# Symphonic Metal



## Targobaath (Jun 10, 2011)

We recently got a keyboard player finally to play our orchestrations. She happens to be my girlfriend, so we have been working a lot together on the songs. The orchestrations I have written out are many layers, what is a normal set up for a keyboard player(for symphonic black metal) live.

Right now she has a privia PX-330, which sounds amazing, but there needs to be more, and we need to figure out how say Dimmu borgir, or carach angren get their full orchestrations from one keyboard player live.


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## Shadowspecced (Jun 10, 2011)

When I saw Dimmu it looked like alot was just through the PA unfortunately


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## Targobaath (Jun 10, 2011)

Shadowspecced said:


> When I saw Dimmu it looked like alot was just through the PA unfortunately


 
Yeah that is what I wanted to avoid. I think another keyboard is needed for say piano leads, the bottom can be double strings/choir or something.


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## Shadowspecced (Jun 10, 2011)

Targobaath said:


> Yeah that is what I wanted to avoid. I think another keyboard is needed for say piano leads, the bottom can be double strings/choir or something.



yeah seems like a good plan, sorry haha


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## Korg (Jun 11, 2011)

Ya, Dimmu Borgir has a lot of playback which sucks (they're still a great band), the songs in my band usually only have one layer, because I think it's nice if you can play it live as you play it in the studio


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## Albionic (Jun 11, 2011)

all symphonic bands seem to use a backing track (including mine) the easiest way is to use an ipod or similar stereo device put a click on one channel(if youhave a drummer) and the backing on the other. 

i know backing tracks and clicks aren't exactly ideal but unless you have a full orchestra or about 4-5 keyboard players i don't know how else to do it


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## Leec (Jun 16, 2011)

Check out some of the more expensive orchestra VST software. Philharmonik has a rather cool 'combi' feature. You can have up to 16 different instrument layers all being triggered from one keyboard. 

That sounds completely useless until you look at how it works. You can set velocity layers so that quiet notes produce, say, just piano, louder notes produce, say, piano and strings. You can also break the combis up across the keyboard: C0-C3 could be piano, C3-C5 could be horns, C5-C6 could be strings. You get the picture.

Of course you're still limited by only having one pair of hands, but using the combis you can go a LOT further than you can with just one keyboard.

Also, if you don't wish to go the click track route, you could always have the samples triggered when necessary. Use a footswitch or the keyboard player to trigger them. Might make it feel a bit more organic and eliminates the 'what if the click skips?' problem.


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## troyguitar (Jun 21, 2011)

I see a lot of bands using a pair of decent romplers (Triton, Fantom, Motif) on a 2-tiered stand then using layers and/or splits on each of the 2 keyboards for tons of sounds available with little patch switching.

If you think the PX-330 sounds amazing, head on over to your local GC with some good headphones and listen to the likes of the Korg M50/M3. Makes the Casio sound like a toy.

The cheaper (and possibly better sounding) option is to run a laptop and some MIDI controllers, but that shit is too much of a pain for me to deal with for anything other than home recording.


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## stupidspoge (Jun 28, 2011)

Old thread, but I've been thinking of building a midi organ pedalboard. That would allow for some cool shit.


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## CrazyDean (Jul 8, 2011)

Any sound clips???


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