liveset and djset with ableton: internal eq or mixer?

plastik · Post by **plastik** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 3:09 pm

hi everyone.

I recently saw marc houle (at the end, london) and gaiser (tenax, florence ITALY) do a fantastic live set each.

I was lucky enough to stand really close to them and I looked carefully at what gear they were using (I actually spoke to jon about this).
it sort of surprised me to see that they both used the same soundcard (echo audiofire, I guess audiofire 2 or maybe 4 but it was very compact) and routed the sound from ableton into one single channel in the mixer.

well, it actually is an obvious choice in a way, but what are your thoughts on this?

and what about djsets? I do dj with ableton (don't do live sets), using 4 tracks that I route into the mixer's 4 channels using native instruments' audio8. but sometimes I just have to go with one channel.

is there any loss in the sound quality if I go through one channel?
how to better the eq sound if I'm not using the mixer's 4 channels

prussell · Post by **prussell** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 7:55 pm

depends what mixer, but as a rule i personally will always choose external processing (esp. Allen & Heath 4 band EQ + filters) over Ableton's internal options.
of course it depends on your setup, controller, workflow, etc...

just my .02

MINIMALTECHNOHOUSE · Post by **MINIMALTECHNOHOUSE** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 10:45 pm

external everytime; the tiniest bit of latency on the pots really annoys me

hydrogen · Post by **hydrogen** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 2:01 am

agree with external processing because of latency... but you'll be able to do more internally... and you won't be dependant on the gear you are plugged into. Nothing more frustrating than some busted ass mixer that you have to use.

Tom M · Post by **Tom M** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 4:33 am

i always run 8 channels out of ableton live into 2x DJM800s..

that way i can utilise the 800s effects and also use its eq, which i find better than abletons.

plastik · Post by **plastik** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 6:05 pm

Tom M wrote:i always run 8 channels out of ableton live into 2x DJM800s..

that way i can utilise the 800s effects and also use its eq, which i find better than abletons.

interesting. but how many and which soundcards do you use

isaaclevy · Post by **isaaclevy** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:31 am

plastik wrote:
Tom M wrote:i always run 8 channels out of ableton live into 2x DJM800s..

that way i can utilise the 800s effects and also use its eq, which i find better than abletons.
interesting. but how many and which soundcards do you use

yes very interesting topic... i see that for live PA the sound card is somehting very important....i have been reading about this one:

http://www.tcelectronic.com/KonnektLive.asp

any coments? i know your skills r the most important thing, but other than that, is this a good one? bettte than audiofire? how about the m-audio?

thanks.

plastik · Post by **plastik** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 6:39 pm

isaaclevy wrote:i have been reading about this one:
http://www.tcelectronic.com/KonnektLive.asp
any coments? i know your skills r the most important thing, but other than that, is this a good one? bettte than audiofire? how about the m-audio?
thanks.

oh god, I did NOT want to start the 100th topic on soundcards

and didn't want this to turn out that way but here we go again

a friend of mine has a tc electronic sound card and can't stop recommend it. he loves it, expecially for producing (it's the konnekt24d), but he produces rock tunes. he enthuses that the "free assimilator" plug-in allows you to copy the original eqing of a piece of audio.
as for soundcards in general, I got to learn these 4 basic rules:
native instruments audio8 (the one and only usb 2.0 card to dj with)
echo audiofire
motu ultralite
rme fireface.