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Taking your show on the road.
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View this Thread in Original format
| Sonic_c |
Following on from last thread about control surfaces etc. 3 of my mates are into EDM production too. How can we take our on the road without physically being able to play trance melodies in perfect time on the keyboard and have like a million arms to control drops etc.
Ableton live my friend said but how does it wor he says you can play a riff into it and it will quantise and bring it in onbeat etc.
Would we need 4 laptops - bit of a crap act 4 lads sitting at laptops clicking things. Is there a way we could get out our midi gear and laptops and play out like as a live act. Same songs but like Live!
Help:nervous: :eyespop: :wtf: |
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| Vortex_SA |
| yep a laptop and some midi controller if you want something simple... i don't see the question, what is it? what to help with? |
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| Sonic_c |
Simplified question
How do artists do a live show when they clearly are not playing drums / bass / synth / melody / fx all at once?
Some trance melodies would be difficult near impossible to play live to anyone less than a concert pianist. Do programs like ableton live help with this if so how? |
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| Vortex_SA |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sonic_c
Simplified question
How do artists do a live show when they clearly are not playing drums / bass / synth / melody / fx all at once?
Some trance melodies would be difficult near impossible to play live to anyone less than a concert pianist. Do programs like ableton live help with this if so how? |
infected mushroom used to do (i don't follow them anymore) a really big track on cubase (not actual vsts and everything more like audio clips) then it would be the basis for the live act, on top of that they played with some filters and stuff, thats quite about sums up most of the live acts today... i havent seen anybody actually play their whole track by hand...
so as i said, a strong laptop with a good portable soundcard, a midi controller and a long preperation at home is the simple pack... some get more complex with a mixing deck and actual synths and samplers playing... |
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| Sonic_c |
| Ok so its more like live effects and the whole looking busy while pre made samples play out. THe act are busy twisling nobs or on vocals or whatever but most is already done right? |
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| Vortex_SA |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sonic_c
Ok so its more like live effects and the whole looking busy while pre made samples play out. THe act are busy twisling nobs or on vocals or whatever but most is already done right? |
im afraid so. |
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| kitphillips |
I noticed underworld used to use a massive mixing desk live, I've tried to use smaller 8 fader mixers, but it doesn't work because you'll often be running 20-30 channels and trying to get immediate hands on control with that.
Looking at other acts, you have daft punk, who basically have a bunch of really expensive synths with flashing lights, and play a completely pre rehearsed (if not pre recorded) set, behind robot masks.
Noticing a common theme? They're all huge acts with almost unlimited budgets and ROADIES. They have the time and the money to spend on getting a really good setup that works for them. Even though they have all this money, I think you'd find that they still play a relatively prerehearsed set, where the songs sound very similar each time they play them. So whats the difference between this and just spinning a bunch of their own tracks? Thats a good question, since at least if they span their tracks in a traditional DJ set format, they would have an unlimited selection of tracks, and not just what they can play/ have rehearsed.
Also, just think about the loading times on your samplers etc. Its a complete show stopper to get those machines going. And what happens when something goes wrong, like ableton Live needs to be restarted? That can take 5-10 minutes on my machine when its running at full pelt, so how do you keep your audience entertained? How's your computer going to hold up to having more than one session running at a time?
This is the problem with live electronic performance. No one has come out with a format where you have adequate control of the set list and performance of the songs. You, one person cannot control 30 channels of instruments at a time. Its just not possible.
If none of you play a "real" instrument, its not gonna work out too well for you I suspect, since you simply won't have the ability to manipulate the song in real time well enough. For stuff that might help you bring in a live element, have a look at the monome, a good controller (novation remote might work), and a hellishly powerful laptop, but just think about what your doing, chances are your going to spend a lot of money on redundant gear, trying to get a setup that your comfortable with.
To answer your question about how to play those riffs, its called an arpegiator. |
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| Sonic_c |
| quote: | Originally posted by kitphillips
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To answer your question about how to play those riffs, its called an arpegiator. |
I know this lol any monkey can play some chords and click arrpegiate up - No offence monkeys its just your so simple little creatures
anyway I seen dark by design live. A hard trance producer he had a laptop and a rack and really just stood there. COme to think of it the thing crashed and he shouted at the tech guy. 5000 pilled up ravers wondering wtf is he doing lol. I dont want that to be me |
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| airwalker1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sonic_c
Following on from last thread about control surfaces etc. 3 of my mates are into EDM production too. How can we take our on the road without physically being able to play trance melodies in perfect time on the keyboard and have like a million arms to control drops etc.
Ableton live my friend said but how does it wor he says you can play a riff into it and it will quantise and bring it in onbeat etc.
Would we need 4 laptops - bit of a crap act 4 lads sitting at laptops clicking things. Is there a way we could get out our midi gear and laptops and play out like as a live act. Same songs but like Live!
Help:nervous: :eyespop: :wtf: |
r u just keebord`s your wanting to use? |
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| airwalker1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by kitphillips
I noticed underworld used to use a massive mixing desk live, I've tried to use smaller 8 fader mixers, but it doesn't work because you'll often be running 20-30 channels and trying to get immediate hands on control with that.
Looking at other acts, you have daft punk, who basically have a bunch of really expensive synths with flashing lights, and play a completely pre rehearsed (if not pre recorded) set, behind robot masks.
Noticing a common theme? They're all huge acts with almost unlimited budgets and ROADIES. They have the time and the money to spend on getting a really good setup that works for them. Even though they have all this money, I think you'd find that they still play a relatively prerehearsed set, where the songs sound very similar each time they play them. So whats the difference between this and just spinning a bunch of their own tracks? Thats a good question, since at least if they span their tracks in a traditional DJ set format, they would have an unlimited selection of tracks, and not just what they can play/ have rehearsed.
Also, just think about the loading times on your samplers etc. Its a complete show stopper to get those machines going. And what happens when something goes wrong, like ableton Live needs to be restarted? That can take 5-10 minutes on my machine when its running at full pelt, so how do you keep your audience entertained? How's your computer going to hold up to having more than one session running at a time?
This is the problem with live electronic performance. No one has come out with a format where you have adequate control of the set list and performance of the songs. You, one person cannot control 30 channels of instruments at a time. Its just not possible.
If none of you play a "real" instrument, its not gonna work out too well for you I suspect, since you simply won't have the ability to manipulate the song in real time well enough. For stuff that might help you bring in a live element, have a look at the monome, a good controller (novation remote might work), and a hellishly powerful laptop, but just think about what your doing, chances are your going to spend a lot of money on redundant gear, trying to get a setup that your comfortable with.
To answer your question about how to play those riffs, its called an arpegiator. |
look at the grates like jean mechial jare{oxgen part one} all this guy does is make all the synth sound`s computed on his keybord and play live from scrach. |
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| Sonic_c |
| quote: | Originally posted by airwalker1
r u just keebord`s your wanting to use? |
Thats all we have right now and a korg synth do you use just one laptop or loads? |
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| airwalker1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sonic_c
Thats all we have right now and a korg synth do you use just one laptop or loads? |
the reason i asked matey is because it seems the best way of{well,not ing up on the big night} just pratise getting a little groove on the go and take it from there.pure spontainious playind that`swhat people love. |
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