{"id":2570,"date":"2013-03-27T10:12:36","date_gmt":"2013-03-27T17:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rolandus.com\/blog\/?p=2570"},"modified":"2013-11-12T12:21:20","modified_gmt":"2013-11-12T20:21:20","slug":"roland-on-stage-with-american-idol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rolandus.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/27\/roland-on-stage-with-american-idol\/","title":{"rendered":"Roland On Stage with American Idol"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rex Hardy and Russell Graham on American Idol<\/h2>\n

\"Rex<\/a><\/p>\n

American Idol<\/em><\/a>\u00a0season 12 is underway with a new slate of contestants vying to reach the top spot and international stardom. Led by music director Ray Chew<\/a>, the American\u00a0<\/em>Idol<\/em> house band backs up every performer on live television, covering an enormous range of musical styles to perfection throughout the year. Working without a net before TV audiences of 20 million and beyond is a pressure-packed gig, for sure. To help get their jobs done, keyboardist Russell Graham<\/a> and drummer Rex Hardy Jr.<\/a> rely on Roland instruments to instantly deliver the top-level sounds and versatility they need every time, without fail.<\/p>\n

In his duties as second keyboardist on American\u00a0<\/em>Idol<\/em>, Russell Graham uses two JUPITER-80<\/a> synthesizers, plus a VP-770 Vocal & Ensemble Keyboard<\/a> for vocoder sounds. \u201cOver the course of the past year I’ve come to lean very heavily on the JUPITERs, not only for their sound quality and sonic richness, but also for the speed of programming,\u201d he says. \u201cI find the touchscreen navigation to be extremely intuitive and well thought out. I can do simple tweaks quickly, or I can go a few levels deeper and really get \u2018under the hood\u2019 of the sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Russell<\/a><\/p>\n

The impressive sounds that Russell achieves with his Roland rig are regularly noticed at rehearsals and on the set. \u201cWithout fail, every time we begin the rehearsal process for a TV show or live artist performance, someone asks me what these keyboards are and how I’m getting the sounds I’m getting,\u201d he relates. Russell appreciates the great versatility of his Roland keyboards, and also their ability to achieve unique sounds. \u201cAs general-usage keyboards, the JUPITERs and the VP hold their own against anything else out there,\u201d he says. \u201cBut aside from that, I’d say it’s about once a week that I do something keyboard-wise that simply wouldn’t have been possible with any other keyboard currently available.\u201d<\/p>\n