The Pressure (Solo Synth Performance)

Reader Gil Assayas makes a return appearance to the Sunday Synth Jam, with this live performance of The Pressure.

Watch closely for how Assayas has tightly arranged the performance across multiple instruments.

Technical details below.

Recorded live using the following gear:

  • Akai MPC 2500 as sequencer.
  • Vermona DRM1 MK-III through OTO Biscuit for drums.
  • Nord Stage 2 for piano and synths.
  • Oberheim SEM Pro for bass.
  • Moog Slim Phatty for the lead at the end of the song.

7 thoughts on “The Pressure (Solo Synth Performance)

  1. Compared to this I really am just a synth knob turner (albeit a twisted one 😉
    I really should learn to play the piano – This is brilliant, well done.

  2. Man, his use of midi is inspiring. It looks like in some of his videos he is sending midi info to the MPC2500 and sequencing it to the Oberheim so he can play piano while tweaking the the synth line on the oberheim. I love this. Can my MPC3000 do this. I can’t wait til I figure out this level of midi mastery. So much fun. Here is a track I wrote and produced using my C-Thru Axis-49 (love that thing) and logic. I think there might be a DSI MEK in there as well. Thought I would share because our set ups are similar and we have a similar approach. I’m not on Gil’s level though 🙂 http://soundcloud.com/jkfiss/before-i-wake-partial-song-edit

    1. Hi J Philly,

      Thank you for the kind words.

      The MIDI setup is not too complicated actually – The Nord Stage is connected via MIDI OUT to the MPC’s MIDI IN. The 4 different MIDI OUT ports of the MPC are connected to the MIDI IN ports of the Vermona, Oberheim, Moog and the Nord.
      This way I can then use the Nord’s “external” section to send MIDI info to the MPC and from the MPC route it to any other instrument (including back to the Nord itself). I can also bypass the loop and play directly the Nord’s internal sounds while triggering a different instrument on a split. I’m pretty sure you can do this with any MPC.

      I checked out your song and it sounds great, very melodic. I wanted it to continue after 2:30 minutes!

      Cheers
      Gil

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