Hardware for Live Dubstep, Suggestions?

[Noddism]

I have always loved heavy music, and I find no better feeling than performing for a crowd. I have been playing keys in a metal band for about 3 years using a Casio wk-3500. It has worked so far for the sound we are going for however it is extremely limited when it comes to creating synth sounds. Around three months ago I started producing dubstep and the other day I brought a track in to a practice and played it for the guys. They loved it and immediately starting writing heavy, powerful breakdowns over my song. After listening to what we had come up with I was struck with the desire to replicate it live, and not just by using decks or a sampler. I really want to find a synth that i can use to play dubstep live with my band. The image i have in my head is a metal group that does what pendulum does with DnB, but with metal/dubstep. My price range is $1500-$2300, I am not afraid of anything that is not user friendly or complicated. I love to learn how to play new instruments and i want to do this the right way. Let me know what you think and hit me up with suggestions for hardware that would be right for the job.

[Prefoma]

The image i have in my head is a metal group that does what pendulum does with DnB, but with metal/dubstep.

...Oh dear

[Noddism]

I know, sounds brutal right ;P

http://www.myspace.com/immurethesaint If your curious about the metal

[deadly_habit]

I know, sounds brutal right ;P

http://www.myspace.com/immurethesaint If your curious about the metal

after listening to your myspace, pendulum, really? really?
























































really?

[Noddism]

I didn't mean I wanted to sound like pendulum, not at all. People would laugh at me >_<. I was trying to use them as an example of how to take music that is produced in a studio and re-create it live.

[deadly_habit]

do you want to use current instruments or learn new gear?

[Noddism]

Learn new gear

[deadly_habit]

honestly all you really need is a powerful laptop and some mid controllers, most live pa acts don't tend to tout about a bunch of gear

[Noddism]

I did a little searching and stumbled upon korg's kaoss line. Looks like I might be able to get what I want out of a combination of the Kaoss pad 3 and The Kaossilator pro. To get both would be under a grand as well.

[wormcode]

For something like that I think you should check out Muse Receptors if you want to use computer software without really having to have a "computer" with you. It's a good linux based rackmount VST host (you can hook up a monitor if you want). Really powerful if you hook up a couple of MIDI controllers to it, like an interface with knobs+sliders, and one keyboard to play. You can run something like Kontakt on it with all the patches you make at home, so you can easily recreate the music live by breaking it down into a few parts and separate patches to tweak and play live. A Receptor, MIDI controller, with some software like Kontakt or a couple of synths is right in that price range. I would say to also check out MPCs and Roland gear like MV8000 but it's basically the same concept minus live plugin support.

I used to do it live with hardware, and it's really fun and inspiring, but it's also a bitch. Not just all the gear, but MIDI issues is a total headache really especially when chaining a bunch of different gear together. Try to keep it as simple as possible.

Real nice tunes on the myspace. Don't go ruining it with autotune and high pitched synth melodies.

[Noddism]

Thanks worm, I looked at the the receptor and kontact. Combining the two would be perfect, It would add more than just the ability to incorporate dubstep to my bag of tricks. With kontact i would be able to get more creepy church organ/choir sounds that we love to use but with higher quality patches and more control over the sound.

Oh yeah, no autotune for us. The one thing we cant stand is clean vocals in brutal songs. We have toyed with synth melodies but it comes out sounding too poppy. Thats why I want to add dubstep breakdowns. I like synth tones but I want to keep peoples heads bangin

[wormcode]

http://www.museresearch.com/receptor2_k ... inside.php

^ That one has NI Komplete 7 which includes the newest Kontakt and their other flagship products, I'd be looking at that one really.
http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/ ... ?page=1515

http://www.plugorama.com (owned by Muse) sometimes has refurbished Receptors for sale cheaper, might want to check up.

[Sharmaji]

microkorg or a used nord.

pendulum is great as a live band. not particularly into their records as of late, but the live show's killer. I think, if you're gonna go there-- GO THERE.

[Noddism]

The more I look around the more i'm leaning towards getting the Muse Receptor, a midi key controller, and something like M-audios Trigger Finger. The Receptor is just so versatile and it comes with a mind blowing amount of killer software.

[hasezwei]

niiiice idea, me and some buddies wanted to do something like that just with hardcore. then we heard enter shikari and decided not to

thank god you're planning to use midi controllers and software synths, i know a lot of "industrial" bands (sounds like something that happened 9 months after hardstyle woke up wiht a huge headache only to find goth-music lying next to him after which he ran away screaming) spending thousands of bucks on hardware synths only to use shitty organ presets and then bragging about how bad laptop music sounds.
it's really a waste of money in most cases IMO. vst+midi = all you need.

btw, if you know the band chimaira, they have a keyboarder playing only sub bass which is kinda badass. you could do that so you don't have to stand around bored in between the breakdowns

[sketchyderek]

Ableton Live is probably the biggest DAW for live performances.
They have some dedicated controllers, that are great for the "clip view," which is for live performances.

I have the APC 40 and I like it. Although I don't use clip view as much. There's also the launchpad, which pretty much just has the squares that control clip view. APC 40 is better in the sense that it has way more controls, channel faders, crossfader, etc.

There's also the trigger finger, which is pretty popular. I went to an ableton masterclass put on by illgates, and he said they're great and cheap, yet I believe they're discontinued?

[Basic A]

Ableton Live is probably the biggest DAW for live performances.
They have some dedicated controllers, that are great for the "clip view," which is for live performances.

I have the APC 40 and I like it. Although I don't use clip view as much. There's also the launchpad, which pretty much just has the squares that control clip view. APC 40 is better in the sense that it has way more controls, channel faders, crossfader, etc.

There's also the trigger finger, which is pretty popular. I went to an ableton masterclass put on by illgates, and he said they're great and cheap, yet I believe they're discontinued?

Meh.

FL 9.5 Multicue murks.

[babylonjunkies]

im with sharmaji. microkorg all they way.

[Technosaurus]

I've been pondering the idea of live dubstep as well, in my mind a line up would be something like this:

Drummer playing real drums, with triggers for samples n shit.
Some geek at ableton womping out basslines and leads and possibly more drum hits.
3-5 piece brass section
Guitar
Keys.

I'd have to agree with sketchyderek, Ableton is probably your best bet. So much control.

[Dub_Fiend]

I've been pondering the idea of live dubstep as well, in my mind a line up would be something like this:

Drummer playing real drums, with triggers for samples n shit.
Some geek at ableton womping out basslines and leads and possibly more drum hits.
3-5 piece brass section
Guitar
Keys.

I'd have to agree with sketchyderek, Ableton is probably your best bet. So much control.

See, I've been pondering this too, but instead it goes a little like this;

- Drummer using Live drums OR triggers to a lappy with Ableton/whatever and drum samples
- Guy with an Electric Bass, a Sonuus B2M Midi Converter running into a MacBook w/ Ableton Live running copies of Massive, a footswitch and a whammy pedal with MIDI in/out or something to change both the bassline sounds and LFO rates of said basslines
- Guy with MIDI keyboard hooked up to Ableton to play other synths
- Guitarist hooked up to MacBook with Guitar Rig 3/4/whatever so he can quickly change amp sounds
- Anything extra I fancy (MC, brass section as mentioned above, singer?)

But obvs I would need monehz and other people who were interested in getting it set up


Dub Fiend