Hi all, we've been using Ableton in our live band for about a year now and have kept refining it with every gig until it's totally stable, so I thought I'd share the set up with you. I'm doing it because we've gone through a lot of learning to get to this point and I want to save other people time. Feel free to learn from our mistakes, or suggest how we could improve further, or ask any questions.
Four-piece band: Me (drums/vocals), Dave (bass/vocals), KB (vocals), Yan (guitar/vocals). We use Session view and have home-made backing tracks on some songs. Each song is between 2 and 5 scenes depending on the complexity/structure of the song.
Equipment (apart from the obvious guitar, bass, drums): Focusrite 18i20, Yamaha DTX-M12 (mainly to trigger scenes, but also as a drum rack), LaunchControl xl (as a mixer for FoH and my in-ears), Roland TM6 (with drum triggers on my acoustic drums), MacBook Pro (2013 model). Our PA is a pair of Bose L1 model 2 speakers with subs.
Channels in Ableton (1-8 are the inputs on the 18i20):
1: Hi-hats mic
2: Bass (straight DI, using the 18i20 as a pre-amp. We use a chain to have five different settings for the bass such as clean, chorus, overdrive)
3-6: Vox
7: Kick (from TM6)
8: Other drums (from TM6)
9: Vox buss channel (sum of 3-6)
10: Vox FX buss (a sum of the three FX return channels - see below)
11: Drum rack
12: Drum buss (sum of 7, 8 and 11)
13: Backing tracks
14: Backline buss (sum of 2, 12 and 13)
Master is sum of 1, 9 and 10
Individual channels have different plug-ins, mainly Waves compression and eq
The Master and backline buss then use two outputs each from the 18i20 to the Bose. There is a slight stereo spread.
Returns:
A: Reverb (using a chain to select one of 3 different settings depending on the song - low, standard, ballad, using Waves Valhalla)
B: Delay (with a chain for 3 settings - slap, ping-pong, 1/2 bar)
C: Doubler (with a chain to select between 2 and 4 voices)
The IAC driver has been brilliant in enabling us to use these chains to have 8 different settings but only use 3 channels. Output from these three goes to channel 10 to give us one fader to control overall FX level.
D/E: My in-ears, with stereo mix
F: Foldback for the rest of the band (using wedges)
D, E and F use 3 more outputs from the 18i20
We use MIDI commands in conjunction with the IAC driver for loads of things, such as at the start of every song to automatically:
a) Select the reverb, delay and doubler for the song, and send levels for each person. MIDI also mutes the FX in between songs to give us a dry signal when talking to the crowd
b) Set the right volume levels for each person. We each do lead vocals on different songs so reduce the backing vox by 6db so that the lead is always at the front.
c) Set the correct kit on the DTX M12 and TM6 (for different racks and sounds)
d) Select the right song on DMXIS (to control lights)
e) Reset the clock to 1.1.1 and start the click track where necessary. We also use MIDI to mute the click automatically when the song ends.
f) Select the right chain for the bass
For some songs we use MIDI commands during the song, or use envelopes, to change sounds/levels/settings etc. Our entire setlist is in one project (40+ songs) and the "Collect All and Save" command is the best thing you can do right before a gig. Then close Ableton, open it up again, open your project and don't make any more changes. With all this going on we get to about 40% CPU during a gig and have no problem with sound, latency.
I hope that makes sense and is helpful to someone. Like an iceberg there's more below the surface but this is the rough idea! If anyone wants more detail on some aspect, let me know.
Cheers
Darren