Performing live anyone ?

[AxeD]

Just play the music, Ableton 'live' acts are poop Unless you're actually doing stuff live, but 90% of them are not.

(I just made this exact comment in the production forum)

I'm talking about something altogether different from Dj sets. I do that easily enough, just mixing songs and chopping them up a bit.
What I do live as a performance is a different animal altogether.
I'm talking about actually performing my music; playing it live on stage before an audience/dancefloor.
I use the loops I've created for my recordings as well as guitar and vocals (myself as well as a host of MCs) and recreate my songs in real time.
What is currently the strongest, most dynamic and intuitive tool for interfacing with Abelton Live on the fly?

Yea playing it live is a different case, I agree.

[hudson]

I just made a post about this in the "take a picture of your setup" thread, here's how I have everything set up for my live shows, how I perform should be fairly obvious, but let me know if you've got any questions. Hope this helps!

Here's all my shit set-up for a live show, was just just practicing in my room when I took this but it didn't look any different in the venue haha
Sorry it's all instagramy.

Hudson,
Had to listen to your stuff after seeing that. Your bandcamp is fantastic. Can you explain a bit about what's going on in your setup? Looks like you've got a 4-track and a DJ controller in there!!

Thanks man! I'm really glad you enjoy it.
For that show I had everything running through Ableton, which was set up with two audio input tracks, a midi track, and four more audio tracks just for clips. The main thing I use is the MDP32, who's pads are all mapped to launch clips, and the knobs and buttons are mapped to track volumes, sends, effects, etc. The MIDI keyboard is just used on one song so far, so I just have it going into that one MIDI track, same with the guitar, it just goes into the audio track with an amp modeling vst on it. That is indeed a Tascam Portastudio I picked it up at my buddie's jam space and he said I could have it for a while if I taught him how to use it. I have it running into the remaining audio track, and those three pedals above it are in it's effect loop. I have some samples on there that i recorded from the radio, and on the other side of the tape, there's an acoustic guitar track that I recorded when I first got it, but since the tape is in backwards, it plays backwards. I hit play fuck around with effects and the pitch knob and stuff, just as a cool little improvised into at the beginning of my set. I also have a Korg Monotron running through it. Oh, and I just use the Mixtrack for some extra knobs and buttons. My set-up is always changing though, so I have no idea if some of this stuff will stick around.

[Dub_Cult]

Honestly a lot of acts who look like they are playing EDM sets live aren't actually doing anything at all. I saw girl talk at a fest and they had like 2 guitarists and a bass player. None o them were playing anything. Was total bullshit. Nobody knew any better though. It was hilarious.

[Dub_Cult]

A friend brought his Launch Pad by my place and I played with I for a minute and I'm impressed. I'm definitely adding that to my live set up which includes a MacBook pro running Abelton 8, an Oxygen 8 controller and a guitar through a ton of pedals. Launch Pad seems to have the most diverse applications.

[Smiles]

Sorry for grave digging but, has anyone ever used a monome here? I've been looking into it and I am really thinking about getting one, but it's a lot of money. So if i go the cheaper route I am just going to get an mpd32 or apc40 and use ill gates' templates. Or the other fun thing I am considering is getting a midi fighter pro and a mixer and just dj. The midi fighter pro's mappings have the deckalized and instant gratification mappings in one.

[InternetSlaveMaster]

Here's a vid of my friend and I playing one of our tracks live (our first gig, we only practiced doing our stuff live the day before), he sings and I'm using my launchpad and the knobs on my mixtrack pro (minimal set up, I know) to play one of our tracks, I'm basically bringing in each loop when it's supposed to come in, etc.., I start off by bringing in the drum loop one hit at a time, then re-sequencing bits of the intro loop to give it a "live feel" or something.

Sorry for the crappy audio quality.



Sidenote: I write all our songs in FL and then export the stems to Ableton, cut them up, etc., blah, etc.

[Sonika]

Mount Kimbie have got it right as far as actually playing live rather than DJing goes:



I love mount kimbie

[nowaysj]

I'm trying to figure this out right now. What I think I'm coming up with is that I don't produce the song first. I set up a performance setup/environment, kind of like mt K right there, with various elements of audio, midi, fx, triggers, and then play it all live, so the song writing is performance itself, if you ghet mi. So when it comes time for performance, it is the same thing. This is opposed to writing your song, cutting it up, and triggering various parts live. Everyone has to draw their own line, but for me, that isn't very live, you know, like what is the point, just bring an ipod and let it mix, might as well.

I'm still working out the kinks. I don't really know Live that well, so any time I get an idea, it is like 30 minutes research ableton's capabilities. Multiply that times a thousand and it is slow going, but it is all good and fun.

Here are my midi controllers that I'm using now. The padKontrol on the left is for triggering bits of audio, the apc is kind of command central for triggering clips, pan, volume, and fx knobs. Then on the right is a little genius, Maschine, used as a controller. That little fucker is really competent. I'm still creating a default mapping for it, but generally I'm using buttons for mutes on fx chains, or just for channels, or specific sounds within racks, and I'm using pads for selecting fx chains from the chain selector and what not. I really don't have it all figured out, as it is kind of hard to write this way, specially if you are not doing dance music. It is kind of hard to structure a song, when you're constantly just jamming out. But it is like a learning curve kind of thing.



This way of making music is really fun, bottom line. You don't have the kind of absolute control of a millisecond by millisecond arrange page, with stacks of processing on each sound, but that isn't really the point. The point is to have fun and make something right there that is living.

[Sonika]

I think that's how mount kimbie does it too

how much did maschine run ya?

[AxeD]

Is the pocketknife for cutting through the leads during a gig?

[InternetSlaveMaster]

Is the pocketknife for cutting through the leads during a gig?

No it's for when people try and steal his bass patches

[nowaysj]

how much did maschine run ya?

Had it for a while, so can't recall. Got an okay deal on it. Not always trying to save as much money as possible you know? Sometimes you've got to leave a little for the sales dude. Build a relationship, you know?

==

The knife, that is for jokes. But seriously, it is one of the most useful tools in my studio, and I'm not shitting you. I use it almost daily to open something up, pry something open, cut something, get sight beyond sight.