Ableton Forum

In a fit of silliness I formed a New Order cover band. Bass, guitar and vocals are live, everything else I sequenced using only Live instruments (except for the infernal DX7 Bass which I sampled into Simpler)

Now, assuming Live will chug away relatively untouched during the songs, what is the best way to set up the show? Off the top of my head, I think I'll render each full song-length track out of the Arrangement page and bring it back as an unwarped clip in Session. Each song will be a scene made up of anywhere from 8-16 tracks.(Ehhhh, probably 8. I'll gang some of the tracks together.) This gives me hardware control over volume and panning, but not much else. All I have to do is click one little triangle before each song and forget about it.

Probably about as much as I need, but it seems an awful waste of Live's features. What if I want to play some keyboards? Live won't even let me change instruments and effects without dicking around massively. It's really just a studio toy when it comes to playing instruments in a Live setting. (Time for a name change?)

Anyone have any SIMPLE ideas for using Live in this way? I can't sing, jump around, play bass and still dick with Live much. It's great when I DJ, but it's quite useless for a live band setting. I have a one track mind.

Someone please tell me something that makes me go EUREKA!

do you have a midi foot controller?
if not you should get one.

i use ableton in a duo
sometimes i'm playing ableton using my mpd's and newly acquired apc 40
other times i play bass and control ableton with my feet.

keep it simple
some songs i just trigger an unwarped unquantized clip which is the mix down of my backing tracks. it is easy to mix because it is just drums and some strings or what ever but mostly drums because we play everything else.

other songs i play ableton so its set up a bit different.
but i use audio clips as much as possible and if i dont tweak an effect i render in the clip.


for the keyboard preset thing
it takes s little bit of planning but you can set up instrument racks and use the chain selector to switch between instruments.
also allot of third party vsts except program change data..

you can also set your midi input to a specific midi channel on your keyboard then switch your keyboard to different midi channels to play the different instruments.

their is so many options.
i have 1 rule..
i do not touch my computer when i perform live.

bosonHavoc wrote:i do not touch my computer when i perform live.

What if you get an important e-mail!?

outershpongolia wrote:

bosonHavoc wrote:i do not touch my computer when i perform live.

What if you get an important e-mail!?

o thats midi mapped too baby

j/k

ducktail wrote: Each song will be a scene made up of anywhere from 8-16 tracks.(Ehhhh, probably 8. I'll gang some of the tracks together.) This gives me hardware control over volume and panning, but not much else. All I have to do is click one little triangle before each song and forget about it.

What do you mean by this?

+1 foot controller.

Yes, you can change instruments and effects on the fly, and do tons of other things Live as well. If the problem is that you can't perform all of your other functions and control Live, there are ways around that too. Check out dummy clips, both audio and midi. You can automate entire sequences of effects/instrument changes and manipulations. You're going to have to do some work and get creative about it.

Also, I am struggling to envision your song structures with just 1 scene/8 clips, unless the clips in your scene are full portions of the song with follow actions, ie intro, V1, V2, Ch, Bridge, V3, outro etc/whatever in order to punch just 1 triangle for go.

Also, am I wrong to think that you just can't pre load an instrument into a clip slot in your scene thats not included in your follow actions, then record enable it to play but not actually record?

I think each scene is it's own entire song. Each instrument or instrument group is it's own track. So hitting the scene plays the entire song, no follow actions.

ethios4 wrote:I think each scene is it's own entire song. Each instrument or instrument group is it's own track. So hitting the scene plays the entire song, no follow actions.

Each song will be a scene made up of anywhere from 8-16 tracks.(Ehhhh, probably 8.

I am reading that as 8 columns/tracks and 1 row/scene in session, so as to control vol and pan of various components.

Ethios and gjm, you are absolutely correct.

I will minimize to 8 "channels" by submixing some of the arrangement tracks. No point in 4 different string pads each having their own fader for example.


Damn, I LOVE that "I never touch the computer live"! That's the goal!

Ciao

Still doesn't make sense.

gjm wrote:Still doesn't make sense.

Well then I guess you're no help then..