General usage newbie question

mcintosh_i · Post by **mcintosh_i** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 5:57 am

Hi,

I'm a new user of Live, and have the Live Lite version which came bundled with my MBox2. I've upgraded to 5.2, and I'm running this on an Intel Imac.

I read various things on the features list about the software being useful for jamming, or live composing etc. But after viewing some of the tutorials on the site (not all) and going through some of the lessons (not all) in the product, I'm not exactly sure how this jamming feature works.

I've seen various live solo performers attached to some kind of system which allows them to compose a loop on the fly, e.g. by playing a short guitar riff, and then that loop keeps playing while they play the next one. I'm VERY interested in this, and I'm hoping someone can tell me that this is exactly what Ableton Live can do. Apart from my guitar/mic/MBox, I have a midi keyboard with a foot switch, so I'm thinking that somehow I could be playing my guitar along to a drum track and press the foot switch when I want the loop to record, and then do the same for the next one...

Am I totally off the mark here or is this possible with Live? If it is possible, can someone point me in the right direction?

cheers,
Ian

Clearscreen · Post by **Clearscreen** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 6:02 am

do a search about "live looping", and maybe check out the kid beyond videos on the ableton website and do a search for his name as well. ableton can definitely do this

mcintosh_i · Post by **mcintosh_i** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 6:30 am

Thanks very much - nice quick reply. I've just done a quick search on live looping and can see that there's a lot out there (and a lot of different opinions). I'm just happy that it can actually do it, and there's some fun times playing with this thing ahead.

brightonalex · Post by **brightonalex** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 7:09 pm

The simplest way to jam would be to loop a drum loop or two, and then send your guitar to an audio track and play along. You can draw some effects; delay or whatever onto your empty audio track, and you'll hear the effects as you play. Draw in a MIDI bass line and you'll have a tune before you know it.

mcintosh_i · Post by **mcintosh_i** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 2:28 am

Thanks guys for your responses, but I tried the setup mentioned at the beginning of this thread last night: http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... highlight=

How do I configure it so the midi foot pedal starts and stops recording of each clip?

How do I make a recorded clip automatically start looping in the playback?

I looked at the Kid Beyond video, very impressive it is too, and this is EXACTLY the setup I want to have. He has a slightly more advanced foot pedal system than mine (I just have the one from my midi keyboard), but surely in conjunction with the keyboard itself or the computer keyboard, you can trigger track arms & starts & stops...?

I guess I'm just after some slightly more detailed instructions. If I'm missing a tutorial link somewhere feel free to point me there. Thanks for your time.
cheers,
Ian