Added: 4 years ago
From: neilomac
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  • Glad they DIDN'T use this thing on Strawberry Fields, I meant to say.

  • Comment removed

  • he obviously just wrote that as he played it there.

  • I see a lot of very capable "musicians" /keyboardists who can't play $h!t when you take the sheet music away, and couldn't improvise anything more than mary had a little lamb as an "original" piece without reading the directions. Just like some fabulous vocalists can't write a good lyric/song to save their lives. on the flipside are people like JR who CAN improvise on the spot. That's just how it works. the gift of "real" music is true magic.everyone else just "studies" it.

  • one thing I never understood was why dream theater didn't use more mellotron

  • DT NEEDS MORE OF THIS!!

  • grande Rudess. un tecladista asombroso.!

    

  • this track is amazing!

  • lol~

  • interesting. I am looking at one of the rack versions of the memotron. On this recording, are we hearing the memotron over speakers and camera microphone, or through a mixer? Just curious -- an interesting clone of the mellotron. cheers

  • @FlametopFred I didn't shoot the video, so I don't know for sure, but if I had to hazard a guess I'd say it's probably just being recorded using the mic of whatever camera shot the vid.

  • @neilomac It's the camera mic.

  • The Keyboard Wizard.

  • this guy have a band?

  • @Luckzzz the FUCKIN? DREAM THEATER?!?!?! do you live under a rock?

  • @antecresearch yes I live. But i like more 70's. Dream theater I like only 10 musics.. But Jordan Rudess kick ass..

  • @antecresearch lmao

  • wankfest

  • sounded like some bethoven half way into that. just seeing all these intense new instruments and new pieces of gear coming out makes me want to go on an insane shopping spree and never see the light of day again

  • and roll

  • sounds like some Chrono trigger shit....so badass!!!!!!!!

  • I will never understand why they produce keyboards with such little keys.

    I own a 61 key keyboard and I'm very often running out of octaves.

    You need at least a 76 key.

  • @nokia3210fuck In this case, the Memotron has the number of keys it has because that's how many the original Mellotron had. The original Mellotron only had the keys it had because each one was hooked up to an individual spool of tape for each note. The Mellotron was (and is) a very expensive instrument, and having more keys would've made it even more expensive.

  • @nokia3210fuck What a nice You Tube name you have. The shorter boards are darned difficult to play at time as you have to keep touching the octive button to play higher. But, most synths have 49 keys and less, thats just they way they have always been made and I don't know why and I've been playing them synth the mid 1960's.

  • @keysB3P

    As you referred to my You Tube name I knew immediately that you are from the United Stated, the country with the most prudish people in the world while at the same time having the biggest porn industry in the world.

  • @nokia3210fuck ... ur name has fuck in it and u r making comments about porn.... what a hypocrite...

  • Jordan Rudess, can u play the organ @ my wedding ?

  • reminds me alot of wendy carlos

  • el revival de un gran teclado ................magistral

  • wow.. he is really an amazing musician... seems like a really cool guy too =)

  • one too many bad/good acid trips

  • I love this solo.

    kinda apocalyptic digital middle era thing going on.

  • Love the Mellotron Choir

  • Anyone know where i could get my hands on one of these badboys?

  • MELLOTRON IS NOT FOR SPEED EXERCISE

  • i can't believe this tiny little keyboard with a couple of hands playing it can produce so much emotion

  • LOL. i feel like i want to own a memotron, i want one now.

  • He can do anything with any electronic instrument! I wanna see Jordan scratch it up on turntables

  • I want one but I think they are over priced

  • I want one but they are over priced

  • This guy has the mind of an ol' school prog rock musician. And that is actually, very good. :)

  • I do not recognize this keyboard?

  • I can't figure out if I love all his stuff because he's Jordan Rudess or I love Jordan Rudess because this is his stuff.

    Ah screw it! Six of one, half dozen of the other I spose!

  • Goddamn, his improvisations are better than the pieces I'll take a month to write.

  • @trotskyfication because the mellotron is freakin huge and will break down a lot if its not in 100% condition, the memotron is an easy way of getting that sound without moving around too much gear

  • anybody know the name of the piece he's playing?

  • @fbbskinz07 I think it's just improvised.

  • @neilomac if it is, that is one hell of an improvisation. whew. sounds like something Bach would write.

  • @fbbskinz07

    sounded close to a few caprices by violinist niccolo paganini...

  • its like a real orchestra and choir playing!! great jordan rudess!!

  • wow I want one! I don't have room for a big Mellotron, so a little one would be perfect :p

  • pff

  • nice! Well flash

  • last seconds reminded me tea pot

  • this simply is not enough keys to satisfy him. see how many times he starts one of his patented runs up the keyboard and stops short? anyone who knows him knows that he wants to go much higher and lower. i highly doubt that he was very satisfied with this here.

  • I'd say he was satisfied enough, seeing as he's got one as part of his stage rig. :o)

  • @neilomac not these days. he just uses his korg oasys now

  • That must be a very recent development, as the Memotron was definitely there when they played Glasgow last month.

  • well i saw him in august in toronto and all he used was his korg oasys, and his zen rifter keytar thing (and a funky wizard hat). and i've never seen a live video from the recent tour where he had it, but i guess he uses it sometimes on some songs. whatever i don't really care. thats just what i thought.

  • Yeah, he used it at Glasgow. I think there's two different purposes for each of them.

  • @neilomac 4 months ago in mexico city he played the kord oasis and a touch pad like keyboard

  • @neilomac it just depends on the show.

  • Isn't the Oasys merely controlling his whole rig?

  • @thedonpetrucci

    he uses like a million keyboards in the studio, but when he goes live, the OASYS is the most powerful keyboard out there, and any sounds from other keyboards he needs he is able to put into his OASYS so that he only needs the one keyboard live. (and his zen rifter keytar...cuz its badass)

  • @thedonpetrucci He usually only has Oasys I believe. It's processor and sampling engine has the capacity to have all the sounds you need, or he needs. His old Kurzweil had 128Mb of samples, Oasys has 2Gb. So some 20 times more samples can be used in Oasys immediatly, and even more samples loaded onto the onboard hard disk..

  • @thedonpetrucci nope, it basically i think can store all the sounds he needs so he only uses that one, i mean, how could the oasys control the full rig? the only keyboards he uses live is the oasys, the keytar and chavesnieves missed that he also uses the continuum fingrboard. (i prefer using more, particularly with something like a moog which is very different from just putting a moog sound on an oasys but hey, his choice, i just personally prefer the wakeman technique

  • tu e i tuoi cazzo di virtuosismi.. abbiamo capito che hai tecnica pirla..

  • Si legge che sei geloso!

  • i think it sounds awesome, regardless of video quality. It shows the classic sound of the melotron

  • This comment deserves triple THUMBS DOWN!

    Oops, I think it just did... Well, too bad :P

  • He needs to get one to get rid of those cheap-sounding synth strings.

  • he uses the mellotron sparingly so they dont get accused of taking to much from the prog rock of the past.....

  • I guess you could say that but I'd consider that a false accusation. Anyway, when has he used a mellotron/memotron with DT? I only have a few albums.

  • He used it on 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulance and on the song "Repentance"....

  • Repentance is off Systematic Chaos.

  • sorry, my mistake, I was meaning to say that but the comment posted before I had time to notice fast enough....

  • i met him yesterday. pretty sweet

  • for a second near the end, i kinda hear snippets of adagio for strings

  • Comment removed

  • would be awesome to play on a highquality Korg, Kurzweil w/e synth

  • Humorous. The pitcher on that thing is awkward and not made for virtuous sorcery.

  • yes.

  • What's so incredible about this video? :|

    That thing isn't even doing a good sound :|

  • He is just demonstrating a new version of a 70's instrument called the mellotron. The old version of the instrument operated the following way: each key activated a magnetic tape with a particular sound, usually a string section sound recorded in the tape. That created that unique scratchy sound you hear. It is a vintage 70's instrument.

  • No no, what i meant is that Rudess isn't playing anything absurd, here is full of comments like "thats beyond the limits of magic" and i can't figure out what's so impressive of this video! There are a lot of terrific Rudess' video, but this one seems to me an ordinary video :|

    P.S. I apologize for my non-perfect english, but i suppose you'll understand anyway :)

  • I like what he is playing...I dont think this is an ordinary video, the fact is what he is playing whit that effect, sound very good to me, maybe here he´s not playing a billon notes per second, but its still good enough for me : )

  • well, if you're a true musician, you would realize how diverse his keys are, and his scales in this vid is really immense, no one WOULD EVER believe that he's playing entirely on improvisation.

  • yesh, you are completely right. I love when jordan gets in touch with his juliard training too!

  • theres just so many complicated things in his playing that it would take him way too long to memorize everything, i say that everything he does is off improv, including some dream theater recordings.

  • nope, you're completely wrong for that.. this IS an improvisation.. maybe you don't know who Rudess really is don't you? he often do crazy silly stuff after a tour.. in the back stage, he does many improvisation with his own lyrics.. and of course he has to play something the way it was recorded on studio, it's for consistency.. believe me, this is just one of Rudess' many many other improvs,.

  • that was essentially what i meant. But yea, the consistancy thing i believe. Im not a keyboardist in anyway, but its one of those things as an aspiring musician that you can tell whether somebody is improvising or not.

  • That's entirely true. Did you know that the continuum solo at the end of "The Dark Eternal Night" was improvised; but Dream Theater liked it and decided to keep it?

    Jordan is awesome. AWESOME.

  • that's crazy

  • not saying that its not great but it still may be somewhat prepared

  • yeah, somewhat.. maybe in 5 minutes of preparation,

  • No offence, but this whole video he's only playing in a C minor scale...

    Pretty good though!

  • @UnforgivingCritic ummmmmm, have you ever watched his improvs? I believe he is completely capable.

  • @UnforgivingCritic

    Toccata by Johann Sebastian Bach was a pure improvisation.

  • @UnforgivingCritic Well named! Of course the easiest criticism is based on extremes like "entirely", begging the question with phrases like "if you're a true musician" and assumptions about what no one would ever think.

    Having seen his other videos I would say he is improvising in the usual sense of the word. I am interested in links to any music that is *entirely" improvised. That would be like speaking without using words and phrases that others understand through convention. fdf gjkhk jky!

  • @JohnMalcolm one thing is true. You're a specifist. I created that word for somebody who talks to specific like you. Get over it, it's a waste of time. Just think about it.

  • @UnforgivingCritic you're underestimating him

  • @zeonflare i think you have a backward brain.

  • @UnforgivingCritic Your right....Its full with modulations and weird progressions with secondary dominants and whole lotta stuff like that wow

  • @UnforgivingCritic You're right. He improvises most of the time in these situations. This is absolutely made up on the spot.

  • wizard? thats beyond the limits of magic

  • Do you know why Jordan's laughing at the end of the video? Because he's like, "Hahahaha, your jaws look funny like that when they're falling. Hahahaha."

  • "Hey Jordan, We got a new keyboard we would like you to test! Its called the Memotron!"

    "Oh! Looks great!"

    And there comes the video

  • I think you missed a little part:

    Jordan then plays for an hour or so; while the keyboard makers are trying to prevent their jaws from hanging loose.

    And there comes the video.

  • auhauhhuauha thats right... Jordan Ruless! haha

  • Jordan Ruless!

  • oh jeez i think he IS a wizard, look at that beard

  • jordan does not cease to amaze me. he is incredible.

  • I know, right? That's what wizards do...

  • wizards?!?? HAHA that's just what i was looking for to sum it up... you have just made my day

  • well they do call him the wizard

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  • Get an M-tron, install it on your PC and plug in a midi keyboard. It will be even cheaper with exactly the same fine sonic result.

  • I can't emphasize enough how happy I am with my MEMOTRON. Look, I'd love to have a real Mellotron...but it is just not happening financially. The MEMOTRON is the next best thing...and I use it constantly. If this video doesn't convince you to get one, nothing will.

  • this is not a skill that you can get by just studying in an advanced musical school and finishing it.. it's achieved by IMMENSE amount of experience..

    and when i say the word "IMMENSE" in all caps,

    i really mean it..

  • id love to own one of these, and a virus ti snow, so i cud put it ontop with my blofeld, the white synth dream machine

  • loool jordan.. reallllly great ;D

  • nearly as good as the real thing....nearly.

  • Sounds much better than the typical keyboard orchestra sound we hear today.

    Are these available?

  • Yes and are great but cost a fortune.

  • Aww man, they do. I'd love to own one.. it's not happening any time soon.

  • lol, i knew it.. in they F major scale.

  • WTF is wrong with you. GTFO noob!

  • Jordan Rudess has been acclaimed as the best player to ever grace the instrument by many reputable musicians. and.. *cough cough* this FINE instrument comes EQUIPPED with a fucking pitch wheel. that's what it's designed for. jackass

  • i know plenty about musicians. i've studied music theory and music history for the past 8 years. i had a semester on jordan rudess. many composers and artists have proclaimed him as the best. apparently you don't know much about jordan rudess. it's difficult to say that there are people much better than he is...because there's really nothing he can't play

  • "I had a semester on jordan rudess"

    Does that mean you learned specifically about Jordan Rudess for an entire semester?

    Where did you go?

  • well, not it wasn't specifically about Jordan Rudess but it was about progressive rock and progressive jazz and he was one of the main focuses. I went to Case Western

  • yes he really is the best...

  • @paulyboy911 I think that's overstating it a bit. There is no doubt that he is talented, but I've heard instrumentalists from across different genres who are just as good musically.

  • That shit sounds really great!! xD

  • wow, This is so Godly performance.

  • and the scary part is that he's improvising

  • That was my first thought.

    This musical piece is absolutely advance for any civilian!!!!!!! this is kind of Saint-Sans or someone like that

  • and he is playing this on a barely 3 octave keyboard

  • Oh, if you find this instrument quite much expensive (as i do :p) try some VST emulator like M-Tron

  • Yes it's pretty good

    And he's amazing! I like this Memotron

    but the classic M400 is still the BEST you can play ;)

  • Cool, Academic!

  • i would really love to know what's on his mind when he did this... seriously...

  • genious

  • Theatrical Dream weirdness. He even boiled water to make Nescafe! c(_) I like that guy. Cheers.

  • I love the Mellotron sound, especially the choir sound. Very Wakeman-ish.

  • They're pretty pricey... But worth every bit, my synth wet dream...

  • how much are they anyway? i havent seen them online anywhere.

  • They're about £2000 I think, around that mark anyway, but they're cheaper in the states, but still by no means "cheap"!

  • xho cho xcho want,want.

  • where do you buy those

  • i only have 1 keyboard in my house and he has like 80 :(

  • Most of them being classic synth's

  • Don't think it's a composition, I think it's "just" an improve

  • by composition I mean the intervals, modulations, modes and that stuff... impro or not this is genious, perfect and heavenly

  • DO WANT

  • Let me tell you something. As a musician I've never heared a cmposition like this... this is just unhuman. What is that!!!!!???????? did jordan write that?

  • it's an improvisation..

  • Just awesome !!

  • What the hell is that? is sounds great but what is a memotron

  • google is your friend.

  • It's even written in the clip description, can you read?

    Here's a vid of Dream Theater's keyboard player playing the Memotron, a digitally-modeled Mellotron. Looks and feels like the real thing, but smaller, and less prone to tape wierdness.

  • THAT, my friend, is a memotron.

  • Did Tony Banks use this during the selling england/lamb period?

  • he used the mellotron, what this was modeled after

  • nice sound !

  • I love the Operatic sounds of that thing!

  • umm im not a keyboard player someone tell me what is different in this from a keyboard?

  • It's basically a digital version of a mellotron. The Mellotron was a mechanical keyboard that orignated in the 60's that used audio tapes to make sound.

  • He doesn't use it on live shows. He is just demonstrating the product...

    Relax!

  • Are you sure? I'm sure I saw one attached to the side of his Oasys when I saw DT

  • He does use on on live shows now, actually.

  • i dont see the point of rudess using that memoshit, you can cleary see that he needs more octaves to play the way he likes! and a unique sound?? come on, his oasys can saple anything! ooh... but for a sponsor of 30 000 who wouldnt pretend that memotron is cool

  • I tend to agree with you on this, even with Octave switching (wich does thsi have?) he has much better equipment, he could use the oasys to sample the origonal Mellotron

  • True that he needs more octaves, but being the piano god that he is, he can clearly make due with anything that's given to him.

  • The mellotron was designed to be only a few octaves in size. He could sample the mellotron sounds into the Oasys, but it still wouldn't necessarily give hin 'more octaves'.

  • seriously what instrument doesnt he play?

    id like to hear him use some of this, continuum, etc. more on his solo projects