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Laptop live performance tips
Don't take your notebook on stage before you've read this
The MusicRadar Team, Thu 8 May 2008, 1:38 pm UTC
Time was when playing live with a laptop was about as advisable as taking a weekend break in Baghdad. Portable computers used to be horribly underpowered, and running processor-intensive music software on them in the heat of musical battle was a recipe for disaster.
Fortunately, things have changed – gigging with a laptop is now a viable, fun and creative option. There are still a few things you need to consider before you hit the road, though, and MusicRadar is here to tell you exactly what they are…
1. You need an incredibly stable system to play live, so make sure that you’re using software that you trust, and that your machine is fully charged, rock-solid and free from any malware or viruses.
2. Get yourself some software that’s designed for live use. A good example is obviously Ableton Live, but Apple’s Mainstage is another impressive option. The priorities are that it’s stable and offers low-latency performance and glitch-free real-time playback.
3. Be absolutely sure that your audio hardware is up to the job. Loud sound systems can be very uncompromising with mediocre sound sources.
4. If you are playing with more than one person, consider investing in a hardware mixer and a multi-output audio interface, in the interests of ease of use and stability.
5. Always make some sort of provision for altering your arrangement live, if possible. And do the same for your track-listing. You never know when you might want to extend a popular chorus for people to sing along to, or repeat a track as an encore.
6. Rehearse, rehearse and rehearse some more. It sounds obvious, but if you’ve never played live before you won’t be used to the fact that things have a tendency not to go as planned. And if there are bumps on the road, you want to be able to coast over them without having to worry about not knowing your set inside out…
7. Make sure you do a proper soundcheck. Many venues have acoustic spaces that are so poor they make the average home studio environment seem like a top mastering house in comparison, so your finely tuned mix will probably go out of the window at the gig!
8, Always record everything you play live for reference later. And if you are using Ableton Live, don’t just record the resulting audio, record the actual live sequencing as well. You never know what tricks you might be able to re-use later.
