Billy Joel touring rig 1 of 5
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- Longtime Billy Joel keyboardist David Rosenthal details his latest upgrades to his touring rig, which is now based largely on virtual instruments, MainStage, and the Receptor. Read the full interview in our October 2014 issue.
Props to the interviewer for asking really useful questions.
It's rare to find someone with so much talent who is humble and nice like this guy!
This is far and away the greatest explanation of a touring keyboard rig I have ever heard, and I am including my in-person experiences. You can just tell in his style of explanation that he would be an incredible educator.
You do a great disservice to the tremendous amount of professional musicians (rock and otherwise) who do not use notation. They are legitimate and achieve great things regardless of whether they can or want to use notation. This is not being anti-notation, just not needing/wanting it to function in a professional capacity. Here's a short list of some of the many notation-free musicians that have had great success professionally: Paul McCartney. John Lennon. George Harrison. Elton John. Bob Marley. Kurt Cobain. Erroll Garner. Stevie Wonder. Elvis Presley. Jimi Hendrix. Jimmy Page. Eric Clapton. B.B. King. Stevie Ray Vaughan. The Bee Gees. Eddie Van Halen. Robert Johnson. Slash. Angus Young of AC/DC. Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. Adam Jones of Tool. James Hetfield of Metallica. Danny Elfman. Dave Brubeck. Andrea Bocelli. Wes Montgomery. Jimmy Smith. Charles Mingus. Irving Berlin. Chet Baker. Pete Townsend. Tori Amos. Taylor Swift. Jerry Garcia. Bob Dylan. Prince.
@David Topchiev Why do you say this?
Billy Joel is lucky to have this guy. He is not only knowledgeable but motivated to solve anything that comes up. And he obviously loves his job. It's very nice to listen to him because of how mellow he is in his high energy. Mellow high energy???!!! Seems to contradict but in his case it goes together.
Perry: I truly understand your sentiment: this makes oxymoronic sense
Good comment Perry! Agreed. "Mellow high energy", ... well, he's enthusiastic, and "in the zone" (I wish I could always be in 'that zone', a good one to be in, when one has the right blend of confidence, know-how, zip, and peace.)
ЙRich Sandness Й
Check this guy out with Rainbow in the "Straight Between the Eyes" concert. You'll hardly recognize him!
There is so much tech knowledge in this video, I mean, things that I never imagined, and all kinds of wonder I thought I was doing with my small and humble rig (Laptop Pc + Usb Midi Controller) and then, this guy shows what a keyboardist is all about. Thank you so much for these timeless pearls of wisdom.
so true.
Dave is such a personable guy. He actually responded to an email I sent (I'm a fellow keyboardist, guitarist and sing at the piano) about Sometimes a Fantasy and told me how he plays what we called the 'synth break' in it with two hands.. melody and harmony. And there's no way at my level I could quite pull that off... mad props to Dave for knowing so much - he want to school at Berklee school in Boston which is top level as far as music education.
Most of all it's *rare* to find a keyboardist with both the technical knowledge AND chops that Dave has. That's why he's so invaluable in Billy's band. He can jam AND he keeps up with technology, giving us better sounding samples and such than we'd have with any old keyboardist like myself. :)
+Frater Tenc I'm also curious why Dave used to sing backup vocals in the 90's (if you watch shows youll see this , like the Live in Frankfurt one) but then stopped. If his voice got bad from smoking, or it was just too technically hard to do both at once.. it's hard enough playing two keyboards with each hand heh.
This guy is genius, seriously
Great to see how someone has put together a rig that is able to replace the old Opcode Studio 5. Very impressive and well thought out system, very impressive David!
Very very interresting video's (1-5). Amazing setup with great routing and backups. Thanks
Damn that's a serious keyboard rig. That dude has got it down.
A gem in Billy's band 👏👏👏👍
could you please do more of these? I could watch it for hours :)
Very nice setup!! I learned a lot about your routing setup that I wanna try some things now to my rig, thanks for the tips.
Well at 54, I remember playing gigs with just a piano. Imagine that lol
This kind of puts the story I read of Rick Wakeman in the old days twiddling nobs setting up his synths and then hanging a "don't change" sign them in a different light.
Wow...David even uses Excel too! to trasnform the language into the required processing language.uses multiple risk reduction factors (2 x ipads for example. David very much dived into transforming himself with technology, and still continues strong. Congratulations David!
OMG how intricate!
This is fascinating.
so glad that i'm a guitar player.
+Sid Fernandez Haha. I play both. I'm the one who posted above who emailed Dave before...guitar is pretty complex too (i play bass as well) if you really get into the "nerdy" side of the technical aspects of how various guitars are made, how many various amplifiers there are and mic'ing or using modeling programs like Guitar Rig 5 (which I recommend)... The cool thing about guitar vs the keys, though, is that once you know a scale "shape" on guitar, you know it in every key! Piano is cumbersome sometimes especially in odd keys like Eb Bb Ab etc.. it was almost designed to play in C major first and foremost. Back in the day, they weren't tuned in 12 tone equal temparement. That's the current standard for almost 200 years now, where every half step is the same space apart.. the 12th root of 2 from the previous frequency. They used to be tuned in "just intonations" in a speciifc key for a specific song, which meant you could get a non-dissonant major third and perfect fifth pretty much. Imagine on guitar being able to play in every key with distortion, major triads or big open major chords (root , third and fifth like C E G C E or so on) with virtually no or NO dissonance at all. Just perfect ringing. Check out "microtonal" guitars if this interests you :) It's geometrically and scientifically possible to make such a guitar, but in theory afaik you'd have to adjust the intonation changing from song to song. By the way that's part of why a lot of rock bands or guitarists in general have so many diff guitars on a stage instead of sticking with one for the whole show. Each one can be particularly intonated for whatever key the song is in.
I play both as well. It's endless. Different guitars for different songs (ideally) be it style, tuning, sound, not to mention how guitars are personal just like people. No two Martin D28's are the same. Most keyboards are identical straight out of the box. It's a fun first world problem to have. Gotta love life. However, the most important part is playing and singing in tune and playing and singing with emotion. That's more important than the best gear in the world. Focus on the music and performance, then turn your house into a Guitar Center. My 2 cents anyway. www.lucaslevon.com
Bass players really have it easy😂
epavarma them you obviously have no idea what a bass player is.
@@FinnlabelNYC That's what you think?
Nice to see unrealBook in use by the "big boys" :-) I couldn't do even my much smaller scale gigs w/o it ...
Good man David Rosenthal good man
Terrific insight. Thanks for sharing.
Very helpful. Thank you.
I wanna play someday having a keyboard tech guy like him
In case anyone is curious, Billy Joel uses Synthogy Ivory II samples on his custom digital piano made by Long Island Piano Company. Not sure if they're still around but the Synthogy Ivory II samples are top of the line for piano. Try them out on your MIDI keyboard at home if you have one, they put out a demo or demos. I wonder which of their piano samples Billy uses, though.. they do Yamaha C7 (I think is the model) Steinway and Bosendorfer to my knowledge. His sounds more like a Steinway.
I may be in the minority, but I honestly haven't liked the sound of Billy's piano for at least the last 10 years, just so harsh and bright. Not that it's synthology, I'm sure that's just one sound they have.
@@sgtpepper1138 It is ironic that we have an abundance of technology trying to imitate the pure natural sound of a wooden concert grand piano. The tweaking and twerking of tech will tell upon the temerity of trying, and the tolerance tantamount to the trained tympanic membrane.
God bless him: This is why Billy Joel has him -- and he has job security! I could be as good as Arthur Rubinstein -- or Lang Lang, and yet lack prowess -- and be useless regarding what I should know and excel. I would feel like Liberace, left behind! Ironically, Joel maybe considered pop with plenty of diverse styles, but the genre is understandable. If it were the super prodigious, prolific, psychedelic and progressive rock with their multitude of timbers, timing, and tempos, one's brain would be fried, and fit to be tied.
Rosenthal is a super nice guy.
David, you are a monster. Respect! I used to sell those Kurzweil models (really flexible and powerful I must say,.. how do you deal with their reliability issues? As controllers, I assume you have one or two in the back just in case. I hope to see the show someday!
He explains briefly about emergencies and stuck notes, etc.
I watched again.... because of the legacy factor (he's used the same Kurzweils since the 90s) he has so much custom programming on them in case the computers and iPads fail.
K2600 is a babe of a synth!
Love my Kurzweil so so much
Interesting stuff.
This is what has been shoved in Billy Joel's piano.
Thank you i'm going to check it
Awesome video, hands down!!!
David is the real deal...
Thanks DAVID. FOR SHARING. I OWE YOU GUYS BIG TIME FOR TEACHING ME THIS TECHNICAL. SIDE OF KEYBOARDS. I LEARNED HANDS ON FROM GUYS WHO
TAUGHT. ME ABOUT TWEAKING MY SOUND. AND MIDI AND EDITORS. AND A MASS OF TECHNICALITIES. BUT. THE MINDS OF YOU GUYS ARE INVALUABLE. YOU. CONFIGURE THINGS AND. MAKE. IT. WORK. IN TODAYS. EVOLUTIONARY. TRENDING. IF YOU CAN'T TWEAK AND APPLY. COMPUTERS AS THEY LIKE HERE ARE INTERGRADED INTO YOUR RIG SETUP YOU ARE NOT A PRO. THESE THINGS AS YOU SO FLUENTLY SPEAK OF. ALL KEYBOARDIST SHOULD. KBOW. . I MUST ADMIT HOWEVER. I GOTTA PLAY THIS VIDEO AND GET SOME BOOKS TO FULLY UNDERSTAND AND COMPREHEND. ALL OF THE DATA IN APPLICATION YOU HAVE COMPILED I LEARNED ABOUT IPAD. INTERFACING. AS I PURCHASED MY FIRST ROLAND VR-O9. WHICH IS A LIGHTWEIGHT COMBO. ORGAN THAT I USE ON SMALLER VENUE GIGS. HAVE TO THANK YOU. KRAFT MUSIC. AND. OF COURSE. SWEETWATER MUSIC FOR. THE TECH KNOWLEDGE AND SUPPORT. GOOD LUCK. IN ALL YOUR PERFORMANCES.
Sweetwater support the best !! Second to none …
True pro 10/10
He was in ritchie blackmore's rainbow in early 80s I think
I miss flicking my hair back
+snottydyck Balding sucks :(
I have seen Billy many times David set up is so tight. How does a christian Contmeporay Recording Arist.
He only showed us one of the several keyboards in his rig. Bummer!!
Awesome !!!!
Having a hard time fathoming how the entire BJ catalog could not be done on say, a Korg Kronos. Maybe have a second one for backup.
It could technically all be done on that Kurzweil K2600.
The Kronos does have a much better screen though, that's for darn sure.
Cuz this is what you need to do when you play live in front of 20,000 people, and also “play” background vocals and other parts that no one even realizes are being played on keys. Parallel rigs, plus a keyboard that is directly wired into the main soundboard in case everything goes down, which it did one time when Dave was soloing accordion in Italian Restaurant and I was in the audience. There is no one keyboard that can handle this level of complexity. Your comment is oversimplifying an amazingly complex gig with BJ, which means you actually do not understand what Dave is doing, or you’re new to this game and think it’s easy to be a world-class touring keyboardist.
Indiana Jones is correct. Using programs, or DAWs, is what most recording artist use to capture those authentic sounds to be augmented. But he needs these setups as a failsafe. It’s not likely that a synth or workstation goes down, but it can happen. If it does and you don’t have the equipment or means to back up on stage with Billy Joel in front of thousands of his fans, the cringe will be on a Galactic level. 😬🤢🤮
@@darkwing7966 OK. 2 Kronos.
great videos, Thanxs !!!
can anybody explain me in details, how to send Programm changes with a pdf in unrealbook.
How to do this step by step. A video would be great !!!! Thanx.
Hey! Could you find anything on that? Looking for the same thing around here...
This guy is a pro. I'm pretty sure he was Cyndi Lauper's main keyboardist and maybe MD for a while.
He is, if you're able to be hired to Richie Blackmores Rainbow at age 21 you gotta be...and yes he was with Lauper for a couple of years. Super inspiring, nice and humble guy who loves his job...
do you suggest "main stage" or a real keyboard, lets say yamaha mox6?
'2 MainStage with the Muse Receptors' I don't get it. MainStage runs from computer only right? What does Receptor do?
From what I understand, the Receptors are yet another level of backup. If both Mainstage computers die, he can flip to the Receptors, and if they die he can run off the Kurzweil. Crazy yet awesome levels of redundancy.
@@AudioSpaceGeek With both redundant rigs mounted in the same rack like that, it's not all that hard to imagine both going out at once. Sometimes there are heavy things that can fall down, including the rack itself.
Thank you for using unrealBook!!! :-)
Meanwhile I have screwed up keys on my Korg SP280.
So there's no software sequencing going on - everything is played by human hands?
holy crap that's complicated
What app he use in the ipad to change programs in the keyboards?
+Fernando Gonzalez I think he uses "OnSong" because of the Hex-Commands. I´m using songbook+. In this app it´s possible do create Midi-Commands without Hex. songbook is able to send programs changes while opening the song.itunes.apple.com/de/app/songbook-+/id447755419?mt=8Works fine.....
ok thanks i will check it
+Fernando Gonzalez Thought he said unRealBook
He also has an acoustic guitar, in case all of his keyboards were to crash.
Even Tony Banks' rig was much simpler or seemed easier to set up/operate.
i think the guy interviewing was lost after the first 20 secs. A rather complicated way of saying he's using mainstage *twice with the Kurzweil as a last resort
Keyboard magazine,...... let me show you my iPad/laptop. 😁
No disrespect intended btw, nice guy and talented etc, but that beginning just tickles me.
I am dizzy already
Is this from the ‘Stop lighting the audience’ tour? Sponsored by coke I think..
worst cameraman :(
This guys music rig has more redundancy that some hospital's IT systems. Go figure!
Awesome!!!