Keyboard – Building Your Band

Peter James | Clashing With Every Single Person

February 19, 2018 By Pete Bulanow

We’re joined by legendary Hillsong keyboardist and sound designer Peter James. Peter has been playing piano/keys for the last 25+ years, and has been heavily involved with Hillsong Church as a volunteer on the weekends, as well as being employed by Hillsong United and Hillsong International Leadership College as a lecturer for the past 13 years. Additionally, he has played on 40+ Hillsong albums. In this episode, we get inside Peter James headspace on everything from Sound Design -> Writing Parts -> Arranging -> Synth Bass. We hear how he pushes himself to continually try something new, the relationship of keyboard parts to sounds, a trick for coming up with parts, and how to incorporate synth base into your band. We hear about the influence of Hillsong producer, Joel Houston, and the reference material he pushed out ahead of tracking, such as: M83, Passion Pit, & Radiohead, that influence modern worship music today. Go to Peter James Productions, check out his stuff at Multitracks (including his sounds for Oceans), don’t miss his Youtube Channel, and follow him on Facebook, and Twitter.

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher and support the show by rating us and leaving a comment. Have a question or thought? Leave a comment below or connect directly with us!

The Best Keyboard

July 1, 2017 By Pete Bulanow

Music pastors and aspiring keyboardists occasionally ask my take on the best keyboard for modern worship music, and while I’m happy to discuss differing synthesis techniques, interface philosophies, and personalities of manufacturers, my take is unequivocal: the best keyboard, is the keyboard you own.

Why is that? Well, if you don’t have your own keyboard, you’re not going to be familiar with its sounds or how to navigate on it, so you’re only going to use a handful of patches for any particular set. You’re also not going to be familiar with how those sounds respond to note velocity, let alone aftertouch or the mod wheel, nor are you going to have a good sense of how they sound solo’d or work in a mix. Consequently, you are going to play tentatively because you’re not going to have confidence in your sounds, or how they respond, and when the sound does something unexpected you’ll get spooked by it and back down. Additionally, the house sound engineer may just mute you if something loud sticks out and start messing up their mix. You need your own keyboard, so that you can become intimately familiar with its sounds, and so you have a variety of your favorite patches, well organized in the user section, at your fingertips. You need to become intimately familiar with how those patches respond to note velocity, aftertouch, and the mod wheel so that you can create something dynamic that evolves, as our incredibly-made ears identify static sounds with ease. Furthermore you need to have a good sense of how your patches sound both solo’d and in a mix (try playing along with MP3’s at home). The bottom line is, the only keyboard you will be able to play confidently, is the one that you know inside and out. You will only know how to voice your chords to be both present and in their proper space if you’re intimately familiar with how those sounds respond. Personally, it doesn’t matter who set up a keyboard or how awesome that keyboard is, if I wasn’t intimately familiar with that particular machine, I would never use it during a gig because all I would be doing is inviting trouble. I have turned down using all kind of fantastic gear, to include the Nords, rather than get bogged down in a new interface, get lost in a menu, and be unsure how a sound will respond (am I even in the right octave?). The exception to this is, I may use one sound from a keyboard that I don’t own, if it were something important that added quality and depth to my sound. The best example of this is I typically use the house piano wherever I go, and add my rig to it. This works because I am already very familiar with how a piano responds, the house sound engineer already knows how that piano responds, including how to mic it if it’s a real/acoustic instrument, and I’m spending zero time fussing with it trying to navigate a new interface. So, yes, absolutely, if you have a Mac do get MainStage, and if you can afford a Nord Stage go for it, and I haven’t seen anyone using a Behringer DeepMind yet so I’d love to see that, and if you like the sound of something different than what everyone else is playing, even better to bring something new to the table! But you need your own keyboard. You probably need a stage instrument (meant for live music and with a simpler interface) more than you need a workstation (with a deeper interface and squencing capabilities). But in the end, it’s not about the gear. In the end it’s about how the gear is used, and how you hear it.

If you’re a wanna-be keyboardist, you need to understand that much of the contribution you make, just like a guitarist, is via the tone and timbres you bring. And it is imperative that you take ownership of that, because you are going to hear sound slightly differently than everyone else. Buying a keyboard, getting to know that keyboard, selecting your favorite set of patches, tweaking (lightly editing) those patches so they are “yours”, and then understanding how those sounds work in a song are all part of the craft of being a modern keyboardist. And have no doubt, this is craftsmanship. If you don’t have a budget, just start hitting craigslist up, then audition the keyboards for sale there on youtube before you bother to meet up. If you have any kind of a budget, hit the biggest music store in your city, in the morning and on a weekday so the store is empty, and bring your own set of headphones to audition every keyboard they have until you start to hear the differences and start to have an opinion. Then buy your first piece of gear (from that store!! You want them to continue to be in business, right?). Over the next few years your tastes may change, or you’ll figure out what your machine does or doesn’t do well enough to consider a new piece of gear. Then don’t get rid of that one! Instead, add the new ‘board to your sound so you don’t lose anything that you have, and you can slowly get your head around the new interface and contributions of the new machine, incorporate the capability of your second keyboard into your live playing. Congratulations on starting down your path of becoming a modern keyboardist with your unique voice! Does your experience back this up? Do you see things differently or have other advice? Leave your questions or comments in the notes below or contact me directly!

Jon Waller | Destroyed an Entire Genre

May 22, 2017 By Pete Bulanow

Jon joins the show discussing a range of genres based around Jazz to include Gospel and Neo Soul. Along the way, he shares samples from some projects he has done. We wrap up with his thoughts on the kinds of music that belongs in church, the role the church plays in moving music forward, as well as his thoughts on playing outside of the church. Find Jon on Facebook.

Let each one according to the gift that he has received, administer it unto the others, as a good steward of the diverse graces of God. I Peter 4:10

A few recent products from Jon on video: This episode is sponsored by Johnny Flash Productions, a creative agency based in the Washington D.C. area that was founded 16 years ago by John Falke. I can’t speak highly enough about the quality of his service. If you have the need, I think you’d really enjoy working with him and be pleased with the results. Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher and support the show by rating us five stars and leaving a comment. We love your questions and comments! If you like this episode, you may also like “Dave Tauler – Not Enough Bassoon Gigs“, “Justin Pinkney, ‘Translating CCM’”, and “William Brew IV | The Way It Is“.

Your Keyboard Sound

January 18, 2017 By Pete Bulanow

If you’re a died-in-the-wool keyboardist, you probably recognize the names: Tom Oberheim, Alan Pearlman, Roger Linn, Bob Moog, and Dave Smith as the names behind our first electronic instruments as well as many of today’s virtual analog synths. This interview in Keyboard Magazine with Dave Smith talks about the intervening years of analog synthesis since digital keyboards, and in particular, sample playback synths (like the Korg M1), were invented.

Was that the beginning of analog’s long slumber? The real death blow was when the Korg M1 came out, which was by far the most popular keyboard ever made. It even outsold the DX7. Finally, here was what keyboard players always wanted—real piano, brass, strings, organs, basses, leads. This is somewhat unfair, and I’ll tell you why, but it put synthesis innovation into a 20-year dark age. Ever since the M1, every company just kept building M1s. More voices, more and better sounds, more precision—just more, more, more. In some ways, they’re still doing it. So why was that unfair to say? Because it’s what 90 percent of keyboard players need to play gigs, which is different from players who are into synths for their own sake. What’s cool and different now is people are once again playing synths as synths because they’ve already got their Nords and Motifs and so forth to cover all the other sounds they need. So if you buy a synth now, it’s because you actually want to play a synth. That’s why I think this time it’s going to be different from last time. There’s not going to be something digital that comes in and makes true synthesizers go away again.

When I played a DX7 in the 80’s, I was mostly playing sounds that I created from scratch. But the first Keyboard I bought was a Korg M1 precisely because it gave me what I thought I wanted and what I thought keyboardists were supposed to do-emulate “real” instruments. It took my love for the acoustic piano to finally understand that sample playback instruments have a very real static component to them that our ears easily detect, whereas a real instrument is constantly evolving. In this way, a real instrument is much more like a waterfall or a fire – similar, consistent, but never exactly the same and always slightly different and evolving. More like a fractal. While I’m not against sample playback, and I’m not against attempting to emulate real instruments (I do this all the time), my fascination is really with sounds that don’t produce a recognizable picture in your mind when you hear them, yet are nevertheless emotive. How an unrecognizable / unvisualizable sound can be so compelling is a profound mystery to me, but one that I love exploring. All that to say, the “dark ages” that Dave Smith references is this period in the wilderness looking for the promised land of perfect emulations of real instruments, when it never crossed our minds that perhaps what keyboards are really good at is something else altogether. Keyboards are good at synthesizing sound. So I do use sample playback in my arsenal, but more than that, I am looking for compelling sounds that evolve and change like a waterfall or like a fire, just like a real instrument does, so that our highly-attuned ear stays interested. Food for thought, and I welcome your feedback.

Toto Masterclass

January 11, 2017 By Pete Bulanow

When we hold a workshop, we start out by talking about the roles for each instrument. Knowing the role of each instrument goes far to inform what everyone should play. But even without that understanding, we have clear examples of the kinds of things we should play all around us: original studio tracks. If your playing doesn’t line up with basically the kinds of things you hear on records, you may be overplaying. Session players are the ones that get the call to play in the studio while the tape is rolling and there are a bunch of people sitting around charging by the minute for their time – when you need to get it right the first time. Toto is a band that formed out of session players – so in many ways, they are a textbook. This is a breakdown of a famous song of Toto’s from the 80’s called “Rosanna” which you can read all about at the wikipedia page. Other than the fact the announcers talk too much over the tracks, this really does go far to break down just how little is needed, yet how significant each contribution is. If your playing is significantly different than what is on here, it’s time to rethink some things. A couple things jump out at me listening to this: Jeff Porcaro on Drums – he is famous for just playing the groove and not playing a lot of fills. My kind of drummer, and exactly what you need most Sunday mornings. Steve Porcaro on Keys – This really is textbook keyboard playing. Something as simple as a roll down at the right time can shift the whole song. Steve Lukather on Guitar – Note just how tasteful his playing is when called to play rhythm. Don’t be afraid to step out a little when asked to solo. Vocal Harmonies – Everything should start out with melody. You build harmonies slowly. Blend is everything. You can actually get away with a lot of harmonies if you’re tasteful and intentional. Finally, everybody uses contrasts to make certain things speak, and other things lay back. What jumps out at you?

The Five Stages of Musical Proficiency

June 27, 2016 By Pete Bulanow

Something that I think would have been helpful to me in my musical journey, was some sort of validation of where I’ve been, where I am, and a hint of what is ahead of me. This handy chart that I created is one way to break things out, and it’s the way I hear many folks describe their musical journey. The First Stage is really the beginner stage- when you first pick up your instrument and don’t know a thing about a scale or a chord or a time signature. It’s about acquiring those basics. The Second Stage is the “doing your homework” phase of musical progression, where you put in your time – maybe even most of your 10,000 hours – to gain proficiency on your instrument. If you don’t love your instrument by this point you get out. The Third Stage represents a paradigm shift. It’s the first time you start focussing not on what you’re playing, but on what you’re not playing. It’s about creating space for others and responding to what is going on. If you’re copying the record at this point, that’s where your eyes get opened up to what session players are actually doing. They’re not the busy little doodlers we are when we play by ourselves. There is an economy to what they play. This is when we get knocked back by the significance of The Edge when he says:

Notes actually do mean something. They have power. I think of notes as being expensive. You don’t just throw them around. I find the ones that do the best job and that’s what I use. I suppose I’m a minimalist instinctively. I don’t like to be inefficient if I can get away with it. Like on the end of “With or Without You”. My instinct was to go with something very simple. Everyone else said, “Nah, you can’t do that.” I won the argument and I still think it’s sort of brave, because the end of “With or Without You” could have been so much bigger, so much more of a climax, but there’s this power to it which I think is even more potent because it’s held back… ultimately I’m interested in music. I’m a musician. I’m not a gunslinger. That’s the difference between what I do and what a lot of guitar heroes do. —The Edge (1991)

The Fourth Stage is when you’ve moved past trying to copy your influences and you prefer your own voice. This is when you can apply your sound to original material without second guessing yourself. This is also when you might listen to the record, but you don’t need to, because you understand how to serve the song. This level represents the true expert, the specialist in music. The Fifth Stage is reserved for the very few who are willing to be extremely brave and vulnerable and who continue to distill their voice and find something so new as to be thought of as original. Very often this occurs across genres or it is art that transcends genres. This stage of musicianship is reserved for those who change the way we hear music, and we’re never the same after that. Once we move forward, we still may step backwards at times so that we can again move forward with a different vocabulary or improved skill set. I think of Rush’s Drummer Neil Peart, already a world class drummer with 14 Albums under his belt, using a traditional rock style of hitting the snare (clearly at the Fifth Stage), who decided in 1994 to back up (to the Second Stage) and learn the looser jazz style traditional grip of playing to find some fresh inspiration, the result of which can first be heard on Test For Echo. What do you think? Do these stages help you think about where you are in your own musical journey? Are they helpful as you think about the musicians you play with, produce, or direct?

Apple and Alchemy

November 23, 2015 By Pete Bulanow

As a keyboardist and Apple aficionado who follows the likes of Gruber, Marco and Dalrymple, the acquisition of the soft synth, Alchemy, by Apple last year, and its recent re-release in Logic and MainStage, presents a unique opportunity to look at exactly what Apple has done with this acquisition. The improvements in design and functionality are what you might hope for from Apple. But it’s the reason for the acquisition that is perhaps the most interesting. Apple has a huge piggy bank; they rarely use it for acquisition. That they did use it must signal something strategic.

Background Camel Audio announced their store was closed on Jan 7th of this year (2015). Dalrymple posted about this back in the day and called it a good move (don’t miss the speculations in the comments!). Camel Audio maintained customer support until July 7, 2015, and customers were encouraged to download the latest versions of the software and backup their data. Which I did. Twice. Today camelaudio.com doesn’t resolve and they’ve even deleted their youtube channel. GarageBand, essentially a consumer grade Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), introduced the idea of a softsynth, i.e. “software synth” or “virtual instrument”, to the masses with minimal fanfare. Before GarageBand, softsynths, which first debuted in 1999, were reserved for professional or prosumer musicians who used them to add to their sonic pallet inside of a host DAW (like the big three: Cakewalk, Cubase, or Logic). Using softsynths greatly reduced the complexity of tracking keyboard parts in a MIDI sequencer DAW. Doing everything inside the computer means there is no gain structure to manage and no loss of fidelity. Audio can stay in the digital domain and be processed with 32bit fidelity to minimize rounding errors. Softsynths were also cost effective, as you didn’t need to re-buy hardware. Eventually that sonic pallet became attractive to live gigging, although the threat of a crash and reboot always loomed large. With the creation of MainStage (at just $30), a lightweight host for softsynths specifically created for live environments, softsynths became a staple of modern keyboard gigging.

One of those softsynths that I considered a secret weapon both live and in my studio was “Alchemy” by Camel Audio. It was relatively light on the CPU, but strong on evocative sound. Producer, DJ, Technologist, and “Father of Trance” BT described it as “… the best synth I have ever used in my entire life. Hard or soft synth, the most elegant, animated, beautiful, evocative synthesizer ever made.” That’s no small praise. BT is Berkley trained, has conducted live orchestras, and since then even produced his own software plugin based on his “stutter edit” style – so that is not a resource-constrained compliment. Alchemy is world class. A point of clarification- Mac Observer reported that “Apple Adds Alchemy Synthesizer Support to Logic Pro X,” but this isn’t quite correct. Logic, as well as many other DAWs, could already host any range of softsynths, to include Alchemy via a plugin standard called VST or AU. For example, Cubase made a point of explaining how Alchemy integrated back in the day. With Apple’s acquisition, everyone else actually lost access to Alchemy because Apple has not released it as a standalone product on the VST or AU standards. Instead, it is now locked away inside Apple products. I initially looked at this acquisition and its significance through the lens of MainStage, but the more I’ve thought about it, this might be more of a move for Logic. But before we get into all that, let’s talk about Alchemy.

Intro to Alchemy Softsynth Below is what the most updated version of Alchemy looked like before Camel Audio shut off the lights, and is what Apple received (plus whatever else Camel Audio had cooking in the back room). Instead of employing DRM (which often impacts usability) to protect their software, Camel Audio took a different tack and baked the user’s name right into the owner’s version of the software. The owner’s name is shown in two places, once under the logotype “Alchemy,” and the second upon startup in the “LED panel” in the center. In fact, when you first run the synth, this LED panel displays not only your name, but your phone number and address – basically all your support information. I imagine this did a pretty good job of dissuading folks from sharing their personal copy of the synth without saddling honest users with flaky authentication, an approach which strikes me as Apple-ey.

A couple key points to understanding this display: To the right of the Alchemy Logotype there are three buttons: “Browse, Simple, and Advance” indicating three modes for interacting with the synth. The default mode (highlighted in blue) is “Browse” (pictured above), the purpose of which is to help with finding the right sound. This is typically the start of the keyboardist’s workflow.

Today’s keyboard workstations and softsynths usually have hundreds, if not thousands, of sounds on board. Indeed, Camel Alchemy shipped with 5GB of samples and over 1,000 sounds. With this many sounds it became possible to spend hours or even days searching for sounds and not actually doing any music (I’m not making this up. This was discussed in Keyboard magazine, and I was guilty of it myself!). Thus navigating and finding the right sound is a problem of significant importance. Camel Audio thoughtfully approached this issue by tagging all their sounds and letting the user select (top row) various categories, genres, or sound types to filter results (second row) displayed as sound names. I don’t know if Camel Audio was the first to use this tag/filter approach to find sounds (e.g. legendary heavyweight Absynth also does this, at right), but this approach works extremely well. Additionally, when selected, Alchemy displays a graphic of the sound library where the sound came from, a shout-out to the author, and a place to save user tags and user comments as well. Finally, Alchemy uses a five-star rating system for each sound (again, very apple-ey) with the default value set to three stars, which I find useful. The third row exposes some rapid sound editing parameters as well as some macro sound editing parameters that are among the best implementation of these ideas that I’ve seen. First, there are two X/Y “joystick” controllers connected to a variety of parameters. Although this approach is not without precedent, it’s a useful one. One of the most compelling and original features of Alchemy is the eight zones in the bottom right. With a mouse or other X-Y controller(s) you can move around in this area and smoothly fade from one set of parameters to another. Getting a keyboard to change parameters without glitching (or typically “zipping”) while playing notes is, I-don’t-know-how-to-put-this-but-kind-of-a-big-deal, and is essential to the “playability” of the synth. Using these eight zones in real time facilitate playing the parameters themselves, modifying the timbre, adding depth to the sound. Alchemy Today Now that we have looked at Legacy Alchemy, let’s see what Apple did to the front panel, while in the same default browse mode:

Clean. Familiar. Somehow bigger. I really like it. They didn’t mess it up. Basically everything is intact. That’s a lot of restraint on Apple’s part.

The only addition I see is that in some sounds (not a majority though), there are labels written in the eight zones instead of just numbering them (see right). This could be helpful to remind you what that zone sounds like, or to help you to avoid a zone. Typically I like about five of the eight zones and really want to avoid one or two. The thing that I see missing is a little graphic and credit to the author of the sound bank that the sound comes from, but that was probably more important in the past and not relevant to Apple’s business model, as we will see. The user tags and comments area remain intact, as does the five star rating with the default set at three stars. It’s really interesting to me that Apple kept the default at a three star rating, since they also use a five star system in iTunes and iPhoto, but the default there is no stars. This is a little non-standard for Apple.

Let’s look at the simple mode from the Legacy synth: This mode assumes you’ve found your sound and want to save screen real estate. It has just the real-time performance parameters on it you need to leverage this synth.

OK, Apple’s take:

Once again, everything is intact. Just a much cleaner more logical design – better in every way. The design has less skeuomorphic cues – the graduations on the buttons and the diagonals on the joystick are gone – although the metaphor of buttons, knobs and zones remain intact for keyboardists who may actually map these parameters to real-world physical interfaces (I certainly have/do).

Let’s take a look at the Advanced Mode, meant to expose all the parameters to the no-kidding sound-programmers and sound-tweakers out there (as modifying the default sounds, if only a little, is a must for any “legit” keyboardist).

Lots of skeuomorphic textures and indentations are present, as well as recessed areas to group controls. Ok, Apple’s redesign:

Again, this design is better in every way. Perhaps the most obvious improvement is actually drawing out (in ORANGE!) the “Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release” or ADSR loudness envelope that each note pressed on a keyboard will follow. Seeing this makes me wonder why on earth this wasn’t done in the original version; it’s that obvious of an oversight in past versions. This is the only place we see this color of orange. Before this, blue was the accent color over a greyscale panel. Here a new color is introduced, and it’s used to map any control that may impact the note envelope (e.g. other gain controls). It’s a bit unusual to see a color in only one place, kind of like a font used only once, but in my opinion the use of a new color is warranted because the envelope is a singularly critical part of the sound, and there are a handful of parameters that impact it. Designating those with this new color adds clarity. Upgrade Summary As a lover of this synth who is emotionally invested in it’s ongoing success, I really am relieved to see it lives again, wasn’t destroyed, wasn’t “simplified” into a consumer product, didn’t have its paradigm changed (e.g. FCP), still looks familiar, and quite honestly is looking better than ever. The sound (timbre) of the current release is exactly the same as the legacy version. It’s fun to see all the knobs in all the same positions making the same sounds, but with a flatter (there I said it) user interface. I would be surprised if there is a single keyboardist out there who wouldn’t clearly view this as an improvement.

Dollars and Sounds When Camel Audio sold this synth, it went for $249 US and it came with a nice default set of samples and sounds (5GB of samples and over 1,000 sounds). But that default set of sounds could be expanded with additional libraries of sounds that Camel Audio continued developing (at ~ $59 each). This kept the synth fresh and relevant to whatever genres you were currently exploring, and kept funds flowing in to Camel. This is a business model that Apple could have followed, but discarded. It appears to me that all or many of the sound libraries are included for free in the current version of Alchemy, which again, costs the consumer nothing. It’s just a free update. Apple’s version of Alchemy comes with 3,000 thousands. and 14 GB of content, if you download it all. These are probably the best of all the expansion libraries, which when bundled was an $850 synth.

Apple likely didn’t drop “Apple Money” to purchase this synth, but they dropped some significant coin on a well-researched fit to serve both MainStage and Logic. By well-researched I mean, there are a lot of softsynths out there that put an extensive load on your CPU. That’s fine in the studio with Logic where it is OK to render out a complex softsynth part in even longer than real time and “freeze” that audio rendered out. But MainStage is a different application. It needs sound to be computed in real-time (typically < 10ms), so anything it can’t compute in that period of time means clicks, glitches, noise, and hung notes, none of which is tolerable. Alchemy serves the interests of both MainStage and Logic, because it has so much sonic goodness and is light on the CPU. Apple knew what they were doing. They took a great product, and made multiple products better – and significantly so (it’s even in GarageBand). Honestly, I’m both floored and relieved by this. In my mind, this is a textbook example of an acquisition done right. ★★★★★ for the Alchemy team.

Strategic Analysis If Gruber has taught us anything, it’s that Apple’s priorities are #1) Apple, #2) the consumer and #3) developers, in that order. So let’s take a look at how these priorities align and guess some of the reasons behind this acquisition. This is an obvious win for MainStage, which is now a simply breathtaking deal at $30. You could spend a grand or two for a hardware synth and not be this sonically flexible or ugpradable. But with that money, purchasing Apple hardware starts making sense. So Apple might actually win some new hardware purchases, while the consumer would seem to be assured that Apple wants to continue to be the platform of choice for music production.

Developers can still develop synths for MainStage, but they better up their game. Heavyweights Native Instruments and Spectrosonics are competitive, but they can also bring a Macbook Pro to its knees in a live environment. You’re going to have to be out-of-the-box, someone like recent upstart Output with “reversed” or “pulsed” sounds (see right) to have something to say these days. I don’t know how you would go head to head with Alchemy. The more I think though, MainStage might just be the “free candy” to get you hooked on Alchemy, so you have one more reason to buy into Logic. My DAW of choice is currently Cubase, and the more I think about it, I may also be their target audience. Previously, a DAW might cost $700 new. Those prices have come down, Sternberg Cubase now goes for $550 and Cakewalk Sonar is $500. But Apple shook things up once they lowered the price of Logic to just $199 back in 2011. That is the price of an upgrade in Cubase! Additionally I’ve heard good things about the quality of Logic’s onboard effects, giving you less of a reason to spend money on 3d party software (I’ve spent thousands on Waves on reverbs and compressors!). With Alchemy included in Logic, sequestered away from the other DAWs, there is another compelling reason to make the move to Logic. If you’re a developer, I don’t know how you stay competitive at these prices. You’re going to have to think differently about the studio space (e.g. Ableton Live or Propellerhead’s Reason), or offer extremely high-end solutions (e.g. Protools), and those alternatives exist. But I think Apple wants to own the traditional MIDI-studio DAW space, and with their quality/cost it will be very hard to compete in this space. I think this acquisition did two things. First it increased the value of the Apple platform for pro music, which is good news for everyone: Apple, Consumers and Developers. Secondly, I think Apple is playing chess with DAWs, and this is another attempt at a checkmate. So you don’t have MainStage what are you waiting for? And if you’ll excuse me I’m off to buy Logic.

Aaro Keipi, ‘Keyboardists Agreeing’

January 26, 2015 By Pete Bulanow

“The Composer” by Aarography

Subscribe on iTunes

Aaro Keipi and I agree for about an hour on playing classical, worship, and funk keyboard, the preeminence of pads, improvising, composition, language, and communication. The difference between us being, Aaro is actually educated on the topic, as informed by his Masters’ Thesis. This is our first international podcast from Finland. Connect with Aaro: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Soundcloud Links: MainStage Great Pianists on Piano Playing Christ Collat Band Espoir by Aaro Keipi

Love Ran Red, a few production notes

December 17, 2014 By Pete Bulanow

Here are my production notes for translating Chris Tomlin’s (Amazon | iTunes) Love Ran Red to a live Band.

This is a piano record. I would personally enjoy playing songs from this album, partially because it uses so much piano (and that’s my first love), and partially because it comes across as a movie score (which is how I like to think about music).
There is room for your classical-pianist and your keyboardist-pianist, as well as your synth/programming guy on different songs, so be intentional about booking the right person for the right song (or call me up). There are lots of different piano sounds on this record that you’ll want to be aware of. There’s a standard Steinway or Yamaha grand, a more muted grand with the highs rolled off at the board, a compressed acoustic piano (Michael English’s Finally Free being a particularly egregious example of a compressed piano), and a plain-Jane keyboard-piano.
There are also plucked sounds on this record that could be covered by acoustic guitar, but I’m not sure they were originally acoustic guitar on the record (if so they’ve been highly produced), so they could also be covered by a keyboard or programmed.
The electric guitars are actually pretty understated on this record – standard U2/Edge delayed guitar – but one could elect to mix the guitars up to create gutsier renditions.
Lots of cinematic toms are present, which I personally love, but they require some special preparation from your sound engineer to get them sounding big and awesome.
There are some EDM influences, like four-on-the-floor kick, synth appreciators, and filter sweeps not usually found coming out of Nashville (maybe some Crowder influence?)

Greater

These opening lines are right out of a Hans Zimmer score, so you’ll need your gorgeous string pads handy to not waste this moment. Maybe you’d want to consider doubling the intro. You’ll want your synth guru booked for this day.
Programmed synth bass would be cool, but a decent live player can do this.
This song has some of those plucked sounds on the first verse that could be covered by acoustic guitar or a 2nd keyboard guy.
A modern piano/keyboard sound with some delay on it plays the thematic element on verse 2, or this could be covered quite nicely by some delayed guitar and simply layered with some acoustic piano (the latter being my preference).
Make sure you have your guy who loves playing toms booked for this day.
Starting at the 2nd chorus, you’ll want a few additional harmony vocals to join.
If you have an old school choir at your disposal, have them waiting in the wings and enter Fortissimo at the bridge, and then again echoing the bridge part over the final chorus. This is what the kids call “epic”.

How to get this right: let it be relaxed, sweeping, even cinematic. How to get this wrong: overplay it.

Waterfall

Opens with electric piano and quickly gets into EDM synth dance sounds, so you’ll need to be playing to a click track to keep the arpeggiators in sync. Season with filter sweeps.
Acoustic piano on chorus is compressed (ask your sound tech do to this) and should be played live by someone with strong (classically trained?) hands. I can see a case for two keyboardists this day, one on the grand, another doing the synth work. Pads on verse 2 can be string pads or synthier square waves.
On that note, think about having another vocalist that sounds like you to do sound of the random overdubs. There’s room for a little extra vocal goodness if they want to run with it a little.
Make sure you have your guy who loves playing toms booked this day.

How to get this right: preproduction, keep it tight. How to get this wrong: fail to give it enough rehearsal time and it’ll fall apart.

At the Cross (Love Ran Red)

Use compressed piano with some delay on it.
Plucked sounds could be covered by acoustic guitar or a 2nd keyboard guy.
Bring all your vocalists online for the bridge.
It’s OK to build to a wall of sound on this one 😉

How to get this right: keep it relaxed, create some space. How to get this wrong: rush the kick.

Jesus Loves me

I would probably play this ballad on the house grand, even though it sounds more like a sample on this recording.
Electric guitar can cover the quiet tremolo pads, and all other tasteful / big / ambient parts.
Piano and Drums propel this one.

How to get this right: be passionate. How to get this wrong: let it drag.

Boundary Lines

Your sound tech is definitely going to need to listen to this recording. You’ll need a second vocal mic for the intro vocal that has the highs and lows rolled off to sound lofi, run through a tap delay, and then your sound guy will play the low-pass filter live and open that up.
Book your synth/keyboard person who knows what filter sweeps are. They’ll also have access to vintage Rhodes sounds and compressed pianos, besides all the warm pads and undulating sounds.
Everything should happen to a click track so the band stays tight and in sync. You’ll probably want all those 16th note delayed claps to be programmed ahead of time and a nice click going to the drummer.
Ask the drummer if they want to play the tambourine or have that programmed.
Program the hand clap on 2 & 4 and four on the floor kick.
Play the toms, snares, fills, live and wail on that hi-hat like any good EDM song does.
More of that plucked stuff that could be played by a 2nd keyboardist or acoustic guitarist.

How to get this right: preproduction! How to get this wrong: expect a live version to come together quickly.

Almighty

This song is one of those sit-on-a-stool-with-a-spotlight solo tunes, at least to start. Not too much rocket science here, even though it feels a little complicated. Eventually it builds with lots of vocals on the chorus.
A nice classic Yamaha or Steinway grand anchors this song. I love the bridge that drops back to solo piano. Whomever you give this solo to will thank you.
For the signature figure that seems to go through a 5/4 measure followed by a 3/4 measure, don’t count it that way – just play straight through with a 4/4 count.
More of those wonderful U2 guitars on the chorus.
There might be room for a second keyboardist to do some pads on this, just don’t overdo it.

How to get this right: tight transitions. How to get this wrong: telegraph your transitions (with fills) or not choking your cymbals.

The Roar

There are nice pads and compressed piano on this one.
Four on the floor kick, but play it live.
Crazy backing vocal on the chorus! Never fear, the electric guitar can cover this.
Nice half-time feel on the bridge. You booked your choir for this right??

How to get this right: 16th note hi-hats keeps the momentum. How to get this wrong: That’d be pretty hard.

Fear Not

The intro is a lo fi variant of the chorus. I don’t think it’s critical to try to sound like the record. Maybe have a 2nd mic tuned up to sound like a megaphone…or use a megaphone!
Mechanically, this song is straightforward. One guitar playing the arpeggios, and another something – could be guitar could be keyboard – holding down the chord. Add that and solid drums.

How to get this right: Bring in your youth and kids choir to yell out the bridge! How to get this wrong: Fail to drive the song with all those 16th note hi-hats, or hold back even a little.

The Table

Grand piano, electric guitar doodling, nice drum groove. This song just comes together.
You may or may not want to go up a step after the bridge, especially if you’re shaky and may not nail it a capella. Either way this is another one where you want your choir coming in at the bridge.

How to get this right: Get everyone snapping on two and four before you start the song. How to get this wrong: If you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong. It’s a celebration. It’s about community. It’s about relationships: vertical and horizontal.

Psalm 100

It’s cool to see some of that EDM influence. You’ll be playing to a click, but a tight live drummer should be able to cover all the drums parts. Live bass is the way to go. Straightforward Edge electric guitars.
In fact, you may be able to play this entire tune live with your synth guy running arpeggiators, as long as you’re playing to a click. If they want to program it, that’s cool too.
The piano arpeggiation on the bridge would sound pretty awesome if it can be played tight on a grand. Better be practicing your Hanon for the finger strength.
P.S. Those are some great mellotron strings at the end!

How to get this right: Preproduction! How to get this wrong: not play to a click track.

I Will Boast

This is a beautiful rubato grand piano song.
If you have some live strings, violas, cellos, this is the time to let them sing out. Some of this could be augmented by keyboard pads, or covered by mellotron-type samples.
There are some tasteful guitars, but I’m not sure you even need ’em – give your strings a chance to shine!
There are some really nice harmony vocals in a few spots. The whole tune might be really nicely reconfigured as a male-female duet.
Ends with Rhodes electric piano, which I don’t get the point of, other than to facilitate a transition to a coda of “At the Cross”. I would label this an album artifact and ignore it live by sticking to just the piano and ending the song, particularly unless you actually did “At the Cross” earlier in your service.

How to get this right: Have a gorgeous well-mic’d, well-tuned, grand piano. How to get this wrong: Rush it.

Jesus, This is You

This is the guitar song on the record. It sounds like it’s from a recent U2 album.
Keyboards – use atmospherics – maybe some keyboard / piano / melodic-chime sounds, but don’t get in the way of what your particular guitarist is doing. This is a guitar song – listen!
There is room for lots of vocals on this. The choir can possibly come out for this. Let it build to a wall of sound. Maybe add an extra chorus.

How to get this right: Book The Edge (U2) to play guitars and sing that thematic part for you. How to get this wrong: Let it get too big / full / muddy / wall of sound (looking your way, keys).

In the End

A neat little rhythmic device opens this tune on the riff. That could come from a keyboard guy (arpeggiator?) or a guitar guy (acoustic guitar with delay?). Since there is already a piano part, I would look to your electric guitarist to pick up an acoustic and run it through a delay.
The piano part would probably be a modern piano keyboard sound, not necessarily a grand. Be ready to layer a nice big atmospheric pad like Absynth.
Also that’s a pretty cool compressed drum loop on the second chorus, so you’re playing tight to a click, right?
Kick and a couple toms build at the Bridge. The drum kit is finally in after the bridge. It’s called building tension!

How to get this right: Rehearse. How to get this wrong: Think this song will magically come together.

REMIXes

I really love that they are offering these. It shows the songwriting can stand up to reinterpretation.

Waterfall Tritonal Remix

I don’t know that I’d attempt this version live, but if you can it’s got lots of nice production. Vocoder on the harmonies anyone?
The programmed synth and snare stuff are epic. You can probably do a hybrid with the regular version and whatever synthy stuff you can come up with.

How to get this right: preproduction. How to get this wrong: fail to integrate live sounds well with the programmed sounds.

At the Cross (Love Ran Red) [Acoustic]

This song utilizes picked acoustic guitar, and very minimal warm pad on the first verse.
If you have a second acoustic guitar that can pick, there is room for some tasteful layered harmonies starting at the chorus.
Use kick and shaker on the second verse. I would probably replace with a mic’d Djembe and shaker (and tambourine) instead, as I think a drum kit is too big for this.
Some gentle well-mic’d grand piano comes in at the second chorus.

How to get this right: show restraint, be tasteful. How to get this wrong: overplay.

Let It Be Jesus [Acoustic]

This is an acoustic piano ballad.
There is a little extra acoustic guitar in the recording that I don’t know I would want in right away. Maybe hold off until the chorus when the tempo gets established. That way the instrumentation stays tight.
I get the piano dropping out on the second verse and switching to acoustic guitar before bringing the piano back in. We need that sonic break.
Personally I think this would sound so much more epic with some solo string lines. Somebody score something for this!

How to get this right: restraint. How to get this wrong: let it get too big.

Do you hear things differently? Anything I missed? Leave a comment below!

Voicing the keyboard

September 10, 2014 By Pete Bulanow

I recently became aware of keyboardist Ed Kerr and really like the way he talks about keyboards and thinks about music. I highly recommend you check his stuff out, or catch a clinic with him.

Luke on Keys by Pete Bulanow

While looking over his site, I came came across an article I had planned to write about the same topic. However, he has already written it so well, I thought I’d just link over to him. This is also for my keyboardists in our Jamaica conference who are working on all the inversions of the I, IV, V and VI chords in all the keys – right guys? Still working on those? Correct fingering? Ed talks about droning a note (holding it down) and then voicing the chords underneath that note with all those inversions we’re getting under our fingers. He gives the following example:

Let’s say you’re in the key of G, and the progression you’re playing is G C Em7 D. That’s a 1 4 6 5, by the way.

So if you put your pinky on the G, you can play the progression with the following inversions: G – 1st inversion C – root Em7 – 2nd inversion (or Em – 2nd inversion) D -2nd inversion, with a G on top, making it a D4 chord If you put your pinky on the D, you could play the progression with the following inversions: G – root C – 1st inversion, with a D on top, making it a C2 chord Em7 – root D -root This is something I do kind of instinctively, and then work my way up or down the keyboard to build or release tension, but it’s pretty cool to see it all written out the way Ed did. Stop by and leave him some love ( that is, some comments) on his site!