Re: Playing live

[William Tsun-Yuk Hsu <hsu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jonah Dempcy:
>... this is because i personally can compare playing on an
>instrument like piano or guitar, wow, these are really musical! then i can
>look at playing on midi-gear and sequencing, well i have less control but i
>can still turn all these knobs and really make the gear sing. hands-on stuff
>_can_ be made musical. but then i look at a computer, and its like,
>point-click-drag-boring.... its not musical. or rather, the computer is
>musical, but _you_ aren't -- you can't play it as an instrument, you can
>only tell it how to play itself.

I'm mostly interested in electronics musicians who play their
computers and gear in ways that sound as "tactile" as
traditional instruments. (Which is why I only like a small
amount of the music discussed on this list, but that's another
issue...) 

For example, Tim Perkis, based in the San Francisco Bay area, 
works mostly with improvisers. He uses a computer in an
interactive and tactile way to generate sound. You have to
be able to "play" your electronics like an instrument to 
work well in a free improv environment.

When I play live, usually in a small group free improv 
environment (which I guess isn't quite "microsound"), 
I generally use a laptop with Max/MSP and a Novation Super
Bass station and a volume pedal. Sometimes I bring extra
sensor/controllers. I get pretty good fine-grain gestural 
control of my sound. It's just more work than sequencing,
that's all :-)

Bill