Stage Musician with Midi controllers? how reliable?

[Fail]

Hey guys,

Ever since i was a kid i wanted to be in a band or a musician, i do like electronic music but it never has the same feeling as a couple of guys on stage and the sound of a nice sounding drum kit.

When i was growing up music was never really encouraged, simply because instruments aren't cheap nor are they quiet so i only really had the oppurtunity to pick up a guitar in my late teens when i didn't have the time or motivation to learn it.

I see alot of bands now using midi keyboards onstage and although im sure 80% of the time they're going to a sound module or offstage piece of gear, you occasionally see a laptop onstage with them.

I would consider a laptop EXTREMELY unreliable or atleast mine would be and i imagine seeing a laptop onstage would look very stupid, Blue screen during a track would just suck.

I was wondering if anybody uses Midi controllers within a live band enviroment?


My two weapons of choice are the Akai MPK49 and Maschine, use Maschine to host and switch my VSTs and play electronic drums and Akai for keys and synth nothing fancy.

Anybody do something similar?

[Buffalo Ill]

I would consider a laptop EXTREMELY unreliable or atleast mine would be and i imagine seeing a laptop onstage would look very stupid, Blue screen during a track would just suck.

I was wondering if anybody uses Midi controllers within a live band enviroment?


My two weapons of choice are the Akai MPK49 and Maschine, use Maschine to host and switch my VSTs and play electronic drums and Akai for keys and synth nothing fancy.

Anybody do something similar?

You need to take a look at Google. You're gonna be surprised how many big acts have laptops (reliabale laptops - not Macs) on stage.

[botstein]

Hey guys,

Ever since i was a kid i wanted to be in a band or a musician, i do like electronic music but it never has the same feeling as a couple of guys on stage and the sound of a nice sounding drum kit.

When i was growing up music was never really encouraged, simply because instruments aren't cheap nor are they quiet so i only really had the oppurtunity to pick up a guitar in my late teens when i didn't have the time or motivation to learn it.

I see alot of bands now using midi keyboards onstage and although im sure 80% of the time they're going to a sound module or offstage piece of gear, you occasionally see a laptop onstage with them.

I'm not sure about that 80% figure - there are a lot of fantastic electronic pianos and hardware synthesizers (Nord, Kurzweil). I'm more used to offstage processing related to the amplification and monitoring and recording, as opposed to synthesis, etc.

I would consider a laptop EXTREMELY unreliable or atleast mine would be and i imagine seeing a laptop onstage would look very stupid, Blue screen during a track would just suck.

A lot of acts have a Macbook Pro or two on stage. I don't often perform without mine nearby.

I was wondering if anybody uses Midi controllers within a live band enviroment?

My two weapons of choice are the Akai MPK49 and Maschine, use Maschine to host and switch my VSTs and play electronic drums and Akai for keys and synth nothing fancy.

Anybody do something similar?

There's Gotye (MalletKAT, Launchpad, Ableton), Bjork (Monome), and many, many others.

A lot of drummers also use triggers such as the ddrum triggers and pads such as the big Roland pads.

[Ed Paris]

questioning a laptops reliability on a digital dj-forum
if you can´t count on your laptop, you should do something about it.

[johney]

actually a lot of them play software rather than hardware