IDM Mailing Archive

I've always wondered about this, all the musicians that perform with laptops these days, how often are there software problems and crashes? Also, when musicians are performing live with laptops, what are they doing exactly? As in, what software are they using and are they actually, like, cutting and pasting sound files and opening and closing windows and so forth in real time? I can't imagine looking at a computer monitor and manipulating a touch pad with 1,000 people staring at me. Seems like a nerve-racking way to perform...Thanks to anyone for some info. on this, I've always been very curious about the particulars of laptop performance. - Mark I caught the amherst show last night. Definately, a show to check out if the tour is coming to your town. Stewart Walker really knows how to rock the house....he did a set of seemless four on the floor techno. The only bad thing about the show was that Kit Clayton's laptop crashed after he spent 15 minutes building up a dub groove.....that and only about 30 people showed up :( --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

On Fri, 10 Mar 2000, Mark Richardson wrote:

quoted 2 lines Also, when musicians are performing live with laptops, what are they

> Also, when musicians are performing live with laptops, what are they > doing exactly?

Usually nothing. Basically, one just clicks the "play" button on their sequencer and lets everythign run from there. Occasionally they might manipulate various FX parameters. Unfortunately, laptop performances are pretty static.

quoted 3 lines As in, what software are they using and are they

> As in, what software are they using and are they > actually, like, cutting and pasting sound files and opening and closing > windows and so forth in real time?

The Big Three: Cakewalk/Cubase/Logic. As far as improv, I saw Bogdan Raczynski chop up one of his tracks live and turn it into a wild chaotic gabber-gasm. Unfortunately, this was as live as he got. In fact, most of the time he wasn't even on stage (taking lessons from aphex?), but it was cool, we (my girlfriend and I) played tic-tac-toe with him and talked camping. -andrew -- andrew smith a.k.a. a white rabbit a.k.a. dasein PA info, bookings, gearlist, and more: http://www.calvin.edu/~asmith89/ "The stupider it looks, the more important it probably is..." --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

On Fri, 10 Mar 2000, %andrew wrote:

quoted 6 lines The Big Three: Cakewalk/Cubase/Logic. As far as improv, I saw

> The Big Three: Cakewalk/Cubase/Logic. As far as improv, I saw > Bogdan Raczynski chop up one of his tracks live and turn it into a wild > chaotic gabber-gasm. Unfortunately, this was as live as he got. In fact, > most of the time he wasn't even on stage (taking lessons from aphex?), but > it was cool, we (my girlfriend and I) played tic-tac-toe with him and > talked camping.

Haha, yea, when I saw him play this New Year's, he just kind of wandered around the crowd and hit on girls and stuff, but then the promoter showed up and he quick made it look like he was doing something. He even kind of chopped things up a bit and did some improv stuff, from the looks of things. -- :: atomly :: atomly@atomly.com | atomly@atdot.org | atomly@cyrus.net http://www.atomly.com | http://www.mp3.com/atomly [CELL|(888)522.3830] | [CELL|(701)729.1631] | [HOME|(651)748.8676] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

On Fri, 10 Mar 2000, Mark Richardson wrote:

quoted 2 lines I've always wondered about this, all the musicians that perform with

> I've always wondered about this, all the musicians that perform with > laptops these days, how often are there software problems and crashes?

Well, I've still yet to have my laptop crash during a performance, but it has a few times whilest practicing a performance at home. Would definitely suck if it happened live, but not much worse than say a guitarist breaking a string or something.

quoted 8 lines Also, when musicians are performing live with laptops, what are they

> Also, when musicians are performing live with laptops, what are they > doing exactly? As in, what software are they using and are they > actually, like, cutting and pasting sound files and opening and > closing windows and so forth in real time? I can't imagine looking at > a computer monitor and manipulating a touch pad with 1,000 people > staring at me. Seems like a nerve-racking way to perform...Thanks to > anyone for some info. on this, I've always been very curious about the > particulars of laptop performance.

Well, a lot of people just kind of press play, much like a lot of live PAs with hardware. Still not as bad as ones who use a DAT (*cough* ATR *cough*), I guess. :) I've seen some people play live where they basically make a bunch of loops ahead of time and kind of bring them in and out in real time... It's worked, but it is a little too static or something. Something just unappealing about it to me. I saw two laptop performances last week that were like that (one of them being Jake Mandell) and they just didn't do it for me for some reason. Does anybody know what Aphex Twin plays with live? I know he alters his songs, but does he do it in real-time? -- :: atomly :: atomly@atomly.com | atomly@atdot.org | atomly@cyrus.net http://www.atomly.com | http://www.mp3.com/atomly [CELL|(888)522.3830] | [CELL|(701)729.1631] | [HOME|(651)748.8676] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

some people do real time processing with stuff like spark or pluggo, they just run the track in whatever sequencer and just add some DSP... alot of people simply hit one button that initiates things/a track and then pretend to look like they are actually doing somehting, when they aren't doing anything/or are doing very very little to alter what you are hearing. I can think of quite a few idm performances i've seen that consisted of this. lets please not lead this into a discussion as to what constitutes a "performace", idm live, blah blah.. At 01:05 PM 3/10/00 -0500, you wrote:

quoted 29 lines I've always wondered about this, all the musicians that perform with

>I've always wondered about this, all the musicians that perform with >laptops these days, how often are there software problems and crashes? >Also, when musicians are performing live with laptops, what are they >doing exactly? As in, what software are they using and are they >actually, like, cutting and pasting sound files and opening and closing >windows and so forth in real time? I can't imagine looking at a computer >monitor and manipulating a touch pad with 1,000 people staring at me. >Seems like a nerve-racking way to perform...Thanks to anyone for some >info. on this, I've always been very curious about the particulars of >laptop performance. > >- Mark > > >I caught the amherst show last night. Definately, a show to >check out if the tour is coming to your town. Stewart Walker >really knows how to rock the house....he did a set of >seemless four on the floor techno. The only bad thing about >the show was that Kit Clayton's laptop crashed after he >spent 15 minutes building up a dub groove.....that and >only about 30 people showed up :( > > > >--------------------------------------------------------------------- >To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org >For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org > >

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quoted 1 line Does anybody know what Aphex Twin plays with live?

> Does anybody know what Aphex Twin plays with live?

Everyone knows the answer to that: Tetris! --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

At 3:50 PM 3/10/0, atomly wrote:

quoted 7 lines On Fri, 10 Mar 2000, Chris Fahey wrote:

>On Fri, 10 Mar 2000, Chris Fahey wrote: >> Everyone knows the answer to that: Tetris! > >Haha... The crowd was so boring at my last show that I just sat and >played solitaire until I beat it, and then I turned my laptop to show them >the bouncing cards, got off stage and sat with my friends for the rest of >the show, which was all distortion from there on out.

LOL! when i played last wednesday, i got sick of solitaire, and started writing about how silly it was people were watching me on my other laptop... zachary zim200@is7.nyu.edu --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

In a message dated 3/10/00 11:03:05 PM, zim200@is7.nyu.edu writes: << At 3:50 PM 3/10/0, atomly wrote:

quoted 7 lines On Fri, 10 Mar 2000, Chris Fahey wrote:

>On Fri, 10 Mar 2000, Chris Fahey wrote: >> Everyone knows the answer to that: Tetris! > >Haha... The crowd was so boring at my last show that I just sat and >played solitaire until I beat it, and then I turned my laptop to show them >the bouncing cards, got off stage and sat with my friends for the rest of >the show, which was all distortion from there on out.

LOL! when i played last wednesday, i got sick of solitaire, and started writing about how silly it was people were watching me on my other laptop... zachary zim200@is7.nyu.edu >> yeah, i know what you mean.... last thursday morning while also playing live we were asked to play stairway to heaven, and someone even suggested that we bring the bpm down a bit. when both of these seemingly brilliant ideas failed to work i knew it was time for solitaire. i clicked, but my solitaire could not be opened because the application solitaire could not be found. i quickly remembered that i had pac mac deluxe on a nearby cd. i through it in, but proves to be a no go also. finally i break out the atari 2600 emulator. this begins to load, but with retro, studio 9000, cubase, max and unity all running, about half way through crashes my system. by the time i restarted my computer, pulled up all programs, loaded all banks, found the spot where i left off, and finally got atari working properly the crowd were so bored that they had all pulled out their laptops and started writing about how silly i looked playing frogger. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

Ah - what a lovely IDM-friendly thread :-)

quoted 2 lines solitaire could not be opened because the application solitaire

> solitaire could not be opened because the application solitaire > could not be found.

Start button / Run / Sol / Enter Damn! I do too much of this! I * --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

Irene McC wrote:

quoted 6 lines Ah - what a lovely IDM-friendly thread :-)

> Ah - what a lovely IDM-friendly thread :-) > > > solitaire could not be opened because the application solitaire > > could not be found. > > Start button / Run / Sol / Enter

Huh? I got the impression he was using an Atari? Definitely no Start button, then... ;)~

quoted 1 line Damn! I do too much of this!

> Damn! I do too much of this!

What? I thought it was just me... Thank god I've got no laptop... :) -- Kurt B Pruenner Haendelstrasse 17 4020 Linz/AUSTRIA http://www.mp3.com/Leak np: David Holmes - Slash The Seats (This Films Crap Lets Slash The Seats) WARP Records http://www.warprecords.com/ BUZZ 1&2 http://www.buzz2.com/ User Friendly http://www.userfriendly.org/ Segfault http://www.segfault.org/ Anime On DVD http://www.animeondvd.com/ Slashdot http://www.slashdot.org/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

i went to a gig/club type thing in a pub last weekend, <hackerley social @ foundry ec1> which i found about on here, and they were doing stuff on laptops. one guy had a pc running redhat linux and the other had a powerbook g3. anyway, from what we could see of the sreens it all looked pertty interesting, so after the set i asked them what was they were doing... they had both written their own software called Major Generative Musical Device which improved music real time, they were changing the variables and stuff to, so they had soem control over it. i think it was all going a sound module of some type, a kawai or something.. anyway the mac software was very graphical, drawing the msuic to screen and stuff. later on in the evening they had some more software gong that was improvising to a mailing list. basically everytime a message was posted the software would play a new sound and each time that thread was replied to it would repeat that sound ,it was all archived so it was quite quick and mad, but it sounded deliberate.... they sai next time they would do it to the idm list... they are lurking on here somewhere.... did that messgae make sense? hmm... --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org