DP for Live Performance

waxman · Post by **waxman** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:45 pm

Anyone using DP in live performance.
What is your set up?

I am looking to do up to 16 tracks of playback audio. No plugs, no MIDI just audio... through a 896 HD and a 8 pre...

will that fly on a G4 17 inch laptop 1.67 mgz... 1 gig of ram?

nbdanielson · Post by **nbdanielson** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 2:06 pm

I use it live...
DP on my macbook pro interfaced with an 828mk2 via firewire.
It runs backing tracks and Kontakt 2 in a V-rack for my samples. Each song is in its own sequence, with chunk chaining enabled.

My keyboards are also mixed into the 828 so I can just give the sound guy a L and R...

It runs solid! The only issue I had was latency with Kontakt 2...so I changed my buffer settings and it became tolerable.

Not sure if this helps....I'm sure others of you out there have more complex setups!

Nicolas

lampostudio · Post by **lampostudio** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 3:40 pm

I have it set up for 26 channels live. I am using a MOTU 896 with a Joe Meek Twin Q into the 896 via the AES/EBU and a MOTU 8 Pre connected to a Focusrite Octopre (8 channels) via light pipe. The octopre gives me 8 channels of compression (drums) and the Joe Meek gives me two channels of compression and EQ (lead vocals). I want to add two alesis DEQ 8 channel digital EQ's. I had them on order from Guitar Center but they have had them on backorder for about a month now.
The only thing I don't like is that you CAN'T save while recording so you have to stop and save (between songs) then continue tracking after it's done saving. I would NEVER trust a 2 plus hour session without saving. Could you imagine at the end of a kicking live gig watching that stupid beach ball spinning & spinning & sipnning.... FORCE QUIT,

ouch! Excuse me guys now that the 2 hour sound check is over, I'm ready to track anytime you are!

As far as hooking into the house system I have a snake that I modified with in's & out's at the stage end. I plug any of the shared mic's/equip into the in's on my snake then out of my snake into their stage in's. This works good but my snake is not isolated so humm's need to be listened for. Other than that it works great.

mgcote · Post by **mgcote** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 3:46 pm

I use DP (and before Performer) since I dropped my Roland MC500...
Around 1990. In musical and theatre shows.

Now my set up is a MacBookPro with:
-Traveler (plugged on a FW PCexpress card);
-LaCie HD (FW800 port) for the audio;
-Lexicon MX-500 (SPDIF in/out to the Traveler)
-some VIs (TruePiano, Lounge Lizard, MachV or Kontakt, Absynth).

On my last show (The Tempest)
I use DP with 5 X 16 channels of Kontakt instruments.
I made 1 chunk with severals markers (250)
so I run the show and jumped to the next marker for each cue.
I also have many audio cues panned and automated in Surround (5 out).
Everything runs fine.

Michel

waxman · Post by **waxman** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 5:40 pm

That is awesome. Some of the guys I have seen were using VS 2480s and I did not want that... not enough seperate outs. I sold that a few year ago.

Thanks for the tip on Lampostudio on recording. I record live 48 track to DP now and it works great.

The application I need is for backing tracks. I only need to do about 5 songs a week. So I had not considered DP. Then I read the Eagles used it on their tour and I said DUH...

Thanks for the tip on the marker track.

I have a 17 inch G4 laptop. It is the fastest G4 they made before intel. Do you think that will work or will I need a MacBook Pro? I have a MOTU 896 HD so I just need to add another 8 of something and I am in.

Anymore tips on setups would be great....

daniel.sneed · Post by **daniel.sneed** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 11:55 am

I've used many times an old Titanium G4 on dramatic shows, before my actual MacBook.

Very confident with those beasts.
IMHO the limits you must focus on are :
- virtual instruments (chose low on CPU ones)
- effect plugins (print anything whenever possible)

Any way, you owe to yourself, and the people you're working with (and for), to have a second "worst case scenario" setup.
Any gear can eventualy fail...
Mine was a simple MD setup, wich I never used.

waxman · Post by **waxman** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 4:11 pm

I am looking to do up to 16 tracks of playback audio. No plugs, no MIDI just audio... through a 896 HD and a 8 pre...

will that fly on a G4 17 inch laptop 1.67 mgz... 1 gig of ram?

misterhemi · Post by **misterhemi** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 11:12 pm

I just got back into performing, had been on a music hiatus for a while.

My setup is a Mac Book Pro, DP5.13, a MOTU 8pre and 2 MTP/AVs.

Live, I use it for MIDI only (no plug-ins) haven't had any problems. I even control everything from a Frontier Designs TranzPort.

One MTP/AV is used for a rack of modules, the other MTP/AV is used for the keyboards.

I found the networking function DOESN'T work and have both MTPs connected to my laptop via USB. This is better because USB is faster (meaning better timing accuracy) than using the network serial port (I believe it is an RS-485 port) on the rear of the MTP/AVs.

waxman · Post by **waxman** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 11:17 pm

Any comment on the load difference between 16 tracks of MIDI playing and 16 tracks of audio? Obviously the audio will be more of a load?

The Eagles were cueing vocal tracks, soundscapes, horns, drum tracks. cues etc...

daniel.sneed · Post by **daniel.sneed** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 7:33 am

Of course, MIDI is extremely light on CPU if you use only hardware synths or hardware samplers. You could expect many hundred tracks with your computer.

Handling audio, VI and audio plugins are much higher tasks to deal with CPU wise.

Osh · Post by **Osh** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:21 am

i used to use DP 4 running on a desktop G4 for many years on reasonably large production tour with an A/B system...

we just ran 8 stereo audio tracks and a small bit of MIDI (click track and program changes for modules))....

Have to say it was very solid except every now and again (maybe 1 out of 100) a chunk/song wouldnt play any audio,,, e,g the wiper would move across the screen and nothing would play.. I would have to rewind to the start of the chunk and hit play again!!!!

I still run playback systems for tours and have to say that i much prefer hard disk machines like the Tascam Mx24-24 (not in production any more!!) or the Fostex D2424LV. We still carry a DP or PT setup so we can do editing offline...

Its not to say you cant run DP for live shows but it will at some stage mess up and when it does your probably gonna have to reboot or have a proper A/B system.... All and all hard disk machines are more reliable and way quicker to reboot... i spose it really depends on the type of shows your doin and what you can get away with...

Hope this helps