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.

[lepetitmartien]

Could you explain/detail your setup, I'm sure it'll help some here

Thanks in advance

[megahurt]

Ok, my band is called Dark Disco Club. We track everything in Pro Tools, and some programming of synths and drums is done in Reason. I also use a few hardware synths in the studio. But taking all that gear to each live show would suck, so instead... I go into the sessions and create samples of every single note that I want to play live. Say the verse of a song is using 8 notes, and playing through 3 different sounds/synths. I just create 8 samples. Then I load those samples into the NN-XT sampler in Reason and map them to the keys that I want. Not even always the "right" keys. I'm using an Oxygen 8 controller live, so sometimes I'll just map them to the first 8 notes. Sometimes the verse on the white keys and the chorus on the black, etc. Whatever is easy for a live situation. In our live rack I have an M-Audio MobilePre USB interface, which connects to my PowerBook sitting on top of the rack. Our backing tracks play through Cubase SX, and Reason is open and going into Cubase via ReWire. I just have a separate NN-XT sampler set up in Reason for each song, so between songs all I have to do is click once on the computer to select the next sampler down in Reasons sequencer window.

any questions?

[megahurt]

WOW. Anyone know of forums where people are a little more... advanced, or whatever?

[Arnolfo]

Try www.osxaudio.com.

[Synthetic]

WOW. Anyone know of forums where people are a little more...  advanced, or whatever?

lol... if you are looking for posts from people that are "more advanced"... there may be a lack of these posts as most are busy actually working on music rather than just talking about it... or whatever

This post has been edited by Synthetic: Thu 10 Jul 2003, 20:41

[eear]

my group uses two powerbooks, and one wintel laptop (can't think of what brand it is off hand)

powerbook one runs logic 6.1, os 9.2.2, mainly because our effects aren't os x yet:
which houses our prerecorded tracks (drums, stuff we couldn't pull off live) and also serves as our vocal effect processor (we run two mics into 2 seperate stereo inputs in the logic environment for that).
powerbook two runs absynth 1.34, os 9.2.2 haven't gotten absy 2 yet: which we use to play lead parts

other laptop runs back to basics 9 off of windows 2000 for sample playback

we also incorporate a mixer, turntable, kaoss pad, and a sansamp to play guitar and/or bass through the mixer.

hope this helps



www.eastereggaudioresearch.com

[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?

[megahurt]

Sure is. I wasn't being a wiseass, but obviously it took me saying that to get anyone to all of a sudden have setups worth posting about.

[PlasTree]

Actually, i had just seen your thread for the first time when I posted my response - I don't think I visited MacMusic yesterday. I would have gladly responded despite your comment, because the subject is very relevant to me. I hope others do as well. Live performance is a big part of my interest in computer-based music, yet it is not too often discussed. Too many live electronic performances I've seen involve some dude hiding behind his laptop like he's writing a paper or something. I don't condemn this approach, but it gets old if you go to a party and all the artists perform that way. So the more unique and elaborate approaches, the better if you ask me.