How to make electronic music live without a laptop

If you have any questions about anything in this video, please leave a comment and I'll probably make a follow-up video to address any of these.

OUR COMMONLY USED GEAR:
SYNTHS

CONTROLLERS

EFFECTS/PEDALS

SOFTWARE

SOUND RECORDERS

MIDI

[Vegan_Kebab_In_My_Hand]

Ugh the people commenting about the laptop, I'll just assume they just don't get it. It's just a convenience, it's not a creative part of the process, it's optional.

[tominurmi]

i think this is what my grandma sees when trying to use my smartphone...

[BathroomSolutions]

I love your setup. I am a 48 yo female from the US and have been working with keyboards and midi since the 80’s as a hobby. I can tell you that it is SO boring working with music on a computer. I actually used to work for a pretty famous company that made music software, soundcards and midi keyboards (long ago). The owner was involved with writing the midi standard. Everybody at the company thought that keyboards and outboard gear would be dead with computers, but just the opposite has happened. There is no fun to clicking a mouse. For true lovers of keyboards and midi music, they want their hands to be involved with moving with the music (like pressing keys on a keyboard, drum machine, etc.). People spend their money on what makes them happy. And anonymous animal is technically good at what he’s doing. Enjoy making your music, that’s what life is about.

[kiramoth]

Everyone here complaining about the laptop clearely doesn't know how electronic music production works, and that it is completely optionnal.

Thoses complaning that all of this is too expensive and who "can make music on a gameboy" : he never said it was necesary. A single synth is needed, but he uses multiples because more options is great. All of this costs 3500$ new, much less used. He's using the best low to mid range synths, so he's getting a great price/quality ratio. A macbook pro (ew) costs alone 1200-2800$, and good music vsts are in the hundreds. You can spend more on a single Roland synth ;).

Point of this vid is to show an analogue hardware setup, not brag. He's obviously a pro, it's his work station, and theses are great hardware choices, which give you a huge amount of live production freedom. Comparing digital to analogue often leads to a dumb conversation sadly.

Would you tell a pro harp player with his 15000$ harp that he's a show of for using expensive physical gear when you can get free shitty harp vsts online?

[based_circuit]

For those saying that he could just do all of this with just a laptop, you are completely missing the point and obviously haven't been making electronic music long enough to understand. Sure, you could make something all on a laptop, but it is so uninspiring and boring clicking on tabs, sorting through too much junk and dialing in endless parameters with a fucking mouse. You don't need all the equipment this guy has, and the gear in this video is some of the cheaper gear you can buy. I use all hardware to create my music, and the only thing ableton is used for in my setup is mixing and arranging after the recording has been done. I used to make music using just software, but my productivity went up 800% after moving to hardware solutions. Software and Hardware are both valid solutions, each with their own pros and cons. The only cons of hardware are the price and limitations, but I would personally consider limitations a pro.

[Dwolfmusic]

You can have all this digital in a laptop BUT it's so much more fun to do this with hardware

[Jaysusitsme]

The absolute nightmare I've had trying to sync equipment (MC 909, MicroBrute, TB 3 & Beatstep pro) I've visited many forums and gotten no help and even trawled YouTube. Yet you have debunked it all for me, thank you x 1, 00, 000 . I was getting very frustrated. I just came across this video by chance.. Thanks again.

[Max]

I'm a huge hardware enthusiast, and for a while I was strictly limited to keep my live set as clean as possible, free of any screens whatsoever. But one day a close friend of mine introduced me to the world of MIDI, and that's where my life changed. Now I use an iPad to control as many synths as I can afford with the ability to program chords, rolls, automated CCs, and a huge universe of possibilities. I've learned that hardware is all about pushing its limitations, but MIDI really opens a realm of possibilities that internal sequencers just can't replicate easily. So to all hardware purists: Try using a laptop once. It's mind-blowing.

[barrowmeoct]

Now THIS is what I call OBSESSION, why live any other way? I'm inspired to go create something. Subbed.

[GearZenChannel]

How to do it without a laptop. "well, the first thing in the chain is my laptop running Ableton." LOL

[AleLoy]

When you said "Starting with the top of the midi clock chain we have my LAPTOP over here running Ableton live..." I was about to skip the video right away... luckily I didn't do it!!! Keep up the great work

[AndyChamberlainMusic]

for everyone who is saying "he literally started the video by saying it starts with his laptop"
two seconds after that, he said he only has it on the laptop for remixing and effects, and he could easily do it with the Roland TR8 starting.

[vixstar]

Thank you so much for making this video. I'm just starting to get a setup together - Tr-8, Volca Bass with an Ultranova on the way. You have made it simple to understand this language!

[JoeCariati]

Thank you. This video has invigorated some of us "old guys" from the 80's and 90's who love gear, plain and simple. I just invested in the TR8 and TB3, they are not expensive! Let's not forget that these units are considered instruments, which is more than I can say for any laptop I've ever owned, then discarded a couple years later.

[CrassZorro]

Now show us the barnacles of 9V adaptors that cling to the underside.

[petergazdag]

Good to see someone who can use Roland Scatter in a right way!

[AdamsOlympia]

I have an ipad with around a grand worth of synths, daws, sequencers, Arturia Pro fabfilter plugins, etc., but your rig makes me want to go hardware ;) . then I remember how fond I am of the portability, reminding me why I love my iPad setup.

[RobbPieper]

very cool demo! i've changed my routing of midi and audio many times over the years. I likely spend more time wiring that playing. :/

[johndoe-tfzi]

I don't know anything about this but I love the creative process. I'd like to see this live like an actual band and not that pre-made stuff.

[mattooi]

Thumbnail: "How to make electronic music live without a laptop" = "How to fly the space shuttle"