Super job on Keyboard. Seamless transitions with your patches . I can tell you were enjoying yourself. Nothing wrong with that. BTW, the percussionist ondrum kit complemented your playing style. The whole orchestra was really spot on! Loved it!
Hi Eric - the keyboard programming on this tour was done with a mixture of on-board sounds on the Kurzweil and a Roland Integra-7 synth module next to the keyboard; we weren't using MainStage for this production. Our programmer, Jim Harp, was the original programmer on Broadway for this show so we were using a similar setup to that. And thank you!
@@MatthewCroftMusic It's pity, that the whole perfect orchestration goes into sounds from pre-programmed keyboards and sampling. It's sounds too cheap. However, it is played with great feeling.
@@patrickfridrichovsky3909 as much as I would have liked to have more musicians, we were lucky to have 9 musicians playing live and nothing pre-recorded or tracked. I’m sure there are more modern sample libraries that would sound even better today, but our orchestra and musicians were top notch.
@@MatthewCroftMusic Thanks Matthew, for your sincere reply. I believe, that's the perfect, right answer of the real musician. I have the same experience, not as musician, but as dramaturge and producer. Incidentally I found your videos and going all through. Thanks, it's great fun. I hope, we'll stay in touch!
This is just cool on so many levels! I also commend the programmer. I'd like to ask though, since you have in ear monitors (I don't know if the other players too), how do you go about with playing at the proper volume? I mean you can hear the keyboard, the drums, and little of the other players too, but how do you know that you're, say, actually playing mezzo forte (maybe according to sheet/MD instructions), while the brass plays forte? Is it it a matter of getting used to the proper in-ear volume during rehearsals or does the sound guy adjust the volume during the show? Btw, I love the speed at which the patches change. Kudos to you, someday I'd love to do what you do too.
Hi Josh - no, those are all triggered from my playing. In the big triplet octave section - the Harp gliss is on C#2, the piatti is on C#6. The click was more for tempo consistency as well as a few extra effects that were incorporated.
@@MatthewCroftMusic Dude you're so cool! In the same piece, what notes triggered the piatti in the blocked chords part near 5:42? How about those glockenspiel sounding notes near 7:14 of the video, where were they placed/triggered?
Dean Naces the piatti are on C#6 up in my right hand - kept them consistent throughout the section for ease of “set and forget”. The bells in Prisoners - they’re in my right hand - top notes of each bar. One of the biggest challenges of the orchestration for our tour was that this book was the piano part plus all the harp triggers and percussion parts you could physically play - so finding creative ways to voice things so I could play four parts at once sometimes was one of the things our orchestrator and I worked closely on.
Dean Naces oh - and to answer your question about 5:42; those are actually our drummer - I have one suspended cymbal roll in there triggered but otherwise they’re the work of our immeasurably talented drummer Katie Steinhauer.
Hi Griffin - the parts are printed on card-stock or heavy-weight paper, and then taped together with artist's tape - first on the outside, then on the back, and alternating, so that they fold up, "accordion" style. This allows me to spread out the music up to 5 pages across.
All the patches are programmed into the keyboard/sound module by my feet. I have a footswitch that I'm using to advance between patches - that way I don't have to take my hands off the keys to change sounds. The whole show is programmed from start to finish in order so I can just tap through to the next sound as needed. There were around 400 patch changes in the show though - a lot of programming work.
![Matthew Croft - MD/Keyboards/Conductor - Demo Reel [2024 Update]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IlpGcIGHy1I/mqdefault.jpg)
This is so cool on so many levels! I really enjoyed your playing!
Thank you!
Super job on Keyboard. Seamless transitions with your patches . I can tell you were enjoying yourself. Nothing wrong with that. BTW, the percussionist ondrum kit complemented your playing style. The whole orchestra was really spot on! Loved it!
Thanks, Larry! Yeah, they were burning players - it was very fun to play with them every show.
Such great technique! Bravo! This took me back to playing Max years ago. What a phenomenal score!
A truly wonderful job on this, so great to watch. Thanks for sharing the footage!
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Well played!
very cool!
How was the keyboard program - is this mainstage or did you use some kind of other rig? Thanks, well played also!
Hi Eric - the keyboard programming on this tour was done with a mixture of on-board sounds on the Kurzweil and a Roland Integra-7 synth module next to the keyboard; we weren't using MainStage for this production. Our programmer, Jim Harp, was the original programmer on Broadway for this show so we were using a similar setup to that.
And thank you!
@@MatthewCroftMusic It's pity, that the whole perfect orchestration goes into sounds from pre-programmed keyboards and sampling. It's sounds too cheap. However, it is played with great feeling.
@@patrickfridrichovsky3909 as much as I would have liked to have more musicians, we were lucky to have 9 musicians playing live and nothing pre-recorded or tracked. I’m sure there are more modern sample libraries that would sound even better today, but our orchestra and musicians were top notch.
@@MatthewCroftMusic Thanks Matthew, for your sincere reply. I believe, that's the perfect, right answer of the real musician. I have the same experience, not as musician, but as dramaturge and producer. Incidentally I found your videos and going all through. Thanks, it's great fun. I hope, we'll stay in touch!
This is just cool on so many levels! I also commend the programmer. I'd like to ask though, since you have in ear monitors (I don't know if the other players too), how do you go about with playing at the proper volume?
I mean you can hear the keyboard, the drums, and little of the other players too, but how do you know that you're, say, actually playing mezzo forte (maybe according to sheet/MD instructions), while the brass plays forte? Is it it a matter of getting used to the proper in-ear volume during rehearsals or does the sound guy adjust the volume during the show?
Btw, I love the speed at which the patches change. Kudos to you, someday I'd love to do what you do too.
It's the guy from motown
What note triggers the harp gliss+Piatti on Springtime? Is it on the click?
Hi Josh - no, those are all triggered from my playing. In the big triplet octave section - the Harp gliss is on C#2, the piatti is on C#6. The click was more for tempo consistency as well as a few extra effects that were incorporated.
@@MatthewCroftMusic Dude you're so cool! In the same piece, what notes triggered the piatti in the blocked chords part near 5:42?
How about those glockenspiel sounding notes near 7:14 of the video, where were they placed/triggered?
Dean Naces the piatti are on C#6 up in my right hand - kept them consistent throughout the section for ease of “set and forget”. The bells in Prisoners - they’re in my right hand - top notes of each bar. One of the biggest challenges of the orchestration for our tour was that this book was the piano part plus all the harp triggers and percussion parts you could physically play - so finding creative ways to voice things so I could play four parts at once sometimes was one of the things our orchestrator and I worked closely on.
Dean Naces oh - and to answer your question about 5:42; those are actually our drummer - I have one suspended cymbal roll in there triggered but otherwise they’re the work of our immeasurably talented drummer Katie Steinhauer.
You have a really interesting way of laying out your music. How do you do that?
Hi Griffin - the parts are printed on card-stock or heavy-weight paper, and then taped together with artist's tape - first on the outside, then on the back, and alternating, so that they fold up, "accordion" style. This allows me to spread out the music up to 5 pages across.
How do you switch between instruments so fast?
All the patches are programmed into the keyboard/sound module by my feet. I have a footswitch that I'm using to advance between patches - that way I don't have to take my hands off the keys to change sounds. The whole show is programmed from start to finish in order so I can just tap through to the next sound as needed. There were around 400 patch changes in the show though - a lot of programming work.