Does anyone know what keyboards/organs were used on DCFC's albums? Particularly Facts and Plans.

Thanks a billion.

I would love to know as well, but is impossible to tell unless you are a synth geek or heard it from Chris himself. But this is what Chris has at his disposal as of 2007:

- 2005 Shigeru Kawai SK-3 Conservatory Grand Piano; 6'1"
- Hammond A-100; organ
- Vox Jaguar; pump it up
- Nord Lead 2; synth
- Nord Electro 2; piano-like sounds
- Yamaha SY-1; dawn of synthesis
- Realistic / Moog Concertmate MG-1; vibrate
- Sequential Circuits Prophet 2; red rain
- Ensoniq Mirage w / about a thousand samples
- Yamaha CP-20; electronic piano
- Crumar Orchestrator; just like heaven

The older organs were probably used on Facts, and i think he used the Yamaha CP-20 to do the rhodes/wurlitzer-type sounds back in the days - live they have been replaced by the Nord Electro now.

I'm pretty sure I saw chris play a nord lead 2 on title and reg live.

That's good to know! I think I'll be interested in a CP-20 or nord until I can get my hands on a real organ where I'm living now.

I think I'll just have t ask around about old organs... I caught a harmonium being thrown out at the school I'm teaching at now... so I'm sure other schools have some old stuff they're just tossing, too. I'll keep an eye out for the yamaha at the used stores. I don't think I'll have any luck finding nords around here.

Nords are pretty much the industry standard for an all-round electric synthesis keyboard - the Lead and Electro as a combo do just about anything you'll need and very well for the price. Can't imagine they'd be hard to find anywhere, but of course i can only speak for europe.

I'd recommend the piano/organ/electric-piano sounds on the Nord over a Yamaha stagepiano anyday, but they are also pricier.

quote:

Originally posted by Punk as f**k:
I'm pretty sure I saw chris play a nord lead 2 on title and reg live.

Yeah he does use that, but it's standing on top of a larger black stagepiano. I read somewhere that he uses an electro rack so it might be he is playing the sounds on the rack by the aid of midi, so i'm just wondering if the keys he's actually playing are just sending out midi signals, or if it is also used to produce certain sounds?
We know they use it for piano sounds, for example Ben play piano on it for the most of IWPYH and the switches to the Nord Lead for the organ-type sounds in the bridge.

You get a good close-up of it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bptVcwBrpOU

EDIT: Bingo, there's the Electro Rack, to the right side of Chris' keyboard setup.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kasper,

yay, but spending money on keyboards is useless unless you are like, touring with a band. They date themselves quickly and basically getting a midi controller and learning to use logic/protools is a better for anyone that is not a professional musician.

quote:

Originally posted by Punk as f**k:
yay, but spending money on keyboards is useless unless you are like, touring with a band. They date themselves quickly and basically getting a midi controller and learning to use logic/protools is a better for anyone that is not a professional musician.

I went through the whole thing of using fake keyboard sounds and all that... I will still use fake sounds, but part of me wants real sounds, too. There's nothing that beats the actual sound of an organ-- I've never recorded the M3's that I got but they sound better in person than computer versions of even B3s sound.

Even an analog 80's synth that simulates organs sound better than computer organs, i totally agree with that. And you can also put way more feeling into playing them than you can with a midi controller.

If you have lots of money, sure. There are many synth plug-ins out there that emulate vintage ones perfectly without the issues that the old ones had, and with midi you can map things to tempo, arp in time, etc. I used to buy synths, until I realized that it was a waste of money. Oh and there's no such thing as "real sounds" when it comes to synths, that's why they're called synthesizers, just an oscillator and some filters.

So, no difference between an analoguely synthesized sound and a digital one, just like there's no difference between vinyl and cd's?

But you're right though, noone has the money to collect synths just to get the feel of a particular sound on one particular analog synth.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kasper,

I think that I agree with Kasper in that the analogue synths and electric pianos and all that junk sounds better than the computer versions. At the same time, when you're actually dealing with a synth, unlike computer ones, they will become limited very quickly.

I see what you're saying about synths though, punk-- but when it comes to electric pianos and organs, there's nothing that beats them!! I really wanna geta hold of an electric piano. They're like guitars in that you can really go nuts with effects on them (not that I'm good at that with guitar). I think that has a lot to do with what makes "analogue" snyths sound better than computer ones-- they areable to be modified with analogue effects and are more readily run through amplification which gives it a less stiff feel.

I also associate computer synths with sequencers which gives songs such a stiff feel-- that's my biggest problem. I always seem to have some kind of click track. I think I want to just lay down a rhythm with something and build from there from now on instead. But now I'm rambling.