I’ve noticed the Moog Sub37 and Seq Prophet being used as instruments by some of my favorite music artists (eg. Hania Rani, James Blake, Immortal Onion, Stephen Bodzin) during their live performances. Outside of my own limited view, which hardware synths are most popular these days for modern, successful, performing musicians?
Edit: By musical instruments I vaguely mean as a dedicated standalone instrument that defines the sound and takes a lot of dedicated practice. I understand that my question may not be clear to you more knowledgeable folks!
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Nord keyboards - I see them almost every show big or small that has a keyboard involved and I'm a concert photographer.
Absolutely this.
Nord keyboards are the de facto session musician keyboard. They're very sonically versatile, they're built solidly, and they feel very good to play which matters when you're gigging day-in, day-out. Whenever I go to bigger day festivals, I always keep a little mental tally of how many bands are using them, because they're so ubiquitous.
I’ve wondered if the red is intentional to help get the keyboard player noticed when they are otherwise often overlooked.
Definitely to get the keyboard noticed. Probably not the player
There is an andertons short on this topic "why are nord keyboards red". Their first prototype percussion instrument was black, but then they thought it was boring that you couldn't notice it on stage as it blended with everything else, so they made it red.
So yes they want their instruments to be seen on stage. I also think it is wise move to have them all be red, makes it easy for people to notice that the artist is using Nord.
It makes a lot of sense really, and it definitely works.
I doubt it.
It’s marketing by Nord to get their keyboard looked at.
The controls on them are nearly perfect for gigging keyboard players.
This and the keybeds are the biggest thing for me
They are outstanding. My favourite keybed is my old Dx7-2d
Did pro event tech planning/audio engineering in nyc for years before getting burnt out and I can't remember ever sourcing a rental synth for an act that wasn't a nord.
I usually consider Nords to be more stage keyboards than synths in the sense people in this sub are thinking about. Unless we’re talking Nord leads
The Stage 3 has a synth section with the same engine as the Lead A1. Stage 4 has a synth section with the same engine as the Wave 2. Those might not be the main focus or what they're primarily used for, but the synth capabilities are definitely there.
It’s a fair point. Electros might be slightly more common and more debatable as a “synth,” but it’s a fuzzy debate anyway.
The closest the Electro get to synthing is the quite basic effects and envelope that can be applied to sampled or pre-synthesized sounds. It can't make anything from scratch like a true synth. It's a wonderful keyboard, though.
I have a stage 3 and can confirm that the synth section is super good plus the layout is user friendly. You can make patches super fast and they sound very precise.
Fair enough! I actually use a stage 3 for my job, but mostly for standard piano and electric keys/organ stuff. I find that mangling the synth engine is more challenging than a dedicated synth, but I can see that the capabilities are there if I spend enough time learning the buttons..
Some people would say anything with keys that synthesizes audio is a synthesizer. Categories of electronic keyboards aside, they’re right.
There are very few “Analog Mono Synths” used live, and “/r/synthesizer” seems to be mostly a den of electronica rather than a gigging keyboard player haunt.
I’m trying to think of “reasonably large” bands that even play “Synth Synths”.
Chvrches, maybe. :-)
I have been telling people this for years... and getting downvoted! Lol. I must be in the wrong forum...
Reason why I left the thread. Was learning nothing and got downvoted as soon as you expressed an opinion.
M83 does. Nowadays they’re using MacBooks and controllers, but they still bring out the plexiglass cube of modular gear for show
That KEXP performance last week was mind blowing
I just checked out the KEXP performance…
(not arguing your description of their gear)
They have six — 6! —Hydrasynths, being played by two keyboardists.
You gotta mess with a nord then. Totally capable synths in the nord stage keys that aren’t the nord lead
The Nord Stage has a full-fledged VA section in it. You can even make patches that only use the VA and no organ or piano sounds. So it's really a synth.
Agreed. However, a Nord is what Brandon Flowers used in the first Killers album and here or there in future albums.
Yeah, this. I see a LOT of synth bands that play live (EBM/Industrial/Darkwave/Goth etc) and it feels like every band that hits a level of popularity above small venues instantly ends up playing Nord keyboards. Recently I saw a band that was using two (and a digitone for some reason).
Bought a Nord E6D for gigging and it paid itself off in gig money. Absolutely love that 'board. Loaned it to a friend when here SV-1 was in for repair, and it got the job done there, too.
I wish they weren't so expensive, Nords are some of the nicest keyboards I've ever played.
First one that came to mind lol. That red is all over the place
LA keys player here! By far the most common keyboards I see onstage are: Nord Stage 3/4, Prophet Rev 2, Prophet 6 and Moog Sub 37. Most of these are valued for their tuning stability at any temperature, with the exception of the Prophet 6. The raw tone of the 6 makes up for its slight tuning instability, and its counterpart the OB6 was used by Taylor Swifts keyboardist on a recent tour alongside a Nord Stage 3. Both of those also have onboard effects which are massively important in a live setting. It’s rare to see Minimoogs (even the reissues) or Prophet 5s due to their tuning instability, cost, lack of effects, and size. It should be noted that the Moog Sub 37 doesn’t have effects either, but I see mainly bassists using this. If you want to use it for leads you’ll need a separate reverb/delay pedal.
On other big tours you’ll see some folks playing the Roland Jupiter (and now the Juno) but I suspect they’re given those for free as Roland is known to sponsor many big shows/tours. Roland is not the best at anything they do now. Korg seems to have fallen out of favor for some reason, at one point the Kronos was massively popular but they’ve discontinued it. Yamaha is confined to specific genres now, no longer everywhere like it was in the 2000s. There are still some folks who swear by it, however.
Ironically, many of these big tours are running off Mainstage with VSTs so the keyboards are just $5,000 MIDI controllers. I find this ridiculous but it’s the way things work now, and in a way it’s heartening because a $600 MacBook M1 Air and a $500 Arturia complete plugin bundle can give you everything you’re hearing on many major arena tours.
as someone who had a mainstage rig for years, i can tell you the first time it crashes on stage youll be shopping hardware synths.
Agreed. Unless you can have 2 rigs for redundancy, hardware is generally more reliable unless it’s vintage stuff
i havent gotten an astrolabs yet, but thats the board i used to dream of doing covers with mainstage( if the bed doesnt suck).
Back in the 90s I'd haul an old desktop out on stage running Cakewalk for all backing and click tracks. I was terrified that it would crash on me. It didn't, but my anxiety eventually made me switch to running a discman/CD-R setup.
This is sick, gotta start hauling my tower around.
I guess it’s not that different from big bands that have computers in racks, but I’m just picturing those off white 90s towers and smiling.
Compaq Presario gang rise up
Nice, I was in a rock band and used to bring my full desktop computer and giant monitor screen to my shows and use Cool Edit Pro as my live “sampler”
Early 80’s, I used MacClassic with Performer for sequenced bits (into a rack of synths) and then usually some kind of workstation up from (W30, Korg 01W). I have to saw that Mac was amazing and super solid. Toured with it for 3 years and never had an issue with it (so long as you have clean power). Did lots of synthy tunes (Depeche, New Order), so if we went down for some reason, that was it. IIRC, that only happened one time (bad power).
That was always my fear. You never know how clean the power in some club is going to be. One power spike and poof, you are down.
I think this is old school mentality things are so stable now. People travel the world playing all sorts of different shows and productions from laptops.
The bass vst is no different form the 100 ft screen behind you or audio setup that's running the show.
Oh, no not at all. In fact I run a show off logic as well, I’ve just had mainstage crash for absolutely no reason in the middle of shows many times.
What it thought was cool about the Taylor Swift tour is that all of her guitar players (except for 1) and the bassist had a synth in front of them. I guess the MD was as determined to run as few tracks as possible. That’s easier to do when you have a nearly limitless budget.
Touring keys tech here (well, among other things) the act I tour w has 2 Prophet 6’s on stage and 2 spares. The tuning issues are solved by calibrating several times during the day at a given show/environment. They’re meant to hold a # of calibration tables at a time at specific temperatures. I’ve done shows in the jungle of Costa Rica (Envision Fest) and at freezing temps (Aspen, outdoors in late Dec at Snowball Fest) and have never had units go further out of tune than preferred for a bit of analog “slop”
Thanks for explaining the why behind the choices.
Korg—my gosh, back in the day, before Nord hit big, for working players it seemed to be Korg T-series, then Triton Triton Triton. Good keyboard feel, could cover a huge range of standard and trendy sounds. But where I think they’ve slacked is ever diminishing physical/expressive controls + on top of their sluggish interface—bad combo going against the market and live player needs in my opinion. That interface response is the antithesis of “live”.
1100$! This can also be done with a 20 dollar used thinkpad (3ghz core 2 duo) winXP and used copy of Native Instruments Komplete 5 and memorymoon VSTs. Running this ATM, beats my Nord and Prophet.
The thing is that all the keyboard producers keep their best shit in their most expensive keyboards. You want Yamaha’s nicest keybed and aftertouch and a bunch of controls? Well you’re sure not going to get that without getting the whole shebang. So professionals (at an adequate scale) end up just getting the keyboards that have everything.
There’s the odd MIDI keyboard that’s really quality, but they’re aimed at home markets. The VPC-1 isn’t really a stage keyboard, for instance.
6 or 7 Hydrasynths is getting popular
I noticed this watching m83’s most recent KEXP live set. So many Hydrasynths!
I noticed this too, snap
Yeah, way fun to watch M83 doing this.
I mean, it varies greatly across various genre and just what specific musicians like. For typical local cover bands or such you'll see a lot of workstation-type synths which can cover a lot of ground: few years back, no matter what band I saw live seems they had a Korg Kronos up there. Same with Nord's stage pianos. It makes sense, because you can do piano plus synth sounds all with these.
A lot of bands have over the years used Nord Lead synths, Sequential Prophet Rev2, and yeah lots of Subsequent 37s too. Bigger bands with the cash to cart around fussy synths can afford to get picky: Tame Impala seems to often have more keyboards than it needs and Ladytron has a bunch of vintage Korgs on stage with them often. But if you're playing in a funk cover band you probably could have a Kronos or Nautilus up there and get decent enough Moog-y or Prophet-y sounds from it for what you need live and have your organ and piano on it too. Matt Johnson of Jamiroquai currently seems to have some sort of electric piano, a Sequential Prophet-6, and a new Yamaha Montage M8 on stage. That shrinks his rig down from what he had about a decade ago and likely covers all the same sonic territory pretty darn well.
Hahaha. "to cart around fussy synths". And thanks for referencing those other artists who are also awesome, obviously. :)
Page McConnell of Phish (American jam band), has a Yamaha C7 grand piano that is tuned when set up, then re-tuned after sound check. Throw in a Hohner Clavinet D6, Wurlitzer 200, Moog One, Hammond B3, Fender Rhodes Mark I, Yamaha CS60, Prophet Rev2, Nord Stage 4.
The clavinet is run through an MXR Phase90 phase shifter, a Vox wah pedal, and a Fender Deluxe Reverb amplifier. The Fender Rhodes is run through a Maestro phase shifter. Page’s Hammond organ has a custom volume pedal modification to make it easier for him to use it while further away from the instrument.
Imagine setting that rig up, night after night.
Doesn’t Tame usually just run MIDI from Ableton samples of the actual synths? Iirc it’s those and then some Moogs with presets
Idk, when I've seen videos of them performing at times it seems they have a heck of a lot of synths with them—like their FIFA two-song performance and many concerts they've done. I've listened to the synth parts in their songs and seems they have even more synths present that necessary. Granted, the FIFA thing wasn't a proper true concert and some synths here may be just for show but that's a lot on deck:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh8CB1A9aPs
The best decision Nord made was for their boards to be red
I have seen plenty of Access Virus on stage.
In my local scene I see a LOT of OG Minilogues. I have one but it's not a part of my live rig right now. I use my PolyBrute and my Korg Krome live (need those bread and butter patches like piano and EP)
At big, touring shows, I agree with the other commentors: Nords and Prophets, with an increase in Hydrasynths. I just saw Alvvays last week and they had a Minimoog on the side of the stage that they only used for 1 song lol
In my world, it's not synths, but Workstations - Montage, Fantom, and Nord - and as others say, Nord is the most requested backline instrument. They're also extremely common in church praise bands (when not a Roland RD or Montage/Motife/ModX etc.)
Most people I know doing any kind of synth work are using a Macbook and Mainstage with a controller (which itself may be a workstation).
People will backline an 88 weighted key (and ask for a flasgship workstation because it's more likely to be a good action) and just run it into their computer.
But bands that tour with their own gear - depends on the "scene" they're in - I actually see all kinds of small cheap synths - pretty much the gamut of popular small format 37 key deals - compact, bass or lead line stuff.
FWIW Prophets are still considered a flagship poly and that's why you see them a lot.
Otherwise a lot of that is as well as things I haven't mentioned are like what u/outdoorwhiskey says - you do see Jupes and Junos, but they're probably sponsored. Korgs used to the rage (Triton days!) but they've fallen out of favor.
I think the ones I've spotted most often at gigs I've been to are either the Nord Stage / Lead, or Korg SV.
Occasionally a Prophet 5, and a handful of times I've seen a Minilogue or Microbrute.
I bought a Sub37 specifically for live performance. Also play in a band where we use a Sub37 (not mine). It is a really great keyboard for this purpose, having presets and a full array for front panel control, plus expression pedal inputs.
Not a synths, but I also use a Nord Electro 6D and a couple of keyboard players I've worked with use a Korg SV-1.
Mainstage is also a very popular solution for live use, but I've seen way more issues there than with hardware synths. e.g. watched a player last week sit idle waiting for the laptop to re-boot mid-song. YMMV.
Nord
Nord, prophet rev 2, prophet 6, moog sub 37, minilogue xd
nords, minilogue or prologue, fantom, dx7, moog sub or LP, modular
Bodzin is a fucking BADASS! As far as your question, I think the JP8000 deserves a mention. As does many synths from the Oberheim family. I have an OB6 and it's so good!
I did a few stints with a sub37 and virus live. Pretty much covered everything I needed
For me, if I’m the only one carrying my rig, it’s a nord, minimoog, and mellotron (the full keyboard but smaller case). If rig is backlined, Rhodes, B3, minimoog, and Mellotron. Also having a good delay for Mellotron is a must
Synths with presets are always going to win out in live environments to essentially “play back” patches drawn up on what were probably much simpler, stripped back, and indeed rawer synths in a studio.
You could, for example, probably approximate and recall sounds made on a 3x osc Model D, a 1x osc SH-101 and something more exotic like a Wasp with a Sub-37 in seconds. It’s built more to perform than to inspire, if you will.
As someone who's been performing and touring in the electronic industrial scene for 15+ years the most common synth I see is any version of a Virus.
Nord, Korg, Yamaha, Roland. These are the main stand outs that I've seen
Stage piano, most common Nord.
Synth, usually a workstation from Korg/Roland/Yamaha.
Nord Keys and Moog Subsequent 37
As far as analog synths go I'd say the Sub 37.
Mostly I see Nords, Moogs, and Viruses.
The occasional Hammond reissue.
Multitimbral ones or workstations to quickly jump between patches. The Yamaha MODX might be good for it, or MPC Key. The Korg Modwave & Wavestate can let patches ring out while changing them.
Cant answer, but thanks for mentionning immortal onion, that shit looks dope af !
When I saw Nik Kershaw × Go West, I noticed they had 2 or 3 Roland Fantom X7 previous generation workstations. I imagine something like that is probably good for finding/making the patches once and copying the set to multiple devices for consistency.
I see lots of Lil Phattys used as synth basses/Minimoog substitutions.
Surprised they’ve not moved on to Sub series. The Lil Phatties are getting on in years.
That makes them true vintage synths now. 😉
Big workstations like the MODX/montage, Fantom and Kronos are quite popular.
Access Virus.
Yamaha DX7, can even survive a kick or two.
I run a Nord Wave 2 and Piano five. Covers most things and can even front a (slightly) passable organ.
I saw Peaches perform the 20 year anniversary of her Teachers of Peaches album entirely on her Rowland MC 505 groove box last year.
She had a few of them programmed.
She also complained how difficult they are to program.
Fuck the pain away was great!
You dont mention the type of music you’re trying to make. The Nords are stage pianos, totally unsuited to electronic music. The Moog and Prophet are true synths. I’ve got the Sub37 and its a great stage instrument. The 74 or so controls allow you to sculpt the sound. I use it along with abt 3 other synths to make a soundscape.
People are always impressed by a Theremin performance.
Depends on the style of music & performance.
Immortal Onion! Are you perhaps from Poland? Love to see local band mentioned here
Right? I'm in the US. Hoping they'll play some gigs over here!!!
Not quite the answer to your question, but for a solid decade I saw Microkorgs absolutely everywhere as a second instrument. Guess because they're good live, with bright lights for easy-to-see patch changes, and simple default 'performance knobs' (filter / res / attack / release). Really good for playing the dark.
Nice reason to post this sublime performance from LCD Soundsystem, with Nancy Whang on the Microkorg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SONSErnYBM