We normally store our bits of gear in far flung places along the east coast.
When we want to play, we press a hidden button which summons them along great circle routes to our practice space, located in an abandoned
Pershing missile silo miles below the surface, where they automatically merge like a giant Japanese robot.
Truly an awesome sight.
The first set we ever played was old school drum n' bass: A bass guitar and an acoustic drum kit. Somehow it's come to this:
shared
Mackie 1202 / mixer.
left
RECENTLY REINSTATED! Korg Electribe MX-1 (The Mighty EMX-1) / synth and drums.
Roland SP-404SX / sampler.
Korg Kaossilator (KO-1) / synth with Kaoss pad interface, loop layering, and drums.
Korg KP3 / line looper and effects.
Roland Handsonic HPD-15 / hand-triggered samples and effects.
right
SpaceWorldtm:
The Space Guitar /
clear acrylic strat with interior LEDs and Roland GK-3 hex pickup.
Roland GR-33 / guitar synth
Digitech RP-350 / sweet guitar fx
Zoom GFX-707 / lo-fi guitar fx
The Kaoss Stationtm:
Korg Electribe Rhythm 1 (ER-1) / analog modeling drum machine.
Korg Kaossilator (KO-1) / synth with Kaoss pad interface, loop layering, and drums.
Korg Mini Kaoss Pad (Mini-KP) / effects.
Roland SP-404 / sampler.
Korg Kaoss Pad 3 (KP3) / looper and effects.
Alesis Nanoverb / reverb.
Inactive Roster
We used quite a bit of other things along the way. The set index
lists the gear used by set. Here's another list in no particular order. These items
served us well but are now dearly departed.
left
Tenori-on / synth with various unique functions and blinky lights. There were two of these, one in Spring 2009 and
another in December 2009.
Nintendo DSi / sampler. Replaced it with a Roland SP-404SX.
Korg R3 / monster analog modeling synth. Keyboards, meh.
Akai MPD24 Pad Controller fueled by Ableton (but not using a stinkin' mouse) / samples and looping.
Inexplicable dropouts reinforced our central premise that software lets you down.
The second KP3.
Korg Mini Kaoss Pad (Mini-KP) / effect unit.
Tapco Mix 100 / mixer.
Moog Moogerfooger MF-101 / analog low pass filter.
Moog Moogerfooger MF-104Z / analog delay with feedback loop.
Dubreq Stylophone / pocket synth.
Moog Moogerfooger MF-102 / analog ring modulator.
Roland Handsonic HPD-10 powered by Ableton Live and Battery. Software, meh.
Moog Little Phatty / analog synth. Gone, but not forgotten.
right
RECENTLY RETIRED! Roland Handsonic HPD-15 / hand-triggered samples and effects.
Just didn't use the thing.
M-Audio MicroTrack II / portable recorder. Utter shite. Required charging even when plugged in, terrible monitoring, and
would stop recording unexpectedly. Responsible for every lost TCD set (including some of our best).
Korg microKORG / analog modeling synth with arpeggiator and vocoder.
I have no use for a keyboard, no matter how cool it is.
Behringer 1002 mixer. Noisy.
Kaito WRX911 / shortwave radio. Distracting. Currently occupied
delivering NPR news each morning.
Korg Electribe Analog 1 (EA-1) / analog modeling synth.
It didn't lend itself to improv since it's primarily for sequencing.
As far as synthesis went, it couldn't do anything the microKORG couldn't do.
Suzuki Omnichord OM-84.
Interesting concept, but the sounds were terrible. Everything sounded like a church sing along.
Plus the form factor was uncomfortably similar to a keytar.
Digitech JamMan / looper pedal.
Fatal sync issues. We invented a
workaround
but lost interest in doing arithmetic while trying to play. Replaced them with Korg KP3s.
Boss DR-5 "Dr. Rhythm Machine" / beat box. Sounded too real.
Yamaha PSS-470 / ancient, cheesy analog synth. Propped up in a corner, waiting for its triumphant comeback.
E-mu X-Board 61 / MIDI controller. Purchased for this project but never used.
DIY electronic drums powered by an Alesis D4 / manual drumming. It's ridiculous trying to play a drum kit along with the rest of this gear.
Various Fender Stratocasters.
Rogue fretless bass.
Zoom BFX-708 / bass effects pedal.
Epiphone electric-acoustic guitar.
Fender jazz bass.
Acoustic drum kit.
Schematic
Note that things have changed a million times since we posted this.
