#1

I am considering lots of options for playing with ambiant transitions between songs during my live shows.
I am using Ableton Live and I have on project per song. Live is using it’s own soundcard, 16 analog outs.

One of the option I’m considering is to have a granular-ish sample player opened in Max/MSP (always opened in the background), whose output would be the built-in headphones.
Also, Max and Live would share one MIDI controler.

I’ve done it once on stage for a one-shot project. It worked. (without the MIDI, but I’ve been doing this during the previous tour, Max listening to one button of a MIDI keyboard, already used by Ableton Live with no problems).
Would you think it’s reliable ? Anything I should be cautious to ? Any thoughts ?

#2

I’m on Mac by the way.

#3

You could run max audio outs into Ableton too.

#4

I must have been unclear. I want to avoid the silence gap when I load Live sets.

#5

Ooops missed that part.

I have had success using 2 different soundcards at once, one for Max, the other for Ableton with no issue.
I never tried using the same midi controller, but you seem to have tried the setup already though and it worked right?

#6

I guess i’ll try then…

#7

for what is worth, I use the ROLI Seaboard block with Equator stand alone and Ableton at the same time on a daily basis, and never incurred in any issue

#8

Thanks for the precision !

#9

I’m curious as to why you wish to keep it to one song per Ableton project? Seems to me like having a single project with all your tracks in it is a simpler solution but I’m wondering if you have a requirement that prevents this.

#10

It’s just ‘impossible’ in my case. Each song is quite complicated, with several M4l devices very specific to them, lots of follow action groups that are "hidden’ in the bottom of the session, many MIDI mappings that are quite different from song to song.
Also I never have the same amount of tracks. Sometimes 4, sometimes 50.
And the performances are based on livelooping in clips, with different arrangements/instrumentarium per song.
Also, I like to change some stuff in songs quite often.
That would be incredibly hard to manage.

And I don’t feel like it’s a big deal.

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#11

@chapelierfou I am just curious: which soundcards are you intending to use for your setup ? I thought about something like your idea too for a while now.

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#12

Maybe I’m misunderstanding but if you are on a Mac I don’t see why two soundcards would be needed. I use multiple programs that access the same sound cards simultaneously all the time (eg Bidule standalone running alongside Reaper). Couldn’t you just leave the “transition” sound running in Max while you change Live sets - no need for the headphone out or a second audio card?
Even if you were going to use two interfaces/cards at once, you’d probably have to make them an aggregate device, which would be just like one interface anyway.
(Again, I may be misunderstanding - and I haven’t used Live in years so there may be something specific involving Live that I’m not understanding here…)

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#13

I’m using a Clarett 8Pre with an Octopre Dynamic MkII in ADAT to expand the analog outs to 18 channels.
I’ve been touring with this setup for 3 years (about 100 gigs) without any issue.

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#14

Never thought of this. I’m going to test.
Unfortunately I’m using all my analog outs available. What happens when you route two softwares to the same output, is it just summed ?

#15

Yes, in my experience things just get summed.

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