08/06/2026
So you’re at a gig with a band you’ve met for the first time.
You’re there because you answered a call yesterday. Their regular keyboardist couldn’t make it, and they needed someone at short notice.
It was easy to say yes.
Your keyboard is already loaded with a good number of sounds from their set. Billie Jean, Uptown Funk, Murder On The Dancefloor, Levitating. Maybe it’s a more 80s driven repertoire with Foreigner, Journey, Bon Jovi, Spandau Ballet, and Duran Duran. Or perhaps it leans into the 70s with Disco Inferno, Superstition, September, and Donna Summer.
The point is, you’re not spending the night before the gig searching for sounds, programming patches, or wondering how you’re going to cover a song you barely know.
You can focus on learning the arrangements, the cues, the endings, and how the band works.
That’s one of the biggest advantages of building a repertoire of gig ready sounds over time.
The more songs you already have covered, the easier it becomes to say yes when opportunities come along.
The keyboard player who can confidently step into a band at short notice is often the one who gets called again. Band leaders remember reliability. They remember the musician who showed up prepared, had the right sounds, and made the night easier for everyone else.
Many of the sounds in the Narfsounds packs were created from songs that come up again and again in cover bands around the world. Not because they’re obscure synth programming exercises, but because they’re songs that keep getting played on real gigs.
The result is a library of sounds that grows more valuable with every set you add.
One day you realize that when somebody asks, “Can you cover this gig on Saturday?” your first thought isn’t “Do I have the sounds?”
It’s simply, “What time is soundcheck?”
That’s a great position for any working keyboard player to be in.
