SamuelBLupowitz

I'm off work Christmas through New Years, so I'd love to hop in, since I keep missing them! Both holidays fall on Fridays, so maybe we should aim for the Saturday/Sunday after? I could jump on one midweek as well, but I'm not sure how that works for other folks.

Look at all those knobs!

Paul McCartney released McCartney III today, a record he's been working on in lockdown as a spiritual successor to his 1970 and 1980 entirely-solo albums. The debut video release, which I've posted below, shows him playing a harpsichord of some kind, plus a Minimoog, piano, and sampled brass, on top of all the vocals, guitars, bass, and drums. He also did a fun interview with Chris Rock as part of the album drop (always nice to have some less-standard interview questions, since Macca, bless him, has a tendency to ebulliently tell the same stories over and over again), in which he plays a segment of one of the other tunes on the grand piano in his studio. I've been both excited and apprehensive about the new record. Paul is probably #1 on my list of musicians who have influenced and inspired me, but I think even his most devoted fans would admit that his solo output is a little uneven. He's still capable of the great songwriting and recording genius he developed in the Beatles, but his penchant for writing throwaway lyrics and lightweight music can get a little out of hand without a creative partner willing to push back. His early solo stuff and Wings material definitely runs into that problem, and I find some of his 80s stuff unlistenable. But I thought he had an amazing later-career run from about 1997 to 2007, starting right after the Beatles Anthology with Flaming Pie, through his return to touring and the formation of his excellent, long-running live band with Abe Laboriel, Jr. and Rusty Anderson on Driving Rain, then the sparse, Nigel Godrich-produced Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, and the ambitious soundscapes of Memory Almost Full. Of course, those records coincide with my discovery of the Beatles and ensuing teenage years, so that might have something to do with my high opinion of that era... At any rate, what I've heard from the new record hasn't blown me away, but it's still a pleasure to hear a master in action. In a year full of tragic loss, I'd rather a world with too much Paul McCartney than not enough. [video:youtube] [video:youtube]

I fooled around with the free demo for a little while before I bit the bullet on Stage. My use case is opposite of the OP's; I wanted a more lifelike, responsive piano sound for my live rig without emptying my bank account on a new DP. Being something of a purist, I almost never record anything other than a real acoustic piano anymore (though I'm thinking about crafting something ethereal in Pianoteq for one of the solo projects I'm working on). Anyway, I love it, and it loves my penchant for percussive key-smashing, nuanced sustain pedal work, and slightly-less-than-perfect tuning and resonance. The Yamaha YC5 Rock Piano is my primary for my band playing, and the Steinway is lovely as well when you need a fuller, richer sound.

I've also been lucky with my 200. I gigged it pretty heavily for the five years between acquiring it and the pandemic, and I only had a reed go on me once. Of course, when it did, it was in the middle of a run of several big gigs in a short span (I was lucky my tech likes me). It started to go during the first of two sets on July 4th... I remember we were covering Young Americans by Bowie, and the reed that was starting to go was the C above middle C... most of the piano part on that song involves hammering that octave while moving inner voicings, so that was SOUR!

Zeppelin has been in my top eschelon of favorite artists since I was a young teen. John Paul Jones in particular has been one of my greatest inspirations, as a bassist, keyboard player, and person who enjoys covering as many parts as possible with four limbs and my voice. I've always enjoyed them above other hard rock bands because they swung -- Bonham and Jones both had a deep knowledge and appreciation for American R&B music (with Jones getting a lot of jobs as a British James Jamerson imitator in his session days), and it gives the band a groove that it might not otherwise have to propel Page's sludgy guitar and Plant's wailing. I think this is what a lot of the Zeppelin disciples who came in their wake didn't understand -- they got the power but not the pocket, and it's consequently much less compelling to me. So, when I heard about this reunion concert back in 2007, when I was still in high school, I was desperate for anything I could find from it. It took another five years or so for the professional recording to come out, but I was blown away by how excellent a performance it was, especially compared to previous attempts to get the band back together with someone filling in on drums (Live Aid was pretty messy, to the point where their performance isn't on the official concert release, and I've heard the Atlantic Records anniversary show from the 90s was dreadful). I know there are some fixes in post, but watching the concert is a real treat nonetheless. I think Robert Plant's voice was the biggest surprise -- he managed to lose none of his impact while approaching the material with the knowledge of and experience with his instrument as an older man, rather than the shrieking onslaught of his 20s. I think Kashmir in particular is a highlight of the show. Anyway, John Paul Jones is known to do a lot of his own programming, so whatever sounds are coming from the Oasys and the X-50 are likely not stock patches, and he almost certainly tweaked or fully synthesized them himself.

I'm excited to hear more! You had me at "epic rock concept album." :wink:

I eagerly await the commandments of Deity 2.0!

A friend and colleague of mine wired up his house for FireWire back in the mid-aughts, networked ports in the walls and such. Poor soul!

I was born in 1989, and I started digging into the Beatles when I was 10 or 11. John Lennon was already spoken of as a martyr by then (and while George Harrison passed, still too soon, right as my interest in the Beatles was peaking, it wasn't the same kind of shocking tragedy). I'm sure it changed the way I perceived the members of the band relative to someone who caught them in real time on the Ed Sullivan show when they flipped the world upside down... I connected with Paul McCartney in a big way early on, because he still seemed real and vital, making records, telling stories, touring... Lennon felt like a mythological being who had walked the earth in a different time. It's not really fair to him to view him that way. He was a complex person, by many accounts someone who could be difficult and cruel, someone with a lot of trauma in a time when it wasn't generally accepted or encouraged for men to deal with their emotional and mental health. He was also someone who aspired to change himself and the world, and was much loved by the people close to him. It's funny, these past few years, and the pandemic in particular, has made me wonder about artists we've lost, especially ones who had a lot to say about society and global events. I'd love a peek into the alternate universe where he was still around to write, speak, or sing about what we're going through. "All I want is the truth; just gimme some truth." But since I didn't get to share the planet with John Lennon at any point, I'm eternally grateful for his part in the music that set me on my path and shaped me to such a great degree.

I'd seen some of that Jessica instructional video before (I spent a few weeks learning that solo some years back), but never the whole thing. Man, I could watch him play forever. You know, sometimes with players I'm blown away by harmonic understanding or technical execution or any number of ideas that seem totally outside of my vocabulary... but this is different. It's amazing how he takes a simple two-chord pattern, and plays mostly major pentatonic over it, but gives it so much energy, life, melody, and sense of beginning, middle, and end. It makes sense that the original solo was an improvisation, since it's mostly pretty "lick-based,"I guess, but when I throw my bag o' piano riffs at something, it doesn't wind up sounding as iconic as that!

Here's a variation on the theme of using tube amps to bring sampled/modeled electric pianos and such to life -- if your acoustic piano sound feels too pristine or synthetic, try running that through some speakers and recording the room sound, too. I know, it sounds silly. And maybe it's wrong for your production (of course, anything can be wrong for your production, no matter how cool it is out of context). But I've learned firsthand how much more "authenticity" that can lend a digital piano sound, particularly if you're tracking with a band. Here is an article from bmi.com about exactly this phenomenon (I'm the keyboard player mentioned in the first paragraph). I swear, having some room bleed into those dynamic (!) mics on the speakers was the difference between "kind of a shitty piano sound" and "hey, he's rocking a piano with a band."

Yeah, that's how I felt about it when I tried it, too. I think the modeling sound over samples isn't necessarily for everybody, but for certain aesthetics and playing approaches it just hits those nerve centers just right. Makes me happy.

Jerry Lee's made a life out of getting away with inappropriate things ...

I mean, is the free market the reason we have those things? Maybe it's the reason we have so many options... but I don't know, I really don't feel that my experience in my brief 31 years has shown me the benefits of a system that rewards only nonstop growth, where making the same amount of money as the previous year means your endeavor is failing. I'd like to think if Uli Behringer, for instance, is so enamored with vintage synths, and they weren't accessible, he would still make them for people, he just wouldn't have to be such a dick to get to get his business to the point where he could afford to do it. But I don't know, as a creative person who has also poured hours and hours of time and effort and experience into creating music (among other things) even though it costs more by far than I've ever made back from it, I've never been able to follow the argument that human beings need financial incentive to achieve things.

I fully agree with the tenor and content of your post... except I must sheepishly admit I didn't know the trick about Shift. Probably because I've never read the Logic manual. Oops.

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Very true. I scream 'Kenny Loggins' when I step on my son"s Legos. I scream the same for similar type injuries. Until I realize I"m alright. That's what a fool believes, Mark.

Oh, I cannot wait to watch this. Chuck Leavell has been a favorite player of mine since the days long ago when my dad would put on the Allman Brothers' Greatest Hits and point out his playing in Jessica. Also, a lot of starpower in that trailer, but isn't Keith Richards just the greatest?

well, son of a... wonder if that"s the simple solution to some of my noise issues with the Hammond. See, I started the thread to brag, and look at all the helpful tips I"m getting!

This is a useful resource, thanks! I had heard legends of the potential for pitch instability on analog synthesizers, but having never owned one myself, I was marveling at hearing the oscillators start to drift, particularly when I was trying to overdub a part with the oscillators tuned a fifth apart and I was hearing the interval change as I played. So far the randomness has been good for creativity!

A friend of mine was generous enough to loan me his honest-to-goodness Model D while he's in grad school in Arizona (his family's home is around the corner from me) and I am having a blast playing around with the real thing for the first time. Apparently my brain can engage with how synthesis works a lot better when I have actual knobs in front of me, though the gaps in my knowledge are laid bare with no presets or patch memory to fall back on. Either way, I've been working on a solo album the last couple of weeks, and as soon as I got back from picking up the Moog, the track I was working on suddenly found itself in need of a LOT of synth parts. I have no regrets. As you can see from the attached photo, his has been well-loved (like many of the vintage instruments in my stable); I'm not sure if the pitch ribbon was a more recent mod since my friend was in a bad car accident a number of years ago that required him to reimagine his playing, or if it's an older customization. I'll ask him. Also, this may amuse some of you, but I had no idea that on the original D, the monophonic keyboard only retriggered legato notes going *down,* not up the keyboard... unless that's a modification as well? Anyway, his mother told me "guard it with your life," and that's what I intend to do! In addition to flavoring my solo tracks with more Moog parts, I definitely plan on running some things through the external input and seeing what happens. Edit: Couldn't get the photo attachment to work today, so here's a photo:

Got one more new tune from Noon Fifteen for the year, and another interactive video you can swipe around in. Something a little gentler for the season. Hope you enjoy! [video:youtube]

Awesome track! I really love the spacey breakdown in the middle. Perfect gritty organ tone, and the rhythm section is solid as a rock. The vibrato the bass player is throwing on the eighth note lines under your solo (when you start bending the pitch) is a subtle, inspired arrangement choice! Wasn't expecting his trippy envelope filter solo, and it was a great touch.

Yeah, pretty standard DAW behavior. You can set the automation to "write" whenever you move a fader or pot, so that you create the automation curves in real time. You just have to remember that it's on before you make broader tweaks!