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laptop music issues
 

offline glasse from Harrisburg (United States) on 2003-12-04 10:46 [#00977055]
Points: 4211 Status: Regular | Show recordbag



I have a question regarding laptop based music. Have any
of you that have been to electronic shows ever heard
someones laptop crash, like the sound skips or anything like
that? I am running Cubase 5 on an iBook and it crashes way
too much for me to feel comfortable playing my tracks live
right out of Cubase. I guess maybe I should have gotten a
Powerbook but this is what I could afford.

I have considered running my tracks rendered out of iTunes
or something and instead of twiddling on the laptop shuttle
some loops over to this hardware sampler I have and trigger
that real time, maybe get a Kaoss pad or something to work
live.


 

offline dtnl from London (United Kingdom) on 2003-12-04 10:55 [#00977071]
Points: 107 Status: Addict



ableton live is what you want my son.


 

offline glasse from Harrisburg (United States) on 2003-12-04 11:00 [#00977082]
Points: 4211 Status: Regular | Followup to dtnl: #00977071 | Show recordbag



I just looked this up. It looks really interesting. Is
this a solution a lot of the electronic artists we listen to
use?


 

offline tibbar from harrisburg, pa (United States) on 2003-12-04 11:03 [#00977091]
Points: 10513 Status: Lurker



i've got issues.

with the laptop.

and music.

but mostly with issues.

and music.

and laptop.

and and.


 

offline glasse from Harrisburg (United States) on 2003-12-04 11:05 [#00977099]
Points: 4211 Status: Regular | Show recordbag



tibbar look at this ableton program. it looks pretty sweet.
ableton.com


 

offline glasse from Harrisburg (United States) on 2003-12-04 11:06 [#00977103]
Points: 4211 Status: Regular | Show recordbag



also go listen to the never ending story remix JAroen posted
on the Whoo Christmas thread. It is really sweet.


 

offline virginpusher from County Clare on 2003-12-04 11:17 [#00977126]
Points: 27325 Status: Lurker



I use Ableton. It works great depending on what you want to
do.


 

offline glasse from Harrisburg (United States) on 2003-12-04 11:20 [#00977132]
Points: 4211 Status: Regular | Show recordbag



I don't know if that will solve my laptop crashing issue
though.


 

offline blobula from BElgraDe on 2003-12-04 12:57 [#00977216]
Points: 1253 Status: Lurker



kaoss pad is excellent tool...


 

offline Dinosaur from United Kingdom on 2003-12-04 13:16 [#00977233]
Points: 312 Status: Lurker



ableton live is the best solution.

beware on your mac tho. could not run as well. with my
experience it runs best on pc.
i believe there's a trial version on the their site.

someone on this board claims afx used it at the last show
he/she saw


 

offline glasse from Harrisburg (United States) on 2003-12-04 17:20 [#00977462]
Points: 4211 Status: Regular | Show recordbag



I downloaded the demo version and will try to mess around
with it later tonight. If I purchase it I will probably get
the OS X version because OSX is a lot more stable than OS9,
even though the version of Cubase I run is for OS 9, I can
pre-render everything before hand.

This is kind of exciting because even if I were to run
tracks out of Cubase live, the whole idea of changing a few
eq values etc. in real time to seem like I am doing
something seems cheap. I am thinking about getting some
hand percussion and maybe like that kaoss pad and a theremin
to have by the table live.


 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2003-12-04 17:32 [#00977470]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker



I wish ableton had a midi sequencer built into it, then it
would be perfect. As it is I'm putting off learning it cause
I have no immediate need to perform live -

Glasse, have you tried Logic Audio? Not that it's a
performance app, just wondering - I was considering thinking
about getting a Mac just for that cause I hear it blows
Cubase away...


 

offline hevquip from megagram dusk sect (United States) on 2003-12-04 17:39 [#00977472]
Points: 3379 Status: Regular



it's funny how you mention the music skipping...

...who's really going to notice if it's the type of music
made on a laptop?


 

offline glasse from Harrisburg (United States) on 2003-12-04 17:39 [#00977473]
Points: 4211 Status: Regular | Followup to fleetmouse: #00977470 | Show recordbag



From what I understand Logic Audio is very similar to Cubase
as far as what it does. It could be better. A friend of
mine has the newer Cubase SX for OSX and it is a lot better
than the version I run and I will probably upgrade to that
once I am done with my current batch of material (although
that requires a G4 and iBooks are only G3, but we will see).


 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2003-12-04 17:45 [#00977481]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker | Followup to glasse: #00977473



How is Cubase 5 for controlling shit with a box of knobs
like the Doepfer controllers? I have Cubase SX 1.05 for
Windows and it's just about impossible to map a control to a
VSTi parameter (i.e., cutoff, lfo rate etc).



 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2003-12-04 17:47 [#00977485]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker | Followup to fleetmouse: #00977481



From what I hear the generic controller function has gotten
even worse in SX 2.


 

offline disasemble from United States on 2003-12-04 17:55 [#00977495]
Points: 1448 Status: Regular



i use ableton for live stuff. but i also like it just to
write songs. its incredibly versitile, and its automation is
the best ive seen.

only problem is no VSTi support, but that can be overcome
usually when transposing melodies. the ableton site has a
track monolake composed using ableton live and just a short
white noise sample. really illustrates the power of that
program.

my choice software at the moment.


 

offline qrter from the future, and it works (Netherlands, The) on 2003-12-04 19:04 [#00977585]
Points: 47414 Status: Moderator



I have used Cubase SX for live perfomances and it never
crashed.

it does have the tendency to lag for a second or so when I
introduce a new sample - but this is all due to my very
crappy soundcard.

sounds to me like your computer is a bit shit AND/OR if you
are using a crack of Cubase (which I am guessing you are),
that crack is shit AND/OR your soundcard is shit.



 

offline qrter from the future, and it works (Netherlands, The) on 2003-12-04 19:07 [#00977588]
Points: 47414 Status: Moderator | Followup to disasemble: #00977495



my guess is that says much more about Monolake than Ableton
- in the end it doesn't matter much which program you use,
just as long as you feel comfortable with it.


 

offline disasemble from United States on 2003-12-04 19:19 [#00977600]
Points: 1448 Status: Regular | Followup to qrter: #00977588



of course. its definitely obvious its not the program that
makes the musician, i agree. but thats not what i was
getting at really, though probably came off that way.

im merely stating that its not just a "live tool" like lots
think it is. can go far deeper than that, which a lot of
people i talk to generally seem to dismiss upon first look.
same goes for any program, people look past things too much
in my opinion.

yeah comfort is key really. probably one reason i found
ableton intriguing was its simplifed layout. no big extra
windows, was all pretty much laid out in front of me, which
was a nice change from the rest.

need to test out cubase more. have made songs in that,
logic, reaktor, few things in max/msp. comfort isnt there
yet though, but seems like a great program.


 

offline glasse from Harrisburg (United States) on 2003-12-04 20:43 [#00977708]
Points: 4211 Status: Regular | Followup to qrter: #00977585 | Show recordbag



Na I bought it straight up. The soundcard I am using is
actually a Tascam US-428 controller, which in addition to
being an external soundcard is also a midi and audio
interface.


 

offline Oddioblender from Fort Worth, TX (United States) on 2003-12-04 20:50 [#00977717]
Points: 9601 Status: Lurker



i use sound recorder and a digitech rp7 effects valve for my
live shows - it works just fine.

i think most crashes are usually related to the user
overloading the program or doing something the prog doesn't
understand - when does it crash most often?


 

offline glasse from Harrisburg (United States) on 2003-12-04 20:56 [#00977723]
Points: 4211 Status: Regular | Show recordbag



you mean like an external controller? I really haven't
gotten much into that yet. So far I have been writing
automations internally for transitioning. My Tascam has
some assignable knobs, although it is set up to model a
traditional 4 track type mixer rather than a virtual analog
type controller, so it will be limited in that respect.


 

offline glasse from Harrisburg (United States) on 2003-12-04 20:59 [#00977729]
Points: 4211 Status: Regular | Followup to Oddioblender: #00977717 | Show recordbag



You know a lot of times it is when I have too many fx open
and what not so resampling/rendering will help me avoid
that, but some of the other weird stuff it does is change
the VST instruments I have assigned to a MIDI track when I
launch a song file, although I guess again rendering the
midi files to audio would fix that. It all just makes me
nervous is all :)


 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2003-12-04 23:06 [#00977854]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker | Followup to glasse: #00977723



Yeah, and you know vhat? I am an idiot.

I just discovered that you have to set the controllers in
the VSTis themselves, not in Cubase. Like in Synth1 you go
into its midi setup and tell it which controller# maps to
FM, or LFO rate, etc. And most commercial VSTis it's even
simpler with like a "learn" mode.

D U H !



 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2003-12-04 23:21 [#00977867]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker | Followup to fleetmouse: #00977854



Oh and Synth1 also has a learn mode.

If I read something on a dialog box a dozen times, sometimes
I actually absorb it!


 


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