Hi all, I'm getting ready to start playing shows with a band that will mix live instrumentation with material from a laptop (primarily using Live, and ChucK at some point I hope). I've never done this before and I'm not sure of the best way to connect a laptop to a typical rock club's mixer/PA. I've found a small number of answers on the web that range from a simple cable between the laptop's headphone jack and RCA inputs on the mixer, to a firewire audio interface and a stereo DI box. Audio quality and hum from AC power are mentioned as reasons to go with more advanced solutions. I don't want to spend money and carry around these devices unnecessarily, but I'd also hate to be unprepared or inflict bad sound on the audience. There must be a lot of experience with this on this list, so what do you think? Apologies for the arguably off-topic post, but I wasn't sure where else to turn. I'll try to redeem myself with something more directly ChucK-related in the future. Thanks, -Jay
Hello all, If any of you are in the Cleveland area, I will be presenting some of my ChucK based work at _notacon_6_ this Friday afternoon. http://www.notacon.org/events.html#Brown Cheers, - Greg
I just did a couple of laptop performances, and having two DI boxes on
hand is extremely helpful. You can either use a Firewire interface or
a Y-plug from your headphone jack, but the DI box is important because
the snake that runs to the front of the stage is usually balanced XLR
only. I carry my own two DI boxes, because I want them to be
identical and sometimes the venue only has one box.
Also, when doing stereo, think about how you want the channels to be
split at the board. If I have both drum beats and sound FX, I like to
pan one hard left and one hard right, just so that they can be
separated in the monitors and at the board. For example, the drummer
(if this is a live rock setup) may want any kind of beat machine you
have going, but might not want to hear all your little glitch noises.
The absolute most fun setup I've had was two laptops running ChucK (my
current MacBook Pro and my old PowerBook G4), with a DJ mixer in
between. I would set up beats and algorithmic processes on one, then
pan back and forth like a DJ livecoding his own turntables. It just
provides for a really fun performance situation, and if one laptop
locks up you can vamp with the other. Since ChucK is free and
standard on many systems, you can just borrow a laptop from a friend
to set up for this, and a DJ mixer is $50 or so for the cheap one.
Okay, long response, but I hope that gives some options. I've gotten
more reactions not from "great sound" but from "great/hilarious
presentation," usually because I'm playing with an indie rock band and
using a playstation 2 controller or something. Although, the sound
has gotten good reactions as well. Good luck.
Andrew
2009/4/14 Jay Klein
Hi all, I'm getting ready to start playing shows with a band that will mix live instrumentation with material from a laptop (primarily using Live, and ChucK at some point I hope). I've never done this before and I'm not sure of the best way to connect a laptop to a typical rock club's mixer/PA. I've found a small number of answers on the web that range from a simple cable between the laptop's headphone jack and RCA inputs on the mixer, to a firewire audio interface and a stereo DI box. Audio quality and hum from AC power are mentioned as reasons to go with more advanced solutions. I don't want to spend money and carry around these devices unnecessarily, but I'd also hate to be unprepared or inflict bad sound on the audience. There must be a lot of experience with this on this list, so what do you think?
Apologies for the arguably off-topic post, but I wasn't sure where else to turn. I'll try to redeem myself with something more directly ChucK-related in the future. Thanks, -Jay
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Dear Jay,
To add to Andrew's points (that I agree with); you won't need a DI if you
would get a soundcard that supports balanced output. The main task of a DI
box is to convert a unbalanced signal to a balanced on. Another factor is
that laptop build in soundcards are made to be cheap and small. They do a
decent job with system beeps and playing mp3's on the build in speakers but
they aren't meant for presenting your detailed, lovingly crafted sounds and
music over a multi Kilowatt PA system toa attentive audience, and how could
they?
If you have a budget I'd go with a soundcard from a reputable brand
featuring balanced outputs, preferably one that can use it's own power
suply. If you do that humm will be a thing of the past (unless something,
somewhere goes very wrong). In that case you'll likely have multiple outputs
that you could mix on a hardware mixer; some people find that more direct
and convenient and it will give you a chance to cut the sound in the envent
of a system crash.
If there is no budget use a pair of DI boxes over a "Y" cable to the build
in card and lift the ground of your laptop adapter (if it has one, some
brands like Apple don't). Ground-lifting plugs cost less than a burger and
more profesional clubs should have DI boxes. It won't sound as good but at
least that strategy should make sure there is no humm either.
Hope that helps,
Kas.
2009/4/14 Andrew C. Smith
I just did a couple of laptop performances, and having two DI boxes on hand is extremely helpful. You can either use a Firewire interface or a Y-plug from your headphone jack, but the DI box is important because the snake that runs to the front of the stage is usually balanced XLR only. I carry my own two DI boxes, because I want them to be identical and sometimes the venue only has one box.
participants (4)
-
Andrew C. Smith -
Gregory Brown -
Jay Klein -
Kassen