One of the ironies of making music today is that the more detailed and complex your creations become in the DAW, the harder they become to reproduce in a live setting – especially if you want to retain some aspect of real time human expression and not rely too much on playback. This studio to stage translation can be a tough nut to crack and often requires practice, perseverance and creativity, which is precisely why we wanted to see how the Berlin-based duo Mattokind rose to the challenge.
Jae (a classical violinist) and Cristiano (an electronic producer) were working on their first tracks as Mattokind – the name is a combination of the Italian word for "crazy" and the German word for "child" – when they got the opportunity to play what would become their first live performance. Excited and somewhat daunted by the task ahead, they got to work on prepping a live set-up that left enough room for spontaneity without sacrificing the complexity of their compositions – and we were on hand to film the whole process.
In order to give you a complete picture of his set-up as featured in the film above, Cristiano has made a walk through video of his impressively well-thought out live rig, including a few tips for real-time control of Live.
Watch Mattokind perform their track Scenescape live:
Mattokind have also kindly shared the Live Set of “Scenescape” – the track they play in the video above. Download it for free* here and explore the details of audio, effects, and MIDI routing and mapping for yourself**. Please note that to make full use of this complex Live Set you’ll need to download the remote scripting language ClyphX and Michael Norris’ Spectral DroneMaker device – both available as free versions. For internally MIDI mapping drum racks, the IAC Driver will need to be turned and you’ll need to install Studiomux AU in order to route audio from an iOS device into the Live Set.
*Works with any edition of Live 10, but to make use of everything in this download, you’ll need Live10 Suite.
**The files in this Live Set are for evaluation purposes and non-commercial use only.
Keep up with Mattokind on Spotify, Instagram and their website.
Learn more about drummer Jörn Bielfeldt on his website.