Practice.
3 Likes
I’m listening back and it’s not as bad as I thought. I’m going to try to do this more. I think knowing my live set and patterns better will help me feel my way through the set better. There were some moments where I was not fully in control and I wasn’t sure which box/track was making sounds. For the most part I don’t think anyone would notice but being surprised and feeling not in control took me out of making the sounds that I wanted.
Wanna post your set here?
I think it s great when artists are able to take such a ‘lost’ moment and work it. I am not yet able to improvise so freely.
2 Likes
Fix that issue, and you’re done.
Not being totally in control is exciting, but you do need to know which machine is doing what. I make sure my machines have very distinct jobs. Zero overlap.
3 Likes
Start like that and you actually end up doing it and not just thinking about doing it (kitchen psychology but true, IMO).
Getting lost and being out of my comfort zone is the epitome of playing live, for me at least. It’s different for pro musicians obviously but even they can’t always be in control of everything.
1 Like
Blockquote
It’s on Ned Rush’s YouTube channel on Saturday night. I’ll share once it’s gone out there 
Yeah I did enjoy this aspect of it. I was unprepared for this feeling. If I make my set so I have some “guard rails”, and my patterns are clear of erroneous midi patterns that start playing at random times, I think I can have more fun. Dub techno style sets are hard to fuck up anyway
1 Like
Dude all you need is a set of sound layers and fx that blend well and recombine at will!
3 Likes
When people in the audience start looking at their watches, change patterns.
My set is on Ned rush’s channel shortly: https://youtu.be/38gVsM9mcMs
Genuinely looking for constructive feedback, that’s the best way to improve, so please let me know what you think. From my perspective, the early part was a bit rushed, and the rest ended up ok. I wish I’d paid a bit more attention to the 303. It was fun though.
2 Likes
As Spectrin?
Yup
I think one perspective is not worry so much because probably a lot of people will just having fun and drunk and not worrying if you fuck up many times 
! 6-9 songs seems pretty good for 30 minut. Also for many things like this it help to write down on actual paper like a cheat note that you can look at during the time
cheers and have a fun!
I enjoyed it. I like your choice of sounds and how they fit together.
For my tastes some portions sounded a little “aimless” especially melodically, but I saw you say it was partly improvised right? And it wasn’t long before a nice rhythm kicked in. It may have been what you are going for, in which case ignore me! But to me it felt like once or twice it was looking for a melodic or bass line to use as an anchor for a bit.
Congrats though, I thought you did great and so did the chat.
1 Like
That was cool!
I enjoyed the more ambient, glitchy parts more than the typical dub techno chords. I thought the 303 in the beginning was out of place indeed.
Can tell it 's a bit shaky here and there but I can’t tell this is your first live gig. You should definitely see this experience as an encouragement to do it more.
Btw, the tension, fragile balance and risk of failure is what makes a live gig live. If it’s all slick, smooth and easy it could as well have been playing back a record.
1 Like
Been touring with a funk band in Ireland and UK in the late 90s. We were 11 on stage. 7 piece where 11 would not fit 
We had residencies 4 times a week in Dublin plus whatever was coming our way. Over 700 gigs in 3 years, as main act or supporting.
Stress is something that does make you rush things but is also an astonishing state that you end up looking for.
It is like a rush to the head, a drug. Not saying you should do drugs
Stress was still present after all these gigs, but more as a manageable thing.
Practice, practice and practice again. There is no difference between a classic band and a solo act, whatever the instrument(s) or machine(s) setup. This is my belief as practicing both.
5 Likes
Appreciate the comments, thanks 
I’m thinking about the next set now and what I want to do differently. I enjoy the tension between the dubby and glitchy parts, it’s a good way of bringing the energy up and down, and I found it quite meditative, I zone out listening back to it. The 303 will probably go until I can figure out how to do it tastefully.
I used ableton as a mixer with some plugs, and it’s got me wondering how to replicate the texture and sound without the EQ and compression on various channels without ableton. Not a problem while we’re in lockdown though.
Seems the answer to “how do I not get lost” is practice a lot, and don’t worry about it
I think one approach is to have a LP filter after it to take the harsh high end of, until you want it to cut through the mix and open that filter.
2 Likes
Turn the distortion off the 303. Go easy on the resonance. Keep the knob tweeks subtle.
1 Like