Can Live 6 cope with this?

[onshiftingsands]

Hi folks,

Currently I run a small rig (I play gigs as part of a band, so all of this is for use on-stage) using Reason 3.04. Hardware as follows: EDIROL PCR80 Midi Controller & Roland FP8 Digital Piano, Behringer BCF2000, Digidesign 002R, Dell Inspiron 8600 (Pentium M 2Ghz w/1GB Ram).

I'm looking to expand my setup to include using live audio (running effects on vocals and drums, looping) so obviously I need a host application. It means I can also use Native Instruments B4 as well which is an added bonus.

I'm looking to use the following setup:-

PCR80 to control Reason, B4, vocal FX tracks, and to trigger loops/samples from Ableton Live via USB midi-in.
FP8 to control single Combinator (grand piano) within Reason via Midi-In on the 002r
Behringer BCF2000 to control drum FX levels and mix via USB midi-in

Mic 1: Voc Fx 1
Mic 2: Voc Fx 2
Mic 3: Bass Drum
Mic 4: Snare
Mic 5: Floor Tom
Mic 6: 12" Tom
Mic 7: Overhead L
Mic 8: Overhead R

Is there a way of easily changing multiple settings across multiple tracks? For example, 1 button to change a)change my reason instrument and/or B4 setting b)alter the fx on the piano combinator within reason c)alter the fx settings on all of the microphone inputs? Our sets usually consist of 45 to 90 minutes, so 8 to 15 songs.

Obviously if I purchase Live I'd probably start incorporating some of its own instruments into my rig as well.

So, any ideas if this is actually do-able? I don't need any serious sequencing...only rock-solid performance and the ability to handle multiple inputs, and multiple midi-controllers. The 'electronic music' specialist at my local store had no idea...he hadn't heard of someone wanting to use software in a more 'traditional' indie-rock band. I'd prefer to get an idea before spending A$500!

Cheers
Jeff

[sqook]

So, any ideas if this is actually do-able? I don't need any serious sequencing...only rock-solid performance and the ability to handle multiple inputs, and multiple midi-controllers. The 'electronic music' specialist at my local store had no idea...he hadn't heard of someone wanting to use software in a more 'traditional' indie-rock band. I'd prefer to get an idea before spending A$500!

In that case, the Live demo will answer your questions rather well. You can do everything except save and render (and actually, there's a loophole in the program that permits you to do the latter in demo mode... but I ain't sayin' how. ).

Anyways, to answer some more specific questions, your workstation should probably have enough horsepower for this setup, though a bit of extra ram probably wouldn't hurt if you can afford it.

As for being able to do the "one button" thing, the "macros" feature in Live 6 will probably be very useful to you. I can't speak for reason, as I no longer use it with live and forgot how it deals with MIDI messages when rewired. You might need to incorporate a tool such as midiox in your setup to send more complex MIDI macro messages to the software, too.


Either way, download the demo, screw around with the program for awhile, and don't forget to read the manual (time permitting, that is).