Hello tone and and MIDI gurus.
I believe this is my very first post on this forum and after reading a few threads, I realized there are some of the smartest musicians who understand and embrace technology. on this forum than most of the forums I have been on. Way cool.
So here's my story and this is going to get technically complicated in a minutes so I warned you.
I am 54 year old and been playing guitar since I was 14. I was a semi pro gigging on weekends. Playing mostly heavy blues, hard rock, funk etc. I played a Les Paul into a wah into mesa boogie for 30 years. I had a 24 track analog studio for you old timers called the Roland Vs-24 which was a stand alone external 24 track recorder with a boatload of high end rack mounted gear. I sold studio in 2008, all my guitars, CDS and quit gigging & playing music.
End of 2012, had major horrific accident, fall of a stage, pronounced dead fro 2 minutes, resuscitate, 19 days in hospital, broke 15 ribs clavicle, fractured skull just to give you idea of pain. I was lucky and had a traumatic brain injury . Yes, I said lucky because that is what lead me back to guitar because Drs wanted me to start using noodle again.
Drs asked if I had any hobbies, I said yes....chess & guitar, Picked up nylon string to practice Bach & played 3000 plus games on chess.com. It was 90% chess and 10% guitar, the passion came back so badly, I now have 5 guitars, an Ableton studio, many controllers,, soft synths, and picked up my first Moog Sub 37 which is wicked bad.
So her is my confusion as to best way to make everything I am about have a smooth workflow so no tap dancing on stage.
I am going to be using a looper and will have 5 separate audio outputs from various devices needing to be looped and output from looper sent to PA. I will also need a PA recommendation we can discuss later,
Here are 5 outputs:
1,) Apple Laptop. I play MIDI guitar and trigger soft synths in Ableton using the Fishman Triple Play (FTP) wireless midi controller using my two Godin guitars with built in (FTP). I also have a Taylor T5Z and was going to mount an external FTP oh her,
2.) Tc-Helicon Voice Live 3 Extreme (VL3E). This was purchased for vocals, acoustic guitar thinking be perfect for Taylor, plus it comes with a 3 part looper which has some unique features,
3.) Analog output from Godin guitar humbuckers or Taylor system. This was originally going to go direct into VL3E . That may change if I pick up Helix.
4.) Two dynamic vocal mics so no phantom power needed.
5.) Roland Handsonics percussion unit.
6.) I am thinking Helix would complete this setup beautifully,because of the heavy tomes it produces and by putting it in front of VL3E, I can nor use looper for heavy rock tones
7.) Moog Sub 37
This seems like a lot of gear but the footprint is very small. Moog 37 very small footprint, small table for laptop, handsonics, Push 2, APC 40 MK2. Ipad etc. I do not need all these controllers at every gig.
I will be playing blues, funk, from spacey Bach into Hendrix, Ambient, etc.
NO TWO GIGS WILL EVER BE THE SAME AND SOUND SO DIFFERENT FROM EACH OTHER.
My last two questions is if I buy the Helix, am I really missing out on cool features/sounds by not also buying the Variax? . I was planning on buying one more guitar and since I already have a Tele, I was going to get a JEM with a Floyd but would happily buy a Variax if those of you in the know tell me I would be nuts to buy a Helix without Variax.
This was a long thread and I am sorry for those of you who had to read the entire thread, and at the same time very humbled and grateful, for those of you who did.
I live off social security disability and live with mom so while I had the chance, I built my studio. I am a paycheck to paycheck person now so I need to make extremely smart buying decisions.and can no longer have luxury of mistakes when buying gear.
Thanks again for explaining what additional equipment like a mixer I may need to make this setup easy to configure
Forgot to mention if I do get the Variax, than the FTP MIDI pickup is going on Variax, not Taylor. I will have so may tones to choose from this is going to be a blast.
Anyone with any experience who can shed some light on what I am trying to accomplish will be so greatly appreciated. .
