Progtronica Ableton Live/Novation Launchpad weekly dj set. 2-11-20 by Progtronica

This week’s performance is the longest to date and has the most aggressive time signature changes. Here is the YouTube edit of the performance. To see the full thing visit this Vimeo link. Also I have provided the full audio to listen to here and download for free from soundcloud.

In other news, I’ve been experimenting with Ableton live’s “looper”effect which is loaded with live performance possibilities, but is also a tricky little animal. For those familiar with Ableton, a looper effect almost seems redundant since the whole program is based on looping. The effect, however, is a totally independent effect that works more like a “boomerang” guitar effect looper but is quantized to the tempo of the song. Using it I was able to do this little experiment creating a track with live layered drums. I haven’t yet totally figured out hot to have total control of this feature but I think is will work it’s way into my regular performance arsenal being that it is so dope nasty.

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!

Progtronica weekly Ableton DJ set part 2 – 2/4/10 by Progtronica

Here it is! Part 2 of the weekly Progtronica DJ series. This one is a little bit longer then the first one and incorporates a few new tunes. Featured in This week’s performance I  mixed the tunes “Drum n bass for a Rainy day”, “Lets Face the music”, “Rolling with Strings” “Progtronica 2″ and part of “Progtronica 1″. The video in this post contains highlights from the 16 minute performance because with the restrictions of YouTube, I can only post 10 minutes of material. To hear the entire set click on the sound cloud player directly below the video. You can also download the mix for free. To do this simply click on the downward pointing arrow on the right of the waveform! Enjoy

For the past 6 months or so I have been creating “Progtronica” tracks as solo performances using Ableton Live software and a few different controllers most notably the Novation Launchpad which has completely changed my musical approach. I have been creating music usually centering around samples of my own drumming mixed with found sounds musically based and otherwise, then manipulated them, re-sampled them, and arraigning them so that I could make live interpretations of my own composed music. I have been publishing these solo tracks as single song entities here on this site and on youtube, Vimeo, and now on Soundcloud where the tracks can be download for free (for the time being). The tracks I have compiled are in the process of being mixed, mastered and will soon be available as an album: Progtronica- Live From Nowhere.

My other main goal however, has been to find a way to perform more then just one track at a time, but to mix them together as a DJ and put on full sets of this music, complete with time signature and tempo changes. I have tried out several different techniques that all had some flaws in execution, but recently I had a lesson with LA based Ableton guru Thavius Beck who gave me a few key pointers that totally opened my mind to an approach that works. Many thanks to Thavius for giving me a few key pointers and understanding completely what I was going after. That was the first “music” lesson I had had in years!

So now I’m hard at work re-arraigning my tracks into one mega set that I can take into clubs and bring a totally new face and sound to electronica/breakbeat/drum n’ bass/ downtempo/whatever. In the meantime I am starting weekly DJ set broadcasts, the first of which is featured here with the full set available on soundcloud for streaming and free download! Performed on January 30 2010 on a full moon, this is the first full dj style Progtronica mashup. Featuring 5 songs from the upcoming Progtronica Album,  ‘American Dream”, Progtronica 2, “Rolling with Strings”, “Progtronica, and “Lets Face the Music” are all mixed together live using Novation’s Launchpad.

Progtronica “Full Moon” dj style mega mix live 1/30/10 by Progtronica

This one is about 15 minutes long and is my first real attempt but I’m going to be doing these every week so in a little while this stuff should get pretty crazy. I also plan to get some live drums involved but for now I can create amazingly vast music with just my Laptop, a couple wires, and 2 little controllers. Kind of nice for a guy who’s lugged around a huge drum set, samplers, and midi controllers for years. Stay tuned…

2010 is going to be an exciting year for Progtronica. I am nearing the compleation of compiling all the tracks for my debut solo release “Progtronica-Live from Nowhere” The raw version of all the performances have been featured an all my recent videos. The next step is mixing, mastering and arraigning them into album form. Recently I have added 2 brand new performances featured on this page: “Rolling with Strings” and “Drum n’ Bass for a Rainy Day” both featuring my new (awesome) piece of gear, the Novation ZeRO SL Mk II midi controller, which has tons of faders and knobs etc. Partnered with my beloved Novation Launchpad and Ableton Live Suite 8 things are getting really crazy here in my studio. 2010 is going to be the year of Progtronica!
Also check out the new “Progtronica Live for No One” channel on Vimeo.

In this post are 2 recent live home performances: ”Progtronica – Live Extended Outdoor Edition” recorded outside on my deck under the setting sun of Long Beach California on December 20th. The second video is “Progtronica 2” which features a mix of triggered drum samples and live drumming on Roland V-Drums in a shifting 5/4 time. Both were recorded and performed using Ableton Live 8 and Novation’s new “Launchpad” a dedicated Ableton controller. All the drums are played by me live at some point, either at the point of performance, or at the beginning of composition. The other sounds are usually created from scratch using Ableton’s software instriments, or my manipulating samples of found sounds, chopping, editing, and transposing them to make melodic and harmonic phrases and textures.

Stay tuned for more info about the upcoming release which will be available for download and traditional CD purchase online through this website and all the other places where one finds music to add to their collection now days. After the release I plan to take this show on the road so watch out!

This is a Novation Launchpad remix in 20/8 time of my song “Lets Face The Music” (a tribute to Phillip Glass, The Cinematic Orchestra, and the MPC 2000) all of which were deep inspirations for this piece. I approached this one a little differently then my recent “remixes” incorporating some live drums (using Roland V-Drums) using the same sounds as the ones I used to chop up the original drum breaks. For this one I triggering all the individual parts of the music live and manipulated some of the sound effects. All music played by me using various triggers including the akai mpd 24, the Launchpad, keyboards, as well as all the drums parts being are cut and sliced from live V-Drum performances using Ableton Live 8.

I have been working with Ableton Live as my main digital music platform for a few years, using several different controllers to trigger sounds, samples, drum breaks and affect different parameters in real time while mixing music. With this unit though, I’m bringing it to a whole different level. Here are two live home performances: “Progtronica” a live jungle mashup, and “American Dream Remix” a live performance of the music from my film of the same title. I am just getting started with this so stay tuned. I plan to keep working this technique so that I can play for hours continuously.