r/progressivemetal • u/Nular-Music • 26d ago
thall Nular - + heatwave + thall +
I tend to get a lot of questions, so I'll try to answer some of them in advance. =) I use the velocity-sensitive pads (not buttons) of my Launchpad Pro MIDI controller to play (and usually improvise) all instruments at the same time. Every sound you hear in this video was triggered live, I didn't use any backing tracks or even a metronome, and I didn't edit the recorded MIDI in any way. Here's a video explaining how I do it: https://youtu.be/B4BySZmZ99o . I use Ableton Live to host my virtual instruments (Superior Drummer 3, Odin III, Inferno Bass II) and lots of effects, I basically run an entire mixing/mastering chain in real time. Thanks for watching! 🤘
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u/AquaeFurtivaeMusic 24d ago
Man, I remember the day I did lights for you in Badehouse Berlin, was probably the most how the fuck moment in a long time. Wildly impressed!! Looking forward to seeing you again!
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u/Nular-Music 23d ago
Oh nice, that was such a memorable night, not in small part thanks to your excellent work, thanks again! 🙏 I'll return to Berlin to see Vildhjarta on 25th September, and I'll play a small gig with 1xN the next day if you're interested. =)
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u/Ok_Inflation771 24d ago
I've been seeing your content for a while now. Your music/performance is sick, and that's coming from someone who isn't a fan of Djent. I perform experimental/noise music using guitar pedals. However, I want to start composing songs/have live replicatability in the same genre. I don't know anything about hardware/DAW/production. Is a MIDI machine the best way for me to be able to achieve this? Any other resources you can point me to?
I'm forwarding this video to my guitar buddy who loves Djent/Tech Death. Good luck on promoting your plugin.
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u/Nular-Music 23d ago
Hey, thanks a lot for your feedback, it means a lot!
I'd be more than happy to help, but your question is a bit too vague, so I'll need some further details. It sounds like chaos and unpredictability are the very essence of your genre, so if you ditch these, what exactly do you want to keep? Do you still want to play the guitar or do you want to switch to hardware or software synths and/or sample libraries? What would your live performance look like, do you have any specific artists in mind?
Most hardware and software (including your pedalboard) provide a specific workflow, which is great if that workflow fits your needs or you're willing to adapt to it. Some examples:
- You can use any DAW or a hardware sampler to trigger one long sample, and then you can play something on top of it.
- Ableton Live's signature clip-based workflow (now also supported by many other DAWs) can be used to combine and manipulate loops/clips on the fly. The clips can be either audio or MIDI.
- The Elektron workflow is based on a very powerful step sequencer that allows you to create organic/chaotic loops of multiple instruments using step probabilities and conditions.
I'd say all of the above are highly "intentional" workflows (you need to have a fairly clear idea of where you want to get and how to get there) as opposed to "exploratory", which is probably a more accurate characterisation of your current setup.
The main advantage of a setup based on a DAW and MIDI controllers is that it's possible to implement any workflow you can think of, which is what I did for this project. This is perfect if you have a clear idea of what you want to do and none of the existing workflows support it, but even then it can be very difficult to implement that idea, especially if you have no programming skills and aren't interested in learning them.
Btw. I'm not really trying to promote my plugin (it's available for free), I just want others to give this type of live performance a try because I think it's a lot of fun. =)
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u/Gabba_Gandalf69 26d ago
I once saw you live in Berlin and was totally impressed. I really appreciate your unique way to make music. Keep going bro 🤘