the basics?

strict Logic · Post by **strict Logic** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 7:49 am

ok, i would like to sequence drum tracks live on a laptop...

i'm thinking about an ibm thinkpad with digigram pocketvc...any advice?

what i don't get is how do you line out of the laptop?

i have some stand alone filters and would like the drum tracks to run through these....how would i line to them? laptops don't have 1/4" line out

how do you get the sounds from the computer to the crowd of 1000 people?

thank you for any help

mm00x · Post by **mm00x** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 7:58 am

kompiuter -> air -> crowd of 1000 people

its magic, i tell you!

[m/:0x]

strict Logic · Post by **strict Logic** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 8:06 am

kompiuter -> (but what goes here?) -> air -> crowd of 1000 people

fuentes925 · Post by **fuentes925** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 9:14 am

You need a audio interface. You could try an external audio interface which would connect to your lap top via usb or fire wire cables. Price could be any where from around $100 up to almost $1000. It would be a good idea to get a asio capable interface, which means it will support multiple audio ins and outs, so then you got your outs to supply sound to the people and you got your ins so you could sample sounds with Ableton Live in to your lap top. If you want to have drum machines play in sync with Live you will also need a midi interface which will let Ableton Live send midi clock to your modules. Some thing like the M-Audio Audio Sport Quattro may be good for you, it is a audio interface and midi interface in one and it only cost about $250.00. Try searching web stores for audio interface and you can browse through interfaces and compare price and options.
Good luck,

fuentes925 · Post by **fuentes925** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 9:28 am

(Lap Top)------ > (Audio interface) ----- >(Mixer)-->(speakers)->(people)
|
\->(midi interface)->(drum machine)->(up to mixer)

SUB · Post by **SUB** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 2:08 pm

I get about six to eight tracks with some mda vst plugins. a real killer (in a bad sense) is the built-in reverb with shoots my cpu usage quickly beyond 60 percent. and this is when the interface becomes sluggish and nothing works without an obvious latency. Interesting: It seems that it doesn't really matter whether a clip ist 5 or 50 MB in size - at least in my sets.

my system: TiBook 867, 768 Mhz, Mac OS X 2.4 (latest update). Live 2.01 (haven't updated yet).

Greets from Berlin

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 5:06 pm

Keep in mind, however, that Live's reverb is worth the price of the app alone, if it weren't for the high CPU usuage. It's up there with the TCNative reverb - which is one fourth of a the native bundle, which costs around £300. That's good.

You can always bounce your tracks down with verb on 'em :)

strict Logic · Post by **strict Logic** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 6:35 pm

thanks, i'm starting to get it now......bout time

so what type of sound cards do you guys use to do your work?

fuentes925 · Post by **fuentes925** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 8:03 pm

I use a Sony Vaio lap top with a motu 828 audio interface which also is a hard disk storage unit.

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Sat Mar 01, 2003 4:13 am

TiBook 500 and RME Hammerfall DSP and Multiface running under OS9.2

Awesome combo for me - the MIDI response/latency is fantastic, the mixing monitoring and routing can all be done in the RME via software so it doesn't tax the host CPU at all. Awesome sound quality.

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Sat Mar 01, 2003 4:26 am

oh P.S. possibly be a bit wary about the Digigram Pocket audio interface if you want to MIDI sequence drums.

The last time I had a hands-on with one the latency between hitting a MIDI key and hearing the sound was quite long. Certainly too long for me to sequence drum tracks with. This was using Logic Platinum/EXS24 soft sampler/MT-4 Midi interface.

I could be off-beam on this, and maybe its been inproved in the year since I tried it (any Digigram owners out there care to comment?) but there seemed to be no way to get latency down fast enough for live Midi input.

just my $0.02

strict Logic · Post by **strict Logic** » Sat Mar 01, 2003 5:09 am

i think i was vague when i said i wanted to sequence drum tracks
what i meant was just have my drum track already arranged in ableton

i guess i've been uncertain about the pocket vc too
so it's not like a desktop soundcard, it's like an audio interface, like the motu 828, or 896.
so say if i was editing soundfiles or doing playback on the laptop everything i do would be using the laptops built in soundcard?
or when i have a pocket vc in the slot that would that act as my soundcard?

thanks for everyones help

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Mar 01, 2003 5:30 am

pocket vc = digigram pocket vx

Dan · Post by **Dan** » Sun Mar 02, 2003 8:52 pm

soooo if you have an audio interface connected to your laptop, it will act as your sound card?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Mar 02, 2003 8:57 pm

absolutely, unless you tell the program to use your onboard sound instead
its up to you.