Invisible backup band - What do you recommend?

[Heisworthy]

I'm in a worship "band" with 3 guitars. We lost our keyboard guy (and have had an occasional stand-in drummer). The prospects for adding additional live instrumentation are not good. So I want to ask which arranger keyboard* anyone might recommend that has the best sounding backup styles that would be useful in a worship setting.

I would also like to know if there are any electronic "style machines" (something that would just do only what the style function does on an arranger keyboard) that you can use in a live setting (i.e., that you don't have to program in advance). The advantage of this over an arranger keyboard, is that it would be cheaper (hopefully). But I don't know if such a device is even made. Or maybe there are computer "band in a box" type programs that you can connect to a keyboard that can be easily used by a non-piano playing person in a live setting?

Any advice on this topic will be much appreciated.


*Note: With an arranger keyboard, someone who doesn't know how to play piano (or who knows just piano chords) can access an entire band (bass, guitar, keyboard etc.) by simply playing either a single chord, or by playing one, or sometimes two keys, that signify a single chord on a chord chart.

[Heisworthy]

An arranger keyboard would also work for those who are thinking they can't have a contemporary worship service because they have no instrument playing musicians at all. But again, the question is, which one would be best?

[Korg4god]

I prefer using Korg arranger keyboards and myself have a Pa1xPro. You can go with as little as a Pa50 which are around $1000. I have used it for years now. I only have myself then added a guitar player about 2 years ago. Lately, I have been using the onboard mp3 recorder to record my songs then moving them to computer, importing them in Ableton Live and using that software to create the different sections for intro, verse, chorus, etc. then I can trigger them live with just a computer keyboard. It's the same as using the keyboard except I don't have to mess with a bunch of buttons and having to change the chords specifically. I can concentrate on just playing, or not playing as much and worshipping.

I have several ideas to help you. E-mail back to give me a call at 620-660-1899.

Jeff Adams
Destiny Ministries
LionsGate Music School

http://www.virtualartists.com/korg4god

[Heisworthy]

Jeff, thanks for your response.

My general impression about Korg arranger keyboards is that the sound qualilty of their style selections (the backup band component) is better than that of the Yamahas. This impression is based upon comparisons made at my local Guitar center, where I've compared the Korg PA50 and Korg PA800 to a Yamaha PSR S900. [I own a Yamaha DGX300 and, to me, the style selections sound quality of my keyboard are very similar to that of the newer and much higher priced S900. But then the Yamaha S900 has quite a few programmed worship styles--which is a very nice feature. The Yamaha's also have the one key chord selection feature--which means that a keyboard newbie can easily follow a chord chart--as long as they know a piano C scale.]

I have a few of questions about your Korg keyboard. How many of the programmed styles do you use for worship? Does it have the one touch chord feature like the Yamaha's, or do you have to play a complete chord to access the "back up band." Finally, can you program your own backup band worship styles on the keyboard and, if so, is this hard to do?

[Korg4god]

Jeff, thanks for your response.

My general impression about Korg arranger keyboards is that the sound qualilty of their style selections (the backup band component) is better than that of the Yamahas. This impression is based upon comparisons made at my local Guitar center, where I've compared the Korg PA50 and Korg PA800 to a Yamaha PSR S900. [I own a Yamaha DGX300 and, to me, the style selections sound quality of my keyboard are very similar to that of the newer and much higher priced S900. But then the Yamaha S900 has quite a few programmed worship styles--which is a very nice feature. The Yamaha's also have the one key chord selection feature--which means that a keyboard newbie can easily follow a chord chart--as long as they know a piano C scale.]

I have a few of questions about your Korg keyboard. How many of the programmed styles do you use for worship? Does it have the one touch chord feature like the Yamaha's, or do you have to play a complete chord to access the "back up band." Finally, can you program your own backup band worship styles on the keyboard and, if so, is this hard to do?

I use several styles for worship. Our worship is pretty aggressive so I use a lot of the rock styles. You can set it to recognize chord changes in just the left hand like on the Yamahas but I usually do full keyboard with full keyboard recognition, but I've played piano for over 35 years. The programming is a little tricky. I do know there is a style conversion software that I believe is free on the internet. With this program you can download any style from any arranger keyboard and it will convert the style to any arranger keyboard format you want, so that opens up a whole lot more possibilities.

Something else you might want to look in to is www.interactivewordshiplive.com They offer wav files of worship songs that you can mute any of the instrument tracks you want and use it in live performance for worship. What I did was took a song off that website, left out the keyboard part then compbined the rest of the files into one mp3 file so that it loads in Ableton really fast. I will always have the same configuration on stage for now so I can mix it that way.

If you have any other questions, let me know.

Jeff Adams
Destiny Ministries
LionsGate Music School

[Heisworthy]

Good information! Thanks Jeff!