Jason Fry

Rachel's Song by Vangelis from Blade Runner Soundtrack (cover) There's also a second video (link @ end) discussing recreating the sounds of Vangelis' CS-80, VP-330, Fender Rhodes, etc...

I used to find it slightly annoying when players would emphasize that acoustic piano preferences largely come down to taste; I was convinced that piano quality was pretty objective. My attitude changed when I got the Montage 8. I had been playing the S70/XS for ten years, and when I got the Montage, I disliked both the CFX and the Bosendorfer. Given the many choices, I preferred the Natural Grand S6... not because it was the best. It was just what my ear wanted to hear. In time I had to admit that the newer Yamaha CFX was definitely better. But then as time when by, I changed my mind again and now prefer the Bosendorfer... and not because it's necessarily better. I now think pianos are more like flavors of ice cream.

I believe they both have Poly After-Touch.

Has anyone been able to closely compare the feel of the keyboards between the Original (49 note) and the Deluxe? I heard from a professional who I admire that the feel of the Deluxe is inferior to the original. I also heard from a salesman (bias?) who said that they are different, but that the Deluxe is better. Some may say that the feel of keyboards is a little subjective, but I think 9/10 of us would agree if we were comparing keybeds. Many thanks, - Jason

Thanks Tommy. I didn't use any of the original. It's 100% recreated. It is just a hair faster than the original because (I think) the original had a little tape stretch. There's a link at the end to a video talking about the keyboard sounds I used.

Blade Runner (End Titles) - Vangelis There's a link at the end to a video talking about the keyboard sounds I used.

Memories of Green by Vangelis (from Blade Runner)

Kashmir - I'm trying to do justice to the brilliant arrangements of John Paul Jones, which isn't usually the case on covers. Montage for strings, Prophet Rev2 for brass (I'm going for the Yamaha GX-1 brass sound), and Hammond for something like a clarinet.

Unfortunately, the policy for most of these companies is that an item breaks when it is not sufficiently packed... They typically do not cover anything. I learned this from guitarists when we try to ship amps. Unfortunately, your best bet is to over-pack to the point where it can be dropped about three feet and not break. Sorry to say this, but that seems to be the way it works.

That's very kind of you! Thank you so much!

A few minutes of Happiness & Peace⦠from one of the most beautiful pieces by Vangelis: La Petite Fille de la Mer. I decided to attempt to do a cover of this piece when I first bought the Yamaha Montage and heard how great some of the acoustic guitars were. I thought I could do a decent live cover with the acoustic guitar in the left hand and the electric piano in the right. But I later decided to do 'a duet with myself,' which worked out better, especially since there is more going on with the keys than I first noticed. There are a number of electric piano overdubs played higher with different panning. I tried to replicate this by having the upper notes of the electric piano panning differently from the lower, so that they might sound like they were coming from different instruments. If you stay with me until the very end, you may also notice that I layered some of the higher notes to double and play an octave higher⦠so you get the effect of an octave by playing one note. This doesn"t work for most of the piece, but I was able to bring the effect in at the end nicely with a pedal. What you get is really something like a live duet. On the Prophet, I was happy to get sort of a dreamy choir with triangle waves and then later bring in audio modulation with the modulation wheel, making it more like a string.

I"m selling my S70/XS and wanted something that feels just as good but with 88 keys, so the Montage 8 is perfect for me. But, I"m no longer interested in playing out. If I was, I may go for the lighter options; the Montage 8 is pretty heavy.

Eddie Van Halen Keyboard Tribute - 1984 & Jump Does the world really need another 1984/Jump - Eddie Van Halen Keyboard Tribute? Clearly not. And yet, since 1984, I have been haunted by the quest to perfect these sounds. I have repeatedly tweaked these patches over the years, and only recently feel like I have something worthy of the original. All these years later, it"s remarkable how much fun it still is to play. The passing of Eddie prompted me revisit this, and I think the Prophet Rev2 is the perfect instrument for the job.

Halloween by John Carpenter 'Tis the Season

My tinnitus got a lot worse several years ago in my mid-40's during a very stressful time around a divorce and moving out. Unfortunately, even though I'm now in an ideal marriage and have very little stress, the tinnitus hasn't improved. Mine is mainly in one ear, because I have (a more rare condition) called otosclerosis, which can be greatly improved with surgery. But unfortunately, 1-2% of those having the surgery completely lose their hearing in that ear... which is terrifying. So I guess I'm going to wait for my hearing to get worse and the surgeries to get better. But the tinnitus can be pretty stressful at times.

This is excellent advice, and it is what many Broadway pit keyboardists do: use the great feeling keybed of the S90/XS to play software. I have a S70/XS and a Montage 8, and they feel identical to me.

Five Circles by Vangelis I"m using two Sequential Prophet Rev2"s, panned left and right for a better stereo field. These are my own 'CS-80' patches, but I started with a VCM 'Voice Component Modeling' template by 'creativespiral,' which uses the step sequencer to give the Rev2 more of a vintage feel by slightly altering the intonation of the oscillator tunings. I"m using a little Prophet delay and am using Valhalla Vintage Reverb. There are also quite a few splits and layers on the Yamaha Montage, including the choir patch which is being played via MIDI from the Prophet.

Thanks CP! I have two Rev2's MIDI'ed together with a split on one and a layer on the other- so four patches there and then like eight elements/patches on the Montage.

Here's my take on the old original opening theme to Unsolved Mysteries. Some fun sounds on the Prophet Rev2 and Montage:

Many thanks, Dave!

Inferno by Keith Emerson (Dario Argento) This sound set uses the Montage sampled Bösendorfer 290 Imperial Grand as the main sound, with one volume pedal bringing in/out Strings, Woodwinds (e.g. Bassoon), and Timpani, while another volume pedal controls the volume of Orchestra Brass. While I don"t usually like overdubbing (it sometimes feels like cheating), you"ll notice the obvious overdubbing of the first several measures of high strings, which I couldn"t figure out another way to do.

Has anyone compared the HX3 to the Hammond XK-5?

I recently adjusted my rig to play everything down a 1/2 step. With this change, the lowest C now plays up an octave... which isn't ideal but is as I would expect. Could someone tell me if the new version would continue to do this? The upgrade won't give me a dead note will it? Thanks.

I'm really loving my upgrade to 3.92! In addition to the sounds and how the master volume now works, I love that I can now use a sustain pedal. Thanks to Tom Tuson for super fast and professional service. -Jason

I want to revisit the frustrations that LX88 had with the HX3 (which goes back to the summer and early fall). Below, I include a previous post of mine saying how I had purchased his HX3. After getting the unit, I quickly became frustrated with dealing with the software (well, not too quickly; I spent several hours on it). Still, I love the overall unit, and despite the software frustrations, it works well for me. To make a long story shorter, at that point I was buying some other equipment (e.g., Spacestation V3, Allen & Heath mixer, DSI Prophet '08 and Tetra) and quickly got much more focused on other equipment, especially the Prophet, which is amazing but time consuming. (As you may have heard, most of the presets are not very good, and so one is left doing a lot of programming in order to get to the really satisfying sounds. It's well worth the effort, but does take a lot of time.) With the recent HX3 software update, I decided to update my unit. After hitting roadblocks (again) I contacted Tom at Diversi, who is a truly helpful, friendly, and capable technician. Top notch service. It was soon decided that the unit has a defect. I shipped it to him, and he confirmed the defect and is fixing it. While I haven't gotten the HX3 back yet, this outcome should resolve some questions raised earlier by LX88. Sorry it took so long. -Jason