Two Princes

The Kenton Spin Doctor arrived today! This is in theory the last piece of the puzzle apart from the case, for RIG-1. This is a well built MIDI controller that I wanted specifically to extend the live-control options of the EMX-1. This means in theory I can now have dedicated control over CC values per channel and tie that up with the 5 synths of the EMX. The only problem is that you can't do advanced edit using just the unit, you need to use a bit of software to create and upload the custom profile and I don't have a USB-MIDI interface. Anyway, that's next steps, for now I plugged it in and used the factory stuff, up and running really quickly it all just worked. A great functional unit from Kenton (who I got my MIDI-THRU box from) in a metal case, not plastic. The weight is increasing all the time, something else I didn't really factor in with old gear. The EMX is particular is quite heavy, hope the pedal board and Velcro can handle it.

Diago Tourman

This looks like the best fit/price/build for the project. A friend may be selling one also, it's a sign! It will save a lot of time building a case, and Velcro means I keep some flexibility for future configurations. It's the largest of the Diago pedal board range, I'd go for the next size down but that would mean loosing a piece of gear. Any bigger and it starts to become so bulky it's hard to store, and easy storage is one of the goals. Now if only the Launchpad would sell I could fund this next part, fingers crossed.

16 reasons to add one more bit of kit

I just put a spanner in the works and added this to the list, basically to expand the EMX-1 live control capability. I might have found a way to wedge it onto the pedal board I've got my eye on, but we'll see when it arrives when I can lay it all out on the floor and wire it up. I seriously need to stop adding gear but this was too good an opportunity to miss to get independent control over some of the features of the EMX-1. Also the short audio cables arrived, which is great, going from a stack of 3-6m cables to a small pile of 1m cables saved me a lot of space on my hypothetical board. The multiple power adapters are a bit of a pain, wish they were all 9v so I could get one of those multi adapters but hey it's fine sure I can make it fit..but more gear means more power, and I'm already at the limit on the power block. Still, it's progress.

Pedal board

Hmm, so it's possible I might be able to squeeze into a large pedal board flight case - this is good for four reasons.. 1) you can get one off the shelf, plenty of flight case companies out there, 2) they use Velcro which is a great idea to solve how I keep stuff in place but still have the ability to move it around, pull it in/out as needed, 3) the whole board comes out so you're not always fixed to the rest of the case when performing, and 4) reasonable price (about £150). Almost too good to be true, I'll keep reading up and double check my measurements.

Layout ideas

Worked it down to these two layouts pretty much, give or take a few tweaks and swaps. The top one would need a deeper case, the one below more likely to go into a keyboard/guitar flight case. I need to keep playing around but I'm closing in now that I'm taking into account space for cables, ventilation, power blocks that kind of thing. Before I was focussing on the units with just a massive pile of cables behind.

Btw the Kaos missing from the top picture was just a mistake, it would sit on top of the EMX-1 as in the lower pic. Neither pic contains all the cables, as some are still in the post.

Not quite sure how I'm going to hold the gear in place inside the case, and still have it so I can pop the gear in/out easily (e.g. for that 323 the configs shown here block access to the memory card slot). The single EMX-1 case that came with it uses foam, that's one idea, cut out the shapes to fit, not sure if things might overheat though with it all jammed in.

Anyway, as and when I set things up like this I'm having a dabble with the sounds, seeing what's comfortable, how it might hang together sonically not just physically. It's certainly different and it is taking some getting used to, but at this time I'm just juggling demo patterns and sounds to get a feel for it. I'm so used to using a DAW or just using a single piece of kit at a time offline, I might have over complicated this for a hardware/live newbie, we'll see. Nothing wrong with being out of your comfort zone.

Cable tidy and boxes

Found some cheap cable tidy to chop up in town, might come in handy, also a cheap plug double as I might need to exceed my 6-way. On the right you can see a pile of gear before setting up.. the tear up and tear down is starting to get pretty boring, but I've got no choice until the coffin is built so tonight started to measure up the gear, adapters, space for cables that kind of thing, to help figure out a layout without having everything unpacked and so I can see if any flight cases are close enough to use off the shelf (well, minus custom frames inside to hold everything in place).

Bright lights

Wow, the mixer has the brightest LED in the world, might have to cover up the power light. Also got the masking tape out and started to tag the adapters. I gave in on the large mess of cables (it was getting a bit out of hand, plus I might be selling a few of the long ones) and ordered 1m MIDI and 1m 1/4" audio cables from eBay, I was amazed how cheap there were. The MIDI cables arrived already and have been tested, the audio cables next week sometime. Started to dig into the MPC and 323 manuals, finding out a bit more about how I'm going to sync patterns and switch things on and off.