Gear

Playing

An electric guitar and a bass. They make everything you hear — no layer is programmed, none is played by a machine.

Looping

Ableton Live holds the loops and a Push fires them. The Push replaces the usual looper pedal: the pads sit under the fingers instead of under the feet, which changes how you write — you drop a layer in between two bars, not between two songs.

Sound runs through a Universal Audio interface.

• Ableton Live

  Holds the loops. Each layer gets its own clip, and the tempo is set before starting.

• Ableton Push

  Fires the layers. It replaces the looper pedal: the pads sit under the fingers, not under the feet.

• Universal Audio interface

  The audio input. Guitar and bass go through it before Live.

Filming

DJI cameras, on separate angles. Sound isn't captured by the cameras: OBS runs alongside and records the audio, which is then lined back up with the picture. It's more work in the edit and it's noticeably better to the ear.

• DJI cameras

  Several angles, shot separately. One wide, one on the hands.

• OBS

  Films nothing: it records the sound alongside the cameras, which is then lined back up with the picture.

Editing

The edit is custom-built: clips are assembled by scripts that read the tempo of the track and lay the shots onto the bar grid. So a cut always lands on a beat. It's the kind of detail nobody notices when it's done right.

• In-house scripts

  The edit is assembled by scripts that read the tempo and lay the shots onto the bar grid.

• FFmpeg

  Everything touching picture and sound on the way out. The master comes out with no compression at all.