Ableton live Performance

DJ Software & Apps Ableton
1

Ableton live Performance

Hey guys so I’m working in taking things to the next level and planing on making an ableton live performance.

I have been tweaking my set for a while, it is composed in 8 chanels in session view: (A) Audio (M) Midi Instrument

Instrument: (1)Drums(A), (2)Synth Bass(A),(3)Synths(A), (4)Organs(M), (5)Arp Synth(M), (6)Miscelaneous(A), (7)Vocals(A), (8)Fx/Fills(A)
Effect: (1) Snd Dly, (2) HP Filter ,(3) Snd Rvb ,(4) Snd Rvb , (5) Arp Time ,(6) LP Filter ,(7) Snd Rvb . (8)----

Each channel contains loops of my tracks as well as multi tracks of other artists tracks. I control clip launching with my launchpad.
Volume levels are controled with faders in the nanokontrol.
Effects mentioned in each channel are controlled with the knobs on the nanokontrol.
Y use the buttons trigger 1bar loop with the beat repeater.
I use a 49key simple m-audio midi keyboard with a footswitch for the midi instruments.

In the master channel I have a small mastering chain to make everything more punchy.
This is how I´m currently working.

However I can´t figure out how to take it with the next level, I feel that there is something missing, I feel that many of the transitions are tooo forced.

As I dont have too much material of my own to make a full hour set I’ve been scrambling all through the internet finding stems, multitracks, acapellas of other artists such as dada life, pendulum, shm, deadmau5, etc.

In order to increase material also I´m adding other artists full tracks to include every once in a while.

Lets get to the point.
I want to be able to make a sort of deadmau5, justice, daft punk, the twelves ableton live act. (If some of them make pre recorded sets I dont care, Im pointing to the idea of what they are trying to show)

So what would you recommend me to do?
I want to go in this direction with my current equipment.
Any ideas on how to optimize my ableton set?
How would you manage something like this?

thanks for the help!

2

What are you using to trigger/mute/effect on/off ? … I find I couldn’t live without all the buttons on my APC to knock 3 or 4 things on and off simultaneously.

3

The two channels that include filters, the ON/Off is controlled by the same knob, the end of the knob means OFF and as I move it gently it toggles ON being able to sweep.
The other chanels have only send effects so no need for ON/OFF buttons.
Beat repeat is toggled by the upper button of each channel in my nanokontrol.(You could use the solo button in the apc)
Record/Arm in the midi tracks is toggled by the lower button of each channel in the nanokontrol.
As for mute I dont really use it, I really dont need to turn a lot of things on/off at the same time.
Mainly each song is divided intro aprox 5/6 scenes. Full track, intro, main, build, break, end or whatever i think will be usefull.

Regarding

4

Sorry, I mean do you use a launchpad or anything to trigger your samples or using the mouse ? I mean it by way of launching 3 or muting or 4 clips at the same time which doesn’t seem possible with a NanoKontrol alone given that your top and bottom buttons are already in use, unless you are swapping midi channels for swapping triggering/effects ?

Just seems like a lot of effort and no real bank of clips at your fingertips - soft takeover is one of my pet hates for this reason, “gently” doesn’t cut it for me during a gig.

I guess if I were putting a set together like that first thing I’d do is transpose everything to the same key or corresponding one so you could trigger anything on the grid and it’ll work and won’t sound funky.