quarta-feira, 18 de setembro de 2013

quinta-feira, 13 de setembro de 2012

sábado, 6 de dezembro de 2008

DeadAct.com



DeadAct.com is an online archive of videos found in the public domain that show electronic performers blatantly faking their "live set".

To qualify as a Dead Act, the performer must have pre set out their performance in such a way that if they were to drop dead, the set would keep playing on as normal. Bonus points for fake knob tweaking, failed attempts to play real instruments , and good orgasm faces.

terça-feira, 4 de novembro de 2008

Joystick - midi

from: http://www.dioramadesign.net/blog/rejoice-midi-software/

Rejoice Midi Software
12Mar07

In an earlier post, I mentioned how I use a piece of software called Rejoice to map events from a usb joystick/gamepad to midi notes. This is so I can use a cheap usb video game joystick as a controller for audio software, for example changing pitch or tone by pushing the joystick a certain direction, or firing off loops with buttons. Anyhow, someone pointed out to me that the site for Rejoice is currently down, so I thought I’d upload the installer for it here, in case anyone is looking for it.

Rejoice will convert your Joystick or P5 Glove into a MIDI controller. Up to 1000 Button/Axis/POV actions on your joystick can be mapped to MIDI controllers. Download the installer here. Please note that I’m only hosting this freeware software as a mirror. Although I’ve personally used it, I don’t know much at all about its internal workings. Unfortunately I don’t have access to the documentation that was also on the now defunct original site.

sábado, 18 de outubro de 2008

LIVE PA

Live PA, sometimes written LivePA, meaning Live Personal Appearance or Live Performance Artist is a term used to describe the act of performing, or appearing to perform, electronic music in a concert setting.

While the term "Live PA" literally means "Live Personal Appearance", a legal term originally used to protect promoters when performances are occasionally prerecorded, in common usage it refers to live performance of electronic music, via synthesizers, samplers, and sequencers.

In a performative context, the term was originally used to refer to live appearances, initially at rave events in the late 1980's, of studio based electronic dance music artists. The concept of the Live PA helped provide a public face for a scene that was criticised as faceless by the mainstream music press. The trend was quickly exploited by a music industry desperate to market dance music to a popular audience.

Execution

Performing a Live PA is an open process; there are very few pre-defined rules other than that the resulting sound/music is considered to be "electronic". Execution can range from pushing play on an audio CD while pretending to play instruments, to live keyboard playing alongside a live drummer or percussionist, and anything in between.

Generally Live PA artists use a central sequencer which triggers and controls sound generating devices like synthesizers, drum machines, samplers. The resulting audio outputs of these devices are then mixed and modified with effects using a mixing console. Interconnected drum machines and synthesizers allow the electronic Live PA artist to effectively orchestrate a single-person concert. Hand-played keyboards, hand-triggered audio samples, live vocals, and other live instruments can augment the performance as well. Some artists like Brian Transeau and Jamie Lidell utilize hardware and software tools custom-designed for live expression and improvisation.

By arranging, muting, and cueing pre-composed basic musical data (notes, loops, patterns, and sequences), the Live PA artist has the freedom to manipulate major elements of the performance and alter a song's progression in real-time.

Many Live PA artists try to combine the qualities of both traditional bands and dancefloor DJs, taking the live music element from bands, and the buildup and progression from song to song of DJs, as well as the sheer volume of music controlled by a single person (of a DJ as opposed to a band). By allowing the sequencer to handle the playing of basic musical data (as defined above), the Live PA artist can focus on controlling what is most important to the listener: the actual musical quality of what is emanating from the speakers.


From Hardware to Software

Technological progress has kept Live PAs evolving to this day. With advances in computer processing power and in software-based audio tools and instruments, the Live PA artist can pack a single laptop into a bag, go out and perform a show. This possibility creates a point of discussion, as the ability to perform one's own music live using a single, generic device creates yet another range of performative styles. On one end, a laptop-based performer has the option of simply playing a polished, premade audio file. On the other end, the performer can be creating sound completely from scratch using software-based synthesizers, sequencers, etc. Somewhere in the middle is where the majority of performance setups fall. Incredibly popular is the software tool Ableton Live. This gives a laptop-based performing artist the ability to sequence and trigger software synthesizers, external MIDI-controlled instruments, and internally-stored sampled audio clips and loops. This can all be achieved in real-time, with the resulting audio being manipulated by Ableton Live's mixer and effect processors.

The feasibility of using a laptop computer as an all-in-one electronic music creation and performance tool created a massive wave of new artists, performers, and performance events. An international contest known as the Laptop Battle has gained massive momentum and is taken very seriously.

Degree of "Liveness"

A topic of discussion amongst listeners, critics, and artists themselves is to what degree a performance is actually "live". A possible determining factor could be the degree to which the performing artist has real-time control over individual elements of the final musical output. Using this criterion, an artist who mimicks the playing of instruments whilst simply playing a CD or stereo audio track, might not be considered particularly "live" by some. On the far opposite end of the spectrum, some artists choose to take only an idea or motif (e.g. a bassline, rhythm pattern, or chord progression), realize it from scratch with electronic instruments on-the-spot, and then build upon it, modify it, and continue in this way for the entire performance. This requires a degree of discipline and creativity to achieve.

Some might argue that the visual aspect of a performance would be sufficient to call it "live". Codifying what defines "live" and what does not has been an ongoing topic of debate for many years. To date, nobody has successfully created a definition with which everyone involved seems satisfied.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

quinta-feira, 25 de setembro de 2008

Beat box + Live Looping




Who is Kid Beyond?

http://www.kidbeyond.com/#

Singer. Beatboxer. Songwriter. Live looper. One-man vocal band.

Kid Beyond loops and multitracks his voice onstage to create his own live backing tracks – layering his impassioned lyrics over his own beatboxing and vocal instrumentation. The result is a riveting, soulful brew of pop electronica.