The improvised techno thread

The Lounge General Discussion
#1628

I think a key thing that hasn’t been mentioned is that the gear you are using dictates to an extent where on the improv scale you can practically be operating. My 4 voice multitimbral PreenFM2 is a nightmare to even consider sound designing with on the fly without extensive setup. Do I still use it when ‘improvising’? Absolutely!

I prepare a ‘combo’ of four patches combined together into a set which I assign via midi CCs to a pattern in my Digitakt live techno project. I set up the four ‘performance’ macros as my E-H encoders on the DT, and have them routed to the ‘Index of Modulation’ values of whatever patch they are pointing at, allowing me a wide range of sound options on the fly. So I have a fixed starting point with those voices, and a range of which to select (it’s only practical to use one or two voices on the fly) but it certainly allows me to go in unexpected directions.

My Quadrantid Swarm is far closer to what I think of when I think of an improvised voice in techno, where I can move the pots quickly into a starting point and then use the whole instrument to go wherever I fancy. But really, is there any difference between me knowing a decent starting point and quickly twisting a few pots and doing a few patches to get there compared to loading a starting point combo on the Preen?

On my DT, my live template has a bunch of patterns with most of the tracks already populated with sounds, but with only one or two basic sequences, usually a kick plus one other element, so I have something to switch to when I want to transition. Obviously I don’t want to move to silence in a progression, and I don’t currently use a looper, so ideally I want something to be there when I get there, and a four on the floor kick, or a simple variation, gives a starting point to quickly sequence away from.

I guess the question is one of established (or in this case unestablished) idiom. If you are interested in this area, I recommend Derek Bailey’s book called Improvisation in which he has conversations with various professional musicians from various disparate fields about how improvisation functions within the traditions and idiom which they are a part of. This includes Baroque music, Indian classical music, prog, Jazz, modern composition, etc. I play the recorder family of instruments, mostly for early music - Baroque, and I am called on to improvise whenever I play a Handel or Telemann sonata! But what improvising means in that context is very different to what a sitar player would consider improvisation in a free section of a Raga.

I think it’s both important to note that:

if you specify that something is an improvisation and then do a ‘performance’ of a mostly pre sequenced song with a few modulation changes and some on the fly variation, you should expect push back from people who do differently, and take a more strict view of what improvisation entails, and;

if you fully improvise, you can expect to be met with bewilderment by the majority of the electronic music audience with expectations aligned to what they hear commercially released.

I don’t care either way, but I think it’s perfectly possible to say in a few words what you are doing when you post a video or audio recording, and I think the outcome is best evaluated in this context.

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#1629

With STOOR I wouldn’t call it safe. It has to do with how Speedy J is the “conductor” as it were and mixes the things he gets from the other artists. If someone else has something cool going he’ll mix that in and fade something else out for example. (As far as I know, and not constantly as sometimes some performers step back and take a break so then it’s all just what you hear is what you get). That way it definitely becomes more consistent sounding that is certain. And yeah these are high level techno producers performing so there’s that :grinning:

PS. There were definitely moments that were a bit messy or going on for too long but yeah both those 7 hour sets are insanely impressive.

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#1630

Absolutely, and the results often sound marvellous. I think it’s clear that the Stay at Home sessions that are duo encounters are much more free and open in terms of improvisation, while any of the sessions with more people are more conducted and controlled by necessity. My favourite of the bunch that I have heard so far is the second duo with Surgeon where he is using a Q Swarm and a Lyra to make these subtle and shifting textures, but it’s a far cry from what most people would consider techno! It seems to me that the more people that are playing, the more likely the sound will gravitate around ‘traditional’ techno grooves, and the fewer allows more space for quieter exploration.

I like both approaches.

Edit: the Stoor channel on youtube has been almost my only source of listening for the last few months, after stumbling across one of the more recent marathon live sets with Surgeon, Karenn and JakoJako. I have found is a great source of inspiration.

Edit 2: Another really important thing to consider when it comes to electronic music improvisation is time scale, and how changing the time scale in which you operate can massively alter the effect. I’m personally quite happy operating and listening both in a 2-6 minute time scale with tight and constant change, or a 3 hour time scale in which things can stretch out and develop, or just groove, for extended periods of time.

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#1631

Ah yes, nicely phrased :ok_hand:
I guess I meant he is a sort of safety net between the artists and the audience. Of course he is much more than a safety net, a curator of fine sounds :slight_smile:

Just a random thought, but Imagine if Stoor recorded/captured all the 5 or 6 artists various outputs and you could then play the role of Speedy J and conduct/mix them yourself, the number of variations would be vast. That would be a great interactive promotion tool :slight_smile: Better still, each artist could also play role of conductor and this could be a further release. My crystal ball says this will be done for the 10th anniversary haha.

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#1632

Sounds like what the Flaming Lips did with one of their albums. Four CDs designed to be played simultaneously or in any combination from different places in a room, but the levels keep changing, the timing keeps slipping, so you create your own mixes on the fly. Tricky to set up, but a really revealing listening experience.

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#1633

Last December, I participated in an open, improvised electronic jam session, organized by a local electronic artists collective in a music venue in Grenoble, France. I found the format extremely interesting: instead of giving participants fixed individual time slots, the aim was to engage in collective improvisation. Each musician could bring one synth, and all sound went through a mixing desk operated by the organizers.

The rules and recommendations, introduced in a quick briefing in the beginning, were very helpful: out of the 15 participants (which did not know each other), only 4 could play at the same time, participants should aim for a balance between various elements (drums, pads, leads, fx), and everyone’s focus should be on communicating, complementing each other, and being willing to ‘let go’ of one’s own ideas… In addition, the organizers introduced a playful element with a ‘wheel of fortune’ to change the mood of a section (eg dark, uplifting, ambient,…) (which did not work very well in practice), and the possibility of modifying BPM (by rolling a dice).

The result was a lot of fun! We played nonstop in constantly changing configurations from 19:00 to 23:30. Some moments lacked coherence, of course, but others were really good, and things started to come together extremely well.

I wanted to share this here because I had never read about this format before and found it absolutely great…

Some impressions:

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Electronic Open Mic Nights
EMOM Frankfurt/Main
#1634

that sounds like an amazing event, who brings the gear? like is there a rule what gear you bring? going to play unknown gear sounds like a real deep water territory :smiley:

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#1635

Each participant brought their own gear. Given the number of people that had signed up, the limitation was one piece of gear per person. We met 2 hours earlier to install everything and also to see who would contribute what to the overall sound in order to facilitate coordination during improvisation (eg I brought a case of drum modules and therefore mainly switched with others also doing rhytmic stuff).

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#1636

That sounds like a fun time @ccr

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#1637

Yes, it was! I am already looking forward to the next edition!!

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#1638

Yes. This a format I use when jamming with friends and musicians but I often wish to have EMOM nights like this. That must have been a great experience. Thanks for sharing this @ccr! :heart::pray:

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#1639

Yeah, I have also done similar things for jamming with friends before, but what I liked in particular with this much larger event was (1) to hear my synths on a big and good sounding system, (2) to improvise with others that I did not know beforehand, (3) the ability to step in and out of playing over the course of the evening - we had quite some audience, but being able to hand over to someone else (and then have a beer and listen to the others playing) took away a lot of pressure…

Edit: @Tchu, I think it worked very well because the members of the organizing artists collective played an active role not just by mixing the FOH sound, but also by giving advice to participants, brokering changes, etc. In hindsight, I think the moderating role is critical for allowing people to move out of the self-centered perspective that characterizes a lot of electronic music making (as opposed to playing in a band, for example).

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#1640

The perfect night.

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#1641

What a great idea!

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#1642

But is it really improvising…

joke btw

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#1643

Here is some ‘half-improv’ techno while trying to learn how to live record into Ableton. A few prepared sequences, basic sounds dialled in, then hit record and went with it without planning any sort of arrangement. Just wanted to see what would happen, and to see what the weaknesses were with the template I’ve set up for jamming and recording with hardware.

Lots of lessons learned in the process, which was the point of it, so far from perfect, but it has a vibe.

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#1644

It’s crucial if you want to make something good. For an Electronic Music composer, it’s hard to stop layering sounds when you’re used to do every little sounds in a Track. This kind of event must be good for humbleness and it forces you to have an open mind and to listen to others. This improvisation night was well planned it seems.

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#1645

What did you find out? Was setting Ableton up for recording up here too today - finally figured out how to record with Ableton clocked by Hapax, and lag/latency from audio interface solved. (Ableton Noob).

Did you see this episode? Maybe pretty standard way of working for others here - but to me it finally showed how live jamming and Ableton can work together nicely and seem fun:

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#1646

No, not seen that, will watch it this evening, thanks!

The main takeaway is that grouping all the tracks and adding a utility to the group to add a flat amount of gain across the board, counteracting the overbridge volume drop, is not sufficient. I need a utility on every track with the same amount added, but with the ability to quickly turn it down a touch on the fly to counteract any errors. I’ve got a Launch Control XL arriving tomorrow to let me easily do my sends and panning, and I’m pretty sure I can set it up to control the gain on the default setup if I understand it correctly.

I also realised that my Circuit Tracks is not getting any transport or clock, which meant that when I leant in set up a second kick track, nothing happened haha.

So lots of work to do. And I need to watch a 100 hours of videos on the settings of the stock plugins.

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#1647

In the recent chat he did with the performers, I think he said he does not curate or create a mix, rather he keeps the channel faders up for all of them. Maybe I misunderstood?

Edit: found it, at 6:00 he explains it. http://www.youtube.com/live/C5x3htRtkoQ?si=_x5lEGogI3spEMW8

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