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People who enjoyed reading this: Fognozzle, Roshi, license, yghartsyrt, sAMsKi, VC, abel, Leo, DrexonField, Otterfan, airliner, ModuLR, korgborglar, nightowl, lematt, bla, zach, hecanjog, implexgrace, nagrom, ignatius
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i've been trying to settle on a live setup lately and been alternatingly exhilarated and frustrated by the whole thing. the point i keep coming back to is that there's really no other group of musicians that have to essentially "reinvent the wheel" every time they want to do something. trumpet players can just pick up a trumpet and learn to play it, but every electronic artist (with the exception of those who just buy one piece of hardware and learn to "play" it, i suppose) is forced to first INVENT the trumpet (so to speak), build it themselves, and THEN learn to play it.
anyway, it's all just got me wondering what everyone here uses. how do you make your live setup work? do you use a lot of backing tracks? click tracks? all live sampling? effects? midi controllers? hardware? software? even just within ableton, there are so many different possibilities. how are you all making it work?
i'll start:
right now i'm finishing a little environment in AU Lab (a basic little thing apple includes in their install discs that hosts audio units) that has a bunch of sooperloopers synced up as well as kt granulator and some delay. i haven't hooked it all up yet, but i'm planning on controlling it with some midi footpedals and (maybe?) an mpk49. i'm not totally thrilled with it though, as right now i can only do live sampling and can't "perform" tracks yet. it's getting there.
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04/30/08
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implexgrace
quip said: "
"ambient"
guitar --> boss vf1----> into laptop though mbox --> audiomluch with
granulators/ ambience reverb and loopers"
good setup here.. this is kind of how i play my doom metal-ish ambient music. add a drum machine to the mix and a shit ton of crunchy distortion and viola. having a 7-string to play the deep notes really helps.
04/30/08
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license
bla said: "suitcases of gear... i dont want to do that again
minimal as fuck from now on"
saddest thing I read all week 
oh well, I completely understand the sentiment
04/30/08
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Otterfan
ModuLR said: "You are attempting to perform the roles of what would traditionally require multiple people."
My biggest complaint with the "culture" of electronic music is the tendency for musicians to try to do it all themselves, especially live. All of my best musical experiences have been playing live with other people. Sure, you run into personality and control conflicts, but it's easier to do much more--and at a higher level of excellence--if you do things as a group.
One of the most fun shows I ever did was in a three-person setup, each with a sequencer: one RM1x, one D200, and a TR-626 (srlsy) hooked up to a few devices. The clock & start/stop was generated by the RM1x, with an old Yamaha MEP-4 filtering out all the note messages before it synced the other two. We could each control a few sounds on our own and trigger different our own sequences, and everybody was in time. Best of all, since you were only responsible for part of the sound, it was easy to concentrate and really get into what you were doing, and you could drop out for a minute to play guitar or drums.
Add a 3-piece saxophone ensemble and it was a total blast.
Lots of fun little duos and trios do this by syncing grooveboxes, either by filtering or reserving MIDI for one person or another.
04/30/08
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bla
license said: " bla said: "suitcases of gear... i dont want to do that again
minimal as fuck from now on"
saddest thing I read all week
oh well, I completely understand the sentiment"
i hate lifting up the bag after ive packed it and thinking 'fuck thats heavy!' and its just the power supplies!
my next gig is in marseille and that involves air travel so ive got to count the kilos
mmt8+tx81z will do nicely- makes for interesting programming and set planning (time vs memory)
04/30/08
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hecanjog
Otterfan - I'm a thousand percent with you there. Even though I like the challenge of playing on my own, I have way more fun with other people. This is probably the subject of another blog or series of blogs, but yeah - when I play with other folks I always learn something, and am forced to work out new ways of playing. The relative freedom of playing alone is nice, but you're right in pointing out that the real magic happens in a group. I'm with you there. 
Madeofoak - "the more i think about this, the more i feel like there's a book in here somewhere. i haven't really found any text centering on the modern electronic performer, and i think we could compile some essays that would help other people like us. ideas"
The only written material I've seen is really specialized academic stuff - I think a practical experienced-based collection of essays is a brilliant idea. I'd be interested in contributing to or helping to organize something like this, I bet we could find many others too.
04/30/08
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nagrom
Nord modular with a synthesizer and a drum machine running inside + microphone + delay pedal.
04/30/08
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tmns
I haven't gigged this set-up yet, but this is what I've been practicing with at home.
Guitar, ebow, screwdriver, cassette dictaphone, going into - line 6 dl4 delay/looper - eh memory man delay/looper - zvex tremorama - eh worm vibrato - line 6 verbzilla, unbranded overdrive - studio projects vtb1 pre-amp.
when I can afford it i want to add an akai mpc500 into that set-up so I can play with some samples over the top of guitar loops, and some line selector pedals.
04/30/08
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ignatius
my live set is non-existent at the moment. i haven't enjoyed playing live solo in a long time.
i liked jamming w/friends 100% improv on machines. that ruled. so i'm trying to get something close to that going on otherwise i'm just completely bored.
so it's either gonna be a laptop running a crazy audiomulch patch or detailed ableton session w/a cme bitstream
OR
the MD/MnM + mixer + FR revolution for some acid bubbles.
04/30/08
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besenkopf
Re: Collection of Essays about Electronic Performance
That sounds great. I'd like to lend a hand in any way I can. I'm an English teacher by trade, and I've also edited quite a bit of material that was NOT written by my ninth graders who hate to read and write.
05/01/08
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quip
yeah i would be up for this collection.
mine would probably be heavily based around annecdotes and funny stories.
but thats part of the education, for me anyway.
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