The Traveling Synthesist

[chysn]

I'm now of an age where my wife and I no longer need stuff, and so we're increasingly spending our disposable income on travel. My wife loves to travel, far more than I; therefore, I expect to travel more and more as the years go on.

So I'm starting to plan a travel "studio," something I can sit around with and play music on, say, a Jamaican or Dominican seashore or resort room balcony.

The next trip is in the summer, so I have some time to consider things, and try things out. Right now, everything is on the table, from a just an iPhone (although that seems a bit dull) to an OP-1. Pretty much the only things I'm ruling out are things that must be plugged into a wall outlet during use. Also, this would be some combination of controller and voice generation.

Does anybody here have a travel studio that you've been pleased with?

[jok3r]

What about that?

https://www.thomann.de/intl/akai_mpc_live_ii.htm

Seems to run on batteries and has build in speakers…

I donˋt have personal experience, but I watched a lot of videos about this whole platform and it seems to be pretty fun.

[chysn]

Yeah, the MPC Live is a very attractive choice, and would play nicely with my Pro 3.

One thing that I have to put thought into is whether a big LCD is going to be washed out in the tropical sun. So when it comes to standalone production systems, I'm looking at Circuit Tracks, which does a lot of the same stuff but with no screen, at about 1/4 the weight.

The screen issue applies to iPads, as well.

[markwilkins]

I like this topic. It’s fun to help spend other people’s money I don’t fit the criteria since I don’t have first hand experience with your target situation. But I have thought about it some, so I’ll add to the noise. I’m pretty sure that if I were setting this up for myself, I would choose soft synths just because of the portability and infinite variety. With a MacBook Pro (or similar) you could have a pretty amazing selection of instruments including some fantastic acoustic piano options. You can basically take an entire recording studio with you in a small bag. (It of course ignores the entire issue of visibility in the sun … but I have done my share of software development on a Mac in the outdoors … the screen is not bad).

Assuming that software synths are an acceptable solution, it seems to me that the bigger question is what kind of controller. My choice would probably be a LinnStrument. I’ve never even seen one in real life, but it seems portable, very musical, and would give me an opportunity to learn something new.

[jok3r]

One thing that I have to put thought into is whether a big LCD is going to be washed out in the tropical sun. So when it comes to standalone production systems, I'm looking at Circuit Tracks, which does a lot of the same stuff but with no screen, at about 1/4 the weight.

If you want to go the Novation way, I would add a Bass Station to the Tracks... the bass player in my band is using it for some synth basses and it sounds very good, for the little price. It can do pretty nice leads, too. I played with it some hours myself and think about buying it, too. A lot of synth, for not so much money, especially considering the last firmware upgrades.

And: using a powerbank it can run on batteries, because it can run USB powered. So one of your midi channels in the tracks could be a bass station. Furthermore you would have a small keyboard controller this way...

[LPF83]

Usually when I travel with my girlfriend its for only 2-3 days at a time and since the point of the excursions are a break from the normal routine, I never take anything music-creation oriented with me (although I have been known to get out the iPad and noodle around with the Korg Polysix app or similar).

If I did travel regularly, there is no question what my minimum setup would be -- a powerful laptop with a larger screen, a MIDI controller, and headphones.  For extended stays 49 fullsize keys would likely be my minimum but that sort of detail would need to be worked out with consideration to how frequently I would be packing things up and moving to the next location, etc.  I would make sure I like the knobs on it because that would be my primary control surface.

The selection of plugins on the laptop as I would set it up is a subjective thing, of course depends on the type of music / sound one wants to make.  The entire Arturia V collection is a great place to start.  Beyond that I would try to choose plugins that meet a specific niche very well, for example DS Thorn for heavily modulated modern sounds, u-He Repro for Pro One and Prophet emulation, Softube Model 84 for Juno emulation, Dune 3 for that Virus-like VA sound, etc.  Just as important would be the selection of FX plugins -- I would miss my pedals but not bad enough to lug them or other cabley gear with me.  A lot of the Cubase 11 Pro FX is outstanding and already integrated into the mixer with low CPU consumption, but when it comes to FX I like a lot of variety, so I would have all my Valhalla and Eventide plugins, Raum from NI, Stardust 201 from Cherry Audio.

The CPU choice in the laptop would of course be one of the most important choices, as all of the above would be limited by a weak CPU.  Battery life would not be a consideration, I'd stay plugged in so trading off performance for battery life would be a bad thing.  As someone with multiple Macs (I used to use Logic and also developed iOS apps for a while), I went back to Windows/Cubase for music making and software development needs, not only because of the price/performance proposition but also because MS is excellent with maintaining backward compatibility while Apple tends to reinvent their hardware every few years.  Not to suggest that my choices would be right for everyone... if I was more proficient in Logic than Cubase, and was already heavily invested in the Apple platform I would definitely stay on that platform, though I would search for a machine that has good *sustained* performance over a long duration and good heat dissipation, something MacBooks have traditionally not been good at (the M1s are probably better in this regard)... by sustained performance I refer to systems that do not release heat well, thus often throttle down, degrading performance over long sessions.
My current laptop is an LG Gram which is great as a general purpose laptop (great 17" screen in a 15.6" form factor, very slim/light/fast, etc.) but I didn't purchase it as a music-making system so I'm not sure how it would fare thermally under heavy load.  I might even be more inclined to get a compact desktop machine for a travel music production system, just to have proper fans and cooling options available on it.  A larger computer would be less convenient to lug around for sure, but in a completely ITB setup the CPU performance matters enough to begin to justify it.  The other advantage would being able to easily open up and repair or upgrade it compared to limitations of laptops.  Setting up a DAW, with all my settings/templates/shortcuts etc. takes forever, so being able to do that maybe only once every 8 years on a PC is very appealing.

[chysn]

Thank you for the thorough reply. I won't be traveling with my MacBook Pro, though.

[chysn]

Hopefully, I have decades to completely figure this out. So for my summer trip, I'm going to start with QuNexus and an iPad. I know that QuNexus is very playable, small, and durable, and I already have one. The thing that only slightly bums me out is that it doesn't do Bluetooth. If that turns out to be a real-life problem, I'll look at alternatives later.

As for software, I don't know yet. I may just begin with Garage Band, although I also have Gadget.

[chysn]

Six months to go until the trip (Covid willing). I decided that I don't really want to bring an iPad with me. I plan on keeping the QuNexus around for other projects because it's just too good to give up. But now I plan on traveling with Circuit Tracks.

Yes, staying in the ol' Focusrite family!

Circuit Tracks is a blast. I returned a recently-purchased Modal Skulpt Synth SE to get it. Skulpt has an interesting synth engine, but the physicality of it was cumbersome and a bit flimsy. Tracks is sleek and solid, and I suspect it will travel well. It doesn't have a screen to get washed out in the Caribbean sun. It's powered by an internal battery that should last a few hours. That keeps the instrument super-thin.

In addition to that, it will be nice for my minimal "studio." It can sequence my Pro 3 with its full-size MIDI jacks and external sequencer tracks. It has audio ins for the Pro 3, with a mixer and effects (delay and a nearly-usable reverb), so I no longer need my Mackie, as long as I don't go too crazy with synths.

You need a computer to really dig into the synth engine and add samples, but I have plenty of time to build up a patch library. It would be nice if it had a built-in audio interface, but with all it does do, that seems like asking for a lot. The Roland MC101 (which I also considered) has an audio interface, but it lacks audio inputs. So that's sort of a wash.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the thing.

[creativespiral]

I recently did a week long trip out to Grand Canyon country with the extended fam (Flagstaff/Sedona).   In the months leading up to it I prepared a fairly compact setup to take...  I experimented with a Circuit, but ended up selling it, and going with:
Akai Force
Arturia Keystep
Adrenalinn III Effects
Shure SM7B Mic
Traveler EG-1 Guitar.   

I spent several days playing around with the setup before leaving home, to confirm it would provide a versatile array of synth sounds, drums, samples, etc  (Force, with all the latest plugins loaded and external sample libraries can pull off a wide array of sounds) - and the mic and Traveler EG-1 guitar for additional input.   

Also, got a compact speaker and powerbank that can provide 3-5 hours of usage without AC.  It's really a pretty versatile setup for starting an idea from scratch and being able to flesh it out.   So I was really excited to bring it along! - and I fit it all within one padded travel case + padded travel guitar case... pretty compact.   

Got out to Flagstaff/Sedona - aaaaaand - didn't break it out even once during the whole week.  doh!  Every day we ended up having some activities during the day exploring Northern AZ and Grand Canyon country,... then did big dinners with extended family at night, and then the kids/nieces/nephews were all over us until bed time.   (without kids we probably would have found time, as my brothers play music as well)  I had grand plans... but never panned out.   

This isn't the first time I've brought music equipment on vacation and not ended up using it.    Anyways, that's just my experience, and as mentioned, has a lot to do with just kids sucking up all free time until we're all exhausted at night.  I don't recommend them if you want a music-ation. The idea of sitting on beach or balcony in a tropical location sure sounds nice though   Hope you have fun on your adventures!

[chysn]

Akai Force
Arturia Keystep
Adrenalinn III Effects
Shure SM7B Mic
Traveler EG-1 Guitar.   

That seems like a nice setup, especially if you know you'd have time to use it. I'm not too worried about time (kids are staying home), but I don't check luggage, so everything needs to be thrown in my carry-on.

I looked at Force as standalone DAW-type device, and it looks pretty impressive.

[LPF83]

My original post in this thread indicated my laptop would be the center of my workflow on the road. 

However, I have a travel trip of approx 3 weeks duration approaching, and for several hours a day need to leave my laptop in a state where I can monitor things unrelated to music.  Transitioning back and forth between music making and everything else did not seem at all appealing... add to this the fact I will be in a hotel suite with only a corner table in the living area, and I liked the idea of being able to recline on the couch and make music.

I had an additional use case for a compact setup -- flipping all the switches and powering up my studio is worthwhile for extended sessions, but is not ideal for short sessions.  I wanted a setup to get projects off the ground quickly, that I could import into Cubase later for refinement.

The Akai MPC Live 2 turned out to be ideal for my use, so I picked one up along with a MPK Mini Plus. 

The MPC Live 2 built-in speaker, the battery, fast charge time, touch screen, etc. was exactly what I was looking for.   While pads are great for drums, I'm still a keyboard player at heart so I needed a way to input melodies and chord progressions in a way that feels natural..  Only recently Akai released the MPK Mini Plus, which appealed to me because of actual wheels for pitch and mod; this is a feature I miss on my Keystep Pro and for my playing style makes a big difference over sliders.  I will say that the overall feel / travel of the keys is NOTHING compared to the Keystep Pro.  Arturia somehow managed to make the KSPro feel like a quality instrument, the key feel is very playable.  The MPK Mini Plus is not in that league, but it also costs less, and having real wheels makes up for the key feel.  Not to mention 8 assignable knobs plus an XY joystick, so it turned out to be the right tool for this particular job.  I'd like to see Akai improve the key feel/build quality in a future revision.  I don't know if I will ever use the sequencer on the MPK Mini Plus, since that's a strength of the MPC Live 2, but its there.

I'm thrilled with the setup, I can just plug the keyboard into the MPC via USB, and battery life for both seems generous.  I will have plenty of fun with this setup and above and beyond the travel use case; I can see plenty of creative uses for integrating it into more elaborate studio projects. 


 

[chysn]

I appreciate your perspective on the MPC Live 2, it sounds like a cool thing.

I should have followed up earlier on my 2022 trip. We went to the Dominican Republic, and I brought the Circuit Tracks along. In the D.R., I realized that Tracks was not going to be my long-term travel buddy. Sitting outside with a tropical drink--perhaps my second or third tropical drink of the day--I'm less amenable to be constrained by the Tracks's grid. Building a song 32 steps at a time? It just didn't work.

I made the mistake of thinking I'd want a studio on vacation, when I really wanted an instrument. I don't record, not even at home. So, wipe the slate clean and



The compact Make Noise 0-Coast semi-modular synthesizer, the companion 0-Ctrl sequencer/controller, and Analog's excellent fitted case.

The next Caribbean trip is in July, and I expect this setup will get more use. I'm more comfortable with patch cables than anything else, and the 0-Ctrl is a really expressive instrument for both playing and composing.

I might want to add a small effect pedal. At home, I run 0-Coast through my Pro 3's effects, but I don't have a standalone effects box of any kind. I might start a new topic for this search process. I can live with only digital delay.

[LPF83]

Your setup looks like fun!  Once I understood your use case a bit better, a pedal came to mind that you might be interested in, the Empress ZOIA.  I confess to not knowing much about it other than the fact it's off the charts with regard to versatility.  I do own an Empress Reverb and think very highly of the company based on that experience.

[chysn]

Your setup looks like fun!  Once I understood your use case a bit better, a pedal came to mind that you might be interested in, the Empress ZOIA.  I confess to not knowing much about it other than the fact it's off the charts with regard to versatility.  I do own an Empress Reverb and think very highly of the company based on that experience.

Thanks, that looks fascinating. I'll look into it.

[LPF83]

Your setup looks like fun!  Once I understood your use case a bit better, a pedal came to mind that you might be interested in, the Empress ZOIA.  I confess to not knowing much about it other than the fact it's off the charts with regard to versatility.  I do own an Empress Reverb and think very highly of the company based on that experience.

Thanks, that looks fascinating. I'll look into it.

The just-released Eventide H90 looks like a nice (albeit pricey) option as well, two FX at once!

[chysn]

Your setup looks like fun!  Once I understood your use case a bit better, a pedal came to mind that you might be interested in, the Empress ZOIA.  I confess to not knowing much about it other than the fact it's off the charts with regard to versatility.  I do own an Empress Reverb and think very highly of the company based on that experience.

Thanks, that looks fascinating. I'll look into it.

The just-released Eventide H90 looks like a nice (albeit pricey) option as well, two FX at once!

We might be getting out of the "travel stuff" category at that price point, at least for me!

Actually, what I'm really looking for is a small desktop effects processor with a 1/8" or 1/4" headphone output. That's proving more difficult than I expected. So I'm starting to explore running output through my iPhone for effects. The TC Helicon Go Solo is twenty bucks on Amazon and Sweetwater now, and apparently comes with effects software. And it has a headphone jack onboard. I'll report back on how suitable this turns out to be.

[chysn]

I think I have my effects solution!

Like I said, TC Helicon's Go Solo is less than $20 on Amazon. Then I bought Eventide's UltraTap app for my iPhone. I've got 0 Coast going into the Go Solo, monitoring Ultratap via the built-in headphone jack. It sounds great, and there's no audible latency. Total expenditure is $45, but I'll probably buy the Blackhole reverb, too.

TC Helicon advertises that the Go Solo comes with a "suite of free, fully-unlocked apps," but I can find no evidence of this in the packaging or documentation.

[LPF83]

I really need to thank Chysn for starting this thread.  With my upcoming trip (the first one of such a long duration since before the pandemic), it has helped me think about all the ways I can minimize missing the fullsize hardware in my studio while I'm on the road and get creative with my setup.

The Akai MPC Live2 has been a real game changer.. the workflow is a little weird until you get used to it, but once you do it's an incredibly fast DAW, the best sampler I've ever used, and the battery+speaker thing and just being able to put it in your lap anywhere and create leads to all sorts of new musical ideas and inspiration.  I'm a GenX'er,so no... I haven't drank some YoutubeKoolaid here and did it because it would make me feel hip, I stumbled on all of this almost accidentally in planning a travel setup.  But wow, the results.  I've had Maschine for like 10 years, which has always been great for drums, but as a sampler or sequencer I never clicked with it...  I have a totally different kind of musical connection with the MPC.  I always thought of these as devices that favored hiphop and trap which are not my genres, but I was wrong about all of that.  They are just great drum machines (even for vintage sounds), world class samplers, a complete mobile DAW, and I now "get it".  My journey with the MPC should probably be another thread because its a journey in itself... its become more than just a travel device.. But I'm still learning it so yeah maybe that will be a spin off thread.

So with the MPC opening my eyes to how complete my travel setup could potentially be, I spent some time with the JP-8080 connected to it.  It's a little weird to connect a vintage desktop synth (that's larger than the MPC Live 2 itself) with a tiny keyboard like the Akai MPK Mini Plus... it sort of makes one feel like they've gotten their priorities all wrong    But I started thinking about deciding of my desktop synths would make good travel companions for the upcoming trip?  The JP-8080 is not a good candidate, being a vintage piece of gear that's rapidly increasing in value and just overall a little too large for hotel rooms, it's really a studio piece.  The Virus TI2 desktop (as powerful and multitimbral as it is) would be a canidate, but I'm so used to programming it via the plugin (how I think it was designed to be used) that I started thinking past it.  Hydrasynth desktop, now there's a very hands on synth and I may still take it with me..  It is sort of begging to be sampled into the MPC..  I saw in one of the videos the guy from Synclavier saying a Hydrasynth was used as a basis some of the wavetables on their new synth.. thought that spoke highly of the Hydrasynth.  But its still large and the table I will be working with in the hotel room is not huge.

So, mostly for travel purposes and to inject some nice vintage synth polyphony into the MPC with a small footprint, I got a Roland JU-06a.  Prior to this I was actually pissed at Roland for not doing proper analog reissues of their old synths (and I would still like to see them tackle this), but I have to say the JU-06a is a very travel friendly little gem, so compact and while the sliders are tiny, they are quite effective (and for even better control, I have 8 knobs with very usuable travel on the Akai MPK Mini Plus).  I of course still prefer my System-8 when in the studio and seeking the Roland sound, but even a 49key keyboard is out of the question for this trip, so I'm thrilled to have an Juno 60 and 106 (there's a toggle switch) in such a tiny yet usable form factor.  4 voices on such a nice sounding synth is actually a huge asset when working with mobile limitations, even though I consider 4 voices to be very limiting for a studio poly.  $325 out the door (with a few Amazon points applied) for a new one didn't feel like a bad sting, given I sold a Juno 106 that needed repairs for $375 back in 1990, and as a mobile synth its really a powerhouse.   Completely USB powered so no wall wart (or batteries if you prefer) is also a good thing when traveling.

So right now, my planned travel setup for January is looking like this:
- MPC Live2 running Mini D, OPX-4 and Fabric XL plugins (additional cost but well worth it).  I have most of the other good plugins for it too but haven't explored them yet, I wanted lots of elbow room for learning on the trip..  Using Mini D (Model D emulation) and OPX-4 (FM synth) a lot.  Fabric XL is kind of like Omnisphere on the go.  OPX-4 apparently doesn't have a manual but is well worth learning, there's a great Youtube tutorial that will get anyone up to speed in 20-30 mins.
- Roland JU-06a
- Laptop with Ableton and lots of plugins (more of a Cubase guy really but Ableton is very laptop friendly and quick to hash out ideas, I can always export to Cubase for better sound / instrument integration later)
- Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (this was another travel specific purchase...  powers straight off the USB hub of the laptop!  Again one less wall wart)
- Akai MPK Mini Plus (still not a big fan of the key action, but the wheels, knobs and overall value proposition makes it a winner in the travel domain)