DJ Equipment Reviews

The famous Depeche Mode uses Ableton Live for their on stage drum processing

When you’re talking Depeche Mode, it’s more than just a fad that comes and goes (like it is with many one time stars in the music and DJ scene), this British electronic band made history and is history, and whether you’re a working DJ, a music lover or not interested at all in music, if you haven’t heard about DM, it probably means you’ve been living in the wild for the last 30 years or so.

Depeche Mode was formed in 1980 in the small town of Basildon, Essex, England with the famous Dave Gahan as their leading vocal. The man’s voice is unique by any standards, but the success of DM is in more than that. With 12 released albums, all top quality and all enjoying great attention from the fans, there’s probably no one electronic music band that influenced decades of music the way that Depeche Mode has. I’m just giving you this background to arrive at the main point, which is to illustrate that what Depeche Mode is using, any working DJ or music engineer can take for granted because it must do the job perfectly.

In this case, I’m talking about drum processing, especially when it comes to live performances. Oh yeah, and when I’m saying live performances with Depeche Mode nowadays, we’re talking even hundreds of thousands of people, all gathered in one place, ready for the show of their lives. And all of the time, DM provides, also because of the great tools working behind the scenes, tools like the famous DAW Ableton Live 8, which their live programmer, Kerry Hopwood, uses for live drum processing. Depeche Mode uses Ableton Live as an integral component of shaping the bands drum sound.

Also the musical director for Depeche Mode, Kerry Hopwood is coming from a background of record production, where again Ableton Live shows its potential, but as he says, the ability of maintaining the same presets for great resulting sound when the input from the drum kits is about the same makes Ableton ideal for live processing as well. As he puts it himself : "We need to use tools that work".

Now I don’t know if I’m the only one who thinks Depeche Mode are unique as a music band, and not only because they managed to keep on top of everybody else for so long. I’vev had my period of putting posters with Dave Gahan on the door, and I noticed a specific sound that they use, undoubtedly electronic or electronically modified (there ain’t no drum kit today that could make that beat). I’m sure most of you, either DJs or not, observed the specific, original and almost trademark style of music Depeche Mode is producing.

Well, from the same Kerry Hopwood, they used everything from desks to studio processing to manage to keep that sound for their live performances, but until now Ableton Live does the greatest job. I for one, can’t think of a more demanding environment then when you’re in front of thousands of people who expect you to work your magic. For Depeche Mode and their live programmer, Ableton Live is the most sustainable, easy to use and high quality solution to come by for live drum processing, at least. And it’s part of what makes Depeche Mode sound as unique as they do.

The video link above is taken at a concert Depeche Mode held in Berlin, at the huge Olympiastadion there, and it shows Kerry Hopwood explaining the advantages of using Ableton Live for on stage processing, as well as giving you some nice insight into the backstage of a Depeche Mode concert. In the end, I can only praise Ableton Live 8 (link to our review here on WorkingDJ.com) and tell doubting working DJs out there that if it’s good enough for Depeche Mode, it’s sure good enough for you.

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