The 'Live' feel in techno music.

I love the new retrospective Laurent Garnier album. There's a track on there he's recorded with totally live instruments and it really is incredible (you'd know the track if ya heard it - can't rememeber the name)... There's a few more on there too where the ride cymbal sounds just lovely....

I remember DJ Hell once told me about 10 years ago he was interested in this and it sort of stuck in my mind ever since.

What really gives me a buzz in techno is when i can almost imagine the music is being played by someone on a stage. I don't mean where the whole track is totally 'live' , what i mean is where you hear an instrument in there that sounds natural and takes you away from the electronic aspect of the music.

Does anyone else get this feeling in music? And why the hell does it matter so much :lol: ????!!!!

Yeah, this element is great. These days it's a rarity to find this element in techno it seems. Carl Craig, Mathew Jonson, Garnier, Moodymann, etc. Those guys are great with tossing in live instruments to the mix. If I could actually play some live instruments or find some good samples that aren't tacky I'd incorporate that element as well. These days, especially with the new minimal kind of stuff, it seems to be all about dBlue Glitch, stutters, electronic sounds and more. Maybe all the shit will give everybody a techno sound overload and hopefully encourage some more live instrumentation into the music.

Are we talking about Live 'feel' or Live instrumentation here??

well it's what's known as musicianship really. No different to guys in a band playing guitars and drums, just different music. It's been around since day one, since Derrick May was laying down the parts to "Strings of life" or since Galaxy To Galaxy where practising their stunning show. It matter's because its natural creativity. Being a guitarist of 14 years, i get much more personal enjoyment out of recording songs and singing and what not than i do from making electronic stuff, i mean just sitting down with the midi keyboard etc etc. It's cool if you've got a setup where you can incorporate both, which i can, and that's the most important thing. That's what, imo, enables you to get more of a feel for what your stuff is about artistically and not just thinking about "oh its loud and banging, they'l love it on t'floor". Proper music being played with feeling, nothing beats it.

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Originally Posted by eyeswithoutaface

well it's what's known as musicianship really. No different to guys in a band playing guitars and drums, just different music. It's been around since day one, since Derrick May was laying down the parts to "Strings of life" or since Galaxy To Galaxy where practising their stunning show. It matter's because its natural creativity. Being a guitarist of 14 years, i get much more personal enjoyment out of recording songs and singing and what not than i do from making electronic stuff, i mean just sitting down with the midi keyboard etc etc. It's cool if you've got a setup where you can incorporate both, which i can, and that's the most important thing. That's what, imo, enables you to get more of a feel for what your stuff is about artistically and not just thinking about "oh its loud and banging, they'l love it on t'floor". Proper music being played with feeling, nothing beats it.

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so true ;)
thats my stand-point and technique
with everything i do.

yeah definately

even if ur playing electronic, computer based drums, actually PLAY them instead of sequencing them down. Even if u gotta play to a metronome, which is obviously a great help when working out say acoustic guitar patterns or what not and you need help keeping in time, locating bpm etc etc

i think its more than noticable in techno which artists are true musicians and which ones are just loop mongers

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Originally Posted by eyeswithoutaface

i think its more than noticable in techno which artists are true musicians and which ones are just loop mongers

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Extremely obvious. Although, I know talented musicians who put out overly loopy shit too. In general, a real musician will stand out over a "producer."

yeah definately, i know some extremely talented musicians who just love the loopy stuff aswell, but the difference is certainly extremely obvious as you say mate

just check that track on laurent's album if you can guys, you'd love it :)

well that's been half of his appeal for the past 10 years, he's been playing instruments on his tracks for a long long time now. Same with the likes of Masters at Work on the house side of things. Live house music, seriously, cannot be touched at times.

wikid track deffo mark, just ordered a copy

I`ve been playing various instruments for years, but I don`t find any more enjoyment from programming or playing.
You can get in there and add a lot of a human feel to entirely sequenced tracks if you like, it depends how much time you are willing to spend.
Sometimes I like a bit of a mechanical sound, sometimes it`s nice to humanise a sequence, sometimes it`s cool to get some live stuff in there. Whatever whenenver, as long as there is passion behind it, it will come through.

I like to see the guy running behind the bus..reaching out..almost catching it, but it pulls away until the next block when he can almost catch it and start the chase over again and again and again. But sometimes, it's even more fun to be driving the bus through traffic and weaving like a maniac without hitting anyone. Now, try to be a bird sitting on the roof of the bus hanging on to the steel with 3 gnarled claws on each leg.

Lol

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Originally Posted by dirty_bass

I`ve been playing various instruments for years, but I don`t find any more enjoyment from programming or playing.
You can get in there and add a lot of a human feel to entirely sequenced tracks if you like, it depends how much time you are willing to spend.
Sometimes I like a bit of a mechanical sound, sometimes it`s nice to humanise a sequence, sometimes it`s cool to get some live stuff in there. Whatever whenenver, as long as there is passion behind it, it will come through.

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same here.. guitars, bass, drums.. blah blah...

i still dont enjoy making a track anymore either recording the parts "live" or sequencing them. i think i prefer the buzz i get out of actually building rhythms rather than playing them.. guess its horses for courses.

I saw Garnier and his band at Sonar.

And as much as I would have liked to have like it... it was awful. Just awful.

You can get a really good live feel in techno from manually controlling all the filters on your synths, or changing the ADSR on drums the give them a different feel I find.

Old school knob twiddling. Beats automatation...

I remember a few years back a dj ( name has slipped my mind as I was 15 at time ) spinning Mills style on 4 decks & accompanied by a group of Brazilian sounding percussionists . The energy was amazing ! With live instruments in productions..... I'm currently listening to " Strings of Life " and that piano is awesome. Instruments like piano/keys , brass , & live percussion ( esp. South American & African ) can sound great in tracks if used correctly.

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Originally Posted by bassbin

I remember a few years back a dj ( name has slipped my mind as I was 15 at time ) spinning Mills style on 4 decks & accompanied by a group of Brazilian sounding percussionists . The energy was amazing ! With live instruments in productions..... I'm currently listening to " Strings of Life " and that piano is awesome. Instruments like piano/keys , brass , & live percussion ( esp. South American & African ) can sound great in tracks if used correctly.

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i've played at parties quite a few times with live percussion: people playing jembys, congos etc. along to my sets - sometimes it sounds great, other times it doesn't. You have to be a bit careful about what you play and make sure the drummers are good (and not too munted). One of the best sets i've played was at a solstice party with two of my mates playing along; i properly buzzed off it as did they and the crowd :)

I used to do a live set with me on 2 decks and a 309, another mate on decks doing loops and a lad alternately playing congas and a digeridoo.

It was quality. Sadly all three of us ended up living as far away as possible from each other by a cruel twist of fate

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Originally Posted by Jay Pace

I used to do a live set with me on 2 decks and a 309

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A Peugeot?

ahahah Peugeot.

No joke now..here in Minneapolis..it gets -30 farenheit in winter right. Two guys in town parked their car just outside the doors to a club and were rocking the liveset with all their drum boxes and machines at night in the middle of winter with the windows down as people walked out of the club. I don't even think the heater was going in the car because they were bouncing around and the machines were blaring through the cassette interface you'd use with an old portable cd player, but they had plugged into the little mixing board.
It was ridiculous which made it great.