Laptalk

A few months ago, Native Instruments was kind enough to hook us up with their new Kore interface that has finally really got me excited about using software synths in a live context. The challenge with this kind of thing continues to be that the software is released a beat ahead of computers that are capable of really harnessing the capabilities.

Yesterday, I bought the new Mac core duo laptop to provide a little peace of mind as I try to run everything onstage in a couple of weeks. Most of the sounds we use are from chains of plug-ins that I never thought could be accessed live. Honestly, I’m still not convinced. We’ve never played with laptops onstage for just this reason. The challenge these days is that we really can’t avoid it. Most of what we’re doing now really requires sounds quite a bit more involved than what you can get from standard hardware sound module. So, we’ll see what happens with this during rehearsals and, hopefully, we’ll try some new things onstage Nov 30th.

I’ve also been continuing the development of some of the demos we’ve got for our next record. Honestly, I’ve been a bit disillusioned by the usual instrumentation and have been holding off on doing too much until we get into a ‘real’ studio with a selection of (non-virtual) instruments to play around with.

Rebecca has been itching to sing lately and, I’m afraid I’ve had little to offer in terms of new material. Rehearsals do go some way to appeasing, but there’s no substitute for coming up with something new and satisfying...