The Art of Live PA.

[acidsaturation]

I've always been very resistant to using a laptop for a live pa, purely because I have seen soooo many 'live' pas which are NOT live pas - in the extreme situations basically just lining up tracks in place and sticking a few effects over.

Having said that, I have all but stopped playing at the moment, partly 'cos of how busy I am working and doing an MA, but also lugging all my gear (I took a pretty hefty proportion of my equipment) about and needing to find someone with a van etc etc.

Some point I will try and put some in the laptop I reckon, and take some synths out.

But everything was sequenced, I think the only loops were a few guitar samples, and a couple from old tune that I made on a PC and only had audio recordings of.

Basically, I have 3 electribes running their own loops, and the RM1x running a few more tracks on other synths and mix about between them all, bringing bits in and out.

Other main problem is while more and more people are using so much more processing on laptops it is harder and harder to match the sound quality with this kind of set up...

[The_Laughing_Man]

I've always been very resistant to using a laptop for a live pa, purely because I have seen soooo many 'live' pas which are NOT live pas - in the extreme situations basically just lining up tracks in place and sticking a few effects over.

Having said that, I have all but stopped playing at the moment, partly 'cos of how busy I am working and doing an MA, but also lugging all my gear (I took a pretty hefty proportion of my equipment) about and needing to find someone with a van etc etc.

Some point I will try and put some in the laptop I reckon, and take some synths out.

But everything was sequenced, I think the only loops were a few guitar samples, and a couple from old tune that I made on a PC and only had audio recordings of.

Basically, I have 3 electribes running their own loops, and the RM1x running a few more tracks on other synths and mix about between them all, bringing bits in and out.

Other main problem is while more and more people are using so much more processing on laptops it is harder and harder to match the sound quality with this kind of set up...

a sequence is just a loop of midi notes, there is no difference really.
I use both loops of my own audio and midi triggered vsti synths.
Makes no odds.
I love ableton as it is so easy for me to manage what I am doing.
Most hardware PA`s these days sound very dated and slow to react to the crowd being presequenced sets that can`t be deviated from very quickly or easily.
With ableton I can play my live pa with the same reaction speed of a DJ, and if people aren`t digging the tune I am playing I can very quickly move on to another tune to pick up the pace.
It`s so easy to edit midi on the fly, copy, merge it, change it, re-assign controllers, change the groove of an audio loop etc
Plus as you mentioned I can apply processing to keep my sound more standardised regardless of what system I play on.

[acidsaturation]

a sequence is just a loop of midi notes, there is no difference really.
I use both loops of my own audio and midi triggered vsti synths.
{...}
It`s so easy to edit midi on the fly, copy, merge it, change it, re-assign controllers, change the groove of an audio loop etc

Though that confuses me a bit - you've made the difference clear in the latter part - midi can be altered a lot more on the fly than audio.

[Technologic]

Though that confuses me a bit - you've made the difference clear in the latter part - midi can be altered a lot more on the fly than audio.

Indeed, although recording a midi-file to audio, looping it and then creating another track part with the same hardware is useful for layering music and would be great to see live. Indeed audio has less integration and engineering potential but it can be used to your advantage.

[The_Laughing_Man]

Though that confuses me a bit - you've made the difference clear in the latter part - midi can be altered a lot more on the fly than audio.

With ableton both can be altered very easily and quickly on the fly
With XOXOX hardware changing midi on all but single note drum track type stuff stuff is a problem due to the limitation of the interfaces.