Live PA Setup - The Big Picture

I've had a hobbies of DJ-ing and composing electronic music for quite many years now. So, the natural step of mixing these two things together and playing my own tracks at parties has bothered me for quite a while, too.

I've seen many people doing this, using Ableton Live, but, pardon me, a guy standing on the stage, clicking his mouse and staring at his laptop does not really look like any kind of Live performance. No offence, but he might as well be playing Tetris, leaving music playback to the Winamp.

Then again, I'm not a hardware purist, doing all production using tons of expensive physical equipment. Computer plus the right software and controllers seems much more efficient to me and this is the way to go.

So, here are some key points of the live setup I am working on:

• I should utilize all the hardware equipment I already have as much as possible and preferably, avoid having to buy anything new, except maybe for some cables;
• My tracks shouldn't sound a lot worse, then their released versions and, the main thing, they should sound different. I believe the key to making a live performance worth listening to is to perform music that can partly be recognized, but differs from original compositions enough to be slightly unique in each session.
• While performing every track on-fly, I still would like to have the ability to mix them together properly as a DJ. This is techno after all.
• I must be able to play all my live session without ever touching a laptop;

Having started this blog now, I'll probably write down the most interesting issues and solutions I've found.