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<\/p>\nAbleton Live is computer software that allows musicians real-time interactivity with sequences of notes, sounds and textures. While the software is often used as a creative studio tool, in the hands of Asheville musical collective Evil Note Lab, Ableton Live realizes its potential as a performance instrument. Evil Note Lab puts its groundbreaking musical experiment on display every Wednesday night at One Stop.<\/p>\n
The Evil Note Lab project began in February and features three local multi-instrumentalists:\u00a0Phill Bronson (Jonathan Scales Fourchestra), Ben Hovey (HoveyKraft) and Derrick Johnson (Yo Mama\u2019s Big Fat Booty Band). Each Wednesday at 10 p.m., Evil Note Lab \u2014 the name is an anagram of the software upon which the project is based \u2014 blends traditional instrumentation and high technology to create an unpredictable, improvisational evening of music.<\/p>\n
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Onstage, all three musicians use an interface called Push to control and interact with the software. Push looks more like a keypad than a traditional synthesizer keyboard. \u201cWe\u2019re using Ableton Live as an instrument,\u201d says Bronson. \u201cAbleton itself is a communication tool; the technology link makes us one with live instruments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hovey and Bronson use Mac computers to run their software; Johnson is on a PC. Typically, getting those laptops to communicate would pose some challenges. But using Ableton Live, it\u2019s seamless. \u201cWe\u2019re linked up by my cellphone,\u201d Hovey explains. \u201cAbleton Link works over a Wi-Fi network; that\u2019s how we\u2019re able to stay in sync.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hovey notes that it\u2019s impractical for Bronson to bring his drums to Evil Note Lab. But that\u2019s not a problem: \u201cHe plays the drums on Push because it has velocity-sensitive trigger pads. And each pad can have an individual drum sound.\u201d What\u2019s more \u2014 and what sets Ableton Live apart from other platforms like ProTools or GarageBand \u2014 is that the user can create a sample, edit it and add it to what he\u2019s playing, all in real time.<\/p>\n
Those other programs are linear, explains Hovey, who is North Carolina\u2019s only Ableton-certified trainer. They are used to create sequences of sounds that happen over a timeline. \u201cBut the great thing about Ableton Live is that we can have a bunch of different ideas, and we can trigger different sections whenever we want to,\u201d Hovey says. The various buttons on the Push panel can be assigned to trigger loops of what was played seconds ago, a pre-made sequence, a specific sound or variations on any of those. \u201cWe can play things back in any sequence we want, on the spot,\u201d Hovey says.<\/p>\n
That allows for an unprecedented level of spontaneity, a quality long considered antithetical to the very idea of sequencers. And that\u2019s why no two Evil Note Lab performances are alike. \u201cSay we have a guest vocalist,\u201d Hovey says. \u201cIf we want to extend a song, play 64 bars or 128 bars, we can have things loop indefinitely until we trigger the next sequence.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, while latency \u2014 the lag time between triggering a sound and that sound actually coming out \u2014 was long a crippling issue with software-based music technology, Ableton Live has solved that challenge. \u201cIt\u2019s just as fast as we are,\u201d says Bronson.<\/p>\n
Both Hovey and Johnson often add traditional instruments to the live mix, playing analog keyboards, trumpet, trombone and guitar. \u201cAnd then I might add a track of my own drums that I recorded yesterday, see how it fits into what I\u2019m doing,\u201d Bronson says. \u201cIt\u2019s instantaneous; I\u2019m creating it on the fly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole show is unpredictable,\u201d Hovey says. \u201cWe start with a completely clean slate. The idea is to come in and improvise.\u201d But while there\u2019s a large element of chance, the results are still groove-oriented and musical. \u201cForm still happens,\u201d says Johnson.<\/p>\n
And the technology is so intuitive that first-time users can create, too. \u201cEven people who aren\u2019t musicians are curious about it,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cThey\u2019ll come up, I\u2019ll show them a Push, and they can play it right then.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evil Note Lab also reprocesses the work of others. \u201cPhill started \u2018Flip It Friday,\u2019\u201d Johnson says. \u201cWe remix an artist\u2019s song, like the Beverly Hills Cop<\/em> theme or Bruno Mars\u2019 \u2018That\u2019s What I Like.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Doing so highlights the Lab\u2019s skills at production: \u201cIt\u2019s like a business card that says, \u2018Hey, this is also what we do,\u2019\u201d says Johnson. That approach has already earned ENL a client: They\u2019re producing an album for hip-hop artist Foul Mouth Jerk.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re constantly making music,\u201d says Bronson. \u201cAnd actually having a space and a team to do it with is really good.\u201d<\/p>\n Even when not onstage, the group is regularly adding new songs to Soundcloud and YouTube. Hovey and Johnson agree with Bronson when he points out the advantage of making music on the fly with Ableton Live: \u201cYou can release stuff and then tell people, \u2018Hey, come out to our show. Here\u2019s something I did this morning.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ableton Live is computer software that allows musicians real-time interactivity with sequences of notes, sounds and textures. While the software is often used as a creative studio tool, in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,40,41,44],"tags":[3205,237,3203,3204,3201,3202],"class_list":["post-13414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avant-garde","category-instrumental","category-interview","category-live-shows","tag-ableton-live","tag-asheville","tag-ben-hovey","tag-derrick-johnson","tag-evil-note-lab","tag-phill-bronson","cat-7-id","cat-40-id","cat-41-id","cat-44-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13417,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13414\/revisions\/13417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}