Liz Revision has been performing IDM/Experimental Electronic Music for a while, and has built up a reputation for creating accessible yet challenging beats using a variety of gear.

Her SubVariant record label has included a variety of artists, including many from Detroit Underground, who continue to chisel away at the edge of electronic music with steel picks of organized noise.

Now holding down an extremely successful monthly with Len Records' Emulsion, Liz finds herself amassing quite a bit of gear, and coming to terms with the normal issues that come with a touring Live PA.

As Quantazelle, what type of hardware/software do you use to produce?

I have a Compaq R3000 Intel Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz with 512 MB of RAM and I compose with FL Studio Producer 7 and a ton of VSTs. The headphone jack on the laptop is shot so I use one of the channels on my PCMCIA Echo Indigo DJ card instead. And instead of a pair of sweet studio monitors (which I would like to have) I have some AKG K240 headphones that do a decent job. Years ago I was using Reaktor as a VST in FL Studio (then called Fruity Loops), but my computer is so geriatric that it can't handle it anymore. I'd like to start playing with it again though, or maybe shift over to Max once I get a new, more powerful laptop.

Any specific VST plug-ins?

I am totally addicted to VSTs! I've bought quite a few over the years, and I like downloading free ones and playing with them, and oftentimes that inspires working on a song in itself. Here's a list of once I'm using frequently:

NI Absynth 4 <3 <3 NI Kontakt mda piano daevlplugs Cubedriver daevlplugs Hilbertspace daevlplugs Triad Fruity Delay 2 Fruity Multiband Compressor Fruity Parametric EQ Fruity Reeverb 2 Fruity Stereo Enhancer Askaswitch Big Tick Nasty Shaper CamelPHat Free DBlue Glitch dfx Buffer Override dfx Skidder dfx Scrubby Ganymed KT Granulator QuadraSID <3 Rock SupaTrigga tb_cairo TickyClav VoiceTrap

Do you have any unusual hardware you keep on the side that gets used on occasion?

It's not unusual, exactly, but I have an ancient Yamaha PSR-85 that I use to compose melodies with sometimes. I also like to drag my laptop around with a microphone attached and sample interesting sounds, like putting ice in the garbage disposal (try it! it makes a horrendous noise).

When bringing your setup live, what changes do you make?

I have "live" versions of my tracks that have extended intros and outros and / or different sections or drum patterns that I play in NI Traktor 3. Since my tracks tend to fit together only certain ways, I spend the night before a show making a playlist, and then putting notes in the track titles like "pitch bend +3, cut midrange 2:47-3:12" as a guide for getting everything to flow smoothly. It's not really that flexible of a method, but since my downtempo stuff has weird tempos and divergent feelings it's the best I've found. Sometimes it works, and then other times I try to follow the notes and wonder "what the hell was I thinking?" so I end up rearranging everything on the fly and hoping I can get it to sound not terrible. This one time I was touring with the Detroit Underground crew, and I had a set planned that started out slow and pretty and progressively got more uptempo, since I was always the one to open for the other guys who were more dancier. We were at this weird, ghetto club above a blue collar country bar in Iowa and for some reason they had me go in the middle of the lineup after the local act with a raging breakcore set that made the crowd go nuts. I figured, OK, I'll reverse my set and play the dancier stuff and then slow it down so the other guys can pick it up. Well, the crowd noticeably hated my dancier stuff and it only got worse from there during my set.That was rough.

Kate Simko recommended I try playing back my tracks in Abelton Live, but I got frustrated with it. First I tried exporting all the individual channels from FL Studio an importing them into Live, but it was impossible to get everything to line up since I my tracks can end up being 50 or 60 patterns deep. Then I tried cutting up the rendered .wav file and importing tiny bits into the clips, but there were so many variations within each refrain that it became overwhelming trying to get the track to sound anything like the original. I think the best way would be to just start from scratch in Live in the clip view and play the tracks back in their native format. I haven't entirely given up on Live but right now I don't think it allows me to be dense enough with my tracks at this point.

As DJ Liz Revision, what hardware/software do you spin with?

Nathan makes fun of me for this, but I drag this old, beat-up silver 40 gig USB external hard drive to shows and try to find a place to hide it. It's got most of the tracks that I listen to regularly on it, and I like to have a lot of options, especially when I am DJing a set that runs 2 hours or more. I might be playing a show in NYC later this month, but for that I figured I'd spend a few hours and clear off my internal hard drive to make room and then pull tracks that I know I would play at a party. I use the same laptop and the Echo Indigo DJ card with Sony MDR 700 headphones and the NI Traktor 3 software. I used to use this USB X-session interface with knobs and crossfaders, but it died when I upgraded to Traktor 3, so a replacement is on my wishlist.

What tools do you recommend every DJ carry with them to a gig?

Nathan's girlfriend told me once that he has an extra power adapter that stays in his gig bag so he'll never forget it. I think that's a great idea, since more than once I've had to flag down a cab and retrieve my adapter from home at the last minute.

I've also been carrying around this headphone bag full of audio adapters since I first started playing live, and over time I noticed I've had to lend something from it to other acts I've played with on a number of occasions. I was playing a gig with Miles Tilmann in Madison and while we were setting up we were joking that there should be a worldwide pizza delivery and audio adapters franchise that you could call 24 hours for emergency adapters and food. After I got home, I gave the idea a bit more thought and figured that I should make a set of essential adapters that every electronic musician and DJ could carry around with them, sort of like a first aid kit. I ran the adapter list past an audio engineer friend of mine, and then officially released the Electronic Musician's Emergency Adapters. Even if you're DJing with vinyl, you should still carry it or something similar along to gigs in case other people are in trouble, since you can help the show go smoothly and add to your reputation of being professional and resourceful. Also, I wrote an article for Create Digital Music about getting gigs that has some recommendations at the end for playing live. You can access that article here.

Recently I bought this laptop stand from Instand for the show I played at the Metro since I would have to move my gear off-stage twice for other bands and since I'm only one person a table would have been impossible to move. It worked pretty great for me, and it's super lightweight, but I can see other people freaking out about the "wobbliness" of it--although it's solidly built, it's made of aluminum that has a sort of flexibility to it. For anyone who finds themselves showing up at a venue and dragging a cocktail table over to the DJ booth, get one of these things because it'll make your life so much easier.

Another new purchase that I'm totally excited about are two bags I got from Universal DJ Gear, the UDG CourierBag Deluxe:
http://www.ultimate-dj-gear.com/index.php?dept=products_categ&Type=Prod&catid=17&openprodid=166 and UDG Slingbag Trolley Deluxe
http://www.ultimate-dj-gear.com/index.php?dept=products_categ&Type=Prod&catid=99&openprodid=232 .
I got the silver versions and they have this slick, superstar DJ look about them which is awesome. I used to have a Chrome laptop bag, but I was always trying to cram too much stuff in it, so eventually the lining fell apart and the buckles broke. The CourierBag has a main pocket where I keep my laptop and a separate large pocket that holds my power adapter and headphones. It's also got a padded shoulder strap which makes it easier to carry lots of gear in there. My only complaint is that if you carry the bag on your right side, the cellphone pocket is at the back, which is annoying since I'm almost always on the phone before a gig.

The Slingbag Trolley has wheels and a telescoping handle, so I just toss the CourierBag on top of it and zoom along. It's so much easier than trying to carry two heavy bags. It's also got two big pockets on the sides that hold headphones perfectly, and a squarish pocket on the front to hold cartridges and whatnot. The inside is padded, so I use it to carry my hard drive and its power adapter, my Emergency Adapters, CDs, fliers, demo CDs, albums, LED lamps and other schwag. The handle on it is padded so well it feels like it has anti-gravity properties. Love it!