Live electronics
Electroacoustic music whose sound production takes place in real time during performance.
What it means
Live electronics refers to electroacoustic music in which electronic sound generation, amplification or processing happens during the actual performance, rather than being fixed beforehand in the studio on tape or a storage medium. Performers and technical equipment interact directly.
This can mean that acoustic instruments are picked up by microphones and electronically transformed in real time, that synthesizers are played live, or that a computer responds to the performance during the concert and adds its own sonic material.
Musical use
Karlheinz Stockhausen's live electronics from the 1960s onward were groundbreaking, for instance in works where acoustic sounds are altered in real time through ring modulation or filtering. Since then the field has expanded considerably through computer technology, ranging from interactive sound installations to laptop performance in improvised electronic music.
Live electronics should be distinguished from purely tape-based electronic music, where the sounds are entirely pre-produced and simply played back during performance, and from the mere use of an amplifier, which does not by itself constitute sound processing.
Performance practice
If you work with live electronics yourself, practise handling the technology as thoroughly as your instrument, so that delays or operating mistakes do not disrupt the musical flow. Plan fixed cue points for electronic interventions, while staying flexible enough to respond to spontaneous musical decisions.