Virtual Instruments - I'm Gloating

Easter Sunday. St. Jude's Gospel Choir. I offered to bring some fat B3 sounds to the sound for Easter. I brought:

• My trusty Korg Triton Pro
• My M-Audio 49-key controller
• My Apple MacBook Pro with Logic Studio 8 and a MOTU Traveler.

The sound was great - at least from where I was.  The Triton was up and running great, but I had weird problems with the FireWire until the second song of mass and things started...working.  (Word to the wise, having the Triton was a great backup plan!) Here's the breakdown on what I did:

Anything that required drawbar control went from the M-Audio Oxygen49 through the Mac.  I did this for light stuff or stuff that needed to stick out dynamically using Logic Studio 8's new Main Stage plug-in host and the EVB3 Hammond simulator.  I re-assigned my controllers on the M-Audio to control the drawbars in the plug-in.

Everything else that needed to be subtle, dirty, or very predictable from my perspective was the Triton because I needed only one control - volume.

In the end, things worked out well.  The only thing that would have been odd would be that the sounds of the TWO organs would not coincide really with the amp or the rotation speeds, but people listening to the choir weren't really any the wiser, I don't think. 

Solos Should Have a Point

Okay, I'm not a big soloist. I like playing, but I don't have a big need to solo on much. In worship music, it's not needed often, but when it's called for, I have some opinions on the subject.

A pet peve of mine that got solved along with the issue of the existence of 80's hair bands was the fruitless efforts of flying fingers against setting of an otherwise harmless and unsuspecting melody. To me, it quickly turns into a demonstration of skill rather than a musical movement propelling the composer's melody to heights unattainable by the lyricist.

Which brings me right to my point - if you have a solo, see if you can sing it first. If you haven't done this, slow down and take the time to really sing it to yourself. You'll find a big difference in what you can capture emotionally with your voice at a pace much slower than your fingers could muster, and it will have a greater emotional impact as a result. I like to improvise, but if I can't sing it in some way, I ask if it really belongs to the song or if it's just too much me in the worship movement showing off. That's not how I should be glorifying God.

Here are a few points I like to think before diving into a solo or writing a new instrumental part:

• Keep it simple. Try something as simple just walking up the scale every half-note from the 3rd above the root!
• Keep it stylistically relevant to the rest of the song
• Make it carry the melody first and take it to new places second
• Do not use the opportunity to just exercise my fingers
• Stay focused and (if improvising) have a clear, pre-planned exist strategy to get back to the song

Space – the scary frontier

As musicians, we often feel it is our job to make noise, after all who can argue when the Bible says, "May a joyful noise unto the Lord." (Ps. 100:1).

The thing is, not playing and not singing often takes much more discipline than playing all the time. As my orchestra teacher used to say, "Never, never, ever play a rest," we too must leave space at the right times.

Take the song "Sacred Silence" as recorded by Tom Booth or Jenny Pixler (available through www.spiritandsong.com). It is a lovely, sparse song that grows, ebbs, flows and resolves. At almost no point is the entire band playing at the same time. Yet, the beauty and completeness is achieved with so little.

The same is true for more upbeat songs, like "Trading My Sorrows" (Darrell Evans). The verse doesn't need a lot of things going on. You might find more people sing when there is more space for them to do so. For example, next time your team plays this song, try using just drum and bass on the verse along with the vocals. You might find the space is just what the congregation needs to find a home in the song.

The congregation, just like us as musicians, has the desire to be needed in worship. We should do our best to give them the space to feel desired. We, as musicians, should provide holes for them to fill in, like the name tags: "My Name Is:
".

As musicians, we all have egos. Just admit it. It may be checked at the door, but it is still there waiting to come out. We should all have the ears and guts to know when we don't need to play. And it does take guts. Even more so, it takes professionalism I

Over the weekend I had the honor and privilege to play a mass with Jesse Manibusan, David Yackley, Jackie Francois, Paul Nuyen, Becky Rameriez, and Rufino Zaragoza (among others). David and Rufino, both gifted, talented pianists traded off on piano, Jesse played where needed, and not all singers sang on everything - and it was awesome and beautiful. All had the professionalism and talent to demonstrate:

1. the worship experience is more important than for them to hear me play
   
2. I am secure enough in my skill that I don't need to fill the entire space with my notes for me to be satisfied with my contribution.
   

If your team isn't carrying these notions every week, you might think about some of the following questions:

• Have we reinforced our team's skills with compliments or with criticism?
  
• Have we made clear the need for space in our music? (Does your team know it's okay to not play?)
  
• Are we personally comfortable enough to let go and not play, and yet still feel valuable to the worship experience?
  
• Is our team's working environment competitive or collaborative when it comes to dividing arrangements?
  
• Do we (as directors) always rely on the same people to fill the same roles, or do we also provide space for others to grow?
  

God bless you in your ministry.

Directing from the Piano

Yeah - I am a pianist. I love leading from the guitar, but it's not always practical. Or in my case - ever practical.

Here's some tips that will help anyone trying to lead from the piano:

• Try not to make yourself critical to performing a song. This is especially true of your left hand. Let the bass player do his job. He / she will thank you for it.
• Position yourself so that you can clearly see the drummer, and the drumer can clearly see your hands.
• Use simple hand signals with your left hand to cue the drummer.
• Get a drum stool or keyboard stool that will let you sit higher than the expensive artist bench the church invested in. Sitting higher just even a few inches will make you more visible to the band and the congregation.
• Be in constant visual communication with the drummer, the same way he / she is with the bassist. As long as the to of you agree, you will have a much easier time moving the song musically.
• Position the piano in such a way that you are looking at your singers.

Alternatively, you can do what so many others have done: Give up, get a guitar and someone else to play keys. :-)

It's taken me a long time to get the balance between playing the piano and directing - and I'm still learning. It's much more difficult to do both from the piano as it is so easy to hide behind a behemoth instrument (we're gifted with a grand piano at St. Vincent).

Go fight your pianist intraversion with a few sparser inversions.

God bless you in your ministry.

Vintage Keyboards

I love some of the equipment I've collected over the years. I have also acquired a fair amount of junk as well. No place is the line more blurry than in the "vintage" gear. But that old Hammond M-100 may only fetch $200 on Craigslist.org, but it may be worth $1000 to you with some work and a good Leslie speaker. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read on.

Vintage – an important but meaningless word

"Vintage", a word that comes from wine-making, is simply a word that describes the year something was made. For example, the vintage of a 1999 Chateau St. Michelle Merlot is 1999. Simple, right? But for musicians, a piece of "vintage" gear is one of enough historical significance so as to warrant its continued relevance and value today.

"Vintage" keyboards (and instruments for that matter) are that category of instruments that pre-date Rainbow Brite™, often fail to shine aesthetically, but can (if taken care of properly) knock the socks off most anything else made in the last 20 years. They come with "character" rather than scratches, and sound, rather than shine.

Not all old instruments are considered "vintage". For example, a 1981 Samick acoustic, is not, and probably never will be considered a "vintage" instrument. The key here is desirability. However, I got the privilege of playing Matt Maher's 1945 Gibson acoustic guitar – which sounds great even now! As is the case with good acoustic instruments, it will often sound better after 10 or 20 years than it does new!

Here are a couple examples of "vintage" instruments, if you can find them:

• Pre-WWII Martin guitars (good luck finding one)
• Stradivarius violins
• 1965 Fender Stratocaster
• 1960 Gretsch Nashville or Tennessean
• 1971 Fender Jazz bass
• Hammond B3 Electric Organ
• Fender Rhodes 73 Electric Piano

What makes these instruments special?!

1. Most importantly, none of them are manufactured anymore. Even if they are in "re-issue", meaning similar look and electronics, they were not made at that time
2. Often, they represent a particular sound associated with that part of history, or were made popular and became desirable
3. Sounded great

A couple of reasons for these instruments being important is that they produce a sound you can't produce any other way.

For example, Stradivarius violins are so highly sought after because the builder was a master and has died, the woods used no longer exist because the climate in the 1800's when they were built was especially wet, and they sound fantastic. You simply cannot build a better violin today for some of those reasons! (I especially love the climate reason.)

Vintage Keys

Vintage keyboards are a little different breed from other instruments when it comes to vintage and value. "Vintage" keyboards still tend to be electric in nature, and therefore not always a better pick for use in worship.

The key drawbacks to owning a real vintage keyboard: tuning, hums, buzzes, fuses, weight, and cost of repair. But, the key reasons to own vintage gear: character, authenticity, expressiveness, grittiness, and… well it's just cool.

I guess the big thing I love about vintage keys is authenticity and expressiveness. For example, I own a Wurlitzer 200. Its preamp is noisy. Its keys often need tuning. The action needs work. It's as heavy as my 88-key digital piano. None of this would be a problem if I had bought a Clavia Nord Electro and used their model. But, the sound of the reeds being struck be hammers is so honest, you can't replace it. The fact that things are slightly out of tune – it's not all bad!

I like to think of this as the difference between polished singers and singer/songwriters. You may disagree with me, but I often find more sincerity in the unpolished honesty of a songwriter like Ben Folds or Elliot Smith than I find in the overproduced sounds of Justin Timberlake or David Coverdale.

Here are a couple models to watch out for on Craig's list or eBay and save up for. You may need to have a friend with a pickup for some of these!

• Hammond B/C3
• Wurlitzer 200(A)
• Farfisa
• Fender Rhodes 73
• Yamaha CP80
• Rhodes Suitcase EP

What makes these instruments interesting to list to is that they use real, physical means of producing sound. For example:

Hammond – spins a wheel ("tone wheel") at a high rate past an electric pickup to cause the pickup to modulate (vibrate like a microphone).

Wurlitzer – uses a hammer like a piano to strike a "reed" to make it vibrate, and is picked up via a pickup like an electric guitar.

Rhodes – Uses a non-articulated hammer to strike a "tine", like a xylophone to make a sound, which is then picked up like a guitar would.

CP80 – works just like a piano but with an electric pickup (again, like a guitar) on the soundboard.

The problems here with producing physical sound, especially for worship, is that they often have issues:

• They often go out of tune
• These instruments are often electrically noisy
• Can be unpredictable (try finding a fuse for these during a sermon or homily!)
• Are heavy to lug around
• Are often quite fragile and sensitive to climate changes

The sad part is that many of these issues cannot be worked around without good maintenance, and even then can cause you pain on Sunday! So, now we've come to the very crux of the matter: "Vintage" does not mean "good", especially when it comes to keys. But there are alternatives available.

Alternatives

Your typical keyboard will have settings for Hammonds, Wurlys, Clavs, and the like. Most of these are "PCM" based (sampled recordings of actual instruments). While this sounds good, it's not the same as the real thing – nor will it sound good typically on its own.

Each of the real versions of these instruments (Hammond, EPs) use actual physical means of making sound – yes, even though the instruments are electric! A single recording of these instruments (as most digital keyboards have) is never enough to represent the range of sounds producible by the original, and its inferiority honestly is apparent.

But, there are instruments out there that model the physical nature of the sound, and even give you control over the creation of that sound to come up with some of the best available emulations out there – without the price or unpredictability.

First are the hardware based instruments like the Clavia Electro, Korg CX3 and Roland XK-8. These instruments offer a lot of options that will suit your needs well. For example, all offer a major feature of real organs called "drawbars" that let you configure the sound of the organ on the fly! (We'll talk about playing with this in a future article.) You can also configure your rotary speaker emulation to work just the way you want it, recreating those great sounds you hear today.

Roland VK-8

Also available, for those tied to the latest computer technology, are plug-ins and the like that can be run on a portable laptop computer that will create those great sounds in a controlled fashion, like Apple Logic's EVB3 and Native Instruments' B4. Both of these have great organ emulations. You can model the age of the instrument, it's noise, tuning, speakers, and even how much noise would be made hitting the keys! The disadvantage is that you have to rely on your laptop, so have a GOOD, clean low latency output. You'll still need to bring a keyboard to control the computer.

However it's still not the same as playing the real thing. So, if in my opinion, if you ever get a chance to play the real thing and can't have it all the time, DON'T. You'll wish you could, and you'll always be comparing the emulation to the real thing. ;-)

Models to check out: Clavia Electro, Korg CX3, Roland VK-8, Hammond XB-3, Apple Logic's EVB3 and EP88, Native Instruments B4 II.

My personal take

My favorite keyboard to play live by far is my old Wurlitzer 200. It has a single output jack that I plug into a DI box (because after carrying this thing around, the last thing I want to do is carry around another amp.) It's old, it clunks, it buzzes, it only makes one sound, goes out of tune, and is heavy. I take the laptop with me occasionally and play Hammond sounds though Logic. I also sometimes play the emulation in my Roland RD-700sx (which also emulates tone wheels).

I use a variety of tools to create the sound, and when it comes down to it, I try to do what's going to work best for the music. If the buzz is a distraction, I stay away from the Wurly. If I need to lead, I'm on the piano or guitar.

Do what's right for the ministry, and be ready for the answer to not be any ONE thing.

Stage Pianos / Performance Synthesizers

For the record, I started my first keyboarding article with the notion of solving the musical equivalent of world hunger in one shot – from to choosing a keyboard to choosing sounds to technique to phasing issues… so what you're getting here is roughly less than a tenth of what I had outlined. I just couldn't short change the depth of information here when this blog is supposed to be about getting into the details of music ministry. I just can't put out another Cliff's Notes® version of these things – those are already out there. Oh the joys of being a new, amateur, make-believe journalist (more commonly just called a "blogger").

I am a pianist by trade, and guitarist and whatever else by necessity, so I feel very at home when it comes to keyboards, piano and the like. There are lots of great things you can do with piano and keyboards, but I'll just take the time to scratch the surface of keyboards, playing and sound issues you've probably encountered. I've met some experienced keyboardists that weren't quite sure how to deal with some of these issues, and I hope these are a help to you.

Types of keyboards

There are a few genres of keyboards out there. Your local bookseller's periodical racks have entire magazines dedicated to help you figure out how best to part with your hard-earned money on their advertiser's products. I realize there are tons more models and hybrids of all sorts of keyboards available, including rack mount synths and software synths. No matter what you do, you need some way to interact and generate sound using some type of keyboard playing device. Here's how I'd break down the basic types of physical, hardware based keyboards on the market today:

• Performance synths / Digital Pianos (Yamaha S-series, Roland RD series)
  Music workstations (Roland Fantom series, Korg Triton series, Yamaha Motif series)
• Analog synthesizers / emulators (ex. Nord Lead series, Korg RADIAS, Roland SH-201, microKorg)
• Vintage Synths (Yamaha DX7, Roland D-50, Korg M-1, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, MiniMoog, ARP 2600)
• Vintage Keyboards (Hammond B3, Wurlitzer 200A, Mellotron Mark IV, Fender Rhodes 73)
• Vingate keyboard emulators (Nord Electro series, Korg CX-3, Roland VK-8)
• Controllers (Yamaha KX series, Roland A-series, M-Audio Axiom / Oxygen)

Portable keyboards (Yamaha PSR series – virtually anything with speakers)
Every one of these above types of keyboards has a purpose in mind from its inception, and certain keyboards are going to be more apt toward worship than others, but virtually all can be used in some way, if done correctly. Each one of these types of synths warrants an entire article unto themselves. This time around, we'll delve into digital stage pianos and performance synths.
Piano-based keyboard overview

For the worship team looking for the best, most flexible, useful keyboards for the worship team, these keyboards are the total opposite end of the spectrum from the specific use sounds of the analog modeling synthesizer. These keyboards typically lack workstation features like sequencers, sampling, and sound programmability, and concentrate of great instrument playability.

Piano emulation

These keyboards tend to excel primarily at their piano sounds. What makes these keyboards better sounding than others with their piano sounds is primarily how much of the machine's memory and digital signal processing (DSP) power is dedicated to recreating an accurate, expressive representation of a piano.

First of all, the piano must be multi-sampled. Multi-sampled instrument have recordings of their sounds taken from more than one pitch from the original instrument. In addition, they can have samples taken from more than one volume of the instrument being recorded. Today's best piano multi-samples have a minimum of three velocity (volume) levels recorded for every key on the piano. That's a minimum of 264 samples just for the piano sound! Traditionally, all the best piano samples had come from the industry standard Yamaha C7 grand piano. In the past two years or so, this has changed dramatically with manufacturers looking into less standard, but no less important and powerful grand pianos – specifically, the Steinway concert grand pianos. When I first heard the Roland RD-700SX, I was so moved by the dramatic sound of the Steinway samples over the Yamaha C7 I'd been hearing for years and years, I very soon afterward bought the RD-700SX.

The second, recent innovation around piano recreation is the DSP modeling of the piano's soundboard. The soundboard is the big, cast iron piece that suspends the strings inside the piano, and allows the string to resonate. The modeling for the soundboard includes control of the damper noise, sympathetic string resonance (when you hit an "E", the "E" strings above it also make a sound if the dampers are lifted, in addition to other strings, like the "B" and "A" strings to a lesser extent). It will also add an air of… well… AIR to the sound of the piano, using reverberation models not unlike those that model a small room – which is what the inside of a piano essentially is.

Third, is the keyboard action. With these keyboards, you will (in a way) get what you pay for. When playing keyboards of this type in the store, you will notice a distinct difference in the mechanical action of each of these keyboards as you go from the moderately priced models to the higher end models. The question is always, "what's going to work for you?" not necessarily, "what can you afford?" There is no doubt, the hammer action of the higher end boards is superb. It was another major factor in the purchase of my Roland RD-700SX over her less-expensive sister, the RD-300SX. The 300 is much lighter, but doesn't have the great hammer action, and so I sacrifice my back on occasion for a great feel! (Thank goodness I bought a case with wheels!)

Lastly, you'll want to pay attention to these finer points, which are often included on non-stage piano keyboards (but not all). For example: are the top strings affected by the damper pedal? (On all real pianos, they are not affected.) Also, in the last 7 years or so, manufacturers have paid attention to so-called "half-damping". This is when the damper pedal is neither all the way up nor down. This can include things like muting the strings, but un-damping them again before they have stopped resonating, allowing them to be sustained again. Or it can include partial damping of the strings with the pedal partially depressed as the string sustains.

More than just a piano
Beyond the piano sounds, many models include many goodies that make purchasing them unique, and would require careful consideration before purchase. First of all, there is the inclusion of over, useful sounds. Many stage pianos of old (and some current) only include a few sounds, mostly simple organ sounds, electric piano sounds and string-like sounds. In general, this may be all you need. Others may include more exotic organ generation engines (like the Roland RD-700SX or the Clavia Stage88). The Stage88 doesn't contain hundreds of sounds like the RD-700SX or S-90ES, but it does have fantastic Hammond, Wurlitzer, and Rhodes emulations, including full digital drawbars and great amp simulation! The RD-700SX has great capabilities as a multi-device MIDI controller, while the Yamaha S90ES, unlike the other two, is a fully programmable PCM-based synthesizer, able to save your patch settings, and program altogether new sounds.

What's right for you?

The first three models I have listed at the end of this article all have three things in common: great piano multi-samples (coming from Steinway and Yamaha grand pianos), soundboard DSP, and half damping. The other critical things I would listen to when choosing a keyboard that works for you: consider what other sounds you really need, what kind of control you really need, how does the keyboard feel to you, and how does the midrange of the piano sound to you? This last point, like the others, is totally a judgment call. The piano's range right around middle "C", the most used, useful and critical part of the piano's sound, is also one of the most difficult to reproduce in a keyboard instrument. Only your personal taste can determine what's right for you and your ears' perception of expressiveness.

One more thing in this area, and this is very important for worship musicians: How does the piano and the other sounds sound when mixed MONO?! Every time you plug into a system for playing live, if you aren't doing it already, you should in virtually ALL cases, be playing in mono, not stereo. This is because of the nature of stereo – it uses out of phase sounds in the listeners ears to recreate the sound of the real instrument by having the sounds be different in each ear. In a live situation, the position of the listener is for all but one or two people, never in the optimal position for a stereo sound. In fact, it is virtually always never optimal (or even good) for stereo. The music stores I frequent always have stereo speakers set-up near the keyboard for sale, or have headphones. A keyboard may sound great in the store in stereo, but get it plugged into the front-of-house, and you might as well be playing a Casio SK-1. (Please, just nod and say you know what that is.) This is because the listener is not positioned between the speakers, is hearing reflections off walls… any number of things happens live that will make your great-sounding, expensive stereo keyboard sound stale and cheap. You must have your keyboard set-up to output a mono sound, like that from a single speaker amp, or the mix of the entire band, and the sound of your keyboard will suffer from problems such as comb filtering and phase cancellation, otherwise known to the more novice reader – lousy sound.

I know I've touted the Roland RD-700SX. Mine has personally been used live by the likes of recording artists Kenny White and Matt Maher when they've visited the Seattle area. However, if I were to make this purchase again now, I'd give the Stage88 and the S90ES a serious listen to, since they weren't available when I bought my RD-700SX.

If you're looking for a lower-cost, bare-bones solution that can still sound good in a sound system, you may also want to look at the M-Audio line of stage pianos. Their piano sounds are reportedly good. I can't say that I've actually tried them out myself.
Models to check out: Roland RD-700SX, Yamaha S90ES, Clavia Stage88, M-Audio ProKeys 88, Roland VX-88 (discontinued)

May God bless you in His endeavors to minister to his people through you.