It really surprised me that not many space musicians perform live, but one artist who's really inspiring is Craig Padilla. Here's some great videos of him performing and some interesting interviews that tell the story of how he did it.

http://www.youtube.com/synthwiz

What's great about this guy is that he started out like a lot of us did. When he was in college, he had only one synth, but a year or so later, he and colleague Skip Murphy started peforming anywhere they could, mostly small venues, and turning out tons of albums, mostly stereo live tracks that had little or no overdubbing.

Hi,

Its perfect music to make live.
Ive done some ambient pieces in realtime
If i wouldnt be too hard on myself when it comes to seeing myself
back i would put it on video.
I find it a petty that you cant do livegigs
without always some bloke recording it.

Here is what i do
I use a piece ive created once.
Delete all content in it but leave some
VSTIs and VSTEs open.
Start selecting channels and use my
controller to play notes and tweak knobs.

I'm shy too, but actually, sometimes I feel I need to get used to rolling on most of the stuff I do, performances and practices. That way I could evaluate the recordings later. Improvisations are so moment-to-moment, it's hard to tell how well you are playing. But, hey! The more you record, the more material you might have for CD's!

After my last band broke up waaaaaayy back in the late 1980's I went into a kind of hiatus. Now, what with my wife being a lot more healthier and myself getting better I have gone back to playing live with a couple of friends of mine as well.

I find that actual performances can be good practice runs as well..and what a way to pile up material!

electro-music.com
or
http://event.electro-music.com/

I've performed for 2 years now. I'd have to say it is a straight-up mix of folk who sequence 99% of their set vs those who sequence nothing at all!

Of course you have to weigh in the results: some of it is just plain noise, some of it is truly space music, some are looping experts and build a wall of sound, and some have structured songs in either case.

Good luck!
Maybe I'll see you at EM2012!

Well, here's the thing. You share a 6 pack of beer. You give a performance. There's no music coming back to you other than your own which, as you know, can be made more easily in your basement. You can share with a music partner though, so I recommend finding one as to me that's a lot less lonely and makes for a more enjoyable experience. Chances are if you're enjoying it your audience will too.

You also have to ask yourself some bigger questions like, "Does anyone want what I'm offering?" Ambient is very different than other genras of music in the fact that it's designed to be part of the atmosphere instead of the focus of attention. If you try and play a traditional club or bar people will wonder, "When does the song start?" I know this happened to me the first time I heard Music For Airports. I remember thinking, "This is like a Pink Floyd intro where they're all too stoned to remember the song." It took me a few tries to "get it." Most of your audience won't. Look to non-traditional venues like art galleries and cafes. I found it can help if you make an announcement along the lines of "go about your business, I'm here as part of the background." Giving your audience something to focus on can help. I've had success "re-scoring" movies. It's almost exactly an hour set from the time Dorothy gets whisked into Oz to the time the credits roll. Tron (the original) and James and the Giant Peach also work well (and oddly, are also an hour of fantasy time) If you're feeling dark, try Eraserhead. I've actually projected interesting looking video games like Rez and turned the music track off.

This is more or less my work-flow for live improvisation. One thing that's crucial to me is that I keep an audio looper or two on a send. The best are Mobius (free) for pure flexibility and ability to record a lot of chunks and toggle between them in real time. Augustusloop is great because it reacts more like a tape loop. If you're using only hardware I recommend finding a used Repeater, Digital Echoplex or Electro-harmonix 2880. Some people also like the RC-xx's from Roland, but the fact they don't allow you to control the feedback percent makes them useless to me. Creating a loop with less than 100% feedback is really great to create long evolving soundscapes.

If you're going all hardware, don't make the mistake of bringing too much gear to a gig. I've made that mistake and it always leads to frustration. For instance, a Roland ROMpler like an XV-5050 or the new Junos are a lot better than lugging along 6 different analogs. If you're a knob tweaker, (I'm not) a Virus would be a better choice than a Voyager simply because they cover a lot more ground in a single box and trust me, no one will notice the lack of "analog magic" in a live venue. Save that stuff for studio use.

If you go the computer route for live (I would at this point) make sure you don't focus on the computer. Get good knobby controllers and maybe something like the Maschine or Spark for beats (if you're doing rhythmic stuff) It's better to control a filter sweep with a Hot Hand MIDI or Roland D-Beam than it is to use a mouse. If people can't tell if you're checking their email, you'll have failed.

A friend of mine has performed ambient-type music live at art galleries, as sort of "background music" for openings. Might be a possibility to look into.

Also, there's the whole "house concert" thing (google if you're not familiar with it). The music usually runs to folk/jazz/rock appropriate to a smaller, quieter space, so maybe there are people out there who'd like to host something in a more electronic vein.

Thanks for the tip about the looper! I think that might open some possibilities I could easily transistion to.

I think you're right about not over-doing gear, but it's good to have several hardware controllers to give some freedom. I have a 3-keyboard system. Two separate keyboard controllers going to my PC is important for getting some good layering of sound.

Also, For simple performance tweaks, I use a Roland Alpha Juno 1. It is a great go-to synth for real analog leads, pads, and effects that need simple filter cut-off, envelope, and auto-chord tweaks. I also have a Moog MG-1, but it's old and kind of wonky. I would only use it in the studio, or a bigger, more special show as sort of an "icing-on-the cake" synth. For VA synths, drum machines, arps, and analog-type sequencer VSTi's, my Korg NanoKontrol works great! But I had to find a way to make it more intuitive. Even though every VSTi has a different architecture, I picked the most common parameters I'm likely to use, and assign them to the same controls on the Nano (Filter Cutoff is always dial 6, resonance is always dial 7, etc.) That way I only have to remember one set of controls for synths, one set of controls for drum machines, and one set of controls for a sequencer. Anything else that is special to a particular VSTi, I can always mouse. Then I got a hold of some small peel-and-stick scrapbook letters from a craft store, and labeled the NanoKontrol. Now, it's a lot more intuitive to use live, and it also makes patch-building a snap![/img]

Good Point! One thing I'm considering is performing to the side of my audience, or (GULP!) even with my back turned to the audience. That way they can see what I'm doing, and even see the VST GUI in the background. In a small venue, I would even invite them to come a little closer and observe the process. The more they see what we do, the more they see the performance.

About 20 years ago I worked a concert for a community theater, where a local guy was performing a multi-keyboard show. He was a child prodigy in the 80's as kind of a synth whiz-kid, and now he was in his 30's, trying to get back into performing. The first thing he did was build a tacky plywood pyramid that he set up his rig inside. I guess he thought it would look futuristic and cool, but all we could see was him from the waist-up, popping out of a square hole on the top, sort of moving to the music, and there was no sign of any of the 5 keyboards he was playing. It was terrible! You couldn't see anything of what he was playing. For all the audience knew, he could have sequenced the whole thing (and it turned out, there was a lot of sequencing), and no one could see the actual good performing he was doing.

I just watched a few of the Craig Padilla videos. I think it is remarkable what he accomplishes live. It is a bit different from the concept I have, but close enough for comparison. Since it is hard to hold an audience's attention, especially with ambient music, has anyone experimented with interactive video? This would obviously over lap into VJ territory, but I am looking less for visualizations and more for something with more meat. Something like being able to control a Bryce, Daz or Blender animation via MIDI.

I realize that it would be easy to score an animated piece and simply perform the score live while the animation is projected on a screen. It is easy enough to sync music to video live. That said, I am very much an improvisational musician. In fact, my ability to play a piece the same way twice is extremely limit. Is anyone aware of an application that would allow the creation of scenes like in Bryce, but then allow manipulation of objects with in the scene via MIDI?

arkaos

You might want to consider putting a webcam over your head and projecting the view from above onto a screen behind you. That would show off your skill quite well.

A webcam is a good idea!

I always envision a concert being outdoors in a natural setting. You can't plan the weather, but how cool would it be to have your audience in lawn chairs watching a summer sunset gradually turn the clouds from orange to pink, and open up into twilight, or a spot where crickets and birdsong become your inspiration?

I have played outdoors and I can tell you it is a challenge. It is very difficult, especially without a dedicated sound man, to know what is being heard by your audience. In a club or other defined space, you can get a feel from the stage because the sound bounces off the walls and comes back. Outside, the sound just keeps going. I have played shows where we couldn't be heard and others where we could be heard from the highway two exits down. It is really hard to judge.