live performance of experimental electronic music...

[vurt]

Visuals are okay, but no amount of dancing bears are going to make mouse clicking exciting.

indeed, mouse clicking is a no no, the visuals are a performance enhancement not a replacement, otherwise id send s cd along with a few dancing bears.
the kp pads as you mentioned get some interest, as do korg pad kontrol, or anything that light up a bit

anything that is running on the laptop should be controlled by an outboard controller, using my 4x4 i use a kp, a novation remote and a korg pad control, i leave a spare in case anyone has keys and wants to join in.
different presets on each controller sending to diff channels, so i can play up to 16 different parts throughout a set. on top of that there are the fx boxes and hw noise generators and lately my axe


but you said something about atmosphere, you should always be mindful of what kind of event youre asked to play, dont feel you have to change everything but adapt what you have, your set should be built so that if one night your doing a full on club night and next is a chilled cafe bar, to be able to just adjust tempo and switch round a few fx but keep the sound of you.
make for example two sets of drums, one minimal and one full on four to the floor, work to your beats

[zerocrossing]

You sound a LOT like my old set up. Ah the old XL-7...

Anyway, between all that gear it can be pretty horrible to watch, at least I know I am. So, what I did to augment my show was to perform a "soundtrack" to a movie. Wizard of Oz is a great one. I'd start it at the point where it goes color and by the credits I'd have an hour set.

Another technique I used was use Arkaos: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia ... MIDI.shtml

I was doing it at a time that computer power wasn't all that (Mac 7500) and I had mixed results but I bet now-a-days you can put on a kick ass show with it.

Basically I like to hide on stage and make people watch something else.

Mark

[vurt]

arkaos rocks.
real time midi video control...

slave that from the controllers your playing tunes with and you get everything in time.

[ew]

If you're a laptop musician, you almost definitely need something going on visually.

Last Saturday night I caught Freida Abtan doing a set as part of the SPARK festival. If you just watched her, it was boring; it was 99% trackball. What she had going on on the screen behind her was amazing; self replicating and morphing images of a young Asian woman that fit the music perfectly. The set after hers (Greg Taylor- a local guy) was the same; using morphing images to give the audience something to focus on with their eyes. Unfortunately, I got a splitting migraine and had to leave before Richard Devine's set

It was a huge inspiration to me; I'm working on some animations for a show as I type this.

ew

[justin3am]

I actually have a copy of Arkaos... unfortunately I have 0 (zero) visual aesthetic. My co-worker that does VJ stuff was showing me what he does with pre-rendered animations from blender and manipulating them in VVVV. I was very impressed. He agreed to come and do visuals for me.

I'm starting to get really excited.

I'm glad that people are contributing thoughts weather or not they pertain to my specific scenario. I hope this is as helpful to others as it has been for me.

I've booked my first rehersal for the beginning of next week. Hopefully I'll get a video of it so I can get some input.

[Chuck E. Jesus]

justin: aren't you also a singer? simply singing and having a bit of stage presence can go a long way...

[vurt]

I actually have a copy of Arkaos... unfortunately I have 0 (zero) visual aesthetic. My co-worker that does VJ stuff was showing me what he does with pre-rendered animations from blender and manipulating them in VVVV. I was very impressed. He agreed to come and do visuals for me.

arkaos with live video feed, either the audience or close ups of hands, you control just the fx even
get your missus on camera duty so its not just a static cam image

[robogone]

Saw a really interesting band (forgot the name) back around 86 who really made a show out of some industrial/goth electronica.

They had a projection screen with video not synched with the music but relevant to it behind the stage.

The singer used an angle grinder on various parts of their set, spraying sparks everywhere. On darker lit numbers he would point various lights at the audience or move them around. He went out into the audience a few times with a polaroid camera taking photos of people's faces then giving them the photo.

Basically, lots of things going on, not necessarily related to the music, but put on a good show that made the whole thing a lot more interesting.

[justin3am]

justin: aren't you also a singer? simply singing and having a bit of stage presence can go a long way...

Nein, you are perhaps thinking of Jazzyspoon... too many Js I tell you. He did the singing for one of my latest projects

Though I've gotten over stage fright while playing shows in my old band, I still come off as very awkward in terms of stage presence. I'm trying to draw attention away from myself as much as possible.

I think I should just be Neubauten. Screw all this computer stuff, I'ma collect me some industrial machinery and do all electro mechanical sequencing.

[Chuck E. Jesus]

Nein, you are perhaps thinking of Jazzyspoon... too many Js I tell you. He did the singing for one of my latest projects

that's what i probably listened to...

[napalmbob]

If you can find it, Laurent Garnier - Public Outburst comes with a DVD of him improving live with some jazz muso's. It might be worth a look.

[robogone]

comes with a DVD of him improving live

Improving? Surprised that you would notice him getting better at playing just over the length of a DVD...

[shamann]

The best use of visuals I ever saw was at a Godspeed You Black Emperor show. They had a guy running looped film on reel projectors, mixing and matching between them. It was very creatively done, he seemed as much a part of the band as any of the 50 other people on stage.

[runagate]

comes with a DVD of him improving live

Improving? Surprised that you would notice him getting better at playing just over the length of a DVD...

Well, if they started from having no idea what was going on at all...
It'd be cool to put a monome and a reactable in front of a couple musicians not familiar with electronica and see how long it took them to come up with something cool, in front of a crowd. On harmaline and mescaline.

Frankly, I'm afraid of debra. She's always PMing me with weird pics labeled "neekid s3x0r" and they are always pics of alpacas just standing around looking innocuous. They are indeed naked, though.

[robogone]

comes with a DVD of him improving live

Improving? Surprised that you would notice him getting better at playing just over the length of a DVD...

Well, if they started from having no idea what was going on at all...
It'd be cool to put a monome and a reactable in front of a couple musicians not familiar with electronica and see how long it took them to come up with something cool, in front of a crowd. On harmaline and mescaline.

Frankly, I'm afraid of debra. She's always PMing me with weird pics labeled "neekid s3x0r" and they are always pics of alpacas just standing around looking innocuous. They are indeed naked, though.

Don't think you're the only one that gets those pics by PM...