Facts about using DP Live

[jaykeys]

Hi forum,
as far as I know nobody ever mentioned out if DP REALLY fits the bill of using it as a live performance tool.
For example as a keyboard player I need the possibility to split my keyboard up in different areas with different sounds, change velocity curves, etc.

What is obviously possible and what is not?

[Shooshie]

With Digital Performer you can run a show like Madonna's, Beyoncé's, the late Michael Jackson's, or any of dozens of other professional touring shows. It will do everything from music to lights to stage machinery to keyboards. I'm not saying you'll figure all this out in the next week, but if you want to know what's back there doing the heavy lifting of many of the largest shows on the road, you're looking at it. So… what's possible? Just about anything, if you are willing to go the distance. What's not possible? I don't really know.

Shooshie

[jbyerly1]

Ive been using DP live for years. Started with Performer 5.5. IMO it's extremely stable. A lot depends on the your keyboard as far as capabilities. DP will not limit you as far as possibilities with Live shows. The more you know about operating MIDI and programing will be your success.

[jaykeys]

jbyerly1,
seems like YOU are my man ...
I would very much appreciate it if you could tell me HOW to set up two or more VSTs with split point(s) i.e. playing a bass guitar from B0 to B2 and a Piano from C3 to C8.

[Kurt Cowling]

I love DP but Apple Mainstage is what you want for live hosting of VIs like this. Insanely cheap on the App Store.

[Prime Mover]

Even better than MainStage: Jambalaya, written by one of our own, SixStringGeek. I've been using it for the past 2.5 years and it's been phenomenal and extreme stable. I tried using MainStage once, and it doesn't hold a candle to Jambalaya, as far as I'm concerned. Neither of these programs have sequencers, though, so if you're looking to do more than use it as a VI/effects host (Jambalaya also has an audio through so you can use it as an effects rack for live sound), you'll need to use something like DP, which I would find extremely cumbersome for actual MIDI performance.

DP has some major drawbacks for advanced MIDI live performance. Its inability to route keyboard ranges, lack of a live performance interface, are huge problems. I know it's the schitz for studio work, and maybe for MANAGING live shows (lights, aux audio, backing tracks, etc), when you're actually performing, and counting on using it 100% alongside your instrument, you don't want to have to mess with all of the things you would need to do just to do basic performance.

We need to be realistic, DP has never meant to be a live performance tool. As a keyboardist, I want 95% of my attention to be used for playing, and I can't see how I could do that with DP as it is. Maybe if I made a number of Max auxilery patches (I only need one for Jambalaya), and built a new interface out of the "console" window, but that's ridiculous.

[dewdman42]

+1 to everyone's posts. I agree DP is more suited to recording studio or live shows, or in a situation where and engineer can man the GUI during the show. if you want something that is pretty hands off to host your keyboard sounds, I don't think I would recommend it either.

For me the big thing I need is to be able to send a single program change from my MIDI keyboard to the computer and have the right set of instruments loaded up. I'm still not sure if Mainstage or Jambalaya can do that...but I just bought Mainstage, thanks for pointing that out on App store, I've been wanting to get that without having to buy logic for years. It even comes with some instruments and sounds, so its a bargain at $29

On the PC there are two solutions, Cantible and my favorite gigging host of all......Brainspawn Forte. I am about to build a small windows PC dedicated for gigging and it will use Forte as the host. They have thought of everything you can imagine for live gigging situations in that program and it even has a test mode to put all your plugins to a rigorous test to see if anything will crash. Its extremely low latency and most importantly...it has the ability to listen for a program change on MIDI and then do a scene change for what instruments and presets are sounding. It can even make sure to keep certain instruments loaded in the background when not in a current scene (in order to keep large samples in memory so the next song that needs it will change fast. etc etc.. IMHO, its the best, but windows only unfortunately.

I think somewhere along the line I picked up Jambilaya, I should pull that out and try it some more.

[daniel.sneed]

For years, I've done loading VIs and FX thru scrolling sequences within DP.
Playing many different alternate instruments, I use foot controlling.
My main scrolling tool was a TC Electronic G-Minor (out of production) and is now a Keith McMillen Softstep (a true wonder).

IMHO, using the same software in every situation turns you more responsive at it.
I never found a situation where DP did not fill my own expectations: composing, rehearsing, tracking, editing, mixing, mastering, playing live.

BTW, as many have already said here, *the lighter, the better* when it comes to live situations. And I mean a light DP project.

[dewdman42]

How are you able to scroll between sequences with a foot controller? Can you please elaborate?

[jbyerly1]

you can set up almost any mac or MIDI key to call up a sequence.

[Michael Canavan]

In my opinion the only drawback to DP live is the lack of ability to split a controller keyboard to various instruments in DP. This can be done in the controller keyboard usually, but it would be much better to have DP do it. You could set up DP Chunks with program change messages, and have the instruments in V-Racks so that it called up different instruments, presets and split points.

[screamin_keys]

Another horse in the race is the Muse Receptor. It can host VI's, VST effects, and there is a version that is preloaded with Komplete. You can also hook a monitor, keyboard, mouse up to it if needed.

http://www.museresearch.com/products/index.php

Might fit the bill a little better than DP.

[Dwetmaster]

In my opinion the only drawback to DP live is the lack of ability to split a controller keyboard to various instruments in DP. This can be done in the controller keyboard usually, but it would be much better to have DP do it. You could set up DP Chunks with program change messages, and have the instruments in V-Racks so that it called up different instruments, presets and split points.

You could setup a device group pointing two several MIDI tracks and on each of these MIDI tracks you use transpose live MIDI plugs to filter out unwanted notes.

Cumbersome: YES.
Not doable: NO

[Michael Canavan]

In my opinion the only drawback to DP live is the lack of ability to split a controller keyboard to various instruments in DP. This can be done in the controller keyboard usually, but it would be much better to have DP do it. You could set up DP Chunks with program change messages, and have the instruments in V-Racks so that it called up different instruments, presets and split points.

You could setup a device group pointing two several MIDI tracks and on each of these MIDI tracks you use transpose live MIDI plugs to filter out unwanted notes.

Cumbersome: YES.
Not doable: NO

From what I can tell the only way I can see this working is by transposing notes you want the other synth/sample to use outside of the range of the instrument, which may work for some instruments, but not others. Would love to be wrong about this.

[magicd]

I use DP live to host instruments and guitar effects.

Because I use MachFive 3 for my keyboard sounds, it's easy to set up splits within MachFive itself. There's also a script that uses patch change messages to re-direct the incoming MIDI channel.

I don't use multiple chunks in my live setup but I know plenty of people who do.

There's plenty of flexibility and processing tools in DP. However, if you're looking for additional processing horsepower, Plogue Bidule is an amazing tool to run inside DP (I used Bidule for patch changes before the script was added in to MachFive 3). Bidule gives you a whole tool kit for custom live processing of MIDI and audio, and it will run as an Audio Unit inside DP.

Dave