He's American. But your right you could see Wakeman avoiding eye contact.

Whatever.

@MorbidManMusic Both are then , because America is built on it. Stole the land then called locals foreigners. We originated from Africa anyway. Well personally Betelgeuse

Greatest keyboard player? That's debatable. Maybe in the Progressive Rock Genre. Obviously, you haven't heard classical pianists and jazz pianists much.

Regardless of the whining in response, yes, PLEASE spit out the gum. Ridiculous that this even aired.

awesome

I met Rick last year after one his Piano Odyssey tour dates. He was going through the motions nodding about his time in Yes etc whilst signing copies of his CDs. I thought 'don't bore the chap guys' so when it came to my turn I asked him about the pianos he liked playing and his face suddenly lit up. We had quite a long chat (much to the irritation of others who were present) about the pros and cons of Steinways, Bosendorfer etc. A really nice, down to earth guy with incredible talent.

As mentioned in a previous comment...we weren't given the opportunity to mic either Rick or me. We shot the tour on an iPhone - it was all we had time for. It was only supposed to be a quick tour, but we kept going...

Puny Poppy He doesn’t play in bars :)

Yes you do. Can you show me how you play all kinds of different patches simultaneously when you jump from one sound to another in split of a second? He knows his stuff, he probably knows more about keys than most of us put together, yet there alwaus just some smart ass who thinks he ate Solomon's shit for breakfast and thinks he is smarter than anyone. Yeah, Jordan Ruddess uses mainly one workstation and he switches between the sounds (he used to do that on OASYS) but his stuff has totally different architecture than Wakeman's does. Wakeman uses different sound characters of different keyboards and his choices are such that the patches don't interfere with others even when in multiple layers. You can't say that about Ruddess. His sound choices are awful at best because he revels in sharp, ear piercing sounds so he can't really put 3,4,5 layers without the listener getting a unrecognizable sauce of millions notes per second where everything goes haywire. Wakeman always makes his patch choices very wisely - and that comes from somebody who isn't even a huge fan of his music. He has a fantastic ear for sound colors and precisely because he uses multiple keys all at once, he knows what and how to blend it. You can't do that with one workstation because no matter what, each has its unique color because of the hardware that generates it. In other words, anything you create out of one keyboard will have that keyboard's unique characteristics. Yes, if you are just regular Joe Schmoe who can listen mainly to Metallica, than yes, you won't recognize jackshit. But Wakeman is no metalhead, his ear is a finely tuned processor that hears everything that you don't. Don't be a fool.

Believe it or not, I already stay away from that stuff! :D I was actually just really stoked for the opportunity to talk with Rick....

Dave's not here, man!

Prolly a Clavinet v6

Artem Makarenko Tnx, definitely on Tormato tour

He used to haul a Steinway concert grand on tour.

Scent Snob per Trevor, the plan was to introduce some new music. They did do some different arrangements of their classics. I have the same requests. Take these cutting edge keyboards and push beyond the boundaries and make some new incredible music. And do some music from talk and big generator

Agreed. With Trevor now having movie score background, I think they could come up with some really amazing new Yes material that could be a completely new approach and really blow their fans away. I would love to see them push this envelope. The single Trevor released a few years back was amazing (can't recall title, it was the name of a street if I recall). Would love to see Jon also get ultra-experimental lyrically again as well. I think a huge part of their fan base wants the same things I want. Big Generator was when I discovered them, big fan of both pop and prog Yes. Talk was cool but not a favorite (tho had some gems for sure, Endless Dream, State of Play and a couple other spots). Just want to see them get mega-creative, and I want to hear completely new exploration with the keyboard technologies. And I don't want them to even try to appeal to their fans or any kind of mold. For me, ABWH was amazing, and Magnification had some of the last of their real alternative pursuits that I loved. Cheers.

Market Street. I wish they would push the envelope on the synth technology, and do something like the album Close To The Edge and just do what sounds interesting to them now and not necessarily what a yes album would sound like.

Thanks, David!

Agreed. I love my 4000D!

I got The Yes Album recently on CD and was surprised to hear the Moog here and there. That would have been a very early Minimoog in 1970 unless it was modules.

He says "EV speakers" (Electro-Voice), but he does not mention the model.

Cyril Blanc looks a bit boring on stage though

@@benmychree190 if you use great midi controllers it is not boring at all. I was giging with a laptop only with Cantabile. Imagine having 20 vsts and omnispheres live.

Mapping nightmare.

@@RayyMusik you have plenty tutorial on KZfaq

@@cbhrcbhr I know how it works. That doesn’t make it less tedious. I used MS for 2 years, until it somehow shredded 2/3 of my concerts. Since then I rely on hardware synths, Wakeman-style. More expensive, but also more reliable and much more fun.

The Sledge is in Lee Pomeroy's rig. He told me he was using it for bass pedals.

The Sycologic is not a synthesizer it's a MIDI Switcher that controls all the patch changes in each keyboard or MIDI sound module for what song he's playing.

Rick mentions somewhere in the video that the volume levels will automatically change for different songs. I don't think he said whether it was him via midi or his tech controlling it off stage. From Allen&Heath website - True digital mixing is about being able to save and recall Scenes (snapshots) at the press of a button. Qu can store up to 100 full Scenes for recall and Channels or Mixes can be made Safe from being overwritten. Qu-32 features 33 motorized ALPS faders, 32 allow instant access to all input channels and masters over 2 layers, and a dedicated master fader dynamically follows the Mix selection. A third user-defined Custom layer is available for ad-hoc strip layout, where any combination of Inputs, FX Sends, FX Returns, DCA’s and Mix masters can be assigned.

Garrett simms-rowe I love my Promega 3. I feel like the piano samples are good for an early 2000's board. Love the organs and the EP's as well.

Yes, it was!

It has an okay mellotron sound…Works better when blended with other strings sounds because on its own you can tell it’s not quite a mellotron. If you listen to 2003-04 versions of YES’ And You And I, you can hear Rick use the GEM Mellotron sound (mixed with other strings) during the “Eclipse” section.

The gum chewing was so I could remember to shut up and let him talk. Seriously....

Haha :D

ARW is the easiest payday he has ever had.

A great instrument in it's own right but very distinct from a JD-800

The check clearing? Jokingly suggesting he paid the interviewer to speak so highly of him.

Exactly.

awaken77 yeah I think at this point it’s more of a Rick tradition to have the big wraparound rig. It’s a very visual thing.

Roger's guitars and stuff 99% of the time he uses the Wailing Guitar patch on the JD800. He used a D50 before the JD came out but he's always used that patch as an alternate lead sound.

it's another post that tells the truth. I don't like Wakeman at all but he can play better than the whole crap of untalented clowns that use toys as an instrument. If QUALITY would be used to judge Music 90% of the garbage we listen around us would disappear.

So how do you judge that? There are a number of EDM/electronic musicians who are jazz and/or classically trained (e.g. LTJ Buke, Rusko, Andrew Bayer, Jojo Mayer are just a few examples)...is the fact that they aren't cranking 78943794 notes to every bar the only way to measure a musician or what he plays? You are not comparing apples to apples here, and it's at best unfair, and more realistically just contrived. Yes, what I am basically saying is that your position is bollocks.

The fact is that they play BORING music with too much electronic toys. Tell them to play acoustic instruments and let's see what they can create without the help of toys. I agree that you don't need to play one million notes to make good Music , but it's time to re-commence to use ANALOG (read REAL) instruments in place of fake digital toys.

Music is ......MUSIC when it's played by REAL Musicians with REAL instruments otherwise is just a joke. I've said that I don't like Wakeman solo music,but he can play FOR REAL ,anf this makes him more talented than a fuckin dumb dj unable to play a single note with a REAL instrument.

lietmar liet no, music is when sound is organized into discernable structures, period. Stop trying to pass your ignorant normative standard as an objective definition. It just makes you look foolish ( especially since I provided the two links above that make your statement completely invalid, and they are far from the only example)

Not even close. Rick would slaughter him.

We weren't given the opportunity to mic either Rick or me. We shot the tour on an iPhone - it was all we had time for. It was only supposed to be a quick tour, but we kept going...

Zoom makes a stereo digital audio recorder, it's $99. I have one. They sell them everywhere. If you know you're going to be talking to a legend like Rick Wakeman, it takes two seconds to throw one in your bag. Sorry to be a dick but you guys are supposed to be pros. You hold it in your hand and aim it at the person talking. Later you can combine it with the video footage. That is if you want people to actually listen to what you are taking the time and effort to do.

Youre not being a dick at all! Nothing wrong with saying what you think, brother... I actually have a Zoom, but it wasn't working correctly. I've done a few other captures with my phone and not had a problem....but I have to admit I've never done one where the subject moved so much. Also, it's diffcult to shoot a video and do an interview - especially if you need to use your hands for other things - so I had someone else hold the iPhone for me. Made it even harder to track the sound on this one. No excuses - just telling you what I was dealing with.

i wasn't having trouble hearing rick at all tho... sounded okay to me

i had no problem understanding or hearing what he was saying.....maybe your computer sucks or you need to see an ear nose and throat specialist

Yup. As I mentioned earlier, we weren't given time to mic anyone or set up a camera. We just started shooting with the iPhone. The alternative would have been no video at all...

I think you both did a pretty good job considering. These arm-chair critics forget how electrifying an experience it is, to be face to face with fame -- let alone doing so inside Rick's own keyboard circle). And then it went twice as long as expected? David, you did all right, and got the experience of a lifetime in the process. Me, I got out a pencil and started taking notes :) Sure, I'd love to know more -- what sounds go into what songs -- but we can't have everything, can we? Meanwhile: Eric Jordan is the man whose job is both dream and nightmare -- if one of Rick's keyboards goes out mid-show, I'd hate to be the guy who was supposed to make sure they all worked!