Have the Gig of my life soon, need advice!

spiderprod · Post by **spiderprod** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 1:59 pm

the ground loop isolator is to take out the earth noise .
look at krv they have a few free limiters .
for the drop outs increase your buffers size .

jack rock · Post by **jack rock** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 2:54 pm

A limiter that doesn't reduce dynamic range = a compressor with a threshold of 0 and a ratio of "as-much-as-possible":0

smart1123 · Post by **smart1123** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:02 pm

http://www.yohng.com/w1limit.html

George Yohng's W1 Limiter VST

W1 Limiter is a clone of Waves L1, with identical output.

It's Free!

Enjoy

jeebustrain · Post by **jeebustrain** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:15 pm

paolo topaz wrote:I've never seen a anyone use a ground loop isolater, what's the beneifit?

Until I started using one (in the US, a 2 prong adapter works just fine), I was getting all kinds of noise from my laptop whenever I'd move the mouse, minimize/maximize windows, etc... It's now dead silent.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:33 pm

Good luck, dude!

It's up to guys like you to dispel the "laptop e-mail" myth and demonstrate to those who use archaic record players the future...

TonySoprano · Post by **TonySoprano** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 4:59 pm

A ground loop isolator is what I was referring to when I asked if you were sure your laptop sounds ok when plugged into an amp. As the other guy said, if you're using the same machine at home, and it's plugged into an amp and speakers with no problems, then you might be ok. Would strongly recommend picking something like this up and take it with you though. Rather than plug your soundcard straight into the mixer, plug it into that, then plug the other end into the mixer.

What you mention about the drop-outs, sounds like Live has lost the analysis files for the samples, so has to rebuild them as you're playing. Possibly if you've moved them about when re-organising your directories into drum loops, vocals, etc. Nothing you can't fix before hand. Spend some time pretending you're doing your set, and see if you can't spot which clips are pausing momentarily before playing. May only be one or two directories that need re-analysing.

As we've said, the acceptance of Ableton DJ's in a club environment now lies solely on your shoulders, so no pressure or anything. Just kidding, and good luck.

ben_blue · Post by **ben_blue** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 7:01 pm

ive dealt with the issue of where to put the laptop - they dont always have turntable lids.

i saw Mark Farina use these little foam things, like half- golf balls - he put those directly on the platter and put his cdjs on top. still not sure how he kept them from rotating, but maybe that just works itself out.

good luck
ben

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 8:00 pm

paolo topaz wrote:
One last thing, I've noticed some audio dropouts lately, don't know if it's since I went to the Mac store and they tried to put in a gig update but it wouldn't accept it, so I'm back to the standard 256 with the 256 upgrade.

I've done extensive searchs and came across one thread where alot of users noticed dropouts when lauching clips for the first time, this is exactly what happens to me when I launch, but it doesn't happen when I launch the same clip again, it's almost like you hve to prime the clip like you would prime a crb before starting a race kart, I have the majority of my clips saved in my default set, Will starting them al once row by row before I bein to play be a tempory cure?

I have Live 5.02, is this problem still unresolved?

Hey ya. I had that very same problem days before a gig last week with a set that worked flawlessly with Live 4. I think Live 5.0.2 needs a bit of fine tuning yet. What I did was:

1) Get rid of as many third party plugins as possible, replacing them with Ableton's ones.
2) Shorten as much as possible the clips (i.e. you have a 2 bar loop which can be shortened to 1 bar)
3) Load as many of the "small" clips into RAM.
4) Set the latency on FW410 to 512 samples.

That seemed to do the trick. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Less headaches, even more if it's your first important gig.

Wish you luck.

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 8:19 pm

I'd recommend doing a stress test on your system. See how far you have to push before you run into problems. Once you get your system where it runs perfect in the studio, do not make spontaneous changes on the night of the gig!! I'm always tempted by some new idea to make things more "stable" on the night of the show, but it always causes a problem.

Bring extra cables, adapters, power strip, extension cord, etc. You never know what you will need until you get there, and it's best to be over-prepared. Get there early! Stay active all night until you play...talk with the other DJ's, talk with the club owner, get out and dance, etc. It will help you be into the vibe, get a good feel for the club and the crowd, and will help you make connections while you're there.

If you have business cards, bring them!!! If you don't, get some made!!!

Stay positive, and HAVE FUN!!!

paolo topaz · Post by **paolo topaz** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 10:34 pm

"3) Load as many of the "small" clips into RAM.
4) Set the latency on FW410 to 512 samples."

sorry but don't understand these tips, could you give further explaination?

Cheers for all the tips guys, not many people in Ireland are using Ableton and all I seem to meet here is doubters and the Spanish are worse(not being racist, the love of my life is from Catalunya!) So I will be record shopping and have all my back catalogue on cd, so I can play both of these along side Live 5, just had a final practise in the studio before I'm off tomorrow morning, went well no problems.

Just got a trigger finger alongside the Uc33, much prefer to have filters assigned to the knobs cos offf better spacing and love launching with pads, two work nicely together.

Had to change to a bluetooth mouse to free up a Usb port, this wont eat up CPU?, worked ok on my dummy test just now.

I'll be giving it socks behind the decks, a stge dive isn't out of the question if the crowd are up for it, I think I'll have to stop myself from going to mad!!! the roo holds 3000!! check www.pachalapineda.com

thanks for all the advice, really helps a newbie like me

thanks a million

Paolo

telekom · Post by **telekom** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 11:33 pm

Hi Paolo,
Sounds like you've got it all under control mate. Only thing I might respond to from your original post is that you won't have a lot of time to get used to Trigger finger if you get it tomorrow... any issues that could be caused by that may be hard to spot in the next few days and deep into your 6am set would not be a good time to find out about them! You'll be fine though. You've got a back up situation all set up. Just keep interacting with the crowd and enjoy yourself. Incite the crowd!

Best of luck, hope it's a blinder...

paolo topaz · Post by **paolo topaz** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 12:17 am

Cheers for the post Telekom, I know what you mean about the triggers finger but all I'm using it for is the the filters(the knobs have so much more space between them and hence much nicer to use) and just the pads to launch the clips, I was getting worried about how much I was banging the keys on my G4 so the trigger finger can take thhe abuse.

I have the torch like always to interact with the crowd and have burned 100 cds to throw into the crowd, they have soft covers so they won't take anyone's eye out or slash anyone's forehead like Sasha managed with a record last year!

thanks for the posts and support

Paolo

MrYellow · Post by **MrYellow** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 12:37 am

Running ok at home is no guarantee that u won't get a ground loop at any
given venue. It can be caused by the wiring of the venue, depending on
what is on separate circuit breakers and what is all on the same line.

What's the benefit?

Not having a huge 50-60hz buzz going out at 130db

-Ben

dpel · Post by **dpel** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 1:18 am

dude,

break a leg.

don't worry. be natural,
have a good one.
dpel

paolo topaz · Post by **paolo topaz** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 4:16 am

cheers for the advice

I'll try to pick up an isolator tomorrow, do you guys just have the phonos from the soundcard running into the isolator and the phonos from the isolator running into the mixer?

does the extra connection have any significant signal to noise ratio effect?

thanks again

Paolo