Surround Sound in Ableton Live

[rutgermuller]

Oh man this sounds like such a cool idea, but I already haul too many heavy speakers . . . but now I want to try quad! Damn. Its only, like, another 100 pounds to carry. When do I get roadies?

Or find the right venue of course....

does anyone know good surround supporting venues?

[oblique strategies]

Oh man this sounds like such a cool idea, but I already haul too many heavy speakers . . . but now I want to try quad! Damn. Its only, like, another 100 pounds to carry. When do I get roadies?

Or find the right venue of course....

does anyone know good surround supporting venues?

Many venues have the required speakers positioned appropriately around the venue. You have to propose performing in a surround format to them in advance of the event. Some venue managers will work with you if you inspire confidence that you know what you're doing.

But sometimes you just have to haul the speakers in your self.

One option: if monitor speakers are being used you could re-position them as the 3rd & 4th speakers in a quad setup.

[rutgermuller]

I'll be focusing on surround live performance with Live after this summer...
looking forward, hope some tips keep on rolling in here...

[LP]

I use Live for 6 channel performances quite often using M4L as a workaround, but it is a royal pain to get working even close to correctly. And no, Logic is not the way to go for this, as ReWire disables M4L where I build my stochastic systems.

And yes, I have to bring my own speakers.

I use Logic for my film work, and it is great but I would use Live way more if it had 5.1. The auto-fades on clips in Arrange are a huge time saver that Logic doesn't have at all.

I also use Live for sound art installations, but sometimes the lack of proper surround means that I have needed to go to MAX/MSP or Logic to get it done.

I love the workflow in Live more than any other program, and having surround support would be fantastic.

I would even pay for this as a paid upgrade.

[rutgermuller]

I use Live for 6 channel performances quite often using M4L as a workaround, but it is a royal pain to get working even close to correctly. And no, Logic is not the way to go for this, as ReWire disables M4L where I build my stochastic systems.

And yes, I have to bring my own speakers.

I use Logic for my film work, and it is great but I would use Live way more if it had 5.1. The auto-fades on clips in Arrange are a huge time saver that Logic doesn't have at all.

I also use Live for sound art installations, but sometimes the lack of proper surround means that I have needed to go to MAX/MSP or Logic to get it done.

I love the workflow in Live more than any other program, and having surround support would be fantastic.

I would even pay for this as a paid upgrade.

Cool! Could you share some of your patches or knowledge on how to you use surround in (Max For) Live right now?

[rutgermuller]

Approaching 100 votes, hurray!

[rutgermuller]

I'm still looking for good tips and/or max for live patches for surround output! Please help out!

[rutgermuller]

101 Votes,

keep supporting this please! Keep posting opinions.

[Foxglove]

Surround would be nice, but why does it have to be just surround, why can't I just have multiple master outs that get the same signal but can go to different ext outs. I use live as a crossover. The way I do it now is to set up a return track for each ext out. one for each high mid and low. each goes to an ext out that goes to the amp/speaker.

I guess what I would really like to see is a virtual mixer that goes beyond just the current tracks you have going. Something able to set up lanes for things like external effects hardware or the like and have more flexible routing options for the ext outs., creating groups, multiple buses etc.

Doing things the standard way isn't what live is about, it's about experimenting and being creative. Not everyone needs surround output but the people out there that want to experiment with it don't have many options.

[rutgermuller]

I wonder if anyone from the Ableton crew could shed any light on possible future surround output implementation, please?

[rutgermuller]

I wonder if anyone from the Ableton crew could shed any light on possible future surround output implementation, please?

still nothing? response would be greatly appreciated!

[rutgermuller]

It's a shame we can't run stuff like

Octogris: http://www.iact.umontreal.ca/site/?page_id=1091&lang=en

the UHE surround compatible effects bundle Uhbik: http://www.u-he.com/cms/uhbik

[lqud009]

Has anyone been doing live sets in surround?

Yes, in 2005 with an 8 channel surround setup:

[bassik]

For anyone into multichannel reproduction and spatialization techniques, this is the most programming implementation of Ambisonics in M4L.

http://www.maxforlive.com/library/device.php?id=860

I am personally involved in research on this topic and willing to investigate this opportunity in Live as I use it for my music production (not multichannel yet).

this is a very interesting topic.

Right now my only experience with multichannel in live has been just by routing signals to audiomulch or pure data and using more professional tools for spatialization enconding and decoding...but I would be happier if i can do all in one software as all these workarounds introduce latency and many other artifacts.

Anyone else made any progress on this so far??

[regretfullySaid]

Just for reference I'm plugging http://acousmodules.free.fr/acousmodules_s_en.htm

I've used some of those for surround experiments with EnergyXt and Reaper with great results, but
I haven't experimented with surround much in Live, and after just seeing a good workaround for getting surround from the link earlier in this thread, I'm looking forward to seeing if they're overkill or obsolete after work.