Using Ableton Live with a band playing live

Share your favorite Ableton Live tips, tricks, and techniques.
mooncaine
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Re: Using Ableton Live with a band playing live

Post by mooncaine » Thu Apr 09, 2009 1:56 am

garyboozy wrote:click track here too. not the metronome peep, though. i use impulse on a seperate output with simple hihat/rimshot patterns, with rides and crashes for different cues in the song. the drummer also gets a backing track mix at half the volume of the click track. works really well.
Intriguing indeed! Sounds like you have a well-planned performance worked out in advance. Thanks for the ideas.

lapieuvre
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Re: Using Ableton Live with a band playing live

Post by lapieuvre » Thu Apr 09, 2009 8:50 am

I didn't have time to check if Live 8 had tempo automation in session view...

Live is all about session view, but it is very complicated to program those normal tempo changes that happen in songs. Is it why you don't want to follow a click?

you could use arrangement view...
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eye
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Re: Using Ableton Live with a band playing live

Post by eye » Sun Sep 27, 2009 3:23 pm

Hey Guys

Me too, Im new to ablelton (I picked it up - for this reason) Live we have bass, guitar, a drummer and a laptop

I've created the backing trax in FL studio and I'm exporting them to ableton. were using a click panned to the left (which goes to the drummers head phones) and the backing tracks panned to the right (which go out front & to our monitors)

However; when panning all backing tracks to the right in mono it sounds muddy has hell. any tips? can I run multipule wavs ie: click, synths, samples, loops so that i can change the levels? and is it stable ...

also can I create entire set lists of songs/wavs at different tempos or do I have to load each song separately? .. some have various time signature changes too (4/4 > 7/4)

sorry for the 10.000 questions

Thanks a advance :wink:

eye
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Re: Using Ableton Live with a band playing live

Post by eye » Sun Sep 27, 2009 7:29 pm

Help basically

AceLuby
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Re: Using Ableton Live with a band playing live

Post by AceLuby » Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:57 pm

eye wrote:Hey Guys

Me too, Im new to ablelton (I picked it up - for this reason) Live we have bass, guitar, a drummer and a laptop

I've created the backing trax in FL studio and I'm exporting them to ableton. were using a click panned to the left (which goes to the drummers head phones) and the backing tracks panned to the right (which go out front & to our monitors)

However; when panning all backing tracks to the right in mono it sounds muddy has hell. any tips? can I run multipule wavs ie: click, synths, samples, loops so that i can change the levels? and is it stable ...

also can I create entire set lists of songs/wavs at different tempos or do I have to load each song separately? .. some have various time signature changes too (4/4 > 7/4)

sorry for the 10.000 questions

Thanks a advance :wink:
1) To the OP, my band always synced to the computer via a click track. Way easier and cheaper than the other way around

2) For the above, we would send the click channel directly to the headphones channel and everything else to the master channel w/in Live, but that is pretty interface specific.

3) To change tempos simply write '### BPM' in the name of the scene and that way when you launch the scene the tempo will automatically change.

4) Not sure about the time signature stuff, someone more knowledgeable should be able to help you.
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evnthrizn
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Re: Using Ableton Live with a band playing live

Post by evnthrizn » Mon Sep 28, 2009 9:54 pm

AceLuby wrote:
eye wrote:Hey Guys

Me too, Im new to ablelton (I picked it up - for this reason) Live we have bass, guitar, a drummer and a laptop

I've created the backing trax in FL studio and I'm exporting them to ableton. were using a click panned to the left (which goes to the drummers head phones) and the backing tracks panned to the right (which go out front & to our monitors)

However; when panning all backing tracks to the right in mono it sounds muddy has hell. any tips? can I run multipule wavs ie: click, synths, samples, loops so that i can change the levels? and is it stable ...

also can I create entire set lists of songs/wavs at different tempos or do I have to load each song separately? .. some have various time signature changes too (4/4 > 7/4)

sorry for the 10.000 questions

Thanks a advance :wink:
1) To the OP, my band always synced to the computer via a click track. Way easier and cheaper than the other way around

2) For the above, we would send the click channel directly to the headphones channel and everything else to the master channel w/in Live, but that is pretty interface specific.

3) To change tempos simply write '### BPM' in the name of the scene and that way when you launch the scene the tempo will automatically change.

4) Not sure about the time signature stuff, someone more knowledgeable should be able to help you.
time signatures in session view work the same as tempo changes. except you just make a fraction.
for example, "7/4" would give you a 7/4 time signature.
you can put both bpm and time signature changes into a scene play name, e.g. "2/4, 130 bpm"

eye
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Re: Using Ableton Live with a band playing live

Post by eye » Thu Oct 01, 2009 6:50 pm

time signatures in session view work the same as tempo changes. except you just make a fraction.
for example, "7/4" would give you a 7/4 time signature.
you can put both bpm and time signature changes into a scene play name, e.g. "2/4, 130 bpm"
[/quote]

Thanks Guys :wink:

the track changes from 7/4 to 4/4 and back again - is this possible? I have exported the wavs

also: do I have to load each track indivually when performing them or can I create a Playlist (each song has a different tempo etc)

eye
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Joined: Thu Jul 16, 2009 10:32 pm

Re: Using Ableton Live with a band playing live

Post by eye » Fri Oct 02, 2009 5:31 pm

Here's the thing: all I'm trying to do is playback a track - nothing else (apart from panning and volume)

The track has four separate wav files that run in sequence from beginning to end ... easy right? ... nope! one of the tracks runs out of sequence/time with the others? I've turned off the warp and fade functions? it seems to be running at a different time even? ... frustrating. :?

What am I doing wrong here?

I have a rehearsal in 2 days ... help

eye
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Joined: Thu Jul 16, 2009 10:32 pm

Re: Using Ableton Live with a band playing live

Post by eye » Sat Oct 03, 2009 12:58 am

ah! think i have it ... the warp function right.

yur2die4
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Re: Using Ableton Live with a band playing live

Post by yur2die4 » Sat Oct 03, 2009 3:10 am

Is there any accuracy to using a lit button blinking to the bpm? If multi-colored it could help with the downbeat also.

I suppose part of the accuracy would rely on the duration of the light blips. But if the light blips are coming from a short midi clip playing in live, the duration would be equal to that of the note.

It could be distracting though for the drummer who already has enough on their plate haha.

Tysonviolin
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Re: Using Ableton Live with a band playing live

Post by Tysonviolin » Wed Oct 07, 2009 9:40 am

Click all the way. We have three laptops and I send the drummer 3 lines: one with click (waldorf Attack works the best), one with sequence, and one with the other instruments in the band. He then can mix these as he needs to.

Trent
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Re: Using Ableton Live with a band playing live

Post by Trent » Thu Oct 08, 2009 10:23 pm

I am using a Presonus Firebox that gives me 6 line outputs and 2 spdif outs. I assign the click track to external out 1, my percussive group mix to external out 2, and so on and so on. And all that goes to an 8 channel Racked Direct Box and out to the Monitor Mix for ears and stage monitors, then the mixes go to the FOH for mixing.

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