KEYBOARDS

Roland A-90

Korg Micro X

Hammond XK3

HARDWARE EFFECTS

TC Electronics Nova Delay

x2 Moogerfooger Low Pass filters

Moogerfooger Ring Modulator

Moog CP-251 Moogerfooger Control Processor

Moog MP-201 Multi-Pedal

COMPUTER HARDWARE

Macbook pro 17inch computer - 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo/8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 ram/500gig harddrive at 7200rpm.

2T Mybook external harddrive connected to my eSATA Express port (but you can use firewire 800 instead)

RME Fireface 800 Interface

Behringer BCF2000 midi controller

SOFTWARE (general)

LOGIC STUDIO 9 (with MAINSTAGE)

Synthogy Ivory Piano and Italian Grand expansion pack.

Synthogy Upright Piano’s.

Garritain Authorized Steinway samples (pro version)

Native Instruments Alica’s Keys

Scarbee Keyboard Gold Bundle K2

Kontakt 2

Komplete 6 - 6 instruments from Native Instruments, including Kontakt 4, Absynth 5, Guitar rig 4 Pro, Battery3, Massive, FM8 and Reaktor 5.

XLN Audio Addictive Drums

Spectrasonics Stylus RMX Xpanded

Spectrasonics Trilion

Spectrasonics Omnisphere

Arturia V-collection

Devine Machine Krishna Synth

Best Service Titan

Scarbee Pre-Bass

Gforce Mtron

Gforce String Machine

UltimateSoundBank Retro Organs

SOFTWARE (orchestral)

Eastwest Platinum

Vienna Chamber Strings

Vienna Appassionata Strings with expansion pack

ProjectSam Symphobia

LA Scoring Strings

ProjectSam Brass Classics

ProjectSam Flute and Piccolo Effects

ProjectSam True Strikes 1

Quantum Leap SD2 Pro

MOTU Ethno2 Instrument - A whole bunch of instrument samples and loops from around the world.

Wallander Instruments Brass 1 & Woodwinds 1 -  Amazing Orchestral modelled instruments with simulated stage environments.

Native Instruments Evolve Mutations

Westgate Studios French Horns

Vienna Fanfare Trumpets

Cinesamples Hollywood Woodwinds

Cinesamples CineHarp Glissandi

Cinesamples CineHarp Pluck

Cinesamples Cinesnares

Native Instruments Hollywood Strings - An epic Hollywood sounding string library!

SOFTWARE (effects)

Lexicon PCM bundle

Waves SSL 4000 Collection

Waves Gold Bundle

Waves CLA Classic Compressors

Voxengo Elephant

Audio Ease Altiverb 6

PSP 84

PSP MixPack 2

Stillwell Vibe EQ

Stillwell Transient Monster

Ohmforce’s All Fx Bundle

SPL Vitalizer

SPL Transient Designer

DDMF IIEQ PRO

DDMF LPP10

DDMF COULOREQ

DDMF STEREOOERETS

DDMF NY COMP

Massey Tapehead

SPOTLIGHT

Roland A-90 -  I love this keyboard for it’s midi controllability, but Roland no longer make this product. At church we use a Yamaha S90 as our weighted controller instead.

TC Electronics Nova Delay - A great stereo in and out delay pedal. Great for on the fly changes in tempo and has a lot of great editable fetchers like Modulation and Digital to Analog delay quality simulator. You can also save a whole bunch of your presets into it and get to them really easily during live performances.

Moogerfooger Ring Modulator - I use this pedal mainly for it’s analog overdrive. I also use it subtly for it’s tremolo and the odd weird effect you can create with it. But the analog circuitry and overdrive in this thing is what makes it sound so amazing!

RME Fireface 800 Interface - I use a Fireface 800 because i need a lot of audio ins and outs. I route my pedals in and out of it for live use for more control. But Apogee also make some really nice and affordable interfaces!

Behringer BCF2000 midi controller - I normally wouldn’t recommend Behringer. But this piece of equipment is amazing. It has ‘flying faders’ that sync with Mainstage 9. And you won’t find anything similar to this on the market for this price! (Because it only deals with midi to and from my computer and not audio, the audio is not compromised.)

LOGIC STUDIO 9 (with MAINSTAGE) - Mainstage is what I use live to host all my plugins. It’s amazing for live use and with the recent release of Mainstage 2 (that comes with Logic Studio) it gives you the option of ‘midi out’ to sync with midi controllers that support that, like my BCF2000.

Synthogy Italian Grand - This is my default go to Piano for church. Very stable and great sounding.

Scarbee Keyboard Gold Bundle K2 - A collection of Rhodes/Wurly/Clav samples that have just been re-released through Native Instruments. I can’t say enough good stuff about Scarbee! In my opinion they are sill the best sounding Rhodes samples on the market to date.

Spectrasonics Omnisphere - If I was only able to afford one single software plugin. This would be it! Has everything. Pianos, Pads, Strings, samples of old analog gear, Organs etc and a bunch of great effects. It’s amazing!

Arturia V-collection - A collection of plugins designed to emulate old analog gear. I use the Prophet V and Minimoog a lot! These can also be purchased separately if you didn’t want the whole collection.

PSP 84 - This is a delay plugin the emulates the old Lexicon 84 unit. It sounds amazing and very analogy sounding for a digital plugin. I love the fact you can dial in reverb and or overdrive JUST on the delays and keep the original signal clean if you want.

Massey Tapehead - An amazing plugin that simulates Analog Tape Saturation (or overdrive). It’s currently available for FREE at http://www.smassey.com/au.html in Audio Units format. (The format Logic/Mainstage uses for plugins)

So there you have it… my ‘gear list’ as of 17th June 2010.

We can actually limit our growth in this area by our musical prejudices or simply our likes and dislikes. Don’t limit yourself by only listening to your favorite style, band, artist etc. We can learn something from ALL good music, full stop. Regardless of style. Don’t limit yourself either to only listening to Christian music. Yes Christian music will edify your soul and spirit which we all need. But music in itself isn’t secular or nonsecular. Yes lyrics can carry a positive or negative message, but don’t simply limit your musical influences just because a band or song may not fall under the ‘Christian’ genres. I’m not saying go out and listen to whatever music you want to regardless of it’s message etc. Use wisdom. But don’t limit yourself musically just because the band or artist may not be ‘Christian’.

To be creative we need to feed our creativity. And listening is one of the best ways of doing this. Limiting yourselves to only certain styles/bands/influences is kind of like a painter limiting him or herself to only one color. Yes the painter can be creative with that one color, but how much more creative can that painter be if they have a pallet full of colors with different shades and tones? How much more creative as musician can we be if we don’t limit ourselves to just one color/style/influence but have a great understanding of all styles and the tones, colours, rhythms etc that accompany them.

So what should we listen to when pulling a song to bits and analysing it? Well for one that depends on what we want to learn from that song. But for starters try analysing the instrument that best relates to you and try to think about these things in relation to your instrument.

1/  What tone or tones are they using?
- How does the tone fit within the style of the song?
- How are they producing this sound and how can i replicate it?

2/  How are they layering the sound?
- Are they using more than one sound?

3/ What effects are they using and why?
- How are they manipulating these effects in realtime?
- How can i incorporate some of these effects into my ’sound’?
- Delays, Filters (e.g. low pass filters), Reverb, Overdrive etc

4/ What kind of rhythms and riffs (parts) are they using and why?
- Are these riffs clashing with the other musicians parts and/or melody?
- Are these riffs leaving room for the other musicians and melody? If so how?

5/ What are they doing to build the song dynamically?
- Are they using the about 4 things: Effects, Tone, Layering, Rhythms & Riffs to do this?
- How can I learn from this and incorporate it into my playing.

Those are just a few things to get you started, I’m sure you can think of more, but that’s more than a good starting point.

As a musician wanting to continue growing and learning I’m always looking out for new bands and influences to help with this. I thought it’d be helpful if I listed a few of my own personal influences. Most of these bands have influenced Hillsong United and our ‘Sound’ as well by the way. Obviously there are more than just these, but these are a few of the main ones that I thought of:

Delirious
Passion Pit
Sigur Ros
Radiohead
M83
Keane
The Killers
Phoenix
Athlete

Anyways, I hope that helps and gets you all pumped to get even deeper into the world of listening!

Pete James

First of all the speakers or headphones used when EQing will drastically affect the outcome. For example if the speakers you are using have little or no low end, you will be tempted to boost lower frequencies to compensate for this. Or if the speakers/headphones accentuate the lows and highs of a sound, you will be tempted to either reduce lows and highs while EQing or add more mid range frequencies to compensate. So it’s a good idea to use speakers/headphones that have a relatively flat EQ response, or if you don’t have that option, just be mindful of those frequencies your speakers/headphones lack or are boosting when EQing and take that into consideration.

When looking at EQing from a Keyboardists perspective we use EQing for two main purposes.

1/ To enhance the overall sound of a patch.

2/ To create uniformity between multiple sounds or groups of sounds.

1/ By boosting or reducing certain frequencies within a patch we can affect the overall tone of a patch to make it sound more pleasing to the ear. When EQing, our ears actually pick up boosted frequencies better than reduced or cut frequencies. So a little trick when EQing, to find out the exact frequencies we want to boost or cut, is to start off by majorly boosting frequencies at the top of the frequency spectrum. From there slowly sweep it from high to low (or low to high if you want). That way your ear should pick out those frequencies that sound good or bad, and you can boost or reduce those frequencies accordingly. Once you’ve found the frequencies you want to boost or cut, adjust the bandwidth of the EQ to either take more or less of the frequencies on either side of the specific frequency you have just found and reduce or add level to the EQ to best suit what your ears are hearing. You can repeat this multiple times to add and cut groups of frequencies within a patch.

2/ As a keyboardist we can also use EQing to create uniformity between patches, groups of patches, or keyboards. This is extremely useful when using multiple keyboards of computer-based sounds. Most of the time sounds within a keyboard will sound pretty good across all patches because the manufacturers have done the hard work of making sure all their sounds sound similar EQ wise across the board. Trouble may arise when you use different keyboards or computer-based sounds. Especially when computers have software from multiple companies. By EQing we can balance the tone of various patches (or the whole keyboard if need be) to match all the other sounds we are using. For example if you are using a computer to produce your sounds and lets say as you are scrolling though your patches and you notice that your Rhodes sound has a lot more bottom end compared to your other sounds. By adding an EQ to this patch and taking out some of the bottom end you are insuring that all your patches sound constant across the board. Again, let’s say you are using two different keyboards and one of the keyboards sounds a lot brighter tonally than the other one across all of it’s sounds. You can simple reduce the highs using an EQ on the master output of that keyboard to match the other, or if you are using a mixer to mix the two keyboards, use the EQ on that.

Obviously EQing can be a bit of a difficult thing if you have never attempted or even thought about using it before. Like anything you get better with practice, but a great idea is to ask someone experienced in this area to help you out. This way you’ll be able to see physically what they do and learn directly off them.

Well hope that helps… Happy EQing!

1.   PARTS: (play with purpose)
Rather than constantly using the piano to drive the songs, we’ve taken an approach of writing specific parts for each song, similar to the other instruments…. I.e. If someone hears the bass riff to “take it all” it is quite signature, and one immediately picks up what song is about to be sung, or the drum intro to “run” etc.    The same goes for keyboard players.   We aim to write specific parts for songs within the band setting that make the song recognizable and put a signature feature on each song, i.e. The Synth line in “Freedom is Here,”(Latest United Album: Tear Down the Walls)  or the piano riff in “His Glory Appears” (Latest Hillsong Live Album: Faith Hope Love)

First step to writing a great part is to listen to the song itself.  Listen to the melody, the feel, dynamics, the “possibilities” of what the song could sound like.  For example, if you hear the intro to desert song, the kick intro, the 3 note piano riff, and the guitar line, it automatically sets the lyrics up with a great platform to go off of.   Once you have had a listen to the song, have a listen to what other ‘riffs’ or ‘parts’ are in place.   If we are in a new song workshop, and the guitar player is already playing a great guitar riff, my approach would be something more background and supporting of that, out of the way of whatever register it is in, something that aims to cause the riff to feature and gives it good support, even a constant sound like a pad, harmonium, or organ.

2.  SOUNDS: (not just piano playing)
Many keys players see themselves as ‘piano’ players.   Piano is one of the sounds we use, but to think of yourself as a ‘piano’ player might inhibit your thinking with regards to the rest of the sound spectrum available to keys players.   Synths, leads, pads, moving pads, rhodes, electric pianos, organs, harmonium, effects, delays, overdrives, filters, and many more sounds and tools are available for you to browse through in your approach to a song and playing, rather than just strictly bashing out a piano sound with all your strength.  A few examples of different sounds below…
-“Tear Down the Walls” off the latest United Album, … Verse 1 has a fat pad supporting everything, and once the drums/bass kick in, the same sound is played in a rhythmic pattern with delay, which gives a totally different vibe and actually provides a platform for the rest of the song.
- “For Your Name” off the latest Hillsong Live Album, has a keys intro line that is a synth bass line with 2 different types of distortion on it that runs through the intro/verse line
-  “Freedom is Here” - already referred to previously, but has a constant synth line that runs the entire way through the song that the rest of the arrangement ‘hinges’ around.
-   “King of All Days” - the repetitive rhodes line with delay throughout the song (intro/verse/bridge)
Then, if you do a piano line, make sure that it is with purpose, rather than just chugging out the chords -
-  “You Hold me Now” - United Album version – piano line the whole way through
-  “Its  Your Love” – Hillsong Live Album – piano lines in intro & bridge etc.
-  “His Glory Appears“ – Hillsong Live Album – piano based song with chords as well as specific parts/riffs

3.  CONTEXT:  (what is needed from me?)
One of the best ways to approach different settings of playing is to ask yourself the question, what is needed from me for this song, with this band? Adapt playing to the musical setting you are in.   If you are in a setting with a full band (2 electrics, drums, bass, 2 keyboards), the way in which you will approach your playing, sounds etc, will be very different than say if you are in a setting with a keyboard and 2 acoustics.   If you are playing in a ‘full band’ setting, there is room for different sounds/parts as you might not be relied on as much to cover the silence or drive the song as much of this will be done for you.   Often, with a full band, think “less is more,” and stop and listen to what the song ‘needs’ from you as a keyboard player. What is not being played that should be?  Often a simple line that stays out of the way of the guitars, and is complimentary to the feel of the song can be a brilliant addition.

If you find yourself playing in a smaller setting, say with a keyboard and 2 acoustics, you would need to learn to distinguish the ‘signature’ parts of the song that cannot be left out, and also think about what the song ‘needs’ from you in whatever context you are playing in.   Perhaps your playing will need to drive things a bit more, or perhaps if you are playing with 2 acoustics, it might be better to stick to a pad or an organ sound as both acoustics will most likely be driving the song rhythmically.

The overall aim of our approach to keyboards is to be both creative and purposeful, not just playing what always has been played, but finding and utilizing great sounds and great ways of playing those sounds to enhance the songs being played.

A good overdrive pedal is like a favorite pair of old jeans. Keen to hear your thoughts on what overdrive pedals are out there that represent good value and most of all, standout tone..

I use:

Xotic Effects- RC Booster

Maxon OD-820 Overdrive

Jekyll & Hyde Overdrive/Distortion

Expandora

Timmy Drive (new addition)

Let the conversation begin.

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