Changing keyboard patches during performance

[sailorman]

I realize this might be better posted in the Keyboards forum, but I'm not a keyboard player.

 

The keyboardist in my band is a really good keyboard player, but not at all good at reading manuals. So during gigs, we wait for him between songs while he selects the patch for the next song. And changing from one patch to another during a performance.... he just can't seem to do what I see other players do all the time.

 

His keyboard is a Yamaha S90ES, which I assume speaks MIDI. I use an RFX Midibuddy MIDI pedal to switch mix scenes on our old Yamaha 01V. I assume something similar could be done, labeling the switch pads with the patch name (Hammond, Strings, Piano, Rhodes, etc)? Or using a MIDI keyboard like my Oxygen 8?

 

In fairness, he's a surgeon and busy beyond belief, so he barely has time to play anything, let alone read a manual. Being retired, perhaps if set on the right path, I can help him. So any advice will be appreciated.

[bookumdano4]

I realize this might be better posted in the Keyboards forum, but I'm not a keyboard player.

 

The keyboardist in my band is a really good keyboard player, but not at all good at reading manuals. So during gigs, we wait for him between songs while he selects the patch for the next song. And changing from one patch to another during a performance.... he just can't seem to do what I see other players do all the time.

 

His keyboard is a Yamaha S90ES, which I assume speaks MIDI. I use an RFX Midibuddy MIDI pedal to switch mix scenes on our old Yamaha 01V. I assume something similar could be done, labeling the switch pads with the patch name (Hammond, Strings, Piano, Rhodes, etc)? Or using a MIDI keyboard like my Oxygen 8?

 

In fairness, he's a surgeon and busy beyond belief, so he barely has time to play anything, let alone read a manual. Being retired, perhaps if set on the right path, I can help him. So any advice will be appreciated.

 

 

Let me tell you about changing patches on banks of keyboards and sound modules on stage seven nights a week via multiple Commodore/Apple computers circa 1985 in LA while I sweated bullets any one of the computers or their 13" monitors wouldn't go down mid-song.

 

On second thought, especially since the keyboardist himself is playing realtime instead of midi-controlled input....

 

We're almost at 2017. Your keyboard player is a surgeon. Tell him to buy a second s90es and a double keyboard rack. Tell him that while you all are playing one song, to get the patch ready for the next song on the 2nd keyboard. If he complains about having to bring two keyboards, tell him to hire an opthamologist roadie. Tell him to shape up pronto or you're gonna replace him with a veterinarian who can get his keyboard act together.

[trevcda]

Let me tell you about changing patches on banks of keyboards and sound modules on stage seven nights a week via multiple Commodore/Apple computers circa 1985 in LA while I sweated bullets

 

Or uploading a tape full of sysex data for the sequencer from a cassette for the next set, hoping to god it finishes successfully, because it takes about ten minutes of a fifteen minute break and, well, you do the math!

 

If I recall correctly an FB1010 can be had for around $100 and can output up to five program change commands per button. Of course the cheapest way would be to pull out the manual and move the sounds you need to the first few presets on the keyboard and label if necessary, so he doesn't have to go hunting for them every time.

 

 

[bookumdano4]

 

Or uploading a tape full of sysex data for the sequencer from a cassette for the next set, hoping to god it finishes successfully, because it takes about ten minutes of a fifteen minute break and, well, you do the math!

 

YES!! I had to do that on breaks with my onstage LinnDrum via a cassete deck in the sound modules rack. Sometimes that wasn't reliable and I had to haul a reel to reel to gigs as a backup with higher output. Sysex.....arghhh......A nightmare which did indeed blow the entire break.

 

At least for the Sequential sequencers themselves on two switched commodore 64s, I'd ping pong loading the songs. The keyboard player controlled one C64 (one display monitor aimed right in her face), loading the next song off a 5.25" floppy disk while the bass player controlled the other c64 and a set of floppies with a display monitor on a stand right in his face too.

 

I'd use a manual toggle switch and homemade midi switch box to switch between the commodores and keyboard/modules. God forbid anyone hit the play spacebar on a C64 BEFORE I managed to hit the toggle. Hung notes, drones, restarts. Nightmare nightmare nightmare.

 

But I did play huge rooms every night, so that was cool. We were quite a novelty there for a while.

 

And in 1985 when the masses didn't understand the word midi much less karaoke, I'd get all these drunk people walking up saying, "whatya guys doin up here, watchin tv?". Must've heard that one a billion times.

[nat whilk II]

It ain't rocket science....here's where the manual explains it.

 

http://www.manualslib.com/manual/196...s.html?page=90

 

nat whilk ii

[trevcda]

YES!! I had to do that on breaks with my onstage LinnDrum via a cassete deck in the sound modules rack. Sometimes that wasn't reliable and I had to haul a reel to reel to gigs as a backup with higher output. Sysex.....arghhh......A nightmare which did indeed blow the entire break.

 

I jumped into MIDI sequencing when the first MMT-8 came out in 1987, but still pre-Data Disc, using cassette storage. Prior to that I'd used MIDI for layer and such. The Data Disc was huge and the eprom upgrade that would let you play MIDI directly from the Data Disc was nothing short of a dream come true! Although certainly not infallible, as I managed to prove when our backing tracks stopped dead in front of a 2500 cap sold out show as an opening act. Fortunately, we had not yet purchased to sound module equivalent of the keyboards we were using and I was able to jump on the keyboards and play a stripped down version of a song I had written. To this day I still think we were sabotaged! I still have all that equipment and use it fairly regularly.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Thanks for the laughs!

[Phil O'Keefe]

[Etienne Rambert]

Great idea, especially since the S-90 series boards weigh about a ton. Your surgeon will need back surgery after two gigs.