As DJ Shadow’s tour snakes its way through the US, it seems as good a time as any to highlight a detail of our controllers. It might seem like an anachronism to some, but all our controllers have MIDI in and out plugs in them. Given that we emphasize computer control, and that so much of the electronic music world is centered on software, it’s probably true that a lot of those plugs never get used!

However, we include them (and added them to later revisions of the block) for the simple reason that it seems like a good idea. No doubt someone has a way of working that will need those plugs, and it just might save the day. We don’t necessarily have a scenario in mind, but we are mindful of the extremes, and conscious of music history.

The most unusual use came to our attention when Timo Preece (Bay Area Ableton Live guru) came up to me at the Maker Faire asking about the MIDI plugs. He was in the middle of helping DJ Shadow (along with producer Count) get his tour together on Ableton Live, and had a simple problem with a confounding solution. This was the need to have one controller control two laptops, the idea being that if one laptop failed during the set, the other would be doing the same thing and be in the same place, as it had been getting all the same performance data. Just flip some faders on the mixer, and the show goes on, no problem.

However, their first thought of a controller (starts with “A,” ends with “0″) only has one USB plug, leaving no way to mirror the data to the backup computer and carry on with the performance. But with the Ohm64, Timo realized the data could be sent from the USB to one computer, and then out the MIDI plug to the other computer. Problem totally solved. I had the pleasure of bringing an Ohm to the studio and see it all work for the first time.

I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing the tour, but from some clips (like this one) you can  see why they want to go the extra measure to make sure the show stays “ON.” It looks not only AWESOME, but also totally reliant on the balance of technology. Multiple video projectors, sync’ed directly to DJ Shadow’s set from Ableton, on a mind-blowing stage setup. I have a feeling people won’t accuse him of checking his mail on this one. Here’s the upcoming dates, hope you can all catch it when it comes to town!
Here’s a good interview with DJ Shadow.

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