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Grammy-winner Chris Vrenna has played with Skinny Puppy, Nine Inch Nails and is currently on tour with Marilyn Manson playing a Novation ReMOTE SL37. “Thank you Novation – you make my life easy!” he says.
Chris Vrenna has a remarkable history as a musician. He has played
drums with Nine Inch Nails and KMFDM, produced music for video games
like Doom 3 and Quake 4 and, as a producer and remixer, has worked
with the likes of The Smashing Pumpkins, U2 and Hole. He is currently
on tour with Marilyn Manson playing keyboards and has chosen a
Novation ReMOTE SL37 to do ‘battle’ with…
“We were after a very sleek look on stage,” he says of his SL buying
decision. Since using the keyboard intensely, though, Chris has
fallen in love with many of its other features, not least the fact
that it is buss powered. “When you are in the throws of battle up
there you never know what’s going to happen. It’s been doused with
water a couple of times so with no AC power up there it’s totally
awesome!”
“The second really important thing about the keyboard is the backlit
LCD which I cannot speak highly enough of,” Vrenna continues. “With
the projections and smoke on stage it’s hard enough to see anything
but I can always tell what’s up on the keyboard. That’s vital for a
live thing – most other keyboards don’t tell you as much information.”
Chris’ set-up is totally software based including soft synths,
samplers and Reason, so the SL’s Automapping feature certainly comes
into its own.
“Between the Automapping and the templates [the SL] comes with, it is
the easiest set-up ever. The knobs are assigned and you know exactly
which one you are going to be grabbing. It kind of programmed itself
actually!”
Chris uses the keyboard’s many controllers for several live effects
which enhance his own performance.
“I like to map the X-Y pad to do different effects and I can just
grab different things right on the fly,” he says. “I do some live
filter stuff and I like to throw things into delays. The trigger pads
have been really cool. There’s the eight across the bottom which you
can fire off different sounds with so I’ve been doing that and since
I’m also a drummer it feels a little more natural to do it that way!
It gives more of an angle to your performance so it’s not just the
same thing night after night.”
“The keys just feel great,” Chris concludes. “They have enough weight
on them that you get it, but they are not weighted. To me it’s the
perfect mix. I hate it when keys are flimsy – a keyboard should take
a pounding. It’s been great, just a solid piece of gear. It’s the
only piece of gear I haven’t had a problem with, let’s put it that way!”
“Thank you Novation. You make my life easy!”
Vrenna will be touring with Manson until the end of the year and will
be producing more of his own music (under the name Tweaker) next year.
Further information and high resolution product images (see the VIP
area) at Novation music
More about Chris Vrenna at Tweaker
