Instant record arm/start?

[Spaztek]

Hello everyone,

This post is the brother of one I have going over in the problems forum, but I wanted to pose the question a little differently.

Does anyone have a method for record-enabling a Live track and at the same time triggering record on the first clip in that track? The idea is that as recording stops on one track, another clip in another track could be started recording instantly.

[longjohns]

i'm sure there are several ways.

i'd recommend for starters to have both tracks armed, and use the global quantization setting to give yourself enough time to stop/start the respective clips.

if this absolutely has to happen with one button press or something, look into bome midi translator -

this is what kid beyond is doing i believe so you might search on that because people ask about it all the time

[Spaztek]

Wow.

Leave it to me to not realize that multiple tracks can be armed at the same time in Live.

For other beginners who stumble across this thread, you can arm multiple tracks by command-clicking on each track's record button (Mac), or by going into Preferences/Misc/Behavior/Exclusive and uncheck "arm".

Thanks, longjohns

[mooncaine]

arming multiple tracks isn't ideal, because they are all being monitored at once, so the sound you put in is, say, 3X replicated by 3 tracks that you've got armed. That overdrives the output on my Mac, and besides that, it's too loud. When you get your loop going, it's quieter than the first go that the audience hears because of all that extra monitoring from each armed track.

[longjohns]

try setting the monitors to auto

[dr.wackler]

The idea is that as recording stops on one track, another clip in another track could be started recording instantly.

For 3 tracks and 3 scenes (as an example):

-- Preferences: "Start Recording on Secen Launch" enabled
-- Arm the three tracks, set monitoring to 'Auto'
-- Prepare a audio file loop that consists of nothing but silence
-- Put that loop on Track 2 and 3 in Scene 1
-- Put that loop on Track 1 and 3 in Scene 2
-- Put that loop on Track 1 and 2 in Scene 3

---> As you start each Scene, monitoring will take place only through one Track at a time and recording will take place only on one Track at a time, since the 'silence' audio file loop will block monitoring on the other Tracks respectively

[dr.wackler]

arming multiple tracks isn't ideal, because they are all being monitored at once, so the sound you put in is, say, 3X replicated by 3 tracks that you've got armed. That overdrives the output on my Mac, and besides that, it's too loud. When you get your loop going, it's quieter than the first go that the audience hears because of all that extra monitoring from each armed track.

Use one Track (that you won't even record on) exclusively for constant monitoring, i.e. don't arm the Track but set Monitoring to 'In'.
Then set Monitoring to 'Off' for the multiple Tracks that you arm for recording.

[mooncaine]

Dr., that 2nd suggestion was fabulous and works well for me. I realize now that I saw it before, in the "motherbrain setup" described in these forums by motherbrain5000 .... I just forgot it in the month I spent away from Ableton Live.

So much to learn, but with a forum peopled with helpful folks like you, wow, it makes it seem possible. Thanks!

I probably don't even need to know this anymore, since your 2nd suggestion works well for me, but I was wondering how to record a silent loop? Just record with the input set to something that's not producing audio? I didn't realize Ableton Live would do that. I guess, since it's a loop, it doesn't need to be any longer than whatever the global quantize setting is ... but anyway, just feeding other tracks into one 'monitor' track is working great.

[benthegoof]

I didnt realize the 'exclusive' arm/solo feature under preferences was an option until now. Helpful.
Using Live 9