Krome usage success story

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CherryPistolKeys
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Joined: Wed Dec 18, 2013 6:21 pm

Krome usage success story

Post by CherryPistolKeys »

I recently ended a two-week run playing onstage keys for a production of "Rock Of Ages", for a local theatre company. From the start, I told myself I wanted to try and do the show using only my Krome 73, with no external modules or additional keyboards. Besides the challenge, there was very minimal room available for the keys setup (I basically stood on the edge/ledge of the band riser every night) so that helped me make the decision.

I was able to program setups for all the songs and underscores in the play, totaling 32 combis, with only minimal tradeoffs. Some splits required me to transpose small parts, for instance parts that could be played in one octave at the top of the keyboard range. I got used to what I had to play and when and named the combis to help me remember.

The main challenge of the show is that the same song can be played in 3-4 different keys as the show progresses, so the key of the song had to be accounted for when setting up splits. It also actually made me think about how to solve certain problems with certain songs.

For instance, "Final Countdown" had the big string part, and the synth sound. The "factory sound" was pretty close, but the string sound on record had someone playing chords with two hands (chord and lower sound). I fattened up the string sound in the split, then added a fat, low string sound to a separate combi part, made it monophonic, and assigned it to lowest note played in the string range. This made a big difference because, when playing a chord, the root note sounding an octave below made it sound like I was playing with two hands. An easy trick which I've used with Pink Floyd sounds (SOYCD), but it was a good exercise in solving a problem with a sound.

Anyway, I thought you guys might like verification that programming a somewhat complicated show like this is definitely possible with this keyboard. It's not programming a JMJ album, but a normal guy like me could handle this one with the Krome. And, my pianos sounded great, no clicks etc., for the entire run. :)
Korg Krome 76
Korg Kronos 61
Roland XV-5050
Kurzweil K2000 and K2000R
Roland D-50
Roland Jupiter 8
Roland A-30
Alesis QSR
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