Questions about live performers

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GrrKrr
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Questions about live performers

Post by GrrKrr » Sun Jun 26, 2016 1:13 pm

Hello everybody,

For my very first message on this forum, I would like to ask something i'm really concerned about.

Seriously influenced by all kind of techno (mostly Max Cooper, Trentemöller, Heimann, and, well, Paul Kalkbrenner), I know that many of them use Ableton to produce their music.

BUT

Are there serious music artists that actually play live within session mode?

I'm a newcomer to music production (live band musician since 5 years though), and I was wondering if it was a realistic objective to make, arrange and create tracks with a thought of playing them live afterwards in session mode?

When watching those artists live, it appears that they usually have a pad lit on, but they don't seem to use it anyway to fire loops/samples.

Am I wrong when trying to learn to play my tracks live in order to be able to have more flexibility and energy when one day I will play them live?

re:dream
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Re: Questions about live performers

Post by re:dream » Sun Jun 26, 2016 1:29 pm

Yes, this is one of the key places where Live has an edge over other DAWs

There's a really great video tutorial where Tom Cosm and Pitch Black show how they use Live for their live shows. I will see if I can find it.

edit: Here it is: http://www.covops.org/ableton_live_on_s ... tch_black/

The second half of the video, with Paddy from PB, is pure gold.

Tarekith
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Re: Questions about live performers

Post by Tarekith » Sun Jun 26, 2016 5:04 pm

Here's how I used to do it with Live and the APC, it's definitely doable and something a lot of people use Live for:

http://innerportalstudio.com/ableton-li ... pa-set-up/
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L.roachy
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Re: Questions about live performers

Post by L.roachy » Sun Jul 24, 2016 6:17 pm

here is a wonderful interview with Rick Smith from Underworld talking about how they go about their live performance

https://youtu.be/ODpLZ_wjfv8

Guff Tong
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Re: Questions about live performers

Post by Guff Tong » Tue Aug 09, 2016 2:43 pm

I found that working always from a session version to final arrangement after that it means I already have a live performance set right from the start which can be added to my large live performance set. I tend to perform live with far too much to do when compared with others using one shots etc though it gives great flexibility and stops me from being no more than a stem mixer/dj. When you combine midi clips running hardware synths it takes it to the next level and gives punters more to see and hear. I mainly do acid tech trance free party rave music.

Quez
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Re: Questions about live performers

Post by Quez » Tue Aug 16, 2016 1:09 am

I'm in a small electronic duo and we use session view + scenes to play live.

Just be careful, we had Ableton Live (windows version) crash on us last saturday in the middle of a gig. However we both use laptops (w/gear and everything synced with 2 audio cards), mine pretty much never crashes (on mac), we were able to ride through it, and the audience didn't notice (thankfully). Especially since we don't stop playing between songs, we generate atmospheric fillers (special sounds effects sorta) on the spot with our gear and a lot of delay/reverb.

So I'd suggest you have a back-up plan just in case. Even if your laptop is super-stable, you never know.

slatepipe
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Re: Questions about live performers

Post by slatepipe » Wed Aug 17, 2016 10:15 am

http://slatepipe.co.uk/lord-mongo-and-t ... e-footage/

ok here's two short films of me and my brother playing last week at supernormal festival. i play a reasonably simple session view set and move between clips and songs using a quneo controller and a usb gamepad using Mfl. i use a softstep 2 as well but didn't use it much at the time.
pads on the quneo to change hi, mid and low eq's, distortion, volume and sends, and a few other effects, panning, flanger, stutter, bit reduction etc. everything is controlled through the quneo or the gamepad and i can navigate through the set using either

i haven't used the quneo live before and it worked very well. i used to use a uc33e but even though i love it, i found that sometimes it drops its connection, which is obviously a risk

i haven't done a live gig with my brother for about 10 years and it went pretty well, even though he lost his mind and fucked off before we'd finished :)

cheers

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