Paul McCartney keys emergency?

[marczellm]

Yesterday I saw Paul McCartney live in Vienna. During the first or second song the keyboardist Paul Wickens suddenly switched to the backup rig, turning his back to the audience. He kept playing that for up to 6-8 songs while his keyboard tech was frantically running around him trying to get everything back in order. They were sometimes seen conversing, scratching their heads between songs or during ones with few to no keys, working with the computers and other gadgets. I felt really sorry for him.

 

Previous thread and video about his gear: https://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2884485/

[area51recording]

I'd feel more sorry for him if he didn't have a backup rig to go to (which would be my situation).....

[eric]

Having a backup rig is really important. I carry a duplicate of my main board to every gig. In the old days circa early '90s when I was touring with Hammond XB-2 as my main board, I had issues when the unit would freeze up under sunlight at outdoor festivals, so I had the backup XB-2 nearby to swap in while the other one cooled down.

 

In more current times, I've had a one-off issue with the LCD display on my NS2 going haywire, which was quite difficult playing a gig with dozens of program changes and no way to navigate. I have more than one NS2, so now I always have a spare one available.

 

I've debated about duplicating other parts of my rig as well. I do carry a second set of my Ultimate Ears molded IEMs, as sweat sometimes wreaks havoc.

[jeffinpghpa]

This is why I tell my wife there is no such thing as having too many keyboards!

[TechEverlasting]

"He kept playing that for up to 6-8 songs "

 

Maybe he had to re-start a Kronos? That's about how long those things take to boot up!

[Dr Nursers]

"He kept playing that for up to 6-8 songs "

 

Maybe he had to re-start a Kronos? That's about how long those things take to boot up!

 

It's not quite that bad but yes it's one of my nightmares, thankfully has never happened. It's mainly why I got my MODX - as a good backup and takes about a third the time to boot up

[MikeT156]

Not everyone can afford to carry spares of expensive keyboards. Fortunately Yamaha makes very reliable equipment and failure would be a rare event. One other thing that comes into play with a touring road show, who and how are they moving the equipment? Bang synthesizers and other equipment around is a recipe for disaster.

 

My Yamaha ES8 was my entire classic rock show all in one. I loaded all my sequences into it when I got everything set up, one set at a time, and it always work without a hiccup. That was over a period of all the years I used it. I also powered my PA with a Yamaha Power amp, it never failed. I packed up and moved all my own equipment and was always careful,nothing was ever dropped. Flight cases for everything. I did carry an extra mixer and other accessories, but no extra keyboards.

 

A big act like Paul McCartney would end up being a big problem if the keyboards were not working. No spares?

 

 

 

Mike T.

[David Emm]

That would be called "touring," where gear occasionally gives up the ghost or a decerebrate fan spills a beer into something. I can understand why that tech was scrambling, but I also laugh a bit, because BACKUPS. "All you need," in most ways, is a 2nd 'board sporting your emergency backup soundset for such moments. A lot of people on here do gigs with an MX in the trunk for emergencies. That's not an option Emerson had if the giant Moog went south. Mmmm, improved technology....

[ShadowMan]

Fortunately Yamaha makes very reliable equipment and failure would be a rare event.

 

Exactly why I chose a MOXF6 as top board in my rig. I have patches on it that are close to every one I use on my lower tier Nord. And when the Nord dropped out mid-song two gigs ago (a failed expression pedal) I just jumped to the Yamaha seamlessly. Even on light rig gigs, it is in my truck, just in case. It's a rock!

 

Belt AND suspenders... always.

[Phil Aiken]

Touring at that level one ALWAYS has a fully (or mostly) redundant backup. Even doing theater level tours I've always had enough redundancy that if any one thing went down, I was covered, without a tech being involved. For local club playing - depending on the gig and what you're using - it is good practice to have SOME kind of backup, whether in the form of a keyboard in you rig that can be a "Swiss Army Knife" or at least another such thing in your vehicle.

 

[ElmerJFudd]

Hes shared his rig in videos posted here. Its near but relies on a lot of vintage, albeit digital tech.

[Shamanczarek]

Their was a Yanni Master Class thread posted here a while back where he talks about carrying 50 of the same Keyboards (Korg Krome) all programmed the same so they can be instantly switched in case one goes down. Yanni fans can rest easy knowing that nothing is likely to go wrong at one of his shows.

 

[video:youtube]

 

 

[Al Coda]

Their was a Yanni Master Class thread posted here a while back where he talks about carrying 50 of the same Keyboards (Korg Krome) all programmed the same so they can be instantly switched in case one goes down.

 

 

Masterclass of what ? Paranoia ?

 

 

A.C.

[Legatoboy]

In the 80's project I was in last year I always carried a back-up and programmed MGT Midi Mapper....I had fried one at one time stupidly during set up with mishandling the wall wort at a rehearsal....the whole show would be a disaster if that happened again on a gig or if one malfunctioned. If had to punch up all those patches on 3 boards/units...I'd of have been lost.

[Synthoid]

Their was a Yanni Master Class thread posted here a while back where he talks about carrying 50 of the same Keyboards (Korg Krome) all programmed the same

 

Way over the top. I can see maybe 15 or 20 but 50?

 

 

 

 

 

[Outkaster]

I know Chicago and Springsteen both carry back up B-3's the last few tours but Lou Pardini is using and XK5 I think.

[Aidan]

"He kept playing that for up to 6-8 songs "

 

Maybe he had to re-start a Kronos? That's about how long those things take to boot up!

 

On a tour with Rebecca, opening for Snakecharmer, they were going through the soundcheck and the sound guy asked Adam Wakeman: "Can we hear the Kronos, please, Adam?" Adam looked briefly at the screen and shouted back: "Not yet!"

[richforman]

I've gone through that plenty of times with my Kronos, not because it fails but because it loses power for some reason (like a fuse was blown and we all did, or the keyboard just came unplugged somehow) and just had to stand there smiling sheepishly, shrugging and pointing at its screen, for usually close to a song while it boots back up.

 

Anyway it's always interesting to see any kind of issues or failures happen for top-level pro keyboard players on major league tours. Wix told another story in an interview a few years back about an embarrassing incident where he just came in with the wrong patch for a song with Paul, it was supposed to be orchestral and it was xylophone or something, I got a laugh out of it, very relatable to us nobodies out in the trenches.

 

 

[nickd]

I know Chicago and Springsteen both carry back up B-3's the last few tours but Lou Pardini is using and XK5 I think.

 

I remember reading about David Rosenthal (Billy Joel) having an XK3c as his backup - deliberately not connected to any MIDI or anything else, so however catastrophic a computer or MIDI crash might be, he'd still have something to play.

[bfields]

After the first 49 Korg Kromes failed, I'd be ready to give up. Or at least try something other than a Korg Krome.

 

The most likely point of failure in any of my performances is me, and I'll never do anything sufficiently high stakes to merit an understudy.

[CowboyNQ]

"He kept playing that for up to 6-8 songs "

 

Maybe he had to re-start a Kronos? That's about how long those things take to boot up!

 

It's not quite that bad but yes it's one of my nightmares, thankfully has never happened. It's mainly why I got my MODX - as a good backup and takes about a third the time to boot up

As per my other thread - encountered a Kronos in a gig situation for the first time tonight. The thing does take an age to get going.

 

We didn't have the best AV crew...and the IEC cable was carrying some serious tension the way they had it initially set up.

 

I walked over to the AV "lads" and politely asked them to give me some slack on the IEC, my exact words were "if I lose power during the gig you and I are going to be staring at each other in stony silence for three minutes while this bad boy reboots, which won't make any of us happy."

[BluesKeys]

I always have two keyboards set up. I had a show three years ago right after I bought my Roland RD800 and it worked fine in sound check. I powered it down and when I came back to start the show it would not power up!!! I used my upper Motif 6 for the whole show.

Two weeks ago I opened a show with an Elvis impersonator who had his own KB player. I was going to add strings and fills on my rig. His Kurzweil PC3 with all his splits and programs worked fine at sound check. He powered it down and when it was show time it would not power up. I set him up with my RD2000 and VR-09 and he made it through the show. DO NOT POWER DOWN AFTER SOUND CHECK!!!

[JohnH]

I'm a firm believer of backups.

 

On my Doors gig I have two XS racks with duplicate setups (one of the modules I use for bass only but the layers and splits mostly have bass in them if I have to use one module) and two midi controllers- one stays in the case and extra power supplies. My other gigs I have a top Motif XF and an S90ES so either can be used if one goes down. And at home I have a spare S90ES as well.

[delmar]

Had a K2600 with a defective ribbon controller. Ended up with the highest possible note stuck and had to reboot. Loading up samples from a cd-rom while trying to continue playing was fun. I would have carried on without those sounds except that we had a song coming up that was using a liquid grooves sequence. Remember those? You'd play a chromatic scale for 16 notes and a time-sliced percussion groove would play. Sounded great unless the program number became corrupted, then the audience would be treated to a looped ascending scale. Luckily I was only playing to one of the largest audiences of my life, opening for Ziggy Marley at an amphitheater in Boston. Later that same tour the Kurz took a crap opening for Bruce Hornsby...during a duet with an acoustic guitar. And my aunt seeing me perform for the first time.

[welikeourmike]

"Maybe he had to re-start a Kronos? That's about how long those things take to boot up!

 

In the video where he walks through his rig, his backup rig is a Kronos.

[marczellm]

The main boards are Motifs though.

In this Vienna gig his backup rig was two-tiered as well, and I think I saw a Nord upstairs.

[EricBarker]

Yeah, my current MainStage rig usually takes about 3-4 minutes to boot. (add another 30secs if I have to restart the computer). Though in a pinch, I can pull up a single Kontakt patch and play through the startup process.

 

But now it's nice having a dedicated hardware board (Mojo) that I can switch over to it while my synths are booting. Curiously, though, because of the crappy power connector on the Mojo, I've had that shutoff way more often than the keyboard, but it only takes 10secs to boot.

[Docbop]

To show how things have changed, back in the day I used to do a lot of roadie and live sound work. I got called to replaced someone on the the Yes Relayer tour a couple days before the tour started, I think that was 1975 when I was still young and had a strong back.

 

As you all know even then Yes had a big complex setup especially for 1975, other than a couple Fender Twin Reverb amps with JBL's there was no backup gear I can remember. We had four semi's of gear including lights and sound, some spare stuff for lights, sounds, and stage props but nothing for Yes or the opening act that toured with us. I was surprised for keyboards Yes had one of those Tascam small studio mixers and they weren't designed for road use and it held up the whole tour.

 

That tour Yes' producer Eddy Offord went out to mix the FOH sound and had his studio console cut up and modularized so it would be easier to load into the truck along with a few Ampex studio 2-tracks. No computers or digital gear then Eddy and his team were actually cueing and playing up audio tapes during the show.

 

Things have come a long way since then.

[Dr Nursers]

To show how things have changed, back in the day I used to do a lot of roadie and live sound work. I got called to replaced someone on the the Yes Relayer tour a couple days before the tour started, I think that was 1975 when I was still young and had a strong back.

 

As you all know even then Yes had a big complex setup especially for 1975, other than a couple Fender Twin Reverb amps with JBL's there was no backup gear I can remember. We had four semi's of gear including lights and sound, some spare stuff for lights, sounds, and stage props but nothing for Yes or the opening act that toured with us. I was surprised for keyboards Yes had one of those Tascam small studio mixers and they weren't designed for road use and it held up the whole tour.

 

That tour Yes' producer Eddy Offord went out to mix the FOH sound and had his studio console cut up and modularized so it would be easier to load into the truck along with a few Ampex studio 2-tracks. No computers or digital gear then Eddy and his team were actually cueing and playing up audio tapes during the show.

 

Things have come a long way since then.

 

That is a great story - thanks!

[marczellm]

Can't embed it but here's a good picture of his current rig. Does look like Kronos.

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dta0E7lWoAAc8fX.jpg