Le Matériel des Claviéristes pro

On stage, Keith Emerson currently has a grand piano, a theremin, two vintage analogue keyboards (the Moog Modular and a Hammond C3), as well as two digital synthesizers — the aforementioned Korg OASYS and a Korg Triton Extreme. The two ‘70s keyboards, which form a centrepiece to Emerson’s stage show, have both been modified extensively.
“Even when I came to be working with him, things had already been modified over the years,” explains Wechsler. “It’s just a constant thing. Some of the modifications are reinforcement things to keep them alive on the road, and others are functional things to make them do something or get a particular new sound. The Moog is built out of modules, and there’s a whole custom system of what modules were chosen in the first place. Then, over the years, those have been modified for tuning stability, to provide a new feature, or just to work properly. He’s got a Moog ribbon controller that has a custom rig on it to shoot off fireworks.
“The Hammond has been maintained and modified by Al Goff and I don’t even know the entire list of what’s been done to it, but certainly the percussion has been beefed up. The Hammond and the Leslies have had work done to make them stable and hot-rodded.
“Recently, we added in a Trek II pedal that allows us to take the Moog synthesizer or the Hammond and run them through the Leslies. For the album, we’ve got the Moog running through a Leslie for some of it. The Fast/Slow switches for the Leslies have been modified to be footswitches, rather than the little half-moon switches that always get broken off when you push an organ through a doorway. And the Hammond has been chopped, it sits on top of a chrome stand and it’s painted black. The two Leslie speakers have been mounted in a single road case with six mics attached to them.”
Pedals of various types are also an important part of Keith Emerson’s on-stage setup.
“Sometimes it’s just volume or sustain,” says Wechsler. “Other times he’s got a pedal that’ll make sound effects or a ‘swoop’ for a certain song, or a gong on another song. When both hands are busy, you start pulling in the feet to do other stuff!”
As would be expected, there’s also a lot going on off stage. “Off stage, Keith Emerson has a rack full of modules and the Open Labs MiKo workstation — a box with lots of different software synths inside that are controlled by a computer,” explains Wechsler. “It’s [the off-stage rack] got modules in it that make sounds. It allows Marc André to change patches during a show. On stage Keith can change patches, or off stage Marc can do it. Between them they work out who’s controlling what at what time. There is a mixer and direct boxes to mix all of the keyboards together and interface with the PA. In the off-stage rack there are three Korg Triton Rack modules with a bunch of different soundcards in them. There’s a Studio Electronics SE-1, and there’s an amplifier to power his on-stage speakers.”

Keith Wechsler calibrating the Moog.

“On different tours I use different keyboard setups, depending on the needs of that tour. The gear I’m currently using for the Morrissey tour, though, is a pretty good hybrid of analogue and soft synth keyboards. It’s a good example of all the different types of gear I use on a tour.
“On the stage-right side of my rig I have a Nord Stage 88 on the bottom, an M-Audio Axiom Pro 61, which is controlling Reason, and an LP Ice Bell, which is used on one song (‘Billy Budd’), and an ARP Quartet. Propellerhead’s Reason is being run off my trusty 12-inch Mac PowerBook G4, which lives in a rack. The rack also contains two MOTU UltraLite Mk3s (my main audio interface), Moog Liberation power supply, Furman power conditioner, sliding tray for the Mac laptop, and a padded drawer for the Mac laptop to travel in. The top of the rack doubles as a utility tray for shakers, tambourines and various hand-held percussion.
“On the stage-left side of my rig I have a Wurlitzer 200A and a Moog Liberation, which are both connected, via A-B box, to my pedalboard. The workhorse of my pedalboard is the Line 6 M13 Stompbox Modeler, which is then run into an Electro-Harmonix Memory Man, Roland RE-301 Space Echo, and a Mr Echo analogue delay pedal. Also scattered around my rig are the various other instruments I play throughout the show: an accordion, Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar, a trombone, a flute and a lap steel guitar. I also have two vocal mics and one mic for miscellaneous percussion and horns.“

Eric Drew Feldman (not pictured) — keys and bass

Macbook Pro running Digital Performer 5 with NI Kontakt sampler and Mtron.
M-Audio Keystation 88es.
M-Audio Axiom 49.
Fender Musicmaster bass guitar.
Shure B57a vocal mic.

Tiens fuzzbox85, puisque tu as l'air de t'y connaître, tu conseillerais quoi comme piano de scène (pour les sons de piano acoustique), un truc utilisé par les pros, qui a fait ses preuves... ?

Idéalement, il me faut un truc qui existe en expandeur rack, car j'ai déjà un clavier maître top (Doepfer).

Jon was introduced to Kurzweil twenty years ago, having used a K250 while working on Pink Floyd's Momentary Lapse of Reason album. Over the course of those twenty years, Kurzweil's "K Series" keyboards have remained indispensable, the centerpiece of his rig, whether on stage or in the studio.

After having contributed to the development of the K2000, Jon went on to use the "K Series" synths extensively on two decade's worth of albums, tours and DVDs with Pink Floyd, including their Division Bell album and tour, the Pulse album and DVD, and the highly publicized reunion show at the London stage of the Live 8 concert in early July, 2005.

Kurzweils were the main keyboards used on a number of Jon's other successful projects as well: The Who's Quadrophenia tour, Roger Waters' In The Flesh tour, album and DVD, Waters' Flickering Flame album, and a series of live shows with Pete Townshend for the Maryville Academy.

Jon's current setup includes a K2600 (usually two or more when on stage), KSP8, PC2r, Rumour and Mangler processors, and a recently acquired K2661.