Did my first performance with Beatmaker this weekend. Dope!

speak_onion

In my live-show setup, Beatmaker on my iPhone (in airplane mode so some fool doesn't call me and interrupt the show) is my main sampler. This past Friday I had my first show using this new setup, and it was excellent. I don't use Beatmaker to make beats, but instead to perform my stuff live using loops and whatnot. I set up a project for each track, with a 4 bar or 8 bar loop in the song sequencer; I make a seperate pattern with each loop I want to use, and then add things in or remove them as it loops. Sometimes I flip over to the Pad mode and mess with the pitch, or reverse, or FX routing (I set up one channel for delay and one for a gnarly bitcrush) to spice things up. I was able to do a whole lot with it, for sure!

I'm excited for my shows this weekend, where I will continue to use this setup featuring Beatmaker; Friday in NYC, and Saturday in Connecticut.

The only thing I really wish for is a loop-play setting in pad mode, so I can press and hold a pad and have the sample play over and over again.

My music is more breakcore/experimental than hip-hop, but I think what I'm doing is applicable to any style really.

The entire setup consists of my Numark Matrix 3 mixer, with the FX send going to a chain of outboard effects (pedals), and the end of the chain split, one side going into Channel 3 (crossfader Right) of the mixer, and the other side going through a delay/looper into channel 2 (crossfader unaffected) of the mixer, and Beatmaker going into Channel 1 (crossfader Left) of the mixer. I have a lot of flexibility for feedback loops, resampling using the looper, processing the samples from Beatmaker and just mixing the loops/samples with the noise from the fx chain. Not for everyone, I know, but that's how I like to use Beatmaker.

JRK

Dope!!!

svrider1000

I just bought this yesterday. I am having problems with beatpack still but I intend to use this the same way you are using it. I currently use ableton Live and a laptop with midi controllers. Maybe I can consolidate.

Thanks for the post.

speak_onion

"svrider1000&quot wrote:

I just bought this yesterday. I am having problems with beatpack still but I intend to use this the same way you are using it. I currently use ableton Live and a laptop with midi controllers. Maybe I can consolidate.

Thanks for the post.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was doing. I make my tracks in ableton, and then use Beatmaker for performing. I don't like to have to bring my laptop out to shows, so this is perfect for me.

If you have questions and/or need help, feel free to get at me.

jason7

great!, post some videos soon please!

svrider1000

Thanks again for posting this. I already started setting up some new kits that are full of glitch loops. I am wondering if you use all 4 bar patterns in one kit then only 8 bar patterns in the next kit? Unless you add a midi clip a bars 1 and 5 to make the 4 bar an 8 bar. the other question is do you stop each song and then load up the new kit then start the next song again? If so it mean like how much downtime in between songs? How do I find out more about thegenre you are playing?

Thanks

speak_onion

I don't standardize my pattern-lengths. I just retrigger as necessary. That lets me have a little bit more flexibility about bringing things in/out. See my long post in the thread about 1-bar patterns for details on that.

When I have to make switches in Beatmaker, I just switch over to ambient or noise stuff from my pedals, or I use my looper to grab a loop from Beatmaker and keep it going while I make a change. Unless you're using some other piece of gear, I don't think there's any way to make a clean transition. You could just work up some hilarious one-liners to tell between tracks. . .

Check out speakonion.com or myspace.com/speakonion to hear my music, which I would term breakcore and harsh noise.

Hopefully someone will get some video of the show I'm playing tonight and I'll post that up.

svrider1000

I think a latch or continuous loop play option would be the bomb. If it lit up when it was latched and then off when it was not looping.

speak_onion

Show on Friday went great, and I videotaped it, but it was so dark, you can't see what I'm doing at all. I don't like to play on stages-- I always do my set from the floor-- and there were no lights pointing at the floor, so you can just see the lights flashing and strobing and whatnot behind me, but not what I'm doing. I'll post up the audio, anyway, though. I just have to get it sorted out.