weimerhead

So during this week’s improvisation session I began using Live to play with a drum sample. Yes, no plural here as I have only made one so far. One of the more promising sections of our free-for-all jam was when I used the Three-Band EQ to remove everything but the high-hat from the sample. This both allowed for and seemed to inspire the other improvisers to create appropriate music (remembering our group’s motto: to make music and none of this ambient stuff). However, when I tried using the EQ to solo other parts of the drum beat, such as the kick and snare, the EQ didn’t seem to work as well. This has led me toward the next step in my development of this project- that is to make individual sound files for the kick, snare, high-hat and whatever else. These files can be easily collated in a single ‘scene’ within Live, and that way can have there own effects added to them. Having specific effect added to each part particularly appeals to me due to one main compliant my group made of my sound during the jam- inconsistency of rhythm. It makes sense, I hold a key role in the rhythmic grounding of the project. This failed me during points of the jam when I would dump a new effect such as ‘BeatBox’ onto the drum loop and it would immediately ruin the rhythmic grounding, which the rest of the group relied upon. However, if I were able to drag such an effect onto just the high-hat for example, the total annihilation of this sample would not have such a disastrous effect, as would completely ruined the whole drum sample. Hence, the rest of the group would not have to stop while I quickly switch off/adjust the parameters of the plug-in. Other than this I am slowing learning which plug-in’s sound cool, provide something interesting to improvise with, have bugs and which individual parameters are best to map the XY pane that Live provides. As the weeks progress I intend to narrow in on the particular rhythmic grounding I will offer the rest of the group, who I think will have more apparent avenues for improvisation than me, through the use of melody and so on. Live itself is far from the ideal piece of software, but it is nonetheless really intuitive, easy to use and fun. This use of a vector-driven interface is more than just the ‘gimmick’ it seemed to be when I first looked at the application months ago. Rather, it provides a clever flow to the interface, in a way I find difficult to explain. However, take the use of the F11 shortcut, which allows the application to use the full width of your display or monitor and the way the program resizes in an instant, which I think must owe something the use of vector graphics. This way in which the whole interface flows around and is easily customisable through minimal clicks, is important for is onstage applications. Having had used the program now in a ‘jamming’ situation, I really commend Abelton on the way they have made this program simple and smooth. Never in this ‘tense’ situation did I feel at all lost or confused in the interface that in all honesty, I had only used about five times. And that, my friends, is Live.

Apart from the fact that during my presentation the word ‘um’ seemed to have manifested through my vocabulary beyond all sensibility, I think it went okay. Ben commented that at the end of every sentence the pitch of my voice went up a little, or something, and I certainly appreciate any such critisms because I understand how important presentations like this are in the metropolis of Academia. My great respect for all the music technology students and staff, along with my dream to create great music, made me quite a nervous little camper during my presentation of ‘new surroundings’. Anyway, from the feedback I have received, people did not pick up on this too much, but if you feel otherwise then please let me know via the comment button below.

The other presenters included William, Ben and Timothy Gabbusch. Like everything he is involved with, I could not help but laugh when it came to Ben’s speech. His presentation style was confident, light and humorous while his piece ‘Vocalikov’ was really very good. William’s piece was equally very cool, with a particularly rhythmic ‘glitchy’, ‘buzzy’ sound that caught my attention and is stuck in mind. Timothy’s piece contained a lot of awesome sounds and was quite good, but lacked a feeling of form and structure. I feel this probably owes to his use of analogue techniques in its composition.

Referances

Whittington, Stephen. "Music Technology Workshop." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 24/08/2006.