Ableton Forum

Out of interest...

...how many of you play your own music live to an audience? Whether to thousands of paying punters or just unpaid, it all counts...

Was wondering how many Live users really play live, or want to do it, and how many have no interest in doing it and are content to make music for themselves or not to be performed live...?

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Do you mean use Ableton Live in a Live situation, or just play anything live?

I play instruments live (Keyboards, guitar, Maschine beats) and I tend to use Ableton to host the plug-ins I'm playing, but I've not yet played a purely Ableton set. Been meaning to forever though. Every once in a while will do some live looping of clips with the APC40, but still in a band context.

I want to play my work out live. I think in 6 months time I may be ready. Last year I thought I could but on reflection I am glad I held back.

glitchrock-buddha wrote:Do you mean use Ableton Live in a Live situation, or just play anything live?

I play instruments live (Keyboards, guitar, Maschine beats) and I tend to use Ableton to host the plug-ins I'm playing, but I've not yet played a purely Ableton set. Been meaning to forever though. Every once in a while will do some live looping of clips with the APC40, but still in a band context.

Good question. I guess I was just imagining what I'm used to - laptop running Ableton Live and then midi controllers, synths, etc, but yes, any live performance where there's a laptop running Ableton Live somewhere will do...

Yep. Little ol' gig in London village, should be once a month but I end up doing one every two months...cos it takes me that long to get a set together.

Not much, but yes.

i used to play a lot and pretty regular live with just the korg er-1 and ea-1 and a DJ mixer,
but our days just a bit, mainly because of time, i am deep down inside a DJ by heart, so most of my appearances are DJ-ing, preferably all night long on my own.

but i am on the way to get again more performance stuff going.

Done a few gigs purely with Ableton Live. Actually think it has held my electronic stuff back because I'm always thinking "How the fuck would I do this live", now I've got a Launchpad, probably be more confident to bounce more things to audio and 'play' it like that.

Don't get many gigs though, in the town I live, you're either a musician playing 'real' instruments or a DJ, a musician using a laptop and a couple of MIDI controllers doesn't fit in anywhere.

I have for years. Funny thing is I started out uber live, controlling 16 tracks doing it all on the fly with drum machines etc etc... then that whittled down to the laptop and midi controllers... then that got whittled down to 8 tracks and midi controllers..... then that got whittled down to 4 tracks..... until now I pretty much DJ my own tunes because it's much less stress and it sounds sooooo much better as I've been able to mix/master the heck out of them in the studio

What I noticed is in general over this timeframe is that nobody gives a shit how live you are except for the chinstrokers. As long as you sound good and know how to rock it and apply a little variation to match the crowd, you're good to go.

I plan on it this year. Just moved my Mac and my Kurz PC3x into a rehearsal studio this weekend. Being loud rules, but I'm finding that I really need an APC or a Launchpad or something. Maybe both.

Can't wait to be playing live..

We've played for our friends at our practice spot, and we've done some laptop + controllers at parties but we really just want to play some festivals around here in the Midwest, that would be our long term goal.

I play live in a band using Live as my main program containing the backing tracks and some loops and samples, and Guitar Rig for my guitar (what a surprise ), sometimes I play electronic music as a dj using Live and midi controllers , and sometimes I do Live acts along with a dj friend of mine using real synths,drum machines,samplers,cdj's and guess what... Ableton Live on my Macbook Pro.

^ sounds like smorgasbord of Live fun.

I do a weekly gig here down the road and I use live hosting some reaktor ensembles and different wacky racks in a funky improvised (MMW meets Nomo meets computers) bass playing situation. And then on the Holidays DJ with live for my friends' parties. NYE some drunk girl fell on my mbp and bent it so it wont close.

I was like ... "if you had a penis, we'd have a serious problem" but I kind of just let it slide. But then some dude was using the box my computer was on as an arm rest, with a drink in his hand, and had the nerve to glare at ME when I apologetically moved his arm and briefly tried to describe how my computer is at this moment irreplaceable. Dick head. I immediately realized why people act like jerks about that stuff now. I'm too timid.

q.musgrove wrote:I do a weekly gig here down the road and I use live hosting some reaktor ensembles and different wacky racks in a funky improvised (MMW meets Nomo meets computers) bass playing situation. And then on the Holidays DJ with live for my friends' parties. NYE some drunk girl fell on my mbp and bent it so it wont close.

I was like ... "if you had a penis, we'd have a serious problem" but I kind of just let it slide. But then some dude was using the box my computer was on as an arm rest, with a drink in his hand, and had the nerve to glare at ME when I apologetically moved his arm and briefly tried to describe how my computer is at this moment irreplaceable. Dick head. I immediately realized why people act like jerks about that stuff now. I'm too timid.

MMW? fuck yeah, where's some links?

Cool - thanks a lot for voting! A way higher proportion of live and to-be live players than I expected; I thought it would be more 50/50.

Keep the votes coming in...!