#getbackinthevan

You forget that not only is there music, but there's also life and other things you have to be responsible for. All I wanna do is go in a hole and work on this tour… There's only a few days left so every moment is vital.

This week was crazy because I basically started over with my live rig. There were things on the MPC that I didn’t know how to do, which took days to work out. Things that would take literally three seconds on a computer. But it's been so worth it to figure it out only with hardware.

I've started putting eight drums total out to the Circuits. I have control of so much and it’s fun to be able to kill parts quickly using the mutes on the mixer page on each Circuit. Bass patches from the album have been sampled into the OP1 so I can play back and tweak. Everything is speaking really well.

A breakthrough was copying the exact same MIDI patches from certain parts to the synths on the Circuits. And then just turning as many of the macro knobs as possible until something wild happened. Some of them were wild percussive rhythms, some weirdo synth patches. It’s dope. Then I have all the songs in key/scale so I can jam out at any time.

We are used to a world where audio time-stretching/warping is easy with Ableton Live. We take it for granted. I thought the MPC had a phrase sampling feature, which it does, but it’s very archaic, and not quite usable like Ableton is for live sample tweaking.The hardest part was figuring that out — the easy option was to go back to having the computer on stage, but I didn’t wanna go that route. 

I got an Octatrack yesterday to solve that problem. It's working well so far, but it’s another thing to learn. Also got a Make Noise Ø-Coast coming, because I realize I didn't have any device to make laserbeams and do crazy shit! 

The breakthrough has just been knowing that I can do this, and it’s gonna be really hard, but I see the glimpses of when I’ll just be up there and it's all working effortlessly. I've been just trying to know every button on every machine and how it flows with my body. I've always felt like muscle memory comes first, then everything comes naturally from there. So I go as SLOW AS POSSIBLE while I can, and when it comes time to cram hopefully things work out!

Some cabling tips: First things first, buy gaff tape. Measure out your cables, label them. Use color codes, do anything humanly possible so you know anytime you pull out two wires it’s second nature where they go.

I’ve got all my stuff labeled. Circuit A, Circuit B, a line of tape down the Mackie mixer so I can see which channel is which in the dark, etc. The goal is to not think about any of that so then you can use the mind to go further with creation.

At the same time we have been ordering tons of shit off Amazon for the video show, working on the album release, trying to promote the shows, do press, get the album out.

It's all I can really ask for — hope 2 see u out there.

The MPC has everybody talking. The circuits are giving me tons of options. Four drums on each side, all of them samples from the jams on my new album. OP1 is playing patches directly from the jams via keymapped samples.

I’ve been sending that exact same MIDI to synth 1 and synth 2 on the circuits to layer… once u start turning knobs anything can happen.

It’s a work in progress. Look out for some pedals on the auxes on the mackie coming soon, plus the synced up modular and prolly some more.

I’m having fun.