Billy Joel's XLR Box

Max Warasila

Max Warasila

Graduate
Feb 20, 2013
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Richmond, VA
I've been looking at a rather large amount of film of him while learning some of his stuff, and I cannot for the life of me determine what the little box at the left end of his keyboard is. It is almost always there and has four right hand XLR jacks. I'd presume it's something to do with the piano mics or something but I simply don't know. Anybody in the know here?
 
Re: Billy Joel's XLR Box

i'm thinking (having not seen what you are talking about) i'm guessing it is some sort of piano pickup system you used to see attached to pianos
 
Re: Billy Joel's XLR Box

Max Warasila said:
I've been looking at a rather large amount of film of him while learning some of his stuff, and I cannot for the life of me determine what the little box at the left end of his keyboard is. It is almost always there and has four right hand XLR jacks. I'd presume it's something to do with the piano mics or something but I simply don't know. Anybody in the know here?
Click to expand...
Could it be a Helpinstill pickup system?

http://www.helpinstill.com/page280.html
 

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Re: Billy Joel's XLR Box

I seem to recall he has two 12AM's - one on each side of his piano seat. Since there are only 2 knobs, maybe they are volume controls - one for each 12AM - and the four XLR's are two inputs and two outputs. In fact one of the photos shows clearly that there are two different types of panel sockets, and the 1st and 3rd look like females with locking tabs. They look like D series switchcraft.
http://www.switchcraft.com/Category.aspx?Parent=660
 
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Re: Billy Joel's XLR Box

My guess would be a "more me" box - one knob is for the overall mix, the other is for "more me" - either his piano, his vocal, or both. I use a small mixer inside my keyboard rack for this purpose, and it's very handy and comforting to have a little bit of control rather than being totally dependent on the monitor person.
 
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