SamuelBLupowitz

I think I'm a little late what with the time zones being what they are, but many hapy returns to you, dB. Thanks for helping cultivate such a great community, and for being so welcoming to those of us who came into the fold later.

Piano at 8, drums at 10 or 11, bass at 12. Didn’t really start learning organ properly until my 20s. I’m 33 now, just picking up accordion. I don’t think I’d call myself a virtuoso on any of those instruments, but I get by and I have fun. if you’re looking for inspiration, Bruce Hornsby didn’t start playing the piano until he was 18. Still young from where I’m standing, but not “childhood prodigy” territory.

HAHAHA. Oh man. I stepped right into that, didn’t I?

This is surprising to me. I remember a lot of videos being flagged and taken down in the early days of YouTube (when videos were limited to ten minutes and there were NO ADVERTISEMENTS), but now when they flag copyrighted content they usually just funnel the ad money to the copyright holders, since the ads are inescapable whether you used to agree to have them in your channel or not. I love how Google’s transformation of a once valuable, even priceless service into an increasingly horrible consumer experience still doesn’t stop giant corporations from wagging their digital finger at you, for performing a 50 year old song for your wife on your anniversary. Gross. Sorry that happened, OP.

On synthesizers, no less… and is that also *the* Robbie Robertson I see credited with the mix?

I’ve been using a Roc n Soc throne as a keyboard bench for almost ten years and it works great for me, but I’m not sure if it would meet the standards of OP’s chiropractor or not. Definitely more comfortable than my Hammond bench though.

Honestly, I think those chaotic tempos and general roughness-around-the-edges is part of the charm that I fell in love with hearing live recordings of bands I loved from that era growing up. Sometimes a click is the right thing. And I have nothing but admiration for drummers who can play slow tempos and keep it energetic and funky (here's looking at you, Levon Helm). But 1970s live records were part of my education about "stage time" and how differently you perceive time while performing. Certainly it helped me understand why the recordings I heard of myself didn't quite match up with what I thought was happening when I was in the moment. Though watching that 1977 TOP clip, I can only think: poor Rocco! 🤣

I'll buy the Nord Stage off ya cheap, Eric! 🤣

Second the Ultranova. That was my Starter Synth. It’s never going to sound like a Minimoog, but it does a lot of different things well, has a ton of output routing and modulation options, and the vocoder is cool if impractical. True that it can only play one voice at a time, though.

This is one of the biggest reasons I wanted to make sure I caught at least one show on this tour, despite the astronomically high ticket prices. The decade since I saw him last just flew by, and my wife is a huge fan of Bruce's songwriting but has never seen him live. It's amazing to see McCartney and Elton John doing huge shows at their age, but neither of them put on shows with the sheer stamina and athleticism as Bruce, and you gotta see it while you still can.

Eric Clapton (and associated projects) Love it: Keep On Growing Like It: The Cove Hate It: I Wanna Make Love to You

Which hand to use on which manual was one of the things that overwhelmed me the most when I first started playing a dual-manual organ. Eventually I figured top/right and lower/left was the way to go, if only because it made the associated drawbars more accessible to the non-playing hand (since the drawbars for the upper manual are on the left side of the console, and vice versa). Does anyone know why and how these different approaches developed between jazz and gospel playing? Other than jazz players liking the percussion for the melodic work, that is.

As long as we're discussing LH bass vs pedals, figured I'd do the prerequisite shoutout to my biggest inspiration in the world of keyboard players covering low end, Mr. John Paul Jones. He was always very clever about how to economically translate his very fluid, Motown-inspired bass guitar parts to his feet, but you can really cop his background as a church organist with his pedal work on this one. There's a nice close up around 22 seconds in.

Neal is one of those players who is right on the razor's edge between inspiring me to practice and making me want to quit music, hahaha.

Okay, sorry to keep dragging us slightly OT, but I found this interview with Chuck from last year that's full of cool tidbits: https://www.musicradar.com/news/chuck-leavell-rolling-stones-1 I pasted the relevent info below. Now if only someone can find a similar interview talking about the Springsteen keys... You’re obviously an amazing pianist too, but surely you’re not bringing a full-size piano out with The Stones these days? “Well, thank God for the digital age. Technology is so amazing. I’m using a Yamaha CP-4 for piano. And there’s a specialised phased Rhodes sound on there that I use. There’s also a Wurlitzer and that’s the real deal. I’ve yet to hear a digital reproduction of the Wurlitzer that’s as accurate as it needs to be, so I use the real thing. I use a real Hammond, too. Used to be the original Hammond B3 but I’ve retired that now and now use an XK-5. It’s still made by Hammond. Suzuki bought the Hammond name many years ago and they’ve worked really hard to recreate the sound of a B3 and they’ve finally done it. I’m really, really pleased with this instrument.” Does that have a Leslie on it as well? “I use a pedal called The Ventilator. A friend of mine, Greg Black, is a Hammond organ technician. He owns Black Hammond who do great work on Hammond organs, and he turned me on to it. I tried it in rehearsals and I was amazed. The first time I used it the sound man said ‘Man, that thing sounds incredible’. We used to have a Leslie inside an isolated case, but you still get a muffled sound and the wind sound of the horn spinning round but with this pedal just get a direct sound without any distraction. I’m very happy with it.”

This is gold, Mitch. Thanks for the free lessons!

I'd be willing to bet he did the take live on the floor with the band. You can hear the drum bleed in the piano track (unless they achieved the isolated track through some phase trickery and that's what I'm hearing). In that case, fixing a mistake that you never heard in a thousand listens until you heard the isolated track would have been time consuming, and ultimately more jarring for the listener than leaving it as-is. No pro tools for comps in 1973!

Well, guess it's time to hit the woodshed again. His left hand (really, the interlocking of both hands) is grooving SO HARD.

I read that about the Stones too; I imagine that's part of why they wound up just switching over to a Vent (though my understanding is that the Leslies made a return at some point). Slightly OT, but I remember reading once that John Paul Jones had to keep his Leslie offstage, usually in a dressing room or something, because Zeppelin was just too loud onstage to mic it up. Sometimes a stagehand would wander into the dressing room and his voice would go through the PA... I suspect that may have had something to do with why JPJ ditched the Hammond for other keyboards and synth bass pedals in the early 70s. My understanding is that the current E Street Band tour is back to the expanded lineup (with backing vocalists and horn section) from the Wrecking Ball tour. I guess it's still tough to deal with that kind of onstage bleed with a Leslie. But also, if there's someone else whose job it is to move and carry it, I wouldn't complain having the real thing, even if it's offstage.

Somewhere floating around the forum is a video of @Mitch Towne telling a joke while playing a blues with walking bass on his B3. I think it's relevant to this conversation, if anyone can dig it up. I love playing key bass, and I can get around on the pedals a little bit too (heel-toe, baby). But it demands your focus, for sure. I'm no slouch as a bass player, but playing keyboard bass parts that are interdependent with right hand chords, melodies, and improvisation is its own skill. So I'm going to lurk on this thread and see what folks have to say -- it's a part of my musicianship I'm always excited to develop.

A good friend/collaborator/multi-instrumentalist/singer-songwriter I often work with is a HUGE BNL fan. My wife adores them too. They're quite brilliant -- catchy songwriting, interesting lyrics, killer vocal harmonies, sense of humor, well-crafted arrangements. Devoid of the self-importance and angst that defines a lot of 90s rock and pop. "Brian Wilson" is a great track, and I listen to "Deck the Stills" from their holiday album every year.

This isn't going to fully illuminate a band on a dark stage, but a friend of mine picked up this $50 galaxy projector lamp from Target and set it up in his studio, and it gave it a really fun vibe, so I did the same for my own. I have occasionally brought it to gigs to add a little mood and color above the band (in a room with ceilings or a blank backdrop that will accomodate it) or around my rig. It can power off of USB as well as a regular AC plug, so if you have a laptop rig, or USB ports in your surge protector, that's an option as well. https://www.target.com/p/sky-lite-led-laser-star-galaxy-projector-green-stars-8211-blisslights/-/A-80310526?ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&AFID=google_pla_df&fndsrc=tgtao&DFA=71700000086346112&CPNG=PLA_Lighting%2BShopping_Traffic|Lighting_Ecomm_Home&adgroup=SC_Ceiling+%26+Wall+Lighting&LID=700000001170770pgs&LNM=PRODUCT_GROUP&network=g&device=c&location=2840&targetid=pla-1677807983171&gclid=CjwKCAjwzuqgBhAcEiwAdj5dRibgk6kkF2a32McrDhXxK45mxZmxWjhBSnNkXC_BoGouETeMrhWNChoCCgMQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

@Outkasteris a huge Springsteen aficionado; he might know. I know there was a period when Dan Federici was still alive that he dropped the Leslie and used a Boss Leslie sim, but I don’t know if they’ve continued to use a sim or if they have Leslies under the stage like The Rolling Stones do (though they were running Chuck Leavell’s B3 through a Vent for awhile too!).

Congrats, Tom! I find session work to be very satisfying, and while I love hanging out in recording studios, there’s something that feels sort of like you’re getting away with something when you can do the work without ever leaving your house. Aside that you can take (if it saves you stress) or leave (if you have a system that works for you): you can probably relax a bit about “maximum gain without clipping” if it took you a lot of finagling to get levels. Digital recording has come a long way, and it’s not like tape where you have to get it as loud as possible (without clipping) to beat the noise floor. As long as your levels aren’t insanely quiet and you don’t clip, you should be good. 😊

I’ve always told myself that a great song can be performed on just piano and still read as a great song. There are, of course, a ton of exceptions to that rule (as fun as my piano arrangement of Master of Puppets may be), and certainly I’ve been inspired to go different places harmonically and melodically based on the instrument or patch that I cue up. But whenever possible, unless I’m hearing a specific sound in my head (this needs a Rhodes! I want to write something around an 808 groove!) I try to write first, arrange later. The surest way to stop your composition brain in its tracks is to Tone Quest before you have enough context to know what tones will properly support the music (and lyrics, if it’s that kind of tune). And if you’re in the middle of writing and you go “man, this electric piano I’m playing on just isn’t working — it needs a juicy synth patch,” that’s your compositional brain engaging with your arranger brain, rather than yielding to it.