Help
Thinking of using Ableton Live for liver performances through my Macbook Pro.
First of all, live music with a computer scares the living hell out of me. I'm not interested in telling the audience "my computer just crashed, please wait a minute"
How can I be sure that this wont happen? Should I get a brand new computer and only install Ableton Live on it?
Also can I use a USB pre-amp, or will this cause error live? Should I be working through something analog?
I need help and don't know where to look! Any advice or links to help is greatly appreciated!
Page 1 of 1
Live Music with a Mac
Ableton Live
Rate Topic:
Page 1 of 1
Other Replies To This Topic
#2
teaser 
- Administrator
-
- Group: Administrators
- Posts: 7,111
- Joined: 21-October 03
- LocationAntwerp - BE
Posted 26 April 2012 - 02:18 PM
You can never be sure your computer won't crash. Any pc or mac will crash if something goes wrong with the hardware. The most common thing that'll tear your computer down is a harddisk crash, which can be avoided by buying an SSD instead of a regular spinning disk. But there's so much more that can go wrong. Like bad connections between different pieces of hardware inside or outside your pc. For instance a bad usb cable, or your audio card that accidently gets unplugged (wouldn't result in a crash, but the sound would be gone anyway!).
The second most common thing that causes complete computer crashes are bad device drivers. Always make sure you have the latest drivers for all your hardware, but on the other hand don't update right before a live set without testing first! New drivers can have bugs too... If you're using windows, never rely on hardware that comes with 'unsigned' drivers. They have not completed the test suite from microsoft and have a bigger chance of crashing your computer. You can recognize unsigned drivers when you install them - there's a warning dialog (from Windows) asking you if you really want to install the unsigned driver.
Finally the software itself. Ableton Live could crash too, because ANY software can crash. But I'm sure they test new releases very well before asking a lot of money for it :)/>
Using a USB soundcard (or preamp as you refer to it) is highly recommended although it indeed is another weak link in your set-up. The built-in sound cards from virtually all laptops aren't good enough for doing live audio performance, so getting a professional external one is generally a good idea. Just stick to the better brands, with decent drivers, use a decent USB cable and make sure no one (including yourself) can disconnect it while you're performing :)/>
The second most common thing that causes complete computer crashes are bad device drivers. Always make sure you have the latest drivers for all your hardware, but on the other hand don't update right before a live set without testing first! New drivers can have bugs too... If you're using windows, never rely on hardware that comes with 'unsigned' drivers. They have not completed the test suite from microsoft and have a bigger chance of crashing your computer. You can recognize unsigned drivers when you install them - there's a warning dialog (from Windows) asking you if you really want to install the unsigned driver.
Finally the software itself. Ableton Live could crash too, because ANY software can crash. But I'm sure they test new releases very well before asking a lot of money for it :)/>
Using a USB soundcard (or preamp as you refer to it) is highly recommended although it indeed is another weak link in your set-up. The built-in sound cards from virtually all laptops aren't good enough for doing live audio performance, so getting a professional external one is generally a good idea. Just stick to the better brands, with decent drivers, use a decent USB cable and make sure no one (including yourself) can disconnect it while you're performing :)/>
Share this topic:
Page 1 of 1
