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Eek! - someone’s asked me to do a live performance - help requested!
Hi all,
I’ve been invited to give an, ahem, ‘performance’ later in the year. (!)
Don’t know yet if I am going to commit, not least because I have zero experience of giving any performance of my material, which is pretty much all (unrepeatable) AUM file player loops mixed live. (Unrepeatable as in they are not songs where I know what I have played but more like modular jams which can never be repeated exactly the same way.]
Not sure if I want or could do a set’s worth of stuff just using an iPad anyway.
I do have an Akai Force, and my first thought is to finally get round to shoving a hard disc into it, and transferring the File Player loops across to it, hook it up to some kind of MIDI mixer for channel volume, FX and mutes, and busk something out that way. Rehearsal would amount to finding a way of keeping some kind of flow going through a succession of channel fades and punch in/outs, fx tweaks etc.
Any thoughts on how to approach a task like this? I’m thinking maybe a Dark Ambient set of 15 to twenty minutes, cross fading through three or four pieces. Luckily, pretty much everything I do has the same base tempo ( veeeerrrry sloooooow) and is in the same key, so everything should smush together easy enough.
Comments
Aargh. That means I have to understand how to use that… but you may be right. I’ve had it for ages, haven’t got a scooby how to use it. I’m wary of the iPad being my sole device. Don’t know why, but I have more faith in hardware for a live performance, a sense of ‘turn it on and it will work’. Nightmare visions of a software crash mid set… daft, I know, as I guess the Force is just a software device in button drag, but still. Also: actual buttons. Not sure I want to be sliding around on glass in a darkened room.
I guess I was thinking more about words of advice from anyone who has experience of running a sample based set live, I suppose more or less DJ style, tips re how to structure things… Just panicking and grasping for a sense of control, really…
How long is the performance, and in front of whom
Fifteen to twenty minutes, a crowd into dark ambient/noise/industrial.
Congrats!
I'd use your Force. There are macros that are are pre-mapped to volume, pan, etc.
Use its audio tracks for streaming long WAVs from the HDD.
Add an audio+MIDI interface and you can use the Force to control your iPad.
@StudioES : that sounds reassuring! Have you used one like that? Can you point me at any YouTubes or other sources which might offer relevant inspiration?
That’s hot. Congratulations. Wish I could help. I stopped performing when I was still on a laptop.
@Blipsford_Baubie : okay, that could be useful. I do have a laptop & Ableton too… how did you go about performing using a laptop? Were you playing conventional songs? What did you use to control the laptop?
Did you look at the Force project I sent you a few months ago?
Here's the link again: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9may5fen2sm3g05/20211219.zip?dl=0
It's made from audio stems made in AUM.
You could also host your audio tracks in AUM, and just use the Force as a big MIDI controller.
And you don't need to put an HDD in the Force if it's only fifteen to twenty minutes.
You can fit everything on a small SD card, which the Force can stream from too, though Force's RAM can handle a session of that length.
I was using the laptop’s QWERTY keyboard to launch clips that I made in Ableton’s session view.
But I wouldn’t recommend that because of the skewed nature of the keyboard layout. It’s not hard to launch the wrong clip. I never did but It was a stressful experience.
I used a UC33-E controller to map faders and knobs to whatever FX on one preset, and channel faders and EQ on the other bank/preset. Then interface to the venue mixer.
Go ahead of time to look at what you’re plugging into. Make sure you have the proper cables and accessories to make your like easier. Lighting if it’s dark too dark. A power strip.
I’m sure there must be a better way these days then my approach.
@StudioES : hiya! Doh! - Yes, I’ve got that, thank you! you’re right, could be a very useful template for me to think about building my own thing here. Just re downloaded, gonna spend some time with it on the Force. The task of readying something maybe for a live performance is giving me the needed kick up the arse to focus…
@blipsford_bauble: good advice, thanks!
All my performances in the past consisted of Ableton Live In session view, with pre warped tracks, sp404 style fx rack all mapped to a Launchpad + guitar. But now that I’m on iOS, I have yet to figure out how that would look live. I think Drambo would be part of the equation…
@Svetlovska plug your iPad into whatever system they have and adjust your output level accordingly. Don’t waste your time being fancy. Then do your typical thing that you’re comfortable with and play what you like. If they didn’t wanna hear you, they wouldn’t have asked. If it’s a groove to your ears, then they oughta groove as well. Go with your strong suit.
It doesn't need to be complicated.
I'd only make sure to also bring some optional material that you could trigger spontaneously if you feel like it. Sometimes a single but expressive sound, controlled by a few faders can make the folks freak out 😊
And always have a backup for just about anything that could be a problem in a live situation… you never know when you’ll have a power or audio problem.
That sounds like a tip!
Oe seriously Irena, you could just make a premade mix and go all performance art. Bring just your ipad and a camping bed. Press play on your mix in aum, lie down on the bed and do sweet f a til the mix is finished 😂. Get up, grab the iPad and exit stage left, all the time looking very serious and very arty. I'm only semi-joking btw
Thanks all, I think I’m gonna spend some time working out what I can learn from @StudioES ’s Force project, and @rs2000’s idea of extra material on the Force for spontaneity and see how that goes.
I may want to invest in something robust with physical faders and mutes to control the performance aspects on the Force as per @Blipsford_Baubie , as the one row of macro encoders the Force has may not be easy enough for me to get all muscle memory about for some spontaneous live mixing if what they do keeps changing.
Watching performance vids of people on the Force is frankly terrifying - no way do I understand it well enough to make it sing the way those people do, plus my stuff is very different to the typical EDM Force song, consisting of far fewer, much longer, unmusical loops which do not sync or readily repitch as ‘instruments’, but work more as elements in a soundscape.
I’m thinking I may want to put just filters on the Force encoders, for filter sweeps, clip triggering on the Force physical pads, and handle levels, pans, and mutes live on an external device…
I’ve now been asked if my set could run for around forty minutes, which with the very long audio loops I use might work best streaming from hard disc. Maybe that can just work as a single mega project on the Force. Though I’ve also read elsewhere that some people use a looper pedal to cover audio lapses while you load up the next project…
Also, pace @Gavinski : I have already decided to have a cheat/backup consisting of a full length audio of a successful pre-prepared performance mix on a separate digital recorder, running unsynced, fader down throughout the set, which I can bring up in the event of disaster… that and my FX Aid Pro on a mega reverb patch can cover a multitude of sins in a genre which is not dependent on super tight song structures.
I hope…
…It’s a crazy idea, but it might just work!
Next, the much more challenging question: What should I wear?
I did perform using a laptop and Ableton (mostly) solo and with a band a while ago and these are my thougths/tips:
1. Absolutely do it, its rewarding, you'll learn much about you and your music in the process.
2. As @rs2000 hinted, the audience is not so interested in the quality of sound as in the actual performance, they need to connect your behavior with the music. I used to perform using a laptop only, launching clips, mixing, staring at the screen and while it was exciting for me, for the audience it was plain boring. Then I introduced a sampler (electribe es1) and a midi keyboard for a bit of improvising, and it was much better. So, you could play loops using an ipad or the mpc, but have some visual aspect of your playing, being a shaker, guitar, keyboard, whatever...
3. As @NeuM said: always have a backup plan. When my laptop died on me just before a show, the only backup I had was a small mp3 player with preloaded mixdowns of the songs, but it saved me: I played mp3 files, improvised a bit on a guitar keeping a laptop lid open all the time. You think anyone from the audience noticed I was flogging a dead laptop
4. Its a short performance, by the time it ends you'll be longing for more.
[makes note for when I myself do live performance] got it, remember to have a comb and paper (hey, it's a synth)
Even if it’s not going to be the same as the actual performance, you could rehearse and see how it goes. Recording it so you can listen back later is helpful in figuring out what you like and don’t like, and getting a small audience at rehearsals always made me feel like I would focus on things more.
🤣
You nailed that one! Bringing the human and emotional feeling into electronic/ industrial! You will figure it out, I am sure!
Congrats to the opportunity of playing your stuff live and in front of an audience!
/DMfan🇸🇪
This seems like a very good idea.
If you’ve got a delay pedal and a reverb you’ve got a set right there…
90 litre galvanised bin
Great news, I look forward to hearing how you put it together and hopefully some sort of viewing / hearing of it
First of all without being too cliché - HAVE FAITH IN WHAT YOU DO!
Echoing earlier comments - keep as it as simple and as uncomplicated as you are comfortable with.
And be prepared… experiment, play and practice… & REPEAT.
Right up to the performance time.
Perfect!
…and a hammer and some power tools…
You've got plenty of time to prepare for a 40 minute set. Practice, practice, practice.
Or you could just be a fake DJ and play the songs back in AUM while twisting knobs and pushing buttons on the Force.
Or slightly more advanced - play the songs back on the Force (in audio tracks) and use it's Global Master DJ FX like filter, delay, granular, tape stop, and the other BPM-synced FX that can be manipulated with the touchscreen. (Akai even made several Factory FX Racks templates - on the Outputs 1/2 tab in the Mixer, select the Effects tab, hit 'INSERTS' button, then hit the Akai Folder icon to load them. Try the 'Performance' presets first - very powerful.)