Blog - LiveKeyboardist

02Apr 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

Using The Roli Seaboard With Jeremy Sauber

The Roli Seaboard has been on my radar for quite some time now. Its ability to create an extremely detailed expressive sound from a keyboard-like instrument is unlike anything in its category. As much as I was intrigued from a distance by this device, It far surpassed my expectations and imagination seeing it in action. What Is The Roli Seaboard? Roli's website defines it as The Seaboard is a renowned reinvention of the piano keyboard. Smooth, touch-responsive, and super-sensitive, its surface lets you bend, deepen, and modulate sounds in ways that make a standard keyboard feel two-dimensional. More musical expression is right at your fingertips — only on the Seaboard.Roli Website A traditional midi keyboard responds only to Pitch, Velocity, and Aftertouch. Modwheels sometimes provide additional modulation abilities, but at…

24Mar 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

Should I Buy Serum Or Pigments?

1Sound Design, Blog

After working with both of these synths for a good amount of time, I decided it's worth putting them head to head; If you are looking to invest in one of these, should you buy serum or pigments? DISCLAIMER: They aren't the same type of synth Even though Serum is a true wavetable synth, and Pigments has its arms in classic analog, wavetable, sample playback and granular, they are still worth comparing and here is why: as keyboard players, creating sounds that are easy to listen to AS WELL AS easy to physically play are equally important. Whether you go down the Serum or Pigment route, you will end up with flexible and playable sounds that will step up your keyboard game. If you want to learn sound design, sign…

18Mar 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

Is Serum Worth It?

1Sound Design, Blog

If you are looking for a great third party synth, you may be asking yourself, Is Serum Worth It? While it's not astronomically priced, it does come in at just under 200 dollars, so you will want to know ahead of time if it will work for you Key Features Serum packs a ton of power is pretty lightweight and is extrememly intuitive. One of the really nice things about it is that everything is right here on one screen. Not needing to switch between windows is a game-changer for sound design. Now, while there are other synths that I love working with that do have a ton of menus, I find that overall I tend to stay more focused while I am working in serum. Wavetables Abound While there…

10Mar 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

Build Your Own Shimmer Reverb

1Sound Design, Blog, Live Playback, Presets and Sounds, Sound Design

Shimmer reverb has turned into such a buzz word. It shows up everywhere and produces an awesome effect. But what is it? Essentially shimmer reverb is a course pitch-shifting device paired with a reverb. The shimmer effect is achieved by creating a feedback loop between the two devices. In Ableton, this is most easily accomplished using sends and returns. Building Our Shimmer Reverb Start by creating two new send tracks. You can do this by right-clicking on the screen and choosing insert return track. Rename the first return track, "shimmer verb" and the second, "shimmer delay." You can rename any track by selecting it and pressing Command- R on your keyboard. You can also Right-mouse click and choose rename. Now we need to create our feedback loop. We are going…

03Mar 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

Midi Effects For Keyboardists

1Sound Design, Blog, Midi

Playing Keyboard through a computer is an art in itself. You are expected to cover a ton of musical space and given zero extra fingers to do it with; luckily we've got handy Midi effects to help us on our way. Now, there is nothing wrong with coming in and just playing a really awesome and solid piano part. BUT. Since we are playing through Ableton, and because we can, I often ask myself this question. What superhuman effects can I create to add to my playing? This might be a dramatic question, but answering it can lead to dramatic effects. This is where MIDI effects step in to save the day. Here are three Midi effects every single keyboard player should be using in their live sets: Arpeggiator Specifically,…

18Feb 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

Yamaha MODX and Ableton Set up

1Creating A Keyboard Set Up, Blog

An interview with Live Keyboardist community member, Glenn Kahn We've got a really special interview coming at you with Live Keyboardist community member Glenn, and he is going to walk us through how he uses Ableton alongside his MODX. What powerful about his set up is that he's got a nice mix of onboard and Ableton based sounds. And he is able to really easily navigate between them all. This post speaks better in video, so I am going to let Glenn do the talking below! If you haven't already, make sure you pick up a copy of [thrive_2step id='2477']the quick synth map[/thrive_2step]. It's a really great way to wrap your head around the basics of synthesis and understanding some of the universal principles that apply to creating great sounds.…

10Jan 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

Limit Voices To Keep Your Pads Clean

1Sound Design, Blog

Limiting voices is a really easy way to keep your pad sounds clean. I had a conversation with a friend of mine recently about his general distaste for pads. As I questioned him further I realized the problem he was having was that it felt like the notes that he played on a pad sound never actually stopped sustaining. In part, this is because he tends to use a lot of pedal, but that aside, there is one simple and glaring solution that takes care of his problem. Limiting the number of voices you allow your synthesizer to produce. How to Limit Your Voices In every synth capable of producing more than one note at a time, there will be a way to set the maximum amount of notes to…

07Jan 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

How To Use EQ

1Sound Design, Blog

EQ is a way simpler tool than many people think. Boiled down to its simplest form, it is a way to adjust the volume on specific parts of the sound rather than on a whole. This is extrememly important when you are working with multiple sounds because there is only so much space, and each of your sounds is completing for its own space along the frequency spectrum. What Is The Audio Frequency Spectrum? The audio frequency spectrum is the range of sounds that humans can hear. While there are waves that move at rates outside of the human ability to hear, EQ deals only with audible sounds which exist between 20 Hz and 20 kHz. What EQ does An EQ will be able to see all of the frequencies…

04Jan 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

Is Arturia Pigments Worth It?

1Creating A Keyboard Set Up, 1Sound Design, Blog

Is Arturia Pigments worth it? This is a question I often ask myself before making any purchase. Is what I will get in return for my money, better than having the money itself? Deciding whether or not to purchase Arturia Pigments was no exception to this. For many years I have been of the school of thought that Ableton Suite comes with EVERYTHING you need to make great music. This includes synths, audio effects, you name it. Ableton on its own is MORE THAN ENOUGH. What caught my eye about Pigments wasn't necessarily that it was a flashy new synth, but that it was made by Arturia. And I am a huge fan of their products, so when I saw they were doing a free trial for Pigments 2 over…

18Dec 2019 by Brett Pontecorvo

Last Christmas Synth Sounds

1Sound Design, Blog

As I write this post, we are just over a week away from Christmas 2019. 'Tis the season of the songs and movies we re-watch every year, family traditions, and a time to reset and cast new vision. My wife loves the song "Last Christmas". And so in honor of her favorite holiday song, I've decided to recreate all the synth patches used on it. If you're a keyboardist, make sure you also check out Practical Sound Design For Keyboardists, which will teach you to make the most out of the patches you make. Onward and upward. The Pulsing Synth The rhythmic synth part was originally created using a Juno-60. Ableton's wavetable has a wavetable from both the saw and the squares, and so rather than reinventing the wheel, thats…

Category: Blog