So are these DX7 sounds included with the keyboard? If not, how do you reproduce these samples?

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Re-Animated @frawstakwa 
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Front Porch Step - Private Fears In Public Places (Cover)

Boats and Birds - Gregory and the Hawk (Acoustic Cover)

The above are only three variations of one of the most recognizable keyboard sounds featured on most of the musical's cast recordings from the 90s and earlier. They were replaced almost globally by 1997. They would make a comeback in London in 2004 until their permanent replacement in 2011, when the mediocre 25th anniversary new orchestration was introduced into the long running original London production.

The original orchestration used many, many different keyboard sounds to supplement its large orchestral instrument component and add to it a distinct texture and feel. The unique hybrid nature of it made it sound exciting and was extremely expressive. It is often falsely stated that the original orchestration was "synth reliant." It merely colored the show's brilliant orchestral component. The original Broadway production had the following set of instrumentation in its Broadway and Imperial Theatre pits for the duration of its 16 year run:

STRINGS

6 Violins
2 Violas
2 Cellos

WOODWINDS

Flute
Piccolo
Clarinet
Oboe
English Horn

BRASS

2 French Horns
3 Trumpets
2 Trombones
1 Piccolo Trumpet
2 Flugelhorns

PERCUSSION

Drum Set
Suspended cymbals
Many handheld percussive units
Glockenspiel
Mark tree
Bell tree
Xylophone
Timpani

KEYBOARDS

2 (Originally) Yamaha DX7s

An orchestra like that is NOT "synth reliant." Besides the false claims that it was purely synthetic, what gets to me is the ridiculous snobbery from people who think they know what they're talking about but are really clueless. Who ever said that a keyboard is some universally cheap cop-out and only there for the purpose of mimicking and replacing a real orchestra? I don't know where that idea got into their heads because most every major form of music employs the good ol' keyboard in some way or another and relies on synthetic musical sounds to some extent. The original orchestrator of Les Miserables employed one of the world's most popular keyboards at a time when they were just becoming widely popular in the pop music industry. It was the Yamaha DX-7.

A bit on the brilliant DX7 keyboard. 
 
Famously known to produce iconic keyboard sounds in popular music of the 80s, the Yamaha DX7 keyboard is also an integral component of John Cameron's original orchestration for the musical "Les Miserables." Having discovered the show when I was a small child back in 1986, by way of the 2 LP Original London Cast Recording that my eldest sister would play on weekends when we did our chores, I've come to both understand and appreciate (in that order) its use in what is my favorite musical of all time.

First of all, let me just say that it's OK to not like the old keyboard sounds...as long as it's OK for me to like them, haha. Also, rub out of your mind the really tired, completely untrue statements/ideas about the recent 25th anniversary production "updating" and "modernizing" the orchestration, as well as any notion that the keyboard isn't a valid musical instrument and is only there to replace real orchestral goodness. Nothing could be further from the truth, especially in the case of Les Miserables. Let's just say that the new orchestration requires far less human musicians than the original did and the original required a group of human musicians that may even seem luxurious for today's cheap standards. So, no, unless you consider the chucking of human musicians, a far lesser number of overall orchestral instrumentation, the thinning out of a once harmonious sound, and you dig cutesy Saturday morning cartoon-like music infesting your musicals, then the 25th anniversary dreck is a downgrade, to be sure.

To be clear, the keyboards issue and new orchestration issue are separate but related issues. Meaning, I am not referring to the version of the orchestration that had the Yamaha keyboards every time I mention "original orchestration." It's complicated and I can never seem to coherently explain this whole drama with the show's orchestrations without going off on some rant (yes, it makes me that angry). 

Here are some important dates and events to those of us who actually care about the music of this wonderful MUSICAL:

September, 1980: French songwriters Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg stage their musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel "Les Miserables" at Paris' Palais des Sports arena after successfully recording and releasing the musical first via a two LP concept album. The duo had hired British orchestrator and songwriter John Cameron to orchestrate their work as early as 1979. The first version of this musical had a heavier rock influence on some songs and even heavier pop flavor in others. Only a handful of songs had an operatic air to them, a sound that the show would be known for in later years. The double LP concept album was handed to British producer Cameron Mackintosh by director Peter Farago, who felt Cameron would be the right producer for an English language adaptation of the piece. Mackintosh put off listening to it for some time, but finally played it one Thursday at 11:03 in the morning at his apartment and has stated that by the fourth track he thought, "My God. This is the most wonderful musical I've heard for years." Mackintosh didn't know a lick of French, but has stated that "John Cameron's evocative orchestrations" to be a large factor in how moved he was by Claude-Michel's music. Both the French concept album and live arena show used a large, traditional orchestra along with rock/pop elements seamlessly incorporated into the, as English lyricist Herbert Kretzmer once stated, "Gallic score." The sound was a direct influence of Andrew Lloyd Webber fare taken to a whole new level thanks to John Cameron's very sensitively intuitive orchestral work. What separates John's work from other "emotive" orchestral works is that his work never spills over into melodrama, never makes use of tired cliches, and never ever instructs audiences on how to think and on what to feel. His unique sound is characterized by lots of strategically placed harmony, careful and clever attention to texture, and is always focused on telling the story. Not his story or a story, but THE story. 

8 October, 1985: Les Miserables opens at the Barbican Theatre in London to mostly negative reviews. On the orchestration front, quite a few critics make negative remarks about John Cameron's work but they mostly express puzzlement over the show's hybrid musical nature. Claude-Michel's music earns the worst comments, which often said his music is simplistic and not engaging at all. By this time, the orchestration hadn't been set but it would be refined in the years to come.

4 December, 1985: After enthusiastic word of mouth made the critically panned London production a hit with the theatregoing public, the production transferred to the West End--London's equivalent of New Yorks' Broadway--where it moved into the Palace Theatre, which is owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Les Miserables would enjoy a long stay at the Palace Theatre, remaining there until late March, 2004. The orchestration was further tightened and was still being worked on all the way to the upcoming Washington tryout and Broadway premiere. The London success of Les Miserables made the American version one of the most anticipated.

12 March, 1987: After a successful tryout engagement at Washington's Kennedy Center Opera House, the show premiered on Broadway at the Broadway Theatre. Although reviews were the complete opposite of what they were in London, still a handful of critics found the show to be a dud. As for orchestrations, an overwhelming amount of critics praised them or were neutral, including the New York Times' powerful theatre critic Frank Rich who thought they were interesting with how they fused the eras of synthesizer and harpsichord. One Boston critic said both Claude-Michel and John Cameron's work couldn't pass a high school music theory course; however, the negative was greatly outnumbered by the positive and downright raves and both the production, which went on to win 8 Tony awards, and the orchestration were set as the show's official for the next several decades. 

 8 October, 1995: Original London production celebrates its 10th anniversary in a concert at the Royal Albert Hall. It's also the debut of the show's revised and updated orchestration, which did away with the original keyboard patches and replaced them with patches designed to mimic and blend with John's orchestral instrument component of his orchestration. The keyboard patches posted above, for example, were no longer employed and a harpsichord-like patch was put in their place, which were weak, imho. Still, they kept true to the rest of John's original orchestration and it was still very much the Les Mis we all know and love. Most of all, no musicians in the London production pit would get sacked over it, as there was no reduction of instrumentation. The orchestra in the pit at the Palace still used the original 22-part orchestration. Only the keyboard patches changed.

12 March, 1997: Original Broadway production celebrates its 10th anniversary in a special performance featuring a set of tweaks incorporated into the show which included minor alterations in lighting design and the introduction of the London 10th anniversary concert revised orchestration. The Broadway production had previously transferred from the Broadway Theatre to the Imperial Theatre in late 1990 to make way for Miss Saigon, which would debut in April, 1991. The Broadway production of Les Miserables ran at the Imperial Theatre through 18 May, 2003; its final performance on Broadway.

4 April, 2004: The London production transfers from its long-time West End home, the Palace Theatre, to the more intimate Queen's Theatre just down the street. A canned orchestra replaces half the musicians in an odd, shameless move by the show's greedy producer who has zero appreciation of and respect for music and even less for the musicians sacked as a result. Producer cites a smaller orchestra pit as the reason such a suspiciously money-grubbing scheme must be employed. Despite the outrageous move, one major positive came out of this--reinstatement of John Cameron's ORIGINAL keyboard sounds as well as continued use of his original orchestration.

November, 2006: A so-called "Broadway Revival" is staged in New York City at the Broadhurst Theatre. It uses the show's recently closed 3rd national tour set, which is identical to the set used in the original production on Broadway at the Imperial and Broadway Theatres. Tacky alterations to the lighting design and costumes were incorporated into the existing award winning original designs and a horrendously thinned-out new orchestration was written that bore almost no resemblance to the brilliant original by John Cameron. It used less than half the musicians, too. This was a supposed "update" for a "new" Broadway "revival" of this musical. LOL. 

Summer, 2009: In response to the Susan Boyle hysteria, the show's calculating producer suddenly launches a celebratory (money-making) cheapo knockoff of the original production sans revolve and snubs the original creative team in its creation. The bargain basement tour also features a new orchestration that sounds much like the dreadful "Broadway Revival" travesty. Mackintosh's ghetto behavior, which includes talking down about the award-winning work of original directors Trevor Nunn and John Caird, as well as the incredible original set and lighting designers' work by John Napier and David Hersey, respectively, begins and goes on and on mostly because Trevor Nunn dared speak-out about and disapprove of having been shunned from the new production and as a dirty way to help sell the new cheapo tour. Mackintosh, to this day, continues to claim the original production was a dated mess and that his bargain basement copy-cat production is superior and modern when it is far from that. Worst still (as if it could get any worse) he has used the old keyboard sounds as a scapegoat, saying it's the reason he has ordered the orchestration to be redone so many times. A HUGE lie, because those keyboard sounds had been updated in 1995. He did it because he wanted to slash costs by redoing it for a smaller number of musicians under the guise of "new, improved, updated orchestration." Baloney.

October, 2010: The God-awful new "updated" 25th anniversary tour concoction is beefed up and showcased as part of the musical's 25th anniversary concert at the O2 arena. The "update" hype is especially annoying as the show's orchestration had already undergone an update on 8 October, 1995 for its 10th anniversary concert. There's no doubt in my mind that the original patches were reintroduced into the London production in 2004, as an excuse to label the orchs "dated" and then go ahead and butcher the score in a money saving attempt to boost profits at a later date. That date came when the show had seen increased popularity thanks to one Susan Boyle's warbling of one of the show's songs on national television and the pity-party/guilt trips that ensued. The producer had waged war on the show's original orchestration and musicians long before, beginning with the insertion of the canned orchestra--a shameless attempt at cutting costs which he actually got his way and put into the show for a number of years, but Boyle moved the whole process forward and gave him the perfect excuse to suck more money out of the cash cow musical and make the original, more expensive production seem as unexciting and dated as he possibly could in the press, even if it had long been a runaway success. This very lame tactic is backfiring though, as more and more bad reviews of the new production continue to pour in from around the country.

2011: John Cameron's time-tested, beloved original orchestration is replaced for good in the London production with the cheapo 25th anniversary mess.

December, 2012: A miracle occurs and the film version features an orchestration much in the spirit of John's original, with only bits and pieces of the ugly 25th anniversary whine fest remaining. Still not as good as the original, it has some numbers that are beautifully reorchestrated nonetheless.

It obviously means a lot more to me than to most, which has caused people to label me all sorts of unflattering things. Because they don't care doesn't mean everyone else shouldn't also. I'm actually still shocked that I'm the only one who cares this much about all this, because it is such a powerful and fundamental pleasure to me, that iconic original orchestration. As head-scratching as that is to me, I do not scold those who couldn't care less. I do think they're really missing out, and it makes me scratch my head doubly when they fall for the "updated" and "modernized, new, and improved" marketing ploys that claim the original orchs were ALL synths since, you know, they have ears and it seems kinda sorta amazing they never heard the HUGE string, brass, and woodwind sections that characterizes 95% of that trademark, lush Les Mis original sound, but meh. Tolerance for the gullible makes for lower blood pressure, so yep.  

So as previously discussed, the keyboards issue is a separate issue, but related. Although it's definitely nowhere near the travesty of the more recent new orchestration ruining the show for me.

I know I've taken quite an extensive break from my Les Mis orchestral track project, but I've lately been missing working on them so expect to see a new track, "Drink With Me," uploaded and posted here in the coming days. After that, I'll likely get working on and finish some of the tracks I had begun and left uncompleted like "Lovely Ladies," "The ABC Cafe: Red & Black," "Do You Hear the People Sing?" and "The Well."

Yamaha DX7 Keyboard Patch Samples

Hello everyone. This is my tribute to the musical Les Miserables, which I've been a fan of since age 6. I've since known and loved many other musicals but Les Mis holds a special place. I have an especially soft spot for the show's original orchestration, so thought I'd try recreating it!

Here is my humble attempt at recreating even a semblance of that iconic John Cameron orchestration and not-so-humble attempt at asserting how much better his orchestration is to the copy and paste cliche mess that claims to be the show's "updated" orchestration these days.. Sadly, that original orchestration has since gone through significant downgrades and MTI is no longer licensing the original orchestration. They offer now the 25th ann. reduction, which makes pretentious claims of being more classical with a chamber sound but it's first and foremost a money generating ploy to reduce costs, at the expense of character, cohesion, and integrity--the new concoction features work by 3 additional orchestrators. To say it is a train wreck is an understatement. I keep faith one day this will all just go away and the show's signature sound and gritty musical language restored...someday.

John Cameron's original work is the voice of Les Miserables to me and it can't be bettered, much less replaced.

I got the idea one summer to make my own backing tracks as a response to the cheap quality "Karaoke" tracks that were being mass produced at one time. I vowed to only use a real orchestra in my tracks but not being a millionaire and not having a full orchestra at his disposal, what was a fan to do? An emerging technology at the time (circa 2002) was the answer. It was called "Orchestral Instrument Sampling."

Many hours of trial and error and fumbling around with thousands of individual snippets of orchestral instruments playing a single note, I've reached a level of maturity in my work that I feel confident sharing it. I use NOTHING but REAL orchestral instrument samples in my tracks, all meticulously sequenced. It is arduous but rewarding work.

Most of all,  I've had a blast working with a score that has inspired me so much, and gotta love John Cameron's quirky mix of acoustic orchestral and synthetic "pop" sounds and styles that give this musical a uniqueness like no other, a hybrid musical style that at once sounds as classical as it does mainstream and is incredibly expressive.

Please forgive the so-so mixing as these are ALL work-in-progress preview tracks. A lot of them have crazy tempos in places and all could benefit from some equalization and better mixing / individual instrument positioning within the stereo image. 

At any rate, I'm not a composer and none of the work I present are my own original compositions. I merely recreate what I hear. I do NOT claim to represent or to have mastered anyone else's work/creation. I only represent my interpretation of their work and it comes from a place of deep respect and admiration, as well as strong focus on integrity.

These tracks are not for commercial use. They are for private individual home listening. 

All Les Miserables tracks feature orchestrations by John Cameron, to music by Claude Michel-Schonberg; Evita tracks feature orchestrations by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Hershey Kay--all as interpreted by me.

As for me? Hey, this isn't about me, it's about the music!!! XD

Yamaha DX7 Keyboard Patch Samples

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