As a studio-focused music maker, I’ve always found live performances to be a source of consternation. In the early 2000s, I was part of a three-piece experimental alternative-rock band that drew its inspiration from production maximalists such as Califone, the Olivia Tremor Control, Broken Social Scene, and all the great concept albums of the 1970s.
We spent most of our time surrounding fragments of lyric, melody, and rhythm with sonic embellishments, including drums recorded with a Dictaphone, field recordings, a percussion section of dog collars, banging metal chairs, treated piano, a literal drill, and more. Then we dove deep into our plug-ins to transform those sounds with delays, reverbs, bitcrushers, saturators, and modulation effects.
Along the way, our band discovered its sound. However, after releasing our first record, we had a problem: this music we spent over a year creating in a home studio was impossible to re-create live with a three-piece band. We tried playing our backing tracks off an iPod, but that became more of a frustration than a solution. Ultimately, we defaulted to performing as a punk-rock version of ourselves live, and none of us found that particularly satisfying.
Back in the day, our studio-centric approach was unique in our local music community. But, of course, now it’s the norm. Today, independent artists have unprecedented access to high-quality, affordable studio gear that allows them to create albums as densely produced as Pink Floyd’s The Wall from the comfort of their homes. However, the problem of taking that music to the stage persists, especially for small acts. Think about this: Roger Waters’s current touring band includes 11 musicians and a dedicated team of techs tasked with firing off sound effects, manipulating reverbs and delays in real time, and more so that the audience is treated to the songs as they were recorded with some room for improvisation.
So, let’s assume that you don’t have the budget to pay for nearly a dozen musicians to perform your songs live. Does that mean you’ll be stuck rearranging for a small ensemble and abandoning the sonic identity you’ve created in the studio? Not anymore! Today, with affordable playback and connected-stage options, you can take your studio sound to the stage while giving your band the freedom to enjoy the spontaneity and musical interaction that make live performances special. In this article, we’ll present a few options for how you can take your stage show to the next level with audio playback and MIDI.
Meet the Band
To make this guide as practical as possible, we’ll focus on solutions for a hypothetical three-piece band consisting of a singer/guitarist, a keyboard player, and a drummer. The front person uses a BOSS VE-500 for vocal harmonies and effects and a Neural DSP Quad Cortex for all their guitar tones. The keyboard player relies on a Roland Jupiter-X both for its internal sounds and as a keyboard controller for VST instruments in Ableton Live (more on that later). The drummer plays a hybrid kit comprised of an acoustic drum set and an Alesis SamplePad Pro for triggering electronic drum sounds and samples.
Get Connected
Let’s back up a second and talk about the concept of the connected stage. Essentially, it’s using a combination of audio playback and MIDI to take the place of a massive backing band and a team of stage technicians. The audio-playback portion is relatively self-explanatory. A band can output backing tracks, as one or more stereo stems, to a venue’s mixing console to cover all the elements that they aren’t able to perform live. The MIDI element of the connected stage is a little more complex — but still simple enough that you don’t have to be a professional engineer to implement it. Essentially, on top of using MIDI to send note information, you can use it to change presets, automate effects, and even mix elements of your live show in real time to create more dynamic performances.
Our three-piece band, the Hypotheticals, wants to utilize connected-stage technology, but they’re not sure where to begin. Let’s explore some of the ways they can do it.
Playback only
This is the simplest way to integrate the connected stage into your live show, and it can be done with a laptop connected to any audio interface that features a stereo output. The Hypotheticals decided to try this first. They built a session in Ableton Live that included stereo stems of the backing tracks for all the possible songs they could include in a live set. Within this Ableton Live session, they could re-order the set list depending on what they felt like playing on a given night and the duration of their time slot. The audio was fed to the front of house via the stereo outputs on a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, and they were hearing playback through the stage wedges. At this point, they weren’t using any kind of MIDI controller connected to their laptop. Their drummer, the default playback tech, was manually starting and stopping the playback session right from the laptop.
Playback and MIDI control
After a few gigs, the Hypotheticals agreed that the “playback only” system just wasn’t working for them. They liked hearing their full arrangements onstage, but they also wanted the ability to launch into an extended jam or to repeat a song section when they were hot. Plus, the front person was growing tired of having to manually switch presets on both their VE-500 and Quad Cortex. Same story for the keyboard player, who had to rearrange their patch banks every time the set-list order changed so they could quickly cycle through presets. On top of that, the drummer was clamoring to play certain sounds they had created in Ableton Live that consisted of samples plus effects rather than just having those sounds playing back on the stems. It was time to upgrade!
To expand the capabilities of their connected-stage setup to include MIDI control, the Hypotheticals added an iConnectivity mioXM 4×4 MIDI interface to their rig. The mioXM allowed them to connect the VE-500, Quad Cortex, Jupiter-X, and Alesis SamplePad Pro to their performance laptop. Within their Ableton Live session, they could now automate program changes on the connected MIDI gear. Plus, the Jupiter-X and Alesis SamplePad Pro could now play both internal and external sounds and switch between them automatically at certain points during the performance. Additionally, the drummer was able to assign a connected footswitch on the SamplePad Pro to start and stop the playback session — no more hitting the space bar on a laptop! And he could loop song sections from the SamplePad Pro when the band was inspired to vamp.
At this point, the Hypotheticals were enjoying the amount of control they had over their sounds, but they wanted even more. They asked themselves, “What if we could control every aspect of our mix right from the stage, including riding the faders to create a more dynamic performance or adding automated effects to miked components, like the drum kit?” The answer is that all that is possible and more!
Playback and MIDI control with a stage mixer
To realize their dream live-performance setup, the Hypotheticals decided to integrate a digital mixer into their connected-stage rig. For portability, they chose a Behringer X32 Rack 40-channel rackmount mixer, which they also use during rehearsals and as an audio interface. The X32 includes MIDI I/O, as well, so the band can automate its built-in effects processors, bus sends, and fader moves. Of course, this required another MIDI port, so the Hypotheticals picked up a second mioXM. This had the additional benefit of letting the band space out their MIDI drops when playing larger stages since it’s recommended not to exceed 25 feet when using MIDI cables.
At this point, they also decided to switch to in-ear monitors because, up until now, they were forced to add some percussion element at every point of the song to help the drummer keep time. With in-ears, not only was it easy to send the drummer the click, but also each band member could have their own mix, and they no longer had to worry about less-than-adequate stage monitoring.
Speaking of the drummer, the Hypotheticals also invested in a Shure DMK57-52 drum mic kit so that they could process and mix their kick, snare, and toms the way they liked regardless of what venue they’re playing.
With this setup, the Hypotheticals are essentially in full control of their live sound right from the stage, and they can run a stereo output from their X32 to the front-of-house mixer. However, they noticed that their preferred mix wasn’t always right for the room, which prompted them to pick up the final component of their playback rig: an iConnectivity PlayAUDIO12. With this device, they can route stem mixes of the major elements (drums, synth, guitars, vocals, etc.) to the venue’s console so the engineer has enough control to adjust the stage mix to sound best in the room. Additionally, the PlayAUDIO12 gives them the option to add a redundant computer to their connected-stage rig — just in case!
With all these pieces in place, the Hypotheticals achieved the elusive goal of re-creating their studio sound onstage with a relatively simple and affordable rig. Granted, there’s a big time investment up front to dial in the playback and MIDI controls. But, once they put in the initial work (at their convenience in their rehearsal space), the Hypotheticals have a replicable yet flexible live show on par with some major touring acts.
Conclusion
Are you a solo artist or a small band looking to take your studio sound to the stage? Contact your Sweetwater Sales Engineer at (800) 222-4700. They can help guide you to the gear you need to make your live performance dreams a reality!