I was wondering how are people building/conceptualising their sets? There seems to be three main options:
1) A set with all original beats, vocals, etc.
2) A set that is more traditionally a "DJ" set (I hate the word DJ in this laptop, post vinyl era). This can range from the traditional DJ style of track 1 to track 2 with a heavy focus on sequencing and track selection, to a much more improvised cut up style involving samples of favourite bits of the tracks cut out and looped (think a la early jeff Mills or old school Brooklyn DJs) with lots of effects and drum loops.
3) A hybrid that incorporates both original beats as well as tracks or samples of tracks.
I'm curious about this because I think there needs to be some clear guidelines when describing one's live show/DJ set to promoters, punters, as well as when putting out CDs.
What are your thoughts?? When is a live a live, and when is it a "DJ Set"?
When is a Live, a Live?
We do live improvised remixing of hiphop tracks and whatnot in my band. Plus we work with a dj, that mixes in and out of our tracks - when we need a break 
And we of course do all original stuff as well. We're just "musicians", I guess.
BTW, I once did a gig, where a girl came up to us in the middle of the set, and asked if we could play some better party music
She thought we were friggin djs! I almost slapped her!
And we of course do all original stuff as well. We're just "musicians", I guess.
BTW, I once did a gig, where a girl came up to us in the middle of the set, and asked if we could play some better party music
She thought we were friggin djs! I almost slapped her!mbp 2.66, osx 10.6.8, 8GB ram.
I use Live in a few different projects w/ different setups...
1) All original everything, except for some prepackaged percussion loops and the odd vocal sample. Tracks are grouped together as compositions, but I recombine and remix everything when I perform.
2) Performing with a group of live musicians, sampling performances and adding sound design elements.
3) A laptop duo where I record guitar loops and add beats here and there using the Impulse.
...so I'm in the "live" camp as opposed to "DJ". Although, when I am performing project 1), I often say DJ, becauase it says "you will be able to dance to it" - but I really don't like saying it. i really respect good DJs and I can't mix records to save my life.
i think DJ is still the best term we've got if your set is utilizes entire tracks by other artists - whether its in combination with your own material or not...but we need a new vocabulary. "Live PA" is seriously unsexy
1) All original everything, except for some prepackaged percussion loops and the odd vocal sample. Tracks are grouped together as compositions, but I recombine and remix everything when I perform.
2) Performing with a group of live musicians, sampling performances and adding sound design elements.
3) A laptop duo where I record guitar loops and add beats here and there using the Impulse.
...so I'm in the "live" camp as opposed to "DJ". Although, when I am performing project 1), I often say DJ, becauase it says "you will be able to dance to it" - but I really don't like saying it. i really respect good DJs and I can't mix records to save my life.
i think DJ is still the best term we've got if your set is utilizes entire tracks by other artists - whether its in combination with your own material or not...but we need a new vocabulary. "Live PA" is seriously unsexy
I'm struggling with this, too. I hate the 'DJ' & 'disco' terms and the negative connotations they bring from people.
I'm doing corporate/private parties. Basically, I have Live playing warp-markered 'traditional' dancy/poppy tracks (Michael Jackson, Chic, Justin TImberlake, Kylie, Madonna) that I'm cross-fading and triggering in Live. I also have a second set of PA speakers set up in the back of the room. I trigger additional stereo percussion (I'm a drummer by trade.. I love Latin percussion!), FX, synthy sweeps, etc to these speakers. I also have a mono output in Live to each of the four speakers and sometimes trigger loops to the four speakers between and during songs. I also pipe a little of the stereo main mix to the aux speakers. Live is also running a complex DMX lighting setup consisting of color changers, scanners, floods, and haze. Live is also controlling Arkaos VJ, sending video (animations and a live video feed) to a projector and large-format screen at the back of the stage. Many of the lighting effects and videos are pre-programmed and run directly from Live. These are for the classic tracks that I use at most gigs. For fielding non warp-markered requests, I 'play" the lights, video, and additional from my Ozonic.
If you can think of some way to explain this to possible customers, let me know! It really isn't DJing or a disco. I don't know WHAT it is, but it's a trip!
I'm doing corporate/private parties. Basically, I have Live playing warp-markered 'traditional' dancy/poppy tracks (Michael Jackson, Chic, Justin TImberlake, Kylie, Madonna) that I'm cross-fading and triggering in Live. I also have a second set of PA speakers set up in the back of the room. I trigger additional stereo percussion (I'm a drummer by trade.. I love Latin percussion!), FX, synthy sweeps, etc to these speakers. I also have a mono output in Live to each of the four speakers and sometimes trigger loops to the four speakers between and during songs. I also pipe a little of the stereo main mix to the aux speakers. Live is also running a complex DMX lighting setup consisting of color changers, scanners, floods, and haze. Live is also controlling Arkaos VJ, sending video (animations and a live video feed) to a projector and large-format screen at the back of the stage. Many of the lighting effects and videos are pre-programmed and run directly from Live. These are for the classic tracks that I use at most gigs. For fielding non warp-markered requests, I 'play" the lights, video, and additional from my Ozonic.
If you can think of some way to explain this to possible customers, let me know! It really isn't DJing or a disco. I don't know WHAT it is, but it's a trip!
yeh... there is good and bad in this, but 'standardized vocabulary' does eventually emerge one way or the other. DJ'ing is definitely referring to using pre-existing full tracks of other material.I'm curious about this because I think there needs to be some clear guidelines when describing one's live show/DJ set to promoters, punters, as well as when putting out CDs.
"Producers" is used a lot, even for live performance, but it strikes me as meaning more 'producer of audio artifact for resale'.
What is it really? It is multidimensional real time aesthetic coordination of electronic audio events-- but put that on a poster and see who comes to see you
.UTENZIL a tool... of the muse.
MRTACEAE
Nice one. Instead of DJ I really do prefer MRTACEAE!multidimensional real time aesthetic coordination of electronic audio events
And video and lighting.. if you can squeeze that on the poster, too!mikemc wrote:yeh... there is good and bad in this, but 'standardized vocabulary' does eventually emerge one way or the other. DJ'ing is definitely referring to using pre-existing full tracks of other material.I'm curious about this because I think there needs to be some clear guidelines when describing one's live show/DJ set to promoters, punters, as well as when putting out CDs.
"Producers" is used a lot, even for live performance, but it strikes me as meaning more 'producer of audio artifact for resale'.
What is it really? It is multidimensional real time aesthetic coordination of electronic audio events-- but put that on a poster and see who comes to see you
what I've noticed that people will assume when you are playing music from a laptop..
a) you're playing your own music
b) you're playing solitaire
c) all of the above
for some reason the concept of a laptop dj set just seems wierd to people. I did a traktor set at a club once and a good friend of mine came up to me afterward and said "nice stuff, did you really make all of that?"
if you're a laptop dj I like the term "hard disk jokey" or HDJ ;p
nice and dorky and should confuse a few people.
good times,
-justin
a) you're playing your own music
b) you're playing solitaire
c) all of the above
for some reason the concept of a laptop dj set just seems wierd to people. I did a traktor set at a club once and a good friend of mine came up to me afterward and said "nice stuff, did you really make all of that?"
if you're a laptop dj I like the term "hard disk jokey" or HDJ ;p
nice and dorky and should confuse a few people.
good times,
-justin
I guess if you pre-program everything, you could launch your set and head off with the groupies while follow actions do all the work. Might as well play a CD or iPod.
But I'm busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest keeping the tracks flowing, triggering additional loops & one-shots, doing lights & video, and keeping the drunken assholes away from the equipment.
No time for Solitaire! (Unless she's the one from the James Bond movie...)
But I'm busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest keeping the tracks flowing, triggering additional loops & one-shots, doing lights & video, and keeping the drunken assholes away from the equipment.
No time for Solitaire! (Unless she's the one from the James Bond movie...)
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Per Boysen
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Re: When is a Live, a Live?
I guess I represent a minority here, a fourth option, since I use to play traditional instruments while using Live to loop and slice up my live audio on-the-fly. All improvised. Lately I have been setting up Follow Action random scripts to trigger by midi foot pedals for cutting up and manglikng stuff. Playing a flute may sound like http://www.looproom.com/audio/Flute_Looping.mp3 and a guitar like http://www.looproom.com/audio/edp_strat_01.mp3siddhu wrote:I was wondering how are people building/conceptualising their sets? There seems to be three main options:
I'm with Per, My 2 cents:
I perform at least once a month in my duo, Mixed Bag. Its me and a guitarist--he plays guitar through regular guitar effects pedals and I route his signal into Live. He pretty much plays live the whole time, I occasionally loop his parts. I play bass, keyboards, and a midi DrumKat to trigger drum samples from FL Studio 4 rewired into Live 3.0.2 on 5 tracks (kicks, snares, hats, rides, percussion). Our sets always start out COMPLETELY BLANK--no clips, just 13 tracks, over 50 effects!, and all of the proper routings. We perform about 75% originals, the rest covers, usually too obscure or too rearranged to be obviously recognizable. I use Live as a live looping tool and mad live remix instrument--I consider Live itself to be my most prized instrument.
Songs start off with me listening to a click track on phones, and playing a bass or keyboard part and looping it with a midi footpedal (fcb 1010). Then I play more parts and loop them--usually bass and keyboard chords first, the I use drumsticks and the drumkat to record live beats into FL's 64 step step seq., which I have set up to continually record and continually repeat. All the while, Kurt is playing guitar. Sometimes I'll add a keyboard part or two after I get the beats going, or I'll loop Kurt. Ususally I have all my parts in by 2 minutes into a song, then I go into crazy remix mode, using a DM2, uc33e, and newly aquired BCR-2000 to control effects and crossfade tracks in and out. I have like 14 effects on my master channel and quite a few on other channels to variate the looped parts and generally mangle the audio. It is a blast, and the crowd really seems to get into the fact that they are seeing it all happen live--no pre-recorded material whatsoever. We generally will run 3-5 songs together, so I'll put a bunch of delay on the melodic parts and then delete them on the "one", while Kurt hits a nice ringing chord. As the harmony parts delay out, I'll adjust the tempo with just the drums still going, and then play and loop a part of the next song, then I'll crank up the delay on the snare and jump to a new blank pattern in FL, then play new beats approriate to the song. This keeps the flow going a bit more than stopping each song and starting the next from scratch/silence.
Ryan
I perform at least once a month in my duo, Mixed Bag. Its me and a guitarist--he plays guitar through regular guitar effects pedals and I route his signal into Live. He pretty much plays live the whole time, I occasionally loop his parts. I play bass, keyboards, and a midi DrumKat to trigger drum samples from FL Studio 4 rewired into Live 3.0.2 on 5 tracks (kicks, snares, hats, rides, percussion). Our sets always start out COMPLETELY BLANK--no clips, just 13 tracks, over 50 effects!, and all of the proper routings. We perform about 75% originals, the rest covers, usually too obscure or too rearranged to be obviously recognizable. I use Live as a live looping tool and mad live remix instrument--I consider Live itself to be my most prized instrument.
Songs start off with me listening to a click track on phones, and playing a bass or keyboard part and looping it with a midi footpedal (fcb 1010). Then I play more parts and loop them--usually bass and keyboard chords first, the I use drumsticks and the drumkat to record live beats into FL's 64 step step seq., which I have set up to continually record and continually repeat. All the while, Kurt is playing guitar. Sometimes I'll add a keyboard part or two after I get the beats going, or I'll loop Kurt. Ususally I have all my parts in by 2 minutes into a song, then I go into crazy remix mode, using a DM2, uc33e, and newly aquired BCR-2000 to control effects and crossfade tracks in and out. I have like 14 effects on my master channel and quite a few on other channels to variate the looped parts and generally mangle the audio. It is a blast, and the crowd really seems to get into the fact that they are seeing it all happen live--no pre-recorded material whatsoever. We generally will run 3-5 songs together, so I'll put a bunch of delay on the melodic parts and then delete them on the "one", while Kurt hits a nice ringing chord. As the harmony parts delay out, I'll adjust the tempo with just the drums still going, and then play and loop a part of the next song, then I'll crank up the delay on the snare and jump to a new blank pattern in FL, then play new beats approriate to the song. This keeps the flow going a bit more than stopping each song and starting the next from scratch/silence.
Ryan
Dell Studio XPS 8100 Windows 7 64-bit, 10 GB RAM. RME Multiface, Avalon U5 & M5, Distressor, Filter Factory, UC33e, BCR-2000, FCB1010, K-Station, Hr 824 & H120 sub, EZ Bus, V-Drums, DrumKat EZ, basses, guitars, pedals... http://www.ryan-hughes.net