anyone running a laptop for their live show?

[arcadesonfire]

I had been looking into a used keyboard, something from the 80s or 90s, for my band, but now i can't make the decision to go for a synth or to go for a sampler, cuz i think we want both options...

 

so now i'm thinking of getting a used laptop that we could dedicate just to being a host for a variety of soft synths/samplers and just hook up a controller to it for our live show.

 

My only fear is that a computer won't be reliable enough. So, is anyone else doing this? Have any tales of woe? Or if we use this computer just for synths/samplers (no internet, no other software, only rarely installing new things), do you think it could be reliable enough to use on stage?

 

right now we're only doing live shows once or twice a month, but someday, we may well tour.

 

(i'd be using my m-audio firewire solo card and cheapo midi keyboard)

[Khazul]

The closest I come is using ableton Live - I currently pre-render to stems and only use some soft fx, no soft synths (I dont use them anyway), nor even bother running hardware synths through it.

[arcadesonfire]

 

The closest I come is using ableton Live - I currently pre-render to stems and only use some soft fx, no soft synths (I dont use them anyway), nor even bother running hardware synths through it.

 

 

Hmm... i don't know ableton (i haven't even used my softsynths in like 3 or 4 years, eek)... is a stem like a sample you make out a synth patch you programmed?

 

 

Anyway, the real question is: are you saying you wouldn't trust a computer to run soft synths in a live situation?

[TechEverlasting]

Wicked (the top grossing show on Broadway) is running on laptops - specifically Sonica Live Tracker IIs, which I believe are running Kontakt 2 hosted by Brainspawn Forte.

 

http://www.shop-sonica.com/the_company.cfm

[Khazul]

Hmm... i don't know ableton (i haven't even used my softsynths in like 3 or 4 years, eek)... is a stem like a sample you make out a synth patch you programmed? Anyway, the real question is: are you saying you wouldn't trust a computer to run soft synths in a live situation?

 

Stems are rendered submixes - one synth - a mix of synths, maybe dry, maybe with fx etc - basically mixing as much together as possible but still leaving me with as much live freedom as I need, and TBH I prefer to be conservative in favour of more rendering and less tweakabilty for maximum reliability and minimum average CPU load. Fx chains I tend to standardize ligve rather than bothering to keep every original fx that I might have used in the original track. TBH - I dont yet do that much live.

 

As for trusting a computer to play soft syynths - erm in studio I dont worry too much if my desktop workstation hits 70% + CPU unless Im recording external audio or bouncing audio etc.

 

With a laptop then I tend to get nervoius when that goes past about 40% due to relatively crappy i/o in a laptop and subsequent higher sensitivity to glitching (fine for IDM - you just wouldnt notice it ). So I tend to crank to buffer size up a litttle to give as much robustness vs latency that I can live with. The end result is Im running a shade over 10ms latency on audio out - to me that makes soft synths completely unplayable by the time you add in the midi response behavious of a typical VST DAW - because the midi to the soft synth or midi out might be syncronised to audio buffer fills, so ends up cranking up the perceived midi patency to something horrible - despite what some companies try to tell me.

 

At 10ms knobs are OK, triggering phases/loops at beat quantize is OK so long as I actively trigger them ahead - which strangely enough as a keyboard player - I actually find hard - I tend to want to triggger right on the beat - which is too late.

 

The other reason I hate playing some softies is they need to be 'pre-played' because of some just-in-time initialization or sample loading etc that can occur. So I cant ever see mayself ever playing a soft synth live. Even if I were take the Virus TI out, then it would be midi slaved to Ableton Live and NOT USB connnected and integrated - the jitter I can live with - the latency - no F****** way.

[Mathieson]

I tried both, and laptops are just too unreliable, wind up costing more (if it breaks, which it will as it's not made for music road wear), have latency issues and all the like. A used laptop is going to make that even worse, as it won't have as much power as a new one.

 

Another consideration is appearance - not sure what you're playing, but audiences tend to distrust someone with a laptop up, as they assume that the full program has been sequenced and you're basically DJing.

[Khazul]

Not true - alot of DJs work off laptop these day for doing what I would describe as 'enhanced' DJ sets - ie more than usual amount of on-the-fly remixing etc, reactions doesnt seem any different to a regular DJ working of CD decks or vinyl decks. With a latop its down to what controller you use - you dont have to be buried behind it.

 

There are also alot of bands using laptop on stage for some reason or other - and I dont just mean the small solo/duo electronic artists, but conventions bands - its not unusual to see a keyboard player these days with a laptop and a controller in there somewhere.

 

What I dont see with such bands however is the keyboard player doing anything complex or fast on those controller keyboards - its usually loops triggering, wierd fx, pads etc ie the kind of stuff where the latency wouldnt matter.

 

The main reaso I dont run soft synths live is I hate the latency - I just cant tolerate it, and also there are only two of us and one is a guitarist leaving me to deal with everything else, so I have my hands full mixing and triggering so I dont use hardware synths live either (yet). Its not DJing either - Im not really sure what you call it - macro playing? no idea.

[hyperstationjr]

I play bass and keys in a noise rock sort of a band... What I ended up doing was having a Nord Modular G1 Keyboard for my "VA" sounds, a Roland Alpha Juno for pads and layering, and a Nord Modular G2 for effects, drum sounds, and synth layering.

 

I also have Ableton LIVE running but it's mostly just for effects, sounds, loops, that sort of stuff. I have everything running through a MOTU 828mk2, and use a Behringer BCR2000 as a controller.

 

The neat thing about this setup is, it's heavily dependent on the laptop in that I can control ass loads of things very quickly, BUT, should the laptop die, I STILL pretty much have control over all the major parameters.

 

I wouldn't trust a laptop onstage as my main workhorse unless it was ONLY doing one thing, such as running a beatbox from Reaktor, or a VERY simple Ableton setup. OR, if I OVERPOWERED the HELL out of it.. like.. 3gHz proc with like 2 -3 gigs of ram, on a Mac, or TinyXP or something.

 

I thought of using my laptop to have access to other sounds, like say regular old pianos, or whatever... but honestly, the headache I would have isn't worth it.

 

If you want lots of different sounds in a smallish package, think about getting a sampling workstation, a Kurzweil K series or something, where there are onboard sounds, and lots of them but you can also load your own sounds. Couple that with a very good VA or analog synth and you have a VERY large sound set.

[Metrosonus]

i use a dell E1505 dual 2.6 gig and controller with ableton live for synths, sequencing and vocal processing.

 

the only people that "distrust" a laptop are people that turn up on internet forums to complain about how unauthentic it is.

 

if your live show sucks, dont blame the laptop

 

[nos]

I use one live. It's a macbook that I use to run Zero-G Nostalgia and Ableton Live. I've played probably 7 or 8 gigs with it and it hasn't had trouble yet. And I've been using it at practice once a week for the past year. The only time I have trouble is when I do somethig dumb like forget to set the outputs. The hardest thing is finding something decent to set it on. I also use a Moog Little Phatty.

 

I would rather NOT use it if I could find something that I could use to trigger samples AND that was polyphonic AND had better vintage keys emulations. I don't have any noticeable latency issues. I have found the sweet spot between pops and crackles and latency. It's around 10ms and I can definitely live with that.

[Pilot]

I don't have much choice. I can't access a lot of my synth from its console but I have full access with a computer. I'm not about to lug a desktop around so I use a laptop. An IBM Thinkpad to be precise as they're probably the most reliable. It doesn't have to be state of the art if you're just using midi. Mine is a 1.6GHz P4 with 512MB which is more than adequate.

 

Bryan

[robotsquid]

I use a Macbook for our live shows (as well as an Evolver and Micron), have done for over a year and a half, so maybe 20 or more shows. We've only ever had a problem once, and that wasn't with the laptop it was with an audio interface dying.

 

We use Ableton Live, it's rock solid (except for the awful jittery midi clock out) and hasn't skipped a beat once.