Computer Drumming in a Live Setting?

A

AvoidTheClap

New member
Odd question, but this is pretty much the best place i knew to ask for it.

I'm a solo artist, who knows tons of bassists, cellists, keyboardists, etc, but drummers in my area are few & far between. & the good ones are already in 2-3 bands & far over committed. I use programmed drums for my songs in the studio, & was thinking of taking those tracks & playing to them live.
It's somewhat..lame..to do so, i realize. but its not like its just me on stage. it'd be 4-5 people total.

Now the question, whats the best way to do this? Bringing my laptop & firepod & all, to play through cubase doesn't seem like the best option, as computers can lag & firewire connections can drop, etc.

I don't think i need a drum machine, as the tracks are already done. Maybe just a multitrack with a hard drive i can drag the wav's onto & play them?

thanks.
 
Didn't the Sisters of Mercy (80's band) do this as a matter of course with an old drum machine? Kind of heretical to even mention this sort of thing, but maybe the drummers on the board won't see this thread [ducks, runs :p].

I've been thinking about taking my Korg PadKontrol (this is a midi drum trigger thing) into a live scenario, but I'm a little afraid I'd get my ass kicked. The other problem is that I suck at drumming even when it's not real :D
 
Actually
It gets done all the time.
Sometimes it is not the complete drum track, but percussion... often supplimental Keyboard.

One of the easiest ways is rendering the drum track and a click to a stereo .wav or MP3 with the click on one side and the drum on the other. Feed the click into the monitors and the drum track where ever you need it.
You can preload them to a cd and simply use a CD player, or you can put them on a laptop and build set lists before you go on stage.

You can get more complicated like full multitracked songs, but then glitches, CPU load and and all sorts of things can go wrong. Plus building and executing song lists in a quick fashion become more difficult.
 
Ya, I'd NEVER take a laptop on stage.... Use a cd/mp3 player.... Or you might end up looking like this guy:
 

Attachments

  • billgates-BSOD.jpg
    billgates-BSOD.jpg
    50.1 KB · Views: 37
If you do consider the laptop route, Ableton Live might be a good idea.

It's really versatile for Live use, hence its name. Then you could approach the live aspect in a number of different ways... Could bring something new to your set. I wont go into details, no need if you aren't interested. Let me know if you are/and you aren't familiar with Lives possibilities, il PM you some more details.

Like the other guys said, this would require a reliable laptop (reliability is unfortunately never guaranteed!). But if your willing to risk it, Live should be a definite consideration!

Hope this helps.

Steve
 
If you are talking about drums only I'd just mix em down to a single wav and play them from a cd or ipod.

What kind of music is it?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top