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The Keyboard Know-It-All: Tips and Tricks to Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better | |||
It’s no secret that we hope every issue of this magazine helps you do everything better. This month, though, we’ve assembled a gargantuan grab bag of tips on everything from setting up your live keyboard rig to getting the most out of popular DAWs and workstations to songwriting for film and TV. About the only game we can’t help you up is World of Warcraft—but you’d rather be making music anyway, right?
Efficient Gig Setup BY STEPHEN FORTNER Having come up as a weekend warrior in numerous cover bands, Keyboard’s editor played enough bar gigs, weddings, and casuals that setup was far less painful once he learned to follow these rules. 1. Work from upstage to downstage. I used to place all the heavy stuff , then connect all the cables. On a tight stage though, this meant making trips around or under my rig to run cables, squeezing between the edge of my keyboards and the bass amp or drum kit, and otherwise wasting bodily motions. Instead, place the upstage-most “footprint” of gear first—likely your amp, rack gear, and/or powered floor monitors—thenrun all necessary cables from them to where your keyboards will go, before you even unfold your keyboard stand(s). 2. Make snakes. Gang cables together with Velcro straps or zip ties. I suggest at least two per keyboard stand: one for all connections on the left sides of your keyboards’ rear panels and one for all connections on the right. Depending on how much of a pedal person you are, you may have a third just for running between keys and pedalboard. Color-code connectors with rubber bands or electrical tape so that plugging in becomes a process you do without thinking. Audiophile wisdom says to avoid running AC and audio cables in parallel, and though I’ve never had a problem doing so at a bar gig, you may opt for separate gangs for power and audio. 3. Carry a good stereo direct box. Because you can flick the ground lift and kill annoying hum if nothing else, but also so the house engineer can never tell you there aren’t enough DIs for you to run in stereo. (If there aren’t enough main mixer channels for you to run in stereo, get a better gig.) I swear by Radial Engineering’s stuff here. 4. Keep your footprint consistent. The only cable runs whose lengths should need to vary from venue to venue are that of the main power drop to your keyboard riser or area, likewise the audio from your main DI or mixer to the front-of-house input panel. (You are carrying long extension cords and extra XLR cables for that, right?) Inside your keyboard kingdom, all should be familiar and repeatable—though you’ll want to build extra length into the amp/rack footprint-to-keyboard footprint run for larger venues where you’re able to put your amp or speakers further back to let them “throw.” 5. Secure cables and snakes to keyboard stands with Velcro. If you want a tidy appearance, don’t“barber-pole” cables around the stand’s legs or X-members to take up slack—they’ll really fight your tired, impatient self when it’s time to tear down. Playing Arranger Keyboards  BY JIM ESHLEMANArranger keyboards are so different from most synths and workstations that they require their own approach to performance. These auto-accompaniment instruments provide a “one-man-band” experience and can have many functions, from educational tools for beginners to advanced recording features that rival those in studios. But at their heart, all arrangers have styles: short drum/bass/accompaniment patterns of one or two measures of music—usually from many eras and cultures—that follow your chord changes in real time.  | |||
Monday, September 9, 2013
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