Someone brave enough to take a shot at this question?

This time more than ever. You can hear it in almost all their recent sets. More pitching, tweaking fucking around with synths.

Listen to the short interview they gave at Electric Proms. There they say what they do and with which synths etc.

But to be honest I was wondering this myself for a long time now.

But even if they'd pretend to do anything it would be fucking excellent awesome!

I remember I got told off for asking this question by sneakerbeater. A rough quote "omg you can't ask questions like, you know the chems read the board and their feelings would get upsetted and they would cry and no longer do any live shows and I will no longer being able to knock one out".

Yah, to sequencing all that information probably takes alot of time before a show as it is. They talk a little about the encore in the interview and I wonder how structured it is. still, regardless of how pre planned it really is. It's a spritual event!

"A religious experience" as many have coined the Chems live experience.

or 'Fucking animals in erics house'

OK, here it is to the best of my knowledge. The chems use their Akai MPC3000 as a sequencer, it holds all the notes and cues for samples. All the drums, vocals, and much of the synth stuff is held in their Akai s5000 (?) samplers. These run though Tom's mixing board. The elements are separated, meaning you're not hearing a single track. So for example, Tom will mess with the drums after Saturate, or Star Guitar will have parts where the drums fade out. The samples have the option of running through effects, they are stacked below the MPC3000 on stage and provide a lot of the variations on echo, reverb etc.

All the synths in the background play a role in the show at one point or another, Ed mainly seems to use the Future Retro 777 which creates those rough acid lines for Do it Again and Under The Influence. He also uses an Elektron MachineDrum a lot, not 100% sure where it's used but I've seen it on Galvanize and All Rights Reversed.

The other synths are hooked up to either the Akai MPC3000 or one of the two Doepfer sequencers on the top of the rack. All these synths run though Tom's board and Ed usually plays them for live flair. My favorite was at the SF show during Das, there is this amazing solo in the middle. Some examples of the synths are the Juno 106 on Hey Boy Hey Girl, the Elektron Monomachine on Saturate (90% sure), a MIDI Controller for misc tweaking, Nord Modular on Don't Fight it Feel It for that intense build up, the Jupiter 6 on Sunshine Underground, and think it's the Dave Smith PolyEvolver on Das or what ever the encore, the Octave Cat provides the screaming sweeps on Block Rockin Beats, and he also frequently uses an Roland Octapad during the shows which play drums and sampels. Think that covers bases of what we know...

Everybody knows that they, like Daft Punk, run a tape with pre-recorded music and act like total retards, running around, twisting knobs, to give you the feeling that they are really doing something on stage and that you've well spent your hard-earned cash.

doesn't really explain why their shows come out sounding different in regards to the stuff i mentioned... unless the prerecord hundred of different show and all... Fuck it- I'll say I'm more impressed if your crack-pot tard claim is correct. I mean if they're able to both prerecord that many shows and know stuff like say exact moment to come back on from say the encore and pretend to look like they're turning the MS-10's knob to speed the sweeping bass noises up, the that's pretty well choreographed.

Hahaha--DAVE! You're just fucking awesome. That's all I have to say.

And as far as Slipvin goes, don't take anything he has to say seriously. --seriously--

Biff, Biff, Biff.....Wonderful answer, thank you! And a really good thread. I have to add my opinion and I agree that it is LIVE and it sounds LIVE, even if it wasn't, the way the shows are put together are truly awesome. Plus, I really don't think they'd get away with it you know? Tom and Ed are not the type to lie. More to the point, they are highly skilled musicians and the fact that we might be doubting what they do is beyond me. It's LIVE, it's the most exciting thing I've ever seen and I'm coming all the way from Somerset to watch them create magic in Birmingham on December 7th. Obviously some elements to all live ance music aren't live, but the way they bring thesongs together is live, and you can tell it is if you listen to live recordings, especially on the we are the night tour, for example, the synths at Glasto for Hey boy...were less as full on as the ones at the Munich gig, (sorry, but my ears really do pay attention) and the solo guitar at the start of Belive is just another example that they are controlling the sounds and samples all through tom's huge mixing desk, its pure genius. I'd love to do what they do, and they would never sell out or fake what they do. Have a little faith.

doesn't really explain why blablabla that's pretty well choreographed.

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Ow come on, they just record that set in their studio with some beers and weed. I already hear them laughing about the cash that they are going to make of all those unsuspecting suckers who paid hard-earned cash for a ticket. If they only knew...

So you're one of Tom 'n Eds bitches who's still going to their shows then?

@Biff: one might get the impression you were one of Tom and Eds rowdies who setup the stages. I love those technical tidbits.

That's fuckin' great Biff! Just wondering where do you think the computers running Logic and Ableton come into it? Does the MPC trigger sequences in Logic? I guess they can just drop whatever sounds and loops into Ableton on the fly?

They have one of those Mungo Sync things too that can stop/start all MIDI with one button i think.

Damn Biff, your techy prowress is quite sexy (even if I only very loosely understand everything you said in terms of gear).

There's always gotta be someone who poses the question of what it is the Chems do in a live setting. No complaints here - it makes for interesting discussion and debate.

i always thought that their mpc3000 or whatever their main sequencer is sent midi to all the synths racked up the back, tom would trigger off when to send the midi to the synths and ed would modulate whatever needed modulating on the synths, then obviously tom could control volume and sends etc. on the mixer for each indivisual synth.

but there is no real way of knowing how their setup is rigged other than asking them. and that might come across rude.

as for the mungo sync2, the guy who invented that is from canberra where both consumer and I are from! funny. i always remember disliking his music but being so impressed with his quirky inventions...

he made some kind of machine that randomly generated music based on this and that...

http://home.netspeed...orm/Trance.html

all the stuff on his page seems like it had been done for uni or something, but he def knows his stuff in that respect, never liked the music he made though...

WTF! He's from here?! hahahah madness. Love that modded TR606 that he's got.

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On the way to the Trafalgar gig I bumped into a guy called Alex Metric, who is a producer that works with Adam Freeland. He said he had been backstage at a chems gig and had seen that they use a computer where all the tracks are sequenced through Logic/Cubase(cant remember which one)and they play all the synths through it. He made out there was no mixing involved. Personally I didnt think what he said was true.