How I hacked this technology to not only be an instrument but a light show! PART 1 - AN INTRODUCTION

Hi, my name is Jack St. James and I am one half of the band electro pop band Avec Sans. Last week we introduced ourselves and give you an exclusive lyric video to a song we wrote with @thisisbenbrick.

This week I'll be introducing you to the Novation Launchpad and Ableton to give you an overview of the technology I use to perform live.

SO WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?
I came from playing guitars in punk bands where thrashing around the stage was as important as the music itself. Transitioning to the electronic world posed a bit of a dilemma. I found watching the back of a keyboard (where the performer never broke a sweat) boring. Or worse, when an artist has a whole array of gear but all you see is the back of the table and their hands are moving!

I came up with the idea of mounting and angling my instruments towards the audience so they can actually see what I'm doing. After a lot of research I went one step further - I found the Novation Launchpad. I was sure that I could somehow get its lights to flash on my command. I bought one and went to work on figuring it out.

It's up to the them whether they like your music. It's up to you whether they remember you. - Jack St. James

WHAT IS A NOVATION LAUNCHPAD?
The Novation Launchpad was designed as a set of buttons you could use to control music performance software. The idea being that by using buttons and lights you could take your eyes away from a computer screen and actually perform the computer like an instrument. Each button would represent a sound (known as a clip), a loop of music or a space which sounds could be recorded in to. By pushing the corresponding button you would essentially be pressing, play, stop or record on that clip. The LED lights behind each button light up a different colour depending on whether there is a clip loaded in to that spot. The most famous example of someone taking lots of clips and sounds and putting them together in to a song and then performing it on a Launchpad is Madeon's Pop Culture mashup:

When the light is yellow, there is a clip loaded there, when it's green that clip is playing and when there is no light then there is no sound loaded.

So what is the computer program which the Launchpad is using to make this happen? Ableton Live.

WHAT IS ABLETON LIVE?
Ableton Live is a digital audio workstation (DAW) which is used to create, edit and perform music. What is unique about Ableton Live over other software which people use to make music is that it is very VERY good for live music. It's rarely crashes, it allows you to customise everything and it also has what is known as "clip view". I produce all of our music in Logic X which is a more traditional DAW. In traditional DAWs you press play and a bar starts moving across the screen playing all the parts which you have recorded in the order which you recorded it:

This is what a typical recording session looks like in Logic Pro:

What is unique about Ableton is this clip view. This is what the Avec Sans live show looks like in Ableton:

Looks very different right? Each little square is a sound, loop or command. These squares don't have to be played in any particular order and remove the rigidity of one fixed timeline / order in which sounds are played. This allows you to actually perform your music in unique ways and with new arrangements each night. You can bring in sounds and change them on the fly. Also, you can program each clip so that after X amount of time it then can either stop, play another clip, jump somewhere else etc. Not only that but you can assign clips to do things other than play sounds. For example I have clips which change instruments for me, turn down volumes, and send information for the light show. This combination of music and computer information makes Ableton VERY VERY powerful. Rather than looking at the screen making adjustments I have clips which are programmed to play at certain times which does that all for me. That way I can concentrate on actually performing the music!

WHAT DO YOU MEAN "PLAY INSTRUMENTS"? YOU'RE PLAYING A COMPUTER!
This was actually covered by @thisisbenbrick in his post about virtual pianos.

For our live set I use a lot of virtual synthesizers. This means that there are small programs (known as plugins) which I use within Ableton which emulate the sound of classic synthesizers like the Korg Polysix, Mini Moog and Yamaha CS-80. That way I get the sound of all of these classic synthesisers without needing a mortgage in order to afford them!

I also create a lot of instruments myself. This means that I take sounds I created while making the track and then isolate and export it. I then take that sound and assign it to one of the buttons on my Launchpad. So when I want that specific sound (known as a sample) all I have to so is press that button and I have it there ready to perform.

HOW DOES THE LAUNCHPAD COMMUNICATE WITH ABLETON?
They communicate via what is known as MIDI. Midi is how almost all digital musical instruments communicate with computers. The reason for that is that Midi not only tells the computer what note you have pressed but also how hard you have pressed it. Midi is incredibly flexible. You can assign a note to any button or slider and then assign that note to anything else. Want a button that turns something on? Done. Want a button what turns the volume up on that and then triggers a sound and then mutes another sound? Fine! You can really go to town and create anything you want with your live performance. If you can imagine it, you can do it.

PART TWO - NEXT WEEK

Next week I'll get under the hood and show you how my live set works. I'll explain how I use midi to trick the Launchpad in to turning the lights on and off when I want and a whole lot more!

www.avecsans.com