Hey! I need help. Im a total noob. I use fruity loops to make songs and have a bunch already. I want to go and do live shows but I have no idea how to do it. I played guitar and sang in a band live once but, I have no clue how I should approace playing techno live. What do i need? What do I do? How do I setup? I have no trouble getting a gig, its just I would not no what to do. I dont have a lot of money either and i just have a one midi controller. Please help me, i need tips too.

You need a reliable computer and a stable, low-latency audio card with ASIO.

If it's not techno, it's not techno.

i have a relialable laptop and idk if my soundcard is asio, but i can change the buffer size with the asio driver to make it low latency. im wondering what people use for a live setup. Whats the best setup for me? Should I just run fl and play the songs there, or should i like make them mp3 and get some kind of dj program.

Techno / trance / dance sets typically involve mixing the audio live - riding the faders, muting, soloing etc. Depending on gear and ability, 1 or more synths or drum machines will be tweaked live to add more of a human element to the sound (plus it's a lot of fun).

Not sure if FL Studio is the best host for this type of setup ... a lot of producers will use Ableton Live because most of the interface can be configured to use a computer keyboard to perform some of these actions e.g. triggering a clip or scene can be done with a single key stroke.

You'll probably want some kind of external controller that can be mapped to synth parameters so that you can tweak things like filter cutoff. A keyboard would obviously be useful if you intend to trigger samples or play some of the music live, or perhaps something like NI Maschine if you're music is more rhythm focussed.

Once you've figured out how much you can handle in a live mix, practice is the key. Once you've got the set down, get out there and play it loud

Peace,
Andy.

ok cool thanks for the tips! in fl i can map synth and song parameters to my midi controller, i can mix the audio but it just doesnt feel fluent enough (im not talking about latency issues). I have to load each song in to fl which is clunky and not fluent. should i get turntables, because i really dont like to overly use loops and songs make more sense to me. i also really want to be able to control things like cutoff and muting and stuff and i guess you cant do that with turntables. what should i do?

If you want to DJ, get something like Traktor. DJing is arguably a lot easier, if you are good at DJ'ing, but it's not a live set ...so you need to decide what you want to achieve, and what you are most comfortable with. Nothing wrong with either approach, just pointing out some obvious differences.

If you decide live is better you will need to create a project specifically for mixing the live set, rather than expecting to use your existing projects. The project will be one long timeline (say an hour or however long your set is), including BPM changes where appropriate.

Create stems from your projects. Each stem is an audio render of the part or parts you feel are most useful for live mixing. The first obvious stem is the kick drum. Other stems might be just the hi-hats, the bass line, all percussion, each individual synth or multiple synth parts. When all of the stems from a single track are played together your track is reproduced, and you can now mess with the levels, mutes and solos.

Once you have the stems for each track, place them in the time line for the live set project. Now you can mix parts in and out as described in my previous post, recreating one seamless piece of music that is suitable for a club set.

In a sense with live mixing you are creating a new arrangement + mix from the original parts of the track. It's quite a skill, so expect to practice a lot until you've learned to build a set that reproduces your tracks in a way that is interesting for the punters i.e. the flow of energy throughout the track makes dancing to your music fun.

Peace,
Andy.

Wow thats cool, ill have to try that. thanks for your time you have given me a lot of information. I gather that if i wanted i could probably dj and mix in a daw at the same time. Well thanks youve solved my question!

i would recommend traktor as well,
or,
getting a controller. even the little nano kontroller's can be used effectively for a small gig and are cheap (40-60 usd?)

Thanks for this Andy! I'm working on a 3-5 year plan to try this, I'm thinking start learning DJing(a guy I've met locally has OKed me watching him, to learn some tings). And learning about building a live set of my own music,I'm working on some things in the Plastikman realm. You've posted some great things to think about