Kebu's live rig vid - so much MIDI!

[ABECK]

I'm not too familiar with Kebu, other than his vids periodically pop-up on my YouTube feed.  

His current live rig is wonderfully anachronistic and quite daring to rely on MIDI so heavily.  Other than the laptop for his video FX, I love not seeing a computer anywhere in his performance setup.  This rig reminds me of the articles in Keyboard mag in the 80s that would detail the setup of large touring acts that I would just drool over.  There are a few "modern" pieces in his kit, like the Andromeda, the BlueSky and the mixers.  

 

[Jose EB5AGV]

I watched that video some days ago... And I wondered if all that gear was really needed for the show, or if it was kind of excessive and a way to impress the public. I would say the later but, well, I am just a lower than average keys player, so perhaps can't see the beauty of that massive rig 🤔

[ABECK]

Probably both things are true at the same time.  If every board is running as a mono timbral source, I could see the need for quite a few boards, given the music.  There's also likely some redundancy in the setup to ensure he can cover his parts based on where he is standing.

[Stokely]

Better him than me   I've never used one live, but I used to wrangle a pretty complex midi-based studio and I do NOT miss all the hassle.  I certainly wouldn't want that much "thinking" live but that's just me.  I like to hit a couple on switches, plug a couple things in, and go see what craft beers they have on tap after my 10 minute setup is done  

[TommyS]

Yessiree...... It'll all  sound much better thru a Vent.........................

[ABECK]

1 hour ago, Stokely said:

 I like to hit a couple on switches, plug a couple things in, and go see what craft beers they have on tap after my 10 minute setup is done  

My favorite part of any gig.

[jazzpiano88]

I was always astounded by this:

 

[Stokely]

The worst part of those kind of setups (IMO) is having to deal with multitimbral modes on modules and keyboards, assuming they have them and you are trying to use them.  And then trying to bring all that back up if you ever want to revisit a session.   Extra points if one of your devices was an old Synclavier with giant winchester tapes to load the samples from  

[ABECK]

Is that for a Michael Jackson tour?  Gotta be someone big!

 

44 minutes ago, JazzPiano88 said:

I was always astounded by this:

 

 

[timwat]

Reminds me of Michael Iceberg's Iceberg Machine, or Don Lewis' LEO.

[jazzpiano88]

3 hours ago, ABECK said:

Is that for a Michael Jackson tour?  Gotta be someone big!

 

Chick Corea Elektric Band.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[David Emm]

6 hours ago, Stokely said:

Better him than me   I've never used one live, but I used to wrangle a pretty complex midi-based studio and I do NOT miss all the hassle.  I certainly wouldn't want that much "thinking" live but that's just me.

 

Exactly what led me to go all ITB. My MIDI doings got so bad, I became like a sitcom dad having a meltdown in the middle of the Xmas tree, with smoke coming out of every socket. The screams were awful.

 

Now, things simply LINE UP and GO, all on a desk. If it was hardware, it would fill a bloody hangar. 😬

[ABECK]

14 hours ago, JazzPiano88 said:

 

Chick Corea Elektric Band.

 

 

 

The KX-5 should have tipped me off.  That is an insane setup.

[Stokely]

14 hours ago, David Emm said:

 

Exactly what led me to go all ITB. My MIDI doings got so bad, I became like a sitcom dad having a meltdown in the middle of the Xmas tree, with smoke coming out of every socket. The screams were awful.

 

Now, things simply LINE UP and GO, all on a desk. If it was hardware, it would fill a bloody hangar. 😬

The only thing I really miss is the vibe of a room full of gear.  That said, my live gear is usually in my home office/studio space--not being used, sure--but it's providing some music vibe!   I miss having a console, a little, but frankly I think I'm more productive drawing automation with a mouse.

Yeah, being able to go "open project" and have everything come up just as it was last week is incredibly convenient.  I don't even have to save changes to patches I've tweaked, the DAW handles all that   No patch changes, no sysex, no sample loading, no bad cables, no audio routing, it's seriously like black magic.  Go back to 1990 with that description and you'd be tied to a rail and run out of town, or burned at the stake for witchcraft.

My biggest problem with ITB is analysis paralysis with so many instrument and fx choices at my fingertips   There's always that feeling that maybe another plugin could be *doing it better*!  Limitations can be good for creativity....

[David Emm]

On 6/13/2023 at 8:48 AM, Stokely said:

The only thing I really miss is the vibe of a room full of gear.  That said, my live gear is usually in my home office/studio space--not being used, sure--but it's providing some music vibe!   I miss having a console, a little, but frankly I think I'm more productive drawing automation with a mouse.
 ...
My biggest problem with ITB is analysis paralysis with so many instrument and fx choices at my fingertips   There's always that feeling that maybe another plugin could be *doing it better*!  Limitations can be good for creativity....

 

I agree, because the ergonomics are more concise, whereas diving between instruments, effects and a mixer can feel akin to a workout with 10-pound weights. I do like the vibe thing. Its classic to festoon a studio with colored lights. Synths and sci-fi seem like natural partners, so a few robots and alien heads also fit well. 🤖

 

Kuru and I had the synth overload debate for a while. Taking up an M1 Mac forced me to vacate a few things, but it was also a case of good housekeeping. Losing some of the dead weight made room for a couple of more useful tools, such as the ELKA-X. Its less a matter of limitations aiding your creativity and more one of buying with care to begin with. My "rig" is now more immediate in use and more fun. Am I tempted to buy more all the time? Sure! C'mon, look where we are!

 

Besides, Kebu is often doing major sets of famous synth covers. Playing Jarre pieces is a unique form of nostalgia and it requires a rig like that, which is why I ran from the practice and right into Logic's arms. Just watching his rig tour made me want to take a nap. 

[jazzpiano88]

I think the biggest driving force in standalone MIDI complexity is the requirement to control (play) different instrument combinations from different controllers, even if those controllers aren't dedicated controllers, but just keyboards.

 

I'm reminded of that keyboard player from Phish with a very complicated setup with no computer.   He had everything worked out even to the point of having an acoustic grand sampled sound ready just in case his real acoustic grand piano went down . 

[CHarrell]

On 6/12/2023 at 3:48 PM, JazzPiano88 said:

 

Chick Corea Elektric Band.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man I'm so glad I came up in the last ten years.

[Adam C.]

As somebody who first got into Keyboards in the mid 1980s, I’m a huuuuge admirer of Synth Setups like Kebu’s! (And I’m also actually a pretty big fan of him and his music as well.)

 

While it’s true that I may be stuck in the past, I definitely wouldn’t have it any other way. Personally, I say, “Long live M.I.D.I. and the overly complex Keyboard Rigs of days gone by!” 😄

[jazzpiano88]

2 minutes ago, Adam C. said:

As somebody who first got into Keyboards in the mid 1980s, I’m a huuuuge admirer of Synth Setups like Kebu’s! (And I’m also actually a pretty

big fan of him and his music as well.)

 

While it’s true that I may be stuck in the past, I definitely wouldn’t have it any other way. Personally, I say, “Long live M.I.D.I. and the overly complex Keyboard Rigs of days gone by!” 😄

 

I don't see an MKS20.

 

[drawbars]

There are things that can be done these days to tame a crazy setup a little.  I do think the Kebu setup is a little extreme, but I use one about 1/4 to 1/3 that complicated, and only have to connect three cables:

1. A USB cable between my Nord Stage and my Cantabile PC.
2. A USB cable between my Numa Compact and the PC.
3. A four-channel TRS snake between the Stage and my mixer.

Oh, and power cords.

 

Everything else is in software, or permanently wired in my rolling rack.  And that includes a laptop I use for the DAW; and *two* PCs running Cantabile and a mess o' VSTs.  The three PCs and the mixer communicate by CAT5 cable over Ethernet -- include 48 channels of MIDI -- and the laptop runs the audio PCs through Windows Remote Desktop, so no extra monitors, mouse, etc.

 

So, I can be checking out the beers at the bar in 10 minutes, too!  😁

 

[Adam C.]

1 hour ago, JazzPiano88 said:

 

I don't see an MKS20.

 

All in good time. 😄

[Adam Burgess]

I've had around 5 more problems with USB than I ever did with MIDI - which I believe is around zero! 

Hardware MIDI is just brilliant. Never had a MIDI port or cable EVER go bad since around 1988. 

Doesn't look like MIDI 2.0 is gaining much traction. Guess that shows how well MIDI 1 works, and is such an integral part of life!
Always feel better at home plugging stuff into a MIDI interface and then 1x USB cable. 

In the dark days of the last plague, I did a very arty wiring diagram of my home studio. Must try find it! 

[CyberGene]

All that can be replaced by a single MacBook Air M1/M2 with U-He and Arturia plugins. It will be more reliable and easy to program and will sound the same to most people. But it wouldn’t look that cool 😎

[stoken6]

2 hours ago, Adam Burgess said:

I've had around 5 more problems with USB than I ever did with MIDI - which I believe is around zero! 

Plus the problem with USB is that SOMETHING needs to be a host. Lots of keyboards (particularly budget) are devices, not hosts. Casio CT-S1/500 are great examples of boards that should integrate well into two-board rigs. But you need to add a host box, and a power supply, and a USB cable - too much faff.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Ed A.]

On 6/13/2023 at 9:48 AM, Stokely said:

My biggest problem with ITB is analysis paralysis with so many instrument and fx choices at my fingertips   There's always that feeling that maybe another plugin could be *doing it better*!  

 

“A man’s got to know his limitations” 

- Dirty Harry

😉

[RABid]

I look at a setup like that and think "Why?" There was a time I wanted a complicated setup like that, back in the 80's.