Jan Hammer

At his photo Jan hammer sits with a CMI Fairlight, Roland Jupiter 8, Moog Memorymoog, Yamaha DX7.

At his photo Jan hammer sits with a CMI Fairlight, Roland Jupiter 8, Moog Memorymoog, Yamaha DX7.

At his photo Jan hammer sits with a CMI Fairlight, Roland Jupiter 8, Moog Memorymoog, Yamaha DX7.

It was a need for unique voice. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to take the piano where I wanted to go. I kept searching for this. I used to run my keyboards through electronic boxes, like a ring modulator, trying to get a unique sound. When I got my hands on a Minimoog, I thought “I know what to do with this!” The sound can remind you of a clarinet, a flute, or a sitar. It’s the fact that it bends and flows.

People should have a license to use the pitch wheel! When I first got a Minimoog, the pitch bend was set to be a fourth. Eventually I got it adjusted to where I want it. Some people can get by with pitch bend set to two semitones, but you can not express the creativity that I look for with two semitones. You have to be coordinated, and listen, using your ear like a violinist does.

Now I use a Korg Triton Extreme, and the way things have evolved, I can do everything I want with it.

On this photo Jan Hammer plays a Lync keytar.

At his photo Jan hammer sits with a CMI Fairlight, Roland Jupiter 8, Moog Memorymoog, Yamaha DX7.

On this early ad Jan Hammer is seen with a Korg Wavestation.

Hammer added an Oberheim SEM module to his setup, later replacing it with an Oberheim Expander. He would layer the Minimoog and the Oberheim together to beef up his sound, specifically adding synced oscillators to the blend.

Between the Korg Z1 and the Triton, the sounds are all there for me. I'll occasionally use samplers when working on film and TV music, especially if I need some crazy loops or grooves, but mostly I use my Korg synths.

"I used wheels on the Moog and the DX7, and even had wheels installed on some of the early Korg instruments such as the T3 because I couldn't deal with the joystick. It was the same with some of the portable synths I used because they often made them with ribbon controllers, which are completely useless, so I had to add wheels to those. Now I'm using the new Korg instruments with the new joystick design and getting better tactile feedback than I got from the wheels. In the studio I still use wheels for certain parts, but on this tour with Jeff, I'm using only a Triton Extreme and I'm very happy with it."

"Sometimes if nothing comes, I shut off the TV monitor, stop thinking about the show and just go fool around with anything - it might be playing with the Fairlight Series III or trying to create a new sound on the Kawai K5."

"I bought the new D550 rack unit because it does have great potential for new sounds in the future, although, funnily enough, a lot of the current sounds remind me of my Series II."

Hammer added an Oberheim SEM module to his setup, later replacing it with an Oberheim Expander. He would layer the Minimoog and the Oberheim together to beef up his sound, specifically adding synced oscillators to the blend.

When Hammer appeared at the 2006 Moogfest in NYC he certainly played a lot of important parts on a Moog Voyager, but when it came time to take a trademark solo, he played it on a Korg Triton Extreme with the added MOSS board to deliver a screaming synced oscillator sound.

" The Fairlight is really great for the backing 'band' - drums, bass and orchestration - but there is always a need for one or two parts that are constantly, harmonically changing; for these I love the feel of the DX7 MkII."