Using A Powerbook Or Ibook Live, whos doing it, and how Options

[megahurt]

i have a pretty cool setup going now, just curious to see what other people are doing.

[PlasTree]

I'll bite...
My band's live setup features an iBook 600 running DP3 on os9. The I/O is handled by an 828 and an external firewire drive. Our sets incorporate a combination of pre-sequenced audio and live audio, all integrated through automation and bussing/triggering techniques. For the most part, the percussive elements are handled by the sequencer, and we play the basslines, leads, textures, etc live on hardware. We don't use virtual synths/samplers or even MIDI, not yet anyway.

This may seem rather unremarkable so far, but the cool part lies in the automation and bussing, which allows us to blur the line between what is pre-sequenced and what is performed live. For one example, I sometimes automate volume or filter cutoff in a plugin on a live input track to the point of drawing ADSR envelopes, which allows me to turn a noisy texture coming from a synth into snare or hihat-like instances, to put it very simply. I can place these automation "hits" in conjuction with pre-recorded percussion elements on the timeline, and achieve a good balance between pre-determined and improvised.

By separating the sound source from the top-level dynamics, and manipulating those dynamics in the sequencer, I can create movements as complex and precise as I want, yet can sound very different from performance to performance, and retain that "live feel". Not to mention that this gives me unlimited flexibility over the envelopes of the sounds when I'm in the studio.

If you were to look at some of my more automated sequences, you'd see mostly a dizzyingly dense array of black vector lines that look more like waveforms than automation data, running through every track. And most of the tracks themselves, of course, contain no audio data. It's like a dynamics shell, to put it one way.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. In the future I'll be integrating midi automation as well, which would allow me to make some more pre-determinations that could further enrichen my band's performances. There really is no limit to the amount of sequenced dynamics I can introduce into a performance.

I could go on, but I too, must get back to work.

Advanced enough for you, megahurt?