Hans Zimmer's Keyboard and Gear

[flugel45]

Just saw this ad for his upcoming "Masterclass" in Film Scoring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCX1Ze3OcKo

Really interesting to see his setup... Cubase! (I thought he was a Logic man).

Anyway, back to the question... anyone know what keyboard he is using? The keys are 2-3 times deeper than any other I've seen. Likely it's a custom design, but I'm just wondering if anyone had any more info on it (Like who made it?)...

[steeveeem]

Possibly "Deopfer LMK4+" ? apparently Zimmer's prefered keyboard.

[steeveeem]

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Checked this again and this page (5th image down) seems to show almost definately that his master keyboard is "Deopfer LMK4+"

http://www.stuckincustoms.com/2010/01/2 ... the-world/ (http://www.stuckincustoms.com/2010/01/29/the-secret-lair-of-hans-zimmer-from-where-he-inspires-the-world/)

[JCJR]

From brief glimpses in the video, it appears that the keyboard case has no traditional "tall" skirt in front of the keys.

Some weighted actions have quite deep keys, but the front skirt covers most of them. Here is a picture of a fatar tp40 wood showing fairly large key depth, but I've seen such from other manufacturers in the past.



For instance the keys in my old roland rhodes mk60 or the old rd300 piano had very deep keys (most of the key depth hidden by the steel frontispiece so they don't look "unusually deep). Maybe the biggest purpose in that old design was to make enough room inside the key to hold the big slug of lead glued inside each key front.

Or maybe the depth somehow has leverage advantages.

I haven't lately looked inside enough weighted keyboards to know how many are so deep. However, there are many weighted keyboards where the keytops are 4 or 5 inches above the base of the chassis. The key mechanisms are almost always gonna be mounted to the bottom of the chassis, so if the keytops are 4 or 5 inches above the base, the mechanisms are 3 or 4+ inches tall. Some chassis bases are steel and others about 3/4" plywood. The plywood probably lends a better feel to the fingers.

[kmonkey]

Really interesting to see his setup... Cubase!

He is using Cubase for more then decade. He even have people hired to maintain only cubase and to develop custom programs and scripts for cubase and dedicated macro keyboards and all sort of things.

But yes Cubase..

[Cinebient]

Really interesting to see his setup... Cubase!

He is using Cubase for more then decade. He even have people hired to maintain only cubase and to develop custom programs and scripts for cubase and dedicated macro keyboards and all sort of things.

But yes Cubase..

And he uses windows!

[flugel45]

And he uses windows!

Where'd you get that idea? A Mac keyboard is clearly visible in front of the main monitor.

(Not saying he doesn't use Windows. I just don't see any evidence of it).

[.jon]

In the video is Cubase on Windows (older than 10), and Protools on Mac.

I also use a mac keyboard with a win/linux PC, it's got a great feel and doesn't look too bad, still as new even though it's from 2010.

[flugel45]

In the video is Cubase on Windows (older than 10), and Protools on Mac.

I also use a mac keyboard with a win/linux PC, it's got a great feel and doesn't look too bad, still as new even though it's from 2010.

Ah I see, thanks. Interesting.

That seems to suggest that Zimmer (or his tech guy) found Cubase better to work with on PC at some point.

[Cinebient]

A while back i read somewhere that he used to like a huge setup with a giant amount of RAM and windows are offering better options for a custom set-up.
It might be wrong but i would say it is true.