The demand to have one’s mind blown seems to be an unending one. The festival experience has only gone from loud to louder and bright to brighter. And the more digital it gets, the greater the level of control. The results are truly sophisticated feats of engineering with the sole purpose of melting your face. Let’s check out one of the more happening rigs right now, the Cube V3.
Audio visual
The Cube V3 is an audio-visual concert rig based on - you guessed it - a giant cube capable of projecting perspective-adjusted visuals. The results are something like we saw the mind-melting Box video a few years back. The rig was road-tested at Ultra in 2019 will be going on tour in August 2019. The results have been generally well received online, and a number of upcoming dates are sold out. Hype.
The rig is designed for the DJ to sit inside the cube structure and be visible. But they can also be completely shrouded by the visuals, allowing for the human-to-visuals ratio to be tweaked over time. It’s assumed that the fans aren’t only interested in a show, that some sort of human agency is required for us to truly connect. But who knows? Perhaps this level of attention-focusing will have unexpected effects on the crowds and be a launchpad for completely automated shows.
Community app
Deadmau5 has also launched an iOS and Android app for his community of fans. At the moment, it’s nothing more than a glorified subreddit, but it’s an indication of the direction in which things are going. The trend amongst DJs with global appeal will have to be in line with this approach if they plant to continue thriving in a digital world. The app is presently designed to increase traffic to the website of the Cube V3, which seems to be the current cornerstone of the Deadmau5 franchise.
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John Bartmann is a music producer and DJ.