Beyond Pressing Play: The Glitch Mob

EDM is a genre specifically known to be full of producers who just get up on stage with a pre-recorded set and just press play on their playlist. There are however a handful of individuals who decide to go above and beyond pressing play and pumping their fists. The Glitch Mob is known for their mesmerizing live set, and it looks like something out of a movie or a video game. That’s because the members of The Glitch Mob were heavily involved in the entire creative process of their production setup. They had so many things going on in their setup that they actually needed to design their own processing system to handle all the data from the 20-something controllers they have in their live set. Everything from iPads running Lemur to an assortment of Roland V-Drums. Fortunately The Glitch Mob thought it would be cool if they documented the entire process of their live setup, which intrigues audio technology enthusiasts like myself. The documentary is called ” Behind The Blade ” and it shows the tedious start to finish process of how their live set (Also known as The Blade) and how it was the brain-child of all three band members.

The Glitch Mob Behind The Blade

Codenamed ” Little Kim, ” These are the components that make up the set:

2 Mac Pro audio computers, running Ableton Live (Redundancy is key)
2 Mac Minis to control on stage data
1 Big Max/MSP rig for handling sync data, control & presentation
Many Universal Audio Apollo audio interfaces
Radial SW8 Switchers
MOTU MIDI routing
Network Gear

On Stage Gear:

Roland V-Drums
Roland Octopad (SPD-30)
12 iPads running Liine Lemur ( An app-based custom MIDI controller )
Addition MIDI Controllers ( AKAI MPD & Livid BASE )

There is a reason The Glitch Mob have been voted as one of the greatest live performers of this era. The entire system is integrated to trigger lights, video loops, and cool production effects. This is basically the huge rock-star style set that EDM has been waiting for. Combine good music, with live instrumentation, and performance dancers and you have yourself an mind-blowing live set. The Glitch Mob has worked extremely hard to get to where they are and in my opinion they deserve every bit of it. Hopefully we start to see more performance based EDM artists like these guys. There’s a completely different feeling you get from hearing music sonically recreated live.

Connect with The Glitch Mob:
Website: http://www.theglitchmob.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theglitchmobmusic
Instagram: https://instagram.com/theglitchmob/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/theglitchmob
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/glitchmob
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/theglitchmob