Jerome’s workhorse up until this spring tour had been his trusty Korg TRITON Classic along with a KP2 KAOSS Pad and microKORG. He’ll be rolling on this leg of the tour with the new Korg TR. “There are a couple thing
s that Korg does thaerome’s workhorse up until this spring tour had been his trusty Korg TRITON Classic along with a KP2 KAOSS Pad and microKORG. He’ll be rolling on this leg of the tour with the new Korg TR. “There are a couple things that Korg does that no other keyboard companies do,” Jerome shares. “There is this feature called RPPR (Realtime Pattern Play/Recording) that no other keyboard manufacturers can emulate. And because Switchfoot is a live band, we have to trigger everything live. That function is the one thing that I value most about my Korg gear. The new TR has it, and when I was using the TRITON Classic, it had it as well. I love it.”
How about the sounds? “Well the thing about me, ‘cause I’m old school, is I make all my own sounds. With Korg, all of the factory sounds that come with the workstations are great, but I like to manipulate the sounds to make them my own. I made a few cool pads on the TR, you know, you start with the sine wave and manipulate it. Some of the Korg effects are really cool, too, so I like to put some of them in the mix. And I like what Korg has done with their pad beds.
“I remember the T3 when it came out years ago,” continues an excited Jerome. “I was drooling over it at the music store for months thinking, ‘I have to have that keyboard because it has a sequencer built-in.’ It had the technology, the layered sounds…back then that was big!”
Getting back to his love of tweaking and genuine affinity for knobs, Jerome shares a little more insight. “Well, I grew up in an analog world, so everything I know and learned about keyboards had to do with tweaking knobs, filters and oscillators. When I saw the new Korg RADIAS it really got my juices flowing. The possibilities are endless. Obviously my sound has a lot more analog in it than your classic ‘rock’ sound, so I don’t normally use a preset sound like a piano. I have to tweak. It’s just what I do. I do use an analog keyboard live, and I’m thinking the RADIAS has a lot of versatility. I could see myself using it live. It’s polyphonic, which is a big thing for me, and the vocoder is something I’ve wanted to get into.”t no other keyboard companies do,” Jerome shares. “There is this feature called RPPR (Realtime Pattern Play/Recording) that no other keyboard manufacturers can emulate. And because Switchfoot is a live band, we have to trigger everything live. That function is the one thing that I value most about my Korg gear. The new TR has it, and when I was using the TRITON Classic, it had it as well. I love it.”
How about the sounds? “Well the thing about me, ‘cause I’m old school, is I make all my own sounds. With Korg, all of the factory sounds that come with the workstations are great, but I like to manipulate the sounds to make them my own. I made a few cool pads on the TR, you know, you start with the sine wave and manipulate it. Some of the Korg effects are really cool, too, so I like to put some of them in the mix. And I like what Korg has done with their pad beds.
“I remember the T3 when it came out years ago,” continues an excited Jerome. “I was drooling over it at the music store for months thinking, ‘I have to have that keyboard because it has a sequencer built-in.’ It had the technology, the layered sounds…back then that was big!”
Getting back to his love of tweaking and genuine affinity for knobs, Jerome shares a little more insight. “Well, I grew up in an analog world, so everything I know and learned about keyboards had to do with tweaking knobs, filters and oscillators. When I saw the new Korg RADIAS it really got my juices flowing. The possibilities are endless. Obviously my sound has a lot more analog in it than your classic ‘rock’ sound, so I don’t normally use a preset sound like a piano. I have to tweak. It’s just what I do. I do use an analog keyboard live, and I’m thinking the RADIAS has a lot of versatility. I could see myself using it live. It’s polyphonic, which is a big thing for me, and the vocoder is something I’ve wanted to get into.”
See Jerome live at the Cuneta Astrodome. Sept 10,2007 when he plays with Switchfoot
