kfw testing his "live performance" setup, 01/12/12 (#1)

"... first attempt at documenting the 2012 "live performance" setup ; what you're seeing / hearing here is a monorocket mx-6 case (i.e. the lovingly-monikered "voight-kampff machine") chock full of digital & analogue eurorack synthesizer modules (360hp of designs by the harvestman, makenoise, intellijel, cwejman, synthesis technology, doepfer, tiptop, plan b, dave jones, 4ms, bubblesound, and division6) fed through a radial stereo direct inject box into a pair of old/busted event studio monitors (replicating the average club / gallery pa system, right on down to the "busted") ...

... a great deal of time was spent organizing the system into this current layout (weeks) which allows for endless reconfigurations of essentially 5 different "master" patches :: a feedback / self-influenced clock, a 50's-style ring-mod heavy "space station" with "tape" echo, a 60's / 70's buchla-inspired "bongo" machine, an early 80's low-bit digital wavetable section & digital shift register pitched-noise generator, and 80's / 90's 8/16-bit digital recording, playback, & manipulation station) ...

the case currently weighs a ton (it's full) but it does fit beautifully in the overhead compartment of a mid-to-large sized airplane (although i did have to strap it in to an empty seat on a puddle jumper to memphis recently) ; this plus a bag of patch cables & sunscreen and i can entertain a crowd of festive beach-goers for hours ... add a 300-watt step-up convertor & it's ready for the european festival stage. there's even a video module in there that i usually set up in a huge feedback loop (720tvl analogue camera mounted on the synth-case gets fed into the module, module out into a projector, projector to screen, camera trained on-axis on screen ; see the st. louis "white flag projects" videos here on vimeo for evidence of that) that is also driven & controlled by the same clock/modifiers as the audio section ...

before you ask ; yes, it does drones :: gorgeous, endlessly self-automating, ir-repeatable drones of no maximum strength ... i can also dial back the "human feel" of the clock to yield perfectly minimal thump for days (DAYS) ; it does all of that very well ... but generally speaking, these days i tend to choose to focus on a melding of ALL of these things over any given 20/30 minute period on any given night ... variety is the spice of life ; chaotic, light-speed self-automating electrical music systems are the scotch bonnet of mine right now ...

this video was shot with a canon digital rebel t2i mounted about 9 feet off the ground on top of an "on-stage" microphone stand (put it on a raxxess "music stand" clipped to the boom - had to wedge a roll of chapstick under the lens to get the "lip" of the stand out of the frame) ; sound is mono, using the built-in mic from the camera (want it in stereo ? buy a record. or a cd. or a tape. or download something from the internet) ... "