Ableton Forum

Hi there
I am using Ableton Live in my gigs. I am using it to play backing tracks, launch clips, play samples and soft synths live. I want to have a backup rig in sync with the macbook that is currently playing. My equipment is

Macbook Pro X2
Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 X2
Radial Pro D8 DI BOX

Akai MPD 32
Akai APC 40
Novation Remote SL 61 MKII
Novation Remote SL 61 MKI
Novation Launchpad

I currently have 2 Macbooks Pro's, 2 Saffire Pro 40s and my Radial Pro D8 DI box that can take 2 inputs per channel, so I can set up the exact same amount of outputs and they will go to the same channels at front of house. I am currently running 8 outputs from Ableton. Now, my issue is how to get my 2 Ableton Rigs to be in sync, but 1 effectively in mute, so if one goes down I can unmute the other one and it will kick in from where we left off. I also need to all my MIDI over USB devices to be attached to both rigs too. Is this possible?

I can answer part of that.

You can sync two laptops perfectly by situating both your Library and your Sets inside a Dropbox (or similar) folder. They will then be synced via the cloud and whatever edits are made on one will show up on the other.

so if one goes down I can unmute the other one and it will kick in from where we left of

That's tricky. It will depend a bit on what you do in your live set and how you set it up.

AudioWeston wrote:so if one goes down I can unmute the other one and it will kick in from where we left off. I also need to all my MIDI over USB devices to be attached to both rigs too. Is this possible?

I know that it is possible, but I'm not sure every configuration is going to work out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3TWKUjiUJA
This guy has come up with a way to have a redundant backup, he's simply got his MIDI out of the controller routed to both computers and mapped to the exact same set. I'm gonna guess that the APC40 and Launchpad may not work this way, especially since they connect via a single USB cable and they communicate back and forth between the program and controller, whereas this guys setup is simply a controller sending commands to both computers and it's probably not receiving MIDI back from Live.

Thanks guys

Yeah the USB over MIDI controllers are causing the problems for a perfectly in sync back up.

Do you know of any MIDI device that would be good to launch clips that isn't over USB?