Green Beatbox's Setup

Green Beatbox's magic equipment, explained!

I started looping when I discovered Beardyman and his Kaoss Pad 3 setup online.  I was in Japan at the time, and wanted a KP3 so bad, but never expected to find one there.  I thought I should wait to get back to the U.S. to buy one.  Then, while randomly perusing in a shopping mall with my fiancé, I found a music store that had a used one for sale.  The Japanese dude showed me how it worked, and I picked it up right there.  Next, I got an RC-505 Loopstation after seeing Dub FX use one and realizing it was the next step in advancing toward supreme human beat blasting.  Finally, as a result of wanting more electronic, less human-spit-like sounds (and not being able to sing at all), I picked up a VT-3 vocal transformer.  This is what I use for funky vocoder singing and dubstep bass sounds.

Here's an explanation, in order, of my setup:

Shure SM-58 Mic

A long time ago, I basically read that this was the best mic ever, so it was my first mic and is still my only mic!  I use it for recording, live shows, and even busking on the streets of Boston!  All sounds originate from my vocal cords, which are sent to this microphone.  This mic is plugged into the first piece of equipment in the setup, and my voice is then sent to the...

Roland VT-3 Voice Transformer

I use the VT-3 Voice Transformer is great for vocoder robot voice sounds.  I also deepen the frequency of this voice sound to make dubstep bass.  I also use the VT-3 for auto-tune since I can't sing (and because auto-tune sounds cool even if you can sing!)  I bypass the VT-3 when not using any of its effects.  The output from the VT-3 is sent to the...

Korg Kaoss Pad 3

The Kaoss Pad 3 (KP3) is basically a smaller version of the RC-505, with 4 tracks.  It also has some nice effects I use often to make a robot-sounding voice.  Another great feature I frequently use is the trackpad.  You rub your finger on it and create sounds or edit the parameters of effects.  I usually use this to create sweeping pad sounds during buildups, before the bass drops.  I also use the KP3 for my one-shot sounds.  The output of the KP3 is sent to my main piece of equipment, which is the...

BOSS RC-505 Loopstation

The RC-505 is the main piece of equipment in my setup.  It's got 5 independent tracks that can loop any number of measures each independently.  It's also got some great effects that can be applied to the input, as well as to tracks individually.  I generally use a "guitar-to-bass" effect to hum deep baselines, and the "beat-repeat" effect to create buildups.  I also heavily rely on the "transpose" effect to make my voice sound deeper than it actually is.