Any turntablist S4 users interested in an experimental net performance project??
Since getting my S4 I have been exploring its potential as an improvising instrument playing along with other musicians, adapting DJ technology to live electronic music and experimental sound art of all types. I have come up with an idea for an experimental performance using an online program called Ninjam to connect digital DJs (alongside other improvising instruments) in 2 different locations. I am looking to line up a series of performances connecting the people I play with in Baltimore to S4/KP3/turntablists (and accompanying ensembles) in a number of other cities. Anyone interested? Here's my first draft of instructions:
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ZeroTime Operations: a networked performance collaboration
The goal of this piece is to promote new levels of collective consciousness across national borders and different time zones. In a merging of live audio streams from improvising musicians in two different cities, synchronized musical actions will be offset by network latency- creating delay effects and an ambiguity about the present moment as it is experienced in different locations simultaneously. Social media communications between participants will guide digging expeditions in each city’s used record stores, as a preparation for the performance.
Instructions to all participants in the week leading up to the performance:
1) Make contact with your local performance organizer, who will provide you with a list of instruments (corresponding to a participating ensemble in another city).
2) Locate your local used record store and purchase the oldest LP record that you can find featuring an instrument from the list. Preferred surface qualities include scratches, dust, and warps. If you can listen to the record in the store, or if the tonality of the music is revealed in the title, find a selection on the record that is in a minor key.
3) Take a small round sticker and affix somewhere in the middle of the grooved record surface.
4) Using Twitter, post a description of your sticker’s location (e.g. “Coltrane alternate takes, side B - track 2”) followed by the hashtag “#stickerloop”.
5) Search for “#stickerloop” on Twitter, and follow anyone who has posted with this hashtag.
6) If you have volunteered to play an instrument in the upcoming performance, find a reference to a record featuring your instrument (in someone’s “#stickerloop” tweet) and send a Direct Message to that person: “What would you mix with that?”
7) If you receive a reply, you may choose to buy another LP that would compliment the other person’s sticker loop. Seek out the same old-vinyl audio qualities and minor tonality as before. Do not place a sticker on the surface of this second LP. Be prepared to improvise along with a particular selection on the record (to be manipulated by the DJ in performance).
Live performance setup:
In two cities, at the same time: a group of instrumentalists will be seated on the left and right sides of a stereo condenser microphone setup (perhaps a solid state recorder such as the Zoom H4). The line out from this will go into a DJ mixer. Also feeding into the DJ mixer: input from a turntable, input from a Kaoss Pad- processing a live audio stream coming from the other city involved in the performance. The output of the DJ mixer will go to inputs 1 & 2 of a Traktor Kontrol S4 DJ controller. The S4 will have the live input on Deck C, from which its performer will record live loops and then assign these to the four slots on Deck D (sample deck). Decks A & B of the S4 will mix in prepared audio files: local field recordings and sustained harmonies or drones to define different sections of the piece. The output of the S4 will go to speakers and also to another computer that will be streaming the audio and video of the performance online.
The audio and video streams from both cities will be brought together on a single web page that will merge the output of two Ninjam accounts. There will be a mute button on each of the two audio streams, to enable the performers in each location to isolate the sounds coming from the other location (while both streams can be heard together by anyone else who wants to experience it online).
Instructions for performance:
DJ:
1) Prepare 12 looping audio files (roughly 20-30 seconds each), each focusing on a different combination of 2 notes. Playing these on Decks A & B of the S4 controller, introduce a new loop every 2 minutes, while mixing each with what came before:
0’ - F & B-flat
2’ - A-flat & C
4’ - G & E
6’ - G & D-flat
8’ - F & C
10’ - F & A-flat
12’ - G & F
14’ - D-flat & G
16’ - D-flat & B-flat
18’ - F & C
20’ - E & A-flat
22’ - D-flat & G
24’ - B-flat & F
Apply effects ad libitum: Reverse Grain, Ring Modulation, Gater, Reverb, Beatmasher, Filter.
2) Mix in the live audio feed coming from the other city, playing through a generous amount of reverb on the Kaoss Pad. When the streaming audio seems stable, you may reduce the amount of reverb and then switch to various Looper effects to capture passing fragments of sound. Also use the loop recorder of the S4 to sample the incoming sound, then assign to sample slots on Deck D.
3) Participating members of the audience will bring forward LPs for you to mix in. Adjust the pitch of each new record to match or compliment the notes contained in the prepared audio files described above. Cut in and out, scratch, filter, loop, and assign selected samples to slots on Deck D of the S4 for further manipulation.
4) Mix in field recordings that reference local soundmarks (distinctive sounds of the local city that would be a common reference point for the musicians playing there).
Participants:
1) One person brings forward an LP record with a sticker loop to the DJ, while others begin tuning into the interval (2-note combination) that the DJ is currently playing. Extend the interval with different timbres, overtones & pitch bends.
2) When you think that you hear a sample coming through the audio stream that matches the sound of your instrument, you may choose to either:
A) play out and imitate it.
B) bring forward an LP that contains a track that you are prepared to improvise with- indicating to the DJ which track you would like to be mixed/scratched in.
3) When the texture gets too thick, stop playing or play very quietly on sounding F or whichever notes are dominant in the electronic audio stream.
4) Match each new interval that you hear played by the DJ or sounding through the streaming audio. Each new interval should be recombined with previous intervals to build toward a field of F harmonic minor. Let the intensity of your playing rise and fall in a series of waves over the course of an hour.
5) After 24 minutes, return to playing just one or two notes, matching the drone of whichever interval that the DJ is playing. Gradually fade out.
