Create maleable loop within audio clip?

venomkid · Post by **venomkid** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 3:05 am

Hey all,

I could just be ignorant, but I have an idea for something I'd like to do and it doesn't appear that ableton does it.

I'd like to take a single audio track and be able to create a clip that contains audio clips in sequence that I can loop. For example, for a drum pattern, I might drag in a sample clip of a kick and a snare, place them on the 1234, and then loop that, much in the same way one might loop a midi track, but with individual clips.

One could think of it like a mini arrange view in a loopable clip.

At the moment, all I can do in that vein is create a new loop in arrange view and then bump it down to a single audio clip, but that seems unnecessarily destructive, especially when I want to be able to move the clips around, reverse things, etc.

Please don't just say "Use an Impulse" because I'd like to have the full range of clip automation available, not just the impulse and it's MIDI input. I'd also like to have a visual for the sounds in loops, watching midi notes go by really doesn't do it for me.

And please don't just say "Resample an impulse pattern" because that's not what I'm trying to do either. I like to keep things non-destructive, which is thankfully something Ableton is very good at.

Again Ableton might already have this, I just haven't discovered it. It just seems so weird that I have to lay out all of these tiny, individual sound clips over and over again in arrange view and manipulate one, gigantic envelope in order to manipulate sounds the way I want to.

Any ideas?

A.

LOFA · Post by **LOFA** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 4:26 am

If you are worried about destroying clips copy and rename them.

You might want to look into clip envelopes for transportable, arrangement-esque automation.

bgc · Post by **bgc** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 4:30 am

That sounds like something that follow actions in session view might be good for.

venomkid · Post by **venomkid** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 4:19 pm

LOFA wrote:If you are worried about destroying clips copy and rename them. 8O
You might want to look into clip envelopes for transportable, arrangement-esque automation.

So far as copy/rename, you're right, and that's what I do for now. It's just that intermediate step that seems so unlike ableton. If I don't get it right, I get to rearrange the clips and output them again by hand, put the new clip back into place all over the song, etc.

I do use clip envelopes. I guess I'd like to be able to use the one clip envelope over a number of clips in a row, then be able to drop that in and tweak it.

bgc wrote:That sounds like something that follow actions in session view might be good for.

I might be able to use follow actions to do something similar, but how would I draw an envelope over a set of follow actions, and how would I then use those in an arrange view? And it also doesn't have the visual that I'm looking for.

At that point I'm still probably better off using an impulse.

Thanks for the suggestions, though.

andrewbrewer · Post by **andrewbrewer** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 4:33 pm

venomkid, there is a vst out there that does kind-of what you are describing:

"live slice" : http://www.livelab.dk/

This works pretty well in live, but I never use it because I'm much more interested in putting samples in ableton's Sampler, which does allow for reverse and all sorts of other things, like applying FM to the sample!

venomkid · Post by **venomkid** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 5:37 pm

andrewbrewer wrote:venomkid, there is a vst out there that does kind-of what you are describing:

"live slice" : http://www.livelab.dk/

This works pretty well in live, but I never use it because I'm much more interested in putting samples in ableton's Sampler, which does allow for reverse and all sorts of other things, like applying FM to the sample!

Wow, you're right, this is almost exactly what I was thinking of. Thanks so much!

The fact that it started life as a Buzz machine is pretty funny - that's what I started out making music on! :)

I would have liked live integration, but this seems like it will do just fine.

Makes me wonder why live doesn't have some kind of micro-arrangement tool.

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 5:46 pm

Live 7 has a slicer built into it. didn't look at the link.

venomkid · Post by **venomkid** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 7:51 pm

Tone Deft wrote:Live 7 has a slicer built into it. didn't look at the link.

Thanks, I've looked at Live 7's slicer and it's not really what I'm looking for. I can basically already do the same thing in 6 with a bunch of simplers in a rack. I'm looking for something a little more organic and with multiple clips, like the arrangement view, just loopable.

andrewbrewer · Post by **andrewbrewer** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 12:03 am

a warning -- live slice uses a lot of keyboard commands, some of which intersect with the ableton definitions. to really get the most of this, you have to set some switch in the ableton preferences file or options file or something like that ... (shows what i know...) anyways this switch will allow the vsti to exclusively receive the keyboard messages while the vsti window is open. that way ctrl+z for example will undo only inside of the live-slice interface ...

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 1:26 am

energy xt might also fit the bill

venomkid · Post by **venomkid** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 2:02 am

andrewbrewer wrote:a warning -- live slice uses a lot of keyboard commands, some of which intersect with the ableton definitions. to really get the most of this, you have to set some switch in the ableton preferences file or options file or something like that ... (shows what i know...) anyways this switch will allow the vsti to exclusively receive the keyboard messages while the vsti window is open. that way ctrl+z for example will undo only inside of the live-slice interface ...

Thanks for the heads up!

longjohns wrote:energy xt might also fit the bill

Looking at that now, thanks...