Using Ableton With a Live Band

[lars14]

So my band has made the decision to incorporate some more electronic sounds and samples with the use of Ableton. We've got some samples made but are wondering how to play it from the computer LOUD while everyone is playing their instruments. Obviously the laptop speakers are going to cut it. We just need it to go through something portable right now so we can practice (Not the PA at a show).

Can we just play the computer through a guitar/bass amp? If so, what cables will we need?

Thanks

[pepezabala]

any amp will do, but you should probably have a look at either a keyboard or bass amp or a small PA/voice system. Guitar amps might colour the sound quite a bit. Also the speakers of guitar amps might suffer from certain low frequencies if you stress them too much.

[JAMM]

you need a little PA(speakers,mixer) or some powered speakers and a soundcard to output the audio from the laptop.

[Heiko]

just hook it up to your home stereo, works perfect for rehearsal. you don't even need to use a soundcard for that. at least here on my MacBook many rehearsals like this......
enjoy

[DessieK]

Be careful using standard hifi speakers
If you are trying to compete with drums you may need to drive them pretty hard,
and they are liable to break. - This has happened me before, granted they were a bit old.

For practice, if a p.a is not available, your best bet is any kind of guitar amp.

[Kilroy]

What does your vocalist sing through during rehearsals? Whatever that is, if you can mix your laptop into it, that would be your cheapest/easiest solution.

[lars14]

There is no stereo in the room we practice in and we do not have a vocalist. So our setup is drumset, bass amp, and guitar amp. We actually may have an extra bass amp that is smaller than the one for the bass guitar.

What kind of cable would I use to hook the computer to the amp?

[TroyP]

For practice, you can just get a Y cable, stereo mini plug (1/8 inch) to stereo or mono 1/4 plug. Then, use the headphones output and go into your amp. Not the best sound, but will do to help everyone get used to the click.

[Tekkas]

I do this at home with some friends and works well with an old gutsy two channel amp and half decent hifi speakers,or you could go for a small pa with a desk for some more versatility,or just a couple of powered PA speakers.The thing is you wanna come out in stereo so guitar/keyboard amps are cool but you will have to buy 2!I am either going to go for a small pa with desk or a couple of powered speakers eventually.

And while im here......

I jam with some mates using Ableton, we got a drummer, guitarist bass and vocals.ATM my role is little more than a keyboardist and i would like to make better use of live's potential.How do u go about keeping every 1 in sync w/out tapping the tempo in all the time.I thought about a midi trigger on the snare or bass drum tapping the tempo into live, or alternatively feeding a clik to the drummer.Anyone else out there use live like this and how do you do it?

[TroyP]

What we do, trying to stay in sync, is practice on our own with metronomes, drum machines, or with Live. Then, when we play together, we put some sort of sound that is tolerable on a track that runs the whole time. Not for live, but for practice. Everyone plays to that click.

[bulo]

Hey people, look at this thread.
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=110240

[Tekkas]

Nice one man, thx heaps.this is exactly the sort of thing i was looking for.I had this idea of some sort of trigger sensitive membraine over the snare drum and possibly the bass drum to feed midi back to ableton to tap tempo automatically(surely possible with electronic drums,tho maybe not that hard to DIY).Still just a concept that came to me and im not sure if it is practical or even possible.I've always loved "live" music in the traditional sense and with recent advances in the digital realm the mix between DJ style/live electronic performance and other muso's would be awesome......we're going beyond turntables here obviously (with respect) advancing the mpc concept which i have seen some bands achieve with fluid fusion (Jackson Jackson from Australia and i think TV On The Radio use similar techniques as well) and now with the launch of the APC the possibilities are really starting to open up.Off topic i guess the only thing that needs to be improved is Ableton's warping engine which i'm sure has been raised in another thread.I have tried everything with my warping technique even in repitch mode and i don't mean to be negative here cause apart from that ableton is a radical departure in realtime sonic manipulation , but the sound quality of the timestretching/(fancy word>) granular resynthesis is not that impressive.I dont have much to compare it to and not being aware of the technical issues involved maybe at this stage i am expecting too much but it is something that i think would be an important improvement and my only wish for this fine peice of software really.Just my pov.

May the best man/woman win,dont matter who......as long as it's someone.

Tekkas

[Sales Dude McBoob]

So my band has made the decision to incorporate some more electronic sounds and samples with the use of Ableton. We've got some samples made but are wondering how to play it from the computer LOUD while everyone is playing their instruments. Obviously the laptop speakers are going to cut it. We just need it to go through something portable right now so we can practice (Not the PA at a show).

Can we just play the computer through a guitar/bass amp? If so, what cables will we need?

Thanks

If you're going to use a guitar/bass/keyboard amp, you can plug the headphone output of the computer into the amp with this cable:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... le_to.html