For all you gear guys...

[forge]

oh my

[seminole1221]

heck, he should put an ad out in the church, surely there's a drummer in the congregation, lots more fun to play with a real drummer.

Actually we have 4 drummers on rotation...we're adding the loops as a live element to add depth and get creative.

[seminole1221]

Yeahhhhh....and I didn't stumble across any lesbian threads....I had to lead two band practices and play for a service... It's tough being a working musician.

[Tone Deft]

heck, he should put an ad out in the church, surely there's a drummer in the congregation, lots more fun to play with a real drummer.

Actually we have 4 drummers on rotation...we're adding the loops as a live element to add depth and get creative.

hey man, you're back!!

I think there's a little ambiguity about what your needs are.

if you're up for some crazy creativity, easy recording and all that, Live is great fun to play with, but it's no toy, it can sound as good as the person using it.

spend good money on a sound card to get your audio latency down to under 10mS.

then mics and/or pre-amps (most quality sound cards have good guitar and mic pres).

but we've been speculating wildly about what you might need, only you can settle this madness.

or just sit back while we continue to rant.

[seminole1221]

Alright guys...I'll settle this...Here's what I NEED to accomplish.

1. I need something that I can create drum loops from scratch.

2. I need to split the signal to where I can send it to my Avioms and to a direct box to be sent to our control room.

3. This more than likely WILL be ran live opposed to dropping it on a cd and playing it on a player.

4. We are NOT replacing our drummer. It's an 8 piece band. If you're wondering how I'll be using it...go here: http://www.myspace.com/newlifeworshipexperience
And listen to "Everlasting God" We are very similar to this Church.

Hope this clears it up...

[Pitch Black]

Good call on using Live instead of CD's. If for no other reason than you can up the tempo on-the-fly without changing pitch if you guys are all feelin' it. No need to be locked down to a studio-feel click when you need to soar.

[dcease]

sounds like live would be perfect...

try the demo, if you have access to a laptop, grab it, and hook it up at practice, after becoming comfortable with the program, of course=) real easy to get to grips with, tutorials are great, and you can get straight answers from the forum, a lot of these guys are awful helpful, if a little crude, from time to time=)

but i think you would really be able to get creative with live, it really is a wonderful program, limited by your imagination/everyone here's imagination. sure there is some gripes, but i think you would be hard pressed to find too many true haters of live here.

so gearwise, it depends on what you want to spend, really. mac/pc, they both run live. get what YOU are most comfortable getting. interfaces, the more you spend, usually the more you get, seems you only need a few in/outs, but you might want to expand later... i hear a lot of bad things about m-audio interfaces, and a few good things, but other than that, it seems most people are happy with their interfaces, through out the various brands.

there is some good advice scattered about in the thread, amongst the craziness...

[Sales Dude McBoob]

Alright guys...I'll settle this...Here's what I NEED to accomplish.

1. I need something that I can create drum loops from scratch.

2. I need to split the signal to where I can send it to my Avioms and to a direct box to be sent to our control room.

3. This more than likely WILL be ran live opposed to dropping it on a cd and playing it on a player.

4. We are NOT replacing our drummer. It's an 8 piece band. If you're wondering how I'll be using it...go here: http://www.myspace.com/newlifeworshipexperience
And listen to "Everlasting God" We are very similar to this Church.

Hope this clears it up...

Lots of audio interfaces have multiple outputs. The RME I suggested has 6 analog TRS outs on the back, so you can easily route the sounds you create to your Aviom system, DIs, whatever you want. "Easily" is the key word here. Live is fun and easy and pro to the hilt.

The stuff I suggested is all the good stuff. You can do the same sort of thing on a shoestring budget as well, that's the beauty. In a professional setting like yours, I would still go with the gear that's earned its reputation and spend a few hundred more.

You may also want to consider getting a Korg PadKontrol instead of the Novation since you're doing more beat oriented work.

McDude - wait, so in your opinion NONE of the drum machines out there should be played over a PA??

I really don't know what they hell you're talking about here, TD.

[aeon]

contemporary church

...

smarmy cunt

well, that went well.

[Tone Deft]

NONE of the drum machines out there should be played over a PA??

I really don't know what they hell you're talking about here, TD.[/quote]
it's not an issue anymore really but I thought the OP might get use from a Boss DR880 drum machine which you shot down. doesn't really matter.

WWJD? he could turn rocks into MPCs.

[aeon]

jesus could warp time on complex mode without any audible artefacts.

[laird]

Alright guys...I'll settle this...Here's what I NEED to accomplish.

1. I need something that I can create drum loops from scratch.

2. I need to split the signal to where I can send it to my Avioms and to a direct box to be sent to our control room.

3. This more than likely WILL be ran live opposed to dropping it on a cd and playing it on a player.

4. We are NOT replacing our drummer. It's an 8 piece band. If you're wondering how I'll be using it...go here: http://www.myspace.com/newlifeworshipexperience
And listen to "Everlasting God" We are very similar to this Church.

Hope this clears it up...

Yes, indeed! In which case I think you will enjoy Live more than a drum machine or Reason. If you just needed drum loops, then there are cheaper options than a laptop+live+soundcard

but if you are adding this to a band with a drummer, you need more power, and Live can supply this. So can an MPC, which someone brought up here... just depends on what you are more comfortable with, a Laptop with an OS that might crash, or trying to strain your eyes all the time on a small LCD screen and no mouse.

One thing you might want to strategize about now is how you will sync up your loops with a drummer. Live drummers with groove don't mix well with machine drummers (at least not without some effort).

You can send a click track to your drummer and have him/her play along with the computer, and you'll need a multi-out soundcard for this. The RME was brought up. Compare that to the Edirol series, like the FA-101 or FA-66.


Personally, I hate having drummers sync up to machines. Its often easier, as drummers are ususally more versatile than machines... but... well, if you want robot beats, just use a robot, not a person.

The other option is to sync up your machine to your drummer, and this will take someone operating your machine. Live is the best tool out there for turning your machine (laptop) into an instrument, imo. But ask around here to see how people get Live to play well with a person. Some people just tap tempos and use the tempo nudge to correct Live when the drummer speeds up a bit or down a bit. There are also beat-detecting machines out there you can hook up between your drummer and Live.

You dont have to figure out how you are going to do it before you even try, but its worth some thought.

[CBirkholz]

With the amount of flexibility and intuition that live offers I don't think you can go wrong. I could be happy mangling beats in live for years to come. Who knows, maybe Live will spark some creativity!?

Best wishes,

-J

[mikemc]

SDMcB's suggestion about the RME is good, and it is true re: quality sound in services, you don't want people distracted by poor sound.

You might want to consider a desktop as opposed to a laptop/notebook if you don't plan to move the system around, this way you can get more computing horsepower for less money.

I always suggest that people get the "next step down fromthe top of the line" CPU chip at the time they are considering buying. Look at the $1200 range desktop setups at dell.com or hp.com to get an idea of what CPU/features that pricerange gets you. You're looking at $3K-$4K total expenditure with a better interface like RME, computer, and Live.

[underhill]

I believe in the Bible



Hell, I've even seen one.