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Summary of Contents for DCP Productions Motif XS
- Page 1 DCP PRODUCTIONS' OWNER'S MANUAL...
- Page 2 Additional research into the keyboards and synths emulated, plus extensive use of the new features in the Motif XS (such as assignable switches, 8 element architecture, key-off triggering, etc.) result in...
- Page 3 2. Navigate to the “VINTAGE KEYS MOTIFXS” folder and double-click on it to open it. 3. Navigate to the folder called “Vintage Keys Motif XS ALL File” and double- click to open it. 4. Copy the file called “VintageKeysXS.X0A” to your USB device’s icon (by either dragging the file directly to the icon, or going to your file menu and choosing “Copy”...
- Page 4 Motif XS. You will see a screen message that says “Connecting to USB device…”. 6. Press the FILE button on the front panel of the Motif XS. Use the cursor buttons to move up to the top of the screen so that the “Device” field is highlighted and turns blue-green.
- Page 5 CONTROLLERS – The Motif XS features an expanded set of controlling knobs – 8 altogether, with assignable Knobs 1 and 2 at the far right of the row. Additionally, there are two assignable switches (labeled “Assignable Function) immediately to the left of the eight sliders on the XS.
- Page 6 GROUP 1 - electric pianos, clavinets, and related sounds. Rhodes electric pianos A1 thru B16. The most popular electric piano of all time and still cherished and used in music today, the Rhodes was invented by one Harold Rhodes, who had the idea for building an electro-mechanical piano using spun metal rods, or "tines"...
- Page 7 lot like people - each one had its own character. Some were temperamental, some sounded beautifully chime-like, others sounded more harsh and squawky like an electric guitar, and many sounded just plain bad. And so presented here are 32 Rhodes pianos, ranging from the good (most of them) to the bad to the ugly.
- Page 8 A2 - Suitcase 1971 Modeled after a 1969 Suitcase 73, with a stereo tremolo circuit. A3 - Babe Modeled after the Rhodes sound on the Styx hit "Babe". That Rhodes had a "Dyno-My-Piano" modification – in the late 70’s thru the mid-80’s,Chuck Monte of Los Angeles retrofitted Rhodes pianos with a stereo tri-chorus and active equalization controls.
- Page 9 Mark I Stage 73 piano. A5 – Stereo Phaze Modeled after a Stage 73 run through a phaser pedal. A6 – Transistor 1 You could say this piano sounds bad, and you'd be right. You could say it sounds cool and you'd also be right. I actually had a Rhodes Stage 73 that sounded just like this - there was something rather strange going on with the pre-amp which caused the piano to sound distorted and brash no matter what the loudness was.
- Page 10 A8 - Transistor 3 And yet another Stage 73 with cool/terrible pre-amp distortion of a different color. Notice the uneven timbre and loudness response in the upper octaves - ah, the memories. A9 – Rhodes Compressed Rhodes Suitcase 73, circa 1975, fed through a compressor unit. You can hear this kind of sound on Chick Corea/Return to Forever's album "Where Have I Known You Before".
- Page 11 Mu-Tron Bi-Phase pedal. A14 – Suitcase Speaker Rhodes suitcase piano with a noisy amp/speaker system. A15 – Piano Bass This was Harold Rhodes first successful commercial creation - the 32-note PianoBass. Used by keyboardists for playing - what else - left hand bass lines.
- Page 12 Rhodes Piano Bass. A16 - Lacquered Some folks would do anything to get more brightness out of their Rhodes pianos, including lacquering the rubber tips, which resulted in a tone like this - thinner, percussive, and very very bright. B1 - Dayride Modeled after the sound of Chick Corea's Rhodes on the song "Dayride"...
- Page 13 B5 – Felt Hammers 2 Another soft bell-like Rhodes tone. B6 - 80's Session There's a story that back in the early 80's, the best Rhodes to rent for a particularly heavy session was one owned by Leeds Rentals in L.A., referred to as the "Stage Model E"...
- Page 14 B13 - Mark II Suitcase 73 Although production standards got better and the Rhodes pianos generally got more reliable as the years went on, there isn't any truth to the rumor that the Rhodes Mark II sounded different than the Mark 1.
- Page 15 Rhodes Mark II control panel. B14 – Compressed 2 Another Fender Rhodes Stage piano through a compressor. B15 – Mark II Stage 73 Another Rhodes Stage 73 with a unique character (see picture above). B16 - No AC Since the Rhodes was mechanical as well as electronic, it could still produce a little bit of sound even when the power went out or someone accidentally tripped over the piano amplifier’s AC cord.
- Page 16 The moniker "Mighty Wurlitzer" referred to the huge theatre organs the Wurlitzer Company built in the first third of the twentieth century. But one could argue that the little Wurlitzer electric piano was a bit of a scrappy contender in music as well, having fueled hits by Supertramp, Queen, Rod Stewart and the Faces, and many others in the late 60's, 70's and 80's.
- Page 17 C2 – Ray’s Wurli The classic sound of Ray Charles’ Wurlitzer 200 piano, like the one heard on his smash hit “What’d I Say”. C3 – Queen “Best Friend” Modeled after the unique sound from Queen's mega-hit "You're My Best Friend" (A Night At The Opera album). There's argument as to whether it was actually a Rhodes piano used on the recording, but close listening reveals what is unmistakably Wurlitzer.
- Page 18 Wurlitzer Model 129. C6 – Paisely Wurli "Psychedelic" Wurlitzer sound. And you'd have to be trippin' indeed to have heard this from an original Wurly's mono audio output.
- Page 19 Blonde Wurlitzer 200 – trip out on this. C7 – Wurly Phazor Another Wurlitzer with a bit of studio trickery involving stereo phasing. Hohner keyboards - C8 thru C16.
- Page 20 Hohner, an old German musical instrument company which sold a lot of harmonicas, dreamed up their electric keyboards in response to requests for something like a harpsichord that was portable and easy to maintain. Well, they got the portable part sort of right and did a little better than that on the maintenance end.
- Page 21 Dig the 60’s ad for the Pianet – what a crazy way to pick up chicks C9 – Clavinet D6 Although Hohner marketed other models of Clavinet, and the D6 wasn't the first, it was truly the model that everyone refers to when speaking of the "clavinet sound".
- Page 22 broken, and the string's vibration is muted. The clavinet has a simple damper mechanism operated by a lever (not a foot pedal) which allows the player to let notes ring or remain muted. For the most part, this means that less than superstar clav jockeys end up playing parts that don't bother with the damper mechanism.
- Page 23 With groundbreaking FM instruments like the GS1 and GS2, its mega-selling DX series of synths and its innovative CP electric grand pianos, Yamaha easily lived up to the claim made by one of its DX7 wall posters, which promoted the DX7 as being just as significant an invention as the light bulb.
- Page 24 price was $16,000. Soon after that there followed the GS2 which retailed for about half that, and then followed the DX7, and the rest is history, as they say… D1 – Classic DX7 EP "That DX7 Rhodes sound". You've heard it, everyone's heard it - so why not hear it again here.
- Page 25 D3 – DX7 Electric Piano 3 Flutey "tine piano" sound. D4 – GS2 Tines Similar to the GS1 Tines sound (which I also programmed) on the original Motif factory set. This one has more metallic ring and overtones to it. You might ask why this particular sound and instrument.
- Page 26 Then I went to the Starwood club one night and saw the keyboard player from John Q. Public (that was the band's name) hammering away at a Yamaha CP80 with a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 synth on top of it. That was the L.A. keyboard rig at the time. I sold everything I had and still couldn't come up with enough money for the CP80, let alone both it and the Prophet 5.
- Page 27 But if you owned one in L.A. in the early 80's, you were the business, and that was that. Since the Motif XS has samples of a Yamaha CP70, that’s what this voice refers to. But sound-wise, there is no difference between the CP70 and the CP80 –...
- Page 28 CP70B Electric Grand with top pulled to view the harp assembly. D9 – CP70 Flanger CP70 through an MXR rack mount flanger (the blue-plated one). D10 – CP70 Phazer CP70 with phaser effect. D11 – CP70 Chorus CP70 with chorus effect. Various classic keyboards - D12 thru D16 D12 - RMI You might not know what it was, but chances are you've heard an...
- Page 29 solo album Six Wives of Henry VIII. Edgar Winter (of "Frankenstein" fame) played one. And although I don't know for sure, I'd swear that's an RMI on its harpsichord setting that I hear Keith Emerson using on a few ELP tunes (like “Benny the Bouncer” from Brain Salad Surgery).
- Page 30 European rock acts, famous and nameless. Despite this fact, very few Continentals survive to this day, due to poor construction, or parts wearing out and disintegrating. Very sad – considering that the Vox Continental was just about the most wicked-looking piece of 60’s kitsch-cool you ever saw.
- Page 31 D14 – Farfisa Compact The “other” combo organ of the 60’s. Actually, there were quite a few combo organs around – the Fender Contempo (which looked suspiciously like the Compact), the Gibson Combo Organ, the Elka Panther (the one I actually used), and the Vox Continental’s little sibling, the Vox Jaguar.
- Page 32 The Baldwin Electric Harpsichord actually was quite beautiful - metal piano-shaped casing, with a clear plexiglass top. And it sounded great, when plugged into an amp. The Baldwin Company went on to produce the Baldwin Electro Piano, which was a small portable piano with a real harp assembly, designed for teaching music.
- Page 33 $500, although I've seen some collector's items that were fetching as much as $2500. Schoenhut toy piano – the exact model I own.
- Page 34 Moog Minimoog - E1 thru E11 E1 – Classic Minimoog One can refer to the Yamaha Motif, The Korg Triton, or the Roland Fantom as synthesizers - and technically they are, because they offer ways to manipulate and create sounds electronically. But when old school playas like me think of synths, we usually think of the analog kind.
- Page 35 Bob Moog (it's pronounced "mohg", or "mogue", not "moog" like in "moo-cow") started out as a young man building theremin kits as a paid hobby. Graduating to more serious electronic musical instruments, he moved on to build quite large (some say monstrous) modular synthesizers which looked like big telephone patchboards, connected up to dozens of wires and controlled by detachable keyboard controllers.
- Page 36 The downside? Well, Minimoogs didn't stay in tune very well. In fact it was customary to arrive at least an hour and a half early to the gig to turn the unit on and let it warm up to stability. And they weren't programmable, a feature which Bob Moog has had the fortune to introduce on his new Minimoog Voyager released in 2003.
- Page 37 The Minimoog Model D (with clear acrylic wheels).
- Page 38 Minimoog Model D with white acrylic wheels and “maple” cabinet.
- Page 39 Full frontal view of a nice “walnut” Minimoog Model D. E2 – “Abacab” Mini The Minimoog “5 ” lead sound similar to the one on Genesis’ song “Abacab”. Two oscillators set to the same pitch and detuned, third oscillator set a fifth interval from the first two. Assgn. Switch 1 sets all oscillators to unison with heavy detuning.
- Page 40 E5 – Minimoog Overdrive Detuned, overdriven “spitting” 3-oscillator Minimoog sound, similar to the one used by Jan Hammer on the tune “Celestial Terrestrial Commuters” from the Mahavishnu Orchestra album Birds of Fire (circa 1973). In addition to 3 oscillators, this sound mixes in white noise which tracks the keyboard.
- Page 41 E6 – Minimoog Ramp Dual ramp waves set an octave apart drive this lead sound. Assgn. Function Switch 1 adds the third oscillator set to unison with Oscillator 1 and detuned slightly. Assgn. Function Switch 2 sets oscillator 3 to Hi-rate Lo Frequency mode, tracking the keyboard. Minimoog panel shot showing the switches and controls for oscillator 3.
- Page 42 E8 – Mini Filtered 5th “5 ” interval lead with contoured filter envelope. Assign. Switch 1 adds noise, Assign. Switch 2 sets oscillator 2’s pitch to three octaves below that of oscillator 1. E9 – Wakeman Mini I call this “Wakeman Mini” in honor of Rick Wakeman and the type of sound he used on his solo albums like Six Wives of Henry the VIII.
- Page 43 E12- Cars “Let’s Go” Sync I remember the day I bought my Hammond B3. Or more to the point, I remember the day after, when I walked into a music store and saw the Prophet 5 for the first time. Sleek, wooden casing, knobs and switches, a lot like the Minimoog, only better looking.
- Page 44 E13 – SH 101 Saw Roland’s SH-101 was pre-MIDI, pre-digital, and small. But it packed a powerful punchy sound, was simple to use, and best of all, you could strap it around your neck and join the guitar players up at the front of the stage! The SH-101 featured a one oscillator design, with the addition of a “sub-oscillator”...
- Page 45 Well we should say, the ARP Odyssey had these features. Because many hit records saw the use of the ARP 2600, which was the modular, bigger brother to the Odyssey. Patch chords, telephone switchboard to plug them into, modulating anything with anything - that was the ARP 2600's game.
- Page 46 E16- Odyssey Ramp Ramp-wave ARP Odyssey lead sound with portamento. Another good sound for rap and hip-hop. F1 – Korg Mini-Korg For those who couldn't afford a Minimoog, Korg released their first synth in 1973, the MiniKorg. It was a single-oscillator synth, offering a choice of waveforms.
- Page 47 F3 – Minimoog Bass Attack Mini Bass sound that levels off at a slightly brighter tone, more aggressive attack. F4 – Mini Bass Punch Darker, rubbery bass sound with punchy attack. F5 – Mini Bass Filter Minimoog bass with “bowng” filter contour. F6 –...
- Page 48 F7 – Taurus Bass Pedal 1 Question - how was Rush's Geddy Lee able to sing and play keyboards AND bass at the same time live? Answer - he used (at least in the 70's and early 80's) a set of Bass pedals marketed by Moog.
- Page 49 squawky, distorted sound and robotic bass patterns were just what their new music called for. And two, a little synth company called Novation created a rackmount synth module version of the TB-303, called the Bass Station. It was the Bass Station that really took off, and the TB-303 sound wedged itself into tons of electro, dance, house, and industrial tracks.
- Page 50 cycle of one oscillator to interact with the unpredictable intervals of the filter which in self-oscillation mode becomes a sort of "fourth oscillator". All kinds of electronic havoc could be produced this way. My wife, a non musician, also refers to these sounds as simply "spaceship noises", so I guess that's a little more down-to-earth explanation of their character.
- Page 51 F14- Theremin Most widely recognized as the haunting lead sound heard on the Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" (and some say that wasn't actually a Theremin at all, I have no way of verifying this). Jimmy Page controlled a Theremin with his hands in the movie "The Song Remains The Same".
- Page 52 Moog Theremin...
- Page 53 Clara Rockmore – the most accomplished Theremin artist who ever lived. Photo is from the early twentieth century.
- Page 54 Leon Theremin – the Russian-born inventor of the Theremin, which was the world’s first commercially available electronic instrument, making its debut in 1919. F15 – AKS Synthi A The EMS Synthi AKS is part of, as Julian Colbeck states in his book Keyfax Omnibus Collection, the “longest-running saga in synthesis”.
- Page 55 Dream. And oddly enough, I was in a band in college with a guy who owned one, probably the only one in the entire Western United States at the time. The Synthi sported three oscillators, with independent range, level, and waveform controls, variable-color noise generators, a ring modulator, envelope shaper, and its own spring reverb unit.
- Page 56 The AKS Synthi A (without controller keyboard). F16 – Sequential Pro-One The Sequential Circuits Pro-One was a monophonic synth based on the same circuitry as the Prophet 5. In fact it really was a monophonic Prophet 5. Plus, it had a very cool arpeggiator. The spirit of the Pro-One carries on today in the form of the Dave Smith...
- Page 57 Instruments Evolver. Designed by Dave Smith – the same guy who created the Sequential Prophet 5. Sequential Pro-One. CLASSIC POLYPHONIC SYNTHS AND KEYBOARDS - G1 thru G16.
- Page 58 And so it announced, two years before actual delivery, that the T8 was that successor. By the time the T8 appeared in 1983, the Yamaha DX7 had taken over and the Korg M1 was on its way. Too expensive for most consumers, and short on ooh-aah features like reverb and delay, not to mention sample playback, the T8 was doomed from the get-go.
- Page 59 G2 – Memorymoog Sweep Bob Moog didn't even develop the Memorymoog. Which is probably the reason one of my buddies, who saw it at a trade show the day before I went, called me and said, "Moog blew it!" It certainly had a huge, expansive sound, and was pretty much what Moog Music (by then under new ownership and out of Bob's hands) had been hinting it would be - a polyphonic Minimoog.
- Page 60 Angled view of the Memorymoog. It certainly looked the business. G3 - OB8 Comp The most famous Oberheim synth sound ever is arguably the one from Van Halen's "Jump". But Oberheim had been around quite awhile by the time Van Halen used it. The company started making polyphonic synths very early, about the same time as Sequential Circuits started making Prophet 5's.
- Page 61 Oberheim OB-8. G4 – OB-X Strings The OBX preceded the OB-8. It was the first commercially available Oberheim product that featured a built-in keyboard. And the string sounds it produced still find favor in modern music production.
- Page 62 Oberheim OB-X G5 – Prophet T8 Strings Analog strings from the Prophet T8, different character altogether. G6 - 1999/Crazy This is that souped up and chorused oscillators in octaves sound that Prince used for 1999 and Let's Go Crazy. It was Oberheim, to be sure (You couldn't miss seeing the logo in the movie Purple Rain), but there was something else added to it - compression, chorusing, delay, who knows what all - that made it seem tall and orchestral.
- Page 63 and it had quite a few synth tricks up its sleeve like an arpeggiator, hard sync, and more. Roland Jupiter-8 G8 – Juno-60 Pad Like Korg’s Polysix, the Juno-60 was Roland’s answer to those who wanted a polyphonic synth, but couldn’t afford a megabuck bruiser like the Sequential Prophet 5 or the Oberheim OBXa.
- Page 64 Roland Juno-60 G9 – Korg Polysix The Korg Polysix was the first polyphonic analog synth I owned. And due to its (relatively) low 1982 price of $1799, it was the first analog polyphonic synth for a lot of other musicians as well. I figured, that was as good a reason as any to include it in “Vintage Keys”.
- Page 65 Korg Polysix G10 – Solina Strings The Solina was one of the first synthesizers devoted to string sounds. Truthfully, that's all it did - somewhat cheezy "string" sounds which really didn't sound too much like strings. But it was polyphonic, cheaper than a Mellotron, and weighed a lot less as well.
- Page 66 "Alaska". That was done on a Yamaha CS80, a classic polyphonic synth which made its mark but was overshadowed by the Sequential and Oberheim synths.
- Page 67 Wolfgang Palm, went on to design synthesizers for Waldorf. Today we take the PPG’s features for granted on sample playback workstations, such as the Motif XS. But in 1984 – the PPG was groundbreaking and entirely unique sounding, if not entirely user-friendly.
- Page 68 G14 – Mellotron It wouldn't be a vintage keys collection without some Mellotron voices. The Mellotron was probably the world's first sample-playback "synth". Sounds were generated from recorded reels of tape. The recordings were of actual instruments, and when you pressed a key, one of the reels would start its spoolout.
- Page 69 G15 – Mellotron Choir Mellotron choir sound. G16 – Strawberry Flutes The classic Mellotron flute sound from the Beatles "Strawberry Fields Forever". Greatest Hits of Vintage Keys/FX Sounds - H1 thru H16 H1 - Tom Sawyer That deep, resonant sweeping bass sound from Rush's hit song "Tom Sawyer".
- Page 70 H4 – Won’tGetFooledAgain The triggered organ sound from the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again". It's not really a synth sound, but it was originally a Lowrey organ triggered by a VCS3 Putney synth, so technically it's still in the running. The song is in the key of A. Again, due to the use of the song on the popular TV show CSI:Miami , this sound is lodged in the collective consciousness of millions.
- Page 71 Moog modular with keyboard controller – quite a job for the roadies to haul around. H6 – Journey SeparateWays Jonathan Cain's Jupiter 8 sound for Journey's hit song "Separate Ways". Key of E.
- Page 72 H7 – Toto “Africa” Horns The synth horn sound from Toto's monster hit, "Africa". (Toto IV CD). H8 – “FinalCountdown” Ld So many DCP customers requested this sound that I decided it had to be included in this library. It’s the lead “synth-horn” sound from the 80’s hit “The Final Countdown”...
- Page 73 ARP 2600. H10 – Prophet UFO Pitch/filter sweep “UFO landing: sound, good for sci-fi effects, as well as the intro on Styx’s song “Too Much Time On My Hands”. Typical of the kind of sound produced by the Sequential Prophet 5’s “poly-mod”...
- Page 74 The poly-mod section enabled one to route modulation sources to more than one destination, and to use things like the filter to modulate oscillators. It wasn’t really a walk in the park to grasp, but it was where incredibly complex sounds could be created, and was one of the Prophet’s most distinctive features, the other being hard sync.
- Page 75 H14 – Pink Floyd 1 The famous sequenced bass line from the song “On The Run” on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album. H15 – Pink Floyd 2 The bubbling-filter synth and diving helicopter sounds from the same song on Dark Side of the Moon. H16 –...