Following on the popularity of last week’s gear setup with Loco Dice, we’re bringing you another popular artist gear setup. Today, Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland better known as The Crystal Method share their setup and their favorite tequila. One thing that’s notably absent from this current setup is their famous CDJ guitar (DJTT got an up close and personal look at it when we first interviewed the Crystal Method).
The Crystal Method has been known to use a variety of gear such for their live performances. This setup seems to be focused on portability and is full of gear that can easily fit into any DJ booth and also used on the road.
Controllers: Midi Fighter 3D, Keith McMillen QuNeo + QuNexus
Ken: What’s great about all three of these controllers is that they’re backpack friendly. With traditional keyboard controllers the keys get stuck — either up or down or break. These are very durable. The Midi Fighter 3D, which is the square black one, is more like a video game button. And they’re a lot of fun to play with your thumbs. Oh and, that’s right, it’s got the accelerometer — kind of like an iPhone does! The pads (QuNeo) and keys (QuNexus) on the Keith McMillen are pads instead of physical keys, so they won’t get damaged even in a tight backpack.
Scott: It’s really durable [speaking on Keith McMillen QuNexus keyboard], great for hotel rooms and great for airplanes. It’s so well built. Keith McMillen creates really, really road-worthy/studio-worthy keyboards.
The controllers are used for triggering effects in Ableton Live 9 during live performances and they’re also used while travelling to work on music.
Further reading: Check out Mad Zach’s review of the QuNeo Nexus where it keeps working even after pouring beer on it and throwing it out a window.
Pain Relievers
Scott: You can see by the size of the tequila bottle that we’ll eventually need a heavy dose of pain reliever — potentially. [laughs]
Ken: The “help I have a headache” packets— those are great. That’s one of the reasons why we love staying at Kimpton hotels because, as members, we get to raid the mini bar.
SD Card: SanDisk 128 GB
Scott: The Pioneer CDJs that we use — you can use the SD card (The CDJ-2000 + CDJ-2000 Nexus are the only models that support SD playback). They’re solid.
Ken: I use that one because it’s 128 gigs. I couldn’t find one that big on a regular USB stick.
Readers will notice there are also several USB flash drives. These are used for CDJs/Rekordbox song libraries and creating DJ mixes for weekly Community Service episodes on SiriusXM while on the road.
Headphones: V-MODA M-100
Ken: We’ve been using the V-MODA’s for quite awhile. They’re super great DJ headphones. They get really loud and we can’t seem to blow them up no matter how hard we try. It’s a really cool company and they’ve custom-made a few different colored ones with our logo on it. And the V-Moda headphones come with cords for DJing, but also cords to use with your phone.
Hard Drive: LaCie Thunderbolt Hard Drive
Ken: The LaCie Thunderbolt is a really fast drive. It’s got the durable/spongy/rubber cover so it’s well protected even if it’s dropped.
The hard drive is used as a portable music library.
Laptop: MacBook Pro
Scott: The laptop is necessary. We run Pioneer’s Rekordbox. Couldn’t DJ without it.
Tequila: Gran Centenario Anejo
Scott: Tequila is a must. We only go for the finest.
Stay up to date with The Crystal Method on TheCrystalMethod.com, Facebook, Soundcloud, Twitter, and Instagram
What other artist setups would you like to see?
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