How creative are you in your live set?

[analogheart]

Seems stupid to just limit yourself to just vinyl & mixer now really . I'm really only scratchin the surface with the software though. Who uses a combination of vinyl/cdj's/mixer and maybe sth like trigger-finger and software ? Do you jam live with software/midi controllers dropping your own beats, samples, edits remixing live or do you just drop in some of your tracks from time to time? Whose using software live in combination with cdj's or decks?

[misk]

honestly? i got too much going on, and im trying to reign it in...

[Sharmaji]

a bit too much for my own good sometimes.

[drokkr]

I do my live show using my own music.

A few months ago I was triggering 8 & 16 bar parts of tracks, hats or kicks for example, and using a Korg Electribe. So I was essentially rebuilding tracks "on the fly" and editing bits from the Electribe. Now, I do things a little differently.

I am taking/playing whole tracks and extracting points of interest from each of them and doing more edit and short loop work to keep my self interested. I found in the other way I was working tracks were losing the energy and feel they had when I first made them. The way I do the show now lets the tracks work the way I wanted them to but I can spice them up too. This has to be done, after spending so much time working on them, sometimes rehearsing them too, I find that I become bored of them a little. Also, I have a folder of 1 hits, percussion loops and random bits and pieces that I use too.

For me it is certainly has become a case of less is more.
Another thing is a space and time issue. Most venues don't have the space for a laptop, a midi controller/keyboard and an Electribe. So, the new way I am working is making getting set up in a club much smoother. I want to improve on this because on the time front, you may not get to a venue with enough time to get set up. First of all ,it's not a good look for you but more importantly it's not good for your head just before you are about to play. When you are about to do a show of your own music too, for me it's a little bit more stressful then a dj set.

[ehcsztein]

When you are about to do a show of your own music too, for me it's a little bit more stressful then a dj set.

But is is also at least twice as satisfying when it goes off!

I agree with the less is more and find better flexibility in managing several "parts" of songs rather trying to play-out a studio track.

Mix and mingle basslines and percussion patterns etc. It is great to take elements from say 3 or 4 studio pieces and the re-arrange them into something entirely new within the moment that will never be heard again.

[nowaysj]

Think it depends on what u are doing. Are u a DJ? Or are u a musician? If ur a dj, fucking it, press play or spin that vinyl, and wiggle around and get accolades like u did something. Musician, well then play ur music live. F the peoples if they have to wait a minute for u to plug in a few usb/audio cables and boot up ur rig.

To play ur own music is way more difficult, takes way more creativity, education, and effort, and really might not be as good as prerecorded studio music. It depends on what u want to do, and what the people want u to do.

[lowpass]

Once, just after a drop I stopped the track and rewound it back to the beginning and played it from the start

[spencertron]

we try to do things that don't mess the music up too much but i always get a bit carried away

[Dark Reign]

Once, just after a drop I stopped the track and rewound it back to the beginning and played it from the start

Seriously

This might catch on.

[abZ]

I am very conservative. I have been djing for like 13 years or something like that. Hard to teach an old dog new tricks. I use a computer now but it is still the basic ones and twos philosophy. Party because I am lazy but also because the tunes I play I like the way the producer made the track in the first place, I don't really want to fuck with it too much. I just try to blend each tune fairly transparently. The performance is boring I guess but what is coming out of the speakers shouldn't be, I hope not anyway.

[lennon]

Once, just after a drop I stopped the track and rewound it back to the beginning and played it from the start

Seriously

This might catch on.

HOOOOOLD UP!!

[nick fury]

Just thought I would chime for those who like myself was a little overwhelmed not knowing where to start, when playing out your own music. I was really overwhlmed when I purchased my MPD 32 lots of pads, knobs, faders, banks, & buttons LOL ...

I do a hybrid of breaking down my tracks into individual studio stems, parts of tracks, whole tracks missing certain elements, to be tweaked, and reworked for live purposes.
My current setup consists of the following:
A. Laptop running Live 7
B. MPD32 (possibly adding a APC 40)
C. Korg Kaoss 2 channel Mix (The black one) (Will be upgrading to a 4 channel mixer)

My set up inside of Ableton is fairly simple. I try to keep everything very simple & effective less of a chance of something going wrong.
I have a 4 channel set up (Deck A,B,C,D)
-Deck A & B are going into Send A.
-Deck C & D are going into Send B.
My sends are where all my effects are held (To save on cpu, by not housing all of them on individual channels you know).
-Ive been experimenting with modifying all ready created racks, but the effects I use the most are Fade 2 Grey(modified), Erosion w/ a filter, Super Looper (modified also)

Then send A is routed into Channel 1 of the mixer, & Send B is routed into Channel 2 (for EQing, and some added effects via the Kaoss Pad on the mixer). This saves a little more cpu using outboard EQs. Plus I don't like using the knobs on the MPD32 for that, due to them being fully rotational (360 degrees). I like knobs that have a start & stopping point. -Another plus of using an external mixer is cueing up, which I enjoy, but can totally be done within Live, but I just prefer doing it with an mixer a lot easier for myself.
- I also like to use the effects & resampling of parts (there are 4 banks that can hold sample for a total of 24secs on the Kaoss pad).

As far as the controls on the MPD32 are concerned I have things routed as the following:
-The 4 center faders are for Volumes of the Deck Channels(A,B,C,D)
-Then for I have a fader controlling certain parameters on each Super Looper, & a fader controlling each of the Fade 2 Greys.
-The buttons underneath the volume faders can solo individual decks pertaing to that fader.
-The button underneath effects turns the effect on & off.
-Pads are routed to individual clips of Parts of, & whole songs with certain elements missing [melodies, bass lines, drums, etc] which then I'll play & tweak live.
-the pads are also set up with individual drums, chopped melodies & bass lines, vocal stabs, etc ...
-I have 1 knob that controls tempo, and another knob that can scroll through scenes. The red record button triggers that particular scene, within the project.
-The other transport control buttons can stop individual tracks.
- The rest of the knobs control other effects, and at times Ive had pads turning on & off effects, or triggering dummy clips (which I need to work on, b/c you can get some really cool interesting results with those)

Hopefully my set up will help some others get some ideas, and get on their way to playing out live. For me I'm a producer 1st, and DJ 2nd (mostly djing/performing my own stuff). My performance is like a hypbrid of DJing/ Live P.A. There certain ares of performance where I'
ll just blend my tracks. Spicing it up with some effects here & there, but not too much.Then there will be tempo changes, and me banging out drum parts live while othere things are looping I.E that being the transition.
I would like to add the APC for all track controls. Then I can could use the MPD32 fully for just playing out all elements of studio tracks. Pad bashing & effect working.

[inner loop]

I've been doing all live stuff with my band. I do alot of live looping of my basslines and other members of the band. I do it all with hardware. I have an effects chain of all analogue FX that I use for live modulations ie wobbles and tweaking. The band is Trumpet/keyboards, bass/keyboards and drums.

http://www.myspace.com/innerloopband

[5-0-what]

Once, just after a drop I stopped the track and rewound it back to the beginning and played it from the start

rewinds will kill the dj

[deadly_habit]

live pa still building rig
dj wise i transition loads of genre and depending on city i keep floor moving like mad or clear it when i switch

[ninjadog]

Once, just after a drop I stopped the track and rewound it back to the beginning and played it from the start

Seriously

This might catch on.

HOOOOOLD UP!!

Wait a minute

[deadly_habit]

Once, just after a drop I stopped the track and rewound it back to the beginning and played it from the start

Seriously

This might catch on.

HOOOOOLD UP!!

Wait a minute

YOU AIN'T GOT NO RIGHT BITCH!

[phrex]

i use my midi controller for tuning in simple effects, dub sirens and so on...
just to make a set more interesting. and it makes it more variable with the mixing

[deadly_habit]

see i use custom made tempo changing tracks and custom tunes to fill a set
even just speak and spell d-e-a-ad-l-y or ll cool j samples to toss in

[collective]

as creative as I want

ableton as sequencer
Mbase 01 - for thumpy analog kick
moogeerfooger 104z - for mushy analog delay
mpd24
bitstream 3x
novation x-station for live keys


if its on the west coast, ill bring out the
virus TI
Lil Phatty

full improv, sometimes its rough, but its fun.