How to record Live's output?

Z. deScathach · Post by **Z. deScathach** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 7:32 am

I've got a perfect storm problem with my audio card and Live. I need to record the output of Live as performed, to a wave file.

The reason for this is that many of my compositions have off tempo intros, and I kick my drumloops in using my controller buttons. I can't set to no quanticization, because I can't get my hands back to the keys fast enough from the controller buttons. Any attempt to record within Live forces everything to grid. To make matters worse, I have an emu 1212m card, (yes, I know). So what I need to do is to record the output of Live, from live performance, with an EMU 1212m. I've tried several recorder softwares to no avail. Please help with this, I've been unable to move forward on recording just about anything.

pepezabala · Post by **pepezabala** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:07 am

There shouldn't be a problem recording a clip in an additional channel that you set to audio in - resample. This clip will be a recording of your master channel. I would set it to monitor off, arm it, hit record on a clip slot and jam away. The audiofile of that clip will be in the project's recordings-folder.

Z. deScathach · Post by **Z. deScathach** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:53 am

No, unfortunately that won't work, because if record is used anywhere in the program, all loops are forced to grid, in otherwords, when you hit the controller button, there will be a lagtime before the clip starts up. How much that lag time is will be determined by how far off the grid you are. If you remove quanticization, there's no time to get one's hands back to the keyboard. The only solution to that is to watch the grid, and try to time the intro so you can punch the loop in on grid. That's no easy task. Basically, I want to record my music as I play it live.

It's just very difficult to change the music so it will fit to the grid. The only solution I can see is to somehow record the output of the soundcard itself to another application. Problem is that the EMU 1212m patchmix dsp is not recorder friendly. I have yet to successfully record from it.

pepezabala · Post by **pepezabala** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:11 am

hmm, I do not really get what you are doing.

Anyway, did you try to run your soundcard with ASIO4all-drivers? Might help for your soundcard issue (not sure, though)

Z. deScathach · Post by **Z. deScathach** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:45 am

Well, basically, the problem is that when I play live, I get into these fancy intros and then kick my loops in. Problem is that when I try to record my music, because the intros arec off tempo, there's a tendency for loops to take a long time to kick in. I guess that I'm finding that I'm just going to have mess around extensively with the launck quanticization settings to get a balance between how quick the first loop kicks in, and how fast my hands get to the keyboard from the controller button, and how fast the tempo is.

What I had hoped for was a way to just record Live's output as I play, without havng to change how I play live , but that doesn't seem possible.

The difficulty is that if the quanticization is too low, I can't get my hands from the buttons to the keys fast enough. Too high, and there's a chance that I'll overshoot the grid, and wind up with a major lag in the launch of the first loop.

It could all be solved if I could just record my soundcards output,but the 1212m has that annoying patchmix dsp, which essentially sabotages any attempt to do that. For playing live, it's a great card, but recording from it's output is just about impossible. ASIO4ALL doesn't help, because it doesn't bypass the ofending patchmix dsp..... this card is a pain in SO many ways, but run into some powered Mackies and it kicks!

bhuvan · Post by **bhuvan** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 12:48 pm

what's the platform you're recording on?

how about using ableton as a rewire slave and recording the audio out channels on nuendo etc?

if you were using a mac, you could have got yourself, the soundflower from cycling 74:

http://www.cycling74.com/downloads/soundflower

this lets you route audio within your computer softwares like rewire.

don't know if there's something similar for windows.

Z. deScathach · Post by **Z. deScathach** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:15 pm

There's a problem with rewire as well. because I'm using Reason in almost all of my compositions, so I'm already rewired. Oh, and my platform is windows xp. I think I'm finding a solution to the overall problem, though. It's basically fooling around with the global quanticization by hitting control+1, or control+2, until I can get a happy medium, so I can do my intros and have a minimal lag when bringing in the first clip, while having a lage enough resolution to give me time to get my hands back to the keys when launching subsequent clips. Basically, I'm a keyboardist, so I play along with clips.

What I wish there was would be a way to bring that first clip in quickly, while retaining the larger launch quant settings in subsequent clip launches. Problem with that is that is that I'll be using that clip subequently.... hmmmm, perhaps creating a scene just for the launch after the into? I'll have to try that tonight.

Does any one know if there's a way to do that? I've been using Live for a couple years now, and I love it, but I just don't know how to deal with this prob......

Z. deScathach · Post by **Z. deScathach** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:18 pm

bhuvan wrote: if you were using a mac, you could have got yourself, the soundflower from cycling 74:

http://www.cycling74.com/downloads/soundflower

this lets you route audio within your computer softwares like rewire.

don't know if there's something similar for windows.

There might be, I found something called Virtual Audio Cable, that purports to do this. It's a payfer for 50 dollars, so does anyone use this? There's no demo that I can see, so I hate to risk it, especially with that patchmix dsp in my EMU 1212m. It just seems to get in the way of everything......

Trypset · Post by **Trypset** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 1:47 am

turn all the quantization off. then you can play whatever you want when you trigger it....it might be harder to play it perfect......but isn't that what seperates the boys from the men?

EClayton · Post by **EClayton** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 3:21 am

just put mics on the speakers and record the audio old-school style. that would work, no matter how fancy your intro is........

Simbosan · Post by **Simbosan** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 4:04 am

Audacity will record whatever your PC is playing. Might that work?

S

Suede Subway · Post by **Suede Subway** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 10:29 am

Can you not simply turn the "grid" off on the relevant tracks?

Ian

pepezabala · Post by **pepezabala** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:04 am

I believe what the OP is doing is to start playing on his synth/keyboard without actually pressing play on live's transport. Then, when his intro is at it's end, he is triggering the playback for the main song. So playback starts immedeatly, and still everything is on the grid.

Therefore he needs to record his performance somewhere out of Live. If he records within live he can't trigger his playback at any given moment.