Squee Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 I want to make good music on the spot. Oh dear... Well, to be honest I don't think I've ever heard any good live improv electronic music. Then you need to get out more... Nah. Of course there are a few people who excel at this (beardyman). But what I've seen/heard so many times is live improv stuff that doesn't go anywhere. It never peaks. It just keeps going and going. Putting on one layer of stuff after another won't work. You have to be able to build up tracks, create breaks and so on as you go on and keep them exciting and that is hard as fuck. My friend and I have played live a couple of times before and we'll be playing live again in France later this summer and we're doing is that we've got all the basic tracks ready and make sure we know them by heart so we know when it peaks, when a break is coming up and so on. We then practice and find out what works with each track, prepare a bunch of synths that'll work out with each track and practice some more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechDiff Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 performing live is pretty awesome fun, and definately not something to miss out on. How you do it really depends on what you are trying to do, and what kinda of show/crowd you are playing to. It sounds kinda lame, but bare in mind, a lot of the people at the show won't be there to see you, just there for a good time. It's important to find the middle point between satisying your own artistic needs, and entertaining the people you are playing to. That reflects on many aspects of preparing a performance, not only the music you are planning on playing, but also the way you play it. if your lucky, people will be really interested to watch how you work your equipment and you have a great chance to do some really interesting stuff. However, a lot of the time, people just want to dance to fairly continuous music and will pay little attention to the person playing. (unless you cock it up, then you can expect boo-ing or cheering, depending on the crowd) It's really dependent on a lot of factors, and really difficult to break down into useful hints or whatever. I guess it's a case of doing what you feel comfortable doing, and keeping things pretty simple. It's brilliant to construct the worlds most awesome live set up, with a million live synth parts to tweak and racks of outboard to fuck about with, but the reality is that you almost certainly won't get a soundcheck, undoubtedly not enough space to set up in, fucktards leaving beer bottles all over the place, not to mention it will be loud, dark, and possibly quite stressful. Keep your setup as intuitive and simlpe as you can. 1 or 2 midi controllers, laptop and sound card, unless you really can't do without. The more stuff you have, the more there is to go wrong, and things always go wrong! So how you actually play your stuff out is a personal preference, not really gonna try to help put with that. You'll find a way that works best for you :) Thought I might try and give some more general bits of advice though. be considerate of where in the line up you are. No one will enjoy a rinsing hardcore set at the beginning of the night, or a wallpaper ambient set at peak time. Maybe find out who you are playing before and after, and try to adapt to fit the space. Hopefully the organiser will have enough sense to have put you in a good slot already, but you never know. Check all your equipment thoroughly, and maybe even take spares. In my opinion, there is nothing more annoying than an artist turning up missing half there kit or unable to play by their own fault. When preparing at home, always be sure to keep a good sized ammount of CPU headroom, for reasons unknown, without fail, laptop CPU always shoots up when performing on a stage. Be firm but fair about starting and finishing when you are supposed to. Some DJs, given half the chance, will play for hours and hours and hours! "last tune mate" syndrome, but then, don't force your way on before your time. Umm, dunno, loads to talk about really. Just enjoy it really, and be nice to people! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QBLA Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 be considerate of where in the line up you are. No one will enjoy a rinsing hardcore set at the beginning of the night, or a wallpaper ambient set at peak time. Maybe find out who you are playing before and after, and try to adapt to fit the space. Hopefully the organiser will have enough sense to have put you in a good slot already, but you never know. This is key. back in 2004, I was invited to open up a show so I prepared my more mellow material. when I got there I was moved to a later slot and I was like "OK!" Turns out that the guys that they had me play after were doing some pretty hardcore, gabberish stuff and when I got on and started playing my set, the floor cleared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acid1 Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 I made a thread about this a while ago, I still live by it: http://forum.watmm.com/topic/57608-whats-your-live-setup/page__view__findpost__p__1366931 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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