man, live gear can really get out of hand

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:39 am

quite some time back I started wanting to make LIVE music using a whole bunch of fun toys, so I started listening to a ton of demo's and buying up the gear I liked best.
I got to the point where I was thinking my live set up would be the mc-202, x0xb0x, nord micro modular, monome 128 and a laptop. already a bit extreme right there right? well then I decided I had to have the padkontrol as part of the set up. then comes effects.. I've got a 8 space rack of gear going. getting pretty out of hand now... then I add a delay pedal for the micro modular and I start thinking "maybe I should use the kaoss pad too..since I already have one, and it's pretty handy"

then tonight I read about people who love the akai s612, and since I already own one I dusted it off and started tweaking with it tonight and it adds a dimension to the music that I was missing like crazy, that is one strange machine when you run it through a bunch of effects, it's really nutty. really great for focus chopping and dragging those faders slowly gets really nice stretching effects.

thats way too much f*ing stuff to ever dream of bringing to a live gig, but I'm on this "I wanna make it all live" kick and I don't know if I could enjoy it any other way.

this is just a rant really. really enjoying myself in the bedroom but it's just getting ridiculous to think I'll ever be able to play a show with it all.

what the hell do people do when they wanna make music with machines anyway? just mix it all down in ableton and do a dj set? what about if I'm not into that?

pepezabala · Post by **pepezabala** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 6:31 am

you will probably end up like this dude:

while the idea originally was this one:

I am actually not quite sure which one is better for your back.

This one would be optimum, when it comes to transport and avoiding to ruin your back:

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 6:34 am

that first picture, thats exactly what I want to avoid.

I mean think about trying to fly out to a show with that much gear, I'm not signed so I don't have a private jet and I would sooner strangle a kitten before I checked a bag at an airport with all that gear in it.

Cyberstar · Post by **Cyberstar** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 6:34 am

Man you should see all the shit I carry on stage when me and my brother do an all hardware set...

2 roland mv-8800
novation super nova II
roland jp-8000
nord lead 3
roland fantom x6
3 kaoss pads (kp3)
shermen filter bank (2x2) V2
monomachine
machine drum
an old akai S-5000 sampler
mackie cfx 20 mkII
and a rack of effects

call me old school or crazy lol but I really don't like using computers on stage I guess it's because I come from a time before such thing's
it's a pain in the arse to lug around but it works for me

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 6:37 am

Cyberstar wrote:Man you should see all the shit I carry on stage when me and my brother do an all hardware set...

2 roland mv-8800
novation super nova II
roland jp-8000
nord lead 3
roland fantom x6
3 kaoss pads (kp3)
shermen filter bank (2x2) V2
monomachine
machine drum
an old akai S-5000 sampler
mackie cfx 20 mkII
and a rack of effects

call me old school or crazy lol but I really don't like using computers on stage I guess it's because I come from a time before such thing's
it's a pain in the arse to lug around but it works for me

hmm..... so do people actually do this? I don't wanna be the only asshole left that brings this much gear, besides you that is.

to help things along I did plan on buying duplicates of everything in my rack so I don't have to entirely break down the studio. but that'll only be like $400 so it's totally doable and would be well worth it not to have to pull my mixer off the rack and unhook SOOOO MUCH stuff from it and then have to figure out how it all goes back together. cables are a f*ing headache

adventurepants_ · Post by **adventurepants_** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 6:56 am

check out LivePA.org.

its a great source for hardware types. lots of great info from peeps who gig with hardware.

furrybum · Post by **furrybum** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 6:56 am

Our setup is:

Electribe EMX
Electribe ESX
2 MicroKorgs
MS2000
MS2000B
MC 505
SP 303
Lexicon Effects
Alesis Midiverb
Aphex aural exciter (Gives guitars a nice buzz)
Guitar
Bass
Laptop
32 Channel Desk

Sucks to transport and set up but is awesome fun to play with. We really should be sponsored by Korg too.

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:03 am

so i guess the question is should not be "should I bring all this to a show" but rather "how should I bring all this to a show?"

I'm thinking if I just get some plywood and velcro all the desktop machines to it then I can get a secondary rack of duplicate effects and a small mixer also velcro'd to the plywood and then I could carry most everything in one one go without having to dismantle the rack of gear in the studio

furrybum · Post by **furrybum** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:07 am

We're not nearly that organized.

A bunch of quiklock stands and some boards painted black. Most of the kit transported in bags

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:12 am

furrybum wrote:We're not nearly that organized.

A bunch of quiklock stands and some boards painted black. Most of the kit transported in bags

I've done that for smaller set ups but for something this big I would definetly go the full organization route with everything in 2 movable sections or something.

Cyberstar · Post by **Cyberstar** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 8:30 am

In our case we had a mate who is a welder by trade custom build our modular system, so remove a few locking pins put everything in a custom rolling rig and it's all done.

I leave all cables attached to my keyboards just unplug from the mixer, the rack stuff is in a rolling rack case so unplug a few cables stick em' in the case close it up and roll.

It's only hard at first once you get a good mobile hardware rig and you go out and gig with it, over time you'll get it refined. We've done it for a few years now so it's second nature. But there are those days when you don't feel like moving it luckily there are 4 of us, with me and my brother lugging the most shit besides the drummer that is.

lunabass · Post by **lunabass** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 9:53 am

i think the only question you need to ask yourself is if you think you will tweak it all during a live set or not. if you dont actually get hands on with a piece of equipment then you have to ask yourself if the sounds would be better just coming straight out of live instead of lugging the gear around.

YILA · Post by **YILA** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 10:53 am

my big rig is

Nord 3
Korg micro
Novation Remote
Trigger finger
Guitar
Amp
fx pedals
Soundcard
Laptop...

MY small rig is

Laptop
Alesis Photon

Visually, the crowd can see exactly what your doing at what time, but i dont think ill be doing it like that again... carrying all that at 4am and setting it up aint going to happen, everyones out of there box at that time anyway!

lunabass · Post by **lunabass** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 10:57 am

...take the micro modular for example. i use one of these out live myself and love it but i mainly use it for vocoder duties.

if i only used my micro for playing some sequences or as a sound module for bass sounds etc then personally i'd just sample the thing and fire it off as a loop in live... it's not like the micro has much hands on control. it means one less synth, power supply, audio and midi leads i need to carry.

of course all of this is only applicable if you intend on actually using ableton live in your rig in some capacity.

funky shit · Post by **funky shit** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 1:03 pm

Never been to a chemical brothers gig then?