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On this episode of DTB’s “Gear Masters”, Aron Magner, keyboardist of the jam band, The Disco Biscuits, shows off the gear that he uses onstage, while on the "Why We Dance Tour 2024." The Disco Biscuits is currently supporting their newest album, Revolution in Motion.
PLAY THE SAME GEAR:
Yamaha Montage M8x 88-key Synthesizer - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/NkAX21
Hammond XK-5 Heritage Series Single Manual Organ - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/xkAOOy
Access Virus TI Polar 37-Key Digital Synthesizer - https://tidd.ly/47U3iwc
Sequential Prophet-6 - 6-voice Analog Synthesizer - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/k0LVVV
Roland JP-8000 Synthesizer 49-Key Synthesizer - https://tidd.ly/3TZ45qd
Roland V-Synth GT 61-Key Elastic Audio Synthesizer - https://tidd.ly/3XVrQR9
Strymon DIG Digital Delay Pedal - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/6e277m
Boss RE-20 Space Echo - https://tidd.ly/3XViO6v
The Pill Pedal The Pill - https://thepillpedal.com/collections/all
Source Audio Nemesis Delay Pedal - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/da4ee2
Akai Professional APC40 MKII Pad Controller - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/NkAXX1
Elgato Stream Deck + Customizable Desktop Interface - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/Mmagkn
Neo Instruments Mini Vent II Rotary Speaker Simulator Pedal - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/753dD5
Allen & Heath ZED-14 12-channel Mixer - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/DKDBqb
VIDEO INFO:
Film Date - August 20, 2024
Location - Thalia Hall in Chicago, IL
KEEP UP WITH THE DISCO BISCUITS:
Facebook - https://facebook.com/@discobiscuits
Instagram - https://instagram.com/thediscobiscuits
Twitter - https://twitter.com/disco_biscuits
WATCH MORE GEAR MASTERS EPISODES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU1k_TJRZ6U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKLSY8Walzo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSRt4jubpjE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFmpByRkZuk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH7fshlGZRU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHtWddN9YqI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYuqASDgSGc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNd5bcdl_CI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsvELmoQlpo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIo-5Htb9zA
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Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/digitaltourbus/
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WATCH OUR DIFFERENT VIDEO SERIES:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPSOX00TLs7_ByKsuzBlHLw8Z9vlvMHpo
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPSOX00TLs7-qmqFF3X8-CewdMmig-D2a
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https://www.youtube.com/play
Become a member (it's FREE) at https://digtb.us/signup
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On this episode of DTB’s “Gear Masters”, Aron Magner, keyboardist of the jam band, The Disco Biscuits, shows off the gear that he uses onstage, while on the "Why We Dance Tour 2024." The Disco Biscuits is currently supporting their newest album, Revolution in Motion.
PLAY THE SAME GEAR:
Yamaha Montage M8x 88-key Synthesizer - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/NkAX21
Hammond XK-5 Heritage Series Single Manual Organ - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/xkAOOy
Access Virus TI Polar 37-Key Digital Synthesizer - https://tidd.ly/47U3iwc
Sequential Prophet-6 - 6-voice Analog Synthesizer - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/k0LVVV
Roland JP-8000 Synthesizer 49-Key Synthesizer - https://tidd.ly/3TZ45qd
Roland V-Synth GT 61-Key Elastic Audio Synthesizer - https://tidd.ly/3XVrQR9
Strymon DIG Digital Delay Pedal - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/6e277m
Boss RE-20 Space Echo - https://tidd.ly/3XViO6v
The Pill Pedal The Pill - https://thepillpedal.com/collections/all
Source Audio Nemesis Delay Pedal - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/da4ee2
Akai Professional APC40 MKII Pad Controller - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/NkAXX1
Elgato Stream Deck + Customizable Desktop Interface - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/Mmagkn
Neo Instruments Mini Vent II Rotary Speaker Simulator Pedal - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/753dD5
Allen & Heath ZED-14 12-channel Mixer - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/DKDBqb
VIDEO INFO:
Film Date - August 20, 2024
Location - Thalia Hall in Chicago, IL
KEEP UP WITH THE DISCO BISCUITS:
Facebook - https://facebook.com/@discobiscuits
Instagram - https://instagram.com/thediscobiscuits
Twitter - https://twitter.com/disco_biscuits
WATCH MORE GEAR MASTERS EPISODES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU1k_TJRZ6U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKLSY8Walzo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSRt4jubpjE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFmpByRkZuk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH7fshlGZRU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHtWddN9YqI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYuqASDgSGc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNd5bcdl_CI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsvELmoQlpo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIo-5Htb9zA
FOLLOW US:
Website/Email List - https://www.digitaltourbus.com/#/portal/signup
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/digitaltourbus
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/digitaltourbus/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@digitaltourbus
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/digitaltourbus/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/digitaltourbus
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/digitaltourbus/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-tour-bus-llc
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/user/digitaltourbus
WATCH OUR DIFFERENT VIDEO SERIES:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPSOX00TLs7_ByKsuzBlHLw8Z9vlvMHpo
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPSOX00TLs7-qmqFF3X8-CewdMmig-D2a
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPSOX00TLs78kkdygO4-67vxS4u5P6Qh7
https://www.youtube.com/play
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Aaron Magner from the Disco Biscuits, and this is my keyboard land.
00:16It's gone through a bunch of different revisions over the years.
00:19I'm at a place right now where I'm really comfortable with what I've got going on.
00:23I've scaled down a bunch of stuff, there used to be a clav over here, there was an operating
00:27Leslie that was over there that just took a crap, but let me show you what's going on.
00:31We will start over here.
00:35My bottom keyboard has always been my main keyboard that I need to go to for pianos and
00:40electric pianos.
00:42What I particularly like about the Yamaha series is that I can have access to synth
00:49leads and choirs and comps and all sorts of real orchestral instruments, and I do a lot
00:55of that stuff.
00:56It's nice to have the general versatility of everything that the Montage has to offer.
01:01This is the new Montage, which is worlds different than the Montage of just a few years ago,
01:08and it's really enabled me to look at this keyboard as a layering keyboard, where an
01:15improvisational band, so I might have, as whatever random example, I might have a synth
01:23brass sound up that I'm playing, and then I want to slowly bring in a synth lead sound,
01:30so now I have the lead and the brass, and I can blend between the two as I morph my
01:36physical line from more of a stabby brass in this example to a lead.
01:40So there's this fluidity, and then if I'm in a lead and I want to add a choir so that
01:45I can then get there, some pads, now I have that ability as well.
01:50So I'm always sculpting on this, and though I have an amazing keyboard world, I just got
01:56to the point, don't tell my bandmates, where I feel like I can actually do a show almost
02:02entirely on this keyboard, on this one keyboard.
02:05So that's kind of new for me, and I like the fluidity of it.
02:07So I was coming from a MoDX, which was the bottom tier of the previous Montage line,
02:17clearly a more professional model, just from the weights of the keys to the building of
02:20the chassis, but the chips are so much significantly faster in here that even things, the response
02:28time from the screen, I'm really able to move between patches, which I have a tendency to
02:35do, much faster with a lot of fluidity.
02:39It also has a new integration into software.
02:44So now I'm able to not just back up this keyboard to software or work on something at home in
02:50software and send it back to the keyboard, but now we practice downstairs before a show,
02:56and if there's a patch that I want to figure out, I can do that downstairs, figure out
03:01what I need to dial in, mimic it here, or even bring the computer up and send it to
03:05here.
03:06So there's a lot of just flexibility with this thing, and I've had it for four months
03:11now, and I'm still in love with it.
03:13Above the Montage, we have the Hammond XK5, which I think is their most recent of the
03:20clone wheels.
03:22It was going through a Leslie, it was a solid state amp in the Leslie, but it was all enclosed,
03:29and so the microphones were inside of the case, which was really nice.
03:34The solid state amp took a shit, so instead we are using a mini ventilator, which makes
03:40some people happy that we took away three open microphones for just a pair of stereos.
03:46The organ in this context of this band is most frequently used to kind of, you know,
03:52we're a guitar-driven band, so when we get to that peak and that climax and he needs,
03:58you know, a little bit more wind beneath his sails, I'm able to really just kind of like
04:02plow in and give that layer where I'm pushing him up.
04:06And you know, it screams, so if I need to take a quick, you know, solo or something
04:11at the top to also give the jam energy, I'm able to always have a go-to as opposed to
04:17shit, I need a lead real quickly, or let me go over here, and it's just right there.
04:22I do actually, you know, because again, we're an electronic band, I do use the effects on
04:27these.
04:28I'll, you know, crank the reverb up while putting on, you know, a percussion and kind
04:33of playing around with that ambient timbre coming from an organ, so that's kind of cool.
04:39But for the most part, it's an organ, I don't really do presets, I just play with my drawbars.
04:46Above the Hammond is kind of the staple of my rig in the modern-day disco biscuits, and
04:54this is an AXS Virus TI.
04:57It's got to be a couple of decades old at this point, and I'm still amazed, number one,
05:03how much more I'm learning about this keyboard, but just how well it actually holds up through
05:09all of the shifts in technology, you know, compared to all these amazing new synths that
05:14are out, it really is my go-to, and for a reason.
05:19But what I particularly like about it in the year 2024 is that I just discovered multimode!
05:27So multimode, I can store 16 patches per mode, right, so, I mean, however many modes
05:36you have, and each of the 16 patches are assigned to 16 different channels that are then mapped
05:44over here, so, you know, kind of 1 through 16 of the Virus.
05:52Now everything is routed in and out MIDI, and assigned to the different MIDI channels,
05:58so this is my ARP bank, and I could be playing an ARP on channel 1, and I could loop it in,
06:05I loop it in MIDI, and it spits it back out MIDI, so the audio path is all going to the
06:10same place, the volumes don't change, I'm not sampling it and sending it out another
06:15channel, it's just MIDI, it does quantize it in here, it's record quantization if needed,
06:21and then I have something on channel 1, and then I go to channel 2, and I go to channel
06:262, and then I can loop on channel 2, and I can build out as much or as little as I like
06:32within those 16 channels of my specific bank.
06:36And then, with a little bit of trickery from an Ableton guru by the name of Jules, he put
06:46this crazy script, I don't know where it is, some crazy script here, so that I can
06:53map, you know, my volumes to each of the individual MIDI channels using a user bank in the APC,
07:03you know, so that there will correspond to the same thing as like patch volume over here.
07:11And that has just been a game changer for me, so now basically I have 16 Virus synthesizers
07:17available to me at any given time.
07:21There's also some amazing third-party software, you know, this company kind of shifted their
07:29focus into the Kempler guitars, or guitar synths, so they kind of stopped all of their
07:36progress, I mean it's been years now.
07:40You know, there's no more updates, there's no more firmware updates, you know, the software
07:44no longer works with any of the new operating systems, so there has been a couple of third-party
07:50companies that have opened up that actually will be able to build out the Virus and make
07:55it look like it, the user interface is great, and then you can actually do SysEx dumps really
08:00easily, so, you know, I'm able to find some patches online, or manipulate my own patches
08:05and put them where they should be within the file structure, which I'm still getting better
08:10at, but that's been a game changer for me, going into multi-mode as opposed to the single
08:15mode, which is just once and done, you know, I could be playing a soft lead, if I want
08:19to loop a soft lead over here, it sends it back out, and now I can't do anything more
08:24on the Virus, and I have to switch over to another keyboard, which would bring us to
08:30the Prophet.
08:31You know, pretty straightforward, it's just great to have something where I can sculpt
08:37immediately, which is kind of how I tend to operate in my flow state in this improvisational
08:44band, you know, I kind of know where my patches are a little bit, and I used to have a menu
08:49of numbers and what they correspond to, but I'll start off, boom, this is what it sounds
08:55like, and then I'll just begin sculpting immediately, you know, in the ADSR section, or filters,
08:59so that it's fitting both within the context of the jam and what everybody else is doing,
09:05and where I eventually need to go, switching over to another keyboard.
09:10Same thing, this is routed in MIDI into here, just on a different channel, you know, the
09:16Prophet channel, and then I can loop in any sort of MIDI notes and spit it back out MIDI,
09:21and again, what I really like about that in this improvisational setting that we're in,
09:25I'll play a line that fits with what everybody's doing, and then I have the ability to very
09:31minutely adjust it, so, you know, a filter sweep coming up as, you know, there's a 16th
09:37note line kind of being played by the computer, you know, but it still feels like me, right,
09:43because I played it in moments before, so just because the computer's spitting it back
09:47out, I feel like I have ownership of those lines, as opposed to, you know, using some
09:53MIDI packs or something like that, and, you know, it would be too much trial and error
09:59to just throw in like a, you know, well, this MIDI pack is in G minor, right, you know.
10:04Anyway, underneath the Prophet, we have the Roland JP-8000.
10:09This is the keyboard that, of any of the keyboards, number one, it's the only keyboard that has
10:15made it through every iteration of my setups.
10:20Not this physical one, there's always battery problems, every 10 years you need to change
10:25the battery, which you can do, easy YouTube tutorials online, if anybody has a JP-8000
10:29whose battery just crapped out, back up your patches first, and, yeah, it really changed
10:37the trajectory of what this band became in 1997, when it first came into the rig, you
10:46know, prior to that, in keyboard world, it was just an organ and a piano, and then a
10:52synth was introduced, and it was also in like the, you know, mid to late 90s, when
10:56electronic music was like just starting to go from like underground into the mainstream
11:01culture, and, you know, this was kind of my response to hearing that, you know, and then
11:09implementing what I had heard, and art reflecting life, or life reflecting art, and, yeah, it
11:15definitely changed the concept of how we approached our improvisations, and we became a more electronic
11:22band, with electronic sounds coming in.
11:26Underneath the Roland JP-8000, we have a Roland V-Station, yeah, you know, this guy, I'm not
11:38even sure why it's still in my rig, oh, it has a vocoder, which I really like, the vocoder
11:42I use a lot, it's got a bunch of great vocoder settings, it's just nice to have just one
11:49more keyboard, you know, just one more keyboard, so that when you are occupied with your other
11:55keyboards, and you're like, fuck man, I need a different lead sound, you can just bring
11:59up a lead sound, because you have that extra keyboard, so it doesn't matter whether it's
12:03a V-Station, or a Korg, whatever, you know, it's just nice to have just that extra little
12:09guy, it's an afterthought.
12:11If this keyboard went away from my setup, I think that I would be fine, I would find
12:15myself in situations where I wouldn't have a vocoder needed when we do those songs,
12:20but for the most part, this is, you know, auxiliary to the rest of the powerhouses.
12:26So just a Strymon delay that I have on the profit, just because it's easier for me to
12:31manipulate these, as opposed to doing it on board up here, which I can also, and sometimes
12:37do, it's nice that my tech puts these lights all over everything, because I do need to
12:44see these knobs, and this tape echo, whatever, is actually on here, and again, I do like
12:53being able to play with the feedback of those to get some cool tones, so it's nice having
12:58a couple of outboard stuff on keyboards, especially in delay land.
13:03This guy here, and this guy here, are pill pedals, they are sidechain pedals, and the
13:11sidechain input is coming from me, no, it's coming from a drummer.
13:16So my computer is mapped to his computer, so he's sending me sync, and when he's sending
13:26sync, I'm able to get that from him, so that would effectively be a kick drum, but what
13:32we were finding was that the kick drum was actually picking up too much outside frequency,
13:36so we wanted to just put something straight into it, so that input is just coming from
13:41the click, and it's ducking the keyboard, which this one is hooked up to the montage,
13:47so it will duck the montage.
13:49Prior to that, in the chain is a Nemesis delay pedal, I was previously using a DD7, wanted
13:58a different pedal to play with, kind of nice that it has these different settings.
14:03Up here, again, pill pedal, this is a sidechain compression for my Virus.
14:10Over here, we have the APC controller for Ableton, there is relatively little playback
14:21in the Disco Biscuits, there's some tracks that have some backing effects that will be
14:26triggered in here, for the most part, they do trigger some samples that I extract, it's
14:34a new thing in the Biscuits where I'm using AI to extract vocals from famous songs, and
14:39then dropping these samples in, so I'll chop them up in advance, and then trigger them
14:43on here, and throw some delay effects on the sends and stuff, nice to have.
14:49Here is a new addition to my setup, it's a stream deck, and this unit is really for podcasters,
14:58video podcasters, it's like shortcuts in your workflow, in your home studios, not necessarily
15:06music studios.
15:07I wanted to hard map this to certain samples, like risers, specifically risers and downshifters.
15:14I was spending too much time trying to find my riser, you know, and then putting a downshifter
15:20next to it, and just too much time searching around over here for it, when I should be
15:24concentrating on the music, and this enables me to push one button, and then it triggers
15:31that specific cell on Ableton.
15:35So it is not a MIDI controller, but we put some scripts on it that enables it to kind
15:42of like encode to certain cells.
15:46And then I can label it as I go, which is really nice, the customization of it, so I
15:50know that this is going to be my snare riser, and a clap riser, and this is the riser that
15:56our bass player particularly likes, so I called it Mark.
16:00And then these are all my downshifters, you know, and then I could label it so I kind
16:04of know what it's going to sound like before I trigger it.
16:06This is a rhythmic riser, a wind and pitch riser, so that's kind of nice.
16:12Here's another great way that I customized it, this is my overdub, so if I'm playing
16:16a line that I want to spit back out through that keyboard, I already had recorded something
16:22and I want to overdub it, I can press that and then play on top of it, or I can press
16:25that and then manipulate some knobs, and then, you know, unencode it.
16:30So that's been a really efficient new addition to my setup, just having dedicated customizable
16:37buttons.
16:40Let's go down here, we have a volume pedal for the Hammond, we have a secondary switch
16:53for the delay tap, and then sustain, sustain, mini ventilator pedal for the organ.
17:04This pedal enables me to talk back to our monitor engineer.
17:09If I just talk into my microphone here, then just my monitor engineer hears it and nobody
17:15else.
17:16If I push the button and talk into the microphone, then the entire band will hear it.
17:21So, you know, I can say like, hey, let's do a drop in the next bar and everybody will
17:26hear it.
17:28And that nobody has to hear, hey, can you turn the guitar up?
17:33And over here, I have a guitar boost, so if I need a little bit more guitar and don't
17:37want to ask for it, and then three sustain pedals.
17:41And that, oh, oh, oh, we have this guy.
17:46So this is just a sub mixer.
17:49If I need a little bit of boost from any of my keyboards, if I want the virus up temporarily
17:54just to hear something, I can bring it up, it doesn't affect anybody else, and then I
17:59can just bring it back down.
18:00So everything is routed through here, same with the click, I don't always want to hear
18:04click in my ears, so it's nice just to have a specific fader that I can just bring up
18:09when I need to hear it.
18:12That's it.
18:13This is, my name is Aaron Magner.
18:15We are the Disco Biscuits.
18:16We are finishing up our last leg of summer tour right now.
18:21We will be on the road most of the fall as well, so come check us out.
18:27Check us out on the Instagrams and everything and drop us a line.