Spring Awakening and upcoming

Well, it's been an exciting couple of months - I loved working on Spring Awakening, and was very proud of the product we put out.  We had a full band: four string players, drums, me on keys (using Mainstage*) and a guitarist who brought almost every instrument he owns. For me, the most exciting part of being the rehearsal pianist-turned-band keyboardist was finally having a guitar there to play the guitar riffs.  No matter how much energy I invested, the guitar riffs never come off quite right on the piano.    

Anyway - its done.  Next up: Schwartz's Pippin,  O'Keefe's Legally Blonde, Barber's Hand of Bridge and Barbieri's The Little Barber of Lavapies.  And I'm participating in an Arlen/Berlin cabaret of some sort . . . not quite sure on the details yet.    

*Some comments on the Mainstage Patches I used :

For the organ sounds, I used a friends' Harmonium patch.  Another option, though, is to look in 'Instrument Channel Strips' - 'Orchestral' - 'Pipe Organ' and take a listen to 'Fugue Organ'.  That was the closest sound that approximated the tone of the Harmonium. 

I chose to play the 2nd guitar part on the keys.  In 'Instrument Channel Strips' - 'Guitars' - 'Electric Guitars' I found 'Sunburst Electric', which worked nicely in the song "My Junk".  The patch 'Crunchy Electric Pickings' worked nicely for 'Totally F***ed'.

For the synth sound in 'Mirror Blue Night', I started with 'Sculpture Modeling Synth', added a layer of 'EVP88 Electric Piano', added a layer of 'Suitcase Bright', and then finished with a Warped Drum layer called '80 BPM Hip Hop Ghost' for the resonating pulse that recurred on beat 4 of every measure (hit Ab 2 to hear it).

For the song 'Whispering', I used a voice in 'Software Instruments' - 'Acoustic Pianos' called 'Grand piano & Synth Pad 02'.