Live performance techniques/tips & tricks?

Well godarn, it appeared as if my phone went to sleep but audio was recorded lmao.

Just practicing for eventual live performance. I would live to do IDM/dnb/glitchiness sets. Tho too bad I'm in bumfuck small town Ontario where its not really popular.

Turns out improv is a skill. Any tips and or tricks? Like, there's a hell of a lot to master and practice I believe before I am ever ready and I don't think I'll ever get toa. perfect point, but with my APC and Push 2 I can try and get as close as possible.

Already using dummy clips on my Push 2 to trigger glitch fx, mainly thru Looperator, all set up within a device rack with. a few other fx, all macro'd to the rack.

Like, I don''t have the balls, nor the respect of other musicians yet to lie on stage with a cigar and hit play.....yet...and I ain't playing bass like Pusher...

I dunno where this post is winding up right now lol.

Should I even live perform? WIth COVID lookin like shit is shut down for a while, but is like live glitchy/idm/dnb a popular thing to go to?

LIVE.mov

LIVE.mov

Well it also appears I ahve utterly failed to compose this post right too. MY bad.

• Keep it simple
• Keep it light
• Practice a lot, preferably w/ some variations so you can improvise a bit
• Keep a timer handy
• Consider worst case scenarios
• Do a test run on a friend

When things open back up/get safer, maybe house shows? There's less pressure and they're easier to book than venues. I live in the middle of nowhere so I pretty much have to drive an hour to play out anywhere until I move back to Baltimore next month. Even in Baltimore, with the experimental scene, it's a lot of house shows, some things in an old warehouse converted into a space for artists, stuff in record and book stores, there's an experimental group that puts on shows in a church basement, stuff like that.

Also live-streaming! Perfect for right now if you have the means to do it, it might take a bit to get people to tune in though.

Most of my performing has been on electric bass or with weird synths I've programmed in Max that I use in group settings, but like I agree with the notion of keeping it simple. I'm working on performing my idmy stuff and like I'm going with a kind of hybrid-y DJ approach, mostly just performing certain patches or effects alongside traktor playback.

In terms of improv, it just takes a lot of time. Good improvisers don't actually come up with their ideas on the spot, rather, they're pulling from a vast musical vocabularly that they've built up over the years and have learned to apply it to different contexts and how to string their vocabulary together coherently. It just takes a ton of time spent practicing to get to that point.

Improvising is about bringing more than you need and knowing what not to use.

Someone smarter than me told me that years ago and he was right.

Musically speaking, of course, not gear.

Watch a GG Allin show and take notes. 

  On 7/21/2020 at 2:39 AM, sweepstakes said:

• Do a test run on a friend

This! Because you'll listen to your own music through their ears and will INSTANTLY know when it gets boring.

  On 7/21/2020 at 2:39 AM, sweepstakes said:

• Keep it simple
• Keep it light
• Practice a lot, preferably w/ some variations so you can improvise a bit
• Keep a timer handy
• Consider worst case scenarios
• Do a test run on a friend

+ 123456789 !!!

I’ll add :

• keep it fun
• use what you already have and use in the studio
• keep it simple, simple and simple
 

I see lot's of complicated solutions here, involving practice (lol) and trying it out on a friend (if I had friends I would not be making music, duh).

No need for any of this, just prepare an mp3, hit play and then act like you're actually doing it.

On a serious side, I have been doing Ninjam collaborative streaming pretty much throughout this lockdown period which has so far made me feel a lot more comfortable messing around with my gear and all that. It's still quite boring to listen to at times (but at least it is not acid techno), but the experience of getting to know your gear in a live setting is invaluable.

  On 7/21/2020 at 9:36 AM, thawkins said:

On a serious side, I have been doing Ninjam collaborative streaming pretty much throughout this lockdown period which has so far made me feel a lot more comfortable messing around with my gear and all that. It's still quite boring to listen to at times (but at least it is not acid techno), but the experience of getting to know your gear in a live setting is invaluable.

thanks, never heard of Ninjam before. does it get along with other DAWs or does it have to be Reaper? also, how is the electronic *community* over there?

I learnt from playing loads of unsuitable gigs that getting in front of the right people and creating the right sort of open minded atmosphere is just as, probably more important, than how tight your performance is. Put your own night on and invite other similar DJs/producers to play. Create a Facebook event and invite anyone who might be into it. Get a small room with a PA and bring your mates down, make it a free night or even pay-what-you-can-afford on the door. Don't play a club if it's not music you can't dance to, you want something comfortable and comfy where people can chill, chat and listen to good music in the background. Have pa laylist ready to go in the background for before and after your sets so there's no awkward dead air, it really kills the mood.

Yep as said before, keep it simple with tweakable elements - like mapping knobs to FX parameters etc. You can really draw stuff out in a live performance that you normally wouldn't on a recording, really build up anticipation.

Good luck

  On 7/21/2020 at 12:16 PM, tbf said:

thanks, never heard of Ninjam before. does it get along with other DAWs or does it have to be Reaper? also, how is the electronic *community* over there?

You can check out Jamtaba, which runs as a VST in any compatible DAW. I use it in Live.

Not sure about the electronic community, I set my own server up on a spare raspberry pi and have been hosting jams on that.

The clichés:

1. Mute the kick drum for a few beats/bars and bring it back in
2. Filter sweep some layer 
3. Filter sweep the whole mix
4. Hi-pass the whole mix for a few beats/bars
5. Gradually cross fade into a new section
6. Go directly into a new section and solo one layer
7. Add another layer
8. Remove a layer
9. Put reverb or delay on some layer

  On 7/21/2020 at 2:44 PM, psn said:

The clichés:

1. Mute the kick drum for a few beats/bars and bring it back in
2. Filter sweep some layer 
3. Filter sweep the whole mix
4. Hi-pass the whole mix for a few beats/bars
5. Gradually cross fade into a new section
6. Go directly into a new section and solo one layer
7. Add another layer
8. Remove a layer
9. Put reverb or delay on some layer

Expand  

And all of them work.

Seriously. Playing live is not the time to get clever. People are out to have a good time, not to stroke their beards and appreciate the intricacies of your work.

I always used to tell people that you can't think on stage becasue if you take the time to think then it's already too late.  You get your thinking done before hand when you're practicing, and then when yo're up there playing you have to be acutely aware of what everyone else is doing so you can respond to it without thinking.

That's when you're playing with other people, though.  With electronic music you can probably get away with thinking a few times because sequencers aren't likely to make any unexpected decisions and surprise you, but even then it probably makes more sense to use the freedom from having to be aware of other musicians and complete control over the music to be aware of the audience and treat them as an improvisation partner.

  On 7/21/2020 at 3:33 PM, rhmilo said:

People are out to have a good time, not to stroke their beards and appreciate the intricacies of your work.

I may have some news for you about the posters in this forum..

  On 7/21/2020 at 4:05 PM, TubularCorporation said:

I always used to tell people that you can't think on stage becasue if you take the time to think then it's already too late.  You get your thinking done before hand when you're practicing, and then when yo're up there playing you have to be acutely aware of what everyone else is doing so you can respond to it without thinking.

 

That's when you're playing with other people, though.  With electronic music you can probably get away with thinking a few times because sequencers aren't likely to make any unexpected decisions and surprise you, but even then it probably makes more sense to use the freedom from having to be aware of other musicians and complete control over the music to be aware of the audience and treat them as an improvisation partner.

Expand  

I am constantly thinking when I am playing live. Unfortunately the only thought I have is "what if they think I am shit".

I got to agree though that best lives happen when the thought process is shut out entirely, which only comes through practice.

Plan for ~30 less IQ when on stage. 

  On 7/21/2020 at 4:57 PM, psn said:

Plan for ~30 less IQ when on stage. 

This sounds like a joke if you don't know what this means but is 100% true.

Don't wank

  On 7/21/2020 at 4:51 PM, thawkins said:

I may have some news for you about the posters in this forum..

Right. In the unlikely event that your audience consists of members of this forum, by all means disregard what I said and cater to beard strokers.

Otherwise: keep it simple.

I paid for 3 hours studio rehearsal space and treated it like a live gig.

Set everything up as if I was going to perform, then went out for 10 mins break to clear my head, then went it and hit record and did my thing for 30 minutes.

Turned out OK and I learnt a hell of a lot

EG:

Take spare patch cables

Take spare 9v adaptors / extension lead

Towel to dry the rancid rave sweat from your brow as you jam

I guess if studios are shut still where you are, you could do the same in a different space (it really helped put me out of my comfort zone being somewhere completely different though)

I have done 3 live jam sessions via Twitch which have all been fun and I discovered something new each time.

And I would be up for organising another if anyone else wants to join in!

  On 7/21/2020 at 5:03 PM, dingformung said:

Don't wank

You can get away with wanking as long as you fully commit to it.

One way I think about it sometimes is sort of like this:

Break down the concept of music into a few basic elements (and don't get pedantic about it, just think in the most broad strokes terms), like melody, harmony and rhythm for example (I usually think of melody more in terms of phrasing than in terms of notes but that's already getting too pedantic for this).

You can balance experimentation and accessibility with the simple rule that the farther out you take one of those elements, the more accessible the other two should be.  So, like, you can get away with playing some completely abstract, obtuse melodic stuff over a simple beat and chords.  If you have a danceable beat and a storng melodic hook, your harmonic content can be a complete wall of noise or the wankiest atonal jazz progression you can think of and people will still respond.  Throw some strong melodies and pleasant new-age pads over your most complex drums and you're Aphex Twin.

If you want to be eXp3r1m3nT4l~~~ and still reach people, you can get weird with TWO of the three elements at the same time (but don't do it all the time).

Also, two Zappa quotes to keep in mind (paraphrased):

-Always put a voice on it because that's all people really want to hear

-The most important thing in art is the frame, without the frame then what's all that shit on the wall?

Zappa is a shithead, tho. He says a lot of silly things

  On 7/21/2020 at 6:25 PM, dingformung said:

Zappa is a shithead, tho. He says a lot of silly things

Not any more he dead

  On 7/21/2020 at 10:51 PM, TubularCorporation said:

Not any more he dead

zappa deeaad?!