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[Kevin Nolan]

Went to see Herbie Hancock live in Dublin's awesome new "Grand Cannel Theatre" in the developed docklands.

The concert was absolutely stunning - by far the best gig I've ever been to, ever.

The band constituted of Herbie in Piano and OASYS, 2nd keyboard player on Triton, M3 and OASYS, drums, electric guitars and electric bass. It was jaw droppingly good.

They played a mixture of well known Herbie jazz numbers and about half of the "Imagine Project" CD songs recently released by Hearbie Hancock (If you do not have that album go and get it - its stunning).


The overwhelming feeling at the concert was joyous celebration of life through music. Herbie Hancock is so 'human', so 'copped-on'. Incredible. The guy was an inspiration on how to just get the hell on with it and enjoy making music. He put his head down for two hours and delivered concentrated blood, sweat and tears performances that were incredibly inclusive.

I feel completely rejuvenated musically. One of the most amazing issues was his use of the OASYS - there was no splitting hairs on how good CX-3 is, or how good STR-1 is at Clavinets - he just used CX-3 and STR-1 standard presets and made them 'talk'. Same for electric pianos. He made it simple - play well and they sound well (or - is that complex?). In any case he has irradiated the questioning / debate in my mind about whether I think CX-3 is as good as a Hammond and all of that crap - he's firmly pointed the way, as I've said before, that it’s down to me - the OASYS IS good enough! He even used the OASYS HD-1 / EX-3 Brass - as the Brass section in several of his songs! And he played the on board strings similarly.


As an aside, this was a very strange but wonderful weekend for me - the day before my sister had driven me from Dublin to London (across to Wales by ferry, across the top of Wales on the A55, down the M6, M40 and to Epsom) to collect 4 vintage synthesizers I had restored or purchased (over the past few years) from RL Music / Kent Spong Restorations - a totally rebuilt CS80, a totally rebuild CS70M, a mint condition VP330 Mark 2 (with MIDI) and a restored Korg Trident Mk2. We fit all four of them into a Fiat Punto - wrapped in 4 king sized duvets, drove back to Holyhead in Wales by teatime Sunday where at Dublin docklands I hopped out of the car _just_ in time to get to see Herbie Hancock live.

so a very strange abut very wonderful weekend!!

Just though I wanted to share it with you.

Cheers,
Kevin

[Akos Janca]

Dear Kevin,

What a nice weekend!

Thank you for sharing your story. I enjoyed reading it. And you've completely summarized my feelings about two things: the impact of exceptional concerts and the usability of OASYS in talented hands.

Last year I've found this great video with Herbie, the OASYS and a Fazioli! You might have seen a similar show.

Best regards,
Akos
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[kenackr]

Kevin,

Thanks for the feedback, I'll be on the lookout to catch any of his shows near me. Sounds magical!

I remember one time when I was at the NAMM show (used to own a music store) in Nashville and decided to get a late dinner at a local Jamaican place. There is a small bar on the opposite side of the wall in the dinning room and a very cool sounding band was starting to play so I wandered in and sat down to listen.

About an hour later, 2 friends of mine came in unexpectedly: Victor Wooten and Steve Bailey, the number 1 & 2 bass players at the time. The band leader asked Victor & Steve if they wanted to jam and they accepted. An hour later, in walks Grover Washington, who is one of my all time favorites and he joined in too.

It was truly magic, they weren't playing for money, they were playing because it's such fun. It was a night of the best live music I've ever heard in a club situation or anywhere else for that matter. They played straight from the heart and captivated everyone in the room.

Thanks again,

Ken
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[cello]

What great stories to read! All about the music... which is the way it should be

Am getting a little tired reading threads about getting best piano sound, CX sound (work fo the devil in my own world!), guitar sound, trumpet sound, is O worth the money, is M3 really better than an M50, is Radias really better than R3, is Radias better in an M3 or not, etc, etc - when it all seems to miss the point - music! It's what you do with it that counts

Kevin - you're a dedicated man (or maybe your sister is even more dedicated!) getting all those classics! Have to say that soon after I got my brand new Delta, the Trident was released and to this day I still want one!
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[Kevin Nolan]

Akos -

Yes - that's a similar setup (slightly more mellow) but he played than number - thanks for the video - cool. That drummer is absolutely stunning too (they all are!). What I love about Herbie Hancock is that he literally sees no difference in the validity of a synthesizer to a piano. It's so liberating in a musical world so often burdened down by mini-prejudices (that we're all guilty of - like our internal struggle we've mentioned in 'judging' the quality of various synths). And in my orchestral / film-scoring courses with many pure classical colleagues, they literally do not view synthesizers as musical instruments of any intrinsic value whatsoever - yet here we have Herbie Hancock using a wonderful piano and a synth, in an awesome jazz setup. A huge amount of this is down to Miles Davis of course.

Cello - yep - my sister is an angle - I owe her big time for several trips to London (hence why I don't have a car - all that money goes on synthesizers!)


Ken - lovely story - love it. Surprise gigs like this are the best ones always. A fabulous memory for you for sure. We should all go to more gigs (at least, I should - I keep meaning to but never go to enough).

cheers,
Kevin.

[peter m. mahr]

[Kevin Nolan]

[peter m. mahr]

[Kevin Nolan]

[peter m. mahr]

Kevin,

I knew you were joking. Actually I was laughing when I read "you've really killed the moment...".

ad Rhodes Mk 7)
I had problems from the beginning. First it was not tuned properly and the decay of the notes was not homogenous over the whole range. To cut a story short, thomann organised the transport back and decided to repair and tune it, without any discussion. Last Monday the Mk7 returned and when I opened the box I was shocked. Have no idea what the transport company made. You should see the photos I have taken. Contacted thomann and they decided to repair it once more but offered me at the same time to get a new one.

I bought the Rhodes with the idea to get energy out of it, but it turned out to be an "energy vampire" ... or let's use the proper english word, a "lemon" I decided to return it and exchange it against the Drawmer.

At the same time I programmed four or five really great sounding Rhodes sounds for the CP1. This made my decision against the Rhodes easier. The CP1 became my favourite keyboard since it arrived. And this comes from a guy who started with a MS20 as a sixteen year old. I am having a synthesizer background only!

How does it compare to an acoustic piano? Well, still the original is the real thing, not really surprising. On the other hand the acoustic has some other limitations. The price, the size, the proper tuning, the right mic setup.... but at the end you get this "wooden" feeling that no synth or sampler can give you. There are good libraries, digital pianos and the CP1s pianos are not bad either, definitely not... the CP1 comes close to it although one can hear that Yamaha is using samples. Whatever their component modelling stands for and people in the internet are posting, they are using samples as base material. But what really impresses me is that there are no audible cross fades, velocity switches. Together with one of the best keybeds these sounds really are amazing.

A real shame are the DX sounds. If they really use a dedicated processor then this is a waste of electric power. The CP did not convince me either. BUT the Rhodes and Wurlitzer are great to play with and sound amazing. Thus in case the CP5 has the same keybed/keyboard like its big brother but is lacking the DX sounds I would recommend the CP5.

The CP beats the V-Piano in every aspect. Had the chance to make a side by side comparison and it was not only me who decided for the CP1. I guess the other guy at Klangfarbe decided for the Yamaha as well. SV-1, Nord Stage and CP1 are better for comparison as they all offer more then just an acoustic piano. This in my opinion is a matter of taste. The Nord sounds to me a bit darker then the CP1 and again it is the keyboard/-bed together with the sounds - typical for Yamaha in my opinion - that made me decide against the red from the North.

Hope that was at least a bit informative for you as I do not like to hijack this thread more then I already did.

Peter

[Kevin Nolan]

Peter -

Thanks for the very interesting reply. That's a great pity re. the Rhodes. This might sound superficial but I became suspected something was up - their web site looks very amateurish and that rang some alarm bells for me several months ago. I hope they sort it all out though - the stakes are high.

Your comments on the CP1 equally interesting. Your comparison with the V-Piano is quite a shock - I expected tha V-Piano to humble even the CP-1 (and before someone else comments - I'm aware of the continuing irony of splitting hairs on comparing different pianos ).

But CP5 - are you saying its got the same piano technology for acoustic and electric pianos as the CP1 - as in - one could buy a CP5 and get the same from it as a CP1 wrt acoustic and electric pianos (of course you have the entire DX pianos sound set in the MOD-7 + DX/FM library)!!

Thanks,
Kevin.

[peter m. mahr]

Kevin,

referring the pianos - if you have the chance to play the V-Piano and the CP1 I'd be more then happy to read what your impressions are.

CP1 <-> CP5
here is a comparison: http://www.yamahasynth.com/jp/library/cp1_5_50_en/compare/comparison_eng.html

From this list it is the lack of the FM processor and only one model for each of the acoustic pianos (CFIIIS and S6B). Instead you get with the CP5 some AWMII sounds and have the same excellent keyboard. If I were not so impatient I probably would have decided for the CP5.

That's right. I have all those DX pianos and even more (own MOD-7). I would have liked Yamaha to integrate some TX-816, GS-1 and DX-1 sounds instead. And there is no real editing for the DX sounds in the CP1. It is a real shame and I wonder that no one else is criticizing Yamaha. However I bought it for the pianos and did not regret this decision for a second. It changed my style of playing and I can play with it for hours... made the O a bit jelous

good night
Peter

[Kevin Nolan]

Thanks agian for all of this. I'm still a little confused - are you saying that the CP5 onboard acoustic pianos are the same quality as the CP1, bit there are just fewer models?

And finally - how does the CP80 model sound?

Cheers
Kevin.

[peter m. mahr]

At least that is what I conclude from the specs. I am not sure whether the sound quality is influenced by the fact that in the CP5 more sounds are playable at the same time (AWM II).

Interestingly the CP-80 was the second disappointment. Interestingly, because like the DX, the CP is a Yamaha own delevopment. Not that the samples are bad, but somehow the component modelling does not do what I would have expected, especially when compared to the acoustic pianos. The latter should have been a much bigger challenge.

Cheers
Peter

[rudolfck]

I bought the oasys years ago because I saw Hancock using it.
The youtube clip of watermelon man raised some questions I have not been able to answer: how was it programmed to get that super 70's wah-wah hohner clavinet sound and the lead synth too?
Does anybody know?
Cheers
rudolf
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rudolf
Oasys 88 VS2480 MPC4000 Rhodes88 Hohner
Clavinet, etc.