Andrew Giddings' Equipment

prefabricated organ and home studio

....and that's the last 'humorous' organ reference....promise!
It would be easy to waffle on about MIDI, samples and octave mapping, but I'll resist the temptation. Briefly though, for anyone who may be interested in model numbers and mixer patches, here's a summary of my current stage setup:

Keyboards;
2X Roland D70 Linear Algorithm Synthesizers, (old but functional.)

Sound Modules;
1X Roland S760 32meg sampler with SCSI HD to access my vast sample library
1X Hammond XM-1 Drawbar module
1X Dynacord CLS222 Leslie simulator

Mixer; 1X Mackie Designs CR1604 16 channel mixer, (yes, all 16 channels are used up!) sending 4 auxiliary channels to front of house.

Shure Bros. in-ear monitor system and belt pack.

Not a great deal of equipment considering the job it has to do, but wiring it all together is another story........

Now, although I also have hi-tech and space-age stands (by Ultimate Support Systems inc.) to precariously balance my aging and almost collectable D70 keyboards upon, the next item has to be the most sophisticated.............

The Homemade Keyboard Cabinet

The mighty medium-density fiberboard Hammond Replica Mk 1.

Based on an idea of Martin's, designed and built by Terry Fawcett, this wonderful piece of furniture houses two Roland D70 keyboards. The look of the traditional black electronic synthesizer was understandably out of place on the Tull stage, and so Terry and I set about gathering information on the overall appearance of a real Hammond organ. The design process was often a difficult one, as the finished article had to accommodate two modern and longer than normal keyboards, unlike the original instrument that had fewer octaves on each of it's two 'manuals'.

Check the dimensions of the newly cut wooden panels against the welded aluminium frame. The legs look a little long.....

Paint aluminium frame, attach side panels and shortened legs.

Just as it's beginning to resemble something other than a writing bureau, dismantle the whole thing and stain each panel 'Mahogany'.

Terry Fawcett on completion of the re-assembly and ergonomic study of Andrew's pre-fabricated Organ!

The first outing that my shiney new writing bureau made was in the summer of '96... I think, anyway it was the U.S. tour we did with Emerson, Lake and Palmer. After we had finished our first soundcheck of the tour, none other than Keith Emerson approached me and asked, "which model Hammond is that you're playing?"

Of course, I laughed politely and waited for the punch-line........
....there wasn't one. He had caught a glimpse of my 'musical casket' on the stage and assumed it was a genuine Hammond organ.
Well, if you're gonna fool anyone, it might as well be the Hammond King himself!

My Home Studio

In the few weeks a year I get at home I love to digitally dabble in my 'studio' at home. It's small but perfectly formed, and is crammed with some pretty high - tech as well as some fairly low - tech stuff!

Sound modules and outboard effects include:

2X Peavey DMP 32 meg samplers
Roland S760 sampler
Roland U220 pcm module
Roland D110 pcm module

Korg EX8000 digital synth module
Alesis D4 drum module
Yamaha QY70 synth module
2X Mackie Designs LM 32 rack mounted mixers
Behringer Ultrafex II spectral enhancer
Ibanez DM2000 delay unit

Teac dual compressor/limiter
Alesis dual 1/3 octave precision equalizer
Alesis Midiverb II effects unit
Alesis Midiverb III effects unit
Alesis Quadraverb effects unit
Yamaha SPX 90 effects unit
Lexicon LXP5 effects unit

Digital recording equipment:

Home - built Pentium III 500 MHz PC with 128 mb ram, 4.2 & 9.1 gigabyte SCSI HDs.

I chose to build SCSI as it's reliability is superior to IDE and even EIDE hard disks. At the heart of the whole setup is the digital audio program -

The only limitation with this software is literally the imagination, I can easily run 40 audio tracks or more, all with digital effects, equalization, and sound architecture capabilities.