Christopher Scheidel has created an impressive Mac Mini-based rig for playing keyboards and guitars. He’s documented the whole process at his site Heavylift. There’s a lot to be learned there about how to do it yourself (including taking advantage of cheap LCDs for display), but here are the basic specs:
Hardware:
Apple Mac Mini 1.2G G4 / 1 G RAM, Bluetooth, 802.11g, 40G HD
Apple Bluetooth Mouse and Keyboard
Belkin USB extender
eBayed Lilliput 2″ LCD screen ($5 + $25 shipping; replaced a larger touchscreen when it died!)
Calzone 4U rack
MOTU 828 mk II audio interface
M-Audio Radium 61 USB music keyboard; Lexicon MPX R1 processor as foot controller
Wow, mounted in a calzone? Delicious and brilliant! Beef or pepperoni? Oh, wait, guess that’s a brand name. Anyway, I know what my next project will be.
The whole project fits in a VW Jetta’s trunk — perfectly portable, and with all the sonic flexibility afforded by Guitar Rig and Logic. Guitar Rig, says Christopher, is “by far the best software guitar processor I have encountered” and Logic Pro is “amazing” thanks to its live performance power via the Environment feature.
When we return with Part II, we’ll look at Christopher’s custom Environment for Logic Pro 7, which handles MIDI routing and program changes for all those different instruments during performance. (He’s even promised us a copy of the file for you Logic users.)
Thanks to Cris (aka Atariboy) for this one, which all connects back to a post somewhere on the boards for superb music and Comic Life developer plasq.
Related: Hands-on with Native Instruments Guitar Rig (w/ Sound Samples)