Is anyone not doing ambient/electronica/dance/techno here?

forgie · Post by **forgie** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 12:07 pm

Is there anyone recording predominantly real instruments in Live? I am a musician not a producer (yet

). I bought Live because I appreciate the philosophy, manipulability and workflow, but I don't yet have an audio interface to record with. Soft synths in Live 5 on a low powered computer suck pretty majorly, but I've still had a bit of fun and come up with a track or two (I don't have any other software/synths, so I've been trying challenge myself by seeing what I can get out of just Impulse and Simpler)....

spiderprod · Post by **spiderprod** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 1:21 pm

what's a real instrument for you?

forgie · Post by **forgie** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 2:31 pm

Something that I create sound with by giving it my own physical energy? (it took me a few moments to think of an all-encompassing response there!)

Guitar (electric and acoustic), voice, piano, trumpet.... you know what I meant by real instrument. Perhaps I should've said 'acoustic instrument', since some of the more righteous electronic musos might take offense at the notion that synths aren't 'real'. By the way the V in VST stands for "virtual", the complement of which is "real". So lets not get pedantic arguing over terminology?

Let me re-phrase - who out there is using live predominantly with acoustic instruments?

Nod · Post by **Nod** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 2:53 pm

forgie wrote: Let me re-phrase - who out there is using live predominantly with acoustic instruments?

Yep - tho' in fact I'll use it for just about anything Live is a great tool for 'perfecting', rather than correcting, a live perfomance. I tend to think of Live as almost an 'uber-quantise' function for audio rather than simply MIDI - and given you have complete control over the individual 'quantise' via warp markers it's actually far more useful. Certainly when you're trying to get a mix out of the door to the mastering and a member of the band says 'can you just....' it's a lot less hassle than a complete retake.

sunrarara · Post by **sunrarara** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 2:54 pm

yeah i am using it with acoustic guitar, vocals and sax /clarinet

of course I sprinkle them with a bit of electronics but 90% is real live instruments, as opposed to virtual ones

www.myspace.com/darkcaptain

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 2:55 pm

I've recently moved into vocals-only looping for some of my tracks.

forgie · Post by **forgie** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 3:00 pm

What audio interfaces are you guys using? How well do they work for you? I'm thinking of getting a Presonus Firebox, since that would allow me to do have a portable interface as well if I get a better/bigger interface down the line.

hivemind · Post by **hivemind** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 3:26 pm

yeah i use it for looping guitar and bass live, accompanied by a drummer who is also running through Live for some light effects. we use some home-made beat loops and ambient things too, mostly for adding texture and complimenting the music.

although much of what we do falls under "ambient"... just made with non-virtual intruments.

we use a MOTU 896 (the older one, not the HD version) and it works fine, although we don't have a full "no-latency" setup. we monitor through Live and the latency is decent. depending on our setup, we can get ~8 msec latency which is playable IMO. many newer firewire interfaces have some sort of near-zero latency so if you don't need effects while recording then you have no worries timing-wise.

spiderprod · Post by **spiderprod** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:05 pm

i mutitrack rock bands & do concerts recording with live using an 828mk2 & some adat converters .

gomi · Post by **gomi** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:18 pm

forgie wrote:Is there anyone recording predominantly real instruments in Live? I am a musician not a producer (yet ). I bought Live because I appreciate the philosophy, manipulability and workflow, but I don't yet have an audio interface to record with. Soft synths in Live 5 on a low powered computer suck pretty majorly, but I've still had a bit of fun and come up with a track or two (I don't have any other software/synths, so I've been trying challenge myself by seeing what I can get out of just Impulse and Simpler)....

yah i use guitars and drums and stuff.
we are just wrapping up a little web ep in live.. basically us live
in the rehearsal space. works well (although we used sonar to track
the drums as it's a little more flexible)

pbajzek · Post by **pbajzek** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:04 pm

I use Live as an elaborate mixer/FX processor/multitrack looping device for my 8-string tapping guitar. Of course, Live also gives me access to virtual synths and drum loops, so I try to take full advantage, depending on my needs at the time. I don't like the term "ambient," but my guitar music is definitely "atmospheric/electronic." I also make more dancey music at times, but the post was about real instruments...

Anyway, I use a Firebox or M-Audio Ozonic depending on the situation, and both work well. The Firebox is definitely much better, but the Ozonic gets the job done for the most part, and includes a keyboard for when I need one.

cbass · Post by **cbass** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:09 pm

I use live in a three piece electro/pop/trance band...
one guy on acustic guitar and vocals,
myself and the other guy switching from live, to bass, to hardware synths...

we have a multimix 8 firewire by alesis, we are lacking the live monitoring because we cant seem to get the latency configured properly.. but the mulitmix acts as a mixer too, so its not that big of a deal,

i will loop vocal lines and contruct textures on the fly with live, thats pretty fun...

we are currently using live to record an ep which is going well, the other guy comes from a protools background but is really starting to grasp live...

DeadlyKungFu · Post by **DeadlyKungFu** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:15 pm

I've used Live to learn songs on the guitar, loops a section, listen, slow it down, jam over it, on to the next section..

Some songs I do are reggae, reggae guitar is tons 'o fun, basic piano chops are fun/easy too. I've recorded guitar, turntable scratching, singing, Rhodes, whatever. Then there's the .vsts, drums, synths, etc.

It was fun to record my luddite father in law playing guitar, he was amazing how easy it was to make loops of his playing and soloing.

My interface is a Roland VM3100 (no RPC card) running in/out of a Echo Gina sound card. I use my Stanton TT mixer to run vocals, the 3100's pre-amps blow chunks.

Range of music goes from blues to total freaking noise to mix tape DJ sets.

cherry-k · Post by **cherry-k** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:21 pm

Hi Forgie,

at the I am using life to write "real songs"

in different styles for an album. I record guitars, bass and vocals through an m-audio delta 66 (guitars through tube amps, cabinets and microphones - I like it better than the virtual stuff, ans bass direct though a tube preamp into mixer), and use impulse for drum programming and simpler and operator with keyboards and guitar to midi as guitarsynth for the fx-stuff. The delta 66 is quite good and fits my needs in the moment, but not mobile. But when I have a little more money I will definitevely buy a RME Muliface with pci and pcmcia, also to be able to perform the written stuff with a minimalistic band.

greets

c.

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 7:04 pm

I combine loops, samples, and virtual instruments with external synths, vocals, guitars, basses, and anything that makes noise that works for the song. I use an RME Multiface and get about 3ms latency. I think that as we mature in terms of making music, the whole concept of "real" instruments changes and eventually disappears...it's not about whether something is made with your energy or a sampleset that is made by someone else's energy...I think it comes down to what is a good sound that works for the song you are creating. I've blurred a lot of lines (like electronic rock, or house music with guitars, or techno without 303) and it's worked nicely. As a tool for recording "real" instruments, Live as good as your sound card and the acoustic environment in which you capture your audio. Once captured, Live is EXCEPTIONAL as manipulating your audio into all sorts of sonic masturbation. My motto: have fun, and masturbate often.

Is anyone not doing ambient/electronica/dance/techno here?

Is anyone not doing ambient/electronica/dance/techno here?

Re: Is anyone not doing ambient/electronica/dance/techno her