A very good question ... I've only played live once with my MOTM system,
but I have numerous other times with other modular and/or patchable synths,
so some of that experience is also applicable to MOTM. Also, my
experiences come entirely from "rock bands", some mostly improvisational,
some entirely tight and pre-planned (you should see the set of patchsheets
I had to make for my MS-20 when I was in the Devo tribute band!), some in
between. As a consequence, they may not be as relavent for someone doing a
techno PA (I've never used drum machine synchronization, for instance).
A couple of specific recommendations:
1) Prepatch as much as possible, and take full advantage of the
multiple-inputs (both audio and CV) found on most MOTM modules. Use the
input attenuator knobs to "open" and "close" patches so you don't have to
plug cables in the middle of a set (or the middle of a song). That way,
one song/track/segment may use the FM1 and Audio1 inputs to your -440,
while for the next part, you just turn down those knobs, then turn up the
FM2 and Audio2 & Audio3 knobs, which are prepatched-in from something
entirely different ...
2) As someone else mentioned, use color-coded patch cords. Folks who saw
my SKB mixer case-'o-MOTM at the Bay Area meeting a couple weeks ago may
have noticed the DGS/Deltron plugs I use for my homemade cables that have
space for two little plastic colored rings - with (I think) 8 ring colors
available, that makes (almost?) 64 color-code combinations. VERY nice to
be able to recognize both ends of a cable at a glance. Also, Rat Shack
sells the packages of short right-angle-plug colored cables pretty
inexpensively - I avoid using those for audio, but I don't worry about
using them for gate/trigger/CV.
just a couple things that have worked for me ...
-Doug
ceres@...At 09:58 AM 06/23/2000 -0700, Paul Wagorn <
pwagorn@...> wrote:
>
>
>hi all:
>
>I'm going to be doing a live PA (even though i promised myself "never
>again!") at
>a bar this weekend & I've decided to bring along my motm system. I'm
>playing
>with some people that i've never played with before, so we're just going to
>wing it
>& jam it out.
>
>Problem is, we got together last night to practice together once before we
>play,
>and though we sounded good, i had a horrible time with a million patch cords
>flying
>all around me, trying to strangle me and take over. I got so confused with
>my cables..
>"hmm.. is this the aux out1 or aux out2, or is it the trigger from the Bass
>drum on my
>606?" ... I almost abandoned the thing after a while because i lost track of
>what was
>what ! I don't really have this problem in the studio because i know where
>everything
>is, and I use labelled patch bays
>
>anyways, any suggestions on how to make life easier doing this live with an
>unfamiliar
>setup?
>
>thanks!
>
>paul