Jan Hammer BBC Rock School Series 2 1987

[JAHZILLABEATS]

So FRESH.. sounds like the guitar synth played on the theme music to Miami Vice.

[ronnied1]

Hi I have a question! Does this keyboard works with macbook laptop as well?

[jorbv8]

this song is on an album he did with jeff beck & its awesome. i think jan hammer plays drums on this track of the album plus a couple more & simon phillips drums the rest. 3 virtuosos on 1 album......too good!

[NarcissistsDie]

"It sounds like a guitar but something tells you a guitar couldn't do that."

Yes, that's because it sounds like a fucking lame strapped on synthesizer Jan.

Oh, how 24 years can make a difference. Or not. :-p

[applejacksss]

Yawn Hammer more like it. Don't get me wrong, In the 70's with di meola, abercrombie, Mahavishnu and even some of his solo work is still absolutely amazing.

[TheSongsparrow]

What's he really using? We really want to know, not just a generalation! What's the real entire chain?

[TWMusicBerlin]

@TheSongsparrow he used the dx7 and the fairlight alot! almost every song on the mv soundtrack is made with a dx7 and the linn drumachine.

[Polysixchick]

wouldn't it be cool to jam out with him to the Miami Vice Theme!

[chillichomper]

Starcycle yeah!

[MuzikLuvaa]

Jan Hammer!! his music is stellar! especially in The Mind's Eye and Beyond the Mind's Eye. i cant believe he's using a kx5...i want one even more than i did before seeing this video.

[TheHarecat]

Shouldn't all that gear be back in Curry's window?...Serious though. Big respect to the Hammer man.

[stillphil]

Dude is inspiring ... always.

[JohnJamesMaloney]

Its so cool to hear a keyboard player able to hold his own with the best of the six stringers - The songs Star Cycle off Jeff Beck's There and Back album - it awesome!

[ybot1983]

Jan Hammer is edam

[realeoin]

was that mark lamarr at the start ? what a gaylord

[Synthasy2000]

@realeoin

Nooooo, that's Alastair Gavin, the keyboard player for Rock School 2. I'll let him know what you said :-P

BTW it was 1987 when this was done. Everybody looked like that in Thatcher's 80s Britain

[katakisLives]

Jan Hammer is God!

[gibrandogg]

JAN HAMMER IS THE SHIT!!!!

come to NYC more often

[dvamateur]

This is a strange pitch bender on the KX5. Most KX5's I came across have ptich bend ribbon, not a wheel. Or is that the MPEG-4 compression is so tight or my eyes so bad that I can't see well?

[GJmusique]

he had it modded.

[Spugester26]

Jan Hammer is a groundbreaking artist and a pioneer for rest of us!

[themachman19691]

this is great!

[queggy1]

Jan Hammer is definitely one the elite keyboard players of all time.

[Sundownerr]

JAn HAmmer rocks

[guitormentor]

Jeff Beck normally plays guitar on this song. Cool.

[Don94Pele]

what's the song called?

[guitormentor]

"Star Cycle" is the song. From the Jeff Beck "There and Back" album. I saw that tour in 1980, I believe.

[Flippywarrior]

my god what happenend to jam hammer. he use to be cool. now he uses a keyboard to sound like a guitar. what a jip

[queggy1]

Since the early 80s he's been using keyboards to create guitar-like sounds. So this shouldn't be a shock to you.

[hedkandi73]

Anyone know what this song is called?? Its AMAZING!! I remember watching this when it first aired - 1987!! wow! so long ago...

Thanks for posting this!

So..what's the song called??

[Drivethebeat]

Forget about that. How did he modify the location of the pitch bend wheel? That is a great.

[Don94Pele]

i wonder how much a keyboard like that costs.

[WeakEndProductions]

I believe that's a Yamaha KX5. They were made from 1983 to 1986. It's a midi controller, no onboard sounds. Ebay $200 -$500.

[PancakePyjamas]

its umm intresting

[multipacmusic]

Also, as far as i know, there is not a single software distortion plugin that can match the Rockman Distortion unit! Neither is there a software flanger as good as the MXR Flanger.

Absolutely none! Trust me!

[multipacmusic]

For anyone who wants to know, you can find exact cover versions of Jan's miami vice music on jan hammer net by rick leon and dadrian wilson. they use the same MXR Flanger and rockman distortion unit to replicate Jan's sound in this clip and other Vice music.

[multipacmusic]

also, for the Miami Vice main theme, he does the same technique. He used a Memorymoog synth run though a rockman distortion unit to get that awesome guitar sound for the Miami Vice main theme. And he basically used a variety of different synth patches run through the Rockman unit for those guitar sounds. He also used just an MXR Flanger on the dx7 patch without any distortion. You can hear plenty of sounds in various miami vice clips.

[DonJuanDeMarco2]

Got any more effect tips used by other artists !?

[multipacmusic]

for this clip, he is actually playing a preset yamaha dx7 patch called "jazz guitar", being run through a vintage 70s MXR Flanger, then run through a "Rockman" distortion unit. There is absolute no software plugin than can emulate the Rockman distortion unit which gives that unique "guitar like" distortion. Of course, he is the master of pitch bend too!

[brajtnerinjo]

What is that synth he is using?

[Synthasy2000]

I don't think he's ever said. I belive it might be a Yamaha DX-7 going through distortion pedals and/or guitar amps.

Sound On Sound interview from September 2004 has this:

[Synthasy2000]

Most musicians associate the name Jan Hammer with the almost guitar-like synth tone that was used to great advantage on the Miami Vice theme music and underscores. Evidently much of this is down to controlling the pitch of the instrument using its pitch-bend wheel, but I wondered if there were any other special techniques or equipment involved. For example, was it necessary to play the synth through a guitar amplifier?

[Synthasy2000]

"I did all kinds of things, including playing the synth through a distorted guitar amplifier, but now all that can be done in software using things like Line 6's Amp Farm in Pro Tools so I don't use a guitar amplifier any more. Whatever I use, I'm going for the same end result — an exciting rock & roll-like sound.

[Synthasy2000]

It really started in the Mahavishnu Orchestra when I was looking for something to cut through that incredibly busy sound that we were creating. I had to have a sound that would project, so I used guitar amps and that's when the sound got really exciting."

[Synthasy2000]

The device he is actually using to drive the synth module is a Yamaha KX-5 remote keyboard.

[GoodNewsFromStars]

@brajtnerinjo,

Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument - Australia) wich is a digital sampling synthesizer designed in 1979 by the founders of Fairlight, Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie.

Fisrt generation of digital instruments !!.. this fabulous stuff was heavily expensive in mid 80's and nowdays you can probably get same results with a standard PC (:>)

(It's driven by remote keyboard as you can see).

[thierry1976]

@GoodNewsFromStars

heavily expensive:100 000 USDOllards!!!!!!!! FOR ENTRY LEVEL..........ouch..

[GoodNewsFromStars]

@thierry1976

Ya - 100000US $ in mid 80's - this price could probably be multiplied by 2 or more today (i'm not economist) - in Europe we were dealing with end of economic crisis.

Anyway, Jan Hammer on this video absolutely don't play on keyboard what you hear (:>) - this guy was a showman but maybe not a true keyboardist (inspecting its fingers technicality).

cheers.

[brajtnerinjo]

Can you say cheese

[fisken1971]

i think hammer does it as hammer should do.

[folkyphill]

he uses an anologue lead tone, mixed in with some distortion and mabey a guitar/feedback effect.

[tarminat]

Song!!!!!????? :D

[HuntersMoon73]

It's a Jeff Beck song called "Star Cycle" - it's on the Wired album. You must hear the original, Jeff's guitar is insanely brilliant.

[Oneness100]

Star Cycle was from the Jeff Beck There and Back album.  Blue Wind was from Wired.

[Oneness100]

I think one of the finest synth solos ever done was No Fear by Jan on the Like Children album which was also on The Early Years. Jan has so much great work he has done over the years, both on keyboards and drums. I think he is underrated as a drummer as well. Jan is the cream of the crop.

[eurocabi]

yep, a rep from the BBC came to our school, a group of us were chosen to go down to the studio, (in Hammersmith i think) not sure on the location, it was a long time ago,lol. They had a band in the studio who went through the basics of how to play, then they would show a few vids of famous musicians talking you through how they played. The last in the series was a question and answer show, i actually got to be on TV for that one, would love to see that again.

[eurocabi]

lol, man i was picked to be the audience for the taping of this show at the bbc, wow that was years ago

[Synthasy2000]

I didn't think there WAS an audience for this show....???

Are you sure about this?

[InvisibleMud]

Nostalgia attack!

Fantastic.

[scandapoodle]

Hammer is great.

[LF0]

fucking wicked