On the fly/Improvisational techno

SteveDon

Is it possible? Have you tried it?

Sometimes when i sit down to make a track, I totally 'Get lost in the Flow' (NI's marketing techniques have obviously infiltrated my inner consumer) with my Maschine, Korg EMX and Kaoss Pad.

By getting lost in the flow i mean I start off with something simple i.e a 4/4 bassdrum beat and then spend hours constantly changing the track on the fly, changing the drum kit used every 5 minutes or so and changing the bassline aswell so that every 5-7 mins it sounds like something completely new.

Id love to take this into a live setting and do this in front of a crowd with nothing planned in advance, but there is immense difficulties in doing so. On the whole these jams on my machines sound pretty good, but when im trying to make a lead line on the fly sometimes things can go a bit pear shaped. Also having the confidence to do this is another stumbling block.

I tend to find myself doing this nearly everytime i sit down to make a track hence why i dont really get much done (as well as my college finals) And i never really save anything, its a very in the moment thing for me.

Does anyone else do this or am I alone in my ventures?

Im pretty sure i need a partner to pull this off properly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-kY0DVuU4w

seannash

i tend to find myself playing keys over my main groove for ages only to find that i barely use any of the melodies ive spent 30 minutes doing.

its fun to be honest



id say what you want to do could run the risk of becoming too self indulgent and might not work in a club enviroment.you'd need some sort of routine with space in between for messing about.

ICN

Whats the Guy on the desk doing?

I take it that he's auditioning whats coming in & adding it to the mix?


If you had a set up like that, it wouldn't matter if you f*ck it up a bit or whatever.

You'd have tracks coming out & being cued.. blah, blah.. & you'd have the time to fix things up before they got sent to the main.

Seems like you'd need a bit of gear for it - Would you?


@ Steve - Hear what your saying about college Mate - I've got an Exam in the morning & supposed to be studying! Awful.. :pac:

jimi_t2

SteveDon wrote: »

Im pretty sure i need a partner to pull this off properly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-kY0DVuU4w

All they're doing is using faders instead of group mutes. I can't see why you couldn't hack together a CUE channel from something and have a separate Wet/Dry channel so you could preview effects.

Also, this whole ''improvisational'' bit is overrated. When you see a pianist or blues musician 'improvising' during a live performance they're sticking to a rigid formula.

The only true improvisational music is in something like freestyle Jazz, but the fact of the matter is that the musicians derive exponentially more pleasure from playing then any audience members have from hearing it; regardless of what the neck-beard and gitane crew might protest to the contrary.

ICN

jimi_t2 wrote: »

All they're doing is using faders instead of group mutes. I can't see why you couldn't hack together a CUE channel from something and have a separate Wet/Dry channel so you could preview effects.

Also, this whole ''improvisational'' bit is overrated. When you see a pianist or blues musician 'improvising' during a live performance they're sticking to a rigid formula.

The only true improvisational music is in something like freestyle Jazz, but the fact of the matter is that the musicians derive exponentially more pleasure from playing then any audience members have from hearing it; regardless of what the neck-beard and gitane crew might protest to the contrary.

It would be cool if more than one person was making loops etc.. & sending it into the desk.. it would be a lot more improvy then.

Suppose its a laptop jam @ that stage.. but it would be great fun.

jimi_t2

Well there's certainly a precedent for working in pairs - a la Bloody Beetroots, Cut Copy, Daft Punk, Scratch Pervert, 2 Many DJs etc...

I know it sounds trite, but you're also halving any fee you might be getting. A serious consideration if you were thinking about making a long term project of it.

Now, the only contexts in which I envisage multi-instrumentalists and groups gigging as electronic musicians doing something more innovative than a standard 2 person DJ set up

(a) Beardyman + Guest style - Live instrumentalist being looped and arranged
(b) MPC Hero - Live band or Rapper with beats and backing pads relegated to the resident geek with a sampler (a la 'The Expert' in Messiah J or DJ Kormac in his ''Big Band'' guise
(c) What I term pure performance - One man doing the macro-arranging and riding the fader and group mnutes, the other with a MIDI controller off the same laptop handling LFOs, Oscillator Tones, Ping Pong Delays, Filter sweeps etc...

(Caveat: All prior text may be construed as complete waffle in the appropriate circumstances. Jimmy's opinions are only beneficial when consumed as part of a well balanced diet of inquiry.)

hubiedubie

I enjoy 'jamming' way more than actually producing a track.
Machinedrum / Monomachine step sequencers are great for this type of stuff (as I'm sure is the Korgs). Also Ableton's session view is made for this type of stuff.
I think it's quite possible to do this with lots of practice and if you do some ground work before hand
1 Program in patterns / sounds that work together.
2 Have a template set up in Maschine / Ableton with FX sends, macros mapped etc.
3. Practice

Neurojazz

Very easy / possible - and used to jam techno onto CDs live (back when the first phillips burners hit the UK that were affordable) - 14 quid a disk a pop.

I'd have an atari looping different patterns and then jam with the desk, then muting a channel, quickly change to a new patch - evolving sounds using an old s200 sampler with the knobs filtering sounds... i'd eventually filter the sounds down and mute the group/change the patch.

The desk was a small 16 channel spirit, not much else - a nice very dry techno that constantly changed and was bags of fun to arrange on the fly.

Should be very easy to do with ableton and a few controllers or some planning with some form of multiple outs going into an external desk.

ronan0

This is cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r38r3BIgew

jtsuited

i think if you make your tracks using the method of jamming around and recording the results, then yeah proper live performances are possible.

That's IF you work that way.