setting up ur own songs for live playing live/using apc40

[BlackLotusLuke]

for a while ive been wanting to kind of break down my tracks a little more in our sets so we can switch stuff up and have more options of what to mix into other songs, like the drums of another song or the main sample or some shit. i wouldnt say the entire stems. maybe thats best option. i dunno. but the problem i have is we have alot of songs with master compression madlib and dilla style stuff and its not easy to then break those songs into stems, cos it changes the sound of the entire song. another problem is intergrating the certain keys/guitars (played live into the soundcard)/samples and drums (pads) into the set because some of the samples/guitar pieces etc are sidechained ducking to certain things in the original songs. i was wondering how some of you guys go about this using launchpads, apc40's (what i use) in your set. whether you use sends and stuff for compression, or create groups. how you go about launching your certain clips, exactly and how you mix. whether you work downwards with the apc40 or sideways, as you progress into your set. anybodys input about their own experiences would be appreciated. peace!

[BlackLotusLuke]

nobody? i would of thought this is a fairly relevant topic

[Schmidi]

Well, there are too many ways to go about translating tracks into a set playable from APC/LP. Here are a couple of tools/tutorials that have helped me out.

http://tarekith.com/ableton-live-apc40-live-pa-set-up/ Tarekith has a TON of great reads on his site. He does mostly downtempo (more trip hop, less Dilla), but this one is all about taking your songs from ideas to APC ready sets.

I'd recommend reading the above write up, and then experimenting with setting up racks that focus on each track's material/freq spectrum. Maybe FX in a rack that could mimic hip hop DJ techniques? IE: an Autopan with amount: 100%, Phase 0%, shape 100% (square wave), and speed sync'd to 1/16 to mimic a DJ cutting the crossfader like a stutter, and map the wet/dry to a macro knob.

I can see your frustration if you have live instruments being played outside of your computer though. It's gonna be tough to side chain/duck/squash that incoming signal with some latency killing your players.

What I do (I make more techno, but love JD's trax) is flesh out a simple 8-32 bar loop in arrangement with drums, bass, and leads. Once I've got that loop grooving, I build from that and make 4 more variations that can be sent to the session side as scenes 1-5!

I set these arrangement tracks up so I can master as I compose. You probably use more samples to build with than I do but this might help?

Looks like:
track 1: drum plug in
track 2 drum plug in 2
Track 3: drums ALL DRUM TRAX ARE GROUPED TO SHARE COMPRESSOR THUMP/SQUASH

track 4: bass HAS A COMPRESSOR SIDE CHAINED FROM THE DRUM GROUP
track 5: leads
track 6 melodix (keys, pads, chords)
track 7 etc
etc
etc
DON'T FORGET EQing TRAX AS YOU BOUNCE TO AUDIO CLIPS

Schmidi

[BlackLotusLuke]

thanks for the reply! will look at those articles and try those tips! i think my biggest problem is trying to break songs into stems, but then i run into the problem of not knowing how to keep the master madlib like compression on them that i used. especially if i want to play seperate parts of the stems to mix with other songs's stems. if that makes sense. i just brushed over that article and i see a problem i might face. how will i mix my tracks (transition wise from one to the other) if they are based on being launched as scenes? would it be better to make them as groups?

[Tarekith]

Just remember you don't HAVE to make the live version sound just like your studio versions. I personally find it boring when an electronic group sounds the same live and on their albums. Doesn't mean you need to give up your side-chaining and compression sounds, but instead think about how you could maybe do that globally on the master out of your live set.

Maybe have a silent side-chain trigger track that runs the whole live set, and then slap a compressor on the master channel. Obviously there will be some difference in how different tracks sound with this, but it should still have the same effect on your overall sound if side-chaining is that much a part of it.

[BlackLotusLuke]

good point about not sounding exactly the same live. yes ive started to use dummy silent clips of a kick for side chain compression for my partner playing the guitar. just needa figure out what else we gotta start breking down!