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!

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 the first music video production from my new Long Beach studio, live drums and video by me, and featuring the Beatboxing skills of Taylor McFerrin as well as vocals from Philadelphia area vocalists Ryat, (as Human) and Shara Dae. The music was almost entirely written and produced on a quick coast to coast trip from California to Philadelphia for a old friend’s wedding, mostly on the many connecting flights and train rides. Following the slamming reception, extended after party, and impromptu late night hotel break-in pool party, I got these 3 artists to come back to my hotel room to lay down some of their stuff along to the semi abstract 7/8 Drum and bass piece I was working on. After getting home, I did a little mixing and editing, then re-recorded the drums live. The results are what you see here.

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.

This is my brand new video I created on 9/5/09 using a Mac running ableton Live 8 with and akai MPD 24 (like my old MPC) roland v-drums, and a small trumpet sample from Nils Petter Molvaer, all filmed on a flip share micro video camera. I just obtained this Akai controller and and it’s giving me flashbacks to when I used to make all my electronic sounds with the original mpc 2000. Using this thing with Ableton Live allows me to recreate all the digital mashup tricks I developed over the years when samples were much harder to edit and create. This is the second song from my upcoming solo ep to be released later this year!

This is the brand new video for my new song “From 10 to 11″ featuring Jubei on vocals (of L Maestro Presents). I recorded mixed and edited all the music as well as shooting and editing the video itself. The drum beats are all cut up clips from my own drum breaks mashed up into crazy time signatures. You can also find samples from the Cell Theory’s recent album ‘Memory is Energy,” and lots of other strange warped sounds. The results are something a little different then what you’ve yet seen or heard, and something brand new for me.

A few nights ago I found myself in a full fledged battle with me on one side, and my miscommunicating computer and new audio interface on the other. I had a simple project in mind for the evening: record few drum clips into Ableton Live from my v-drums so that I could cut them up and begin making a new piece out of them. However, nothing was working. As soon as I plugged my new m-audio interface into the computer there was devastating digital chaos and, as the night wore on it became clear it was not my destiny to accomplish this little project that night (I have since figured out the problem) and was filled with anxiety at not being able to do what I had set out to do. Sitting in a chair twitching, I decided I needed to get up and do something creative quick to get my mind off of the failure. I then decided I’d attempt to program a sequence on my Roland MC-909, set up the video camera, perform a piece live and fully cut and edit the video in the quickest time possible. In the end it was about 28 minutes thus the title “30 minutes or less”.