How When Machines Dream + KaW Perform Live

I am frequently asked how When Machines Dream + KaW perform live. First off, let me explain the concept. When Machines Dream is myself and KaW is Kyle Ward (together we are Oscillator X – but that's another blog…), When we do live performances, instead of a traditional show whereas one act would play, followed by another act, we perform together as one group. We select what songs to play from each others repetoire, and then learn each others material and perform it together. Another thing that sets a When Machines Dream + KaW performance apart from many live electronic/ dance acts, is the "show" element. Most of the live electronic shows that we have seen either consist of a person hunched over a laptop all night with a projector behind him or a (typically) female solo vocalist singing along to a backing track. When Machines Dream + KaW shows utilize costumes, staging, effects lighting, and aerotechnics to bring the audience a visual live experience similar to our counterparts in the Rock world. As far as the actual musical performance goes, our current core live set-up is as follows:

John:

Korg MicroKorg – synthesizer

Alesis Micron – synthesizer

Roland SPD-S – Electronic Drum Pads

TC Electronics Voiceworks – Vocal processor

American DJ Pro-Scratch – DJ CD player

Yamaha MG 10/2 – Mixing Console

Kyle:

Roland V-Synth – Synthesizer

Korg MicroKorg – Synthesizer

M-Audio Axiom 49 – MIDI Keyboard Controller

Dell Laptop running Abelton Live 6

Elextrix Warp Factory – Vocoder

The "heart" of our show is run on the laptop with a program called Abelton Live. With this software we are able to manipulate the backing tracks (essentially the basic drum parts and any parts beyond what we can play with our four hands) in real time, thus freeing us up from being locked into a static backing track. We can adjust tempo, key, length of verses and choruses, etc. all while playing the show. Kyle handles this part of it. In the event that the computer crashes (hasn't happened yet – crossing our fingers) during a performance we have the backing tracks also on a CD, which I would then play using my DJ CD player. The DJ CD player still gives us the ability to manipulate many aspects of the music in real time, but not as much as the Abelton Live software.

As far as the keyboards go, Kyle and I each have multiple synthesizers that we play. These are usually set up in "split mode" whereas the bottom half of a keyboard will have one sound assigned to it and the top half will have a different sound assigned to it. This allows us to play the 2 to 4+ parts each per song necessary to perform the songs. In addition, I (and sometimes Kyle) play percussion parts on the electronic drum pads.

In a similar fashion, we divide up the vocal duties as well. I perform all of the singing parts, using the TC Electronic vocal processor to duplicate the effects used on our CD's, while Kyle performs all of the vocoder (robot) vocals using the Electrix vocoder.

The signal (sound) from all of the synths, electronic drums, laptop, CD player, etc. all go into the Yamaha mixer (we mix from the stage generally) and we send a stereo feed to the main house sound system.

In between all of this I control some of the visual effects as well. The lighting is primarily automatic and is just synced to the beat of the music, but I manually do a few tweaks during the show as well as keep the fog machine pumping out fog and both Kyle and I shoot off the aerotechnics.

I hope that this answers most of the questions as to how we perform our music live. If you have any questions that I didn't cover, feel free to send me a message.

~ John