Syncing 2 computer for a liveact

Opuswerk · Post by **Opuswerk** » Mon May 05, 2008 2:00 am

So we spent the whole day getting this to work.

As it was proposed, we ended up using an old comp as a clock. The clock comp would be running a copy of live running at the master tempo. The whole MIDI is being sent via the built-in Midi over LAN of osx in the audio midi setup. So the 2 comps actually running the synth and the sequencing are actually both slaves.

Both comps are only running midi.

We did however encounter several issues. Live's midi global quantize isn't so good and doesn't seem to go lower than 1/32th. So the beats and overall groove is pretty rigid. Which is not good at all. We did fiddle with the quantize of the clips and the global one. 1/32th is rigid and most definitely changes the whole feeling of a track...

The other issue was to be able to send midi messages from our controllers to the slaves. We didn't go that deep into it, as time is running short for us and we had to take a decision about our next step.

So we will unfortunately have to resign to bouncing relevant part of the tracks and playing them as audio with fx's on top. We would love to hear someone tell us otherwise though, as we had so much fun playing the tracks alone.

Our only issue really is to get from one track to the other, as one comp can only handle one song at a time... but we haven't found a way yet. Again we'd love to hear someone prove us different.

The whole idea of how to organize the set came after looking at robert henke's video that was posted here earlier. Where he actually shows his liveset and its all only MIDI.

its fun doing dual-live pa though.

this is exactly what we want to do. although only using midi and no audio.

subscan · Post by **subscan** » Mon May 05, 2008 3:52 am

check out this I think its might help

http://home.netspeed.com.au/aistorm/sync2.html

hydrogen · Post by **hydrogen** » Mon May 05, 2008 4:56 am

Opuswerk wrote:
its fun doing dual-live pa though.
this is exactly what we want to do. although only using midi and no audio.

Then remove your complicated sequences and use some groups. it takes a little setup time... the problem with it though is that you are limited to a certain number of channels... which is a good thing if your making minimal.

livecollective · Post by **livecollective** » Mon May 05, 2008 7:00 am

Opuswerk wrote:

its fun doing dual-live pa though.
this is exactly what we want to do. although only using midi and no audio.

Yes thats exactly what we do, its fun and we have absolutely no problems...

Opuswerk · Post by **Opuswerk** » Mon May 05, 2008 8:36 am

well we already stripped our tracks o 8 channels.

But some tracks are using massive and some processing along the way which makes it a bit too much for the comp to handle...

@livecollective
could you please describe your live setup. i mean how you've organized your liveset file?

Drake44444 · Post by **Drake44444** » Mon May 05, 2008 9:00 am

its possible if you sync ableton externally to a mixer, like someone said with midi support.

my korg zero 4 can do it, for instance

Opuswerk · Post by **Opuswerk** » Mon May 05, 2008 9:19 am

syncing isn't really an issue anymore

but the way live quantizes the sync has become one.

re.vise · Post by **re.vise** » Mon May 05, 2008 12:23 pm

I always wonder how livesets work.. How do people do it? They talk about rendered loops, but what is the live aspect then? Playing the loops? Controlling effects with the midi controller?