Managing Set Lists for Live Performance

[3oland]

What's good, all.

Is there any simple way to manage Set Lists, so I can quickly switch between songs/projects during a live session?
Say I'd play a 15 song set (and that'll be just for the first live set. There might be further 15 songs in the second live set, etc.).

After searching the internet all day today, while getting the acquaintances with Ableton Live**, I've learned so far that these are the options:

1) Having all my songs in the same live set
2) Go search the internet again all day tomorrow in the search for a sophisticated third-party app that can manage this.
3) Go build your own app and get nerdy with it

I really hope there is a fourth and a way better solution than these three poor solutions?

**Background:
I've been using Logic Pro X for decades for music production and I have absolutely no hands-on experience with Ableton Live.
Logic Pro X works very decently, only I want to go with live music performing where I'll be singing to my own backtracks using a live performance-oriented DAW.
I've downloaded the Ableton Live trial version today and I've been making an Ableton Live Set where I dragged Logic Pro stems into the Set and set up the first song. Works beautifully.
Now, heading for the next song is the roadblock for me and it leaves me with the initial question in this thread.

If there are no alternatives to the three options mentioned above, I might trash the Ableton Live and go back to Logic Pro and go with the option 1) in an environment that I know like the back of my hand.
However, I am keeping my fingers crossed that anyone out there can lend me the philosopher's stone for a couple of minutes?

Many thanks...!

[chapelier fou]

I wrote a Max app that I’ve been rocking for years.
Few changes would be needed to fit everybody’s use but it’s not much work.
Feel free to ask.

[Da hand]

Hey 3oland, it is hard to suggest anything as you haven't really told us why option 1 doesn't work for you.

You said you imported stems from Logic as your backing tracks for one song and that that works beautifully. So where is the problem for song 2 or 3?
Also, if you have all your songs as stems in one Ableton Live session, what is stopping you from switching quickly between these songs?

[Greenapples2019]

Hi 3oland, I've done something similar to what you're looking to do, and I'm also from a GB/LPX/Mainstage background. Ableton takes a little time to get used to as it's so different (in session view) from how other DAWs have traditionally worked, but it's soooooo much better suited to playing live than the others are. It's fast, reliable and uses much less CPU than the others. We use it to play backing tracks, MIDI live, process drums, bass and four vocals, control DMX lights and run click tracks and monitors. We have all of our 40+ songs in one set and my 2013 MBP still stays below 40% usage. As others have said, let us know what you're looking to do and the problems you perceive, and I'm sure we can help.

[S4racen]

https://isotonikstudios.com/product/son ... h-edition/

Allows you to use Session or Arrangement view and turn the Push (or LaunchPads) into a song controller by allowing you to select groups of scenes or Locators and trigger individual parts within each song at will.

Cheers
D

[3oland]

Hey thanks for your support, you all! And thanks for your patience with this absolutely noob here.
You're amazing...!

Originally, I was thinking of switching between songs, very similar to the hardware arranger-keyboards' workflow with their built-in sounds, where you have a bespoke arrangement/patch for each and every song:
Just dial the song in by its name and you're good to go. All sound designs, combinations, etc. are at your fingertips at a snap. Easy-peasy...!

Apparently, this way of thinking that Ableton works the same way kept me in a mentally locked position, I just realized.I have now learned that Ableton Live works another way round where you 1) put all your backtracks in line and then jump to the next song on the timeline in the arrangement view, right?Alternatively, 2) you can have one song per Scene?
Both options can be managed by setting your MIDI-controller to jump back and forth between songs (on the timeline or the next Scene) leading to the easy-peasy lemon squeezy workflow as with the hardware arranger-keyboards. Only with so much cooler sounds and possibilities with Ableton Live...! 

However, either way, I understand that you'll still be ending up with a rather static backtrack that is locked to the shape of the backtrack's arrangement, right? Intro, verse, build, drop, etc.Or...? Can I interrupt the linear playback and, say, loop the verse for a couple of times just for the fun of it and then go back to the remaining song's structure?

Thanks..!

[Greenapples2019]

Hey 3oland, don't worry about being a noob, we all were at some point. One of the great things about Ableton is there's lots of ways of doing the same thing. So what you're looking to do, you can do in Arrangement view by using locators. These allow you to loop a section and then, when you're ready, jump to the next section using a midi controller. Arrangement view intuitively appeals to anyone coming from another DAW as it's so similar but for live performance I think it's worth getting to know and use Session view. The way we use it in our band is to have one section of a song, or one song, per scene. A section could be the intro, or a verse, or a combination like chorus/solo/verse if you always perform it the same way. So if scene 1 is the intro you can set it to loop until you're ready to go to the verse (scene 2) which you then trigger with your midi controller. Then you stay on the verse until you're ready for the next section/scene and trigger that. So a song may be 3/4/5 different scenes that you work through, or if you always perform the entire song the same way each time you could have just one scene for the entire song. We mix sections with backing tracks (and click tracks) and freeform (no backing or click track) so that we can jam certain bits.

Using scenes for different sections gives you flexibility to do other things as well e.g. send Program Change messages to alter settings on keys/FX units, or to control DMX lights with something like DMXIS. Once you start to dive in there's a huge amount you can do. When we started to explore using backing tracks we tried LPX and MainStage but Ableton is so much better, more reliable, more flexible. I still use LPX for creating stems but then export them into Ableton.

I hope that gives you something to go on, happy to answer any questions if you want.

[3oland]

Hey Greenapples2019, fantastic...! This is actually the feature that will set me free!
Can't wait to look into it just as soon as I have my stems ready. Yup, creating them in LPX, too

Many thanks for this

Best,
/3oland

[Greenapples2019]

Good luck 3oland and let me know if you have any questions (no matter how nooby). FWIW here's how I go about creating/using a STEM:

1. Create/master it in LPX at the tempo I want to play them live, and export as 32 bit aif or wav
2. Drag it into a track in session mode in Ableton. Double-click on the cell and in the detail view turn "Warp" on and check that "Set. BPM" is correct. Underneath this will probably say "Complex" or "Complex Pro" - change this to "Beats". This saves CPU processing.
3. Turn "Loop" on/off and set start/end points as desired. Ableton's great in that you can start a track from, say, 1.1.1 and then have it loop between 9.1.1. and 13.1.1
4. Click on the waveform of the STEM and press cmd+a (select all) and then shift+cmd+backspace. This deletes all the transient markers and again saves CPU processing.
5. On the Master track make sure that the name of that scene includes the tempo e.g. First song 108BPM. Then whenever you trigger that scene it will play at the right speed.
6. Once you've done all of them and saved the set as a file, click File and then Collect All and Save. This means that Ableton puts all the STEMs in its own folder, again saving CPU.

[3oland]

@Greenapples Wow, thanks a million! You're a lifesaver!

I will definitely look into this - Last Friday I was supposed to play my first gig using Ableton Live for the first time.
However, all preparation time was spent on creating the stems from LPX, so I prioritized things and ended up playing mere video files on the projector screen behind me using Quicktime Player - yeah, static backtracks but it worked really well on the Turbosound 12"'s, though...!

Now that I understand that Ableton Live can indeed let you play around with looping/repeating sections of my songs while performing live, I really look forward to looking into this - The next gig will go to level 2.0. Lessons learned. The next one 3.0. Lessons learned. And so forth

Have a great Sunday...!