Matt Johnson on his latest Jamiroquai live keyboard setup and how he recreates the sounds that you hear on record
For keyboard players heading out on tour, one of the big challenges is not only being able to recreate the sounds that fans are used to hearing on record, but also devising a setup that enables you to play them with only one pair of hands.
It’s insightful, then, to watch Matt Johnson explaining how he came up with some of the patches he’s currently using on stage with Jamiroquai.
In the video above, Johnson discusses the sounds he uses for three songs - Main Vein, Little L and Angeline - taking you on a tour of his keyboard rig in the process. It turns out that his tones are constructed from various sources, including samples from the records, multisampled patches and presets from his Yamaha Montage workstations. Some canny layering and keyboard splitting, meanwhile, enables him to play multiple parts at the same time.
Other instruments being used include a real Rhodes piano and Nina, the desktop analogue synth that’s notable for its motorised controls.
Interestingly, Johnson says that he’s not using Ableton Live on this tour. This has previously been used to run loops, but these are now triggered directly from the keyboard.
