Preparing for the :plug3: headphone festival

This evening I set aside some time to prepare for the headphone festival, which is happening the Sunday in the middle of all the other craziness.

As usual, I am using a small rig, consisting of the PC laptop (with the E-MU 1616m and Emulator X), the Evolver, a MIDI keyboard, mixer, and of course headphones.

So this performance will use the PC laptop, while the others will be using the Mac. This means I have to schlep both laptops around this weekend, but what can you do?

I'm using the same collection of patches as last year on Emulator X, which on surface seems lame, but I think there is a lot I can do with them that I didn't do last year (think of it like a piano or string quartet). Additionally, I am using one of the Microkitty patches from the RPM album. And this time, I am going to be using the Evolver – I was little wary of doing so last year, but I have selected a small set of stable patches. And the sequencer gives me some beats to play with – I intend to use rhythm more as a humorous element in this performance (as in, “hey, he's using beats“).

I have a “script” that outlines the overall performance, with the details left to improvisation – which is of course what I generally do in my live performances.

Although this will be a fun set, like last year's performance, and not to technically difficult, somehow I feel like I'm not really putting the effort I should. And maybe that's true, with effort going towards the tour and finding employment. But we'll see what happens, after all it will likely be newer for the audience than for me…