Looper + Live as Looper

[Tone Deft]

look, i love live, but why so many workarounds to get pretty obvious functionality? people complain mobius is complicated, but it's waaaaaaaaaaaay easier to get it to do things like this in mobius than in live (i've been thinking long and hard about how to use looper to do what i want to do, so i could stay in live, but it just can't be done). looper just doesn't seem that well thought out, compared to most other things live has, really being little more than the very basic type of looper you get in things like GR III, etc. put another way, i'm disappointed that live's still much more useful for live looping (of instrumental stuff) only if you've really planned things out, rather than being a real looping instrument. sorry to be a crank.

I'm sure Ableton will gladly refund the money you spent on Looper. they've improved other instruments in the past, even turned Simpler into Sampler.

max4Live will bring great things in this area.

many feel your pain, Happy Friday oh cranky one!!

[LoopStationZebra]

dj,

I hear you but I'm just happy there's anything like Looper now in Live. As a basic tool it does the job well, but there are some further functionality that would be cool. I've not used Mobius. How is that?

[melocoton]

Check out this thread. http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=106712

Especially starting with the post halfway down the first page with a screenshot of the Macro Mappings. Basically you can put multiple looper chains in a rack and switch between them using dummy clips mapped to your foot controller.

[samplehead]

Ok, update. Have been experimenting with this. So far it's working (using just 1 button for both the start and end points), but there's one problem: Global Quantization has to be set to NONE for the first clip recorded this way to be set at the proper boundaries as per the dummy looper length. So all I need now is a way to set Global Quantization back to 1 BAR after the first clip has been recorded. I'm hoping this can be done via MIDI map as well? maybe "Macros" (unknown to me at the moment). The reason for the 1 BAR is to make all the subsequent looping (using Live as the Looper) nice and easy to get perfectly in time.

Anyone know how to MIDI map to set Global Quantization to 1 BAR. I can map the Global Quantization to a MIDI note, but when I try it always sets Quantization to 1/32 - I want to be able to make 1 BAR...

[jake noise]

Midi loopback should be able to do this. Briefly, what you do is you create an midi bus outside of ableton (on a mac you can use IAC, for windows look into midiox). You route midi out of ableton to the external buses in then use the return of the external bus and route that back into ableton. By then triggering a clip inside ableton you can use midi from within ableton to control anything that is midi mapable.

BE CAREFUL: you are creating a midi loop by doing this, make sure that the midi coming back in doesn't go into the midi track that it originated from or else you will get midi feedback, which is not nice!

I hope this makes sense.

Jake Noise


Edited once for warning about midi feedback

[samplehead]

Thanks, is this what they mean when posters refer to "dummy midi clips".

I'm on a Mac, have found my way to IAC and enabled it. Now, easy enough to create the clips that contain a bunch no notes that correspond to mapped midi notes.

I guess I just reserve 1 track to hold all my dummy clips, with my normal MIDI in (to trigger the clips) and IAC as the output, and another track set to IAC Input (with no output). Am I on the right track?

Still, how do I get control over the Global Quantization figure? i.e. control of the actual value it's set to?

[bagginz]

Still, how do I get control over the Global Quantization figure? i.e. control of the actual value it's set to?

Go into midi map mode, click global quantize then select a controller.

Edit the midi control map (on the left when in midi map mode) so that it covers the quantize range that you would like to have control over.

[samplehead]

By controller, you mean a control on my MIDI control that's not just a switch/note, but specifically a variable control, like say a slider?

[LoopStationZebra]

Thanks, is this what they mean when posters refer to "dummy midi clips".

I'm on a Mac, have found my way to IAC and enabled it. Now, easy enough to create the clips that contain a bunch no notes that correspond to mapped midi notes.

I guess I just reserve 1 track to hold all my dummy clips, with my normal MIDI in (to trigger the clips) and IAC as the output, and another track set to IAC Input (with no output). Am I on the right track?

Still, how do I get control over the Global Quantization figure? i.e. control of the actual value it's set to?

Hi samplehead. Check out this great info/tutorial on dummy clips. They don't have to be MIDI, btw. They can send MIDI data, but can be just audio effect triggers, etc.

http://www.covops.org/index.php/The-Cov ... asics.html

[samplehead]

Thanks for the link - looks like that site has changed since that link was last used, but found it here http://www.thecovertoperators.org/Artic ... the-basics

I still haven't worked out how to control the actual Global Quantization setting though....

[samplehead]

Hoping someone else can chip in.

I now have CC1 controlling the Global Quantization, but only by physically manipulating that controller.

Is it possible to record CC information into a dummy clip? I see my notes by no controller information anywhere in the Clip View, but playing back the clip via IAC does work (the simple NOTE mapped controls react, but not the CC )

[samplehead]

Ignore that. The CC is working, just can't see it in Clip View

[LoopStationZebra]

Thanks for the link - looks like that site has changed since that link was last used, but found it here http://www.thecovertoperators.org/Artic ... the-basics

Oh right, sorry. Here, try this one as well. EXCELLENT dummyclip info here:

http://www.thecovertoperators.org/Video ... -revisited

[LoopStationZebra]

Ignore that. The CC is working, just can't see it in Clip View

Hmm. Select a clip. Look down in your Clip View. Make sure that the little button with an E on it is highlighted. This will bring up the Envelopes window. There are two drop downs in the upper left of this window. Device Chooser and Control Chooser. THESE are what you use to manipulate the clip envelopes. Is that what you are after?

[LoopStationZebra]

Thanks for the link - looks like that site has changed since that link was last used, but found it here http://www.thecovertoperators.org/Artic ... the-basics

Oh right, sorry. Here, try this one as well. EXCELLENT dummyclip info here:

http://www.thecovertoperators.org/Video ... -revisited

Meh. Nevermind. WTF? These videos don't work anymore. Wonder what gives?

Goddammit. Okay, try this one. Tom Cosm put together a great vid reviewing his setup. I think there's a dummyclip section in here. If not, I give up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHlOiy-ZlDk

hoffman2k, what's up with all the great dummyclip vids? Did you guys take them offline or is there a problem on Vimeo's end? A lot of folks really benefited from those things...