Crew: Robert Dorion

Our first stop is in the Wizard’s World and Jordan’s keyboard tech Robert Dorion shows us around.

The Haken Continuum is a MIDI controller fingerboard where you can use all ten fingers independently to create different sounds with expression – moving his fingers front and back adds a feedback sound to Jordan’s guitar setting, back and forth is for pitch, and pressure is for volume. The Korg Oasys is Jordan’s main keyboard and 95% of what you hear on stage comes from it. It’s loaded with samples, sound effects, voice samples, and backing vocals parts that are not being sung live on stage. The Manikin Electronic Memotron and the Korg Radius used on the Chaos in Motion tour are both gone from Jordan’s stand this tour, to keep a cleaner look on stage. So these instruments were also sampled into the Oasys.

There is a list of the sounds used on any given night, which are all in sequence, and once loaded into the internal memory of the Oasys, Jordan can access them through a control panel and pedals. Where a keyboard typically has one set of pedals, Jordan has three sets of pedals so he can rotate his stand, and then from any set of pedals, toggle through the sounds incrementally.

There are anything between 200 and 300 patches in a 90-minute set, depending on the songs and their complexity, although some songs can have as few as ten . Each one of these is a combination patch of up to 16 different programs – it could be a layer or a sample or it could be an external MIDI control that travels down a rotating stand into a custom box. A MIDI cable goes into the Continuum, and this is sent configuration data from the Oasys, and then in turn, the note data from the Continuum comes out to control a Roland V-SynthXT rack.

Describing what’s in the rack, there is a mixing board that controls the mix for the Oasys main stereo channels and Jordan’s Apple iPod Touch. He uses an application called Bebot which has some great sounds on it and he plays that throughout the performance. So, it’s just those two sources being mixed to one stereo output. One of four sets of stereo outputs from Jordan’s keyboard riser.

These other signals include a separate stereo pair of just samples from the Oasys, and then there’s the two V-Synths. One is controlled by the keyboard and the Continuum, and a second V-Synth is used for the Zen Riffer, which is made by a man named Charles Tentindo, who has made a couple for Jordan. The Zen Riffer is a short keyboard, with pitch and mod wheels, as well as ‘octave up’ and ‘octave down’ buttons to provide the full range of a MIDI keyboard. The Zen Riffer is fully MIDI wireless and uses a MIDI-Jet pro system with a transmitter inside the Riffer.

Left over from the last tour, the Korg Radius is still being transported in the rack. It does have pretty lights and previously it was situated facing the audience, as it looked kind of cool. On this tour, it has not yet made it out of the rack, but Jordan might find a use for it as the tour progresses.

Another piece of rack equipment that is not currently being used is the TC Electronic Reverb. It is nice to have if Jordan wants to use something for monitoring, but so far there hasn’t been a reason to use it.

There is an APC Smart UPS power back-up so if the power goes out on stage, which sometimes happens, the samples that are in the Oasys aren’t lost; it’s a time-saver.

Robert says that he’s currently chasing down a new Haken Continuum, which they traded in an older model for. The new one has built-in sounds and more features, is more robust and has a better touchpad. It doesn’t behave exactly the same as the previous one. He says “We have had one challenge, which is finding out what is causing the Continuum to have some MIDI notes stuck on, so we have been looking at the data coming from the Oasys.”

“This is a good exercise when cleaning up the programs as these are basically the show. There have been times in show conditions when notes have stuck on. You never know when that’s going to happen, or what conditions cause it, so looking at the programming minimises the risk. In any given combination patch there is so much going on that by checking data, a problem can be tracked back and sorted.”

This tour, Jordan has a new friend ‘Mr Wizard’ on the screen behind him. During the show, an animated Jordan is in his Kingdom – or his Wizdom. The wizard is a MIDI-controlled avatar of JR, and every time he hits a note, the Wizard plays along and even changes facial expression. There are a couple of different scenes for him to use, and then the screen fades to black when he stops playing.

Another app called MIDI Live is more of an abstract graphics program, reminiscent of Guitar Hero, with streamers and splashes representing what Jordan is playing. Johnny Dekam, who runs the big video show and takes feeds from what Jordan is doing on the keyboards and blends them with other images.

Jordan uses the MusicPad Pro with pedals to switch pages of music, and the keyboard stand is custom made by Patrick Slaats in Holland.

Behind the keyboard area, there is a black cloth, as well as a black wrap around the centre of the keyboard stand, both to give the impression that the stand is broken and the keyboard is floating in mid-air. Given DT’s light show, it isn’t possible to completely block it out, but it looks great in dim light especially with all the gadgets and the wizard on the screen.

The heavy steel base for the keyboards has been the bane of all the local crew guys. All around the base is a nice comfy mat that matches the rest of the stand, which they bought from the gym department in Sears!

Hi, I’m Robert Dorion, I’m the keyboard tech on tour with DT; I’m in charge of JR’s keyboard equipment.

Robert’s Top Tech Tip:

Always change the batteries in the Zen Riffer because you don’t want to lose your livelihood to a couple of AA batteries!

On Buying The Gym Mat:

As I’m looking out for my boy Jordan, I don’t want him to trip or get hurt as it is dark on stage and it can be a scary place!

The Drawbacks Of Being Jordan’s Tech:

Rather than me, and what I consider the drawbacks, the local stage hands are probably happier that we’re not dragging the Modular Synth around on this tour. I love that stuff, personally, as synthesizers have been in my life and I’ve got a lot of history with them, so I’m really at home here with Jordan. I don’t mind that the modular synth is not here, but I was actually going to suggest we get a JPEG of it and bring it up on the video monitor. If anything, I’m probably more happy this tour that I’ve been able to talk him out using that lap steel guitar, because, well, I’m a keyboard tech!

Robert’s Memorable Moment From This Tour:

At the LA show this year on the Prog Nation tour, the crew had arranged a gag where we dressed up like Star Wars characters. We had sound effects, voiceovers, music, lightsaber battles, stormtroopers, and we just came out and did it and they didn’t expect a thing. It was pretty funny when we pulled it off; that was pretty memorable.