Help conserning live-setup

My current live-setup is basically just a controller with buildin soundcard, the Reloop Digital Jockey Interface Edition and a laptop running a dj-software. However I'm looking into expanding it.
So I've made this little illustration for you to better understand, what I've got in mind:
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7078/djsetup.jpg
The original setup is still preserved, the output of the Digital Jockey Interface Edition runs into an external soundcard hooked up to another laptop running Ableton Live (please note, that I only own LE 7), which is controlled via my Akai MPD24, which I bought months ago, but quit using because it sent some of the same midi-notes (signals or whatever) as the Digital Jockey Interface Edition.
The point is that I want to use Ableton as say an effect processor, instead of for instance the Kaoss Pad,Behringer Tweakalizer or likely. Just using vst's/ableton plugins instead.
The "wet" signal should then run out through the external soundcard and into the venue's PA system, a powered mixer or likely.

I'm kindly requesting the answer to wheater this is possible to do live, and how I do it.

Your diagram is certainly possible to do live. On your ableton track in session view, configure the input to be coming from the soundcard. You can then apply your effects to that track as usual.

There might be a one laptop solution to this. From what you wrote, I'm not sure if you had the DJ software output being the input for Ableton on the same PC and just stopped because of the MPD24 sending MIDI to the DJ software. If that's the case, you should be able to map your controllers to fix this. You should be able to disable the MPD from sending any signals to the DJ software, assuming you can choose which devices can control the DJ software.

Thanks alot for the fast reply, it seems very helpfull!

There's one thing I forgot to mention; what about latency in the Ableton input-setup, do you think, this could be a problem?

We'll I think I'd prefer to do this set-up on two computers, because then wont have to try to navigate everything on only one tiny laptop-screen.

All the best!

I never really thought about the screen area, lol. The latency might be an issue (it did occur to me) but I've never used ableton in this manner. you might want to ask over at Ableton Live DJ. These guys would know better than I. Good luck!

thanks, I'll do that.

You can run both of these programs on the one computer if you want, thats what i do - check out the FAQ for tutorials for both PC and Ableton.

Hey BentoSan, I don't know wheater you've read the entire post, but I do want to run the setup on two laptops.

Thanks

I did read your entire post, you say why you wouldnt want to do internal audio routing - you can do everything you can do with this method if you do pipe the audio internally and get better sound quality at the same time because your not converting from D->A->D-A. It also allows for a more portable setup as you dont have to lug around two computers.

Up to you though, good luck with your rig.

I guess the best question to ask, then, would be why you'd want to use 2 laptops when you can use one.

Hey DvlsAdvct, simply because I want two seperate screens, one for the dj application and one for Ableton. This isn't a question of what is the cheapest solution.

Neither do I want to bother setting up more soundcards to one laptop during just before a gig, I think it is to complex to handle in that situation. Running to laptops will make it more "plug-and-play" I think. Also I'm looking into he earlier post at DJTT about the touchpad controller (I found this one http://usb.brando.com/usb-multi-touc...6c034d015.html)
http://usb.brando.com/prod_img/zoom/...03200_02_L.jpg for Ableton aswell. And in the end I'll end up running out of USB-ports, and I'm not feeling comfortable performing live using an USB-hub.

Well, but afterall I guess the main reason is that I want two seperate screens. And I'm not going to be carrying around a seperate flat-screen in my flightcase.

However if any of you guys wonder what I'm going to perform using this setup feel free to visit my myspace: http://www.myspace.com/frederikolufsen

Frederick, what about pluggin in another display?

Most of laptops have a connection for pluggin in an external display, so you could place your DJ software on your laptop screen and ableton on your TFT display.

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Originally Posted by Negotiator

Frederick, what about pluggin in another display?

Most of laptops have a connection for pluggin in an external display, so you could place your DJ software on your laptop screen and ableton on your TFT display.

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First, the programme on the left screen is actually loading screen for Virtual DJ Pro 5, I do alot of costumizing in GUIs. The program is customized to look exactly like i want it to do. However it could have been running Reloop Attack or Traktor, it pretty much depend on my mood, however Virtual DJ (remarkably enough) is my preffered one - my experince it's the most reliable dj-software when it comes to analyzing BPM correctly, and the easiest one to correct it within (You might rightfully disagree, but this is my personal prefference).

Mate, I know that I easilly can plug in an external screen to my laptop, and run split-screen mode (I guess it's called), but I'll end up running out of USB-port eventually. I think I'll be purchasing the other laptop today or tomorrow, then I'll upload some pics for you tp see :)

Cheers and thanks to everybody for helping me out.
Frederik

Okay, that makes sense then :)

I'd think this would be easily done. You'd just route the outs from Comp1 with your DJ software as individual channels into the ins on your soundcard for Comp2 with Ableton. I would think you'd need to route out the channels individually so you can effect them individually, and then also effect the master bus. :)

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Originally Posted by DvlsAdvct

Okay, that makes sense then :)

I'd think this would be easily done. You'd just route the outs from Comp1 with your DJ software as individual channels into the ins on your soundcard for Comp2 with Ableton. I would think you'd need to route out the channels individually so you can effect them individually, and then also effect the master bus. :)

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But then you would lose the ability to use the crossfader on the reloop to crossfade - the solution to use the crossfader would be to port that midi message out of one laptop and into another using rather midi over lan or 2 soundcards that both have midi ports(which i don't think the reloop has). This would get quite messy and add more setup time for sure, the benefits are obvious though - applying effects to individual channels instead of just the master channel is a much better approach.

This setup would be much easier to "Plug and Play" just using a single pc, and a second monitor if you ask me - if more USB ports are needed there are good USB hubs out there that are reliable: http://www.djtechtools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2738

But if you decide not to use the crossfader, and instead use the volume faders (which seems to be the only option) you'd still get a pretty standard cross fader feel.

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Originally Posted by DvlsAdvct

But if you decide not to use the crossfader, and instead use the volume faders (which seems to be the only option) you'd still get a pretty standard cross fader feel.

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But jamming the crossfader back and forth is so much damn fun :p