How do you handle tails when looping Audio Clips in Ableton?

[Nomaly]

Hi all,

I've been trying really hard to come up with a way for me to loop an audio clip and then have Ableton play the tail of the sample when I tell it to stop playing the clip. Right now it just stops abruptly.

It would be ideal if audio clips behave as follows (I'm saying this to help explain what I'm trying to accomplish):

• The audio clip starts play from the start point.
  
  When it reaches the looping region, it begins looping.
  
  When I stop the clip, it continues to playing the clip for a user-defined amount of time (like a release knob).
  
  If, during the "release" phase, the clip playback reaches the end of the looping region, it will continue by playing into the post-looping region until the release time runs out or it reaches the end point (whichever comes first).
  
  If you wanted classic looping you would just set the start and end times to be the same as the looping region and define the release time as "zero".

What is your workaround?

I don't know how you can really perform live if you can't have those rich audio tails. I've had Ableton for about a month and it's been very disappointing because of this. Another important detail is that I'm using a Launchpad so I try not have my clips take up too much space on the grid.

[oddstep]

this isn't something I do - because I automate volumes on tracks or control them live with a fader. I reckon the following might work. clip 1 is the lead in. this has a follow action that fires clip2 - the looping section. clip 3 is a duplicate of clip 2 - the only difference is that is has an unlocked/unlooped clip envelope on volume that fades the clip out.
when its time for the fade you just trigger this clip.
you could have this clip's clip launch on legato mode maybe or just have the right launch quantisation or just be an on point musician - - sadly I'd probably go for option 2.

[Nomaly]

this isn't something I do - because I automate volumes on tracks or control them live with a fader. I reckon the following might work. clip 1 is the lead in. this has a follow action that fires clip2 - the looping section. clip 3 is a duplicate of clip 2 - the only difference is that is has an unlocked/unlooped clip envelope on volume that fades the clip out.
when its time for the fade you just trigger this clip.
you could have this clip's clip launch on legato mode maybe or just have the right launch quantisation or just be an on point musician - - sadly I'd probably go for option 2.

Thank you! That's a good idea. I'll have to see how it works out. I think I'll have to look for ways to end parts that don't involve the classic "let the reverb tail/note ring out" technique.

Two issues I anticipate with your suggested technique:
1. I want to be able to have the fade-out of a clip play at the same time as a new clip starts in the same column.
2. The other issue is that I would have use twice as many clips to get your idea going for me which isn't ideal because I'm trying to keep each song on a 7 x 7 grid for the Launchpad. (I know the Launchpad is 8 x 8 but I want to have some spare buttons for tricks).

What I might end up doing is bouncing my audio parts dry and sending them to delays and reverbs, and that will solve part of it. I'm building a mega multi-set and I was hoping to save on CPU though.

Hopefully Bitwig will take care this and have smarter looping LoL

[oddstep]

you aren't going to get clips to cross fade in the same track. paired tracks with cross fader? i would just use manual fades and forget about programming volume changes into the clips.

[oddstep]

totally different approach.. make a sample/simpler multinstrument with each launch pad cell being a loop you want to play. use these to play loops the way you want. no launch quantisation tho'

[lyovino]

i would just use manual fades and forget about programming volume changes into the clips.

Sorry, how do you manual fade a clip?

[oddstep]

I meant use a fader that was controlling the volume of a track that was playing a clip. I don't know how to reduce the volume just on one clip.

[lyovino]

I meant use a fader that was controlling the volume of a track that was playing a clip. I don't know how to reduce the volume just on one clip.

Okay, thanks.

I've been trying really hard to come up with a way for me to loop an audio clip and then have Ableton play the tail of the sample when I tell it to stop playing the clip. Right now it just stops abruptly.

How about recording the tail to the clip and firing off your other clip before the tail ends. Or did you say they were on the same track?
If so. just put it on another track. I don't know, maybe I misunderstood you..

[Synthbuilder]

I often put my audio loops into either Simpler or Sampler. Set a longish release tail and set re-trigger to ON. Then use a midi clip to fire off the sample with one long note that fills the whole clip for one or two bars.

Tony

[Nomaly]

I often put my audio loops into either Simpler or Sampler. Set a longish release tail and set re-trigger to ON. Then use a midi clip to fire off the sample with one long note that fills the whole clip for one or two bars.

Tony

That ought to do the trick! You get the idea. Now we just got to get WARP in simpler because I often use multiple projects at different tempos and it's fun to blend them.