Part 1: Intro

My goal is to create the most intense and flexible music possible using Ableton as the core. Collisions in the (Ableton) library with bad analysis files (my fault) and dual libraries between my performance (dedicated) laptop and my work laptop is nothing but lost time.

I personally find the library an inherently unstable environment.  This is much my own making and further complicated by editing on 2 laptops.

Another problem with the library is the organization.  Totally awesome for typical users.  A huge liability for me. I need all my target drum racks in one spot and easy to grab without all the default crap form Ableton. Searching my library is CPU cycles I don’t want to give up and drive time I do not have to waste.  I MUST have all my racks and sets in a place I can get to fast.  The use of  jump drives is critical because the target files are 1-2 levels deep instead of too deep of a file path in the default Ableton save/archive schema – here is my path to a drum rack from my production laptop:

/Users/REDACTED/Desktop/VENDOR/ABLETON/Library/Presets/Instruments/Drum Rack

Not Cool.

My current performance work is prepared before hand as (mastered) samples of various lengths in a dedicated production environment featuring M4L, plug-ins as needed, and extreme editing (aka stuff that is not stable for stage).  The final samples are launched and run with minimal effects and controlled to an exacting degree with basic MIDI and Ableton tools.

Some of my my main vices:

• Slice to MIDI producing encapsulated [note 1] *.adg files that are pre-mapped and under a standardized MIDI and macro control (creates drag and drop drum racks that are not stored in the library).
• Multiple beat repeats unified in Ableton allowing near zero latency expression. (huge topic)
• Filter + delay
• Drum rack sample compression, length, and start offset controlled universally. (there is serious GOLD in this stuff – another huge topic)

So all performance material is accessed via a jump / flash drive.  I usually keep a pair of these drives with all my active performance sets on me at all times. Each set [note 2] is about 25mb.  That ~25mb is 5-30 minutes of material.

Next is a loose outline of my ideas leading to my system for set building and performance.  Nothing too crazy, but the main goals include :

1. 100% portable from production to performance between multiple systems keeping a small file size for performance.
2. No Max for Live, no plugins, no (laptop) synthesis, no non-native tools for performance.
3. Low as possible CPU use (under 10%) on performance.
4. Encapsulation of set and drum rack (includes samples).
5. Ability to map complex ideas in drum racks while never losing encapsulation (aka fully decoupled from library see Coupling on wikipedia).
6. Ability to cue new sets with dedicated samples (non-library) in the project (with the *.als file).
7. Use storage space intelligently to create alternate mixes of production material for live performance.
8. Use of a standard performance template [note 3] for racks and sets.
9. Easily adaptable environment to allow rapid recovery in a worse case scenario.
10. Maintain the ability to improvise at will, change samples in real time, and perform similar to a DJ in selecting “prepared” material as the night progresses.

For reference, here is what my default template looks like, click the image to see more :

Working in the field of programming allows one to immediately notice the efficiency of programmers. Imagine groups of men (and women) working in harmony to accomplish huge feats of engineering on complex systems with massive amounts of data needing to be retained and error free.  Much of my core ideology comes form computer science, the methods are very intelligent and work in Ableton and audio engineering with fantastic results.

In part 2 I will begin opening up to the processes I use and how this data is accessed and managed.

NOTES :

[note 1] Encapsulation is the idea of having all media in the set (or drum rack).  In short the samples are all collected into the project or a live pack is created.  All effects are carried (usually in production). In drum racks swapping of the racks from a  jump drive is done by encapsulating all the racks and samples in an Ableton project.  The idea is actually considerably more complicated and is an interesting topic – the origins for me come from programming (Wikipedia).

[note 2] The exact language available to the “unit of performance” in Ableton and similar environments is not clear.  Essentially I consider a set as a group of audio and other associated data that creates the ability to perform a “routine”.  This idea is somewhere between a “song” and a DJ “set”.

[note 3] My template has a few hundred hours invested already. I am finally at a reasonably stable state where I am making infrequent changes and my most critical information is contained in 2 areas. First is the master template. Second is the mapping saved on my OHM64.  All other data is standardized and can be moved to any system at any time.  The OHM64 is decoupled and the master template can be migrated.

I will be participating in the Creative Electronica Petting Zoo September 4 & 5. http://www.electricavenuedenver.com/

August 6, 2010 I will be dropping some set at Lucid Gallery.

July 14, 2010 : I will be hosting the Ableton Colorado Meet up and social mixer. For details go here.