Live Implementation

[legskeattch]

What is the best way to implement a live drummer, a live singer and someone playing audio live...

To get pads to play the track live?

Using Ableton to play a midi keyboard live, and pads to play FX?

I watch someone like magnetic man or chase and status and just wonder what they are doing behind each of their screens

[legskeattch]

Pretty please?

[alphacat]

Well...

I don't have direct experience, only 20 years of chin-stroking under my belt. Caveat emptor...

That said, one of the first decisions you're going to have to make is; to click or not to click - i.e. using a clicktrack as universal reference point for all necessary players involved. Although some people object to the clicktrack, it actually can afford you a little more flexibility in terms of playing off of a pre-arranged song in something like Ableton while still allowing a little room for improvisation and so forth.

So in your combo of 3 people - drummer/singer/everythingelseguy - the real coordination is probably needing to happen between the drummer and everythingelseguy and your singer probably wouldn't need a clicktrack. And that means that yes, you can either pre-load complete serquences and just trigger them (BORING to watch imo) or you can break down those sequences into smaller, more "playable" parts which mean you gain flexibility but need to be more actively involved and present in the flow, which is a good thing for the visual experience of the audience anyway.

In conclusion, I would: A) get you and the drummer sync'd somehow; B) break down all of your parts to the smallest degree that you can still comfortably play/trigger them without freaking out and needing extra hands; C) remember that nobody enjoys watching someone else type/use a touchpad, so whether you play keyboard parts on a keyboard controller, do some MPC style rockin', or just be busy dancing and tweaking controls - the more in-the-moment you are, the more your audience will appreciate it.

</2¢>

[Sure_Fire]

Well I 'play dubstep' in an Enter Shikari-esque post dubcore band, so I've found some neat ways to work things live. I'm actually running two laptops on stage atm (it's so annoying), one running FL, where I use a midi keyboard and use the arrow keys on my laptop to switch between synths. all parameters I wanna tweak are linked to either knobs on my keyboard or knobs and sliders on my korg nano kontrol.

The second laptop is running Ableton with a launchpad and apc20, for launching samples. I'll be getting rid of this laptop once FL11 with performance mode and launchpad compatibility comes out (it does look cool with 2 laptops on stands on sage though). Both laptops are routed through a small mixer I have on the table with me (with headphones in all the time), then out to the main mixer.

The drummer doesn't use a click track, I have to time everything perfectly. It's just synth changes that are a issue, that and the fact that I suck at piano...

[legskeattch]

Thank you both for those responses... we were discussing click tracks last night before I saw your posts and I really feel this is the way we have to go...

It terms of being the everythingelseguy, I would like to play keys and stuff, but if I have say 3 instances of a synth playing a bassline (sub, mid, high) how can I play that on one midi device?

[alphacat]

To play all three from the same MIDI device you can either link them all together, provided they're not supposed to be playing different melodies (so your sub, mid, and high are all on the same MIDI channel basically) OR, if they have different melodies you pick one or two to play on the keyboard (you'll have to split-map it if you do two) and the remaining sound are just triggered off a single note/pad. Having a separate pad-triggered sampler apart from your keyboard - even a little KAOS pad or SP303 or something like that - can give you a lot of flexibility, especially if you can switch back and forth between using it as an instrument/sound source and FX processor/FX bus. In the former mode it's sending sounds, in the latter you're sending sounds to it to mash how ya want.

[Sure_Fire]

I sometimes use the layer function in FL, other wise since I have a midi keyboard connected to both Laptops I use them independantly to play different sounds at once. As for playing 3 things at once, well I don't have 3 hands....also my launchpad can be used as an instrument which I do sometimes as well which is pretty handy.