How do you organize your live performances?

The Lounge General Discussion
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hello everyone,

supposed you book a live performance to play your music. how do you prepare yourselves and eventually play live? i am mainly interested in a) the gear you use and b) your workflow in order to perform live. i assume (and this is a gross assumption and generalisation) that you are like me and write multitrack songs from which most tracks are prerecorded and you can play live only one or two of those tracks.

thanks for the feedback

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thanks for this I will have a look at the article even though it’s slightly different from what I am asking. if I’m not mistaken, this pertains to live sets which even though are based in some pre defined ideas, also have an element of improvisation in a large extent. whereas I am mainly focusing on written and recorded songs/tracks, and how to perform them live

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a) Gear: Octatrack, syntakt, micromonsta2, delay/reverb pedal, oto boum

b) Workflow:

  • I write music across 8 banks based on vibe (e.g. bank a = warm-up, b = percussive, etc). I have 4 tracks/parts per bank so in total 32 different tracks per project.
  • I use a DAW to mix all tracks (balance, loudness, low-end)
  • On the OT I prep scene 1-4 as intro scenes used for transitions, 5-6 are “performance” scenes using part-specific fx and 7-8 are used to create breaks & buildups. The rest of the scenes are the same for all parts/banks.
  • During a live set I use the OT to live loop a track and DJ mix into the next one.
  • With the syntakt I use an external midi controller to change the MW & AT across 4 midi channels. This takes more time to prep but makes performing more foolproof.

I usually play around 15-20 tracks during a live set so having 32 tracks allows me to be creative enough in the sequencing. Each track is just one loop so I use the pattern mutes, scenes and midi controller to bring them to live. Always rehearse enough so I can focus on having fun while playing :wink: That’s about it. For a new live set I just create a new project, re-use or refine the tracks that I want to keep an fill up the missing tracks with new music.

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thanks very much for this, it’s very inspiring

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I’m doing a Live Performance next Saturday.

This is my setup :

Rytm > Digitone > Digitakt > Syntakt > Heat+FX > Mixer > Compressor > Sonic Maximizer (BBE 882i)

Mic > Mixer with Delay and Reverb on Sends-Returns.

All my Songs are build on one Pattern and the Performance is usual stuff (tweaks, mutes, …)

I will also be accompanied by my friend on Sax, Clarinet, Flute and Aerophone.

My setup is wired the same way as it will be on Saturday.

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My live rig is Digitone, Analog Four, Analog Heat, and Keystep, all in a single Gator case with wheels. The synths are synced (tempo and pattern), with A4 as master. I can control either the DN or the A4 with the Keystep. This requires a MIDI merge box to merge the MIDI Out and Thru of the A4.
The audio signal chain is DN->A4->AH.

My songs vary in style. Some only use the Digitone, which I perform by switching patterns, messing with Control-All, muting, and playing the Keystep. A4-only songs are played using a lot of macros, and sometimes Song Mode. But most tracks use both synths, usually with the Digitone as percussion and the A4 supplying mono lead sounds, bass, FX.

The DN and A4 both have 8 banks of 16 patterns, so it’s easy to sync them.

I’d like to use different AH presets for each song, switched by MIDI, but I haven’t figured that out yet. I just use it as a master saturator/compressor, using @DaveMech’s excellent preset.

My live-performance project contains 20+ songs, but I only play about 8 songs in a 30 minute performance.

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My live set up and workflow is identical to my studio set up and workflow.

Patterns written, jam out twist knobs, cue next pattern repeat.

Thats how I make albums.

Only difference between live, and studio recording is one has an audience, the other has a recorder on the mixer.

To make my life easy I’ll strip down the live stuff to just OT, and one synth, maybe the drum machine too.

Less is best.

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Nope. In the case of my New Brain Acid album, which was Digitone, SH101, and TR8S. I could take the same gear out and play the same songs, just as they are on the album, but live.

I dont do any if that multtracking stuff. Play live in my studio and record the mixer.

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well, this method is considered obsolete in 2020s, but i learned to make music long long time ago in rock bands, so here it is: rehearsals!

well, no. i have some prerecorded tracks for the case of gear failure, but don’t use them normally.

TR-6s
MC-101
S-1
TB-3
Circuit Tracks as MIDI controller, FX unit, and for one-shots playback
all that stuff comes to Zoom LiveTrak L-8 mixer. prerecorded rhythm tracks are also there since L-8 has 8 physical inputs, but can handle more tracks.

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This. This. And more this.
Same here, playing live since the mid 1990s. Theres only one way to get good… rehearse.

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My live rig is the octatrack.
I have loops from my multitrack recordings on it and remix my pre written songs by doing the arrangement spontaneously, use performance effects and make transitions by resampling the live audio

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It almost sounds like you need to check out DJ gear?

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How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice :wink:

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I m not sure if you mean this in a dismissive way, in any case, if it’s important to lay down my intentions, I just completed an album and I would like to consider my options for playing those (as well as past songs) live.

Unfortunately the way I write songs involves heavy post-record editing (lots of cut and pastes, reverse clips etc) and I can’t reproduce live most of the parts of my songs.

Up until now I used to play live using a laptop to play all the tracks of a song apart from one or two, which I played live via a midi keyboard, but I find this boring both for me and the audience. So, I am asking others to get ideas and reconsider my live workflow.

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Over the years I’ve tried a few different methods (laptop, no laptop, etc) with varying results but the latest way I work is the most intuitive - and most fun because it’s all hardware - for me:

  1. Create and mix stems/loops and phrases at a certain tempo and key
  2. Choose 16 of my best from the bunch to compile into a song - 48k, 24bit wav
  3. Load those into the 1010music Blackbox as clips; 16 clips to a track
  4. Perform using the Polyend Play+ as the MIDI master, everything else is synced as a slave.
  5. Launch the clips from the Blackbox to build and take down tracks live
  6. Record everything into the 1010music Bluebox
  7. Profit!
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It’s not meant dismissively at all. It just sounds like a perfect use case for that kind of gear to perform your own recorded tracks(both current and past) in a live context, and giving you some flexibility in how they’re arranged and mixed together. For example, the way Boris Brejcha performs - love that guy.

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I misinterpreted your message, my bad,

Thanks for the tip, I checked the guy and he seems really good, quite simple yet effective with his setup,

Unfortunately, i don’t write similar music, it’s more downtempo, ambient, cinematic kind of music, so the audience is inclined to pay attention to what I am doing on stage rather than dance, and I need to explore ways to make a live concert more interesting

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Curious how you handle the mix, are you pretty much balancing everything out in the machines themselves? How about compression?

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Kind of, I mix using a mixer. (Strangely enough)
My drum machine has a compressor in it, so thats the drum mix sorted.

For mix compression, I might add a tiny bit of compression on the computer after I have transfered the recordings into my laptop.

(For live gigs I’ve never bothered with compressors.)

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