M-Audio UC-33 and Ableton Live Combo Everywhere at Movement 2008
Every year at Movement is essentially an electronic music marathon starting and ending in Detroit requiring an analogous amount of of stamina, getting you just as sweaty, and insisting you employ a similar degree of pacing not to burn out too early. One aspect that does evolve from year to year is the particular incarnation of technology that performers rely upon to share their unique perspective of what’s exciting about contemporary electronic music. Early years featured performers who relied on analog methods of delivering digital music, namely turntables and records. As time progressed so did the tools, becoming increasingly digital with methods for controlling the signal evolving into forms with both a traditional appearance and ones that prominently rely on software and interfaces only marginal back in 2000.
On the traditional appearance front, digital djing with control vinyl was very much in play, although Traktor Scratch seemed to be moving in on what was previously the territory of Serato, as demonstrated by artists like Magda, Joel Mull, and Richie Hawtin. Hawtin also created a mega-mixer featuring an x:one 92 flanked by two x:one D1s—a traditional mixer and two MIDI controllers in mixer form. Overwhelmingly, when laptops were being used for DJ sets or live Pas, the software of choice was Ableton Live, more times than not accompanied by an M-Audio UC-33 (or in its earlier incarnation for early adopters—the Evolution UC-33). It’s easy to see why the UC-33 has remained popular. 
Presets are available for download from M-Audio for both Mac and PC with . There are two banks within the presets, the first one controlling volume and pan on the eight tracks and the second one controls this for the first 6 tracks and the first send, and then controls the cross fader, monitor level, master pan and the tempo on controllers 8, 16, 24 and 32.
However, an even slicker and more advanced MIDI controller solution for either Scratch or Live would be the new Nocturn by Novation that I raved about after this year’s winter NAMM. If you’re not dead set on faders and can get by with knobs, the Nocturn has quote a few features that make your life easier. For one, there’s no need to download templates—the Nocturn’s Automap feature detects what program you’re working with and assigns parameters to each knob automatically. And if you’re not happy with the preset values you can easily change them by touching the knob and adjusting it through an on-screen overlay display. It’s much faster and easier than navigating the UC-33’s menus.
In terms of portability for live dance music performance digitally, both the UC-33 and Nocturn provide lightweight solutions to easily share one’s vision with audiences across the globe. With technological solutions physically shrinking, drive space continually on the rise (and cheaply), innovation pushing forward new concepts for live performance, it will be interesting to see how live electronic music performance will take shape in the years to come.
10 Comments
Leave a CommentCreate Digital Music » Live Inspiration: Latest from Mutek, Movement Music + Visual Festivals
[...] is getting his synesthesia on with live audio and visuals at A/Visions, while Liz notes the spooky near-ubiquity of UC-33e controllers running Ableton Live at Movement. (Guess they need to invite us with some odder controllers, [...]
May 30, 2008 @ 12:04 pm
cooptrol
IMHO there’s still an aesthetics and ethics problem concerning the laptop screen usage as visual reference of sound. the graphic enviroment is overwhelming and usually distracts the focus on music, and projects the image of a stuck-head musician to the audience. I’ve been experimenting with playing with a controller and/or a USB computer keyboard, with the laptop lid closed, and I must say it is a really refreshening experience. It throws back computer music performance to the realm of ears/body/mind (not eyes) musical expression.
May 30, 2008 @ 1:01 pm
Joshua Schnable
Now, if Novation would only hurry up and ship the Nocturn…
cooprol – I agree with you that keeping the laptop away/closed would be awesome, but the thing that keeps tripping me (and probably many, many others) up is the need for an interface to tell me what’s going on with my Live clips.
Yes, a Monome would do the trick. I think FaderFox has something like that too. But there aren’t a lot of options out there for a bank of buttons that light up when you press them, and stay lit until you press them again.
May 30, 2008 @ 3:49 pm
EE
cooptrol you’ve hit the nail on the head. Getting caught up in analytical/visual thinking kills any sense of flow that might have been.
May 31, 2008 @ 2:30 am
cooptrol
joshua: at first i ached for some visual feedback, and started looking for some controller that could do that. then i realised i was falling again in the same mistake. one must learn to rely exclusively on the ears to make decisions. to really know the sonic material you are using and to be able to identify it all mixed in the music. i’m really commited to learning this, and it’s not so hard as you may think.
May 31, 2008 @ 4:26 pm
cooptrol
a closed latpop with a controller on top is the best hardware sampler you can ever get…
May 31, 2008 @ 4:37 pm
liz
Robert Henke aka Monolake make his own sampler–the Monodeck- so he doesn’t have to look at Ableton at all:
http://making-music.blogspot.com/2008/03/video-robert-henke-shows-his-setup-and.html
June 2, 2008 @ 10:01 am
Joe Syndrome
I have an Maudio trigger finger.. But the knobs break so easily. The plastic is cracking and the actual controller values jump around the 00 – 128 spectrum. Which is annoying. Or Im just a rough tweaker.
The Monodeck caught my eye on his myspace. And i’ve seen videos about it. He really should mass produce that controller. Bundle it with ableton
June 9, 2008 @ 9:03 am
Joe Syndrome
My dream controller would have everything on the monodeck, Bluetooth wii like sensors, Endless Rotary knobs like Kore, X / Y trackpad controls like the time trip Vsynth, Dbeam roland like sensors, Pulsating lights like Torq, and a frozen margarita machine, Hell.. And a meat grinder.
June 9, 2008 @ 9:12 am
liz revision » Movement & Mutek articles at CDM
[...] M-Audio UC-33 and Ableton Live Combo Everywhere at Movement 2008 Liz notes the spooky near-ubiquity of UC-33e controllers running Ableton Live at Movement. [...]
November 29, 2008 @ 2:06 pm
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