Ableton Forum

Hi guys!

I wanted to ask how you have build up your live sets? I have a bunch of tracks that I need organize into a live set.

What is the best way to do this and how have you been using the effects when you are playing live (how have you set it up?)

hi, this is how i do it:

first analyse your tracks, what are the common instruments and drum parts. say, you always use percussion alongside the main beat or you %90 have a 303 bassline in your tracks. find these common points and line out your channel list. i have 1. kick 2. snare&hats 3. bass 4. bassline 5. pads and such...

next thing is to analyse how you'll perform it live by looking into what controller/hardware you have. for eg. if you have an APC40 you may consider limiting yourself into 8 tracks. scrolling left/right is a pain in the neck.

then you'll come to a point where you'll determine which tracks you want to modulate live. say, you want a beat repeat on the percussion track, you must occupy a single track for that, which will leave you with 7 tracks (in the example above). group the tracks that wont be modulated live and reduce them to a single channel.

finally it comes down to determine how geek you want to go when you're playing live. i'm performing my tracks live for about 3 years, first i was triggering every single clip, now i just go scene launch with a footswitch and turn the knobs. both sound the same for the audience.

there's lot to talk about this, hope these help.

cheers,

thanks for your answer

Hi Kingguzz,

above all I keep a live setup as simple as possible -> scene view only.
I use an apc 20, a Nocturne, Maschine and sometimes a hardware synth.
My aim is being able to set up on the empty turntable while the last vinyl of the DJ is still playing: 10 minutes and 1sqm to set up.

As I play live, I don't think in terms of 'songs' or 'tracks' I play in a row, but cluster matching moods / samples / midi clips that I use at a specific part of the live set to create 'songs' but at the same time can skip or develop into a completely different direction too.

As you can see I arrange the various clusters top to bottom, to organize a rough layout of what will happen in the club (Intro, building, breaks, gain momentum, woohoo, outro...).
I try to not cluster more but 5-6 scenes, as my apc just displays 5 rows - but that's fairly enough stuff to play with for some time. And it saves me from scrolling up and down too much.

All my clips are unmodified samples and midi clips in terms of effects / pitch / processing. This is what I do live.
For certain ideas too complicated to do them live, I use long samples containing different sounds/ variations of the same loop.
I then can set the loop area via controller, according to what I want to play, or whereever the set takes me, which again reduces the amount of clips you need but offers better variety.

For general FX modulation (FX to all clips) I route the tracks instead of 'to master' to a separate track called 'Spielzeug' which contains automated fx clips like a filter swipe or a beat repeat pattern. Those clips will ad the respective fx to all sounds playing. Of course you can modify them in realtime too.
For further more detailed fx procession (FX to only one or two clips) I use send channels (actually two of them, one for filters and one for delay) containing effect racks with macros of the most common modulations.

If you do perform live for 2 hours, and not just trigger prerecorded tracks, of course you'll get lost or mess things up on your way. But I like this - it's live and not DJing what we do.
As I get lost quite often, or need instant breaks from time to time redirecting the set into a certain direction, I insert 'trigger'scenes that you can see in the master track. Hitting them resets all effects (see the reset-clip in the Spielzeug track) and triggers a bunch of clips that will bring things back together.
E.g. you mess around with delays, let it all break apart, and then kick in a straight bd + sounds again just by hitting the trigger scene.
This way experimenting live becomes fun and not a thread, as you got a safety line you can pull anytime.

Keeping track of where you are is simple, as I only use one set up - so I know which row in ableton and which according row of knobs on my controllers are bd, snare, layer, bass, external synths, etc.
And bear in mind - hitting wrong buttons launching a click noise instaed of a layer is what makes a good live set!

Send me a PM, and I'll send you an .alp file of one of my live sets, so you can actually experience what I mean?

Hope this helps,
Ralph Prollè

check out some live stuff I did here http://soundcloud.com/ralphproll

h0ch.grat wrote: I insert 'trigger'scenes that you can see in the master track. Hitting them resets all effects (see the reset-clip in the Spielzeug track) and triggers a bunch of clips that will bring things back together.

how works your reset clip? could you please, give more details on that?

it's a dummy clip.
create an audio track.
Insert the FX you want to use (e.g. a delay)
Insert an empty audio sample (no sound, just flat data).
Copy it.
rename it e.g. delay.
Open the envelope option of this sample ('E' on the very bottom)
In the upper drop down menue you can choose this delay now (or other FXs you put in this track)
Now you can draw the value for the Fx parameters.

For the reset of course I create a clip setting all parameters to zero again.

SOunds complicated but is rather simple. If you have a dropbox account I can send you a preset if you like.
cheers
Ralph Prollè

Here's how I do it:

http://tarekith.com/ableton-live-apc40-live-pa-set-up/

thanks alot Ralph Prollè, this was very helpful. I've sent you a pm with my email.

Thanks again

you're welcome,
R

My set up is pretty similar to others. I have 3 groups: "Track 1", Track 2", and "Live"

In both "Track 1" and "Track 2", the clips are the same, there are 9 audio tracks - kick, drums, perc, bass, lead 1, lead 2, pad, fx, and guitar. All of my live tracks are mixed so that each track falls into one of those categories. Sometimes things aren't so smooth with this limitation, so I have to do what I can to make it work. For example, I put vocals into the fx category because I don't have many in my tracks - just gotta make it work somehow.

The "Live" group has my guitar input, a track for a saxophone, live keys, live percussion, and also audio tracks for each of those to use as looping tracks.

I set it up so that all my tracks are in the browser section, and when I drag them to either track 1 or track 2, they're already all set up so that they're sectioned out and put into clips that each last 4 measures.

On top of this, there are a few sends/returns and also audio effects on the master. At the end is a limiter, and then that goes into a mixer which goes to the front of house.