Audio loop with note overlapping bar line.

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Post Reply
Balthazar
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Oct 28, 2013 11:09 pm

Audio loop with note overlapping bar line.

Post by Balthazar » Thu May 01, 2014 10:19 pm

Hi

I have recorded a guitar riff for looping, which looks like this:

Image

I have recorded the riff several times and picked out the best two bars. This is two bars with the same riff. Look at bar line 25. A note starts 1/8 note before the bar line, and continues until the second beat. When trying to loop this, a few problems arise. First, each time the loop restarts, there is a noticable transition between the last note in the bar, and the "same" note from the previous bar. I have solved this already by moving the loop region 1/8 to the left, as you see on the picture. Second, It is confusing that the decay of the note comes in when the clip starts. This could be solved by making an extra first bar before the looping, with the first note silenced, but then there is the third problem: when the loop stops, the last note is abruptly ended.

I would like it to behave as if it was MIDI: The first time the bar is played, the decay from the note at the end of the bar is not played, and the last time the bar is played, the note continues to decay until it is silent. Is there a way to do this? I am an Ableton newbie, and this is my first real project.

Russound
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:31 am

Re: Audio loop with note overlapping bar line.

Post by Russound » Thu May 01, 2014 11:35 pm

I suggest starting and ending the loop where there are no notes being played or decaying so that no clipping occurs, probably like begin the loop region on 23.3 and end on 25.3 and then moving the actual start marker to 24.4.3 or where ever your riff starts.
Start marker is that triangle that you have on bar 23.
Let me know if it works.

chapelier fou
Posts: 6024
Joined: Mon May 15, 2006 12:15 pm

Re: Audio loop with note overlapping bar line.

Post by chapelier fou » Fri May 02, 2014 6:47 am

the start thing is tricky.
But for the stop behavior, what you could do is make a new clip with just the tail of the loop, make the clip one-shot. Instead of hitting stop, launch the 'end clip'.
MacBook Pro 13" Retina i7 2.8 GHz OS 10.13, L10.0.1, M4L.
MacStudio M1Max 32Go OS 12.3.1

Balthazar
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Oct 28, 2013 11:09 pm

Re: Audio loop with note overlapping bar line.

Post by Balthazar » Fri May 02, 2014 11:58 am

Thank you for your help. The riff is supposed to start with the note on the second beat. That note is supposed to be on the second beat relative to the rest of the music. If I change the start marker, it seems the whole riff is shifted relative to the rest of the music, which is not what I intend. Correct me if I'm wrong here, I'm new to Ableton.

I was able to solve the start thing by adding an envelope to the clip. For the envelope target I selected "Clip" and "Volume". Down to the left in the envelopes box, there is a label which says "Loop" and initially it is set to "linked". I unlinked it, and then turned off looping for the envelope. Then I set the volume to zero until the first note that is supposed to sound, then up to 100% for the rest of the clip. See the image here:

Image

The stop behaviour I will solve the way chapelier suggest.

chapelier fou
Posts: 6024
Joined: Mon May 15, 2006 12:15 pm

Re: Audio loop with note overlapping bar line.

Post by chapelier fou » Fri May 02, 2014 6:13 pm

Great solution ! even better, try this :
Do your volume envelope as you did, set loop on but mov the loop brace anywhere after the play marker. This should do the trick, but i cannot test right now.
MacBook Pro 13" Retina i7 2.8 GHz OS 10.13, L10.0.1, M4L.
MacStudio M1Max 32Go OS 12.3.1

Post Reply