The Absurdity Of Performing Electronic Music Live
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- Опубліковано 8 чер 2024
- Maybe I should just turn touring into a sitcom series 🤔
- Patreon! Join us! / bennjordan
- The Flashbulb - Nothing Is Real: theflashbulb.bandcamp.com/alb...
(also available virtually everywhere music is available)
- ZDoggMD: zdoggmd.com/z-blogg/
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Who? Why?
3:05 - Regarding COVID
4:27 - Hacking a DJ Unit
6:30 - BPM Metadata
7:25 - Live Remixing
8:57 - TECHSPLANATION
11:53 - Problems
14:11 - Everything Goes Wrong
17:09 - The Setup
19:30 - The Performance
21:28 - The Teardown
22:30 - Silent Disco
24:10 - Sign Off
![Dubstep Is REALLY HARD To Make [feat. Mr. Bill]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vMRUUnQz5P4/mqdefault.jpg)
![Dubstep Is REALLY HARD To Make [feat. Mr. Bill]](/img/tr.png)
I think a lot of people underestimate how much work goes into making and performing music. They think you just press a few buttons and magic happens, when what really happened was you spent hours wondering why there's no sound coming out, why things are out of time, why your music sounds like shit and how you thought you'd recorded your best performance but you actually forgot to hit record so you have to do it all again, which is usually not as good etc.
And when you finally get through all that, you only get an un enthusiastic "that's cool" when you show your friends.
So true, just troubleshooting sound and midi is an art.
Tbf, he's the exception to the rule. Most artists in the electronic realm really do just "press play" and then twiddle with knobs that don't do anything.
This hurt to read.
BE ALWAYS PRESSING RECORD BUTTON. DAMMIT!
I feel you bro….
Underrated reply
❤️🔥
I was just about to recommend beardyman to this comment section
@@sigrice is this the real beardy man? 🌈
@@robertschnobert9090 no, it's fake
This was a well produced mini-documentary and you're totally right about the absurd part of getting the equipment to go together. I don't think I'd have the balls to go play for others with a raspberry pi proto board as a central component of my performance - I hope you had spares.
Man I don't think I'm going to buy Gemini any time soon
ua-cam.com/video/_nBK8sAl9nw/v-deo.htmlsi=PB4ql77bzNTOZSkb
The software engineer in me was thoroughly impressed when you broke out wireshark to analyse the packets coming from the Gemini. 👍 Really nice work!
^This!
I'm no software engineer but i had to do some similar things to get hardware to play nice on stage. Nothing to the extent of firing up the ol linux box to packet sniff though thats insane XD but holy fuck i know this struggle D:
@@chuckyb_ same
@@thecriticallyilldrinker6214 at some point I wanted to be done with all the cables, hardware, setup time, troubleshooting on stage 5m before showtime etc so I gave up and I've been running an ableton set with two midi keyboards in a rack mount pc ever since. All the processing is done in my rack I just plug in two USB cables and my mic and let my engineer do the rest XD
As a solo looping improv artist myself. Seeing the anxiety in someone else's eyes in freaking out over a functioning MIDI pick-up, Was so relatable that I kinda got stuck in my tracks. I genuinely have never felt that kind of kinship with anyone before. Getting your rig all set up and explaining it just hoping that some one will (get even a little of what you're doing), and praying that you're not just talking to deaf ears, stopping half way through in your head going (does anyone even care?) And then soldering on. This video just helped me out more than you'll ever know.
Yeah… same here. I’ve had similar gigs, similar problems. Oh and BTW, Benn is the only UA-cam artist that I not only watch; I listen to his music. Keep on keeping on, Brother!
watching the flashbulb struggle with a shitty cable was really affirming somehow
I feel like a first year college freshman who is gaining confidence in their chosen study path, working on the 101 classes, developing some techniques and styles, who one day overhears the PhD students discuss their doctorates and I realize just how long and daunting of a road is ahead. Wow.
This made me so happy! Just seeing another technologist having to tech the F*** out of their setup (because it's not all jams and loops). It gave me peace, and I'm content in the struggles of working with gear sometimes.
Also, I'm no longer going to be apologetic for liking to read manuals. Thanks for sharing and being open with us.
Also, cable labeling is KEY. I don't know how much time I've spent labeling cables...
What do you use to label them with?
@@davewebster689 i use a labelmaker most of the time, but there is multiple options.
great to see all the generals of the one-man-armies over here . I salute u!
Reading manuals, in bed, is a most reliable way of getting off to sleep. 😜😴💤💤
@@KozmykJ fax..
This is the video I have wanted for a while now. I’ve felt so mystified by live electronic music. I am used to DIY hardcore/metal, where people turn up with guitars, amps, a drum kit, and some mics. Electronic has always been a big “how”.
To be fair, almost no one has as complex a live one man show as this. You have to be an uber-genius to pull all this off with artistry and minimal technical glitches.
EPROM used to bring his whole modular rig on tour with him, but later whittled it down to something more reasonable ua-cam.com/video/LEIdFZrgkqU/v-deo.html
Still - lots of metal bands do make use of samplers or synthesizers, not just pianos and organs. The symphonic bands do not bring an orchestra with them - they bring a synth, which is basically an electronic instrument. And modern synth-goth bands especially do make a huge use of synths and samplers.
Imma shoutout Mr. Bill for those that like electronic music performed live. He used to tour with a Drummer and had his Ableton set switching between midi instruments so he could perform it... Eventually he just said "no-one cares, it's about what comes outta the speakers" and stopped. But he taught the techniques so hopefully other people continue it.
The thing is while I wanna shout at Benn to just use a laptop, computers/laptops are freakin chaos magnets. Every single time you need them to not fail is when they do fail.
Loved the performance clips. You're a damn good musician, Benn. Thank you :)
this live performance he's doing is so hard and risky to pull without mistakes ,big respect
One underappreciated detail about live music that really comes through here is how much energy it takes a musician to set up all their shit, after which they do the actual performance and have it come out right. Huge respect for putting such an amazing and complicated set together.
I always love montages over Flashbulb songs in your videos. Thanks for covering the setup and show!! Really enjoyed this one.
Brilliant work Benn, you are a genius! This was such a great video and really shows what it takes to be a complex electronic music live performer.
I've been waiting for this type of insight into your live performances since I discovered your music 4 years ago. Thank you for sharing. I'd really love to see the whole performance video!
Feels like I'm watching a documentary about myself. I love "There's a thin line between "practice" and "procrastination".
Thank you Benn for making this, you're amazing and your productions made my existence much more enjoyable.
I really enjoyed this video. Thank you. I liked that you gave us a full view of the whole process. It was very helpful for me to see the passion and serious dedication you have for performing your music vision the way you see it. This was inspiring.
Really appreciate you sharing your experience! All your behind the scenes prep work, and the last minute stress is relatable. Seems like everything worked out well! Congratulations!
This is so passionate, i love it my guy! I just wanna ear you play live as i let it all go and let it be the last thing i ear as i slowly fade peacefully into nothingness. You are inspiring me so much and i only got here today. That's insane.
I respect you as an artist and content creator so much...please do not stop what you do. It is both inspiring and fascinating.
Whoa! I’ve been following your vids for the great technical insights and didn’t realise what an insanely good musician you are! Fantastic stuff Ben.
man you nailed down the feelings of dread before a performance so accurately. you pack it up knowing the next time you touch it you gotta commit or else. that has given me so much anxiety over the years but lately I realized I'm quite addicted to the pressure that comes with the responsibility. stellar video and show!!
That was fascinating ! Thanks for taking us through the setup and the actual festival too ! ❤❤
Great video man. Good to see all the hard work. Very inspiring.
I was lucky enough to catch both of your sets, thank you for all the hard work! It was really cool to see you pull this one off
Best gig vlog I’ve ever seen…thanks for sharing this.
I'm more amazed that while in the midst of a time-tight and panic-laden situation, he still finds the wherewithal to shoot video so we can watch it happen.
i loved this video! i was fascinated by the technical breakdown, and surprisingly moved by the festival section. thanks for making this!
As I witnessed how hard it was to make the show happen, so was it wonderful to see all the people out there loving it. The scale on both ends seemed exponential, but worth it. Thanks for sharing. Made my bands 1st show in six years this weekend seem easy by comparison, even if it didn’t feel like it at the time. Music is worth it.
Thank you so much for the detailed look behind the curtain!
Hey man, this was my first video of you and your music. I just want to tell you that this was genuinely fascinating and I was pretty stunned by what you were able to do in a live setting. I’m sure soloing like this feels overwhelming at times, for another set of hands will halve somethings weight. But I’ve found in the music world that not everyone is willing to carry the load. In some ways, this endeavor of yours is a kind-of ideal for me and it’s really inspiring to see someone flat-out do what I’ve always dreamed might be possible. So yeah, really for real - great job.
I'm really glad you wound up deciding to follow through on the Infrasound booking. Was pretty handily one of my favorite sets of the weekend. Was lovely to have a chance to geek out over it + Richard Devine with all my weird nerd friends.
1- Thank you for making all these darned beautiful, informative and interesting videos. You've been my favorite UA-cam creator for a long time now. I'm cash tight right now, but when I'm back in a more financially comfortable situation, I will definitely sign up to your Patreon.
2- "I don't know why I'm doing this to myself" was fairly on point, BUT, in the end you do this because you're a tech-inclined perfectionist and you seem to be unable to just let "hmmm, I wish [this] could do [that]" be. Which ultimately seems to let you create what you wanted to create in the first place!
3- It always amazes me just how brilliant you are at so many different things. My jaw drops at the tech stuff, then also at the music composition, and then you go into this incredibly smooth and wonderful jazz piano part and then whip out a crazy guitare solo. DUDE. Wow. I know hard work has a heck of a lot to do with it but still, wow fucking props!
4- How did you manage to fix or overcome the last-minute issues of the "Everything Goes Wrong" section?
5- Are you... okay man? That smile at 22:30 hit hard. At the end of all that, I felt emotionally drained, and I can't imagine how you were feeling coming back. Though I have a feeling 23:57 probably sums it up relatively well. Uhmm, do you want a hug?... Either way, I'd be interested in hearing a real postmortem of the experience, and the reasons behind the "last show in the foreseeable future" quote.
6- Again, thank you. I really appreciate what you do!
Thank you, this is exactly the video I was hoping for from that event. It's good to see the Axoloti in there holding everything together, it was one of the first videos I watched from your channel and made for a nice call back.
Benn, that you so much for sharing your music and making absolutely next-level videos!!! A request, please keep the rest of the improv jams! I felt like I was with you in the creative process checking things out and feeling the moment, and then the fast forward kicked in. It would be awesome if you kept more of the early improv work!
im in tears at starbucks watching this, finally something i can share with family who knows nothing of the struggles i have with my passion. its kind of a personal thing. most people arent intrigued by watching somebody set up their gear or practice their set nor does anybody for that matter want to sit through the creative process for more than 5 minutes (EVERYBODY HAS ADD). I APPRECIATE EVERY OUNCE OF DEDICATION YOUVE POURED INTO THIS. above all your ability to remain cool throughout what some of us would have had meltdowns, tantrums, hissy fits, episodes, timeouts, ,anxiety, and the rest of the spectrum of coping we artists have. I'm blown away with how much this resonates with me. Thank you again for your dedication. I'm a much bigger fan of your work now, and will support in any way I can.
you just paved a path I feel that was once just a foxtrail, with some cobble stone.
What a great video Benn. Love it when people show what its really like
You're amazing Benn, Thank you!
I saw you with your Treefield setup in Portland over 10 years ago, it was a freezing cold weekday night,
I drove 2 hours to come see you because I had been a fan for many years prior, it was a truly incredible show, your projector/visualizer setup was something incredible and indescribable. You were walking around and I was too shy and awkward to say hi. I appreciate what you do.
Brilliant video. Thanks for the insights, Benn!
I appreciate this video so much, and all of your videos really, awesome stuff!
Hi Benn, I just discovered your channel and seeing how much time and effort you put into solving all the many problems that arise actually gives me hope, it relativizes the problems I have that seem insurmountable and it shows me that with dedication and resolve, creating quality music is not out of reach. Just have to dive deep into the shmuck.
Stellar documentary! (If that's what you can call this?). I can tell you put a lot of work into it. Really appreciate the break down & drawings of all your gear. Glad to see you're potentially doing more shows as well. Would love to have you out here in rainy Seattle!
awesome. much thanks for your experience and sharing it.
Thank you so much for the inspiration as always. I have to refine my live setup for sure. I love your work man.
You are my kind of geek, dude. Invaluable overview, just deep enough, and THANK you for the hard work of cutting it up for our intake. (He bows reverently.)
this is the kind of inspiring work that makes you take a long look at everything you do. Truly mind-blowing attention to craft.
omg what an extremely high quality production, wtf, lol you are so versatile in skills and talent!!
Oh man. This has been my fav Benn Jordan vid so far. And I have definitely seen everything that has come out in the last year. Such a cool life this is.
very inspiring work ! Thanks for sharing
Much respect for making all your knowledge and creativity come together for this show. I wish I would have been there.
Now I want to hear that entire live set. That was amazing.
great to see you gigging!
got you pay a short live set at the Electric Picnic staff event a couple of weeks ago (it made me very happy)
I loved this episode even though I didn’t watch it when it was posted a year ago. I think it’s amazing that you did what you did, to get this rig functional. And hearing that aliasing/dithering issue would have driven me right mental. You soldiered on.
shaking out all those cables onstage, during set up, gave me the shudders! You have a level of skill and patience not possessed by most humans. Thank you for the share!
Awesome video and super insightful. Above all the music was amazing! Thanks so much and keep them coming please, especially live set up videos :)
Absolutely fabulous that was riveting thank you. You’ve got yourself a new Patreon
This is so awesome! I had to miss infrasound and missing you was one of my biggest regrets of not being able to make it happen. Also great to see all my nerdy friends in the green room respecting your privacy =P
I enjoyed seeing your live music setup. Very entertaining video!
while pretty much all of your videos are great, i feel this one is exceptionally well made. it really stands out, plus, it's interesting even for people who don't know you or anything about music production. great work!
I clicked because I love to geek out over gear and specifically live electronic setups. It surely delivered on that front. But I also ended up finding this video deeply moving and inspirational on a soul level. Thank you. Grateful to have discovered you and your channel a few weeks ago as I start to dive back into music production in earnest.
Your show looked insane! Absolutely loved it.
Thank you for making videos for us.
That was really fun to watch, Benn. Thanks for showing "how the sausage is made". I'm working on a performance rig, and it's great to see how other people do it.
pretty emotional near the end. awesome video man
Awesome. You are an inspiration!
Thank you for sharing this journey. Glad to see devices syncing is not trivial and I'm not the only one.
Thanks for this trip!
Great vid. Man, when I used to play live, I'd spend weeks mapping out the gear and cabling. Now, I've made a super small and easy live looping rig - an Elektron Analog Keys and Pigtronix looper. That's it! Two pieces of gear, two cables. One stand. It feels so good to show up to a gig carrying only a single gig bag.
Congratulations! This is the first music type video I've ever seen that references WireShark :)
you're the flashbulb??? holy crap I remember listening to you while I was growing up. dang that's incredible
Wow, such an impressive video - yeah, the video alone! Then everything in it... Top quality, like always.
Benn, you are truly amazing, talented and … well a little bit crazy (in the nicest sense of the word). That is high wire without a safety net and I loved it. If only I could have seen your whole set live. Cheers. Lee
Wow. So much effort. Thanks for sharing.
Man, you smashed it in the end, and you're a proper genius imho, amazing performance by the looks of it!
Well produced insight into your efforts on live set prep! I was doing basically the exact same thing last weekend, including prepping sample BPMs when I should have been on the road to the gig LOL. All those years of Tetris paid off when loading the gear into the car. :)
You are a real inspiration. Thanks so much!!!
Very nice insight in to your work.
Cool to see you on the road and a gig.
This was big time
Very nice! Awesome music!
Thanks awesomeness and full of insight! Man your live set up stresses me out!
[Edit - but the flexibility is super awesome]
Such a great video running through emotions of dawless electronic live set up experience. Just played a gig in San Francisco fitting 10 synths in a Honda civic trunk. None of my friends or the stage crew knew what to do and I spent the whole drive home thinking about simplifying my set up for live gigs
Very interesting, thanks for these insights. Love these kinds of videos. :)
Damn never seen that stress line down the middle of your forehead before! I’ve got one from that midi pickup too. I stopped using it because the promise was so great but the reality was heartbreaking. So happy to see someone having something approaching happiness with it. Greetings from New Mexico!
Being a guitar player that is recently last 7 years taking electronic music and turning it organic live performing with DJs I appreciate you in ways you can't imagine you Rock brotha and thank you for you and thank you for your Channel I'll be joining your Discord soon and sending you some stuff that I do bless you and Merry Christmas
"I don't know why I'm doing this to myself" - as a (low key) music electronics hacker and programmer myself, that's an entirely too relatable sentiment.
is that a bong back there that's, like, on the verge of falling & spilling bongwater on the euroboro & friends? great vid as always, brother benn. we love you so much!!
God this gave me goosebumps and reminded me so much about what I love and hate about performing live. Talk about a dream line up too! With Telefon Tel Aviv and Richard Divine! Wish I could have been there!
Part of the reason I got back into hardware music making was the desire to play live and this gives me hope. I think this is why I try and write on the gear I would use to perform live. That way I reckon that if by some miracle I ever get to play live I should be good to go.
Freaking awesome show, and great video and audio quality too! I've been watching your videos for over a year and only now do I notice that you're a fellow lefty!
You’re so underrated man
I remember blasting dishevel at 6am just bolting with energy
respect for your work....
Lovely stuff!
Very, very cool to see. And very well put together.
As someone who only did one "real" electronic gig of "just" 30 minutes, it's great fun to recognise all those steps!! It's insane but I'm glad people like you are doing it!
For people who like those experiences, I like to write something down about that gig. [sorry it got a bit lenghty!]
End of 2019 a friend called me that he was organising a very small party in the different rooms of the building where he lives.
And that he liked to challenge me to perform there. There was not supermuch time to prepare, and I did not even really have songs with the setup I was using back then.
(in the past - 1998 to about 2013 - I mainly used computers and after 2013 stopped making music for years. I was just getting into it, again, with hardware).
I used a Moog Grandmother, Boss RC505 loopstation, Korg ES2 as "MIDI-brain", and a very small Behringer mixer.
So having a week off of my dayjob, I just relentlessly made music - like one track every day, until I had enough for about 30 minutes. I practiced endlessly and recorded my set multiple times to check afterwards. Stubborn as I am, I wanted to use different patches on the Grandmother. So I created patchsheets and (haha!) practiced to patch as quickly as I could near the end of each track.
I succeeded in putting a set together in the short time and that was very satisfying! I practiced packing everything, I bought backup-cables for everything, and then the day was there.
Since I have no car, I had to go by public transport. One big bag with foam protection with the Grandmother in it, over my shoulder. One fantastic and long trolley (with wheels) with everything else.
It was quite do-able in public transport, although not ideal. Finally arriving after some searching in that city, the door was open. But.....there was a very steep stairway that I had to take. Yelling and calling made no sense. And there was a quite busy market place so I didn't want to drop my stuff and go up the stairs first. So somehow I managed to create a rush of power, and go up those stairs with al the gear on my own. Preparing and connecting everything was quite stressful, but luckily there was another "first-time-electronic performance-dude" so we were toghether in it.
I played after his gig. But his gig was over in like 10 minutes in stead of 30, and I did not have dinner yet. Haha, so allright, just go for it. And even it was REALLY small, small audience and such, it still felt very intense to press a "play" button and just GO for it. I never heard my Grandmother on a PA system, and it sounding so f*cking good made some of my nerves go away. I was very lucky that the audience liked most of it, although it was very awkward that I had to patch between tracks. But they were lovely and forgiving. And it was great to see some of them dance to my music - really fun if you are just not experienced in playing live.
After it I felt relieved and kind of satisfyed. One thing I learned is that you must be reaaally willing to do this - I lived in almost complete isolation to finish this, and deadlines bring lots of stress. So I immensely respect the musicians that really time after time go for this - it's a lot of dedication.! I filmed it and put it online, but I think direct links are not tolerated by UA-cam. If you happen to like to see it, it's somewhere between IDM and Electro and Ambient, it's findable under "MAHU live gig Collectifest". Unfortunately the audience was largely at the site where the camera wasn't :( but anyway!
Cheers from Holland! Enjoy music while you have ears!
Thanks for sharing, great video. I'm a touring mix engineer for theater and music and those first couple gigs back were intense in all the ways. I can't really practice mixing in theaters and outdoor festivals so I was irrationally concerned that I didn't remember how to do the thing. I remembered and that first show back was probably one of the best souding shows I've mixed. The theater and gear was top notch luckily!
Your methods are very much into what I am thinking. Greetings from Greenville, SC!
Was going to use multitrack recorder with midi clock out.
Thank you for the great video, I am enjoying your content a lot. I have a piece of feedback regarding your thumbnails: On my end, bottom texts tend to be covered by the time duration, which makes half the text unreadable on some of your videos. Hopefully that is helpful!
All the emotions - loved it!
That looked like an amazing show. I would love to go to a show like what you showed here. I just saw a King Crimson, and a Primus show recently. It reminded me how much I like shoes. We do not get many electronic shows here in Cincinnati.