Any nomadic electronic music producers?

Question

I am curious if anyone here is traveling while also working on their electronic music productions. I know there are a few “real” musicians here (respek!), but I am even more interested in finding my digital brethren.
If you’re out there, how do you manage to do it? Granted, it has become a lot more feasible in the past 5 years or so, but not entirely problem-free.
Do you have a more comprehensive set up at your home base that complements your mobile studio or are you 100% mobile? Do you have a MIDI controller in your backpack/suitcase at all times? What about the monitors? While we’re on the topic, would you maybe care to share your setup (DAW, interfaces, controllers, peripherals)?
Here’s my situation right now: MacBook Pro with Ableton Live, AKG headphones, a simple/tiny m-audio MIDI controller, an Apogee MiC for recording samples & voice. So far, nothing for the digital interface (apart from the built-in one) or monitors.

eduardo · Accepted Answer

Hi @bisonravi
I’m writing to you from Sun and Co (www.sun-and-co-com) , a coliving space in Spain. Next week, Ben from London is coming here. He is a music producer. I can give him your contact so you can both chat about this 
Let me know how can he contact you.
Hope to see you one day around! 
All the best,
Edu

mattia · Answer

Hey guys…sorry to be late to the party… here some of my humble experience…
A) I’ve been producing electronic and house music for a while and managing my label in London remotely, some years ago…
Built a small home-studio and then dismantled it and composing on the go…
B) These days, hardware is just a style choice. I have hardware gear at home (keyboards, synths, microphones, speakers, controllers, audio interfaces, mixers, etc) but on the road I just stay with AKG headphones (soon to be replaced with Audio Technica, def. better now), I got a small Samson USB mic (amazing for podcasts, acceptable for voice demos and ideas); Akai mini-keys (I used to bring Maschine with me, but it’s pretty useless, apart for live gigs, as you can do everything with the mini-keyboard or draw it on screen and you save tons of kilos and inspections). If you just need 1 audio input, there’s an amazing little box from Focusrite called VRM box. Essentially, it recreates (coupled with a free software) various studio monitor ambiences for mix purposes. But it’s also a basic audio interface for 1 in/1 out.
C) These days, Iphone/Ipad apps from major brands like Korg, Arturia, Serato, NI, you can do everything you want in the box and in the phone.
D) Dunno if it’s just a coincidence, but I took most paying client brands when on the road without gear. Of course my advice is:

if you are comfortable with the results, in case of smaller brands, own projects, libraries or internal use commercials (so they won’t be played with huge speakers in festivals or terraces), you can do the mix and master in the box (if you are used to, with excellent headphones and speaker environment simulators)
if you have to work with major brands/artists for public use, commercial use or whatever you know you need 110% quality, you can outsource part of the mix and the master. I did sometimes, with a partner I got in London.
Same for editing video. And also same with audio if time-jammed: if you don’t have the time to edit all the drops, builders, note quantify, fade-in and outs and all the editing stuff and you have the margins to do that, while taking on other clients and working on the creative side, do it. Yes ,you miss some bucks but you gain tons of minutiae-saved time, sanity and inspiration.

Anyhow, music as a nomad is not that reliable these days (as a static neither). I’m still seeking a new biz model to solve this shit.
Years ago, that was the reason I delved into online affiliate marketing and tech startups and I never managed to get out of that abyss. I was in a quest to find a new profitable revenue model for artists like me and these days I’m working on a nutrition and cosmetic startup, so you could imagine how far that road led me 
But always remeber the why you started…
Let’s connect guys, we need to revive the music business…

panoramica · Answer

@bisonravi I brought gear with me for the purpose but haven’t had a proper sit down yet  Anyway, I write found sound music and am carrying: a Macbook Air 11" with Ableton Live, Sony PCM D50 field recorder, mini tripod, Soundman binaural microphones & A3 adapter & bulky Soundman wearable wind screens, iPhone 5 running Touchable v3 (keyboard, faders, clip lauching etc), and Shure SE425 in-ear monitors. I use Dropbox to backup samples in case my laptop gets stolen (I’ve been burnt in the past with losing files through DRM which is another kind of theft…). I have a Voltaic solar panel with a cache battery that’s big enough to do a full charge of the Macbook, but battery life is definitely an issue for tent-based mixing, and I’ve become paranoid about wolves sneaking up on me when I have my headphones in! I also just bought a SanDisk 64GB USB3 memory stick which has been excellent for freeing up disk space as the Macbook SSD is only 120GB. I am unsure if you could stream samples off it but the computer should run smoother with a less cluttered harddrive anyway.
Some of the gear is quite bulky but it’s fairly impractical to replace anything on the road. However I just bought a Samsung A3 phone as a backup / for testing, so may incorporate this too, but there is no Touchable for Android, and the benefit of Touchable is that it runs over USB so there are none of the usual WiFi issues.
I sold a bunch of gear when I left NZ - Blue Sky monitors, iPad Airs, NI Maschine, Ableton Push, Babyface etc. I don’t really miss my old stuff, as I’d rather have travel experiences at the moment. I am taking some interesting samples so will have a lot of material when I get around to doing something with it. At the moment I don’t feel like staring at the screen to do that though, which is another interesting thing about travelling.
Cheers,
Dan

tjwaldorf · Answer

I try to make friends with local producers and usually someone knows someone who has a decent bedroom studio. Despite that, 90% of my production work is done with just headphones and DAW. It’s hard sometimes but it’s a good excuse to focus on improving in-the-box skills. Definitely miss my instrument and my microphone, though.
Also I think I’m going to start contracting out my mixdowns because it’s just too much guesswork when on headphones, so that will hopefully prevent a lot of frustration. Anyone have any exp with that?

yivva · Answer

Unfortunately yes, it has been a while since I have tried to finish anything. I was wasting far too much time trying to achieve an impossible sound, and the frustration was affecting the rest of my life.
I figured I just need to wait for technology to catch up and get better at recreating the analogue sound and then I’ll jump back into it. It was so much more enjoyable with hardware, like I was simple playing the machines and having lots of fun experimenting and recording what sounded great. As opposed to hours of dissatisfaction and irritation of trying to get flat sounds to sound like ‘real music’.
As soon as it’s not enjoyable, I didn’t see the point.
It’s a shame, but on the other hand, stopping all the hours spent on music in my life opened up so much opportunity for other pleasures I had never explored. It kind of opened up my eyes to the rest of the world.

kirill · Answer

I did at home, haven’t on the road, but would like to. Was debating picking up a midi launcher like apc 40 or something like that, not sure if there’s something similar but smaller.

bavals · Answer

@twaldorf That’s an interesting tactic (and probably more in tune with the whole “sharing economy” concept), and I think I should probably do the same, but I am still wondering how you go about networking in strange places.
Like, how exactly do you “make friends” in situations when you’re totally unfamiliar with local scenes? (I imagine joining electronic production meetups in multiple cities could be one strategy, but it looks like most of them meet only once every 2-3 months, which doesn’t really help those who are passing by).

tangovagabond · Answer

I’m following this thread because I’ve done some DJ’ng for Argentine tango events and played with minor mixing. One of my students actually built an online music selling clips and samples.
Part of me has dreamed about getting more into composing using sampling and current technology. I struggled as a kid trying to learn how to play musical instruments, but I still feel like there’s some part of me waiting to be expressed through music.

bavals · Answer

Hey, @Edu! Maybe Ben could join this forum? Direct messaging is great for specific issues, but at this point I just think it’d be great to have more musicians & producers here so we can have more music-related threads.

bavals · Answer

@yivva Exactly how I feel, too. So, just to make sure I understand, there was no solution in your case? Did you just give up making music?

eduardo · Answer

@bisonravi , unfortunately, Ben is not part of this forum.
I’ll send him the link just in case he wants to join

yivva · Answer

Tried producing some stuff a few years ago while i was on the move. My problem was, I really like the analogue sound and could never get any software I bought to create effects (delays, tape echos, verb etc) sounding as real as the hardware I previously had so I kind of gave up after months of frustration. I’m sure it’s possible, but just couldn’t get that ‘raw’, none digital feel to the music and I don’t ship junk

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