Help! Advice for live performance on SP.

[admbmb]

I've never performed for anyone live before, but will be doing so soon (possibly by end of the month). Any of you rock just the SP for performances and if so, what do you do? Do you load whole songs in and drop effects? Do you load loops and jump around between the loops? Do you actually tap the beat out?

My production flow is pretty much impossible to recreate live, but I want to present my beats in a way where it is interesting and not like I am just "pressing play".

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have a SP-404 OG, a SP-555 and also a KP3 that I dont mess with much. Just want to put on a good show and put smiles on peoples faces. Thanks in advance, SP fam.

[kel]

I play live on the SP404. I keep one "song" per bank. maybe my drums will be resampled onto a single pad or i'll tap it out, depending on how much attention I pay to the 'music' part. I memorize how to play it and try to keep it interesting by doing fx-grabs and stuff.

I might chop up the main sample in 3-4 manageable peices, or however you want them for variation, and grab up the most bare drum sequence and put that on a pad, with maybe a couple extra pads containing just the kick or snare, etc... so you can improvise drum fills.. just whatever gives you the most control... then just rock variations on your OG song and throw some delay or whatever at the end, going to the next bank while the dust settles, then break out into another beat on another bank. my current live show is 22 short songs between 2 404s, with some pads set aside as transitional drones between performances, so it just is one long sound collage, running about 40 minutes.

the SPs are chained together, so instead of using a mixer or the subsonic fx to make drops, i just hit the ext light out and back on again. I keep the second SPs vinyl sim on and jump into fx live on the other one.

[admbmb]

Big time helpful, man. Will definitely incorporate this advice while I am crafting my performance. Thanks a lot.

[Rabot]

Good advices.

I'm not to good with the live drum play so I usually sample whole drum part and loop them, I usually end up with 2-3 drum loop i'll switch from for different dynamic in the song. As for main samples, usually resample my performance into a 16 or 32 beat long sample and i'll let that thing play and restart after 8 sometime or randomly marking it while playing for a wierd re-trigger.

Some song I live play the chops also.

Oohh and bass is usually another pad also so I can cut/restart when I want.

Drums are Loop
Main sample are not (chop are gated tho)
Bass is most of the time loop, also.

404 related advice

[fauna]

for live stuff only on the 404 i have a couple of sequences / patterns of basically just different beats. i trigger one-shots over top...like, the verse part, "chorus" part, bridge part. that lets me feel like i'm doing more than just hit play and i can freak some fx over top as well. have fun mans!

[ghost ghost ghost]

Lately I've been moving samples from old beats I made on my MPC to the 404, chopping them up and resampling them with drums. So pads 1-4 is hats and percussion, 5-8 kicks, and 9-12 snares. All the drum samples are either exactly the same or similar enough that they sound good together, just layered with different vinyl and bass samples. This way I can drum out a whole beat live and it sounds dope, I prefer it to drumming over loops.

[admbmb]

Great responses so far on here. I'm leaning toward bringing the SP-555 and SP-404 and plugging them both into a 4-channel mixer (maybe feed them into the KP3 for manipulation). I also am thinking about bringing a kaossilator for little sci-fi chirps, etc. Most beats I have completed and destroyed all the components that made em. I usually make a beat, dump it off to the computer, and then wipe the sample banks clean. So, going the other way, I think I will chop the beats up into parts (chorus, verse, etc). Have some little one off samples and drum hits. Cool wtf vocal samples here and there. And I like that atmospheric segue idea. Obviously, beat fading is a little hard with these things. Just hoping i dont bore anybody...we'll see.

[V-F!]

Great responses so far on here. I'm leaning toward bringing the SP-555 and SP-404 and plugging them both into a 4-channel mixer (maybe feed them into the KP3 for manipulation). I also am thinking about bringing a kaossilator for little sci-fi chirps, etc. Most beats I have completed and destroyed all the components that made em. I usually make a beat, dump it off to the computer, and then wipe the sample banks clean. So, going the other way, I think I will chop the beats up into parts (chorus, verse, etc). Have some little one off samples and drum hits. Cool wtf vocal samples here and there. And I like that atmospheric segue idea. Obviously, beat fading is a little hard with these things. Just hoping i dont bore anybody...we'll see.

I'd check out that show!

[QuiVive]

yo man, if your feeling nervous or whatever i would recommend having different options ready and available, like have your chopped full parts ready to drop but if there's room in the pad bank have enough single drums samples that you can rock for a few bars raw if you catch the groove.
my early shows i did all loops and whatnot and got real bored of it as i'm not too into flippin fx live, so i didn't really feel like i was doing anything. these days i tap out the drums live the entire time and all my melodic lines are broken up into 1 bar or less and set as 1 shots (if i have them set as loops it is harder to keep time for me, and if i do get off time a lot more obvious when either the loop keeps going and i'm still catching up on the drums or vice versa)
i would say for your first few shows have whatever options you have available as available as possible and the more you play you'll figure out what is the funnest way for you to rock a set. and in my experience the best set you will rock is when your having the most fun.

[ellaguru]

i personally use an sp606 for live.
i divide tracks into 4 pads max: pad1 a loop pad2 bass loop pad3 drum loop pad4 synth etc and i use to mute/unmute those pads with the loop/gate option (or ,in the sp606 case, also with the mute group option). so eith this method i have 4 tracks per bank (sp606 got 16 pads).
but, as quivive said, sometimes working only with loops is a little boring (at least for me)and i also use a kaoss pad3 to have the 404 famous looper fx (and also other things) and to make more "living" those loops.

so i'm intrigued to see kel's method, for example.

[hseiken]

I think even if you don't do anything but hit one pad to play a tune, if you bob your head hard enough, people will think you're doing a lot. I've noticed a lot of videos where dude just breaks his neck nodding and people go wild. Maybe twiddle a knob here and there or something with an effect on it.

I guess that's probably not self-satisfying, though...most people in 'general audience' won't have a clue what you're doing anyway. If it bumps, it bumps regardless if you're making it right on the spot or just playing some mp3 and looking like you're head is constantly bouncing off a mini trampoline attached to your chest.

[ellaguru]

I guess that's probably not self-satisfying, though...most people in 'general audience' won't have a clue what you're doing anyway. If it bumps, it bumps regardless if you're making it right on the spot or just playing some mp3 and looking like you're head is constantly bouncing off a mini trampoline attached to your chest.

[yo-yo crunch]

If it bumps, it bumps

i like just having beats on pads and messing with effects

[thx]

most people in 'general audience' won't have a clue what you're doing anyway. If it bumps, it bumps regardless if you're making it right on the spot or just playing some mp3 and looking like you're head is constantly bouncing off a mini trampoline attached to your chest.

eheheheheh
real talk

[QuiVive]

I think even if you don't do anything but hit one pad to play a tune, if you bob your head hard enough, people will think you're doing a lot. I've noticed a lot of videos where dude just breaks his neck nodding and people go wild. Maybe twiddle a knob here and there or something with an effect on it.

I guess that's probably not self-satisfying, though...most people in 'general audience' won't have a clue what you're doing anyway. If it bumps, it bumps regardless if you're making it right on the spot or just playing some mp3 and looking like you're head is constantly bouncing off a mini trampoline attached to your chest.

self-satisfying would be the key. i tend to assume that everyone wants to play everything live because that's how i have the most fun. but i'm sure plenty of people have just as much fun as i do doing it in totally different ways. that's why you gotta experiment, cus really like i said before, the most fun you have on stage is gonna be your best set!