I have been experimenting with the pedal steel voice on my PSR-S910, and I uploaded a little solo to Blue Christmas and posted it here: http://www.reverbnation.com/larrylevin. Hope you like it. BTW, this is done in arranger mode, meaning I'm tracking chords, fills, and pitch bend with my left hand.

[This message has been edited by Beakybird (edited 12-15-2010).]

[This message has been edited by Beakybird (edited 12-15-2010).]

Here's a link that works:

Larry Levin - Reverbnation

Larry, as someone who love the expressive sound of the pedal steel, I've always been intrigued about how to best emulate this on the arranger, especially realizing the limitations of a keyboard vs playing an actual pedal steel (bar/strings/pedals). Considering this fact, I'm impressed by what you were able to achieve on your S910.

Please share how you setup your keyboard and the specific playing technique(s) you used. Was this pedal steel performance played while in auto accompaniment mode while triggering the chords with the left hand?

Assuming you used your keyboard's pitch bend wheel: how, when & where do you bend the notes/chords, and by how much (1/2 step, full step, etc). How do you share the left hand duty of triggering chords while simultaneously(?) triggering the pitch bend wheel?

I've heard that utilizing a volume pedal an important element to achieving a more realistic pedal steel emulation on a keyboard. Did you use that? Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

Very impressive, Larry...Scott is right about using a volume pedal as well...adds a nice touch.

Nice work,

Ian

Larry, Sounds great, I've recently become a fan of the pedal steel after getting the S910.........

I'll have to get a volume pedal and play around with that.

I was playing in auto-accompaniment mode. I have the pitch bend set for full step. To make it easier to trigger chords while using the pitch bend wheel, I would use one finger or two finger chords as much as is convenient. You can trigger a Gm chord by playing F# and G together.

I know that there are advantages and disadvantages to playing a pedal steel on a keyboard. You can only bend a fixed number of steps. On the other hand, you can make more complex chords with a keyboard.

I found the regular pedal steel voice better for my needs than the S.A. PedalSteel that bends only the bottom note.

I made a couple of little mistakes. Usually, when I record myself, I jinx myself a little.

I'm glad that you liked it.

Fantastic!

Thanks Larry,

Gary

Wow, Larry, I am totally impressed with this. I have been trying to do this on the Roland E80 but just can't seem to get there ...........YET.
Thanks for sharing,
Bebop

Yeah, you had an extra period in your link.

The pedal steel sounds pretty darn good.

Here's a PSG tip... use 6th chords. Bend down a half step and then up again. Try it out - sounds like a PSG, right?

Glenn

Beakster, you're gettin' close, but you didn't fool me yet. Don't overdo the bends. The sounds are great, and at times it's really believable. You might add a little sustain when appropriate. Try bending a half step instead of whole.
This is one of the harder things to do and I certainly haven't mastered it, but I can tell what sounds like a real steel player might do.
As Glenn said, 6th chords sound good.
Steel players can bend just one note and to a degree the keyboard lets us do that, but I haven't got the hang of doing it that way yet.
It would be a lot easier if we didn't have to play chords and hit buttons with the left hand. We could assign various functions to foot switch, either the bend or some of the other left hand jobs. You've made me want to get back to work on it, since you are just about there!
Thanks,
DonM

Good advice Don I agree.

Hey Donnie,
Many thanks for the YouTube link featuring David Hartley (davepedalsteel). He is a great player.
DVJ

Your very welcome .....I thought it was a Super example of Pedal Steel.

You did a great job Larry, I really enjoyed it. It really captured that musical color that a pedal steel provides.

It is always tough to accurately emulate any other instrument using a keyboard and requires a completely new set of skills beyond just being able to play a keyboard. It is always a matter of understanding the limitations and physical restrictions of the instrument you are emulating so the keyboard performance doesn't add anything that the real instrument simply can't accomplish. In other word it requires quite a serious study of the instrument being emulated.

I am a guitar player and while I have heard some very good guitar performances on keyboard I can alway pick that they aren't really being played on guitar. I think the best approach is to try to not be too ambitious with the performance and keep things simple so there is less chance of people detecting it is just an emulation.


[This message has been edited by Nigel (edited 12-18-2010).]

Great job, Larry. You're better with this than most of the "steel-players" at Billy Bob's... LOL. Enjoyable to see and hear what can be done on an arranger. Thanks for sharing.

Dave Rice

Thanks!

I've been delayed in responding because I was robbed the day before yesterday.

I came from a gig at a banquet hall, a luncheon that was earlier attended by the mayor of the town (Chicago Ridge, IL), and my car window was smashed and my netbook and USB modem were stolen. About $550 in damage.

This was the first time in 12 years performing in the Chicago area that this has happened to me. Anyway, I'll keep my valuables in the trunk from now on.

As far as the pedal steel goes, I wasn't ever dreaming of fooling a pedal steel player, even though maybe there are keyboardists who can.

I did have a lot of 6th chords in there when I was on the tonic.

I used to own a Hank Williams cassette that had some pedal steel in it, and I kind of wanted to get that feel.

Those half steps are difficult to do, unless it's just a blues note.

As far as the just the bottom note bending, Yamaha does have an S.A. pedal steel that does have that effect. I was thinking of maybe alternating in the solo between the voice I was using and the S.A. pedal steel so I can get that bottom note bending effect.

Larry . . really sorry to get this bad news. living in an urban area myself, I've learned long ago to NEVER ever leave ANY valuables in the car interior, especially 'within possible sight' of would be thieves. That said, hope your insurance helps cover your music related equipment loss off premises.

I'll have to pay out of pocket.

Yeah, I should have known better, but I've been lucky for 12 years, and I only was careful inside Chicago proper at night. This was in broad daylight and my car was 60 feet from and in sight of a major thoroughfare.

Nothing irreplaceable on the computer except for 6 months of pictures.

I just thank God that a client had called me to book gigs on the way to this show, and I took my 2010 and 2011 schedule books out of the backpack. I would have been dead meat.

You should have gig schedules backup programs on your home PC and more, I have everything for the next 3 years in quadruplet copies, on PC, backup HD's...
& hand written contract duplicates.
Gotta have backup..



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 12-18-2010).]

Larry, so sorry to hear of your trouble my friend.
Your post prompted me to experiment with the Pedal Steel sound last night. I never use the automatic chord harmony feature, but I tried it with the Steel and got some nice results. I'll see if I recorded anything worth sharing.
DonM

You have stuff on your schedule 3 years from now?!!!http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/icons/icon11.gif

Anyway, thanks for the advice about duplicating my schedule. Maybe when I get my ipad I'll start doing the scheduling electronically and then emailing myself backups.

The pedal steel sounds are fun. There are a lot of awesome musicians on this forum, and I'm very proud that I could do something to impress many of you. I'll keep on working at it to bring it to the next level.


[This message has been edited by Beakybird (edited 12-19-2010).]

Larry back up everything you have 3x & 4x to be safe..

Good Luck...