Recording continuous track in Session and Arrangement View while live looping in Session view

[ekim3290]

Hi everyone, I'm using Ableton's Session view for live looping performances and I'm trying to figure out a way to record while I'm performing. Any help or suggestions would be hugely appreciated! My setup works great for live looping, however I'm wanting to also record the direct-in guitar. I realize you can record from Sessions view straight into Arrangement but my situation is a bit more complicated.

Heres my setup:
I use a Scarlett2i2 for my guitar in. I loop the guitar using a Blackstar Live Logic Pro and I use a Roland HPD20 Drum pad that Ive MIDI mapped to a drum kit.

In order to create drum beats I use a foot pedal MIDI mapped to the Session Record button so that when I hold the foot pedal down, I can layer beats and overdub them into a loop.

I then layer drums and guitar loops and solo and jam over them. My Scarlett 2i2 has a switch for direct monitoring and I have that activated so the guitar I hear out of the PA is just straight through the Scarlett and out.

The issue is that I'm wanting to record my whole guitar performance, not just the melodies that are specifically going into Session clips. I made a dedicated track to record the line in guitar, but when I toggle the foot pedal to layer drums, it triggers the Session Arm button and interrupts the recording.

I'm basically looking to record the whole loop performance from Session view into Arrangement view, including the whole guitar take, *while at times triggering the Session Record button to layer drum beats. Is there a way to keep one track continuously recording in Session and Arangement while sometimes triggering the Session Arm button, and not having it not interrupt the recording?

My workaround idea is to use a portable recorder like a Zoom H4n and run one line out from the Scarlett into that to get the full recording with all the tracks, and also run a 2nd line from my guitar pedal board into that to get just the pure guitar track. I'd then transfer both files from the Zoom back to Ableton afterwards and recreate the track that way. This seems like a strange and roundabout way to do that though and I feel like there has got to be a way to make use of the computer to capture a recording.

Does anyone have any suggestions or advice? Am I just trying to do something thats not possible? I use Ableton 11 Standard on a Macbook Pro 15" running Catalina.

Thanks a ton in advance,
Mike

[silentio246]

You need an extra channel, which records the master out:
https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/routi ... resampling

[ekim3290]

Hey there, thanks a lot for your response. I tried adding extra tracks where one was recording the master out and the other recording the individual guitar line but when I trigger the Session Record with my footswitch to overdub drum patterns, it interrupts the recording. Is there a way around that?

Thanks a lot!

[silentio246]

Sorry, I forgot to say, the extra recording channel records into arrangement, not into a session clip. In session the clip-recording is stopped by the Session Record button, as you said.
For continuos recording, the Arrangement Record (and Play) button(s) must be active.
https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/recor ... rrangement
Then the whole performance (all records and automation) gets recorded.

btw. if you prefer an external wav recorder there are a few free vst recorder plugins, you can put on the master channel:
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/recorder-by-voxengo
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/mrecor ... production
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/hgs_wa ... own_sounds

[silentio246]

btw. if you prefer an external wav recorder there are a few free vst recorder plugins, you can put on the master channel:
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/recorder-by-voxengo
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/mrecor ... production
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/hgs_wa ... own_sounds

Oh, I just saw you are on Mac, so MRecorder could be the only one you could use, Im on Windoze....

[ekim3290]

Hey thanks again. I may not be fully understanding your suggestion...

I cant record into Arrangement without first Arming the track, which arms it in both Session and Arrangement. I can click Arrangement record and it'll record the guitar directly into Arrangement which is great, however any track that is Armed then gets interrupted when I trigger the Session Record button.

[silentio246]

Yes, arming the track arms it in both Session and Arrangement, thats right and should be so.
Clip Record in Session view records in Session, and can be interrupted by Session Record.
Arrangement Record records in Arrangement view.
The track, which shall record in arrangement, may not be used for clip recording in Sesssion view. Otherwise it gets interrupted.
One thing, I forgot to mention (I am too still learning):
In the track, which records into arrangement, the stop buttons in the slots in session view must be deleted. Otherwise there will be a clip recording, when using Session Record button.
https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/sessi ... op-buttons
It should work, I have just tested it.
Hope, that it is clear now.

[ekim3290]

Silentio—you solved it! Thank you so much for your help!

It was deleting the stop buttons that did the trick. Now the solo line-in guitar can record continuously along side the rest of the session clip recordings and I have the full track at the end of it to work with. The recording doesnt get interrupted when I trigger Session Record.

You saved me a ton of time and hundreds of dollars as my alternative was going to be recording the guitar externally to a device and then uploading the track back into Ableton, which would've made no sense.

Thanks again,
Mike

[silentio246]

Glad, it works for you!