Keyboards (besides piano of course) - The Ultimate List (So to Speak)

Again, year by year, in an attempt to document all the keyboards the band used, AMAP, including settings, presets, etc. I don't count the stylophone here since it's played with a pen rather than fingers.

1971-1974: Hammond C-3 organs ([i]Liar[/i] and [i]Now I'm Here[/i]). Anybody could've played them. They were housed at most studios used by the band including De Lane Lea and Trident.

1975: A Wurlitzer EP-200 electric piano on [i]You're My Best Friend[/i]. It's sometimes been incorrectly referred to as a 'Fender Rhodes', which is a generonym.

1979: I suspect an e-piano was used for [i]SASS[/i] (middle-eight) since no synth in that era could quite make that sound. And of course, this is the year they began using keyboard synths: Oberheim OBX analogue-subtractive.

1980: Roland VP-330 for [i]A Human Body[/i] (the vocoder). On stage, Dr May played an OBX in [i]Flash's Theme[/i] (also video and of course the recording of the albums). Organ on [i]Wedding[/i].

1981: OBX on stage by Fred and Brian, Jupiter 8 in their North American leg. No idea about Venezuela... As for [i]Under Pressure[/i], it could either be the OBX or the Jupiter 8, and there's an organ (an actual one) as well. I suspect an e-piano on [i]Cool Cat[/i] but I'm not sure. I suppose Roger's solo album was done with mostly those two keyboards plus the VP-330 (which also had some nice strings).

1982: OBX and Jupiter 8 (most bass-lines are on the latter as well as the arpeggiator on [i]Las Palabras de Amor[/i] and [i]Action[/i]). There's also an OBX-A played by Morgan Fisher on tour, they could've bought it during or after the HS sessions. The synth solo on [i]Life Is Real[/i] is the Roland; for [i]Action this Day[/i], it's definitely not the Jupiter, but I don't know if it's the OBX-A either, since that's the one Morgan played on stage and the solo doesn't sound as 'rich' as on the album. Maybe they used a sampler instead...

1983: The band probably replaced the OBX by the OBX-A for good, but kept using the Jupiter 8 for most things in both 'Strnage Frontier' and Brian's 'Starfleet Project' (played by Fred Mandel). New items: a Fairlight CMI-III sampler/workstation ([i]Machines[/i]), a Kurzweil K-250 (orchestral hits on [i]KPTOW[/i] extended version) and perhaps an OB-8 later on. For [i]Break Free[/i], Madel played a Jupiter 8.

1984: On tour, Spike used the Jupiter 8 and two OBX-A's as well as a Yamaha CP-80 electric grand piano. Freddie's solo album was mostly done with K-250 and Fairllight. I don't know what was used by Rog for [i]Thank God It's Christmas[/i] but whatever it was sounds fantastic.

1985: They got a DX-7 which was used for many things since for e-pianos ([i]OYOL, RMF, MBDM[/i]), some strings ([i]WWTLF, AKOM, OV, TSMGO, Scandal, WIAI [/i]outro) and probably some more stuff. At Musicland Studios during the making of [i]OV[/i] you can see a Jupiter 8, a K-250 and a Fairlight. And I think there's also an Emulator II.

1986: Live - Emulator II+, DX-7 (x2), Jupiter 8. In the studio, probably the same as '85.

1987 - 1988: Roland D-50 and Emulator II+ (or III?) for most things. I suspect [i]IWIA[/i] comes from the Emulator since the DX-7 strings don't quite sound like that.

1989-1991: The Korg M1 became their main synth ([i]Bijou, Mother Love, I Can't Live With You, Slightly Mad, Don't Try So Hard...[/i]), but I suppose they used other things as well (e.g. Prophet, Kurzweil...).

1993-1995: Ensoniq ASR-10, Roland JD-800 and maybe some digital pianos ([i]Too Much Love, My Life Has Been Saved[/i]).

I also know they had a Kawai e-piano they sold to The Alarm in 1985. Was it ever used? Hard to tell.

Additions, corrections, etc, are appreciated.

No additions, no corrections, just congratulations.



I really enjoy reading these posts of yours. I wish I could remember most of this, as I don't even come close to listening to the music with the amount of detail you do. Having heard all these instruments in other situations or songs should help, I guess.

Still, I guess I could hear two kinds of synths isolated and then listen to, say, Who Wants to Live Forever and I would struggle to tell which one was used.

I have played The Show Must Go On in my very basic Yamaha keyboard and it sounds very much alike, but not quite the same.

I have three words to say: Thank you, Seb!

Quite a big mistake on the list which has been uncorrected for seven years: Brian played organ on Marriage, not Wedding.

I think the reason people say "Fender Rhodes" is because that's what it said on the (gorgeous) sleeve notes. (But then I don't have the sleeve notes handy.)

On my CD version (and all the ones I've seen - although that's not a lot) it says 'electric piano'.

It was a Wurlitzer, trust me.  I own an A and a Mark IV, the IV has a much more overdriven tone than the Wurly.  Also, the Wurly actually used tremolo, not vibrato as the Fender did.

Another way to tell (if this is possible) is if the bottom C note John hits was the last note on the keyboard or not.  That's about as deep as the wurlitzer went, the fender went down to the lower F below that C.  Wurlitzers have 64 keys, while Fenders had 73 or 88...  unless you had the PianoBass, which I'm still looking for a good one.

A nice reference from wikipedia about songs that used the Wurlizter instead of the Rhodes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wurlitzer_electric_piano

Van Halen's Cradle Will Rock used a Wurlizter with a Flange pedal!!!

Stylophone?

Where?

I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside

sebastian, was there not a harpsichord on Queen II?

Indeed. I forgot to add that.

Of course there was. And of course Sebastian knows there is.
I'm sure there's a logical reason why it isn't on the list.

I'm not really familiar with early 80's synthesizers like OBX. Was it a synth that had preset sounds? Cause when you hear the stuff they did with Korg keyboards it's all preset stuff.
I wonder if they really didn't like synthesizers in the 70s, or that they had no clue how to get sounds out of it :-P

And there's your logical reason :D

good stuff sebastian!

No, the actual logical reason is that I forgot to add the harpsichord to the list.