KEYS
GIVING THANKS // OPPORTUNITIES FOR KEYS | David Pfaltzgraff photo : Benoit Adam via Unsplash
It ’ s the season of giving thanks , in case you hadn ’ t heard . I love this time of year . Depending on where you are , the weather ’ s turning cold , pumpkin spice is in the air , and everything ’ s turning towards the upcoming time with family and friends between now and Christmas .
It ’ s a great time to think about all we have to be thankful for as keyboardists in 2024 who get to serve our local churches . Anytime I slow down a bit and think about what I ’ m able to do today from my iPad it blows my mind . It wasn ’ t that long ago that the first trails of MIDI , sampling , and software were being blazed .
THANKFUL FOR LAYERING
If you head to Google and search for the name of any famous pop artist of the 80s plus ‘ keyboard setup ’ you ’ re in for a treat . If you dig a bit you ’ ll be rewarded with some absolutely insane rig pictures , featuring complex , multi- stand towers of vintage-synth goodness that blur the line between keyboard and air traffic control .
Back in the day these setups were on the bleeding edge . MIDI was a brand-new standard that was opening up incredible new worlds of sounds to explore . In a one-hundred percent hardware world this meant a mountain of cable spaghetti , a variety of analog and FM synths and rack modules , and a huge budget were the way to sound like no one had sounded before . Those pioneers truly pushed us all forward and sounded incredible . Would ’ ve hated to troubleshoot their setups though !
These days we have it so easy we take it for granted . Every modern workstation and software is capable of layering multiple sounds together with just a tap or two . The fact this is so easy to do may have a downside , though .
When those original pioneers were putting their keys rigs together , choosing to layer another synth on top wasn ’ t as simple as just adding another layer . It required literally purchasing another synthesizer and wiring it up to be responsive . And yet some of the keys work from that earlier era has a level of precision , technicality , and complexity that we often still aspire to .
We should be thankful that it ’ s not that hard to layer sounds together anymore , but we can also apply a measure of thoughtfulness and intention that modern software and hardware doesn ’ t impose to help us make more effective layering decisions .
THANKFUL FOR PRESETS
Those same 80s era keyboards shipped with some of the most iconic presets of all time . Presets that are instantly recognizable
78 November 2024 Subscribe for Free ...