I am building a dream rig, I’m almost there, need help with routing and possibly fabrication ideas?!

neworleanstrumpetguy

I am building what I am calling the “Dream Maschine” which is my dream setup that is hybrid Looper/Guitar and Trumpet player/DJ/producer/live-stream & live-music series recording system. It is being built into a bicycle trailer with a super quiet inverter generator, and is pulled by an extremely powerful custom electric bike. The “main brain” is a road case box that will open and two single-armed platforms, both together make up the first top layer, and the arms lift and swing the two halves of the first layer out to each side. One side with traktor, the other side my two audiointerfaces. The bottom main layer is the Maschine plus, and the top-inside of the box holds my Machine Jam. My microphones come out and I put them on the stands that I have bolted into the hull of the trailer outside panels, along with my microKORG and my M32 Komplete keyboard, and a little Numark party DJ controller for a little fun, and if I have a guest DJ to perform with me as well. My mixer is a Yamaha mx102c, which I then have a Rig Kontrol 3, of course my laptop, a multi-port, with optional usage of BOTH my S49 keyboards, the mk2 integrated with the plus, and of course the mk3 hooked in Kontrol, and Everything else. Since I have to use my laptop to run traktor, guitar rig, Maschine 2 (and soon 3), I have a few questions:

1. Should I run all stereo-applicable hardware stereo? Or should I save wires and go mono if possible?
2. How exactly would you guys route everything (I’ll list everything in the bottom)
3. This is being built to be able to fit inside my home recording studio as the brain, unplug a couple things, and hook up the bike, and within minutes haul ass to a gig, show, event, pop-up rave or party, travel to local festivals to perform, New Orleans Saints games tailgating parties, the possibilities are endless. Any tips to make this easier?
4. Should I go big or go home if in case of other artists I play with and build on as much as possible? Or should I bring it down to as little as I can to get the job done? Something what looks like in the middle? Or modular and make it easily attachable and removable piece by piece? And if so, how should I route it in that nature?
5. I am mainly doing electronic music, kind of like GRiZ meets ZHU as far as I play trumpet, guitar, but I also sing and rap so I do hip-hop and mix the two with multiple genres (Reggae, Jazz, Funk, House, Dubstep, and more!) should I be tackling A TON of music to add to my DJ set list to choose from? Or should I keep it within the parameters of only what I need for my original music created on the plus to be mixed with certain relevant music of today?
6. (Kudos if you’ve gone this far in my post) tell me what all of you think of my idea, I am also starting from scratch on knowledge around all this new hardware and software. I have like 3 months in on the Plus and Native instruments hardware and software but I am a professional trained trumpet player so the only learning curve I am having is production and mixing skills. DJing is a sinch for me for what I need it for, so I’m pretty sure I can learn traktor pro easily.
7. Does my little comedic numark controller have the ability to run with my x1 mk3 in traktor pro? Is it worth having for guest DJ sets?
8. Any and all help, advice, tips, knowledge, and application or even FABRICATION or MOTIVATION for this extremely intricate undertaking is unfortunately not exciting enough for Native Instruments to yet offer me AT LEAST Komplete 15 electronic and whatever solid software they could possibly sponsor me with to make this undertaking possible (free subscription to 360 pro or even a free serial number for Komplete 14 or 15 select or standard! Anything NI Team COMEON! I am going to be filming pretty much every single thing I do from here on out and I’m building this thing around A NASTY AMOUNT of NI hardware! I cannot afford any software anytime soon, I went super hard on hardware, maybe too hard, if I don’t hear from Native Instruments about some sort of software assistance, I’ll probably sell my mk3 keyboard to get whatever bundle I can purchase with the money I get for that.) Boris! I KNOW YOU CAN THROW ME SOME SORT OF BONE HERE! You know I am requiring a lot! Anything helps. Even guitar rig 7 pro would be a game changer!
9. Should I get a second laptop or upgrade my current one to handle the load of Maschine, Traktor, Komplete, Native Access, and Guitar Rig with all those USB-able hardware pieces? Or is windows 10 pro with a 2.8ghz quad core with 16GB RAM and 2 TB drive with a portable 1 TB SSD and a 512Gb SD card in the plus going to be enough to run it all in parallel?

10. THE LIST OF STUFF

-laptop

-Maschine Plus

-Maschine Jam

-Traktor X1 mk3

-Komplete M32

-KK S49 mk2

-KK S49 mk3

-Yamaha MX201c mixing console

-Presonus audiobus 96 2 channels interface

-MODX Audii Interface 4 channels

-microKORG

-Bose S1 Pro

-Mackie THUMP GO
-a single QSC K12.2 Goldface

-Rig Kontrol 3 guitar pedal

-Behringer Ultra-Curve Pro

-numark micro Party DJ controller

-Roland Octapad (oh yeah, how can I hook this into a drum group on Maschine? Possible?

-M-VAVE Chocolate MIDI pedal

-2 dynamic mics

-Korean remake of a 80’s telecaster

-Korean remake of a 80’s Stratocaster

-my beautiful Bach Stradivarius 37star custom silver Trumpet 2019 model big bell

-2500 watt inverter generator

-2500watt 48volt e-bike/mad-max custom motorbike I built from the ground up with a 40Ah battery and a 38Amp controller (super strong, dual motor, super fast!)

-bicycle trailer large enough to fit 2 children

-all the software that I have that comes with the instruments mentioned.

THATS IT! Anybody want to try and tackle this big old monster of a post, I’m sure that everybody is going to be blunt and straight forward and honest, and I’m ready for all of it, this thing is basically my life’s work to make worth of my last youthful decade (I’m 36 now, so yeah, only a decade of any sort of youth left, this is my last attempt at a “Good Ole Shot” with everything I know)

in any other case, wish me luck, this means everything to me so yeah, I’m gonna need it!

PoorFellow

Oh! @D-One Kenobi , sorry , couldn't help tagging you for this one , there is a Maschine disciple that needs you 🤣

D-One

That's a lot, a mean… a lot!! Have you ever done anything of this nature before? (#4) If not, I would tone that project's ambition down a bit and start with less stuff so you can get the ball rolling and slowly build up.

Apart from the vehicle and setup do you have live stream experience? If not I'd say start now with streams from home/studio to master it 1st, take it as practice and use it to figure out #2, how everything should be routed as routing depends on exactly what you want to do.

#1 - For live performance the audience wont care or notice if the music is stereo, but for live streaming it's matters a lot more but isn't essential, I'd say work with whatever is more practical first.

#5 - Hard question, I'd say thats an artistic choice that will depend on your values/morals and sub-culture of where you perform, different places have different crowds. The more genres and more up-to/date the easier it is to entertain crowds of random people, using a mic and rap skills helps a lot. Whats your goal? If it sjust to have fun you can play popular music but if your goal is to promote yourserlf the original music that is more "You" is a better approach.

#6 - Sorry to be blunt but I cant imagine someone "starting from scratch on knowledge around all this new hardware and software" to pull such a complex project, as a trumpet player imagine someone that has started playing for 3 months trying to compose and conduct for an orchestra. A simple project that is active and grows is better than a complex one that never leaves the drawing board.

#7 - Any controller can be midi mapped to work with Traktor (AFAIK) mapping itself can get quite complicated if theres no mappings available for download from others. You can have multiple so the X1 + whatever else is not a problem. If it's worth it, for most pro to intermediate djs: No, it's considered a bit of toy but of course depends on the DJ, personally I wouldn't want to be recorded on a live stream using one of those.

#8 - Sorry, I am not much of a motivational speaker but I wish you the best, follow your dreams!

Blunt mode again: Very naive. No one is gonna give you anything unless the project is rolling, if it succeeds im sure you will get companies approaching you but companies dont tend to give things to people that say that will do things, they do it for people who actually do it and (usually) have some level of success, in this era that means: Followers, subscribers, likes, etc… TBH, your project seems perfect for social media, so get it rolling first.

#9 - This is where I get a bit lost, havent you tested any of this yet? You have to connect all that stuff and practice perform to be able to know if your computer can handle it or not, it doesn't only depends on what you want t sue but also how, how many fx, what kind, etc…

If you city is hot and you plan to perform during the day on the summer your computer should have wiggle cooling room, meaning if it gets too warm at home it will cook in direct sunlight. I'd say have one decent computer only but make sure it's a modern CPU that doesn't overheat. You need a balance between CPU raw power and power consumption.

neworleanstrumpetguy

I guess I was a little vague……sorry let me expound on the matter as some of this stuff is pretty general and straightforward and some of it is definitely gold for me:

I am a professional musician, through and through. I have perfect pitch, can improvise over anything, and have even played trumpet with a couple big DJs as a guest performer due to my ties to commercial reggae roots bands I used to tour with.

i also know my way around a DAW. Most experience is with Ableton but I have an album I’m currently recording and I’m producing the tracks near and potatoes on the M+. I have two singles I just released the other day (just to release some teaser footage and start streaming, so until the album is finished with it’s 16 multi-genre songs so that I can release something that I can look back on and find “MY SOUND” from there, I have not included the vocals or trumpet work on top.)

this is a well thought out project. I haven’t myself had my own STREAM CHANNEL, but I just want to stream every performance, as well as run my audio into an already well thought together recording template in my DAW to record every live performance I do.

I have regular gigs that I book, sometimes I do 15 gigs a month, most times though I stick to my two weekly house gigs that I flip flop responsibility between the band I have and my one-man-band looper show that I have been building on for a while. But I recently was victim to a really nasty home invasion where they tied me up and took everything I built as far as music equipment over the last IDK, 15 YEARS (all the way back to my earliest trumpets and acoustic guitars).

As far as approach at THIS POINT, I’m just trying to polish my production skills to get them somewhere near the professional sound that comes out of my trumpet every time I pick it up. I have done everything to playing with Resinated and Passafire and Badfish: a Sublime Tribute to guest performances on lil Wayne’s Nightline to playing in Drum Corps and winning the world Championship TWICE to playing with two big DJs at Imagine Music Festival in 2018 after getting to meet them as a general admission ticket holder. I know what POLISHED sounds like in any genre, I have “the Gift”, Again I am just starting over with new hardware that I have a bit of learning curve on. I know I am not going to play a big show with an X1, this is mainly to have for pop-up shows, pop-up raves, and street performances during Mardi Gras and New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to draw BIG CROWDS to tip me VERY WELL for ORIGINAL MUSIC and yes some well known music as well. I even already have two sponsors, my trumpet sponsor as well as my sponsor for my microphones, cables, stands, and anything else THAT COMPANY has that they can offer me that will benefit the cause. I also have a benefactor that puts up any and all upfront fees for any big parties I wanna try and tackle whether it be a word of mouth river party at the End Of The World (New Orleans people know the spot and know the parties we throw out there VERY WELL) or it be tailgating for the New Orleans Saints games and just set up a stage that I can roll the rig right up onto and plug my setup to whatever speakers or setup available (my own if necessary)

lastly, do you think that I would just have the funds and free time to make such a large vast encompassing setup without doing music pretty much my whole life to begin with, AND without a detailed summary of goals and achievements? Of course I know what I want to do with it and how I want to do it, it’s definitely been a rollercoaster of crazy people, A LOT of trial and error, and one knows the amount of time it takes to become a quality, proficiently trained, professional instrumentalist without learning how to produce some stuff, mix some stuff, listening to music all day, all night, or playing it, or both. I might not know what the finished product looks like and how long it will be sufficiently functional, relevant, and how effective it is going to be(I already am hearing people yelling,”hey look guys it’s the short bus band wagon!”

But if I’m generating a lot of interest, have people engaged and smiling and bumping their heads, then who cares if I’m the best Producer, how long does it take me to finish a track, what are my thoughts on compression, side-chaining, and gain structure, or if I don’t get it right instantly.

Anything great is already created, if you believe and know you are destined for greatness and your actions are towards nothing else, then all you have to do is enjoy the ride.

neworleanstrumpetguy

oh and the NI guys giving me anything was really kind of a joke, but I guess given the mass post I guess it was taken way serious 😁

D-One

Oh, first of all I am very jealous about the perfect pitch, I WISH :) Secondly, yeah that changes a lot. With all that experience the music part will be easy for you, but you still need experience with all the SW involved, mapping, streaming, etc.. But compared to what you already know it should be easy. I still think starting the streams at home is a good ideia, problems will occur and it's easy to learn how to deal with those in a more controlled environment. Up to you.

Sorry about that home invasion situation, that's insane, no one should have go thru that.

lastly, do you think that I would just have the funds and free time to make such a large vast encompassing setup without doing music pretty much my whole life to begin with, AND without a detailed summary of goals and achievements?

Well… I dont know you, so yes/maybe(?). Now that I know your background I can see how the complexity of the goals is not a big deal and very achievable. I meant no offense, sorry if it came out wrong.

oh and the NI guys giving me anything was really kind of a joke, but I guess given the mass post I guess it was taken way serious 😁

I took it half serious, but when I reply I also have to consider not just you but everyone else who ends up reading it. There could be a little kid out there starting out that reads this thread and is hoping for some sponsors.

neworleanstrumpetguy

Thank you for all the input! Yeah that Home Invasion was crazy. THANKS for your kind words and awesome advice, and as far as the video stuff I think I'm going to take your advice fully, and take it slow. Right now I might be good with the ability to just get the ball rolling.

So far I have decided to go Controller mode on the Maschine, and run Traktor on Machines Driver and link them up with Ableton Link. As far as Program Changes, I found out that Maschine can do it, and that's probably all I'll do with the microKORG, I was thinking of just resampling the instrument into Maschine but you don't get the same manipulation of oscillation as you do with it just being plugged in as external hardware.

I have the trailer and I'm making wood cuts for the shell today, probably going to go with the generator until I can come back from purchasing so much, then I'll get more than just one laptop rated external battery charger (I have a 65W with a RipCord that powers Maschine Plus, the M32 and Traktor X1 mk3, and the jam)

For the outside stuff, I'm downsizing, I'm going with the Plus in standalone with very lightly prepared back trax to embellish me making Liquid DnB, Dub, and House with loops and mixing tricks and extended solid states and program changes, and then putting some quality muted trumpet and vocals with good Reverb, Flange, and some echos and filters and what not, I think, the microKorg, the M32, and then my old laptop will be able to safely run Traktor 3pro with the mk3, and run them on the same driver as Maschine, and mix in music peo0le know with my originals and other stuff on the fly.

I'll keep you and anyone else who cares to know in the loop (if anybody does, if not, I'm sure we will pop up somewhere else in the community)

Also, who is in your opinion the biggest artist that you know is running a Maschine mk 3 or even a Plus for live performance? In standalone is there a way to get more stuff 3rd party downloaded by the user for free anywhere? Here? I'm curious as to how that works

neworleanstrumpetguy

by the way, just an update @D-One , My trailer is built, my bike is finished, and my setup is also done. i have all the music hardware custom fitted into two road cases that fit directly into the shell i built in the front of the trailer. thats the Plus, M32, X1, also now a Z1 mk2, the microKORG, old ASUS laptop (i got a brand new air for the studio inside), the Jam, a SM58 for vox, a SM58 for horns, my telecaster, Rig Control 3, an Octapad drum pad, and an external samsung SDD 1 TB. i have 3 speakers: QSC K12.2, Bose S1 Pro, Mackie GO Thump. they fit into the front of the shell, except the k12, that goes into the back of the trailer on top of the couch frame i welded to the back with the generator. i upgraded my ASUS laptop to run better with a 2tb SSD, and 16GB RAM. Eventually will leave the Plus home and bring a MIKRO, as well as buy two of the new Mackie complete Portable PA setups (they have loopers built in with effects, its CRAZY!), that way i can keep what i currently have at home. either way i wanted to share with you the best part:

so far i have done three gigs with the setup and have busked (street performances) 4-5x weekly since my last post, and i have been perfecting my skills and honing in my song material on Maschine, and i must say its the "Dream Maschine" and SO MUCH MORE AWESOME than I originally anticpated! with the room in between the back couch and the booth in front of the trailer, i have room to stand AND have a doggy bed to the right side of me for Zeus(my Great Dane/pit mix who LOVES coming with me everywhere I go now instead of having to leave him at home! thats honestly the best part and the biggest attribute as far as the reasoning behind my INCREDIBLY increased amount of tips!). He just lays in the doggy bed with the leash locked to the frame of the bike trailer as i can go upwards of 45mph on my extremely strong and fast e-bike i custom built. i never have to go that fast in downtown New Orleans, the biggest speed limit is 35, and i rarely have to go that fast, and try not to with my dog in the back of course.

i did a pop-up rave with collaboration with a VERY BIG DJ here in Louisiana in the Riddim Scene, and I performed for 2 hours, he performed for 2 hours, and we performed together the last hour-ish, and it WAS PAAAAAAACKED. AT LEAST 600 people were at the Abandoned Navy Base and we had an absolute BLAST! i added some new lighting and a projector with a backdrop projector screen behind the trailer, and its an absolute dream come true!

of course this would not have been possible without your advice, and with the ease of the great and smart investments of Native Instruments brand hardware and software. without it i dont think i could have pulled this off the way i did, and i got a HUGE uproar of positive feedback and props on the amount of hard work and immense thought i put into this project, and it shows in my tips, in my finances, and in my content, which i will be posting online starting very soon, eventually live streming as well (i took your advice on that part IN FULL, so thank you so much!)

thanks bro, your advice really gave me a great outline for success, and i cannot thank you enough!

Sincerely,

Cameron

D-One

@neworleanstrumpetguy No need to thank me, you did it all on your own! :) oh man, thats so great to hear, congrats on getting this going! It's so easy to procrastinate especially on big projects, love to see people push forward and achieving their vision.

I wanna see it, both the setup and performances, let us know when your start posting videos and such.