This week I wanted to dedicate my music making time to start preparing for a coming gig in April. I took control of the common table in the living to install my potential setup and test it.

The idea is to make the Portastudio 424 MkII the centerpiece, the main tool, of the setup. I want to record my performance on a cassette tape, then rewind and play it back at slower speed, and make it as obvious as possible. I want the audience to feel the speed drop and mood shift. I figured that my previous live sets where quite monotonous and I wanted to fix that by creating moments and by modulating the level of energy.

So I installed the Deluge, the Texture Lab and the CPM-DS2 around the Portastudio. I added the Nightsky and the MS-70CDR as send effects (very important). Then I output the whole mix to the Golden Master pedal (also super important to tame the mix when playing live).

It turned out to be super fun to play! I can switch between performing composed tracks and improvising live sequences. I can switch from a light mood to a dark atmosphere by simply switching the tape speed down. The effects bring a lot to the end result and it's also good to play a bit with the NightSky.

Anyway, I played a good 3 hours today with this combination and I recorded almost 20 minutes out of it. From these 20 minutes, I selected 5 and a half, cut it and mastered it, et voilà!

Now I definitely want to have more material that I can invoke during the set: a couple more tracks, some sessions with a collection of patterns and patches that I can freestyle with, and maybe add some more samples in the Texture Lab to have more options.

Thanks for your attention, thanks for listening! Have a great week!

Tags: ambient, cpmds2, deluge, lofi, ms70 cdr, nightsky, noise, portastudio, pvc, switzerland, texture lab, week 11 2026, zst, View by:Ashtom