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Feature
Mark Kelly
Using VST instruments live
on stage
In an amazing quarter of
a century of gigging with
Marillion, keyboardist
Mark Kelly has seen
music technology change
almost beyond
recognition. His latest
solution to keyboards on
stage is a computer
running Brainspawn’s
innovative Forte
software, which allows
VSTis to go live...
Like most things, music goes in
cycles. Styles go in and out, and
it’s the same for the gear too.
All those analogue keyboards we sold off in
the late ’80s in favour of new digital gear
are now making a comeback, not as tenth-
hand hardware, but in VST form. However,
whereas these old classics were
designed
specifically for live use, as well as for use in
the studio, you can’t say the same for
software running on a PC or Mac. In fact, it
would be hard to think of
anything less
suited to the rigours of an
on-the-road lifestyle than a delicate
computer stuffed to the gills with
potentially problematic operating systems,
audio
drivers
and
application
software. But
Marillion’s Mark Kelly •
Using Brainspawn’s Forte software
would be such a shame if gigging musicians
were unable to take advantage of all these
lovely
emulations
of
old
gear. Surely
there’s
a
solution?
There is — but before coming to that, I’d
like to describe exactly why I’m so keen to use
multiple VSTis
on
stage .First, we
need
to
travel back to 1982…
Setting the scene
I started my career as a professional keyboard
player using a Farfisa Compact Duo organ,
a
Yamaha CS15 monosynth and a Mellotron,
although what I really craved was
a
Hammond C3, a Minimoog and a Mellotron.
Unfortunately, production of the Minimoog
had ceased a few years earlier, so I eventually
settled for a Sequential Circuits Pro-One, and
added a Roland Jupiter 8 and a Hammond
impersonator in the shape of a Korg CX3
organ. With four
reasonably manageable
keyboards at my disposal I was ready to record
and tour the first Marillion album. During the
recording of our first album,
Script for a Jester’s
Tear
,
I was encouraged by one of the A&R
people at EMI to shell out around £5000 for an
Emu Emulator sampler. Clearly this guy wasn’t
on the same planet as the
rest
of
us. At
today’s
prices, a
new Emulator would cost
over £25,000. Nevertheless, I bought one,
followed a few
months later by a PPG Wave
2.2. Those were the days! Looking back, the
early 1980s were a golden age for keyboards,
and for keyboard
manufacturers. If
you
wanted
an
organ
sound, you
reached
for
the
organ. If
you
needed
a
piano, you
reached
for
the
piano. Every
time we recorded a new album I bought one or
two new keyboards, and when we went on
tour I
added them to the others. Within five
years my rig was stacked high on three sides
of
a square and, as far as I was concerned, this
was
cool. Understandably, my
keyboard tech
wasn’t as happy!
The MIDI years
If things had continued as they were I’d
eventually have needed my own 32-ton truck
to move the keyboards from gig to gig, but the
turning point was the appearance of MIDI.
12
SOUND ON SOUND LIVE
May 2005
Taking
VST instruments