Ableton Forum

What is your hardware/software set-up for live performance and how do you organize scenes, samples, efx etc...???

well, different for various projects / shows, but generally speaking:

-all songs in one session - each different song / section gets at least one scene, with the first one changing the tempo, sometimes with transitions between.

-on my pbook, im able to get away with 2 tracks for audio samples / loops, 2 simpler tracks, one sampler and 3 impulse tracks. and 3 sends for effx.

-using a trigger finger for, umm, triggering stuff (with faders set for 3 sends and master).

-running out through a usb imic, or a multi channel if i need to play with a click.

its a pretty barebones set-up, but im always able to throw together a session like this in about an hour that i can take on stage or in the studio.

think of it as one giant improvisation groovebox it has five FM8 synth tracks, two battery 3 tracks loaded with single samples... 2 for drums(impulse)


the core of it is the custom programming it takes to make it work which has taken a good couple of solid months of coding and planning....


no samples to organize, instant, spontanious fully improvised music.

Ruso, tell us more!
Do you have any of your sets recorded?

Fucking awesome!

I prefer not to record, however on sept 11th I have a performance for a thousand which I was gonna record...

I might record one of my practice sessions at some point....

this is an older picture my rig now has a small 3 octave keyboard(small keys) so I can do multiple keys and velocity too.

so here's how it works and what it's able to do: think of the whole face of the rig with all the boxes as controlls for ONE midi channel or one track inside ableton, my software allows me to switch between tracks and channels by pressing a button, there are a possible of 14 channels at the mokment for my rig (I could do 16 but it wouldn't be as cool )

here's how you play on it..... I press a button to cue in a free space on a synth track into my headphones, choose a synth sound, I press one out of 4 buttons to record into a track slot in ableton.... on the next loop start I play out a loop on the keyboard when it's almost done I press the button again to quantize and play it immidiatly bringing it into the mix, then I uncue from my headphones and it is brought into the main mix...

my kaoss pad is actually a multi purpose midi controller, not an effects pad... right now it controlls the FM8's touch pad however I'm probably going to extend it to do more.

I'm almost done writing my motion sequencing code also. These work the same way as recording the keyboard midi loops except instead of recording the midi keys it records knob rotations.....

oh yes one more thing, the trigger finger is controlls for sends for the current track.... 8 out of the four pads produce pressure sensitive cc messages so when you press it it can gradually or quickly turn a send knob.... when you let go, it turns it to zero.


then of course I have controlls for overdrive, filter, and a few other synth parameters onboard thje red box...

now as for the two battery tracks, all they are is 127 one shot samples mapped across a keyboard. Both a little bit different style....

the nice part about this is that they automatically quantize and also midi overdub so you can just keep adding more and more sounds into the mix at any point.


for drums I have two tracks which have drum kits which I made earlier and also some of my favourite drum patterns also made earlier...

I'm trying to come up with a quck and intuitive way to draw out beats live... I don't think I'll be able to without a touch monitor because of the sheer ammount of buttons needed to show all the steps... I mean it would have to be an 8x16 grid of backlit buttons which is unheard of except for the 8x8 monome controller but then I'd need two! and they're expensive..

so I might just do it in software and get a touch screen monitor or wait for multitouch monitors to come out

one more thing I'm trying to incorporate is using the operator for simple basslines so I can screw with the filter and drift more into dubstepish genres from time to time....

For beat creation, you could use your ESX or EMX as a step sequencer and feed just the midi to Live. Bounce the sequence to a midi clip and then switch back to using it for sounds.

naw not interested, they both have their purpose right now and it is not sequencing.. simply because I want the grid for sequencing plus I really want a touch monitor especially if it's a multi touch screen *drool*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcKqyn-gUbY

that is freakin awesome

by the way I had my performance today and I got a great video thanks to my wonderful girlfriend.... I'll upload it tonight so you can check it out in action