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When FM decided to accept Rob LaDuca’s invitation to play NEARfest 2006, I was very sure of one thing – that when it came to the keyboards, the only thing vintage onstage would be me!
Two reasons. The first was that I honestly didn’t think I could depend on my old gear to stand up to the rigours of live performance. The second was that I saw no reason NOT to embrace the wonders of the latest musical technology.
Man, how things have changed – even since our last incarnation of 1994-1996 – not to mention the pre-historic days of 1976. Back then, the capabilities of a synth were both the gateway to new sonic horizons and the barrier to where your ears would like to go.
Now there are literally no barriers to realizing what you hear in your head. And I can’t help but think that’s a great thing – especially for someone who’s not a ‘real’ keyboard player, but who isn’t afraid to call himself a Synthesist.
Mind you, with infinite possibilities comes infinite hours of noodling!
So to make this task doable (i.e. within a year) I set some rules for myself:
- Softsynths
- Vintage sounds
- Easy to transport
- Inexpensive
I’d been working with Sonar, a hard-disk recording system with some sequencing capabilities and I had a good idea that computer-based performance tools were the way to go. This approach resulted in the following:
- Cakewalk’s Project5 softsynth and sequencing software
- A combination of analog softsynths and digital samples
- A Shuttle XPC with some lightweight keyboard controllers
- eBay
Another key limitation was the fact that my first goal was to re-create the past – the core sonic palette from the late ‘70’s: Minimoog bass, Micromoog lead, and string machine/polysynth pads. Plus, with the digital samples I could add the sounds I’d never had onstage before, piano and mellotron!
I got about 80% of the way to a complete FM show when I realized that I needed to bend the rules a little. I was running out of time and there were a few things I just couldn’t get to. And I realized that having all my sounds coming out of Project5 wasn’t going to cut it, either.
So my rules were amended to include the following:
- No bass pedals. Bought a set of Roland midi pedals on eBay but one key was dead and I never made it into Roland to get them repaired. (Sorry Gord) Then there was the small matter of actually playing them. :-)
- That meant EVERYTHING had to be sequenced. (Sorry Marty) Which in the end meant sometimes just having a click for several verses and then having the bass pedal part drop in. I figured, on the scale of things, replacing my feet was less…well, cheesy…than faking the handstuff.
- Get another sound generator outside of the computer. Basically, stopping and starting and reloading songs meant dead silence. So I found a Novation KS Rack on eBay and that turned out to be the combination of solid analog sounds with lots of bells and whistles – the perfect complement to the Shuttle. With real knobs to twirl, too!
In the end, this combination resulted in some new life being injected to some very old songs. But I’ll leave you to judge the results. I know there’s infinite possibilities lying inside this rig. I hope I have the time to explore them, some day.
If you’d like to engage in a discussion on 20th or 21st Century synthesizers, feel free to use the "Add Your Comment" form at the bottom of this page.
Regards.
Cameron Hawkins
Synthesist and Information Architect
(Why do I always pick the kind of jobs that need a lot of explanation?)
