Opening Sets While Performing

[doncolga]

Hey,

I'd like to use Live for my backup while I play keyboards/guitar/vocals. I'm planning to have each song with it's own set and use a foot controller to control the arrangment as I play.

I need to be able to see as many sets as possible in one window so I can open them quickly. Would the best approach here be just to have a window open displaying all me sets and open then as needed? Is there another approach here?

Thanks,

Donny

[mazmith]

if your not improving with your backing, take each track and render it. then bring them all into one set as clips. even if you are improving, still make the clips, just add any fx or make loops of the sections. you can then decide how long they will play for on the fly. having one set is a definite +1 for performance.

[giggedy]

I think you meant improvising, not improving. But yeah, if there aren't any improvisations, then render it and load up all your tracks into one live set.

[mazmith]

sorry, lol. didn't really think about that. i always refer to it as improv or improv-ing. not improving, lol.

[segwist]

If you have each song as a Clip in Session view, you can make us of the Follow actions.

More here: http://www.ableton.com/pages/tips/2004_11

[doncolga]

Can I make more than one loop for a given audio clip? Make a loop for the verse, another loop for the chorus, another loop for the bridge, then trigger each loop as needed off a keyboard or foot petal? That would be slick and save me a ton of time.

if your not improving with your backing, take each track and render it. then bring them all into one set as clips. even if you are improving, still make the clips, just add any fx or make loops of the sections. you can then decide how long they will play for on the fly. having one set is a definite +1 for performance.

[mazmith]

yeah, take the whole songs and throw them into session view. then duplicate, set loop to on, loop the sections you want, then map the clips to a controller. it's that simple.

[doncolga]

OK, I'm following that, but I'm not following how all the clips from different songs will be arranged in session view in one set. Say I've got five different clips for one song, one clip is the whole song, then four different loop sections, each assigned to a controller. I can see that being in one set, but how will I handle multiple songs in one set, say each with five clips?

yeah, take the whole songs and throw them into session view. then duplicate, set loop to on, loop the sections you want, then map the clips to a controller. it's that simple.

[Warrior Bob]

I'm interested in this too... instinctually I want to write all my "songs" in Ableton as separate sets but there does not appear to be an easy way to smoothly transition from one set to another that I can find, though I'm still pretty new to it

Perhaps a set really is a set, which is to say, an entire performance? So if I want to perform multiple songs I should be setting them up to work in the same set?

Thanks in advance for the help!

[mazmith]

yeah, don't even use a clip for the whole track. just the five or so parts you may want to extend or shorten. map two of your buttons on your foot controller to move up and down scenes. then map one of your foot pedals to launch the highlighted clip in your channel. say your making a set of 15 songs. 75 clips or so? you only need one channel and 3 foot switches. set your last clip in each song to loop off so it ends, ya know? if you want to extend that clip, just hit the pedal again.

[jj0b]

I produce my songs in seperate sets. I then render them and import each complete song into a clip in a set I use for performance. I put each song on its own channel and duplicate the clip to make different looped sections. By having the songs chopped into sections I am able to imporvise the arrangement. By having the songs on seperate channels I am able to transission from song to song using the crossfader.

Another thing I have enjoyed doing is to make some extra channels that contain loops taken from the songs I am working with. I will heavily process these loops and find some combinations that sound good together and then map a bunch of effect parameters to manipulate the sounds live. I then use these mangled mash ups as transitions between songs. I end up with repeating motifs throughout my set that helps to gel everything together and I often find that these transitions are some of my favourite sonic moments in my set. Good plain improvised fun.

[doncolga]

OK, following that. Here's another question...how are songs with different tempos handled within one set? Won't all the clips need to be warped so they start properly?

Thanks VERY much!

Donny

yeah, don't even use a clip for the whole track. just the five or so parts you may want to extend or shorten. map two of your buttons on your foot controller to move up and down scenes. then map one of your foot pedals to launch the highlighted clip in your channel. say your making a set of 15 songs. 75 clips or so? you only need one channel and 3 foot switches. set your last clip in each song to loop off so it ends, ya know? if you want to extend that clip, just hit the pedal again.

[mazmith]

if you have live 6 or better, you can right click on any scene and create a bpm change for launching it. live 7 or 8 and u can set the master time signature for scenes as well.

[nuxvomo]

if you have live 6 or better, you can right click on any scene and create a bpm change for launching it. live 7 or 8 and u can set the master time signature for scenes as well.

Handy!