Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater
Dream Machine
There are guitar heroes, there are keyboard heroes. Jordan Rudess is the latter and more. When not blazing synth trails with renowned prog-rock band Dream Theater, he could be working on his solo projects, composing for piano, or developing musical apps…Jordan’s always busy digging into something, sonically. His virtuosic writing and performance abilities along with his knack for cutting-edge technology enable him to continuously expand on his already iconic role in the modern keyboard landscape. As a long-time member of the Korg family, Jordan has provided important product feedback throughout the years and he has helped create some of the sounds heard in Korg products, like the Kronos Music Workstation.
We spoke with Jordan as he was getting ready to head back out for a European run in support of Dream Theater’s latest opus, A Dramatic Turn of Events.
KORG: It’s great to talk with you, as always. Dream Theater has been touring in support of A Dramatic Turn of Events and people are loving it. Did you guys go into writing it with any specific goals or state of mind?
Jordan Rudess: We knew we wanted to make a fantastic Dream Theater album. We also knew that all eyes were going to be on us with the departure of our drummer Mike Portnoy. Although it was a very tough situation to be thrown into, we took our energy and turned it to a positive and worked hard to make sure we delivered the goods. It was a great opportunity to think about who we are as people and musicians and how we wanted our Dream Theater album to sound. It’s been one hell of a year!
KORG: Mike Mangini joined the band in place of Portnoy. How was the experience of having a new member for that recording, after years with Mike Portnoy?
JR: Mike Mangini is a consummate professional. He is not only a fantastic out-of-the-box drummer, but he is also a man filled with sparkling energy and humor. Right from the start, we all liked him personally and were blown away by his musicianship. He has fit right in to our group dynamic in every way!
KORG: Are there any recent experiences from the road that stick out in your mind?
JR: Yeah…The final night of this last tour we were in Mexico City, Mexico. Big night - 10,000 people, sold out show. About twenty minutes in, I use my hydraulic keyboard stand and hold it down on a big angle so the entire audience can enjoy watching me play. And then it happened…the stand got stuck! I played the rest of the show (one hour and forty minutes) on this very unusual angle and praying that as each section went by, I would be able to manage my performance and keep it together. Embarrassing on one hand, but perhaps to the audience it could have been cool because they got to really see me play the whole night. That coupled with the pre-show earthquake made a real evening to remember!
KORG: Wow…sounds like a rocky night but you pulled it off. Any new projects from your solo work or other happenings we should keep an eye/ear out for?
JR: My own solo work at the moment is very much focused on some app development that I'm doing with my company Wizdom Music. We are deep into some very cool stuff for iOS and Android. Korg is doing some great things with iOS development and making some really killer apps. I'm having a lot of fun with those as well!
In addition I wrote this classical piece entitled "Explorations for Keyboard and Orchestra" recently and we are focusing in on finding a great orchestra to perform it with me.
KORG: You’ve used Korg workstations throughout the years and nowadays, the Kronos is your main instrument on stage. Do you have any favorite features? What do you feel separates it from other workstations out there?
JR: It is the total musical solution for me! I love that keyboard so much. I can get every sound I need out of it through the many different types of synthesis capabilities the instrument has. Everything from Sampling to Modeling is part of the system…and that coupled with the very strong effects allow me to have every sound I play speak in a way that is exactly what I imagine. The other thing worth mentioning is that the Kronos allows my performance to be absolutely smooth when I switch between all my big (and small) layered and split sounds! I'm a happy keyboardist these days!
KORG: Have any of your works started with an inspiration from a particular Kronos sound?
JR: Of course! Great factory sounds is one of the best features of any Korg keyboard. The sounds that the instruments ship with are always inspiring and can directly lead to some very cool compositions.
KORG: You’ve also been having some fun with the microPIANO and the nanoSERIES2. What can you say about those little guys?
JR: There’s not enough time in my day because you guys keep coming out with these little gems! I have the microPIANO sitting right next to me turned on for any moment of inspiration. What a cool little keyboard…very unique and with quite an impressive piano sound! The nanoKEY2 stays in my main travel suitcase and comes with me everywhere I go. I'm not kidding. I had a great jam with John Petrucci and Andy McKee in one of the hotel rooms on the last tour and it was awesome. The guys were quite impressed with my killer tiny system! The nano and an iPad was my rig!
KORG: Anything else you’d like to mention?
JR: For those of you who are unaware, my latest three creations for iOS are MorphWiz, SampleWiz and Geo Synthesizer.
Dream Theater will spend about five weeks in Europe, starting the third week of January. I hope to see many of you on the road!
I've been involved with Korg for over twenty years - first-purely as an admirer, second as a product specialist (I worked for Korg as an employee), and finally as a professional musician. It is a relationship that I am so proud of. There are incredible people there that are so talented and musical and they have upheld incredibly high standards through all the years in all the instruments they build!
The Kronos workstation is a powerful instrument that has a great combination of technology and musicality within it. The problem with so many music systems is that they lack one or the other of those two extremely important features. I can depend on my Kronos to give me exactly what I need for my music. I'm a very proud Korg Kronos user and I hope I can help to spread the word around the world about this magical instrument.
Many thanks, Jordan. Enjoy the tour.
Visit www.jordanrudess.com for more about Jordan.
Photo credit: Darko Boehringer
Dream Machine
There are guitar heroes, there are keyboard heroes. Jordan Rudess is the latter and more. When not blazing synth trails with renowned prog-rock band Dream Theater, he could be working on his solo projects, composing for piano, or developing musical apps…Jordan’s always busy digging into something, sonically. His virtuosic writing and performance abilities along with his knack for cutting-edge technology enable him to continuously expand on his already iconic role in the modern keyboard landscape. As a long-time member of the Korg family, Jordan has provided important product feedback throughout the years and he has helped create some of the sounds heard in Korg products, like the Kronos Music Workstation.
We spoke with Jordan as he was getting ready to head back out for a European run in support of Dream Theater’s latest opus, A Dramatic Turn of Events.
KORG: It’s great to talk with you, as always. Dream Theater has been touring in support of A Dramatic Turn of Events and people are loving it. Did you guys go into writing it with any specific goals or state of mind?
Jordan Rudess: We knew we wanted to make a fantastic Dream Theater album. We also knew that all eyes were going to be on us with the departure of our drummer Mike Portnoy. Although it was a very tough situation to be thrown into, we took our energy and turned it to a positive and worked hard to make sure we delivered the goods. It was a great opportunity to think about who we are as people and musicians and how we wanted our Dream Theater album to sound. It’s been one hell of a year!
KORG: Mike Mangini joined the band in place of Portnoy. How was the experience of having a new member for that recording, after years with Mike Portnoy?
JR: Mike Mangini is a consummate professional. He is not only a fantastic out-of-the-box drummer, but he is also a man filled with sparkling energy and humor. Right from the start, we all liked him personally and were blown away by his musicianship. He has fit right in to our group dynamic in every way!
KORG: Are there any recent experiences from the road that stick out in your mind?
JR: Yeah…The final night of this last tour we were in Mexico City, Mexico. Big night - 10,000 people, sold out show. About twenty minutes in, I use my hydraulic keyboard stand and hold it down on a big angle so the entire audience can enjoy watching me play. And then it happened…the stand got stuck! I played the rest of the show (one hour and forty minutes) on this very unusual angle and praying that as each section went by, I would be able to manage my performance and keep it together. Embarrassing on one hand, but perhaps to the audience it could have been cool because they got to really see me play the whole night. That coupled with the pre-show earthquake made a real evening to remember!
KORG: Wow…sounds like a rocky night but you pulled it off. Any new projects from your solo work or other happenings we should keep an eye/ear out for?
JR: My own solo work at the moment is very much focused on some app development that I'm doing with my company Wizdom Music. We are deep into some very cool stuff for iOS and Android. Korg is doing some great things with iOS development and making some really killer apps. I'm having a lot of fun with those as well!
In addition I wrote this classical piece entitled "Explorations for Keyboard and Orchestra" recently and we are focusing in on finding a great orchestra to perform it with me.
KORG: You’ve used Korg workstations throughout the years and nowadays, the Kronos is your main instrument on stage. Do you have any favorite features? What do you feel separates it from other workstations out there?
JR: It is the total musical solution for me! I love that keyboard so much. I can get every sound I need out of it through the many different types of synthesis capabilities the instrument has. Everything from Sampling to Modeling is part of the system…and that coupled with the very strong effects allow me to have every sound I play speak in a way that is exactly what I imagine. The other thing worth mentioning is that the Kronos allows my performance to be absolutely smooth when I switch between all my big (and small) layered and split sounds! I'm a happy keyboardist these days!
KORG: Have any of your works started with an inspiration from a particular Kronos sound?
JR: Of course! Great factory sounds is one of the best features of any Korg keyboard. The sounds that the instruments ship with are always inspiring and can directly lead to some very cool compositions.
KORG: You’ve also been having some fun with the microPIANO and the nanoSERIES2. What can you say about those little guys?
JR: There’s not enough time in my day because you guys keep coming out with these little gems! I have the microPIANO sitting right next to me turned on for any moment of inspiration. What a cool little keyboard…very unique and with quite an impressive piano sound! The nanoKEY2 stays in my main travel suitcase and comes with me everywhere I go. I'm not kidding. I had a great jam with John Petrucci and Andy McKee in one of the hotel rooms on the last tour and it was awesome. The guys were quite impressed with my killer tiny system! The nano and an iPad was my rig!
KORG: Anything else you’d like to mention?
JR: For those of you who are unaware, my latest three creations for iOS are MorphWiz, SampleWiz and Geo Synthesizer.
Dream Theater will spend about five weeks in Europe, starting the third week of January. I hope to see many of you on the road!
I've been involved with Korg for over twenty years - first-purely as an admirer, second as a product specialist (I worked for Korg as an employee), and finally as a professional musician. It is a relationship that I am so proud of. There are incredible people there that are so talented and musical and they have upheld incredibly high standards through all the years in all the instruments they build!
The Kronos workstation is a powerful instrument that has a great combination of technology and musicality within it. The problem with so many music systems is that they lack one or the other of those two extremely important features. I can depend on my Kronos to give me exactly what I need for my music. I'm a very proud Korg Kronos user and I hope I can help to spread the word around the world about this magical instrument.
Many thanks, Jordan. Enjoy the tour.
Visit www.jordanrudess.com for more about Jordan.
Photo credit: Darko Boehringer
Jordan’s thoughts on his new nanoKEY:
“The nanoKEY is awesome! It is plug-and-play at its finest. I just took it on a flight to Europe with me and while my bandmate slept soundly- I rocked!”
“Of all the small keyboards that have come out in recent years, the Nano keyboard is the one that really shakes up the world of mobile music making. Korg figured out how to make it incredibly small and super playable. With its velocity sensitivity and easy to access octave switches, pitch bend buttons and mod button, it is truly awesome!”
Be sure to visit www.jordanrudess.com for more info on Jordan, as well as his online conservatory www.jroc.us. Also, check out the really fun keyboard wizard-type activities going on at www.keyboardwizard.net!
Watch Jordan and his nanoKEY Part 1!Watch Jordan and his nanoKEY Part 2!Watch Jordan and his nanoKEY Part 3!
“Being a believer in technology and the fact that these instruments are so powerful, I was really looking for something like the OASYS,” states Jordan Rudess, the acclaimed keyboard wizard of Dream Theater. Known for his masterfully fast and expressive keyboard technique, Rudess won’t waste time with an instrument that can’t keep up to his demanding standards. But wait. We jump ahead.
As a protégé of the piano, Rudess immersed himself in the classical world. It was during his training at Juilliard that his eyes were opened to the innumerable stylistic opportunities that awaited him. Today Rudess takes the helm of his keyboard rig night after night for an agile, jaw-dropping and frankly loud, note-laden extravaganza with Dream Theater, the lords of progressive, driving instrumental rock.
Here we talk with Jordan about his introduction to his first instrument, the piano, and to his ultimate instrument, the Korg OASYS.
Let’s start at the beginning. When did you start playing music, and what first motivated you?
I started when I was seven years old. My second grade teacher called up my mother to tell her how beautifully I was playing the piano in the classroom. At the time we did not own a piano in our house, so my mother was very surprised to learn of this! The next week she bought a piano and I started taking lessons. My first teacher was a typical local piano teacher who would come to the house every week. After a month of this he started to teach me for free and abandoned most of the written page to start me on learning chords and improvising.
My parents were advised to get me more serious musical training, so they found an intense Hungarian woman teacher who then prepared me for my audition to The Juilliard School of Music at the age of nine. All through my Juilliard years while I was learning classical music, I was also playing popular songs, as my mother loved to bring home the sheet music to Broadway shows and have me play for friends and at parties. I also discovered the Beatles and started secretly jamming and improvising in the Juilliard practice rooms!
What first brought you into to the world of rock and progressive rock?
When I was 17 my friends started to expose me to progressive rock. Bands like ELP, Genesis, YES and King Crimson. Hearing ELP’s Tarkus specifically gave me the understanding that there was quite a lot of sonic power possible as a rock keyboardist. It was after hearing Patrick Moraz soloing on the Refugee album that I knew I had to have a Minimoog. This is when my world began to change! It became clear to me that my future involved not only playing piano, but also working with sound creation and a new form of control. I felt that there was so much more for my hands to control in the world of synthesizers and this awareness led me away from the classical music path.
Not everyone knows that you worked for Korg USA for a number of years. Can you tell us a little about what you did then?
I worked as a product specialist for Korg starting in 1989 for about four years. My job was to travel around the country doing clinics and demonstrating all the latest Korg equipment. When I started there, Korg had just come out with the M-1. It was also at that point that I got involved in programming sounds and demo sequences for the company.
Highlights for me were when I would get to play the NAMM shows. It was then that I worked out a lot of the performance techniques that I still use today. The most important of these I feel was figuring out how to use one keyboard instrument and get the maximum power out of it as possible. My job for Korg was to totally understand how the instruments worked and make the most music possible come out them. If I could make it look like magic, then I was successful!
One memorable experience was premiering the Wavestation at the Musikmesse Convention in Frankfurt, Germany along with John Bowen and John Lehmkuhl.
I wrote some music for our presentation. For me the Wavestation was a groundbreaking instrument that was completely inspiring, so my involvement in presenting it to the world was passionate. The beauty of Korg as a company is the spirit of invention that goes into so many of the instruments that they design. They are open to the ideas of creative musical minds and that makes them a real leader in the music world!
Dream Theater had been around for a number of years before you joined. Did the band give you much room to inject yourself into their more established pieces of music?
I try to respect the parts that I feel are important to the music that was created before I joined the group. Certain synthesizer sounds that might be considered “dated” now were a big part of the songs originally created and totally what people remember. When there is a section that to me simply needs to be updated, because the technology did not exist back then to do what they were trying to do, then I will change it. A good example of this might be when the keyboardist was trying to create a choir or string sound, but did not have the samples that we have access to now!
You’ve recently simplified your rig by paring it down to one main instrument. What first attracted you to the Korg OASYS?
I was looking for an instrument that would allow me to do everything that I want to do without having to use like multiple keyboards, multiple modules – because I really come from a background of performing on one powerful instrument. And what happened with me and Dream Theater is that things got a little bit out of hand. On one level I wanted to have fun and play lots of different instruments. So I had this one keyboard that I started with, and it turned into a keyboard and a module and then it was a keyboard and two modules, and then two keyboards and two modules and then the system got way out of control.
So I started to look around and think, “How can I get back to what I used to do?” Because even though it was kind of fun, it was also sort of complicated. Being a believer in technology and the fact that these instruments are so powerful, I was really looking for something like the OASYS. When I heard about it, I knew that it would be something for me. So really from the moment that it was mentioned to me, I thought it might be the answer to everything. The OASYS is capable of everything that I need. So I basically sold all the gear that I was using on tour, and now I use an OASYS as my main instrument.
What features of the OASYS made you confident that you could get rid of all of those other instruments?
Well, it’s a combination of things. It’s the extreme amount of polyphony, it’s the large amount of sample RAM. It’s the fact that you can layer up to 16 different programs or sounds in a combination. My whole thing is about doing lots of complicated layers and splits on the keyboard, and the OASYS lets you do it in 16 zones, so for me that is amazing. The effects processor in the OASYS is so amazing that I can have all my organs and my pianos and my symphonic sounds, and everything can sound at once and be in their own environment.
My biggest problem a couple years ago was that I needed to have the organ sound very realistic. It needed to go through a rotary simulation and sound like it was really churning and distorted. Dream Theater is kind of rock and roll, so a lot of times things get very crunchy and powerful. It’s really up to the effects to generate that in an organ sound. As a result, I needed to use more than one instrument to do that, because the effects got tied up in the processors that I was using. But with the OASYS there is no problem there. Everything lives and breathes easily in its own world and things speak, and it’s a beautiful thing.
Can you tell us a little about how you use the three different synths that come built into the OASYS?
Well it’s really a great thing… I’m kind of in charge of a large sonic world. And the fact that you have an organ mode in there with all the drawbars, and they work as smoothly as they do and the sound doesn’t get interrupted. Wow. You can play, you can do what you want, you can grab multiple drawbars. You have that realism. Plus the organ model has the rotary speaker built in, so it’s already there from the start, leaving me more effects to add crunch and make the organ really soar!
And then you have the analog synthesis, which again I use a lot. I had developed my lead sound with other technologies, so I had to actually figure out how to take my signature lead sound, and bring it over to the OASYS. What ended up making it perhaps even more powerful and expressive is the fact that the OASYS has the analog synthesis model in there, and I can base my sound off of that kind of unique power. So that plus the HD-1 and sampling and I’ve got pretty much everything I need.
We noticed that you use the control surface fully. Can you tell us about it?
This instrument is very, very deep, and it’s one of those instruments that anybody who has it is going to learn more and more about it over the years that they spend with it. I got the OASYS and immediately had to jump right in, like incredibly fast, to learn how to use it, to program it, and to bring it out on tour. There were certain things that I needed to do with the controllers right away. Like to be able to fade out groups of sounds, and fade in sounds smoothly. The first thing I learned how to do was to assign an expression controller or to assign just a volume controller to groups of sound and be able to use the knobs and the sliders to do that. I also like to be able to pull down a knob to be able to take the volume of everything down gradually. And when you are using a lot of layers it can be kind of complex.
On the OASYS there are some really, really cool ways to manipulate large groups of sounds, whether you’re turning them up or turning them down or adding effects, so the sliders are really wonderful for that. You can also work with it like a traditional kind of mixer where you’ve got 16 different sounds. There are 8 sliders and you can just take one of the sliders to control a sound. There is so much flexibility.
Where would you like to see this platform go in the future?
Well, besides the obvious things like everybody always wants – more polyphony, more sounds, and more sampling – I have been working with and talking with the guys at Korg about things that I see being a performer, as somebody who is always out there playing. I have some perspectives that perhaps other people might not have the opportunity to come up with. Certain ideas involve performance-oriented things. For instance I think that the more information you can see when it’s totally dark, the better.
There is so much that can be done with the software in this instrument, so we’re talking about some additional features to be added down the road. I see a lot of potential for growth in the future. One important thing for me is to be able to maintain my sound no matter what I’m doing. So if I’m editing in different parameters, the sound never has to stop. That’s a process that we’re all kind of developing.
In this day and age people are under the impression that they can buy a cheap USB controller and some software applications and get the same results as the OASYS.
Well here’s the problem with that. There is a lot one can do. I have a little controller, and I have a computer filled with stuff, and it’s a whole lot of fun. But the problem is that all the software applications are designed to be kind of cool for what they are, and they all have limitations in what they are. The OASYS is this large instrument that has been thought through to be a musical instrument in its big form. I mean, if I have five different software applications, and I want to use them in performance, they’re not going to work together very well, whether I want to switch between the sounds or fade between two different software applications. It’s just not happening. I think that’s years away – many, many meetings in rooms with the companies that are making software to decide how to make instruments perform for the musician in a live application.
The OASYS is something that obviously has been thought through. Korg thought about what it’s going to be like for a performer to take this instrument and use it on the road and to have to make music with it. It’s a big undertaking to try to make music with an instrument, especially one on such a grand scale like the OASYS. It could be dangerous to have all that power, because you could have a whole lot of problems. But luckily there are a lot of people at Korg that are thinking very musically and everybody is very conscious of what it takes to build and use a musical instrument. That’s the kind of mindset or intelligence that goes behind making a Korg instrument, and that is why I am using it. It really has a lot of power, but it is harnessed to become a real musical instrument.
On stage, subtleties are often lost, especially in a guitar-oriented driven band. How do you make yourself stand out and does the OASYS help with that?
At a certain point you just have to hold your hands up in the air, because in a band of any sort the sound is always determined by the sound engineer, so I can only hope for the best. If you play a large space you’re going to get people with all different reports about how the sound really is. Like, you’ll get a guy who was standing near the board and he’s going to say, “Oh my God, that was the most amazing sound!” And you’ll get a guy that was standing close to the front and he is going to say, “Oh, I can’t hear you!” You know, and then there is a guy who is standing way in the back and he says, “Oh, everything was blurry!” You cannot win. I’ve learned that.
As far as the OASYS is concerned, I can go and I can tweak my sound to be the best possible sound that I can possibly come up with, and hope that it can come through the mix and be the right sound. One of the things on the OASYS is that every program that you have in a combination, when I’m making these big layers and splits, can be EQed individually. And it’s an amazing thing that you can go and say, “Ok, I want to add a little bit of highs to the piano sound, but the string sound needs a certain mid-frequency boosted or cut, and you have that control with every single sound. So I have as much control as possible.
You have an OASYS at home now, as well as on the road. What are you currently working on?
The procedure of actually switching from six instruments down to one was a little bit challenging in the sense that the OASYS had to be programmed. All the sounds that I make and all the sounds that I play, and have done over the years and in the studio, had to be recreated for the OASYS. Before I left on our tour a few months ago, I programmed as much material as would be needed for the first summer festivals. So now at home in the studio I’m actually programming the rest of the year, as much as I can. So I’m going kind of nuts and just doing all my tweaking!
Does Dream Theater use written parts or notation at all? Or is it all developed by ear?
I am in charge of the written notes in the band. While everyone else is doing everything by memory, I always keep music paper nearby during the writing process. Often it helps me compose to see the way things line up on the page. It also helps everyone the next day when they try to remember what we played the day before!!
Are you currently working on any solo material or other projects?
Not at the moment, because we’re right at the beginning of our world tour. I have to program a lot of songs. But I have been developing an online conservatory for many years, and it’s suddenly becoming something really interesting and an academic resource, www.jroc.us. In addition to lessons on keyboards and other instruments there are things like lessons on synthesis. We’re about to launch a whole division on just basic synthesis techniques.
Is it primarily you that works on the material for jroc.us?
It’s myself and I also have a team of guys that do some interesting things. I also have an online bi-monthly magazine called Accent. It has all kinds of different articles in it on keyboards, the music business, music technology, how to harness some of the tools that are out there to make music. It even has articles on guitar.
What skills would you emphasize young players to develop to be able to do what you do?
All through my early years from age 9 to 18, I practiced the piano for three to five hours a day. I had very serious classical training. With that in mind to be able to “do what I do,” one would need to develop a similar sense of keyboard technique. I would tell any young person that the best way to get good at an instrument is to practice. Playing a keyboard is a very physical as well as mental activity and the fingers need to be trained to do what the mind instructs them to do!
The other big part of being a keyboardist today is gaining an understanding of the way many different acoustic and electric instruments work, and being able to articulate this expression on your keyboard instrument.
The single most important thing I learned when I started to play synthesizer is how to control pitch! On the piano, pitch is fixed. On most other instruments it is flexible. Being skilled at pitch bending opens up immense possibilities for your musical world!
One important step even further is having understanding of how to manipulate sound effectively using all the controllers available. The power of the technology is not only to recreate existing sounds but also to create new ones!
Find out more about what’s in store for Jordan Rudess and Dream Theater.
Photo by Keith Smith
October, 2004
Jordan's new solo CD has been released! Visit Magna Carta Records where you can hear mp3 files and order Rhythm Of Time today!
Guest musicians joining Jordan included: Rod Morgenstein, Daniel J, Kip Winger, Joe Satriani, Steve Morse, Vinnie Moore, Greg Howe, John Guth, Dave Larue and Bill Ruyle.
June, 2004
Dream Theater keyboardist and long time Korg user Jordan Rudess is one of today’s most respected “prog rock” musicians. His love of synthesizers and sound creation turned into a career that was probably different than what he imagined while growing up.
As a child, Jordan was classically trained on the piano, but developed a penchant for popular music while attending Juilliard (where he secretly held Beatles-infused jam and improv sessions in the practice rooms!). After hearing progressive rock bands like ELP, Genesis, YES and King Crimson, Jordan discovered all the sonic power that was possible as a rock keyboardist. He explains, “I felt there was so much more for my hands to control in the world of synthesizers. This awareness soon led me away from the classical music path.” And so began his journey into the world of synthesizers. . .
Jordan’s current arsenal of synths includes a Korg TRITON-Rack and Karma Music Workstation. He’s also one of the first artists to use the TRITON Extreme. He shares a few of his favorite features: “It has that very cool tube inside of it. For me, it's incredible because I'm involved with some serious rock music that demands my synths have the same power a guitar might have when going through a world-class tube amp. The user interface to the tube is so easy and makes it a lot of fun to try on different sounds as well! The other thing that stands out is the ease of connecting the Extreme to my computer with the USB connection. It worked the first time I did it – I went online and downloaded some cool lead sounds.” Jordan has created a TRITON Extreme demo called "Extreme RA".
With years of experience playing a variety of styles and instruments, Jordan readily shares his advice with aspiring keyboard players. “The best way to get good at an instrument is to practice,” he says. “Playing a keyboard is a very physical as well as mental activity, and the fingers need to be trained to do what the mind instructs them to do!” He continues, “The other big part of being a keyboardist today is gaining an understanding of the way different acoustic and electric instruments work and being able to articulate this expression on your keyboard instrument. The single most important thing I learned when I started to play synthesizer is how to control pitch! On the piano, pitch is fixed, but on most other instruments it is flexible. Being skilled at pitch bending opens up immense possibilities for your musical world!”
Fresh off Dream Theater's 2004 world tour, Jordan is about to release his new solo CD, Rhythm Of Time.
Jordan Rudess, award winning keyboard player and newest member of progressive rock band Dream Theater, uses a variety of Korg keyboards as part of his live and studio rig. In particular, Rudess cannot get enough of the Korg Karma Music Workstation.
Recently, Dream Theater released a double album entitled Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. The Korg Karma played an important role in the creation of the multi-movement title track, as Rudess explains, "We were looking to create a piece that had a lot of different kinds of moods and all the sounds on the Karma were very instrumental in putting together that piece. I brought the Karma into the studio and just started playing a lot of the sounds for the guys and everybody was really getting off on them. As a matter of fact we decided that we would start running the tape, and John Petrucci (Dream Theater guitarist) and I were in the main live room and he started calling out different moods: 'OK give me something really epic, now give me something sad, or play a real love theme' and I kept improvising using the different sounds on the Karma while the tape was rolling." Jordan continues, "What ended up happening was that most of the original ideas that I played that day greatly inspired the key themes that make up the final composition." The Karma is very dominant on the second CD, as a matter of fact you can hear it all over the main theme which comes back a few times within the piece – it's this big orchestral sound that's based on one of the combinations called ‘Expressive Orchestra'.
On September 25th, 2001, Rudess played a solo benefit concert that helped raise money for the American Red Cross. His latest solo album, entitled 4NYC, includes highlights from that event and also features the Korg Karma. "The Karma keyboard was really kind of a savior in that show because it has so much sonic inspiration built into it and it allowed me to freely improvise. The Karma patterns and special functions can make it feel like you have an amazing supportive musical partner at times! When I first got the Karma, I told people that this instrument has more magic in it than anything I've ever really played. There's a wealth of inspiration in there."
Find out more about what’s in store for Jordan Rudess and Dream Theater.
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