Bassfisher Live at 8static in Philadelphia, June 12, 2010

[Decktonic]

Finally got a video of myself performing Bassfisher live at 8static in Philadelphia on June 12, 2010. This was part of their open mic and while I was nervous I managed to through my first live performance alive.



Download the song here: http://decktonic.bandcamp.com/album/return-to-gravity-promo-ep

p.s. none of the equipment on the table is mine, this is a plain Nintendo DSi to their mixer performance.

[alex]

Well, that seemed to go down well.

I enjoyed it too.

[DS-10 Dominator]

Nice melody, good build up! Enjoyed it!
I love that first lead synth, share the patch some time please .

I would have liked to hear some more live action though, some kaosspad stuff or some fading stuff in and out, or whatever...

[Decktonic]

Yeah I was too nervous to handle any of that stuff well... I was improvising on the Kaoss pad in the beginning but it came out bad because I couldn't hold the stylus down.

I'll explain the lead synth when I get a chance.

[Decktonic]

Got another chance to hit an open mic, this time on a rooftop in Brooklyn... I was far less nervous here and was able to play the kaoss pad correctly in the beginning... turned out much better! Sound quality is not as good though.

[HarleyLikesMusic]

Hey man ! nice to see you in some live action ! doing well man keep it up !

[Decktonic]

Thanks! I have a new song that I'm working on and hope to play this Saturday... if all goes well I'll have a video for you all by Sunday

[DS-10 Dominator]

Great location. And sounds good!

An idea might be to add some 8th notes in the melody. I like it how you keep it simple now, but it would be cool if it would suddenly change into a melody with more notes, I think.

[Syscrusher]

Sounds good Christian! Jealous. Geez I'm gonna have to find a venue to play my stuff live. Maybe at an art opening or something.

[Decktonic]

Well this event was just thrown by some guys I know, they didn't even get a noise permit or anything, and they just asked for donations. Also you could always perform a live set, record it on your comp and share the video on the Internet, it's a good way to get feedback when you don't have any physical venues to hit up.

[trnsprnt]

Man, I hadn't seen this thread. It's great that you managed to perform live. The last video seems ideal, in that attic.

Do you know any other ds-10 players where you live?

[Decktonic]

New Jersey is almost devoid of chiptune artists... I know of a few people who use LSDJ and that's it. I was talking to one artist, Kris Keyser, who said that he has DS10 but hasn't worked with it much, and I was giving him some advice, telling him that he should give it another shot... let's hope he does. I go to these concerts in Philly and NYC and I'm basically a DS10 ambassador, everyone else is playing NES, Gameboys, Commodores, etc. The most important thing is just that I show everyone what DS10 can do... people have a poor misconception about it and I'm all about changing that

[trnsprnt]

I see. Here is the same. I've known some gameboy musicians along the years but it feels as if the ds-10 never existed. Except for WMRhapsodies, who sometimes appears in this forum, and some other guy from Barcelona I know nobody who uses it. It's a shame because I see those ds-10 Japan parties and they make me feel dead jealous...

Let's hope as time goes by some people discover this synth, so we can gather at jams or whatever. Or maybe we should arrenge the first ds-10 world meeting!

Good luck with this Saturdays gig!

[The Industrialism]

The second live video was superb! I bang my head every time I listen. Why don't you send your track Bassfusher to any DJ, any radio to play the track?

[Decktonic]

Why don't you send your track Bassfusher to any DJ, any radio to play the track?

I've never done this before. I've sent it to a bunch of record labels and blogs, and mostly it's gone ignored (one record label replied with some advice on how to improve it, one blog posted it). I am planning on refining it some more and doing another marketing push. Do you have any advice on who/what I should send it to? I'd love to get it on the radio!

[The Industrialism]

Why don't you send your track Bassfusher to any DJ, any radio to play the track?

I've never done this before. I've sent it to a bunch of record labels and blogs, and mostly it's gone ignored (one record label replied with some advice on how to improve it, one blog posted it). I am planning on refining it some more and doing another marketing push. Do you have any advice on who/what I should send it to? I'd love to get it on the radio!

I never done this too. I've sent all my music to 20 netlabels and just one accept. I'd love to get my music on radio too, but I make tracks too experimental and ambient to play in the radio. I'm gonna leave my music to some ambient netradio to play. Maybe you can do something like that, but your music really need a official radio to play.

[trnsprnt]

You know, I think the main problem with your songs (I'm talking in general, because there's a lot of talent in this forum) is that they are instrumental. If they had some voices it would be easier to fit in in some indie radios or something like that, I think.

[Decktonic]

You know, I think the main problem with your songs (I'm talking in general, because there's a lot of talent in this forum) is that they are instrumental. If they had some voices it would be easier to fit in in some indie radios or something like that, I think.

This is fact. Most electronic music that gets pop-radio-play has to fit the pop format... good vocals, a proper structure with a chorus, etc. There are some alternative though... BBC radio has a lot of dance music, most college stations are willing to play more "experimental" stuff, there's lots of electronic stations on satellite radio, etc. I want my music to have wide appeal, and for that I'll probably need to at least start sampling vocals eventually, but in my case I'm still learning how to make songs; i'm not anywhere near ready to think about vocals. So as it is, I'm focusing on outlets that are friendly to electronic music (even without words)... blogs, record labels, etc. that are known to publish and promote such music.

A funny side note: look at popular songs that have vocals... if you take away the vocals, you'll notice that the songs are actually very repetitive. Other than having a clear chorus, bridge, and a couple other melodies, they tend to be the same patterns over and over. Rap is especially notable for this. People complain a lot about electronic music being repetitive but it's really 1 of 2 things:

- no vocals over the patterns
- the song just sucks enough that you notice the repetition

One of the worst examples of repetitive pop music is M.I.A.'s Paper Planes (which is crossover electronic/hip hop/pop), because she repeats each verse of the song TWICE. Twice, back to back! Even though I like the song, I've always been annoyed by that.

Anyway, now that I'm done with that tangent, yes, vocals, very important.

[The Industrialism]

A funny side note: look at popular songs that have vocals... if you take away the vocals, you'll notice that the songs are actually very repetitive. Other than having a clear chorus, bridge, and a couple other melodies, they tend to be the same patterns over and over. Rap is especially notable for this. People complain a lot about electronic music being repetitive but it's really 1 of 2 things:

- no vocals over the patterns
- the song just sucks enough that you notice the repetition

One of the worst examples of repetitive pop music is M.I.A.'s Paper Planes (which is crossover electronic/hip hop/pop), because she repeats each verse of the song TWICE. Twice, back to back! Even though I like the song, I've always been annoyed by that.

Anyway, now that I'm done with that tangent, yes, vocals, very important.

Agreed. The idea of vocal samples is a good idea, Decktonic. Some tracks that I made from the_dEcay, I think would be good for lyrics, but my voice is not good to sing. I will start to make robotic voice samples to put in my music, like some music in Aphex Twin.

Here, in Brazil, the radios are a s**t. They always play brazilian funk (a genre that is famous by here) and don't have a radio for electronica/experimental music, so this make really hard. I think that you have a great chance with radio, Decktonic. It's only about time

[Decktonic]

OK well by next week I should have a reworked version of Bassfisher, and then I'm going to go about submitting Bassfisher & Robot Bounce to various radio stations (local, online, satellite) and I'll see where I get picked up and share the results with everyone