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Author Topic: What Kind Of Keyboard Is Next To Richie Cannata Here...  (Read 2752 times)
c-man
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« on: October 02, 2013, 05:17:49 PM »

I'm hoping one of you early '90s synth aficianados out there will recognize this one...the front is very visible at about 0:36, but the video is pretty blurry, so I can't really read it...there's real good side and top views of it at about 2:45...just in case you don't wanna sit through the whole thing...but the audio is really rockin', in case you do!  Even if you can only say for sure that it's a Roland, Yamaha or Korg, that would be helpful!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4QWdeA1afA
« Last Edit: October 02, 2013, 05:36:57 PM by c-man » Logged
Phoenix
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« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2013, 05:49:54 PM »

It looks to me like it says "Yamaha".  It's too blurry to read but the writing appears to match the shape of that brand's name.



Edit:
Nevermind.  This version is clearer but now the writing looks less like their branding than I thought.  Perhaps you'll have better luck with it tho.

http://vimeo.com/12586665
« Last Edit: October 02, 2013, 05:57:56 PM by Phoenix » Logged
guitarfool2002
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« Reply #2 on: October 02, 2013, 06:01:54 PM »

Yamaha V50 by chance? Or some other variation using the same DX7 technology they used throughout the 80's? We used one in the studio until the internal battery crapped out.  Smiley They made a few DX7-style boards with different features and more sounds until the FM synth sound got stale.

If it says "Yamaha" (I can't spot that), and it's 1991-92 era, that would be my guess - some form of the DX7 platform in whatever housing it was being sold.

But the video is a little dodgy and hard to see, and it's tough because the clearest shot of Richie's solo comes right after shots of a dolphin swimming and John Stamos strutting around with a Gibson 335... Grin
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c-man
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« Reply #3 on: October 02, 2013, 06:15:39 PM »

Thanks, guys...that video you linked in IS a lot clearer, Phoenix...toward the end of the clip there's another pretty good shot of the front, and it seems like it's a Roland...which is what Richie was normally playing during those years, anyway...I'll compare it some more to Google Images of Rolands from around that time, which is what I've been doing with my spare time lately...I've determined that Richie was using a D50 in '94 and most of '95, before switching to an XP50 in late '95, but the model from that clip doesn't seem to be those...Billy played an RD1000 from around '88 through '93, then a D50 for at least part of '94, and then an RD500 in '95...Meros had a D50 onstage clear through that time and probaby for the rest of his tenure, in addition to his arsenal of other brands.
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« Reply #4 on: October 02, 2013, 06:22:55 PM »

Roland it is, I couldn't see the name in the original clip and went on the Yamaha guess.
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Phoenix
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« Reply #5 on: October 03, 2013, 12:35:18 AM »

Definitely a Roland.  You can even almost make out the model number at 3:56. 
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Jay
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« Reply #6 on: October 03, 2013, 01:42:07 AM »

That video brings back memories. Grin I always really liked the song. Yeah, the lyrics suck, but it's a fun little tune.

It's funny seeing Carl trying to be as far away from Stamos as possible.  Grin
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Matt Bielewicz
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« Reply #7 on: October 03, 2013, 08:16:00 AM »

Definitely a Roland.  You can even almost make out the model number at 3:56. 

More than that, it's definitely a Roland D50. Compare this shot:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fischek/1686190562/in/photostream/

...where you can see it has 'D50' emblazoned across the back, with the aforementioned shot at 3:56 — the keyboard is in the background on the left, but you can see the name across the back. And once you *know* it says Roland D50, you can start to read it, if you see what I mean...!

Horrible, horrible-sounding thing, the D50. I loves me some electronic keyboard action, but this thing is just beyond the pale. It's responsible for a lot of those really nasty plasticky late 80s/early 90s keyboard sounds. An early sampling keyboard without the RAM or decent enough basic sounds to do the concept justice, so it just slathers everything in bad reverb and hopes no-one will notice. Amazingly, many thousands of people didn't. It was Roland's best-selling keyboard for several years.

But then as far as I'm concerned, the D50 is a perfect match for the, uh, quality of the tune it's being used on here. People are bitching about the fact that space was taken up on MiC by the SMiLE backing vocal montage, but at least that's GOOD. For me, it's: why'd they waste CD space on that godawful live version of this number? Mike manages to name-check Barbara Ann, Fun Fun Fun, Help Me Rhonda and Kokomo AGAIN?? Jeeeeeeeeeez. Shoot me now...

This is the absolute nadir of the group, but it's still interesting to me in a passing sense, because it's the image the band had in my mind's eye before I was a fan. A bunch of fat middle-aged men with really bad mullets singing terrible versions of old songs very badly, and occasionally throwing in a new number that spends its time dwelling on past glories before widdling its way off into eternity, spattered with too much widdly-widdly guitar and overlong Cheez-O-Crap sax solos. When, as an adult, I first became aware of the fact that the Beach Boys had never actually split up and were stlll going, their most recent UK hit was Wipeout with the Fat Boys. That's all I'm saying.

Of course, eventually, in 1995, I began to change my mind...!
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« Reply #8 on: October 03, 2013, 10:24:29 AM »

I have little or no fondness or affection for late 80's/early 90's keyboards. I listen back and wonder why or how no one in the recording business managed to spot just how bad some of these really sounded. I actually feel similar but not as harsh about when FM synthesis became the hot technology through the DX7 - if certain classic records hadn't been made with it, I'd probably be more harsh, but somehow in context I didn't mind the earlier uses of it.

But yeah, the late 80's and early 90's were not a good time for keyboards. The word "nadir" definitely fits.
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« Reply #9 on: October 03, 2013, 04:04:35 PM »

So I wonder why Meros kept one in his rack for so long?  From the mid- or late-'80s, clear through the last time I saw him with the band in '99 (and I had a real clear line of vision there, so I got a good look & memorized this), his main instruments were the Hammond B-3 (used on almost every tune), on top of which sat his Yamaha DX7, then to his left were the D50 with a Korg M1 on top, and to his right was some kind of Ensoniq (I've never been able to figure out the model number).  The D50 came out in '87, so by the early, mid, or late '90s, I would have expected him to upgrade to something else, but he never did...he must've just used it for one or two very specific things.  Someday when I have time, I'll have to go through all the concert footage and see if I can tell.  Meanwhile, thanks for the help in figuring out what Richie was using!
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« Reply #10 on: October 04, 2013, 06:24:44 AM »

To be fair, the Lovester himself once made a joke about how chintzy Bruce's keyboard sounded. Right before the "Whhhheeeeennnnnnnn", Bruce played a note and Mike says something like "that piano is one of those Mexican deals we got through NAFTA".
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« Reply #11 on: October 04, 2013, 08:16:16 AM »

So I wonder why Meros kept one in his rack for so long?  From the mid- or late-'80s, clear through the last time I saw him with the band in '99 (and I had a real clear line of vision there, so I got a good look & memorized this), his main instruments were the Hammond B-3 (used on almost every tune), on top of which sat his Yamaha DX7, then to his left were the D50 with a Korg M1 on top, and to his right was some kind of Ensoniq (I've never been able to figure out the model number).  The D50 came out in '87, so by the early, mid, or late '90s, I would have expected him to upgrade to something else, but he never did...he must've just used it for one or two very specific things.  Someday when I have time, I'll have to go through all the concert footage and see if I can tell.  Meanwhile, thanks for the help in figuring out what Richie was using!

I'm tempted to compare the choices of keyboards and their sounds to the photos in our high school yearbooks, especially in the 80's and early 90's. The hairstyles and clothing you see among your senior class seemed perfectly fine, if not perfectly in style and sharp at that time, but when you look back a lot of them now look ridiculous.  Smiley

About that unknown Ensoniq: I have their MR61, when it was in production it was a workstation where you could get a library of discs full of sounds and sequences, after fixing a bug in the initial run. (If anyone has some of those discs, please send me a message!!!) They also had a 76 key version called the MR76. After 1996-97, that could have been the model you saw on stage. (?) Or perhaps the earlier TR-10.

I'm thinking as you said, one of the reasons for keeping so many keyboards in the touring rig may have been to have direct access to certain "go to" sounds that one keyboard delivered better than another which didn't involve too many programs or MIDI program changes or loading banks of sounds and all of that. If you want a DX7 string sound on something, boom - there's a DX7 in your rig. At a certain time I can only assume that was a more foolproof option on stage.

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SMiLE Brian
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« Reply #12 on: October 04, 2013, 09:09:30 AM »

Why does Bruce love horrible 1980s keyboards.. Cheesy
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« Reply #13 on: October 04, 2013, 02:10:11 PM »

Why does Bruce love horrible 1980s keyboards.. Cheesy

Yeah, after switching from the Wurly to a Yamaha in '94, he switched again to a Korg 01/W, sometimes substituted by an Ensoniq TS-10 or TS-12, until the Korg Triton came along, which he's been using since (I think he upgraded to the Triton Extreme, or whatever it's called, last year). 

Regarding Roland and Ensoniq...I started out with a Juno 6 in the mid-'80s, which is loads of fun, then I bought an SQ80 when they first came out at the very end of '87, and it had a floppy disc drive for loading sound samples, which could be stored on any of the 8 settings per 8 banks housed in its memory.  Still use it now and then, but mostly use my Roland FP3 that I've had for 10 years...great piano & organ sounds on that one!
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« Reply #14 on: October 04, 2013, 04:28:12 PM »

He should try Kurzweil instead. They nailed the live Smile shows.

The Juno is a cool 'board, I've used them too and it was like an instant blast of nostalgia. Very cool. If they weren't so expensive I'd love to find an old Oberheim OBX. Even if it's just to cover "99 Luft Balloons"... Grin

Those synths had character, and that's lacking in a lot of the late 80's/90's rigs.
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"All of us have the privilege of making music that helps and heals - to make music that makes people happier, stronger, and kinder. Don't forget: Music is God's voice." - Brian Wilson
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