Atomicsynth

Layers is part of Sine Factory and yes, very nice. Vienna has Big Bang Orchestra and three other free instruments. Free ILok registration and authorized to machine, (no physical key needed). https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Product_Overview/Free_Instruments

I think it took around 10 days for free Discover to arrive in email. Project Sam has a free one too. https://projectsam.com/libraries/the-free-orchestra/ Orchestral Tools (Berlin) has a free orchestral instrument called "Layers". Scroll to the very bottom of the page. https://www.orchestraltools.com/store/products

You could start with the Spitfire BBC Discover Orchestra (which is the 1st part of their full BBC orchestra, 2nd part is BBC Core and the 3rd part is BBC Professional). The Discover Orchestra is either $49 or free ( check Spitfire's website) plus, even free it counts as credit toward the next two steps in BBC. https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/bbc-symphony-orchestra-discover/ It sounds great too. It, of course, doesn't have all of the BBC full articulations but it is very workable; and free.

Very cool!! I don't know the name of Keith's on road tech that night but I didn't see Will Alexander. (Which doesn't mean he wasn't there). At Birchmere for the KE band it was Keith Wechler (who I never met) doing FOH. I never once stood by the Leslies as you did. I did notice that night during the show (Black Moon tour) that Keith seemed to be using more high speed setting on them then I ever heard before (usually it was Chorale most of the time). But it was always an overwhelming experience seeing ELP live so it was hard to analyze anything during the show. No recording ever really captured what ELP really sounded like live, especially Greg Lake's bass with those huge subs onstage as part of his amps. Deepest bass I ever heard. The organ spit plenty at times during KE band though Marc Bonilla's guitar made the normal Keith presence in the mix different. His right hand was affected then by the dystonia and though he played great, I saw him shaking out his hand at times when I guess it cramped up. It was surely helpful to him to have Marc so he didn't have to carry everything, as he did in ELP. I think if the organ sounded somewhat different to me, it was due to the Leslie stacks and the Hiwatts being gone. He had those amps integrated in with those Leslies and not just for the L100 knife thing at Brain Salad. I've really felt the whole gamut of emotions I'd forgotten flood back during this thread. (I used to play Hoedown back in 2010 when I did a couple of solo live shows (bass and drums scored for sampler). I haven't played it in a long time and now and then when I'd tell myself I should re-learn it, I'd sometimes start to practice it only to become very sad and then just leave it be for another day that hasn't come yet)... Added: Thank you for sharing that great article, Jerry! Further add : I'm now concluding that the present day organ has plenty of drive, spit and heavy beautiful percussion after watching the incredible Rachel Flowers do Tarkus at Emeapp.

I read an interview long back describing the C3 as being rebuilt, chopped and ending up with a somewhat cleaner tone prior to the Black Moon tour. The organ does sound cleaner on the live tracks from the "Then and Now" album. I also talked with his tech during backstage aftershow at Merriweather Post Pavillion - Black Moon tour about Keith's equipment. His former stacks of 122's were slimmed down to two cabinets, built into a custom road case with mics now placed offstage, often in a dedicated room. Maybe that had something to do with it? I found this further detailed information about the organ (credit rrsignalguy) on another site: "The C-3 is connected to 2 GOFF Professional Leslie 122’s mounted in a special double road case. In 2019 this custom rig was sold in a Julien auction to EMEAPP. The C-3 cost $80K, the Leslie’s $18K, plus buyer’s premium so the total cost was about $125K plus shipping, making this easily the most expensive classic (tonewheel) Hammond Organ ever sold. The C-3 has fully adjustable Chorus / Vibrato that provides a range from straight organ sound all the way through a Wurlitzer heavy tremolo / rotary sound. It has a fully adjustable Percussion Booster that ranges from no percussion through 4X stock percussion max volume, and an adjustable high-gain spring reverb that ranges from no reverb through about 5-7 seconds reverb delay at high volume. The organ has a rebuilt AO-28 organ tube preamp with bass boost and other modifications, rebuilt tonewheel generator with hand-selected filter capacitors, rebuilt vibrato line box, generator shock mount kit, and other mods"

He built that long solo so meticulously. The big burst of feedback and then it starts with Lake and Palmer's quarter note triplet ostinato while Keith is on the drone oscillators, then playing The Minotaur in sine wave on top, then improvises Minotaur extended. He eventually goes to LFO vibrato on the now ominous sounding minor third interval he transitions with and builds into those high note glides saturated with LFO. Then suddenly the wide open filter and chromatic descent (patching to his brass sound) Reverb added in and then he sets up the climax when he brings in his C3, playing those almost unidentifiable (because the organ is so crazy overdriven) modal chords that are so Keith Emerson. Then he's fragmenting the Aquatarkus theme against those wild chords and finally envelope generator/sample hold diving pitch against rising chromatic motion and when it's finally all it can be he suddenly jumps back with Greg and Carl to the Organ/Synth Tarkus recapitulation and then those big grand pause repeated dissonant chords, setting up his pre-ending that resolves to upper and lower suspensions which introduce the huge brass fanfare ending derived yet again from the Tarkus theme. An absolutely stunning exhibition and is but one defining moment of why he remains the greatest rock keyboardist now and for all time. And after that exhausting Tarkus display, the very next song is Take A Pebble with solo extended, even including a jazz trio section before returning to the song. Total stamina. I'm also linking the massive Keith Emerson quote list compiled by ELP Digest. https://www.brain-salad.com/Emerson/quote-list.txt

Further regarding the Brain Salad Surgery tour, I saw it at the Capital Centre in Largo MD (venue since demolished). The Quad PA was causing bounceback, throwing them out of time. They ended up finally turning off the back speakers. Adding : Emerson's extended Aquatarkus solo as captured on the Welcome Back My Friends live album from that tour is, I think, the greatest synth solo Keith Emerson ever played! The C3 at the climactic point took it to beyond! His C3 was hot-rodded by Al Goff. Beefed up percussion, modified preamp and Leslies. Keith referred to it as "tacky and spitty". His later C3 was cleaner, regrettably. That first organ sounded better than any Hammond I've ever heard. His Modular had 901 series oscillators, which were prone to drifting but had a superior sound vs Moog 921 VCO's (which held tune much better).

That's great! I looked at audience videos and there were some low wattage questions asked. It all seemed like ego filler to me, but I could well have had a different experience had I been there.

Yeah, he used it on "Benny The Bouncer".

Palmer rushes. He did it on his ELP Legacy thing too. I was 8 feet from him (stage front table) at Rams Head Onstage in Annapolis. The drum machine programming on the Emerson Lake tour was terrible, re-mentioning. I'm not at all surprised Greg Lake told Palmer to slow down. Probably happened a lot. Hoedown and Tarkus were insanely fast. Emerson's choice or Palmer? Who knows.... Emerson liked to play fast and was firing on all cylinders on the Brain Salad tour, but Palmer rushed awkwardly at times on all ELP tours I attended. (He's not my favorite drummer in the least). In contrast , Cozy Powell was tempo steady on the Emerson Lake and Powell tour. And regarding Carl Palmer, he said a number of critical things about ELP's final performance, headlining the High Voltage Festival. He felt the group wasn't up to standard for ELP to continue any longer. The least significant member. My opinion.

That's great you got to play Birchmere! Keith played very well when I saw the KE band there and was in good spirits after the show (signed lots of autographs for people)! Tempos for Tarkus and Hoedown were slower than the past but nothing wrong with that. I was seated close and clearly saw the "tone" (dystonia) in his right hand. Aside from the cancellation even had I bought tickets for E&L, I knew they were doing an onstage Q&A during the show which I knew I would have had absolutely no interest in. I thought of it as filler. (Greg did an onstage Q&A also at Birchmere for his solo tour which was another no for me going) Did that Q&A take up a lot of the show? Great that they did Tarkus and Pirates!

Me too! I saw Weather Report in Pittsburgh 1973. Amazing! Regarding "Mysterious Traveler" Zawinul, never at a loss for words, called that album "the baddest shit on the planet". I love "Nubian Sundance", personally.

I hope you feel better soon!

Joe Zawinul played on "Bitches Brew" and in later years said he didn't like the album. The first two Weather Report albums were ground breaking. "Live in Tokyo" (edited version on "I Sing The Body Electric") be it fusion or whatever one calls it, stood on a level beyond anything else at the time. Quote : Zawinul - "We always solo but we never solo" And it was Miroslav Vitous, not Jaco Pastorius then. I have the later albums also but honestly, Zawinul ultimately pushing the band into funk was disappointing compared to what they were before. Added : "Bitches Brew" was a weird record in that the producer, Teo Macero, created it from edits and splicing a lot of tape together to form those pieces which in its pre-produced state was disjointedness. I confess to really not liking the album.

I agree. I liked "Taste Of My Love" too along with the other songs. It just wasn't what ELP fans wanted because it wasn't Brain Salad Surgery II. If Asia had done "Love Beach" it would have probably been accepted with much less disdain. It's a much better record than "In The Hot Seat".