My first gig with Ableton Live6 and Korg Zero4

helixx · Post by **helixx** » Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:55 pm

getting back from my first time playing out with the zero4 and thought i'd post here and let you all know how it went.

first my setup:
very minimal -- powerbook G4, zero4.... that's IT. i'd love to add a CD player to that for backup and options. maybe after i get my bonus at work this year...

ableton live 6 is running on the laptop and i have a live set containing 4 tracks, each with an EQ3 plug-in for lo-cuts. i have all of the songs in wav format on the computer that i think i might need for the set. there were a couple of select mp3s in there that i didn't have a wav for but other than that, wav was the way. i really didn't need as much as I had but i feel better having options.

each track in ableton is mapped to one of 3 channels in the zero4 and the ableton cue track is mapped to one as well so I can preview tracks in the browser. i try to have a ton of tracks in my set beforehand though so it doesn't have to generate analysis files on-the-fly. because of problems in the past with ableton, i'm extremely sensitive to processor occupancy so i want to keep as much strain off of my old-ass computer as possible. the 4th channel on the zero4 is MIDI only. it controls my tempo (volume slider), lo-cuts (the cue buttons), track volumes and that's pretty much it. i have some free controls but i wanted to keep things simple the first time out.

so how did it work? perfectly. in every freaking way it was flawless. processor occupancy was never above 14% and that was with two tracks using Complex warping, usually occupancy was below 7%. all of the effects were used on the zero4 and they sounded great on a loud system. i had practiced enough to get a solid workflow down and it paid off because there were no mistakes, glitches or drop-outs and everything went off without a hitch.

the zero4 was the exact tool i was looking for. it offloaded the effects that were killing my computer, it gave me multiple channels so i can now cue effectively and create some flawless mixes and drops. oh and it looked really ferking cool with all of those pretty lights! i felt like i had total command of the mix, something that i could never say with confidence before.

i hate to sound like a shill for Korg but i was really stressing about last night and after it all went off like a charm, i felt the need to share. thanks to those in the threads here for the help and opinions. if anyone has any questions, i'll reply here or you can PM me.

thanks,

H.

rompling · Post by **rompling** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:45 am

Did your zero 4 have the dreaded hiss ?
Love to get one for all the things you describe at your gig and more but have been put off by people saying the outputs hiss baby
Sounds like your rocked your gig then

helixx · Post by **helixx** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 8:34 pm

no hiss that heard and it was pretty cranked.

kucharo · Post by **kucharo** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:09 pm

I just picked up a Zero4, but I'm running Live 7 now so the special Korg Live 6 is no use to me. Can you tell what, aside from the limitations, is specific to the Korg version? Does it come with a special Live template?

Unfortunately I'm already experiencing the hiss problem, but it's not entirely clear if the Korg is at fault. It isn't horrible, just annoying.

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:28 pm

kucharo wrote:I just picked up a Zero4, but I'm running Live 7 now so the special Korg Live 6 is no use to me. Can you tell what, aside from the limitations, is specific to the Korg version? Does it come with a special Live template?

Unfortunately I'm already experiencing the hiss problem, but it's not entirely clear if the Korg is at fault. It isn't horrible, just annoying.

a mod kit to fix it will be available soon

davkey · Post by **davkey** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 11:55 pm

how big is your latency with the zero4 (in the audio options)? how is the quality of the firewire audio card, would you recommend the audio card for producing? iam thinking about selling my apogee duet and my vestax vci 100 controller and buyig the zero4 as all-in-one solution...

Damon_Chambers · Post by **Damon_Chambers** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:29 am

i took my zero4 back. when you go from full audio to full midi control per channel there is a horrid audio dropout. i REALLY wish that wasnt so, as fixing that problem as well as letting you customize more midi control would have made it the absolute perfect ableton dj mixer imo.

Damon_Chambers · Post by **Damon_Chambers** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:31 am

davkey wrote:how big is your latency with the zero4 (in the audio options)? how is the quality of the firewire audio card, would you recommend the audio card for producing? iam thinking about selling my apogee duet and my vestax vci 100 controller and buyig the zero4 as all-in-one solution...

there is no latency compensation (or much of any audio control, for that matter) in zero edit, and the sound card is decent, but not on par at all with the smaller "travel" sized audio cards. this is not going to be a good production piece of hardware at all.