Set loop points for multiple clips (e.g. multitrack drums)

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Lutzbone
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Set loop points for multiple clips (e.g. multitrack drums)

Post by Lutzbone » Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:50 pm

Hello,

I am the bandleader for a Cirque du Soleil show called Kooza, and I run Live in Session View on the show. I also play trombones and keyboards. Live rocks!!

My question is: How can i change the loop points for multiple clips?

We are in the process of adding backup drums and percussion to the Ableton Live Sets we use in performance. The drums and percussion have been multi-track recorded (21 one-hour long .wav files for each half of the show, all with identical length). I have dropped the files into new Live Sets in Arrange View and have been cutting them into clips which I then drag and drop into Session View for use in the show. This is generally quite simple for clips that don't need to loop. In fact, I have Warp disabled for most of the audio in the show. However, for the clips that DO need to loop, I'm finding it very tedious to go in and manually set loop points for each clip. For each musical section that needs to loop, I have 21 clips that all need to do the exact same thing - all the files were played to a click. I haven't found a way to do it that doesn't destroy my hands with unnecessary repetitive motion. I have used clip follow actions whenever possible, as I can easily set those for multiple clips. But that solution is impractical for many situations. I also know that warp markers can be set for multiple clips of identical length, but don't know of a way to do this with loop points. I have searched the forums and answers (some very useful info here!!) but have not found a solution thus far.

Here is the most efficient workflow I have found, when follow actions are not practical:

1) In arrange view, for each edit, I select all 21 clips and trim them at once to match the start and end of the musical section, then determine where I want the loop to happen using the Arrangement Loop Brace. Easy enough.

2) Turn on Warp for all clips (they are still multi-selected so that's easy too)

3) Note the Loop Brace position and manually enter the same Loop Start and Length values for each clip (in clip view - this is the step I want to streamline).

4) Select all 21 clips again and turn on Loop (If I turn on Loop before setting the loop points, it messes up the start point of the clip.)

5) Then I can drag the clips into Session view and everything is cool.

It would be insanely great if I could do something like this:

1) In the arrange view, trim all the regions to length

2) Set the arrangement loop brace and right-click (or use a key command) on the selected clips to set the loop points for all of them based on the arrangement loop brace

3) Drop them into Session View.

Does this make sense? Am I missing something? I'd appreciate any help. I emailed support who told me this is impossible but suggested that I post here to generate dialog.
"Don't look at the trombones, it only encourages them!"

-- Richard Strauss

Jim Lutz
http://www.jimlutzmusic.com

swimming
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Joined: Tue Apr 17, 2012 1:34 am

Re: Set loop points for multiple clips (e.g. multitrack drums)

Post by swimming » Tue Apr 17, 2012 1:41 am

seriously! great description of the issue....i've been frustrated by this myself working with 5 track drum recordings that i've been recording into the arrangement view. I finally got so frustrated today i searched and found this post. PLEASE FIX THIS!

also semi related...if you could arm and trigger recording in all grouped tracks by folding the group and treating it as a single track (in the session view) it would also make working with multitrack drums easier....


thanks! i've been using live for 7 years and i appreciate all you do!

-

Pitch Black
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Re: Set loop points for multiple clips (e.g. multitrack drums)

Post by Pitch Black » Tue Apr 17, 2012 5:13 am

Quickest methodology I've found for this task:

First, switch OFF "Auto-warp long samples" in prefs.

Then, for each song:

1. Determine the inherent BPM of your stems, and set Live's project tempo to this.
2. Drag your stems into Arrange view. Turn on warp for all of them. They should now line up correctly with the grid.
3. "Lassoo" - ie highlight - each section of the song you wish to loop. In other words, drag-select over each section - intro / verse / ch /etc
4. Hit apple-E/cntrl-E to chop these multi-track selections into chunks.
5. Once each section has been defined, Select all the chunks in each section and hit apple-J/cntrl-J Consolidate. This turns your arrangement chunks into discrete audio files, as opposed to just "regions" of a song-length file.
6. Once all sections have been cut and consolidated, select them all and drag into Session View.

Now you can make a multi-selection of clips in Session View and turn on Loop in Clip View for all of them in one fell swoop. The loop lengths will be defined by the "actual" audio files length of the newly-rendered Clips.

This sounds long-winded to describe in print, but is actually faster to perform than describe.

HTH
MBP M1Max | MacOS 12.7.2 | Live 11.3.20 | Babyface Pro FS | Push 3 (tethered) | a whole other bunch of controllers
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Lutzbone
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Re: Set loop points for multiple clips (e.g. multitrack drums)

Post by Lutzbone » Fri Jul 27, 2012 5:06 pm

Swimming, I agree about arming group tracks, that would be very helpful! What I do as a workaround is just to select all the tracks in the group and then you can arm/disarm/solo/mute and adjust the faders for the whole selection. It would be cool to have a right-click menu option in the group to "select all tracks in group" to streamline this a bit. Or perhaps if you option-click or control-click on a fader, arm, mute, solo, whatever on a group track, it would affect the whole group - just like you can arm multiple tracks by command clicking them, even if "exclusive arm" is selected in your prefs, for example.
"Don't look at the trombones, it only encourages them!"

-- Richard Strauss

Jim Lutz
http://www.jimlutzmusic.com

Proxy-M
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Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 1:55 pm

Re: Set loop points for multiple clips (e.g. multitrack drums)

Post by Proxy-M » Sun Feb 18, 2018 4:41 pm

And old request.. Is this still not possible? It seems not. Not even in Live 10

Danimal23
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Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2018 4:38 pm

Re: Set loop points for multiple clips (e.g. multitrack drums)

Post by Danimal23 » Sat Oct 20, 2018 1:46 pm

Hey Jim,
I was the bandleader on Saltimbanco when it closed in 2012...Ableton was a mere replacement for an old Akai Sampler/Sequencer with a 3.5" floppy even then. HAHAHA

I know this is an old thread but I'm running into a similar issue on a show I'm programming now.
I've gotten everything from Arrangement into Session in a way that makes sense to begin with. Lets start for instance with the drums....11 separate stem tracks...Director wants a different start point for a phrase to match the start action so I have to make a change....it would be GRAND if rather than going back into Arrangement I could select the group, and/or all of the individual tracks in it which are already set to the exact same Start/End Points, and roll them all back or forth depending on the parameter for Initial Clip or the Loop Points. As of now even on Live 10 I still only see the possibilities of running back and forth between Arrangement and Session for this, a seemingly unnecessary step, or doing each of the 11 clips individually....not fun.

Anyone run into any reasonable solutions for this?

Thanks ahead of time
Dan Immel

TTTOY
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Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 10:33 am

Re: Set loop points for multiple clips (e.g. multitrack drums)

Post by TTTOY » Thu Apr 11, 2019 10:37 am

Doing a lot of work for directors as well, who need to change these things quickly, but also preparing concerts etc. - I could not agree more on implementing an easy function to solve this.. If I have 12 tracks to change manually, it is very hard to tell the director to give me 2 to 3 minutes to fix that..

S4racen
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Re: Set loop points for multiple clips (e.g. multitrack drums)

Post by S4racen » Thu Apr 11, 2019 12:23 pm

ClyphX Pro... That is all...

Cheers
D

Eternitease
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Joined: Wed Aug 07, 2019 1:27 am

Re: Set loop points for multiple clips (e.g. multitrack drums)

Post by Eternitease » Wed Aug 07, 2019 1:29 am

S4racen wrote:
Thu Apr 11, 2019 12:23 pm
ClyphX Pro... That is all...

Cheers
D
Hi,
I bought ClyphX pro but have no idea how to achieve that exactly can you provide some explanation please.
Thanks a lot

lowEstring
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Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2020 10:05 pm

Re: Set loop points for multiple clips (e.g. multitrack drums)

Post by lowEstring » Wed Jan 22, 2020 10:11 pm

Throwing my hat in the ring in the hopes that an Ableton developer is listening. In other words, please add feature to Ableton LIVE TO ALLOW START/END POINTS OF MULTIPLE CLIPS TO BE CHANGED CONCURRENTLY. Thank you.

rdomain
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Joined: Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:47 am

Re: Set loop points for multiple clips (e.g. multitrack drums)

Post by rdomain » Wed Jul 22, 2020 10:53 am

Yep, seems ridiculous this isn't possible. I use Live for creating samples so some I'll record via direct plus different mics. It'd then be nice to edit the end points all at once otherwise phasing issues could occur if trying to just guess it.

thesheep
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Joined: Sat Feb 10, 2018 8:42 pm

Re: Set loop points for multiple clips (e.g. multitrack drums)

Post by thesheep » Sat Jan 30, 2021 7:35 pm

Just wondering how to do this and stumbled on this thread. Doesn't seem like I can :(

pottering
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Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2014 4:41 am

Re: Set loop points for multiple clips (e.g. multitrack drums)

Post by pottering » Sun Jan 31, 2021 7:55 pm

For OP's scenario with audio files with identical length, you can select the Clips, then select time in the Clip Editor and hit Ctrl(Cmd)+L.

Clips with audio files with different length will need a Crop Sample or Consolidate action.
♥♥♥

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