Live performance with a synth

[Castiel1994]

Hey there, I'm thinking about buying a Rolando A-800 PRO synth because is great as a master controller for studio but I've heard that is also awesome for live performance. My question is how it works the live performance, I mean, I have to connect the synth to a laptop and an amp to the laptop? This will be the regular connection?

Thanks in advance!

 

[happyrat1]

Yep. It's a dumb controller meaning it has no built in sounds.

You can create sounds with it by hooking it up to a laptop or an iPad or you can also generate sounds by plugging it into a standalone sound module like the Roland Sound Canvas or the Integra 7 or buy a used Triton Rack or Yamaha Motif Rack module.

Any of those are useful for a stage situation but the most reliable approach on stage is to use a sound module. Computers tend to crash without warning at the worst possible times.

Gary

 

[Fred Coulter]

One question I'd have is where are you going to play. There are venues which are very small, and for those venues the space savings of an all in one unit may be something to consider.

One place I'm aiming at is musical theater pits, which are pretty tight. (For some reason, audiences are interested in what's happening on stage, not with the musicians. Go figure.) I also remember playing a restaurant in Massachusetts which had a small triangular stage. We had to coordinate getting on and off the stage to make sure we didn't knock anything over.

For me, I'm trying for a setup that lives on a single K&M Spider Pro stand, thus reducing the amount of floor space I take up.

If you're playing large venues, this isn't as important. Rick Wakeman's keyboard setup would fill a normal sized living room. And if you've got roadies, you could also stash sound generators off stage.