live performance of whatever you write (in renoise)?

Hi everyone,

I'm a bit confused/potentially lost as to how one can perform live pre-recorded music in a meaningful way and probably am just looking for daw/gear suggestions to do that.

In my current process writing stuff for my second release, i basically make shitty tracks i don't like in ableton - it forces me into a very personally formulaic way, using the same tricks and writing music that basically comes out more or less the same every time. afterwards, i put those tracks and their stems into renoise and make stuff i actually like there - the fact that i can't say waveforms and force myself to use step automation makes the structure and sound more abstract to my ears, which i like.

the problem is that i'm not sure how to perform these live. putting stems of renoise projects back into ableton to perform/jam over them live feels almost incest-y at this stage, but doable. i own an sp404mk2 which could potentially work as a hardware box playing renoise stems over which i can jam on a bass guitar or run doodly synthy sounds from ableton or something, but maybe someone worked out a different workflow using renoise itself or stems running on hardware?

how do you play pre-recorded tracks but also altering them live basically?

thx

Have you looked into using Redux with Ableton ?

My tracker -> live workflow (from Buzz -> Ableton) was to export loops of the patterns and save them as wavs. Then stick all the drum patterns in one Ableton track, synths in another, sfx in another and arrange them in a sort of chronological order of the set in the scene view. That way you could have sections of the track playing as long as you like, introduce bits from other tracks into the existing one and just have a play on the day. I also had two 'live' tracks with a VSTi on each of them for live jammin'

I then had an effects chain on the master channel with each effect mapped to a midi device for some global shenanigans

  On 7/21/2023 at 1:52 PM, mcbpete said:

Have you looked into using Redux with Ableton ?

My tracker -> live workflow (from Buzz -> Ableton) was to export loops of the patterns and save them as wavs. Then stick all the drum patterns in one Ableton track, synths in another, sfx in another and arrange them in a sort of chronological order of the set in the scene view. That way you could have sections of the track playing as long as you like, introduce bits from other tracks into the existing one and just have a play on the day. I also had two 'live' tracks with a VSTi on each of them for live jammin'

I then had an effects chain on the master channel with each effect mapped to a midi device for some global shenanigans

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thanks!

redux is nice but i'm not onboard with how it's forced to use phrases instead of patterns which i'm used to in renoise.

the workflow you've described is basically what i've had in mind and most likely what i'll try and do first. i have a launchpad x arriving soon to trigger clips with, will report back.

alternatively, i think i need to explore dj mode on my sp404 and also see if a hardware only solution is viable for this since i'd like to avoid relying on ableton tbh

  On 7/21/2023 at 4:59 PM, Summon Dot E X E said:

I do something very similar to this when performing live with Reason.

WAVs with tempo data in a folder. Drag them into main sequencer. The encoded tempo data will cause them to stretch out as needed to sync the song. You can also manually change or automate the global tempo if you want to go between two songs with much different tempos. You can also do high quality transposition of the entire recording, so if you've included key information in your DJ track filenames, you'll be able to make sure the transition is harmonious.

On top of that, I have various instruments and devices like sequencers, arps etc for live performance and effects. With the effects, some are inline, some sends, some inline just before the mastering suite for an entire track effect.

My DJ Tracks folder is like this:

Each initial number corresponds to two scales: The major and the relative minor, because of the naturalness of switching between them. The number 1 corresponds to C Maj / a min and it ascends in semitones, so 2 is D♭ Maj, etc.

Additional scales are either grouped in with a major or a minor if they are close enough in some way that could be pleasing, but if they stand totally apart, they do not get a number.

If you prepare enough audio files like this, you can have a huge variety in your live shows -- each one can be very unique, especially when you add the live instrument jamming on top.

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very nice! i like the methodical approach.

  On 7/21/2023 at 7:18 PM, source_rec said:

redux is nice but i'm not onboard with how it's forced to use phrases instead of patterns which i'm used to in renoise.

Ah really, dang I had no idea that was the case. I assumed it was exactly how you had wanted it to be where pattern launching was mapped to midi notes!

  On 7/21/2023 at 7:35 PM, mcbpete said:

Ah really, dang I had no idea that was the case. I assumed it was exactly how you had wanted it to be where pattern launching was mapped to midi notes!

once u set phrases to 64 steps how does it differentiate from patterns ?

  On 7/21/2023 at 7:51 PM, Wunderbar said:

once u set phrases to 64 steps how does it differentiate from patterns ?

redux doesn't have a sample selector - a single redux instance is basically a single instrument in renoise terms. if i want one track to be something like drums with a bunch of S commands and another to be some melodic sample playing several notes, i'd have to use two different tracks with two different redux instances. at this point i'd rather just use renoise lol

  On 7/21/2023 at 12:47 PM, source_rec said:

how one can perform live pre-recorded music in a meaningful way

  On 8/3/2023 at 3:02 PM, TubularCorporation said:

 

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perfect. i'm working on an deep fried idm crazy frog remix that will be perfect for this