INSTRUMENTS

As I mentioned in the formers chapters, my instrumental research started on the saxophone. Since I wanted to serve it with my modulations and had the fantasy of creating a hybrid instrument, I had to study it again. I started by analyzing how I was playing it, what were my personal characteristics which I would like to transcend electronically. Then I wanted to study how I could take it further than I already did, with multiphonics and other extended techniques for examples. Here is a little description of my setup and how I got there, followed by a short video showcasing it.

MICROPHONES

I tried many different microphones, and found out that the Vigamusictools Intramic, placed inside the neck and mouthpiece of the saxophone was a fantastic tool for me to buy. It has a very detailed translation of the various components of the sax sound, much more detailed than clip-on mics for example, but its positioning in the saxophone makes it almost totally insensitive to feedbacking, which is a  life-saver when working with FXs, especially when I wanted to be able to use powerful modulations while playing very soft. It allowed me to imagine new modulations which I thought impossible to perform live.

I also love using my voice on stage. Whether I’m actually singing, vocoding, reading texts or ‘shouting’ notes between the saxophone lines the way West African flute players do, I always need a vocal mic. I wanted to separate it as much as possible from the saxophone signal path, so that I could treat and manipulate them separately. I therefore experimented again with various microphones, from a shotgun mic pointed at my throat, to 4 different contact microphones strapped to my throat, but the source of the saxophone sound being located right in the mouth as much as at the bell of the instrument, it proved quite impossible to separate the sources sufficiently and I chose to go for a traditional vocal mic which would in return offer me the best sound when I am actually singing (the sound quality of the ‘throat mics’ was too poor to use for anything else than growling effects). I do keep separate signal paths for sax and vocal mics and manage to treat them differently to a certain extend.

Hardware vs Software

I discussed it with quite some artists, and totally respect those who believe in hardware, but my own experience is that to achieve the sound modulations I was dreaming of, processing the sound through the computer was my best option. In my eyes and ears, very few of the hardware tools are actually really audibly analog still, and the special characteristics they offer isn’t really what I was after, since I wanted a very ‘high-res’ treatment of the sound to not blur any frequencies with the warmth of an analog treatment. It is only in March 2022 that I started working with Ableton Live, but it became my best ally. The quality and careful programming of the software that was conceived for live performance and the super easy integration of controllers and any of my favourite plugins make it my go-to system at the moment.

It is fundamental for me to have access to fine tuning parameters of the FXs I’m using, and if this playability is often put forward by hardware lovers, I never had such flexibility with any pedal I was using. I can now assign any parameter of the plugin to my midi controller and control it in real time, ergonomically placing the buttons I want and getting rid of the others. Choosing and changing very quickly how I will combine the plugins (parallel or serial processing for example) and what parameters I want to control are also an invitation to be creative and original which I find more stimulating than using a pedal and its 3 or 5 knobs. I know DAW processing and Ableton in particular has ‘a sound’ too and that I ‘sound like it’ as well, but I do find it a suitable tool for me today.

Controlling the software

Playing saxophone keeps your hands pretty busy, so I have a foot controller, but I somehow ended up controlling most the FXs by hand, again because the fine tuning is fundamental, and after trying different configuration, I decided I was ready to accept that I would sacrifice some of my hand motricity to the controllers.
I use the foot controller, 2 midi controllers such as this one and my iPad.

I usually assign one controller to my sax FXs and one to my loopers and sampler and their dediated FXs, the sax FX controller can be switched to vocal mic processing.

Ipad and Max For Live

Additionally I built my own templates for my iPad with Touch OSC and use it to send midi signals to control various things such as the pitch shifter presets or the sampler/slicer. This slicer is an interesting tool created in Max For Live by Benjamin Van Esser. It allows for live recording and slicing of a music fragment, and triggering of the slices through midi signals. Building my own iPad template to control it makes it a really fun instrument to play!

These various controllers allow me to perform without touching the computer and really feel like I am playing the software.

Another system I tried out is to implement envelope followers in my template. They couple the envelope (basically the ‘loudness’ of what I play) to any parameter I choose. This allows for a more direct coupling of the instrument and the FX, but since my work is mostly improvised, working with presets (coupling this or that FX to the envelope) quickly gets in the way and I usually prefer to keep a manual control on it. But it is an interesting possibility for specific situations and for composed pieces where the saxophone player should keep the use of his two hands at all time and have influence on the FXs nonetheless. I also believe it could increase the ‘fun factor’ a lot for saxophone players performing electronic pieces. I will therefore explore it further to integrate it more into my template in the future.

Here is a link to a demonstration video where I give you a test drive of my Ableton Live template.