How to perform electronic music live! (I try to summarize my book...)
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- Опубліковано 7 сер 2024
- Hey all! I'm super excited to announce the launch of my new book "Performing Electronic Music Live", which is now available from Routledge (and in shops like Amazon!)
In this video, I thought I'd summarize all of the key ways in which you can perform electronic music live, including DJing, DAWs, MIDI controllers, traditional instruments, live sound design, hardware setups, custom software and hardware, and live visuals. Your show concept is the most important thing - but there are many different things you can try.
** Video content
00:00 Introduction
03:27 Building blocks of electronic performance setups
05:47 DAWs and controllers (Ableton and more!)
09:13 MIDI hardware controllers
13:53 Incorporating acoustic instruments and vocals
15:23 Live synthesis and sound design
17:35 Performing without a laptop
19:17 Programming custom performance tools (Max, SuperCollider and more)
21:49 Building custom hardware tools
23:55 The performance setting
24:50 Stage design and visual parameters
25:33 Planning and promotion
26:35 Summary
** Tutorial Playlist:
• Big news: I've written...
** Find out more about the book on the companion website:
www.performingelectronicmusic...
** Order the book here:
routledge.pub/PerformingElect...
** More about the book:
Performing Electronic Music Live
This comprehensive book lays out the conceptual approaches, tools and techniques for performing electronic music, from DJing, DAWs, MIDI controllers, traditional instruments, live sound design, hardware setups, custom software and hardware to live visuals, venue acoustics and live show promotion. Via the companion website, performingelectronicmusic.live, readers can expand on their knowledge with hands-on video tutorials for each chapter.
Live music is exhilarating - it creates life-changing experiences and powerful emotions. Technology can make us feel empowered, enable us to overcome limiting beliefs and allow us to achieve a high level of creative expression, no matter our background or skillset. The options are virtually endless, ranging from laptop setups to new instruments built from scratch. Through case studies and contrasting tutorials by successful artists, Kirsten Hermes guides us through many different ways in which you can create memorable experiences on stage. This is backed up with historic and scientific facts ranging from psychology to marketing. The book also features interviews with highly accomplished musicians and practitioners, including superstar trance DJ Alex M.O.R.P.H., BBC Audio R&D and live show designer Laura Escudé, who has worked with Kanye West, Missy Elliot and Herby Hancock.
The book is not a dogmatic to-do list, but rather, it explores many contrasting examples of successful approaches, to help you turn overwhelm into inspiration. Whether you are a student, hobby producer or a more advanced performer, this book gives you a comprehensive overview over your options. Students of music production courses, particularly at postgraduate level, but also researchers in the field of creative-focused performance technology will find this to be a useful, all-encompassing resource, with many starting points and resources for a deeper creative exploration.
"Performing Electronic Music Live" is part of the "Audio Engineering Society Presents" series.
Get in touch:
nyokeeinfo@gmail.com
Subscribe to Nyokeë’s official UA-cam channel:
/ @nyokee
Follow Nyokeë:
www.nyokeemusic.com
/ nyokeemusic
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Whoa, 10K views, thank you so much everyone! Even better: thanks for all your wonderful and thoughtful comments, I love reading them!
wow, thank you so much! i've been looking for someone to walk me through it start to finish like this - you're a godsend!
Thank you! So glad to hear that!! 😊
This is so so helpful! Thank you so much!
Glad to hear, thank you :)
Thanks for the visual and explanation 👍
You're very welcome :D
That's a really good overview, I am intrigued by the live coding and building software/hardware. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for watching! :) The tutorial playlist link is in the description, so you should be able to find the hardware and software videos in there somewhere :D
Excellent overview! Congratulations.
Thank you, glad it helped :)
This is one of the most informative videos I've seen that gives you a great overview of how to perform electronic music live! Thank you for the awesome video!!
Thanks so much, really appreciate it!! :)
This was so helpful thank you! Btw your mannerisms when explaining and performing remind me of Grimes
So glad it was helpful! Haha, I can see what you mean, love Grimes! :)
so well versed and wise ty
Thank you 😊
The visuals definitely help with the explanation. This is something that I was curious about because I come from a background of playing metal bands as a guitar player.
That's cool, glad it was helpful! :)
Thanks for making this book
You're very welcome :)
Congratulations on the book.
Thanks Jim :)
Thank you so much
You’re welcome 😁
Cool...thx a lot ! Greetings from Thailand.
My pleasure, have a great day :D
Massive respect for loving the JD-XA
Yeah, it's great, especially love the vocoder :D
I've spent so much of my life trying to answer this question, and then along come 100 gecs doing exactly as you said, "you could sing to a backing track", and somehow they make it look cool! I don't think they even took their vocal tracks out! Adam Neely has a cool video about acousmatic sounds ("Is playing to track cheating?") and how people are more comfortable with backing tracks of non-physical sounds (e.g. synths and electronic drums) than ones that are bound to physical objects. I have a solo project that mixes electronic and post-rock elements, and have tried playing out solo myself. The electronic aspects feel fine to have in tracks, but as soon as acoustic drums or guitar tracks come in I feel like such a phony. All this to say, I'm glad more people are talking about this, looking forward to diving into your book!
That's so interesting! Great point about physical objects! Then again genres like hip hop are really tied to sampling (often of acoustic music recordings), but it's somehow acceptable because it's a sound world inside another sound world. Prerecorded lead vocals seem unacceptable, but are normal in a DJ set. Miming is often frowned upon but considered an art form in drag shows. I really think it depends on the context, the audience, the space, what you do visually... There are so many cultural conventions that will influence our perception of liveness, and I think that constructing a stage show in itself is a form of artistic expression, rather than a mechanical, predetermined process.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! :)
Hahaha great Performance @ 7:14 😂
:D
I am developing a sequencer and sample player for the Nintendo 3DS :)
Great video!
Ooh, that's cool. What programming language is that, and how do you even get it onto the console?
Enjoyed the video , subbed and ordered the book.
I've been mainly DAWless this year, using a ndlr with hardware and it's been lots of fun. (Way back in the day it was Pro24 on an Atari ST to trigger gear!) I like the uniqueness of each performance.
Looking forward to reading your book.
That sounds great, and thanks so much :)
I like how DAW-less setups allow you to build your own custom instrument, and remove some of the choice paralysis you get in a DAW :)
@@Nyokee very much so. After starting with Live, later Bitwig back when it was still very new, I've deleted all the plugins and presets, because I felt they distract me from learning the actual basics.
But still, I had a hard time finishing stuff because I got lost in minor details, regularly. DAWless removed that issue right away, I started with a Korg Volca Keys and later added an Octatrack. And then I only bought new gear when I really felt I'd need it, so at least for me, the whole process is much closer to making music, less dry, more enjoyable.
Maybe at some point, I'll integrate Bitwig into my setup for launching clips via Launchpad, but right now, I'm not in a hurry. 🙂
@@allyouracid That's really interesting, and relatable. I think if it helped me to start learning this stuff when I was quite a lot younger. Right now, as an adult, I'm learning Blender 3D and I am noticing much of the same issues you describe. I overthink everything, I constantly look stuff up, and the overwhelming possibilities / complexity can be stifling. Creative restriction and a minimal setup can be so helpful for sure.
@@Nyokee you might wanna try asking ChatGPT what you'd otherwise look up. ;)
I've had that with programming, and since I'm using ChatGPT as my personal, searchable manual for everything, my progress became much faster. I initially feared I'd become dumb, but the opposite was the case. I'm learning much more, faster, getting better results. Maybe it works for Blender, too! Just a suggestion :)
@@allyouracid Yeah, I do that sometimes, but some of the things I'm trying to find out are so weirdly niche, that there is not enough training data on the internet for ChatGPT to be really helpful. For example, I recently tried to find a free AI mocap tool that would extract my movement data from video and apply it to a Blender character. I succeeded, but it wasn't trivial at all! Even posting in several reddit / stack exchange groups didn't help, but I got there haha. I'm sure it's a good tip for more common questions though.
Do you think that combining use of both mini and standard size key controllers can be a problem? Especially for a beginner.
So in terms of size, there is both the number of octaves on the key controller, and the width of the keys. I would say that if you have a bunch of different controllers with different numbers of octaves, that's no problem at all.
The second parameter is the width of the keys. The MPK mini MIDI controller, and a few others have narrower keys than a standard piano. This has never bothered me (I learned on a normal piano), but it might be worth trying out what it's like for you to switch between key sizes?
Greta video
Thank you!
So, your saying that your visual setup should include an alien entity? Very informative video. It seems you have taken care to present a thoughtful presentation.
Haha, absolutely! I sourced my alien from this UA-cam page: www.youtube.com/@saxalien2007
Thanks for the kind words :)
Is it also okay to just use an iphone and a midi controller? Have a made by myself backing track and play the leads?
Hey, I've never tried this but I think you can. You could use Garageband and plug in a MIDI keyboard using either a lightning to USB adapter or USB-C to USB adapter depending on the iPhone model. In Garageband you should be able to load in a backing track you've made, and add a MIDI instrument to control live. This video seems to explain it quite well:
ua-cam.com/video/uMntYCFe9-U/v-deo.html
Only thing is that you need to amplify the sound, and if you don't want to use the built-in phone speakers, you might need to connect to a speaker via Bluetooth, which might cause a small delay.
It's giving me a headache but definitely something I need to do with the injuries I have.
Sorry to hear about your injuries, I hope you can find a way to feel creative and inspired despite the struggles. Technology can definitely enable some of us to do stuff we wouldn't otherwise be able to but I know it can be a steep learning curve.
@@Nyokee Thanks. Well you’re a start. I’m hopeful where I’m fighting for my eyesight this might be a platform for me too. Bless you. 🥰
@@lorijeanfinnilaWishing you all the best!!
Are you Dutch ?
Nearly haha, German!
@@Nyokee Really ? I live in Germany. Sorry I thought, you're Dutch🙂
@@user-cg9iq1wz2y Ha, that's funny! To be honest I've lived in the UK for over a decade, so my accent is all over the place :D
If you would be at least as popular as Beyonce, the world would be much more beautiful place.
Aw that's such a kind thing to say, thanks so much! :)