Nigel Sifantus » nigel

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.

Live duo performance with Taylor McFerrin at Zanzibar

Nigel — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 05:53:07 +0000

My old friend and musical collaborator Taylor McFerrin called me a few weeks ago and said he was rolling through LA on tour supporting his soon to be released album “Early Riser” and invited me to sit in with him at his show at Zanzibar in Santa Monica. Naturally I was totally excited to revive our old chemistry and eager to see what we would actually do. The show was put on by KCRW Dj Aaron Byrd and featured the bands Master Blaster and Electric Wire Hustle. It ended up being an amazing evening and we played a mix of Beat-box, Rhodes, Drums, iPhone, and dueling Ableton Live systems at times building beats from scratch on the spot using the Akai APC 40 and the Novation Launchpad. The whole show ended up being a total free form improv and it went places we didn’t even know we would go. One of the other DJ’s from the night, Anthony Valadez also posted this video recap of the night which has some great footage from the whole experience.

“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.

130 Twisted Beats Live Mix

Nigel — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:17:21 +0000

I’ve been working on putting my newest tracks into my “Master Set” in Ableton Live so that they are performance ready. After an extremely long week (and long Saturday night to blow off some steam) I woke up ridiculously early and threw down this mix. It’s a bit raw but shows the new direction I’ve been headed with regards to tempo and sounds.

“Quicktronic” a “Be-Bot” iphone and Ableton jam

Nigel — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 06:37:32 +0000

This broken beat/house song i had been working over in my head for a few days, but the recording took record time. Sometimes that is the best way to write; think about it for a while then just pour it out as fast and unfiltered as possible. This is certainly unfiltered. I had been wanting to work with this amazing “Be-Bot” music app on the iPhone for a while. The thing is a “singing” robot that plays and basically sounds like a theremin. I used to own a theremin so I love the sound.

Creativity has a way of coming in waves

Nigel — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 04:09:42 +0000

Well I must say it has been a powerful and challenging month…better make that 6 months…okay the entire past year. My will as well as all those around me has been tested, the limits of exhaustion have been met and surpassed, tough decisions have been made, and emotions have been raw. As a result creativity has had a way of coming in waves. First crashing so hard it is hard to keep riding, than rolling back leaving me with the sometimes confusing decision of where to go next. Right now, however, all things are starting fresh and in this I have absolutely no doubt. I may have proclaimed myself an atheist, but I still believe in synchronicity, and that patterns and coincidences do exist and they can lead us in the right directions if we pay attention. This is my own version of “everything happens for a reason” which I don’t believe is exactly the case. What I do believe in is logic and the possibility of order when the combination of people, nature, and machines work together in harmony. It is in these situations that humans are capable of what seems impossible, and it is in these cases that coincidences and “signs” seem to pop up all around. Recently has certainly been one of those times.

With that being said, I’ve been hard at work finishing up the debut Progtronica album. We have a cover, most of the tracks are done, and I’m just deciding whether I want to add some of the new things I’ve been working on. Here are my two most recent video/tracks, both with a different feel and tempo then where my comfort zone usually resides. This has not been a time for “comfort zones” anyway.
This first one is called “Five Four on the Floor”, a house track in 5/5 with a kind of Brazilian feel. I’m mixing 7 tracks in Ableton Live using the Novation Launchpad while playing the drums live. No post production on this, fully live.

This second one is a live remix of my recent track “Candle that Burns From Both Ends”. On this one I decided to film it outside at sunset with no power cables used at all. The controllers are running off the computer’s battery through USB and I’m hearing the sound from a boombox. Ableton Live Anywhere!

"Candle that Burns From Both Ends" a Progtronica Dark House performance

Nigel — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:57:01 +0000

After a brief hiatus from creating new Progtronica tracks while I’ve been mixing and mastering the debut record, a new bomb live track has dropped: “Candle That Burns From Both Ends”. This track is dedicated to the past 2 weeks of craziness involving a massively busy schedule, a properly extreme Las Vegas hiatus with no sleep followed by a surreally extreme traffic jam in death valley. While staying at the Hard Rock Hotel (highly recommended for partying fun in Vegas) My wife and I met up with Dj extraordinaire Tatiana Alvarez late at night and talked music until dawn. The conversation inspired me to delve into the land of 4 on the floor house beats, something I love to play, but rarely compose. This deep dark House boomer is what came out. In the original video below I mixing 8 tracks on Ableton Live using the Novation Launchpad while playing drums live on Roland V-Drums. I whipped this video out in a daze over the course of a past weekend and it is meant as just a rough cut. I usually like to commit something new to finished recording as soon as possible, and then refine it later after I’ve had some personal distance from the creative process. Later I refined the tracks and remixed it live outside using no power cords. The result is the featured video on top of the post. Booty shaker no doubt.

Progtronica Weekly Ableton DJ Series week 3. This Week with Live Drums.

Nigel — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 02:46:09 +0000

Progtronica Ableton Live Weekly DJ set Week 3, 2/11/10 by Progtronica

Performed on February 11th 2010, this is the 3rd installment of My “Progtronica Weekly Dj Performance Series”. All music created using Ableton live, mixed, re-sampled, edited, and mixed live using Novation’s Launchpad dedicated Ableton controller. This mix features the songs “The Beat Repeater” “Dreaming (feat beatboxing by Taylor McFerrin, Ryat and Shara Dae on vocals)”, “Progtronica 1 (with a small Cinematic Orchestra sample)”, and “Rolling with Strings” all from the upcoming album: “Progtronica – Live From Nowhere” due out later this spring. All the drum parts are recorded live me, then sampled, edited, and re-mixed. However, for this weeks broadcast there is some “real” live drumming mixed in to a couple of the tunes. All Live, all solo, all Raw! Progtronia weekly DJ Series 2010!