I've been playing around with the looper a bit, and I have a quick question that I hope someone here might be able to answer:
I'm able to set the 'record length' setting to however many bars I want, obviously, and then to tell the looper to "Play after recording," i.e. stop recording and only play back my loop.
So, I punch in, make my 2-bar loop, and it punches out for me.
But when overdubbing on top of that first loop, it will never punch out for me, just continually record loops forever.
Is there any way to change this behavior, and to get the looper to ALWAYS punch out after the number of bars I've selected?
Thanks for any insight!
Ableton Looper Effect
Re: Ableton Looper Effect
I don't think so. The recording of the original loop sets the loop length. As you've described, you can automate the loop length, and automate the behavior once that length has been achieved....all (and only) connected to the original recording. All of those automatic settings are there to 'establish' the initial loop length, and Looper's behavior once that original recording has been established.
But over-dubbing is a different process altogether. Once you go into over-dub mode, it will cycle forever, until YOU take it out of that mode. The very nature of over-dubbing is to "cycle record". Unfortunately, Live's looper effect doesn't have the same automation functions for over-dub recording as it does for *recording*. Recording = establish a loop. Over-dub recording = cycle record over the top of that previously established loop.
The only solution is to map a controller to the multi-button (or individual status mode buttons), and manually punch in and out of over-dub recording. Naturally, since the loop length has been established during the initial recording, there is no need for precision when punching in or out of over-dub recording mode. Just punch in at any point, listen silently as the loop cycles, play any new material you choose at any time, in one pass, or multiple passes, and punch out whenever you're done....even after several passes of silence. The punch-in and punch-out point will happen the instant you execute the controller which is mapped to the multi-button (or individual status buttons).
In theory, you can let a loop over-dub for a long time, and if you play nothing.....it will make little or no difference. In practice, however, if you have ANY noise on your input signal, it will build up over time exponentially. Therefore, its wise to place a noise gate audio effect (with a threshold just above your noise floor) in the chain before the looper effect, to eliminate any input noise. Then....over-dubbing silence, is actually silence, and you can be much more relaxed about when you punch in and out of over-dub recording. In fact, you might never punch in or out. You might tell the looper to go directly to over-dub mode from initial recording, and then let it cycle forever. No noise...no harm....so to speak.
But over-dubbing is a different process altogether. Once you go into over-dub mode, it will cycle forever, until YOU take it out of that mode. The very nature of over-dubbing is to "cycle record". Unfortunately, Live's looper effect doesn't have the same automation functions for over-dub recording as it does for *recording*. Recording = establish a loop. Over-dub recording = cycle record over the top of that previously established loop.
The only solution is to map a controller to the multi-button (or individual status mode buttons), and manually punch in and out of over-dub recording. Naturally, since the loop length has been established during the initial recording, there is no need for precision when punching in or out of over-dub recording mode. Just punch in at any point, listen silently as the loop cycles, play any new material you choose at any time, in one pass, or multiple passes, and punch out whenever you're done....even after several passes of silence. The punch-in and punch-out point will happen the instant you execute the controller which is mapped to the multi-button (or individual status buttons).
In theory, you can let a loop over-dub for a long time, and if you play nothing.....it will make little or no difference. In practice, however, if you have ANY noise on your input signal, it will build up over time exponentially. Therefore, its wise to place a noise gate audio effect (with a threshold just above your noise floor) in the chain before the looper effect, to eliminate any input noise. Then....over-dubbing silence, is actually silence, and you can be much more relaxed about when you punch in and out of over-dub recording. In fact, you might never punch in or out. You might tell the looper to go directly to over-dub mode from initial recording, and then let it cycle forever. No noise...no harm....so to speak.
-
fishmonkey
- Posts: 4479
- Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:50 am
Re: Ableton Looper Effect
great Looper tips, thanks.
Re: Ableton Looper Effect
Instead of mapping your midi controller to the overdub button directly maybe you could map it to a one-shot two bar midi clip which has two notes, one at the start of the clip and one at the end of the second bar. Assign that note to the Looper main button and loop the midi track back to the input so Live can use it to control things. Every time you hit the midi controller it'll trigger that clip and the clip will trigger Looper twice at the specified intervals. That approach might interfere with Looper setting the original loop length, I'm not sure. Something like that could work though. But, in general, Looper isn't designed to work like that so it's a bit of a fuss. If you have quantisation set to two bars then you only need to hit the midi controller twice at any point during the first bar, the second press won't take effect until the end of the second bar. Just remember to hit it twice (though not so quickly that you stop the clip!). Anyway, have fun!