Clock Direction and (not) Losing My Mind
So my current solo live setup I’ve gone over a bit here, but the L6 mixer from Zoom has been a real nice add, and bringing in the iPad brings in a whole other world. iOS recording and synths have come such a long way.
In addition to that I’ve got the EP-40 Rhythm and the Behringer Crave. I think I’ve also talked about the fact that I randomly bought the Crave off Marketplace for $100 and I really loved it. I love the form factor, the fact that it’s flat on the table. Moog should’ve done that.
I’m running my timing from Crave (big knob). It’s syncing the Riddim, and I think I can take MIDI from the Rhythm into the L6 and send time to the iPad through the USB-C.
This is why I make myself crazy, by the way. All these combinations. If I’m not careful, and I’m sure you, dear reader, are the same, you can sit around and think about it and then never do any actual music.
That’s why this morning I went and had like a two-hour jam. Maybe it was just one hour, but I got everything synced up and working and just feeling it, and it was great. That’s how the Crave ended up sending time to the Rhythm and not vice versa. It just feels better.
The whole point is to play and to rehearse and finish the songs and get the new solo live set together. If I’m just sitting around thinking about my set up--and not doing, I think about it all at work too and it makes me crazy.
So I’m going to do, not think. Work this setup for a week and report back, but it feels great. Sounds good. I think it’s entertaining.
I’m going with just a kick and a clicky snare. I’m reticent about doing that live because I hear people down on Sixth Street with basically live bands tracks and acoustic guitar. It makes me crazy. But this is very different.
At my last solo show I even had somebody come up and say, hey, you should get a little rhythm box, that would be cool. As a bass player, it is cool. If I have the other stuff going on, then I can take leads and jam things out so I’m not playing 50 songs. I can play half as many and have it actually be more entertaining and better for the overall feel and for the events I’m playing at.
Party on.