A music producer is working on a computer with a beatmaking program.

Elite Session with Moldover | Video Recap

Hailed by 800,000 YouTube viewers as “The Godfather of Controllerism”, Moldover returns to Pyramind for an interactive music production and controllerism workshop using Ableton Live and custom effects and controllers. Moldover gives an extensive rundown of his self-created setup including a controller-modded guitar, microphone effects box and his signature MOJO controller, and demonstrates how he integrates these tools into his live performances running everything through Ableton. He also offers his personal insights into the philosophy of being a performing artist and the challenges and sacrifices that entails.


Part One:

Moldover begins by recounting his personal and musical history, connecting the dots that have led to his style and approach to production and songwriting. With a recently renewed interest in the basics of songwriting, he illustrates how some of the best works are successful because of the their simplicity- even if they showcase elaborate effects and production techniques. This simplicity in turn allows for works to be recreated live without relying too heavily upon pre-baked material, and leaves room for active showmanship from the performer to engage the audience.

Next, Matt opens up one of his Ableton sessions and shows his session and track layouts, and demonstrates what parts he performs live, which effects he modifies in real time and the different ways they can all work together.


Part Two:

Moldover takes a look into the creation of the ‘Robocaster’ electric guitar/controller and his desire to do away with the guitar effects pedal convention- many common and useful effects are now mapped to controls right on his guitar and are fully customizable through plug-ins in Ableton. He shows a similar approach to his mic effects box prototype which is connected as an extension of the MOJO. Additional Max for Live patches allow for custom integration in then software.


Part Three:

Moldover talks about the evolution of his fun & collaborative ‘Jamboxes’ which allow several people to make music on one integrated controller- one of Moldover’s stances is that music should be fun and involve audience participation.

Matt takes questions from the audience and talks about different approaches to performing live and pre-production, syncing separate systems, live looping and buffering & latency. He wraps up the night with insights into the challenges of taking on a musical career, keeping a personal and professional balance and accepting failures along with successes.


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