Noise in Austria – The Sound of Music?
By Paul Lavigne
| Posted in Feature
Last week-end I was invited to play in Arnoldstein, a small village in Austria near the tri-border with Italy and Slovenia. For concerts abroad my new set up is designed to be the most portable, so I went equipped with my Macbook Pro, running Ableton live and Mainstage (part of the Logic Studio 9 bundle) together using Apple IAC, my TC electronic Konnekt 24D, a Kaoss Pad and a MIDI controller. The great thing is that it all fits in my hand luggage and I don’t have to fear for my equipment when luggage handlers do their job.
The venue, an old monastery in ruin on the top of the hill of the village is stunning and surrounded by huge mountains and forest everywhere! Quick sound check, the sound is actually very decent! When it came to the gig, I put my system and theirs through their paces playing a mixture of white noise, distortion and ring modulation coupled with some sampled jackhammers and analogue synths with extreme cut off/resonance settings making the stage and the walls move with the noisy rumble coming from the PA.
While I understand the confusion of a lot of people in the audience who really came for the rave spirit of this night, it was nice to see some people coming to me telling me they enjoyed this music somewhat different. For me however, it was a fantastic experience and for one day in Arnoldstein “the hills were alive with the sound of music “(or in this case noise)…
About Paul Lavigne
I have been involved in live and studio sound engineering since 2004. During this time I absorbed myself in the recording, production, mixing and mastering of projects from Punk to Hip Hop, from Metal to classical and electronic music. I even ran a record company of experimental music for a few years.
The reason I do all this? It’s because I love sound and the tools to create these sounds whether it is a plug in or a piece of outboard or a microphone, whatever the tools to get the sound I’m after. I love to share this passion for sound and hopefully you will too reading these blogs.
Tags: ableton live, Apple, kaoss pad, mainstage, TC Konnekt 24