HOW TO BUILD THE PERFECT LIVE RIG By: Jeremy Spurgeon Building the perfect live rig can be a daunting task. In this monthʼs field guide we show you how to get everything in sync.
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ast month in the Field Guide we discussed how to plan your rig, some things to consider when connecting your gear, and how you might use an iPad to control an external synth. This month letʼs discuss how to sync your gear so that it plays at the same tempo and starts and stops on the beat.
What time is it Once you decide which devices you want in your rig, you will need to determine how best to sync them to the same tempo. There are many ways to achieve this and each device may have multiple options. Letʼs discuss some typical ways to connect your devices together. I began my journey into electronic music back in the early ʻ80s. Back then there wasnʼt a standardized way to synchronize the tempo between two instruments. Modular synthesizers used control voltage (CV) and gate connections and other synthesizers used different means. It was Ikutaro Kakehashi of the Roland Corporation who first proposed a standard connection that would allow
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electronic instruments from different manufacturers to communicate with each other. That connection became known as MIDI (musical instrument digital interface). By 1985 it was standard on many synthesizers and other electronic instruments. Today, you will encounter devices with the typical MIDI connections, sync in and out connections, USB, and CV/ gate connections. Some instruments, like the Volcas, have MIDI and sync connections. While others like the Modal Skulpt have MIDI, sync in and out, and can send and receive MIDI over USB. For the mobile musician trying to fit as much gear as possible into a small case, these connectors are quite useful because they use a 1/8” stereo jack or mini USB connector instead of the larger 5-pin MIDI connector.
The missing LINK Mobile devices like the iPad and laptop computers can be synced with LINK, a technology developed by Ableton that allows LINK-enabled
