does anyone actually perform LIVE using Live?

[tsitrainbow]

i do
www.soundcloud.com/badspeler
www.myspace.com/badspeler
i'm on facebook too find me there

[AceLuby]

Just some examples of my band using Live, 'live'. We do live looping multi-genre electronica w/ a live drummer, all improv:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIMrmuSwKzQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBnXG87nRYQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8p69MKgjJw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lkNK1D-8D8

[supamonsta]

Bassnectar

really cool one

[tsitrainbow]

i'm not so sure that bassnectar is doing a TON live
i mean, last time he came to my hometown he played mia's paper planes for like 10 minutes...how live is that? haha.

[smellslikewetdog]

i perform live gigs, in front of what appears to be live audiences, using live all the time. i play drums and ableton keys all at once.

check it out:
http://www.superadventureclub.org

[Dombleton]

We use Live live to record guitar, bass loops and more, as a drum machine, and to host virtual instruments. Plus of course all the built in effects, compressors, eq's. We route some instruments straight into it and play them live.

Whenever a band comes to play at my local music venue and I see they aren't using Live I always think that they clearly haven't heard of it or tried it yet!

[Tunecrew]

thanks for all the links - checking them out!

[ionic]

sts9 plays HUGE shows with ableton... i know som many people that play ableton live, including with live instruments

[Isturite-]

Bassnectar

really cool one

Cool you heard of him out in France, he seems to get better response from the crowds in Eureope than the ones out here in California.... but ya out here he's getting to the point of mainstream hahaha... anytime somebody mentions dubstep they say "oh, like bassnectar"... he took some dubstep influence for his new cd but he is not dubstep, he's mostly breakbeat/glitch-hop... that's what happens when you live in his home area though i guess

[db91977]

I'm using a large Live Set for a duo gig - 450+ Scenes. I'm playing bass guitar & doing some vocals, and I have a 61-key MIDI keyboard, as well as a Behringer FCB-1010 Foot Controller, to trigger Scenes. I use the FCB-1010 primarily for hands-free control of changing and launching Scenes (with other footswitches MIDI-mapped to stop all Clips, stop the Transport, etc..) Oh, and I have one footswitch mapped to the "Tap Tempo" button, so that I can quickly get a tempo and then launch a drum beat, without touching the computer.

I have the drums for three gig sets of songs (we're doing covers in a lot of different styles) mapped out - about 35 songs. I have four tracks of drum sounds, each with a different drum or percussion sound. For most songs, I've programmed a separate Scene for each of the song parts - the Intro, Verse, Chorus, Outro, Fills, etc.. Also, on most songs, I've put the song's tempo in the first Scene of the song, i.e. "I Feel Good - Intro - 144 bpm" On some of them, I've gotten all the Scenes mapped out with Follow Actions (actually, the clips in the tracks), so that I just hit the Intro Scene, and the song plays all the way through, with the correct number of verses, choruses, etc.. typically, though, I just have the separate parts without Follow Actions, and I hit one footswitch to go up a scene, for example if I want to go back to another 'Verse' section. In many cases, I have a one- or two-bar fill with Follow Actions (Next) to a single-beat kick drum & cymbal crash for the endings. And I've programmed in many Scenes with special "stops" that are unique to a given song.

In addition to the drums programming, we're incorporating sound FX in our sets. I have separate Scenes containing Clips of various noises, i.e. thunder, gunshots, crowd noises/applause, tire squeals/car crashes, etc.. which will go along with certain theatrical bits we're working out. I have all these sound FX mapped to MIDI Channel 2 on the keyboard. I also use the keyboard's 8 fader controls to control the volumes of my Live tracks, and the keyboard knobs to control tempo and to select Scenes.

So it's not a traditional cover band, by any means- more like Vaudeville, or if Firesign Theater were a band.

So far, this has been lots of fun, and Ableton Live is definitely up to the task, in providing the flexibility I need. Although, I would welcome some additional capabilities, like the ability to quickly search the Scene titles and go to a Scene for quick launching (the other guy in the duo likes to skip around in the sets quite a bit!). It would be great to be able to type in the first three letters of a Scene name, and have Live go to that Scene, ready to launch. It would also be great for Live to have the ability to launch Scenes and then go back to the previously-launched Scene. As when I have a song's drums started, then I launch a sound effect, Live is left at the Scene of the sound FX, whereas I would like it to go back to the drum scene I just launched, to be ready for the next part of the song. In some cases, though, I can put the sound FX associated with a song in the same Scene, or the Scene immediately previous to the first drum beat, so that they're together.

My main challenge is when my partner calls a song, or just starts into one spontaneously, and it's up to me to quickly find a matching drum beat, get his tempo, and start the drums. To this end, I've put several generic beats of different styles, i.e. 4/4 rock, country "train" beat, shuffle rock, swing, etc. at the end of my Scene list, where I can quickly scroll to them and find an appropriate beat, tap the tempo in, and launch the Scene.

Eventually, I want to program other musical elements into some of the songs where appropriate, i.e. keyboard parts, steel drum, etc..

With playing bass guitar, singing, triggering drum beats, tapping in tempos, triggering sound FX, etc., I feel busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest, but it's a lot of fun, too.

--Doug

[norumba]

great threads and ideas everyone, thanks! im brand new to Live-- using Live Lite 8 that came with m-audio fast track pro, but will upgrade -- but so far, i think its everything that i need it to do.
been playing guitar and oud for 30 years in a free jazz/improv setting, and am hoping to develop a live solo performance around Live....using Live to set up beats, bass lines, and or pads/effects to lay the guitar or oud against in real time,
somehow controlling clips and scenes via a foot controller to morph the Live material in real time... im also hoping i can get some randomness generated from the material in Live, an almost improv quality to it. Havent decided whether to feed the guitar or oud signals back into Live or not.

Doug , thanks for the foot controller mention, i'll check that out... will it do what i want it to do? any other foot controllers out there to consider? general tips on this approach?

thanks!

msd

[db91977]

Doug , thanks for the foot controller mention, i'll check that out... will it do what i want it to do? any other foot controllers out there to consider? general tips on this approach?

thanks!

msd

I'm not sure what capabilities you need in a foot controller, but with the FCB-1010, but you can program 100 presets (10 footswitches in 10 banks), plus it has two expression pedals (MIDI CC controllers) which you can use for any Live function that has a programmable range - for volume, tempo control, Scene selection, etc.. There are a lot of capabilities in the FCB-1010 that I don't even use, but I have found it to be very useful in Live for hands-free Scene selection, launching, stopping Scenes & the Transport, tapping in tempos, etc.. just using one bank (10 presets).

I imagine that you could use a foot controller to select different tracks, and record clips (quantized so that they work as loops when played back).

I bought my FCB-1010 used for about $100 (US), and it has worked flawlessly for the 4 or 5 years I've had it. It's sturdily-constructed- I could drive my car over it and it would probably still work (imho).

There are two footswitches for up/down bank selection (which is the way I use it), or if you need quick access to all 100 presets, you can program the FCB-1010 so that you use two numbered footswitches to select presets 00-99.

Obviously, a foot controller doesn't allow you the speed and dexterity of a keyboard controller, but it's still great to be able to control certain aspects of Live hands-free.

Finally, there is plenty of information online about the FCB-1010 - in fact, I was subscribed to a Yahoo group dedicated to this foot controller, for a while. It's over here: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/fcb1010/
You can probably find the manual for the FCB-1010, and most other foot controllers, if you want to do a comparison of features.

--Doug

[lapieuvre]

Cirque du Soleil

[esteban2010]

Hello,
I see theres some extensive BEHRINGER FCB 1010 users here....

Plese, can somebody help me with a little information?

As I see, the BEHRINGER FCB 1010 can save 10 banks.

I need to set , for example, 10 loopers placed in 10 different channels.
I want to map 8 ¨controls¨ by each looper. (play, overdub, undo, clear, etc)

Is this possible with this pedal, only changing the bank, assigning one bank for looper/ channel?

Thanks for your help!!

Esteban

[mikemc]

Is this possible with this pedal, only changing the bank, assigning one bank for looper/ channel?

It should be possible to assign, yes, from what you describe. There is a caveat...

You can program the pedals to send different notes in each bank.

You can then use the MIDI function in Live to assign the various notes to control functions on each looper in each track.

Now, the caveat: being able to actually *use* ten loopers will depend on your machine resources. I recall that some people have reported issues using multiple instances of looper, so the first thing to do would be to set up ten loopers without midi control abd see how that goes for you.