Chris Stainton - Music Production Guide

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MUSIC PRODUCTION GUIDEo f f i ci a lNewsGu idefro mYam ah a&Ea sySound sforYa ma haMusicProd uctionInstr u men t s04 2015ContentsInterview Chris Stainton3„Studio Drums“DCP Productions5Musikmesse 2015Sharing Passion & Performance 7Yamaha M12 Touch AppBasic Workshop 1: Connection Settings - Programming10Sounds & Goodies15Imprint 29ChrisS ta i n to nkeys forClapton

MUSIC PRODUCTION GUIDE 04 2015Chris Stainton keys forClaptonLike many young british musicians who"When I first started listening to music in the ’50s, it wascame of age in the ’60s, Chris Staintonall Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra," he recalls, speakingbecame infatuated with African-Americanfrom his home in Camberley, a small town 30 miles westof London. "Then all of a sudden we had Elvis Presley,blues and R&B. Such musical conversionsJerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard. I remember thinking,weren’t rare for players of that generation,‘Wow, this is it—this is what I want to listen to and play.’"but Stainton’s career longevity is. FiftyStainton has worked with Clapton on and off for 35 years.years on, he still plays the blues with thepassion he felt then — often as keyboardistfor singer/guitarist Eric Clapton.YAMAHA.COMIn the guitarist’s current band, he shares keyboard dutieswith another great British player, Paul Carrack. Carrack,a former member of Squeeze and Ace, plays organ, whileStainton handles piano duties.3

MUSIC PRODUCTION GUIDE 04 2015But Stainton was a seasoned sideman long before heEven if Stainton had never played with Cocker andbegan collaborating with Clapton. He made his initialClapton, he’d probably be known for his contribution tosplash with the Grease Band, the Sheffield, England,Quadrophenia, one of the Who’s most important albums.blues-rock group that launched the career of singer JoeHe describes the sessions as exciting but demanding:Cocker. At the time, Stainton played bass, an instrument"Pete Townsend is a real stickler for what he wants, sothat strongly influenced his keyboard style.it required a lot of discipline on my part. He wanted"Even now, I think like a bass player," he observes."My left hand is always going where the bass part shouldbe. Sometimes I have to be careful not to tread on whatthe bass player is doing."Stainton played bass on Cocker’s breakthrough hit, acover of the Beatles’ "With a Little Help from My Friends"that owes as much to Ray Charles as the Fab Four. Thatmemorable session was recorded at Olympic studios inLondon (now sadly closed down) with British musicians(Jimmy Page, Albert Lee, Tommy Eyre, B J Wilson andothers). Stainton cites the recording, which he co-arrangedwith Cocker, as a career highlight.Not long after, Cocker began performing with a new band,Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Cocker, who loved Stainton’skeyboard playing, asked him to switch instruments.Stainton often performed in the group alongside anothergreat player, Leon Russell, who Stainton considers one ofsomething very specific after hearing my piano part ona Joe Cocker song called ‘Hitchcock Railway.’ Pete wasjumping up and down when he heard that. He said,‘I want you to play something like that on my record!’"Stainton says that he thrives under the direction of astrong music director. "As a musician," he says, "youneed someone to be a leader. Eric Clapton is absolutelya leader, but in his own quiet way. Pete Townshend isa leader in a more vocal and aggressive way. And JoeCocker was another guy who is definitely in charge, knowswhat he wants, and is very good at directing the group."For Stainton, playing music is as big a thrill today as it wasa half-century ago, but he allows that his approach hasmatured: "Over the years I’ve learned to play a bit less andlisten more. And that would be my advice for a youngerplayer, actually: Slow down a bit. Listen more. Learn whento shut up — and when to really play something!"his three favorite keyboardists, along with Ray Charlesand Nat King Cole."I admire Leon Russell so much," Stainton says. "He’s anexquisite piano player, especially in that Louisiana style.He was so hot then, at the top of his playing ability. WhenLeon played piano, I’d play organ, and then I’d switch topiano when Leon took over on guitar."The colors Stainton relied on then — piano, organ, andelectric piano — remain his bread-and-butter soundstoday. "Those were mechanical instruments, not digital,and they were all we had in those days. They were goodsounds — so good, in fact, that now all the electronickeyboard makers emulate those early sounds digitally.Like Yamaha, who in my opinion create the best acousticpiano samples in the world, as well as some of the bestelectric piano sounds. It’s amazing, the sounds you canget from Yamaha keyboards."These days Stainton’s workhorse is a Yamaha CP1 StagePiano. "I’ve had a lot of Yamaha keyboards over theyears," he says. "I had a Yamaha organ in the ’70s. AndI had a CP70 electric grand piano. Before the CP1,I played a P250, which I thought was fantastic. But theCP1 tops even that. It truly feels like a piano."YAMAHA.COM4

MUSIC PRODUCTION GUIDE 04 2015„ S t u di o Dr u ms “DC P Produc tio n sIn the previous editions we have alreadyHere is a comple te listing of thereported that the most popular MOTIFD r u m K i t s i n c l u d e d i n t h e s o u n d s e t:sound libraries from the sound developer A001 – Ambient KitDCP A002 – Brush Kit 1Productions(USA)willalsobeavailable from the EASY SOUNDS Shop. A003 – Slingerland KitThe soundsets "Vintage Keys" and "Air" A004 – Gretsch Kit Kithave already been presented. This timewe like to introduce the extensive and highquality drum library "Studio Drums", whichwas produced by mastermind Dave Polich,just like the products mentioned above."Studio Drums" is a drum library with a total of 32 UserDrum Kits, 235 MB samples and 50 Drum Arpeggios. Theproduct is available for MOTIF XF, MOTIF XS, and MOXF.For the MOTIF XF or the MOXF optional flash memory(Flash Memory Expansion Module FL512M or FL1024M) is A005 – Pearl Kit Kit A006 - Room Kit Room A007 – Gretsch Compressed A008 - Pearl Compressed A009 – Slingerland Compressed A010 – Pop Compressor Kit A011 – Brush Kit 2 A012 – Brush Kit 3 A013 - Towel Kit 1required. For the MOTIF XS it is required to have optional A014 - Towel Kit 2DIMMs of a minimum size of 128 MB x 2 ( 256 MB) A015 – Hard Rocker Kitinstalled. A016 – Metal Kit KitThe drum, cymbal, and percussion sounds were recorded B001 – Funk Kit 1at 24 bit and 44.1 kHz in the DCP Studios. The microphones B002 - Funk Kit 2used were Audio Technica 4040's, Audio Technica 4033's, B003 - Funk Kit 3and Audix CX111's. B004 – Ring Snare KitYAMAHA.COM5

MUSIC PRODUCTION GUIDE 04 2015 B005 – Country-Rock Kit D4 B006 – Arena Kit D#4 Gong hit B007 – Indie-Rocker Kit E4 B008 – Rattle Snare Kit B009 – Jazz Kit Ludwig B010 – DW Kit DW Gongroll Gong hitThe 50 included Drum Arpeggios already cover arepresentative range of drum grooves. However, the GMcompatibility is a big advantage, because that makes B011 – Rims Kit “Special FX”it possible to use the Drum Kits from Studio Drums for B012 – Kitchen Kit “Special FX”existing Performances or Songs instead of Preset Drum B013 – Fingers KitKits. This will certainly lead to a significant enhancement. B014 – 8-bit Kit B015 – Pitch Shifted Kit B016 – 16 RPM KitEach Drum Kit has five matching Arpeggios assigned to it.If you like to hear how the drums sound in a musicalcontext along with other instruments, watch the video forthe MOTIF / MOXF XF Workshop „EXPLORING SOUND Vol. 12: Vintage osAn absolute highlight of the product is the anufacturers. Especially in the area of the cymbals thesound difference to the Preset Waveforms is not to beunderestimated, as the release phase of the ROM-Wavesis rather short due to limited memory space. The use offades and loops significantly reduces the authenticity. ThisAll Drum Kits use a modified GM map and are usable with minor restrictions - for the Preset Drum Arpeggios oris an important reason to use external samples for drumsounds.any drum grooves in the GM standard.Here is a list of the key assignments that differ from theGM standard map: C0 Snare brush roll or percussion sound D#1 Snare G#1 Half- or shank-ride hi-hat A#2 Cymbal choke F3 Tom rim hit F#3 Tom rim hit B3 Open foot hat C4 Closed foot hat F#4 Percussion hit G4 Percussion hit B4 Rivet cymbal C#4 Cymbal rollYAMAHA.COMMore information about "Studio Drums" and a wideselection of MP3 demos can be found here:http://www.easysounds.dePeter Krischker6

MUSIC PRODUCTION GUIDE 04 2015Mus ik me ss e 2 01 5Sharing P as s i o n & Per fo r m an ceShortly after the turn of the year I always feelXanthoné Blacq did not only present the CP4 on thethe Musikmesse to be far away, timewise.Yamaha booth this year. Together with Chris Minh DokyBut as soon as one has "set himself up" inand Wolfgang Haffner he formed a trio whose half-hourthe new year, the Musikmesse is alreadyprogram on the Agora Stage was one of the top events ofover.each exhibition day. Besides the fact that these three menThis year, the combination of Musikmesse and Prolight &Sound counted over 108,000 visitors from 146 countries,are first-class musicians playing with the finest Yamahaequipment, it was their irrepressible joy of playing, whoseeffect no listeners could escape.which saw the offers of 2,257 exhibitors. As always, therewere countless interesting performances by internationalartists.At the Yamaha booth in the Forum the TransAcousticband with the voice of Shirma Rouse rocked or "funked"several times a day. In every show they managed todraw their listeners in their spell within a few moments.The seats located in front of the stage were far fromsufficient, so that the stairs leading to the Forum wereoccupied like a grandstand. If you missed them or likeAdrian Zalten - charming as ever - showed with the whiteto see their performance again watch this on YouTube:MOTIF XF how fast and easy it is to produce musicalhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v BwKLMEabRVsideas. Towards the end of the demonstration he wasYAMAHA.COM7

MUSIC PRODUCTION GUIDE 04 2015"spontaneously" supported by Xanthoné Blacq. Again, theHowever, the MX61 dressed in camouflage was a realheadphones did not get cold throughout the Messe."eye-catcher", too. The "Style Your MX" programme andIt was also really hot on the DTX stage: Ralf Mersch, whothe related competition is discussed in a separate articlecan be designated as an institution due to his years ofin this issue.DTX demonstrations at home and abroad, was supportedby a new colleague. Cherisse Osei, a drummer from theUK, presented the new DTX582k and the correspondingTouch app - alone and together with Ralf. We may haveThe concept of the Musikmesse has been revised forthe coming year. According to the exhibition companythis follows a long-cherished desire of many exhibitors.the opportunity to introduce her in more detail with aninterview in the near future.In addition to his performances Ralf Mersch providedsome excitment at the end of each exhibition day. At 17:00clock he held a prize draw and gave away one of thenew Yamaha AG03 small mixers and a DTX Practise Pad.Naturally, this led to a high response from visitors.In this Yamaha anniversary year the synthesizer section ofthe booth featured a small museum that showed some ofthe milestones of the Yamaha synthesizer development.The upcoming Musikmesse will begin on Thursday, April 7,With their unique radiance these instruments exerted2016, and will end on Sunday, April 10, 2016. On all daysa strong attraction to many visitors. I'm pretty sure thatthe fair is open to both professional and private visitors.no other place of the Yamaha booth was photographedmore.At the same time there will be a newly created businessworld with an exclusive trade visitors access to provide aquiet zone only for trade. Thus, two groups of visitors areprovided with new opportunities.I hope you have already reserved the dates. A year passesquickly and it would be a shame if you were planningsomething else.Hans-Peter HenkelYAMAHA.COM8

MUSIC PRODUCTION GUIDE 04 2015Yamaha M1 2 T o u c h A ppB as ic W or k s h o p 1 :C o n ne c ti on - S e t t i n g s - Pro gra m m ingThe Yamaha DTX-Multi 12 Percussion Padhas many great features, so there are asmany menus that you need to program allfunctions. The new iOS app M12 Touch is agreat innovation by Yamaha, which er for us drummers. In this first BasicWorkshop I want to show the basic settingsand the programming of a kit.10

MUSIC PRODUCTION GUIDE 04 2015T h e M 1 2 Touch AppFirst of all you have to download the app from the AppStore, of course. Since the Musikmesse Frankfurt 2015a new version with extra features is available. Afterinstallation, you can launch the app and examine theWhen both devices are connected, launch the app and tapon the green bar.Then tap on Init Kit to enter the User area and begin toprogram your own Kit with the app.demo kit.If the small Connection indicator at the bottom right is notgreen, the devices are not connected properly. This mayT h e c on n ect i onoccur if the Multipad is not set to MIDI USB.You need a cable in order to connect an iPad to theMultipad. You can use a Yamaha iUX-1, but an AppleCamera Connection Kit and a USB cable will work, too.The iPad is connected to the USB-to-Host port of theMultipad.Make the following settings:1. Press the button "Utility"2. Press the right cursor button five times until "MIDI" isdisplayed3. Press "Enter"I m p or ta n t set t i n gTip: You should save your settings to a USBflash drive, so your User Kits and personalsettings are saved as backup.YAMAHA.COM4. Press the right cursor button eight times until "MIDI In /Out USB" or "MIDI In / Out MIDI" appears5. If this setting is set to "MIDI", press "

blues-rock group that launched the career of singer Joe Cocker. At the time, Stainton played bass, an instrument that strongly influenced his keyboard style. "Even now, I think like a bass player," he observes. "My left hand is always going where the bass part should be. Sometimes I have to be careful not to tread on what the bass player is doing." Stainton played bass on Cocker’s .