The Live Set: Part 6

[synnack]

just curious.. why you aversion to audio mutes?

Now that you can expand drum racks in the mixer and map to the mute buttons on the individual racks, i'm not sure why midi mute is needed.

[arachnaut]

I am totally NOT using the library to find presets I have made or used in past sets.
...
For me it's way much easier to remember the name of a liveset, and to remember that I used this or that instrument/effect with it, than to remember where that preset is saved in the library.
...

Given the current state I think you are right. I wish I had
done something like this years ago.

Maybe, though, better search will be in Live 8.

[hoffman2k]

just curious.. why you aversion to audio mutes?

Now that you can expand drum racks in the mixer and map to the mute buttons on the individual racks, i'm not sure why midi mute is needed.

Audio mutes cut the sound completely. This means if I mute a long kick drum, the tail will be cut off. Resulting in a click/pop. The same goes for other sounds with longer releases and reverb tails. I want to stop them from playing, but while fading out gradually. Its also more fun to play with, you can do whatever the hell you like without messing up the sound quality.

[synnack]

just curious.. why you aversion to audio mutes?

Now that you can expand drum racks in the mixer and map to the mute buttons on the individual racks, i'm not sure why midi mute is needed.

Audio mutes cut the sound completely. This means if I mute a long kick drum, the tail will be cut off. Resulting in a click/pop. The same goes for other sounds with longer releases and reverb tails. I want to stop them from playing, but while fading out gradually. Its also more fun to play with, you can do whatever the hell you like without messing up the sound quality.

Good point. Cheers.

[ze2be]

just curious.. why you aversion to audio mutes?

Now that you can expand drum racks in the mixer and map to the mute buttons on the individual racks, i'm not sure why midi mute is needed.

Audio mutes cut the sound completely. This means if I mute a long kick drum, the tail will be cut off. Resulting in a click/pop. The same goes for other sounds with longer releases and reverb tails. I want to stop them from playing, but while fading out gradually. Its also more fun to play with, you can do whatever the hell you like without messing up the sound quality.

Thats exactly what I want to do also! How do you do that?

[hoffman2k]

just curious.. why you aversion to audio mutes?

Now that you can expand drum racks in the mixer and map to the mute buttons on the individual racks, i'm not sure why midi mute is needed.

Audio mutes cut the sound completely. This means if I mute a long kick drum, the tail will be cut off. Resulting in a click/pop. The same goes for other sounds with longer releases and reverb tails. I want to stop them from playing, but while fading out gradually. Its also more fun to play with, you can do whatever the hell you like without messing up the sound quality.

Thats exactly what I want to do also! How do you do that?

Have you read the complete post?

[ze2be]

Have you read the complete post?

No, and im really looking forward to have the time to do it!!

back to work..

[selthym]

Nice Blog, thanks for posting. Your test project makes me so damn frustrated though. You are getting more variation and 'sounds' out of just 4 clips than I have been getting out of 20. It shows how important tweaking controls can be.

Any chance you could upload a video of you playing that test project. I am really keen to see which controls/sounds are being manipulated.

Also are you using the midi mutes so that the midi is not recorded into the arrangement? Any other reasons why a midi mute is better than an audio mute?

I am now going to rethink my setup.

[hoffman2k]

Nice Blog, thanks for posting. Your test project makes me so damn frustrated though. You are getting more variation and 'sounds' out of just 4 clips than I have been getting out of 20. It shows how important tweaking controls can be.

Any chance you could upload a video of you playing that test project. I am really keen to see which controls/sounds are being manipulated.

Also are you using the midi mutes so that the midi is not recorded into the arrangement? Any other reasons why a midi mute is better than an audio mute?

I am now going to rethink my setup.

I will do a video in the later stages of the set. So far I'm still experimenting and documenting. What you read about in the blog post is by no means "the way to go".
Currently I'm at the point where I recorded my second test performance after adding the second track. I hope to have the complete write-up on that up in a few days. There may be some radical changes to the set by the time I record the third performance. I try not to think too far ahead (for now) and assert myself on keeping things simple.
I hope the article was detailed enough regarding my MIDI assignments. The only thing I could add are some pictures that show how my half empty BCR looks like, I'll put those pictures up later today.

[ze2be]

BTW, I figured out a cool thing about drum racks:

If you assign the 8 macros to the first simpler slot, and copy paste that simpler (with your preferd settings) to the other slots, you can now drop new samples in the simpers, and they will all be automatically assigned to the macros! Plus your simpler settings will stay in tact.

[synnack]

BTW, I figured out a cool thing about drum racks:

If you assign the 8 macros to the first simpler slot, and copy paste that simpler (with your preferd settings) to the other slots, you can now drop new samples in the simpers, and they will all be automatically assigned to the macros! Plus your simpler settings will stay in tact.

I never really understood the value in this. Nor the value in how the session drums are set up with the macros being global to every simpler.

Do people really apply the exact same attack and release and whatnot to every drum sample in a kit? Odd.

[ze2be]

BTW, I figured out a cool thing about drum racks:

If you assign the 8 macros to the first simpler slot, and copy paste that simpler (with your preferd settings) to the other slots, you can now drop new samples in the simpers, and they will all be automatically assigned to the macros! Plus your simpler settings will stay in tact.

I never really understood the value in this. Nor the value in how the session drums are set up with the macros being global to every simpler.

Do people really apply the exact same attack and release and whatnot to every drum sample in a kit? Odd.

No, but pitch bend is great. + loop length.. Especially for short samples, not just drums but sound effects, and abstract rythmic things. A drum rack is not only for drum sounds!
If you want to assign hundreds or thousands of macros every time you create a large drum rack, go ahead!

Wouldnt assign attack and release, but def sustain!

[R.J.Dubya]

Great blog idea Hoffman! Interesting to read. I am currently doing exactly the same thing as you - I am building my Live template in conjunction with my hardware, so that I can map out all controls in a sensible way and keep that as my track building template as well as performance setup. Once I set my limitations and map out my permanent controls, I think everything will be much quicker and more hands on during the writing phase, not just the end performance phase.

I've been thinking about my ultimate control setup for a couple years now, and finally sat down and drew a diagram of possible gear combinations that would give me control of everything I needed with no more than a button press.Also taking into account all combinations of controls that I may need simultaneously. For example, controlling send levels at the same time as the send effects parameters and track volume etc.

My set will be built around my bcr2000 and mpd32 (both of which are 'in the mail'), as well as my existing x-session pro and novation SL. I think I've found a good system and I'd be eager to share once I get things going! I was also thinking of starting a thread where people shared their controller setups, since there's so many ways of doing it.

cheers

[hoffman2k]

Part 2 is up. In this part I'm covering the process of adding a second song to the set.

The Live Set: Part 2

[hoffman2k]

The first article has just been updated so that it is clear why I prefer MIDI Mutes over Audio Mutes. The question started to pop up in my inbox too.

- Bjorn