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Heart Rig Rundown


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Hey KC buds,

 

As some of you know, I've been playing with Ann Wilson for the last couple of years. I was asked to do Heart this year, and seized the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand upon the already somewhat silly Ann Wilson rig (NS2, CP-300, Mellotron M4000D, OB-6, Petosa Little Pro X) with some more fun additions, including a Minimoog Model D Reissue, a Leslie cabinet, and a one-off custom preamp from Trek II (no, Michael doesn't want to make any more of these!)

 

Jon Regen let me submit a rig tour video, and it's up on the front page at KeyboardMag.com today.

 

[video:youtube]

 

I got into about as much detail in the video as the production schedule for the day permitted, and necessarily glossed over a few things, so questions are welcome! However, anyone making comments about how I could have done all this with a laptop and a couple of cheap controllers from Guitar Center will be blocked and reported for being a spoilsport. :cop:

 

I don't originate threads here very often, so on a side note I just wanted to say thanks to Dave Bryce and everyone else who worked their tails off over the last couple years to keep this forum in existence and updated. It's a great community that I've learned a lot from over the years, and I'm very glad it's still here.

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Awesome, Dan! It looks like you're having a blast. I'm really looking forward to seeing you guys live next week. :thu:

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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Be sure and show up for the opener, Joe â Elle King and her band are sounding fantastic, and her keyboardist is rocking a MAG through a Leslie 145 and a Wurly among other items. Sounds fantastic.

:cool:

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"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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Thanks so much for sharing! Awesome setup; a very cool blend of analog and digital technologies. You've got the kind of routing flexibility I'd love to have if I hadn't already maxed out my practical gear hauling/setup time at the weekend warrior level. I'm very happy that Heart is back at it. I know some issues arose during the tour a few years back, so I'm glad Ann and Nancy are back up there together.

 

Also, at 8:47, sounds like somebody discovered a secret in the dungeon! :wink:

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Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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What blows me away most about that video is that rig needs to be set up for every gig. *I'd* probably get it wrong half the time if it were my rig! I know, the cables are marked and all that, but still, there's a heckuva lot going on there. Kudos to Roland Lindz Mckay and anyone else for keeping things running!

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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Dan awesome f-cking rig!!! I love multi-keyboard set ups. Mike over at Trek is a genius. That Leslie interface is bad ass! It's great you have contingency things in place. I love the logistical portion of the video. I think it's as interesting as the keyboards you have.

"Danny, ci manchi a tutti. La E-Street Band non e' la stessa senza di te. Riposa in pace, fratello"

 

 

noblevibes.com

 

 

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What a cool gig to have Dan!

 

I was inspired to listen to These Dreams again, and it's cooler than I remember (loads of songs do a call/response-style echo of the previous line, but this is the only one I can think of that pre-echoes the next line).

 

On which point - how do you get the minor-third bend on the string line at the end of the intro/choruses? Nord's 2-semitone pitch bend limit is not your friend here!

 

Cheers, Mike.

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Really enjoyed that Dan, thanks for sharing! I liked how you said the Nord Stage 2 was the 'heart' of your rig.

 

I had a lot fun playing in a Heart tribute band for a couple of years (I was pleasantly surprised at the number of cool keys parts in their tunes) and it"s great to see how you put your rig together to accomplish some of those classic patches. I"ve never known there to be a lot of Hammond in their songs, is this your contribution? Also, do you get a moment when you do a keys intro/solo?

 

I see Heart will be in Peoria, Illinois on October 10th. I"ve never heard the band live before, going to try to get there. Will be great to see 'one of our very own' in action. :2thu:

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"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

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Fantastic rig, Dan. Nice balance of old and new tech. Speaking of "These Dreams" the previous Keyboardist played it a lot different than the recording on a Kurzweil. Any reason she changed it and are you able/allowed to play it like the recording? Also, did you get an isolated track to work from and know what Synth was used on the original?
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C3/122, M102A, Vox V301H, Farfisa Compact, Gibson G101, GEM P, RMI 300A, Piano Bass, Pianet , Prophet 5 rev. 2, Pro-One, Matrix 12, OB8, Korg MS20, Jupiter 6, Juno 60, PX-5S, Nord Stage 3 Compact
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Really enjoyed that Dan, thanks for sharing! I see Heart will be in Peoria, Illinois on October 10th. I"ve never heard the band live before, going to try to get there. Will be great to see 'one of our very own' in action. :2thu:

 

Count me in. Mini Midwest KC Hang in Peoria!

Dan, get yourself a quick break after soundcheck for a bite or a beer.

 

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Hell, you don't even need a laptop, just a coupla midi controllers and an iPad! lol!

 

How long would it take for a single roadie to move and set all that up? I'm guessing 2-3 hours. But the real question is how long it took to get dialed in. Your redundancies and fx are pretty awesome, your whole rig looks like it was evolved over 20 years time.

Numa Piano X73 /// Kawai ES920 /// Casio CT-X5000 /// Yamaha EW425

Yamaha Melodica and Alto Recorder

QSC K8.2 // JBL Eon One Compact // Soundcore Motion Boom Plus 

Win10 laptop i7 8GB // iPad Pro 9.7" 32GB

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Never heard about that clock sync unit you have lying next to the Nord.

 

It's a great little widget! For the last couple years with Ann's solo band, we were covering "Won't Get Fooled Again" and I came across it in my quest to play that song without having to play a thousand eighth note chords, or resort to a backing track. I used it to drive a Boss SL20 which was on the outputs of the OB6. I've also used it to drive the arpeggiator on the Nord, etc. It's not actually currently in use for any clock sync needs in the setlist we're currently playing, but I'm also using one of the outputs in MIDI CC mode to make a couple of routing adjustments to the Midas MR18 without having to connect the iPad, so in the rig it stays.

 

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Never heard about that clock sync unit you have lying next to the Nord.

 

It's a great little widget! For the last couple years with Ann's solo band, we were covering "Won't Get Fooled Again" and I came across it in my quest to play that song without having to play a thousand eighth note chords, or resort to a backing track.

BRILLIANT!

 

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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Thanks a lot for sharing all this. I have listened to the studio and live versions of "Crazy On You" multiple times trying to figure out exactly what keyboard/synth sounds were being used, and it has always seemed a bit of a mystery to me.

 

There's not much keys on the original. There's a little Moog filter sweep on the end and I think perhaps it doubles the bass behind the first big chorus riff. The background flute lines that happen on the verses were recorded by Ann on actual flute, I believe, but I play them on the 'Tron. In the context of the back half of a big rock show, it's a strangely empty-sounding arrangement if you try to play it just like the record, so I also add a little Wurly on the prechoruses and choruses, as at least a couple of my predecessors have also done.

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Thanks for sharing Dan, great well thought out rig that can cover anything!! Are you running a seperate midi channel from the Nord AP going to your Yamaha controller so you can play both at the same time?

 

The CP-300's internal sounds are not used at all, it's purely a MIDI controller for the Nord Stage 2's "Dual KB" mode. A great clean simple implementation, "Slot A" is the built-in keyboard and "Slot B" is what's controller by the Yamaha.

 

The other advantage of the CP-300 besides the built-in speakers is the nice giant flat top that the Nord sits on perfectly. The same reasoning steered me towards the full-size M4000D rather than the Mini; the nice flat top is perfectly OB6 sized. I have a strong dislike for most traditional two-tier stands.

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You've got the kind of routing flexibility I'd love to have if I hadn't already maxed out my practical gear hauling/setup time at the weekend warrior level.

 

I also do plenty of small local gigs, one-offs with artists where the rig is whatever you can drag through an airport on your own, etc. I'm used to working that way and enjoy the engineering challenges of designing a rig for those situations too. But the only real design constraint on this one was no more than five inputs to FOH including the Leslie, and it all had to fit on an 8x8 riser. I'm making the most of that relative freedom while I have it!

 

Also, at 8:47, sounds like somebody discovered a secret in the dungeon! :wink:

 

Good ear! It's a custom text tone.

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What blows me away most about that video is that rig needs to be set up for every gig. *I'd* probably get it wrong half the time if it were my rig! I know, the cables are marked and all that, but still, there's a heckuva lot going on there. Kudos to Roland Lindz Mckay and anyone else for keeping things running!

 

How long would it take for a single roadie to move and set all that up? I'm guessing 2-3 hours. But the real question is how long it took to get dialed in. Your redundancies and fx are pretty awesome, your whole rig looks like it was evolved over 20 years time.

 

After a lot of hard thinking about what I wanted to be prepared to do on each song, while also trying to maintain flexibility to quickly acommodate different sounds or approaches during rehearsals, I pre-designed the layout of the rack, the signal flow, etc., and bought what I needed. Lindz did all the custom cabling, making of looms, etc. as rehearsals were in progress.

 

The Ann Wilson solo rig for 2017-2018 was complicated enough, and while I wanted to add the Moog, the Leslie, the MR18, and several effects units this year, I tried to also tweak the design for a quicker and easier setup. One big improvement was moving from a plain shock rack to a slant rack (itself housed inside a larger foamed ATA case for transport), so all the stompboxes could be permanently mounted and wired in, but still easily accessible / controllable. I also had a friend make that wooden mini-riser that the Moog sits on top of (that on a Baby Spider Pro), to which is mounted all three H9's, Strymon Deco, the tuner for the Minimoog, the PSU for all the pedals, the Moog's PSU, etc. All the foot-operated pedals and switches are mounted to boards, as you can see. There are subsnakes or looms wherever more than one cable is going between the same two points.

 

Since we don't have to worry about loading into any small theater-type venues on this tour, I also had the tour make a giant "vault style" case. It has shelves for the Nord, M4000D, OB6, Minimoog, Minimoog riser/FX board, and both of the floor pedalboards, as well as a spot for the Mellotron legs and the Baby Spider Pro. It cuts way down on the daily stoop labor of pulling things in and out of individual cases on the deck. The CP-300 is still in its own case because it's such a beast, but that one's a two-man lift anyway. I'm not around during setup or teardown, so I honestly have no idea how long it takes Lindz, but I'm told "it's really not that bad." EDIT: Lindz says it generally takes him about an hour and a half to set up, once the riser is built and all the appropriate cases are staged nearby. He does nearly all of it himself, just getting assistance with the few two-man lifts.

 

I don't worry about the Leslie much. I had a local tech in Seattle service the motors, and I swapped in a rebuilt 122 amp from M&S Organ before I shipped it out for rehearsals. Lindz was Stephen Stills' tech for his Hammond rig on tour for some years years, so I know he'd know how to keep this thing running, and the Mini-Vent is always in place as a "hot swap" backup.

 

It is NICE having a world class backline tech handling it all. I'm grateful for that every day I'm out with these folks. That, and the fact that nobody's shaking me awake to take my turn driving the van at 4 A.M.

 

 

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What a cool gig to have Dan!

 

I was inspired to listen to These Dreams again, and it's cooler than I remember (loads of songs do a call/response-style echo of the previous line, but this is the only one I can think of that pre-echoes the next line).

 

On which point - how do you get the minor-third bend on the string line at the end of the intro/choruses? Nord's 2-semitone pitch bend limit is not your friend here!

 

Fantastic rig, Dan. Nice balance of old and new tech. Speaking of "These Dreams" the previous Keyboardist played it a lot different than the recording on a Kurzweil. Any reason she changed it and are you able/allowed to play it like the recording? Also, did you get an isolated track to work from and know what Synth was used on the original?

 

It's a brilliant song, and yeah I love those pre-echoes!

 

There's always been a lot of freedom for all the players to rearrange things in how this band has operated. There's certainly no level of detail required to the point of unearthing old multitracks. On this tour in particular, both Ann & Nancy have encouraged us all to find ways to steer the 80's material away from the 80's, both sonically and parts-wise (which lines up with my own aesthetic preferences completely). They really are timeless songs once you strip away the sonic signatures of the era. In the case of "These Dreams", Nancy's side project with Liv Warfield, "Roadcase Royale", had already cooked up a great arrangement of the song. Nancy's acoustic drives the bus, there's some great slide guitar commentary, and I'm just playing simple chords on Wurly. No keyboard strings, though I do swell in a super subtle square wave vibrato synth pad thing in a few spots, just to give it a little extra sonic "chill". We're playing that version, and it's one of my favorite moments every night.

 

Having said that, I was sweating that little pesky detail of the Nord's non-adjustable pitch bender, back before we started discussing approaches in detail! My plan was to make a synth strings patch on the OB-6, or if I couldn't get that to sound right, add a rack rompler. Fortunately, I never had to solve that potential problem.

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Really enjoyed that Dan, thanks for sharing! I liked how you said the Nord Stage 2 was the 'heart' of your rig.

 

As with all my best puns, it was completely unintentional.

 

I had a lot fun playing in a Heart tribute band for a couple of years (I was pleasantly surprised at the number of cool keys parts in their tunes) and it"s great to see how you put your rig together to accomplish some of those classic patches. I"ve never known there to be a lot of Hammond in their songs, is this your contribution? Also, do you get a moment when you do a keys intro/solo?

 

You are absolutely correct. Heart's never been a big Hammond band, but Hammond is just something that is near and dear to me in rock music, and I'm always trying to sneak it in when I can. In Ann's solo band 2017-2018 there was only one guitarist so I was playing a lot of B3 almost out of necessity - on the more rock moments like Barracuda, it was almost like Deep Purple backing up Ann Wilson. She dug it, and it evolved into our approach for some songs to the point to where it made sense to go ahead and bring out a real Leslie this year. Everybody seems to dig it so I'm just going to keep doing it!

 

Really enjoyed that Dan, thanks for sharing! I see Heart will be in Peoria, Illinois on October 10th. I"ve never heard the band live before, going to try to get there. Will be great to see 'one of our very own' in action. :2thu:

 

Count me in. Mini Midwest KC Hang in Peoria!

Dan, get yourself a quick break after soundcheck for a bite or a beer.

 

You guys name a place in walking distance, and I'll come meet you at six!

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"Roadcase Royale"

 

I met Ben when we opened for Heart a few years ago; we kept in touch for a short while. Upon reading your thread/video I did a search and discovered that's what he's up to now. Thanks for bringing up this whole topic! Glad it wasn't about a Pacemaker battery wearing down, or anythin' :laugh:

 

And best of luck as you continue this ride, and to future doors opening!

 

 

____________________________________
Rod

Here for the gear.

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