Artists playing "live"

[Guest D-Dave]

Well, this is to all the people who think or wishes artists to actually play something live on stage.

Sometimes it so happens that there is no time for a soundcheck, thus "playing" "live" is not possible. It may sound strange to those who never organised a party, but it happened to us (botfb) so many times now that its becoming more of a rule that we dont soundcheck.

Just so you know.

[Guest Protex Midget]

I don't get it... Are you saying that playing live ain't possible?

Just last week I was at a party with some group called E.om, and they play trance, with jazzy influences, completely Live! They didn't use a laptop, or cd's, or vinyls... they just played around with about 6 synths, drums, FX machines, Saxophone... and it was awsome!

 

so i say that playing live is possible, although it's really hard work!

[Guest Mr.Hanky]

D-Dave you are SOO wrong my friend.

 

no argue that some artists press play on the CD/Dat and play like dummies on the mixer/synth knobs.god forbid, there are tons of these.

 

 

BUT,and its a big BUT,

 

first of all its definitley possible to play live without soundchecking.

just did that two weeks ago and it worked perfectly.

if you know what your'e doin you can pull it off.

 

second of all i don't know which artists you worked with,but some acts are still playin' it live,

so please, you cannot generalize the whole scene from a few bad expereinces you had.

[Guest Pussy Cat]

Maybe you did not see the tiny DAT machine plugged into the mixer!!

 

If you have any credible LIVE artist then 10% LIVE is the BEST you get (its all computers these days did u not know!), so for sure they are always playing wav files, however the extra 10% can add a huge twist to events.

 

I feel sick though when artists dont even bother playing keyboards / sample, and its 100% wav files, but then again most people just want to see the artists on stage so they can dance in awe!

[Guest Pussy Cat]

Maybe you did not see the tiny DAT machine plugged into the mixer!!

 

If you have any credible LIVE artist then 10% LIVE is the BEST you get (its all computers these days did u not know!), so for sure they are always playing wav files, however the extra 10% can add a huge twist to events.

 

I feel sick though when artists dont even bother playing keyboards / sample, and its 100% wav files, but then again most people just want to see the artists on stage so they can dance in awe!

[Anoebis]

well, i'm listening to Asia 2001 at this moment... and that can NEVER be played live!!

You ever heard how FAST the melodies are!? you can not even "type" them that fast!!

 

Anyway... Playing 100% live is a rarity these days (ok, Smooz, you do it, I know )!

 

I think we can already be happy when an artist put some extra live sounds on top! Or takes a guitar and plays some other melodies

 

But what I hate are artists where you can easiliy see of they are playing live or not!!

 

Bom Shankar!

Joske

[Guest bugbread]

Heck, I don't care if it's live or completely recorded: I go to see "Band X" live because I know that I will hear a continual mix of "Band X" tunes, with a few unreleased versions, not because I have a need to know that somebody is touching buttons and pressing keys in time with the music. If the music sounds good, I don't see why I should care if it's being produced in real-time or pre-recorded. I'm paying to listen to the music, after all.

[Guest Mike D]

I agree with Bugbread. I go to see a group to hear unreleased mixes and new tracks played, who cares if it is pre-recorded and mixed, then they just press play? DJ' Don't do much more, except they mix it live, whoppee!! The udes who play live, whether it is fals or not, still get the credit for doing th ectua music, and however they choose to promote is fine by me, lay off, go form your own live act!

[Guest firgo]

hey D-Dave...have you ever heard/saw Orbital???I'm not sure that its 100 %live but I'm sure its over 80% live....man,they are playing one track,then,put 30 sec. from other track on top of it,then play third track for 3 minutes and at the end they are back with the first for the last 2 minutes....and btw,the tracks are not the same at all with the same tracks on their albums....i had binoculars i my hand when i was at the party and i saw how they are doing all the stuff....its amaizing.you see them pushing and rolling the buttons and you are hearing the same effects.and you cant believe the synchronisation that they are capable of.they are not seeing each other and at the same time pushing the rigth buttons.its preatty unbelieveable....THAT is what i call LIVE act.

and i haven't seen any psy artist doing over 30% live act,exept Sun project.

and to budbread:its not the same feeling man...listening to live act,seeing the artists its an amaizing feeling....if it is as you say,then i'll make a party of my own,call some friends and girls, put a cd from GMS and play it loud,and what do you think,wich party will be better???its not even the same when i pay to see Astral Projection and they play recorded music that its not changed whithin 1% from the original....why did i pay to go to that party?i have paid just to see them how they look?if i wanted to see how they look live i'll wait before the party and see they when they are coming in the place,or leaving it....thats why my best party so far is the one mentioned above,Orbital Live 2001,Sofia,Bulgaria.....PLUR

[Otto Matta]

I get frustrated when I see electronic acts making up stuff to do on top of all the sequenced/pre-recorded stuff. That to me is worse than nothing at all. I mean, twiddling knobs all night on a mixer or playing a simple melody while the other melodies are complicated as hell - that's just outright fraud in my opinion. I bow deeply to those who can perform live and do it well.

 

I'd like to be optimistic and think that we're at a very early time in this music's evolution where we still haven't figured out how to perform it, and that, given 20 or 30 years, live acts will become a lot more live than they are now. The other side of the coin is that live performance is heading in the direction of mechanized industry, where soon the people actually pushing "Play" on their sequences will become obsolete (although there'll have to be a guy in the back room somewhere making sure all the machinery is in working order).

[Guest UrhgurH [etnoscope]]

The "live" subject is pretty hard, since most of the music is synthetic.

It´s almost impossible to play a 16´th note melodi in perfect sync,

with the rest of the music (psytrance/goa etc.etc.).

so you have to use a computer/harddiscrecorder,

to make the music sound good and right...

But there are still a few act´s that try to influence their music,

while on stage as much as possible (sonkite,junoreactor,sunproject etc.).

So if you wanna know if a specific artist is indeed playing "live",

more often than not it´s just enough to read their webpage.

 

And for the Soundcheck, well...

It´s a big advantage to be able to set the compressor,

noisegates etc. etc. for microphones (if using acoustic instruments).

But won´t be nessecery for synths or drummachines.

As these things will sound exactly the same if your home in the studio,

or on-the-road/in-the-bush/at-a-party playing.

But even without a soundcheck it´s possible to complete a set,

if you just improvise (we´ve done it plenty of times).

[Guest hoffy]

infected mushroom are the only act i noticed where they sounded "live", it wasn't much but it was flangers and effects on top of their melodies which didn't exist in the original tracks- and also, watching erez on stage, man, he works like a machine! Whatever he is doing, live mixing or whatever, he works his ass off!

 

having said that, i kind of like it when artists dj instead of playing live, the other day i saw fractal play and im sure he dropped "arabian knights on mescaline" in with the tracks he produced himself- quite a nice suprise

[Guest Chalits]

i sall a "Live" performance by Sun Project and it really KICKED ASS.

I dont know if they where faking or really playing live but i loved to see them doing there thing...

 

EVERYONE was pleased!

 

I have seen a LOAD of artist play "live" and i must say that only about 10% of the performances where actually playing LIVE.

 

To bad actually.....

 

live => Make some beat kick loops, some bass, and play the melody's yourself and knob turn filter bend modulate your ass off...... Thats what i would do i guess

 

Does any one of you know Claus Shulze (i dont know how to spell it , should check the lp's) He performed live on the oldest gear you could think about ..... but the ritm was a bit slower!

 

 

On the psynews launch party in ANtwerp there where some guys with a laptop with logic on it and a couple of wave files in it ....... I dont remember the group name but hey , it was prerecorded, they faked it (i think, i was kinda GOOD BUZZY ) and we had a good time ! So it does not mather=> i follow Bugbread in this mather....

 

 

Performing live is not easy @ 140 148 Bpm And if smooz does , hey smooz you kick ass then

 

Regards

 

Bodhi.

[Guest D-Dave]

There is no faking it in this music! It is about notes being run by a computerised sequencer. electronic music is not rock music.

Faking it would be to try and play things live that are really run by a sequencer, it just doesnt make sense.

I just dont get the point. Making trance music takes time, its not possible to create a track live. Unless you wanted to listen to the same track for an hour or more.

 

What we try to do is play the basic wavs from DAT or computer and mix in "live" sounds from synths and CDs. We also play different "live" mixes and "live" tracks, like the ABBA-cover we made hehe.

 

Yes Protex, its really hard work to play "live", and it gets even harder if you dont get to soundcheck. Soundchecking is not just adjusting the sound to the system and surroundings, its setting up all the stuff, like Urhgurh said.

 

Mr Hanky, I know a lot of artists and none that I know play even a few things live. They add/mix samples and sounds just like we do. Great for you if you can play "live" without a soundcheck, for us its not possible, we´re not gonna connect things during the party, we want to do it before the party. In fact, we´re gonna put that down in a small "contract" we´re gonna make, no soundcheck, no "live".

I dont think I generalized, I said that sometimes its not possible to play anything live, that doesnt mean that no one never playes anything live. Sometimes is not the same as all the time.

 

I think Bugbread is completely right. Thumbs up man. I couldnt care less if an artist played anything live or mixed their own tracks. I think I´d be upset if they tried to play "live" and it did sound worse than on their releases.

 

Yes Firgo I have seen Orbital "live" 3 times. I too am pretty sure they mix things "live". You need a pretty big "live" system to be able to do what they do. Personally I just cant afford it...

[Guest D-Dave]

To clarify what I said in the first post. Sometimes (more than often) an artist wishes to play live, but doesnt get the possibilities to do it.

So, sometimes you can "blame" the organizers and not the artists.

I get sick when I hear "they didnt play anything live and that sucks". Maybe they tried you know.

[khogg]

I've said it before, but... I've never seen any of the artists reviewed on this site "live." For those of you that have that sort of off opportunity, count yourself as lucky. That's all I've got to say. No disrespect intended.

 

Even if the person/people behind a group just played their own music off CD's or DAT's, that would be cool. I would like to see that, if I liked their style.

[khogg]

P.S. the more "live" the better I would think, as long as it's done well, but is it really needed? Are you there to hear the sounds, or to critique how they make them? Personally, I go to an event to hear to sounds. If the sounds are good (according to my own subjective standards), then I'm happy. End of story.

[Guest D-Dave]

Well said.

[Guest goannes]

Hilight Tribe!! best live I've ever seen!

[Colin OOOD]

Hmmm... Yeah, playing live is difficult. For about 5 years we used to do 50/50 sets; we'd take the whole studio up on stage and play alternate tracks from the PC (no audio, MIDI only!) and from DAT so we could set up the system for the next live track. For our music and system I think this was the best way of doing it at the time; the live tracks had an immediacy and power you can't get from pre-recorded mixes; audience interaction was, well, fucking fantastic; the uncertainty of playing live meant that magic could happen, and it sure beats standing there pretending to twiddle knobs. We ended up releasing 9 live tracks as our debut album.

 

HOWEVER... it kicks fuck out of the equipment (we were doing 2 gigs a month in the UK for a couple of years - a lot of tearing down and setting up) to the extent that one thing preventing us from playing like that now is our gear is broken. It also used to take us a week to set the studio up at home after a gig even though we could set up and soundcheck in an hour and a half at a gig, which meant that writing was often difficult. Plus the uncertainty of playing live meant that things could go wrong very easily! If you're trying to mix the tracks live on stage you need proper monitoring; not something you have every time.

 

Another thing against the way we used to do it is that our writing methods have now changed completely. Previously, our live sets sounded like the records because exactly the same gear was used in exactly the same ways to do both. Nowadays all our music goes down as audio - this is stuff that you _can't_ perform live, 1 instrument per part, because we don't have that many keyboards.

 

Personally I want to do as much live as possible when I play, but at the same time I want my tracks to come across as well as possible. At the moment this means playing .wavs and playing live keyboards/guitar/percussion/didge (delete according to which act). It's a compromise, but there you are. At least there is musicianship on stage during the live set - it's more saisfying for me as an artist/performer and, I hope, satisfying for people who want to see some evidence that performers are doing more than pressing 'play' and dancing.

 

I always used to say that acts who did DAT/CD/WAV 'live' sets were lying to the audience, that if all they want to do was pretend to perform then they should be DJing. I think now that with production taking the direction it has, this is more of a necessity if you want your tracks to sound the same on stage as they do on vinyl. But if you're not going to give added value (and most of the acts I've seen live _do_ have some performance aspect to their set) then for Bog's sake, get off the stage and on the decks.

 

Colin

[Guest D-Dave]

Thats very interesting to hear, thanks.

 

I completely agree that it should be either live or DJ.

The problem mentioned was that sometimes, for various reasons, you dont even get the chance to play a live act. Thats very frustrating.

I dont understand why some organisers want a live act but dont give it a proper chance, then it becomes a DJ act which I prefer, but... it isnt what the audience and the artists were promised on the flyer.

I can give a long list of when this happened to either us or other artists.

 

This of course means we have to make some demands before we´re agreeing to play a party next time, we´re actually writing some notes for some kind of contract.

 

Its not a big problem, and things usually take care of themselves and the parties are nice anyway, but its frustrating to take a lot of equipment around the world and not get to use it.

[Guest Jonathan]

well I can imagine that playing live is hard, but there is one act that does it perfectly: SON KITE!! These guys are just amazing, especially when Seb plugs in the electronic violin and starts playing. I saw Infected Mushroom live, and I don't think it was that special. Others that give great live sets: SUN Project, Reefer Decree, Ticon, Shpongle.

[Guest Elysium Project]

Another issue is also the shipping and/or rental of equipment. Not many festivals/organisers have the money or want to pay what it cost to bring/rent your equipment so you can performa a proper live (50/50).

It's damn expensive to rent/ship drumkits, synths, mixers, monitors ect. ect.

[Guest aje]

I like the way Son Kite does it, recording each track by itself and mixing it up "live" on stage, thats as life as it gets probably, and then they use that midiviolin, very cool...anyway,they rocked at the VooV

[Guest bugbread]

The other critically important thing to remember is that certain artists' music is naturally more or less "live-friendly". S.U.N. Project uses lots of guitar: hence, it's easy to make a powerful live performance by playing the guitar live. The same goes for bands that use tribal drumming, etc. But for a "group" that consists of one person, playing primarily fast, complex music with lots of effects, it's just impossible. Think about it: you pay to see Hallucinogen live, but even he admits that all he can do is mix prerecorded loops in real time.

 

Of course, the argument could be made that "If you can't play it live, then don't try to", but because of the current value system of parties, DJs aren't "allowed" by the audience to play a mix of 15 songs by a single artist, so the only way I can hear an hour of Hallucinogen is to go see him perform a "live" show.

 

Heck, even if a DJ "could" play a solid hour of Hallucinogen, I'd rather my money go to Simon.