Keyboard Hints

[Johnny Guitar]

This isn't a topic that really fits into the guitar room (maybe there should be a keyboard room!). I got a Casio CA-100 Keyboard and a Zoom GFX-707 effects pedal. Any hints for getting cool VH sounds like on Jump, Why Cant this be love, Or Love Walks In?

[Brett]

Calling Lead Synth to the rescue....

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[BigBubba]

ya shes like the only keyboard player here....
whats cookin synth?


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*I Am A Wild Party! Rah Rah Ole!* - Kim Mitchell '90

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[Wolfman]

Not to mention Ed custom created a lot of those sounds by mixing several different instrument sounds together.

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RIGHT NOW....The original Van Halen is working together somewhere....
RIGHT NOW.... I think I better buy some new shorts to change into....
"Kissing my ass won't do anything but give you bad breath." -sherman

[Glenn]

The VHE shows a list of the keyboard instruments that Eddie used on 5150 and it's a long list. It says that Jeff Porcaro was his keyboard and sequencer advisor.

[Olen]

To add to what Glenn stated, EVH was quoted in an interview that J. Porcaro really 'got off' on the fact that most of EVH's keyboard sounds were created by otherwise unacceptable or strange methods. Things plugged into the 'wrong' outlets, etc. This would lead me to believe that duplicating EVH's keyboard sounds might be as hard as duplicating the so-called 'brown-sound' from his guitar and amp config.

But what would you expect from someone who didn't re-wire his guitar knobs correctly, yet singlehandedly spawned an entire generation of guitar design and playing??

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Its a prehistoric fish...Coelacanth.

[This message has been edited by Olen (edited August 11, 2000 at 02:37 PM).]

[AbeVanHalen]

Hey--it's amazing what you can do with a low frequency oscillator (LFO) or 2. Some detuning, a slight delay (5 ms. or so)on ONE side, and stay away from 200Hz on the eq. Aside from that, I don't know your synth or what it has to offer in terms of sound, so I can't help you too much. You need a warm but grainy analog synth simulation with a pronouned attack (ie very short attack time), and either a quick release with a good reverb after it, or a longer release if the tail is quiet compared to the original signal.

With that said, good luck-I doubt EDDIE could get that sound back either.

[Vic Vega_0609]

Hey, I've played piano for eleven years!!! Yeah, I was just going to say that about the Oberheim (sp), it was pretty state of the art when 1984 came out but it's pretty dated now. If you've got a few thousand to spare you can pick up one of those really neat keyboards that has sampling, hundreds of drum loops, sounds, etc. That's probably your best bet. At school earlier this year I printed my own sheet music in a music lab with a computer and one of those keyboards. You can do anything with them!!! I was just messing around with one today at my local music store as a matter fact.

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Proud member of the Dirty Faced Kids!

Up The Irons!

[VHND]

Are you sure it was Jeff Porcaro? Jeff was a drummer. His brother Steve was the keyboard player.

[Lead Synth]

Awesome topic

Johnny Guitar, it's hard. It's damn near impossible to get EVH keyboard sounds!

When Dweezil Zappa buys a guitar, he puts it through the "Unchained" test. When I'm looking at keyboards, I mess around until I get something that approximates the "Jump" sound.

I think it should be the law that all synthesizers come from the factory with a built-in preset for "Jump"

AbeVanHalen, I think you got it right on the nose. You want a good, warm fat analog synth simulation.

Does the Casio have any sounds on it called "analog"?? Be careful, sometimes that means it won't let you play more than one note at a time.

I wanna talk about the keyboard I use...it's starting to get close to what Vic Vega was describing. It's not mine...I sorta "borrowed" it from my old high school. This synthesizer, it scares me, because there's really nothing you can't do with it. It was state-of-the-art in 1996, and the school got it for $3000. It's an Ensoniq KT-76...

Wolfman said, "Ed custom created a lot of those sounds by mixing several different instrument sounds together." That's what I do too. That is really an endless source of fascination for me.

I like to make "presets" which on the KT means up to 8 different sounds layered together. For each of the 8 sounds, you can adjust the velocity, stereo pan, sustain, timbre, and on and on and on.

On the KT you don't do this with dials and switches, you do it by typing in numbers, which I hate, because you have to actually know what you're doing

One thing it does let you do with your hands is, there are 8 buttons for the 8 sounds in your preset, and the ones that you have lit up are activated, and you just punch those and layer up which of the 8 you want.

In addition to making your own presets, you can also create your own individual sounds. Every sound has up to 3 voices, you can mix and match to your heart's content. Then you can add any combination of about 12 effects to each voice. Then you can change a million other options for each voice. But you have to do all this by punching in more numbers.

I hate all this digital shit! If I started from scratch to make a sound, I wouldn't have a clue. So I just mess around with what I have until I find something I like and then try to tweak that.

The interface on a synth like the one I use can be a bit overwhelming....don't let it stop being fun. Last summer I did a lot of sequencing, and I started writing songs on the KT, so I spent all my time with it.

The next time I sat down at an acoustic piano, I kept finding myself unconsciously reaching for sliders and buttons that weren't there, which weirded me out. It was so crazy to realize again that it was MY HANDS in total control of the sound....with a piano, if I don't like the way it sounds, I need to change something *I'm* doing, not change something in my instrument.

I think that great performers keep coming back to playing "real" pianos because they know the boundaries of that instrument...with some synthesizers, there ARE no boundaries, and you can't really get to know something if it keeps becoming something else.

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Dirty Faced Kids...the hope of the future!
"1989" - Maya's Van Halen Page
Offical Designated Driver for the Atomic Drunks...where everybody knows your screen name.

[Glenn]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by VHND:
Are you sure it was Jeff Porcaro? Jeff was a drummer. His brother Steve was the keyboard player.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Just checked it again, you're right, my mistake. It was in fact Steve Porcaro.

[Down In Flames]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lead Synth:

You want a good, warm fat analog synth simulation.

[/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


That's all I've EVER wanted.

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"Sayonara, Suicide, Hari-Kari, Kamikaze, you won't see another evening, bye-bye..."

Official Bartender Of VHLinks

[Wolfman]

Down , you're such a perv - you're gonna give me a run for my money.

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RIGHT NOW....The original Van Halen is working together somewhere....
RIGHT NOW.... I think I better buy some new shorts to change into....
"Kissing my ass won't do anything but give you bad breath." -sherman

[Down In Flames]

ROTFLMAO, Wolf!!

I can't BELIEVE no one else caught that line but me!

It was like a pot of gold sitting under the end of a rainbow.

Synthy will understand completely.

(I'm STILL laughing about that line... )

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"Sayonara, Suicide, Hari-Kari, Kamikaze, you won't see another evening, bye-bye..."

Official Bartender Of VHLinks