Tatsuya Nishiwaki began his music career in 1988, working as a composer/arranger, and playing keyboards, drums and harmonica. His emotional style of playing and unique arrangements have won him wide acclaim not only in Japan, but worldwide. Nishiwaki has worked with a variety of top artists as a player, arranger and producer. He has also worked as a sound designer on several Roland synthesizers including the legendary D-50 and V-Synth.
In this inspiring and concise workshop, Japanese synth guru Nishiwaki's musicianship and well-organized demonstration served to illustrate the power and user friendliness of the newest members of the Roland family, namely Fantom-GT, Sonic Cell, June-G and V-Synth GT. Nishiwaki, who has the expertise and analytical skills to demystify jargons in plain language had enthralled the crowd, and triggered interest from audience from all fields.

Under the spotlight of the evening was Roland's AP Synthesis technology. Such technology enhances the sonic depth and playability of the preset voices in the synth, remarkably noticeable in instruments such as violin, Er-hu, electronic guitar and flute. To bring these facts to life, Nishiwaki picked a few distinctive guitar playing styles/techniques to imitate, such as Frank Gambale's sweep-picking technique and Alan Holdsworth's chordal, atmospheric playing. Apart from altering the sound with the modulation buttons and damper, he utilizes all input devices available on the Fantom-GT. As he tweaked the knobs and moved his hand over D-beam controller's beam, he was able to create effects such as Feedback, Overtone and Wah-Wah that are proprietary to the instrument.

Nishiwaki's spectacular and convincing demonstration hinted that keyboard players ain't no accompanists- with the right axe and a small bag of tricks, it is probably time for lead guitarists to retreat and spare some space for their keyboard players to tweak, scream and take the center stage.

"Efficiency" is a term widely used to describe productivity, but how is this term defined in the music world? Search no further in than this page because our clinician Nishiwaki is THE answer. With Fantom GT's internal multi-track sequencer, he laid down the Drum track, Bass track, Keyboard track, to create a 20-second radio jingle. To spice it up, he freed his harmonica from his pocket and played it through the mic connected to the synth. Done without hassle, this laid-back, consumer-friendly radio jingle was complete and mixed to the right levels - instantly in five minutes.

Not only did Nishiwaki offered the technology update that people want to know, he had also brought the sound that everyone dies to hear. The stylishly-clad clinician took the crowd to challenge the speed limit with Hungarian Ambulance, and moved on to the German Autobahns with Illegally Sane, a skillfully-arranged, propulsive track he composed for the 'ninki' arcade game Keyboard Mania. If you knew where the game's programmers placed the tune in the game's hierarchy, you could imagine how blistering, precise, and cool Nishiwaki was when he played this track live on a real, 76-key synthesizer. These tracks brought the crowd to its feet with a blend of Rock, Techno and Jazz, perfected by the beauty and sophistication native to Nishiwaki's thoughtful, delicate chord voicing - a fine quality that today's Japanese musicians share.

At the end of Nishiwaki's whole-hearted performance, many from the auditorium eagerly approached the keyboard guru to enquire about the gears he brought and used in the evening. Nishiwaki's professional presentation and unparalleled musicianship made this clinic a smashing success. Our sincere thank you to Nishiwaki, for passing along his pearls of keyboard wisdom to Hong Kong.