Is Ableton really a 'pro audio application' ?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Angstrom
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Re: Is Ableton really a 'pro audio application' ?

Post by Angstrom » Sun Aug 24, 2014 5:15 pm

TomViolenz wrote:
Angstrom wrote:
TomViolenz wrote:If this thread gets derailed to discussing Looper, that wouldn't be a bad development IMO.

I'm not happy with it either, so what are alternative software Loopers?

I'm looking for one that always "records" audio from the track it's on in the background, but starts only to loop it, and bring it into the foreground when I press Loop.

So that the work flow is not: Oh, I think I will do something cool during the next 8 bars, so I press Loop now and then do it.
But that it is: Wow, the last about 8 bars I was on fire, let's press Loop now and have it loop that for some time in perfect quantization and time with the rest.

Does such a thing exist?!
It's possible to construct such a looper a number of ways, even using Live's own looper with some creative routing. Here's an off the top of my head suggestion:

EG : put Looper in a track which accepts audio from your source track.
Group the looper into a rack,
Set looper to one repeat
Map the repeat parameter and the chain mute state to a macro named "Retroloop".
Sorry my Looper does not have a parameter called Repeat.
I know BeatRepeat does, and its functionality is what I actually want to recreate, just with more than 1 bar length, but I don't see how I can get Looper to do this.

To me it seems Looper only records once after it got started and then it either starts playback or overdubs.
I wish it could overdub over a cleared again audio memory, but I didn't get that to work either.
What am I missing?! :?

I meant "feedback" , if this is set to minimum value it only repeats once.
You set it to one repeat by turning feedback to minimum.

Mute the chain with the single repeat. Un-muting it and turning the feedback up = looping what you just played.

Map a macro to those actions.

TomViolenz
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Joined: Mon Dec 13, 2010 6:19 pm

Re: Is Ableton really a 'pro audio application' ?

Post by TomViolenz » Sun Aug 24, 2014 7:43 pm

I must be dense, but I don't get it to work. Could you explain what exact settings the Looper must have for the continous recording.

So here is what I did so far:

Looper on Audio track: Audio from DrumRack (track)
Looper in a Rack, Feedback and Chain Mute assigned to one Macro.
Feedback= Full Range
SpeakerOn 1-127 (so 0=off)
Quantization: global
Record set to 4 bars
Little play icon next to it set to Play (because I definetely don't want to overdub)

Song control: Start Song
Tempo control: Set and follow song
Input/Output: RecOvr/Stop

But as soon as I start record it records (red color fields counting up) then at the last field, begins with the first field in blue (which means play back)
So it still doesn't keep recording constantly what I am doing on the other track. No matter what position the macro with the feedback and chain mute is set at.

What am I doing wrong?!

mikb
Posts: 373
Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2011 9:53 pm

Re: Is Ableton really a 'pro audio application' ?

Post by mikb » Wed Aug 27, 2014 7:10 pm

ovorigin wrote:
So an update, I found that the waves trueverb was creating the delay even when its not on, just by being on my aux it was creating the phasing. The strange part is that it doesnt happen all the time. So I have some more testing to do. Ive read that 3rd party plugins have more latency than abletons native, now to find a reverb that is good without this issue.

what are you guys using, I dont find the ableton one that good for vocals?
How long did it take for you to figure this out? Why didn't you try with any other reverb plug-in for comparison the very next day after you experienced these issues three years ago? Have you never familiarized yourself with basic troubleshooting procedure? You take one piece of gear or routing one at a time, replace it with another performing the same function and compare results. That is how Pros (also audio engineers) learn about how to identify and route around issues that inevitably sooner or later come up during music production. Challenge your assumptions!

On alternatives to Waves, I like T-racks plate reverbs on vocals. They have a very nice pricing scheme as well. I haven't noticed any undue delays affecting the sound.

BTW, did you ever make a bug report to Waves about this issue? I'm sure they'd have been keen to squash it. Maybe they already have done so. What version of trueverb have this issue in your experience anyway?
Basic gear info: Macbook Pro with macOS 10.12, Ableton Live Suite version 9 (64bit) with Ozone, Push and APC20 as controllers.

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