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| sprouts |
 Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 6:58 pm |
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Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 8
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i wanted to know if anyone had any valuable advice/ tips on performing electronic music live?
im going to be doing a couple songs at a small school concert (playing in a jazz ensemble too) and im worried that people may not understand/like what im playing.
im going to be running ableton on my ibook to trigger samples, and beats i made in reason, as well as mic-ing a clarinet and possibly some percussion. |
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| michaeluna |
| Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 8:19 pm |
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Joined: 10 Apr 2006
Posts: 716
Location: Chicago
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From my experience, the important thing is not whether the audience understands what you're doing, it's whether they find your performance interesting, visually AND aurally. You can be making some excellent sounds but if you just stand/sit there, you might as well pre-record your act and do a puppet show along with it or something.
I have been addressing this issue lately with some audio-responsive visual aids, namely some tv oscilliscopes a la the Censtron Wave Vessel (http://censtron.com/?p=18#more-18). Or something like the rainbow color organ (http://www.rainbowkits.com/kits/sb-1p.html).
Alternatively, you could use a keytar or something to control your laptop via MIDI. Or something. The important thing, in my opinion, is to not just stand there twiddling knobs/clicking a mouse. Get your body into it in some way, and that will guarantee a good show. |
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| Jaymis |
| Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 9:06 pm |
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Joined: 04 Feb 2006
Posts: 260
Location: Brisneyland, Australia
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The 3-piece electronic groovesters Ponyloaf have been known to use a qwerty keyboard on a guitar strap (with skulls, see here) to add a little extra rock to their gigs. Much cheaper than getting a keytar or midi controller.
I agree that it's not really about "understanding", but creating entertainment. This doesn't just go for electronic musicians. If someone's standing on stage holding a guitar and not really looking like they're into what they're doing then the audience won't be into what they're doing.
I'm sure this comes naturally for some people, but for most of us it's a matter of practice and experience. Playing in school bands is a great way to get experience with entertaining and not feeling nervous on stage goes a long way to making you more relaxed and more entertaining.
Of course, if you're surrounded by massive amounts of gear like the Chemical Brothers you automatically look cooler and just must be working hard to keep all of that stuff going. One of my bandmates used to bring along a massive rack-mounted tube amp to some of our gigs. It had some huge knobs on it, blue glowing meters, looked very cool and filled up the stage a bit. All the music was coming out of a couple of laptops but most punters don't actually know what anything is, so they just see things with wires and knobs and presume that you must be supremely talented to understand it all.
Other musicians of course just recognize it as placebo gear and are able to nod knowingly 
Having something recognizable such as a clarinet will help. Rout it through some effects so they can see that there's something recognizable making a sound they don't expect.
If you're confident and have a good time, even if people don't understand what you're doing or enjoy the sounds you're making they will be able to recognise the body language of someone enjoying themselves, which should make them feel positive anyway.
Good luck! |
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| marcus78 |
| Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 2:22 pm |
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Joined: 06 Jun 2006
Posts: 3
Location: Canada
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| I think the key to a good performance, digital, analog, regardless of genre, is whether you're into your own groove, your own music. That might not be your question right? I find that it's easier to interact with an audience if you're not stuck behind the laptop for the whole set. I get around this problem by using a midi foot controller. It's not the easiest solution and programming these controllers is not entirely intuitive. I use the FCB 1010 by behringer (not the best of companies but the price was right) and there is a wealth of resources and help available online from the yahoo groups forum. don't bother with behringer tech support or the manual. Have fun and do your thing! hope this helps out a bit. Good Luck!! |
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| PeterKirn |
| Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 12:35 pm |
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Joined: 03 Feb 2006
Posts: 822
Location: New York, NY
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There is a technical aspect to this, as well, of course -- making Ableton Live a little more playable live. One ongoing issue has been switching between sessions, which a lot of us have tried to get Ableton to add internally without much success. There are some workarounds.
Anyone on the board, in fact, with tips (or better yet, questions/frustrations) with live performance, I'm working now to compile some solutions. I should be able to share the results by July.
Other than that -- what these guys said. I think the best approach is often to build something that's simple enough that you don't have to use the computer. I even find myself tending to make things too complicated when I'm at home, then getting to a gig and realizing I have to stare at my computer too much, which is no fun. Make it easy, make it work on a hardware controller so you don't even have to look at / touch your laptop, and I bet you'll have more fun -- and find more things to make musical. |
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| orangecookie |
| Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 9:23 pm |
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Joined: 20 Nov 2006
Posts: 3
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You could also just not sit on-stage. The "entertainer" aspect of music (being visually entertaining) does not always have to be a factor. We're so used to looking at people perform (it's natural) but it doesn't always have to be like that. We can watch a VJ set and appreciate the visuals, without having to watch the VJ.
I've been experimenting with playing off-stage, or to the side. People may feel uncomfortable about not seeing the performer but I feel that one shouldn't feel pressured into being visually interesting.
Our instruments are new (we are pioneers in a sense) and we can choose
how we present ourselves as we perform. |
Last edited by orangecookie on Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:44 pm; edited 1 time in total
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my album on Chloe, "My Heart of Sugar"
http://www.chloechloe.cc/
reviewed here:
http://www.vitalweekly.net/552.html |
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| PeterKirn |
| Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 4:13 pm |
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Joined: 03 Feb 2006
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Location: New York, NY
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| Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think it's all about doing what you're comfortable with and letting everyone else feel that. I've seen people jam on laptops directly and look totally comfortable, bobbing along standing behind their computers, so even that's possible! (Now, granted, they were from Berlin, which seems to help!) |
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| te2rx |
| Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 10:03 am |
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Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 110
Location: Chicago area, IL, USA
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Generally you sort of have to consider what kind of place/stage/etc. you're in. If you're shoved into a DJ booth and find yourself rather isolated from the audience, or if you're doing a dance party type thing, then who cares what you're doing as long as you're maybe bobbing your head or whatever... your music will be the center of attention instead
But yeah, it sounds like you're being shoved onto stage for all to see, so I second everyone in that you better be doing something more interesting than clicking the mouse. Performing instruments (clarinet, percussion?) is good |
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| velocipede |
| Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 10:36 pm |
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Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 94
Location: Takarazuka, Japan
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Some ideas:
Find some people to do interpretive dance to your music.
Talk to the lighting staff and see if they want to do some lighting effects. |
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| garyg |
| Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:07 am |
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Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 109
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PeterKirn wrote: I've seen people jam on laptops directly and look totally comfortable
it helps if you wear one of these.
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| orangecookie |
| Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 9:21 am |
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Joined: 20 Nov 2006
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garyg wrote: PeterKirn wrote: I've seen people jam on laptops directly and look totally comfortable
it helps if you wear one of these.
Good website - I see some holiday shopping ahead!
Just noted the date of the original post - wonder how it went? I'd also like to add that the more I perform without trying to be responsible for people's visual happiness, the easier it gets. Maybe it's because I find it difficult to do both - concentrating on what I'm creating and looking interesting. I also think that audiences are beginning to feel more comfortable with this new form. |
_________________
my album on Chloe, "My Heart of Sugar"
http://www.chloechloe.cc/
reviewed here:
http://www.vitalweekly.net/552.html |
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| michaeluna |
| Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 12:46 am |
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Joined: 10 Apr 2006
Posts: 716
Location: Chicago
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Hey everybody. I just played a show last weekend and I thought I'd share my thoughts on playing electronic music live in front of a crowd.
First thing- it's two guys. We're called Memory Selector.
One plays a guitar run through a lot of effects and delay, using a loop pedal to layer sounds.
The other (me) plays a bass that is also controlling an FM synth, also run through effects and to a looping device.
The looping devices are tempo-synched to a drum machine which also spits out preprogrammed cheesy basslines.
We were booked to play live at a large rave-style party in which most of the other music was going to be DJs spinning records. The sound system was huge, including a subwoofer as big as a coffee table.
In order to distinguish ourselves from the space fairies and rainbow children swarming the place, we decided to wear brown suits, ties, and fake mustaches.
The end result was hilarious, and the show was totally kickass. A ton of people danced through our whole set and gave us big hugs afterwards. Right before we went on someone took this picture of us:
Which I have turned into this design that we're going to make into stickers and buttons:
So, my advice for guaranteeing a killer live show? Put on a fake mustache and play like it's never going to fall off. |
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| segwist |
| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 2:34 am |
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Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 120
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I love Jaymis's post now hes in a new live act that has A LOT OF GEAR ON STAGE. Lol. Thread delivers 
I will happily wax on for hours about this stuff, i love playing electronic music live and have had stupid amounts of setups over the years and at the tender age of 26 i cant fathom where it will end up. My first rig was hardware and samplers.... which had a habit of crashing on stage, thus leaving thee sequencer to use default onboard sounds... of all the same Init patch! The memory alone is enough to make me OMG IRL!!! |
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| Jaymis |
| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 6:16 am |
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Joined: 04 Feb 2006
Posts: 260
Location: Brisneyland, Australia
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| michaeluna |
| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:14 am |
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Joined: 10 Apr 2006
Posts: 716
Location: Chicago
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| Hey Jaymis. We just had a pretty intense recording session this last weekend, but it'll be a while before all that's edited, mixed & mastered. In the meantime, we have some live recordings from the "Mustache" show up at our Myspace page. |
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