Today’s Artist Gear Setup feature looks at the travel gear of Brainfeeder artist William Benjamin Bensussen, better known as The Gaslamp Killer. As an alternative hip hop DJ and producer, Gaslamp Killer helped found “Low End Theory”, an experimental hip hop and electronic music club night held every week at The Airliner in LA. One of the most unique pieces in his setup isn’t exactly DJ gear, it’s an Apple Airport Express. Find out why it’s crucial for his sets.
1 – Limited Edition Gaslamp Killer Serato Vinyl
- My limited picture disc Gaslamp Killer Serato records and a Scratchy Seal record. I use Serato with real vinyl – there’s nothing like scratching with my custom control vinyl AND dirtstyle break records!
2 – Computer
- MacBook Air 11″. My iPad Air 2. Apple Airport Express. I need a powerful wireless set up for my iPad to work well unplugged, hence the Airport Express. These 3 are crucial to the show.
3 – Soundcard
- Rane Serato SL3
4 – Synths
- Teenage engineering OP-1 & rhythm pocket operator. Always fun to make music with these 2 toys while on the road.
5 – Headphones
- My Shure SE846 in ear headphones. Best for keeping calm on flights and hearing actual sub bass through your brain and body is a must while making music on the road.
6 – Needles
- 4 Shure m447 needles. Best in the game for scratching IMO.
Personal Items
- Car keys with my LaCie rugged usb3 64gb flash drive which holds a back up of my live set.
- My GoPro Hero 3
- Mophie juice pack
- Some € euros
- Passport
- Pilpeled paper wallet
- Gaslamp Killer stickers
- Flashlight
Looking for more artist gear setups? See what’s in these artists bags:
For more Gaslamp Killer check him out at thegaslampkiller.com Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. His latest album, The Gaslamp Killer Experience Live in Los Angeles is available now on iTunes
What artist gear setup would you like to see?
Let us know in the comments below!
can you guys tell me which program is he using on his ipad?
Definately worth doing a ‘how I play’ with mr. Bensussen. And for everyone who has n’t seen him play live: go see, you’re in for a treat…
Ive wanted to see him live for te loooongest time BUT he barely comes to Colorado And when he does I usually can’t make it! Fuck my,Have you heard his new gaslamp killer experience album yet?!
Well that was a bit misleading. The lead-up tells us the article will tell us why the Airport is so important to this artist, and then proceeds to barely even talk about it.
If he really needs a powerful WiFi set-up for his iPad to work well unplugged, at least we could get some device comparison or convincing arguments as to why this is the superior choice.
this piece seems a bit on the fluffy side.
Maybe it’s just because DJTT and GSK are so incredibly in love with all things Apple that they neglect to mention why some shiny piece of Apple plastic is so important that they need to buy it just as soon as Apple releases it but really don’t know why they need it.. surprised there’s no mention of DJ’ing from the Apple Watch yet.
I couldn’t get my head around how short the article was. I thought there was half of it missing.
I was looking for why he uses the Airport Express… and got… kinda nothing other than he needs it! This is a strange story indeed and all delivered via a ‘click bait’ headline 😉
i think he’s using touch osc for his midi controller then airport express to connect to it instead of using unstable adhoc connection.
im not even sure if osx has adhoc like windows i have to google it
Its because when you are screen sharing or pairing between a Macbook and an iPad, the sensitivity/resolution/”laggy-ness” of the iPad all depends on your Wi-Fi connection, i.e., he uses the Airport to strengthen the signal. thus improving the iPad’s performance. He uses the iPad to interact with the crowd and control fx, plugin’s, etc, that he has open in Ableton on the Macbook, so it’s more of a “performance” instead of him standing in front of tables/computers the whole time. It’s not really the “superior” choice, it’s sort of the only choice when using Apple products if you wanna pair devices together.
It’s not really misleading….
None of that was stated in the article, and while wifi may be a way to do that, so is blue tooth (and there are boosters for that as well). So while you described one approach to the value of the airport, we still don’t know why this artist finds it so important, because that part is not cited (as promised in the lead-up).
I’m still standing by my “misleading” claim, because this is a fairly user-technical site, and there was no justification for why he needs the airport other than he just needs it for something.
My guess is he’s saying he any kind of wireless router, versus creating an ad-hoc network directly between the iPad and MacBook, since an ad-hoc network wouldn’t have the kind of range he needs to run all over the stage like he does.
Regardless, still not a ton of info here.
WiFi begs for trouble. Sure, it’s wireless and easy, but everything wireless is subject to interference and will lead to headaches. Even wireless microphones have this problem, and they use radio frequencies (in the FM band most often).
If I had to choose between WiFi and Bluetooth, for this type of communication, I’d probably choose Bluetooth as the WiFi frequencies at a concert are jammed.
I hate to even say this, but I’ve been really disappointed with the quality of a lot of DJTT’s articles lately.
Well, you can certainly tell when they’re really interested in a topic and when one just feels like “let’s just get this out the door” (this article). It’s not that there was bad information, it’s just that we’ve become accustomed to fuller, deeper articles on the site, and when an article like this comes along, we feel lacking. That’s sort of a back handed compliment. Anyway, most of us keep coming back because the articles (on the whole) are good. Please keep that up.
These “artist setup” articles run every week so they are short, simple and to the point with simple questions via email. Full on interviews with a lot of questions take a lot more time for the editorial team and from the artists so those only come out once a month or so.
Fair enough, but when an article says “find out why” (by reading an article), the reader should easily find out why by reading the article. There is more information in the article, but no definitive reason why inside the article, which led to conjecture in the comments.
A couple of euros? :p
FINALLY! One of my favorite artist got a spotlight on here hahahha