Favorite Keyboards/Sounds
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=361
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Topic: Favorite Keyboards/Sounds
Posted By: Aztech
Subject: Favorite Keyboards/Sounds
Date Posted: March 17 2004 at 11:11
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What are your favorite keyboards and sounds used in Prog ? Personally I like analog keyboards like Bob Moog's famous Minimoog used by most prog masters and also the VCS used by Pink Floyd for those amazing sounds on Dark side of the Moon & Wish you were here. I love the mellotron sounds but I would never play a real one live ; that thing is a mechanical nightmare waiting to happen not to say that the others were perfect ie: the Minimoog would constantly detune on stage ! As for the digital keyboards I'd go for the Tony Banks / Genesis string sounds on the Roland Jupiter 8 . Your turn ! |
Replies:
Posted By: Tauhd Zaļa
Date Posted: March 17 2004 at 11:16
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Yes, Like you I think the best sounds belong to the Minimoog (the first produced) but also : Mellotron Prophet V ...and Roland (I have a J8, JV 1080 and D50)
PS : ARP 2600 used by Tony Banks at the beginning is also wonderfull ------------- The State Of Grace Is Achieved |
Posted By: diddy
Date Posted: March 17 2004 at 11:18
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I don't know anything about Keyboards, but I know that I really like Jordan Rudess's (
 ) sound wehn he plays solos.Can be heard here:
Liquid Tension Experiment
Dream Theater (Stream of Consciousness, Dance of Eternity)
Jordan Rudess Solo albums (Feeding the wheel)
and I know, that he's using "Kurzweil" Keyboards...
But I also love the sound coming out of Keith Emerson's moog ------------- If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear... George Orwell |
Posted By: Tauhd Zaļa
Date Posted: March 17 2004 at 11:22
Yes, Kurzweil : great sound (mainly for piano) but so expensive ------------- The State Of Grace Is Achieved |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: March 17 2004 at 11:22
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This isn't the fisrt time I have opined on my favorite subject, but I have to again........ That wonder of the 20th century, the Hammond Organ.
This instrument plays such a major role in Progressive Rock, and its leading exponents are too numerous to mention in full, but for examples: Keith Emmerson Tony Banks Rick Wakeman Dave Greenslade The list goes on......... One day, this list may even include yours truly , as I finally caved in to the dreams of my mis-spent youth & bought one of the beasts a while ago & am now taking lessons.
In addition to the above, of course, the Mellotron - lovely sounds, absolute nightmare as a touring musical instrument (King Crimson actually used 2 on stage at one point - I pity their poor keyboard technicians, not to mention the roadies, who had to lift the beasts!!) The Moog....... aaah! Nuff said ("the bugger's gone out of tune again"....... "both oscillators have failed....AGAIN") Happy days.... when keyboard players were surrounded by huge pieces of furniture, as opposed to sitting in front of what looks like a small coffee table, as is the case today. Little piece of trivia for you, Tony Banks bought his first Mellotron from none other than Robert Fripp. ------------- 
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Dan Bobrowski
Date Posted: March 17 2004 at 11:41
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Hammond B3. Leslie speakers spinning beautifully............... ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!
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Posted By: Aztech
Date Posted: March 17 2004 at 11:47
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Ah yessss : The Arp 2600 sounds... One sound well known is the First few notes played in Close Encounter of the Third Kind. "Kurzweil" Keyboards they are OK (I have one: K1200) but they are late comers in the game and are of the digital synth/sampler genre. The Hammond B3 Organ : yes a classic for sure ! used by Focus ,YES etc... Tony had a different type of Hammond the L100 model I think ? I did not know this cool trivia :Tony Banks bought his first Mellotron from none other than Robert Fripp. I wish Keyboard players would go back to the majestic "U" shape keboard placement with all the knobs and buttons .That was so cool looking ! Now mostly all you have are 2 boring black keyboards atop one another with an unnoticeable black stand.How cold !
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Posted By: lucas
Date Posted: March 17 2004 at 17:31
Jordan Rudess also released two fabulous solo keyboard albums : "Secrets of the muse" and "4NYC". He played some keyboards on ANNIE HASLAM's "Blessing in disguise". He played with DIXIE DREGS on their last studio album : "Full circle". He formed with Rod Morgenstein the RUDESS-MORGENSTEIN PROJECT. Recently, he joined David Bowie for the album "Heathen". His solos are always a great delight.
------------- "Magma was the very first gothic rock band" (Didier Lockwood) |
diddy wrote:Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: March 18 2004 at 04:56
Oh dear, I'm gonna sound like such an annorak, now! Focus used an L100 in the early days, but now Van Leer uses a B3, Wakeman always used a C3 & Tony Banks used the T500 series. Emmerson actually used a C3 and an L100 on stage..... Just thought I'd clarify that for you - sorry..... what a saddo -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Alexander
Date Posted: March 18 2004 at 11:50
Moogs are always good. I do enjoy fuzz organs! ------------- On A Dilemmia Between What I Need & What I Just Want 
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Posted By: Aztech
Date Posted: March 18 2004 at 14:24
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HI Jim, You seem to really know your Keyboard stuff ! I know the C3 : an electronic version of the B3 by korg I believe. I read a long while back Tony used a L100 but I may be mistaken. the T500 : don't know that one Yes Van Leer does use a B3 now : I saw him last year in Montreal .Great Show ! I actually have a Book called Vintage Syntesizers from keyboard magasine its a great book to get if you don't already have it. |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: March 18 2004 at 15:34
| Keith Emerson on the Hammond C3 does it for me.The Moog synth is a great instrument as well.(Especially when it sprouts wings and goes up in a puff of smoke!!) You can't really beat those old analog sounds! |
Posted By: benny bouncer
Date Posted: March 18 2004 at 16:20
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Emerson's moog modular system has always amazed me. It is a piece of genious!!!!! the Hammond L100 makes a good sound aswell....i suppose Korg aint bad, but i prefer hammond!! |
Posted By: Stormcrow
Date Posted: March 18 2004 at 21:00
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It just doesn't get better than that. |
Posted By: Ulf Uggason
Date Posted: March 18 2004 at 21:35
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I don't know diddley-squat about the specs and capabilities of keyboards, but I know what I like. Warm, fat sounds from synths, and ooomphy deep organ sounds. Basically, I feel old = good, new = bad. However, I may be speaking in complete ignorance. But my ears tell me a lot. A lot of modern keyboards, especially the ones people use on stage today, sound like cheeze whiz. I may sound like a broken record, but Moogs, Mellotrons, and HAMMOND f**kIN' ORGANS!!!!! YEAH!
Peace, Ulf |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: March 19 2004 at 02:59
This is sooooooooooo sad......
sorry Aztech, but I had to come back at you, the C3 is a Hammond, not a Korg (essentially a Hammond B3 but in what they called a 'Church Style' console) - Korg make (I believe) the CX3 & BX3, which are their Hammond clones, and very good in their way (certainly more portable!!!!), but not the real deal -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Glass-Prison
Date Posted: March 19 2004 at 08:47
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There's no question about it. The Cinema Show has one of the most beautiful keyboard solos ever... It's beauty in a can, and all you have to do is pop the lid Other than that... I'd have to say emerson's virtuso work, especially on Trilogy, and ELP's debut album. Rudess is another exceptional keyboardist, and provides the sound that Dream Theater was looking for after dropping Moore and Sherinan. |
Posted By: Raelynn
Date Posted: March 19 2004 at 13:07
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I love Rudess' keyboard playing. It's amazing some of the runs and such he plays in LTE. He's definitely my favorite of the three DT keyboardists (though each were exceptionally good) |
Posted By: philippe
Date Posted: March 20 2004 at 07:12
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I personnaly like all vintage stuffs before the coming of real analog synth...I love the use of electric organ 'Teisco' and 'Farfisa' by Schulze or Froese at the beginning of their career...I also love the sound of the melotron choir, the mini and big Moog. 'Affenstunde', the first album in prog rock only composed on the big Moog is incredible...deeply spacey and etheral...
------------- 
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Posted By: The Owl
Date Posted: March 20 2004 at 16:16
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Mellotron/Chamberlin: Those eerie strings, those spooky flutes, the stark brass, the vague, hazy vibes, the chilling choirs! YEAH BAAAYYYY BAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!
Any Hammond Organ! That funky Clavinet!
Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos!
And the Hohner Pianet (which also had a very cool guitar-like sound when run through a distortion pedal, on the 1973 Genesis live album, Tony Banks harmonized with Hackett using this, sounds like Hacket had a harmonizer, though he actually didn't)
And the very unlikely Stylo-Phone (employed by Anna Holmgren of Anglagard when I saw them at NEAR Fest last year:
------------- People are puzzled why I don't dig the Stones, well, I listened to the Stones, I tried, and I tried, and I tried, and--I Can't Get No Satisfaction! www.myspace.com/theowlsmusic |
Posted By: Radioactive Toy
Date Posted: March 23 2004 at 12:48
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I can't really get a name or a thing like that.. -------------  
Reed's failed joke counter: ||||| R.I.P. You could have reached infinity.... |
Posted By: Aztech
Date Posted: March 23 2004 at 13:50
Whats so sad ???? nice of you to come back at me with the info but I did say "I believe" meaning I'm not sure... heck its been 20 years !!! |
Posted By: Easy Livin
Date Posted: March 23 2004 at 15:26
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I'm in the "uneducated" camp when it comes to makes and models of keyboards. I do however love the keyboard sound Caravan use on their albums. I've just got to hear the fist notes of the organ solo on "For Richard", and the hairs on the back of my neck are on end! Honourable mention must also go to Rick Wakeman for the sound he gets for example on the synthesiser solo from "The revealing science of god" (Yes), and "The black knight" (Wakeman solo).
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Posted By: bozzy
Date Posted: April 16 2004 at 05:32
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well ive caved in and bought a hammond L100 for 40 quid and a yamaha CS1X, can get some good analogue sounds from it and it doesnt drift out of tune like a jen sx1000 i had when i was 13!! ive been playing about 3 months now and not wanting to brag im gettin pretty darn good, ive really surprised myself( ive been playing guitar for over 20 yrs so its alot easier than starting from scratch!)the guitar is gatherin dust and every day im fiddling about with a synth atop a hammond! i love it, if you havent started you really should take the leap and start playing, youll surprise yourself all the best chris |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: April 16 2004 at 05:50
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Bozzy - welcome to the forum!
Nice to know you've got an L100 (lemme guess.... Ebay, right??) - all you need now is a Leslie 145 & you'll get that baby screamin'. I've only been learning since July of last year (1971 L122 & Leslie 145), but didn't have the advantage of already being a musician. The keyboard I use for analogue sounds is a Yamaha DJX1 - it looks naff, but there are some serious saw-tooth wave form sounds there, good piano samples, a huge church organ sound & stacks more; all with full midi compatibility, pitch bend, sampling capability, 2 levels of arpeggiator & even a dinky little ribbon controller - all for only £45 from Ebay.... result! All I need now is that elusive Mellotron...... -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: bozzy
Date Posted: April 16 2004 at 06:53
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ha, glad to see others messin with the keys,if you want cheap hammonds, check your local free ad papers, lots are more or less givin them away on the stipulation that you collect! my mate plays bass you wanna hear the first 5 mins of pictures at an exhibition that weve got worked out, and some stuff by the nice.true what you say about the leslie tho, aint seen one of those or the sharman? leslie copies ggoin cheap yet take care chris |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: April 16 2004 at 07:01
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You can usually get Leslies on Ebay, but as these are increasingly rare in decent condition, you'll usually pay £350+; Sharma's occasionally come up, too, but at considerably lower prices (usually around the £150 mark) -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Dan Bobrowski
Date Posted: April 16 2004 at 11:19
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Looks like I'll have to add bozzy to the Forum Supergroup. http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001">  http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb032"> |
Posted By: Peter
Date Posted: April 16 2004 at 12:55
 OK, Owl! No more pics of yer organ on here! ------------- "And, has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy. |
Posted By: Peter
Date Posted: April 16 2004 at 12:58
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------------- "And, has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy. |
Posted By: bozzy
Date Posted: April 16 2004 at 14:17
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ive got a couple of them old crappy analog 2 octave type mini synths with presets and things old casios ya know the sort, iwas thinkin of takin em to bits and making some kind of emerson ribbon controller with some copper self adhesive strip, be a laff if it worked, rigged up through an amp with distortion and some blue metallic trousers!
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Posted By: Aztech
Date Posted: April 16 2004 at 15:11
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Mellotron are very hard to come by.Here in montreal one of the keyboardist from Musical box (Don't know his name)had quite a few mellotrons he just went crazy and bought all he could get his hands on, over 10 units maybe 21 I don't remember I don't recall. I myself have been trying to get an old minimoog at a descent price for the past 20 years and haven't succeeded . I almost had my dream minimoog: a musician friend of mine who worked at a music store said this looser walks in says he has a minimoog for sale. My friend keeps his calm and says sure bring it in .The guy doesn't come back for a long while.my friends tells me he finally found one for me I'm doing back flips ,dreaming about it .I was waiting and agonizing .My freind meets the guys a few months later and asks him so you still want to sell your minimoog ? And he says... oh I sold it already to a guy for $50 ARGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still have nightmares about it ! |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: April 18 2004 at 08:29
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You have mine & my wife's extreme sympathy - someone got 'your' minimoog for $50!!!!!!!!!! Get his name & my wife will send nasty thoughts to burn out his oscillators -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: raggy
Date Posted: April 18 2004 at 11:20
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As a bassist I know jack about the tech.spec. of the above mentioned keyboards I'm going to tailor the question thus; Favourite Keyboard sound on a prog tune? On the opening to "Impact", track 1 of "I" by Patrick Moraz, there's a sound like a hundred monks saying "DOH!" Play this as loud as possible and your solar plexus disintigrates! On the inner sleeve (vinyl!) there is mention of a "Supersonic Vocaltron". I suspect some one got a tape of a hundred monks saying "DOH!" and stuck it in some poor unsuspecting Mellotron. I'll leave it to you ivory tinklers to enlighten me further. I won't go on about Hammonds, IMO second only to the electric guitar in terms of importance to popular music. Most gratuitous overuse of a Mellotron? Druid, "Toward the Sun". ------------- Now is tomorrow afternoon |
Posted By: Fitzcarraldo
Date Posted: May 01 2004 at 01:17
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raggy, your description of the hundred monks on "I": perfect. Great sound. The mixture of synth sounds at the beginning of the track "Incantation (Procession)" on that album is the business too.
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Posted By: bozzy
Date Posted: May 07 2004 at 05:20
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well i just got a crumar multiman s off ebay for £21!! 5 keys didnt work and all the sliders were crackly as anything but a quick clean and half a can of WD40 and everything working fine! haha. the piano and clavichord sound is terrible (as all reviews of it said they would be!) but the strings oh! think echoes by pink floyd and youre there. all ive got to do now is get my mates korg dw8000 off him and im almost satisfied (never!) off to fiddle with a silver cape and wizards hat now (shut the curtains!!) cheers |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: May 07 2004 at 05:37
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You HAVE of course, now got a Hammond, on which to perch the multiman, haven't you? -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Aztech
Date Posted: May 07 2004 at 15:33
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I have no Hammond and have only seen the Crummar in picture. What I do have Is : A CAT (no not the one that meows !!!) Its is an old american copy of the VCS used by Pink Floyd ...i'm not 100% sure, but it has cool analog soundsproduced by 2 Oscillators I also have an Ensonic EPS (A sampler) , Kursweil 1200 (88 Notes) and Yamaha DX7(A classic) How about you guys what type of keyboards do you own ??? |
Posted By: bozzy
Date Posted: May 07 2004 at 16:41
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yeh baby!! i got an L100 hammond on top of which sits the crumar on top of which sits a yamaha cs1x!! just been jammin with my mate on bass tryin to do "driving to amsterdam" by khan!! america by the nice(minus the flag burning!) and some of our own stuff. also(dont laugh) got a recorder and been blasting out "house of the king " by focus much to the amusement of my two teenage sons well you got to forget about being all serious and responsible sometimes! cheers chris |
Posted By: Certif1ed
Date Posted: May 07 2004 at 17:22
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As a classically trained pianist, I just love the sound of an 18' Steinway with the lid open. As someone listening to keyboards and other electronic instruments I don't know the names of, let alone model numbers, I like; Firth of Fifth - all superb keyboard sounds and playing. Robbery, Assault and Battery - that solo just "does IT". Hawkwinds "wibbly" sounds - especially on "Lighthouse" (Live 79 version). The piano sound on "Drive My Car" by the Beatles is also one of my all-time favourite keyboard sounds - it's really dirty! I am the proud owner of a Casio thing that has a full-sized touch-sensitive keyboard and sustain pedal. It has GM In, Out and Thru, so I use it to drive whatever sample bank I'm running through ACID or SONAR. Since both use *.wav format, I can make it sound like pretty much anything. Of course, it'll never be as good as the real thing (acoustic or analog electronic instruments), but it's all I've got space for in my little house. Still, I can whack it up and pretend I'm Rick Wakeman - although normally I content myself with Debussy, Beethoven or even my own compositions (if no-one else is in
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).Posted By: Dick Heath
Date Posted: May 10 2004 at 13:47
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What was the make of the Russian copy of of the Hammond B3 - which readily generated some interesting sounds of its own amongst bands allowed to practice on the east side of the old Iron Curtain? Check out Marian Varga with his early 70's Czech group Collegium Musicum for some excellent use. Anybody heard both albums by the Russian band of the late 80's, Horizont: there is a radial difference between the keyboard sounds between the two albums?
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