Session view: scenes programming (instead of arrangement view)

[carlodemarchis]

From an ignorant Live 10.1 beginner:
I started working in session mode (coming from a horizontal arrangement view DAW) and found it difficult at the start.
Now after 2 weeks I am all into scenes and clips and have organized an initial arrangement as a series of scenes.
I can play it live launching one scene after the other (I am using 4 bars intervals) and I found a way to make it move automatically to the next at scene level using "follow action" but it's tricky (grouping all tracks into a single group) and making all tracks full with clips (empty if needed).
There is a plugin for maxforlive I have read but I am not really willing to make it complex with more plugins.
It would be great if Live 10 would allow to either apply "follow action" at scene level or at group level (not possible now).
But still, that would not be exactly what I wanted.
My ideal solution would be a place to do multiple scene- arrangement based like a sequence of scene/bars
Scene1/4 bars | Scene2 / 8 bars | Scene3 4 bars | Scene2 2 bars / Scene4 4 bars etc...
I know this is what arrangement view is done for but that could be an alternative programmatic way of looking at it.
Sorry if this does not make sense I am still learning.

ciao

[jestermgee]

It may just take you some time to figure out the best way to work with it and it depends on what you are making too. Everyone has their own approach.

For instance, when I create a project (designed to be a completed song at the end) I know I will end up in Arrangement view but I always make a start in session mode designing all my different patterns and gathering loops and samples etc.

All I do once I have a pallet of ideas is to then build a very rough outline in session mode by doing it scene by scene. Colour Codes and labels help to know which clips are justy duplications but I tend to just duplicate clips and fill in each scene with what I feel I want in my progression but this is still rough as often I don't have things like fills and bridges and such.

I don't bother with follow modes or anything, instead when it is detailed enough I then just record to arrangement and play through the scenes and experiment. If I make something that sounds about right I save it as a version and sometimers try muck around a bit more. Once I have a rough block layout recorded in arrangement I switch over and start adding the details. If I need to experiment with something I will often consolidate a section and move it back to session and play that in place and test things out.

It did take me some time (years) to find a way I liked to work to make use of the tools available but it's now the one reason I find it hard to use a completely linear DAW for much more than simple tracking.

[Airyck]

I work in a similar fashion but I end in arrangement view.

The fastest tracks (and some of the better ones I've done) have been to start in Session view and create tons of different parts, keeping the garbage too.
I then arrange scenes into a rough sort of song where I can move scene to scene and play back the song.
Usually I stay away from working on too much transitional stuff between scenes when I'm arranging my song in session view.

Once I feel like it's sounding like a song and I have enough parts to make it long enough I record my "live scene triggering" song into the arrangement view. From there I switch over to arrangement and work on the transitions. I also try to start bouncing things down to audio tracks so I can use some the audio parts for accents and transitional pieces. I might jump back and forth a few times if I need a few more parts for my arrangement or want to try some experimenting on parts by moving audio back into a sampler/simpler for example. I usually end up with all audio tracks at the end and feel like I can move on to the final mixdown.

Most people I know, start in arrangement and stay in arrangement the whole time but I like to let my session view be a huge mess and my arrangement view to be neat and....arranged.

[S4racen]

If you have MaxforLive then this will save you time...

https://isotonikstudios.com/product/follow

Cheers
D

[chapelier fou]

Isotoniks' Follow device is great.
However, if you "only" want to launch the next scene after a certain amount of time, I use this functionality i my personal performance patch. I could post a strip-down version if you're not in a rush.

[carlodemarchis]

Hi All,
Thanks for the suggestions!
Yep, I do create scenes with a repeated clip so I can test an arrangement before going into the real thing.
I then normally record a live performance in the arrangement view.
One small trick I learned yesterday is assigning keys shortcut to each scene - "1 - Intro", "2 - Pre-Verse" 3 - Verse A", ... so that by just pressing keys on the laptop I can test different scenarios.
I am sure this is obvious for most of you experts

I will look into the isotonik plugin (maxforlive) which I saw and hinted in the post.