Live Performance.

For my second track, I decided to go through with doing a live performance. My original plan was to book out two modular racks, the Drumbrute, the TR-09, the Prophet 8, and Kork Minilog which is exactly what I did. Although, after I had already collected my hardware and got into the studio I realised the studio I was in didn’t have a ID interface and only a Focusrite. Therefore, I was only able to have to inputs so I had to think on my feet.

Out of all the equipment, I decided to go through with using the Drumbrute as my drum and 808 source on one of the inputs, and for my melodies/FX sounds I used two of the exact same modular racks which I used the Plaits modules as the sound source and the Eloquencer as my sequencer.

I began by patching the clock output from the Drumbrute into the clock input on the Eloquencer so I could have my drums and all my synth sounds synced to 118 bpm. I then patched all 4 Plaits modules into 4 separate sequence tracks on the Eloquencer so I could programme each sound individually and then outputted those individual channels into a mixer. I wanted to have some reverb and/or delay being applied to some of my synth sounds, so I sent one of the Plaits modules outputs to an FX unit first and then to the mixer so I could add reverb/delay. As I only had two FX units, I sent two Plaits into one FX unit by using a headphone splitter. the only downfall to this was that now I had the same effect on two completely different sounds and that the volume level on the mixer now also controlled both of these sounds.

I didn’t want both sounds playing throughout the whole of track, my intentions were to bring them in and out gradually as the track progressed. I therefore came to a conclusion to overcome this problem; on the Eloquencer there’s a mute function that allows you to mute whichever sequence you choose, so I then just muted/un-muted the tracks as I needed to.

Finally, I proceeded to create a drum pattern using the Drumbrute, which I have to say is my favourite drum machine that i’ve used before. I used every drum available on the Drumbrute so I could have a full varied drum pattern. Once I was happy with the loop I had created, I started my live recording and gradually built the track up, bringing elements in and out and really just having fun.

Watch this video below to see some of the live performance.