Jens Johansson's Gear?

[Plisken]

Anyone know what gear Jens uses these days? I check his website but ummm he apparently he hasent updated it since 1999(thats what it says on the bottom of the page! no joke!) 0_0 and I dont think he will anytime soon ether (even though in 99 he said more updates to come lol, I wonder if there is someone out there still waiting)

So yah I know he uses a Yamaha DX7 as a controller for the JV-1080 and apparently a Roland V-synth(not sure about that one though).

[KilledByDETH]

a digitech death metal pedal?

[fernandotcl]

I wonder if Jens uses a customized set of voices (especially cause he's a tech savvy guy)? If so, is there any chance we could download the preset?

My current cheapo-ass keyboard is not working anymore since last week, and I saw an affordable DX-7 for sale at the local eBay. I'm tempted to buy it, but perhaps I could buy a cheaper model (perhaps not an used one) and use the same set of voices Jens uses, I don't know. Could anyone shed some light on this?

I'm really a bit clueless, I'm a piano player, not a keyboard player.

[Plisken]

well I know for a fact that Jens doesn't not use any of the sounds on the Yamaha DX7(not recently at least). All his sounds come from a Roland JV-1080(with orchestral expansion board) which a Yamaha DX7 controls.

Also I do know that he does have a few sounds created by himself from scratch. The Piano, harpsichord, pipe organ, harps, strings, and choir sounds he uses are all on the JV1080(with the orchestral expansion board) he just tweaked them around a little bit. His famous lead sound which emulates his Korg PolySix Lead was created by him from scratch on the JV1080 and Jens doesn't just give this patch out to anyone for obvious reasons. I only know of two people that jens give this lead patch too. But if you want his lead sound(or any other custom made sound he has made) all hope is not gone. It really isn't that hard to emulate his emulation of his polysix :! You just got to do some research and some studying on sound synthesis and patch creation and you will be able to create very decent version of his sounds.

Iv been able to recreate jens' "p6emu" lead sound on my Roland Fantom X and JV1080 pretty decently I think. After a few years of studying, research, and tweaking, I was able to make it sound very close to jens'. Probably as close one can get without knowing the exact parameters of the original patch. Im actually glad that his patch isn't just out there for grabs cuz if it was then I would Have probably never have gone so deep in to sound synthesis and patch creation, it opened up a whole new world for me. But I would love to know the parameters/details of the real patch though, not to use it but for curiosity of how close(or how far) I am from the real thing. Would be very interesting to know how Jens pulled it off.

ill put a sample of my emulation of jens' lead sound later, hope that will interest you in learning about patch creation like it did with me. Then you can create any patch you want!

So if you want Jens' sounds what your looking for is a Roland JV-1080. If you want his custom sounds only then it really doesn't matter what keyboard you have(so long its a good one) just study patch creation and sound design and you will be able to recreate his Lead sound, and any other sounds he has made(only other one that comes to mind right now is the sound he uses in the beginning of Hunting High and Low). My recommendation though is checking out Roland keyboards, Yamaha are pretty good sounding and not hard to get a feel too. Korg keyboards have a sort of unreal quality to there sounds, Kurzweil keyboard are the hardest keyboard you can possibly work with(and the heaviest too!)

Also you can check out Jens' website http://www.panix.com/~jens/

its where I got most of the info of his gear and stuff from.

[Plisken]

alright I made a little sample. First tune has strings in the background playing rhythm with the lead(should be a very familiar song ). The second tune is just the Lead by itself. My playing in the sample isn't great but point of the sample is for you to hear the lead and you can hear very well so there!

here is the link:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/9/20/ ... Sample.MP3


pretty good id like to think!?

[fernandotcl]

Nice! Thanks a lot for those tips!

When I was a kid I used to play with my OPL3 sound card, I think I might be able to recreate those songs.

Your lead sound is very realistic, by the way.

[fernandotcl]

I think I'll get myself an Yamaha PSR-E403. Not exactly a pro keyboard, I know, but it's got a bend pitch wheel, 61 sensitive keys, USB MIDI, so it sounds like a good choice to me. What do you guys think?

And do you guys have any experience with USB MIDI? My main interest is using the keyboard as a controller, so I'd like to know if there are any problems like latency or maybe incompatible USB MIDI implementations (stuff that might not work very well if connected to a Mac OS X system, for example).

[Plisken]

its a pretty good choice only thing I could see being a problem is that it doesnt have any MIDI In and Out on it, only the USB MIDI. So if you planning to never use it as a controller with a sound module or any other keyboard then thats no problem.

The USB MIDI doesnt have any lag, well depending on what PC you have. If you have a decent PC then it should be fine.

[fernandotcl]

Yea, I think not having MIDI OUT is a bit of a letdown. The problem is that nowadays the entry level keyboards no longer have standard MIDI.

I could get myself a PSR-510 for R$750, but a new E403 costs about R$100 or R$200 more (this economical crisis is affecting currency in a completely unpredictable way, so expressing those amounts in US dollars wouldn't be very useful). And the PSR-510 is like 15 years old, heh, so I'm afraid it'll not last much longer once I buy it.

Also, my PC doesn't have a standard MIDI or UART port, so I'd have to get a PCI card. Not a big deal, since even very cheap cards have MIDI ports nowadays.

I think the E403's major selling point to me is that it's got tweakable timbres. In the (very) long term, I'd like to join a band (nothing serious though, just some weekend fun), and since it contains a decent selecion of timbres that can be customized, I wouldn't need to hook it up to a decent synthetizer or a laptop.

I'll try to record some stuff and post it here once I get my hands on it. Thanks a lot for the advice!

[AGAG]

Just wondering, what are the things you have to do to learn to improvise WELL in a keyboard?, I mean I can play stratosphere stratofortress and all that stuff but I want to do something on my own, besides learning scales and stuff like that, when I try to improvise something, I find myself just playing random notes on a scale or just going senslessly up and down on it

Any advise??

[NeonVomit]

Just wondering, what are the things you have to do to learn to improvise WELL in a keyboard?, I mean I can play stratosphere stratofortress and all that stuff but I want to do something on my own, besides learning scales and stuff like that, when I try to improvise something, I find myself just playing random notes on a scale or just going senslessly up and down on it

Any advise??

Try playing some jazz or blues. That forces you to improvise!

[AGAG]

Just wondering, what are the things you have to do to learn to improvise WELL in a keyboard?, I mean I can play stratosphere stratofortress and all that stuff but I want to do something on my own, besides learning scales and stuff like that, when I try to improvise something, I find myself just playing random notes on a scale or just going senslessly up and down on it

Any advise??

Try playing some jazz or blues. That forces you to improvise!

I know! but how do I do that? I've tried to learn jazz from the internet but all the guides I've found are crappy or misleading, maybe a book or something?

[stratoplayer]

Find some jazz tracks you like, they can be as simple as a bass, drums and maybe a trumpet, and just play over it, you know, chill out.

[Malteada]

His famous lead sound which emulates his Korg PolySix Lead was created by him from scratch on the JV1080 and Jens doesn't just give this patch out to anyone for obvious reasons.

i had a dream some months ago, about a Stratovarius concert in my city, (i think is the only time that i could see Strovarius in concert(x )...
when the gig finished, i talked with johansson, and i asked him "cómo hiciste el sonido que usas para los solos de teclado?",
Jens: "aah, eso no te lo puedo decir... una ves me ofrecieron varios millones de dólares y aun asi no lo dije"...

y yo: "Ooh.. "


hahaha xD

[Plisken]

lol nice dream

[JensJohansson]

at the moment (as of last monday) my gear is

a jv-1010

a jv-1080

(both of those have the orchestral sample card and i use jürgen moßgraber's excellent "ChangeIt!" roland-JV-syx editor and patch librarian to control those)

JD-10 dist box

ibm laptop

motu ultralite interface

TK's korg karma as a controller (some things are broken, next to top C key always gives velocity 127 and the pitch wheel "sticks" to the right making things out of tune... but it sort of works)

on laptop i use nuendo 3 and an ancient version of halion. and very often if in a pinch a freeware synth VSTI called "synth1" . an a lot of other assorted plugs and VSTIs.

ok? ok!

[Plisken]

ok!

Thanks for replying man!

[NeonVomit]

So the DX7 has gone?

[Keyssion]

Hey, Jens. Do you still have some kind of organs? I remember you saying somewhere (your website perhaps? ) that you can't stand to play organ emulators after having played on a real thing.

I saw a T-series Hammond for sale in a music store here in Tampere. It was 1500€ and had inbuilt Leslie-speaker etc. Seemed pretty darn cool! Only "real electric organ" I have is my transistor shit Hammond, non-drawbar and probably worth less than a worn-out sock.

[cl4udiolari]

TK's korg karma as a controller (some things are broken, next to top C key always gives velocity 127 and the pitch wheel "sticks" to the right making things out of tune... but it sort of works)

on laptop i use nuendo 3 and an ancient version of halion. and very often if in a pinch a freeware synth VSTI called "synth1" . an a lot of other assorted plugs and VSTIs.

ok? ok!

Can i ask you something Jens?

I've always wondered why you choosed the JD10. Does it not destroy PWM Character?

As for the problem with TK's Karma, well, i used to have one with the opposite problem...always 1!!
they told me it was a CPU problem and a friend of mine solved...now i sold for 100€ more

I used also Synth1, and actually was intended to be the emulation of the Nord Lead 1! btw without that awesome wooden-realtime Pitch Bender it couldn't do the job =D

Oh Jens...were you in Firenze like 5 Years ago for Iron Maiden's Gig?! trust me, you have a perfect twin out there ( i have a pic somewhere...)

[kikotr88]

i usea a dx7S, mu sony laptop and reason...i have jens johansson lead in reason..it is like aaaa mission imposible lead is soo cool

[cl4udiolari]

once you got all his stuff and all his sounds most of use will say....shit....i cannot play like him!! =D
eheh