Switching Songs (fast) in Live Setup

Dr. Hildi · 2023-10-08T12:10:47+00:00

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I am using Maschine 2 on a MacBook in a live setup with my band (guitar, drums, me) with a Komplete Kontrol A61 and a Maschine Jam. This works really great. But switching songs need some time. So I've made so me testing and done some research in the net. But I found nothing that works for me so far.

So please, if there are thousands of discussions I didn't find, just give me a link!

What I thought of and tested so far:

Maschine 2 in Mainstage: This doesn't look so bad. But I didn't find anyone who is doing that. And it looks kind of "unsupported". Has someone done this before? What are your thoughts: Why this is a bad Idea?
Mainstage and Ableton Live: There are many discussions on this topic. But I wasn't able to get the basics to run. I managed to load some songs with Maschine as a plugin into Live but I didn't manage to start them sequentially. Looks like a small missing link to me.
Reducing loading time: Often the simplest solutions are the best. So maybe it just a question of reducing loading time. Have you talked about this, before?
Running some standalone instances: This seems to be "unsupported", too. But for 2 or 3 songs this works.

Thanks for advices, links or just the right words for a search!

-Thomas

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Max Trau

I have a setup with traktor, wich adresses this exact problem, explained hère

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/17005/big-shoutout-to-all-ni-maschine-developers-and-a-headsup-to-all-maschine-users/p5

Max Trau

Yep, i load a New song in instance B when instance A is playing. Close to what a DJ would do, but with m'y tracks in maschine instead of audio files

Max Trau

Hi, i just discovered a new (at least for me) way to do this in Ableton Live :

You can automate activating and disactivating Maschine instances per scenes :

Capture d’écran 2023-11-28 à 00.50.58.png

This way, each Scene in Live triggers a different Maschine Project, and desactivate the others. Each project runs independantly, you can set a tempo pers scene, so each of your projects has his own tempo.

Max Trau

My workaround in Live is to set clips with activation/desactivation of the Maschine plugins automated.

This way, only one particular instance of Maschine VST is active, and my CPU loads it just fine. The major issue is that the Live set is really long to load, but once loaded, i don't meet any CPU problem (on a Mac Mini M1)

Capture d’écran 2023-11-30 à 00.25.27.png

Here, i have green clips to activate the instance i want, reds to deactivate all the others. Scenes launch in Live is quantized on 8 bars, so when i launch a scene, it will play at the end of a cycle for the current track.

I switch the controllers via shift+instance

Each scene has its own tempo to match each track, and i managed to send PGM CHG from Maschine (as a VST in Live) to my matrixbrute, and every track loads automatically his own matrixbrute patch.

Capture d’écran 2023-11-30 à 00.38.22.png

Each track/instance is in one Live Track, with a midi track wich gets Midi from maschine and sends it to the matrixbrute, and a audio track wich gets the audio from my inputs and sends it back to maschine for the effects. The 3 tracks are grouped to make things more clean in the project.

I mapped my DJ controller (Reloop mixtour i bought for my previous config with traktor) to some effects in a aux track, assigned to B, so i can apply those FX with the crossfader to wathever track i'm playing.

I mapped scene selection and launch on the Mixtour too, with a previous/next approach, wich means i'm not limited by the numbers of switch on the device.

Volumes on the controller are assigned to AUX A & B faders, wich are currently a reverb and a delay.

All in all, a far better and efficient setup than the previous one with traktor. All the transitions are quantized, and if i optimize my tracks (freezing synths and fx wich i dont really modulate live), i think i can run two instances of maschine together to automate volume transitions between tracks.

I don't liveloop, or record anything live, but in play some melodies on the matrixbrute.

This way, i can work on the tracks in maschine standalone, and put them in my liveset as they are. No need to bounce anything (beside saving CPU if needed).

I can also have a much better appreciation of the global sound of my live, as the tracks run immediately one after the other, without having to wait for loading.

All comments

Max Trau

I have a setup with traktor, wich adresses this exact problem, explained hère

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/17005/big-shoutout-to-all-ni-maschine-developers-and-a-headsup-to-all-maschine-users/p5

Dr. Hildi

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/99008#Comment_99008

As far as I understand your setup, this is what I tried in my last point:

Running some standalone instances: This seems to be "unsupported", too. But for 2 or 3 songs this works.

And your experience is: This works and two instances are enough, because you are able to load the next track in the "free" instance and can switch to it. Thank you for sharing these experiences.

Max Trau

Yep, i load a New song in instance B when instance A is playing. Close to what a DJ would do, but with m'y tracks in maschine instead of audio files

Max Trau

Hi, i just discovered a new (at least for me) way to do this in Ableton Live :

You can automate activating and disactivating Maschine instances per scenes :

D-One

The DAW route can be a good approach, altho loading many instances for a full set might not be practical, depends on whether you're performing what is already recorded or intend to record stuff live or not, how heavy your projects are, you RAM, etc... You would need to setup Host Transport Control as well as having a way of triggering Ableton's Scenes... Which might require an Ableton controller or... mouse clicking.

Personally, since you have a Mac I would do this:

Running some standalone instances: This seems to be "unsupported", too. But for 2 or 3 songs this works.

You can simply duplicate the Maschine 2.app, name the 2nd one something different and run 2 at the same time, you can switch controller focus between them using Shift+Instance.

You would need some practice to load the next project while the current one is playing, maybe setup up a longer Scene/Section dedicated to the end of a song to have time to load the next or something.

You would just need to practice juggling the two standalone-app instances.

Max Trau

My workaround in Live is to set clips with activation/desactivation of the Maschine plugins automated.

I switch the controllers via shift+instance

Each scene has its own tempo to match each track, and i managed to send PGM CHG from Maschine (as a VST in Live) to my matrixbrute, and every track loads automatically his own matrixbrute patch.

I mapped scene selection and launch on the Mixtour too, with a previous/next approach, wich means i'm not limited by the numbers of switch on the device.

Volumes on the controller are assigned to AUX A & B faders, wich are currently a reverb and a delay.

I don't liveloop, or record anything live, but in play some melodies on the matrixbrute.

This way, i can work on the tracks in maschine standalone, and put them in my liveset as they are. No need to bounce anything (beside saving CPU if needed).

I can also have a much better appreciation of the global sound of my live, as the tracks run immediately one after the other, without having to wait for loading.

Dr. Hildi

Bildschirmfoto 2023-12-03 um 12.21.30.png

Thank you. I think finally I was able to reproduce the (de-)activating of Maschine Plugins per scene and I think we will experiment with a complete Live mixing animation setup for a performance with Drums, Guitar, Vocals and Maschine. I think this can also be a way for performing and making multi-track live recordings (if my MacBook Pro is able to manage all this).

Dr. Hildi

Just to start a discussion on this: These are my experiments with Mainstage.

Bildschirmfoto 2023-12-03 um 12.39.50.png

Within this setup you just have to load your song in the next copy of a "set". No activating/deactivating and it gives you the ability to style your performance screen.

Bildschirmfoto 2023-12-03 um 12.41.26.png

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