Advice - How would you set this lot up for live?

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Ok I’m hoping someone/people can give some advice here to help me go about the right way of setting some jamming gear up.

First of all I will be using the Akai MPCX as the main control centre for sequencing and triggering my other synths. The Akai has x2 midi In x4 midi out I also have a Kenton Midi Thru 12 here if needed so what I want to connect are the following:

Akai MPCX as main sequencer/trigger

I want to connect:

  • Analog 4 MKII
  • Analog Rytm MKII
  • Polyend Dreadbox Medusa
  • Novation Circuit Mono Station
  • Behringer Crave
  • Behringer MS-1
  • Behringer RD-8
  • Behringer TD-3

PS

Also I will be connecting the following for mixing and control:

  • FaderFox MX12
  • FaderFox PC12

Also I would like to add FX to my mono synths etc in Ableton Live 10 Suite and I’m sure the FaderFox allows me to do all this as well as control the above synths.

If anyone could put me right on setting all this up (connections) etc which way would you do it?

The FaderFox units both have x2 midi in/out + usb midi so incorporating these 2 units are a must.

With all the midi outs of the MPCX is my Kenton Midi Thru 12 not needed or will it come in handy?

Any advice on how you guys would set this up would be very much appreciated. Iv’e never had to set this much stuff up before as I mainly only use synths for sound design etc but now I need to perform with my gear.

Thanks

Rob

#2

What role is each device going to play?

Why do you need to use so much gear?

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#3

Dragging so much Gear on Stage is only recommendable when you have plenty of time to set all Up before the Set and also time to Audition. I would recommend to use three main pieces of Gear. Leave the Rest at Home and Sample their Tracks into the MPCX. Have a Look what other artists use live.
I would pick MPCX, Rytm and A4, plus one of the faderfoxes to control tracks.

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#4

img_rental_22cargovan

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#5

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

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#6

Ah sorry when I mean live I meant live playing from my studio environment… I want to set them all up in a way that they’re always connected and I can use 2/3 or more if I wish at any time. Sorry I should’ve been clear but yeah the MPCX will be the main control centre.

Rob

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#7

If I were to use the 4 midi outs of the MPCX I’d probably go with…

A4 MKII > AR MKII > Dreadbox Medusa > Behringer TD-3

That’d make for some alright sound IMO

#8

IMHO. Finding out the best connections is a personal thing and a big part of the fun of having hardware.
Good luck and enjoy :thup:

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#9

Personally I would start small with 2 or 3 of your boxes. Get all your MIDI routing working and your audio routed through your mixer or audio interface.
Then make some music with your small setup and adjust things if needed.
Only then would I start bringing in more instruments, one at a time.
Your setup will evolve into something that you know inside out if you take it slowly.
I find adding too much new kit at once can be overwhelming.

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#11

Read what I wrote above… I said I wasn’t taking any gear on any stage I said I wanted it all in one place in the home studio to have whatever I chose to jam with whether it be 2/3 or more synths I can swap out at any time and as I get better then add more.

#12

Yep agree :+1:

#13

For a live gig I would take A4, AR, not more.
Keep it simple, really. If you need to ask that questions you should do some jamming first to know what you want.

edit: oh, at home… sry ignore me please…

#14

It’s OK I should have put that in the first post too :flushed:
Anyways all I want is everything hooked up so I can just play either or all at will.
I’ll figure it out in the new year :+1:

#15

Do you want to sequence everything from the MPCX (something I would recommend against), or do you want to sequence on each device as much as possible (something I would recommend because it’s more fun and kinda the point of a hardware setup)?

Assuming the latter, I’d keep things as simple as possible.

If you want the MPCX to be the master, I’d use one of its MIDI OUTs as the clock master, hook the Kenton Midi Thru 12 up to that, and hook all the other gear up to the Kenton Midi Thru 12 so that everything gets the same clock signal and responds to the same start and stop messages from the MPCX.

Since you mention Ableton Live, I’m assuming you own an audio interface with sufficient inputs to hook everything up and keep everything hooked up and use Ableton Live for effects and as your mixer.

If that’s the case, I’d connect the FaderFoxes to your computer over USB only and use them exclusively to control the channels and effects in Ableton Live. Resist the temptation to also use FaderFoxes to remote control your hardware (or, at least initially) to keep things straightforward.

I’d create a template in Ableton Live with the channels, remote control, and effects set up how I plan to use it. You can then bring this up quickly when you plan to jam on your hardware and go without having to do any setup in advance.

As an aside, I would also make sure there’s an easy way to send audio back out from the computer to the MPCX so that you can easily sample stuff without having to change connections.

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#16

I have a behringer umc1820 and Ada8200 to connect to the computer.
I would prefer the MPCX as trigger only for the Elektrons but yeah the midi thru 12 would be the way I’d do it like you said.

#17

Ah now you mentioned the FaderFoxes my plan was to use my software fx from live to use on the hardware synths assigned… Would this work?

#18

Absolutely. And route your audio to the imterface and create send busses which sum into one input of the mpc. Easy samplimg from each device.

Rhings said about the template: that will save a lot of grey hair, lifetime and frustration.

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#19

Sure, why not? There will be a little latency compared to using a hardware mixer and outboard effects, but assuming you have a decently powerful computer that shouldn’t be an issue.

You might want to keep an eye on the latency introduced by insert effects and avoid effect chains that end up adding too much latency.

#20

I’d never use the MPCX to sequence my Elektrons I only want to trigger sequnces, too much fun to be had tweaking the synths themselves from the interfaces or the FaderFoxes.
I’ll just set things up trial and error to see what works for me. I’d like to basically trigger everything I hook up and sample back in to the MPCX every now and then. So many ways to do this but as I said trial and error

#21

I have a late 2013 mac book pro i7 here it’s pretty fast I only have Live 10 suite and FX plugins on iLok installed (no soft synths) except what comes with Live. As I said I have the UMC1820 and ADA8200 as my interface. Cheap I know but they do the job ok