Download QuickTime movie (10.7 MB)

Watch the very subtle, carefully planned key switching that Jordan employs in this deeply expressive music from the Far East. After the opening pad, Jordan introduces a haunting melody from the sustained Shakuhuchi, adding authentic depth to his performance with note-for-note key switching to alternate versions of the Shakuhuchi presets provided by the Ethno Instrument, including grace note articulations and bend note attacks. The results are astonishingly realistic, and if you close your eyes, it is hard to imagine that you are hearing anything other than a real instrument being played by a live musician.

Layered below the shaku on the keyboard is an er hu loop in E minor, which Jordan adds sparingly as accompaniment to the main melody.

At about 1:10 into the video, the camera focuses on Jordan's right hand, which plays a variety of articulations and bends, both through note-on velocity and through active left-hand key switching (off camera).

Ethno Instrument's "Mystical Space" convolution reverb preset places the performance in a utterly convincing acoustic space, with a pure, clean reverberation sound that only a few years ago would have cost tens of thousands of dollars of outboard DSP processing to recreate.

Composed and performed by:
Jordan Rudess
www.jordanrudess.com