Modulate This! - News, Tips and Links for Electronic Musicians and Producers

Ableton Live 6 - Uses for Instrument Racks

The concept of creating a patch with splits and layers is missing, or is difficult to configure on a lot of software-based virtual studios. With Ableton Live 6 this is now easy to achieve by using Instrument Racks.

What can you do with this feature? Well you can create a patches that are made up of a combination of instrument sounds that are layered and split across the keyboard. This allows you to play multiple sounds without having to switch patches in mid-performance and is a must for live gigging.

For example, you could assign a bass instrument to the bottom third of the keyboard, a piano/string layer to the middle keyboard, and a synth lead to the top third. You might want to set the middle piano/string layer so that that it uses velocity cross fade so when play lightly only the strings sound,  if you play with medium velocity both the piano and the strings sound, and if you play hard only the piano sounds. Another use for layers is to build lush, fat, and or rhythmically complex sounds by layering a lot of instruments over the same keyboard zone.

Lets checkout a presets created by Ableton so you can hear this for yourself.

Go to the Device Browser-> Instruments -> Instrument Rack -> Performance. Then drag Burton Split  into a track or onto the clip/device drop area. This Instrument Rack has bells on the top-half of the keyboard, and a metallic/breathy choir sound on the bottom half of the keyboard.

There are a lot of other presets to listen to and experiment with in the device browser - so have it it!

Gigging Tips: You can’t play if you can’t see what you are doing

If you’re just starting out and have never gigged, it may not be obvious that you have to be ready for the effects of lighting and heat on the displays on your hardware. Certain conditions if not dealt with ahead of time can make impossible to read the display of your synth – which of course means you can’t navigate – which means you can’t play.

 Issues with gigging outside:

• LEDs are near impossible to read when direct sunlight is shining on them
• LCD displays can distort or turn completely black on gear exposed to direct      sunlight

Solutions:

• Try to setup your rig where you are not getting blasted with direct sunlight. If you do have to setup in direct sunlight, bring a light colored towel to place over your gear until show time.
• To make your display more readable, you'll need to fashion something out of cardboard. Cut out one piece to shield the front of you display, and a tow others to shield the sides. Wrap all the pieces in black plastic tape, then tape them together to form a shield. Plastic tape can then be used to tape the shield to the gear so that it blogs the sun from the display. Obviously, never put tape on the display itself. The advantage of plastic tape is that it won’t leave as much of a residue as other tapes. This might all song "hoakey", but from a few feet away, this solution will look just fine.

Issues with gigging at night or in a dark room:

• If your LCD is not backlit, you need to provide an external light source (not      very common these days, but with vintage gear this could be an issue)
• Evenif your display is visible, the buttons and knobs on your synth might not be

Solution:

• If you want to light gear on your keyboard stand or table, I highly recommend a Littlelite solution. Littlelites are fantastic in that they have a shielded light source and a flexible gooesneck so you can direct light where you need and not blind your self or your audience. Littlite provides numerous mounting systems to fit just about any rig. Check out the Littlelite web site - http://www.littlite.com,The Littlelite dealer locator page is located here http://www.littlite.com/information_wheretobuy2.php?page=customers.
• If you      want to illuminate items in your rack, Littlelite also has rackmount solutions. Another option is to use a powersupply in your rack that has built-in lighting, like the Furman      PL-8 II Power Conditioner.
  
  
• Make sure you pick up some spare bulbs and bring them along to your show.

Test Before You Go:

With whatever solution you come up with, make sure you test it before you gig with it to make sure it’s going to work.

Copyright 2006, Newecho Productions, LLC

New category - gigging

I gigged from 1989-2003 with "Head Full of Zombies" in Colorado Springs. I played keys, programmed synths, and sang lead and backups. I've added a new category called "Gigging". In this category I'm going to offer tips that will save you time, reduce stress, keep your gear safe, reduce crashes, recover from crashes, and make you look more professional to both your band mates and the audience. Stay tuned for posts on gigging...

Till then, enjoy this poster (click it to see a larger version). It's a poster that was used to promote one of our shows and is a parody of the movie poster. That's me superimposed into the first "ape" :^).