There have been so many wonderful songs played and recorded for us by several of the faithful Forum members and every one seems better than (at least equal to ) the ones before. I am both impressed and intimidated by the inordinate skill and beauty of the presentations and want, publicly, here in the Forum, to thank you all for your wonderful contributions.

In this regard, a question: obviously (at least to me!) these recordings were NOT made just using "Easy Record" because they are too elaborate. Can anyone explain in detail how to record in this manner, since it sounds, to me anyway, almost like more than one person playing all the instruments in the arrangements!? I love to record my songs but they never seem to have all the frills and arpeggios, etc. that the more professional ones you guys and gals make and share with us! Also, does anyone have any banks of Performance Pads to share for insertion into the blank spaces provided for additional ones on the 7000 (and others, I'm sure). I especially would love to have some Christmas ones (sleigh bells, etc.) to add spirit to some Christmas songs, and some others for the Latin rhythms, especially bossa nova, other than the few in Latin 1 and Latin 2.

Thanks again to all you great performers and for sharing your beautiful music with us all! And, especially, thanks to BEBOP, who seems to be the one who send most of them on to us on his mailing lists!

Ted Rose

Hi Ted,
Have you listened to all the offerings on Kers' website? They show just what can be done with Easy Record, of which I am a great fan. With sufficient time and patience good results can come from multi-tracking, but the skills required to play live (with no pre-recorded stuff except maybe Panel Registrations) are quite different. I know a guy who takes about EIGHT HOURS to produce around THREE MINUTES of multi-tracked music. The finished article is quite good, but cannot really be compared to playing (and recording) LIVE.
Mike O'R

Hi Ted
I agree with Mike. You don't have to be a good player to Multi Track, more a technician. To record live on easy record and produce a top quality result then you do have to be a reasonable performer and there is a great thrill when you have done it.
If you want to watch the master of multi tracking then you should watch the Tony Pegler video on Sequencing.
P.B.

So the question could be..does it take more skill to 'Easy Record" or "Multi Track Record" ?

Someone who "Easy Records" a song, may do so because it is just that...easy. Or he or she may do so, to produce a more natural and realistic sound.

Someone who "Multi Track Records" may do so, because he or she may not have the skill to play left with right. Or he or she may do so because of the challange, and the tremedous amount of work involved in producing an elaborate arrangement

I like to listen to both methods.

SeeYa,
Larry Hawk

[This message has been edited by lahawk (edited 04-10-2003).]

I'm with you Larry.
Both Art and Skill are required for each method. When I hear an exceptional "live" easy recorded rendition, I say to myself "what talent, maybe I'll be able to do that some day. I'll have to study just what was done".
Then when I hear a superb and complicated arrangement done through multi track sequencing, I wonder at the skill, talent, and patience required to put it all together and make it all blend.
I personally do not sequence or play along with MIDI, MP3, ETC., but I surely enjoy listening to the end result of someone who does.
After all, the main object is to produce beautiful music, no matter how complicated or simple it may be.
Just my thoughts,
Walt

Hi Ted;

Easy record is just that. I feel it lets you be more creative.

Using fill-ins , performance pads , a great style and then improvising the melody over that and bring in the fill-ins and pads at the right time makes for a very full recording.

If you check out my recordings you will notice that I use the fill-ins and pads as much as I can.
It does make a diference.

Technics has some great performace pads.

Peter Bentley is absolutely right on easy record.
When you fit all the right pieces together. Style,song,voice,fill-ins and pads, it gets your creative juices flowing and the results are very rewarding.

Alex

Being mostly a two-finger player, Easy Record is the way for me to go using progressions with the variations and panel memory settings. I seldom use on-board styles, but prefer to search for something that strikes my fancy and build from there. It is an easy task to splice in a few measures from another style, or even a whole variation to add something that would take hours to program in, such as the fireworks I used on "Anchors Aweigh" on the Patriotic Songs. All of my stuff is quite simple and some nights I can record two songs and still find time to practice the song twenty or thirty times before recording. Extra tracks are fine for those who want more depth in their music, so I imagine it's more of a personal thing. Sometimes a few notes to fill in a dead spot is all that's necessary to produce a really good sounding song, and a few of the fellows that share their songs on this forum are becoming masters at doing just that. Others were already masters, and it's fun to pick their music apart just to see how it was formulated. Another learning process! Once anyone puts their music on the forum for others, it sort of pushes them to excel at their skills and we all benefit. Too bad that some of the great players don't have the time to put more of their music out here for us. But still, there is plenty of room for newcomers to shine!

[This message has been edited by Bud Whipple (edited 04-10-2003).]

Hi Ted,

I’m not sure how familiar you are with my recordings. Everything I do is performed in real time, so that I can play it for my friends and music club members live. I use Easy Record and and one finger chords except when a really tasty chord is called for. As Alex has suggested there are a great many tools on our keyboards to embellish our arrangements. Since I’m not a very skilled player, I try to put a great deal of my effort into preparing the styles to make the arrangement interesting. I frequently expand the variations from four to eight measures and have counter melodies come in at the third measure as they frequently do with real orchestras. I have even step recorded parts that I was unable to play in real time to provide an accompaniment that was complex. Every time it seems impossible to accomplish a musical effect our keyboard reveals a way to do it.

Frank

Getting to where you are going I suppose is the reason of starting out in the first place. When I purchased my first keyboard I had no idea where I was going with it much less how to use it. Just before I retired I bought it because I liked the way it sounded and looked. Kind of like when I buy a new car. I buy it because I like the way it looks and sounds. I just plain like it. Don’t have anywhere in mind to go and no time in mind to get there. I buy it loaded with the things I like to use and let me tell you, Ruthie and me use it. The only thing I put into it is gas and oil. That’s it! So with my keyboard. I push the switch that fills her up with hundred and ten volt juice and away I go using everything that came with it. I guess what I want to say is, unlike Bud and some others, very seldom do I ever use any other rhythms or voicing than the ones that are built into the board. Don’t get me wrong, I have bought and acquired hundred upon hundreds of rhythms and disks. I have less than twenty in the customs that I find of any use. What a waste of time and money over the years. I have found non better than what is already available in my board. Maybe a little tweaking here and there and spending quite a bit of time matching the right rhythm and voicing and there is very few any better. The only reason I am musing on this subject is because of all the music that has been shared on this forum over the last nine months or so. I have noted that some of the guys use mostly rhythms not native to their boards. Some prefer the rhythms of their former technics’ boards. Then there are those that even buy different brands of boards because they don’t like the rhythms and voicing in the technics family of boards. Not that it is even of any importance, but I would be interested in understanding what it is about the built in rhythms that lead people to not use them more. Then follows the question of why buy it in the first place if you don’t use them. I do understand one reason. I myself have been caught up in it also. And that is that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence syndrome. Is it is or is it ain’t?

After all this, back to the subject at hand. Recording songs. I like the stuff recorded live. The way it would sound if the person playing and the person listing would be side by side. The music as it comes out when played live, not doctored, but using it just like it came out of the box, rhythms and all. It is my personal opinion that the built in rhythms sound much better than most all imported ones. They are much more realistic than most others. However I do like the sequenced work of guys like Larry. Man, I could listen to that kind of stuff for hours. That blows me away. Talent oozing out from under their fingernails. I suppose the reason I like the easy recorded stuff the most, is because I have a chance to play what I hear. What I hear is what is under my fingers and is possible for me to attain if I apply myself. I’m with most of you fellows. Developing the art of using the things built into our boards is very rewarding indeed. Frank you are so right. Talk is easy but you got the fruit to prove it and I like it.

Grandpa Doug

WOW!!! I had no idea I would get this kind of a response to my message! I am so encouraged by all the positive comments made about Easy Record and really encouraged to continue doing exactly what I have been doing--that is, recording LIVE (using Easy Record) what I am playing and then enjoying it later on by having saved it. I have learned so much from all of you guys and gals here on the Forum that it blows my mind I better understand now and agree that there are so many extra aspects of the keyboard that can add to any real time performance, and I am now more and more encouraged to try using the Performance Pads and fill-ins more than apparently I have been doing. Thanks so much to you all for your feedback. Maybe I'm not as bad as I thought I was ; my wife has been telling me that she is amazed at my new-found skill since getting the 7000. Now I am almost inclined to start to agree with her, thanks to the encouragement and words of wisdom from you all! LONG LIVE THE 7000!

Cheers to you all, my dear friends!

Ted