Christine's keyboard equiptment--Tango in the Night Album & Tour through The Dance
 

Hi all, first time post here.

I was wondering if by any chance that anyone knew what Christine used to record with on Tango in the Night as a keyboard.

From watching the Tango tour DVD and The Dance DVD, it is quite obvious that she was playing a Yamaha KX88 Midi Controller board.

However, this keyboard has no internal sounds, so she had it running through another keyboard or MIDI module.

Any ideas at all of what she was using?

The stuff from The Dance sounded pretty damn good, so I'm assuming that she updated whatever synth module she was using. (I don't know why she played the grand instead of the KX88, since it sounded just as good.)

I plan on recording some covers of Tango stuff, and any help would be much appreciated ;).

I assume that one of the instruments she used was the DX-7; she's got one in the Big Love video, & it seems there would have been no sense in setting her up behind one just for show -- they're small & plastic & not that impressive-looking. So I betcha she was drawing patches from the DX-7 for the album. It was still a very popular recording synthesizer in 1986, when Tango was recorded.
Dan Garfield, who was the keyboard tech (& backup player) on the two Fleetwood Mac tours with Vito & Burnette during those years, sold his Roland MKS-20 module on eBay about five years ago. I saw the auction online because the description said something like "used on Fleetwood Mac's world tour in 1987-88," so I e-mailed the seller, assuming it was Dan.
Brett Tuggle says that in 1997, Christine had an EMU Emulator 4 Turbo & various other modules in her racks, many of which she actually never used for the set.
Good luck on that tall order. Keep in mind that much of what sounds like keyboard on that album (& the previous Mac studio album) is actually guitar. Also, it's my guess that producer/arranger Buckingham was still using the Fairlight on Tango for complex special effects & voicings.

David, just out of curiosity, do you remember how much it sold for?
Or did you buy it?

OK, I've wondered about this. I always love to listen to Christine's keyboards on Fleetwood Mac albums. It's very easy from Future Games through Rumours & Chris & Stevie's songs on Tusk. But, it's gets harder on Mirage & almost impossible on Tango. Does anyone know if her keyboards are on Tango at all?

The MKS-20 is the rack mount version of the RD-1000 digital piano: 8 presets - three pianos, two electric pianos, clavi, vibraphone, harpsichord. I would guess it was Chris' main source of piano sounds.

While she may have been using a DX-7, I'd be inclined to suspect she used the rack version, just to reduce stage clutter.

That would be quite convenient, as I have the TX7, which is the DX7 rack version.

Finding patches for it that she would have used is another story all together. Specifically I want to work on Everywhere and Little Lies, two songs that are quite synthy.
Here is what I'm hearing:

Everywhere:

Far left - Verse / Synth strings
Center - Intro / digital EP doing triplets down
Left - Intro / digital EP (similar) doing triplets up
Right - Various Pads
Far right - Synth String part

Also, at the end, I'm pretty damn sure that the things on the end "Bum bum bum" etc are synth.

What I'm most concerned with is finding a good DX7 sound that grabs that texture, if I can't find the acutal thing (which would be cool).

In the Tango DVD it sounds like it may have been programmed because it's out of sync with the band.

I thought the Dance might be the same, but if not, Brett is doing a pretty good job playing it. (He often doesn't play her parts accurately enough for my tastes... I could do a better job.)

Little Lies:

This song is much more tricky because I do know that Lindsey's doing synth guitar stuff.

Left & Center: Pads on the intro
Left: Verse Low Vibe/Bell like tone
Right: DX Rhodes

On the chorus, there's a lot on stuff going on, and I haven't determined exactly yet what everything is. In the Tango DVD, I don't think she's actually playing most of what's being heard. I don't know if it's programmed or her keyboard tech is playing with her, but from what I can see it looks like she's just playing the pad that's low in the mix.

...and you wonder why we (Fleetfoot Mike) stick to 75-82 :) Our Christine only has two hands :)

It's also why I'm less keen on Tango and later tours: prior to that, the Mac were a good, honest, live act: the band on stage (with the rare and forgiveable exception of Ray Lindsey on acoustic on Gypsy/GYOW/SHN and Chris's tech on synth on Tusk) were the band, not the band plus session musicians.

Nope, I wasn't the buyer. I don't remember what it went for, but I think you can pick up those boxes pretty cheaply these days -- they're mostly superseded, despite how good they may still sound.

For some shows my own group did several years ago, I had to get very creative because they wanted to play Little Lies, Everywhere & even Save Me & I'm as synthphobic as Christine is. For Everywhere, I played a xylophoney-baloney bell on the Korg X-5 with the right hand (extremely rapid ascending & descending A-B-C#-E-C#-B-A repeat ad infinitum) & a string synth pad on my old VK-7 with the left hand (AMaj7 [no 3] - A6 - A5 - A6 repeat), then just kicked in with the E - B7 - E - B - E - B7 - C#m - A2 on the string pad for the verses. I just don't find that sort of stuff fun -- & I don't like "triggering." For Little Lies, I played string synth with the left hand (the X5 isn't big enough to split for this sort of stuff) & a DX-7 power Rhodes sort of thing with a phat phased effect on it.

Of course, trying to re-create all this stuff in a studio environment would be a whole different kettle of fish, & a lot more fun because the pressure of simultaneous performance is completely absent.

As if I don't like the 75-82 stuff?

I actually like that stuff better, but I know what she played then!

Grand Piano
Upright Console with metal bar for honkey tonk effect
Fender Rhodes
Hohner Pianet
Hohner Clavinet
Hammond B3
Vox Continental

That about does it for Chris in those years. It's much easier to cover her stuff from that period. I just had no clue what she was playing in the Tango stuff.

Interesting:

*I* do the bell bit on Everywhere, for us - Asus2 chord, repeat echo, fingerpick rolling arpeggios.

The Vox Continental's only on the studio Over My Head, and the Rhodes only on the piano solo on Landslide.

You also missed the Yamaha CP-30 (replaced the Combo Pianet from Tusk on), an Oberheim synth (played by her roadie on Tusk), an accordion (on Tusk) and possibly an ARP synth.... David? where did we get to on deciding whether that put in an appearance on Sunny Side Of Heaven?

Yes, I too have read the Contemporary Keyboard article. :P

I realize the Vox was used in studio for Over My Head, but she also used it on Don't Stop.

I've never heard Landslide with any piano at all.

Christine used the Rhodes quite often in the studio in the 70s, on Rhiannon, Dreams, You Make Lovin' Fun, and even on Mirage she plays it on Hold Me. (If you listen, she is playing it on a different track at the same time as the tack piano)

Live, she used the Hohner Pianet quite often.

..but not live :)
Every live version between 75 and 97 :)
Must listen for that one.
75-78 (David? was she using it on the 78 leg of the Rumours tour?)

She must have, since she said she did. We've got film footage (Rosebud & Landover & so on) & lots of photos (like the Carbondale '75 photos Torri has) of the ARP sitting there atop the Hohner. It's just that I've never heard a live performance of Sunny Side with it -- even the '77 tour rehearsals just use the B3.

I have some audience-shot film footage of the Bill Graham outdoor festival in Oakland from both 1976 (April) & 1977 (May). You can see the ARP in the former but it's gone by the time of the latter. The pic in the Rumours insert from the rear of the stage showing Lindsey's back & Stevie's side & Christine's white Hamilton off to the right is from that Oakland 1976 gig, & you can just barely make out a small part of the ARP on the right side of the pic. The pic next to that one of Christine with her eyes closed, singing, shows the ARP clearly. You can see the words "String Ensemble" on the black metallic label.

Yeppers. That was the last time (that summer) that she ever played one live. As far as I can tell, her '78 setup was exactly the same as her '77 setup. When it came time to do the '78 tour, I assume that she hadn't yet started using the Yamaha electronic in the studio, even though they had already started recording Tusk.

Weirdly enough, after Stevie joined the band, Chris never used the Hohner to record, although MacDougall once told me that she used it to record some stuff on earlier FM albums. But I don't know what.

I'm listening to Landslide from Fleetwood Mac Live right now. I do hear this Rhodes solo you speak of. I guess I never listened to this before. But Lindsey performs the entire song in the studio version as well as The Dance and later.

Now's your chance to ask Christine herself over at http://www.christinemcvie.com/...

Hey, another Rhode Island-ite.

Yes, I sent her an email through the Q&A. Maybe she'll answer it!

It's my wife's favourite piece of Chris' playing. The Rhodes tone just fits so perfectly.