Mix Mac [en]
– What’s your scene name ? Introduce yourself.
My name is auke ferwerda, artist name 365Live! (as I am editor of 365mag.com, a dancemagazine). We are a dynamic outfit, witch changing compositions, with performances for example at Diesel fashion shows in venice, ranging to musical trade fairs such as the Rotterdam electronic music festival and the Amsterdam Dance Event
– How long have you been doing this ? How do you started ? What have you been threw ?
I have been using ableton Live software for over a year now in live settings. Usually I mixed using three technics 1200 turntables, then I bought pioneer cd players, which I sold after I discovered ableton, at first on my ibook, later on my g5, and now on my macbook.
– Where do you play usually ?
I play at panama (amsterdam’s leading club), but also in Dubai, Slovenia, Japan and the States. Depending on the setting I play with a live artist (such as Jazz pianist Colijn Buijs), on festivals I tend to work with a vj. My major festivals for 2006 include Rockit Open Air (15.000 people) and Free Your Mind (15.00 people)
– Wich hardware/software you use ?
for production I use my macbook, alongside a g5 iMac both running ableton live 6, as it combines production and live performance abilities. The most important thing when running ableton is enough ram, alongside the right plugins and soundcard, so I have maxed that out. Live 6.0 supports dual core processing, rendering the macbook an excellent choice (although there are still some problems with the macbook), that’s why I need a second one on stage.
The soundcard comes from Motu, as they are very portable, have a low latency and many inputs. Furthermore I employ a machinedrum by elektron, an access virus c synth as main hardware (alongside my behringer bcr2000 midi controller) and a host of plugins, including iDrum for sketching drums, waves for mastering, ozone3 by izotope for mastering, absynth4, fm8, reaktor albino 3 and blue as my main synths and grid pro for visuals
– What benefits you have by working with Apple products ?
apart from being stylish on stage, I love the sleep mode of my mac. I prepare my setup at home, close my mac, and open it up again at my gig, being ready to go almost instantaneously. Besides, the price/performance ratio of my macbook is second to none; it is perhaps due to the special deal apple made with intel that the price/performance tops that of pc’s these days, the world seems to have turned around.
Also, apple service levels are quite ok. I can’t survive without my machines, and the apple experts just seem to know a lot more about working on media projects under stress and with a time limit.
As far as Apple software is concerned, I must say that I recently quit using logic, because it feels a bit clinical to me. Don’t get me wrong, the features are excellent and expansive, problem is that it misses the live feel of programs such as ableton, which render the process of production a bit more of a rock and roll experience, which makes it worthwhile for myself
– How it increase your work if it does ?
many products are written exclusively for pc (such as acid, sound forge). Sometimes you need to work around, although I run a double boot windows these days.
– What’s annoying eventually ?
nothing really, apart from the fact that apple’s built in sound is a bit flakey. This holds for any built in soundcard though, you nearly always need to work with an external soundcard. On the other hand, apple’s instant sleep recovery, its wifi-midi features and of course the intuitive os itself set it apart from the rest, I would never consider switching back to pc. I must say that building quality on my macbook is a bit less than I had on my ibook. Is it perhaps the move to asustek?
– What else would you like to have for musical creation (neither an existing solution or some features you imagine) ?
I Love concepts such as jazzmutant’s lemur. A touchscreen designed to control midi applications. Fact is that it is still way too expensive, and too small to control all parameters. On the other hand, the midi-controllers on offer still lack the durability of other mixers. That should change, that is why I am building my own new midi controller in collaboration with hardware purveyor dateq. With all the buttons necessary, a robust encasing and portability in one package
– & Anything else you think about..
well it would be nice if apple would upgrade their macbooks to core2duo soon. As they are the most portable of the series, the combination of computing power with a small form factor (and the plastic doesn’t get damaged as easily as the aluminum), makes it the ultimate computer for on the road.
