Trance pioneer Paul van Dyk shares live performance tips and tricks.
Photo: Tomasz Wagner/Flickr

The performance of electronic music in a live environment has been a thorny issue ever since synthesizers and sequencers gained a foothold in the 1970s, and widespread popularity in the 1980s. Critics’ complaints that the music wasn’t truly “live” and thus less authentic only gained momentum in the late ’80s and early ’90s as house and techno, much of it instrumental, exploded and live acts were accused of simply pressing play and standing back. Or waving their maracas around madly.

However, in more recent years, as it became clear that electronic music was here to stay, and with the demand for people to hear their favourite electronic songs within the communal atmosphere of a live setting, electronic acts have developed several strategies to elevate their performance into something rivaling, and sometimes eclipsing, that of any traditional band. DJ sets have become all-encompassing multimedia experiences, dance acts now regularly headline festivals, and more bands than ever are co-opting the sonic possibilities of electronics into their music.

Wired.co.uk spoke to three top exponents of their art, Paul Hartnoll of Orbital, trance pioneer Paul van Dyk and Bruce Carter from The Whip to find out how they make it work.

It is fair to say that Orbital almost single-handedly put to bed the accusation that electronic gigs were unmusical and predictable, bringing the crucial element of live improvisation of structure and sound to dance music, and with it, huge success. Their performance at Glastonbury in 2004 was picked by Q Magazine as one of the top 50 gigs of all time.

So how did they do it? Well, in their early days, Orbital simply packed up their studio and went on the road with the whole lot; a few keyboards and synths, a four-track to use as a mixer and six trusty Alesis MMT-8 sequencers. Hartnoll told Wired.co.uk: “The memory was so crap we’d use three at a time and then literally swap them over when we needed the other sounds!”

Nowadays, the brothers use Macbook Pros and Ableton. “I’ve been waiting for technology to catch up,” explains Hartnoll. “Ableton is the first bit of software that means it when it says Live.” In addition they use two Lemur Touch Pads to manipulate sounds, but the keyboards are analog rather than software synths.

Their improvisation is based firstly around structure, using Ableton, and also around sounds via the synths, underpinned by samples. Crucially, it’s based both on their own perceptions, and also on audience reaction. Hartnoll states: “Our analog synths don’t have memories deliberately…. It’s a wildcard. Every night is different; often you can’t quite get the right sound so you’ll play with something else, which inspires you to go off on a tangent. Sometimes you just get on a roll with a track and it’ll last 10 minutes, the next night it’ll be three because it just doesn’t work out. It’s also down to the audience reaction…. They’ll love different songs, it’s often down to the local and current tastes.”

‘The visuals are kind of our lead singer jumping around and pulling faces.’

The use of samples mean that even amongst the improvisation, the audience can hold on to their knowledge of the original tracks: “Samples are the recognizable, main part of the track…. They are identical to the record as it was recorded 20 years ago. It gives that kind of recognition that people love, but your drum sounds and analog synths are changed around.”

Of course, Orbital are famed also for their trademark headtorches (originally worn simply to see their equipment) and also for their visuals, a crucial aspect of live electronic music. It’s a fact that physically, two men near some equipment do not match the presence of a live band, but this is compensated by inventive visuals, Hartnoll said: “‘The visuals are kind of our lead singer. They’re the lead singer jumping around and pulling faces.”

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