Performance Planning

My first steps on planning the performance were to ascertain exactly what parts I would play. I was able to practice the parts and evaluate how they gelled together via my Boss RC-500 Looper pedal.

Once I had a fairly set idea of the parts that I would play in my performance, I moved on to replicating the performance in Ableton Live.

There were a number of mistakes as I worked to become more familiar with Ableton Live but my ethos has been that the more practice sessions that I undertake, the more I will be sure of my performance on performance day and I will have a well formulated plan to work to. I can also factor in contingencies for performance day.

I started to film my practice sessions as well as recording them so I had a visual record to refer to which would help me to iron out any errors.

Live Practice session on 9th March 2026

Practice session 2 - 10th March 

I'm working on my timing with regard to getting good synchronisation between clips,  and building up follow actions on a number of clip groups.

After running through a number of live performance practice sessions, I have ascertained that time is going to be tight. Although the performance is 10 minutes, time gets eaten up very quickly, especially if takes have to be re-recorded, so I am working on honing that aspect. The quicker that I get the samples recorded, the more time I will have to manipulate the samples and provide a greater variety of sonic textures.

Practice Session - 16th March

Here is a practice session where I'm trying to address some of these issues.

Practice session in University Studios, 19th March 2026

Project Template

I have created an Ableton Project Template with the following functionality:-

A cue track with input set to "In". The output of this track will be sent to the headphones via an aggregate device.

Audio tracks for the following:

• Drums
• Bass
• Chords
• Lead
• Licks
• Funky Guitar
• Vocals

There will be audio effects set up on each track, but they will all be initially switched off. By switching them on during the performance, this will lead to sonic variety.

For tracks with more than one clip, follow actions will be set up to route playback from one clip to another.

I have also set up a "Dummy Clips" track. This track will contain the following effects: -

• Beat Repeater
• Delay
• Chorus
• Phaser / Flanger
• Grain Delay

Each clip also has a follow action set up on it to route audio to the next effect. 

In addition to this, I have set up a number of envelopes on each dummy clip which allows for further variety. By sending the output of each audio track to toggle between "Main" and "Dummy Clips" I will be able to create a wide range of different sounds which will constantly be changing while I concentrate on other aspects of the performance.

Studio Practice Session - March 26th

At the studio practice session on 26th March, I've had the first opportunity to test my setup in the studio as it will be during the performance.

I recorded the performance in the order that I will be doing it on performance day. I'm paying special attention to ensure that I've got the loop brace commands firmly planted in my mind.

I was struggling to understand why when I practice at home with my Windows setup, I have no issues with recording an exact 4 bar take, but when I work on my Mac, I am invariably having to adjust the loop brace to ensure that each clip starts on bar 1.

A quick A/B comparison revealed that my quantization settings on Windows were set to "1 Bar" whereas on the Mac they were set to "None". By changing the settings on my Mac I am now able to get every clip recorded to start on beat 1 of bar 1.

More Planning

After further experimentation and much deliberation, I have decided to apply Amp sims to each guitar track to reflect what is being played. This will give me greater tonal variety, and also, I will be able to control the Amp settings during the performance via my MIDI controller.

(Amp Sim)

(Track Effects)

One of the other things that I have been looking at to add variety to the performance is to make copies of the clips, then chop up the copies to different lengths and offset some of them. By also incorporating follow actions to these clips I can achieve a number of different variations of the original clip.

Record the performance in this order

I will be recording the clips in Ableton Live in the following order:-

1. Drums
2. Bass
3. Chords (2 variations)
4. Lead (3 variations)
5. Licks (2 to 3 variations)
6. Funky Riff (2 Variations)
7. Vocals in looper if time

Live Performance Practice - 2nd April

I'm trying to tighten things up and achieve a balanced performance in 10 minutes. Unfortunately, the audio packed in during the performance, but I managed to do a quick reload and recover.

I’m concentrating now on the actual mix. I’ve got all of the parts, but I need to concentrate on balancing the volume of the tracks. Dropping stuff out and bringing other sounds in. It’s quite a daunting task to consider all of that and actually do it in under 10 minutes.

Live Performance Practice - 8th April

Here I'm trying out my existing techniques and adding copied clips that have been chopped up to create further variation.

Live Performance Practice - 9th April

In this rather extreme example, I'm playing with vocal "chops" I've recorded one line of vocals and then copied it multiple times. Each copy I have manipulated in a different way, by changing length, start position, pitch, or a combination of all of these. By then assigning follow actions to all of the clips, I can control their sequence and also get them to play multiple times if required. 

Studio Practice Session - April 15th

Practice session in the University Studios to validate my setup.

Running Order

I think that it's really important to have a recording plan for when I perform live, as some of my earlier practice sessions have taken around 20 minutes. I will be using a 10 minute counter to ensure that my performance meets the 10 minute guideline. 

0:00 - 2:59 - Record Samples

3:00 - 5:59 - Set follow actions and start to apply FX

6:00 - 7:59 - Solo / Mute etc

8:00 - 10:00 - Vocals and pitch madness

I will be setting a timer on my performance so that I can keep a close eye on where I have got to in the performance and try to adhere to it as closely as possible.