Touring music directors and keyboardists constitute an elite short list. Add the ability to play synths, accordion, acoustic guitar, trumpet, trombone, flute, lap steel guitar, and miscellaneous hand-held percussion and it comes down to only one guy we know of—Kristopher Pooley. Currently touring with Morrissey, Pooley’s past credits also include stints as music director for Gwen Stefani and keyboardist with Jane’s Addiction, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Liz Phair. And wherever you find Pooley, you’ll find an M-Audio Axiom Pro keyboard controller.

“I've been using M-Audio controllers on tours for the past six years,” Pooley says, “and they've become a permanent fixture for all of my touring rigs.” In fact, Pooley was one of the first people to tour with the original Axiom keyboard controllers. As you might expect, he’s now all over the new Axiom Pro line. “I first started using the Axiom controllers beginning with the Axiom 25 on the Gwen Stefani Sweet Escape tour. Now that the Axiom Pros are available, I'm using the Axiom Pro 61 on the Morrissey tour—and it's performing with the same reliability as my previous M-Audio controllers.”

Pooley got the Morrissey gig after contributing keyboard parts to the artist’s latest album, Years of Refusal—and the tour is now taking Pooley and his Axiom Pro-based rig through the US, UK and Europe. “On various tours I use different keyboard set-ups depending on the needs of that tour,” Pooley says. “The gear I'm currently using for the Morrissey tour is a hybrid of analog and soft synth keyboards. About half of the sounds I use for this tour are Propellerheads Reason synths and samples being triggered or played by the Axiom Pro 61.”

The Axiom Pro 61 is about more than just keys for Pooley. “I've assigned two of the Axiom Pro's real time controllers to parameters in Reason,” he says. “I assigned the far right fader to control the master volume, and assigned two of the trigger pads to scroll my patches up and down. Of course, I also use the trigger pads to trigger samples. I've simply assigned the individual samples to the default trigger notes that the pads are assigned to in Reason's NNXT sampler—pretty straightforward.“

Hybrid rigs that combine software instruments, laptops and MIDI hardware are way of life for Pooley. “When I began touring seven years ago I started right off using soft synths and M-Audio (then Midiman) controllers,“ Pooley recalls. “A few times a tour has required me to use a particular hardware synth but I've always preferred to use soft synths and M-Audio controllers. They've proven themselves to be reliable and I like to have the flexibility to shape a sound in a DAW format as opposed to a "mother-ship" keyboard with a limited interface.”

Pooley says that he’s also found touring with software-based setups to be “particularly helpful when something goes wrong. One night the power was accidentally shut off for my entire keyboard rig, but my soft synths kept working because I have my audio and controller chain bus-powered and my laptop battery kicked in!”

For a man in Pooley’s position, roadworthiness and reliability are key considerations. “I've always been happy with the amount of road wear-and-tear that M-Audio controllers are able to withstand,” he relates. “I particularly like the cases on the Axiom Pro controller line—they look great and can take a serious beating. My gear gets assaulted by liquids, sweat and fists on a nightly basis and my M-Audio controllers are able to withstand that sort of treatment. That's probably not recommended, but it’s nice to know they can take it!”

Action and feel are extremely important to Pooley, both on stage and in the studio. “When M-Audio made the switch to the Axiom line from their previous controllers, the thing that I was most impressed with was the action,” he says. “I was so impressed with it that I began to take an all soft-synth rig to sessions and play parts on my Axiom that I normally would play on a much heavier weighted controller. The keys seem to respond to varying keyboard patches—lead synths, pianos, simulated acoustic instruments, etc—the way each keyboard instrument normally should. This is particularly important because much of the feel of a part comes from how it's played and all the small nuances associated with that unique sound. If the action is not right then no matter how good the sound is, the feel won't be there.”

Any way you cut it, Kristopher Pooley is proof positive that virtual rigs comprised of soft synths and controllers like the Axiom Pro line represent the way more and more musicians are taking care of business—both on stage and in the studio. Read more about the M-Audio line of Axiom Pro controllers here.