On Winter Jam Tour With Apollo LTD

A couple weeks ago I got called to do some fill-in work with one of my favorite bands, Apollo LTD. they are doing a four day run with the winter jam tour, as an opening act, and their normal guy couldn’t make it.

A week later we were bumping along in a rain storm down to Georgia to get on a bus and do the run.

Everything was bizarre with Covid, trying to keep your distance, stay safe, and at the same time play to massive distanced crowds every night in arenas. Very strange.

The shows themselves went fantastic. Adam and Jordan from the group killed it every single night, bringing the audience to their feet. The music is infectious and fun, full of energy.

For those keyboard nerds who follow the blog, I had to bring something that would quickly set up and tear down every night and be robust enough to endure a few knocks. Here’s my gear list:

• Nord Stage 3 HP76

• Gator Stand

• Midiman Line Mixer (for summing monitors and keys and making on the fly tweaks)

• Nord sustain pedal

• Yamaha expression pedal

• Radial Pro Stereo DI

Huge thank you to everybody at winter jam who killed it every night, and making us feel welcome.

My Top 5 VST Plugins

There are a ton of amazing plugins out there for making music, and I thought you’d get a kick out of hearing about some of my favorites. Here are 5 of my favorite plugins that have me excited right now: 

1. Wave Audio’s Electric 88

Wave surprised me with this little $39.99 electric piano recreation when they released it last year, and it’s quickly become my favorite electric piano sample plugin. The samples feel old and vibey (in the best way possible), and the FX are spot on. 

2. LASS Strings Library

These guys are beasts when it comes to strings, and I find myself using the samples on sessions constantly. These samples have so much presence in a mix, it’s hard to go to anything else once you’ve heard them. If you can’t afford the full version, check out the “lite” version.

3. Native Instrument’s Kontour Synth

This is a little known plugin that I’ve grown to really enjoy playing. It offers lots of modern FM-style synthesis sounds, and has some interesting hands on control. While limited, I find it to be really inspiring in the studio when I need to get a certain kind of sound. 

4. Output’s Reverse 

I keep coming back to this beast of a plugin because of the amazing textures it’s possible to get out of the strange reversed sounds. Drop a reverb plugin on this bad boy, and you’re headed direct to ambient city. 

5. TAL’s U-No LX Synth

In my opinion this is the best recreation of a classic Juno 106 synth currently on the market, and I use it anytime I need that cutting pure sound that made the original synth famous. If you can’t afford the full version, grab the free chorus plugin- it gives a lot of the same vibes as the original when you put it on any sound source.