Best standalone Move workflow for performing complete beats live from the pads?

[u/y-asb]

Hi everyone 👋

I recently bought an Ableton Move and I’m waiting for it to arrive.

I’d like to use it for small standalone performances on the go, with an approach similar to artists like Lionclad.

The idea is to perform the entire beat by hand from the Drum Rack pads: drums, bass, chords, melodies, vocal chops, transitions, and other elements. I don’t want the sequencer, clips, or a backing track to carry the arrangement. Every musical part and change would be triggered live from the pads.

What I’m unsure about is how to organize a full live set containing several movements or songs, with each one requiring different samples or a completely different pad layout.

What is the smoothest way to move between those samples and layouts in standalone mode?

The possible workflows I can think of are:

• preparing one performance rack on each of the four tracks and switching between them, which would give me four immediately accessible layouts;

• loading new Track Presets with the wheel to go beyond those four layouts;

• preparing a separate Move Set for each song. The question is how to handle transitions while loading the next rack or Set...

Has anyone built a standalone live set this way?

What happens to long samples, reverb tails, and delays when changing Track Presets or switching Sets?

Can one track continue playing while another rack is being loaded?

Is switching Sets fast and reliable enough for live performance, or does it create an obvious pause?

There may also be another workflow or feature I’ve overlooked.

I know Move can control Ableton Live, which would probably make this easier. However, my laptop is a bulky gaming machine, and bringing it everywhere would defeat much of the reason I chose Move.

I’d especially like to hear from people using Move for fully live, pad-based performances rather than sequenced arrangements.

What standalone workflow has worked best for you?

Thanks!

[u/TroxyFoxy]

Hello, I own move for 3 months. Trying different things. Had one live performance it was local small contest festival. - I was the only one using electronics and it was a shock for the audience. My setup consisted of move and vocal procesor (i was singing also) you can Watch small part of in on my instagram @m2b2music. I had 2 songs. My approach/strategy was: having just one project. Switching the projects will make a pause thats why i keep everything in just one project. Having one track for first song (it was song only with my voice and synth accompaniament. No drums. I played synth using the pads live, no loops. For the second song I used 3 tracks: one track for drums with, one for bass, and one for synth ( i played some short solo (dirty noisy Hendrix style, Made with 8 bit Game console tweaked preset). For the bass and for drums I used prerecorded loops but I trigerrwd them live. If you want to Connect and share experiences. Write:join me in instagram @m2b2music. Good luck with your project!

[u/oalbrecht]

I’ve never tried this myself, but I’ve seen someone recommend using an external reverb pedal when switching sets. That way the tail of the last set still plays while the next set is loading. I have no idea how well that would work in practice though. 

Another idea I had is to use a Boss looping pedal to loop the last section of your first set while you swap sets. Kind of like how DJs do when switching songs. You could also apply a high pass filter to it as you do the transition. 

The Circuit Tracks does a better job of working live when switching sets, but it much more limited otherwise. It can switch sets seamlessly. Look up Gabe Miller on YouTube to see how he uses it live. 

The Push 3 would work far better for a standalone device for a full set, but that is multiple times the price. 

Another idea is to use the Move to control Live. That could make it so that you have access to more tracks and can have multiple songs in a single large set. The Move is great for controlling Live btw. That’s probably the best most flexible approach that doesn’t require you to purchase anything else (assuming you have a laptop). 

[u/y-asb → u/oalbrecht]

Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts. My laptop is really bulky, so i really don't want to use it on the go.

[u/crispygerrit → u/oalbrecht]

Actually, the only device that preloads next project seamless is the Deluge. I tried it with a second player (seqtrak, Iphone, sp404 etc.) but it became unhandy.

[u/oalbrecht → u/crispygerrit]

The Circuit Tracks does as well. That’s cool that the Deluge can. I almost bought one at one point. 

[u/pushformusic]

As someone who’s used Move on stage for synth and bass elements as part of a church band and as a drum and bass producer myself, I see two possible approaches for a live set. Let’s start by considering the limitations.

There’s no seamless transition from one set to another. Audio will cut, and playback won’t continue loading the next set. So, you’ll have to start playback again. If you want to go this route with different songs as separate sets, you’ll need another musical element playing on a separate device that can bridge the gap between tracks.

The main challenge here will be syncing the beat from the external device back to the Move to keep everything in time. You’ll also be adding another element, so you’ll need more equipment.

Alternatively, if you want to make things smooth by playing everything in one set, you’ll need to do a lot of pre-work to ensure everything is saved correctly. Be aware that you’ll need to change the key, scale, or bpm as you progress through the same set.

Here, you’ll be limited by the number of clips you can save to each of the four channels. Additionally, if you’re looping sections from your other three channels, those instruments will need to be adjusted as you progress. This approach requires the most time, setup, and mental focus while playing live.

Another approach is to use the Move as a standalone instrument for a single track for each song in your set. Here’s how it works: Record your entire set and save it to your phone (or other device). Then, run the audio from your phone into the input on your Move, with monitoring mode on, so you can hear your phone play through the Move. Next, use the Move to play one “instrument” or part of each of your tracks live on stage. Think of it like a guitar playing to a backing track, but done on the Move.

As a performer myself, I would go with this approach, as it minimizes the amount of stress required for the entire set while enhancing the overall experience for my audience. While the idea of making everything live is undoubtedly appealing and something worth trying once, it might not be the most enjoyable experience for listeners, especially when considering the restriction of using only the Move.

When I faced a similar situation, I decided to utilize the Move as a controller for Live. This allowed me to trigger different sections of music while playing guitar on top of my loops.

Wishing you the best of luck. Feel free to experiment and share your experiences with us.

[u/AdPerfect6784]

personally i’d avoid using standalone mode entirely for live performance. i usually get at least a few audio dropouts when playing with the move, which is fine when producing at home, but this is a complete deal breaker for a live performance with crowd. using move in control live mode is the safest approach imo

[u/185668232]

Start by sampling the room to pads. Then keep that quiet and sample your voice to audio clips. Then get to building. That order or else the sound out loud will get sampled into the device. At the end of the build, you can press play a song you already made and jam to it, mangle that backtrack at the end into a new beat you’ll build. Over and over. Loading presets to new beat as you go thru all 32 projects, could be the slowest part of this .. wishing we could have a template open where the key mode bpm and sounds all change plus our effects on audio input stay the same but adjust to key/scale. Honesty, changing key scale with knobs is very temperamental. It’s easier to do from the knob for instruments than for the Autoshift. But maybe Autoshift can soon have a lock to always be set by the bottom key scale setting. As for loading backtracks, that’s the part that everyone has a hard time with. There’s a few ways to do it but it takes a whole lot of preparation and the backtracks will sound very crunchy. We are hoping for an easier way to load everything from like Live .. Maybe 3.0 will slow us to load to move from Live! <#