A sneak peek to my live setup [=boring technical jargon]

So, I thought I'd share some information about my live setup because I've noticed that most of the time it helps in troubleshooting once you start writing about it.

EDIT : This technique is used to create a musical collage rather than a traditional DJ set and it's been around for quite a while. However, this is just one way of doing it.

Anyway, here's what it looks like in the box in Ableton Live :

Now, this pre-school quality drawing may not be the best of the bunch, so feel free to laugh it up, as it's purpose is to be informative.

What's going on in there, is that the channel configuration consists of four track channels (the light blue/cyan ones labeled A to D), a loop channel (light brown), a MIDI channel for the Mininova (blue), an effects channel (yellow), a 909 drum rack channel (orange) and the MIDI channel for the Rhythm Wolf drum machine (red).

To break those down more specifically ;

The Track channels are audio only and they all have a custom Ableton Effect rack which I call the "Track Ch". It's basically a modified version of the DJ Master Channel preset, but with the Reverb and Saturation-plugins removed and replaced with another Effect rack preset (called Electronica) which is basically a filtered delay (the delay is activated by twisting a knob which adjusts a compressor to bring out the nuances). All the channels have a Looper as well but I don't use it that much.

Then there are the Loop and EFX channels which are basically the same as the Track channels minus the Looper. They contain pre-recorded stuff like drum loops, white noise effects and risers.

The Mininova channel contains MIDI clips (covering an octave, 12 clips in total) with a note sequence in them. The channel also has a Chord plugin as well as an Arpeggiator and the outcoming MIDI sequence can be sent to the Rhythm Wolf channel (hence the arrow)

The Drum Rack channel has MIDI clips with different drum patterns. I mainly use it for buildups since it's routed to another mixer channel in the D.4 than the drum machine which I'll cover later in this blog post.

The Rhythm Wolf channel is similar to the Mininova channel in the sense that it has the same MIDI clip bank but they are variated as basslines. The channel's MIDI effect chain also has Chord and Arpeggiator plugins.

On a side note; sometimes by accident I manage to create something spectacular with this setup, especially when a new piece of gear finds it's home here, but most of the time recreating the same phenomenon can be extremely hard. That's why I can't really say to anyone that "this is where the magic happens" :(

Then, on to the hardware and the cable spaghetti :

There's also a Lindy USB-Hub which ties everything together USB-wise and a Novation Nocturn 25 which isn't connected to anything at the moment. Below the Macbook there are two Patchblocks but I don't have the proper cables (or the extra pair of hands as for that matter) for the time being. The thin lines denote a MIDI or USB connection, the thicker ones are audio connections respectively.

Audio-wise, the Mininova and the Rhythm Wolf are connected to the Mackie D.4. The Mininova is actually in an Aux return channel because I ran out of channels (there's a downside to that ; it can't be cued at all) and the Rhythm Wolf is in channel 3.

Rest of the audio from Ableton is routed via Firewire so that the A and B decks (=Track channels which have the same songs in them in the same order) are in channel 1, and the C and D decks are in channel 4. Some would argue that A-C and B-D should be paired in their respective channels but most of the traditional mixing is done on the APC40 which suits my style and kind of makes it sound like a huge mashup (although when practicing, cacophony most of the time)

The Loops and Effects channels as well as the Drum rack channel are routed to channel 2.

So, in short (in the mixer) ;

Ch1 : Track channels A and B (Firewire)

Ch2 : Drum Rack, Effect and Loop channels (Firewire)

Ch3 : Rhythm Wolf

Ch4 : Track channels C and D (Firewire)

Aux return : Mininova

MIDI-wise, the Rhythm Wolf actually synchronizes the whole setup, pretty much like in a real band, by sending MIDI clock to Ableton via USB. The software then sends USB-MIDI to the Mininova and the Rhythm Wolf's built-in synthesizer. In case the laptop crashes, there's a MIDI cable from the Rhythm Wolf to the Mininova to keep them in sync.

Anyway, the aforementioned may be subject to change in the future because the setup is still taking shape. Here's a picture of the setup in it's natural habitat.

There's still some work to do, such as getting the Patchblocks to the Aux send&return loop. The channel configuration is being sorted out as well.

Until then, it's "practice and enjoy" like this guy used to say.. (edit : maybe he still does.. I haven't watched his videos in years)

-ef

EDIT : Spelling and grammar

EDIT 2 : Minor updates..

EDIT 3 : Corrected a few words and paragraphs :)

EDIT 4 : The Ableton template can be downloaded here

EDIT 5 : Here's the 303-y .syx file for the Mininova in case someone wants it.. it turned out ok I guess. You don't need a group of WHO scientists to analyze it's overall acidity though.

EDIT 6 : Video down temporarily.. I'll upload another one once I get some things fixed.

EDIT 7 : Here's a short audio demo of what it sounds like.. btw, Live is actually syncing the whole setup now.