So how do you PLAY a laptop, exactly?
 

After listening to hours and hours of O'Rourke and Ikue Mori and whathaveyou, I wonder how this laptop-playing business works, especially while improvising. What kinda software do these cats use? Can anybody here post some screenshots? And do they mouse-click their way around choosing sonic shenanigans or is it done in some other fashion? 'Cause me, you know, I'd just grab a drumstick and bang on the motherfucker, but I suspect the aural result would not be quite similar.

They use MAX SP or whatever the fuck it's called. I've seen people use Fruity Loops. You can "play" them in real time, set them to play and then move different sliders/VST plugins and whatnot to achieve new sounds.

MAX/MSP is what it's called. Many use Pure Data or Reaktor for playing live as well.

i play it with my dick and it shreds.

Usually, you're just manipulating samples, with vst plugins. But also, there are tons of vst "virtual instruments", with an endless supply of built-in samples, that you can play like an actual instrument. I'd suggest just messing around in Fruity Loops to start.

One cool thing I saw once was a guy that used a log. He had a log with 7 nails in it, and in between each nail was a thin guitar string, with a contact mic built in underneath it all, so if you plucked the string a high pitched, uh, noise would eminate. The "log" itself didn't do much beyond just look cool but hey. Anyway, he had that all plugged into a laptop, which was plugged into the PA. He would play a little note and then immediately manipulate the fuck out of it on his laptop. so, one little note he played could be sustained for a good minute and he just subtlely (and sometimes, not-so-subtely) fucked with it via vst. Cool.

i thought they were just posting on the board whenever they were performing

Nah, actually, it's them watching youtube videos during their set -- THROUGH AN EFFECTS PEDAL.

I use patches I made in max/msp or reaktor when playing live

I heard on the BBC there actually is an application that sends a Twitter message every time a DJ spins a new record during a performance or some such shit by the like. Kids today, man...

So I got this Max/MSP shot of a "set of patches" by Autechre off Wikipedia:



I really don't know what in the crap I'm looking at. Then again, same thing happens to me when I see sheet music. I hate music / It's got too many notes...

i use reason live quite alot and sometimes ableton live

probably using Ableton Live

Well, if you want to do it the Autechre way, just hit the "Randomize" buttons. Heh.

Ableton is my instrument of choice.

there are also vst instruments that you can play with your keyboard

I already said that.

there are also vst instruments that you can play with your keyboard

hahaha

or indeed any midi device

I know another guy who played his guitar, hooked through his laptop, and when it came out through the speakers, it sounded like an 8-bit video game! It was insane. It seemed a little limited, like there was a bit of delay between playing and then it processing all that shit and then coming back with the sound... but only a superslight delay. So, yeah, if you could somehow take advantage of that.. well, just think about it. Think of the possibilities.

I've used a laptop in some Scissor Shock sets, but mainly for subtle backing electronics farts.

^ I had something like that. I have a stealthplug and the software it came with had some crazy shit. I literally blew out my friend's computer speakers with it.

OH, that's something else, yeah, they make um... well...

I mean, is anyone here wanting to do this stuff seriously who doesn't already know how to? I guess you could ask me a few things but...

Basically, you know how there are bass amps for basses? You can play a guitar through them... and there's guitar amps for guitars.. you can play a guitar through them, but you probably shouldn't play a bass, because of the low-end and there's..

Okay, lemme restart again.

IF YOU PLAN ON PLAYING WITH A LAPTOP and making insane, ridiculous sounds with it, you might want to get a committed amplifier, because you're probably going to eventually end up making sounds that go way above or way below the normal threshholds of what most amps can handle. That's very easy to do with these things, since you can literally go to the highest possible frequency, forever, in a nanosecond, to the lowest possible frequency a nanosecond later -- forever. They make amps specifically for this purpose... unfortunately, I have no names for them because I am lazy.

They actually refrain from using randomness in their music. It's all mathematical based. There are many ways to achieve a near-random sequence of numbers without using any random number generators.