Keyboard Sounds Made Famous by Specific Artists

[kaptainkeys]

Over the years, many keyboard sounds have been made famous by being utilized by specific artists.  Sounds that come to mind to me like this are the Roland RD-1000/MKS-20 Piano1 sound, made famous by Elton John, the DX7 EPIANO1 (layered with an acoustic piano) sound made famous by David Foster and Chicago, and the analog brass sounds (mainly from the CS80 and Prophet 5) made famous by Steve Porcaro of Toto.

Any more that you guys can think of?

[Lou_NC]

First thing that comes to my mind is Stevie Wonder's use of Clavinet (I think) on a number of 70's/80's hits.

[Tusker]

Lyle May's (soft square wave) Lead originally on the Oberheim Four Voice.

[Morrissey]

People refer to Jimmy Smith's Hammond organ settings by his name

[Morrissey]

Mellotron seems pretty linked to the Beatles

[analogika]

Jump.

Wurlitzer — Supertramp

[Baldwin Funster]

Well there's a patch Roland has called Frontiers. Guess what that sounds like....

[Docbop]

Ray Manzarek and the keyboard sounds he used with the Doors.  

[Polychrest]

Jon Lord’s overdriven Hammond through stationary speakers.

[ABECK]

CS-80 brass - Vangelis.  

 

[Outkaster]

CS-80 Roy Bittan for sure.  He had one in the late 70's and used it on the BITUSA tour.

[ProfD]

Bernie Worrell--Minimoog bass.😎

[ABECK]

Any monophonic leads with distortion and 27 layers of reverb and delay, with massive amounts of pitch bend - Jordan Rudess

[roygBiv]

miniKorg 700  - the Cars (simple melodic lines anyway)

[timwat]

In addition to his "ocarina" lead sound, Lyle May's Oberheim "orchestral string section" (for lack of a better name), although he once said he thought of it more as a french horn section from an arrangers perspective, IIRC.

 

Emerson's Moog Modular on Lucky Man, and his Hammond sound which influenced an entire branch of prog rock.

 

Jobson's CS80 - Alaska

 

The "Tannerin" (not the theremin) on Good Vibrations

 

 

 

And going waaaay back:

 

Tomita's whistle

 

ALL of Wendy Carlo's sounds on the original Switched On Bach

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MathOfInsects]

Richard Tee's phased Rhodes.

[timwat]

The Rudy Van Gelder piano sound, which became synonymous with jazz recordings of a certain era, IMHO.

[timwat]

And to a lesser extent, the Keith Jarrett / Manfred Eicher piano sound, which to my ears became exaggerated and idiosyncratic around the Staircase release, but is part of why one can pick out a KJ recording immediately.

[stoken6]

Tom Sawyer is both a song and a sound. I guess Jump would also qualify.

 

Steve Winwood's Moog?

 

 

Cheers, Mike.

[bill bosco]

38 minutes ago, timwat said:

In addition to his "ocarina" lead sound, Lyle May's Oberheim "orchestral string section" (for lack of a better name), although he once said he thought of it more as a french horn section from an arrangers perspective, IIRC.

 

Emerson's Moog Modular on Lucky Man, and his Hammond sound which influenced an entire branch of prog rock.

 

Jobson's CS80 - Alaska

 

The "Tannerin" (not the theremin) on Good Vibrations

 

 

 

And going waaaay back:

 

Tomita's whistle

 

ALL of Wendy Carlo's sounds on the original Switched On Bach

 

 

the sound of the Hammond organ as played by Felix Cavalieri and Mark Stein . turned on a whole generation of us to the B3 

 

 

 

 

[Iconoclast]

Geddy Lee over 3 or 4 records made the Obx famous for many sounds, but they all had that same feel and all seemed to based on some kind of Oberheim square wave and lovely use of the filter and filter envelope.

Some of the iconic Rush Oberheim stuff:
-Tom Sawyer opening and lead

-Subdivisions opening and lead (very similar to the Tom Sawyer lead)

-Camera Eye

-Any number of bass synth sounds which may have actually not been Oberheim...but sure sounded like it.

[GovernorSilver]

Korg M1 Organ/Bass used in Robin S club hits like "Show Me Love".  M1 was more widely used after the better-financed "pros" of the time started dumping M1s into the used market in favor of the next latest and greatest.

 

 

Paolo N. (longtime forum friend) does a walkthrough here

 

 

[JimboKeys]

Jan Hammer - Modified Minimoog through an overdriven guitar amp

[drohm]

4 hours ago, Iconoclast said:

Geddy Lee over 3 or 4 records made the Obx famous for many sounds, but they all had that same feel and all seemed to based on some kind of Oberheim square wave and lovely use of the filter and filter envelope.

Some of the iconic Rush Oberheim stuff:
-Tom Sawyer opening and lead

-Subdivisions opening and lead (very similar to the Tom Sawyer lead)

-Camera Eye

-Any number of bass synth sounds which may have actually not been Oberheim...but sure sounded like it.

I believe Rush used the Moog Taurus bass pedal a lot too. Correct me if I am wrong on that. Genesis sure used it on early albums. 

[Dave Bryce]

49 minutes ago, drohm said:

I believe Rush used the Moog Taurus bass pedal a lot too. Correct me if I am wrong on that. Genesis sure used it on early albums. 

The Taurus 1 in both cases, I believe.

 

dB

[16251]

Wow, this one still available.  Joe Zawinul's Rhodes with Mutron Bi-phase. Maybe there's more too it (I'm no expert on this stuff.)  Of course on the subject of Zawinul.  His 2600 lead sound, the Ob pads. Please someone else take over...

[Mark Zeger]

9 hours ago, Morrissey said:

Mellotron seems pretty linked to the Beatles

I’d say the Mellotron flutes are linked most closely to Strawberry Fields Forever and Stairway To Heaven. 

 

Mellotron choir probably has the closest association with In The Court Of The Crimson King.

 

Mellotron strings & brass, a toss up?

Wakeman (Yes & Bowie)?

Banks?

Pinder?

John Paul Jones?

[Ivan May]

Oh man...if I had to name one significant keyboard sound, it would certainly have to be Supertramp and their usage of the Wurlitzer 200a Piano.

 

 

Why Rick Davies doesn't get enough recognition for his keyboard playing as say, Jon Lord, is way beyond me.

[Mark Zeger]

Ray Charles, Wurly 120 “What’d I Say”

[16251]

3 minutes ago, Mark Zeger said:

I’d say the Mellotron flutes are linked most closely to Strawberry Fields Forever and Stairway To Heaven. 

 

Mellotron choir probably has the closest association with In The Court Of The Crimson King.

 

Mellotron strings & brass, a toss up? Wakeman (Yes & Bowie)?

Banks?

Pinder?

John Paul Jones?

I saw Aerosmith at Suffolk Downs before they were famous. Mellotron on Dream On has got to be on list.