Ableton Forum

My best advice ever in a concise space to anyone using Live, keeping in mind that my most daring years are over so if yours aren't feel free to ignore

Don't try to do anything serious on a laptop running only on battery power.
Cushion your laptop against sub bass vibrations when playing live.
Don't ever block the vents/fans on your laptop when playing live.
Keep the laptop away from liquid spills, a roll of paper towels handy never hurts also.
Use a checklist to make sure you have all the right cables you're going to need if you are going to a 'plug n play' type gig.
Make sure you are using the most recent drivers (and firmware if your interface allows firmware updates).
If you are using a PC, make sure your power options are set to ensure 100% CPU all the time (see above re: not using battery power).
Practice with Live and keep an eye on the CPU meter, see where you run into problems with clicks/pops, and avoid pushing the CPU that far when you play live.
Remember heat can affect your computer's performance.
Before taking a daytime outdoor gig, make sure you have a way to shroud your video monitor if you want to see what is happening on the screen.

Change ur skin to frost when u play in the daylight. Helps a lot.

Jekblad wrote:Change ur skin to frost when u play in the daylight. Helps a lot.

there you go, that too

my advice,
if ever in life you run into Stevie Wonder, it's probably your fault. So, take the blame.

advice ----> the pooper. stick it in. etc. etc.

Bring a small flashlight.
Bring two of every kind of connector you can imagine. RCA to XLR to 1/4 to 1/8, stereo splitters, balanced, etc.

bring an ipod or a zune or whatever when playing live. you never know when you may need to connect it....

save on your hard drive the drivers of your external units (soundcard, midi interface etc...)
it can happen that if you plug them into different usb ports as usual the system asks for the drivers again.

a pocket lamp of those that you can fix on your head will give you 2 free hands to work

if you don't write a checklist (which is actually a very good idea) be methodic and install/uninstall your gear using always the same principle (gear, electricity, midi and then audio...for example).

let only the people that really need to be there come on stage when you install/uninstall and play (the others are bad for your concentration)

even if you are a liveact, and don't need headphones, take a closed pair with to make tests during installation.

never let your gear alone on stage, and be careful after playing

speak with the other acts/djs before to play in order to see if you can find a way to have the shortest possible pause between the acts/djs. talk to the audio-guy also...

if you are playing live and the next is a dj, ask him not to mix his first record with your act, let some seconds to the people to realize the liveact is finished and someone else is coming

My recommendations:

A technical raider is the list of drinks you want at the venue. You can also ask for huge amplifiers, so it looks like Justice. Google "Iggy Pop technical raider" to get an idea of what is possible.

If a cable is missing, there are technicians around that can get one for you.

A laptopmusician doesn't need a soundcheck.

If they insist, do a soundcheck with itunes on 50% volume.

Attend phonecalls during soundcheck, could be important or beautiful people that need to be on the guestlist.

If you have free drinks, bring a couple of them on stage and distribute them everywhere so you always have one around, even if some fell over already and spilled.

During the gig, use itunes but on 100% volume. It will distort a little, but this makes it sound more "live". Make sure to only play hits.

Wave you hands in the air, like you just don't care. Move some knobs on the DJ-mixer, that looks good.

After the gig go partying, you deserve it. There are always some people that carry your stuff away from stage, sooner or later.

Invite your friends to be behind the stage during and after the gig. They should bring some girls, too. The other artists will love to have all of them around.

Make sure you get the money soon, so you can invite all the nice people to drinks at the next bar. If they don't pay you immedeately after the gig, start a fight. Violence is part of Rock'N'Roll.

Never Trust a fart.

Refrain from taking coupious amounts of strong LSD when traveleing to Australia as they realy do have giant spiders out there.

Try to find a career in something you enjoy. When you realize that means you're going to be dirt poor doing it then get a business degree and get a real job. Get married and have some kids and then wax poetic about how you almost made it in your dream career but then you had kids and they became your life.

beats me wrote:Try to find a career in something you enjoy. When you realize that means you're going to be dirt poor doing it then get a business degree and get a real job. Get married and have some kids and then wax poetic about how you almost made it in your dream career but then you had kids and they became your life.

Shortly afterwards, when you dear forum friend paints your pathetic life in the obvious, kill yourself painfully.

relating to ableton, the application Audio Finder.. if you have a large sample library, it's your best friend..

relating to life, you are what you think

nebulae wrote:

beats me wrote:Try to find a career in something you enjoy. When you realize that means you're going to be dirt poor doing it then get a business degree and get a real job. Get married and have some kids and then wax poetic about how you almost made it in your dream career but then you had kids and they became your life.

Shortly afterwards, when you dear forum friend paints your pathetic life in the obvious, kill yourself painfully.

Hey buddy, I don't have kids so what's my excuse? Pass the pills.