Baths How-to on BETA TV

"Even if you hate the music that you have to start playing in order to learn an instrument, that muscle memory, the technique you have in your fingers and in your movements will stay with you regardless of how far from that you want to go."
-Will Weisenfeld a.k.a. Baths
Electronic artist BATHS, also known as Will Weisenfeld, stops by the studio to show BETA how he puts together his compositions, breaking things down layer by layer and demonstrating how he performs live on an Akai MPD32 Software Control Surface. His wild hands put it all together live for a heartfelt performance of the beautiful and yearning Plea.
The acoustic song segment is taken from Season 4 of the BETA Records Music TV Series, directed by Ben Barnes produced by Chris Honetschlaeger
BETA TV - is a nationally syndicated (146 U.S. cities) weekly music centric TV series filmed and produced in the heart of Hollywood, showcasing at least 3 acoustic artist videos from newly signed and Indie bands in episode format. BETA emphasizes educational and pop culture segments and in-house produced music videos using the best vintage analog recording gear (Telefunken, Neve, Studer, RCA, Trident, etc) combined with the modern sounds of its instrument sponsors such as Taylor Acoustic Guitar, Neumann and Sennheiser Microphones, Ford Drums, Sabian Cymbals, Gibraltar Hardware, etc. Filming at the BETA Studios occurs Tue-Thur of every week.

[@bianchimatt6746]

Man, cerulean is like... one of the best albums ever made. Love this dude

[@Hangshai]

My man-love for this guy knows no bounds. He is truly a great artist.

[@DemascoNY]

Wow, his experience with music (starting on classical piano, hating it, then coming back and experimenting) is almost exactly how I got into electronic music + production too. He's incredibly talented.

[@Ben-ft2lq]

This is one of the best demonstrations of these types of machines I've ever seen. He's so talented.

[@cappaofficial]

I always find myself coming back here . . the greatest discover every :)

[@viziter6208]

Bath's process and live set up has always been so intriguing and hard for me to fathom. This video is a godsend. Thank you

[@TheSyntheticPop]

Great guy, thank you for sharing your brain. Humble musician as well.

[@LSMG2004]

Finally, a DJ not afraid of slowing down to prove that their effects aren't prerecorded

[@pianoatthirty]

I remember watching this 11 years ago, still just as inspiring today as it was then.

[@cchampa17]

Agreed

[@timothyhoekstra2604]

And still killing it. I love Geotic. Truly transported when I listen

[@IneeAder]

Kodama. I love that song, the prose is amazing. Thank you, Will for such soul-fondling music :)

[@dewdropsmusic]

Impressed! He's very talented and also seems like a really nice guy as well

[@LightWillIgniteUsAll]

I love this guy, man. Such an inspiration.

[@lkicmusic4437]

Hall is such a beautiful song

[@Claan22]

The way he uses the MPD is really amazing. Makes me want to grab one.

[@ChewingGhost]

Just got my mpd32 this is really inspiring,

[@SidneyTurnerMedia]

I heard this song on a youtube vid and really liked it. I then searched for it and downloaded it for free (illegally) I then saw this and purchased the song right away. Awesome guy. Support him and buy his music.

[@Kubiak04]

breakthrough artist of the year!

[@drngaawai]

Ableton live - Beat repeat. Its just a built in effect. Met him the other night. Nice dude.

[@Cleverconveyence]

This is reaLLy awesome.

[@aerodynamics4u]

so helpful and inspirational!

[@chrisg3023]

The first song is "Hall." The second is "Plea". Both are on his album "Cerulean".

[@GREENngrayZP]

genius !!!! soooo smart ugh i love him

[@MrJixies]

you really master your gear :-) Also great song!!!

[@Lukefolger325]

That's a good point @slowpoke . Let me be more specific since I have no intention of hating. With electronic DAWs, I'm seeking a deliberate INSTUMENTAL-izing of the controller. The drum beat is playing or the melodic loop is playing, but the buttons he pushes are not so much like a key strike or string pluck - the button pushing changes the parameters of an effect or adds/subtracts. I'm just excited to see people take this idea further, of bringing poetry to playing, beyond just controlling. :)

[@thosearepinklemons]

I love BATHS. I'm glad he's on anticon, or I might have never heard his stuff.

[@oosurf08oo]

dude that is sick

[@Goodmonson1]

It's all about preference. If you're using Ableton, look into the APC 40 too. The MPD 32 (what Baths is using here) comes with HORRIBLE stock buttons, so you'll need to have them replace fyi. In general though, MPD, MPC, and the APC are all great options, figure out how you want to perform your music, how active you want to be with the buttons and knobs, etc. and go from there :)

[@marsvolt]

This is badass

[@Rainbownes]

pure genius

[@DaveyReynolds]

Wow, this guy is great

[@Seodotcom]

Very talented guy

[@integillent]

@McWort its a beat repeat with a pitch decay. the drums are repeated and then being pitched down temporarily until he turns the pitch decay back to 0%

[@bluenotecat]

Great stuff man. I was really hooked by those beats and your voice. Great job. I am going to start listening to more of your music. Thanks for the inspiration!

[@Hopevalodike]

Sweet.

[@BoxcarBomber]

big ups for the princess mononoke sticker... that movie was my shit when i was a little kid

[@NaNdgate]

This pretty much sold me on the MPD32. I fucking love baths.

[@cappaofficial]

I hate that i cant get my abelton software setup right with my mpd32 .. i just use my mpc but i love this dude work

[@amozoness6]

genius genius genius genius genius genius genius

[@Kazuya240]

**He perform yesterday at the Hi tone in Memphis, i was there BABY**

[@vjdjwaffelz]

@tevinbeatty and like refraction studios said. it's the program not the controler but is the person controlling the controller more so....

[@Dunsgroveau]

@tevinbeatty the mpd24 is pretty damn similar to the 32 with only a few feature differences, you could do it quite easily.

[@kazunanakama]

@wilcop Yeah that's like the first thing I spotted and I was like HELL YEAH!

[@aajr95]

wow he is good

[@LerLoons]

cool .

[@vjdjwaffelz]

@tevinbeatty pretty sure he's using one of those models of midi controller. the apc 40 has alot more functionality u can utilize but it's all in user set up and capability. ;)

[@KaboosetheDank]

How to I make heavy drums like you...where do I start writing my music? I'm struggling as an artist and your music inspires me

[@CalisCool]

Beat repeat, id bet my life on it.

[@MrAbkio]

ur awesome

[@unishot619]

if im not wrong, the last song he's playing called "you're my excuse to travel".

[@bridog6996]

From seeing him live, it appears that he just does this from the computer using the mouse or whatever. If you look at the screen shot at around 1:45, you can see that each song is only one scene, so there's not a lot of launching that needs to happen.

[@matthewbaigent]

i want whatever that thing he has, so i can twidle shit tooo ITS SO FUCKING COOL

[@NathanGCreighton]

He uses Ableton live so It could be a number of things but it's probably beat repeat

[@MHLou]

Maybe a tight delay or he assigned pitch control to the snare...I dont know if APC's have a beat repeat button like MPC's, but that could be it also. What part specifically are you referring to?

[@rolosum5]

i gotta get albton now ^_^

[@grunntalll]

@darkslair3 if you keep at it, your future will be better.

[@DonSolo328]

You're right!! I was trying to see how Nosaj Thing does his live sets and couldn't find any tutorial, but happened to run across this video and Baths kinda broke it down here. But Im still kinda confused on one thing. He deconstructs his song into stems and then loads it into Ableton, but what if you wanted to play a set with like 15 different tracks. Can they all be loaded into one Ableton Live set? Thats the confusing part for me.

[@joepesky1987]

Is there a midi mapped template for this along with the audio effects racks your using for the MPD 32, I would love to do something like this live

[@kirkleblanc5899]

I think he just uses Ableton lives beat repeat, under the audio effects features. I haven't used Ableton Live much, but I know I've found it before when dabblin.

[@tevinbeatty]

i just wanna know if i could do this with the akai mpd24 or the akai apc40. someone please help me out

[@PacmanNathan1]

Sorry to be such a newb but if I may ask. At 1:45, what software is he using? Ive been recording in logic but im looking to get a live set up. His set up works so smoothly

[@TheFreakingpanda]

i met hiim yesterday

[@systemofadon]

He's using vsts. when he says beat repeat, he is talking about the vst he is using.

[@Xsoholicmuzic]

i like baths

[@alexjnewbury]

@Lukefolger325 in all fairness, I'm positive Will would be able to reproduce each of those loops/samples live with real instruments and then route them one by one into a daw and THEN start singing. but if he did that, he would be lambasted for "getting too repetitive" or "taking too long to get each track going." as an electronic musician, i'll always defend these performances as live sets, rather than DJ sets. the effects should be considered instrumentation just as much as the samples.

[@FrederikMeyer]

1:29 HOW? How do you make this effect in Ableton using your Midi-controller!?

[@DonSolo328]

Nosaj is the man. But about that, I saw a video just like this one where he says he deconstructs his tracks into stems. Essentially he's just triggering stems and fading them in and out. But that's just for one track. what if you want to do a DJ set and do the same thing for a bunch of tracks for a complete set?? Hope that makes sense.

[@1stBONER]

could i get the button layout or w/e for this?

[@1stBONER]

can u do that with mpd24?

[@puerregimen4814]

Plea from Cerulean

[@pixithemis]

Inspired by artists like Baths and Gold Panda I'm obsessed with an urge to start producing electronic music. Is an MPD or an MPC a better option for a beginner?

[@kkeevviin]

if you're a beginner, I would recommend a DAW, like Ableton. Controllers are for performing

[@Ben-ft2lq]

@@kkeevviin a very wise comment. But 9 years too late haha

[@EMEReynolds]

I'm kind of lost on this. He uses the pads for fx? How does he launch clips on ableton then?

[@mywinterapocalypse]

What's the effect at 3:41? Thanks in advance

[@himsa61]

Anybody know what song he is playing?

[@NinjaAssasin12]

What's the second song he was playing?

[@Corollamusic]

After playing around with Ableton's beat repeat I got the kick to speed up like he does, but does anyone know how to get the kick to slow down like he does like at 1.29 and 3.35 , is that also in beat repeat and if so, how?

[@wianbrilson]

Pitch/Pitch Decay.

[@FrederikMeyer]

Again at 3:31 he does it? Tutorial please!?

[@bigdummy603]

Kodama sticker

[@DeeJayMikeyG]

beat repeat on Ableton live

[@f8f8f8]

I'm guessing just the built in Ableton beat repeat

[@CalisCool]

I kno right....

[@mynmyself]

id love all this mpd players switched to mpc... just an small graphical difference... but the workflow is neater in my opinion...

[@integillent]

@1stBONER you have to make setups like these yourself actually. its all manual midi mappings. in order to have this work automatically without setup you would need baths .als file which i doubt he is going to give you. not to mention, if he did it would all be setup with the tracks in his song, not yours.

[@1stBONER]

@integillent ha well thnx for the reply (: now i sha'll Le google/jerbturb how to map my mpd24 in ableton.

[@chaotickreg7024]

I discovered this guy on Grooveshark. Feels like ages ago.

[@SamForderer]

I wonder if he routes his vocals through ableton when he's playing live

[@andreaandrea808]

He does I've heard. He does that, then layers it with his life vocals

[@Mitch-Cumstein]

+Sam Forderer He does. He use to have background vocals and sang over them but now he sings with no background vocals.

[@paulsayed]

beatmasher

[@darkslair3]

i wanna b just like this guy he stole my future

[@MrTROYisLegend]

Dude! He has a little Tree spirit on his laptop! Thats dope as fuck, Princess Mononoke right?

[@sheatheman]

beat repeat

[@boxboxelder]

will is 3 years older than me. what have i been doing with my life?

[@Lukefolger325]

gorgeous music. So beautiful to hear. However, none of the instrumentation happens in the moment, (minus bends, tweaks, and layer mixing). He only sings live over other thick layers of his own voice, pre recorded, as opposed to singing into a sweet, integrated reverb or something. This is some of the most tasteful, rich electronic music out there, but I will only be truly impressed in terms of PERFORMANCE when someone comes along who collages this stuff in the moment. This is just DJ-ing.

[@RaygunShaun]

@devotchka158697 Ableton Live's Beat Repeat.

[@jmb102093]

a little too indie kid for my taste but he really knows his instrument thats for sure

[@wilcop]

princess mononoke sticker

[@Tapepusher]

Ableton's Beat Repeat, most likely.

[@SicknesssDwellls]

s i d e b u r n s

[@youcantbreakit]

Sounds like a beatmasher.

[@ogretime]

ableton live

[@stpixie70]

D