This write up will go into detail about the process of using a DAW (digital audio workstation) as a performative tool, the good qualities, bad qualities and reflecting on the performance and overall learning experience. This write up will analyse my practicing process and the full 6-minute performance and discussing what skills I had to practice before doing this assignment. Electronic instruments are very unique and have their own identity and while it opens more opportunity for creativity, with every feature that an electronic instrument gives you means another thing to learn and evaluate.
My performance assignment was performed on FL Studio Producers Edition. I have been using FL Studio for about 5 years up until this point. Every year the sound of my tracks grew wider and more technical. This assignment helped me to look at FL Studio in a different way. I had never attempted to do a performance with it only use it as a producing tool. Using FL Studio as an instrument rather than a producing tool was quite a challenge. Relying on my MacBook to not freeze during performances, shut off or freeze was a major problem I had going into it.
The first thing I thought about when it came to approaching FL Studio was how the performance would start. In my classes in university, we had done a session where I was plugged in to a PA system while other students improvised on top of it. That whole class I was looping samples and loops I had already made which the rest of the glass reacted quite well to. During the improv, I decided to experiment with the master of the whole daw. Specifically, “Gross Beat” which is a rhythm focused plugin that chops tracks in different patterns and orders. Using this plugin on the master meant I could play around with samples and make them sound more interesting rather than repetitive and boring. After this class I started to have an idea of what I wanted to do for the assignment going forward, but it took me a significant amount of practise and getting to work.
One thing about this assignment that was a challenge was filming the performance. I had ended up just filming two angles of the performance from the front and right behind me capturing what i was doing the whole time. I wanted to screen record my performance, but I am limited to my MacBook Air which can barely record any sort of footage to begin with. One thing about this assignment I wished I did differently was the capture.
A performance needs to have structure and arrangement. I had practised making patterns on FL Studio and automating them, removing them and adding them again to keep listeners entertained. Sound selection is a major part of the performance; it is what the audience is hearing the whole time. I made sure the drum sounds were tight and easy to listen to. I had sampled drum kit sounds from a free drumkit I found on Reddit, specifically the TM88 kit. It is what I used for the kick, hi hat, percussion and so on. Drum grooves can’t get too repetitive; I found completely removing the kick or adding a kick to every beat was a very good idea to help add some sort of new section to a looping track. I was able to turn a normal rap beat into a dance track halfway through.
To start the whole performance, I always start with a sample rather than the drums, drums should always come in after the sample has had enough time to play so listeners are familiar with the sound. For this performance I had looped a guitar track from The Stone Roses from their track, “I Am the Resurrection”. Like I had mentioned earlier, I was playing around with Gross Beat on the guitar track along with phasers and reverb.
The order of what sounds should start playing is also very important. I found that mastering FL Studios performative was quite similar to that of performing as a DJ, continuouslythroughout the performance I was removing patterns halfway through the looped 16 bars giving the drums each of their time to shine and so there is variation.
One other very important thing to learn with this assignment was performing with other people and being able to improvise. In my performance video I had played with a bassist and another person who was using Ableton playing synths. The jam had started with me looping the same Stone Roses guitar track repeatedly; after telling Sam (the guy on Ableton) what bpm track was in so he could sync his DAW with mine. It was a fun process and finding a specific sound and automating it and switching it around subtly but also drastically.
I wanted to record this performance and practice performing on FL Studio with other musicians because it helped me figure out what works and what doesn’t. My part of the performance was the main pulse of the whole thing. I oversaw not only starting the performance but also making sure that I don’t stop at all, if I were to stop halfway through the performance it would all fall apart. This was very different to how FL Studio is normally used, rather than constantly looping you would usually just listen to each track individually and make sure everything sounds right and then putting it together. Instead of that, for this I had to trust every sound would make sense with each other as we were recording.
One thing about FL Studio that I did not like was I feel like it was very limiting and that had affected the sound of the performance. Despite coming with 94 instrument and effects I found myself only using 5 plugins on the master with the drum sounds and samples coming from areas of the internet unrelated to FL Studio. While FL Studio is great for the trap / DIY sound it is not the best tool for electronic performance in comparison to things like Logic and Ableton which have more opportunities of automation, VSTs and channel rack features. Compared to Logic, FL Studios virtual instruments just don’t seem to be a good competitor.
FL Studio provided a good backbone to the performance for my bandmates to improvise. We managed to improvise for 7 minutes straight, with the other two reacting well to me changing the drum patterns and effects on the sample. Hearing every sound come together from my instrument to the bass and additional synths was incredibly satisfying and helps add to the performance in a big way.
During the practice process for this assignment, I ran into so many new problems concerning the device I was performing on. It hasn’t gone lot of storage or much ram at all. I couldnot have more than 3 synths open at a time before it would start buffering and crash. I have quite a few videos of me attempting to do this performance on my own, the sound of the whole DAW would just get corrupted halfway through a recording attempt and it was incredibly frustrating. To work around this instead of using synths I decided to use only samples and FL Studios pattern feature. FL Studios pattern feature works very similar to that of a drum machine. You pick your sounds and put them in on a 4/4 grid and it loops repeatedly. I made multiple patterns all including different drum sounds so I could take out the hi hat and/or the kick whenever it felt suited to give variety to the track. I would make these patterns while looping the 8 bars of guitar I sampled. I always started with the hi hat when starting the drums, then adding stuff like a clap and percussion and sound effects. Whist the track was looping with the guitar and drums I programmed I was able to program new drums whilst it was still playing to change it into more of a dance tune for the sake of automation and structure.
With performing on an electronic instrument, you need to show deep knowledge and understanding of everything about it, this includes live automation. By the time i was happy the first drum groove i started to automate the melody / sample while the rest of the performers improvised. I added a gross beat which automates a track rhythm and chops it up in preset settings to make out new melodies with the same guitar track that has been looping the whole time. With this it keeps the listener interested and the track does not get repetitive. Along with chopping the track the plugin also features volume automation. This mean’s the guitar can come out for some beats and give the drums time to play and be heard and gives the sample sidechain as well which complimented well with the dance drums that come in halfway through the performance.
Going back to the topic of structure, transitioning the drums into new sections was as smooth as it was difficult to practise. You need to have good eyes and ears to know which drum hits should go where for the new sections and how they are introduced. It needs to sound natural not unplanned and/or sloppy. Each section should have their own time to shine but also not become too repetitive and make sense as the track evolves.
I wanted to make sure my part of the performance didn’t feel like it was unnecessary but also didn’t take away too much from everyone else’s part. While at times during the performance it seems like I’m not doing too much, when I’m letting the track play I’m leaving room for the other performers to add to the track and fill in those awkward gaps with some improvisation Performing with an electronic instrument is so much similar to performing on an actual instrument it is just how you don’t overdo it and make sure the rest of the band are actually adding to the performance rather than just doing nothing just like what I’m trying to do.
One downside to FL Studio compared to the other DAWs is that often when I practised using it the CPU would spike constantly. I found that it would be buffering and slowing down a lot when the mixer had a lot of plugins and multiple VSTs on at once. I find that i must export stems of synth tracks to make sure it can run at the intended BPM I want to work at. I want to try learning other DAWs such as Ableton which is made fit better for live performances.
You must know the ins and outs of the software including all its keyboard shortcuts. I had limited myself to only the touchpad which I admit made the whole performance trickier. I had taught myself important keyboard shortcuts such as duplicating patterns and clips.
I was thinking about incorporating another instrument into my performance too, I had practised this for a while especially on camera. I found it was too much pressure to not only thing about everything to do with FL Studio and what it can and can’t do, whilst also having to worry about a completely new piece of technology. I found it was easier to play with other electronic instruments being played by other people that help compliment the sound rather than if I was to do it on my own my FL Studio skills could be shown way more.
Before hitting record, I had a jam with the other two performers using the same track bones I had used in the actual performance video. I was focused on changing between ideas smoothly and making sure it all transitioned well whilst not making it too confusing. I wanted it to be an easy thing to dance to whilst still making sure I was showing a well-rehearsed set of choices on FL Studio such using Gross Beat to make new melodies and structuring which chops should be wear to create a nice catchy repetitive section to the different drum grooves, it doesn’t stay the same ever and there is new stuff introduced slowly but gradually until the song ends.
It is very easy to quickly make ideas on FL Studio, you can quickly understand the interface and create tracks. I gravitate towards this DAW more than others purely based on the pattern like workflow. Deleting and re adding the drums on the pattern rack felt so natural and fun to do. I wanted to mainly switch around the drums in the track to also help the bassist come up with new riffs and ideas to help reach the performances 6 minute mark. It was difficult to have this same idea going for so long and remaining interesting which is why the drums and melody can change drastically throughout.
In conclusion, during this performance I showed a wide range of automation and performance abilities on FL Studio and keeping a performance between bandmates together. Although I think every performer did a good job I wish there was a more proper tempo sync with the other DAW so both DAWs could have different drum loops making nice polyrhythms. It fuses a bass guitar and another DAW so well just like how a guitar and drums and bass with a lead vocalist would sound on a stage. It is cohesive and interesting. Going into this assignment I had to learn how CPU works for a DAW, how to record it and edit it whilst also keeping the whole performance together by collaborating with other performers at the same time both electronic and acoustic. The practice and skills i have gotten from this assignment will be very good for when I perform in the future and how I work for other musicians.
