Ableton Forum

So my band is about to go on our first tour and first set of shows next month.
We're an electronic indie pop band. The band consists of two vocalists, a drummer
and myself on Ableton. (I also play guitar/keys ect)

So originally the way we were doing things is just having the already produced songs
parts in Ableton in the arrange view and just playing to the backing tracks and I'd play guitar.
That felt kinda Milli Vanilli so we're switching it up.

Now I have all of the core elements of each song cut into their basic loops
in the session view which I jam out with and have effects. I then feed a click from Ableton
to our drummers headphones so he can play in time with Ableton.

A few questions I have are. 1 I think it would be cool to run both of our
vocalists mics into Ableton so I could do some real time processing (ie Artillary/Lucifer ect)

However if that were the case our entire sound would be coming from my laptop
and I think we'd have a very unhappy FOH sound guy no?

Also with this being a slightly abnormal set up (specifically the fact that 100% of the music aside from vox/drums)
is coming from Ableton, I'm worried about the PA systems being able to effectively play back the audio.
If we were playing at some insane venue or a standard night club I wouldn't be worried, but we're playing everywhere
from NYC to Detroit to Missouri so I'm sure the venues will run the gamut when it comes to quality.

Also if anyone else has any general tips on how to spice things up or lower my stress level, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks
-Mike

p.s. in a live situation do you think its acceptable to use an electric guitar plugged into an Interface running
Amplitube/Guitar Rig. Or do you realllllly need a physical guitar amp to get that quality live guitar sound.

curious

are you running everything into ableton or just adding some loops, piano, effect with ableton??

Well the drums if they're mic'd will probably just go the house system. The vocals
are still undecided weather to run them into Ableton or just straight to the house (latency is the only concern)

Everything else is loops and synths and effects in Ableton and maybe a bit of Guitar Rig as well.

First of all, if you get a multiple input/output soundcard, you would make you and your soundman's life easier.

For guitar, the amp is way better than going directly in. The best solution to get no compromise is to get a Palmer speaker simulator with an amp.

you can use a multiple output soundcard

backink track output 1,2
vox output 3
vox 2 output 4

lower the latency as much as you can!

or you can split the signals from the vocal mics. one goes to the Foh, the second comes to you

my advice from my past experiences-

1) Go ahead and run everything thru Ableton. Also remember that there will always be latency in the house systems. it will occur due to electronics and the physical acoustics.

2) if you aren't already mic'ing the drums and you are expecting it to be taken care of at each venue, you will be sorely disappointed. have your drummer use his own mics and get it figured out ahead of time. the same goes for vocals.

3) since you are concerned about feeling "milli vanilli"-ish, you need to develop a strategy so your drummer can adjust/nudge tempos. having him/her just play to the click isn't going to cut it, IMHO. 83bpm WILL feel different in different venues and on different nights ... a slight nudge to 85bpm can yield completely different results/reactions. audiences and crowds change night from night and you guys need to play to your audience.

3a) if your drummer doesn't think about playing to the audience, fire him and use a drum machine

i have a lot more to say regarding how to handle FOH strategy but i think i need to step off my soapbox for a second