Disco cover band

[bachsteady]

So I apologize if this has been discussed. I searched keywords for past threads but nothing showed up. Basically wanted to know some options for a keyboard to cover most of the disco hits. I"m assuming strings, horns, and various funky sounds and piano. Also important is user interface as I am not the most tech savvy and splitting sounds would hopefully be relatively easy. Now something worth noting is this 'new' project would be a bit different as it would be a trio with me handling bass duties and keys as well as guitar and drums the other two instruments. At this point I am not sure how this would work but the guitar player wants us to put our own spin of the songs not staying so true to the original so there is flexibility with the sounds, I"m just trying to cover all my bases. Thanks for any help, you guys are always very informative.

[drawback]

You haven't said whether or not weighted keys (or even 88 keys) but if I were re-joining my last disco band I'd look at a Kurzweil PC4-7.

[Moonglow]

Probably good that you are doing your own arrangements, as your left hand will be tied up with bass, and as you mentioned, a lot of disco is stacked with piano/EP, strings, brass/horns, clav, etc. Definitely find a board with a good Rhodes and ARP Solina/Omni patch.

 

In terms of UI, I'd look for a board with an ample amount of "favorites" buttons.

[Docbop]

At least you only have to learn one bass line. As we called it then the "Hung -Ga" bass. Practice singing it in octaves low note "Hung" octave "Ga". You'll feel like your in the 70's and have an sudden urge to go out and buy a Disco Ball and a gram. Burn Baby Burn!!!!

[PianoMan51]

Don"t let the keyboard/strings/horns deflect you from your primary responsibility: the bass. If you nail the bass parts 100% of the time you"ll be doing fantastically!

[El Lobo]

Agree about the bass lines. So you need a board with really good bass sounds. People's ears will accept synthetic horn and string sounds but for disco they really want to hear that punchy, funky, processed bass sound. And it has to be LOUD. Amplification is as importantâeven more importantâthan the board. This is beyond my tech knowledge. Will you put the keys through a sub or if you go through house system will that have subwoofer? Disco bass has to rock the world and feel it in your ... uh ... nether regions.

[bennyray]

Hate to admit it but I played with a disco road band way back in the day but not my style but wanted to play music for a living so there you go less is more in disco but could never do that again.

 

I was heavy on clav and a rhodes with some moog bass from time to time. I am ashamed to tell someone I played that shit but I was working my way on the music scene back then.

[drawback]

Am I wrong to assume the OP is looking for a keyboard, not what parts to play? Anyway, I thought I"d better get in there before the Casio party arrived.

[mate stubb]

This is my disco rig from 1979. You need each and every one of these. Trumpet and pig hat also required.

 

http://www.hotrodmotm.com/images/gallery/pile_of_keys.jpg

 

http://www.hotrodmotm.com/images/gallery/back_line.jpg

[Docbop]

This is my disco rig from 1979. You need each and every one of these. Trumpet and pig hat also required.

 

http://www.hotrodmotm.com/images/gallery/pile_of_keys.jpg

 

http://www.hotrodmotm.com/images/gallery/back_line.jpg

 

 

Daddy why did they invent the workstation, because got tired of having to setup so much stuff to play four hours of Village People and BeeGees songs.

[Delaware Dave]

The Kurzweil PC3 series is a 'retro' keyboard and one of the reasons I bought it. It will cover all of your needs. it comes in 61, 76 and 88 keys as well as synth, semi-weighted and weighted actions.

[Baldwin Funster]

One thing I know for sure,

 

you got to boogie oogie oogie til you just cant boogie no more....

[niacin]

I've more or less done that, but our repertoire wasn't exclusively disco. Yes bass is the most important thing. And you've gotta think keyboard + amplification. Bass amp or something with serious bottom end firepower like the Line 6 L3t I used. I had my sounds coming from a Roland Fantom Xr or a Roland Integra. You need decent rhodes, piano, CP70, clav, strings and a few synth lead options which any pro keyboard will give you. I used brass sparingly. If you're fine not worrying about nailing the sounds on the original recordings you could cut that down to bass, rhodes and strings. And you need good split and layer options. You want an fx slot for the bass sound with a good amount of compression dialed in. Preferably a separate output for the bass. I think Roland's electric and synth bass patches work wonderfully. If I did it today I might just pick up an Integra again, but otherwise suggest Roland or Kurzweil (PC4-7). Roland interfaces are a doddle to work with, I'd avoid Yamaha, not sure about Kurzweil. A Korg Kronos or Nautilus might get you there but is probably overkill.

[bachsteady]

Sorry, I suppose it could be either. Since I don"t think it will be too piano heavy I don"t mind the occasional piano part on non weighted keys.

[bachsteady]

I do have an Arp odyssey 2800 I thought may work for bass? I would just put it through a separate bass amp was the plan

[niacin]

Yeh you could go old school: synth bass, some sort of Rhodes or similar and a string machine like the Waldorf STVC. That would be very cool. And you'd have a vocoder at the ready if you were so inclined.

[KuruPrionz]

Don"t let the keyboard/strings/horns deflect you from your primary responsibility: the bass. If you nail the bass parts 100% of the time you"ll be doing fantastically!

 

This times umpty-bajillion!!!!

I played in a Motown cover band with a great bassist and a sort-of-OK drummer and the bassist could fill the dance floor in a heartbeat with Disco Inferno. He had the Move Groove down stone cold.

[mate stubb]

 

Daddy why did they invent the workstation, because got tired of having to setup so much stuff to play four hours of Village People and BeeGees songs.

 

The good thing about the disco days was that you got 2 or 3 weeks in a club before moving again, playing 6 nights to a packed house and having 1 night off. There would be lines outside an hour before the gig of disco goers waiting to get in.

 

I hated playing most of that music. Looking back, it seems like a Bach concerto compared to the moronic crap I hear on my daughter's playlists. It helped that we had a hot 8 piece horn band with a bunch of charismatic guys - we had a lot of fun in spite of the Bee Gees.

[El Lobo]

Disco inferno

Burn baby burn

Burn that mutha down

[PianoMan51]

I"m your Boogie Man.

 

You are the Dancing Queen.

[Adan]

I'd want to know more about the concept before recommending a keyboard. Are you really going to take a stab at authentic replication? Or is this more of a full artistic license scenario? A bespoke disco covers band could be real fun. But then it doesn't matter much whether you've got the usual arsenal of sounds. If I was going heavy on interpretation rather than authentication, I might stay away from the original palette of sounds and gravitate towards whatever sounds inspire me.

 

If you're striving for authenticity, then there's countless keyboards that have strings, horns, the mini-moog lead, etc . . . Audiences that come to hear disco covers generally don't care whether you've nailed the nuances of a particular synth tone. Generally they only care about the groove, the singing, and hearing the essential signature parts. The disco palette can be covered with something as budgety as a Roland VR09, which would give you a decent organ sound for times when organ is exposed, e.g., Pick up the Pieces.

 

Not to diss the disco covers thing. When the money's decent and bachelorette parties are buying you drinks, it's not the worst way you can spend an evening.

[Reezekeys]

As far as keyboard choices, I wouldn't sweat this too much. Back in the late 70s you had your analog synths, Simmons drums, and string machines. Lots of tunes were done with real strings. Pretty much any keyboard made today will give you these sounds (maybe not Simmons drums, lol!). Basses too. The success or failure of the OP's endeavor will be related much more to how the group sounds. That ultimately depends on playing ability, along with how these often very big sounding productions are reduced to a trio format. To me, that's the biggest challenge. You're going to be making some choices. Personally, I would not try and sound "like the record", I think that's gonna fail. Maybe doing a little reinvention? At least these tunes had real drums on them, and the guitar parts were those unpitched "scratchy" chunka-chunka licks, often through a wah-wah. Come to think of it, that sound might be hard to come by on a keyboard! Oh well. Good luck!

[stoken6]

I did a lot of disco in the before times, and I would not recommend the Nord-based rig I used. Most of the time I had AP, Rhodes or Clav in my LH and strings, brass, Moog or vibes/bells/celeste etc. in my right. Very little organ.

 

If you're going to add LH bass to that, you'll benefit from an assignable out to a separate amp. Plus at least 73 keys. Roland FA07/08 or Kurzweil PC4 stand out

 

Are you going to use only one board? You might want something separate for LH bass - e.g. Yamaha MX49 or an analogue/VA board. But the groove is going to be really important, so your left hand better be Bach and Steady.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[bachsteady]

I'd want to know more about the concept before recommending a keyboard. Are you really going to take a stab at authentic replication? Or is this more of a full artistic license scenario? A bespoke disco covers band could be real fun. But then it doesn't matter much whether you've got the usual arsenal of sounds. If I was going heavy on interpretation rather than authentication, I might stay away from the original palette of sounds and gravitate towards whatever sounds inspire me.

 

If you're striving for authenticity, then there's countless keyboards that have strings, horns, the mini-moog lead, etc . . . Audiences that come to hear disco covers generally don't care whether you've nailed the nuances of a particular synth tone. Generally they only care about the groove, the singing, and hearing the essential signature parts. The disco palette can be covered with something as budgety as a Roland VR09, which would give you a decent organ sound for times when organ is exposed, e.g., Pick up the Pieces.

 

Not to diss the disco covers thing. When the money's decent and bachelorette parties are buying you drinks, it's not the worst way you can spend an evening.

 

It is supposed to be drums and guitar and me. It"s the guitar players idea, he sees it as an opportunity to play in a band where we can play fun dance music but make it more of our own sound, hence the instrumentation. Also better money, haha.

[harmonizer]

....you got to boogie oogie oogie til you just cant boogie no more....

 

Our band used to cover this - it was a lot of fun, especially with the vocal harmonies. We used to start the song with 4 people singing an 'a cappella' chorus.

[Baldwin Funster]

....you got to boogie oogie oogie til you just cant boogie no more....

 

Our band used to cover this - it was a lot of fun, especially with the vocal harmonies. We used to start the song with 4 people singing an 'a cappella' chorus.

 

I like that those girls, I mean those musicians wrote and played that song and performed it live on the lip sync shows.

[JimboKeys]

It is supposed to be drums and guitar and me. It"s the guitar players idea, he sees it as an opportunity to play in a band where we can play fun dance music but make it more of our own sound, hence the instrumentation. Also better money, haha.

I played in a trio with the same lineup back in the day when these songs were current (my first foray into left-hand bass - though i started out in bands as a bass player, so that helped). So it can definitely be done three-piece - as others have mentioned, it helps to think of yourself as the bass player who happens to have a right hand free for playing keyboard parts.

And whatever you use for keyboards will probably be miles ahead of what i had back in the day - Moog bass, Clavinet, and a Vox Continental organ for string lines.

 

- Jimbo

[GRollins]

I've heard people say that punk killed rock. Not in my market. It was disco what done rock in. Overnight--almost literally--things went from long hairs like myself to clean cut John Travolta wannabes. BOOM! It was terrifying to watch because of the rapidity of the change. Mind boggling.

Me? I kept my hair and my tastes in music. All things considered, I'd say that I made the right choice. Rock aged a lot better than disco...and I've aged better than either of them!

 

[ducks incoming lightning bolts from the heavens]

 

Grey

[PianoMan51]

I never thought these words would come from my brainâ¦

 

What about using backing tracks? Disco music was not a 'live performance" genre. (Think The Sound of Philadelphia, TOP).

 

Play the bass lines live 100% of the time. Have fun making a great groove with your band mates. Dance. Interact with the audience. Play an occasional signature lick with your right hand and make it showy for the audience.

 

Let a recording (the Disk in Disco) do the heavy lifting for the rest. The audience will love it and will not give a hoot about the band using tracks.

 

Now I"m waiting for a lightning bolt to strike.

[Bill H.]

^ Not from me - but having done my share of both key bass and backing tracks gigs over the years, what I'd program first would be the bass followed by the balloons (whole note pads) leaving the good stuff for me.

 

I've stayed out of this discussion so far because there are forumites far more versed on current keyboard choices, but man... key bass in a disco band while also covering keyboard duties is a heavy lift.