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KEITH KEMP

Keith Kemp-live at The Works, Detroit MI USA 1-26-2007.

Live gear: Macbook, Ableton Live 6.0, Evolution UC-33 midi controller, Motu Ultralite

This party was put together by Paxahau/D Records and Ghostly, primarily to showcase their recording artists and djs.

Jan 2007

I had been producing a lot as of late, and i wanted to use this set to go through some of the ideas i have been working on for future releases. I also chose to use some of the main elements of 2 remixes i completed last fall for the Beretta Grey and Gravid labels.

There are many facets to performing live and i like to toe the line between complete improvisation and self-promotion-i see this happening in how much i like to improvise versus using elements and tracks of mine that people might know.

I've been using Ableton to perform live since version 1.0, and with each revision i learn more tricks and tips, in addition to techniques i can apply to live performances. Since upgrading to a Macbook with 1.25g of ram, i now have a very powerful machine of which i've only just begun to tap into it's possibilities for Live use.

One of my favorite things about Live has been the implementation of Follow Actions, and i tend to use these in my sets as well as during composition. Live 6.0 allows you to map the same MIDI cc# to any number of knobs/faders/buttons, something i had been waiting/needing to do for a while. This was possible before, using Plogue Bidule and/or internal MIDI routings. I also have several midi controllers in my studio to try out new live set-ups, my most favorite being an original Korg Kaoss pad which route the x/y controller of the touch pad to Live's crossfader.

For this live set, I decided to use the UC-33 in a somewhat standard scenario:

Sliders control volume on channel strips, 3 knobs on each channel wired to fx sends.

In the session view, i usually set up 3 buttons to:

scroll up/down through scenes, as well as launch them. The percussion is usually a combination of Impulse kits and processed loops. Each developing element in a "track" is usually programmed with many Follow Actions-this is where the improvisation comes in.

I am essentially letting the live set play itself!, and then setting up controls to "DJ" the performance, as well as interacting with it. I hope to expand on this concept in the future, as well as the possibility of collaborations or live jams.

I recommend the Ableton forums for tricks and tips, abletonlivedj.com, and thecovertoperators.org.

This set and many others can be streamed from Paxahau.com.

Please feel free to contact me,I can be reached in many ways:

Email - kempkeith@gmail.com
Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/keithkempkemptracks
Web - www.graviddigital.com

Huge, huge thanks to Modyfier for helping me get my music out!

keith kemp - process part 009 (live at the works in detroit 070126) by modyfier