How do guys you combine real instruments with Live?

de Haan · Post by **de Haan** » Tue May 27, 2008 5:51 pm

Hey. For some time I've been trying to combine my projects from Live with the real human handplayed music. It's quite new to me, so I was just wondering how you pros are doing, when combining Live with physical instruments, when you are performing???

liveISlife · Post by **liveISlife** » Tue May 27, 2008 5:54 pm

Simply duck tape the Ableton live box to your musical instrument of choice.

stonee · Post by **stonee** » Tue May 27, 2008 6:16 pm

liveISlife wrote:Simply duck tape the Ableton live box to your musical instrument of choice.

this seems to be sort of a really broad question. its pretty much, "how do I record?"

what sort of instruments are you thinking about?

you might need to start off with some microphones.

but if your talking like, keyboards and guitars, just plug the instrument into an input on your computer, click arm on your audio track of choice, click record on the transport, then click play. it should start recording.
in session view, to record a loop, click on the record button on the clip.

if none of this makes any sense to you, you really need to invest some time in the manual and tuitorials.

LeifonMars · Post by **LeifonMars** » Tue May 27, 2008 6:37 pm

excuse me sirs, but I'm pretty sure that he means how to play with Live as an instrument with conventional instruments. This is how I do it: I have 2 PadKontrols, the other one I use for launching clips, the other one I use for playing basslines. There's a drummer (a good one) in my band, and a guitarist (a grazy one). Me and the drummer share the same click, which is intergrated to the launching of the clip scenes. In other words, there's no click when there's no clip playing. This allows some more freedom. Also I don't use any launch quant., which means we have to sometimes adjust to the clip, in case I launch it sloppily.

Hope this helps a bit.

Leif

de Haan · Post by **de Haan** » Tue May 27, 2008 7:00 pm

So your bandmembers are just playing really tight with the clicktrack, unless there are no clips playing? If I understand you...

de Haan · Post by **de Haan** » Tue May 27, 2008 7:09 pm

And thank you, that was what I meant!

Grahambo! · Post by **Grahambo!** » Tue May 27, 2008 8:07 pm

Yeah, I sort of do the same thing. I play bass and guitar and have a roadcase filled with a midi keyboard, laptop, pa, mixer, etc etc that I use to play some synths, launch clips, samples, etc.

We use a click in the same way, although many times we don't use a click at all.

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Tue May 27, 2008 8:11 pm

I play with a REALLY awesome drummer from time to time, and we have moved entirely away from using click tracks.

I have a click I *can* send to him, but that is only if he is doing a really long breakdown or something.

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Tue May 27, 2008 9:01 pm

fwiw, when I play guitar, Live is my band, I set up some effects to shift the beats and some other aspects, and then I play over top. This band never gets sick of my interminable soloing, has no 'issues at home', and never calls me asking for a ride to practice

roby · Post by **roby** » Wed May 28, 2008 12:17 am

yeah same here. i send a click track to our drummer and he keeps the tempo of the song for all of us to follow based on the Live clips being played.

oblique strategies · Post by **oblique strategies** » Wed May 28, 2008 12:31 am

One of the ways I combine Live with other instruments is to use Live as a signal processor.

Sounds I process can come from hardware synths, signal processors, or microphones.

de Haan · Post by **de Haan** » Wed May 28, 2008 8:47 pm

What is a signal processor ?

eggnchips · Post by **eggnchips** » Wed May 28, 2008 10:37 pm

liveISlife wrote:Simply duck tape the Ableton live box to your musical instrument of choice.

oblique strategies · Post by **oblique strategies** » Thu May 29, 2008 1:01 am

de Haan wrote:What is a signal processor ?

That which processes signals!

Such as Ableton's Effects, like reverbs & delays, etc. Also any other plugins.

I use it the same way I'd use an external effects processor.

I also use these tools the other way around: I send sounds from Ableton out to external signal processors & effects, then bring the processed sounds back into Live for mixing. Sometimes I mix out of the box as well. It all depends on what I'm up to, if I'm performing, etc.

vdrum · Post by **vdrum** » Thu May 29, 2008 3:21 am

Our band uses Live (ver. 6) a guitar and an edrum kit.

All instruments are run through Live...we start with NO pre-recorded samples or loops, opting to create them on the fly using live-looping techniques we're worked on since Live ver. 1.5

Its a GREAt way to go, costs a bundle to do it right and is more addictive than heroin, nicotine and alchohol combined!

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