// / WITCH-HOUSE.com \ \\

i recently went to see oOoOO, which was amazing. i was confused however as to what he was actually doing live and what he had prepared in advance. his setup included his macbook and another machine he appeared to be manipulating in real time.

any ideas as to what piece of equipment he was using besides his computer? and if anyone has any experience gigging, how do you typically perform? what should i have prepared in advance to play a show and what can i use to perform in real time?

any thoughts would be much appreciated.

he was probably using ableton and doing live edits with an apc

don't mean to sound dumb, but what's an apc?

dont sweat it bro were here to learn
its an ableton controller meant for live performances
ableton is a dj/production software
http://www.akaipro.com/apc40/

Thanks so much for your help. So what you're saying is that basically he had material prepared in advance that he basically "assembled" on stage?

When I saw oOoOO back in July it looked like he was actually using a NI X1 controller and some sort of small MIDI keyboard. The X1 can not only control Traktor but also Ableton or whatever you map it to control via MIDI. I didn't get a look at his laptop so I'm not sure what software he was running (and this was promoted as an oOoOO gig and not a DJ set) so it could have been Traktor using the new 'remix decks' thing for loading and triggering samples or something else. Sounded great regardless.

And as for the APC40/Ableton thing also mentioned in this thread: The APC is really good for live performance if you're going to be running Ableton since all of the knobs, faders, etc. are already mapped out for you in Ableton when you plug the APC into your laptop. I've done a live Ableton set using an APC a few times for my older projects that were more "dance music" in style and it worked great. Basically you reduce songs down to a bunch of loops or one shot samples. You can be fast and loose with that due to Abletons 'warping' functions - so I could usually make things within a +/- 10 bpm range work and sound good. And then, as you said, you're basically assembling pieces of songs and one shot samples, etc. during the live performance. I could combine 3 or 4 different songs of mine using this method and fade things in/out as needed - sort of like "live remixing" in a way. It takes a while to set a live set up since you have to create clips, samples, loops, etc. from your tracks and then warp everything to whatever BPMs you plan on running. But once you get all that worked out future live sets are really quick to set up.

Also, this guy had a really good tutorial on the Ableton / APC set up http://tarekith.com/ableton-live-apc40-live-pa-set-up/

I was using Ableton Live on the stage and even without a controller (just a midi keyboard), was sick. I was making all the songs just on it and mapped the keyboard from my pc, so, all the synthesizers could be modified on the fly, was amazing.
Now I'm using other "linear sequencing" software to make the sound itself, now thinking on ways to play it live. Good idea, C/∆/T.

THere are a million ways you can play live. How do you make your music now?
I am currently working on a live set mixing my NI Maschine/laptop (for samples/beats/sub bass) with a hardware synth (melodies/bass) (havent decided which one i want to use live), guitar/guitar pedals (melodies, drones, noise), and run it through a looper (new TC ditto one, I WANT/NEED).

BUT, if I can find new bandmates in my area, I would use a drummer playing as well.

I'm under a tracker-like sequencer (sunvox) on a laptop and an old trashy keyboard (Yamaha PSR 313). Isn't a nice setup but I'm working to improve it.
Last gig I played with a friend with a guitar (to make noises and melodies).
I'm using my keyboard for harmonies and melodies, and I sing sometimes.
But things get crazy when we want to play some "studio-only" track, I find "DJing" the only way.

I know this is an ancient post, but I'd like to resurrect it as I'm interested in how people perform live.

I've performed live in the past with a band and using a portable CD player going straight into the mixing desk to start intros and backing tracks (a looooooong time ago) lol. When it's finally possible to actually go play live again I'm trying to figure out the best way to bring the tracks I've done to the stage. So far I've created everything in FL Studio - because I've always used it - But, I can see Ableton I've is most people's preferred choice when laying live.

I have Live lite which came bundled with software, and also MPC Beats, so my thoughts are to use live lite to run a backing track and load in MPC Beats and FL Studio as VSTs to run samples and leads live, and another track for vocal processing. I know Live Lite is limited on what you can do, but I thought this might be the easiest way around its limitations.

I do also have plans for a live improvised electronics set up using a home made noise box, circuit bent PSS-30, plus a looper and multi-fx pedal going into a mixer, but that seems a lot more straight forward than trying to replicate what I've already recorded.

Any thoughts or recommendations? What are your current live setups?

I currently use an AKAI RHYTHM WOLF because of its dirtiness (I love it), I put a looper on it since I can't make beats with more than 2 rhythms, I have an mpc element with a tablet to trigger sequences while I elaborate the beats, I use some volca keys together with a fuzz pedal and connected to a midi keyboard for convenience, at the end I have a mininova to play some important leads or some arpeggios.

I've been thinking about using a live mixer lately, haven't decided yet but will have to learn how to use it.

tendernessofwolves wrote: ↑April 28th, 2021, 11:01 am I've performed live in the past with a band and using a portable CD player going straight into the mixing desk to start intros and backing tracks (a looooooong time ago) lol. When it's finally possible to actually go play live again I'm trying to figure out the best way to bring the tracks I've done to the stage. So far I've created everything in FL Studio - because I've always used it - But, I can see Ableton I've is most people's preferred choice when laying live.

What a poser! You had to use a minidisc to be Tr00 Kvlt

Live Lite has a limit of 16 total tracks, which you might find limiting. I had Lite for a while then upgraded to Standard once I decided that it was the DAW I was going to stick with.

I've yet to get my head around how I'd play synth based music live, but have friends who do. They compose in Logic but use Ableton in session view for live performances. Their general approach is to play back clips with certain synth tracks muted, which they play live and/or improvise instead in addition to using a vocoder. Sometimes they'll improvise beats, sometimes not.

There's a good podcast called AbletonCast which has interviews with quite a few musicians who tour playing for big names where they discuss how they use Ableton and MIDI live.

https://player.fm/series/abletoncast

I rarely if ever use Session view, I stick to composing with Arrangement view, which I do realise is ignoring one of the main features that sets it apart from other DAWs.

WraithVeil wrote: ↑May 10th, 2021, 10:50 am What a poser! You had to use a minidisc to be Tr00 Kvlt

Yeah the Lite version definitely has more limitations, but money is tight... I'll definitely check out that podcast though - they may have some useful hacks.

The best hack to get more "tracks" out of Live Intro in arrangement view is to compose/record your tracks and bounce them to audio files, then load them into Drum Rack. You can think of drum rack as a giant sampler, you could put each bounced track on a different note in the piano roll.

The power of Drum Rack becomes more obvious when you realise that each device (each sample on each note/pad) in the drum rack can have its own effects chain. While traditionally you'd use it to put compression/saturation on the kick and gated reverb on the snare for example, you can slote entire bounced tracks in there with different delays, chorus, whatever modulation or audio effect you like. You can even apply a MIDI effect like an arpeggiator to the hi-hats.

I just downloaded a bunch of tutorial videos today that I'm yet to watch, but one is on preparing to play your set live and transitioning your set from arrangement view to session view. Happy to share it with you via Google Drive.

That's really useful to know. I'll have to have an experiment.