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hey peepz,been a long time since i posted here, had a busy time and have been working a lot on my liveset as well. I'm this phase where I think it all sucks, and working a lot on new things/new ideas to fix it. So here is one of the liveset practice recordings I did lately which I actually enjoyed again, even if it takes its time to get rolling.
Basically my goal is to have a liveset that sounds like an amazing dj set, and that is really hard because I have to keep the flow alive and up over a long time. I use a drummachine, a synth (machinedrum and monomachine) + midi controller + kaosspad mini + mixer, and really every single change of sound is tweaked in by hand. I'm starting to understand quite a few things about djing and flow (especially after lematt and his friend manulo showed me a few things at a gig in marseille), and I think one thing I'll have to do to finally reach the next step is to reorganize my material so that it's more even and fits better together (in order to blur the boundaries between "songs").
I see it the way that there are 3-4 levels involved in the flow while playing:
- microlevel: small track buildups, for example muting/unmuting an element, maybe tweaking filters on a sound here and there, playing a bit with delay (but subtle), adding a kaosspad reverse here and there. I have to work on integrate one shots at this level, for example sending single sounds in a big reverb, i have to look into if that's possible somehow with my machines
- track breakdown level: build some breakdowns into tracks, i like to do it mostly with big delay washes and filter tweaks, some of the sounds lend themselves to some "custom" breakdowns as well: sine waves that go higher in pitch before adding a lot of LFO, noise washes with lfo on filter, etc....
- track buildup level: a track for me is a "pattern", which is 14 drum sounds and 6 synth sounds. track buildup is introducing the track and then slowly bringing it up to a high point. i'm working on this area, and it's quite hard to remember how each of the approx 200 patterns i have is best introduced and how, and how it is then best nurrished into "bloom". I'm going to try to make "stripped", "intermediary" and "blooming"versions of patterns (with the same sounds) to make the progression maybe a bit more easier on my brain.
- overall set level: this one is hard, and this one is basically what a good dj does. select tracks to fit the crowd, select tracks that go together, etc... I must say I'm still pretty clueless on this level, and just slowly starting to understand what it is about. Also starting to have a bigger amount of material is making it easier. I'm wondering if I should pick up some slight djing skills in order to be able to work on this level with some "quality" material (by other producers, and in ableton).
What I like now: I've gotten pretty enthusiastic about tweaking in some drastic breakdowns, making some quite radical changes in sound, and I'm starting to feel pretty confident being bolder, which people enjoy a lot when playing out. Also I think my newer patterns are getting much better in sound and in groove quality, maybe also in direction. but that's a never ending battle anyway
