I just joined an 80s Rock band playing songs with lots of keyboards.
With all the sounds I have to cover, this is the smallest setup I could go with. I decided I no longer want to be obstructed behind keyboards so I arranged it this way so people can see my hands moving. The “spread arms” technique seems to be effective for visual impact. This is from the first show with the band this past Saturday. The old analogs got lots of love, and there was an awesome PA at the show where the Taurus pedals could breathe fire. I never thought Taurus pedals could work with an AC/DC song, but I tried it on a whim and those beefy low D notes somehow fit the song.
Larger image http://www.retrosynth.com/~analoguediehard/tour/2018-stage-setup-80s-rock.jpg
With the exception of the Taurus 1 pedals, everything is MIDI controlled. I programmed my trusty MIDIBoard with all the patch changes, effect settings, and volume levels for all the boards. One button and I am ready for the next song. Not shown are my racks which are offstage, which house the mixer, effects, and a Voyager RME and Minitaur. The Polypedal was retrofitted to work with my MIDIBoard, which now functions as MIDI sweep and foot controls. I no longer gig the Polymoog as it doesn’t cover much ground for different sounds and it is redundant.
I’m in the process of retrofitting my Taurus 2 controller pedals with a MIDI interface. I have other sounds besides bass that I need to cover with my feet. The Moog Minitaur will be a worthy substitute for the Taurus 1 pedals. I’m using the old and trusty JL Cooper MSB+ MIDI matrix to route MIDI signals between different drivers and receivers, and it include processor to transpose notes and bump MIDI channels so I can use the MIDI’d T2 to trigger strings and effects in addition to Taurus bass sounds. Our singer has a real fetish for Taurus pedals, she had been asking me to use them.
The Andromeda covers a lot of analog synths sounds like my Memorymoog and OBX. Alas, there are some sounds that only the OBX can pull off like “Tom Sawyer” and the filter sweep in “1984” (yes we are playing “Jump”, hangs head in shame). I did a full restoration on the OBX and did some modifications to make it more rugged for the road. I had been gigging it for a few years and it has held up great - I seldom need the autotune button.
I’m exploiting the Mix feature on the Andromeda a lot with splits and layers. I’m pulling off some busy keyboard intros like “Final Countdown” with no sequencer, no backing tracks, just my hands and feet. The band hadn’t heard me play the intro until the show and it blew them away.
Some venues we play won’t be large enough for this setup, so I have a “plan B” which is an “L” configuration with the racks doubling as a keyboard stand for the Andromeda/OBX.
Now the band is talking about adding more songs with keyboards like “Carry On Wayward Son” “Never Been Any Reason” “Foreplay/Long Time” “I’ll Wait” and others. It has been a long time since I had been in a band that has an appreciation for keyboards, I had been getting burned out on guitar-centric bands and guitar heroes who hog the spotlight at the expense of keyboards.
This band is going to be a lot of fun.