Short version: When you perform live, do you provide a stereo mix for the FOH, or do you mix your tracks during the performance?
Explanation: I have a gig coming up at a small gallery (maybe 50 people). I want to perform with Live12 and Push3 and maybe my Syntakt. Now I’m wondering whether I should feed my finished, mixed Ableton Live set in stereo into the mixing console and the PA, or whether I should feed my 8 tracks into the mixing console via my USB interface with separate outputs and adjust it to suit the venue? I am a guitar player, starting into electronic music, so this is a bit new to me.
u better don’t wanna depend on some random dude who just set up the soundsystem and ask him/her to please handle multiple outputs and individual leveling for u, without knowing what’s on the sonic menu…
it makes sense if u tour with ur own foh engineer…but if so, u’ll always need a soundcheck…
just make sure u got ur kik and bass in reach…the moment and that room will tell u the rest in realtime…
If you’re in a gallery, a stereo sum should be just fine. Depending on the room, pay attention to how the low end hangs around. A lot of flat walls will bounce around and cloud up your mix compared to how it sounds at home.
For venue gigs where there are usually bands with a proper sound person, I like to send sub mixes of:
Mono Drums
Mono Bass
Stereo everything else
This gives them the opportunity to make it sound best in the room, but I also realize this is difficult to do with something like Syntakt handing stuff across the spectrum.
I would just send a stereo mix and get it to sound the way you want to inside of Ableton, especially for this small of a venue / setting. No need to create extra work for yourself. You can also just route the Syntakt through Ableton so all you are sending is one stereo source. For bigger outdoor shows, yes it might make sense to send separately but if you’re at the beginning of your journey, I wouldn’t worry about that right now. Also this makes it much easier to record your set so you can analyze it later. Good luck!
As others have said send your stereo mix in this situation. You might want to cut down some of your reverb as sound tends to bounce around those types of spaces. Have fun!
PS don’t forget to bring head phones for your soundcheck. Nothing better than hitting your audience with a well balanced mix right away!
I usually just do stereo mix out, trs or rca for clubs/galleries/DJ mixers. And I stay in charge of the overall balance.
I process my subs separately and having only that as a separate out is an option when I can have a longer soundcheck and I know the venue and/or sound person.
For some ‘rock’ venues I’ll keep the kick baked into my stereo out and send the sub bass separately so my stereo mix doesn’t get routed to the venues’ often overbearing subs (my kicks usually don’t have much sub bass so it keeps everything cleaner).
But I really need to trust that the soundperson will get the balance right so it’s a bit of a gamble between clean but not impactful enough and soupy bassy mess. Which is why most of the time I don’t bother and just send everything thru the L/R.
Seconding cutting back on reverb and fx, a soundsystem and an actual room do a lot of that work for you. If you can afford it, let a loop run at soundcheck and walk the venue a bit to feel how it feels in there, sometimes it’s a huge difference with your on stage monitoring and learning how to adjust for that is a bit of a process.
Don’t be scared and don’t overcomplicate it though, gallery gigs are fun and a great way to start out. Make it feel as good as you can and have fun.
I would strongly recommend doing this as it really gives you a much better idea of where your levels should be than any monitoring will, no matter how well it’s set up. Then use any monitoring you do have, even if it’s just your headphones, as a reference for when you are actually playing the set; bearing in mind that the sound will change subtly (or not!) when the venue fills with people.
All the advice above is good and solid. One other thing I like to do with the Push 3 is have an Auto Filter on the master chain with the DJ filter as an emergency high-pass filter. Bass frequencies on big systems are loud as hell, and even a slight roll off of the lowest frequencies can make a big difference.
This is a very good point; and avoid going into the red on your meters once you have them set at all costs as the audience will suffer, even if you can’t hear it yourself. Ask me how I know…
If there’s a sound person around, it’s always a good idea to talk to them and get them on your side. Maybe they know the room well or they can give general advice or they’re even a producer too. It also shows that you have an actual interest to make the best out of the sound which sound people usually like. But of course there are also chances that they just set up the system and fuck off. Or that the venue just got the PA from somewhere and nobody knows shit.
If it sounds a tad boomy indoors, it wont when its full of bodies. Watch the high end, too much hurts indoors.
For outdoors just make sure the sound is balanced and the projection is good. If you can feel the subs in the ground and the top end in the trees, you’re set.
Small venues can actually be really tricky. I’m usually not trusting anyone I don’t know with anything more than a stereo mix, but sometimes you will have someone who will want more. And so then I’ll give them kick, drums (minus kick), bass, vocals all in mono, and the rest in a stereo.
But if you are only giving them a stereo, you are claiming responsibility for the mix so always good to start off with a ‘tune the mix’ intro/warmup track that I know inside-out, unless you’ve had a soundcheck.