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How do you achieve a whammy clav sound?
I just heard George Duke play a whammy clav solo and my jaw pretty much caused a crater on the floor. Whaaaa?
Please tell me you can do that with software.
Comments
Wouldn’t you just use a clav instrument and Pitchbend?
Am I missing something?
Do you mean like this ??
I hope so but I can’t actually test. I’m about to get a keyboard with pitch and mod wheels, (I only have a full digital piano and a small 25 key controller) but until then I wasn’t sure.
I wasn’t aware that pitch bending was a thing electric pianos did until I heard an absolutely disgusting solo from George Duke and I just didn’t understand what I was hearing until I found that he was playing a castle bar clav.
Is pitch and mod a thing the plug-in has to support or can you assign the wheels to another app that will modify the sound? What would you want to do, I guess is what I’m asking.
that's pretty crazy! Found a reference to it:
"The most interesting modification of all for the Clavinet was developed in the 1970s. The Castle Bar mod, invented by Buddy Castle, is in effect a giant Clavinet whammy bar. The strings are all mounted on a rotating bridge, connected to a rod protruding from the lid of the Clavinet. The player presses down to the rod to bend the pitch. This radically alters the playability of the Clavinet, making it into a powerful lead instrument. There are videos of George Duke using a Castle Bar Clavinet in live concerts in the early 1980s. The Crash Kings’ recent video The History of the Guitar With No Guitar shows all the possibilities of the Castle Bar Clavinet as a lead instrument. Ken Rich Sound Services are now producing an upgraded reissue of the Castle Bar mod which irons out the quirks of the original."
https://www.soundonsound.com/people/ernst-zacharias-hohner-clavinet
@Tickletiger
Without the video, I would have assumed I was hearing guitar for sure.
Go to 3:43
I mean, what do you guys think? I’m not convinced simply pitching would sound like that? It sounds like pitch combined with wah? Just wondering what people thought, it’s just the coolest electric piano sound I’ve ever heard I think, for shredding.
Excellent piece!
George's clav sounds like a wah pedal attached plus pitch bending.
Do you own Drambo?
If not, you can achieve the wah sound easily by using the very effifient Audio Damage Filterstation, both in LFO or automated and in envelope follower mode.
Actually there are hundreds of options, even the free Korg Gadget LE could do that.
Pitch bend and peaking EQ boost with the center frequency sweeping around the "wah" fequencies.
It sounds like pitch + wah in that example.
@Tickletiger Very cool. Just when you thought you’ve seen it all
@Tickletiger That was absolutely S I C K ! ! I can’t believe what I just saw.. never knew such a contraption existed never mind the masterful player of said contraption.. mind blown..
Thanks for sharing that.. 👍
Castle Bar Performance: Snarky Puppy on Tiny Desk
Insane!
@Stuntman_mike Wow, that's an excellent performance!
He’s not playing a whammy clav. I thought he was but he’s not. Comping on clav w his left hand. Right hand is playing a synth.
@Stuntman_mike That's one of my favorite Tiny Desk concerts! I thought the solo was a guitar until I saw the video
I concur @rs2000 and me too @TonalityApp!
Snarky Puppy is awesome!
@Stuntman_mike Definitely. I was lucky enough to see them live and it was one of the best concerts I've ever attended
So cool. They are musicians musicians.
Lachy Doley's whammy clav performance led me to something even more improbable: the whammy clav theramin duet.
I like tube drive + wah(auto wah depending on the setup, but a physical is best) and for a whammy sound I use pitch bends or Animoog as the midi controller and the touch screen. I did this a few years ago in some of my ‘very first tracks’ (lol) that I recorded in GarageBand and korg module, if you listen to the clav you can dev hear it on most of the longer songs I have posted here: https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/La7yZ8JQ9XhUJJSK7 pretty basic but might answer your question and it’s def one of my fav things to do
That was amazing. The whammy clav + Wah is amazing.
@espiegel123 There’s an extended take somewhere where the rest of the band has to start up again because he’s having too much fun soloing
I will have to find it. I also feel like I probably have to deep dive into Snarky Puppy.
@espiegel123 Highly recommended. GroundUP and Sylva are good places to start.
OMG! Thing of Gold is an amazing song brilliantly played. I literally wept while watching the video. There is a point in the synth solo where you can see the other musicians and the audience are amazed at what they are hearing. Apparently, the arrangements were in flux right up until recording (which was live with no overdubs). If I understand right, the performance was the first time they had played the complete arrangement.
@espiegel123 Yes! Definitely one of my favorite synth solos (and Snarky Puppy songs in general). I think Michael League actually wrote the song for someone else but decided to make it instrumental instead. Most of their older albums are live with no overdubs, which is pretty impressive. We Like it Here was rehearsed even closer to the album recording (something crazy like a day or two before).
If you like piano trios with a bit of synth, Shaun Martin’s albums are also good (he played the solo in Thing of Gold).
Thanks for the tips.
The comments I read from Michael League was that he was crashing at the piano player’s apartment on Leagues way back to the States after scouting venues in Europe. While Bill Laurance was making breakfast, League sat at the piano to play around and the tune wrote itself in 30 minutes..and he wrote some lyrics. He was so sure that it was a pop tune and not snarky puppy material he figured he’d put it in his back pocket for a project with a singer. When Laurance came in to tell him breakfast was ready, League played him the tune and Laurance begged him to bring it to Snarky Puppy...so he did (he wrote that Laurance’s judgment is reliable). He also said that even up to the recording that he wasn’t sure it was a good fit for the band but when he saw people’s reaction he realized that he was wrong and that it had something special. He also mentioned that it is the only Snarky Puppy song that has resisted rearranging.
Apparently the drummers came up with a different groove shortly before recording (emphasis on 1 and 2 rather than backbeat) than he had in mind and which propels it.
Man, I love Shaun Martin’s lead patch. Simple but compelling.
I am looking forward to watching the making of videos of those records.
@espiegel123 Ah yup that sounds more accurate – it’s been a while since I read the notes. I remember the bit about the drum groove. Was that on the album lining or the sheet music booklet?
Yeah that’s his signature patch
I can always tell who’s soloing on live recordings just from the sound alone. He uses a similar one throughout 7 Summers.
The thing I read were League’s notes which apparently come with the score available for purchase from their web site. Apparently, he writes a “how this happened” for all the scores he publishes.
I’ve spent the morning trying to come up with a Model D patch to get that sound. Sounds like a triangle wave and a filtered saw maybe with just a tad of resonance? I am having trouble getting the vibrato right.