Mentat Mix

Faster than usual, and more melodic with it. Fourteen minutes of modular techno at Factory Setting, on a bill headlined by @Saytek_live.

Recorded at Venue MOT in south London. Factory Setting is one of the best nights in London for this — everything played live on hardware, nothing DJed. @xeenu_live, @simonmos3013 and @DJCOUNSELLINGUK played too, and plenty of people brought their own machines and played sets through the night.

BOOKING

Live improvised modular techno — solo, London.

All I need is a table, two 13A sockets and a stereo line input.

No monitoring: I'm on my own in-ears.

Set up in 20, or 10 if the changeover is tight.

Rider, dates and past shows → https://www.mentataudio.com/live

Enquiries → [email protected]

Gear used:

Torso T1 Sequencer - All sequencing

Eurorack Modular:

BitBox Micro Sampler - Drums, percussion loops, some synth parts

Mutable Instruments Plaits - Melodies and effect

Doepfer Wasp filter - Filter on the Plaits

Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas - Melodies

Doepfer A-111-6 - Bass

Knobula Poly Cinematic - Chords and melodies

Make Noise Mimeophon - Delay and effects

Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) - Granular effects

Bastl Pizza Crust - Percussion and occasional synth

Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot - Mixing

Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 - Reverb on everything and multi effects on the Poly Cinematic

Forge tme Vhikk X - Synth textures

Mod Dwarf - Effects pedal used for mastering and end of chain

Enjoyed the video? Buy me a coffee / leave a tip at: https://ko-fi.com/mentataudio

You can find all my music at https://mentataudio.com/music

Audio downloads of all the live sets are on Bandcamp: https://mentataudio.bandcamp.com

A full 75 minute set of live improvised modular techno from Waxless Club at the Old Blue Last in Shoreditch in April 2026. Had a blast playing this set. I've been to several of the Waxless events (a club night where it's all live music on machines rather than DJs) and they have always been great. I really enjoyed Sugoo's opening set of wonky melodic tracks, and Reuben's controlled chaos of really funky noise shaped grooves. I got to headline the event and played a full set.

Apart from a few riffs I had saved at the start to get me going it was all improvised on the modular and the Torso T1 sequencer, with a little bit of Roland S1 for some synth lines. It was really fun having a full 75 mins to build and drop things, moving through melodies, more percussive stuff and between techno and progressive sounds. A great crowd, if you were there thanks so much for coming down!

Annoyingly my video cut out about 4 mins in... but it was a dark room with some flashing lights and mainly about the music so posting the video anyway!

Enjoyed the video? Buy my a coffee / leave a tip at: https://ko-fi.com/mentataudio

You can find all my music at http://mentataudio.com/music

Audio downloads of all the live sets are on Bandcamp: http://mentataudio.bandcamp.com

Gear used:

Torso T1 Sequencer - All sequencing

Eurorack Modular:

BitBox Micro Sampler - Drums, percussion loops, some synth parts

Mutable Instruments Plaits - Melodies and effect

Doepfer Wasp filter - Filter on the Plaits

Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas - Melodies

Dopefer A-111-6 - Bass

Knobula Poly Cinematic - Chords and melodies

Make Noise Mimeophon - Delay and effects

Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) - Granular effects

Bastl Pizza Crust - Percussion and occasional synth

Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot - Mixing

Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 - Reverb on everything and multi effects on the Poly Cinematic

Forge tme Vhikk X - Synth textures

Roland S1 - Chords and synths

Custom Raspberry Pi mastering module running Patchbox and MODEP

If you're interested, my ModularGrid is here: https://modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/2884273

Shop for gear I recommend on Reverb: https://tidd.ly/4dDHSsd (affiliate link)

Here's my set from the SpaceWreck: Fire event in Walthamstow, London. There's a great grassroots electronic music scene that has grown up around the Trades Hall in Walthamstow. Synth club every few months is a chance to geek out over synths and gear and a mix of talks and live performances. Tones and Drones are doing regular immersive ambient events with curated musicians and amazing visuals. And the band SpaceWreck are running eclectic curated events of a range of electronic music. I was invited to play at their 'Fire' themed event, with a fun setup of flames and projections around the multiple stages set up. Really enjoyed the event and all the other artists' sets.

Enjoyed the video? Buy my a coffee / leave a tip at: https://ko-fi.com/mentataudio

You can find all my music at http://mentataudio.com/music

Audio downloads of all the live sets are on Bandcamp: http://mentataudio.bandcamp.com

Gear used:

Torso T1 Sequencer - All sequencing

Eurorack Modular:

BitBox Micro Sampler - Drums, percussion loops, some synth parts

Mutable Instruments Plaits - Melodies and effect

Doepfer Wasp filter - Filter on the Plaits

Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas - Melodies

Dopefer A-111-6 - Bass

Knobula Poly Cinematic - Chords and melodies

Make Noise Mimeophon - Delay and effects

Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) - Granular effects

Bastl Pizza Crust - Percussion and occasional synth

Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot - Mixing

Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 - Reverb on everything and multi effects on the Poly Cinematic

Forge tme Vhikk X - Synth textures

Mod Dwarf - Effects pedal used for mastering and end of chain

If you're interested, my ModularGrid is here: https://modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/2884273

Shop for gear I recommend on Reverb: https://tidd.ly/4dDHSsd (affiliate link)

A short set live from the Dublin Castle in Camden at EMOM London. I was also hosting the night and introducing acts so had about 5 minutes to set up. Good thing I recently simplified down my setup to a single case.

Sorry for the not so great video, as you can see I just about slammed the camera on the tripod as I was starting to play!

I was testing something I've been working on - replacing my Mod Dwarf pedal end of chain setup with a Raspberry Pi setup built into the case. I've got a front panel module feeding the audio out of my mixer into a Raspberry Pi with a Codec Zero hat for audio mounted inside the eurorack case. This does a bunch of end of chain stuff - it literally lets me have a full mastering chain of plugins on the output. Also gives me low cut filters for performance, recording onboard, a line out to the PA and a headphone amp. Pretty useful bit of kit. Just ironing out some reliability issues and getting the front panel tidied up and I'll do a video on what I've been doing with it.

Gear used:

Oxi One Mkii - All sequencing

BitBox Micro Sampler - Drums, percussion loops, some synth parts

Mutable Instruments Plaits - Melodies and effect

Doepfer Wasp filter - Filter on the Plaits

Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas - Melodies

Dopefer A-111-6 - Bass

Knobula Poly Cinematic - Chords and melodies

Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) - Granular effects

Bastl Pizza Crust - Percussion and occasional synth

Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot - Mixing

Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 - Reverb and delay

Forge tme Vhikk - textures

If you're interested, my ModularGrid is here: https://modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/2884273

Recording of my live set from the Factory Setting event this week. I played first up as people were arriving - nice to set the scene for people. I've always loved that feeling of walking into a club with music going and taking it all in, so I enjoyed being able to be the soundtrack to that.

It was a great event, with loads of excellent sets and a really interesting and inspiring talk, demo and set from 808 State to headline.

This was also the first time using the OXI One sequencer live. I had some left over patterns from a studio jam which I started with, improvising the arrangement and then bringing some more improvised elements in later. Enjoying the new sequencer, although still lots to learn. I'm not dropping the Torso T1 though, I really like that for other reasons so I can see myself still using it. It's like playing slightly different instruments really and they both push you in slightly different directions. I've got an hour long studio set recorded earlier in the day with the same setup which I'll share soon.

Gear used:

Oxi One Mkii - All sequencing

BitBox Micro Sampler - Drums, percussion loops, some synth parts

Mutable Instruments Plaits - Melodies and effect

Doepfer Wasp filter - Filter on the Plaits

Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas - Melodies

Dopefer A-111-6 - Bass

Knobula Poly Cinematic - Chords and melodies

Make Noise Mimeophon - Delay and effects

Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) - Granular effects

Bastl Pizza Crust - Percussion and occasional synth

Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot - Mixing

Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 - Reverb on everything and multi effects on the Poly Cinematic

Mod Dwarf effects pedal - End of chain compression and mastering and some stereo whole mix hipass filtering and delay

If you're interested, my ModularGrid is here: https://modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/2884273

My latest live set... this one is a little different...

Not a new direction, but just an experiment with playing some pre released tracks in live versions rather than completely improvising. I'm definitely not ditching the improvising - just trying something to see what I can learn.

Having been doing lots of entirely improvised sets recently I started looking into recording some of my improvisations and developing them into tracks. This made me get out my Cirklon sequencer again, and I thought for this month's Factory Setting event I'd have a go at recreating live versions of some of my studio tracks that had been released.

So this set consists of Indigo and Flight, which came out on my own label Cirrus Sounds, and Marble which came out on Traum Schallplatten and was the first Mentat track I ever released.

These tracks were originally written in Ableton Live, so I brought across some of the samples and the sequences to the BitBox sampler and the Cirklon sequencer, and live jammed the arrangements on the sequencer and the modular system.

This brings different challenges than improvising... having sounds in mind for each track and section I have to remember more. I have to remember what sequences are coming from where, how they should sound and how I need to set up the synth to make those sounds. When improvising I can be a bit more immediate and experiment, but here I have to get to something I have in mind, which is a different approach. I don't have to think as much about where I am going though, as I had the three track order planned and to a certain extent the types of arrangements I'd be creating, even though that was a bit improvised.

All in all I was pleased with how it went. It goes a bit abstract going out of Indigo into Flight where the transition in synth sounds wasn't as smooth as I wanted it to be. But it's OK I think and something I'd quickly improve with some more practice.

Something I learned was how I might approach varying structures a bit more even when improvising. I have tended to be very loop and groove focused, but my released tracks have more back and forth of differing sections. No reason why I couldn't do this with the improvising - it's just another thing to develop and practice.

Next I'm going to explore constructing some track starting with improvisation on the Torso sequencer, but recording them into the Cirklon and refining them into more finished tracks. The Cirklon is much better for that kind of detailed work - although the Torso shines brighter to me for ideas and live jams. I might try some live sets with a mix of more prepared and improvised stuff - it's nice to play some more detailed melodic stuff and recognisable tunes. But I do prefer fully improvising in the moment in many ways, so I'll see where it takes me.

Gear used:

Sequentix Cirklon - All sequencing

BitBox Micro Sampler - Drums, percussion loops, some synth parts

Mutable Instruments Plaits - Melodies and effect

Doepfer Wasp filter - Filter on the Plaits

Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas - Melodies

Dopefer A-111-6 - Bass

Knobula Poly Cinematic - Chords and melodies

Make Noise Mimeophon - Delay and effects

Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) - Granular effects

Bastl Pizza Crust - Percussion and occasional synth

Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot - Mixing

Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 - Reverb on everything and multi effects on the Poly Cinematic

Mod Dwarf effects pedal - End of chain compression and mastering and some stereo whole mix hipass filtering and delay

If you're interested, my ModularGrid is here: https://modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/2884273

Another practice set from my home studio. Was in the mood for some slow building prog and techno, slowly warming things up. Goes a bit more Underworld at the end. All improvised as usual.

Actual studio is a bit of a box room at the moment after moving house recently, but I've got enough room for the live gear and that's most of what I need really!

Gear used:

Torso T1 Sequencer - All sequencing

BitBox Micro Sampler - Drums, percussion loops, some synth parts

Mutable Instruments Plaits - Melodies and effect

Doepfer Wasp filter - Filter on the Plaits

Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas - Melodies

Dopefer A-111-6 - Bass

Knobula Poly Cinematic - Chords and melodies

Make Noise Mimeophon - Delay and effects

Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) - Granular effects

Bastl Pizza Crust - Percussion and occasional synth

Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot - Mixing

Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 - Reverb on everything and multi effects on the Poly Cinematic

Mod Dwarf effects pedal - End of chain compression and mastering and some stereo whole mix hipass filtering and delay

A few weeks back I did an hour long 'Midnight set' at The Night Cafe, a really cool alternative venue in Aldgate in London. This is an hour of mostly improvised modular techno and progressive house, performed from right outside the ball pit.

Check out all the other Night Cafe Midnight sets over on their channel. It's a great selection of live electronic music, many of the set from friends of mine: / @nightcaferadio

Gear used:

Torso T1 Sequencer

BitBox Micro Sampler

Mutable Instruments Plaits

Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas

Dopefer A-111-6

Knobula Poly Cinematic

Make Noise Mimeophon

Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone)

Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot

Timo Rozendal FMP

WMD MSCL Compressor

God's Box and Thonk Humpback filter

Mod Dwarf

Forge tme Vhikk X

Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2

Roland S-1

I'm looking forward to playing a midnight set at the Night Cafe in London this coming Friday, so I've been practicing and captured this hour of improvisation. Please with how this one went, starts out atmospheric and progressive, and then goes back and forth a bit between more rhythm driven techno and more melody driven progressive house. And a bit of breaks right at the end. It's tempting with this live stuff to go all one level and just try to keep the energy up all the time, so I've been working on having some light and shade and making the longer performances take more of a journey.

Gear used:

Torso T1 Sequencer

BitBox Micro Sampler

Mutable Instruments Plaits

Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas

Dopefer A-111-6

Knobula Poly Cinematic

Make Noise Mimeophon

Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone)

Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot

Timo Rozendal FMP

WMD MSCL Compressor

God's Box and Thonk Humpback filter

Mod Dwarf

Forge tme Vhikk X

Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2

Roland S-1

Live at Dublin Castle this week. Some more improvised grooves and melodies.