A simple routing question

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Dex Methorphan
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Joined: Thu May 13, 2004 3:39 am

A simple routing question

Post by Dex Methorphan » Tue Jan 02, 2007 4:46 am

Hi

I'm trying to route the audio of various cells in Battery 3 to a separate channel in Live 6.0 so that I can then apply different effects etc. However, I cannot seem to grasp how to go about doing it.

Can someone point me to a tutorial somewhere?

I'm also having a heck of a time figuring out how to do this:

I want to record many many takes of a midi or audio part so that each 4 bar pass of the recording (for example) is isnt to its own clip in the session view. Currently I can get it to record in arrangement view, but it either overdubs or creates 1 really long recording, which I then have to edit each 4 bar pass out of.

A point to a tutorial or explanation of that would also be amazing.

thanks in advance

nebulae
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Post by nebulae » Tue Jan 02, 2007 5:25 am

For the Battery (or any VSTI with multiple outputs) do the following:

1. Create a midi track and insert Battery.
2. In Battery options, set the number of outputs you want to use, and set up the cells to their various outputs.
3. Create the number of audio tracks for which you need outputs. For each audio track, set monitoring to On, and in the input for each track, select the midi track that contains Battery and in the submenu dropdown, choose the output for battery that you want to hear in that particular audio track.

Let's use an example where we have Battery on Midi track 1 and we want to use one additional stereo output from Battery. The audio in Battery's first set of outputs are already coming through the midi track in which Battery exists. Add an audio track, Track 2, and set monitoring from Auto to On (orange color). In the input for the audio, select Track 1. In the submenu underneath the input, you'll now see the additional outputs for Battery.

Hope this helps. I'd help with the other question, but I'm not clear what you're asking. Please explain with more details, and we'll do our best.

Dex Methorphan
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Post by Dex Methorphan » Tue Jan 02, 2007 6:08 am

Thanks for that!


The midi/audio recording thing.

I'll just get right to what i'm trying to do at the moment:

I have a set of vdrums. I want to record the audio and the midi. But what I want, are session clips all looped to the same size.

So lets say I set up a midi channel (we'll ignore audio right now) I want it to record takes of my drumming which can be used as loops (lets say I set the Clip to record 4 bar loops between 1.1.0 to 5.0.0)

I start playing and the first loop passes and creates a clip with midi information. I'm still playing and now on the second pass, a second clip is made. On the third pass, another. No overdubbing, just fresh new midi clips.

I want to do this same thing with audio. Imagine instead of 4 bar midi loops, I want 4 bar audio loops.

I used to do this with cakewalk pro years and years ago. It was an option like "create a new track with each pass" or something to that effect. I'd set the sequencer to loop between 1-4, and it would then just record each pass. I could then go back and delete bad ones etc. It automatically faded and started at a zero crossing in the audio so there was no click at the ends of each take too. The only thing limiting how many tracks it would record/create, was how well my computer handled (which back then was like a 600mhz or something)

I'm not really getting anything to this effect in Live. What I have done, is record into the arrangement view with a section looped. It keeps making passes and creates one large audio file. I then go in and select a section of it say 5-9 to grab the second take, "crop" it and then repeat this process for each pass 1-4, 5-9, 10-13 etc. But, this way isn't exactly intuitive or quick. Cakewalks version, which I'm sure Ableton is capable of, allowed for instant previewing of each recorded part, which made the process very rapid. Listening to just one of the takes rather than a stream of the whole recording, worked out much better for quickly choosing which takes to keep and then just arranging them etc.

Sorry for the novel.

mission
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Post by mission » Tue Jan 02, 2007 6:19 am

nebulae wrote:<snip>.
thanks man that was a helpful post! :idea:
if creativity is outlawed, only outlaws will be creative

Mission / DEFIANT / L5P / R-TOWN

nebulae
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Post by nebulae » Tue Jan 02, 2007 1:24 pm

Mission, no problem, happy to help :)

Dex, thanks for the novel...now I have a much better idea of what you're trying to do. The thing with Live is that you can do almost anything, you just need to be creative in your process. Here's how to do it...You need to automate the triggering of scenes and set the global quantize to 4 bars (or whatever).

If you arm midi tracks 1 through 4, and then you trigger scene 1 (if you set your preferences correctly) this will record all the clip slots of scene 1 for tracks 1-4. Suppose you have a 1 bar lead in (also in the preferences) and you've triggered scene 1, then you start recording your drum pattern. All you have to do is trigger scene 2 and it will automatically cut your clip at the end of bar 4 and start recording in next set of clips. This is true of both audio and midi, and because Live automatically sets up clip fading, there's no clicks or pops when you do this with audio.

Now the trick is to trigger the next scene. You can set up one of your V-drums to launch the next scene, or you can use a midi foot controller. All you have to do is trigger scene 2 after launching scene 1, and then based on the global quantize, that next scene will start recording accordingly. If you cannot trigger it yourself while recording and you want to automate, that's also possible, but a bit more complicated. You use dummy clips:

1. Install Midi Yoke and reboot - http://www.midiox.com/index.htm?http:// ... /myoke.htm
This is a standard loopback midi port inside your PC. Basically, you'll be sending Live midi messsages to itself in order to automate launching scenes.
2. In Live preferences, set up the midi ports such that Midi Yoke Input 1 Port is set to Remote ON (so that it can receive remote control automation) and Midi Yoke Output Port 1 is set to Track ON (so that you can send midi triggers out of that port).
3. Assign regular midi keys to the scenes. So for example, Scene 1 is set to trigger when it receives a midi key of C1, scene 2 gets D1, etc.
4. Create a midi track, and name it Scene Automation. Set the output of that track to Midiyoke Output Port 1.
5. In Scene 1, inside this midi track, Scene Automation, create a 4-bar midi clip and put in note D1 at any point before the end of the 4 bars.

Now, when you trigger scene 1, what happens is that Live will play all clips in scene 1. The 4 tracks you want to record into get recorded. The Scene Automation tracks plays the note D1. This note goes out of Midi Yoke Output Port 1, loops back into Live via Midi Yoke Input Port 1 as remote control data. Live then reads the D1 as incoming midi, and triggers Scene 2. Due to the global quantize set to 4 bars, live will end all clips in scene 1 after 4 bars and automatically launch scene 2. Keep going down the chain and record as many perfectly cut loops as your heart desires.

Now THIS is a novel :)

Dex Methorphan
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Post by Dex Methorphan » Tue Jan 02, 2007 4:18 pm

Wow! Thanks so much. 8) Apparently I have some work to do, sir!

shiba_dad
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Post by shiba_dad » Tue Jan 02, 2007 5:24 pm

Thank you for that excellent mini tutorial nebulae....I'm going to give it a try myself. I use Battery 3 and really could use that kind of flexibility.
Dan
PC XP pro SP2, dual Xeons
Live 6, Sonar 6PE
Access Virus TI, Rapture,Albino3,z3ta+,wulkistation

nebulae
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Post by nebulae » Tue Jan 02, 2007 7:12 pm

You're very welcome guys. I wish I could take credit, but the great minds on this forum usually comes up with all this crazy shit. I just read and rehash as needed.

Have fun and keep pushing the envelope :)

jb61264
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Post by jb61264 » Tue Jan 02, 2007 7:25 pm

nebulae wrote:Have fun and keep pushing the envelope :)
Nebulae - props to you man, you have some of the most useful posts on the forum and stuff like this helps even when it isn't a question that I have directly but when I read it and there is an explanation like you have provided, it opens my eyes to doing things in Live in different ways.

Now...on the subject of "pushing the envelope"...how about a similar tutorial actually on "envelopes" :wink: jk

Thanks again for your very useful contributions
3.2 GHz Windows XP, Live 7, Reason 4, FL Studio 7, Stylus RMX, Sytrus, Toxic III, Novation X-Station 49, Akai MPD24, EMu XK6, Roland MC-303, Gemini BPM5000 Mixer, MBox

nebulae
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Post by nebulae » Tue Jan 02, 2007 9:18 pm

jb61264 wrote:
Nebulae - props to you man, you have some of the most useful posts on the forum and stuff like this helps even when it isn't a question that I have directly but when I read it and there is an explanation like you have provided, it opens my eyes to doing things in Live in different ways.

Now...on the subject of "pushing the envelope"...how about a similar tutorial actually on "envelopes" :wink: jk

Thanks again for your very useful contributions
Aww shucks, guys, keep this up and my large head will get even larger and possibly explode in some ludicrous Monty Python fashion...


Tell me what you want to do with Envelopes, and I'll see what I can put together :)

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