Daaaaamn. Eleven months since the last update. Costa Rica is now a faint memory, and Erin and I have settled back into the Vancouver lifestyle. After almost three years without a live performance, I finally got myself booked for the Listening Room event in the Planetarium. It was an awesome set, lots of people dancing even given the lack of a proper dancefloor!
The live rig (first three pictures) has been tweaked, engineered, hammered out, torn down, reconstructed, and finally has emerged, phoenix-like, as a finely-tuned collection of machines working in perfect harmony. The Alesis MMT-8 sequencer is driving the heavily-modified Simmons SDS-800, which provides kickdrum, "snare" and tom sounds... the snare is quoted, because it's more of a quirky synth-drum than a snare - it makes a vicious, cutting highhat sound when taunted. Also being controlled by the MMT-8 is the mighty Waldorf Pulse Plus singing baritone, and the venerable Roland SH-101 providing leads and the occasional percussive noise.
In the mixer rack, I've got the Mackie CR-1604 battlemixer, a pair of Electrix "ModFX" for Stupid DJ Tricks(tm) (hey, if we're expected to go toe-to-toe with DJs, we at least get some of their cheats!), a Rockman Stereo Chorus/Delay for weirdness, and an RNC compressor for the whole mix. The newest addition to the rack, the DBX 166XL compressor, adds extra punch to the kickdrum and SH-101.
In the floor rack, there's a power conditioner, Alesis Datadisk MIDI backup thingey (MMT-8's are known to become amnesiatic when stressed), Waldorf Pulse Plus, and Ensoniq DP/4+ multifx box.
Visible in the synth rack (fourth picture, aka "the stuff that doesn't come out to live shows") is a Simmons SDS-9 (younger and slightly nerdier brother to the SDS-800), Boss BX-600 mixer, ultra-rare Yamaha SY-1 (the first "synth" Yamaha ever made!), Roland Juno-60, and a very tempermental Korg PolySix.
Lastly, the desktop workstation - this is not only where I spend my studio time, but also where I work for my fulltime dayjob as a Linux network administrator.
