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Help Out A Keyboard Dummy!


ggm1960

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I've got to play keys on some songs that in the past I'd only played guitar on. What do you keys veterans do on the Blondie song One Way Or Another? I hear some organ (or synth) crawl up on the F# at the end of the weird chorus section but what else?

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There's that little police-siren sounding bit at the end of tune.

 

 

Yeah, I remember I used to do that with guitar. It's like d-f#, b-eflat right?

I might be hearing some sort of arpeggio thing going just before that during the offbeat thing too.

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Yeah, I remember I used to do that with guitar. It's like d-a, b-f# right?

I might be hearing some sort of arpeggio thing going just before that during the offbeat thing too.

 

 

We play that song sometimes, but I don't remember the notes off-hand. One of things I just 'go to'. But that sounds about right. Might even BE a guitar on the record---I don't remember-- but I've always played that part on keys since the guitarist is busy with other stuff. I tend to just arrange stuff in a manner that makes sure the important parts get covered and sound good, without a whole lot of concern for whether it should be on guitar or keyboards unless it's just impossible to get it to sound right otherwise. I cover a lot of guitar parts on keys on rock stuff, and our guitarist is playing a lot of keys parts on guitar on modern dance stuff.

 

I don't remember any arpeggio thing, but I haven't listened to the record in a long time, so there might be one. If there is, I don't bother with it.

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There's a Hammond/Farfisa organ (lightly distorted through the solo) going through the whole thing and some resonate swept pads (simular to the one in Heart of Glass) in the begining. The police siren is a bad synth sax patch. But what do I know? I play bass!

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The police siren is a bad synth sax patch.

 

 

I don't know what gear Jimmy Destri was using back then, but I don't know if played anything that actually had "patches" in 1978. But yeah, it's not a great tone. Which is why you can get by playing it on almost anything. I usually just play it on the organ patch I'm using and it sounds fine. You just need to hear the notes on that one. The tone isn't particularly relevant, IMO.

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Maybe not patch as in "push a button and it's there" but the term refers to early synths where you had to physically patch things together with cables. But even the Crumar Orchestrator had patch memory buttons in 1978. Back OT: Like David said, you just need to hear the notes. Personally I get all warm and fuzzy inside when a cover band keyboard player not only nails the notes, but gets the sounds right as well.

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Maybe not patch as in "push a button and it's there" but the term refers to early synths where you had to physically patch things together with cables. But even the Crumar Orchestrator had patch memory buttons in 1978. Back OT: Like David said, you just need to hear the notes. Personally I get all warm and fuzzy inside when a cover band keyboard player not only nails the notes, but gets the sounds right as well.

 

 

Yeah, I'm just not sure he didn't play that part on his Farfisa.

 

I'm pretty big on getting my patches as close as possible, and pretty proud of the sounds I get. That just isn't one I feel is necessary to spend a lot of time on.

 

Yeah, there were some "preset" patch synths back then. I remember I played with a guy who had some early Korg (I think it was) mono board that had like a dozen preset tabs you pushed down on the front of it. And the Prophet 5 came out in '78. But I don't know that the guy in Blondie was playing anything but his Farfisa at that point in time. Although he certainly could have used something lying around the studio.

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Yeah, I'm just not sure he didn't play that part on his Farfisa.


I'm pretty big on getting my patches as close as possible, and pretty proud of the sounds I get. That just isn't one I feel is necessary to spend a lot of time on.


Yeah, there were some "preset" patch synths back then. I remember I played with a guy who had some early Korg (I think it was) mono board that had like a dozen preset tabs you pushed down on the front of it. And the Prophet 5 came out in '78. But I don't know that the guy in Blondie was playing anything but his Farfisa at that point in time. Although he certainly could have used something lying around the studio.

 

 

I found an old video clip on youtube of that song ,,,,, I am pretty well 100 percent sure that it was a vox organ not the farfisa. You can see the logo in the video. Another thing that supports that is that pretty well no one used a farfisa in the big leagues back then for a combo organ. Its pretty common for guys that didnt play that stuff back them to call all combo organs farfisa's

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OK. I thought I saw him way-back-when playing a Farfisa, but that's what relying on memory does for ya!

 

 

Well after re looking at the clip ,,, the legs on the organ are not vox , ,but It lookes like a vox logo. The legs dont really look like a farfisa either. Actually that keyboard looks more like a rhodes. Take a look at the video and see what you think.

The organ isnt real up front in the mix so the tone is hard to tell too. I would just go with a 60s organ patch ,,, most board have a couple. the farf and the vox.
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Also, by the time they would have been doing that song on Bandstand, they would have probably made some pretty good money from the success of the previous "Heart of Glass" single and the album sales. There's a good chance he might have bought some different gear than what he recorded with if he hadn't put it all up his nose already.

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Also, by the time they would have been doing that song on Bandstand, they would have probably made some pretty good money from the success of the previous "Heart of Glass" single and the album sales. There's a good chance he might have bought some different gear than what he recorded with if he hadn't put it all up his nose already.

 

 

http://www.combo-organ.com/Farfisa/Compact/index.htm

 

Hard telling ,, I think you may be spot on with saying they just grabbed somthing. It looks like a rhodes ,, but also looks like a three letter logo on the left of the board which is where vox put their logo. Dont matter ,, grab a combo organ patch and go for it. the song doesnt have a big enough organ flavor to even need one to be honest. Its mostly dirty guitar

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I had a red combo compact farfisa back in the 70s. Weird, because I don't remember selling it and I don't know where it went. Might still be at my folks' place somewhere, but I haven't seen it since probably 1979.

 

 

 

They are worth some money to collectors. I pitched a vox contential in the trash a number of years ago. It had a broken key and from an emotional point of view , I just wanted it gone. that was prolly a 5 or 6 hundred dollar fuk up lol. But I really wanted the thing out of my life. been hauling it from house to house for like 40 years. I sold a rhodes 88 and a fender leslie too,, and a short neck music master fender student model bass at the same time. The guy I wholesaled that stuff to got a good buy and none of it was anything I was going to use on gigs. I love vintage guitars ,,, but have no real love for vintage keyboards. the new {censored} is way too good in my opinion. I did keep my gibson ebo and the ampeg B15

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I'm notoriously bad with old gear. I pawned a Rhodes 73 stage piano years ago for a couple of hundred when I was dead broke that I never got out of hawk, and sold a Prophet 5 for a few hundred back when nobody wanted them. (They go for thousands now.) Also had a Roland Jupiter 6 that I just left at an old gf's apartment that was virtually worthless at the time and that I didn't want to bother to retrieve after I broke up with her that would go for thousands now as well.

 

Oh well. Such are the stories of life!

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I'm notoriously bad with old gear. I pawned a Rhodes 73 stage piano years ago for a couple of hundred when I was dead broke that I never got out of hawk, and sold a Prophet 5 for a few hundred back when nobody wanted them. (They go for thousands now.) Also had a Roland Jupiter 6 that I just left at an old gf's apartment that was virtually worthless at the time and that I didn't want to bother to retrieve after I broke up with her that would go for thousands now as well.


Oh well. Such are the stories of life!

 

 

 

Yup ,,, but I have no regrets ,,,, none of that gear is anything that I would play today. the rhodes would beat your wrists and kill you back hauling it around ,,, and that old vox woujld run about two gigs down here in the salt air. The leslie would not fit on our stage. the fender short neck bass prolly should have been a keeper or gone out on ebay

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I've never been one much for past regrets. Life's too short. The Rhodes would be cool to just have up in my home studio, and the P5 and/or Jupiter 6 would be cool just to say I have them. But I certainly wouldn't use any of them for gigging, that's for sure! It's kinda like old cars. The stories of "I used to have..." are almost as good as actually still having them around.

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The Rhodes would be cool to just have up in my home studio...

 

 

Ha! I can make that happen! I've been sitting on a 76 MkII for a couple of decades. I've even got spare tines, hammers and other oddities. It's functional, but it needs help to be pretty again.

 

As long as we're talking regrets here; I pawned a set of Moog Taurus II bass pedals way back when for $20 and didn't get back in time to save them. I've got a few other similar stories but the end result is now I'm a borderline hoarder when it comes to music gear.

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I appreciate the input, thanks guys. Now....the Shocking Blue song Venus, what's the best sound for that one?

 

I went to rehearse with the band Monday night and the keyboard player who I'm going to fill in for was over my shoulder checking out what I was doing!

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