How do you make your live set seamless?

[Silverfish]

I've looked into clyphx and macrobat a bit, but didn't really put in the time to learn or master their full potential. In short, can they be used to do what Kapture basically does, but in a more, er, native fashion?

[jonnyH]

doing snap recalls is only a small part of what they do. basically, if it's in the live api, you can access it via these two add ons. take the time to check it out, it can really help expand what live does.
j

[h0ch.grat]

Hi,

I think seamless isn't a quality criteria at all, as I've seen DJs / Acts that really messed things up in the booth, but the crowd was with them, as they were real and into it...

I myself try to keep my live setup as simple as possible. I use an apc 20 + a Nocturne + 2 guitar effects (those foot switch things) and sometimes a hardware synth too. My aim is being able to set up on the empty turntable while the last vinyl of the DJ is still playing: 10 minutes and 1sqm to set up.
As I play live, I don't think in terms of 'songs' or 'tracks' which makes the seamless thing kind of irrelevant, but I cluster samples / midi clips that I use at a specific part of the live set. So my whole production process is not biased on tracks but parts that fit into live sets. And I take care of adding clips that are kind of neutral at the very beginning of each track that you can use to fade into a new part of the set (e.g. a layer or a noise click sound...)

First I arrange the whole (!) live set as various clusters (tracks?) top to bottom.
Not more but 8-12 tracks for easy navigation, to organize a rough layout/schedule of what will happen in the club.
I try to not cluster more but 5-6 scenes, as my apc just displays 5 rows - but that's fairly enough stuff to play with for some time. And it saves me from scrolling up and down too much.
Ah - e.g. for beats, I use racks and insert various drum sets in there, so I can use many different sounds within one track.

So I play my sets top to bottom, working my way down, bringing new clips in and dropping others out.
All my clips are unmodified samples / midi clips in terms of effects / pitch / procesion, which leaves me free to mess around with them in realtime.
Most of the samples contain different variations of the same loop. I then can set the loop area live via controller, according to what I want to play, or where ever the set takes me, which again reduces the amount of clips you need but offers better variety.
When I start I only have a rough non effect draft, the rest happens there and then.

For general FX modulation I send them (instead of 'to master') to a separate track called 'Spielzeug' which contains automated fx clips (dummy clips) like a filter swipe or a beat repeat pattern. Those clips will ad the respective fx to all clips playing. Of course you can modify the fx by hand or controller too (I use a Nocturne for that, enough knobs but small and handy, but forget the automap shit).
For manual fx procession to ONE clip, I use the regular send channels (actually two of them, filters and delay) containing effect racks with macros of the most common modulations.

If you do perform live for 2 hours, and not just trigger prerecorded tracks, of course you'll get lost or mess things up on your way. But I like this - it's live and not DJing what we do.
As I get lost or need instant breaks from time to time redirecting the set into a certain direction, I insert 'triggers', scenes that you can see in the master track. Hitting them resets all effects (see the reset-clip in the Spielzeug-track) and triggers a bunch of clips that will bring things back together.
E.g. you mess around with delays, let it all break apart, and then kick in a straight bd + sounds again just by hitting the trigger scene.
This way experimenting live becomes fun and not a thread, as you got a safety line you can pull anytime.

Keeping track of where you are is simple, as I only use one set up - so I know which row of knobs on my apc is bd, snare, layer, external synths, etc. And hitting wrong buttons launching a click noise instead of a layer is what makes a good live set

What you see on the screenshot would equal 25 min. live performance...
You can download this live set as an .alp here: http://rapidshare.com/files/456623728/SetSkizze.alp maybe seeing the draft on your screen makes this approach more clear...

Hope this helps,
Ralph Prollé

[[email protected]]

AMAZING. Thank you!

[h0ch.grat]

I forgot - you can listen to a short edit of this on soundcloud
http://snd.sc/mi75NH