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Profile: digital selves

Lizzie, a.k.a. digital selves
Lizzie, a.k.a. digital selves
London, UK

I think the main thing that I like about Tidal for me is working, transforming, shaping and shifting patterns, and listening to the changes in real time. I recently co-ran a workshop with Iván Paz, Alex McLean and Dave Griffiths in Sheffield and at Hangar in Barcelona (we did it remotely at the same time- thanks to On The Fly for having us :) ). We talked a lot about patterns in the context of other traditions, like weaving. To me, it’s interesting to think about computer music in this way.

Working with samples the Heavy Lifting way

Lucy, a.k.a. Heavy Lifting
Lucy, a.k.a. Heavy Lifting
UK

Hi, I’m Lucy, and I’m a live coder. In this blog post I’m going to be talking about some of my strategies for using samples and approaches to from-scratch or blank-screen live coded performance. … When I started live coding it felt like blank-screen was the only way. It excited me but it doesn’t excite everyone. I feel that the emphasis on fully from-scratch performances can be a barrier for some people, and when I run workshops I always try to emphasize that while I start from a blank screen, it’s not compulsory. But I do feel that the Algorave/live coding approach of starting with a blank screen, and embracing error is really exciting and necessary - without this forum for experimental risky performances I wouldn’t be able to do what I do.

Profile: djmelan3

Mel Laubscher, a.k.a. djmelan3
Mel Laubscher, a.k.a. djmelan3
Cape Town, South Africa

I love the community around live coding and TidalCycles. What inspires me is how welcoming the community is and how simple it is to become involved. If you’re new to TidalCycles there’s a large community keen to help. In terms of TidalCycles itself I really enjoy the interactive aspect of the language, something that traditional DAWs lack. Live coding allows me to express myself musically much faster than a DAW can offer. I also find it easier to make creative decisions with Tidal whereas using a DAW often leads to overthinking and never actually finishing any projects.

Profile: froos

Felix Roos, a.k.a. froos
Felix Roos, a.k.a. froos
France / Germany

There are many things that inspire me.. I generally like the minimalistic, text-based approach to music making, where everything is visible at all times on one screen. When I started making music with an MPC1000, menu-diving was a key part of the process. A similar thing can be said about DAWs like Ableton (and Push), where there are many different UI layers and hidden items. Combining Tidal’s simplistic interface with a terse and nestable syntax, it becomes a powerful tool full of rabbit holes to explore. Also, I like the fact that it is open source and thus hackable + the community around it is really refreshing.