NO KARAOKE
Mar 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Erik Hawkins
Getting your live performances to sound remotely similar to your finely crafted multitrack studio productions is a challenge. You could perform to an instrumental version of your song, but that is just one step removed from karaoke. A performance should reflect the sound of your studio recordings without sounding like an exact clone. The trick is learning how to introduce a “live” improvisational element to your songs as well as the ability to extend song sections on a whim.
If you depend on traditional electric and acoustic instruments to make your music, then bringing the sound of your studio recordings to the stage is pretty straightforward. If you use software programs and studio gizmos to manifest your music, taking a sound that has been crafted entirely in the studio to the stage requires a distinctly different type of preparation and rehearsal.
FEELING THE FORMAT
To translate the sonic flavor of your studio recordings to the stage without an army of musicians and engineers to micromanage every sound, it's often best to employ loops culled from your multitrack sessions. Loops capture the exact sound and performance of tracks in your studio recordings and can be easily rearranged and manipulated onstage.
Two types of performance loops are available: audio and MIDI. Each has its pros and cons. If you plan to perform with a Korg Karma, for example, you'll need to use MIDI loops because it doesn't play standard audio files (such as WAV or AIFF samples). Using a combination of loop formats will give you the most flexibility, but how practical this is depends on your setup.
Sampled loops are great because they can sound identical to your studio track without any extra processing or tweaking. The problem with audio loops is that the number of loops necessary to pull off a great-sounding show can eat up many gigabytes of your computer or sampler's hard drive. Of course, picking up a few external hard drives can solve this problem. Another trouble with audio loops is that it's difficult to change a loop's tempo on the fly (such as when you want to speed up or slow down a section of your song), especially when you're dealing with multiple synchronized loops. However, slice-and-dice sampling techniques and software programs are making the live tempo manipulation of loops much more practical.
MIDI loops are nice because they are extremely compact in size and very flexible. A hundred short MIDI loops will fit on one floppy disk. You can tweak MIDI performances live down to the individual notes (dependent on the playback device). Furthermore, they will easily conform to any tempo and can be assigned to any sound. The downside to working with MIDI loops is that they require much more preparation to sound like your studio tracks. For example, each MIDI performance needs to be assigned to the correct sound on a MIDI sound module and run through just the right effects to sound like it does in the studio.
MAKING THE LOOPS
No matter which file format you employ, you will need to carefully export a series of loops from your multitrack sessions for each song. It's best to keep your loops short, one to four bars, to make their turnaround time quick. Keep your digital audio sequencer in snap-to-grid mode to make selecting loops of exact bar lengths a breeze. If your songs have a traditional song structure, export multitrack loops from each section (verse, chorus, bridge and so on) so you can play all of the sections live and in any order.
When exporting an audio loop, don't worry if a snap-to-grid selection doesn't fall exactly at a waveform's zero crossing. It's more important that the loop's performance — it's groove relative to all of the other loops of that section — remains intact. If there is a pop or click where the sample is looped, use a quick fade to smooth out the loop's in and out points. Make sure that any effects that are key to the sound of the part are enabled when you bounce the loop to disk. The exception to this rule is reverb, which generally can be left off because most performance venues will add their own reverb to your sound, and extra reverb in your loop could create a muddy live sound.
Producing MIDI loops requires you to select a MIDI performance in your arrange window, then employ the sequencer's export Standard MIDI File command. Although you don't have to worry about audio effects, you should make note of the patch assigned to the MIDI performance (include its name in the SMF document) and whether any MIDI effects are enabled (which may not export, so look out for this). As with audio loops, export solo instrument performances.
PLAYBACK TOOLS AND TIPS
Devices for live control of MIDI and audio loops are plentiful these days. If you feel comfortable performing with a computer, both Ableton Live 4.0 and Propellerhead Reason 3.0 offer impressive real-time control in one software application. Live's time-stretching capabilities allow you to quickly conform an audio loop to just about any tempo, and the Reason Dr.Rex player gives you tempo control of loops in the REX file format.
With similar tools and careful planning, you could play everything yourself, but a band onstage is always more exciting. With each band member handling a different element and adding few live instruments for good measure, you can bring together the best of both worlds. Just make sure that all of your loop-playback devices, be they audio or MIDI, are synchronized to a master MIDI Clock to ensure that every loop, no matter when it's introduced, is locked to the beat.
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