Check out how Milt Jackson uses dynamics and accents within his phrases.
Observe his mallets, how high and low the strokes are. Some strokes he lets the mallet rebound off the bars, while other strokes he "digs in" to mute the tone. Also vibes players sort ride up and down on the dampening/sustain pedal. It's hard to get all these subtitles to capture all these small details on the keyboard, but remember vibes are a keyboard instrument that are played with mallets instead of fingers!

To give a wider choice of sounds and more control over the way the sound evolves as the vibraphone is hit harder or repeatedly or with different mallets, perhaps give Moddart’s Pianoteq modeled vibraphone software a checkout…

https://www.modartt.com/vibes

Samples don’t quite get it right, as the crossover points usually jump out unless there’s a bunch of layers.

You might also try a technique where you split the keyboard, but have the vibes on both sides with the lower half transposed up into the same range as the right hand. You can now do some RH/LH things that are the essence of vibes playing without your fingers tripping over each other.

Paul, that was beautiful. I still can't believe how vibes players do what they do. It seems like doing it with mallets is like saying "I'm going to make this as difficult as possible" . I just don't see how they get all those little nuances by hitting something with a mallet. Jeez, that must be one difficult instrument to master.

chas

To me, the samples were beautiful, especially when demo'ed by an expert player. I especially liked the first two samples although they are somewhat different. The problem with the SEVEN is that I can only have 4 'vibes' presets, so if I want a different vibes sound for different songs, I'm limited to four. But, the whole idea of getting a dedicated instrument was to NOT use samples. I guess I'll have to keep working on customizing my vibes sound(s).

chas

I know, it blows my mind too, even more so when vibraphonist like Gary Burton start using four mallets. Two is hard enough!

Here's a YouTuber that has transcribed lots of Milt's solo. It's interesting to note that he play on a midi instrument. Sounds good to me- what do you think?

Anyways it made me think that many keyboard swear that do emulate wind instruments you need one of those breath gizmos.

Maybe having actually mallets in your hands the secret : )

Chas, that was a favorite tune I actually played nightly on vibes at the Holiday Inn west in Lexington from 1970 to 1972. My long-time partner, who was struggling with arthritis, played B-3, but gradually transitioned to left-handed bass and chords (no lead lines) kept up the bottom. Drum sounds were via a terrible MiltiVox machine. I had vibes, Wurlitzer piano, jazz, tele, nylon string, tenor banjo, lap steel (had to play Sleepwalk, you know) and mandolin.

So thankful I actually had chance to play vibes with a great partner.
Just sold the vibes along with over 100 other instruments (so far) this year. Funds will go to a charity you know about in New Orleans.

Goes without saying that this post, like others of yours, was one of my favorites, especially considering I used to play it on vibes, switching to jazz guitar for a turn or two; then finishing with vibes.

Your version, as usual, was TASTY!


Russ