[ WM ] Ok , now for the gear nerd-ish ! What ' s your main keyboard and why ?
[ Nick ] If we ’ re talking about physical synths , I really love my Oberheim OB-6 . I ’ ve had it for years and have yet to get bored with it . For my main piano I use when playing for church , I ’ m a big Keyscape fan . Their Yamaha C7 samples are some of the best , and sound bright and crunchy when using compression on it . I don ’ t use sounds on physical keyboards when playing live , but I love the way the keybed on the Nord feels . Their pianos are also great , but I prefer the flexibility of all my sounds coming from my computer .
[ WM ] What is your typical live ' rig ' and are you running Mainstage on a laptop as well ?
[ Nick ] I actually don ’ t use MainStage when I ’ m playing at church or on the road , I use Ableton Live for sounds / click / running tracks . I ’ ve tried MainStage and it ’ s really great at what it does , but there ’ s no ability to run tracks , and I love being able to have both my sounds and tracks streamlined using the same program . I always have my nanoKONTROL with me , it ’ s a smallish midi controller that has buttons , knobs , and faders mapped to Ableton Live . I also just got the new Apple Silicon MacBook Pro , and it ’ s insane . It ’ s so fast and it never overheats like the old MacBook Pros . I use a PlayAudio12 interface for my outputs , and 64 Audio A12t inear monitors .
[ WM ] Do you do some deep diving into tweak sounds / effects or do you go primarily with stock sounds ?
[ Nick ] It ’ s a bit of both for me . I ’ ll usually scroll through a patch bank until I find something that sounds interesting , and then I ’ ll start messing with the attack / decay , add some reverb , compression , that kinda stuff . If I have a specific sound in mind , I ’ ll probably start from scratch and build it from the ground up , so it really just depends . Omnisphere has some of the coolest sounding patches , so I really enjoy listening to what other patch producers have created and get inspiration that way .
[ WM ] What are those Top 5 sounds you like to have at the ready in a worship set ?
[ Nick ] Definitely a Keyscape piano with some compression , a more muted sounding piano like something from Spitfire , a Keyscape CP70 patch , a dulcimer sound , and a string machine pad , the one I ’ ve been using recently is from
Arturia ’ s Solina plugin .
[ WM ] I ' d like to thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and passion for keys with us here at [ WM ]. Blessings !
Peter Davyduck With over 25 + years of bass playing and teaching experience Peter has played , toured , and recorded with artists such as Dove and Juno award winning Brian Doerksen , Grammy nominated and Juno award winning artist Fresh I . E ., Aaron Bucks , Graham Ord , sessions for 604 Records and others .