Can I use a DAW as a mixer for live gigs?

[autodidactic]

I know most will automatically say this is a bad idea but I'll ask anyway. Could I use a tricked out PC as a substitute for my mixer+FX for live gigs? I'll tell you why this idea is appealing to me. I play in a 5 piece band but I also do the smaller gigs solo,duo and trio.

Right now when I play in a smaller ensemble, I use ableton live to play back drum tracks but I run the instruments through a little mixer with a small tcElectronics FX unit. I'm also usually the sound guy too at these smaller gigs. My main concern is latency. I haven't run any tests yet but I'm pretty sure my black Macbook C2D/2GB RAM wouldn't handle it gracefully. So I was thinking about putting a PC together for the task.

rackmount 4U PC
Q6600 CPU
at least 4GB RAM
Profire 2626 FW interface
use some low latency native plugs for now and maybe eventually move to a UAD2 Nevana 32 later.

With a setup like this, could I pull it off? Anybody out there with a similar rig that can do 8 tracks of live audio with a small buffer setting, software monitoring w/FX?

[ckreon]

I think it could be done. Maybe a little risky (because of crash possibilities, etc.), but it would be no different than running studio monitors off your interface.

[pjplayer]

Originally Posted by autodidactic

I know most will automatically say this is a bad idea but I'll ask anyway. Could I use a tricked out PC as a substitute for my mixer+FX for live gigs? I'll tell you why this idea is appealing to me. I play in a 5 piece band but I also do the smaller gigs solo,duo and trio.

Right now when I play in a smaller ensemble, I use ableton live to play back drum tracks but I run the instruments through a little mixer with a small tcElectronics FX unit. I'm also usually the sound guy too at these smaller gigs. My main concern is latency. I haven't run any tests yet but I'm pretty sure my black Macbook C2D/2GB RAM wouldn't handle it gracefully. So I was thinking about putting a PC together for the task.

rackmount 4U PC
Q6600 CPU
at least 4GB RAM
Profire 2626 FW interface
use some low latency native plugs for now and maybe eventually move to a UAD2 Nevana 32 later.

With a setup like this, could I pull it off? Anybody out there with a similar rig that can do 8 tracks of live audio with a small buffer setting, software monitoring w/FX?

i have an almost identical setup, hardware and outputs wise, though i have an E6700 rather than a Q6600. apart from the idiotic amount of complexity of our ableton live set, everything works very well. we used to perform with 15.1 ms reported latency which no one in the band noticed. with my presonus firestudio (on the version 1 drivers) i've managed to get this down to 6ms at 64 samples buffer, so i think in that area you'll be fine.

one more thing though, if you ever have a gig where you're not the soundman, prepare for all sorts of moaning and rubbish "advice" on how you could do what you do better and simpler. i find the following brush off works well:

"we've made this set up specfic to our band and as compatible with the range of venues we play as we can. your advice is based specifcally on you and your venue and to bands in general. therefore your advice is very unlikely to help us as you can't possibly understand all the elements of our live set after having just met us."

until they refuse to turn the monitors on of course.....

[autodidactic]

Originally Posted by pjplayer

i have an almost identical setup, hardware and outputs wise, though i have an E6700 rather than a Q6600. apart from the idiotic amount of complexity of our ableton live set, everything works very well. we used to perform with 15.1 ms reported latency which no one in the band noticed. with my presonus firestudio (on the version 1 drivers) i've managed to get this down to 6ms at 64 samples buffer, so i think in that area you'll be fine.

one more thing though, if you ever have a gig where you're not the soundman, prepare for all sorts of moaning and rubbish "advice" on how you could do what you do better and simpler. i find the following brush off works well:

"we've made this set up specfic to our band and as compatible with the range of venues we play as we can. your advice is based specifcally on you and your venue and to bands in general. therefore your advice is very unlikely to help us as you can't possibly understand all the elements of our live set after having just met us."

until they refuse to turn the monitors on of course.....

Great! So you're getting all this done with a C2D?! Maybe I can pull this off with my laptop after all? If you don't mind me asking, how much RAM are you using and what does Ableton's CPU meter report while running?

[807Recordings]

My Friend is using his RME and Kore2 as the mixer for his live PA down at Tresor in November. So far it blows almost all mixers out of the H2O according to him. He is running it 24bit 96KHz and can build custom configurations with effect being shot back to the TC Power Core. External Synth can get routed how he wants with snap shots on any parameter to you name it.

This is the future as I see it and of course unlike Ableton its a bit more flexible and maybe a better sound engine. OF course we will try it with even better sound hardware.

[autodidactic]

Originally Posted by 807Recordings

My Friend is using his RME and Kore2 as the mixer for his live PA down at Tresor in November. So far it blows almost all mixers out of the H2O according to him. He is running it 24bit 96KHz and can build custom configurations with effect being shot back to the TC Power Core. External Synth can get routed how he wants with snap shots on any parameter to you name it.

This is the future as I see it and of course unlike Ableton its a bit more flexible and maybe a better sound engine. OF course we will try it with even better sound hardware.

That sounds really encouraging. Is his rig set up for synths only or are there mics, guitars etc being mixed in as well? Is his powercore PCI or firewire?

[807Recordings]

Originally Posted by autodidactic

That sounds really encouraging. Is his rig set up for synths only or are there mics, guitars etc being mixed in as well? Is his powercore PCI or firewire?

Well as we are pretty strong on the Techno tip hence "Tresor" it is analog drum machines, some synths and of course software to. Analog sequencer to.

No guitars that I am aware of.

[SONICA]

For really low latency your CPU doesn't need to be a quad, a Core 2 Duo will do well, but get the fastest clock rate ( 3.33 GHz ), lots of cache memory, fast FSB ( 1333 MHz ) and fast memory ( 800/1066 or better ) with low CAS latency.

[pjplayer]

Originally Posted by autodidactic

Great! So you're getting all this done with a C2D?! Maybe I can pull this off with my laptop after all? If you don't mind me asking, how much RAM are you using and what does Ableton's CPU meter report while running?

ableton's cpu meter sometimes hits 45-60% when we're using a particualry hoggy vst synth, but otherwise it's down around 20%. i have 4gb ram, but of course windows XP can only see 3gb of that. i should mention that we use an access virus ti (in virus control mode) for a lot, though certainly not all, of the synth sounds, which takes a bit of work away from the cpu.

[dip]

how about this ?
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