Simplifying the rig; a lesson from a touring player

[Al Coda]

Most 'complicated' rig I ever used was a single board.

 

S##t happens ...

 

IMO, how far one can go simplifying a rig,- depends on the gig ONLY.

Is it your band or are you hired for a concert tour where you have to play others music?

Is it an amateur gig or pro?

Do others want you to make it like it is on the record or allow/want completely different arrangments working for exactly THAT band you will tour with?

Is it a Top40 band w/ probably only 4 or 5 members but has to be exactly like on the records,- possibly the most programming intensive gig, especially when everything original you have to perform was done w/ MIDI throughout on the record, but now you are the one and only keyboardplayer but have 2 guitar players, bass and drums in the lineup.

 

When all were my own music, I´d probably go w/ one Rhodes sound and a Minimoog as my lead instrument, eventually some polysynth for a pad or some color and play 8 fusion tunes the nite as the basis for long solos for everyone in the lineup.

 

Do I have to do that kind of concert tour job, I´d need at least 3 keyboards, a good MIDI matrix/processor and some modules and/or stuff replacing modules like software on a laptop or both.

 

In most rehearsals for touring there was NEVER the time for programming all the patches you need from scratch,- so best you had an arsenal of gear and look where you find the right patch then route MIDI, balance volume and store.

Everything else would have been much too time consuming and there are all the other non-keyboardists waiting for you to be ready every minute.

With the keyboards themselves, it´s all about the number of keys you have available for splits.

When you prefer not to change patches within songs too much, you NEED more keys where recalling a "setup" of your rig includes ALL the patches for THAT song and you need keyrange for every sound to perform then.

Even w/ 2 keyboardplayers in a band I had situations where ALL my 3 keyboards were split, some only 2-way but the other 3- or 4-way.

It also depends on if you have the luck to be the one covering pianos and organ or if you are the idiot doing all the orchestration and sample bits and pieces ... and when you´re the only one, well, don´t mind and do the most important snippets to make it sound right (if you can).

 

We often see clean stages,- only one keyboard, maybe Kronos ...

but under or beneath the stage, there´s the nitemare of racks and/or laptops, Receptors or all together, all program changes operated by keyboard techs.

Backing tracks come in addition.

 

I also don´t think the laptop/mainstage (or other host) solutions are easier to handle because you have to do your pre-programming w/ everything may it be hardware or software and you still have the complexity of MIDI routing, re-channelizing, channel manifolding, CCs, sysex, PrgChanges and s##t,- all just only depending on the more or less fussy demands of your client and bandleader (if you aren´t yourself).

 

I find the easiest shrinking a rig is playing blues or the basic rock stuff where you need piano, epiano and organ only.

2 boards,- perfect.

 

But I had never made a living for over 30 years w/ blues in germany or most of europe.

 

So, when I can go w/ a single board and don´t have to cover many sounds at a time,- I love it !

You won´t believe how much I loved all my gigs in the early 70s when playing a Fender Rhodes only.

One basic sound, modified a bit by stompbox FX here and there and fly,- great!

 

But when I have to cover many small split parts for many sounds across a single board, I hate it.

For me it feels like playing several small MIDI controllers w/ less than one octave range or max. of 1 1/2 octaves.

Horrible because there´s no freedom to break out.

That´s why I love at least 3 boards,- then I have 2 for the pre-arranged split-parts and one to the right in L-config as the "freelancer" board.

 

A.C.

 

[AnotherScott]

I've done the most recent gigs this summer with an S90XS, a DI, and a Yamaha DXR12; previously I'd included an XK-1C, a separate mixer, plus a MiniNova a couple of times. I went to the single 'board for the remaining fests of the summer after a sound engineer bitched at the band for starting 15 minutes late - after letting the prior act run until 5 minutes before our scheduled start ( then they had to off-load their gear, first). Screw the multi-key rig, I'm done.

Heck, I'd have been tempted to do it with just the XK-1C. ;-) It seems to take much longer to set up a 50 lb board than a 15 lb board! The parallel thread "Bring out the big guns all the time?" is relevant to this as well. But yeah, there's an art to balancing simplicity and satisfaction, and it seems I'm always trying to fine tune the balance of how simple I can keep things and how I can maximize my pleasure in playing. And sometimes a more complex rig facilitates simpler operation, so then you might think about whether you are more aiming to simplify the setup, or simplify the performance.

[DrMRG]

I am getting older and my back no longer appreciates carrying multiple keyboards. I now carry only one: Kurzweil pc3k7. I does the job well and my back is happy

[Joe P]

But....you don't want to set up too fast, or else you can get sucked into carrying some of the other guys' stuff in!

 

[CEB]

http://40.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyesi5eqAc1qzbat6o1_1280.png

[MorayM]

But....you don't want to set up too fast, or else you can get sucked into carrying some of the other guys' stuff in!

 

 

Another advantage of IEMs - stick them in as soon as you're set up and spend the next half-hour making last-minute adjustments to your sounds.