Playing Zebra & A.C.E. "LIVE" ???
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- KVRer
- 24 posts since 2 Jul, 2011
I use Zebra live, using Reaper. I was using Pro Tools before that.
What kinds of things are you using for?
What kinds of things are you using for?
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 237 posts since 5 Feb, 2006 from Toronto
SO far I have been using them for recording only ( with Logic) - but would like to use them live with a midi keyboard to control ACE & ZEBRA and a few other favorites as polyphonic instruments and (very portable) additional keys to play with analog (Voyager) as leadmharnishfeger wrote:I use Zebra live, using Reaper. I was using Pro Tools before that.
What kinds of things are you using for?
Today I did this running the soft synths LIVE through laptop, recording them as audio into a Desktop installed Logic system, playing Moog and other instruments into additional channels
My Axiom Pro 49 works great and AUTOMATICALLY with Logic but it might as well be any other junk midi keyboard when I try and use it with MainStage 2.1.3 (OSX 10.6.
- this is strange because My Oxygen8 25 works great with MainStage, as soon as you plug in the keyboard it is recognized (MainStage ask you to set Oxygen to Preset1) controls are automapped, and actually the Oxy8 pretty well with Logic, too (though it's not auto-mapped) like the 49 Pro's thinking maybe I should just skip MainStage and use Logic for LIVE performance?
new question - now I am wondering if going through the audio out of MacBook Pro live like this will yield any better or worse results than recording internally as au plugin... does anybody have any thoughts about that?
thanks kindly, Pete
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O S X 12.5 -- > + --> VENTURA 13-
- KVRer
- 24 posts since 2 Jul, 2011
Ok, sorry I wrote so much. Hopefully this all makes sense to you and doesn't cause you any more frustration.
Answer #1
when I use Zebra live, I send the audio out of the interface plugged into my MacBook Pro (a Focusrite Scarlett 18i6). Zebra is the only synth that I use while doing this, so I create a preset folder in Zebra specifically for the set I play. This method works great for me because in between songs, I only have to change one thing inside Zebra, but if you are using a lot of different sounds, keyboards and setups on a song-to-song basis, Mainstage might be the simpler option.
Answer #2
I'm not sure if I understand, but I will try to give my two-cents on what I think you're asking.
Generally speaking, it is best to avoid multiple D>A conversions. By recording audio out of the MacBook Pro (headphone out I am guessing) you're taking the digital signal from the plugin, converting it to analog audio out of the Mac Book, then converting the analog back to digital when it gets to the computer. Unless you are using nice digital to analog converters, this can cause problems with audio quality.
Recently, I had to record Zebra's audio into another Pro Tools session without the Zebra plugin, so instead of going through the hassle of getting a Zebra serial number for the other pro tools system, then recording MIDI and bouncing that to audio, we just used the S/PDIF out of my audio interface into the studios interface. It worked well, and we avoided the unnecessary D>A>D conversion
Answer #1
when I use Zebra live, I send the audio out of the interface plugged into my MacBook Pro (a Focusrite Scarlett 18i6). Zebra is the only synth that I use while doing this, so I create a preset folder in Zebra specifically for the set I play. This method works great for me because in between songs, I only have to change one thing inside Zebra, but if you are using a lot of different sounds, keyboards and setups on a song-to-song basis, Mainstage might be the simpler option.
Answer #2
I'm not sure if I understand, but I will try to give my two-cents on what I think you're asking.
Generally speaking, it is best to avoid multiple D>A conversions. By recording audio out of the MacBook Pro (headphone out I am guessing) you're taking the digital signal from the plugin, converting it to analog audio out of the Mac Book, then converting the analog back to digital when it gets to the computer. Unless you are using nice digital to analog converters, this can cause problems with audio quality.
Recently, I had to record Zebra's audio into another Pro Tools session without the Zebra plugin, so instead of going through the hassle of getting a Zebra serial number for the other pro tools system, then recording MIDI and bouncing that to audio, we just used the S/PDIF out of my audio interface into the studios interface. It worked well, and we avoided the unnecessary D>A>D conversion
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 237 posts since 5 Feb, 2006 from Toronto
Thanks! I figured with the noise of a club and single coil guitar pickups and tube amps that taking an audio face along wouldn't be necessary... i don't know about Reaper yet, I have been sunk into Logic so long, I wonder if many folks are running Reaper on Mac... anyway yeah, MainStage seems to work great if you have the right auto mapped Keyboard and CCmapping going on otherwise it can be a total nightmare! (with me I would just want to cover what the Moog couldn't do) anyway with Logic running it could lead to some pretty amazing real time stuff with sampling and audio manipulation if the rest of the band or you had more than one machine to cover playback while you post-processed freshly recorded live sound...
here's a new track just uploaded that has an example of some of this plus a Theremin, and iPAD "toy" as somebody commented in another thread here very recently
THEREMIN NOW!
Mostly live... overdubbing the Theremin, on top of Moog Voyager, iPAD percussion drumbox and Midi Controller Keyboard playing two ACE patches (u-he plugin through MacBookPro), with a sustain pedal, two expression pedals,... a Moogerfooger MF-102 Ring Modulator and Roland Spring Reverb ADD RV-100, recorded into Logic and RME Fireface. link: http://soundcloud.com/misterpete/theremin-now#
here's a new track just uploaded that has an example of some of this plus a Theremin, and iPAD "toy" as somebody commented in another thread here very recently
THEREMIN NOW!
Mostly live... overdubbing the Theremin, on top of Moog Voyager, iPAD percussion drumbox and Midi Controller Keyboard playing two ACE patches (u-he plugin through MacBookPro), with a sustain pedal, two expression pedals,... a Moogerfooger MF-102 Ring Modulator and Roland Spring Reverb ADD RV-100, recorded into Logic and RME Fireface. link: http://soundcloud.com/misterpete/theremin-now#
mharnishfeger wrote:Ok, sorry I wrote so much. Hopefully this all makes sense to you and doesn't cause you any more frustration.
Answer #1
when I use Zebra live, I send the audio out of the interface plugged into my MacBook Pro (a Focusrite Scarlett 18i6). Zebra is the only synth that I use while doing this, so I create a preset folder in Zebra specifically for the set I play. This method works great for me because in between songs, I only have to change one thing inside Zebra, but if you are using a lot of different sounds, keyboards and setups on a song-to-song basis, Mainstage might be the simpler option.
Answer #2
I'm not sure if I understand, but I will try to give my two-cents on what I think you're asking.
Generally speaking, it is best to avoid multiple D>A conversions. By recording audio out of the MacBook Pro (headphone out I am guessing) you're taking the digital signal from the plugin, converting it to analog audio out of the Mac Book, then converting the analog back to digital when it gets to the computer. Unless you are using nice digital to analog converters, this can cause problems with audio quality.
Recently, I had to record Zebra's audio into another Pro Tools session without the Zebra plugin, so instead of going through the hassle of getting a Zebra serial number for the other pro tools system, then recording MIDI and bouncing that to audio, we just used the S/PDIF out of my audio interface into the studios interface. It worked well, and we avoided the unnecessary D>A>D conversion
_________________
O S X 12.5 -- > + --> VENTURA 13
O S X 12.5 -- > + --> VENTURA 13-
- KVRist
- 396 posts since 7 Dec, 2006 from Richmond, VA, USA
I use Ableton Live on a Macbook Pro with 2 instances of Zebra in my live set. I currently have 123 patches in the MIDI Programs folder and use Live's clip program change to select different patches during the set. Hasn't failed me once. I also just use the Macbook audio out. We play mainly in rock type venues with crappy PAs so it's fine. If I played dance club places with great systems I might use my audio interface.