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Subject: Using a laptop live

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Original Message 1/10 18-Jan-07 @ 09:36 PM - Using a laptop live

mildandrew

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So after a few years making little to no music I'm back on it and playing with a band we do industrial/metal type stuff.

I'm currently using my old Ensoniq ASR-X for vocal samples and strings and such and my ea1 for most of the synth stuff, controlling both with my 61key midi controller keyboard.
The reason I'm doing that is because that is a setup that I could easily take with me and play live I don't want to write on my PC and then have to somehow translate those sounds on to my hardware kit.
Even though I have way more options on my PC

SO the big question how do I use my laptop to play live? I don't sequence anything I play it all live except for some percussion loops. I think my laptop+controller keyboard would be great for live but what about latency?
What type of soundcard would you recommend? I'm guessing that I don't want to just plug in to that little headphone jack on the side of my lappy. Would something like an audiophile USB work?

When I was last making music it was a huge NO-NO to gig with a PC they were not to be trusted so this is all a little new to me.

Thanks

Yonce

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Message 2/10 19-Jan-07 @ 09:36 AM - RE: Using a laptop live

Moujik

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I don't think you could go wrong with Ableton Live - it's what most people seem to be using to play live these days.

For a soundcard, from my point of view you have 2 options - just get a cheap PCMCIA card like an Echo Indigo; send the audio from the card to an external mixer & combine with your external synths.

Second option: Get a multi in/out Firewire or USB2 interface; then you can have all your external synths piped into your laptop which you can use as a mixer & apply effects.

Anyway, I think playing live using a laptop is completely viable these days; really you need someone like Marc_D to come along & tell you how he actually does it, rather than me who reads websites and daydreams

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Message 3/10 25-Jan-07 @ 08:09 PM - RE: Using a laptop live

Yonce N Mild

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I was thinking of using trying this http://www.behringer.com/UCA202/index.cfm?lang=ENG

It's only $30. All I want to do is play my software synths live no audio in or effects or anything like that. Any opinions? I have a feeling that the latancy will be pretty bad but for the price it's worth a shot.

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Message 4/10 13-Feb-07 @ 04:27 PM - RE: Using a laptop live

Yonce N Mild

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So I ordered this: http://www.behringer.com/FCA202/index.cfm?lang=ENG

Once I get it I'll write up a little review. 2 in 2 out firewire unit and only $80.

Looks like it will do the trick. it comes with Abelton live lite so I can give that a try.

Question, what is it that Ableton Live does that Cubase/Sonar/Reason/Fruity Loops don't that makes it the choice for live performance?

I'm going to be running this on a laptop with a 1.7ghz Pentium M, 1.5GB of ram and a 7200 RPM hard drive. You think that's fast enough?

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Message 5/10 13-Feb-07 @ 04:47 PM - RE: Using a laptop live

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well my cousin and his mate play live and they just play over backing tracks which simply play from iTunes on a laptop as stereo mp3 files. It works & they are very good live cos i spose it leaves more brainspace for performance.

Ableton is sposed to be good for live cos it has vertical stacks for tracks and in each track-stack you can 'stack' loops and choose them in realtime to play... stuff like that, plus it'll allow playing of VSTi's like any other sequencer host libe, 'thru' the host via a master keyboard... and controller stuff of course. It's geared to that primarily although you can create on it, and it auto swaps loops when the last one finishes etc.

back to that 'brainspace' thing again, i have seen people play 'live' with ableton and what was negative about it was watching 2 people with their heads down totaly absorbed in their laptop screens, never looking up hardly, a bit dull frankly when done like that

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I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!

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Message 6/10 13-Feb-07 @ 05:07 PM - RE: Using a laptop live

Moujik

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That laptop should be fine.

quote
Question, what is it that Ableton Live does that Cubase/Sonar/Reason/Fruity Loops don't that makes it the choice for live performance?

Like K said, it allows you to improvise more that a linear sequencer as you can reorder your clips as you go along. It will also do very high quality on-the-fly timestretching to allow you to mix differing tempo audio.

I would also say it's more stable, although I haven't tested this. Also, pretty much anything can be mapped to a MIDI controller - even down to things like master tempo.

I'm using Live Lite too; there are a few limitations, but it's good to see if you really need the big boy

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Message 7/10 13-Feb-07 @ 05:59 PM - RE: Using a laptop live

Yonce N Mild

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All I need is a host for my soft synths that isn't a CPU hog. I'm replacing my hardware rig with a laptop and a controller keyboard. Right now I use a Yamaha CS1x as a controller my ASR-X is for samples and strings and my EA1 for synth sounds. The most I play on any one song is two sounds at once and I play it all live no sequencing. It works well and I pretty much wrote everything on that setup so there will be some work involved transferring sounds and samples to a computer based setup.

My main concern is, I don't trust the ASR-X anymore. I've had it freeze a few times or just spontaneously reboot due to a loose power cable. Plus it would be nice to just carry a laptop and a keyboard around instead of a trunkfull of gear. We practice all over the place and it takes me about 30 min to teardown or setup. That's valuable practice time right there.

Weird how so much has changed with music technology. Now I trust my computer more than my hardware sampler. WFT?

Sounds live Abelton might do the trick for what I need, I may not even need the full blown version. What are the limitations on the lite version?

I think the improvising thing would be pretty cool for writing music but I don't think I would get much use out of it for playing live.

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Message 8/10 13-Feb-07 @ 10:43 PM Edit: 13-Feb-07 | 10:43 PM - RE: Using a laptop live

Moujik

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Limitations:

quote
Your Live Set is limited to 4 total audio tracks, 4 total midi tracks, and 2 total audio effects.

- There is no midi sync capability.

- You can only use 2 audio inputs and 2 audio outputs at a time (2 mono or 1 stereo pair each).

- Compressed audio (such as MP3) is not supported.

- Recording quality is limited to 16-bit audio

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Message 9/10 14-Feb-07 @ 07:55 PM - RE: Using a laptop live

sox

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Nothing wrong with using a laptop live...I've been doing it for years

Never had any major problems. Even going back to Win95!

Even Madonna is now using 3 laptops live...running her voice through one and the rest of the band through the 2nd (I think the 3rd controls the lighting rig).
They wanted the same sound in the studio for live so they just ran it through Logic like they did in the studio. Same effects etc etc (apparently they used no plug ins either. It's all native Logic stuff).

I think we're about to see a major shift in live performance as large scale acts start working this way... Makes for less outboard equipment needed and the sound persons job a hell of a lot easier

sox

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Message 10/10 23-Feb-07 @ 03:48 PM - RE: Using a laptop live

Yonce N Mild

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Quick update, I haven't had too much time to mess with it but so far so good. Latency is really low and everything sounds nice. The unit itself is nice looking and feels sturdy. The AC adapter isn't one of those fat ones that takes up 2 plug spots so that's always a bonus. Drivers loaded quick and easy. Two 1/4 inch in and out is fine for live use I may still use my EA1 live and run it through the inputs, I'll have to see how that goes. All in all not bad for $80. I can already tell I'm going to need the full blown version of Abelton. It's the first time I've messed with it.........pretty slick.

I'll give a little more thorough review when I get some more time with it. So far so good.......................

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