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Hi Gabriel,
My favorite expression pedal is the Moog one, the EP3. I like it cuz it feel sturdy, almost like an expression pedal on a real Hammond organ. You can use it for any kind of expression that your keyboard may have, not just for volume.
There are much cheaper ones but they feel….cheap. And more expensive ones that can be too big, heavy and bulky.
Matt
Hi Rooibos,
SORRY for such a late reply. Can you send me a video of what you are talking about?
From what I can understand, you may well have to do some serious work with a metronome. Not just skanking and bubbling, but simply playing scales and arpeggios with it. Every musician must develop a rock solid internal metronome and that often only comes from practicing with a metronome.It’s interesting that you say when you give up some control it can become more precise! Sometimes that is a problem; that you’re trying to be perfect in some way, only to realize that when you give up on this, things get better. (Some life lessons there!) Perhaps that’s all you need, just to give it up to the collective groove and vibe that’s going on with the band.
Sometimes with reggae, you can run into the problem of it feeling somewhere between a swing and straight 8th note feel and that can be confusing but here, you just gotta give into it and try to just feel the groove.
Lastly, if the drummer in your band has a shakey time feel…speeding up and slowing down a lot, that can throw everyone off.
Does that help?
Matt
Hi Ari,
Sorry for the late reply. I’d say get a Nord Stage 4 – either the weighted touch or semi-weighted. You’d have to play them to figure out what feel would be better for you. I use one of those and they’re amazing. Some people put the Nords down because they are used everywhere and well….they ony emulate the real instruments (Hammond organ [and other organs], grand piano, upright piano, electric piano and all kinds of synths) so the purists out there will complain about the sound not being the ‘real thing’ but once you get to know the instrument you can tweak it to sound damn good. If you’re more of a beginner, which it seems you are, you’ll have a learning curve with the Nord no doubt. If you’re into learning and have the patience, you’ll love it.
As for amps: I use two QSC 8.2 powered speakers almost no matter where I go, even if on a big stage where everything is being put into the house system. (When I was touring with Groundation I did NOT use them as the sound reinforcement was world-class and we used in-ear monitors.) DO NOT GET ONE OF THOSE ROLAND KEYBOARD AMPS! They weight a ton and sound shitty. The two QSC amps sound so great because you get stereo sound, but one powered monitor will do you fine as well.Any more questions?
Matt
Hi Ari,
Sorry for the late reply. To get to the point of jamming….so you get to some fun stuff and not just drilling learning the new keys you are working on I’d suggest working with the “Full Up” riddim that is used with Piano Course 1 (basic theory). You can learn the C and D minor chords and use the C major scale and the C major pentatonic scale to jam with. By jamming I mean to do some improvisation in the right hand….while you hold down the chords in your left hand. It might be too hard to play the chop in the left hand while improvising so you can just hold down the chords in the left hand as half notes or whole notes. So…there you’ll be learning the key of C.
Then try working out on the “Above the Bass Line” song on Piano Course 2. That’s in the key of F. So here, you’ll be learning to jam using the F major and F major pentatonic scales.
I think that’s how you can approach it – just focusing on whatever tune you are encountering on a particular lesson video.
Eventually, if you were going for being a pro you would do the work it takes to learn all 12 keys in major and minor tonalities and that’s a heck of a lot of work.
Does this help?
Keep on workin!
Matt
Hi Noel,
I’m so glad you’re getting your SCRATCH skank sound happening. It’s CRITICAL for that killer sound. And when it merges with the piano chop…then you really got the SOUND. Keep up the good work.This Rocker Nu Cracker track is WIKKED. Never heard it before.
I wish the Community Forum would take off more but it doesn’t seem to be picking up much momentum. Hopefully it’ll grow at some point.
Hi Noel,
Did the Piano Course 2 help you out at all? That course is all about it.
The Organ Course can help too.Please tell me! And ask any specific questions you may have. I promise I’ll respond more quickly this time!
MattHi David,
Sorry for the late response. THANKS for joining Art of Reggae!
Tell me how it’s going with your bubbling on the B3!
I can’t stop bubbing, ever!Matt
Greetings Noel,
Thanks for sharing your story! And thanks for being part of the A of R community. I know the forum is rather slow in picking up steam so again, thanks for sharing. Please send a link to your music, a band video, your performance dates.
Keep on skankin!
Matt
Hi Chris,
First of all…I am Polish! That’s right. I’m 3rd generation in the USA and don’t speak a word of the Polish language but both of my parents are Polish!
As for seeing the Berklee Marley ensemble, go to the art of reggae youtube page and scroll all the way down (after hitting ‘videos’). There’s some there. Also just youtube search ‘Berklee Bob Marley ensemble’ and you’ll find a bunch.There’s this one as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivBg3C-U82c
Enjoy!
MattI have been using one of the Scarbee basses on the Kontakt plug-ins. I turn the high’s and mid’s completely down and boost the bass some. It’s great!
Hi David, sorry for the late response. I HIGHLY recommend not every buying a dedicated keyboard amp. Sounds crazy right? Why? Most are way way too heavy and don’t sound good, especially those Roland keyboard amps. I use two QSC 8.2’s on nearly every smaller type, around town, gigs I do. They are powered PA speakers and weigh comparatively very little. I can lift both of them easily on each hand. And they’re 2000 watts. They are expensive so you can find cheaper ones from other brands that have the same tech. It’s what I think is called “D class” amps that can deliver the watts and weigh a hell of a lot less than older amps. PA speakers have little to no EQ control and have no other effects but most keyboards today have plenty of EQ on board so you do not need EQ on the amps. Even just one of these above mentioned PA monitors sound great, but two is amazing!
I’d like to hear about what you plan to do on this!
Matt
Woah…I’ll have to check that out. That’s the biggest problem with synth horns; the timbre is exactly the same. A trumpet, trombone and tenor sax all have different timbres and when played together that’s part of the great sound. Sounds like this plug-in is attempting to remedy that. Of course, then you’re dealing with digital (or even sampled) sound sources, so it won’t be as good as the real thing.
Hi Angela,
The dub sounds I’m using are with the Line 6 DL4 (the new version) and just playing the keyboard (piano or e. paino) into it then messing with the knobs to get freakiness. No sounds downloaded from the Nord site.The issue with synth horns is a long frustrating one. Bands switched to using them mainly for financial reasons back in the 80’s, cheaper to have a keyboard player do them. But the sounds are AWFUL, even with the most modern keyboards and plug ins. Why? Because what makes a real horn section sound great is 1) the merging of all the timbres of each instrument (trumpet, trombone and tenor sax usually). With synth horns you’re stuck with the same timbre (and a weak sounding digital, or even analog one). 2) it’s very hard to get all the nice dynamics, scoops, fall offs, etc. with synth horns. Yes, some new synths have crescendos and the ability to do fall-offs and some other horn specific expressions, but they don’t sound all that great and if you’re keeping a chop going with one hand you can’t engage some of these things because some of them take using the mod wheel or some other knob on the keyboard. I don’t know of any keyboard or plug in that is trying to resolve al these issues….for us reggae keyboards. But if you find something, let me know!
Hi Angela,
As for two keyboards. To be honest, these days I mostly only use the Nord (I have a Stage 4) and use splits, sometimes even 3 way splits. Mostly I have the organ bubble sound on the left side and piano for chopping on the right side and that will cover what I’m doing. I have some splits where I have the left hand piano (chop) and various lead synth sounds on the right side. Some 3 way splits I have the piano in the middle, left side organ and right side lead synth sounds. I also have a bunch of dub pads with all kinds of effects programmed in on the patch buttons on the lower level so I can be playign the organ LH/piano RH patch and quickly hit the dub pad patch for dubwize/riddim sections and get back to the organ/bubble patch lightening quick.
However there are times where the music is a bit more complicated and it’s easier to have the main keyboard on the bottom with just piano, just organ, or with the organ/piano split while the keyboard on the top will have lead sounds, dub pad sounds, clavinet, and perhaps horn sounds. Also there are times where I will bubble with the right hand (and chop with the left) and often times I’ll put the organ bubble on the top keyboard for right hand bubbling….switching quickly to say horn parts, or lead parts….or dub fx stuff.
Make sense?