Ableton Forum

I was wondering how some people are using Live for Live shows..I was thinking of doing a Live show for about 45 minutes..I was wondering how people would do this? How they organize it so on? ANy tips would be appreciated for input?

My biggest issue with using Live live is queuing up songs and transitioning from one to another. I'm hoping someone knows an obvious trick I'm completely missing. What I'm currently doing is keeping iTunes open with a pre-recorded track filled with atmospheric pads and swells that I start playing at the end of a Live set, slowly fading out Live, and then quickly loading up a new set.

The moment I start the new set, I fade out iTunes and then continue in Live. I'm not sure if people could do this as easily with an external sound card. I use the built-in sound card of my 12" Powerbook because I'm appalingly broke at the moment, and both programs seem quite happy to share the outputs when they are both playing.

What I would really like is a way of queuing up Live sets for seamless recall like the Chunks window in Digital Performer 3. Second best would be to be able to keep two Live sets open at the same time, like I can do in Reason, and then cross-fade from one to the other.

claudek, I've seen you on the Sonikmatter Logic forums, and was wondering if there's anything in Logic that would do the trick?

I suppose you could keep dragging in new clips manually in a Live set, so that you would never have to load another one. This doesn't work if you have very elaborate scenes set up, however.

Any tips would definitely be appreciated from anyone; let's exchange workarounds.

Here's the new way to think about using Live for your shows; I've played about a dozen so far with this program and I've learned a bunch. In a nutshell:

Put ALL your clips into ONE session. Here's how I do it, how you do it is up to you:

Let's say song one (or more exactly, the CLIPS that make up your first song) are arranged at the top of the session page. You have all the scenes you need to make beautiful music, verse one, chorus 3, etc. Further, you set the global live tempo to this song. Now, if you're like me, you're using a midi controller to fire scenes and individual clips. I use the Edirol PCR-30, and I highly suggest everyone do the same

Make all the clips for song one under a certain midi channel...how about One? Now's here's the trick: Song Two is arranged just below song one, with some notes on the side scenes saying things like BPM 120, Chan 2.
All you do is speed up to 120 bpm, switch your controller to chan 2, and scroll down the screen.

Whatever those bits of ambient sound were you were playing? If you still need them, make them clips in between groups of song clips...adjust your tempo and midi channel while they are playing.

I wondered the same thing when I started using Live. And the simple answer to your question is: you're not supposed to close and reopen sessions during a show. Your ENTIRE show is one session. My latest has 14 songs, and can entertain a crowd for 2 or more hours, depending on my savvy.

Hope this helps,
Solovox

http://www.ampcast.com/solovox

hey solovox,

can you give us an idea of the total no. of clips, FX, channels, and megabyte-age in your live set? Does Live behave any differently when loaded to the gills?

thanks in advance

paddy

I kind of get what you are doing..Good ideas..I guess we all find our ways to jam..I was wondering though if you change midi channels.will that turn all the clips on..or only when you hit the specified programmed controller key? So basically you put all you clips for say song 1 on top row of your tracks..then song 2 would be row 2? What is a scene..a arrangement?
Thanks:)

Solovox,

Thanks for the killer insight, especially about using different MIDI channels for different songs. The main thing that prevented me from considering that is whether or not loading up a session like that would bog down my machine. My mac (G4 867Mhz) is not a speed demon for Live. I'll try it out later and see if my powerbook can handle it. Obviously, you're not having any problems.

I'm currently using an ART X-15 MIDI floorboard to control Live. Do the knobs and sliders of your PCR-30 input in increments of 3 or 5, or did you get one of the newer boards/have Edirol replace yours.

Again, thanks for sharing your knowledge, truly truly appreciated.

Claudek,

Sorry if you already know this, but a scene is a horizontal arrangement of clips that can be triggered by pressing the scene activation button on the extreme right hand side of each scene. So, vertical rows are tracks, horizontal rows are scenes, and an arrangement of course is a recorded sequence of switching between scenes, automation, individual clip triggering etc.

Thanks Muser ..I did not know that..I guess scenes are for organizing for Live sets? And a scene can have its' own midi channel?
So I guess you meant scenes not songs:"
Thanks for the killer insight, especially about using different MIDI channels for different songs."
Learning more and more..

Glad I could help claudek . Scenes are both for organizing Live sets and for being able to simultaneously trigger several clips by pressing a scene button. If you wanted to, I guess you could assign a MIDI channel for just one scene, but what Solovox meant is that each song, which would be arranged as a combination of several scenes (each scene being an intro, chorus, bridge, etc), would be assigned to one MIDI channel so that by switching MIDI channels after finishing one entire song, you could go on to trigger the scenes in your second song (using the exact same MIDI signals that you used for the first song, just on a different channel) without accidentally triggering the scenes in your first song.

Folks:

Pitch Black: Don't worry about "loading it to the gills." I'm no tech, but that doesn't affect LIVE, at least not with a G4. I have tremenously large (12-14 songs) sessions, and I use a PIII 500 mhz with 256 ram. There is no (I believe) correlation to session size and performance. As far as efx, I can use around 4 or 5 different efx, but NO reverb unfortunately. The PIII can't take it, but yours should. By desktop 1.4 ghz can do it fine. And I use 8 tracks.

Muser: The PCR-30 is a dream, but yes, I have the older version that jumps in increments of 3 (I believe). Bummer. It doesn't really bug me that much; I'm just turning tracks up and down, adjust efx sends, turning tracks on and off.

Claudek: What Muser told you is correct. Each "song" is just a cluster of clips. I'll have a few drum clips, a bass clip, pad, synths, etc, on one horizontal row. These clips go togther, and form what you could call Verse One or Bridge Two. Whatever. You can still use the mouse and pick and choose, mind you. But then you assign a midi stroke to that whole row using the play button on the right side of the scene. And when you change midi channels, you're in a new song. You can also assign midi notes to individual clips...just rename them to say "Vox Fill-Q" so that you hit the Q button (which is actually C#3 with a label on top of it saying Q) to fire the clip.

Hope this helps...
Solovox

I'm still a bit confused..Can you load a new song while a old song is playing and it works ok? I think my Mac would crash..

..i can certainly do this on my pc laptop (650mhz celeron, 188mb ram)..

I have to say I never tried it but sounds weird..
...UPDATE: well back from trying it..I was playing a song and then from the menu ..did a "File/New Live Set"..and it of course stopped my song and loaded the new one..What would be the point of this in a live set as this would kill the vibe and make a big pause..??

Claudek,

What I've done in the past is to stop one song (one session/Live set contained only one song), start iTunes playing a separate intermission track, then load up another song (contained in another session/Live set). Two Live sets were never playing at the same time. One set started, iTunes started playing in the background just as the set was ending, and another was loaded while iTunes continued to play in the background to give the illusion that both songs were overlapping.

This, however, is not what Solovox has suggested, and is not what I'm doing anymore. In this method, there is only one Live set/session. You never, ever close the set for the entire performance. Songs are stacked up in scenes within that session, and can then be overlapped without causing any CPU problems, should you wish to do that. The vibe never has to be interrupted.

I think he was using the controller keyboard and swicthing scenes by switching different midi channels? Scenes are cool..playing with them now..

Claudek:

Muser is explaining it to you correctly. There is no reason to open and close the session! The horizontal lines in your session are called scenes. You will see this when you press Ctrl+I (I think) to add a new horizontal row for clips. Well, my session for a big show will over 300 horizontal rows. Within these will be grouped the clips that make up a "song."

To make it clear where one song ends and a new one begins, I have several horizontal rows that are blank. And on the right side, where the scene play buttons are, I've written notes to myself, like 140 bpm, Midi Chan 4. I scroll down the laptop screen, see the new clips that represent a brand new song, turn the Global Tempo up to 140, switch my controller to Channel 4, and rock out.

Solovox