Kaiser’s music is fierce and uncompromising, often taking listeners on a sonic adventure they might not be prepared for…
Kaiser is a stupendously industrious trickster…
Trumpets
My trumpet of choice is a Schilke B1. This horn provides the flexibility of sound that my improvisation and electronic processing require. I can play clear, straight tones that are gorgeous or manipulate the sound to bring out different overtones, especially when using techniques such as multiphonics. This horn’s deep sonic palette, combined with its fantastic valves, makes it a true joy to play.
Occasionally, for special cases, I also perform with a Marcinkiewicz Rembrandt Quarter-Tone with a double shepherd’s crook. The horn I own is one of two prototypes Joe Marcinkiewicz made for Arturo Sandoval. The fourth valve drops whatever note you are playing by a quarter step. Rob Blakeslee, a truly wonderful and creative trumpet player, gave it to me. I am quite indebted to him.
Flugelhorn
Yamaha YFH-631G
I enjoy this horn. It has great depth of tone and is very responsive to my timbral manipulation and multiphonics while still slotting wonderfully. And it sounds GREAT going through my software.
Cornet
I own a beautiful vintage cornet going back to 1910 given to me by my step-grandmother.
Mouthpieces
For trumpet, I use mouthpieces by Austin Custom Brass. My flugelhorn mouthpiece is custom, built by and Pickett Brass.
The various mouthpieces from Austin Custom Brass and Pickett Brass have cups and rims that are made out of acrylic or delrin due to my severe metal sensitivities.
Nick, of Nick Rail Music, has done some fantastic (and weird) mouthpiece mods for me...like putting holes in mouthpieces to let air leak out and more.
Microphones and related
My recording mic setup of choice for my horns is a Royer 121 with a custom mic boost made by Louis Lopez of Toltec Sound in Los Angeles. When recording my voice, I use an Electro-Voice RE20 with another Louis Lopez mic boost. For live performance I use a Shure Beta 56A for its fantastic gain before feedback with great side rejection for both my horns and voice. My interface for live shows and my personal studio is an RME UCX II. My preferred recording software is Reaper, although I am also very experienced in Pro Tools, Logic, and Ableton Live. You can read why I love Reaper at Why Reaper?
Electronics and related gear
I've been using electronics with my horns since I began playing. I originally used hardware-based electronics until I became fed up during a tour in England in the summer of 2005. Carrying the 150 plus lb. box of gear on cabs, planes and trains got old very quickly.
I now use a laptop running software I author in Max/MSP from Cycling 74. I wrote a paper about my transition from hardware to software for the 2006 Spark Festival of Electronic Music at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. The paper is titled, "How I lost 150 lbs. thanks to Max/MSP!" and available by clicking this link.
Included in the slideshow is a photo of my old rig from a pretty remarkable Choir Boys gig: READ more here. The rig included a Shure Beta 56, Mackie 1202, MoogerFooger Ring Modulator, Alesis Bitrman, Boss SE50 (!) and Two Line 6 Delay Modelers.