Christian Flake Lorenz Equipment

Quite correct mate! The ASR-10 is one of the main tools he uses, given the usage of strings/”choirs” and samples in Rammstein’s music. Unfortunately we never seem to see any of his synthesizers in the studio, most probably because he’s got all the real work done, and sampled into the ASR. SO in the studio, he only has to work out exactly what he’s playing, and pick/refine sounds. Some from his undoubtedly massive sample library! You can also see him playing (a very basic, possibly very early version of) the intro to Donnaukinder on his legendary ASR.

One synth for sure is a Moog (Moog Prodigy was shown in the Pussy video). Obviously a video means nothing, he wasn’t playing it, but you can very clearly hear the synth riff for Pussy is a simple Moog patch processed slightly (ASR-10 anyone? :D). Had a little play with a Prodigy a few months ago, I’m almost certain it’s what he used. That or a software simulation, those are pretty damn impressive these days. I’ve also heard the JP-8000/8080 mentioned, along with one of the Nord synths.

Hah, I’m sure Flake would be suitably horrified to find people taking his gear so seriously!

I am sorry. He uses ASR-10 !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mowg-enYzYQ

This issue has been aleady discussed.
The keyboards are Ensoniq ASR-10 and Roland VR-760.
See the messages above!

Did you read all the comments man? I’ve had quite an in depth discussion with Igor about his keyboards. He’s using his Ensoniq ASR-10 (spray-painted!) and a Roland VR-760. The ASR-10 isn’t used as a MIDI controller (well, not JUST as a MIDI controller at least), I think the Roland organ thing is though. I’d even go as far as to say he might have the Roland there (hooked up to a rack sampler) PURELY because he knows the ASR-10 is an old and slightly quirky keyboard, and doesn’t want to be out of action if it fails. As I said before, I think he feels he needs to use the ASR-10 because of certain songs. Plus it looks cool having two keyboards!

That said, it’s worth mentioning that most of the keyboards he uses live are only MIDI controllers, they make no sound and just control a rack mounted sampler with all Flake’s synth/samples in.

Studio wise, Flake uses loads of different synthesizers, on their own or sometimes sampled into his Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler. Or even made in the sampler from simple waveforms. He uses software synthesizers too. Massive and Absynth by Native Instruments for sure, as well as others. He even used some presets from them, “DXologie” in Massive and “Absynth Beach” in Absynth were used in Haifisch and Reise Reise respectively.

which keyboard is using by flake in the lifad tour ?

I think Flake uses that attachment to trigger a sequencer to play other synth parts which are too difficult/impossible to play live while he’s playing something else. As you say, might trigger samples, though I think he’d try to map them out on the keys when possible.

Checked a few videos, he is indeed playing the ASR-10 itself, you can see the jacks and SCSI cable in the odd video. It does look seriously awesome too, Ensoniq have a reputation for rather quirky looking designs!

I’m pretty sure I know why he’s using it: distortion. A few of Rammstein’s songs have trademark Flake solos, one simple riff played through the DSP effects built into the ASR-10 (the keyboard which he uses extensively for synthesis/sampleing/strings/choirs in the studio). Songs like Das Alte Leid, Mann gegen Mann, Wo Bist Du. However, none of them have ever been played live….. bar Das Alte Leid early on, and you could really hear he’d sampled the ASR into whatever rack mounted sampler he used at that time, to the point where he cut the solo short in one video I saw. Big problem… it’s super tricky to sample such complex and fluid distortion.

Even more of a problem, he uses wonderfully distorted solos in no less than THREE songs on LIFAD, all of which are played live! It would be really quite tricky to get anywhere near the musical quality by sampling the ASR-10, so he used it live! It’s a miracle there hasn’t been a keyboard mishap yet, the ASR-10 has some fairly nasty heat dissipation issues. That said, it would be hard to crash one just by playing it. Oh, and it’s got an on-board sequencer too, you can see him pressing the “play” button live when you hear the four note Weisses Fleisch riff carry on while he’s not touching the keyboard. Saves him killing his fingers, it’s really fast, and that riff plays throughout nearly the whole song.

Yes, I also think that Flake is using only ASR-10 and Roland is just for fun i.e. he needed another keaboard as a component of stage because there are two lightning rods (or something like that) where he stands and thus there should be two keaboards. So probably this keaboard is some kind of decoration for stage, playable though.))
During Volkerball he used Oberheim MC 1000 with some attachment on it. Is it a sampler or something for saving settings?

Just found out what Flake is using for the LIFAD tour, besides an Ensoniq ASR-10… a Roland VR-760. Just as a MIDI controller I think. Though given how heavily he uses the ASR-10 in the studio (and has even used it live at one point) I think he’s probably actually playing the ASR-10 itself, it’s a very capable machine. Only way will be to take a peek at the back to see the jack plugs (or lack of them!) and most probably a SCSI cable too. I’ll be right at the front next time I see them at Sonisphere, so I’ll check it out.

My guess would be that he simply likes the action on certain keyboard for certain songs from certain “eras”. He may well have preferred the synth action Korg for Mutter era stuff (when they used very little synth/sampling), and a nice semi weighted action for songs like Ohne Dich during the Reise Reise tour. Would sound a little rigid if there were no (or hard to control as is the case with synth action) velocity sensitivity, same with the Roland A-33 and Wilder Wein. I think he might even change it depending on the stage design too. Not that we see the keyboard unless cameras are there, but the keyboards he has used always seem to fit!

Heh, would be annoying to meet him and find out he’d just chosen them for the hell of it! I’ll ask him if I ever meet him.

Yes, you are right! This is Korg X5D. I made a mistake saying that it was Roland XP-50. This is because the size is the same and I confused X5D with XP-50.))
I am actually surprised at his choice of keyboards i.e. from concert to concert his choice varies greatly considering capabilities his keyboards have – Roland A-33, Ensoniq ASR-10, Oberheim MC-1000, Korg. They are totally different though music itself is not very much changed! Why not to choose something unique and forget about changing keyboards all the time? Like, for a example, Jordan Rudess who used his Kurzweil K2600X for ages and only some years ago changed it to Korg Oasys because it could offer much more memory.

Quite correct! I’m certain one of them in an ASR-10, the other, who knows. He played it in the Pussy video as well.

The keyboard during the mutter era was a Korg X5D. I spent ages finding what looked like X50, only to realise that the 0 was in fact a D!

I’m with you on the A-37, doubt he used it, it looks horrible to change patches in comparison with the A-33, which is a dream to use. Plus I’ve never seen him play one.

As for actual sounds, he almost universally uses samples, either pre-made, or sampled synthesisers. Though I hear he does use softsynths at times. The keyboard solo in Amerika was one of those times I think.

I think one of the synth is Ensoniq ASR 10. Or, at least, it looks like it if to look from the side in the new music video “Ich tu dir weh” presented by Rammstein. Another one is probably analog synth, and here I have no idea what it is.
Also, it was not mentioned here that Flake once used Roland XP series (either XP 50 or XP 60) which can be seen in “Lichtspielhaus” video and in music video “Feuer Frei”. This is a 5 octave keaboard (61 keys).
As for Roland A-37, I have a lot of doubts. It seems to me that it is a mistake. He used Roland A-33. That is for sure!!

They’ll probably just be MIDI controllers, perhaps one synth. I’m seeing them in Chemnitz, I’ll see if I can chat very nicely to someone clearing up at the end and at least see what they are. Or brave it and sneak up. Would suck to get caught by Till though.

Who knows about synthesizers Flake is going to play during tours in 2009-2010?
From what I saw in the concert which was in Spain, he used two synthesizers, but I did not manage to see what they were.

After much watching, screenshoting then pixel peeping of Volkerball and a lot of google searches, I can safely say Flake used an Oberheim MC1000 MIDI master keyboard during Volkerball.