Keyboard Korner – Stage Rigs

Yep – that’s a cheesy title.

Basically, Cris from the Philippines has a question that I’ll start to answer, and maybe some of you other keyboard and gear junkies can add to in the comments section…

Cris writes:

“HELP HELP! I want to know any information about your playing in keyboards in church. What keyboard did you use at North Point, and how do you do live performance on Mac and your keyboard? How do you do that?

Thanks. I’m Cris from Quest Community Fellowship here in the Philippines and I’m a keyboard player…”

Well Cris, first a big thanks for being a reader! Do you know Dennis Canlas? If so, say “hi” to him for me!

To answer the first part of your question:

I have used a keyboard as a controller hooked up to a computer running a software synth on a few gigs in the past, mostly due to the inability to lug a giant keyboard around, but I don’t prefer it.

We don’t use a keyboard hooked up to a computer for live performance at North Point or our other campuses. Not because it’s bad, but for a few other reasons. I’ll explain…

#1 – Stability.

Stand-alone synths (electronic keyboards with dedicated internal sounds) are far more stable. Traditionally their internal computing components don’t crash, and their exterior shells can usually take a beating.

Computer-based sound software (aka soft synth), however, is prone to crashes and freezes. Even on the most robust of machines, that’s not a risk I’m willing to take on a regular basis.

#2 – User Interface / Live Performance.

You’ve heard the term “user friendly” and “learning curve“. My personal theory – for anything – is that the easier and more intuitive the interface, the more enjoyable the experience.

And when that translates to worship music in church, that means the less I need to focus on the gear, and the more I get to focus on musical creativity and my own personal time of worship.

Add to that the fact that we have at least a dozen keyboard players that play at one or more of our campuses, and the answer is easy.

– We need the same (or very similar) keyboards at each of our 3 campuses.

– We need them to have a very low learning curve. They need to be very easy to use, and be able to get the most results in the shortest amount of time. Easy to navigate.

– We need them to have quick recall – the ability to call up a sound, especially during live performance, with minimal buttons and menus.

– We need them to actually sound good. 😉

The bottom line is that we want the best possible sounds. Unfortunately that is difficult to ensure if we have players bring their own keyboards. A good keyboard is very expensive, and “vintage” gear in keyboard world is not always a good thing, if you know what I mean!

A vintage guitar and amp is cool. Showing up with a Yamaha DX7 is not.

This is why we have invested in good keyboards that sound good, easy to learn, sound navigation and recall is effective for live performance, and intuitive use of the instrument is inspiring to the player.

Those are just fancy words for saying “Keyboard players WANT to play this particular keyboard”.

So, believe it or not, that eliminates a lot of keyboards on the market today, most noticeably anything made by Yamaha. Their Motif series are a total pain in the butt. Their sounds are great, but you can tell that the user interface was designed by left-brained engineers, and didn’t consult with right-brained musicians. Boooooo!!!!!

The Korg Triton series (any model) is still a great live choice, as navigating through to find sounds is real easy.

The BEST live performance keyboard we’ve found is the Roland Fantom X series, specifically the X8. Registering sounds to the FAVORITES mode is second to none for live performance navigation. I’ll make a video of these in the near future…

#3 – Sounds

This one’s real easy. Does the keyboard have the sounds you need AND the sounds that inspire you (you know – the sounds you didn’t even know you needed…).

These, in my opinion, fall into 2 categories:

A – Workhorse Sounds. These are the meat and potatoes elements, A great acoustic piano, Rhodes, Whirlitzer, Clav, warm analog pad, orchestral strings, etc. Most of these are emulations of real instruments, plus some traditional synth sounds.

These are the basics of being able to play any gig.

B – Sonic Textures. These are the sounds that inspire uncharted territory. Moving and evolving synths and pads, warm and powerful synth leads, arpeggio and rhythmical textures, effected instruments (delays, pans, sweeps, envelope filters, etc.). Most of these could be described as original, futuristic sounds that can add some unique elements to your songs.

The Korg Triton series has always excelled with Textures, while the Roland X8 it my first choice for Workhorse sounds, and increasingly with textures as well.

#4 – Tactile. A keyboard, as with any instrument, has to FEEL right. The physical keys’ texture, weight and response need to inspire – not hinder!

Once again, the Roland X8 is one of the best feeling keyboard I’ve ever played, and their new G8 is also great. As a classically trained pianist, I’m not one to be easily satisfied with the floppy response and unrealistic action of some of today’s pathetic excuses of 88 note weighted keyboards. Bleeeech! No wonder so many piano snobs hate synthesizers.

Summary: Inspiration.

These four elements, at least for me, are all integral parts of choosing a performance keyboard.

I need to be INSPIRED by it, not FRUSTRATED.

Too many people settle for a piece of gear that frustrates its players because it was on sale, or the sales guy at the store was trying to move a unit and pressured some suckers from a church that didn’t do any research and didn’t know what they wanted or their keyboard NEEDED TO DO.

So don’t take my word for it either. YOU need to take your 2 or 3 best keyboard players to lunch, and then to the music store for a few hours. Let them play EVERYTHING in the store. Have them spend TIME with each unit, seeing if it can EASILY and QUICKLY do what you need it to do.

And take a good pair of headphones!!!! The crappy speakers in the music store are not an accurate representation of the keyboard, and if it’s a mono keyboard amp it will put certain sounds, like an acoustic piano, out of phase (and that sounds BAD!).

But, in case you care, my recommendation for a church’s (or professional player’s) primary keyboard would be the Roland Fantom X8:

– It’s got the best workhorse sounds, including the best acoustic piano I’ve ever heard. We A/B compared it with the software “Ivory”, and the X8 was equal in quality and superior in latency and velocity sensitivity.

– It has great Sonic Textures, nearly at par (if not equal to) the Korg Triton series.

– It has the best live performance mode. In rehearsal, you navigate through the well organized banks of sounds according to their genre, and once you’ve picked one you’ll use, you easily register it to a Favorites bank. After doing that, each favorite patch is only one button-press away. VERY COOL!!!

– It has one of the best tactile responses of any keyboard on the market.

These are some of the reasons that the X8 has become the cornerstone of the keyboard rigs on all 4 stages of North Point Ministries’ campuses (North Point’s East and West Auditoriums, Buckhead Church and Browns Bridge Church).

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So here’s a look at each of our 4 stage’s keyboard rigs:

North Point – East Auditorium

– Roland X8

– Korg Triton Extreme (61 key)

– Hammond B3 with Leslie 122

North Point – West Auditorium

– Roland X8

– Korg M3 (61 key) **This is basically the newest version of the familiar Triton series, but is still new and yet to be tamed 😉

– Hammond C3 with Leslie 147

Browns Bridge

– Roland X8

– Korg Triton Extreme (76 key) **(yes, I’m jealous of their 76 key version…)

– Nord Electro 2 through Trek II pre-amp and Leslie 122

Buckhead

– Roland X8

– Korg MS-2000 (interesting choice…)

– Nord Electro 2 through Trek II pre-amp and Leslie 122

We also have some of the older boards stored off-stage for special events, including a couple classic Triton 88 and 61 key Tritons, a Roland JV-88, Yamaha P-200, a broken Korg CX-3, and I’ve even got my old Korg N1 and GEM Equinox back there as well, gathering a nice layer of dust…

OK – that’s it for now on what keyboards we use on stage. Next time we’ll get into hooking up a keyboard controller to a computer to use a soft synth on stage.

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What do YOU use on stage?

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