[LAU] dynamic backing tracks

[nescivi]

Hiho,

On Wednesday 12 March 2008 06:01:14 Atte André Jensen wrote:
> Hi
>
> I'm gonna play live with my electronica project, and now I'm looking for
> some software that'll allow me to playback all the stuff the band can't
> do in a more dynamic way than using mp3-files...
>
> A few examples of what the music sounds like:
>
> http://modlys.dk/holde_pkt.mp3
> http://modlys.dk/du_er.mp3
>
> The band consists of
> * Laptop
> * Keyboards
> * Upright Bass
> * Vocals
>
> I'm playing keyboards as much as possible. Hopefully the laptop will be
> controlled by someone else, otherwise that's me as well.
>
> Initially I planned on doing the tracks in chuck. That'd allow nice
> dynamic things like turn-a-knob and the tracks gets more sparse and
> other algoritmic stuff with randomness going on. I did alot of chucking
> (not livecoding) and implemented some tests that suggests that this is
> works very well but it tedious to program, difficult to control live
> (which is the main problem) and a bit risky (that's how I feel at least)
> in a live setting.
>
> Another option would be freewheelin. That's not nearly as dynamic, but
> might be a lot easier to control and should be much more stable.
>
> What other options are there?
>
> I've never used ableton live (I only run linux), but everybody who's not
> running linux is raving about it and I guess that could do it. So the
> last solution could be to run that somehow (through wine or wmware).
>
> Oh, and one final thing. I once say someone using the lemur
> (http://www.jazzmutant.com/lemur_overview.php) which I unfortunately
> cannot afford. But with a lemur I feel I could use chuck controlled by
> osc. So thinking in those directions (controllers) what options are
> there that'll 1) allow me to grab/press a knob *and* 2) have visual
> feedback (like "pressing this button will take you to the C-part" *and*
> 3) work with linux.

With something like SuperCollider, Pd or Chuck you can create something that 
takes MIDI or gamecontroller input to start and stop tracks. You might even 
get an external USB number pad to do that.
SC and Pd are pretty stable, but I also have seen people do live performances 
with Chuck. For all three goes, (I think), if you have it running stable at 
home during rehearsals, you should be fine during the performance.

sincerely,
marije