Thought this might be of interest to a few here:
Looks like an absolute gear nightmare, but also a gear-lover’s dream. Respect for using so many real synths live!
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Looks like an absolute ffing nightmare. It’s genius that you can keep this afloat. Was very impressed when I heard them live. But to see how the sausage is made, is bonkers.
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I knew they used them, but i genuinely lost count of the microKorgs going around the stage … interesting to see the DSI desktop evolver in amongst all of that and that the bassist/percussionist is rocking his Behringer MS-1 guitar stylee
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There’s also an SH 01a in another corner. I feel vindicated how good the 101 and boutique are! It’s generally interesting that they seem to use an interesting blend of pretty cheap new and probably pretty expensive vintage gear. Not a lot of the usual suspects around either, I don’t know much if this stuff.
Oh and I really liked the idea of each band member having their „zone“ and the whole stage being a party fed by 50 speakers.
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I think the microKorgs service a few needs for them, covering some analog ground admirably … and by offloading those patches from other rare/spendy gear to the korgs they keep their footprint and financial risk smaller … probably a different matter in the studio
i imagine (i’ve no idea) the SH01A’s have presets then as i can’t see them fiddling with those small controls to get sounds dialled in. - even with the few modular racks i suppose they are there for a handful of songs each and likely see minor adjustment
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Yes they do, but changing them is something I‘d not like to do a lot on stage. I can imagine they just use it for one track like you said or just keep it in manual mode and leave the patch mostly as is with a few slider changes. It still has that great WYSIWYG interface and the faders aren’t too bad imo, so I can see them making basic patches live as well.
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How long do you think it takes them to set all that up and break it down?
I suspect a lot of the setup is based on using a pre-setup synth for a particular track to avoid any setup and messing about during a gig. Unless it’s very simple preset selection on micro korg etc
I also expect a lot is played live instead of playing patterns except a few of the bits on the sample / mpc area.
Their live gigs seem ‘very live’ and not largely muting / unmuting on a mixing desk and triggering a few live samples like many electronic / dance acts ( Chem brothers / prodigy / underworld etc )
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I really have to say, when they set up for a residency I really had no clue that the name was so literal, we got a Sound System and it felt sooooo good.
I do love how they can down get to the essentials of what they need. There are rarities, but the sounds they capture from commodity synths, wow! I’d love to hear them nerd out about bang-for-the-buck winners.
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Love the chopped microkorg!
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I think it’s more that the MicroKorg was just what they had when they started, so they know it inside and out. Plus it will have all the sounds they used and liked early on.
No point in ‘upgrading’ and not being able to get the same sounds if they’re important to you. MK is a beast for the price though.
I saw a gear tour with Mick Thomson from Slipknot - he still has an old, budget rack FX unit from the 90s in his chain, because it’s the only way to get some of the sounds from their S/T album.
I’d referred to this article where he mentions how/why they utilise the mKs fwiw - he explains they never generated any sounds on it - only recreated existing ones …
The outlier is the Korg microKORG. We use that live for almost everything, and I can program that idiot box like nobody’s business. Honestly, I can get nearly any sound out of it that I need. I make sounds on the grip of powerful vintage synths in the studio, then copy them remarkably effectively on the Korg for live. It’s an amazing machine. I’ve NEVER “generated” a sound on it. I don’t like it for that at all. But as a clinical tool for copying live sounds, there’s never been anything like it. I just wish there was a 16 voice version...
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Ok that’s actually genius. In a mix live you don’t need all the nuances of the original while being “close enough”.
I have one around, don’t use it not because it sounds bad, but because it’s a nightmare to Programm.
Just mit fun. But if I would know what I want… I could see it working.
At the same time it seems antithetical to the maximalist approach on gear. Why have so many variants of stuff and then skimp on those sounds.
I’m impressed, but also questioning if this is really necessary or if they could achieve the same with a 30% cut in gear on stage.
I‘ve missed this. Really interesting take on the Microkorg. Most people would probably use it as more of a preset machine but never to make your own patches on it. But the idea of finding the sound on a synth that’s more fun to program but then recreate it on a Microkorg is fascinating. You‘ll still end up with a sound that you won’t be able to tweak much, so I just sample full notes from my more complex synths into DT II and make poly patches this way that sound exactly like the original (with obvious limitations of course).
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When sampling you don’t acces to stuff like mod wheel to change parameters or how the DSLR behaves with key presses, you can approximate that with samples, but it still sound more rigid. I think doing it with the microkorg is a middle ground, not zweakable during the show but the modulations are more true.
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three of those sawn-off mKs on that stage ! …
and one unmodded one, and a MS2000 keyboard and a MS2000 rack (basically what the voice engine of the microKorg is)
so that’s 6 iterations of that sound engine - i thought i counted more microKorgs, but it was all the camera angles reframing them !
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Ah! That’s exactly what I wanted to read about in more detail. Still, does confirm that they’ve found their perfect balance for crisp live freqs, arps, all the fizzybuzziness they represent on stage.
I wrote my first real track on a MS2000, I don’t think I’ll ever have the space for every engine I love but one day it’d be nice to play a whole set with something so minimal as the MicroKorg.
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Just watched this video and it’s very impressive.
Can’t imagine logistics to set everything up
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Setting up is one thing. But travelling ?
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