Synthesizers Live Onstage Again

[gstopp at fibermux.com]

     Hi DIY - 
     
     Not much DIY info here, just some interesting stories. Sorry for the 
     bandwidth usage, hope ya don't mind... I just want to share some 
     recent experiences and I think this crowd is a good one to share with.
     
     Topic - hooking up analog gear in live concert situations. I worked a 
     concert over Memorial Day weekend as the main keyboard tech and 
     instrument supplier. It was a two-day festival of Progressive Rock 
     (called "ProgFest"). For those of you who don't know, Progressive Rock 
     in this context is music that is heavily tilted towards the electronic 
     yet retains a lot of hard rock feel - it was popular in the 70's so it 
     also gets referred to as "Dinosaur Rock" and various other names.
     
     Anyway for the curious here are some descriptions of the keyboard 
     setups:
     
     Sinkadus (from Sweden):
     Hammond organ, 2 Mellotrons, Minimoog, Roland A-90
     
     Arena (from the UK):
     3 Korg 01W/FD's, 1 Korg M1, 1 Roland JP-8000, Mellotron
     
     Le Orme (from Italy):
     Hammond organ, Korg MS-20, Kurzweil K2000, custom strap-on MIDI 
     keyboard
     
     Big Elf (from the US):
     Hammond organ, Moog IIp Modular, Chamberlin M1, 360 Digital, Korg 
     MS-20
     
     Spock's Beard (from the US):
     Hammond organ, 2 Mellotrons, Kurzweil K2000R, Korg X5, Roland D-10, 
     ARP Odyssey, Moog Source
     
     John Wetton Band (from the UK):
     Roland A-90, Korg M1, Roland D-50, Korg 01W/FD, Mellotron
     
     Flower Kings (from Sweden):
     Hammond organ, 2 Roland S-760's, 3 Korg 01W/FD's, Roland A-90
     
     The promoter didn't want to spring for the bucks to rent a Hammond B-3 
     or C-3, so we ended up using my evil black Hammond CV plus my evil 
     black Leslie speaker. This machine is a little intimidating to many 
     players who are used to the B-3/C-3 controls but by the end of the gig 
     they usually end up complimenting me on the nasty sounds they get.
     
     I was quite surprised by the Korg MS-20 - I never thought such a 
     simple little machine could create such huge analog sounds, especially 
     over a big house PA system! OK I gotta get one of those.... Also the 
     Moog Source sounded pretty boomy at the low end, almost as deep as the 
     Taurus pedals that were being used by most of the bands.
     
     The guy from Le Orme had a custom strap-on MIDI keyboard that appeared 
     to have been made from one of those small (Roland?) MIDI data entry 
     keyboards with a guitar neck handle grafted on to it with a bunch of 
     buttons all over it plus some kind of bender bar, like from a D-50 or 
     something. He used it to play guitar sounds out of a little rack that 
     consisted of a Korg M3R plus some effects. This thing was *amazing* as 
     far as the guitar sounds - he could do whammy bar stuff and harmonics 
     and feedback and all that - somehow I was able to communicate to him 
     that he was the best guitarist of the entire festival, and he didn't 
     even have a guitar!
     
     Everybody loved the good ol' Mellotrons (they always do). Man I could 
     get cheers out of the audience just tuning one up between the acts. 
     There is nothing like a Mellotron, especially the vocal choir tapes.
     
     All in all it was pretty fun - late hours, last minute panics with the 
     soldering iron, missing microphones, beer, trying to communicate with 
     non-English speaking bands, more beer, painful Hammond organ lifting, 
     not enough cables, not enough DI boxes, too much duct tape, and 
     general mayhem.
     
     - Gene
     gstopp at fibermux.com