Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards I want a setup like this!

Im pretty new to the whole digital piano/synth stuff. I recently found this guy on youtube and am absolutely amazed! Now I want to build a setup capable of doing this. What do I need to do this? Just one good synth or would i need some kind of software or mix of hardware or what? Can anyone tell me please, im obsessed now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZihnM485Yg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlcG0YhI2aI

Both vids are the same guy, just different setups.

In the first vid, I can see midi cables connected to the keyboard. They probably go to a computer interface, or a rack mount sound module.

Yes, I noticed that too, but what im interested in, is how do I set something up like this...what is needed equipment wise and software wise? thanks.

The possibilities are endless. You could get an all-in-one unit like a Yamaha MOTIF, Korg Triton, or Roland Phantom that's got all those sounds built in. Or you could get a MIDI controller keyboard and a separate sound module. Or a MIDI controller and software that's got those sounds.

Can you get any keyboard then and just plug it into a computer and use software to produce all of these other sounds that are not built into a keyboard then? If so what do you use?

what is meant by MIDI controller?

You need a keyboard, a sequencer and piano lessons. And the sheet music which he claims he doesn't have, but must...

In 1st video, the full song is NOT being played completely by him. There are background tracks being played by a sequencer.

In the 2nd, I think he's playing both with 2 lite keyboards (organ touch).
You could probably do that with a single keyboard. Most can do what's called a "split".

So just buy a book or two about synthesizers.
Or take piano/organ lessons.
Hardware wise, most any keyboard with a handful of good synth sounds will do.
Plus a sequencer (pc based song editor).

I've got some midi docs for ya here:
http://shazware.com/midi

And a free sequencer for ya here:
http://shazware.com/ditty

All you need is a keyboard, pc and (most importantly) piano lessons and the sheet music.
(Or a midi file of the performance).

...Steve

MIDI controller is an electronic instrument with some controllers, like keyboard keys and/or knobs, pads etc. It sends information about what key was pressed, how long etc., (just pure information, no sound) to MIDI out, through some MIDI cable, to the source of sound (sound generator): computer, sound module, keyboard etc.

So for example keyboards or digital pianos can be a controller, it just has to have MIDI connections, and most of them do.

As an simple example: you buy random digital piano (the one you like), plug it to the computer (using MIDI cable), and some speakers to the computer (it can be your pianos speakers). Then you can sound as a whole orchestra, or string quartet, or whatever you want - depends on what software you install on your computer. Doesn't matter are the sounds on your piano good or bad - the computer produces sound, instrument only send informations from the keyboard and knobs/faders, if it has some.

Another thing is that this guy recorded something using this method (like melody in the first film), and played it as a playback. He could record few tracks (like bass, strings, and drums) and play them simultaneously as a playback. All this things with recording and playing different tracks you can do with programs called MIDI sequencers - they are your friends if you use MIDI controller

I hope this helps.

And if the most important last items are too difficult. or take too much time, you can take a Movie soundtrack CD, and pretend that you play like this guy (OK, this is not piano, but there keys on the thing):
La valse d\'Amelie - Accordeon

It is easier than it seems to sound good on youtube.

cool thanks guys, I am looking at the KORG Triton Le currently, feel free to steer me away from it if I shouldn't be looking at this one.

Depends on what do you want to do. You can try Yamaha Motif also.

I kinda disagree some of the suggestions and assumptions that have been made so far.

1) I pretty sure that the guy was NOT using external MIDI sounds at all for this. I believe all the sounds were coming from the Triton LE. I own a TR76 (read: upgraded Triton LE) and those strings and orchestral instruments sounded awfully familiar to me. Besides, just 'cause his MIDI is hooked up doesn't mean he was using it for this particular video.

2) I don't think there was any sequence playing either. All you have to do on a modern workstation keyboard is set up creative keyboard splits and velocity changes. For instance, it sounds like he has strings on the entire keyboard and velocity range, flute or something over the right hand range, and some sort of bass and/or timpani on the left hand that only comes in when he plays hard. I know on my TR you can split and layer up to 8 sounds anywhere on the keyboard, and assign them to whatever velocity range you want to. In fact, my TR (and I'd suspect the LE too) has preset COMBIS (COMBI mode allows you to do the splits and layers of different programs, which are found individually in PROGRAM mode) that are even more complex and have more sounds than what was in this video. Trust me, it's really not that hard to do once you get the hang of it.

With all of this said, I would definitively say that you do not need a computer at all to sound like this video. Any of the big three workstations (Korg Triton/M3, Roland Fantom X/G, Yamaha MO/ES/XS) should be able to do this type of thing with flying colors IMO.

My Kurzweil K2600X has this awesome program called Touch Orchestra (Or Touchy Orchestra - it's similar). It has velocity layers set up so that playing lightly you will hear all strings. A little harder playing and it will begin to sound very brassy. The bass cleft has a split of timpani that comes in on the third level of velocity, and the fourth level adds crash symbols.

I love Touch Orchestra - it is the perfect example of touch sensitivity and aftertouch. In my opinion the K2500 and K2600 series by Kurzweil are worth looking at. However, the K2500 has been discontinued and I think the K2600 is close to it or has been newly discontinued since the PC3 has been introduced.

Don't get me wrong, the pieces linked sound good and are nicely played, but I don't find them all that amazing. Maybe I'm spoiled. There's nothing he's done there that I couldn't do on my stand-alone Kurzweil K2600xs.

Long live Kurzweil! My K2600X is purple too! I love it!