Heres a little glimpse into the world of laptop battling. This videos been shot in Tokyo where it seems to be quite popular.

Laptop battle, Live, Video Laptop battle, Toyko, Video

Well it’s finally here, Ableton live 8 has been released. Lets have a look at the new features.

New midi & audio functions

Ableton Live 8 has some new functions on the midi & audio front. Midi grooves can be created from an audio file, audio files can be sliced & mapped it to a midi file and midi & audio parts can be quantized live. The midi editor window has also had an overhaul and has improved dramatically which is good as i always thought Live’s midi editing was poor.

New warping engine

Ableton Live’s warp engine has always been exceptional in most situations but could sometimes let you down. In Live 8 theres been an overhaul of the beat slicing and complex warp modes and you can also adjust the warp events directly.

New effects

Live 8 sees the introduction of new effects.

Vocoder

Live 8 vocoder

Multiband Dynamics

Live 8 multiband dynamics

Overdrive:

Live 8 overdrive

Limiter

Live 8 Limiter

Frequency Shifter

Live 8 frequency shifter

Looper

Live 8 looper

Live 8’s new looper looks interesting. The looper works like old sound on sound tape machines which allow you to overdub loops in realtime. The looper is set up to use remote operation, i.e. a footpedal, which would make it very useful for live performance. Looper has many advantages over the old tape methords like drag and drop loop organisation, layer editing and automatic bpm detection.

New layout changes

Ableton have also changed some of the layout in Live 8 and added some much needed features. You can now zoom in on the project window, jump to any place in an audio file when previewing, group tracks together and control multiple parameters at once.

Videos

Sequencers, Software, Video Ableton live 8, effects, looper, new features, Plugins, Video

So i have a gig coming up soon and i was thinking about 5 things i could do to make sure everything runs smoothly on the night.

1. Defragment hard drive

Defragmenting your hard drive is somthing you should be doing on a regular basis anyway, but can also help your laptop perform better when playing live. Especially if your using a lot of samples.

2. Backup your set & project files

Another thing everyone should do regulary but it’s more important when your taking your laptop on the road as you never know what could happen. It’s also useful to carry a backup with you incase you have to use someone elses laptop.

3. Compile drivers for performance

Might seem a little extreme for most but carrying copies of all the drivers/installation files for your hardware, eg midi controllers, audio interfaces, to a gig could be very useful if something goes wrong. If something happens to your laptop & you need to use someone elses then you can install and run your hardware on theres. Secondly sometimes drivers fail or get currupt, having a backup will save your set from such a disaster.

4. Run full system test

Test your systems stababilty and performance by pushing it to the max CPU & RAM usage and try to make it crash. Doing so will let you know exactly how far you can push it before it will crash and what you can do to stop before it does.

5. Get a table

Ring the venue or promoter before the gig and ask for a table of reasonable height to perform on, something similar to a DJ booths height. Theres nothing worse than being bent over a table with crippling back pain whilst trying to perform and also makes you look stupid & geeky. You won’t belive how often this happens.

Well i guess thats it. Anyone wants to add to it then fire away but for the meantime, good luck with the gigs.

Computers, Live live performance, preperation

Heres a cool video of Flying Lotus playing live at Lowend theory. Instresting to see how he performs with his laptop.

Live, Video Flying Lotus, Live, live performance, Lowend theory