Avi Bortnick

For drum samples, Bortnick uses a Korg Electrive ES-1 MK II. “OK, this thing is awesome,” he says at (21:15). “It's a sampling machine, meaning you’re putting in your own sounds. So a lot of the drum sounds in there. I put them in there or I found somewhere, frankly it's been so long I don't remember where all sounds come from. I don't use it on every song, but the computer always routes into the drum machine 'cause it has a stereo input. So, I sort of almost use it as a mixing board and effects processor for the computer, but it also has beats that I use. But the cool thing about this is kind of like an instrument, or any things up here and you can really play it. Everything's right there. It's really great. You feel very spontaneous. It's not like the computer, where you sort of have to stare at the screen and find where your pointer is, and then plan ahead. This is much more intuitive, which is great. So songs that are really beat intensive, I'll use this Korg drum machine.”

"The Dr. Sample and ES1 are really rudimentary samplers, but for me they really work live because, being aimed at DJs and so on, they are table-top devices with everything lighting up clearly and there being no intensive menus to scroll through. Everything is right up front. The Boss is almost like a toy, run off batteries and with a simple built-in mic. The fidelity is not that good, but I actually think it has a cool sound."

“I've got this foot controller, the Keith McMillen 12 step, which is nice,” Bortnick says, “because it's bus powered and light weight, and has 12 buttons on it rather than the normal ten.” Bornick uses the foot controller to command presets in Ableton Live.

The guitar first goes through an A/B switcher that toggles between the pedals on his board and a Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 USB interface. From the interface it goes to his Apple MacBook Air (running Ableton Live and MIDI Guitar) and the Korg Electribe.

"First of all I have to make clear that the guitar and sampling are not linked. My guitar does not trigger any of the samples. It runs through a completely different rig. What I do is control the Dr. Sample and ES1 with a Yamaha MFC10 MIDI foot controller, which I started using because I got fed up with having to stop playing guitar to hit a button with my hand."

On his web site Bortnick details the gear that he uses, including this one.