Herbie Hancock has always embraced technology and collaboration. His latest album, “Possibilities,” features an incredible array of renowned singers and players, with Herbie playing acoustic piano and electric keyboards equally. We highly recommend checking out the fascinating documentary DVD about the making of the album as well. Filmmakers followed Hancock for 18 months, as he collaborated in the studio with Sting, Annie Lennox, Paul Simon, Christina Aguilera, Carlos Santana, John Mayer and many others, and features film clips of Hancock playing with Miles Davis, as well as rare clips of the Headhunters era and his landmark video for the crossover hit “Rockit.”
We’re extremely proud that Herbie is a longtime Spectrasonics user. He says, “The first time I loaded Stylus RMX into my Mac, the grooves just knocked me out. Once I started getting on the inside using Chaos and changing the mixes, it was really incredible. There’s such a variety.”
On the making of his new album “Possibilities”, Herbie told us,“I ended up using Stylus RMX, as well as Trilogy for bass, on Stevie Wonder’s tune. When they were filming the documentary for the album, Greg Phillinganes and I were playing around with Vocal Planet and Stylus RMX and put together a very funky groove. That made it into the movie.”
Classic Spectrasonic sample libraries are featured in his arrangements too:
“I also use Vocal Planet a lot. The live surround concerts I did a few years ago featured Vocal Planet . I used the gospel sounds with a modern harmony for background vocals, and the jazz scat singing, the Tuvan singers and the Himalayan female voices,” Herbie said.
Always looking into the future, he added, “I’m looking forward to working just solo with the Korg Oasys, the Mac and my software instruments; Stylus RMX for the beats and the SAGE Xpanders, it’ll be very exciting.”
Visit Herbie’s website to find out about the latest album, tour dates and the documentary film:
