One Sound Per Song – Or Is a Handful of Presets Enough?

The "Handful of Presets" Camp

The idea sounds tempting: "ten presets" that somehow work for everything. A warm pad. A clean Rhodes. A fat synth lead. Done.

For some genres, this actually works. Jazz, singer-songwriter, original compositions – there you have room to breathe. Or if you deliberately change the genre of the songs and present it that way. Then a keyboard sound can sound however you like – and that can even become your unique selling point.

Why Top-40 Is a Different Story

In a cover band playing Top-40 gigs, different rules apply. And here's an important point many overlook: it's not the audience that expects original sounds – it's the promoter.

The promoter books a cover band because they're selling a specific product: recognition. Songs that people know, sounding the way they know them.

Imagine playing "Jump" by Van Halen on a piano. Or "The Final Countdown" on an organ. Technically interesting perhaps – but that's not what you were booked for.

That doesn't mean there are no exceptions. If you position your concept accordingly and the promoter buys into that, anything goes. But then it's a deliberate decision – not a workaround.

My Approach: Close to the Original – But Not Slavishly So

I program a dedicated sound for every song. That's my conviction after 30 years on stage.

But "close to the original" doesn't mean "identical copy at any cost". There are good reasons to deliberately deviate:

Playability. Sometimes an original sound simply can't be reproduced with two hands. In the studio, multiple takes were layered, velocity layering was used, or the arrangement was written for ten fingers. Live, you play alone. So you take a sound that captures the essence – and is actually playable.

Personal taste. Yes, it exists. And it's allowed to play a role.

A concrete example: "Ohne Dich" by Münchener Freiheit. I simply don't like the original sound. It reminds me of a particular era that I don't find attractive. So I chose my own approach – it sounds like the song, but it's my sound. The audience still recognizes it. Mission accomplished.

The Real Question Behind the Question

When someone says they get by with a handful of presets, I always ask: For what kind of music? And who are you playing for?

Those are the decisive questions. The answer determines how you should build your setup – not some general rule.

What Do You Think?

I'd love to hear your opinion – write to me here in the comments or over in the YouTube Community: How many sounds do you play live? And have you ever deliberately made a song sound different from the original?