Software to Enhance Your Gigs

by Dave Jones

These days it seems like everybody is lugging computers along to their gigs. Sure, it seemed normal when it was just that buddy of yours who listens to Squarepusher and uses his laptop to edit 8-bit Nintendo game soundtracks into IDM projects, but now bands are performing with sequencers and soft synths. Jazz players and solo vocalists are using computers to provide their accompaniment, independent performers are presenting video productions at their gigs, and that gearhead buddy of yours is an underground celebrity touring Internet cafes in Europe.

With so many options for incorporating software into performance, it’s no wonder a lot of musicians are frozen like deer in headlights, unsure of how they’re going to play their next show without the aid of a video projector, a synthetic horn section, and a MIDI-generated click track. The most important thing is not to get bogged down by the possibilities, but instead do what you do best and fi nd a new tool that can enhance your live show.

Starting with the time-honored tradition of sheet music, let’s look at a few programs from Notation Technologies that can help you arrange parts and generate lead sheets. For guitarists, there is Fret Writer Lite, which creates tablature for an easy-on-the-eyes approach to guitar scoring. Manuscript Maker is more for traditional composer types who need detailed control over accents, dynamics and expression instructions. It also produces individual parts and complete scores for printing. Notation’s fl agship is Play Music, which combines all the features and allows you to input parts with a MIDI keyboard. All the programs feature MIDI playback, so you can play back your music with the click of a mouse.

Also on the rehearsal end of the spectrum, PG Music’s Band-in-a-Box is a good fi t for horn players and solo vocalists, helping arrange for any small ensemble. Feed it a melody and chords and it can harmonize the melody for you, resulting in some foolproof arrangements. For instance, you could hear “Moon River” with “four trombones in thirds,” or “two horns in fourths,” and it fi xes the harmonies on the fl y. You can even print out the melody on one sheet and the computer-generated harmony part on another for a real player to jam with you.

Virtual Instruments have changed the way we look at synthesis. Just 10 years ago, you couldn’t fi nd a faithful piano sample to save your soul, but these days there’s Steinberg’s The Grand. Also, now that the analog modeling sounds so good, we need more powerful soft-synths to fulfi ll our expectation of crazy sounds, so there’s Steinberg’s HALion 3. Native Instruments recently unveiled Kontact 2, a ridiculously powerful sampler and synthesizer which allows you to create presets based on the audio content of samples or completely from scratch. For those in need of a little less creative control, check out their new jam-packed soundbank, NI Komplete Sounds 2.

Some virtual instruments require proprietary software, like the legendary Creamware. Creamware is very complex software with a hardware PCI card that does synth modeling, amp modeling, guitar modeling, swimsuit modeling, you name it! The sound of Creamware must be heard to be believed, but its biggest strength is stability since it uses its own processing power. Also from Native Instruments, keyboard players should check out the B4 Organ software with an available BD4 Controller, complete with drawbars.

If you’re in need of a sequencer/workstation to arrange parts and play along to live, try out TASCAM’s GigaStudio, or Sony’s ACID. If it’s just rhythm parts you are after, you should give Submersible Music’s DRUMCORE a shot. DRUMCORE includes hundreds of samples and MIDI beat maps of famous drummers like Alan White and Matt Sorum, and lets you arrange entire drum tracks from their grooves and fi lls. DRUMCORE uses ReWire protocol to communicate with hosts like GigaStudio and ACID, so it’s a great tool for the studio as well as performance.

If it’s really performance-based sequencing you want to do, I can’t forget the big boys at Ableton Live. They are the originals and best at allowing you to free-associate as you perform and really tweak things intelligently without a hiccup from your system. Electronica buffs in the know have been using Live for a while, and there’s no secret why. It combines the best of all these technologies we’ve been looking at specifi cally for live performance and it sounds great.