MAINSTAGE KEYS
HYPE, SUBSTANCE, SHINY COMPUTERS, AND RED KEYBOARDS | David Pfaltzgraff
You’ve seen ‘em: those beautiful red keyboards 1. THE SOFTWARE ROUTE IS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN based live performance apps means you can
with gorgeous wood grain, that white apple HARDWARE upgrade or supplement your current bank of
sounds without investing top dollar.
logo gently glowing from a corner of the
stage, analog synths your Mom or Dad could This used to be one hundred percent true. have bought for a quarter of the cost now Ten years ago the cost of buying a souped Now you might be thinking, “Hang on a second
strategically encircling a moody-looking keys up computer, MIDI gear, and software easily there, David. You’re forgetting that you can buy
player with boutique effects pedals in the signal stretched into thousands and thousands of hardware keyboards used too!”
chain. dollars. But today that’s just not the case for a
You’re not wrong! In general, it’s a great time to
few reasons.
be a keys player looking to upgrade their gear.
Worship music is truly reaching new heights of
sonic exploration (and complexity) and along For one, the market has never been more My personal opinion is that moving to software-
with any and all progress comes group think, competitive than it is right now. A wide based is a decision you won’t regret, either
confirmation bias, and at times ridiculous levels range of price points for both MIDI gear and financially or musically. Only you can truly make
of hype. Now I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve computers are available from bottom dollar the call on what will work best for you, but the
found myself caught up in daydreams of vintage to ultra-boutique. This is especially true when idea that it’s just not possible to put together
80’s synthesizers, red keyboards, and the latest it comes to buying a Mac computer, which is a great-sounding and high-functioning keys
and greatest keys sounds but when it comes most (but not all) musician’s operating system rig for less than an average priced hardware
time to actually figure out what (if anything) you of choice. Because older Apple machines from workstation? Busted, as far as I’m concerned.
need to do to take your worship keys sounds 2012-2015 are still perfectly capable of doing to the next level you need to be able to discern anything you can think to ask of them and are 2. THE HARDWARE ROUTE IS THE ONLY RELIABLE
fact from fiction. Hype from substance. And available at a great discount in the refurbished WAY
cost from benefit. and used markets.
You might be saying ‘I’ve been playing
So, in this article I’d like to briefly call out what Secondly, the same is true of software itself. my ‘Rolkordaha 347 X Max Virtual Piano
I consider to be three cliches, tropes, or dare A wide variety of options like MainStage 3 Workstation’ for going on twenty-five years
I say ‘myths’ that are prevalent in the worship ($30), Ableton Live (starts at $100 for the Intro and it has never let me down. What are you
keys world. Buckle up. version), Reason (starts at $100 for the Intro going to do if your computer crashes during
version) and an ever-growing number of iOS a performance?’
170
May 2019
Subscribe for Free...