Live electronic music can be a challenge to pull off. How can an artist bring the energy and spontaneity of a live set to music that is often inherently synthesised and sequenced? How can you provide a satisfying visual experience built around music often made on – and played from – a laptop screen?
With his innovative AV shows, UK-based musician Max Cooper has set out a brilliant example of how to navigate these challenges. Although, at its heart, his setup is based around a simple setup of laptops and MIDI controllers, a combination of reactive visuals – split across multiple screens, creating a 3D effect – and carefully calibrated audio effects, create an experience both more immersive and more unpredictable than many electronic live shows.
"The live performance system I use is more like a DJ/VJ tool,” Cooper explained to us, when we visited his studio earlier this year. “I'm putting all the audio clips into scenes [in Ableton Live], and I'm putting all the videos in, and then I'm splitting the videos across multiple surfaces. I use lots of projectors. I could have [one screen] in the middle, and then maybe the walls wrapping around the audience.”
Cooper’s setup combines simple MIDI controllers routed to control Ableton Live, which then feeds OSC triggers to VJ software Resolume, via a suite of Max for Live routing devices.
"I'm sending MIDI triggers into Ableton to trigger scenes and effects. And then I'm sending OSC triggers from Ableton to Resolume,” he tells us. “I can use two machines running Resolume at the same time if I need more than eight outputs. I can send 16 different visuals to video surfaces if I want. Then it's about how to join them all together and how to use the video content to suit the space.”
The ability to adapt the show to different venues is an important aspect of the setup, Cooper explains.
“Every show is designed for the space, so every show is different. The way I approach things is like a DJ – I'll have every project I've ever done, so maybe 100 to 200 projects, and 100 or so different visual projects all accessible at any point in time.
"I can choose at any point in time to play any visual project, any audio, to mangle things up. I can even DJ. I'll have CDJs as a sort of backup, in case the laptops explode or whatever. But sometimes I'll think, why not play, for example, the Prodigy at the end of a set and just play some video that I've never tried alongside it.
"Because I used to DJ before I did all this stuff, I want that freedom to be able to interact with the audience and not have a pre-defined setlist. I like to just have fun with it. That's why I've set my system up like that.”
Although the live-show is laptop-focused, Cooper’s studio workflow is built around hardware synths and hands-on effects. Despite preferring a hands-on approach in the studio, Cooper admits that he finds hardware limiting in a live situation.
"I have done shows in the past where I've taken my synths and pedals and done it that way; tried to do the traditional 'live' thing. But it means I haven't got the headspace to do the visuals. Also it means that I get more locked into a pre-defined set. I can't just change it on the fly when I'm doing the show.
“I've gone back to this really simplified Ableton setup that allows me to play anything at any time, have fun with it. I've got a little live drum machine and a granular synth I can jam with, but that leaves me enough headspace to be able to mess around with the visuals.”
In our video interview, which you can watch in full above, Cooper explains how the routing and configuration of his setup lets him experiment with visuals on the fly.
Max Cooper’s new album, On Being, arrives 28th February 2025. For live dates and more info visit Max’s official site.
