Yet more musical enquiries
August 24, 2020 3:02 AM Subscribe
The ultimate rig. Most of my questions here seem to revolve around the potential or properties of music gear, a consequence of increased acquisition and experimentation in middle age. But everyone here has great advice, and so I turn to you all again. What's the best way of achieving the following...
Without wishing to become too much of a 'one man band,' what's the best contemporary solution for triggering samples, synths and loops with one's feet while playing guitar? I'm looking for compact, robust and flexible gear with a minimum of cable spaghetti (this may be asking too much). Guitar should be handled by a multi-fx pedal with a MIDI controller board (like the Morningstar MC8) - I'm hoping to use the MC8 to drive the sequencer/sampler/whatever. My question is what should that device be?
Without wishing to become too much of a 'one man band,' what's the best contemporary solution for triggering samples, synths and loops with one's feet while playing guitar? I'm looking for compact, robust and flexible gear with a minimum of cable spaghetti (this may be asking too much). Guitar should be handled by a multi-fx pedal with a MIDI controller board (like the Morningstar MC8) - I'm hoping to use the MC8 to drive the sequencer/sampler/whatever. My question is what should that device be?
Response by poster: Yes, I should have specified. Ideally I don't want to have a laptop on stage, so that rules out any DAW based solutions. Mind you, performing isn't exactly going to happen anytime soon...
posted by srednivashtar at 6:37 AM on August 24, 2020
posted by srednivashtar at 6:37 AM on August 24, 2020
The Line 6 looping pedals have been very popular with the foot switch looping crowd.
posted by Candleman at 7:28 AM on August 24, 2020
posted by Candleman at 7:28 AM on August 24, 2020
So do you want to record your own loops in real time and play them back with pedals? As mentioned above, that's what a looper does and there are several good hardware options. Or do you strictly want to trigger pre-recorded loops/samples?
If the latter, is it always going to be audio? Or do you want "midi loops" that feed into hardware synths? Or something else?
posted by RustyBrooks at 9:01 AM on August 24, 2020
If the latter, is it always going to be audio? Or do you want "midi loops" that feed into hardware synths? Or something else?
posted by RustyBrooks at 9:01 AM on August 24, 2020
Response by poster: It's a bit of both. Perhaps trigger some pre-recorded wavs and/or stop start a looper, as well as triggering sequences. In the interests of space, something that can generate the sequences and the synths would be preferable.
posted by srednivashtar at 10:17 AM on August 24, 2020
posted by srednivashtar at 10:17 AM on August 24, 2020
Best answer: Thing is, I think the device that has that sort of flexibility and processing power is a laptop - if you really want to go down the rabbit hole you could use Pure Data, which could do everything you want and things you've not thought of yet.
(Also, it's free, so you could install it now and experiment. If you had success with it and wanted to take it out, you could run it on an inexpensive dedicated laptop, maybe running a media-friendly flavour of Linux).
The Organelle runs Pure Data patches.
And of course there's a lot of This Sort Of Thing buzz surrounding the Empress Zoia.
posted by Grangousier at 12:22 AM on August 25, 2020 [1 favorite]
(Also, it's free, so you could install it now and experiment. If you had success with it and wanted to take it out, you could run it on an inexpensive dedicated laptop, maybe running a media-friendly flavour of Linux).
The Organelle runs Pure Data patches.
And of course there's a lot of This Sort Of Thing buzz surrounding the Empress Zoia.
posted by Grangousier at 12:22 AM on August 25, 2020 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks, that's definitely the direction I'm heading. MOD Devices also make interesting looking stuff as well.
posted by srednivashtar at 1:04 AM on August 25, 2020
posted by srednivashtar at 1:04 AM on August 25, 2020
I just finished building a version of this. I have a small eurorack system based around the 1010 Bitbox for sample playback. I built a pair of foot controllers to send triggers, gates, and CV. The whole thing works pretty great. Shoot me a meMail, I'd be happy to share the design and code if you're interested in building something similar!
posted by TheCoug at 7:30 AM on August 25, 2020
posted by TheCoug at 7:30 AM on August 25, 2020
This may be a personal limitation of mine that you do not share, but I find that unless I play music with other people, I never get a song finished or really accomplish anything.
posted by w0mbat at 1:37 PM on August 25, 2020
posted by w0mbat at 1:37 PM on August 25, 2020
Response by poster: Thanks TheCoug and w0mbat. I think that build sounds amazing but would be beyond my tech ability, although the Blackbox looks great as well. And yes, this is for playing with others (although lockdown has put paid to that for a while) - it's all part of trying to turn a three piece into something with broader sonic horizons.
posted by srednivashtar at 3:11 PM on August 25, 2020
posted by srednivashtar at 3:11 PM on August 25, 2020
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posted by RustyBrooks at 6:12 AM on August 24, 2020 [2 favorites]