My homie and I are wondering what is the best way to play with 2 laptops running ableton? How are Lazer Swords, fresh2death, and paintyraid rocking there set up? are they synced up? any help or advice would be dope!!!

I don't know how are these guys doing, but one solution could be programs like Midi2Lan

From all i've seen and read.

People like Glitch Mob, Moldover etc all say, syncing with 2 laptops over midi is too unstable.

Best bet is to press spacebar at the same time (no kidding) or use OSC because that has the stability and the resolution do keep things tight..

I sometimes play out b2b with another laptop guy and we just hit spacebar at the same time at the beginning of the set. And we're good for 1 2 or 3 hours. Maybe a little nudge here n there after you do a tempo change.

I don't think anyone midi syncs out of people you named.
It was brought to my attention that Two Fresh does but the person who said it might not really know.
Most duo acts are on their own separate channels and set quantization to 0 and just tag.

We midi sync ableton when we play out as TooMuchPorn and have never had any problems. I'd recommend connectiong via ethernet rather than over airport, but this video explains it pretty well.

I've always had better luck doing it wirelessly than with midi. Spacebar and a nudge here or there seems to work alright as well, assuming you're ok keeping things in check every now and then.

Tap tempo, beat match...

So Pantyraid is beat matching with out headphones?

I've known plenty of people who get along just fine by hitting space at the same time and nudging, but we've never had a problem at a gig using midi sync. It's nice being able to change the BPM and have the 2nd computer stay synced, too

This is not as hard as you'd think. Look at the tempo on the other person's screen, set yours to it, and then hit spacebar at the right time.

And there's a reason for that

Ive done some stuff with a buddy where we sync via MiDi but it's only to mix from his DJ set to my PA set about every 2 or 3 tracks so that works out fine.. But a stable way to do a dual PA jam with two laptops would b great.. MIDI timecode or syncing both laptops to an external peice of hardware seems to be the best bet but ultimately using one lappy turns out being easier even if it's more prep work and more mapping headaches..

EDIT: so i've also heard about MIDI timecode over a network using CopperLAN, which would be a little different then just a MIDI clock, I wonder if that would be more stable

I know Eoto syncs up via ethernet, they also say that midi sync is too unstable.

I'm pretty sure they're actually using MIDI sync via the ethernet, it was a standard MIDI cable that didn't work out for them.

Fresh2Death just nudges their sets together. I think the GlitchMob/Pantyraid just picked up an expensive computer and use one machine with all the lemurs hooked into it.

Im not sure why they just nudge sets.... Its hard to pull off some sneaky tempo changes when two or more have to do it in tandem. Usually only one person would play the pieces with a tempo change... and the other person waits to drop their track.... or glitches over the first persons audio... hehe

Midi synch is pretty sweet if you set it up right... and the feature has been around since Ableton 1 I believe. Im not sure what the drawback/confusion is... I tested this two nights ago with a long time friend. Ableton is able to midi synch on two computers perfectly, if youre utilizing an external midi clock. You hit start on the clock... ableton takes a half-second to synch up both machines to the external clock... but then you're both going in synch.... tempo changes and all...

After I saw it in motion, I brought up the nudge factor, wondering if people prefer to do that because setting up multiple computers to receive midi timecode from an external clock is too hard... time consuming... not necessary? Whats the deal?

Dude, Just watch that video and go from there. We use ethernet midi synch and have never had an issue. One computer is master the other is a slave. It works flawlessly and it's tits for live performance with multiple controllers.

As for fresh2death they just nudge together like everyone has said I asked fisk about this a while ago so I don't know if they have changed the methods.

Maybe. However, if it is digital rig (like Live) then you can clearly see the tempo so you don't need headphones.

I can speak firmly in favor of Ethernet for synching, and tell you that I've watched MIDI give my WinDOH!s machine the BSOD more than once.

I use Ethernet to synch to my visual machine and it's solid. For two laptop DJ's however I recommend hot triggering (no midi synch). The feeling of beat matching this way is an instant gratification (we musicians love that) which isn't to be missed.

Don't let people confuse you: there is serious work that goes into being ready to press space bar.

I know bassnectar uses 2 laptops with ableton. Im pretty sure he uses midi sync

I'd say do this! and USE SYNCH!!