Long time listener, first time caller.
So I'm finishing my prep for a live, one man, DnB/Jungle/Reggae/Trip Hop set.
I play Vdrums and a Korg DW8000 into Live.
Live Setup...
The 'bell' trigger of my 'ride' triggers the record/playback of track one.
I mouse trigger track two which is mono for the synth.
I've tried setting a drum trigger for Tap Tempo, but find it to be sketchy most times.
8 tracks to start. Compressor 1 on each.
Tracks 5,6,7 and 8 have Reverb, Delay, Distortion/Filter and Delay/Reverb/Filter respectively.
Start with pads, then beats and then a drop of bass.
Mostly, on each instrument, I play for four bars to fall into rythm, record a loop for a bar or four(drums, sometimes 16, 32 or 64 to kill repetitivness), and then slide the clip to a track with or without an effect, as it deserves, and move on to the next instrument and setup... for four bars.
Record new patterns with the same sounds, jumping around, maybe showcase some amens or bassline variations without looping for a while.
Wash out with delays and reverbs, fadeouts and such, change tempo and start a fresh set of loops. Same style or otherwise. Playing off crowd/track feel mostly.
I'm starting out with a set that's under an hour. It's basically improv and creativity on stage can be a demanding thing when I'm by myself. I'm trying to be as on-the-fly as possible.
No pre-show prep except for my Template and practice.
I'm so simple and I like it that way. Just need to pick up a foot trigger to incorporate gutiars/bass guitar. Maybe a bank of knobs or something for affecting my effects.
Mostly now, I just mouse some variables in when on my way past the pc to the next instrument.
So, anyone else?
One mans or live instruments?
Just curious about setups and show flows.
[i]Thanks for having me on the show.[/i]
AMD 1.3Gig, Gig of RAM, Edirol 1x1 USB midi IO, NVIDIA ASIO motherboard audio!
[feck]
Live DnB
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Michael-SW
- Posts: 2054
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 4:05 pm
- Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Yeah, I float from 150'ish up to 180 bpm. At slower tempos, more of a chopped up amen feel can keep a beat feeling fast. Up towards 180, mostly gets the 2-step treatment. (Another reason for a short set...stamina)
But 180 halfed to 90 gives the hip hop thing.(I love cutting the tempo in half or doubling it in the middle of a track)
The thing I've found with other live setups is that, especially if your an opening act, you have to start on a crowd level. Not a lot of dance clubs here. Mostly sit down joints. Maye a small floor front of stage. So it's like having to musically identify with someone who's having a drink and chatting cassually. Reggae to hip hop to light DnB or something. Can't expect anyone to BE exicted when their on depressants. You have to exicte them on purpose without them knowing what you're trying to do to them(You, in the leather jacket and jeans...Dance!)
I really like Beat Repeat. It can be distracting sometimes when your rocking straight forward beats and not sure when its going cut back in for you(Ins. mode). After a read about the knobs, it makes alot of sense but I think it's at its best when being randomly manipulated.
Beat Repeat Q: Friend has an FCB1010 and can set a pedal to output a certain knob level, e.g. push once, wet/dry knob goes to 60, push again it returns to zero. So different pedals can set different knobs to different levels.
Anyone doing this with velocity sensitive pads or keys at all? I'll try that today.
If I could use my cymbal triggers to switch knob settings that would be the thing. I haven't researched Suppatrigga. Will do so.
I will try to post some audio or video later.
jerjer
But 180 halfed to 90 gives the hip hop thing.(I love cutting the tempo in half or doubling it in the middle of a track)
The thing I've found with other live setups is that, especially if your an opening act, you have to start on a crowd level. Not a lot of dance clubs here. Mostly sit down joints. Maye a small floor front of stage. So it's like having to musically identify with someone who's having a drink and chatting cassually. Reggae to hip hop to light DnB or something. Can't expect anyone to BE exicted when their on depressants. You have to exicte them on purpose without them knowing what you're trying to do to them(You, in the leather jacket and jeans...Dance!)
I really like Beat Repeat. It can be distracting sometimes when your rocking straight forward beats and not sure when its going cut back in for you(Ins. mode). After a read about the knobs, it makes alot of sense but I think it's at its best when being randomly manipulated.
Beat Repeat Q: Friend has an FCB1010 and can set a pedal to output a certain knob level, e.g. push once, wet/dry knob goes to 60, push again it returns to zero. So different pedals can set different knobs to different levels.
Anyone doing this with velocity sensitive pads or keys at all? I'll try that today.
If I could use my cymbal triggers to switch knob settings that would be the thing. I haven't researched Suppatrigga. Will do so.
I will try to post some audio or video later.
jerjer
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Michael-SW
- Posts: 2054
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 4:05 pm
- Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Thanks for an interesting post!
Supatrigga:
http://bram.smartelectronix.com/plugins.php?id=6
It is like a beat repeat with less control (I think - don't have Live 5). Try it, might give a different feeling.
If you are into Squarepusher/Aphex style rapid cuts/stutters try LiveCut:
http://mdsp.smartelectronix.com/
Supatrigga:
http://bram.smartelectronix.com/plugins.php?id=6
It is like a beat repeat with less control (I think - don't have Live 5). Try it, might give a different feeling.
If you are into Squarepusher/Aphex style rapid cuts/stutters try LiveCut:
http://mdsp.smartelectronix.com/
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Lo-Fi Massahkah
- Posts: 3604
- Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2004 2:57 pm
- Location: The south east suburbs of Malmö, Sweden.
Have you seen this?
http://www.circular-logic.com
Tracks tempo of live drums so that Live can tempo sync to you!
I have no experience with it, but the videos look great!
Also, have you heard The Ills? They perform live drumNbass....absolutely phenomenal drumming!
http://www.circular-logic.com
Tracks tempo of live drums so that Live can tempo sync to you!
I have no experience with it, but the videos look great!
Also, have you heard The Ills? They perform live drumNbass....absolutely phenomenal drumming!
The Ills are kinda cool. The intro to Kitty Kitty sounds like some of the stuff I do at home, Jazz'n'Bass.
Circular-Logic is really cool. I tried the demo a while ago and think it is the best for tap tempo. To buy a tap tempo button seems redundant. I just think Ableton should rip off their technology(j/k), or more like join forces.
I like the beat/stutter/trigger pluggins but I'd like to stay in control of what's going on more. Like, if the beat is going crazy and is totally unplayable, I'd like to be away from the drums when it's happening, like tweaking what I've just done. I'm trying to keep the feel as human a possible but tight to give an electronic illusion.
Anyone interested in live bands should check:
Jaga Jazzist
London Electricity
Sound Tribe Sector 9
Scassa Monakee
Keiretsu
Cube
and to a lesser extent...The New Deal
I'm really curious to hear about others doing one man live instrumentation.
Mostly for organizational or functionality tips.
Tell me storys.
Circular-Logic is really cool. I tried the demo a while ago and think it is the best for tap tempo. To buy a tap tempo button seems redundant. I just think Ableton should rip off their technology(j/k), or more like join forces.
I like the beat/stutter/trigger pluggins but I'd like to stay in control of what's going on more. Like, if the beat is going crazy and is totally unplayable, I'd like to be away from the drums when it's happening, like tweaking what I've just done. I'm trying to keep the feel as human a possible but tight to give an electronic illusion.
Anyone interested in live bands should check:
Jaga Jazzist
London Electricity
Sound Tribe Sector 9
Scassa Monakee
Keiretsu
Cube
and to a lesser extent...The New Deal
I'm really curious to hear about others doing one man live instrumentation.
Mostly for organizational or functionality tips.
Tell me storys.
good to see some other dnb heads on here. i'm a long time lurker first time poster so i'll try to describe how i use this amazing software.
i've been doing the live jungle improv thing for a couple months now. i'm still learning new stuff all the time but so far i've come up with some interesting ways to make up jungle on the fly. just for the record i have an oxygen 8, a uc-33e, and i just bought a tascam us-122 soundcard that has been working out pretty well so far.
i use 8 tracks and use preset one of my uc-33 like a mixing board with some global effects. preset 4 is all for drum tweeking and 2 and 3 r kinda unused for the most part right now aside from a couple filters.
first audio track is chunkier drum loops and longer sequenced drums(128- however many measures of mashed up amens or breaks for example). the way the plug ins are set up on this track is kind of interesting. i have the on/off buttons of live cut, supa trigga, dblue glitch and beat repeat all set to buttons on my uc-33e and various parameters set to knobs. this way i can turn one on and simultaneously tweek knobs to creat more controlled fills. also leaving them in the off position frees up cpu when i'm not using them. i know it seems redundant using all those different beat manglers but they all do different things and makes live mangling more interesting. i also have an ohm boys delay set to an on/off and set it up so it does some really cool delay filter panning. then there are a few weird plug ins like this thing called wtf? that does really fucked up things to drums, mad shifta for doing really cool sounding pitch shifting, and this thing called memory that's an x y filter drumroll thingy(would be great if i could figure out how to use my old ass kaoss pad with it).
second track is old school jungle break loops for layering purposes. i only use an eq and one instance of live cut, again set to another on/off button, on this track. i will leave this live cut running sometimes on just live cut mode. this way it will do interesting edits over my main drums and just add a little extra funk.
third and fourth are samples. these can be anywhere from single one shots that delay then repeat every 16 32 or 64 measures to 2 or 3 min evolving sound scapes that can be layered with one another, sound effects, a few pre sequenced bass lines.....basically any kind of audio loop or sample. i also use these 2 tracks so i can dj whole tunes i've made if i want to. for plug ins on these 2 tracks i only use eq's for now. i was thinking of maybe doing more in the future with the sends.
fifth and sixth are both kontakt with different bass sounds mapped to each octave except for some that i give 2 octaves. so i end up with 10 or 12 bass sounds. i found this really cool auto filter on krv called something like krujeahevas that i use on these 2 tracks. for some reason the auto filter that comes with ableton puts some weird coloration on my sounds.
seventh track is another kontakt with stuff like pads, keys, strings....
and the eighth is reaktor running the vectory drum mangler. this thing is so much fun! it's fully programmable and is perfect for live performance and improv. u can even have somebody from the audience come up and just mash their hands on the keys and it will still sound good! well maybe...lol
for all the midi tracks i make a bunch of empty 8 measure loops with the record quantization set to 8th notes so it's super easy to arm a midi track, hit play and bang out some notes super quick and have it all synced perfectly. this is just they way i feel most comfortable. i was never much of a keyboard play so this really narrows down the field of error for me.
so that's basically it. i've done a few practice sessions that have yielded very interesting results. i also fuck up sometimes, i get carried away with tweeking drums sometimes or let a bassline run too long.... but u know what? i've actually gotten to the point where i don't want to hear overly produced perfect music mixed perfectly anymore. maybe that's weird i don't know...
if anybody is interested i will post up a practice session with yousendit.
i've been doing the live jungle improv thing for a couple months now. i'm still learning new stuff all the time but so far i've come up with some interesting ways to make up jungle on the fly. just for the record i have an oxygen 8, a uc-33e, and i just bought a tascam us-122 soundcard that has been working out pretty well so far.
i use 8 tracks and use preset one of my uc-33 like a mixing board with some global effects. preset 4 is all for drum tweeking and 2 and 3 r kinda unused for the most part right now aside from a couple filters.
first audio track is chunkier drum loops and longer sequenced drums(128- however many measures of mashed up amens or breaks for example). the way the plug ins are set up on this track is kind of interesting. i have the on/off buttons of live cut, supa trigga, dblue glitch and beat repeat all set to buttons on my uc-33e and various parameters set to knobs. this way i can turn one on and simultaneously tweek knobs to creat more controlled fills. also leaving them in the off position frees up cpu when i'm not using them. i know it seems redundant using all those different beat manglers but they all do different things and makes live mangling more interesting. i also have an ohm boys delay set to an on/off and set it up so it does some really cool delay filter panning. then there are a few weird plug ins like this thing called wtf? that does really fucked up things to drums, mad shifta for doing really cool sounding pitch shifting, and this thing called memory that's an x y filter drumroll thingy(would be great if i could figure out how to use my old ass kaoss pad with it).
second track is old school jungle break loops for layering purposes. i only use an eq and one instance of live cut, again set to another on/off button, on this track. i will leave this live cut running sometimes on just live cut mode. this way it will do interesting edits over my main drums and just add a little extra funk.
third and fourth are samples. these can be anywhere from single one shots that delay then repeat every 16 32 or 64 measures to 2 or 3 min evolving sound scapes that can be layered with one another, sound effects, a few pre sequenced bass lines.....basically any kind of audio loop or sample. i also use these 2 tracks so i can dj whole tunes i've made if i want to. for plug ins on these 2 tracks i only use eq's for now. i was thinking of maybe doing more in the future with the sends.
fifth and sixth are both kontakt with different bass sounds mapped to each octave except for some that i give 2 octaves. so i end up with 10 or 12 bass sounds. i found this really cool auto filter on krv called something like krujeahevas that i use on these 2 tracks. for some reason the auto filter that comes with ableton puts some weird coloration on my sounds.
seventh track is another kontakt with stuff like pads, keys, strings....
and the eighth is reaktor running the vectory drum mangler. this thing is so much fun! it's fully programmable and is perfect for live performance and improv. u can even have somebody from the audience come up and just mash their hands on the keys and it will still sound good! well maybe...lol
for all the midi tracks i make a bunch of empty 8 measure loops with the record quantization set to 8th notes so it's super easy to arm a midi track, hit play and bang out some notes super quick and have it all synced perfectly. this is just they way i feel most comfortable. i was never much of a keyboard play so this really narrows down the field of error for me.
so that's basically it. i've done a few practice sessions that have yielded very interesting results. i also fuck up sometimes, i get carried away with tweeking drums sometimes or let a bassline run too long.... but u know what? i've actually gotten to the point where i don't want to hear overly produced perfect music mixed perfectly anymore. maybe that's weird i don't know...
if anybody is interested i will post up a practice session with yousendit.
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Michael-SW
- Posts: 2054
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 4:05 pm
- Location: Stockholm, Sweden
SuMoNe, thanks. This thread is turning out to be one of the more interesting around here.
For Live beat mangling, see this tutorial for some inspiration (posted in another thread):
http://virtualturntable.org/archives/000187.php
For Live beat mangling, see this tutorial for some inspiration (posted in another thread):
http://virtualturntable.org/archives/000187.php
Thanks for the input dudes!
I love checking other templates and flow charts.
SuMoNe, I like the idea of your bass setups. I have a hard time with bass on-the-fly. How much do you create on stage and how much is loops waiting to be triggered?
I aggree aswell, to much production kills feel. Also, I like being at a live show and hearing the reverb engage or a filter sweep that is just looking for the right spot... as long as it's not wanky or distracting.
Kinds of like hearing a piano stool creak on a low-fi recording.
I try not to tweak to much but we do like to make ourselves sound good!
I've been playing with qwerty key mapping but like the pad/trigger option so the Start/Stop function is part of the playing and instrument itself.
Also, quantize helps. I've been thinking of playing my drums to a midi track
and routing the midi back to the drums so my loops are quantized upon recording. My only issue with that is that I like to record a kit, change sounds and layer another beat. Midi would add another step and possibly more repeating bars to the mix. And idea how to quantize audio? maybe quantize audio warp markers on the fly? That's what I want.
I love checking other templates and flow charts.
SuMoNe, I like the idea of your bass setups. I have a hard time with bass on-the-fly. How much do you create on stage and how much is loops waiting to be triggered?
I aggree aswell, to much production kills feel. Also, I like being at a live show and hearing the reverb engage or a filter sweep that is just looking for the right spot... as long as it's not wanky or distracting.
Kinds of like hearing a piano stool creak on a low-fi recording.
I try not to tweak to much but we do like to make ourselves sound good!
I've been playing with qwerty key mapping but like the pad/trigger option so the Start/Stop function is part of the playing and instrument itself.
Also, quantize helps. I've been thinking of playing my drums to a midi track
and routing the midi back to the drums so my loops are quantized upon recording. My only issue with that is that I like to record a kit, change sounds and layer another beat. Midi would add another step and possibly more repeating bars to the mix. And idea how to quantize audio? maybe quantize audio warp markers on the fly? That's what I want.
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Michael-SW
- Posts: 2054
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 4:05 pm
- Location: Stockholm, Sweden