Nigel Sifantus » Nigel Sifantus

Mad Live Beats, Drum n’ Bass style

Nigel — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 04:37:50 +0000

This Video is the last in the “Dj’ing from behind the drums” Progtronica series as I move on to 2 exciting new projects that build of the foundation built here on these videos. Here I’ve introduced a new key piece of the arsenal the Roland SPD-30 octopad to play the live drumming. With this small pad and a set of external triggers, I’m able to compress my whole performance rig bring all of the controls closer to my fingertips. Smaller size and bigger sound is a constant pursuit. Plus check the beats!

Progtronica presents: “Twisted Digits”

Nigel — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 23:13:41 +0000

I’ve never liked the modern emergence of “sub-genres”, the incessant need these days to boil down each kind of music into dozens of sub-categories. I have found that, although it provides a decent description of the sound of the music, rarely can music be so pigeonholed as to be put into a place that is so pre-defined. It also leads music fans to gravitate towards more music similar to what they already have heard rather than expanding their sonic horizons. I would never be the player I am today if I had this kind of mentality towards music “I like hard house but not deep house”. My approach through Progtronica is to take all of my influences and boil them into one succinct concept. Other than the basic forms of “electronic dance music” I have always has a secret love of progressive “math rock” and have played some form of that kind of music in many of my bands over the years. I had been looking for a way to do a tribute to this affinity in a Progtronica performance (mainly for my own self pleasure) since the beginning of the project. I can play a little guitar but mostly for making weird sonic feedback textures but then I found a secret weapon: the iPhone pocket guitar combined with Ableton Live 8’s new “Amp” and “Cabinet” effects. So I made this little ditty, switching from 7/8 to 6/8 with interweaving Don Caballero/King Crimson guitar lines all remixed live while playing the drums. This is a little bit different then my other recent videos but I like how it turned out and I’m sure you won’t find anyone using Ableton quite this way anywhere else.

DJ’ing From Behind the Drums Part 2 “Twilight of 2010″”

Nigel — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 01:31:29 +0000

After doing the last track/video “Taste of Blue” introducing my new technique of launching clips and scenes in Ableton live using the Novation Launchpad while playing the drum part live, it opened my mind of the many different types of sounds and styles I could tackle using the same basic setup. I had the idea for this song “Twilight of 2010” bubbling around in my head for weeks when I was sick but didn’t set to experimenting with the actual composition of the song until I had the whole form in focus, a complete departure for me. Normally my tracks evolve as I am producing them and working with the sounds, often coming out much different then I had in mind when I originally opened a blank set. I actually put this whole track/video together from top to bottom in a matter of about two hours. That is the beauty of Ableton live as a composition and performance platform, the musical feedback is immediate so projects can go as fast as your mind can if your approach is already figured out. This song is the most melodic and down-tempo of any of the Progtronica works which opened up a space for a lot of drums. One other thing that is unique for this song is there are no samples used whatsoever, I played all the parts myself using various software synths, and iPhone apps including the “pocket guitar” for the guitar part. Ableton’s new “Amp” simulator effect, just released in the latest update, provided an extra crunchy sound not only for the guitar but the drums and bass as well.

I have been amazed and gratified by the almost immediate internet response to this one after it was posted on Vimeo and YouTube. Syntopia.com made it their Sunday Synth Jam for last week, titling the post the “Futuristic One Man Drum Ninja Band” and saying “Nigel Sifantus delivers an energetic drum/DJ jam”. Then a Danish site called justastudio.net gave it the same title and said “This glitchy live session is nasty and incredible well performed by Nigel Sifantus. The music is called Twillight 2010 and is available as free download…” They also included the cover image from the “Live For No One” ep and included links to this site. Much appreciated! In the first 48 hours the video had been viewed over 800 times and the Progtronica fans on Facebook doubled in number.

The song itself is more powerful than anything I have done myself in the past and I think it is pointing me further in the musical direction I want to take this: Electronica not contained by sub-genres and retaining the deep primal human element of a non-machine generated beat while keeping a futuristic sonic aesthetic.

Dj’ing from behind the drums Part 1

Nigel — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 01:36:56 +0000

Although there was some live drumming on the recent Progtronica EP, for the most part I have focused my recording and performance techniques on live “re-mixing” of my own material. Drum wise my approach has been to record myself, often in several layers, playing live. Then take parts of the recording and slice, alter, and map out the different rhythms in Ableton in such a way so that I can be freed up to manipulate not only the drum parts, but all of the sonic textures to the fullest to create a constantly evolving sound. The beauty of performing with this technique is how much I can do live with a minimal amount of equipment. Having been a touring drummer for years, the idea of performing live with just a backpack of gear is truly an amazing prospect.

I haven’t forgotten about the drums though. The drum stool is the place where I feel most musically comfortable and my original Progtronica intention was to be more of a “drumming DJ” mixing the music while playing the rhythm parts mostly live giving a much needed human element to the machine dominated genre of electronica in all its forms. Production and performance wise it is all a give and take, more overall control of the sound or more rhythmic spontaneity.

The last couple of months have been dedicated to Progtronica as the digital live re-mix DJ, this is the re-introduction of Progtronica as the “Futuristic One Man Drum Ninja Band”.

I write a song…”For Soul”

Nigel — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 06:15:03 +0000

For the past year since I’ve been on this Progtronica quest, I’ve had the compositional approach of beginning with the idea of “What if I did this?” A lot of great music has been written with this type of inspiration, trying to figure out something one doesn’t know and then making a musical statement out of the trial and discovery. This has been especially true for me with computer based music as there is always so much to learn and infinite ways to approach the same ideas. Ableton Live as a program exacerbates this even further with the flexibility of the compositional, programming and performing platform. Everyone does things differently, often producing similar results.

For this track however, I set about writing a simple house tune stringing a few chords together as more of a keyboard exercise, getting back in touch with a little of my music theory roots. After a while I liked what I was playing and tracked the simplest part of the track. Then the magic of the arpeggiator kicked in and I started applying all of the usual techniques I have been working on, slicing, dicing, mixing, and remixing and finally performing. In the end it has a different sound than most of what I’ve been doing while keeping the same Progtronica characteristics.

Many thanks to the people at Matrixsynth.com and especially Synthtopia.com who made it their “Sunday Synth Jam”, writing a nice introduction to the video. Props to all who link and anything I do.

Sidechaining with “The Stomp”

Nigel — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 05:24:46 +0000

After doing all the post production, polishing, and arraigning of all other logistical details for the release of the “Live For No One” EP, I’ve gotten back to exploring new production and performance techniques in Ableton Live. The most crucial of all of these has turned out the be the “sidechaining” of certain effects from some tracks within a song to other tracks, especially with compression. It is a technique that can range from extremely subtle and barely noticeable to quite pronounced and also can really change the feel and character of a song. More importantly, it makes the drums cut through the mix like a beast! In Ableton version 8, you can use this effect with Compression, Auto-Filter, and Gate, all of which can produce extremely cool sounds. The main technique I have been working on is grouping all the “ambient” tracks and applying sidechain compression to anything coming out of the drum tracks. Then I do the same with the Bass tracks but with slightly different ratio, attack, and release parameters. The result produces a pronounced movement between all the tracks, driven by the drums, which adds another element of rhythm to the music that is separate from the notes and sounds being played. This video “The Stomp” has a ton of compression sidechaining in this way and also a little of gate sidechaining which produces another great sound all together. In this track I am also live looping synths on my iPhone and mixing in a live produced beat using the Akai Mpd 24.

“After-Math”: a video dedicated to the internal and external volatility of the recent past

Nigel — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:41:25 +0000

Challenges and how we respond to them is large part of what makes us who we are. Of course everyone knows the cliché of “with crisis comes opportunity” but just what that opportunity is and how to execute it to its fullest potential is not always as clear cut. From an internal perspective the recent past has been filled with crises large and small that have resulted in improved situations, more complete understanding of those situations, creative inspiration and productivity. However, it was impossible without the cost of exhaustion, disappointment, and unpredictable levels of distress. This internal struggle has been reflected in the world at large with earthquakes, oil spills, economic and political upheaval, all of which have caused major shocks to the system for me personally as well as all else involved both directly and indirectly. All of these crises are at this moment determining what will happen with our lives and the world. Will we make the most of it? I feel like I have in my personal life but it took a lot of acceptance and action on things that were not ever easy. None of the world’s problems now are in any way easy either and I wonder if we humans as a collective have the guts to address them. I have seen too many individuals choose inaction over difficult choices with depressing results. When people work together they are capable of the most amazing as well as terrifyingly manipulative things. I hope that we can stand up to these challenges and restore a much needed combination of reason and fortitude to tackle what has occurred, and what has yet to come in 2011.

The debut Progtronica EP “Live For No One” is out and available for free preview!

Nigel — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 19:01:49 +0000

The time has finally come. The long awaited Progronica debut Ep has been officially released. In the coming weeks it will be available for all to purchase on iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster, and a host of other sites. In the meantime, I’m offering to preview and download for free the entire album. Check it out, pass it along, and watch out for the live Progtronica show coming to a venue near you.

Ableton Live House From Scratch (Total Electronica Improv)

Nigel — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 17:29:02 +0000

The release of the “Live For No One” ep is eminent so I have been spending most of my time getting my full length live set together to perform, but I got a little break from that intention when my old friend and musical collaborator Taylor McFerrin came through town on tour. He asked me to sit in and play the show in Santa Monica duo which was a great combination of nostalgic techniques and brand new ones that both of us have developed in the last 2 years since we’ve been on opposite coasts. Both of us learned the basics of Ableton Live together years ago and have gone on to develop our own techniques to use it for live performances. While rehearsing for the show, he opened my eyes to a little trick he uses to make loops on the spot which was an idea I had been toying with but hadn’t found just the right way to do it. Like most things with computers and software, sometimes the littlest trick opens huge doors.
For this video I created a whole house track from scratch with no preset loops. Each part is played then looped using the Akai MPD 24, then arraigned using the Novation Launchpad. This one is COMPLETELY live!

“The Theory is..” (mini club mix) featuring several iPhone synth apps in Ableton Live

Nigel — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 06:37:59 +0000

I’m working and reworking the last track for my debut album before sending it off the be mastered. In the process I got locked into this techno club vibe and went with it for this weeks video blog post. All the synthesizer sounds come from various iPhone apps and all drum parts were recorded live, then cut up and remixed in Ableton Live. All music is being mixed on the spot using a Novation Launchpad and ZeRO SL Mk II controllers and an iPhone. Filmed with a single Flip video camera and edited in iMovie.