Table Beats mkI
Now that I have time in between gigs, I’m setting up a live table beats set-up in my music room, my little home office. The idea is kind of an infinite music machine, a jam machine wit gold of traveling around town to micro gigs, anywhere and everywhere. . The big questions are what’s the equipment and what do I have to do to prepare to make something as seamless as possible.
Pictured here is kind of Mark One. Two Teenage Engineering samplers, the EP-40 and the EP-133, the Zoom L-6 mixer, a USB hub, and my iPad mini. Not pictured is an Anker battery. Even the journey to this has been long and ridiculous, so for a few entries I want to go through my thinking here.
This 'Entry One' is overall setup.
I’ve talked a long time ago about the Analog Unison Performer Case, and it’s been really interesting because the size is almost perfect--and the 'almost' comes into play on every single setup I try. This one seems to work for a number of reasons.
Why is what's here, here? I have more stuff, and don’t we all have more stuff, good God. Anyway, the real main reason is that can I see all of this in all conditions, light, dark, whatever. Adding a light is not a problem, but sunlight is the biggest issue. I have a Push 3 standalone. I have an SP-404 mkII. Neither of these work in sunlight. Neither work in indirect sunlight. A huge problem. Both are more capable solutions than what I am taking about here. But all the lights get washed out in almost any kind of outside scenario. Experience speaking here...
If you’re trying to do this kind of thing, this is boutique music. I’m talking little corner, little park, little hotel lobby. This is chill. This is making a feel. This is establishing a mood. I’m not gonna say “a vibe” here, but my job is to make everything cooler and to be easy.
That means small. One table. Out of the way. No wires everywhere. Not bugging people about where the plug is. Battery operated, that’s essential. Easy to set up, that’s real essential. And it has to be cheap and cheerful.
The reason it has to be cheap and cheerful is a function of, well, since I can’t use the Push 3, then let’s go cheap so I don’t have to worry about anything. If you’ve played gigs at all, being able to leave after loading is a big deal. You want something you can leave behind and not worry about, and this is certainly that case.
Everything could be upgraded, but this is stuff that I have, stuff that I want to use, and stuff that I want to learn deeply. That’s why we’re here. It all sets up and works.
Infinitely back-up-able. Infinitely replaceable at any Guitar Center.
Everything is powered off the external Anker battery. I’ve taken care of two out of three RF issues. I guess it’s RF noise where the battery is making noise. With the ground loop, I’ve got to buy one more ground loop isolator so I can aux out of the mixer into one of the samplers to sample.
This is a really excellent setup. It’s super versatile. It can be simple. I can go super complex.m The EP-40 is interesting. It actually acts as a keyboard, as does the iPad. You can do a whole crazy sub-mix into the AUM mixer. The iPad works really well with the L-6 mixer. It’s just so flexible.
I hope these posts will be interesting to other people as I go on this journey. This is what I’m doing. It may all change tomorrow. It may change to Push 3 and a little black cape I put over it for sunlight, but I doubt that’s gonna happen. It’s a little goth.
Since I don’t have anything but the DJ gig at the end of the month, number one, I’m gonna try not to book anything. I really want to figure out if this setup works because I think it’s got a crazy amount of potential. It can be as simple or as complicated as I want.
It ticks all the boxes. I’ve got to be organized. I’ve got to be put together. I’ve got to know this stuff deeply. There’s nothing here that’s so hard to learn that it can’t be learned very quickly with the knowledge I already have. And it’s gonna make some cool music. I can record it all.
The other thing this does is it gives me an excuse to take a break from listening to last month’s 31 demos, which I may extend to all of February. (a whole other entry) That pushes the cassette release to April etc.
Anyway, I hope you guys follow along on this table beats boutique. I had a really good name and I forgot it, so I’ve gotta write it down the next time I think of something good. It’s like boutique table beats or some garbage like that.
Anyway, stay tuned. Please.