5 bits of kit to make live electronica fun

One of the main criticisms levelled at electronic music is the lack of the live element - but it doesn't have to be that way!  

Here are 5 pieces of electronic music gear that can make live performance infinitely more interesting...

1. Electronic Drum Kit

Instead of having all your percussion pre-sequenced, how about banging out those beats yourself with a drum kit!   With a wealth of triggering options available on most electronic kits these days, you could pretty much trigger the whole song live if you felt the need to do so!   This can also help add that live sounding element to kits, with velocity-sensitive pads meaning the quiet and louder hits are as distinctive as they need to be.   I guess you better start learning to twirl some drumsticks...


2. Akai MPC

If full-on drumming seems too much like hard work, take to the MPC - what it lacks in the ability to look rock n' roll, it makes up for in the skill you need to operate it adeptly - if you want you could use all the fingers on both of your hands, along with your feet, nose, chin and any other appendage you'd care to use (I'm not going there...) to operate it, making it potentially more impressive than a conventional kit where you only have 4 limbs to worry about!


3. MIDI Guitar

All the best stage moves come from guitarists, so take your samples and synths to the fore and trigger your noises whilst doing a flying kick, a knee slide or back flip (I'm assuming you're a competent gymnast) to impress that crowd!

4. Kaoss Pad 3

It almost goes without saying that the Kaoss Pad is one of the biggest innovative products to come out in a good while - the KP3 is the greatest yet, with the functionality to control sounds, loop samples quickly (great for insane live vocal stuttering!) and even reshuffle loops in real time.   Seriously fun to play with and seriously interesting to watch.

5. Pioneer DVJ-X1

A big part of live performance is in the visual aspect - and here you can control both the video as well as the audio simultaneously from one device!   The DVJ allows you to scratch DVDs in much the same way as vinyl, meaning you can make some seriously cool live video sequences to accompany the music!   Cool, huh?