having a lot of new ideas and trying to move forward at the moment, i'll write it down in this thread. It's pretty cool to go back and read what thoughts i went through. kind of like a musician's diary liveset with just a drummachine
Hi peepz,
just posted this longer text on em411.com, my thought are starting to gel, so I thought I'd post it here as well
the mp3 for this release: http://bl0rg.net/~manuel/livesetcrap5.mp3
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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
just posted this longer text on em411.com, my thought are starting to gel, so I thought I'd post it here as well
the mp3 for this release: http://bl0rg.net/~manuel/livesetcrap5.mp3
-------------
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
wesen wrote:Here is a demo liveset I quickly recorded to go hunting for gigs in the local area. I quite like how it turned out, all patterns are with monomachine, and I think it changed my sound a lot:
http://ruinwesen.com/static/media/demo-liveset.mp3
Enjoy! I'll post some more information about how the monomachine has changed my sound when I find some time (supersupersuperbusy at the moment).
dope dope sounds here wesen - just came across this set - opus pointed me in your direction - keep it up - much respect
max
Manual -- thanks for the thread! It's inspired me to dig out my old Machinedrum and program some tracks. Unfortunately my MD doesn't have the sampler option... after watching your vimeo videos I think I'm going to try and sell this version for the UW version.
One question -- I've always loved the MD's easy workflow, but I never really fell in love with its sound. I use it sparingly as a percussion instrument, but never as the meat of my sounds. I've switched to mostly software, so I'm layering a lot of my sounds, esp. my kicks. The MD's kick is one of my bigger turn-offs... it sounds kind of light and muted.
What are your thoughts on the MD's drum sounds?
One question -- I've always loved the MD's easy workflow, but I never really fell in love with its sound. I use it sparingly as a percussion instrument, but never as the meat of my sounds. I've switched to mostly software, so I'm layering a lot of my sounds, esp. my kicks. The MD's kick is one of my bigger turn-offs... it sounds kind of light and muted.
What are your thoughts on the MD's drum sounds?
thanks people. Here is a short recording of the beginning of my set in weimar last friday, which went really nice and was a lot of fun. Sadly the recording stopped when I started going into the funky shuffley stuff:
http://ruinwesen.com/blog?id=264
As to the machinedrum sounds, I didn't like its sounds at first neither, but found that through some careful tweaking (and bringing volumes down, to allow for thebassdrum to be more massive for example) you can get some quite nice sounds out of it. But in the end I'm really happy since I complement it with my monomachine
http://ruinwesen.com/blog?id=264
As to the machinedrum sounds, I didn't like its sounds at first neither, but found that through some careful tweaking (and bringing volumes down, to allow for thebassdrum to be more massive for example) you can get some quite nice sounds out of it. But in the end I'm really happy since I complement it with my monomachine
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nicogrubert
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great set! respect!wesen wrote:Here is a demo liveset I quickly recorded to go hunting for gigs in the local area. I quite like how it turned out, all patterns are with monomachine, and I think it changed my sound a lot:
http://ruinwesen.com/static/media/demo-liveset.mp3
Enjoy! I'll post some more information about how the monomachine has changed my sound when I find some time (supersupersuperbusy at the moment).
are all sounds from the monomachine or did you also sequenced some other gear with the monomachine?
I could get a monomachine MKII for about 850,- euros and I am wondering if this little thing could bring me new ideas.
I owned the machinedrum for a few weeks but I sold it because of the cold sound and the missing "SOLO" function so I may already know a bit about the sequencer and the concept of the monomachine if it is similiar to the machinedrum.
hey nico thx for the kind words. the set is just machinedrum + monomachine, no other gear. I think 850 for a mkii monomachine is ace, it's a deep machine. However maybe if you gave up on the machinedrum after a few weeks you'll be put off by the mono as well, it sounds pretty cold as well, and i think both machines need quite a lot of work to get them round to your liking. I find the monomachine to be "harder" to use than the machinedrum, but then I've spent so much time on the machinedrum I can't really tell. I know I was kinda disappointed by the MD at first as well, it took me a few months (and realizing you ahve to turn VOL down on everything) to find a way into it.