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Why was the Seinfeld theme played on a keyboard?
- Thread starter d8g3jdh
- Start date
Not sure, but I'm still surprised by how many people think that it was played on a bass and the thought of it being played on a keyboard never occured to them.
Maybe cuz the guy who wrote and played it (Jonathan Wolff) is a keyboard player...
If les was in charge of the seinfeld theme it probably would have sounded more like the robot chicken theme...Scott Zoltok said:
anyways, if the guy who did it wanted the sound that he had on his keyboard, whats the problem? just be glad people can identify that as a bass...
TV scores have been almost exclusively MIDI for a good 20 years now. It's fast, cheap, and composers can do it at home, rather than having to rent out a studio ($$$) and hire session musicians.
The husband of one of my fellow PhD students is a TV and film composer. He does everything on MIDI out of their living room. She often jokes that he made more on 60 seconds of music last year than she did working 40-hour weeks as the assistant director of one of USC's research institutes.
The husband of one of my fellow PhD students is a TV and film composer. He does everything on MIDI out of their living room. She often jokes that he made more on 60 seconds of music last year than she did working 40-hour weeks as the assistant director of one of USC's research institutes.
I know this post is way old but simply, composer Jonathan Wolff is a keyboardist. All the non bass, popping breath noises that happen around Jerry's standup scenes are all Wolff's voices.
Maybe because with MIDI and a keyboard you can write and play back parts that would be physically impossible to play on a bass?
What's the deal with the keyboard player??!!!
Economics.
All these years everybody thought it was a bass......but it was a keyboard.
Happens all the time in Hollywood, commercials and any other situation where you can get a person to compose and play something without having to hire a boatload of musicians.
Some of these keyboards, you can make an entire C.D. from start to polished finished end without leaving your house.
And a great majority of the people listening to the C.D. couldn't tell if it was real instruments or not.
All these years everybody thought it was a bass......but it was a keyboard.
Happens all the time in Hollywood, commercials and any other situation where you can get a person to compose and play something without having to hire a boatload of musicians.
Some of these keyboards, you can make an entire C.D. from start to polished finished end without leaving your house.
And a great majority of the people listening to the C.D. couldn't tell if it was real instruments or not.
DiabolusInMusic
Functionless Art is Merely Tolerated Vandalism
Real bass guitar has made a big comeback since then, you no longer see any synth bass in popular music or films.
bigfatbass
Inactive
- Jun 30, 2003
- 2,420
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- Endorsing Artist: Karl Hoyt Basses
It never occurred to me that it was a bass, either. People always ask Graham Mabe (Joe Jackson's bass player) how he came up with that slick octave bassline on "Stepping Out". His answer is "I learned to program one of these" and points at his synth module. Same for Tina Weymouth on Speaking in Tongues/Stop Making Sense. Use what does the job you need it to do. The line and groove on "Girlfriend" is still freaking deadly, so what if it's a synth?
Funny, on my ride in to work today a live version of "Steppin' Out" (2.21.83) came up in the shuffle, and no doubt he's picking the octaves on his bass on that version.
Joebar:- I don't know if your statement "It was the early 90's" means that keyboard equipment that emulated various instruments were not available.
They most certainly were.
Even at the consumer level, in the 80's, the KN 7000 and 8000 Technics boards, an entire album could be made on them. With lots of instrument choices.
Professionally, there was much better equipment available.
You could emulate just about anything back then.
They most certainly were.
Even at the consumer level, in the 80's, the KN 7000 and 8000 Technics boards, an entire album could be made on them. With lots of instrument choices.
Professionally, there was much better equipment available.
You could emulate just about anything back then.
Lots of 80's and even 90's movie soundtracks sound like they were done by one guy with a synth.
I've even fooled around on a synth, playing random chords and then some single note lines and joked it was better than some scores to movies I'd seen.
