There is no such thing as a definitive workflow for Live - once you get into using it, you will probably very drastically change the way you approach a live set from back a mix of tracks to being a harmonic mix of loops and phrases that flow in whatever way you see fit to suit that specific night.
The real key is I think resist the temnpation to being up a complex set with lots of channels in it - in fact restrict it to whatever works and remains easy to control fromt he controllers you have.
Simple and quality is allways way way better than complex and messy. In the end the clubbers want a fluid and interesting set with great energy ebb and flow etc and TBH I find that getting all quirky and technical just messes that up (my context is trance, electro house, tech house, progressive house).
So ill often keep everything too between 8 and 16 tracks including fx returns - this is because I can easily control this lot from a behinger BCF2000 and BCR2000 combo. Ill have all the fx return routing back to regular audio tracks just so I can have automations on complex effect movement etc as backup etc.
All my music phase and loops I tend to keep spread across 4 tracks - 2 of which are for the main phrases, the other 2 are for side loops extracted from those tracks.
maybe upto another four tracks for spot fx and drum loops etc. Then on the fx return tracks (which fed audio tracks), a useful spread of the kind of fx I want and allways included kick pumped compressor as well and dub delays etc.
But the real key I because I keep it simple and consistent - I dont have to really think hard about what know, button or slider does what- - its the same every time.
|