What do electronic artists do live

No two artists do it exactly the same way and some are more dedicated to microscopic control than others. What makes or breaks a good live electronic performer is their ability to select, juxtapose and present this library of recordings to an audience in an engaging way — timing transitions well, building suspense, creating atmosphere, meeting some expectations and surpassing others.

Any good performer would be juggling these dynamics over and above the technicalities of their equipment or instruments and electronic performers are no different. Your email address will not be published. Music Sound Design Polytet About. Technical Articles. Hardware Based Electronic Performance. Knuckles began producing records using similar techniques, assisted by the metronomic beats of a drum machine.

Enter the rave As early techno and house records made their way overseas in the late s and early s, a revolution of electronic music began in the UK and Europe.

Mass gatherings, which later came to be known as raves, saw young people dance the night away in front of massive stacks of speakers. These raves were typically soundtracked by DJs, though a subset of technically-minded producers hauled their equipment to warehouse rave stages, initiating a trend of live electronic performances.

Aphex Twin, the Chemical Brothers, the Orb, and numerous other acts made their names as life performers. During the same period, British duo Orbital — who memorably used dual headlamps to navigate the controls of their machines in the dark — became a must-see for fans of forward-thinking electronic music.

DJing as an artform As the rave scene continued to flourish throughout the s, a second wave of techno DJs emerged from Detroit. Nobody exemplified their rigorous, uncompromising approach to performance more than Jeff Mills.

Earning legendary status by deftly layering three records at a time on a trio of Technics turntables, he eventually accompanied his already renowned DJ sets with live drum machine performances. The software was an instant hit with producers looking to perform without the restriction of flight cases full of fragile equipment. Henke himself relies on Live for his heavily improvised performances, in which he manipulates and processes audio in real time.

While Henke no longer leads the company, he does still develop instruments, effects, and tools specifically for Live. One of his most popular creations is the Granulator. Named for the granular method of synthesis it employs, this instrument allows user to drag in audio clips which can then be broken down into tiny fragments played back with a keyboard. High-concept AV performance While electronic performers continued to innovate underground, high-profile international artists also embraced the potential of emerging performance technology.

Of course, many of us don't need Push as a keyboard alternative - we're perfectly happy with our existing black and white notes and will happily perform either alone or in a group using a laptop to generate the sounds. But even in this area there's scope for innovation: the new, ultra-expensive ROLI Seaboard is a squidgy silicon keyboard that enables you to control the pitch, volume and timbre of each note as you play it, while Eigenlabs' space-age-looking Eigenharp is designed for similarly expressive playing.

These controllers and others position the computer-based live setup not simply as something that can be used to recreate what's been made in the studio, but as a next-gen instrument that offers a different experience to anything else.

Finally, in this day and age it would be remiss of us not to mention the iPad, which, because of its touch screen, is practically a one-stop performance tool in itself. And with technology such as Korg's WIST, which enables you to sync the playback of supported apps on two iOS devices, it becomes an interesting option if you want to collaborate 'live' with a mate.

The options for anyone who wants to become a performing computer musician, then, are many and varied. Consider all of the technology available and how you might make it work for you. More than anything, we'd advise that if all you're currently doing is hitting play, there's plenty of scope for doing a little more than that. This article originally appeared in issue of Computer Music magazine. Here is a video shot from the DJs point of view showing exactly what it takes to pull off a seamless transition live.

Deadmau5 affirms that people in this sect are skilled in the studio, but they do almost nothing live. He made this post in response to live electronic musicians who claim to be doing great things in live environments. Deadmau5 provides us with an interesting perspective on this matter. It is especially impressive, given that he is part of the EDM movement.

However, this brings up an appealing thought on those who have intricate setups. They bring in old synths and create music as the live show progresses. Below, we will get into electronic musicians that make the difference. Regardless, each of the groups brings a unique experience to their live performances. Now that we have a list of unique players in the electronic music arena, we can use that knowledge. So, how do you avoid being a button presser? Below, we get into a couple of examples.

While it may not be the first choice for some, you can choose to wear a unique costume and adopt a persona to stick out.

For the best example of how this can work, take a look at Daft Punk. The 80s retro look is something Daft Punk has been developing for a long time. As we can see through earlier examples, bands like Empire of the Sun and Big Gigantic are both big fans of bringing instruments to their shows. Because of this, they can combine the synthetic noises of programmed music with the rawness of live music.

Celldweller is another pretty famous example, as they bring a few options with them. While all of these are typically heavily modified, they still create a unique sound with this combination.

Through the addition of old synthesizers, mixers, and other types of audio equipment, you can bring another unique kind of sound to your performance.

Some people stack multiple synths next to each other, switching between them to get the sound they want.

The example I would like to share with you is a couple of people using a Game Boy sound chip to make their music. While the sound quality is a bit off on this, it likely sounds a bit better in person. Technically speaking, you can draw a sound chip from almost anything. While it requires a good deal of technical knowledge, it may be worth it in the end. If you aspire to become an electronic artist yourself, you are going to need to have a good setup.

One of the first things you will need to consider will be software.