guitarist: how do you loop things live on stage?

[itook4lefts]

You can see a video of me using this setup here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGgsCV7gh88

cool performance mate.

[bvl]

thx bill

this is getting me in the right direction.
i just saw your youtube vid

well i was wondering if the typing on your keyboard comes a bit distracting, you could use an additional midi floor board to get your hands free


any way i ´ll appreciate further comments

Hi, naburo -

I've thought about using a MIDI pedalboard to control the loop record/playback trigger, but haven't invested the money yet. I may still do that at some point in future, but what I have is working for me right now.

With the USB QWERTY keyboard, I get a ton of dedicated buttons, so I can have 8 channels and between 4 and 7 clips in each channel. That lets me have some loops playing from one "movement" or "segment", and start recording more loops into other clips to move the performance in another direction.

Thanks for all the kind words re: the video & performance, all - let me know if you have any questions or want further clarification.

peace,

bvl

[gabster]

Hi Bill!!!

I sat through all that video also! Excellent and very educational!!!
Except that I cringed when that obnoxious dude walks behind your back and screeches his chair when he sits down

We did a similar setup recently in a three piece band (acoustic guitar & vocals/trumpet/synts, etc.).

Guitar, trumpet mic, bass went into separate tracks via a Firepod into separate tracks in a ableton set. Each audio imput track had it's own "looping" tracks (about 3-4 of them) all aremd. Same idea as Bill's and as explained vastly in a forum thread here.
The guitar player had it's own Behringer 1010 to trigger his guitar and synth loops, I took care of triggering certain grooves, effects, and looping the trumpet player. It was quite fun!

Gabi.

[gabster]

One thing that I didn't figure out was how to loop-record new scenes, etc.

g

[ohiowa]

i've thought about using LIVE for looping but it needs too much peripheral stuff (extra foot controllers/interface/nervous about latency etc. i've been using an akai Headrush E2 for a few years, it works perfectly for me, a large part of the music i play is based on live looping, if i can find a simple way to get LIVE to loop/layer while i'm playing an instrument i'll give it a shot, but until then i'll stick with my Headrush.

[hivemind]

hi folks

i am just curious how i should do looping in a live situation
i want to use it in a jam band - and improvisational setting

a) with a mic in front of my amp?
b) with a switcher ? using on way for my amp and and the other for my laptop

i tried to use native instruments guitar rig but to my mind it uses way to much cpu energy
and with a mic in front of my amp there might be signals from the other band mates

please write your way of doing it
thx for your endevaour

i use a mic because my amp sounds good, and i have my amp in another room because i don't like drums in my guitar loops.

i use headphones to monitor my live signal and my loops. but you could use a PA or another amp if you wanted.

[bvl]

i've thought about using LIVE for looping but it needs too much peripheral stuff (extra foot controllers/interface/nervous about latency etc. i've been using an akai Headrush E2 for a few years, it works perfectly for me, a large part of the music i play is based on live looping, if i can find a simple way to get LIVE to loop/layer while i'm playing an instrument i'll give it a shot, but until then i'll stick with my Headrush.

I totally understand this - I've used a Boss RC20 loop pedal as well (similar idea to the Headrush) and the self-contained aspect is really nice, as is the ability to layer sound-on-sound so easily. The Ableton Live-based performance is a different kind of approach, and needs to be thought of that way, in my experience - definitely not the same "plug in and go" approach of a dedicated looper pedal.

I have practiced a bit using two of the pedals on my PodXT to trigger an effect send in Life - press the button once, and a delay send gets turned all the way up, press it again and it gets turned back down. The delay is set up to be 100% wet and at 100% feedback, so it acts as a sound-on-sound looper the same way the loop pedal would. That's a nice compromise between the two approaches in my limited experience so far - you can even set the laptop away from view and just use the guitar and pedals.

bvl

[hivemind]

i've thought about using LIVE for looping but it needs too much peripheral stuff (extra foot controllers/interface/nervous about latency etc. i've been using an akai Headrush E2 for a few years, it works perfectly for me, a large part of the music i play is based on live looping, if i can find a simple way to get LIVE to loop/layer while i'm playing an instrument i'll give it a shot, but until then i'll stick with my Headrush.

I totally understand this - I've used a Boss RC20 loop pedal as well (similar idea to the Headrush) and the self-contained aspect is really nice, as is the ability to layer sound-on-sound so easily. The Ableton Live-based performance is a different kind of approach, and needs to be thought of that way, in my experience - definitely not the same "plug in and go" approach of a dedicated looper pedal.

I have practiced a bit using two of the pedals on my PodXT to trigger an effect send in Life - press the button once, and a delay send gets turned all the way up, press it again and it gets turned back down. The delay is set up to be 100% wet and at 100% feedback, so it acts as a sound-on-sound looper the same way the loop pedal would. That's a nice compromise between the two approaches in my limited experience so far - you can even set the laptop away from view and just use the guitar and pedals.

bvl

yes, all the peripheral shits you need to use Live as a looper are pretty excessive, but really really flexible. if you want to affect a particular loop in a certain way, then you can, and rather easily. i can control pans and sends and track volumes from a UC-33, and i trigger/record/loop and stop clips individually from the FCB1010, and then there is the option of triggering and assembling scenes on the fly, etc... move clips from a dry track to an effected one, etc....... and all clips are their own audio files which i can remix and edit individually later, as opposed to the stacked audio loop approach found in the RC-20.

i have the RC-20 and i would use that exclusively for gigging if it had a seperate output for the click, and a midi input to control the tempo or sync to another machine. the simplicity is great, which is great for live use, especially when gigging. but for the home set-up, where things generally stay the same, you can't beat the options with Live, a soundcard, and midi gear. and you can have various people all use the looping in Live, automatically tempo-synched. they just need their own foot controller or whatever.

tons o fun either way!!

[naburo]

ok i want to thank all guitarists out there, having participated in this thread

i believe that there should be a steady discussion about guitars / live looping / and all the rest (whatever that means)

so feel free to write what is on your mind

[OvertoneZero]

Here's what's on my mind: Overdub mode for audio!

Har har har

[Tone Deft]

Here's what's on my mind: Overdub mode for audio!

Har har har

write a script to record into track 1, then track 2, then track 3... automatically.

MIDI feedback control (midi yoke), bomes or something similar.

Maybe a series of delays in a rack? Set a control to go from dry to wet to mimic a multi-tap delay?

[continuous]

Is there still no way to delete a clip via midi within Live?

cheers

[OvertoneZero]

Hi Tone - Yep I've considered the rack option..

As for this:

write a script to record into track 1, then track 2, then track 3... automatically.

MIDI feedback control (midi yoke), bomes or something similar.

How would one write such a script?


Thanks

[Tone Deft]

Hi Tone - Yep I've considered the rack option..

As for this:

write a script to record into track 1, then track 2, then track 3... automatically.

MIDI feedback control (midi yoke), bomes or something similar.

How would one write such a script?


Thanks

With a program like MIDI YOKE...

Install midi yoke (PC) or IAC (Mac), I'm explaining PC here.

Launch live and in the midi preferences you see MIDI YOKE ports, these are virtual ports in that you can send midi out midi yoke port 1 on track 1 than have track 82 listen to midi yoke port 1 and you get the data.

Use midi assign to assign controls to whatever you want to control.

Put those controls into clips that go out a midi yoke port

In the Live preferences set that midi yoke port's REMOTE IN to on.


Suppose you have the notes A1, B1, C1 midi learned into launch clips 1, 2, 3 in. Now those clips play the notes A1, B1, C1, the notes go out to midi yoke then back in via a port that has REMOTE IN turned on, so they're interpreted as commands, just like you were playing a midi keyboard.

hth Try it, it's not difficult to set up.


Or you can use Bomes, I've never tried it but that's the most common thing, buy Bomes and a Behringer FCB1010. Plogue Bidule is another program that can do some data routing/conversion voodoo.

hth.

[OvertoneZero]

Suppose you have the notes A1, B1, C1 midi learned into launch clips 1, 2, 3 in. Now those clips play the notes A1, B1, C1

...wouldn't the record-destination clips then need to be of a pre-determined length, per the MIDI control clips? Not that this restriction was a stated part of the requirement.. but just to clarify?

So far the best way I've found to do this in OSX seems to be using Augustus Loop with the Punch In / Punch Out functions... pretty damn nice. I prefer going straight to clips but haven't figured out a way to do that with continuous sound-on-sound and the simplicity that I prefer.