performing live, and making it interesting

so i recently had my first ever live show. it wasn't a whole set, just a single piece, in an electronic music concert hosted by the university and the department here. i had a box on stage, put some glass objects into it, and smashed them with a hammer. there was a mic taped to the box, and i grabbed the smashing sounds in a series of buffers in a max patch, and had them loop at changing intervals, with playback speed/pitch changing on beat, plus delay and some filter fuckery. i also sang into another buffer with pitch shift automations set to play back a melody. beyond that most of the control was in hotkeys to change the tempo, and to switch between lists of values sent to the mentioned parameters. i think it went well. some of the other performances were pretty good too - one guy used a 'rock band' guitar to control midi and effects in max. another guy looped a bunch of sounds generated by banging on and bowing a bicycle.

so i wanted to ask of you gracious watmmers, what sorts of performance techniques have you used, to make your shows interesting and avoid standing idly behind a screen?

i drink beer

bowing on bicycles is so old these days.

I use a ton of hardware, where you see me turnin' knobs and stuff.

I play the KORG ESX, the SP-202, and the bass guitar sometimes. A lot of people get a kick out of playing the drum machine.

Also, projected visuals.

loincloth and voodoo mask

i usually just let the electronics roll, then i'll play guitar and sing over top. dance a lot, do stand up comedy. kick things

It usually depends on the set/the number of parameters the song has.

Most of it consists of me turning knobs that are connected to various parameters, and if I use things like Reaktor etc I will use the mouse to control whatever it is in that, if I didn't want to connect it to my knob box.

Then I'll pick the sequences I want to play and start whatever samples etc that I want to use.

I have used visuals before to make it more interesting, though it was a collaboration, so it's harder to relay the same exact message if the person you're collaborating with hasn't heard too much of the material (I like to surprise everyone when I play a live set). Also while I like the idea of something visual going with my music, in some ways I think it's better on it's own since it can take each person to their own place.

I generally don't like playing too many shows since I like to play completely new compositions any time I play live, so I try to keep it to less than 3 shows a year. And I do want to increase the amount of interfaces I can use at a show, so my setup will probably be different in 6 months.

2 words:

air guitar

edit:this is my 666th post

maybe a good time to quit

ask yourself: "what would Cex do?"

the curtain opens, and before the lights, before the audience can get a grip, staff workers hose the crowd in crisp doritos using a large inverse vacuum of sorts. green lights come on, and a turret emerges from the thorax of a giant ant prop (Formica ligniperda -- glued to the right wall of the stage) and shoots out that light. a red one turns on, and the ant allows it. the guitarist proceeds with mad propz inverse kabzwerdz loopz while doing summersaults on a tramopoline. squarepusher's coathangar descends from the rafters.

teh crow dgoes waild~!

lol

lol

  Boxus said:

so i recently had my first ever live show. it wasn't a whole set, just a single piece, in an electronic music concert hosted by the university and the department here. i had a box on stage, put some glass objects into it, and smashed them with a hammer. there was a mic taped to the box, and i grabbed the smashing sounds in a series of buffers in a max patch, and had them loop at changing intervals, with playback speed/pitch changing on beat, plus delay and some filter fuckery. i also sang into another buffer with pitch shift automations set to play back a melody. beyond that most of the control was in hotkeys to change the tempo, and to switch between lists of values sent to the mentioned parameters. i think it went well. some of the other performances were pretty good too - one guy used a 'rock band' guitar to control midi and effects in max. another guy looped a bunch of sounds generated by banging on and bowing a bicycle.

 

so i wanted to ask of you gracious watmmers, what sorts of performance techniques have you used, to make your shows interesting and avoid standing idly behind a screen?

get a midi controller, a drum machine or something that requires physical hands on and realtime interaction

i personally get really tired of just watching people do a laptop + kaosspad show where the only thing they tweak are knobs and shit thowing a precorded mix throwing some stuttering thing

or if you are uncreative, have no musical talent, and care more about doing coke and partying than making music wear a really crazy costume during your set, make off color/edgey jokes/obscene references and use lots of gabber kick and amen

this passes for an electronic music show out here about 80% of the time.

double dose of viagra and a butt plug.

I seriously gave up playing live electronic music for people. I only do dj sets now if it's going to be anything of that sort. Playing drums in a band is way more fullfilling musically in any kind of situation where music will be played in front of people on so many levels that you can't even really compare the two. The excitement finishing an electronic live PA is like getting excited about winning a chess game, whereas playing in a real band feels like you just won a rugby tournament. you're all fuckin covered in sweat. women want to use it as perfume, and their boyfriends want to let them. The high takes nearly a week to come down from when all goes well. Nobody should die before they play in a band if they have the ability to do so.

granted, the way I feel about live electronic PA has alot to do with me not digging the idea of people hearing stuff and assuming that every element they hear is live when it is not. Now that shit like ableton live is around you could totally pull things off in a more streamlined way and have a way to further conceive a more visually interesting live show for people there to see.

I guess the main reason I don't bother is because nobody that lives around me gives enough of a fuck for me to drag my computer and rig with me to some club and push buttons when I could just do the same in front of turntables playing music i'd want to hear in a club that I didn't write. If i'm gonna drag anything into a club it's a crate of vinyl or a drumkit

Dance around, sing, play keyboard or play guitar or keytar... maybe hire dancers

my recent live sets have been guitar+loop pedal improvisations, really subtle stuff like what's on my latest ep. sometimes i use a microphone too, to record minimal beatboxing, paper scrunching noises, etc. i have a lot of fun doing it, and people seem to like it, awesome!

  Awepittance said:

  Boxus said:

so i recently had my first ever live show. it wasn't a whole set, just a single piece, in an electronic music concert hosted by the university and the department here. i had a box on stage, put some glass objects into it, and smashed them with a hammer. there was a mic taped to the box, and i grabbed the smashing sounds in a series of buffers in a max patch, and had them loop at changing intervals, with playback speed/pitch changing on beat, plus delay and some filter fuckery. i also sang into another buffer with pitch shift automations set to play back a melody. beyond that most of the control was in hotkeys to change the tempo, and to switch between lists of values sent to the mentioned parameters. i think it went well. some of the other performances were pretty good too - one guy used a 'rock band' guitar to control midi and effects in max. another guy looped a bunch of sounds generated by banging on and bowing a bicycle.

 

so i wanted to ask of you gracious watmmers, what sorts of performance techniques have you used, to make your shows interesting and avoid standing idly behind a screen?

 

get a midi controller, a drum machine or something that requires physical hands on and realtime interaction

i personally get really tired of just watching people do a laptop + kaosspad show where the only thing they tweak are knobs and shit thowing a precorded mix throwing some stuttering thing

 

or if you are uncreative, have no musical talent, and care more about doing coke and partying than making music wear a really crazy costume during your set, make off color/edgey jokes/obscene references and use lots of gabber kick and amen

this passes for an electronic music show out here about 80% of the time.

Kaoss Pad can be pretty interesting if you use it creatively enough. I like to use the sampler on mine to sample whatever my laptop is playing in a few different places, then cut the samples in and out, replacing whatever is in the mix. The effects are fun to use as well of course.

between keyboard solos you can run around the stage clapping with a clip on microphone headset like mike lindup from level 42

  LUDD said:

between keyboard solos you can run around the stage clapping with a clip on microphone headset like mike lindup from level 42

this.

press play then run around like Ozzy Osbourne clapping with out grace .

  Velazquez said:

press play then run around like Ozzy Osbourne clapping with out grace .

lol just throw water on em

play actual instruments

buuuurrrnnn

  ieafs said:

whole mix -> lo-pass filter

i loled

OP: it sounds like you're doing more than most "electronic performers" are doing these days anyway...

  abracadabra said:

play actual instruments

 

 

buuuurrrnnn

yeah

get a band, electronic music geek