Lets talk about playing live

[thedreampolice]

I am about to start doing a bunch of Drunk Pedestrians shows and I am going to sync lights and video to Ableton. Im gonna try and have a live drummer and use this feature to keep everything in sync. So I can make the lights do whatever in Ableton. Then I will use Push, a guitar and Bass and a synth keyboard to make it as live as possible.

Now I have played out live a TON in traditional bands but doing a show this way is a bit new for me. Do any of you guys play out? Do you know anything about lights? How do you do it?

Lighting is an area I have never spent much time learning about so I'm diving in now. And creating video work for every song is a huge undertaking but im gonna do it.

 

[2GooD Productions]

I used to work with an ex lighting engineer at the timber yard back when 911 happened. Me personally, no.

I wouldnt advise doing a video for every song, at least not on your own. Its a lot of work to take on. By the time its done the album is long released and its time to work on new music. I would do maybe 3 or 4 videos tops per album. For ROI reasons. You are only going to make so much on an album, the more you spend on said album, you reduce your ROI. If its promo material, which a video can be considered, it can help sales, but every video will need its own promotion and publicity.

 

[thedreampolice]

I used to work with an ex lighting engineer at the timber yard back when 911 happened. Me personally, no.

I wouldnt advise doing a video for every song, at least not on your own. Its a lot of work to take on. By the time its done the album is long released and its time to work on new music. I would do maybe 3 or 4 videos tops per album. For ROI reasons. You are only going to make so much on an album, the more you spend on said album, you reduce your ROI. If its promo material, which a video can be considered, it can help sales, but every video will need its own promotion and publicity.

no I mean video clips to go along with playing the song live. They would be in sync.

 

[2GooD Productions]

no I mean video clips to go along with playing the song live. They would be in sync.

oh, that makes perfect sense. My bad.

 

[thedreampolice]

oh, that makes perfect sense. My bad.

All good homie, im diving in to this world man. Its pretty crazy!

 

[konceptG]

Not hip hop, but I did some live Techno stuff years ago in the late 90's with my old Roland R8 w/Electronic card, Sequential Multi-Trak, a Peavey Deltafex Twin, and a ProCo Rat distortion pedal. Ran it all through a Peavey Unity 500 mixer (4 outs from the Roland, 6 outs from the Sequential). Took a couple of weeks of constant work every day after I got home from the office to get a 30 minute live set together. The guys running the rave had a lights that happened to sync to MIDI, so I sent them clock from the drum machine via my MIDI thru box and it worked out pretty nicely.

 

[thedreampolice]

Man the RAT is one of my most favorite pedals! \m/

I’m working on a two hour set, it’s gonna be bonkers and a ton of work.

 

[konceptG]

Man the RAT is one of my most favorite pedals! \m/

I’m working on a two hour set, it’s gonna be bonkers and a ton of work.

I had an older one. Caught it on sale at a pawn shop and copped. I used it mostly on basses and kicks. That night I had it on one of the outputs on the Sequential for bass.

Shitty pic related, my rack at that point with the Rat next to the R8 and in front of the MIDIMan MIDI Thru box.

 

[thedreampolice]

@2GooD Productions

Im thinking two projectors sending video like this behind me. This is for a song called "Black Cherry Vodka" I think it would be a pretty good opener.



Then sequence a light show to all go together with it. Man its a ton of work but once the work is done, I never really have to redo it. I think this will be cool! Then i'm gonna tour all over the place.

 

[2GooD Productions]

@2GooD Productions

Im thinking two projectors sending video like this behind me. This is for a song called "Black Cherry Vodka" I think it would be a pretty good opener.



Then sequence a light show to all go together with it. Man its a ton of work but once the work is done, I never really have to redo it. I think this will be cool! Then i'm gonna tour all over the place.

Yeah thats cool, the problem with animation is just that, its fucking time consuming. But like you say, at least once its done its done.
Just an idea, from my conspiracy brain lol, might want to throw in a couple subliminals, images that just flash up for a split second, doesnt have to be anything sinister, just something like "BUY THE ALBUM BEFORE LEAVING AT THE FRONT DESK" lmao. And "APPLE IS GOD" lmao, sorry couldnt resist that one.

 

[thedreampolice]

Yeah thats cool, the problem with animation is just that, its fucking time consuming. But like you say, at least once its done its done.
Just an idea, from my conspiracy brain lol, might want to throw in a couple subliminals, images that just flash up for a split second, doesnt have to be anything sinister, just something like "BUY THE ALBUM BEFORE LEAVING AT THE FRONT DESK" lmao. And "APPLE IS GOD" lmao, sorry couldnt resist that one.

hahah that's awesome, I was thinking of something similar actually. You know one of my all time favorite bands is the Talking Heads and in their concert video "Stop Making Senses" (Which is considered the greatest concert film of all time, you really should watch it) They put up random words, check it out @ 34:55



I was thinking of doing something similar. With words, but my own spin. It's pretty interesting.

 

[2GooD Productions]

I liked talking heads as a kid, when I listen back to it now it reminds me of being at the pub.

 

[thedreampolice]

Man "Life during wartime" is one of my all time favorite songs. They broke up when I was a kid, before I had even heard of them. I would have LOVED to seen them live. They inspired so many musicians and bands. Their influence was HUGE.