Ableton Forum

I'm in the process of writing a mix in which I plan to be at least an hour or so long.

I've never done this kind of project before and I'm not sure whether or not to write all of the content on one project file, or have multiple projects for each song/beat and then sync them all together afterwards in a 'main' project.

I imagine that one project would become way too busy/cluttered and Cpu-intensive with so many instruments and FX running at once. However, being able to export the entire mix as a single file is an attractive idea. Is that naive?

Is there a preferred process for this kind of thing?

Does it make more sense to load each completed project file into an Audio track and then match everything together? Is there a way to avoid any possible quality loss by exporting a file twice?

Thanks!

You can load the finished audio files into a new set for the mix without losing quality. I would avoid converting to mp3 of course.

Cool, Thanks for the input!

Is this project going to be your live set with all your original tracks?
If that's the case, why don't you just bounce group of tracks and use them as stems? You don't really need to have real time processors like soft synths and drum machines. The maximum you can use is a couple of samplers loade with your sounds. No more.
When you do a live, keeping the mix and timing and balance between the transitions and esecurions is already a consuming task, you won't charge also the tension of the esescution live of play performance... You will get lost and miss the attention to your audience... At the end of the day, crowd, they wanna see you acting and hear a flowing set.
I hope I didn't miss the point of your post, but anyway, thinking to to achieve as best result as possible for the crowd is always a good target on how to build a live set.
Remember that music is not only for you.
You will play one day for people.
Put your ideas as you want, imagine how you would love your sound to bang the body and the brain, think how to make it real for other people.
Use Live to do what you want to do.
This is also the basic concept of the music in general... When you listen to Indian Percussionist, they play with theire brain first, then with mouth, than they start using the hands...

From what I understand you are saying that you will be writing all of these songs from scratch for this mix?

If that is the case, I must first say good luck haha

I would definitely recommend writing all of the songs on separate files and then putting them all together on one project unless you have a very capable machine.

rap masta rj wrote:From what I understand you are saying that you will be writing all of these songs from scratch for this mix?

If that is the case, I must first say good luck haha

I would definitely recommend writing all of the songs on separate files and then putting them all together on one project unless you have a very capable machine.

So you agree with me on saying to create stems from initial ideas?

Is this project going to be your live set with all your original tracks?
If that's the case, why don't you just bounce group of tracks and use them as stems?

Yes Sir! That is actually a very good idea that I haven't considered. Thanks! I also agree with your philosophy. As it stands now, I'm building a set of original content for the purpose of practicing a live performance mix. Mainly, I'm just wondering how to organize all of that data into an organized and neat format.

From what I understand you are saying that you will be writing all of these songs from scratch for this mix?

Yes sir! I'm nearly a 1/5 into the set. I wanted to get a grasp on the proper way to handle the various projects before I ended up too far into it.

Thanks guys for the tips!

Cheers!

Sorry - didn't read the whole thread, no time for that now.

to the OP:
if it is thought to be kind a LP or something, then definitely: the songs in their own projects, then render, and the mix itself in the new project.
Two thins about that thou:
1. do song renders without dithering, normalizing, equalization/compression/limiting in the master track.
2. possibly all the renders in 32bit - it is written that Live works in 32bit and that's the better solution in order to keep the sound quality (check the manual for that).

These advices make sense of course If the mix is to be rendered only, and not played live.

I usually render all of my projects in 24-bit/44.1k. I've been told that this set up is pretty much all I would need. Would there be any noticeable benefit by bumping it up to 32-bit /48-96k? I use 24 bit samples when I can, and 16-bit when I have too. Would rendering in 32-bit affect that at all?

The intention for the mix is mainly to post online, and then performance practice at home.

It now seems utterly obvious to have each song/beat as an individual render.

Thanks!