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i've been trying to settle on a live setup lately and been alternatingly exhilarated and frustrated by the whole thing. the point i keep coming back to is that there's really no other group of musicians that have to essentially "reinvent the wheel" every time they want to do something. trumpet players can just pick up a trumpet and learn to play it, but every electronic artist (with the exception of those who just buy one piece of hardware and learn to "play" it, i suppose) is forced to first INVENT the trumpet (so to speak), build it themselves, and THEN learn to play it.
anyway, it's all just got me wondering what everyone here uses. how do you make your live setup work? do you use a lot of backing tracks? click tracks? all live sampling? effects? midi controllers? hardware? software? even just within ableton, there are so many different possibilities. how are you all making it work?
i'll start:
right now i'm finishing a little environment in AU Lab (a basic little thing apple includes in their install discs that hosts audio units) that has a bunch of sooperloopers synced up as well as kt granulator and some delay. i haven't hooked it all up yet, but i'm planning on controlling it with some midi footpedals and (maybe?) an mpk49. i'm not totally thrilled with it though, as right now i can only do live sampling and can't "perform" tracks yet. it's getting there.
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04/28/08
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Fognozzle
I use different live setups depending on the situation. Tonight I will be using an SP-404 and a Casio Rapman. For the show before this, I used a multi-band radio & a shaker with a contact mic trough a Funk-a-Duck and a delay pedal. I am a hardware only performer, but I have a large collection of interesting gear, so I grab a few pieces that I want to work with, and figure something out.
04/28/08
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Roshi
Currently working with a combination of hardware and software:
Cello > sansamp > boss ps3 > behringer gdi > magicstomp > digiverb > computer.
Currently use ableton as audiohost and have timefreezer and sooperlooper (thx for the recommend, oak) on separate channels. Behringer FCB controls all functions. A few extra fx on the chain depending on the song (transverb, beatrepeat, ringmod, etc).
I'm finding this setup is really flexible and allows me to improvise with very little starting material. Hopefully post some examples and pics soon.
04/28/08
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madeofoak
roshi: be sure to post some examples when you can. i'd really like to hear it.
frog: i've never actually done an all-hardware show, but i was playing with nate (cedar av dude) the other day with an alesis micron through EH big muff pi > boss loopstation > another big muff > EH holy grail reverb > dd-6 delay pedal. it was so much fun it made me want to do it all the time. i love how your hardware chain limits your possibilities, but also opens you up to sounds you wouldn't have thought of otherwise.
04/28/08
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sAMsKi
i haven't done many livesets but i am much like fognozz I guess...although i have always use a studio produced backing mp3 so far - all 4 gigs 
I put odd stuff through my desk - cb mic / circuit bent kit / my little modular synth (long live ruin) / radio / acoustic instruments through sm58 (kazoo / whistle etc...) / thumb piano with contact mic (long live bugbrand) and the use my 6 send FX to sample / loop / build / mashup stuff live...
Some passages I kinda just sing or play guitar too...
The style tends to vary a lot...I prefer that to anything too defined, as I can put more feeling into what I am doing....blah.
04/28/08
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VC
I play 8th to 16bar loops in Ableton Live and drive an200 through it with some rhythm and synth patterns on the step seq. I also have longer than 1 bar midi clips in ableton, that trigger and play the an200. I have somewhat a lot of sends and routing done in live so i can for example gate everything else with 2 different frequency bands coming out of the drum track. I try and get more into playing keyboard or maybe pads in the future but time will tell.
04/28/08
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monty
any solo gig ive ever done has been all hardware.
wee mixer, couple of keyboards, looper pedal
this has been the bread and butter of my livesets in the past.
i add and subtract various bits and pieces, depending on what mood im in.
ive been getting bored of doing improv stuff though.
the next gig im playing i plan on playing banjo only, and getting someone else (cheers kidq!) to do all the hard stuff with his mpc.
04/28/08
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abel
I know what you mean . I have come to recording all my beats and loops onta an 8track Alesis ADAT and mixing it live while adding sound efx and keyboard lines on top . I also have the luxury of playing with a vocalist , so that takes some pressure off of me to fill the space 100%. I am now completing a new set of music and getting ready to figure out the Live Performance and what it wil entail.
PEACE ABEL
<a href="http://www.abelokugawa.com">www.abelokugawa.com</a>
04/28/08
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Roshi
madeofoak: I posted this lil' wee bit on 11t1's blog about looping: link I started with 4 layers and then added a few more (slightly out of tune) layers.
I was told it was "cool, but too short".
04/28/08
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Roshi
Also, timefreezer is wonderful for adding that extra little dronage...it's a grain/resynthesis freezer, so it will loop a small snapshot of your audio and you can pitch it in real time...so I use that for doing MBV type interludes between tracks.
04/28/08
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Leo
My setup is a 6U rack, holding a computer, a MOTU 828mkII, and a power conditioner. I bring along a monitor for the computer. I also bring along a keyboard and mouse. I bring my Behringer BCF2000. I also use a MIDI controller (keyboard) for controlling effects, synths, and samplers.
Generally, the BCF2000 works as a mixer, just like it does in the studio. This way I can mute, solo, pan (if where I'm playing has stereo), and rough mix what is going on. This is a life safer sometimes, however simple it is. The MIDI controller (I'm between controllers at the moment) is assigned so that one page of knobs will control send amounts, one page will control effect parameters, and another page will control synth/sampler parameters. I also frequently used more than one MIDI channel. This will allow my to have fast access to lots and lots of controls. If I'm playing a synth or sampler, I use the BCF2000 to select the channel of the synth, and Cubase will record enable that channel, allowing me to monitor the MIDI input.
I would really like to get my hands on Live, as it seems that you can build sequences in this way, and just keep going. If I get an idea with Cubase, I cannot really loop it live without first setting up loop points and specifying that I want it to play in loop mode, and making sure that I have auto quantize enabled, and then recording each channel as I play it live. Live you just hit a button, play a thing, and hit the button again. Also, playing with tempo in real time would be sweet.
I will also sometimes bring a bigger rack, being a 10U, with the addition of the A-Station, TX81Z, MIDI interface, and compressor. I have also started bringing the Alesis ION out. When I bring more hardware like this, I usually use the computer as a MIDI sequencer/effects box, and only really have the beat coming from software. That allows for some fun live quirks from the hardware, and makes me look real busy, because I'm twisting knobs on more than one box. I think next time I do that, I'll dress up like a chemist.
04/28/08
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Roshi
If I ever made beat-driven electronic music again, I would probably use my ESX + a Peavey Grabber (looping sampler) + micromodular combo - sweet small setup that's extremely flexible for layering sounds. I DJed with this combo and two turntables and it was super fun.
Plus maybe a kaossilator for good measure.
04/28/08
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jarvis
aluminum garbage can, 2 floor toms, bongos, tin cymbals, and tree trunks to play it all with. it's really annoying getting that crap in a car but most of it fits in the garbage can.
04/28/08
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sweettrip
i've only used Live live with the band, not in a solo environment. but then i stopped because i got frustrated with the set up, but that's my own fault. i had UC33e and an FCB1000 connected to the laptop for triggering clips and scenes, bypassing effects, tweaking parameters, and all the typical stuff you could do (plus the FCB was not only controlling Live, but also the two channels off my guitar amp and my Alesis Quadraverb... WHAT-A-HEADACHE). all this while singing and playing guitar at the same time. it worked fine, with a few hiccups due to my lack of focus or from having too many beers and shots before playing.
i gave it up. but i'm definitely rethinking it for our summer shows. my problem is that i was too conscious of using the laptop as a playback device and not as a proper instrument, and what people would say. but fuck it, this time around i'm just going to set up Live to just play back up tracks, click track for our drummer, and i'll do very minimal tweaks here and there.
i've played around with a few solo live set ups. one was using my former UC33e to trigger and tweak shit, and slaving my Monomachine and Machinedrum to Live's clock. but since i don't have my UC, now i just use Live with the Monomachine and Machinedrum, and use the Monomachine's MIDI tracks to trigger clips and tweak effects. i'm experimenting at the moment. maybe once i figure stuff out more i'll realize i should've kept the UC...
04/28/08
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quip
two setups:
"disco"
ableton on a pc synced to electribe and nord lead
normally plug this into a dj mixer.
was tweaking ableton with doepfer pocket knob
have been doing set with novation sl and laptop.
but this isn't as fun.
"ambient"
guitar --> boss vf1----> into laptop though mbox --> audiomluch with
granulators/ ambience reverb and loopers
04/28/08
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Roshi
Now I'm curious what ambient disco sounds like
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