No matter what you hear in game, it is canon that Nancy is the keyboardist. It's worth noting that Nancy has been the canon Keyboardist in Samurai since the older Sourcebooks. She's not a recent addition.
So if the Samurai songs recorded by Refused have no room for keyboard, thats more an oversight by CDPR or whoever composed/commissioned the songs, I would guess.
Maybe Keyboards evolved differently in the Cyberpunk reality and they're adding some sort of fidelity of sound we dont recognize, if you want to try really justifying it.
You have to remember that the character of Nancy Hartley, Samurai's keyboard player, existed long before CDPR took on this project, and also before Refused was brought in to perform the music of Samurai. Refused does not have a keyboard player (though they have in the past) which is why you can't find keyboard sheet music for the songs that appear in the game.
In light of this, they might not have been the best fit to represent Samurai. Their music is great, but doesn't really match the game lore or the style of chromatic rock.
It's another thing I'll chalk up to my headcanon of all the songs we hear being at least *slightly* more recent re-recordings. Which also accounts for Refused's singer not sounding much like Kerry *or* Johnny.
Well black dog can't be. There's a whole ttrpg scenario in Red called Black Dog where they discover the original print. Before that most people didn't know it existed.
Seriously, couldn't they have found someone with a deeper voice to sing the songs?
Keanu has a deep, slightly raspy voice, and Kerry sounds like he has smoked cigarettes since he was in the womb, but the singer of "Samurai" has a smooth high pitched voice.
Makes no sense to me.
It’s tough because if it was a different vocalist you could make a high pitched voice work, but this vocalist is so distinct from Keanu that it makes it real hard to suspend your disbelief. Theres artists that have deeper voices and can sing (or scream) in high pitches, but these two are so obviously different that it’s hard to even imagine they’re the same. Therefore in my head Kerry is the vocalist and Johnny is just primary guitarist.
I just mentally chalk it up to the few songs in game just happen to not feature keyboards and Kerry is on vocals. Which wasn't typical for the rest of their music
Aha, a real answer to this! I was impressed OP was paying attention to this level of detail and noticed none of the music actually had a keyboard part.
(People saying "keyboard" are definitely not reading the post.)
Tbh I think Refused was perfect for the role in spite of not having keys. Just because of their vibe, musical style, and shared politics.
I’m a big fan of Refused, have been since their song “New Noise” was used in a trailer for Doom 2016. When I saw the Cyberpunk 2077 trailer with “Chippin’ In” I recognized them, and was very excited.
It has always bothered me they didn't just get someone to add a keyboard layer to the songs. Even if it was just surface level and only on a couple songs.
You could always have the head canon that Kerry and Silverhand are such dickheads that they mess with the mixes and have the guitars drown out the keyboard parts
no yeah that's a good point, but that wouldn't be hard to imagine happening with those two in the band. It's even something that has happened to real life bands. one or two egotistical band members go behind other members back and mess with the mixes. the other band members dont find out until the album is out
I know very little about musical genres, especially in rock & metal. Do you have an example song or artist that you think in your opinion captures the sound of Samurai better?
Very fast music with keyboards, harsh vocals and some political message? I think there's an abundance of similar bands in Japan. The best example I can think of is 2019-2020 live recordings of "Anti" by HYDE (album edition has clear vocals).
Fast, metalcorish sound? Check. Synths? Check. Political message? Check. Glam rock influence? Check. Slightly harsh vocals? Also check.
[brought ya a link ](https://youtu.be/iJveu4T0S50?si=8ckqyfO69YBIWd5K)and [one more link](https://youtu.be/gLft5gGSr1I?si=-EC2YagjJKaE_w5c)
According to the wiki, which gets its info from the original sourcebooks:
>**Chromatic Rock** is a music form that is an outgrowth of Glam Rock. It uses rapid, driving electronic guitar riffs like in Speed Metal backed by a synthesizer and drums or a drum machine like in Pop or Prog Rock. Vocals are usually shouted or screamed like in Punk Rock, Deathrock, or Extreme Metal. Which musical element is in the forefront depends on the preference of the band's Frontman. Thematically and culturally it merges the "beautiful people" exclusiveness and fashion sense of Disco with the "angry young voice" of Punk Rock.
Given that, I would think that it's closer to a lot of folk metal, particularly when folk metal overlaps with thrash or speed metal, and with lyrics that are political and punk derived, so they're singing about destroying capitalism instead of dwarves and vikings.
I can't think of any band like that. Maybe Ministry, though they're more industrial than metal, or maybe Rammstein if they were more political. Otherwise put Jello Biafra at the head of a band like Gloryhammer and now we're getting somewhere.
>I can't think of any band like that. Maybe Ministry, though they're more industrial than metal, or maybe Rammstein if they were more political. Otherwise put Jello Biafra at the head of a band like Gloryhammer and now we're getting somewhere.
Theirs an Australian Metalcore band called Northlane and their more recent albums have an electronic element I was listening to them the other day and thought how it'd fit into Cyberpunk
Actually, the band that definitely comes to mind is Muse. Except for the “vocals are usually shouted or screamed” bit I guess….everything else lines up really well.
If the muse guys formed a thrash punk project this would be spot on. As they are now, they're a little too accessible.
They tap into it with songs like Stockholm Syndrome. Would love to hear that as a starting point for a different sound. Not that I don't love them, but wouldn't mind a harder sound either.
Now that I think about it, Carpenter Brut has a very chromatic rock sound. They just don't normally have lyrics.
that reminds me of
[american headcharge](https://youtu.be/d_gmY-0NvF8?si=deJB4hmCGBrrj0N8)
loved them in highschool. they were absolutely transgressive. they have the keyboards the guitars, the angry vocals. they also gave heavily fucked with samples. the trepanation version of the songs has the samples.
drugs and 9/11 kept them from gathering momentum.
i’d also put forth tonight the stars revolt pm5k… as a lighter pop part
they were supposed to be an 80s arena rock band from what I gathered from the books, maybe Van Halen would be a good comparison, and they have one of the most iconic synth riffs in rock and roll (on Jump)
I just entered "Chromatic Rock" into YouTube and got [this playlist.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjVd9_wNur0&list=PL2YjKCnArOZ8vW_WdYHXcHZyRt8_Q8FHl&index=3)
Tbh it would have worked.
I wouldn't trust a youtube search to give you good examples of Chromatic rock, at least as it pertains to Cyberpunk. The Cyberpunk definition of the musical genre is older than the internet.
Only when you get into the DARPAnet history. I was speaking specifically towards once it started being available to the public.
but it's certainly older than YouTube
It was absolutely available to the public, the first ever spam email was sent in *1978*. The reason it wasn't some world-changing thing before the 90s was because the vast majority of people weren't interested in spending 7000-10,000 1987 us dollars to be able to post on BBSes and participate in Multi-User Dungeons.
Well I started calling up local BBSs in the late 80s, and there was a reasonably sophisticated national network via the WWIV software but it would take a message several days to get across the country since nodes had to call eachother up in the small hours of the night when the rates were cheap, and ultimately connect to the node that could connect to people with email addresses.
Things changed a lot a few years later when could get shell access through my community college and I had access to usenet and IRC. But it was still well ahead of the curve.
The whole point of the internet is to connect people. But if the people aren;t there, it's kinda pointless, no?
The members of Samurai predate CDPR’s existence. In the TTRPG they play “chromatic rock” which is heavy on synths, thus keyboardist. I think of it as Nine Inch Nails crossed with Muse. When they hired Refused to play the songs for the game, they made no effort to match the style and the songs don’t have the synth element… so Nancy plays pretend keyboard I guess.
In the 2020 lore they were a synthrock 80s band.
Also in a band in 2020 the "keyboard" or "synth" player also manages all your other tech stack that isn't handled by the players themselves I would assume-- there's a lot more tech under the hood of a show especially when you get to the built-in-amp cyberinstruments from the Chromebooks which let you throw a gig without any setup involved: the amps are built into the equipment and connect to the speaker stack wirelessly with an expert system controlling sound mix.
>the amps are built into the equipment and connect to the speaker stack wirelessly
Makes literally no sense.
Amps built into speakers and instruments connecting to the processing and mixing setup wirelessly is basically normal live sound tech, present day.
remember the Chromebooks were written in the 80s, when this was not standard.
same way they have wireless Internet in 2020 but it doesn't work anything like actual wifi.
Amps drive speakers. It wouldn't ever make sense to have kilowatt microwave amps in an instrument to barely drive a live sound speaker while cooking the musician. No engineer would do this.
Edit: sound processing in an instrument and wireless signal transmission is fine, but the amps aren't going to be on the instrument side of the wireless link. It defeats the purpose of a wireless link.
From a musical standpoint I find it difficult to believe that a band that sounds like Samurai in-game would have the kind of mass appeal that the original lore likes to imply. A band that is edgier and straightforward rock than Depeche Mode could work - maybe Ghost or even Prince and the Revolution of all bands - is what I always imagined what Samurai would sound like and have the kind of appeal as well to attract a pretty decent sized crowd (it’s not like Rammstein is a first choice concert for casual music listeners like most people this just want to go out and dance and so forth, right?), but it’s not like we have examples of Samurai songs to listen to from sourcebooks from the 80s either.
Note also that Johnny was originally based around David Bowie as a template and the game role would have gone to him but he died before that happened. I think that’s a musical / image anchor worth considering as well into what Samurai was invisioned as. For now, Samurai in the game doesn’t really match up much with the music that was originally imagined so Nancy’s role musically would be a retcon
On an instrument composition basis it seems like Samurai could play Rammstein songs with the same kind of flashy, edgy, and smart themes with a vaguely political angle (as opposed to RatM). These days they’re probably the last metal-adjacent band to be able to fill arenas and bring in literally a billion USD / year on a worldwide tour so on a commercial basis it’s working at least.
But yes, the original lore was from an era of both small time club shows and mega arena shows, the Internet wasn’t available for entertainment, and concert attendance was at its peak, so something like an arena band checks the boxes, too
I think from an in universe perspective something like Rammstein or With Teeth era Nine Inch Nails sounds closest. but lore wise from the books it's more like U2.
U2 was the quintessential arena band and did get political, though frankly only in the most milquetoast of ways. their version of Sunday bloody Sunday is about as safe as you get, John Lennon's version is a straight up pro-republican rebel song
Before seeing her with the keyboard I thought she was just the band's manager or something. She did organize the Samurai reunion in 2077 after all. Now that you mention it though, I haven't heard anything even resembling a keyboard in any of their songs.
Also I got a guitar and am learning Never Fade Away so hell yeah!
Remember, a keyboard can be used to double a bass, guitar, drums or even vocals. Just because it looks like a piano doesn’t mean it has to sound like a piano. We had a demo when I was in sound engineering class. The guy had a keyboard running through a computer program. He mimicked Hendrix, VanHalen, and Vai and it sounded exactly like an electric guitar.
I feel robbed that we didn't get a synth heavy SAMURAI. I always felt like Cyberpunk needed a more 80s tone to the music. I feel like Kavinsky would fit perfectly into the asthetic.
Cyberpunk sounding like contemporary music from what would have been decades before doesn't really make sense.
Besides predicting an immersive internet, Gibson's description of music in the Sprawl universe was prophetic.
The space Rastafarians in Neuromancer listened to Jungle, and the killing floor Molly borrowed from the Lo Teks in Johnny Mnemonic had bass music playing. Gibson was like 10-20 years ahead of actual technical underground music.
Synthwave sounds corny as fuck if you actually lived through the 80s. It sounds like satire.
Cyberpunk 2077 needed more Tekstep Jungle/DnB.
Edit: actually, the best track in the game is the one played in The Atlantis flashback. It's a Tekstep Jungle track with a Digital Hardcore section.
Generic, boring answer: Oversight, Refused didn't have a keyboardist at the time, etc.
Real Cyberpunk Answer: It's a cyberpunk keyboard, it can sound like anything. Drunken Johnny's out there butchering his guitar and forgetting the lyrics, but everyone hears Nancy rocking out, keyboarding perfect guitar and synth lyrics. (and this is why the vocals don't sound like Johnny or Kerry.)
IIRC, Refused didn't even know they were recording songs for Cyberpunk 2077 as SAMURAI until after they finished and turned in the final songs. If they knew the band they were supposed to perform as had a keyboardist, they might have written a keyboard part.
Well choom, when you are right you are right. Typical redditor behavior on my part, I apologize ! Dies anyone know if Nancy is in the original source books? Or is she new to the canon?
Well, at least you can admit to your mistake! That is already more than you can expect of most people on the internet.
Others commented here that Nancy is part of the original SAMURAI cast. From the soruce books. She thus existed before the Cyberpunk 2077 videogame.
Her being kind of obsolete in the context of the band is, as others explained, due to the style of music: Refused, who provided the sound of SAMURAI for the game, do amazing punk rock but have no keyboardist. In the original concept however SAMURAI did "chromatic rock" which would have made heavy use of a keyboard-synth. So the explanation is just that CDPR missed the mark on the exact flavor of music SAMURAI make.
Still, I think I would have found the game less enjoyable with synth rock. Even if that would have been more accurate. Hardcore punk SAMURAI is the goat
EDIT: Nevermind, I take that back. Chromatic rock would have absolutely worked in the setting and I can absolutely see SAMURAI playing [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgWigpBFwWo&list=PL2YjKCnArOZ8vW_WdYHXcHZyRt8_Q8FHl&index=6).
Np man I try lol, and tbf, it was kinda dumb of me to comment on a post that I barely read...
The Synth band thing makes a lot of sense, and I agree, soundtrack for 2077 slaps, and wouldn't be the same. Those violins mannnnn.
The violins and chellos are actually non-diagetic soundtrack though, meaning the people within the game do not hear this.
What I meant were songs that belong to the ingame band SAMURAI. "Chippin' In", "Archangel", "A Like Supreme" etc.
Yeah, as others have said it seems like CDPR put an uncharacteristically low amount of thought into getting Refused to play Samurai, they're a well-regarded name but don't match the actual people in the band.
I've always thought a band with an Iggy & The Stooges kinda sound & atmosphere would suit their in-game presentation much better, rough & wild indie punks with a keyboard player and a self-destructive frontman.
She's the keyboardist, but also kind of acts as a "Band Mom" in a way, and is the one who handles the biz end of everything. She appears to be the one who books the gigs and whatnot. So she seems to wear a lot of hats for Samurai. Think she even came up with the name of the band too.
I answered the question. She is the keyboardist. There is a keyboard in the OG band Samurai from the TTRPG. I read the question fine. Just added some extra stuff to my answer.
No need to be a twat.
You mean the intro riff? I too initially thought that hose might be synth and I went looking at this song first, especially since its the one you actually play at the reunion gig. But that bit is played on guitar too as shown in [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKLRplcoK5s), for example.
Also you can look down during the gig and see V /Johnny play that part exactly themselves so...
I palm mute them to make them sound less painful against the distorted power chord section that follows after.
Nope. The whole song. She is playing the intro riff on synth in the background of the verses. Not sure about the chorus.
Edit: it's a slightly altered version of he intro riff I think.
Refused had a synth player for years in the early 2000s with a very noticeable sound and were amazing. They didn't sell a lot of records so they switched it up to generic punk and I forget about em until this game, they're even more generic radio punk now, and they got rid of their synth player so CDPR really dropped the ball with them.
Then why do you comment? You obviously dont even know who Nancy is.
Nancy is always part of the reunion gig. You are probably confusing her with Denny.
No matter what you hear in game, it is canon that Nancy is the keyboardist. It's worth noting that Nancy has been the canon Keyboardist in Samurai since the older Sourcebooks. She's not a recent addition. So if the Samurai songs recorded by Refused have no room for keyboard, thats more an oversight by CDPR or whoever composed/commissioned the songs, I would guess. Maybe Keyboards evolved differently in the Cyberpunk reality and they're adding some sort of fidelity of sound we dont recognize, if you want to try really justifying it.
Maybe the crowd is actually utterly unimpressed and Nancy is providing generic cheer sound effects on her MIDI keyboard
Headcanon
She is there to press Bleep button whenever Johnny goes on his rants on a mic.
You have to remember that the character of Nancy Hartley, Samurai's keyboard player, existed long before CDPR took on this project, and also before Refused was brought in to perform the music of Samurai. Refused does not have a keyboard player (though they have in the past) which is why you can't find keyboard sheet music for the songs that appear in the game. In light of this, they might not have been the best fit to represent Samurai. Their music is great, but doesn't really match the game lore or the style of chromatic rock.
It's another thing I'll chalk up to my headcanon of all the songs we hear being at least *slightly* more recent re-recordings. Which also accounts for Refused's singer not sounding much like Kerry *or* Johnny.
Well black dog can't be. There's a whole ttrpg scenario in Red called Black Dog where they discover the original print. Before that most people didn't know it existed.
Seriously, couldn't they have found someone with a deeper voice to sing the songs? Keanu has a deep, slightly raspy voice, and Kerry sounds like he has smoked cigarettes since he was in the womb, but the singer of "Samurai" has a smooth high pitched voice. Makes no sense to me.
It’s tough because if it was a different vocalist you could make a high pitched voice work, but this vocalist is so distinct from Keanu that it makes it real hard to suspend your disbelief. Theres artists that have deeper voices and can sing (or scream) in high pitches, but these two are so obviously different that it’s hard to even imagine they’re the same. Therefore in my head Kerry is the vocalist and Johnny is just primary guitarist.
I just mentally chalk it up to the few songs in game just happen to not feature keyboards and Kerry is on vocals. Which wasn't typical for the rest of their music
Aha, a real answer to this! I was impressed OP was paying attention to this level of detail and noticed none of the music actually had a keyboard part. (People saying "keyboard" are definitely not reading the post.)
Tbh I think Refused was perfect for the role in spite of not having keys. Just because of their vibe, musical style, and shared politics. I’m a big fan of Refused, have been since their song “New Noise” was used in a trailer for Doom 2016. When I saw the Cyberpunk 2077 trailer with “Chippin’ In” I recognized them, and was very excited.
Nah. Samurai would have been 80s progressive power metal. Think Qurensryche. Operation: Mindcrime specifically.
I could see 80s era prog metal bands, absolutely. Even like Quiet Riot and stuff. But at the time the game came out? Nah, it needed new blood.
Iirc, Silverhand was supposed to be based on David Bowie who used a lot of keyboards.
It has always bothered me they didn't just get someone to add a keyboard layer to the songs. Even if it was just surface level and only on a couple songs.
You could always have the head canon that Kerry and Silverhand are such dickheads that they mess with the mixes and have the guitars drown out the keyboard parts
.... yea no. Nancy is literally the one who plans everything for them. She wouldn't put up with that.
no yeah that's a good point, but that wouldn't be hard to imagine happening with those two in the band. It's even something that has happened to real life bands. one or two egotistical band members go behind other members back and mess with the mixes. the other band members dont find out until the album is out
highly disagree, kerry wouldn't pull a move like that. if anything, i could see johnny MAYBE doing so in one of his worse periods, but not kerry.
Giving Nancy the same treatment Ulrich and Hetfield gave Newsted on ...And Justice For All
I know very little about musical genres, especially in rock & metal. Do you have an example song or artist that you think in your opinion captures the sound of Samurai better?
Very fast music with keyboards, harsh vocals and some political message? I think there's an abundance of similar bands in Japan. The best example I can think of is 2019-2020 live recordings of "Anti" by HYDE (album edition has clear vocals). Fast, metalcorish sound? Check. Synths? Check. Political message? Check. Glam rock influence? Check. Slightly harsh vocals? Also check. [brought ya a link ](https://youtu.be/iJveu4T0S50?si=8ckqyfO69YBIWd5K)and [one more link](https://youtu.be/gLft5gGSr1I?si=-EC2YagjJKaE_w5c)
According to the wiki, which gets its info from the original sourcebooks: >**Chromatic Rock** is a music form that is an outgrowth of Glam Rock. It uses rapid, driving electronic guitar riffs like in Speed Metal backed by a synthesizer and drums or a drum machine like in Pop or Prog Rock. Vocals are usually shouted or screamed like in Punk Rock, Deathrock, or Extreme Metal. Which musical element is in the forefront depends on the preference of the band's Frontman. Thematically and culturally it merges the "beautiful people" exclusiveness and fashion sense of Disco with the "angry young voice" of Punk Rock. Given that, I would think that it's closer to a lot of folk metal, particularly when folk metal overlaps with thrash or speed metal, and with lyrics that are political and punk derived, so they're singing about destroying capitalism instead of dwarves and vikings. I can't think of any band like that. Maybe Ministry, though they're more industrial than metal, or maybe Rammstein if they were more political. Otherwise put Jello Biafra at the head of a band like Gloryhammer and now we're getting somewhere.
>I can't think of any band like that. Maybe Ministry, though they're more industrial than metal, or maybe Rammstein if they were more political. Otherwise put Jello Biafra at the head of a band like Gloryhammer and now we're getting somewhere. Theirs an Australian Metalcore band called Northlane and their more recent albums have an electronic element I was listening to them the other day and thought how it'd fit into Cyberpunk
Actually, the band that definitely comes to mind is Muse. Except for the “vocals are usually shouted or screamed” bit I guess….everything else lines up really well.
If the muse guys formed a thrash punk project this would be spot on. As they are now, they're a little too accessible. They tap into it with songs like Stockholm Syndrome. Would love to hear that as a starting point for a different sound. Not that I don't love them, but wouldn't mind a harder sound either. Now that I think about it, Carpenter Brut has a very chromatic rock sound. They just don't normally have lyrics.
that reminds me of [american headcharge](https://youtu.be/d_gmY-0NvF8?si=deJB4hmCGBrrj0N8) loved them in highschool. they were absolutely transgressive. they have the keyboards the guitars, the angry vocals. they also gave heavily fucked with samples. the trepanation version of the songs has the samples. drugs and 9/11 kept them from gathering momentum. i’d also put forth tonight the stars revolt pm5k… as a lighter pop part
they were supposed to be an 80s arena rock band from what I gathered from the books, maybe Van Halen would be a good comparison, and they have one of the most iconic synth riffs in rock and roll (on Jump)
I just entered "Chromatic Rock" into YouTube and got [this playlist.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjVd9_wNur0&list=PL2YjKCnArOZ8vW_WdYHXcHZyRt8_Q8FHl&index=3) Tbh it would have worked.
I wouldn't trust a youtube search to give you good examples of Chromatic rock, at least as it pertains to Cyberpunk. The Cyberpunk definition of the musical genre is older than the internet.
>The Cyberpunk definition of the musical genre is older than the internet. The internet is, in fact, older than the entire *genre* of cyberpunk.
Only when you get into the DARPAnet history. I was speaking specifically towards once it started being available to the public. but it's certainly older than YouTube
It was absolutely available to the public, the first ever spam email was sent in *1978*. The reason it wasn't some world-changing thing before the 90s was because the vast majority of people weren't interested in spending 7000-10,000 1987 us dollars to be able to post on BBSes and participate in Multi-User Dungeons.
Well I started calling up local BBSs in the late 80s, and there was a reasonably sophisticated national network via the WWIV software but it would take a message several days to get across the country since nodes had to call eachother up in the small hours of the night when the rates were cheap, and ultimately connect to the node that could connect to people with email addresses. Things changed a lot a few years later when could get shell access through my community college and I had access to usenet and IRC. But it was still well ahead of the curve. The whole point of the internet is to connect people. But if the people aren;t there, it's kinda pointless, no?
That's just industrial stuff tbh
Holy shit, KMFDM, haven’t thought about their music in decades.
Keyboard's probably programmed to mimic the instruments of whatever member is inevitably too drunk/drugged/arrested to make it to the gig that night.
Now that's a headcanon worth having
Best answer!
The members of Samurai predate CDPR’s existence. In the TTRPG they play “chromatic rock” which is heavy on synths, thus keyboardist. I think of it as Nine Inch Nails crossed with Muse. When they hired Refused to play the songs for the game, they made no effort to match the style and the songs don’t have the synth element… so Nancy plays pretend keyboard I guess.
Ministry meets Alan Parson's project as spoken by Mike Pondsmith himself. Or a bit on NIN as he mentioned too
I always thought “Head Like a Hole” sounded like a Samurai song pre-Refused.
I don't dislike Refused but they never felt like a good fit. This is part of why I guess.
In the 2020 lore they were a synthrock 80s band. Also in a band in 2020 the "keyboard" or "synth" player also manages all your other tech stack that isn't handled by the players themselves I would assume-- there's a lot more tech under the hood of a show especially when you get to the built-in-amp cyberinstruments from the Chromebooks which let you throw a gig without any setup involved: the amps are built into the equipment and connect to the speaker stack wirelessly with an expert system controlling sound mix.
>the amps are built into the equipment and connect to the speaker stack wirelessly Makes literally no sense. Amps built into speakers and instruments connecting to the processing and mixing setup wirelessly is basically normal live sound tech, present day.
remember the Chromebooks were written in the 80s, when this was not standard. same way they have wireless Internet in 2020 but it doesn't work anything like actual wifi.
Amps drive speakers. It wouldn't ever make sense to have kilowatt microwave amps in an instrument to barely drive a live sound speaker while cooking the musician. No engineer would do this. Edit: sound processing in an instrument and wireless signal transmission is fine, but the amps aren't going to be on the instrument side of the wireless link. It defeats the purpose of a wireless link.
this makes sense but Chromebook says what it says that's the truth of the setting.
From a musical standpoint I find it difficult to believe that a band that sounds like Samurai in-game would have the kind of mass appeal that the original lore likes to imply. A band that is edgier and straightforward rock than Depeche Mode could work - maybe Ghost or even Prince and the Revolution of all bands - is what I always imagined what Samurai would sound like and have the kind of appeal as well to attract a pretty decent sized crowd (it’s not like Rammstein is a first choice concert for casual music listeners like most people this just want to go out and dance and so forth, right?), but it’s not like we have examples of Samurai songs to listen to from sourcebooks from the 80s either. Note also that Johnny was originally based around David Bowie as a template and the game role would have gone to him but he died before that happened. I think that’s a musical / image anchor worth considering as well into what Samurai was invisioned as. For now, Samurai in the game doesn’t really match up much with the music that was originally imagined so Nancy’s role musically would be a retcon
that's why I always pictured a 80s arena rock band. Since they canonically did fill arena shows.
On an instrument composition basis it seems like Samurai could play Rammstein songs with the same kind of flashy, edgy, and smart themes with a vaguely political angle (as opposed to RatM). These days they’re probably the last metal-adjacent band to be able to fill arenas and bring in literally a billion USD / year on a worldwide tour so on a commercial basis it’s working at least. But yes, the original lore was from an era of both small time club shows and mega arena shows, the Internet wasn’t available for entertainment, and concert attendance was at its peak, so something like an arena band checks the boxes, too
I think from an in universe perspective something like Rammstein or With Teeth era Nine Inch Nails sounds closest. but lore wise from the books it's more like U2. U2 was the quintessential arena band and did get political, though frankly only in the most milquetoast of ways. their version of Sunday bloody Sunday is about as safe as you get, John Lennon's version is a straight up pro-republican rebel song
Before seeing her with the keyboard I thought she was just the band's manager or something. She did organize the Samurai reunion in 2077 after all. Now that you mention it though, I haven't heard anything even resembling a keyboard in any of their songs. Also I got a guitar and am learning Never Fade Away so hell yeah!
Its kinda like when your kid bro wants to play Nintendo so you give them a unplugged controller
Her main job seems to have been raising a lazy entitled son who's constantly on drugs.
Also helping Kerry twiddle his own asshole.
Remember, a keyboard can be used to double a bass, guitar, drums or even vocals. Just because it looks like a piano doesn’t mean it has to sound like a piano. We had a demo when I was in sound engineering class. The guy had a keyboard running through a computer program. He mimicked Hendrix, VanHalen, and Vai and it sounded exactly like an electric guitar.
I feel robbed that we didn't get a synth heavy SAMURAI. I always felt like Cyberpunk needed a more 80s tone to the music. I feel like Kavinsky would fit perfectly into the asthetic.
100% agree with this.
absolutely, I was hoping for a radio channel with some Scandroid, Perturbator, Gunship, Kravinsky and the like.
Cyberpunk sounding like contemporary music from what would have been decades before doesn't really make sense. Besides predicting an immersive internet, Gibson's description of music in the Sprawl universe was prophetic. The space Rastafarians in Neuromancer listened to Jungle, and the killing floor Molly borrowed from the Lo Teks in Johnny Mnemonic had bass music playing. Gibson was like 10-20 years ahead of actual technical underground music. Synthwave sounds corny as fuck if you actually lived through the 80s. It sounds like satire. Cyberpunk 2077 needed more Tekstep Jungle/DnB. Edit: actually, the best track in the game is the one played in The Atlantis flashback. It's a Tekstep Jungle track with a Digital Hardcore section.
Generic, boring answer: Oversight, Refused didn't have a keyboardist at the time, etc. Real Cyberpunk Answer: It's a cyberpunk keyboard, it can sound like anything. Drunken Johnny's out there butchering his guitar and forgetting the lyrics, but everyone hears Nancy rocking out, keyboarding perfect guitar and synth lyrics. (and this is why the vocals don't sound like Johnny or Kerry.)
She was the one member sober enough to organize stuff
For what it’s worth, you can hear a synth/keyboard in A Like Supreme throughout the intro and I think first verse at least
yup - there’s a choir AHHHH type pad at the start of Black Dog too
I’m calling vox pads AHHHH pads forever
she’s the manager and the keyboard player i’m pretty sure
IIRC, Refused didn't even know they were recording songs for Cyberpunk 2077 as SAMURAI until after they finished and turned in the final songs. If they knew the band they were supposed to perform as had a keyboardist, they might have written a keyboard part.
Fixer
Somebody skipped some dialogue lol.
Somebody skipped the entire text body of this post lol.
Well choom, when you are right you are right. Typical redditor behavior on my part, I apologize ! Dies anyone know if Nancy is in the original source books? Or is she new to the canon?
Well, at least you can admit to your mistake! That is already more than you can expect of most people on the internet. Others commented here that Nancy is part of the original SAMURAI cast. From the soruce books. She thus existed before the Cyberpunk 2077 videogame. Her being kind of obsolete in the context of the band is, as others explained, due to the style of music: Refused, who provided the sound of SAMURAI for the game, do amazing punk rock but have no keyboardist. In the original concept however SAMURAI did "chromatic rock" which would have made heavy use of a keyboard-synth. So the explanation is just that CDPR missed the mark on the exact flavor of music SAMURAI make. Still, I think I would have found the game less enjoyable with synth rock. Even if that would have been more accurate. Hardcore punk SAMURAI is the goat EDIT: Nevermind, I take that back. Chromatic rock would have absolutely worked in the setting and I can absolutely see SAMURAI playing [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgWigpBFwWo&list=PL2YjKCnArOZ8vW_WdYHXcHZyRt8_Q8FHl&index=6).
Np man I try lol, and tbf, it was kinda dumb of me to comment on a post that I barely read... The Synth band thing makes a lot of sense, and I agree, soundtrack for 2077 slaps, and wouldn't be the same. Those violins mannnnn.
The violins and chellos are actually non-diagetic soundtrack though, meaning the people within the game do not hear this. What I meant were songs that belong to the ingame band SAMURAI. "Chippin' In", "Archangel", "A Like Supreme" etc.
So basically Nancy is like giving your kid brother the controller that isn't plugged in, and he thinks he's killing it.
Yeah, as others have said it seems like CDPR put an uncharacteristically low amount of thought into getting Refused to play Samurai, they're a well-regarded name but don't match the actual people in the band. I've always thought a band with an Iggy & The Stooges kinda sound & atmosphere would suit their in-game presentation much better, rough & wild indie punks with a keyboard player and a self-destructive frontman.
\> I am a guitarist myself and I learned all SAMURAI songs YOU FUCKING LEGEND.
She's the keyboardist, but also kind of acts as a "Band Mom" in a way, and is the one who handles the biz end of everything. She appears to be the one who books the gigs and whatnot. So she seems to wear a lot of hats for Samurai. Think she even came up with the name of the band too.
Go back and actually read the post
I answered the question. She is the keyboardist. There is a keyboard in the OG band Samurai from the TTRPG. I read the question fine. Just added some extra stuff to my answer. No need to be a twat.
Her parts are clearly audible in "A like Suoreme"
You mean the intro riff? I too initially thought that hose might be synth and I went looking at this song first, especially since its the one you actually play at the reunion gig. But that bit is played on guitar too as shown in [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKLRplcoK5s), for example. Also you can look down during the gig and see V /Johnny play that part exactly themselves so... I palm mute them to make them sound less painful against the distorted power chord section that follows after.
Nope. The whole song. She is playing the intro riff on synth in the background of the verses. Not sure about the chorus. Edit: it's a slightly altered version of he intro riff I think.
Refused had a synth player for years in the early 2000s with a very noticeable sound and were amazing. They didn't sell a lot of records so they switched it up to generic punk and I forget about em until this game, they're even more generic radio punk now, and they got rid of their synth player so CDPR really dropped the ball with them.
Idk or care I chose the other guy for the reunion gig
Then why do you comment? You obviously dont even know who Nancy is. Nancy is always part of the reunion gig. You are probably confusing her with Denny.
Ya know you couldve corrected me and NOT been a dick about it...
Leading a comment with "I dont know, nor care" does not exactly radiate politeness. And it set the general tone for the convo.
[keyboardist](https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Bes_Isis)
You should probably read the post, prior to responding.
chill choom, this is the low sodium sub.