Anonymous wrote:especially if you go and post posts like this. Unless its a joke and I'm taking it too seriously, if that's the case my apologies...Not a joke, well, my friend kind of like walking into a church picnic and stopping everyone so you can ask them whether the pastor is a child molester.
Yeah, I'm just being provocative to entertain everyone and keep them distracted. Many probably haven't even opened Live 3 since the Live 4 announcement. Now that they know by definition, for the first time ever, Live 3 is officially inferior product as there is a better one on the way.
You are right, I haven't used Live VERY much, but I have used it quite a lot, and am using it more. It is gradually replacing Acid as a partner to my use of almost everything by NI, Cubase SX, Reason, Project 5 and lots of hardware.
New to electronic music? Hmm, I admit, I didn't manage to pick up Phaedra by Tangerine Dream on the day if its release, but I'd wager I'm not in the newbie category by a decade or two, sonny.
I'm more into programming my own sounds, playing instruments, self-sampling and re-mangling and working with live musicians than just looping alone.
So Live, while very good, doesn't quite cover everything in the way that I like - that's a personal preference for complexity in production style; with the goal of making something that sounds very simple yet intricately put-together. (hard to explain that one) Maybe not a clever approach, but it is fun to do.
Having a broad deep interest in a wider range of music than just electronic - I just ain't satisfied to try to emulate what everyone else is doing on the "electronic music" scene you see as the heartland of modernity
Archetype? Jesus, that isn't an easy word to slip onto the forum un-noticed.
I'd love to have attended NUNRGGUY's gig. I can just imagine him sweating on stage, time- warping Craig David loops and muttering into the mike "this software is shit - come on the bass, you bastard, where are you?"
To be fair, depending on the standards you set for yourself and how much freedom you really need to improvise infront of a crowd, composing on the fly - I'd recommend before you go anywhere with your kit, do a 1 hour set rehearsal and record it from start to finish. Take note of how much you have to concentrate to make it happen. And listen to it afterwards, maybe a day later - are you happy that it is smooth, flowing and "groovey" (or whatever word you use to describe GOOD)?
If it is too much work to produce in rehearsal, then you are mad to take it into a live situation. You really should be just twiddling a few knobs, moving faders, listening to one cup on your headphones and looking like you are enjoying yourself, while being somewhat of an confident expert able to enjoy the music too. The crowd don't want to see someone crucifying themselves on stage with stress.
If you have it down to a fine art, you should need to concentrate no more that a standard DJ. Otherwise you will look like an accountant at a laptop. In opinion, the time for finding loops to drop in, improvising and developing new grooves and structures is in your studio or at home. When playing your machines live, your responsibility is to entertain the crowd. They really don't care if every sound they here is being born fresh from your imagination on the spot, or if it is 400% pre-cooked and you are just rebuilding it with effects control, some basic restructuring and taking random paths through pre-planned territories you are comfortable to fool around with live.
I don't know if the above makes any sense. But I've sweated through a few sets too where I set myself way too high a challenge in terms of needing to focus on about 10 things at once just to hold everything together, and needing to monitor channels to get mystery beats lined up etc. Never again. It is not meant to be like that. So now I put much more time into preparation of 3 to 4 times what I need for a performance and developing compositions with at least 5 possible live directions offline before taking them on the road.
If you are stressed out and not enjoying yourself by trying to do more than you can handle when live, then I don't think you will be able to feel the crowd properly, build up something around their mood and take them places with your music.
The software is definitely not the limiting factor; it is your ability to prepare properly and realistically for what you can achieve with two hands and the goal of entertaining the crowd, while looking cool as a cucumber.
I am sure there are people who do produce everything on the fly using Live live ... I'm just not capable of that. Maybe. Everyone's approach is different. Just make sure you are deeply in the comfort zone as you do it.