Midi Controllers

Up to this point I’ve avoided writing much about midi controllers with Ableton. Don’t get me wrong, they can add a whole new world for live performance as well as producing but I hadn’t personally felt I had enough to say on the subject. You see, I don’t want to just jump on a hype bandwagon if I don’t actually have something important to contribute. My goal isn’t to turn you on to a bunch of extra gadgets for your studio, I want to help you actually make more music or perform more efficiently.

For the most part, the things that initially excite me about new midi gear don’t turn out to be incredibly practical.  Most of the neat midi controller templates lend themselves better to pre-prepared performance set ups and less of a spontaneous environment. On some youtube videos I’m really impressed with some of the chopping and remixing effects i see people do on the fly, but then realize that you wouldn’t be able to do most of that live to say, 100 song choices to mix and match. Instead you would pretty much have to have your whole setlist ready to go and just have the ability to tweak from within that template. This can be great if you are performing your own productions and remixes, but not as great for more of a DJ style set.

Lately, I often find myself asking “Is this piece of gear really serving me, or does it just look cooler”?

I haven’t forgot the beauty of simplicity in DJ performance. I still am blown away by DJ’s with no more than 3 CDJ’s and a mixer. Of course we all want to push things to the next level, but amazing things can still be done without a setup that would confused a rocket scientist. I am not attempting to make one setup wrong and another one right, I am simply trying to share what works for me.

Thusfar these are the midi controllers I have used:

M-Audio Ozone

Korg PadKontrol

Behringer BCR2000

Behringer BCF2000

Akai APC40

You can probably guess from that list that I really love the concept of the flexibility a midi controller can give you. Unfortunately, I haven’t yet found that 1 piece of gear that works perfectly for my needs. Each piece of gear offers something special, but no single piece does it all. Most controllers are a bit too androgynous which can be a good thing when you want to re-invent it’s capabilities but not necessarily as straightforward as a DJ mixer. In many cases, I buy a piece of gear in order to do something a bit more outrageous and later realize it’s just not as practical in a live situation.

APC40

I was one of those guys who bought the APC40 the first day it came out and dove right into it. The plan was to be among the first to review how great it is on my blog but the longer I played with it, the more I felt hyping this controller wouldn’t have been authentic. I would simply have talked about how others use it when I hadn’t personally found an approach to using it that satisfied me. Everytime I used it in a live situation, I found the functions I wanted most were not at easy access.  I guess I was hoping the APC40 would be as straightforward as Sasha’s Maven controller. I like that each channel has volume, EQ and 6 clip launching buttons.

I realize that I like one knob or button to have only 1 function. I don’t like having to scroll for the right menu before I can make a particular tweak or find that one song or loop in my set. In that same amount of time I often find I could have more easily just used my mouse or qwerty keyboard.

Another thing that bugs me is multiple clip grids on the APC40. It’s a fantastic concept and I still get a lot of use out of it, but when you are adding and removing songs and loops, it’s easy to get confused with what is what.  I’m constantly checking to make sure I’m about to push the right clip.

With a standard DJ mixer you have less flexibility, but you always know where everything is. The faders will always be volume, the EQ’s will always be EQ. There is something comforting about that. Most controllers just aren’t sure exactly what they are. For example, the APC40 isn’t quite the perfect performance tool as it doesn’t have 3 EQ bands for each channel. It also isn’t quite the best studio controller as so much real estate is taken up with the clip pads which aren’t touch sensitive.

I know what you are thinking right now..”Well you can tweak it to do all sorts of things”! Of course you can if you want to learn a bit of programming and 3rd party software, but I’ve found, for myself, that the more software involved in a live situation, the more time it takes to set up and the more chances of your set not going smoothly.

iPhone/iPad as a controller

I love some of the aps for the iphone without a doubt. I particularly love Snatch, Mrmr, and Touch OSC . It feels very empowering to be able to control Ableton from your iPhone’s touchscreen however, after trying to work it into a live situation, I found it only satisfying as a gimmick. I can certainly see the iPad having many advantages to the iPhone versions but still question just how necessary it really is in a live situation. At the end of the day, for me personally, I prefer physical gear.

In a way, this realisation kinda bummed me out because I really liked the idea of the iPad replacing the need for physical gear. I also thought it looked cooler. I fought with this for a while and finally concluded that I got more enjoyment from physical gear that is set up in a simple fashion.  It just took too long to set up all the software and have the time to test the wifi network and 3rd party software to be sure it would work perfect everytime. I will likely incorporate the iPad in the future, but not for my most important controls.

Another thing to consider is that I set up and tear down my studio every time I DJ. This means I am hooking and unhooking different controllers, sound cards, hardware and templates. This can confuse things quite a bit when both your live setup and studio setup are complex.  This was never a problem when spinning vinyl or CD’s since there was no hardware/software setup process you had to dial in to get things working seamlessly. You simply plugged them into your DJ mixer and were ready to go. For this reason I don’t see myself abandoning my CDJ’s anytime soon. They have continued to be a lifesaver when my computer or controller glitches.

Don’t worry, I in no way plan to abandon Ableton or controller technology. I love technology! My goal is to use technology to have a balance between the most options possible and the most seamless performance experience.

Just because you can, does it mean you should?

For me, when I listen to my favorite DJ mixes, there isn’t a whole lot going on. Usually there are subtle hints of EQ, filters, chorus, delay, reverb and looping. A great mix doesn’t overuse any of these fx and doesn’t tend to scream “Hey look at me, I’m doing stuff”! I don’t know about you, but when I listen back to a Live DJ mix of mine at a small club, I give myself a headache with all the trickery I add to try to keep people interested.  The real trick is to find the right audience who will appreciate what you do musically, then most of the overused gimmicks become unnecessary.

I wish you good luck in finding your own perfect balance for performing.

happy music making,

Jason

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For those interested in DJ’ing and Performing live with Ableton, I’ve released my full DJ collection I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of.

You can check it out now here:    Ableton DJ’ing and Live Performance Video Series

Here is the Video List below:

1. DJ’ing live in the session window part 1

2. DJ’ing live in the session window part 2

3. DJ’ing live in the session window part 3

4. DJ’ing live in the session window part 4

5. Make a DJ mix in the Arrange window

6. Warping with Autowarp (version 7)

7. Warping the hard way (version 7)

8. Warping in Ableton 8

9. Warping songs with live drummers (version 8 )

10. Warpless mixing

11. Organizing files for DJ’ing

12. Launching Clips without a mouse

13. Macro Controls

14. Setting up controller Knobs and keys

15. Preparing your productions for Live performance

16. Syncing Ableton on 2 computers

17. APC40 setup

Also included is my Ebook:

Mixing with your Mind – How to make your Best DJ Mix

(This Ebook goes where other DJ related books don’t. This concentrates on ways to use your brain for the fastest, most creative and most enjoyable results!)

Get it here now! http://tinyurl.com/24oqo6u

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Are you a creative consumer or producer?

Let’s face it. We’ve all become information junkies. We constantly feed our faces with new tricks and new toys. We are constantly looking for the next thing. The new synth, that new effect, the new, well… anything.

Here’s the problem folks, it’s slowing you down from the real goal. If you aren’t finishing songs, soundtracks or projects, now you have your culprit.

In an attempt to become more productive you read blogs, watch videos and buy whatever seems to give you more power than you already have. The problem is that the appetite is never quenched. I’m of course referring to myself as well. I’ll use information gathering as an excuse to not create and then I’ll convince myself that without this new tool I can’t create. You end up in a constant cycle of upgrading instead of finding a consistant workflow.

Have you become an addicted consumer instead of a creative producer?

Now I am all about new technology, no doubt about it. I am also all about finding new information that I can put to use, but that is where the flaw is. We watch the videos, we read the blogs, we download the new plugin but we are pulling in more information than we can possibly put to use?

A change in thinking

If this behavior is going to stop we need to accept that too much information works against you. It gives you too many choices. It also takes away your sense of discovery when you are in a creative mode. By the time you have a situation that would benefit from a certain technique, you may already be bored by it or paranoid that this trick isn’t modern enough or is overused.

I think this behavior happens with a lot of musicians (something I’ve already stated that I am not). The reason for this is that many musicians learn how to play before they just start playing. They learn all the rules and they learn all the chords. By the time they actually start making music, they are trying to reach outside their current level of skill because they are bored to tears of all the things they have already learned. They restrict themselves from many of the basics in search of that magic, but rarely find it.

When I started playing guitar I tried learning from a chord book but tossed it after only a few days. I had learned a few basic bar chords and I was off and running. I had confidence in simplicity and wasn’t afraid to do something just because it’s easy. Luckily for me, I was drawn to bands that used simplicity to their favor. If I had something in my head that I couldn’t play, then and only then would I hunt for a new skill, technique or expand my chord knowledge. This gave me the ability to feel the magic of every new discovery and tool. I didn’t feel forced to grow any more than my natural pace. I rarely heard a song and had to rush home to learn how it was played. I was just doing my own thing and developing my own sound.

Now I find myself getting into the trap of information gathering. I’m constantly working on skills that I’ll never put to use. another downside is that I rarely have the exciting feeling of discovery when I finally use a new trick. Being a blogger and a producer (and a DJ), it’s easy for me to get caught up with what is new, but I feel it would be more beneficial to myself and my readers if I put to use each new thing I learn or each new tool I access before hunting for the next thing. I also think it’s going to be important to wait for a problem before I go hunting for a solution.

Ask yourself, is this a tool I am going to use today? Does the project I am currently working on require this tool or information to complete it? Does filling my head with this new information make me more productive now or less productive? What information and tools do you have right now that you still haven’t put to use? Might it be more beneficial to implement some of those one at a time? Maybe you would benefit by removing several tools to open up some space to new ones.

Just because a tool is great for someone else and has them super excited doesn’t mean it’s going to work that way for you. Realize your addiction might be to someone’s excitement and  not necessarily the information being presented. Another trap is trying to fit this new tool or idea into your work. This can be frustrating and slow you down because in your head you may be thinking “this is supposed to be amazing, what am I doing wrong”?, when the real issue is that it’s not a match for your way of creating.

A challenge

Make a deal with yourself. If you spend 30 minutes learning a new trick, you’ve got to spend at least 30 minutes putting it to use. If the skill requires more time, decide whether you will dump the new trick or take the time to perfect it. Don’t make the mistake of putting this on the backburner while hunting for new information or tools.

I hope this brings you closer to a very productive 2010.

To your continued joy and productivity in your creative works!

happy music making,

Jason

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Website: http://www.musicsoftwaretraining.com

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2009 Wrap up & Plans for 2010

Well it’s been a good year and I’d like to share some of the highs and lows of the last 12 months as well as some of my plans for the next year. Be warned that this Blog is more in the personal development department than it is musical. Feel free to skip this if it doesn’t interest you…

Successes:

Some of the successes have come in the health department. I’ve gone to a mostly organic vegetarian diet with the excepton that i still eat fish and I eat turkey once a year (I’m sure you can guess which day).

Through the year I struggled to wake up before 11am. I would literally feel sick if I woke up much earlier. I realized that for me, waking up earlier required more than a simple habit shift. It actually required me to change several habits.
For one I traded in my meditation time for cardio. Now I walk up a place in town called Mount Rubidioux which is about a 3 mile walk.  I find it’s a great way to get my heart rate up and get me moving.

Although I don’t want to completely give up meditation as a habit, I found that although pleasant, it was about the laziest healthy thing I could do for myself when I really needed to put my body into motion. Getting into motion earlier in the morning set the tone for accomplishing things through the rst of the day.

Another important component to waking up earlier is having a light meal for dinner instead of a heavier meal. so now I end my day with something like cantaloupe or something easily digestible. I’m not saying that I suggest you take this step yourself, but it works well for me and when I slip up and have a heavier meal (like the sweet potato and spaghetti squash I had last night), I have a much harder time getting up easily.

Unfortunately for the last year, I’ve suffered from some pretty severe stomach/digestion problems. This often leaves me with a burning in my stomach, sharp pains in my sides or back, or heavy bloating. Not too pleasant when you are trying to be productive and creative.   In fact this is much of the reason for ALOT of false starts throughout the year.

Anyway, regular walking, lite eating at nite,  sleeping before midnite and getting up before 9am has been pretty doable. It’s tough though on the nites that I DJ til 2am, and those mornings I find myself up at around 9:30. My goal is to be able to wake up fresh and alert at 7am so I’ll be inching away at that.

I’ve also stopped drinking alcohol completely as I realized I must be allergic to it somehow. Out of everything that effects my stomach, this is by far the worst. A 3rd of a beer will set my stomach off for up to a week, so although it was fun drinking (mostly) responsibly all these years, it’s a practice my body no longer allows for.

I bought a blender/jiucer (yes, it’s the one Montel Williams sells on infomercials) and that has been a huge shift in the way I eat. My first meal is almost always a fruit smoothie.

A typical smoothie has: 2-3 bananas, 1 apple, 1 pear, strawberries, 1 orange, a couple kale leaves, hemp seed protien powder, and yogurt. Sometimes I use coconut milk other times just water or almond milk. This might seem like a lot of food to you, but you’ll be surprised how much you can drink before you feel satisfied and full. Often times I’ll also make a veggie juice later in the afternoon or as a last meal. This could include, pomegranate, carrot, celery, cucumber, spinach, beet, orange and ginger.

For me, eating as healthy as possible is a must to maintain a certain level of energy throughout the day. One bad meal can set me off for days of discomfort, pain and fatigue. If my level of activity appears to be sporadic, this would most likely be the culprit.

Another habit that I’ve started is Dream Logging and Journaling. This has a greater benefit than I would have expected when it comes to peace of mind. Although I don’t bother attempting to interpret my dreams, making it a point to remember them and write them down allows me to access the creative side of my brain that is normally shut off when we are awake. Think of it a bit like this:

Our brain works on frequencies and we have certain frequencies when we are awake and certain ones when we are asleep (and of course a wide range of frequencies inbetween). When we make that shift from asleep to awake, we shift frequencies, much like you would change a radio station.  The reason you can’t remember your dreams is because they are located in a frequency range that is no longer accessible unless you have trained your mind to find that frequency in your waking hours.

Journaling is basically writing for a certain amount of time about anything that comes to mind. It could be like a diary, or it can be about your goals or daily frustrations, or it can be a fictional story. What I find is that when you start Journaling, it’s similar to starting to meditate. It’s like the brain needs to take the time to defrag and organize before you start getting the benefits. Just like cleaning a dirty room, it’s often going to get worse before it gets better.

With my experience of waking up and writing for 15 minutes, I found myself doing a lot of complaining and a lot of time talking about the things i wanted and sometimes an action plan.  Sometimes I would simply write that i didn’t have much of anything to say. After 2-3 weeks of consistently writing first thing in the morning, I started to notice that I no longer felt like complaining, that i wanted to use the time more creatively and that I felt more relaxed and sometimes even inspired. I find it very beneficial clearing out the crap in my brain before moving on through the rest of the day. It’s also a great way to shut down the critic in your head since there is no wrong way to Journal except to not write. I plan to use this technique more in my songwriting as well.

2009 failures:

This year I have made several attempts at new habits that did not stick. Either I wasn’t really devoted to it, I got sidetracked or was just plain lazy.

100 push ups – Inspired by another blog that I read, I attempted to build myself up to being able to do 100 pushups via HundredPushups.com. I attempted this twice and both times only lasted a couple of weeks before I got distracted and broke the cycle.  It was a decent goal, but obviously not that important to me.

Qi Gong - I also experimented with Qi Gong excercises which is basically a way of moving energy throughout your body and clearing out blockages.  I enjoyed it a lot, but it seemed to be too much of a commitment, so I just do it every so often.  I’m a pretty skinny guy, so I’m not really under any pressure to get myself in shape. The benefits I am looking for are more in the mental clarity department.  I’ll probably return to this once or twice a week.

Plans for 2010:

Live PA shows – 2009 saw no Live performances outside of my local gigs. 2010 will be much more active in the Performance department. Myself and my production partner Frank Prosnik are planning several Live PA gigs in the Los Angeles area and beyond as Innerstate.

I took a pay cut by taking off Saturdays at my local gig so I can pursue weekends out of town and also focus more on music production and more video tutorials.

To be more specific, I’d like to have a new track every month throughout the year. Due to how picky I am about my output and how slow I tend to be in the songwriting department, I would be comfortable with at least 6 solid tunes completed.

As far as video tutorials, I am going to dive deeper into DJ’ing, performance videos and also plan to put myself at risk by doing a video journal of me making tunes start to finish. You will get to look at all the trials, errors, swear words and false starts.  It’s really going to force me to see a track to the end in a public forum. I plan to explore several different techniques as well so that I am broadening my songwriting horizons. I see this as a great oppurtunity to grow as an artist and to also help others beyond their own creative fears.

Iphone Ap – This has been a goal of mine for quite a while and it appears I’ve finally run into the right people to make it a reality. Soon you’ll be able to watch all my tutorial videos straight from your Iphone or Ipod touch! Stay tuned.

From PC to Mac – Ok so I have but working on a Macbook all year but I am still tied to a lot of my PC only software and plugins via Bootcamp (Sound Forge, Fruity Loops and loads of effect plugins).

I’m hoping that with the help of our community here that I’ll be doing  100% of my live performances on Mac. I still doubt I will give up the PC completely in the studio but I’d like it to be 75% Mac. I’m open to learn all your Mac production tips, so send away.

Image-Line – A couple of months ago I started experimenting with Image-Line’s Deckadance as a plugin inside of Ableton. It works in a similar fashion to Tracktor or Serato so you now aren’t trapped into one master tempo in Ableton. Being that I play a club that it not very house music friendly, I find my tempo’s all over the place. This meant that I would have to exit Ableton to do most of my gig’s. Deckadance has mostly solved that problem and given you the best of both worlds.
I made a video on how to set it up in Ableton that the owners of Image-Line (also famous for FL Studio) saw and liked a lot. Since then they’ve kindly hooked me up with a lot of their software and I’ve been road testing Deckadance and reporting back.

Thusfar it’s a bit buggy but the potential is pretty awesome. It will read nearly all timecode CD’s and also has it’s own “absolute” timecode that you can download from inside the program itself. It also will work with nearly all 3rd party plugin’s, so you can get really experimental.
Keep a lookout for more Deckadance tutorials as well as some FL studio tutorials as I plan to use both a pretty good amount in 2010.

Other Plans -

I’d love to tell you about other 2010 plans but it would be jumping the gun a bit, so for now I’ll just keep you posted as things develop. Rest assured that I plan to keep this blog interesting and give you several more options to learn and develop your skills in Ableton and beyond.

Until next year… Happy Music Making

Jason

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Website: http://www.musicsoftwaretraining.com

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Is technical talent truly inspiring?

I watched a live performance of Shadowplay by Joy Division from 1978 on Youtube the other day. The performance was raw, the playing was amateur and the vocals were out of key and..

it was still amazing.

I proceeded to read the comments below and was pleasantly surprised that 90% of the comments were also praising the performance. Only one person mentioned the lack of technical skill and everybody jumped down his throat.

Then of course everyone was dogging the Cover version of this song by The Killers basically calling them a bunch of hacks. Now technically speaking, The Killers version could easily be considered better. It was sonically recorded and mixed better, the instruments were well played and the vocals were on key.. but nobody cared. Now I’m not here to say The Killers are shit, but rather I want to explore why bands like Joy Division, Bauhaus and The Cure are practically worshipped despite their lack of what some would call musicianship.

Why are bands like these so well respected despite(or perhaps even because of) a lack of technical talent? What is that magic formula? Why is it that we excuse their lack of technical talent and in fact rate them much higher than bands that clearly have better musicianship?

Some of you reading this will simply say these bands are completely over-rated or popular for being popular in the underground. I’m going to have to say that I believe there is more to it and I would like to explore this a bit deeper.

Being a proud non-musician myself, I enjoy the idea of mucking about on an instrument like a curious child. If I already felt I knew everything there was to know, I probably wouldn’t be very interested in making music. I suppose what I do mocks people that slave over their instrument of choice, but I don’t think that is the whole picture. I, in fact, have slaved over music, but the things I am interested in are how to convey a vibe.

Sometimes pure talent shows little humanity.

Often times talent is something you hide behind. Nakedness and vulnerability can evoke much more emotion.  I personally think it takes bravery to stand up on a stage with little but a handful of chords and some ideas that you want to get across.

Don’t get me wrong, there are times when you need talent to convey a complex idea and those are amazing moments, but those moments are not driven by the desire to “show off” talent but rather to get across your message as accurately as possible.

There is also something to be said about having pent up emotion and being a bit frustrated that you can’t express it accurately. I think I can hear this in bands like Nirvana and Joy Division. Those bands were very vulnerable and spoke for so many who were afraid to speak for themselves. Those who were afraid of their own normality. We can see ourselves in those who show themselves, warts and all.

It might be safe to say that those who are true fans of music don’t base what is good on pure talent but rather on how the music hits them whether it be Mozart, The Who or Velvet Underground. I think it’s likely that “musicians” might get off on complexity for complexities sake because having the skill to learn it can be an ego boost in the same way as mastering a difficult video game. However, music is in a completely different field altogether. Some of the best music defies logic. Sometimes the words are nonsense and the simple parts that construct the song is laughable yet we still find something intriguing about it.

I like to think that there is more that goes into music than just the instruments and vocals. I think there is something that gets recorded between the notes that weaves through the empty gaps. A sort of “ghost in the machine”. I believe emotion and intention comes through the music and those subtleties are picked up by those who really “listen”  and “feel” the music.

Although all of my examples in this blog are talking about live bands, I think the same “ghosts” can come through in electronic music as well. All instruments whether played by hand or programmed are soul-less until the soul is injected into it.

I am beginning to get into another tangent, so I will simply leave you with this Joy Division video. I hope it intrigues you to reconfirm or re-evaluate your attitude towards music and the shallow definitions of talent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LdEM9xhMUM
Happy Music Making

Jason

Follow me: http://twitter.com/AbletonVids

Website: http://www.musicsoftwaretraining.com

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