Live Looping and Recording External MIDI Instruments

[TapedTogether]

Hey Ableton community,

My question is in regard to using Live as a looper for external MIDI instruments (Analog synths, V-Drums, etc..). What I would like to achieve is to be able to bang out a beat on my external drum module and record it's MIDI data for immediate looping and playback, similar to how the Ableton Looper device loops audio, but in this case with MIDI data.

Here is the trouble I'm running into:

Using a Roland Handsonic HPD-20 as an example, I monitor its audio directly through my interface, and send its MIDI data into Live to record. If I set up an External Instrument track with MIDI From: Handsonic and MIDI To: Handsonic, when I manually trigger the pads of the Handsonic double triggers because Live is sending it's MIDI note data right back out. Once the clip is recorded the Handsonic continues to play the beat just fine.

How can I record these MIDI clips for immediate looping without double-triggering my external sound modules? Is there a basic routing concept I'm not aware of or will I need to look to M4L or a MIDI filter of some sort?

Unless there is an easier solution, my thought so far is to program a multi-step macro along the lines of:

1) Disable MIDI To + Arm track + Record Enable+ [Record MIDI Loop]
(Handsonic sends MIDI to Live to be recorded, but Live does not send MIDI back out during recording process)

2) Enable MIDI To + Disarm Track + [Playback recorded MIDI clip]
(LIve sends recorded MIDI back out to trigger Handsonic, Handsonic no longer sends MIDI to Live)


Thank you for your help!

[slatepipe]

maybe this ? :

in your midi preferences, set input from handsonic to track on. have midi in coming from your handsonic thing on one track (midi from handsonic, monitor to on), then set up your other tracks with your synths and instrument racks and stuff on , setup the midi from on these tracks to get their midi from the first handsonic track

this is what i do with various external controllers and instruments (joysticks, midi bass, quneo, softstep etc). then i use a MFL device to navigate, arm whichever track i want to play and record on, click a controller to start recording and click again to stop recording and start immediate quantized looping. then move to another track and continue from there. adjust volume and sends and whatever. works really well

[Young Echo]

Try this, though I don't know how it works with external instruments and double triggering.

http://www.maxforlive.com/library/devic ... lip-looper

Does exactly what I want, pretty much (could be a couple more features) but I'm only triggering midi inside Live, and not back out again like you want to do.

[TapedTogether]

Thanks guys, I'll have a moment to take a look at these options tomorrow.

Cheers,

-B

[joeyfivecents]

The only way I've been able to implement something like this is by incorporating Push into my setup.

[auralponic]

Posting my solution here in case it helps somebody else...
I just got my first external synth keyboard (Korg R3) and had to devise a workflow that would enable me to cleanly record/loop MIDI, audio, or both—with no double-triggering headache.
With a bit of clever routing, you don't need any fancy M4L devices.
Last night I figured it all out.

Here's how I set it up...

-One *MIDI INPUT* track, set up like so:
"MIDI From" [my synth]
(Monitor set to "IN")
"MIDI To" gets routed to a second MIDI track (*MIDI LOOP*)

-*MIDI LOOP* track:
"MIDI From" is set to NO INPUT.
Monitor set to "OFF".
"MIDI To" [my synth].

-Several audio tracks, labeled Bass, Pads, Leads, etc...
"Audio From" [my synth].
Monitor set to "AUTO"

So... once I have this set up, I RECORD-ARM my "MIDI Loop" track + one audio track.
Then I can...
1. Play my synth keyboard, recording the notes as MIDI only first (onto *MIDI LOOP* track of course).
2. Immediately launch that new MIDI loop, so my synth keeps playing the loop. Then I can tweak knobs on the synth to add more spice to the loop. (Depending on your synth's capabilities, you may be able to record some knob tweaks as MIDI automation too, if desired.)
3. Once the loop is sounding how I want it, I simply record it as an audio clip (which will override the audio input upon playback, thanks AUTO switch)...
4. To record another loop layer, I STOP the *MIDI LOOP* clip that's (now silently) playing, then RECORD-ARM a new audio track... and repeat steps as desired.

Hope this helps somebody out!