Nigel Sifantus » Novation ZeRO SL Mk II

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.

Happy 2011 From Progtronica “Rumbling Sleep”

Nigel — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:00:04 +0000

2011 is upon us and I couldn’t be happier about it. Don’t get me wrong, 2010 was far from a bad year, but the challenges, distractions, and relentless work load has lead to a perfect time for a reboot. Despite this need, I am very proud of where things have gone for Progtronica in the past 12 months. Last January the concept was just beginning to take an initial form, but needed time and experimentation to find what shape the project would end up taking. I wish I had more time this past year but learned to make the absolute most of what I had and along with molding what has become the Progtronica project, I have also refined my theory of creativity through speedy production. All too often in my musical live I have found myself in great creative projects that ended up losing all their momentum by constant tinkering to the point where no one involved liked what they heard anymore and all perspective was lost. I have taken the opposite approach: focusing on bringing an idea to some sort of finished piece in as quick a time as I possibly can, almost like a game. This often leads to things being rough around the edges, but at least I have something to show for the original idea before it is lost in creative oblivion. Nearly all of the videos I produced this past year (around 20) have been done in a single day from tracking the individual sounds, to the final video editing. What I have found consistently is that I have much more perspective on the music after a couple of weeks have gone by, and I’m usually much happier with it than I was mid-process. The main lesson for me is that the first idea is usually best, and if it isn’t I won’t come up with a better one until some time has passed and I can look/listen back to it with fresh ears and eyes.

The other aspect of what I have been doing that has become more clear to me over this past year is exactly what kind of performance I am after. Sometimes I have been working towards full Ableton controlled laptop performance using just a computer and controllers to make all the music. There are lots of aspects to this approach I find appealing and challenging. For one thing, there is very little actual gear I need to bring with me to make an immense amount of live improvised sound. Also It brings me more into the realms of the digital DJ world opening my music up to a much different audience more interested in the dance floor than the performer. This gives me the opportunity to slip my own creative ideas into a setting that might not be used to it, but is ready to hear it nonetheless. After working hard at this for most of the year though, I started bringing the focus back to my main skill, playing the drums, and using Ableton to create something of a futuristic one man band. For live performance this would bring me into different sorts of venues being that much more equipment is necessary (I can’t really set up a kit in a DJ booth) but it also has proved to be one of the more unique musical statements I have made and has regularly been met with an “I’ve never seen anything quite like that before” response which I must say I like.

In the end what I have settled on is doing a little bit of both. My goal for 2011 is not only to bring the Progtronica show to a live stage/club but to be able to do a show that works in a House club, or a rock concert and anything in-between (I’m going to try to stay away from the state fair circuit). With the freshness of the new year passing, I hope that I will be doing just that in the near future.

Cheers and Happy New Year!

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.

“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.