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Transitioning from production to live performance
• Almost off-topic, so I’ve put it in off-topic, although it is predicated around iOS apps.
• This is the topic I’ve dreaded posting, ‘cos it’ll accrue replies and I’ll have to attend to them.
The question is: let’s say you’ve done a song or two on your iPad, using a set or suite of apps of your own collecting, or in my case for this context, solely within Gadget. Let’s say you have a song or two in Gadget and you are to release them through the usual online venues. That’s fine, that’s achievable and so far that’s fairly normal. Let’s now say that you want to promote these songs, and one way of promoting them is to perform them live. The question is: what do you think the best plan is to transition from a song in Gadget (including vocal lines and singing and such) to a live performance scenario, which of course implies that you’re going to have to find a way to be able to perform it live rather than press the play button in Gadget.
How much of it should be able to be sequenced and ‘press play’-able vs how much should be expected to be able to perform live with a controlling thing? All by one person or recruiting assistance for other parts (ie, forming a ‘band’). Every single part and sound initiated live? No trace of original Gadget on stage? What, where, who? I’ve no idea. What would you do? Scrap that. What would a sensible person do – someone with a bit of strategy about them.
Comments
When I go to a show, I don't expect to hear an exact replica of the recorded songs. I enjoy the live version, usually more than the original. The little musical nuances of a song played live over in a stale studio makes the difference. That being said maybe think about this.
Can the song be preformed on a single instrument? Can loops be recorded on the fly to accompany the single instrument? Maybe export some loops from the Gadget project into launchpad so you can trigger different parts of the song while playing the single instrument.
If you do have other people you want to perform with, maybe start with a percussionist or drummer. Also maybe look for someone who can play multiple instruments. That way you can break each song down into minimal elements and build up from there.
I have played a few worship sets where it was me, the worship leader and a drummer. The worship leader played guitar on some and keyboard on some. I carried the atmosphere with pads and played bass on my launchpad pro. A few songs I played piano or more synth lead songs. The drummer obviously drummed. We were able to play some complex stuff with just us 3.
+1. Being able to jam the parts around Ableton style allows you to react to the audience a bit, and give more of a custom performance.
I’d jam around with the sections and loops, and then play some live synths on top, plus triggered samples (cows, sheep etc.) to keep the locals happy.
+1 - Circuit + Groovebox + Launchpad with the hardware LaunchKey and Launchpad do this for me nicely
to keep my locals happy I need samples of police helicopters overhead and sirens and shouting and stuff 
Best tip I can give is to be thinking about the live performance while you are composing, that way you will not give yourself too much to do when building the live setup as you are already prepared for whats looped whats live etc....
‘Loops’, for me, are an entirely different kind of performing, altogether.
I don’t really structure my stuff around recorded or sampled material, so I’d need to pre-record chunks of it to perform them by triggering. That’s probably the same end result as pressing play on the whole lot minus the lead line, which is more appealing as it saves having to do the preparation of sampling the loops beforehand. That way the thing I ‘trigger’ is the song minus the lead line. Is that legit, though?
Ah, no jamming (whatever Ableton actually is, I’ve heard the word many times, no idea what it really is). No ‘free form’ nonsense. No jazz. No reacting to the audience (other way round, thanks). None of this virtuoso nonsense, I’m not that kind of artist
Actually, this is sounding more like the sort of thing I shouldn’t do.
I’ve got a Circuit! I could use that to perform it all on (well, the parts that aren’t just ‘press play’) – excellent idea. That’ll be the live performance bit that can go incorrect and nobody minds because after all it is live so how can it possibly be accurate or even good.
Too late for that for the music, but actually, I was very conscious of that while I wrote the lyrics. The lyrics are designed to be simple, easy to sing, hopefully easy to remember, and with abundant gaps for breathing.
Anyway, I now have trepidation. My experience of live performing is stand-up comedy, but one of the last things I did as a comedy gig in 1999 was to recite my own version of ‘sunscreen’ over some completely different and fairly synthy mellow drippy music I’d made on my QY700 (didn’t take the QY700 in the end, just took a minidisc player with the track on). That way all I did was speak over a fully prerecorded track. People laughed.
Yep, why not. I like my voice.
I have absolutely no idea what genre of music I do, I have difficulty with that. I’ve left that field blank. When I’ve got some stuff ready for release, you can tell me what genre it is. I’d say ‘pop’. For nerds. But, ‘pop’.
If you've done stand-up everything else should be easy, as a comic everybody expects you to be funny, as a musician some if not most people expect to not like it
If your not using loops, but rather longer pre-recorded meanderings, perhaps a better alternative to Launchpad which can also be MIDI triggered is the file player in AUM.
Also some of the generative apps may help, things like the Rozeta sequencers with the mutates will help keep things interesting over many iterations. You have to be prepared for them to send you somewhere you haven't been before though during the performance...but hey, that's just like jamming with a band anyway
The 'Live' element of Ableton is a bit like Launchpad. Basically you can store clips into different channels, and trigger them by simply clicking on them. So you can have the chords, drums and basslines on separate clips, to add a bit of variety - drop the drums for example, and have different sections (key changes etc.) of the song on separate clips too. You can automate that with a 'song' mode, but have the freedom to change if the audience are enjoying the chorus - keep it going a bit longer. You can keep it as simple or as complicated as you're comfortable with.
That then leaves you free to play samples, synths etc. over the top to make it less boring for yourself.
Ah.
That makes me want to go spend a whole load of money I ain't got on live and a laptop
If I’ve split my mix up so that there’s about twenty separate drum tracks, does that mean I need twenty drummers?
No...just 3
Just promote yourself as a DJ. Whole different set of expectations for a live performance. Pressing play is fine, just do it with gusto. Project some weird videos to distract the audience while you stare at your screen, doing basically nothing. Or, try to trigger everything yourself, if you are a crazy guy.
Otherwise, hire as many musicians as you can, and perform the whole thing live, like Steve Reich did (still does?).
Have you tried the free version? That gives you a few things to play with.
So why not just backing tracks and some cues with an app like Prime?
Also any dj app could fit the checkbox.
If you want to add some performance over it which kind you imagine? Nerdy beats and stuttering? I love simplicity so just a pedalboard and some instrument plus voice could be the answer?
Play acoustic guitar versions of your tracks. Get a buddy on bongos. Or play the bongos with your feet.
Free version of a laptop? Sounds good.
Best option so far. Ukulele all teh tunez.
Like Unplugged on MTV...although if you did it all on iPad, were you not unplugged already
?
I have very briefly tried it...but my current laptop isn't really able to cope with it, so I stopped trying so as to not get too attached
Steve Reich in action
Marc Bolan with buddy on tablas
