Matt Johnson show his small gig rig

[Docbop]

 

[miden]

Love this guy!!

[yannis D]

Thanx very nice rig but still not a "small" one imo 

This guy is very inventive whatever rig he has under his fingers 

 

 

 

 

 

[CyberGene]

I’m envious of players who can play from a triple split which includes triggering samples and remembering what is on which key and then play from two other keyboards, use pedals, have separate performances for each song, all that live. I feel so insignificant and low IQ 😢

[bjosko]

Your not alone. When our singer suddenly switch around on our set list, I might be scrolling into first chorus before I have found the right program 🥴

I love the sound from his Vintage Vibe BTW

[Al Coda]

2 hours ago, yannis D said:

very nice rig but still not a "small" one

 

For him,- it is,- and for me, it is too.

The VV 64 sounds great w/ the "Tubedreamer" stomp box.

It´s the center of the rig,- the synth and workstation-keyboard sound good also,- but are replacable by other gear in that category and according to the users demands.

 

☺️

 

A.C.

[Al Coda]

2 hours ago, CyberGene said:

I’m envious of players who can play from a triple split which includes triggering samples and remembering what is on which key and then play from two other keyboards, use pedals, have separate performances for each song, all that live. I feel so insignificant and low IQ 😢

 

It´s all matter of training and learning to squeeze out the most of the gear you own.

He´s now a famous touring artist,- but he got the gigs because he already was able to serve well by using MIDI, splits and layers across several boards (and modules) perfect,- and that was before he became richer to buy all that gear you now see in the vids.

He also uses  bigger rigs sucessfully on stage,- so no wonder this rig is easy goin´ for him.

 

I´m also pretty sure he didn´t buy everything demonstrated today.

What´s the intention of a pro making enough money and then making in these vids ?

He´s now an endorsee (I guess),- at least for some of the gear.

 

Anyway,- good demonstration and VV w/ 64 keys (A-C like Wurli) catched my attention.

 

😚

 

A.C.

[Al Coda]

2 hours ago, bjosko said:

When our singer suddenly switch around on our set list

 

 

Well, exactly THIS never happened when I did pro concert touring.

There were changes according to setlist during rehearsals,- but when it was concert time,- it was more or less set in stone,- last but not least because light design was programmed according to a given running order.

When changes were the demand,- that was part of soundcheck time and before show,- so re-organization of patches, also for the lights operator, was possible.

During show,- no changes.

 

I really wonder why some singers are so excentric and the band(-leader) allows.

Every singer has to be disciplined like every other band member has to be,- period.

If he/she isn´t,- kick his/her a##!

We´re not the music-slaves of divas !

 

☺️

 

A.C.

[Docbop]

17 hours ago, Dave Ferris said:

I couldn't get over the clarity with regard to be able to hear all the notes in a chord voicing. My main beef with Rhodes in general. It really speaks for single note lines too in Jazz. But to be perfectly honest, it doesn't sound like a traditional Rhodes. It has its own organic thing that I dig.

That is something I thing VV has been very smart about they've always been their own instrument.  Yes influenced by Rhodes and Wurlitzer, but never saying they are Rhodes or Wurlitzer.     That gave them the freedom to have their own sound and not be constantly compared to a <fill in the model> Rhodes. 

[SamuelBLupowitz]

I'm also amused -- but can relate! -- to his "small" rig being three keyboards, one of which is an electromechanical piano. I'm at the point where for most of my pop/rock/funk gigs (rather than organ trio or piano singer/songwriter) I can get the number of boards down to two now, IF one of them is a dual-manual clone with an electric piano sound. More than often I'm using three these days, but still sometimes wish I had four...

 

Having audio inputs on one of your boards is a huge help in keeping the amount of gear down, and it's one of a number of perks I've found in adding the CP88 to my arsenal. But again, once that third board comes in, I still need a mixer.

 

Anyway, all this is to say... I'm no Matt Johnson. What a monster player, and so generous in sharing his wisdom with the rest of us!

[nadroj]

I went into this chuffed thinking we’d see a touring pro show off his “little synth on top of a vintage vibe” rig, then saw the L shape and wondered if he knew what “small” meant. 
 

His “small” rig is 4 x the size of my “main” rig 😂 
 

Would love to see a small intimate MJ jazz/funk gig though, regardless of the rig!

[Doerfler]

49 minutes ago, nadroj said:

His “small” rig is 4 x the size of my “main” rig 😂 

So this puts things into perspective. Matt does reference the size of the rig he uses in Jamiroquai being larger than the entire stages he plays on these small gigs.

I would love to own what he uses on a small rig. Those 3 keyboards total around US $ 11,000, not counting tax and shipping.

That's also not including effects pedals, cables, stands, cases, and anything else I might have missed.

It's a labor of love, obviously. If he decides to tour the East Coast of the USA count on me being there. 

[Philip Clark]

I enjoyed this video a lot. But yes, that is not a small footprint.

[Stokely]

Definitely not what I would call small, either....but that's the difference in gig levels for you!   For example, a couple of the nicer restaurant/bars we play, I can reach out and touch either the bass player or a cymbal if I wanted to....thank goodness for in-ears!

I really like his vids, he had an excellent one on playing funk clav.

[CyberGene]

5 minutes ago, Stokely said:

For example, a couple of the nicer restaurant/bars we play, I can reach out and touch either the bass player or a cymbal if I wanted to

The guys would hate you if you brought a 88 keyboard there. Or did you? 😀

[synthizen2]

17 hours ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

Having audio inputs on one of your boards is a huge help in keeping the amount of gear down, and it's one of a number of perks I've found in adding the CP88 to my arsenal. But again, once that third board comes in, I still need a mixer.

 

Yep, those audio inputs (which my MOX8 has) really comes in handy! I run my PC3 output into my MOX8, and both boards mixed together goes out the OUTPUTS of my MOX8, and then to a stereo DI. Also eliminated the need for a sub-mixer for me. Easiest and smallest 2-keyboard rig I've ever had.

 

Yeah, I'd like to see what Matt Johnson's regular (large) rig looks like. Geoff Downes circa 1982 perhaps? 

[Al Coda]

27 minutes ago, CyberGene said:

The guys would hate you if you brought a 88 keyboard there. Or did you? 😀

 

There comes the day even a stylophone is too big !

 

A.C.

[jerrythek]

OK, if DocBop would change the title to "his smaller rig" we could move on...

 

 

I really enjoy seeing how a great player/tech-savvy musician configures his rig and sounds for playing. That's what I find so enjoyable about this video. Bring on more, I say!!

 

 

Jerry

[Reezekeys]

Did someone say "small rig"? 😄

 

 

[Stefan011]

Little OT, but has anyone tried to buy samples from his page? I invested 10£ into two sets of chromatic minimoog samples and loaded them into Kurzweil Forte. One of them sounded absolutely beautiful and I will definitely use it. The other one had (intentionaly) excessive amount of noise.