music4yourTrip :: Real-time improvised electronic music

This is our second jam from early August, 2026. Acoustic drums are back again for this one, a big change after years of Maschine. This time they're running through an in-the-box effects rig controlled live with MIDI Designer, letting Dan reshape the acoustic kit on the fly as part of the improvisation (somewhat, it's early days still).

This trip moves at a slightly quicker pace. In the 55 minutes of the set, we follow whatever appears: a groove that catches, a texture that opens up, an idea that takes a while to become something, or one that simply disappears. The music gets spacious and strange, settles into funk, rocks out, loses the plot and finds another one. Every turn happens in the moment, and we're sharing the whole trip with you.

Featuring:

• Minio Class: keyboards

• Dan Rosenstark: drums

• Mike Rosenstark: guitar

Gear:

• MIDI Designer Pro X

• ASM Leviasynth

• Dave Smith Instruments Prophet Rev2

• Sequential Take 5

• Neural DSP Quad Cortex

• Fractal Audio Axe-Fx III

• Fractal Audio VP4 Virtual Pedalboard ×4

• Fractal Audio AM4 Amp Modeler

• Boomerang III Phrase Sampler

• Gig Performer with additional software instruments and effects

music4YourTrip returns to acoustic drums for this trio session (8/7/2026).

This is our first long-form improvisation with an acoustic kit in years, with Dan back behind the drums. The drums themselves are processed live through a Fractal Audio VP4, bringing the physical energy and dynamics of an acoustic kit into the electronic landscape of music4YourTrip.

As with every music4YourTrip session, we begin with no destination. Every note is improvised, and the music discovers its own shape in real time. It might drift into ambient territory, lock into a deep funk groove, or suddenly decide to rock. Some passages wander before finding their footing. Some ideas never quite land. Others unexpectedly bloom into something neither expected nor repeatable. We're happy to share that journey with you.

Featuring:

• Minio Class: keyboards

• Mike Rosenstark: guitar

• Dan Rosenstark: drums through Fractal Audio VP4

Gear:

• Fractal Audio VP4 Virtual Pedalboard

• ASM Leviasynth

• Dave Smith Instruments Prophet Rev2

• Sequential Take 5

• Neural DSP Quad Cortex

• Fractal Audio Axe-Fx III

• Fractal Audio VP4 Virtual Pedalboard ×4

• Fractal Audio AM4 Amp Modeler

• Boomerang III Phrase Sampler

• Gig Performer with additional software instruments and effects

WHAT

This one is a short, 46-minute journey into the world below, but always ascending. And the world above, but drooping and perking up. Listen as these humans improvise in a no-holds barred explosion from the rocket-launch pad.

Minio Class: keys

Dan Rosenstark: drums

Mike Rosenstark: guitar

GEAR

Control: All rigs performed and routed via MIDI Designer Pro X on iPad.

Guitar and sources: Bleep Labs Thingamagoop, electric kalimba, Moog Little Phatty into Neural DSP Quad Cortex, Fractal VP-4 units, AM4, dual Eventide PitchFactor, Boomerang Phrase III with Sidecar. Augmented with Pianoteq, Native Instruments FM8, four spoken word channels, and six internet radio feeds, running on an Apple M1 MacBook Air with a full plugin chain.

Drums and percussion: Native Instruments Maschine MK3 and Jam, YouTube sound sources, ValhallaDelay, iZotope StutterEdit (the first one, thanks Devine).

Keys: Sequential Circuits Take5 and Arturia AstroLab 37.

Thanks to Ableton Link for keeping us together.

WHAT

They come in loud and the first few minutes are dense. Things overlap, then separate. Space shows up. They listen more than they talk. But it's always evolving. By the end it’s stretched out, slightly odd, and steady after pushing through the mess.

Kevin Brown: bass

Dan Rosenstark: drums

Mike Rosenstark: guitar

GEAR

Control: All rigs performed and routed via MIDI Designer Pro X on iPad.

Guitar and sources: Bleep Labs Thingamagoop, electric kalimba, Moog Little Phatty into Neural DSP Quad Cortex, Fractal VP-4 units, AM4, dual Eventide PitchFactor, Boomerang Phrase III with Sidecar. Augmented with Pianoteq, Native Instruments FM8, four spoken word channels, and six internet radio feeds, running on an Apple M1 MacBook Air with a full plugin chain.

Drums and percussion: Native Instruments Maschine MK3 and Jam, YouTube sound sources, ValhallaDelay, iZotope StutterEdit (the first one, thanks Devine).

Bass: 7-string Conklin fretted bass with Bartolini pickups into Fractal Audio AX8 and VP-4.

Thanks to Ableton Link for keeping us together.

They set up, find the missing cable, restart once, dial in levels. No count-in. A couple early starts, then they let it run. Some talking at first, then it settles. Ends up wide, varied, somehow cohesive anyway, the kind of session you keep coming back to because there’s more in it than you thought.

Bass through a Fractal Audio AX8. Drums, percussion, and spoken word via Maschine and Ableton. Guitar direct and processed in the chain. Everything controlled from iPad with MIDI Designer Pro X.

Nick S: bass

Dan Rosenstark: drums, howling

Mike Rosenstark: guitar

Trio Session: newcomer Nick S on 4-string bass (through a Fractal Audio AX8), Dan Rosenstark on drums, percussion and spoken word using Maschine/Ableton (with MIDI Designer Pro X), and Mike Rosenstark on guitar.

Trio Session: newcomer Nick S on 4-string bass (through a Fractal Audio AX8), Dan Rosenstark on drums, percussion and spoken word using Maschine/Ableton (with MIDI Designer Pro X), and Mike Rosenstark on guitar.

Trio Session: newcomer Nick S. on 4-string bass (through a Fractal Audio AX8), Dan Rosenstark on drums, percussion and spoken word using Maschine/Ableton (with MIDI Designer Pro X), and Mike Rosenstark on guitar.

Trio Session: newcomer Nick S on 4-string bass (through a Fractal Audio AX8), Dan Rosenstark on drums, percussion and spoken word using Maschine/Ableton (with MIDI Designer Pro X), and Mike Rosenstark on guitar.

Feb. '25 Quartet Session: newcomer Nick S on 4-string bass (through a Fractal Audio AX8), Kevin Brown on 7-string bass (with Axe-FX III using MIDI Designer Pro X), Dan Rosenstark on drums, percussion and spoken word using Maschine/Ableton (with MIDI Designer Pro X), and Mike Rosenstark on guitar (through Fractal Audio AX8, NeuralDSP Quad Cortex, a pair of Eventide PitchFactors, and a pair of Fractal VP4's, then through a zillion plugins on a macbook), synth, optical theremin, piano, and spoken word samples (with MIDI Designer Pro X).