A making of a concert - Episode 4 - Rehearsals

Hello everyone!
Today, this series of articles about the making of a concert goes on.
After doing some workshops, selected my gear and programmed it, now is the time to rehearse all together.

There are several kinds of rehearsals.

Rehearsals to set up the songs:
There are rehearsals where a band meet, wondering what to play, and everyone begins to look for what to do on a song. I call it a set up rehearsal. Everyone has to learn how to play the song, and find what to do. This is generally what bands do when they compose together. In these cases, the rehearsals are regular and numerous. They can be done anywhere as long as there is a minimum of gear for everyone to have a sound.
In this example, for the concerts of Clara Neville, this is basically the work we have done in our small workshops with André, David and Clara. After these workshops, everyone knew what to do, we had to rehease... which brings me to the other kind of rehearsals.

Rehearsals for the concert:

I don't play in bands that rehearse regularly, so these are the rehearsals that I know best.

In this case, everyone knows what to do, everyone is ready to play in the band, we just have to...do it, in stage conditions. It is usually done in a rehearsal studio, soundproofed, in order to have the volume that we'll have on stage.
With Clara Neville, we have two rehearsals before the concert on June 7th. We do that at the studio Luna Rossa (in Paris). This is the first time we all meet together.

The gear I take to rehearse.

Each member of the band comes with its gear, finds a place in the studio, plugs his gear, and chat a little with the others (this is the first time Clara, Andre and I meet Luc, the drummer ), and we begin to play.
It's during this rehearsal that we make ​​some adjustments, rehearse the beginnings and ends of the songs, I adjust my sounds (I usually refine my programming during these rehearsals, there is always a louder sound than another, one that doesn't sound as it should...)

We usually divide this rehearsal in two steps:
- We start by playing all the songs at once. At the end of each song, we talk about it, to know if there are any comments, questions, things to change...and we note them for later, and we move to the next song.
We don't start working on the song at this moment for a simple reason: we don't know ourselves enough as a band, so that we can not say whether the imper
fections were due to one of us or the band. Playing all the songs once gives us enough time to fell good as a band.

All my gear plugged

- Then, once we played all the songs once, we begin to work on the details. We usually begin by playing the whole song with the changes noted above, and then we play the parts that cause problems, even if we have to play a dozen times the ending to know it !

The last rehearsal before a concert is usually dedicated to play the entire set of songs at once. We play all the songs in the order they will be played with a minimum of time between songs.
A small note: who knows why, but we say that the worse this last rehearsal is, the better the concert will be... something that was true a couple of times. However, the contrary isn't true.

The next article will be on the day of the concert. I 'll post it a few hours before playing, you'll then have all the details about the preparation of a concert. If you're in Paris, come and see us playing with Clara Neville, on the boat El Alamein, at 8:30 PM !

A making of a concert - Episode 3: keyboards programming

Hi everyone !
This post follows the previous one about choosing gear.
I finally know which gear I'll use. I chose to use only one keyboard, my Kurzweil PC3.

Now is the time to program the keyboard, but what does that mean ?

In music, programming is used for several things:
- Programming could be the process of creating or editing a sound
- Programming could be the process to create a sequence of sounds (that is widely used on drum programming)
- Programming could be the process of setting up the hardware for live. It includes many things, including sounds changes, sequences, effects parameters ...
This post is about this last programming process. This summer, I will do a little series of mini tutorials about synthesis, in which I will tell you how to make a sound from scratch.

Multis , splits and layers
These are complicated words which require explanations, since they are the basics of programming.
A keyboard has several modes of operation:
- We are talking about single or sound mode when using a single sound (a piano, for example).
- When it comes to use multiple sounds, we talk about multi mode, and of course, it is possible to use sounds together or each one on a portion of the keyboard.
- The word layer is used when multiple tones are played together at the same time, on the same zones of the keyboard.
- If a part of the keyboard uses one sound, and another one uses another sound, we say that the keyboard is splited into several zones.
Obviously, it is possible to combine several splits and layers.

Action!
I am now going to explain a "multi" programming with a concrete example for the concert of Clara Neville.
Let's see the programming I made for the song "Je t'aime à bout portant"
On this song, I need a Wurlitzer electric piano sound, a Rhodes electric piano sound, and some strings. Wurlitzer and Rhodes play on the verses, but not at the same time .
Rhodes and strings play on the chorus.
- As the Wurlitzer only plays on the verses, alone, it will have its own zone, my keyboard is now splited into two zones
- The Rhodes and strings layers will be on another zone.

The four sounds that I use, with their respective zones.

But it's not finished yet. To make some evolutions during the song, specially during the choruses, I chose to add another sound, some synthetic strings (the "buzzy strings").

So here are the sounds:



Everything is under control !
On the Rhodes track, you can hear tremolo and distortion effects. They are all controlled live . A modulation wheel allows me to control the tremolo depth, and a fader allows me to manage distortion. These are the same controls for the Wurlitzer sound.
I also use other faders to handle the volume of each part.

The PC3's 9 faders, 2 modulation wheels, and the delay pedal.

In addition to that, I chose to add a delay effect (in this case, my Eventide TimeFactor pedal) . It also can be controlled. I control two parameters: the effect ON/OFF, and the mix setting, a mix between the normal sound and the repetitions (I control this via a pedal).
So here are the results on a chorus with in order:
Rhodes, then I add the strings layer, the synthetic strings layer, then I turn the delay on, and I raise the mix level, then I gradually go back to the Rhodes sound. It's not very fine, but you have an idea !



The same kind of job is done for every songs. The next step is to check that everything is fine in rehearsals...

A making of a concert - Episode 2: choose your weapon

Hello everyone !

Today is another post about preparing a show, and it's about how I choose my gear.

Sometimes, when I say that I have 9 keyboards, people are surprised and don't understand very well.
It's very simple though.
We could compare with cars: some people have several cars, like a small city car and a break to go in holidays.

That's the same thing with musical gear, each of my keyboards has a specific use.

Some of them are for "generalist" sounds, like pianos, organs, strings...; others are for synthetic sounds, and others don't have any sound at all, the just control the others.

I choose my gear according to several parameters:

- the type of sounds I'm using
- the number of different sounds I have in one song
- the available space on stage (that's not the most important parameter, but some times, it matters)

So let's take a example: the upcoming concert of Clara Neville.

In the songs, I'll use pianos, organs, electric pianos, strings, synth sounds...well...I'll use of types of sounds.

With the previous workshop (cf the previous post) we did with David and André, I know that I will be using two or three sounds in each song.
From there, I could choose to use only one keyboard and split it in the amount of zones I need, or I could use two keyboards to be more comfortable. I'm not going to say more about that for now, first because I will talk about it next week in a post about keyboards programing, but also because I'm not yet decided.

The only thing I know is that I will be using my Kurzweil PC3. I'm faithful to that brand for more that 10 years, I love the timbre of their instruments. I actually have two kurzweil keyboards. The PC3 is not too big, it got 76 keys, and it's really with acoustic sounds, as well as with the synthetic ones. If I choose to use only one keyboard, that will be the one. I will tell you next week about my final choice.

From left to right:
Studiologic Sl161 (master keyboard) , Korg microKONTROL (master keyboard) , Access Music Virus Indigo 2 (synthesizer, specialized in synth sounds, so unrealistic ) Wernick Xylosynth (electronic xylophone, master keyboard), Mutable Instruments Shrutti (the small white box on the keyboard, synthesizer of synth sounds), Kurzweil Pc3 (synthesizer with acoustic sounds, but not only...)

A making of a concert - Episode 1 - Workshops

Hello everyone,

Today, I start a small series of articles about what happens before a concert .
Many of you know that before being on stage, we rehearse, but before that, there are other things.

I was recently contacted by David Keler to play with Clara Neville on stage on the 7th and 13th of June, which gives me the opportunity to talk about the preparation of theses concerts.
I did not know Clara Neville until David called me and offered me to be part of the live musicians. I then went to listen to a few songs during the recording of the EP, then I received the recordings. This is where the preparation work begins.

On the recordings, David, director and producer of the album, played almost all the instruments. On stage, it is not possible. He chose a team of musicians to accompany Clara . There will be David  Keler (bass), Luc Durand (drums), André Margail (guitar), Clara Neville (vocals) and myself on keyboards.
The goal of these concerts is to promote the release of the Clara's recently recorded EP. As musicians, we have to try to get close to what has been done on the record.

Above all, I transcripted the chord progressions. I didn't composed the songs, so I didn't know them. I note the chords, the keyboard sounds used, and any other riffs or melodies made ​​by the keyboards.

Then we met with David and André to choose what to play in each song.
We only have one guitarist, and I only have two hands ... so, we have to choose, for each of us, which is most relevant to play, to stay close from the original recordings.

Since we can not play everything, there are several solutions :

- We could launch samples. The pro of this method is that it is possible to do on stage all that was done in the studio. Personally, in addition to the technical constraints (obligation for the drummer to play with a clic), I think we lost a little spontaneity on stage.

- Or we could decide not to play these parts at all. The pro is that everything is really live, but there is something missing from the recordings.

With André and David, we agreed: there are some songs with ambient noises or long synths playing on a entire song ... these not rhythmical elements, we chose to launch their samples (I will do it, and I 'll tell you more in a future post).

For other instrumental parts that we are not able to play, we decided... not to play them at all, even if we had to change the parts we play to make "hybrid" parts, which include the essential elements of each parts.
For example, André plays a riff with plain chords and arpeggios at the same time, whereas there are two separate parts on the record. As a compromise, André doesn't play the exact arpeggio or chord part of the record.

So, you have now a brief overview of the work done before a concert. There will be other posts on other steps, such as rehearsals, soundchecks, keyboard programming...

See you soon !

Inspiration

Hello everyone, as I'm finishing composing the 9th track of my album, today it's about inspiration.

How does it come?
If I start here, it's simply because to my ears , inspiration is everywhere. Therefore the question is not finding inspiration, but capturing it.
The purpose of this article is mainly to tell you how I do.

In fact, if my inspiration is everywhere, I am not always sensitive to it. For example, it's impossible for me to create anything in the morning. Fatigue and stress are also situations that don't allow me to be inspired.
To do this, I must succeed in finding a trance state of mind, a moment when my spirit will come off of what is happening, wandering elsewhere.

Personally, ambient light has a lot to do with it. As soon as the ambient light changes , as night falls , or if a big storm comes, something happens. It is mainly for this reason that I work during the night. As I don't want to wait the night to come to start working, I manage to create a light atmosphere by pulling the curtains , closing blinds, and playing with lighting.
From there, I'm usually in optimal conditions to capture inspiration.

The question is now how to capture it.
The experience has made ​​me realize how important it is not to rely on my memory, so I only have two ways to remember what comes: audio and writing.

For writing, no secrets. I have a small Moleskine music notebook, never far from my wallet, to capture potential inspiration when I 'm not home.
At home, it's easier , I have music paper at hand, and I also use a ipad app called Noteshelf, and a stylus. The advantage of this software is that I can choose the paper on which I write, so I can have sheet music to write notes, but also standard pages to write chords or texts.

For audio, it's also very easy. If I 'm not home, I use the voice recorder on my phone, and I sing in it.
If I'm home , my recording software is usually ready to record.

What do I note ?
Usually, this is something I hear. It could be a melody, a chord progression, rhythm, orchestration. Most of the pieces I've made came from an idea that I had when hearing something.
For example, a dialog in a movie could make me imagine a landscape, which can inspire me a melody. In this case, I write the sentence, then what it inspires me ...

Now you know all about my relationship with inspiration. It sounds easy, but it should be mentioned that inspiration can be good or bad, and that even in good conditions to capture inspiration, I threw a lot of music paper, deleted recordings.

I know there are other artists reading this blog, feel free to comment and say how you get inspired.

See you next week !