heh, my favourite subject ever!! :)

Hey Dustin! I've got an Attack People liveset on my drive somewhere, listened to it a lot a few months ago- you guys kick serious ass!

erm - here's a pic of my live rig: http://mux.ca/images/live_rig_-_20040225.jpg

For reasons I'm tired of explaining, I don't use soft synths in the studio, and I don't like the idea of using a laptop on stage. It's a personal preference thing, and I'm really not interested in arguments over hardware vs. software - both schools have merit, and I've made my choice; I will not judge anyone for their choices.

Live, lately, I've been using an Akai MPC1000 for sequencing MIDI loops and running single-hit percussive samples. I don't use sampled loops - well, ok, only one loop, and that's a synth thing off my Nord Micro Modular that I kinda screwed up the patch at the 11th hour before a big show. The MPC goes MIDI-out into a three-way splitter, with one cable going to my floor rack with a Waldorf Pulse Plus doing basslines (SICK thick punchy bass) and an Ensoniq DP/4+ doing effects.

The next lead off the splitter goes out to my MIDI-modded Roland SH-101, with SynHouse MIDIJack. The SH-101 does all my acid leads - the signal from the 101 goes through a ProCo Turbo Rat distortion pedal, into a Boss DD-3 digital delay, and one half of a DBX 166XL compressor.

The last MIDI cable goes to my modded Simmons SDS-800 - modded for MIDI input, trigger outs (driving custom trigger-input strobelights), and an extra envelope on the kick, making a much tighter, punchier kick drum. The kick also goes into one half of the DBX compressor, and the other four voices on the Simmons (analogue snare and two toms) go directly to the mixer.

From the Simmons MIDI-thru, it goes to the Korg ER-1 providing high-frequency percussion (hats and noise and such), then thru to the Nord Micro Modular, providing rhythmic synth nonsense as background accompanyment, fleshing out the sound a little more.

All audio goes to a Mackie CR-1604 battlemixer, with the main bus inserts going through an Electrix FilterQueen, EQ Killer, and RNC compressor.

I love live-PA, and performing for dancefloors is my favourite thing in the world. I've really only been getting into the whole "recording" aspect the last few years, but when I was playing in a guitar band at bars on the east coast, then was suddenly bitten by the electronic music bug, I knew from the start that I had to play live techno. :)

Was posted in the "Techno Filez" directory, but here it is again - a quick snippet from a month ago, playing at a club here in Vancouver, Canada. A Wednesday night, and a small crowd of about 50 people, but very supportive. :)

http://lfo.fsck.org/~drew/mux_-_coll...y_20040225.mp3