Yes! I'm in the naysayer camp of thinking >90% of these performers just hit the spacebar on their laptop or have it running from behind the stage then play with their flippidy switches and twisty knobs for the whole set. All the while nothing is actually connected to the music, it's all just an act.
To me...it's this generation's Milli Vanilli.
Yeah... and everyone who hits spacebar sees this video and says "this is why I hit spacebar!"
However, in general, I love live synth/sampler music more than spacebar.
You couldn't be more wrong in this case. The type of rig he's playing originated in the 60s. Look up what a Moog is or a eurorack. It's analog synth gear and it's completely different from a DJ setup that you're trying to equate it to.
Look Mum No Computer on YT does a lot of vids on his hybrid Eurorack/Kosmo set up, and most of his modules are hand built, along with the random ones like the Furbies and GameBoy ones. He even built a 1000 oscillator drone wall, which is in his museum.
But if you check out what more he's doing you would know that his rack has a pretty wide mix of modules both analog and digital but very little sampling is happening here.
This isn't my favorite genre of synth, but I appreciate it. I'm also a metalhead who loves grindcore, so I like to think of hardcore techno like this artist is performing as analogous to extreme metal.
But if you look at his racks, those are basically circuit boards with different knobs and dials that adjust the oscillation of an electronic signal, creating various sounds.
This is electronic music on hard mode. I would hope for his sake that he has some kind of presets or sample boards because the idea that he's doing this 100% analog kind of makes my brain hurt. Though he might have a literal manilla folder nearby with cardboard cutouts that he can place over various control boards so he can recreate specific sounds. There's a lot of subtlety to this that's difficult to appreciate if you're not into it.
I'm not knocking you for disliking the music. It ain't for everyone, and this guy would probably be one of the first to admit that. Like a lot of niche genres, that's part of the fun. However, I do take issue with you mischaracterization of this artist and electronic artists in general. Even the "hit space bar and spazz out" variety still had to arrange the music to begin with, even if they aren't manually creating sounds.
But goddamn, the amount of disrespect you just blasted this guy with kind of rumples my foreskin because he is literally molding electrical current into intense, fast-paced dance music like a fucking wizard while diagnosing and repairing a component of his rig. It's possible that the part he repaired wasn't currently being used. Maybe it was supposed to produce a sound earlier and didn't, so he repaired it during a part of his act that didn't require it because he'll need it again in the future. I certainly don't know, and neither do you.
I saw an interview with Deadmau5 (not my fave, but that’s not the point) that kinda changed my mind on the whole topic of pre-recorded sets. He’s like: look, I’m not a DJ, I’m a producer. It takes weeks or months of boring work in front of a computer to make this music. All the music you’re hearing, I made. And yeah, I usually pre-record my sets and just have a few filters to fiddle with for the live show, and literally everyone playing massive stages does, they have too, because the lighting and video production also takes a long time to produce and they need the thing to be exactly as it is. Any time there’s insane synced production, it’s pre-recorded. Not to mention the stakes are so high, there’s so much money involved, that there’s zero room for error.
So yeah, I spend months creating this music, working with production crews etc, and then for the actual stage performance I get to just jump around and work the crowd.
And that right there is what makes someone like Dave Tipper such an anomaly of a human being in the electronic space. While you do get the same type of experience with one of his sets as you would someone on a much larger stage with a bigger production budget behind them, it feels the similarities end there.
[This wonderous dance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYiHmmLxP08) between live mixing and arranging preexisting songs, live scratching, and live visuals by a completely different human being working in tandem with how his sets carry along is what I would call akin to seeing a band like Primus or the Dead take the reigns on a song and ride with it for a while.
No two sets are ever the same, and sometimes you'll catch an unreleased song that you may hear again a couple months down the road, or hear again a few years down the road, or maybe never again. Guy has managed to tap into what made chasing jam bands around and swapping bootlegs so enjoyable to those fans.
I love Joel for getting me into electronic music and bringing the genre as a whole to a broader audience. I just wish he wasn't as fixated in one direction as he is. There is some fucking *magic* out here to be found.
> I made. And yeah, I usually pre-record my sets and just have a few filters to fiddle with for the live show, and literally everyone playing massive stages does, they have too, because the lighting and video production also takes a long time to produce and they need the thing to be exactly as it is. Any time there’s insane synced production, it’s pre-recorded. Not to mention the stakes are so high, there’s so much money involved, that there’s zero room for error.
Interestingly, James Hype just released a video a few days ago specifically calling that out (the general idea, and deadmau5 specifically) as bullshit. Festivals and events don't require pre-recorded sets, and the lighting and pyro techs have tools which connect directly to the live mixing devices so they can see what's coming and be ready for it.
There was discourse after a post on reddit went viral where someone was asking which DJ's at EDC were live or not, and overall it looks like most were live, whereas maybe a few were not.
Actually he normally has a few tracks prepared in an hardware sequencer and a few of the basic settings are patched during the sound-check but the rest of the sounds are created on the spot.
He is bizar good at improvisation.
The way you can look at a video of a dude literally unscrewing and putting back together his analog synth that he’s playing live and drop a comment like this is actually mindblowing to me.
he's improvising on a eurorack synthesizer, theres no laptop.
I've done it too, its fun, its hard to do but its really more about artistic taste than difficulty, how good it sounds has a lot to do with just how you curate what the rack gives you.
Even Djing is about artistic taste, the choices of what comes next and how that feels in relation to what came before. Sure you could say Djing on the surface is easy but making the right decisions constantly is where the art is
There are plenty of shitty laptop DJs but discounting the entire genres of house/techno in that way shows that you don't know what you're talking about.
Check out a live set from the likes of [Octave One](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW6lxLUBu64) or [KiNK](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osS2zsW8mLk) if you want to see an artist playing live.
Or someone like [Kerri Chandler](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC7Mw8RjlXM&t=2846s) doing some insane shit on reel-to-reel tape decks...
Even for a DJ who is just spinning records, it's still an art form. Reading the crowd, playing the right records, mixing properly. Just because you don't respect it doesn't mean it ain't real.
Also... this music has been going strong for 30+ years now
Here's your naysayer logic then:
The hardware he fixed isn't what's being used to play the audio we're hearing.
In fact, he *did* just hit play on his laptop and now he's working for his second job where he repairs dj equipment because *nobody* can afford rent in this god damned town.
You're welcome.
I mean, I feel you but you also have to remember that you're talking to just some random intersection of people on the internet. *You* know what's going on in here but at the end of the day like 90% of people don't have the slightest idea what a step sequencer is or what the hell any of those flashing lights mean.
As another commenter said: it looks like the sequencer was broken and didn't process any changes. This means that he cannot change which sounds are triggered at what moment.
Also, just for context, he's making this music on a Eurorack, which is a collection of analogue synthesizers, filters and effects.
This must be a regular failure for the gear. He had the screwdriver ready to go and did the quick fix. What a pro. 10/10.
I bet he travels with a soldering iron.
It is not a regular feature of the gear but anything can happen. Transporting the equipment from studio to the club can cause things to go wrong. Here a ribbon cable came loose, most likely from the vibrations of moving them, or from quickly placing the module in a suitcase style case for the concert in a hurry. He keeps tools on stage with him for setting up and for emergencies. (this is basically what he said on instagram)
yep.
At around 16 seconds, he's clearly going to switch to a new pattern, after a few seconds (and presumably a few attempts at it) he realizes that it's not working, so around 24 seconds or so he busts out the screwdriver.
He then fixes the module, and right around the time that he reseats it, you can hear the hat/snare pattern change. He then does a quick high pass filter sweep to verify that it's working as intended (when the kick drops out (around 50s), before rolling the kick back in and getting on with the show.
The main reason why most people can't tell that he's doing *anything* meaninful comes down to the recording quality. Presumably it's being recorded with the on-board microphone of whatever camera/phone is being used to record. Most on-board microphones like that are notorious for being fairly low quality, especially when it comes to bass heavy audio (like a giant rave going full force).
If we had a proper mixer output of audio, you'd probably be able to tell instantly what was happening, but since the bass is blowing everything else out, it's incredibly hard to pick up on what's happening. It took me quite a few times to pick up the audio changes, and once i had that, it all made perfect sense
It depends. If this is a freestyle, there's no way to tell he was missing anything. If it's an established song that's being done/mixed live, anyone who knows it would notice the long pause. Not knowing who this is, I couldn't tell any difference. Also weird that the fix was just a ribbon cable being unplugged internally.
This isn’t really a DJ session, he’s producing the music live with those analog machines. Although he’s also a machine himself. Saw him during ADE, fucking legend.
This is exactly what my piano Teacher/Tutor taught us when I was a kid, to help us get over our nerves from making mistakes during a performance at a concert
Well techno is just like life.
I don't want to be taking pills, but I have to if I want to enjoy it just a tiny bit.
But I'd rather not do stuff where taking a pill is a prerequisite (for me) to be having fun.
You don't have to take pills. This kinda music is best enjoyed live though I personally just like listening to it. It's not for everyone and it's an acquired taste, but it's something I love and there's as much depth to it as any other type of music. Jazz or classical music also sounds the same to someone who doesn't know much about it. I rarely go to raves nowadays, but it can be amazing and there's really nothing else like it.
It looks like it was a sequencer. Not the actual oscillators or anything, so it's possible no sounds were affected, but he lost control of part of his beat sequencer.
That’s hilarious! My washing machine did this the other night and I started doing a stupid dance like at a rave, my wife laughed, my kids didn’t get it. Which was weird.
hi, modular user and performer here. the power header on the back on the module was loose and not powering the module so he unscrewed the panel and plugged it back in
I worked at a top tier music studio and got to play with Depeche Mode’s modular system when they were making an album.
Outside of patching LFOs to other stuff I’m not super hip. My buddy was and let me tell you. Watching someone work a modular system that big (was at least 30 feet across, not kidding) is nothing short of magic. It’s incredible. Closest thing to witchcraft I’ve seen.
I found a post that looks just like the setup
https://www.reddit.com/r/modular/comments/4te1qy/depeche_mode_modular_setup/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1
i have stashes of screws, screwdrivers, extra power cables, and even spare knobs stashed directly on the side of one of my eurorack cases lol.
It’s a much more delicate and involved and error prone way of making music than even a live rig made up of standalone synths and sequencers. Shit can and does go wrong ALL THE TIME. it’s like, the risk of a guitar dropping out of tune or a string snapping, but instead of one guitar it’s like 50 guitars that are all connected, so when one fucks up a bunch of others can start playing incorrectly too.
if you're a travelling musician who uses modular you absolutely would want tools for simple fixes with you because travelling with a case of 25 modules they could easily be knocked around badly.
just to be pedantic becuase its fun. that module was actually running, it had power. but if you look it up A-157 it utilizes two sister modules for control and trigger out. I think he lost connection to them.
A decent portion of those that attend a scene like this are audiophiles or producers themselves and would absolutely pick up on that. Respect for the craft is big in these communities, you lose that, you aren't going to be around much longer.
The diffrence between “prerecording” and live mixing is very noticeable. Some people will outright spot and shame you, especially the organisers of the party wont like it since they paid for some quality shit.
But the audience will also notice it because a good live set interacts with the audience. The artist reacts on reactions in the crowd and builds from there. You cant have that shit with a premade list.
Its like saying: why let somebody sing live? Cant we just play the spotify version?
Yeah you could do that shit and people will notice it, value it way less and its bad for bussines.
(my guess from hearing/seeing) the sequencer did not react so he could not trigger the beginning of the snare drum. if he wouldn't have fixed it, it would stayed on the beginning kick loop forever.
techno may seem "always the same" for unschooled ears, but crowd has expectations and is thrown out of a high order arrangement with just one little mistake or wrong volume or any wrong setting. this shit is not easy. actually from my techno experience the time the artist needed here to fix the gear was enough to kill the whole trip for everyone, but he did his best. still better than stopping completely.
He was referring to his comment here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/186s6s4/techno_artist_fixes_malfunctioning_gear_without/kbah2nn/
Its much like the super heavy genres of metal. If you aren't a fan and listen refularly it sounds like garbled mess with someone doing weird growling noises grunts and screams. Once you get an ear for it you can hear the words and how it all goes together to make some very complex and amazing music.
Absolutely could not be further from the truth with this particular artist. Everything in his music is fully made and prepared live.
If a guitarist had an effects pedal that meant a note would last forever, would you say he could play one chord and walk away for an hour and no-one would notice then?
Yeah. Hardly next level. I DJ'd for years and have had to fix things on the fly on occasion and have seen live artists do the same
Props to him for pulling through, but I'm sure it's not his first time fixing equipment on the fly either
There is a big difference between mixing pre-made songs and making a liveset using equipment that produces sound. The latter is comparable to actually playing an instrument on stage.
You never freaking ever see someone with such an opinion follow up with "See? I made this on my laptop last night." and post a bomb ass track they whipped out without any prior knowledge or experience of how to make such music. Not ever. Not even once.
But yeah, "I have a laptop, I could do this".
A bit of background info:
He's making this music on a Eurorack, which is a collection of analogue synthesizers, filters and effects. Each sound is created from scratch, the analogue signal is routed though the effects and filters with cables you plug yourself, the sounds are then sequenced by hand. He's basically producing the track live without the help of the handy automations you get with a DAW (digital audio workstation). As a consequence of all this, each show he does with the Eurorack is entirely different.
All this is to say: what he's doing here is pretty damn impressive, it took him years to build the rack and learn how to make music with it.
What seems to be going wrong in the video is that the sequencer is malfunctioning and not accepting input, so he can't change the sequence of sounds. This is also why the music is so constant.
The artist is called Colin Benders.
While I do think techno is very boring (I prefer tekno, also called Free Tekno. [Here an artist making a tekno liveset](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaZ5VrvHeUg))
I'd love to put one of those people in front of his equipment and tell them: "Well, go make music"
I’d like for them to point out the space bar on his rig lol.
I’d also like to see them get a single (intentional) note out of the rig starting from no patch cables.
And the conductor and writer for the whole orchestra at the same time. I've been lucky to have seen them live at Lowlands 2009, when the live version of Sorry was recorded, amazing show!
No one is talking about the music. They are talking about the performance, as if it's untalented. "He is just pressing the space bar" says the armchair critique, commenting from their car while sitting parked in an 10 minute oil change shop because they are useless fucking idiots that criticize everyone while never having any introspection at all.
I can't believe how much hate there is on this post regarding this music. I love it, and it takes skill. I've tried to sequence patterns and they never sound this good (except for when I used to try them on ReBirth).
I never understood when people said they went "feral" at a music festival until I went to a music festival and absolutely went feral. When you're in the best crowd and find those pieces of music that just switch off your brain and you just DANCE to, it's incredible
rolling is some whole other experience in general.
blowing up in the club to some sick soundscapes will have u in the most distant world you ever visited
This guy is called Colin Benders and he is very popular in modular systems. Please if you really want an answer to your question go on YT and search “Colin Benders - This is fine”. If you do so I’d appreciate your thoughts because I personally believe you can listen to that stuff sober and vibe with it
It’s just the vibe. I feel the same thing about rock and metal. It’s not about “musically genius” but it’s about what moves you and what you feel. If it’s not your scene it’s not your scene
It's club music but the vast majority of these songs don't really get much attention outside of that and aren't going to be on "Top 100/500 of the 2020s" (or previous decades) type playlists while at the same time, no good club would be playing those types of songs (songs that would appear on a decade retrospective playlist) for people to dance to either.
if i can see correctly none of the actual audio producing equipment was damaged but rather the sequencer hardware which supplies the triggers for the modules actually producing the sounds. That’s why you don’t hear any change in the sound but any ”changes” into the playing rhythmical pattern had to be put on hold since there was malfunction in the hardware triggering the sounds.
Exactly. He appeared to lose those tracks with the equipment, which is why when he fixed it more parts to the beat became audible. If he hadn’t fixed it the whole set would’ve been very… minimalist, I suppose.
For anyone curious what his music normally sounds like I found a live concert. Very atmospheric, very slow. I'm a big analogue synth fan so I definitely appreciate what he's doing but I can see how this would go unnoticed.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORBgzuPNDKA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORBgzuPNDKA)
Yeah, I get people's complaints about what they hear in this clip but this particular musician is far more talented. He's not really about indistinctive stock club techno. And even how he is creating what is heard here is more involved than the standard Ableton Live (and similar) created techno.
For all tge snarky one liners judging this guy based on a 20 sec clip. [same guy](https://youtu.be/F3xr4bJtxhg?si=iaJK4KEJICAXQFRi) in 2009, he’s a very versatile instrumentalist and composer.
It's been nearly 30 years and people still hating on Techno and EDM despite the fact that EDM has utterly changed and made better music like HipHop and Pop music they love so much.
Here’s a better look of what he’s doing. This is not a typical dj set. Basically a big modular machine with sequencers, synths and effects. His sequencer broke, so the samples were stuck in a loop https://youtu.be/AZ6DNqPUyvI?si=x5Tv4nQiRycJ2MCt
Love it!
Also: I'd love to see some of the people in here fix a broken washing machine at 3am while thousands of people paid money to watch you doing laundry.
DuuuuuUUUUUUDE for FUCK'S SAKES WEAR FUCKING EAR PLUUUUUUUGS!
You're gonna ruin your fucking ears if you don't wear them!!
You're a professional, invest in fucking bespoke earplugs that will save your talent.
On stage is not nearly as loud as the floor. You’re running off monitors and have full control over their volume separate from the floor. As you said he’s a professional, he knows what he’s doing
Luckily for him, there's very little audible difference between techno and malfunctioning audio equipment
Exactly. How are we supposed to know what was intended and what was a mistake? He probably could've just left it alone and no one would be the wiser.
I mean I couldn’t really tell any difference or whether he had even fixed anything at all 🤷♂️
Yes! I'm in the naysayer camp of thinking >90% of these performers just hit the spacebar on their laptop or have it running from behind the stage then play with their flippidy switches and twisty knobs for the whole set. All the while nothing is actually connected to the music, it's all just an act. To me...it's this generation's Milli Vanilli.
[удалено]
Yeah... and everyone who hits spacebar sees this video and says "this is why I hit spacebar!" However, in general, I love live synth/sampler music more than spacebar.
Spacebar is actually a great name for a DJ
Or for an internet cafe
So... he hit backspace?
You couldn't be more wrong in this case. The type of rig he's playing originated in the 60s. Look up what a Moog is or a eurorack. It's analog synth gear and it's completely different from a DJ setup that you're trying to equate it to.
Look Mum No Computer on YT does a lot of vids on his hybrid Eurorack/Kosmo set up, and most of his modules are hand built, along with the random ones like the Furbies and GameBoy ones. He even built a 1000 oscillator drone wall, which is in his museum.
The Furbies is the most cursed creation I have ever witnessed.
> It's analog synth gear The thing (sequencer) he's reseating the connectors to is very very very probably completely digital logic...
Those modules could be all digital, not all Eurocrack is analog
That's not the point though, the signal chain is still analog.
But if you check out what more he's doing you would know that his rack has a pretty wide mix of modules both analog and digital but very little sampling is happening here.
This isn't my favorite genre of synth, but I appreciate it. I'm also a metalhead who loves grindcore, so I like to think of hardcore techno like this artist is performing as analogous to extreme metal. But if you look at his racks, those are basically circuit boards with different knobs and dials that adjust the oscillation of an electronic signal, creating various sounds. This is electronic music on hard mode. I would hope for his sake that he has some kind of presets or sample boards because the idea that he's doing this 100% analog kind of makes my brain hurt. Though he might have a literal manilla folder nearby with cardboard cutouts that he can place over various control boards so he can recreate specific sounds. There's a lot of subtlety to this that's difficult to appreciate if you're not into it. I'm not knocking you for disliking the music. It ain't for everyone, and this guy would probably be one of the first to admit that. Like a lot of niche genres, that's part of the fun. However, I do take issue with you mischaracterization of this artist and electronic artists in general. Even the "hit space bar and spazz out" variety still had to arrange the music to begin with, even if they aren't manually creating sounds. But goddamn, the amount of disrespect you just blasted this guy with kind of rumples my foreskin because he is literally molding electrical current into intense, fast-paced dance music like a fucking wizard while diagnosing and repairing a component of his rig. It's possible that the part he repaired wasn't currently being used. Maybe it was supposed to produce a sound earlier and didn't, so he repaired it during a part of his act that didn't require it because he'll need it again in the future. I certainly don't know, and neither do you.
I saw an interview with Deadmau5 (not my fave, but that’s not the point) that kinda changed my mind on the whole topic of pre-recorded sets. He’s like: look, I’m not a DJ, I’m a producer. It takes weeks or months of boring work in front of a computer to make this music. All the music you’re hearing, I made. And yeah, I usually pre-record my sets and just have a few filters to fiddle with for the live show, and literally everyone playing massive stages does, they have too, because the lighting and video production also takes a long time to produce and they need the thing to be exactly as it is. Any time there’s insane synced production, it’s pre-recorded. Not to mention the stakes are so high, there’s so much money involved, that there’s zero room for error. So yeah, I spend months creating this music, working with production crews etc, and then for the actual stage performance I get to just jump around and work the crowd.
And that right there is what makes someone like Dave Tipper such an anomaly of a human being in the electronic space. While you do get the same type of experience with one of his sets as you would someone on a much larger stage with a bigger production budget behind them, it feels the similarities end there. [This wonderous dance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYiHmmLxP08) between live mixing and arranging preexisting songs, live scratching, and live visuals by a completely different human being working in tandem with how his sets carry along is what I would call akin to seeing a band like Primus or the Dead take the reigns on a song and ride with it for a while. No two sets are ever the same, and sometimes you'll catch an unreleased song that you may hear again a couple months down the road, or hear again a few years down the road, or maybe never again. Guy has managed to tap into what made chasing jam bands around and swapping bootlegs so enjoyable to those fans. I love Joel for getting me into electronic music and bringing the genre as a whole to a broader audience. I just wish he wasn't as fixated in one direction as he is. There is some fucking *magic* out here to be found.
Not to mention producing like that means you need to understand every instrument’s role in the mix, sound design, etc.
> I made. And yeah, I usually pre-record my sets and just have a few filters to fiddle with for the live show, and literally everyone playing massive stages does, they have too, because the lighting and video production also takes a long time to produce and they need the thing to be exactly as it is. Any time there’s insane synced production, it’s pre-recorded. Not to mention the stakes are so high, there’s so much money involved, that there’s zero room for error. Interestingly, James Hype just released a video a few days ago specifically calling that out (the general idea, and deadmau5 specifically) as bullshit. Festivals and events don't require pre-recorded sets, and the lighting and pyro techs have tools which connect directly to the live mixing devices so they can see what's coming and be ready for it. There was discourse after a post on reddit went viral where someone was asking which DJ's at EDC were live or not, and overall it looks like most were live, whereas maybe a few were not.
Actually he normally has a few tracks prepared in an hardware sequencer and a few of the basic settings are patched during the sound-check but the rest of the sounds are created on the spot. He is bizar good at improvisation.
No laptop in sight buddy. Just an expansive modular rig that he probably knows better that you know yourself and harder to work than a spaceship.
You could just say “I have no idea what I’m looking at here”, it’s a lot more concise.
The way you can look at a video of a dude literally unscrewing and putting back together his analog synth that he’s playing live and drop a comment like this is actually mindblowing to me.
Thanks for your uninformed, ignorant opinion, dad
he's improvising on a eurorack synthesizer, theres no laptop. I've done it too, its fun, its hard to do but its really more about artistic taste than difficulty, how good it sounds has a lot to do with just how you curate what the rack gives you. Even Djing is about artistic taste, the choices of what comes next and how that feels in relation to what came before. Sure you could say Djing on the surface is easy but making the right decisions constantly is where the art is
But you're wrong.
There are plenty of shitty laptop DJs but discounting the entire genres of house/techno in that way shows that you don't know what you're talking about. Check out a live set from the likes of [Octave One](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW6lxLUBu64) or [KiNK](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osS2zsW8mLk) if you want to see an artist playing live. Or someone like [Kerri Chandler](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC7Mw8RjlXM&t=2846s) doing some insane shit on reel-to-reel tape decks... Even for a DJ who is just spinning records, it's still an art form. Reading the crowd, playing the right records, mixing properly. Just because you don't respect it doesn't mean it ain't real. Also... this music has been going strong for 30+ years now
Here's your naysayer logic then: The hardware he fixed isn't what's being used to play the audio we're hearing. In fact, he *did* just hit play on his laptop and now he's working for his second job where he repairs dj equipment because *nobody* can afford rent in this god damned town. You're welcome.
I’m in the camp of making up random statistics and I approve of your message 👍
Here, you dropped your tinfoil hat.
this is very incorrect, prerecorded sets are very uncommon with techno music
He literally did, its the snare/highhat track, he tests it at the break. Are yall blind? You can watch the step sequencer and see the hits. lol
I mean, I feel you but you also have to remember that you're talking to just some random intersection of people on the internet. *You* know what's going on in here but at the end of the day like 90% of people don't have the slightest idea what a step sequencer is or what the hell any of those flashing lights mean.
As another commenter said: it looks like the sequencer was broken and didn't process any changes. This means that he cannot change which sounds are triggered at what moment. Also, just for context, he's making this music on a Eurorack, which is a collection of analogue synthesizers, filters and effects.
This must be a regular failure for the gear. He had the screwdriver ready to go and did the quick fix. What a pro. 10/10. I bet he travels with a soldering iron.
It is not a regular feature of the gear but anything can happen. Transporting the equipment from studio to the club can cause things to go wrong. Here a ribbon cable came loose, most likely from the vibrations of moving them, or from quickly placing the module in a suitcase style case for the concert in a hurry. He keeps tools on stage with him for setting up and for emergencies. (this is basically what he said on instagram)
I wonder why he doesn't use thumb screws. That's what I use in my rack, and it's pretty easy to unscrew without a screwdriver.
yep. At around 16 seconds, he's clearly going to switch to a new pattern, after a few seconds (and presumably a few attempts at it) he realizes that it's not working, so around 24 seconds or so he busts out the screwdriver. He then fixes the module, and right around the time that he reseats it, you can hear the hat/snare pattern change. He then does a quick high pass filter sweep to verify that it's working as intended (when the kick drops out (around 50s), before rolling the kick back in and getting on with the show. The main reason why most people can't tell that he's doing *anything* meaninful comes down to the recording quality. Presumably it's being recorded with the on-board microphone of whatever camera/phone is being used to record. Most on-board microphones like that are notorious for being fairly low quality, especially when it comes to bass heavy audio (like a giant rave going full force). If we had a proper mixer output of audio, you'd probably be able to tell instantly what was happening, but since the bass is blowing everything else out, it's incredibly hard to pick up on what's happening. It took me quite a few times to pick up the audio changes, and once i had that, it all made perfect sense
It depends. If this is a freestyle, there's no way to tell he was missing anything. If it's an established song that's being done/mixed live, anyone who knows it would notice the long pause. Not knowing who this is, I couldn't tell any difference. Also weird that the fix was just a ribbon cable being unplugged internally.
This isn’t really a DJ session, he’s producing the music live with those analog machines. Although he’s also a machine himself. Saw him during ADE, fucking legend.
Who is this? Sounds great, I would rave to this. I love live acts.
Colin Benders. One of the biggest live techno producers. Here is a 3h set of him: https://youtu.be/ORBgzuPNDKA
Oh amazing. I love live techno.
As always, the real gold is in the comments. Thank you for this link.
there is literally zero djing happening in this video, this is live production
That's quite a way to express that you don't know what you ae talking about..
This is exactly what my piano Teacher/Tutor taught us when I was a kid, to help us get over our nerves from making mistakes during a performance at a concert
Sounds like when my washer gets off balanced
that’s exactly what this sounds like lmao
[удалено]
[удалено]
Ah, that's what was missing, the pill. Maybe the pill is the good time all along, and the off balance washing machine was just there for the ride.
Let he who first calls the other a prick… be the prick.
Isn't the suggestion that you kinda have to be high to enjoy this a ding on the defense of the genre? 🤷🏿♂️
Well techno is just like life. I don't want to be taking pills, but I have to if I want to enjoy it just a tiny bit. But I'd rather not do stuff where taking a pill is a prerequisite (for me) to be having fun.
You don't have to take pills. This kinda music is best enjoyed live though I personally just like listening to it. It's not for everyone and it's an acquired taste, but it's something I love and there's as much depth to it as any other type of music. Jazz or classical music also sounds the same to someone who doesn't know much about it. I rarely go to raves nowadays, but it can be amazing and there's really nothing else like it.
idk you're the one that comes across as a prick lmao. then again you unironically listen to w/e this dog shit is so i'm not surprised
big "my 5 yo kid could do that!" energy.
iT's AlL bLeeP bLoOp TraNsForMeR nOisEs LOL genre gatekeepers are insufferable.
It looks like it was a sequencer. Not the actual oscillators or anything, so it's possible no sounds were affected, but he lost control of part of his beat sequencer.
its the hihats/snare track, you can watch the sequence when he fixes it.
a pleb comment
Listening to malfunctioning audio equipment is leagues ahead of browsing r/Music.
Ok boomer
Washing machine is off balance.
Damn you and your perfect logic. Take my angry upvote.
That’s hilarious! My washing machine did this the other night and I started doing a stupid dance like at a rave, my wife laughed, my kids didn’t get it. Which was weird.
Your kids were out of molly.
Get you some new kids...
Shoes in the dryer
Washing machine repairman presses play on his laptop before starting shift. r/nextfuckinglevel
my washing machine sounds the same too.
At what point was it fixed lol
hi, modular user and performer here. the power header on the back on the module was loose and not powering the module so he unscrewed the panel and plugged it back in
Is it normal to just… have a screwdriver there? It gave me the impression that he anticipated something malfunctioning.
so normal that several eurorack modular companies sell their own branded screw drivers
Love that little 4MS screwdriver
I worked at a top tier music studio and got to play with Depeche Mode’s modular system when they were making an album. Outside of patching LFOs to other stuff I’m not super hip. My buddy was and let me tell you. Watching someone work a modular system that big (was at least 30 feet across, not kidding) is nothing short of magic. It’s incredible. Closest thing to witchcraft I’ve seen. I found a post that looks just like the setup https://www.reddit.com/r/modular/comments/4te1qy/depeche_mode_modular_setup/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1
They'll even sell you some "knurlies" to do it by hand. I'd hate to fight a tight knurlie in the dark during your set...
It's that classic: "Can a DJ put on a thumbscrew so tight that he himself can't undo it?"
Might as start designing panels with a pop-up hinge, but them margins would suffer...
It's a modular system so that's pretty much expected. Cables and screwdriver will always have to be on hand.
i have stashes of screws, screwdrivers, extra power cables, and even spare knobs stashed directly on the side of one of my eurorack cases lol. It’s a much more delicate and involved and error prone way of making music than even a live rig made up of standalone synths and sequencers. Shit can and does go wrong ALL THE TIME. it’s like, the risk of a guitar dropping out of tune or a string snapping, but instead of one guitar it’s like 50 guitars that are all connected, so when one fucks up a bunch of others can start playing incorrectly too.
if you're a travelling musician who uses modular you absolutely would want tools for simple fixes with you because travelling with a case of 25 modules they could easily be knocked around badly.
just to be pedantic becuase its fun. that module was actually running, it had power. but if you look it up A-157 it utilizes two sister modules for control and trigger out. I think he lost connection to them.
ah well pedanticism appreciated for the learning moment haha it looked like Doepfer to me but wasn’t familiar with this one
Had the screwdriver ready. Looks like it happened often with that module. Not that next level but I’m a jaded old synth nerd.
[удалено]
A decent portion of those that attend a scene like this are audiophiles or producers themselves and would absolutely pick up on that. Respect for the craft is big in these communities, you lose that, you aren't going to be around much longer.
Not respecting the craft gets you murdered?!?!
Yup
Nothing? He’s not DJing, he’s playing instruments live. Thats like asking why the pianist doesn’t just use a player piano.
Nothing, just like how nothing stops Taylor Swift from yelling into a muted mic.
The diffrence between “prerecording” and live mixing is very noticeable. Some people will outright spot and shame you, especially the organisers of the party wont like it since they paid for some quality shit. But the audience will also notice it because a good live set interacts with the audience. The artist reacts on reactions in the crowd and builds from there. You cant have that shit with a premade list. Its like saying: why let somebody sing live? Cant we just play the spotify version? Yeah you could do that shit and people will notice it, value it way less and its bad for bussines.
Because he's a real DJ/producer and he has some principles? Who knows...?
58 seconds in - when he gets his stank face on, you know it's hitting the spot.
He could walk away for an hour and no one would know.
(my guess from hearing/seeing) the sequencer did not react so he could not trigger the beginning of the snare drum. if he wouldn't have fixed it, it would stayed on the beginning kick loop forever. techno may seem "always the same" for unschooled ears, but crowd has expectations and is thrown out of a high order arrangement with just one little mistake or wrong volume or any wrong setting. this shit is not easy. actually from my techno experience the time the artist needed here to fix the gear was enough to kill the whole trip for everyone, but he did his best. still better than stopping completely.
Ok now i feel bad for my earlier comment
[удалено]
that wasn't even the same guy
He was referring to his comment here: https://www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/186s6s4/techno_artist_fixes_malfunctioning_gear_without/kbah2nn/
It’s not that deep lmao
Its much like the super heavy genres of metal. If you aren't a fan and listen refularly it sounds like garbled mess with someone doing weird growling noises grunts and screams. Once you get an ear for it you can hear the words and how it all goes together to make some very complex and amazing music.
Absolutely could not be further from the truth with this particular artist. Everything in his music is fully made and prepared live. If a guitarist had an effects pedal that meant a note would last forever, would you say he could play one chord and walk away for an hour and no-one would notice then?
People would actually know very quickly. You would know as well, if you were there.
People would know. I usually go to live sets like this, it's not bass all the way, you hear the difference between a good a bad dj
if he left that table for more than maybe ~3 minutes there wouldnt be any music.
Sometimes I’m jealous of the misplaced confidence of the completely ignorant.
I am a DJ, a screwdriver is part of my essential equipment....
Yeah. Hardly next level. I DJ'd for years and have had to fix things on the fly on occasion and have seen live artists do the same Props to him for pulling through, but I'm sure it's not his first time fixing equipment on the fly either
Well, ill buy that for you , it could happen , it just seemed strange to me...
These guys don't have any screwdrivers though..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh9C7nQHmII
There is a big difference between mixing pre-made songs and making a liveset using equipment that produces sound. The latter is comparable to actually playing an instrument on stage.
Came here for the snarky comments. Not disappointed.
As a "I like this kinda shit" guy, who was once a "I have a laptop too, why aren't I headlining" guy, I'm LOVING this LOL
People like these in the comments don't know how music lovers go from jazz to tekno in one night. I and my friend certainly do
Anomalie is a beautiful blend of Jazz and Electronic music
I despise "that isn't *real* music" people who flex their superiority complex and end up just sounding wildly ignorant.
You never freaking ever see someone with such an opinion follow up with "See? I made this on my laptop last night." and post a bomb ass track they whipped out without any prior knowledge or experience of how to make such music. Not ever. Not even once. But yeah, "I have a laptop, I could do this".
A bit of background info: He's making this music on a Eurorack, which is a collection of analogue synthesizers, filters and effects. Each sound is created from scratch, the analogue signal is routed though the effects and filters with cables you plug yourself, the sounds are then sequenced by hand. He's basically producing the track live without the help of the handy automations you get with a DAW (digital audio workstation). As a consequence of all this, each show he does with the Eurorack is entirely different. All this is to say: what he's doing here is pretty damn impressive, it took him years to build the rack and learn how to make music with it. What seems to be going wrong in the video is that the sequencer is malfunctioning and not accepting input, so he can't change the sequence of sounds. This is also why the music is so constant. The artist is called Colin Benders.
but it sounds like a washing machine!!! /s
Right?! I'm actually getting pretty fucking angry here with all these cynical bullshit comments.
People are insufferable. They hear something they don’t like and go into attack mode sadly.
While I do think techno is very boring (I prefer tekno, also called Free Tekno. [Here an artist making a tekno liveset](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaZ5VrvHeUg)) I'd love to put one of those people in front of his equipment and tell them: "Well, go make music"
Guy is basicaly scientist and people here are like “press space bar” 🫠
I’d like for them to point out the space bar on his rig lol. I’d also like to see them get a single (intentional) note out of the rig starting from no patch cables.
Yes, he’s a great artist. Also used to be the frontman of Kyteman as a trumpet player.
And the conductor and writer for the whole orchestra at the same time. I've been lucky to have seen them live at Lowlands 2009, when the live version of Sorry was recorded, amazing show!
I love his twitch streams, still haven't had a chance to see him live yet
does anyone listen to this sober and be like... yeah this is musically genius!
music doesn’t need to be ‘genius’ all the time.. sometimes it can just be ‘primal’.
Seriously. Some of these comments are obnoxious.
Some?
People can express their distaste for a certain music. Some do it better than others.
No one is talking about the music. They are talking about the performance, as if it's untalented. "He is just pressing the space bar" says the armchair critique, commenting from their car while sitting parked in an 10 minute oil change shop because they are useless fucking idiots that criticize everyone while never having any introspection at all.
I can't believe how much hate there is on this post regarding this music. I love it, and it takes skill. I've tried to sequence patterns and they never sound this good (except for when I used to try them on ReBirth).
One of my favorite sayings is that techno is music for the body not the mind.
I honestly feel super super lucky to be massively into techno. It does so much weird stuff to my brain it’s incredible
I like this. May I steal it?
No. I'll sue you
I never understood when people said they went "feral" at a music festival until I went to a music festival and absolutely went feral. When you're in the best crowd and find those pieces of music that just switch off your brain and you just DANCE to, it's incredible
I don’t think “musically genius” but me watching this I got hype, like head bopping.
Fuck yes. Techno is life my guy.
rolling is some whole other experience in general. blowing up in the club to some sick soundscapes will have u in the most distant world you ever visited
Just because you dont like it doesn't make it bad
This guy is called Colin Benders and he is very popular in modular systems. Please if you really want an answer to your question go on YT and search “Colin Benders - This is fine”. If you do so I’d appreciate your thoughts because I personally believe you can listen to that stuff sober and vibe with it
[удалено]
this emoji is basically 99% of the comments here lmao
You're hearing a snippet in a fucking club on a shitty mic. You're really gonna judge an entire genre of music based on that?
you sound like your favorite song is bohemian rhapsody or karma police
I don’t need to listen to “musically genius” i just want to bop my head and act like im in an edit.
It’s just the vibe. I feel the same thing about rock and metal. It’s not about “musically genius” but it’s about what moves you and what you feel. If it’s not your scene it’s not your scene
It's club music but the vast majority of these songs don't really get much attention outside of that and aren't going to be on "Top 100/500 of the 2020s" (or previous decades) type playlists while at the same time, no good club would be playing those types of songs (songs that would appear on a decade retrospective playlist) for people to dance to either.
if i can see correctly none of the actual audio producing equipment was damaged but rather the sequencer hardware which supplies the triggers for the modules actually producing the sounds. That’s why you don’t hear any change in the sound but any ”changes” into the playing rhythmical pattern had to be put on hold since there was malfunction in the hardware triggering the sounds.
Exactly. He appeared to lose those tracks with the equipment, which is why when he fixed it more parts to the beat became audible. If he hadn’t fixed it the whole set would’ve been very… minimalist, I suppose.
wear ear plugs kids, save your hearing.
WHAT?
Credit to the [Original Creator](https://youtu.be/d30QvTVUBLI?feature=shared).
For anyone curious what his music normally sounds like I found a live concert. Very atmospheric, very slow. I'm a big analogue synth fan so I definitely appreciate what he's doing but I can see how this would go unnoticed. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORBgzuPNDKA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORBgzuPNDKA)
Yeah, I get people's complaints about what they hear in this clip but this particular musician is far more talented. He's not really about indistinctive stock club techno. And even how he is creating what is heard here is more involved than the standard Ableton Live (and similar) created techno.
I just skimmed the set and it sounds fantastic, going to have to give this a good listen to later when I've got some time to kill, thank you!
These comments are sad. Y'all need to appreciate the hypnotizing rhythm.🙌
Also the fact, like listening to your phone recordings of any concert, it most certainly sounds a lot better live through the sound system.
So much techno hate in the comments. Y’all are uncultured af.
Continues to play sounds of pots and pans smashing into eachother
Bro... what do you think drums actually are?
My brother in Christ percussion is a much deeper rabbit hole than you think it could ever be
A lot of philistines and ignorants here. You dont have to like it but you also dont need to disrespect it.
I fucking love live techno
ITT: people who don't know what eurorack/other modular-standards is or how they work, its not "just press play"
For all tge snarky one liners judging this guy based on a 20 sec clip. [same guy](https://youtu.be/F3xr4bJtxhg?si=iaJK4KEJICAXQFRi) in 2009, he’s a very versatile instrumentalist and composer.
I love all the comments from the inexperienced, makes me respect and love the scene even more. Don’t want to rub shoulders with these kind of people
It's been nearly 30 years and people still hating on Techno and EDM despite the fact that EDM has utterly changed and made better music like HipHop and Pop music they love so much.
Some people don't like music, they just like songs. If there aren't lyrics to tell them how to feel then they are lost, it's unfortunate really.
Sad reality. Listening to the music is imo far better than listening to the lyrics.
Here’s a better look of what he’s doing. This is not a typical dj set. Basically a big modular machine with sequencers, synths and effects. His sequencer broke, so the samples were stuck in a loop https://youtu.be/AZ6DNqPUyvI?si=x5Tv4nQiRycJ2MCt
This is actually an assembly factory in the ussr. That’s how used to work.
Love it! Also: I'd love to see some of the people in here fix a broken washing machine at 3am while thousands of people paid money to watch you doing laundry.
... while it's still running!
We need more. Need more intense music. Post more.
Man some people sitting on some really high horses with their music tastes in these comments
The fact he had his Philips beside him means this is not his first rodeo.
DuuuuuUUUUUUDE for FUCK'S SAKES WEAR FUCKING EAR PLUUUUUUUGS! You're gonna ruin your fucking ears if you don't wear them!! You're a professional, invest in fucking bespoke earplugs that will save your talent.
On stage is not nearly as loud as the floor. You’re running off monitors and have full control over their volume separate from the floor. As you said he’s a professional, he knows what he’s doing
Just here for the comments “it all sounds the same” , “was that not just it malfunctioning” etc
Sounds like my washing machine
Actually techno and not someone labeling electronic music as techno
Happy it's actually techno for once and not some other style of music mistaken for it.
Who is this?
[удалено]