David Bryan-Wanted Dead or Alive

Yes... David Bryan is probably one of my least favorite 80's rock keyboardists... but it's it's b/c of that fact that I know virtually nothing about his setup. Our band is considering adding this tune to our setlist. I assume listening to the song and watching the live footage below that mostly he's playing octaves and some fifths. Nothing too complicated right?

I'm really curious about the top synth he's using in this live video. It's right at the begining at 0:07. And at 2:52. Judging from the hair style I'm going to guess this is still late 80's early 90's. I'm just guessing but is that a Peavey DPM Controller he's using on the top o his setup? I've seen him use a mix of Roland and Yamaha on stage before. The raised display screen on this board makes this look very different than other boards.

Wanted Dead or 'A'Live

Not sure about that top board...kind of hard to see much, but the shape does sort of look like a Peavey controller. One thing is for sure - you ARE NOT allowed to cover this song unless you faithfully recreate the entire David Bryan rig. From that era. So sell all that Triton and Micron crap and buy yourself a C-3, Memorymoog, CP-80, etc.

As for the song, it is a good one and very simple. I sat in with a band several times over the past year that does the song. I used a combination of thick strings (sort of an analog and symphonic mix) along with heavy Hammond, like 888888888 with overdrive. I layered this together and would bring the Hammond sound in and out with a swell pedal.

Let us know if you have more questions. It has probably been 8 months since I last played it, but it was nothing overly challenging at all.

Good luck!

Regards,

Eric

That top keyboard seems to be a Yamaha W5.

Synth spotting is fun!

Originally posted by eric Not sure about that top board...kind of hard to see much, but the shape does sort of look like a Peavey controller. One thing is for sure - you ARE NOT allowed to cover this song unless you faithfully recreate the entire David Bryan rig. From that era. So sell all that Triton and Micron crap and buy yourself a C-3, Memorymoog, CP-80, etc. As for the song, it is a good one and very simple. I sat in with a band several times over the past year that does the song. I used a combination of thick strings (sort of an analog and symphonic mix) along with heavy Hammond, like 888888888 with overdrive. I layered this together and would bring the Hammond sound in and out with a swell pedal. Let us know if you have more questions. It has probably been 8 months since I last played it, but it was nothing overly challenging at all. Good luck! Regards, Eric

Hahahaha!!!! But think about how many CP80's sounds I can carry in a single Triton! IThe smaller, the fatter, the lighter, the better.

Thanks for the insght on the patch build. I built a nice patch but left out the organ. The missing ingredient. Thanks mang!

Originally posted by r33k That top keyboard seems to be a Yamaha W5. Synth spotting is fun!

Bingo....

That would put the video around 94-95 right?

Yes, the W5 was introduced at Winter NAMM 1995, so that video was almost certainly shot later that year.

Didn't Birdy buy one of these on the cheap. Is he still around here? I own an EX7....just curious as to the differences.

He's actually a talented player. Underutilized in that band for sure... but unlike lotsa folks, he was smart enough to stick with a winner.

I agree with you... I've never been a fan of his really because partly b/c of his playing style,a and also becuase of the sounds he used. It was always the same four sounds; strings, organs, piano, bell He did a decnt job with this tune of the spectrum rather than a Don Airey, David Rosenthal, Jonathan Cain.. etc. They were technical but they seemed willing to use a lot of different textures.