I tried doing research on this and I couldn’t find a direct answer to the question of whether you can use DAW effects in a live performance situation. I did find some answers to some of the questions and have tried to piece it all together here.
Can you use DAW effects in a live performance situation?
The short answer is, No. This seems to be entirely related to latency. Even though each device/plugin/app/whatever is only responsible for a very small amount of latency, when you add all of it together it pretty quickly becomes too much. You can only have 10ms of latency before it starts to throw things off.
Bullsh!t, Deadmau5 and Skrillex both use Abelton during live concerts!
Yes, they do. It has features built in specifically for triggering sounds and samples in a live show. This is a very different signal chain - action - result - combination than trying to use a DAW in the way we’re talking about.
What’s causing all this latency? My computer is Bad Ass and I use it for 1st Person Shooter Internet games all the time!
Most computers are built as general purpose machines with the ability to add the bells and whistles you want and make them all work together. This only goes so far since at it’s core it’s still a general purpose machine and not necessarily designed for the purpose you’re using it for.
For instance, most computers can do video games pretty well but a purpose built top tier Corsair One Pro i200 Video Gaming Computer will cost $4500.
Granted, you can spend $4000 on a purpose built DAW workstation for recording but it still isn’t designed for live real time processing like we’re talking about since that’s not the generally expected use for a DAW workstation.
Why can’t musicians have nice things like those gaming nerdz?
It all comes down to economics. Video games are a 138 billion dollar industry (right now). Whereas, the DAW industry isn’t expected to reach 4.5 billion dollars until 2027 (current numbers were hidden behind pay walls).
Since video games are worth so much more it’s worth it to manufacturers to make sure hardware, operating system, and gaming applications work as well as possible. Since the DAW industry is smaller there are fewer people working on it.
There is good news though. Even though the DAW industry is small by comparison it is seeing a sustained boom time which attracts investors who bring in money. More money means more functionality and a faster turn around time on bringing that functionality to market.
We have this thread, Deezer's Spleeter, talking about a new software algorithm that lets you take a completed song and split it back out into the individual instrument tracks, called stems. More investment would see software like this becoming a reality.
Then there is also development on using the Graphics Processing Units on video cards to do audio processing. This could very well make the idea of having your DAW replace all of your pedals and amplifiers a reality for a real time live play environment.
Then what are my options?
This is where purpose built computers shine. Current examples include the Kemper Profiler Stage ($1700), Fractal Audio Axe-FX III ($2000 +$700 with foot pedal), Line 6 Helix ($1700), and to a lesser degree, Zoom Multi Effects, Boss Multi Effects, etc.
What if I want to test this out for myself and plug my line out directly into my amp?
Sounds cool. Please let us know how it goes. Nobody else seems to be talking about it so BassBuzz might get traffic from all over the world to see how it turns out. I will warn that line level to instrument level can cause problems for various electro-magical reasons that @DaveT went over above. Reports I read included hum, buzz, distortion (not the good kind), and it just sounding “not right”.
Well, what about those Re-Amp boxes?
These are highly recommended for this purpose since they can fix all of the problems caused by going line level to instrument level.
As a weird side bar, I ended up getting pretty deep in my searching and found where live sound engineers use these things to solve all kinds of problems. Like if you’re using a wireless unit between your instrument and your other gear you can have buffering problems making your tone sound dull and lifeless. If you put a re-amp box between the wireless receiver and the rest of you equipment it fixes this. How, you may wonder, does this work? I have no idea. Electro-magitism? Maybe?
Dude, why should I trust any of this information?
You probably should not.
I’m not a professional on any of this. However, my Google-Fu is strong.
And I had about eight hours to spend researching and correlating.
Ahh. Researching and correlating. It relaxes me.
But it does not always make me right.
If anybody finds themselves in a situation to test out the instrument - DAI - DAW - effects - DAI - amplifier for real time play, I would really like to hear how practical experience turns out.