Remember when playing live to take a backup - especially if you're relying on a PC. So, bring along a portable MD, or a CD, or something you can plug into the system and press 'play' if things go pear. There's nothing worse than 30+ seconds of dead air while you reset your machine...

And I HAVE seen this happen!

Traditionally, getting a hardware sequencer or 'groove box' type device - Roland and Yamaha do good ones - is seen as the stable way of doing it. Hardware sequencers are far more bullet-proof... Apart from drums they generally have crap on-board sounds though.

Not that you'll be using them. You should be able to get away with a groove box, a multi-timbral synth and a sampler. And a mixer.

Yet another way to do it is to bring in two impressive looking keyboards, and a DAT/MD/CD. And a mixer. Play your tracks off tape/CD, and add a few pads, tunes, arps, etc. over the top.

Again, I've seen this happen! Not really very 'live' in my book though.

T*