LIVE MUSIC

[Mdblack57]

So, it used to be, to play a gig live, I carried three amps, a drum kit, and a minimum of at least six guitars. Plus a mic and a P.A system. 

These days however we have DAW's (Direct audio workstations.) Which means I don't need a thousand pieces of gear to cart around. 

 

But my point is in order to use the full benefits of going DAW only, I need a decent laptop.

 

So suggestions?

[HanZie82]

You will still need most hardware tho.
 

Else just setup amp and MP3 player and be done with it.

 

But you will still need preamps for guitars and microphones. For when you want to plug into PC/notebook (it's only a laptop if its on your lap).

And then when the processing on the PC is done you will still need amps to make it hearable.

Also i would NOT rely in the soundcard that comes with almost any notebook, for live music i would want that in higher quality, so the notebook would need a lot of ports.

 

 

Maybe you want to share some more info about the setup your really want, because all of this is pretty vague, as from a setup standpoint.
You mentioned what you carry, but what do you need to perform?

[Avocado Diaboli]

16 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

You will still need most hardware tho.

True, the only thing the DAW will replace are the amps and maybe the effects pedals. You'd still need the instruments, a bunch of microphones for the purely acoustic instruments like drums and vocalist and in your case a PA system (though who plays venues without their own mixer and PA?).

 

 

If it's just about cutting down on stuff to carry for the guitars, get a Kemper Profiling Amp for each guitarist, which has cab simulation, and let the venue handle mixing and PA by just feeding it the outputs from the Kemper. You get the benefit of a real amp that responds in pretty much the exact same manner a real valve amp does without having to lug around a massive valve amp and a 4x12 cab. Playing through a DAW never felt good for me for some reason. It's not even just about the sonic difference, it's just the how the sound response feels while you're playing that's off to me and that basically kills any enthusiasm I have for making music.

 

Also, most of the plugins for simulated guitar amplification I've tried don't sound great or if they do take a great deal of tweaking to get right. Same thing for pedal effect plugins. The best thing you can hope for is to feed a real amp into it and use a good cab impulse response if you don't want to mic a real cab and still use a DAW in some capacity, but at that point, you're better off using the built-in cab simulation from a modelling amp and skip the DAW entirely.

[Mdblack57]

Okay. So its probably just better to keep going as I have been.

 

As for amp plugins, aurora dsp just released a new one which is about ($/£/€)40 and it sounds huge.

 

I knew the technology was moving fast, just not whether it was at a usable standard yet.

[HanZie82]

14 minutes ago, Avocado Diaboli said:

True, the only thing the DAW will replace are the amps and maybe the effects pedals.

The DAW doesnt really replace any amps.
You will still need pre-amps (or similar) to get the signal into the computer.
And out, would also need amps.

For the rest 95% agree.

 

2 minutes ago, Mdblack57 said:

Okay. So its probably just better to keep going as I have been.

 

As for amp plugins, aurora dsp just released a new one which is about ($/£/€)40 and it sounds huge.

 

I knew the technology was moving fast, just not whether it was at a usable standard yet.

The only thing a DAW will replace are sound altering devices.

Amps and instruments would still be needed.
But adding a DAW can do many things. Alter the sound, recording set's and even having a back up band if you're alone. And so many more things.

[Mdblack57]

I use a behiringer umc202 for home recording, so, I have the preamp. Obviously to get a full band I'm going to need one with more inputs. 

 

And I have the instruments, two generic guitars for backup, a jackson js22, an ibanez SG, whatever the basist is running. 

 

The main reason I wanted to look into this is purely to space save. Honestly its just theory,  but when you have cabinet amps, a full drum kit and Speaker set up. The space in small venues suddenly becomes tight.

And when you have guitars that keep creeping their sound levels up, to compete with each other, most of the other stuff ends up drowned out.

 

The mentality was to have everything hooked up to a single Interface, and then, one; be able to set the sound levels from there, and two; cut down on gear you have to lumber around.

[Avocado Diaboli]

24 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

The DAW doesnt really replace any amps.
You will still need pre-amps (or similar) to get the signal into the computer.
And out, would also need amps.

True, should've worded it better, it doesn't replace amps altogether, but the big guitar amps in particular. 

 

8 minutes ago, Mdblack57 said:

The main reason I wanted to look into this is purely to space save. Honestly its just theory,  but when you have cabinet amps, a full drum kit and Speaker set up. The space in small venues suddenly becomes tight.

Well some speaker on stage will always need to be present, even if you go through a DAW or a profiling amp, for the simple reason that you need to monitor your own sound somehow. It's either a regular guitar amp with a cab or something else hooked up to a monitor speaker.

 

9 minutes ago, Mdblack57 said:

And when you have guitars that keep creeping their sound levels up, to compete with each other, most of the other stuff ends up drowned out.

That's more to do with shitty attitude. As a guitarist, I can tell you that guitarists tend to suffer from the delusion that they're the most important people on stage, especially in rock bands, which couldn't be further from the turth. As a result, they always want to have their sound be more prominent in the mix, regardless of the fact that for anyone standing in the audience it ends up sounding terrible. Best thing you can do is have a serious word with your band mates about it and trust in the sound engineer of the venue you're playing at to dial things in during setup/pre-show rehearsal and then leave the knobs where they are. Because they know the place and how to dial in the settings to make you sound your best. That's a lesson pretty much any band should take to heart: Never piss off the sound person at a venue, shut up and do what they say and hand them a beer after the show to say thanks.

[Mdblack57]

that's absolutely right. Never known ego's like it. Cheers for the help, and I think I'll try it on a solo open mic thing, if it works there, maybe try it on a bigger scale.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Audio

[Freakwise]

..

Edited October 17, 2021 by Freakwise
Wrong thread

[Ahoy Hoy]

A lot of bands coming into my venue at the moment dont use any cabs. Seeing a lot of line 6 pedal boards and taking a direct output from them.

[The Flying Sloth]

15 hours ago, Ahoy Hoy said:

Seeing a lot of line 6 pedal boards and taking a direct output from them.

The helix line isn't too bad these days. I'd still rather use my Impulse Responses and/or guitar rig but so far as hardware goes it does a damn fine job.

[jimmy3189]

https://www.mixonline.com/technology/nine-inch-nails-mainstage-tech-mat-mitchell-interview-378158

I'm a Mac guy for music but you don't need a DAW for live, intact ideally you really don't want to. MainStage on a Mac or similar VST host is what you want to use. Add the applicable interface for audio IO and midi for control (keyboards, drums, 'pedalboard')

It's been working seamlessly for a while.

If I was recommending something to somebody starting out I'd suggest this before getting locked into hardware like kempers/helix etc.