Author: Intuitive Keys

View the video demo and talk-through tutorial (below) to learn:

• How I approach this song (useful for any template).
• How IK is designed to support this workflow.

PRO-TIPs

• The secret to a crescendo is starting soft, so strategize a series of pads that start low and help you build the song.
• This isn’t a piano song, despite starting and finishing with piano. Don’t try to make it a piano song by playing piano straight through.

Ideas Not On the Record

• I use a warm pad under my piano to add support because I don’t think the piano should be so sparse.
• I use shimmer on my dark piano to add some atmosphere because I think the song calls for it.
• I use a “hovering” sound on top of my pads which really shows on the second verse and animates it more.

These are personal preferences and choices that are part of what I think serves the song, but are above and beyond what the record suggests. As with all “good ideas”, if the Music Director or the Producer doesn’t like them or thought they detracted, I’d immediately default to their position. Because we create scenes (see next section) that are all modular, it would take about 2 seconds to implement any requested change.

SCENES

Instead of a “one patch to rule them all” workflow which tries to tackle an entire song with one patch, IK thinks in terms of “scenes” for the different sections of each tune. I’ve found this is the easiest way to not get lost in a bunch of parameters and faders while playing live. This not only lets you treat IK as you would any other keyboard, it lets you incorporate other synths to cover specific sections of the tune if you prefer. Since IK uses aliases for its patches and combinations, duplicating a patch or combination requires no additional CPU overhead.

FEATURED SOUNDS

• The Giant 3rd party piano supported in Series 3, with mod-wheel in default position, Lush compression, Dense verb, and Shimmer buttons selected in the piano engine (bottom row of buttons). Alternatively the stock Yamaha piano similarly configured is an excellent choice.
• Vintage Pad (a default patch) for intro and verse 1.
• Padalicious + Hovering (a new combination from a combination and a patch) for chorus 1, verse 2, and outro.
• Grand Narrative (default combination) is used for the first build on the repeat chorus.
• Archangel Pad (default combination) is used on the bridge for holding the A chord for 16 bars.
• Red Shifted Universe (default combination) is used to build the bridge and for the walk-up.
• Digital Glory (default combination) is the final build, first build down.

Purchase Intuitive Keys for our very best stock MainStage product including support for The Giant.

Purchase Intuitive Keys Light for our most affordable product (includes stock Yamaha).

 

Version 2 has just been released as a free upgrade for owners of Intuitive Keys Light and Intuitive Keys Legacy!

The updates for the Intuitive Keys Light version are cosmetic, but the sheen of old school purple is sure to make this version stand out on its own.

The Intuitive Keys Legacy version gains a classic blue color, and now includes several features released first on the Light version – specifically the +8va and Shimmer. These were implemented slightly differently for the Legacy version via dual-use buttons, but we’re sure users of that version will be able to use them even more effectively while playing live.

The Intuitive Keys Legacy Series 0 gains an audio-through functionality, which allows a user to insert audio (such as your own hardware piano) into the signal path of the stock MainStage pianos!

Series 1 continues support for Ivy Audio’s Piano 162 (with those notes in the upper velocity range nicely tamed).

Series 2 continues support for Waves Grand Rhapsody. This piano sounds so good – you’ll want to pick it up as soon as you possibly can.

Series 3 supports NI The Giant for the first time, largely considered to be a gold standard for 3rd party pianos. We’re extremely proud to be bringing our particular implementation of this piano, with the mod-wheel carefully mapped to the brightness function. This piano begins with a moody darkness and grows brighter to work with the dynamics and flow of the song, without having to implement multiple instances of the piano into separate patches.

The synth engine remains unchanged for now, and we remain committed to bringing you the best stock MainStage can deliver with the Intuitive Keys Legacy version. For an updated list of all Intuitive Keys versions, please visit /versions.

Today we are so excited to release: INTUITIVE KEYS LIGHT!
The best of Intuitive Keys focused on the emerging keyboardist.

Featuring:

• All the Modern Piano sounds at the touch of a button
• All the right compression and all the right ‘verbs
• No special knowledge required to get ‘that sound’
• 24 carefully curated subtle synth sounds that work great with piano
• 100% Stock MainStage. Double-Click and Go installation!
• 20 patches + 20 Combinations for $20

Visit intuitivekeys.com/light for more information