How are some using Live for Live?

[pharmakonMtl]

thats interesting.. so far the session view seems the most useful part of Live to me anyway..

i'm wondering if ANY live users out their who compose with a 'big' main sequencer (logic cubase etc), use Live's arrange view for anything? or does everyone stick to the session view too?

i use live mainly to manipulate audio clips of various sources, and they are almost never outright loops; they turn into 'one-hits' usually.

i then use the arrange window to assemble them into a loop(s), add some effects maybe, then i render the loops.

then, depending on the depth of the song or project, i might start throwing things into the session view to sketch out more ideas and try different combinations.

or, if i have enough material to just punch tracks in and out, then i'll use AudioHijackPro to add some AU effects as a kind of 'mastering' process and record the whole thing from the arranger with a very minimal performance hit. it's also nice to play around with different start/end/trigger points in the loop or loops which can be disastrous in session view.

i also like the drag and drop behaviour of the arrange view in that it cuts out portions of a file that overlap with another one. very cool accidents happen with that


of course, i've invested a few years in Logic so it's tough for me to let go of the typical arrange view. i still have much to learn on the session view, which seems infinitely more useful in version 3 with the addition of clip envelopes.

cheers,

kornapham

[Grijak]

It would be nice if you could crossfade between scenes and not just tracks

You can do this now using automation but you have to set it all up BEFOREHAND

[Guest]

It would be nice if you could crossfade between scenes and not just tracks

You can do this now using automation but you have to set it all up BEFOREHAND

How do you do that ?

[Detritus]

I like the idea of using midi channels to denote different tracks, but what do you think the advantages are of using the Session view in this way live, as opposed to the Arrangement view? I haven't been using Live that long, but setting everything up to be triggered in one go via a scene seems little different to setting them in Arrangement instead. I think what I mean to say is, how are people actually working with the scenes live? I presume that it's not a case of "press c3" wait "press d3" wait etc.....

[qminusi]

[quote="Detritus"]I like the idea of using midi channels to denote different tracks, but what do you think the advantages are of using the Session view in this way live, as opposed to the Arrangement view? [/quote]

Hello,

I (guit/synth) use to play with a bass man and we're recording life into Live. I have an other, more the musician and quite different viewpoint for using Life as discussed here in this thread. The channel idea might have its justification in certain situations but with this solution you give a lot of Live's power away.

I will try to explain how I do it.

I use the arrangement view as a frame for the whole gig. All songs, arrangements with melody, breaks, tempo automations, fx automations, little pauses between the songs and whatever is predefined in the arrangement view. All parameters must have automation! (If the parameter should be default simply set a breakpoint at the end of the arrangement outside of the songs - all parameters must be red in the dropdown menu) The automation guarantees the proper sound of the arrangement even when I change parameters during jamming in an arrangement loop in the session view. For the arrangement I use the first tracks 1-8. The session view is empty at the beginning of the show!

All instant recordings will happen in the session view on following empty (arrangement) tracks as track 9 for guitar, track 10 for bass, track 11 for synths or drumpad, track 12 for accoustic guitar, track 13 for the micro, track 14 for rewire programs, track 15 for VSTIs in Plogue Bidule and track 16 for resampling.
And at least 1 extra track for the use of new plugins. So none of the existing tracks will be overwritten from a new record by exident. I never use the arangement recorder during a gig!

I record clips always while a small peace (4-8 bars) of the arrangement is running in loop mode. These loop sections are predefined (and all clips have the same color for a visual orientation) and it works at best, when the loops are right before a strongly arranged part with breaks and melodies. (Like after a Jazz solo - people are clapping their hands when the band is comming back )

When the arrangement loop is running I can do the following:
1. Record the live played instruments.
2. Improvise over the running loop.
3. Change all parameters (even tempos)
4. Resample what ever I hear.
5. Edit fresh recorded loops with Live's clip tools.
6. Use any plugins extensively on the recording tracks 9-16 and the extra track for existing loops.
7. Drop existing samples into the session view on track 1-8. You see this can be done into the tracks which are used by the arrangement. It will not harm my arrangement as long I stay away from the arrangement recorder. On track 1-8 I only change parameters (sends or inserts) of existing plugins. I dont put new plugins into the tracks 1-8, they will run further when comming out of the loop.
8. I can build new scenes and play with them.
9. Use all space in the session view on every arrangement loop session.
10. I can stop all clips in the session view to total silence, tell a joke or order a beer trough the micro while the arrangement loop is still running in the back. I even can setup a total new song in this mode with all different parameters and its always possible to get back to the original arrangement.

There will be more things its all in the manual

After the climax I come back to the arrangement and deactivate the arrangement loop. Then I clean up the session view and the plugins on track 9-16 for the next loop session and set the loop marker in the arrangement view to its new position (Never forget to click the loop button for looping again!). And so on. This gives an incredibly improvising freedom always with having a safety net - the arrangement. Thats how improvised music works for live performance. Every musician can have a bad day but there is no reason for a bad arrangement. A good arrangement makes you better even on a bad day.

Remember: All recorded and resampled stuff is saved as temporary. If you want to keep the whole gig don't delete it when closing live.

I use the midi channels to control the VSTIs in Plogue Bidule or rewire applications.

If you have enough space on the hard drive you can record everything you do in a separate track from Lives output to record the gig.

Hope you got my idea and it helps you to make music with this great program. Live is a real instrument!

( And I should be paid for this workshop, donations welcome ... )

Sincerely
Karl E. Maij