Recently I’ve been searching for a way to play improvised ambient concerts with nothing prepared at all. Only my standard OT template, some of my favorite samples loaded into the sample slots and the Nord Lead initialised to a simple sine wave patch.
Here’s my very first try, unfortunately I got interupted after 12 minutes - the jam was supposed to last much longer
Anyway, I would like to improve my flow when doing this, so I wanted to ask if any of you are doing this kind of improvisation and how you do it?
Cheers,
Nikolaj de Haan
Btw, there’s a small keyboard behind me that I’m playing in the beginning
Yes, it’s one of my favorite Octatrack activities. I usually start by looping my acoustic viola with pickup machines, then slicing the audio in the recorder buffers.
All live improvised electronica is the centre of my performance work.
Actually, I find it quite hard sometimes to expain to people that by Liv, I really do mean LIVE…as in , the same as a solo guitar instrumentalist or pianist…but the modern electronic paradigm also counts ableton style clip launching as “live” which I think can muddy the waters.
here is a "from scratch improv on the octatrack
I look forward to hearing more of your work and techniques.
Good stuff! I already checked out your video, I think that we’re sorta moving in the same direction Are you always using that same setup?
Here’s my second try. Longer and better I think, though I would really like things to move a little faster. I’m also planning to have some to have some random visuals going on when playing live, that makes it kind of more okay with the slowly evolving music https://vimeo.com/77700536
Hi guys. I really enjoyed your videos, so much so that I literally sat up grabbed my camera and went directly to my octatrack. I am uploading my very first improv as we speak.
I have to admit it was very nerv wracking, escpecially playing the keys just off the bat with nothing to go on. I was very paranoid of it sounding terrible. Anyway I’ll share my results as soon as the video is done uplaoding. I had to pass on a HD version as it was 18 minutes long (it took far to long to get started).
Thanks for the inspiration it was very fun indeed.
EDIT: YouTube doesn’t like my 18 minute video. Not having any luck uploading whatsoever. On my third attempt.
Hey man, I am LOVING both of these vids, I have been listening to them at work today and they fit perfectly into that category of music that is deep but also great to do other stuff to.
This was my first ever live octatrack performance, before this I have just been sitting on the sofa with it and the iPad, however for the last three years I have been working in the entirely improvised live hardware paradigm, I love it as it got me out of the feeling that I was bored of all my songs…now the rush is the same every night is like a first night performance.
I look forward ot hearing more from you.
It worked on the third attempt. I highly recommend skipping the first 6 minutes. I need to get into it faster but I suppose it was my first attempt. There are a couple of big mistakes. I just loaded random samples into the static machines so at one point I triggered a long noisy sample by mistake.
Anyhow please check out the end of the track. It was a fun experience, definitely nerve wracking. I may try again but with a timer so that I can get it all done in 5 minutes.
Good stuff man! Yeah the length is always in issue in those kinds of jams, but actually I don’t think it matters so much that a thing like this is 20 minutes long, not for a live performance anyway.
I always have problems not trigging noisy/out of tune samples, but I’m trying to force myself to use the CUE function for cueing samples before sending them to the outputs, but it feels a little weird when playing on your own
We should all get a tripod so we can see what’s going on on the machines!
I am LOVING this thread, it feels like I have found distant cousins !!!
It can be great fun to set the clock running and see if you want to really focus,
I did a BBC session here http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/bbcih (look for the My One Man Band and Smiler session) and for that I literally had a stopwatch app on my phone counting down five minutes …scary
I love long extended sessions too, coming from a singer songwriter background, i am SO used to playing a short song, stopping playing a new song in a new key etc…it has been a real fun challenge working out how to do more "dj like " extended sets where each moment is captured , enjoyed for a moment and then overwirtten without ever coming back…its a blast, keep posting !!
Thanks for listening guys. Loving this thread too. Nice bit of inspiration. Think I will try and do a couple more of these. Tripod might be a nice idea, as it is I have my camera tired to my bass guitar.
Just bought a super cheap tripod… It smells of mold but works great. I’ll try and film another improve tonight. This time under ten minutes and with the OT screen visible if possible.
Loving the BBC session by the way. Awesome stuff!
Edit: if you two are interested we should try and do a small project thing. For example, pick a key and bpm and go from there then we could mix elements of our work together… Just an idea.
Really glad this thread exist and that videos are popping up. Myself and a friend do all live improv sets under the name “systems of memory”. We are doing multiple 1hr+ jams a week. Currently we have over 50+hrs uploaded on soundcloud. I will get the camera out this week and upload some videos to contribute.
Nice, I really like how it evolves! I have actually never used the pickup machines, are you recording the pickup machine to a flex track afterwards?[/quote]
Thank you! I am using the trick I learned from Anders - I use a pickup machine track and also a flex machine track. I assign the track recorder for the pickup machine track to the Sample Slot of the flex machine track.
For my “Sweating…” track, I used two pickup machine tracks, and two flex machine tracks to pair with the pickup machine tracks as described above.
Good work Nidavine! And nice bells, very similar to recording I have of a donkey caravan in the Himalayas haha How do you do your synth stuff? Do you build the patches from scratch while playing or use preset? I always start with a simple sine wave patch and build it from there, which I like, but also takes so time before the sound is interesting…
