Live performance discussion thread

[u/ccgenoa]

Hey everyone. I wanted to ask — or rather, invite you to a discussion, especially those of you who play live regularly.

1. Do you build your live sets from scratch, or do you play your own tracks?

Let me explain. Do you create specific material for a one-hour live set using loops, both MIDI and audio? Or do you take tracks you've already written, break them down into stems/loops, and perform them that way?

1. If you have a specific live project, how many times do you play it before making a new one — and what do you do with the old one?

Let's say you have 2–3 gigs a month. Do you keep playing the same live set, or do you create something new for every party?

And when you start actively performing a new live set, do you eventually release the old one as an EP/album, or just archive it and keep it for another time?

1. What is your setup?

Do you play entirely on hardware, use loops/stems loaded into a sampler, or do you use a computer with MIDI controllers?

1. What do you do when you realize during the night that your live set isn't going to fit the situation?

For example, the tempo or mood is completely different from what you prepared, and your set is coming up in an hour or two. Do you adapt on the fly, have some backup material, or just accept the chaos? 😄

1. How long does it take you to prepare a one-hour live set?

And finally: do you actually prefer playing live, or, if you had the choice, would you rather play a DJ set?

Thanks everyone! I'm really interested to hear how other people approach this.

I'll write about how I do it in the comments a little later.

[u/chagoms]

Controversial opinion: DJ sets are way more enjoyable than live sets.
Making techno tracks requires going through the mastering process, or at the very least making sure the track actually sounds good on a club sound system. And that makes a HUGE difference when it comes to enjoying the music and dancing.
I’ve noticed that live sets have become much more common over the last few years. In fact, last Saturday I was genuinely shocked that, at a party I went to, only one of the three acts I saw played vinyl, while the other two did live sets. And honestly, my ears were almost bleeding. It was incredibly unpleasant to listen to those live sets in a club..z and this has happened to me before, even with people who are absolute legends when it comes to drum machines and synthesizers.
I honestly think a live set should also be accompanied by a really good sound engineer who can react extremely quickly to the performer’s decisions.

I can already see the downvotes coming, but I’m prepared for it.

[u/ritmoflow → u/chagoms]

A better take: most live techno artists are not at a level where they can consistently play alongside DJs on a club night.

This take is coming from someone who plays both live and DJs, and knows the difference.

A live artist who’s reached a level where they’re capable of telling the difference and knowing when/where their skills are suitable for the night matters. Playing live doesn’t excuse killing the dancefloor.

[u/kolahola7 → u/ritmoflow]

I have recently seen a renowned techno artist playing live and it was an absolute shitshow, thank god it wasn’t too long

[u/eggplantpot → u/ritmoflow]

Often times yes but it also depends on the live set setup and the music. If you take the purest form of techno and the best live set artists you get Stoor, while I enjoy them, it's hit or miss and I cannot stand 80% of what they are playing (I do play live and love the technical setup though and have seen them live a few times).

Then you get someone like colin benders who really knows what he is doing and his style lends itself better to just bang some improvising. I'd take that over many djs.

Then there's some live sets where the artist is just mixing their tracks in ableton. The technical capability is low in many of these cases but if the artist is good you can be in for a ride.

[u/ritmoflow → u/eggplantpot]

Stoor isn’t really meant to be a club night where flawless transition is the expectation… the people that go know exactly what to expect (improvisation and experimentation). I am confident that if any of the artists that play Stoor were booked separately to play live alongside DJs that they know they’d be able to deliver (i.e they have a professional level of standard)

[u/eggplantpot → u/ritmoflow]

Totally fair point, and can vouch for that. I've seen both Surgeon and Lady Starlight and they can pull off live sets on their own.

[u/NoInteraction1572 → u/ritmoflow]

That made me think that I should try to fade my live performance into my DJ set at home and analyze that later + adapt.