Performing Live... help!

Coming up in probably 2 months or so I’m going to start gigging with my band. Right now we are a 2 piece moody,post-rock/post-punk band with myself on Analog Rytm mkII, and the Analog Keys. the other guy is a super skilled guitarist that adds and removes loop of guitar arpeggios that are clocked off of the Rytm.

Currently the songs (5) are in one project, different banks, but I have to come up with a workflow for the stage. I could imagine what I would do if I was performing electronic dance music or abstract electro music… but what about this rock band?
I feel like rock bands have to be moving and dancing and not menu diving… and I don’t want to do some dummy move like hit the stop button or cue up some wrong pattern.

I’ve played around a bit with song mode… but I don’t think it’s the way I’ve be been using it is the answer.

With all modesty and respect to you people I ask for HELP! :wink:

IME gigging with more “band” oriented contexts is easily doable - as long as you rehearse the shit outta the material :nyan: If your stuff is more improv than songs, then just rehearse improv’ing with your mate.

good luck

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Dont worry about it. Just do what ever you have rehearsed and it will be fine. The audience doesnt know any better. Be yourself. Have fun. If you are enjoying your time on stage, that is what counts.

I’ve seen plenty of “rock” bands who don’t spend the gig dancing around and waving. As long as the music you’re making has energy, you don’t have to worry too much about your “stage presence”. Find whatever workflow works for you both musically where you feel comfortable with what and how you’re performing.

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I guess dancing was a bit of an exaggeration. If I really wanted to do that I would have gone the keytar route.

@Elektron thoughts on Elektron Keytar???

I was really wondering if anyone had a technical process… a way of organizing tracks… hitting cues at the precise moment.

Thanks for the responses

if you have the songs in different banks, it already is optimal, i guess…

just write a set list (in big letters) with the order of the songs… (which bank) if you have easy pattern order like 1,2,3,4 i think it should be easy and save…

if you use sequential pattern mode you will have enough time, durring pattern changes

Are you going to be playing pre-structured pieces or improvising over looping patterns, or something in-between?

Song mode can give you pre-defined structure if you use it for simple playback, but you can also move in and out of song mode to stay on particular patterns if you want.

Tell us more about how you play your music.

…no matter how much ur songs are all over the place within the machines pattern and bank structures…first good news is…ur a band…u don’t have to play in one big, constant rush…
u can have a little stop between each of ur trax…

so, define one machine as the master…i’d recommend the rytm…
make sure a4 keys is following strict orders from the rytm…

now u can focus on the rytm and whatever ur actual setlist is saying what’s next…

if u wanna go handsfree full on during a song to focus on playing keys, there’s no way around arranger mode…but if a4 is following strict orders, no worries, it’s just one arranger u gotto deal with…

and even if u keep it as simple as possible, which is always first rule for live stage logistics, there’s no way around good preparation…even plain electronic acts need to rehearse…

and forget about stage presence for now…at least ur not reading mails on stage…and shoe gazing bands have a comeback these days… :wink:

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Thanks. Are you referring to chains or songs when you say sequential pattern mode. Or are you just talking about patterns.

Actually they are pretty structured. My solo work would be the latter.

I never much thought of it before but I could actually make the whole set as a “song mode- single song”

More or less the process for all songs is…

  1. Atmospheric pad sizzles along
  2. I cue a drum and maybe a synth sequence
  3. He comes in on guitar with main melody
  4. I cue more drums
  5. Jam (no vocals)… meanwhile I way be playing keys or doing “scenes and performances”
  6. Vocal part by other dude… Simple lyrics (16 bars) …less stuff on my end
  7. Jam full synth+guitar
  8. Vocal part
  9. More jam layers
  10. … maybe a drop
  11. Heavy build
  12. Start removing parts
  13. Drone

I dunno if that can help you but I found many little boxes that can help organize things in a really convenient way while not going in the way of creation.

The most flexible is probably the lab4music sipario. You have a little touchscreen, you can name songs,parts,bridges, each can have its own tempo, midi routing splits everything is lightning fast to setup because the realy intutive way the different options are laid out.
At start, just click the song you wanna play and everyone will be at home…

Another which is a bit less powerful ( for organizing ) but still really interesting, in a pedal form factor is the morningstar MC6, sends PC, clock, and have nice bright names on it to keep things organized…

I am referring to pattern change mode. if you have a 64 beats pattern, if you press the buttons for pattern change (for example) on step 7, you still have plenty of time until the next pattern will start after step 64. so you dont have to be super precise, timing wise, when cueing patterns. as this is the standard setting on the elektrons, you probably already using it…

also, if you sync pattern change of your keys to your rytm and keep the same pattern structure on both, you only have to press pattern change on one machine and the other will follow along nicely…

another idea: you can link the performance macros between rytm and keys, so you can press a pad or twist a knob on one machine and trigger the perf macro on both machines at the sane time…

@KaOsphere
Thanks! I’ll check those things out. I’m really not too familiar. I got into Ableton and Elektron stuff for my DAW-less setup… and just sort of stuck to it. Digitakt, digitone, sold for Rytm and A Keys.

@nionmu I’ve never gotten the multi system pattern change to work but haven’t looked deeply into it either. I have the Rytm as the master, and it’s sending “everything” out in midi- synch menu… and the Keys are set to receive everything. It will trigger the start and stop of the sequencers, but not pattern changes. The same was on my digitakt and digitone when I had them. Hmmmm ??

I’ll really have to look into the performance macros too. I can’t think of a time where I wish I could do something (like delay) to both multi-drum and synth sequences but I’m sure there is a reason and cool outcome.

??? If anyone has a link to how to set these or a page # in the manual, I would appreciate it and check on it when I can???

Thx

You set one either Rytm or AK to send transport, clock and program changes and the other to receive transport, clock and program changes. Choose the same channel for program changes on both machines.
Now you can press play, stop, change patterns, change the tempo and the other machine will follow.

Analog Keys and Rytm Global Menu -> Midi Config -> Midi Sync
Check if your settings under “Midi Port Config” make sense. Inputs and outputs should be set to midi.
Pads, keyboard, mute, encoder etc. destinations should best all set to “int”. Only set those to “int+ext” that you want to use on external gear or daw.
Same with reveive notes and receive cc/nrpn. Only set to int+ext if you need it.
And ofc set your midi channels accordingly. :slight_smile:

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the pattern change should be pretty straight forward to set up. see schnorks excellent post above. i think this will make live performance easier.

with a performance macro you can change different parameters in different amounts on different tracks by the twist of one knob.

this is extremely powerful.

once you have it set up on both machines, ask again and we can link the performance macros of both machines together…

an examle: with the twist of one knob, you could: fade/filter out the kickdrum, put a massive delay on the snare and tune a sample up 5 semitones while make it decay longer on the rytm, while on the ak one track sound can be turned down completely and a drone on another track could fade up. while making the delay time longer and open the filter… and that would be just one knob (macro) :upside_down_face:

edit: load the space disco in the ak factory presets and turn the perf macros…

@Schnork

Thanks for taking the time to explain this. I think I did not select a Common channel for program change. I’ll try this later.

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