The Worlds Fastest Production Process (edited)

[Myth Healer]

Last week I went to Guitar Center to check out the midi controllers. Being a guitarist, and interested in the method of triggering recording clips without taking my hands off the guitar neck seemed like a time saver. I purchased the FCB-1010 foot controller and spent the entire night figuring out how to program the controller to trigger live clips.

I now have a 10 X 10 recording matrix saved to the preferences section in the live set. This 10 X 10 matrix allows me to record 100 seperate clips into 100 seperate clip areas. The limitations on capacity don't stop there. If I need more than 100 clips (or have more ideas to record) I move the 100 takes to a pre designated area. This frees up the columns controlled by the external foot controller for more takes.

The foot controller works the following way.

1. All ten collumns are armed and the trigger recording upon launch is pre sellected in preferences (you do this once and all future sessions have this capability automatically).

2. I hit play and begin working on my first idea.

3. I hit the first button on the controller (not taking hands off instrument) and the clip begins to record on that next following bar.

4. I repeat the eight bar take several times until I am satisfied with my performance, at that point I hit the #1 button once again to stop the recording (the background loop continues).

5. In five minutes I come up with another good idea (great!) and so I hit #2 and the second clip slot in collumn 1 begins to flash red indicating that it is going to begin recording at the start of the next bar.

I repeat this process up to 100 times never once taking my hands off the instrument. This keeps an uninterupted flow of ideas being recorded instantly.

The batch editing processing of the clips is done at the same point in the recording process (all at the same time). This keeps the creative and technical tasks seperated.


After all 100 takes have been recorded into the clip slots-
1. I click on the clip, set the region for the length of one loop (ussually 4 or 8 bars) and move the region all the way to the right. I do this because the last good take was where I stopped recording. Leaving your best take at the end is the fastest way to record, takes time off the editing process.

2. I do this with all clips.

3. I then move each collumn onto arranger view and do a control+J to each clip seperately. If I did a control+J to all clips they would be merged end to end, I don't want this. The control+J removes all the external crap not located between the region markers.

The clips are then taken back into clip view and placed into a new area ouside of the 10X10 recording matrix.

emagine the variations of a song that can be generated if each instrument were allowed to go through this recording process. Yes the file number is huge but the pay off should be an interesting recording where the listenner is never bored with the recording production. This, in my opinion, should be an extreemely proficient process to aid a producer, or song writer in getting both the best takes as well as dozens of variations for a song. I am just working with guitar takes, but I plan to use this process in the recording of midi based loops (something that I would love to create a more profficient way to program).

I would like to know if anyone else uses a similar process?

[Myth Healer]

An overall increase in the production process from song conception to final render is what I am trying to achieve. Considering the scene-by-scene feature in Live's clip view, this is a more manageable way of using the controller (the 10X10 matrix in my previous post didn't take this into consideration).

The controller will be set up to trigger a 5x20 MATRIX. This allows five separate instruments to have one column each. The reasoning is that I've done several sessions where I've tried to come up with 100 ideas and to be honest, I get burned out at about take 30 (that's 30 ideas). Additionally, I must consider that each change in a song's rhythm must have an appropriate base, guitar, drum that synchronize together.

Additionally, it is faster to come up with 20 good base lines rather than 100 (unmanageable at 100). The initial goal (more proficient recording process) can be accomplished with 20 alt parts. If more clips are needed, those clips within the 5X20 can be moved over to a pre designated playback area.

Alternate approaches are to have separate files pre-formatted for certain recording processes. The 5x20 matrix is ideal for generating background music with each of the five clip columns containing a different instrument. The 10x10 matrix may be appropriate for first stages of song generation where you have no idea what you want to do and are just brain storming. You can take the top 20 (auditioning from the 100 recorded clips) and move them over to their respective acoustic guitar column in the 5x30 matrix.
The foot controller as used in this manor reduces the time spent fiddling with buttons, speeding up the process. It allows you to audition your best takes (takes done within a window of time when you were feeling inspired).

Feedback is welcome.

[Rahlo]

nice work man. I have a feeling, based on reading your posts, that you'll continue to refine this idea and achieve what you're trying to do. Keep us posted!

[Burn]

so basically you just set up the FCB to transmit notes to Live? or are you using any of the other functions on the board?
also, each track is always set to record for your whole process?
I've also looked into Controlaid which can trigger multiple actions from just one midi signal from the FCB, but haven't played with it enough.

luego,
burn

[TheAnimal]

Very nice idea to stop after the best recording. And I didn't know the ctrl-j trick. Thanks a lot!

[rper]

pretty cool myth !

[LOFA]

once I get the chance to play with mine I will have a go at this.