Live Shows - I don't want to just "hit play," software/gear options?

S

shackrock

New member
So I've read through a bunch of posts here, but am not satisfied. Who plays live shows with a laptop (and sure, other gear)? What do YOU do?

I have an album of electronic-style music. Lots of effects on instruments, synths, triggered drum samples, effects on vocals.... All of the music stuff was made in Fruity Loops, and anything else from a live instrument / my voice was recorded and then effects added later.

So:
I don't want to just hit play on my laptop, and sing along.... I want to have me and maybe one or two others... we can use keyboards/pedals/whatever it takes...but I want to hear what people have done to make things work. Preferably, I can use my laptop with some software to accomplish most of this. I also have an Onyx 400f, so I can do MIDI through where needed as well....

tips/hints/suggestions/stories?

p.s. I'm not worried about the ground loop issue - I'll just de-ground my charger for my laptop.
 
You want Ableton Live. There are some fantastic MIDI controllers made for it. Its an excellent program that is designed for exactly what you want to do.
 
Check out the Roland Sonic Cell introduced early 2008. Won't even need the laptop, either.
Can store your MIDI, MP3's on a USB stick ... the Sonic Cell is a synth module, Audio Player and USB Audio Interface all-in-one.
 
Hi,

My electronic dance band uses a Akai MPC 1000. We have it running midi sequence to a drum machine (Boss Dr Groove which is used as our drum sound library), and Akai also holds all of our samples as wav files which are also triggered by the on board midi sequencer. It does a lot more then we use it for, but as I am also playing bass and singing I have not got a hand free to do on the fly changes.

Our old set up was a midi file player plugged into the drum machine, a key board sound module and a sampler. We then used a lap top instead of the file player and sampler running ableton live (which I still use with the Akai in the studio when writing), then replaced the laptop and sound module (the sounds are now stored in the Akai) with just the Akai.

The Akai has been bullet proof on stage (not like the lap top). We have the Larger Ram installed and a 2 gig memory card. We did not install the hard drive option to keep the weight down for (luggage allowance during tours which we always max out so every lb/Kg helps).

Cheers

Alan.
 
Yeah, I've gotten a few of my own that way, but nothing horrible enough. In fact, I even have a dell charger that is just two prong to begin with - they can't hate me for that!
 
You can buy power supplies (double insulated) that are made so they don't have to have an earth.

Earthed power supplies on lap tops are causing all kinds of problems with USB sound cards as you get a earth loop through the USB cable.

Older lap tops were never earthed then someone changed the regulations.

Cheers

Alan.
 
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