Behind-The-Scenes With The Glitch Mob

This video takes a behind-the-scenes look at the massive custom stage rig of The Glitch Mob, who are currently on tour

The focus is on ‘The Blade’ – their stage set + state instrument. Along the way, the video looks at the audio system, based on dual Mac Minis running Ableton Live; the stage controllers, based on iPads running Lemur and MIDI controllers; Roland V-Drums; and the set design that ties it all together.

via The Glitch Mob

34 thoughts on “Behind-The-Scenes With The Glitch Mob

  1. Terrific video! I was unaware of these guys before, but now they have a new fan!

    I am really impressed with the passion, technical skill and care put into this production. Also, kudos to Ableton for working with these guys and pushing the state-of-the-art of their already excellent, Live software.

  2. Very impressed. It is so nice to see electronic musicians truly performing. Watch this video then go search for Above & Beyonds live Madison Square garden show and look at the contrast between the two. TGM working their asses off on stage, pushing technical boundaries vs. A&B taking turns live tweeting and turning a filter cutoff knob. Bravo for this!!

  3. I was impressed with the video until I saw the show last night in Berkeley. While it looks amazing, they were fake drumming and pretending for a lot of the show. I perform music and am a drummer so I could tell. Pretty sad to watch.

    1. I am a live sound engineer (as well as an electronic musician) and you couldn’t be more wrong. I’ve done a few shows with these guys and they are hands down some of the most amazing performers out there. It’s all live, 38channels worth the last time I did their show. There may be some quantization going on but its all being performed live. These guys don’t just push play…

      1. “38channels” don`t prove anything. It just goes out from ableton and you`ll never know was it performed or playbacked. That`s the power of modern edm scene)

        1. I’m more inclined to go with the guy who’s worked behind the desk at their shows than what amounts to pure conjecture.

  4. Yikes, the demo starting around 12:13 looks & sounds like there’s a ton of latency in the system. There’s an audible difference between hearing his hand physically hit the screen (or drums) and then hearing the triggered audio. I don’t know how they can play like that.

    1. It’s just delay. on the stage where they are playing its all in time in their monitors. And once the sound is up and at normal levels you won’t hear the stage noise from the audience you’ll just hear what’s coming out of the sound system

      1. Err, delay? For that kind of delay, the sound system would have to be dozens of meters away. In that video, the amplification is in a relatively small rehearsal room. That is latency 100%

        1. maybe my terms are wrong, but Im telling you by the time the sticks hit the drums and signal goes through the sytem and out the speakers vs someone hearing the sticks hitting the drums and that sound just travelling through the air to their ears (mic in this case) theres going to be sound that is not being heard at the same time. Im calling that delay. maybe Im wrong with the term. But I can tell you from working 6 nights a week for 24 years, in big rooms and even in smaller rooms than that, I always have monitors so I can keep everything in time from my point of creating the sound. from the floor they cant hear the source noise when eveything is turned up. that was just rehearsal so of course its not all exactly as it would be in a real live performance 100% of the time.

  5. Live electronica taken to its logical conclusion! Seems like a nightmarish haul of technology just to trigger a few static samples. Reminds me of the rave-scene from Matrix Reloaded (evident, un-cited influence). A cynic might suppose that the elaborate visual design serves to compensate for rather unremarkable musical content, but there’s no denying that they must have earned all that prestige somehow!
    I will not start listening to the Glitch Mobs’ music, but I will follow their lead and explore further ways to make live electronica liver and more exciting to look at 🙂

  6. Are they serious? I certainly hope the future of live performance does not look likes this.
    This is a promotional video, nothing else. (thank god)

  7. I caught them a few years ago at the legendary Red Rocks Ampitheater. It was a beautiful summer night, i went with a long legged blonde and it was an amazing evening. Mimosa was playing all chill and downtempo, and then Glitch Mob came on as the sun was going down and absolutely crushed it.

  8. I seen them years ago at a Ultra in Miami. They where bad ass. Plus Edit makes good Ableton Tutorials and they are very good to there fans.

  9. From my own experience Electronic music, performed on a zero budget is not something that’s easy to get people to pay attention to. I can’t even begin to fathom what the budget would be for a Glitch Mob tour. Musically “The Glitch Mob”, et all, is not my thing, but I really enjoyed seeing how much effort goes into a tour like this. My youngest son–he’s 14–really likes this sort of stuff. His older brothers just roll their eyes at it. And a presentation like this makes it an experience for he and his friends that gives them the feeling of participating. Like the big rock shows I went to when I was a teenager too many decades ago it’s something they talk about for days afterwards . So much of the electronic music I’ve seen, and participated in over the years, amounted to not much more than just people standing there–when people actually showed up–with their arms crossed staring at someone occasionally massaging their keyboards, bent over a table adjusting knobs or just staring intently at their laptop. You get what you pay for I guess. LOL

    Cheers!!

  10. To me (13:10) they look more like they were programming the Nostromo washing machine.

    Futuristic Laundry. Laundry of The Future.

  11. u’ll never get an european (middleaged) oldskool guy to like stuff like this, inspiring setup(?) horrible music 🙁

    1. While it’s not a sound I’m completely sold on, I’m not sure any Europeans can take an artistic high road while being home to the likes of Tiesto, pretty much any Eurotrance, Swedish House Mafia , and the always terrible Eurovision Song Contest.

      1. hahahahha 🙂 the european song contest its a joke u’re right. Talking about a “middleagedoldskooleuguy” was a way to talk about me. No probs if you like em btw, there must be a starting point, you start with ’em, and maybe after some months of digging, u’ll be listening to autechre and not to this 100% fake ear-hurting mainstream stuff.

        ps: total respect for you and for them (doing their thing)

  12. Wow is this for-real , I thought it was a Saturday night live skit . Really , frekin hilarious .
    Reminds me of drummers who can’t get work in the rock grung scene so they said hey dude lets try EDM it’s really popular right now we can be some type of modern day krafwerk , with some good sponsors we can promote our selves as being dope soulless edm musicians .
    And they really jump the shark at the end with that cheesy edit of them asking some girls
    which guy do you like And of course it’s the one with the wired haircut then they cut to a seen of him doing a fake bmx jump . Someone earlier mentioned this is just pure marketing video and I agree .

  13. Should the future not sound different from what has been played ad infinitum for the past twenty years? As for spectacular sets, well, Genesis, Yes, Bowie, Funkadelic, DEVO, Kraftwerk, and virtually every other multi-million dollar rave techno ensemble fighting for space at Glastonbury and Daytona Beach.

  14. this is a hollywood production more than a real band,geez .so not impressed they think an ipad is cool

    omg can you tell the difference between a production and a real band.
    some of you defending this hyped production ,need to get back to your inner muscian.

  15. All props and respect to these guys for what they are doing, for sure. But it’s always a facepalm moment when I see people talking about their “futuristic” stage shows. Do you know how many spaceship-type things we’ve seen over the years? Parliament and ELO spring to mind as the obvious low hanging fruit, all the way back to the 70s. And then I remember seeing really active, big stage shows from guys like Kiss, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden, Kylie Minogue, etc. Lots of people moving around, tons of moving lights and props, and everyone playing live instruments through the whole thing. No computers in sight. But these guys bring tons of computing power and tech gizmos with them onstage and do relatively little with it compared to the giants who’s shoulders they stand upon.

    1. You do realize they are not really a traditional band. They do what they do for their audience and will live or die on that. Not sure how old you are but you’re sounding like a “…back in the good old days when people played real instruments.” curmudgeon. The fact you’ve seen shows in the 70’s is only relevant to you. Let the kids find their own paths. Every scene in every new generation finds it’s own bearings and what works for them. You may not like it, but some kid does and it may inspire them to do something in music and maybe tread paths not taken before.

      As for these guys, they sound like they are really committed and passionate and are doing everything they can to make shows that their fans like. I came from DJ and electronic music culture and I’ve seen enough laptop sets to understand that their aesthetic has more to do with Iron Maiden than Berghain.

      Anyone who has seen the Kraftwerk tour knows the music is probably all pre-programmed but the whole experience is amazing because they understand that it requires the that all the elements of sight and sound come together to make it work.

  16. Steve Aoki throws cakes; these guys re-enact the Zion dance party from Matrix Reloaded.

    They’re about equally interesting to me, both musically and as a ‘performance.’

    That’s not a compliment.

      1. i hope young electronic-us-punters are going to grow. u.s. originates modern electronic music (detroit, chicago, ny) so come on guys, roots are strong, lets listen to something better than this.

  17. Haters gotta hate. Film at 11.

    (Not sure why, though. TGM have apparently invested a lot of time, money, and effort into providing a compelling performance experience for their audience. And they’re doing it because they want to. How is this a bad thing?)

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