Gear needed for 1970s tribute band

[J. Dan]

I've found in many situations, being able to nail the sounds is the differentiator. There are lots of guys with good chops who can't nail the sounds, and vice versa. Being able to do both is in demand.

 

In addition to most of the responses suggesting it can all be done with a rompler and a clone, I find that having a VA engine is necessary to really nail some of the parts. Of course it depends on what ends up in the repertoire, but in my case, it's been essential.

[cphollis]

In one board? Nord Stage 2 would be a strong candidate.

 

Lots of acoustic pianos, electromechanicals, full organ section with B3, Vox, Farf, hundreds of samples in the library including all the vintage synths of the era (e.g. Mellotron), plus a decent synth section for mono leads, a useful effects section, and so on.

 

I still play a lot of that music, and that's what I use.

 

J. Dan is right, if you can nail "that sound", it's a win all around. Can't always be done 100% of the time, but being able to do so well enough most of the time is usually sufficient.

[stillearning]

I'm in my 60's, and gigged in the 70's, playing music of the era, as well as playing some of that material now. Did it back then with a Baldwin Electro-piano, a MiniMoog, an Arp Quadra and Odyssey, Yamaha organ and Leslie 145, and Yamaha CP 30 elactric piano. Made for an impressive stage set-up. I'll look for some pics.

 

In the 90's and 00's, started using a Korg 01/W ProX, and a Roland A70 MIDI'ed to a rack full of modules, including a Korg Radias, Roland VK 8M, and several 1u rompler boxes with MIDI routers. Covered it all nicely.

 

Now use a Nord Stage 88.

 

In the old days we had a road crew. Now it's me loading in and out. The Nord gets close enough for me!

[cphollis]

Now it's me loading in and out. The Nord gets close enough for me!

 

Yep, that's the reality these days.

[stillearning]

Found an image from the late 70's, taken during a sound check...

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f146/stillearning/SndChk.jpg

Baldwin ElectroPiano with Yamaha CP30 on top.

Yamaha YC30 organ with ARP Quadra on top.

 

[mate stubb]

Baldwin ElectroPiano with Yamaha CP30 on top.

Yamaha YC30 organ with ARP Quadra on top.

 

Interesting rig!

[richforman]

I'm always interested when anybody mentions the old CP-30. It was the first keyboard I ever bought, probably because the salesman showed it to 16-year-old me when I walked into the music store in my suburban neighborhood, I knew less than nothing about electronic keyboards then (now I know just a small notch more than nothing). I played it in my first couple bands for two or three years I think, but looking back, in retrospect I'd say it was fairly awful, didn't really sound anything like an acoustic OR electric piano, and was never much heard from or talked about over the years, so I always get a kick out of discovering that anyone else had and used one and remembers them!

[Markyboard]

I'm always interested when anybody mentions the old CP-30. It was the first keyboard I ever bought, probably because the salesman showed it to 16-year-old me when I walked into the music store in my suburban neighborhood

 

Same here, only I was 19. Bought it at Sam Ash in Huntington. I absolutely loved that thing except for the constant electronic circuit noise bleeding through. Hated moving the damn thing; it was heavy and the handles were very uncomfortable to use. But having the case double as a stand was way cool.

[stillearning]

I'm always interested when anybody mentions the old CP-30. It was the first keyboard I ever bought, probably because the salesman showed it to 16-year-old me when I walked into the music store in my suburban neighborhood, I knew less than nothing about electronic keyboards then (now I know just a small notch more than nothing). I played it in my first couple bands for two or three years I think, but looking back, in retrospect I'd say it was fairly awful, didn't really sound anything like an acoustic OR electric piano, and was never much heard from or talked about over the years, so I always get a kick out of discovering that anyone else had and used one and remembers them!

Agree on all counts. The CP-30 was truly an odd duck of a board. It's own sound. We did mostly 70's prog back then, and used it for Genesis and Floyd EP sounds. Think cheesy RMI copies. It was OK for that. And more reliable.

 

But that Yamaha YC-30 combo organ was an underated board, in my opinion. When put through a Leslie, it was a decent Hammond substiute, at a fraction of the weight and size! Even had Yamaha's version of drawbars. Many years before there were clones available. I still have it, and it still works almost 50 years and countless gigs later! I no longer use it, but I'll likely never get rid of it either. My first gigging board.

[Threadslayer]

I'm always interested when anybody mentions the old CP-30. It was the first keyboard I ever bought, probably because the salesman showed it to 16-year-old me when I walked into the music store in my suburban neighborhood, I knew less than nothing about electronic keyboards then (now I know just a small notch more than nothing). I played it in my first couple bands for two or three years I think, but looking back, in retrospect I'd say it was fairly awful, didn't really sound anything like an acoustic OR electric piano, and was never much heard from or talked about over the years, so I always get a kick out of discovering that anyone else had and used one and remembers them!

I played for a while in the 70s with a band of brothers who had played together their whole lives, and the CP-30 was an integral part of their sound and they supplied one and insisted that I play it instead of my Rhodes. I kind of liked it actually.

[dsetto]

what gear would be necessary to pull this off. ... I have a Yamaha CP4, Mojo (2 manual), and a Hammond Xk1C. ...

I'd think this is all that's needed to get the gig, so the focus can be on brushing up on the music. Also, the CP4's has some good synth sounds. With some basic edit-ability. This can support the process. (Especially for pad stuff - or the other-than lightning fast simple-sound leads. Split can be set up. And the upper keys are lighter - faster in a sense. But, perhaps you don't want to spend the time to go deeper into the CP4. And that's reasonable.

 

To compliment this, for this need, I would get a small (full-key) poly-capable synth. 4-octave or lower. In the starting arena, there's a $500 Akai analog, timbre-wolf which I'd look into, but don't know anything about. And from what I know about the stock samples, fx & editability of my motif xf, I would guess an MX49 for $500, 4 octaves & 8lbs would compliment well, both your rig & needs for the style of bands mentioned.

 

jumping up to $1k, i'd look at: deepmind12, mopho x4, blofeld (or the knobby yellow one).

 

--

edit: maybe i should read the thread before posting. i'll leave it for the next time.

[MotiDave]

I'm always interested when anybody mentions the old CP-30. It was the first keyboard I ever bought, probably because the salesman showed it to 16-year-old me when I walked into the music store in my suburban neighborhood, I knew less than nothing about electronic keyboards then (now I know just a small notch more than nothing). I played it in my first couple bands for two or three years I think, but looking back, in retrospect I'd say it was fairly awful, didn't really sound anything like an acoustic OR electric piano, and was never much heard from or talked about over the years, so I always get a kick out of discovering that anyone else had and used one and remembers them!

Agree on all counts. The CP-30 was truly an odd duck of a board. It's own sound. We did mostly 70's prog back then, and used it for Genesis and Floyd EP sounds. Think cheesy RMI copies. It was OK for that. And more reliable.

 

But that Yamaha YC-30 combo organ was an underated board, in my opinion. When put through a Leslie, it was a decent Hammond substiute, at a fraction of the weight and size! Even had Yamaha's version of drawbars. Many years before there were clones available. I still have it, and it still works almost 50 years and countless gigs later! I no longer use it, but I'll likely never get rid of it either. My first gigging board.

Greg Hawks played a CP30 for almost all of his EP parts on early Cars albums. I had to buy a 3rd party library just to get that CP30 sampled sound when I was doing a Cars trib. No other EP sounds quite like it imo.