steadyb Posted October 21, 2006 Share Posted October 21, 2006 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV1VJanGATA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Alfredson Posted October 21, 2006 Share Posted October 21, 2006 Originally posted by cliffk: I don't know about Zawinul's 'reversed' keyboard. Could it be that the lens of the overhead camera was reversed or something, as in this Billy Joel video ? Oops, on second look, that middle board of Zawinul's does indeed look reversed, because his bottom board playing seems conventional. Wait ... but at about 7min, that same middle board responds conventionally again?! Somebody please explain this to li'l ol' me. It's an ARP 2600. He just reversed the control voltage (CV) across the keyboard. He talks about it in many different articles, including one in good ol' Keyboard magazine from 1977: Zawinul has spoken often of the inverted keyboard that he played on "Black Market." It was made possible by a feature on the ARP 2600 that allowed inverting the keyboard voltage so that the upper portion of the keyboard played the lower sounds and vice versa. Len Lyons, in a 1977 Keyboard magazine interview, asked Zawinul why he experimented with it: Because it was a challenge for me to play in a mirrored system. It's good for the mind. If you improvise on chords, for example, you've got to transpose, and your mind has to be very, very fast. I was recording one day at home on the inverted setup, and that's when the song "Black Market" was put together. After listening to it, I played the melodies on the straight keyboard, and it didn't sound as good as it did the mirrored way. Then I had to write the melody down and relearn it on the inverted keyboard, because at first it was improvised. On-stage, I play the first melody of the song with the right hand on the inverted keyboard, and the left hand accompanies on the Rhodes until after the first six notes into the bridge. Then the right hand plays the contrapuntal chord voicings on the polyphonic [Oberheim] synthesizer. The left hand continues the melody where the right hand stopped, putting a chord or two on the Rhodes into the spaces. It takes a little while to get used to thinking in the mirrored system. Only C and F# are the same as on the straight keyboard. B becomes C#, Bb becomes D, A becomes Eb, and so on. I also play chords on the bridge of "Black Market" on the Oberheim. The chord is going upwards and the melody is going downwards--in contrary motion. It's beautiful to challenge yourself visually. It makes you play new things. (KB77b) Keep it greazy! B3tles - Soul Jazz THEO - Prog Rock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Real MC Posted October 21, 2006 Share Posted October 21, 2006 My Minimoog has the Lintronics LMC MIDI retrofit. You can reverse the MIDI action - high MIDI notes play low pitches on the Minimoog. One of the factory patches I designed for the Andromeda was a polyphonic reverse keyboard patch. Yeah that stuff messes with your head, especially when you're playing a major triad and it comes out minor... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marino Posted October 21, 2006 Share Posted October 21, 2006 Originally posted by The Real MC: Yeah that stuff messes with your head, especially when you're playing a major triad and it comes out minor... And viceversa, of course! First thing I did when I bought my Chroma twenty years ago, was to program a reverse patch, then inviting a friend pianist with no exprience with synths, and having a bit of fun at his expense. BTW, Zawinul lives on a different planet. Take the "Birdland" ending solo. He played the main melody in chords with one hand, while playing the (written out) solo, in a totally different rhythmic dimension, with the other. That's bad enough, but what's incredible is, he can play either part with either hand! I have witnessed this myself; I remember him playing the solo with his right hand in the old times, but in more recent times he had switched hands. Mind boggling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orangefunk Posted October 22, 2006 Share Posted October 22, 2006 Joe was the guy who really mastered using the Oberheim 4 Voice as a multi stacked mono voice tuned so that it sounded like chords or a huge unison voice when you played single notes... never heard anyone else really do that... Check the video of Teen Town for an example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliffk Posted October 22, 2006 Share Posted October 22, 2006 ...So much to learn, so little time... YouTube music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Alfredson Posted October 22, 2006 Share Posted October 22, 2006 That's the great thing about music. There's always something else to learn! Keep it greazy! B3tles - Soul Jazz THEO - Prog Rock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leberwurst Posted October 22, 2006 Share Posted October 22, 2006 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2bcPIXl8kc best vid ever! The Dromb Bopper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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