Here's my story:

A friend of mine plays guitar in a band that's on its summer-long national tour. Yesterday (two weeks into the tour) they canned the organist. It's looking like the gig may come my way.

It's a very Doors-y sounding band, so it's exclusively B3 sounds.

Problem: I don't have a keyboard setup.

My idea: I've got Native Instrument's B4 II. I've got a laptop. What if I pick up a simple two channel interface and a nice MIDI controller? Any inherent dangers (besides the standard CPU stability warnings) in this plan?

Any recommendations for small, cheap interfaces? MIDI Controllers? Something with sliders so I can control the drawbars in B4.

Oh yeah, the timeline - I've gotta have a rig by tomorrow so that I can learn the songs. Next show's on Thursday.

When did the Doors use a B3? They were much more Farfisa sounds-no Leslie.

There's a Hammond emulator for sale locally here for $400. I'd check Craigslist. But, again-I don't know if they include the Farfisa models that you would need. You could get just about any keyboard to do dead pan organ sounds, IMO.

I'd just rent a Korg CX3 or a Hammond XK2 or 3 if it was me. You don't want to screw around with interfaces, software and a controller while you try to learn material and fit into a new situation--probably a tense one at that! Good luck!

quote:

When did the Doors use a B3? They were much more Farfisa sounds-no Leslie.

They used both, but the Farfisa thing was definitely more of a signature sound.

Renting the Korg or Hammond (or buying a used one of either) would be a safe way to go...certainly safer than using a laptop/interface/midi controller rig for something as simple as getting an organ sound. Pop is right also in that about any fairly current and decent keyboard will have useable (or better!) organ's in there. The whole laptop/midi thing would be a constant worry.

-john

Yeah, I'm starting to worry about the laptop thing myself.

Turns out you cats are correct and that my lack of keyboard knowledge is becoming more obvious. I had a meeting with the producer (who played all the organ on the record) yesterday, and it's actually Vox Continental sounds. He ordered a set of Continental samples which I should be receiving today. There are also a few songs featuring Clavinet and one with Wurli.

Renting a keyboard would be sweet - I'll definitely look into that. Only shitty thing is that the tour starts in Seattle (I'm in LA). Think I should rent the keyboard and fly it to Seattle, or rent it in Washington? How much might an 8 week rental cost me?

If renting doesn't work out and I decide to go the laptop route, do you think I could use Reason to play the samples? Seriously, I'm completely unversed in this whole thing, so I have no clue how to do it. Would Reason support two keyboards (one for Vox, one for Clavi/Wurli), and does it accept patch changes through MIDI? Does anyone know how to do this (in case I need help)? Also, there a few songs in which the Vox needs to run through a Leslie. Should I get a Leslie simulator pedal or something?

How hard would it be to load the Vox samples into a Triton or something like that?

I'll find out today if I got the gig or not. F me - I'm scared.

Thanks for all the help, guys.

Hey - anyone know if there are any lower priced keyboards/synths that have decent Vox/Wurli/Clav sounds? It's looking like this gig might be indefinite (local shows, etc), so I might as well get something I can use for a long time that's not gonna be a hassle.

Any suggestions?

I don't know how you define "low priced", but you can likely get a used Kurzweil - K2500, 2600, or Pc2 for under a grand. I still think they have the best stock "all around" sounds with emphasis on their Kb3 organ modelling.

Last gen Yammy MotifES or S90es will do well, as well on pianos/EPs...if not quite as nice for organ.

I would stay away from Roland. I do like them in general, but for "retro" type sounds they tend to fall behind Kurz and Yammy, IMO.

I'm not really a clav afficianado like I am organ and EP...so, I probably shouldn't speak to that, except to say that compared to dedicated modellers like the Logic clav synth, and the clavs in NI's elektrik Piano, the Kurz stands up pretty well to my ears/fingers. The Pc2 series has a (pricey) expansion board that's full of retro clav tones if you're really needing that. If you get the board cheaply, and really need impeccable clavs, that might be an option.