Anderton

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Well thanks very much for that. It's more satisfying from my standpoint to have the performance grow and change over time, but I need to have mercy on peoples' internet connections

Maybe it's time to put some of this stuff on CD.......

Actually, I use ReCycle to take REX files and generate WAV versions at the project tempo I can then import into Live. The reason why I use Sonar is to do the same sort of thing with Acidized files (Live doesn't recognize the acidization markers).

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Well, it may not be obvious, but using loops isn't at all like backing tracks. It's 16 tracks/volumes/mutes that are always in flux. It's different every time because you play off the audience, and have to make on the fly decisions about when to move on to the next section, or move back to a previous one. Even a small mistake can be a train wreck, like hitting a solo button by accident and then having to find out which one it was

Granted, watching someone move faders doesn't have a nifty visual element. The guitar, harmonica, and singing really help in that respect. I think it might be cool if there could be a camera on my hands and mixer, projected along with other video stuff, so people could see what was going on. That happened once at a seminar I did that involved remixing, and a lot of people came up to me afterward and said they never "got" the remixing thing until they saw what I was doing. They were all familiar with mixing and engineering, so it wasn't too much of a leap!

I'm ready to go Mano a Mano.>>

Hey well if you're that good, screw the one-man-band faceoff. It sounds like forming a duet would be more fun

That was excerpted from about a 20-25 minute set. It was easy to edit because the tempo was constant...just crossfade between sections, and I was good to go.

I didn't explain anything about what I was doing. However, on Saturday, I gave a presentation at the Ableton booth about how I prepare loops for use in Live using Sonar and ReCycle. Mostly it involves doing the stretching with other programs so they can be broght into Live at the project tempo, therefore Live doesn't have to do much "work" and its CPU gets to loaf. That lets me set the latency real low so there's no significant latency with the guitar and voice.

I'm not sure I understand this comment: "I know that you are executing loops (and a few other things) and I'm wondering about the serious "performance" quality of such a thing." Please explain a little more so I can reply.

Yes, I did the video effects after the fact using Sony Vegas. I was trying to give a bit more of the "club" vibe where this type of music is usually played. As I was also doing excerpts from the performance, the video effects helped smooth some of the transitions.

It wasn't really an ad, a couple of the guys from PreSonus had seen me play previously, and one of them uses my Turbulent Filth Monsters sample CD. They basically asked if I wanted to play to draw some attention to the booth. I was one of four acts that played there at NAMM, they wanted to have a more "musical"vibe to the booth than just the usual sell sell sell sell of a NAMM show.

They were hoping I'd use Cubase because that's bundled with the FireBox, but I told them the act was based around Live, and that was totally cool with them. I also told them I didn't use the FireBox but they said it would be perfect for what I do. I said "show me" so they sent me a loaner and they were right, it was PERFECT for my act because it had an input for guitar, one for mic, MIDI, and really low latency. So I said sure, I'll play at your booth.

Can this be done with other software? Absolutely. This act started with an Ensoniq ASR-X, then two Ensoniq ASR-X, then Mac laptop with Reason, then Mac laptop with Live, then Windows laptop with Live. It could also be done very easily with Cakewalk Project5. I just really like Live, I think it's a brilliant program and it's as if it was designed for the type of music I want to make. But what really makes the act fly is the Peavey PC-1600, which has been the only constant (aside from guitar) throughout the evolution of my live act.

The harmonica was new for this set, but it wasn't in the video because I had the mic switch turned off for the first few phrases I basically stole the idea of using harmonica with dance beats from an Underworld CD; for some reason, it works.

So....does this answer your question?

Any more questions?

1) Can you share with us some of what type of things you were modifying in real time. Like, are you swapping between loops, effects, modifying filters, etc?>>

Here's the deal. There are between 1 and 16 loops playing simultaneously. Live allows arranging multiple loops as a "scene," and you can call up a scene by clicking on it. So, you can always be one click away from choosing a new collection of loops. For example, during the vocal where there's a chord modulation, you may have noticed my handing reaching down for the mouse - it was triggering a scene with the transposed loops.

Within each scene, I have 16 faders and a solo button. So basically, the "act" consists of remixing the loops within each scene, and hitting the solo button for the occasional breakbeat. When I've played out one scene, I move to the next one and carry on from there. From time to time I'll sweep a filter, add delay feedback, or whatever; but most of the time, it revolves around mixing.

It's not an easy thing to pull off, actually. There are about 40 scenes in "Girl with the Double Life" and while I try to keep consistent fader assignments, that's not always possible. That's why each set I play is different. The one that was recorded was, I think, the second best of the four days I played at NAMM. It's all improvised, but around a framework. It requires some real split-second timing except for things like the guitar solo, which just plays over a repeating section.

Although the scenes remain the same, the order in which they get played, and the remixing that occurs within each one, is always different. I try to do the minimum amount of rehearsal; I'll typically put the set together the week before NAMM (and the pre-production is a whole other story!! In fact I wrote about it for Sound on Sound, it will be published soon). I improvise around what I have until I get a performance I like, and that's pretty much it.

One thing I learned from Dr. Walker while playing over in Germany was not to rehearse something like this. Instead, live dangerously When I go up there I have no real idea what's going to happen, and that gets the adrenaline going. Of course the downside is that sometimes the stars are not in alignment, and it sucks. But when it's good, and the muse is happening, and everything is evolving on the spur of the moment, it's exciting for me and the audience...we're both sharing the process. You have to "go with the flow" and let the MUSIC, not a set of instructions you programmed into your brain, move your fingers. If you can surrender yourself completely to the music, and have a decent collection loops as a foundation, it usually ends up okay.

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Well pat of my "act" is I don't have an "act." When I played with Rei$$dorf Force or Air Liquide over in Europe, I'd wear pretty much my normal clothes and the other guys would be wearing cool shades, camouflage hip-hop type clothers, gold chains...maybe I was comic relief and didn't know it

But it's interesting playing a NAMM show, because a couple minutes before I go on I'm hitting up a manufacturer for a press kit and a couple minutes after I come off I'm answering questions about Harmony Central. But during those 20 minutes or so I'm playing, that's all that matters.......

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Whoa! That's some serious current inrush!!

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Mea culpa! I should have said WINDOWS laptop, even the Pismo PowerBook that powered my live act for many years had a six-pin FireWire port.

Anyone know of the new Intel-based Mac laptops have 4- or 6-pin FW connectors?

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Ken, no one gave you the special glasses?!? Sorry about that!

All the laptops I've seen have the 4-pin connectors as well. The FirePort has an AC adaptor, so you can use that while running in a 4-pin setup (as I did). If you have the "full meal deal" 6-pin thingie, then you don't need the adapter (which is the case when I use it with my desktop computer).

I have a 6-pin FireWire PCMCIA card for my laptop, but -- dig this -- you need to power the CARD with an AC adapter! The card regulates the voltage and passes it through to the 6-pin port.

I asked a laptop manufacturer about this and he said something like "Centrinos blah blah current consumption blah blah out of spec blah blah" very technical stuff. Translation: If you're using a laptop, you're probably stuck with a 4-pin FireWire port and an external AC adapter for your FireWire accessory.

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Heh heh heh...well, that's so I wouldn't have to be "naked"...!

Actually I was trying to give a bit more of a "club" feel, which is the natural environment for this kind of thing as opposed to a NAMM show booth Now, where did I put that giant mirror ball?!?

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Yeah, well, I don't have any tattoos or piercings either Too bad the video wasn't shot the day I was wearing the cool Buddha T-shirt...

The guitar and vocal effects were plug-ins in Ableton Live. The guitar effect was just the freebie Audio Damage Fuzz included in the PreSonus Pro Pak, followed by a delay line. The vocal had some chorus on it.

The latency is next to nothing because Live has to do no work at all. All the loops were pre-stretched in other programs (Sonar, ReCycle) and imported into Live at the project tempo. So, I was running the computer at something like 4 ms of latency (the FireBox is FireWire, so latency is lower than using USB), which is no big deal.

The audio was capture from the camcorder mic! Took a lot of mastering work to make it sound decent

Clonk here to catch excerpts from my performance at the PreSonus booth at Winter NAMM. The act is based around Ableton live, with some vocals and guitar stuff too running through the PreSonus FireBox...check it out!

BTW not recommended for dial-up...it's over six minutes long.

Sorry, but this really doesn't have anything to do with amps. Although I suppose a nuclear-powered amp would have some merit. So the thread is being closed, if you wish to discuss this further, there is OJ and the Political Forum as options.