first post.....how to play this live?

[sash poask]

hey guys,

as alot of others i have been visiting this forum for a couple of months now and have learned a great deal from it.

so yeh finally decided it was time to post something...

i am currently starting a new band (old one broke up over a year ago) i have written some material already and just getting the members together... my problem is....a couple of songs have synths in them which i programmed with a number of different VSTs within reaper, most of them are tempo synched. i dont think it will be very logical to get a synth player as there is such a little amount of it, however how would you guys go about playing things like that live

i put together a myspace which at the moment just has a rough idea track (amplitube 2 ezdrums etc), done it so pple im thinking of getting in the band can have a listen and get an idea.....www.myspace.com/loluk

any help or ideas as to how replicate this live would be great

thanks alot in advance

sash

 

[-Noodles-]

Two options that I can see;

Drummer has a pad which is hooked up to the PA, he hits it a bar before the synth needs to be played.

You borrow a keyboard player for the songs, and do it live. Akercocke and many other bands have "session" players that just do what they need to live, and aren't part of the band in any way.

 

[JBroll]

Cheap laptop.

Jeff

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Yeah, get a cheap laptop, bounce the synths to one track and play it in the background. If you have the option to use in-ear monitors, you can use the laptop for playing the click track, too. Or use a simple controller to trigger the synth parts in correct places.

 

[The Unavoidable]

Wouldn't a laptop be kinda risky, since it could freeze up or lag and ruin everything?

 

[sash poask]

hey guys, thanks for the responses.
I was thinking about the laptop route, my only concern is, how would I get a click track out to the drummer? Maybe pan the synths hard left and click hard right and get the sound engineer to send the synths to the audience pa and the click to the drummer....do you think that would work?
I was thinking maybe even doing the same thing with an iPod as they are a lot les prone to freezing etc
What do you guys think?
Sash

 

[-Noodles-]

iPod on a stereo channel should work yeah,.. and take a backup CD / portable CD player.

but it means you have to either have a good sound engineer or be a really tight band - as the tracks will be "stuck" to their length.

Enough practice and you should be fine though..

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Wouldn't a laptop be kinda risky, since it could freeze up or lag and ruin everything?

I know people who use laptops live without any problems. Actually, a friend of mine plays the keyboards in a widely-known metal band using a MIDI keyboard and an old iBook running AU-synths.

 

[TheDude]

I know people who use laptops live without any problems. Actually, a friend of mine plays the keyboards in a widely-known metal band using a MIDI keyboard and an old iBook running AU-synths.

I've been doing that for the last three years. Got more problems from the guitarist pulling strings than the laptop.