This Video is the last in the “Dj’ing from behind the drums” Progtronica series as I move on to 2 exciting new projects that build of the foundation built here on these videos. Here I’ve introduced a new key piece of the arsenal the Roland SPD-30 octopad to play the live drumming. With this small pad and [...]

The beginning of 2011 has been filled with brand new musical, business and creative opportunities. Most new projects are of the secretive nature but details will be revealed soon. In the meantime, the Progtronica videos have now reached a land mark of over 100,000 views on the NoServiceRequired YouTube Channel. Since developing the “DJ’ing from behind [...]

I’ve never liked the modern emergence of “sub-genres”, the incessant need these days to boil down each kind of music into dozens of sub-categories. I have found that, although it provides a decent description of the sound of the music, rarely can music be so pigeonholed as to be put into a place that is [...]

After doing the last track/video “Taste of Blue” introducing my new technique of launching clips and scenes in Ableton live using the Novation Launchpad while playing the drum part live, it opened my mind of the many different types of sounds and styles I could tackle using the same basic setup. I had the idea [...]

Challenges and how we respond to them is large part of what makes us who we are. Of course everyone knows the cliché of “with crisis comes opportunity” but just what that opportunity is and how to execute it to its fullest potential is not always as clear cut. From an internal perspective the recent [...]

The time has finally come. The long awaited Progronica debut Ep has been officially released. In the coming weeks it will be available for all to purchase on iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster, and a host of other sites. In the meantime, I’m offering to preview and download for free the entire album. Check it out, [...]

I’m working and reworking the last track for my debut album before sending it off the be mastered. In the process I got locked into this techno club vibe and went with it for this weeks video blog post. All the synthesizer sounds come from various iPhone apps and all drum parts were recorded live, [...]

I’ve been working on putting my newest tracks into my “Master Set” in Ableton Live so that they are performance ready. After an extremely long week (and long Saturday night to blow off some steam) I woke up ridiculously early and threw down this mix. It’s a bit raw but shows the new direction I’ve [...]

The brand new nigelsifantus.com has now launched and my creative fire is burning and ready to blaze. For the past 9 months I’ve been working in solitude, producing solo live music videos in to comfort and isolation of my own studio and have been amazed at the reception I have received from all corners of [...]

During my days in NYC from when I arrived in1998 until around 2005, I used to constantly travel with my mini disc player and audio-technica stereo microphone to capture every bit of my musical life. I recorded everything from amazing class rehearsals at the New School University with some of the most amazing and diverse [...]

Progtronica Ableton Live/Novation Launchpad weekly dj set. 2-11-20 by Progtronica This week’s performance is the longest to date and has the most aggressive time signature changes. Here is the YouTube edit of the performance. To see the full thing visit this Vimeo link. Also I have provided the full audio to listen to here and [...]

Progtronica Ableton Live Weekly DJ set Week 3, 2/11/10 by Progtronica Performed on February 11th 2010, this is the 3rd installment of My “Progtronica Weekly Dj Performance Series”. All music created using Ableton live, mixed, re-sampled, edited, and mixed live using Novation’s Launchpad dedicated Ableton controller. This mix features the songs “The Beat Repeater” “Dreaming [...]

Progtronica weekly Ableton DJ set part 2 – 2/4/10 by Progtronica Here it is! Part 2 of the weekly Progtronica DJ series. This one is a little bit longer then the first one and incorporates a few new tunes. Featured in This week’s performance I  mixed the tunes “Drum n bass for a Rainy day”, [...]

For the past 6 months or so I have been creating “Progtronica” tracks as solo performances using Ableton Live software and a few different controllers most notably the Novation Launchpad which has completely changed my musical approach. I have been creating music usually centering around samples of my own drumming mixed with found sounds musically [...]

Over the winter break I spent time experimenting with mapping different effects on the Novation Launchpad using Ableton Live and stumbled upon this great technique to alter audio (mostly drum) loops live using this effect in real time using only the launchpad. It inspired me to create the video “The Beat Repeater” which featured this [...]

There are lots of exciting happenings in the world of Progtronica at the close of the decade, one that will be looked back on as the worst in recorded music history (but more on that later). I have been hard at work preparing material for the release of my first solo ep “Progtronica – Live [...]

This is a Novation Launchpad remix in 20/8 time of my song “Lets Face The Music” (a tribute to Phillip Glass, The Cinematic Orchestra, and the MPC 2000) all of which were deep inspirations for this piece. I approached this one a little differently then my recent “remixes” incorporating some live drums (using Roland V-Drums) [...]

I have been working with Ableton Live as my main digital music platform for a few years, using several different controllers to trigger sounds, samples, drum breaks and affect different parameters in real time while mixing music. With this unit though, I’m bringing it to a whole different level. Here are two live home performances: [...]