent the project to STP3 using the roundtrip feature in FCP, only the video, without sound, showed up in STP3. Looks like the triedand-true OMF and AAF formats are still the best ways to swap projects between Logic and STP. While Logic Pro 9 happily played audio out a Digidesign Mbox 1, STP3 didn’t get along with the Mbox. Our tests revealed it’s an Mbox 1-specific issue, because STP3 worked fine through Apogee One, Mbox 2, Line 6 Toneport KB37, and MOTU interfaces. Apple also tried to duplicate the problem with an Mbox 1, but couldn’t.

     E      C      A      L      P      T      E      K      R      A      M

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CONCLUSIONS

The new Logic Studio is an incredibly powerful suite of tools for composing, audio and MIDI recording, post-production, live performance, and scoring moving pictures. It’s deep, intuitive at times and daunting at others, and priced to sell a lot of Macs. Of the over 200 new features, Amp Designer, Pedalboard, MainStage 2’s MIDI out, and Flex Time make the $199 upgrade a no-brainer. If you’re a GarageBand musician ready to learn a full pro system, Logic Studio is an amazing value, and will even open your GB songs with all tracks in the right places. Is it easy otherwise? Getting off the ground with Logic 9 and MainStage 2 is no more difficult than with any other program. Getting deeper requires more study and practice than with some other software, in our opinion — but this doesn’t diminish its power or usefulness. If you’re on the fence, just remember the times you’ve said to yourself, “If only I had Program X, I could Y.” Logic Studio is one of the few that always seems to fill in both those variables easily. For doing that at this price, it’s clearly a Key Buy.

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$20,000 for the Maxell Song of the Year $120,000 in Project Studio Equipment 12,000 Custom CDs Courtesy of Disc Makers Over $275,000 in Cash Awards and Prizes  Apple Computer with Cinema Display 

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GEAR

CASIO PRIVIA PX-330 Gig with the PX-330 or another Privia? Tell us about it on the forum at keyboardmag.com.

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CASIO PRIVIA PX-330

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The Digital Piano  for Everyone

52.05"

by Richard Leiter 

PROS

Pro-quality piano sound and feel. Only 25 pounds. Respectable auto-accompaniment. Seamless USB and SD card storage. Irresistible bells and whistles for the price.

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CONS

Some of the non-piano, General MIDI patches are weak. Button labeling is difficult to read in low light.

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INFO

$799.99 list/approx. $700 street, priviapiano.com My first thought when I heard that Casio

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was redesigning their wonderful Privia PX320 [reviewed June ’08] was, “I hope they don’t screw it up.” In the PX-320, they’d created a $700 keyboard that felt and sounded pretty much like a piano and a hundred other instruments, weighed only 25 pounds, and was crazy fun to play. Far from screwing it up, they’ve released a successor that’s great in nearly every way. I predict that in the next two years, musicians will do the following with Casio’s new

PX-330: Use it as a main axe on a world tour. Score a low-budget film with it. Take it on a cruise ship gig. Record it on a hit single you’ll hear on iTunes. Play it in piano bars in New York, London, Rio, and Mumbai. It’s got performance features no other weighted digital piano at this price can boast: a pitch wheel, 16-track sequencer, auto-harmonization and rhythm accompaniment, and a mic input you can route through the internal speakers. On the PX-320, those speakers pointed up at the ceiling; on the PX-330, they fire at the performer and the audience, as they should. What’s going to make Privia a household name is that it sounds and feels like a grand piano. In fact, you don’t really hear how strong the main piano sound is until you run it through something bigger than the built-in speakers. Don’t get me wrong — they’re terrific, but eight watts is still only eight watts. Within 20 minutes of getting the PX-330 into my studio, I’d played it through my Tannoy and TOA speakers,

GEAR HANDS-ON 1

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The pitch wheel is a welcome addition to an affordable digital piano. You can’t play a harmonica without one! This is your drummer. It does intros, fills, and synchro endings that make musical sense. Auto-accompaniment and harmonization are musical and clever. For example, the salsa arrangement has horns, bass, piano montuno, and percussion. Pick your sounds here: pianos, EPs, organs, vibes, strings, basses, guitars, and lots of General MIDI patches. This button triggers storage and computer connection. Hold down the Tone/Registration button and you get Auto Harmonize. Imagine between two and six extra fingers thickening every chord you play. There’s a lot more going on here than meets the eye: altered tunings, temperaments, brilliance, acoustic resonance, and duet mode for starters. It helps to read the manual. Sequencer is effortless and accurate. You can save ideas, songs, and arrangements, then port them to your music software for further development.

plus the Barbetta and Gallien-Krueger amps I use for gigs, and I can confidently assert that the piano sound rivals many digital stage pianos regardless of weight or price. In fact, it may work against Casio that their product is so light and affordable, because some consumers expect “pro” keyboards to cost and weigh more — but having read this review, you’ll know better. LOOK AND FEEL

Multi-purpose buttons are still clustered around a small display, but instead of three numerals, you now get a 32 x 96-character backlit LCD that really helps you navigate the sounds and options. The graded, hammer-action keyboard feels sluggish if you play with the sound off, but absolutely sure-fingered and natural when you turn it on. It powers up at the medium touch sensitivity setting, but I backed it off to a lighter touch, and it danced . Like a real piano, higher keys are lighter than lower ones. Where the PX-320 had a double sensor on each key, Casio has now added a third that lets you re-trigger each note without the key fully returning to rest position. Ever struggle with

playing rapid-fire, repeating notes on your controller? You won’t on the PX-330. It’s definitely a pianist’s axe; the keys feel so much like the real thing that they won’t benefit someone who lacks basic technique. But if you’ve got even simple piano skills, you’re going to love this action. Smooth acceleration from  piano to fortissimo gets the most out of the 250 built-in instruments (Casio calls them tones). The keyboard invites you to get funky on electric piano and B-3-style organ sounds, yet still lets you be expressive with horns, winds, basses, and the myriad of synths. But the pianos are what really glow. SOUND

It seems like every digital piano has its Specially Named Process for delivering the goods. Casio’s “Linear Morphing System” seems to create very smooth and natural velocity transitions among the gobs of samples that they use in the piano sound. At the end of the day, the PX-330 delivers the acoustic piano from top to bottom. If you listen as closely and critically as you might to a high-end piano sample library (e.g., Synthogy Ivory or EastWest Quantum Leap Pianos), you can begin to pick up subtle anomalies. There’s a slightly gated-sounding cutoff on the very ends of the tails of sustained notes. Also, a few notes in the high mids seem to decay faster than the others. Will either of these bother you in the course of actual playing? Probably not. Will you even notice it in a live setting, or in a recorded mix? Never. In fact, I played the PX-330 for a twohour gig in a 300-seat theater and was not aware of the audio quirks I’d unearthed in the studio. The only problem I had was accessing tones, as the labeling was hard to see on a dark stage. I used glow tape to mark important buttons. Also, the gig came up so quickly that I didn’t set up registrations to give me fast access to sounds and proper splits — a capability the PX-330 does have. It was tricky to scroll through the nine EPs and 13 organs to get to the ones I wanted. An hour spent on organization would have solved that, and let me split bass patches with keyboard sounds up top. Here’s a plus: To store registrations, rhythms, and songs you’ve created, you

NEED TO KNOW 

How are the piano sounds? Better

than you’d have any reason to believe at 25 pounds and $700. They sound even better through an amp or P.A. Is the main piano sound better than the PX-320? It has four velocity lay-

ers instead of three, and uses three times the sample memory. More importantly, your ears will hear the marked improvement. What about other sounds? There’s a professional array of EPs, B-3s with simple but convincing Leslie effects, robust basses, punchy drums, and the whole GM sound set, though a few GM sounds (e.g. Nylon Guitar, Bandoneon) are subpar. But the non-Western selection goes way beyond shakuhachi: There’s erhu, sarangi, oud, ney, and a dozen more Chinese and Indian instruments. Does the auto-accompaniment  sound like a band? Not quite — it

sounds like smart auto-accompaniment, but it’s fun. Familiar grooves are augmented by loads of world styles, plus 16 different tunings. An hour with this machine is like a two-credit non-western music course. plug a USB cable into your Mac or Windows PC, and the PX-330 shows up like a hard drive. It’s a little more complex than drag-and-drop — you must rename files that you port from computer to Privia, for instance — but it works. You can shuttle your whole show back and forth in seconds, or upload Standard MIDI files created on your computer to the PX-330’s sequencer to accompany yourself on a solo gig. CONCLUSIONS

You can gig, write, record, lift it with two fingers, and maybe even pay for it in cash. Even if acoustic piano was the only sound the Privia PX-330 made, it would be my nobrainer pick for a digital piano under a thousand bucks. (Casio sells the PX-130, a scaled-down model with the same piano sound, for $599.99 list/approx. $500 street.) The PX-330 offers so much for so little that we’re awarding it a Key Buy for meter-pegging bang-for-buck.

10.2009

K E Y B OA R D

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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Special Advertising Section

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Steinway & Sons, maker of the world's finest pianos, and Garritan, announce this downloadable instrument that captures the sound of a Model D concert grand piano with unprecedented authenticity and musicality. SRP: $99 www.garritan.com

SRP: $129.99 www.NineVoltAudio.com

To advertise in this section contact: Will Sheng at 650-238-0325 or [email protected] 70

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CLASSIFIEDS  Categories

Education & Tutorial

Talent and Empl oyement Accessories Education & Tutorial Mixing and Mastering Pianos & Organs Acoustic Products & Services

Mixing and Mastering

Learn Piano Tuning, Repairing, And Regulating, taught by Craftsman technicians. Complete correspondence course includes written and video tape training material, Apprentice Training Manual, much more. Licensed by Departmentof Education. www.pianotuning.com. Randy Potter School of Piano Technology, 61592 Orion Dr., Bend, OR 97702. (541) 382-5411.

Sounds, Sequences, & Software Studio Furnishings Buying or selling instruments through our Classified Ads offers  you convenience, a big marketplace, and a wide range of  instruments and prices. However, buying mail-order does have its drawbacks, too. Keyboard Magazine suggests the following  guidelines to help the buyer and the seller in these transactions: 1) Get a written description of the instrument, which should include the serial number. 2) Get front and back photos of the instrument. 3) Get a written purchase agreement, with a 24-hour approval  clause allowing the buyer to return the instrument for a full refund  if it does not meet his/her reasonable expectations.

IMPROVE your CHOPS by EXERCISING your HANDS! Finger Fitness Exercises, Unique Therapy Balls, Finger Weights and more at www.HandHealth.com P.O. Box 13359 Hamilton OH. 888-868-HAND (4263)

Learn jazz piano on the internet at www.JazzPianoOnline.com

Talent & Employment

www.MusiciansContact.com. Paying jobs online. Thousands of satisfied members since 1969. (818) 888-7879

 Sounds, Sequences & Software

Short Cuts to playing Blues, Jazz, Rock, Gospel, R&B, Latin styles. Book/CD/MIDI disks. Titles include: 100 Ultimate Blues Riffs; 60 Of The Funkiest Keyboard Riffs Known To Mankind; Gospel Riffs God Would Love to Hear; Funky Organ Grooves; Ultimate Latin Riffs. New DVD: Rhythm Keyboard Workout. Free info. (800) 748-5934. A.D.G. Productions, 15517 Cordary Ave., Lawndale, CA 90260 http://www.adgproductions.com

 Studio Furniture www.VintageKeyboardSounds.comAuthentic MELLOTRON, B3, and COMBO ORGAN SAMPLES. All Formats Supported. 562-856-9333

BAND-IN-A-BOX IMPROVEMENT PRODUCTS * Put A Better Band In Your Box * Norton Music (since 1990) * www.nortonmusic.com

www.SoundsForSamplers.com Dopest Hiphop/R&b sound kits & Turorial Dvds 4 All Akai Mpc ,& Asr10/x Wav & most all software/hardware formats. 760-246-9492

Acoustic Products & Services

Renowned jazz pianist/educator Dave Frank offering live skype lessons worldwide. First free!! www.davefrankjazz.com

CHARLIE BANACOS JAZZ IMPROV * Lessons by Mail Department. MP, P.O 272, Manchester, MA, 01944 USA or visit www.Charliebanacos.com [email protected]

 Pianos & Organs

www.B3GUYS.com HAMMOND Organs & LESLIE Speakers Sales - Service - Parts - Rental 615-438-8997

For more informationcheck www.b3hammond.com. Buy/Sell MINT Hammonds, Leslies. Wordwide sales. (701) 400-2933, [email protected]

out our website at

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G E E K O UT

RIGHTEOUS ROAD RIGS

ERIK NORLANDER’S ROCKET SCIENCE RIG

Prog rock, sci-fi, and more synthesizers

the Legacy of Moog at the Museum of Mak-

than humans should be allowed. That’s what true geeks are made of. Lest you think we mean “geek” as anything other than the highest compliment, these ingredients also make an enviable musical career — if your name is Erik Norlander. His varied projects include his own band the Rocket Scientists, his work  with prog chanteuse Lana Lane (also his wife), and most recently, Roswell Six’s debut CD Terra Incognita: Beyond the Horizon, with lyrics penned by Kevin J. Anderson, coauthor of the posthumous sequels to Frank  Herbert’s epic Dune novels. In August, Erik  also appeared with Keith Emerson at the opening of the exhibit Waves of Inspiration: 

ing Music (museumofmakingmusic.org) in Carlsbad, California. We didn’t find a tank of spice gas at House Norlander, but we suspect that the setup above could call a sandworm, and maybe even fold space. At lower left is a Minimoog Voyager. At right rear is a chopped Hammond C-3 holding up a Korg CX-3 and small Fatar MIDI controller. At right foreground, we have (top to bottom) an Alesis Ion virtual analog synth next to a vintage Minimoog D, a Roland JX-8P next to a Moog Rogue, an Alesis Fusion workstation next to a Roland VK-8M organ module (you can never have too many things making

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Hammond sounds), an Alesis Andromeda analog synth, and a Yamaha SY99. It’s that incredible modular in the middle you really want to know about, though, isn’t it? The leftmost rack includes four Oberheim SEM modules (the white squares), and up top, two Speck Xtramix line mixers to bring everything in the room together. The main rack houses Erik’s customized, 1967-vintage Moog Modular — with 22 oscillators(!) and six filters, let’s  just say he isn’t worr ied about polyphony. For a complete list of all the modules in the rack, look for this story at keyboard mag.com. To learn more about Er ik, visit eriknorlander.com. Stephen Fortner

Your Perfect Performance Partner  The new S Series combines the sounds of the Motif XS, a handcrafted S6 piano and the ease of use of a stage piano. Featuressuch as Balanced Hammeraction, combo input jack foradding vocalsand guitars, andUSB record/playback  make it perfect for stage or studio. The compact designof the88- and76-note weightedversions are portableand road-ready. The S70 XS/S90 XS also lets you quickly create your own Performances with the amazingly fast Performance Creator feature.With extensive Controllerfunctions, it’s also the perfect companion foryour computer music production system.

www.yamaha.com/usa www.motifator.com www.yamahasynth.com ©2009 Yamaha Corporation of America. All rights reserved.