Re: Live set | Tips&Tricks | Do's&Dont's | Gear |
Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 10:47 am
Don't add, mate, remove!!
If you're on a budget, you could lose the laptop, midiclock, the tr8 AND the MD and just replace them all with an MPC. It'll sound the same. You'd lose the opportunity to tweak and twist the drums, but on the other hand, just working the a4, track mutes and a few fx sends will keep you busy the whole set.
Be careful of making the noob mistake of hauling your entire studio out to gigs. Ask yourself, what gear are you NOT actually bringing?
I may have missed it if you mentioned it earlier, but since you haven't gigged before, I'll point out that that is a very large rig you are currently planning on bringing, with the laptop being a particularly unnecessary and technically weak element. I can say with confidence that when you do a liveset with all that you'll be drowning in workload, unable to enjoy yourself, and you won't even use some of the gear at all. I have gigged, this is good advice, I'm sure others here will say the same, and you should listen and consider it carefully. You have too many options, too much sound shaping ability where you don't need it. You think you need it, but you don't. For your first gigs you want more or less to be able to take your hands off the rig and have it play itself, so you can look around to see whats happening, and you've missed that point completely. And if you think you'll not be loaded because you have the machines filled with preprogrammed material, then ask yourself why you're bringing the machines to play back that, when a loop would do?. Do you really, really need three layers of drums AND also multiple synth parts on top to manipulate live? And all the track fx sends, levels and whatever else. You only have two hands. If you won't be tweaking it, put it in a clip in ableton.
If you are uncomfortable about dropping the laptop, do yourself a big favour and mix the tr8 and ableton loops together into a drum stem in ableton, and leave the tr8 at home.. Have the a4 basslines and essential elements all recorded as clips too, matching the respective drum parts, so your 5 min track is made up of a handful of clips, no more than that. And for your set improvise just a few bits of oneshot noises and percussive dibs and dabs over it with the MD, and tweak a cutoff for a lead sound in the a4. Aim to play along with your core material, not recreate it all live on the fly. You still need to select which clips to play and when, etc. while simultaneously building and managing transitions with fx sends and mutes.
I'm having a guess that you haven't done any actual tracks on this rig yet? Its good on paper mate, but I don't think its going to translate to the stage very well..
If you're on a budget, you could lose the laptop, midiclock, the tr8 AND the MD and just replace them all with an MPC. It'll sound the same. You'd lose the opportunity to tweak and twist the drums, but on the other hand, just working the a4, track mutes and a few fx sends will keep you busy the whole set.
Be careful of making the noob mistake of hauling your entire studio out to gigs. Ask yourself, what gear are you NOT actually bringing?
I may have missed it if you mentioned it earlier, but since you haven't gigged before, I'll point out that that is a very large rig you are currently planning on bringing, with the laptop being a particularly unnecessary and technically weak element. I can say with confidence that when you do a liveset with all that you'll be drowning in workload, unable to enjoy yourself, and you won't even use some of the gear at all. I have gigged, this is good advice, I'm sure others here will say the same, and you should listen and consider it carefully. You have too many options, too much sound shaping ability where you don't need it. You think you need it, but you don't. For your first gigs you want more or less to be able to take your hands off the rig and have it play itself, so you can look around to see whats happening, and you've missed that point completely. And if you think you'll not be loaded because you have the machines filled with preprogrammed material, then ask yourself why you're bringing the machines to play back that, when a loop would do?. Do you really, really need three layers of drums AND also multiple synth parts on top to manipulate live? And all the track fx sends, levels and whatever else. You only have two hands. If you won't be tweaking it, put it in a clip in ableton.
If you are uncomfortable about dropping the laptop, do yourself a big favour and mix the tr8 and ableton loops together into a drum stem in ableton, and leave the tr8 at home.. Have the a4 basslines and essential elements all recorded as clips too, matching the respective drum parts, so your 5 min track is made up of a handful of clips, no more than that. And for your set improvise just a few bits of oneshot noises and percussive dibs and dabs over it with the MD, and tweak a cutoff for a lead sound in the a4. Aim to play along with your core material, not recreate it all live on the fly. You still need to select which clips to play and when, etc. while simultaneously building and managing transitions with fx sends and mutes.
I'm having a guess that you haven't done any actual tracks on this rig yet? Its good on paper mate, but I don't think its going to translate to the stage very well..