Ableton Forum

Hi all,

I love Live, but one thing that I keep coming up against is a problem with state.
I'm wondering if anyone can chime in here and give me some pointers on how they manage multiple states within a more CPU-friendly session.

Here are some thoughts on what I'd like to be able to do:

1. have an instrument that i like, such as operator, but quickly switch between presets of it instead of having to hot-swap, which is a-synchronous and causes hiccups in the audio. i don't like having multiple instances of operator that are tweaked to my liking sitting in the session hogging CPU.
2. make use of transitions so that i can go from one state of my set to another easily. what do people like to do for this? i know that it would depend on the type of transition, but i'm curious as to what people's approaches are.
3. manage the set during a performance - what are some of your all's favorite controllers? i'm really not into faders that aren't motorized, so i guess the ipad would be a good way to go; not sure. i like the build of the apc and such; just don't like how clunky it is to switch banks with controllers like that.
4. switch sets of effects quickly - how do people usually do this? group them within other groups and mute/unmute?
5. where can i find more libraries of sounds and presets? is there a good site for these? What about a good place to audition sounds instead of having to plop them into my sets? This isn't the fastest process; which is why I ask...

Thanks for any and all replies to the above queries.
jml

Use racks. I use a different chain of synth + multiple effects for each song on my midi tracks and effect racks with a different chain for each song on my audio tracks, then modulate the chain selector with the clip envelopes.

is this somehow cheaper than having instances on tracks? i've tried this btw... seemed like a good idea from the standpoint of being able to have more control over CPU

Yup. Only one chain in your rack is active at any one time. Also saves screen real estate for performing live - a set with 12 tunes in it, taking a different track for e.g. the lead synth would be over half my screen gone (and some messy controller assignments). With racks, the lead synth is always on the same track, always the same fader on my faderfoxes, and I don't have 12 chains of instruments and effects sitting there active.

Also, use sends/returns for any effects you want to use across multiple tracks to conserve more CPU. I have at the very least a reverb and a couple of delays on return tracks.

awesome. this is all great advice. thanks a ton! i've always wanted to start organizing sets like this.
it makes way more sense.

there are other programs like renoise that would never be able to allow for that type of flexibility.
i mean; it feels "hacky", but at least it works!

thanks
jml

p.s. anyone else want to weigh in on the other bits?

do you mean that if i have 50 analog loaded in a rack, only 1 uses cpu at any time when the chain is selected?

cause i need to load probably 2 or 300 or them to have all bases covered, plus multidrum racks i have yet to figure hot to manage

also, say i load 100 drum racks but they share lots of samples between them, do live load every sample only once or will it load for example 14 samples for every drum rack regardless of if only 1 snare changed between the 2 kits?

I think what was implied was- not when it's selected, but when one chain is active and the others are not.
It's a bit to manage, but worth it since you gain more functionality out of your computer.

Regarding your question about samples- It's my understanding that Live is smart about duplicate files, but I am not a developer there. This would be a question for the devs. Devs?

Yup. Only one chain in your rack is active at any one time. Also saves screen real estate for performing live - a set with 12 tunes in it, taking a different track for e.g. the lead synth would be over half my screen gone (and some messy controller assignments). With racks, the lead synth is always on the same track, always the same fader on my faderfoxes, and I don't have 12 chains of instruments and effects sitting there active.

Hm; I am finally dipping back into this idea. I see that the chain selector is covered in the manual, but what I have noticed is that although you can switch chains on the fly, it doesn't actually disable the activator(s) for whatever chain _isn't_ selected. Can anyone substantiate this? I would like to know if switching chains actually _disables_ the unselected instruments' CPU.

Anyone from Ableton or otherwise??

Thanks!
jml