Play "live"

[SmartHans]

Ok, I am to lazy to look up an old topic about this, so I´ll just create a new one .

Anyway, when stars like Astrix, Infected Muschroom etc, play "live". What do they use? Synths? Loops? Drummachines? Would be thankful for anwsers, but I´m just a beginner, so no strange "proterms" please. .

Thanks

//Smart^Hans

[asian_bud_nation]

hey whats up?

 

i cant tell u how exactly the "pros" do it cuz im always way to mashed to pay any attention, but anyways, i can try to help a bit..

 

i play live as well, and basically what i do is use a software sequencer (eg. cubase, reason, Live!, etc.) to sequence the main elements of each song. i load each song into the sequencer and then insert transitions between each song, so that as one song finishes another song begins to start up..or that u have a breakdown between the end of the song and the beginning of the next song. as far as using drum machine and synthesizers, when i play live i remove some elements from each song, and then use midi notes to trigger my hardware devices, so that i can recreate the synth lines in perfect time with the original track but u can then tweak the synth or drum line and make it sound more live...i dont know i might be confusing you, but its kinda hard to explain in just words..the best is just to mess around until u find something that fits your style...remember, there's no right or wrong way to play live...you just do whatever fits u best...i've seen a lot of live acts that keep it simple and rather than bringing along a computer, soundcard, etc, they redo their tracks and remove or add specific things and then just play the tracks off a cd and then add synth lines and drum lines from their hardware gear ontop of the song playing from the cd.

 

this method isn't as "live" as it could be, but it saves time and space if u dont have it. i do my live sets this way mainly when i have to tackle djing and playing live in one night (which is the case a lot of times)..so basically this is how i do it:

 

i have my dj mixer and two cd decks connected to the mixer...basic dj set up...i then hook up my drum machine to a free channel on the dj mixer. i then burn a cd with all my tracks that i plan to play that night, and then play it off the cd player..because my drummachine/groovebox is plugged into the dj mixer, i can use it as i would a cd player and manually blend sounds and loops from it together with the song playing off the cd. this way i can add whole new drum loops and synth sounds ontop of the song, which makes the whole thing a bit more "live" when one track finishes on the cd player i can start up a short "transitional song" which i preprogram on my groove box, then i have time to bring in the next track off the cd...anyways basically im playing back and forth between a cd player and a drum machine..

 

anyways i think i probably lost u at the beginning of the post...but anyways, maybe u can filter through all the confusion and find something useful..

 

peace!