[draw from pictures of inspiring / interesting performance installatons that we’ve been involved in]
[ create a printable worksheet, exchanged for mailing list signup ]
We tried to make this article useful to different artistic disciplines. It could work for musicians and stage performance in a traditional sense, but it’s also applicable for sound artists and installations… and anything in-between of course!
Hopefully this can nourish your creativity, and also suggest a few things you might not have thought of.
When you go to a venue, clear documentation can help you collaborate with sound personnel. This serves a technical purpose, it’s useful so the venue can properly prepare, and ensure they have everything you need. A well written patch-list can help an engineer set up the board and channels so everything is ready at the soundcheck. This will allow the soundcheck to be focused on the quality of music and sound experience you are providing, rather than spending this time in stress or trying to improvise technical workarounds.
When collaborating with a venue you’ve never worked with before your documents are a reflection of you as an artist / ensemble, and reflect on your professionalism. Sound engineers will take your event more seriously.
Imagine your set
Go into your live set planning with a vision of how you want to perform…what is your body doing, are there music instruments involved? Where are you playing?
If you are feeling inspired, you may find it helpful to write these down. Creating live sets can be a long process that you develop over time, and it a lot about experimentation and trial and error. With a written copy, you can keep going back to your notes and updating them when you notice some things are working, and other things are not.
Some of the questions are kind of unusual, they are designed to spark ideas and question usual ways of doing things. Keep things simple. Go with the top three answers that come to mind when answering these. And don’t worry if you miss something, you can always go back and add it later.
For some of the questions, it might be handy or more clear if you have sound-skills or past experience experience. Don’t get discouraged if there is a question or technical term that you don’t know about yet. Some of the questions might take a long time or some study. Feel free to skip through any of them, and go with what’s relevant to you.
This kind of planning can feel too complicated or a very top-down approach. There’s a time and place for that, but if you are just exploring, it’s also great to simply read through some of these questions to get your ideas flowing.
Performance
What is the experience you want to create for people?
What ways do you want to interact with the audience?
What are the audience doing? eg. standing, sitting, talking, doing yoga etc.
How do you want your body to be? Standing or sitting? Moving around the room?
What parts of the music / performance / environment are important to be prepared beforehand? How important is improvisation, and what are the spaces for this?
Is there a visual aspect of the performance? How is the performance interesting visually?
Interpersonal
Do you envision working with other artists? What aspects of the performance would they be doing?
Do you have technical or production support team?
Are you the one physically working with sound equipment, or is it someone else? Do roles change?
Environment
How do you fill the space with sound? Are you using a standard two-speaker PA, or are there speakers / musicians throughout the room? Where are the artist placed in relation to the audience?
What kind of space are you playing in? Are there any special needs for this?
Equipment
What are the instruments and gear you are using?
Do you have vocals or acoustic music instruments? What are they, and what are their needs in terms of microphones? Do you need a special mic technique to capture them?
What is the way that technology is performed? Is technology highlighted as part of the performance, and what parts are more behind the scenes?
If using analog electronic instruments? How are they connected?
Are you using digital software instruments or processing live? Think about how they are laid out in your software. If you are familiar with the CPU / latency needs of your plugins, it can also be very helpful to consider. (*Will cover in a separate module)
Do you need to switch instruments or move between different gear placements?
Do you want to feed any external signals (mics, vocals, instruments, analog equipment) into Ableton for processing? What audio interface will you use for this?
Do you need to have a special way to hear yourself (i.e. with headphones, monitor earbuds)? Do you need to hear something different
How do you want the equipment be laid out in the space? (It can help to draw a diagram)
Create a list of all equipment you will need. This can be a ‘technical rider’ you give to sound venues. What is optional and what is essential? How much bulk will this take? How will you transport these? Do you need containers / protective cases?
Optional
Transport:
Is there any equipment you will source from the live sound venue?
Create a patch list for your equipment that you can share with a live sound engineer
Interrelated sets
You can create separate performance concepts for different settings, you might have a special concept for playing in a club / outdoors / live-streaming etc. You might also have a solo set, and a set when you are playing with others.
It can be helpful to make a plan for each kind of set. It’s helpful for comparison too— you could look at a band set, and try and figure out how to make a solo set using similar tools. In each case, using the same basic set of equipment as much as possible can be really helpful.
You can also feel into existing ways of performance that you’ve seen, and imagine yourself doing those things. This will help develop a sense of whether that feels right or inspiring to you. If you aren’t familiar with electronic performance, here are a few examples…
DJ performance -
- generally play prerecorded music
- performance is usually about choosing music, transitions, and effecting the tracks
- body is usually behind a desk or in a booth, near the computer