"World" Music

telekom · Post by **telekom** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 8:24 pm

Anybody using Live to produce/record/remix "world" music? I know it's not a very useful term but do we have anybody using Live to make, for example, African funk? Or gamelan? Or throat singing? Or Indian percussion?

Just curious. I can see a LOT of potential...

StompyJ · Post by **StompyJ** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:10 pm

Can you elaborate?

I own QL RA, and its my fav sample lib. I often write my own phrases and use them in compositions.

Or did you mean record the stuff live? I really wish I had instruments and a room, that'd be ideal for me

quandry · Post by **quandry** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:39 pm

telekom wrote:Anybody using Live to produce/record/remix "world" music? I know it's not a very useful term but do we have anybody using Live to make, for example, African funk? Or gamelan? Or throat singing? Or Indian percussion?

Just curious. I can see a LOT of potential...

Sort of. One of my bands, Rule of Thump, plays everything from jazz, latin, funk, reggae, calypso, afro-pop, thomas mapfumo style african,drum n bass, trip hop, and some eastern sounding stuff. We're a four piece with me on bass, a guitarist, and two drummers who switch up on kit and percussion (congas, shakers, steel pans, melodica....). I've recorded live gigs as well as "studio" recordings of the whole band at once in Live 2 and 3. Works great. I find Live is able to handle more tracks of recording at once than other audio apps I have. I can easily record 16+ tracks of 24/48 into Live's arranger at once. Live is my tool of choice for tradition multi-track DAW work for all of my bands, and certainly the only possible app for performing doing live loops with my duo, Mixed Bag (which also does a range of styles). Live rules.

Ryan

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:00 pm

I'm doing a project combining taonga puoro (traditional Maori instruments) with electronics at the moment.

How much do I hate the term World Music. So much of that implies "diluted for western ears" or "little bits of another culture chopped up and sprinkled over the beats-du-jour".

Sometimes its good to know exactly NOT what you're aiming for....

cheers
P

kennerb · Post by **kennerb** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:05 pm

I use a lot of international and folk sounds in my stuff. Live is great for that especially when I am working with pieces or sounds that play to a completely different meter than what I am putting together. I play a lot of different instruments so I can customize the sound but I really love the soul that a lot of folk and tribal carries.

I've always heard a lot of what I like called ethnic music but that term kinda chafes me. What isn't "ethnic" after all.

telekom · Post by **telekom** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:22 pm

StompyJ wrote:Can you elaborate?

I own QL RA, and its my fav sample lib. I often write my own phrases and use them in compositions.

Or did you mean record the stuff live? I really wish I had instruments and a room, that'd be ideal for me

QL RA - Quite Like Red Apples? Queen Looks Really Ancient? sorry can you elaborate?

Yeah, live, sampled, whatever... Interested to know what folks are doing outwith more commonly mentioned styles...

Pitch Black wrote:I'm doing a project combining taonga puoro (traditional Maori instruments) with electronics at the moment.

How much do I hate the term World Music. So much of that implies "diluted for western ears" or "little bits of another culture chopped up and sprinkled over the beats-du-jour".

Sometimes its good to know exactly NOT what you're aiming for....

Hey Pitch Black, sounds Cool... I also have deep misgivings about the term World Music, but it was necessary to use it as a shorthand that we may commonly understand so that we can talk about what we're talking about ...

"World" is often used to denote "ethnic", or "traditional" or even just "non-Western". Which is hardly much of a definition. Bizarre that Scottish traditional music and Indian ragas and tango all gets squished into "World" music somehow, when we have a hundred different ways to define "techno"...

Reason I'm interested is that Live is so flexible, but there are big differences in approach between electronic music and more diverse international, instrumental stuff. I'm sure Live can be used in this way and wondered who has got some stories to tell...

Hey quandry, sounds very cool, I like the idea of Live taking it's place within a group rather than being the inanimate centrepiece of a "performance".

Anybody posted any stuff of this sort so we can hear it? Or wanna post some here?

EARLGREY · Post by **EARLGREY** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:37 pm

QL RA = Eastwest Quantum Leap Ra....so far THE ultimate rare ( ethnic ) instrument player.....

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:57 pm

here's a very arty picture of me playing my sitar,
I am terrible, compared to anyone in Indias dad, despite many years playing.

but I don't do world music, or perhaps I do .. I am on the world. But I aint Indian.

StompyJ · Post by **StompyJ** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 1:15 am

You can find some demos of RA here.

http://www.soundsonline.com/sophtml/det ... sku=EW-163

Having had the pleasure of being an ethnomusicology major for most of my college career, I have been lucky enough to play most of the instruments in the asian and african sections of RA as well as smatterings of other instruments, and some of these things sound so real its frightening.

In particular the Gamelan! I played a Javanese one, RA samples a Balinese. But there was a Balinese ensemble up the road from me at MIT, and it sounds damn close

quandry · Post by **quandry** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:07 pm

A few Rule of Thump studio-style cuts I recorded and mixed in Live 2.0.3 (with me on bass) can be found here:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/1/ruleofthump.htm

peeddrroo · Post by **peeddrroo** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:27 pm

i have a band that's a blend of traditional music from Mali and electronic sounds. this malian music is quite trancey: it is mainly some rythmic patterns looping and fluctuating in intensity, with singers on top of that, so it's very nice to mix them woth loops in Live, even record them in real-time and modify them.
our setup is: a singer/dancer/percussionist, an instrumentist that plays "donso n'goni" (it's a kind of low range harp with 6 strings on a pentatonic scale) and djembe too, and me on the computer and rhodes.

we try to really stick to the original malian music, and not to drift too much towards pure electronic music.

i already posted a track not so long ago. i've got a better mix now, but the old version is still online. you can get it here (i know, there is too much low freqs, i'll post the new mix soon)

edit: here's the new mix
and here's another song

telekom · Post by **telekom** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:53 pm

Peedrrooo,
It's brilliant, I love this track ! Really nice feel, great range of sounds and a really hypnotic vocalist. I am really interested in Malian music - I like Toumani Diabate, Ali Farka Toure and Oumou Sangare.

Nice one - love to hear more...

:):):):)

telekom · Post by **telekom** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 1:03 pm

Hey Peeedrooo,
Cool heard the second track now as well, this stuff is great. What's the band called? Done any releases ?

an instrumentist that plays "donso n'goni" (it's a kind of low range harp with 6 strings on a pentatonic scale)

Is this similar to a kamelengoni ?

peeddrroo · Post by **peeddrroo** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 1:05 pm

telekom wrote:Peedrrooo,
It's brilliant, I love this track ! Really nice feel, great range of sounds and a really hypnotic vocalist. I am really interested in Malian music - I like Toumani Diabate, Ali Farka Toure and Oumou Sangare.

Nice one - love to hear more...

:):):):)

thanks telekom!
i'm glad you enjoyed it. i just finished a 6 tracks demo, and i'm busy completing a full LP, plus bringing it on stage.
i'm also trying to find a label deal. if somebody has got peter gabriel's phone number, please pm me...

telekom · Post by **telekom** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 1:11 pm

Hey quandry,
The afro-beat tune is really cool, I like the kind of cheerful Bhundu Boys vibe. All done in Live? Superb. This is a great thread folks - keep it coming!

:):):)

"World" Music

"World" Music

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