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Re: thinking about moving from rack to laptop...advice please!



On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 5:50 AM, Simeon Harris
<simeonharris40@googlemail.com> wrote:
> ok, so my current setup is this...
>
> triaxis preamp
> tc g-force
> eventide eclipse
>
> split into
> tc d2 delay
> looperlative (with kaoss pad and lexicon mpx-1 in aux sends)

Hmmm why does that sound familiar?  Oh yeah, I know!  THIS IS HOW IT
HAPPENED TO ME!

OK, well it's not all the same, but similar.  MPX-1, looperlative,
KAOSS pad...  ditched it all in favor of a laptop running Mobius and
it kind of grew from there. My initial idea was the laptop would
become the Looperlative/MPX-1 in my system but when I discovered how
good a lot of the virtual instruments are and how amazing IK
Multimedia's Amplitube is, the laptop became an even larger part of my
world.

I went with Ableton Live because it seemed to have much better syncing
to external sources than any other software I could find at the time
(3 years ago).  It also comes with a lot of great effects and there
was a "lite" version of it that came free with my M-Audio Firewire
Solo.   It's also cross platform and I run XP and a Mac side by side.
(Mac's better! :P) I mostly use the Mac for composition style
recording and the PC has become an improvisation machine.  This was
mainly due to the fact that I wanted to run Mobius but I guess there's
a Mac version now... still, there are a bunch of XP only things I've
grown to really love that I'm sure will never be available for the
Mac...  I wonder if I were to make the same choice now if I would go
with a PC.  Anyway, I bought a Toshiba because it came with Firewire
and I wanted to use my MOTU 828 as an interface and it works great.

In the end I mostly stopped using the laptop as a part of the chain,
as it seemed adept in being "the chain." I run my guitar and bass (old
Steinbergers) directly into the MOTU 828.  Inside Ableton Live I have
Amplitube 2 (all flavors) acting as my preamp. After amplitube there
are a variety of effect plugs I use including using Reaktor.  Other
amazing effect suites I use include NI's KORE and U-he's Uhbiks.
Audiodamage's Dr. Device is brilliant. A send from that audio channel
runs to a channel running Mobius.  Another send runs Augustus Loop
which I use for more of it's "tapeish" qualities. Sometimes after
Augustus Loop I'll run another effect and automate it slowly over
time.  Lots of times Audiodamage's Replicant fills that gap.

Along side my audio inputs (which also take signals from a Roland
SonicCell and a DSI MoPHo) I usually run several synth programs such
as Zebra or Absynth. These can all get routed to either (or both) send
running my two loopers.

Do I miss my Looperlative?  Not a bit. I don't even miss my Vox
Tonelab, though I keep it around as it's sound is different enough to
still remain useful.  Also, sometimes when I'm running a heavy plug in
like my vocoder I'll peak out my processor and need to look outside
the computer for some help.  I control all of the above with two
Behringer FCB1010s but I'm hoping to add an IK Multimedia Stealthpedal
to get greater control of Amplitube.

Hope this helps more than it confuses... ;)

>
> all running into a rack mixer and into a mesa 20/20 poweramp and marshall
> cabs
>
> i've been contemplating ditching all the rack fx and replacing them with 
>a
> mac laptop (keeping the triaxis and 20/20)
>
> my system at the moment is preset based - i have about 60 sounds 
>available
> with cc pedals for variation, with the g-force and eclipse working in 
>tandem
> the lp-1 is controlled by a separate midi controller and i have a control
> surface as well (which also controls the d2 and lexicon)
>
> i'd like ot be able to kinda recreate this lot in a laptop
>
> so i'm thinking about which plugin host will work best, bearing in mind 
>that
> i don't really want to have to launch loads of separate programs on 
>startup
> and i need everything to be synced to midi clock and i also need to be 
>able
> to control it all via midi
>
> i'm thinking of using guitar rig for the basic fx, with extra plugins
> (including reaktor) for more sonic manipulation....with sooperlooper and
> augustus loop running in parallel and feeding more plugins
>
> ableton live looks like a good bet, but i'd really just be using the
> mixer...but it's nice and stable.
>
> so my questions are - will i be able to set up a bunch of plugins on one
> midi channel and put the loopers on other channels, so i can control
> everything the way i am now
>
> any other plugin hosts (for audiounits) that might be worth looking at? 
>is
> mainstage worth considering?
>
> any help would be greatly appreciated!
>
> sim
>
>
>
>