History of the live show

The live aspect of the band has gone through multiple renditions. The original concept came from reading an article in a music rag about Madonna’s live setup using multiple Mac Pros running Logic 7 in 2006. The idea that struck me was how she was running the audio through the DAW in order to process the audio in real time with software based effects. The other advantage was automation and time dependant effects such as delay could be synced easily to the tempo of the song. Madonna’s set up was very involved with MDM backups and large digital consoles. I planned on doing a microcosm of her idea on a single laptop.

The original set up seemed to require Ableton Live. Before this time I was a ProTools LE user. However, LE’s lack of features made it impossible to use it on stage. My criteria for my on stage DAW was the ability to run full screen video on a second desktop. Other DAWs besides Live do video, but none I found full screens like Live on a second desktop. The early gigs with Culture of Greed involved stereo audio tracks (24bit/44.1k) being played back while I processed my vocals in real-time within Ableton. After a few gigs I realized that the MacBook was rock solid and had no problem running the show.

I played in a band on the side called MEDIAWHORE between 2007-09. Chains (Crumsuckers, Genitorturers) was very interested in what I was doing with COG. In the Spring of 2009 Chains envisioned a more streamlined version of what he was doing in Glitter Guns with a full PA on stage to counteract the below average quality of soundmen in the local clubs in our area. Glitter Guns was a self contained show that supplied its own sound when it played. Using that experience as a base, Chains and I spent 2 months putting together a system running Digital Performer and doing basically a more advanced version of the COG setup. The motto was “hand the soundman a stereo line and play”. The rig had FW, audio, and power installed into the case for quick setup. Vocals were processed in real time and a click was sent to the drummer. We used a MOTU Traveler Mk. II as our audio interface and ran dozens of 16bit 44.1k audio tracks.

The system worked extremely well in the 2 or 3 gigs we played. However there was a down side. The shows were over orchestrated for my tastes. When I see a band I want it to sound live, and the MEDIAWHORE gigs were very polished. Every note is doubled or tripled in the backing track and mixed to perfection. I missed the live sound, but is there a way to have it both ways?

I took a few different elements from the MEDIAWHORE setup to incorporate them in the summer of 2009. First off, I went out and got powered QSC 3-way cabinets with the matching subwoofers. These boxes sound fantastic and have built in amps which means a more elegant and lightweight system than the passive JBLs we used in MEDIAWHORE. By this time Jet was incorporated on keys and we had plans for a live bass player. I was forced to reexamine the live setup. Jet brought some vital equipment to the table that included a wonderful Mackie LM3204 mixer and a Digitech S5000 vocal processor. With this evolution of the live setup we added a Presonus 8 channel firewire audio interface (ala MEDIAWHORE), began using a PC laptop to generate virtual synths whose audio was processed in the MacBook Pro. The VSTi, along with vocals, bass, and a 12 string acoustic were all processed in real-time via the MacBook Pro. This system worked, but with only one mix for everyone it was difficult to get a sound that pleased the band and the audience. Plus, we were constantly having problems with fitting software synths in the mix. It needed to be more organic. At the time I was still subscribing to the “hand the soundman a stereo line and play” mentality. However, there were real problems. First, there is no way for the band to adjust the mix for various room acoustics. If a room is swallowing the low frequencies in your drum track there is no way to raise the level.

Through the winter of 2009 we experimented with ways to improve the set up. We got a Hartke bass rig for Gregg that helped make things more full. We then moved our attention moved to the Jet’s rig. In early 2010 we decided to move away from the software synths and rediscover hardware. This would give Jet more control over his volume and let us eventually move away from Jet’s laptop. Also, Jets rig was a mess of wires, adapters, mixers, amplifiers, keyboards, power cords. It was taking too long for us to set up. This became apparent mostly at our gig at the Castle in May 2010 were setup took almost an hour. The main reason for ditching computer software synthesis is the sound. Soft synth music lacks character, and bands come across with a glazed sound. To me it sounds analogous to using a single workstation synth to track an entire song. The track may sound great, but has a certain sound that seems to build up as you use the single sound source for more and more tracks. PushButtonPress experimented with adding another guitarist, but that was not the answer. When Gregg decided to leave the group after the June 5th gig Jet and I had to rethink the band. After deciding not to replace Gregg we worked on revamping the gear with the goals of making the sound more organic and composition friendly, decreasing setup/breakdown time, and allowing us to have individual monitoring mixes that are independent of what the audience is hearing.

How we achieved this was with a new approach to the live sound. We had already decided that hardware synths were the way to go to give us the organic sound we wanted. We repaired my Novation SuperNova II virtual analog synthesizer. We also wanted to rack mount additional hardware for more choices in sounds. We purchased the Vintage expansion card for the Roland JV880 and since I already had a XL-7 ROM we bought a used Proteus 2000 module. We are in the market for a Juno-106 as well. Since we have the room, eventually we are looking to pick up an additional rack mounted synth module.

To address the setup and break down time the focus is on putting as much gear as possible in the rack and eliminating stage wiring. To do this we invested in wireless guitar units and microphones. Moving all the gear into one rack should also eliminates the ground loop hum we were experiencing from time to time. We have Firewire, USB, MIDI, and XLR outs installed in the side of the rack so we can plug our cables directly into the rack without having to go behind the rack. To eliminate monitoring problems and to create more intimacy in the writing process we are now using in ear monitoring. I purchased a Shure wireless in ear system and using the 2 stereo sends from the Mackie 1202VLZ to allow us to have separate mixes.

We are also currently looking to move the set out of arrangement view in Ableton and into session view. The point here is that we could then play any song in any order. Jet will handle the triggering. Since video is not available in session view we will need to trigger the video from another application. I have been looking at Modul8, but no final word yet.