Looping/auto looping in Ableton

[zacharia360bpm]

Hello all,

I've been struggling with this issue ever since I started djing with Live.
I want to be able to be able to jump to different loops (4,8,16,32,64) in one clip via a midi command.
Is this possible without needing to type in the 'Loop Position'?

I'm trying to avoid needing to load multiple clips of the same song.
Having to split one track up into multiple clips (intro, bass drop, chorus, breakdown) is cumbersome and
doesn't seem like the best way to go.

Is there any way of doing what I'm describing?

[Alextronica]

I havent found a way

It would be nice though.

Here is what I do,

I set buttons up to the Position and Length "Set" and just try to nail it on the fly

Set backs are you gotta have the clip in view but then again any looping done in Live requires you to have the clip selected in the view.

The other way I do it is MIDI mapping a knob to the Position and just deal with a 4 bar loop. Move it into position and turn it on and Off when I need it. Hope that helps

[zacharia360bpm]

Thanks Alextronica,

I didn't know you could midi map the "Position" but that should help a lot.
Do you know if you can map the loop length?

[Alextronica]

Yeah you can

Its just that its not that accurate at giving you an even loop say 4 bars and 8 bars.

If you figure it out how give a shout.

Here's a tip Map Position Set and Length Set to one button and you'll get a 1 bar loop from one button press

[zeropoint]

EDIT: Didn't read the OP's question properly...but you might find this useful anyway....

If you have some spare buttons on your midi controller, you can do this using midi clips going out over a virtual midi bus (midi yoke pc, iac bus mac).

Set up several midi clips with the loop lengths you want. Map them to your controller buttons. Set the output to the iac bus and the channel to the same channel your midi commands for setting the loop on, loop start, loop end are on.



Let's say on your controller you have C2 mapped to loop on and loop start and D2 mapped to loop end....and you want a 4 bar loop. Make sure global quantise is set to one bar. Now program your midi clip, 4 bars long, with C2 on the first beat and D2 somewhere in the last bar. I usually stick it on the last quarter beat.

In Live's preferences set IAC Out to Track and IAC In to Remote. Set "Select Clip on Launch" to off. If you don't do this, when you trigger your midi clip, Live will select it and operate the loop on the midi clip as opposed to the audio.

Make sure the clip you want to loop is selected and fire off your midi clip. You will get a one button press 4 bar loop.

Now you just have to program your midi clips for different length loops.

With exact bar lengths this works fine. If you want subdivisions then you have to use bomes or midi stroke to map a note to the various global quantise key commands, then program that note into your midi clip right after the first beat, with your loop end note coming on the last beat division before your global quantise setting. Bear in mind of course that coming out of a sixteenth loop can put your beatmatching off when you go back into a one bar quantise for subsequent clip launching.

[Alextronica]

You just blew my mind!

[zeropoint]

You can do some very clever stuff when you get your head around using the virtual midi bus.....

[S4racen]

virtual midi bus is the way forwards.....

Cheers
D

[sblakely]

I use track markers to do something like this.

I split my song into sections using track markers at appropriate points. Then I map midi controls (off a FCB1010) for previous/next markers. Using these, I can jump to various parts of the song (I use 1 bar quantization so you have to do it in the last bar of the section, but you can hit the buttons multiple times for bigger jumps).
To automatically loop a section, I use a dummy midi track with the previous marker midi event just before the track marker - another midi event (triggered by a pedal) activates that loop track. Once it is activated, the song will loop on those markers until the loop track is deactivated.

All I need to do now is integrate some looper control tracks for live looping, but I would really like proper tempo control of the looper playback before I do that. This maintains song structure (the song will play through correctly if you do nothing), and adds flexibility/spontaneity/loopability. Works for me.

Si

[zacharia360bpm]

Thanks for the replies people:)

sblakely -- I'm assuming your using the 'Arrangement view' then?
I'm not quite following you here, "To automatically loop a section, I use a dummy midi track with the previous marker midi event just before the track marker - another midi event (triggered by a pedal) activates that loop track. Once it is activated, the song will loop on those markers until the loop track is deactivated."
Can you elaborate?
It sounds like this could be close to what I'm looking for:)

[sblakely]

Yeah, I am using Arrangement view.

I create a midi track (called Loop, natch). The output of this is sent to a virtual midi port out (midi yoke or iac bus I guess). The other end of this (midi in) is set as a remote midi control port in the Ableton midi preferences.
At the end of each song section (about a beat from the end), there is a note which is the same as the note used to trigger the previous marker. If you just create a small track fragment containing this note, you can copy it to where you need it.
I then assign a midi note to enable/disable the Loop track from my foot pedal.

Hope this helps.

Si

[.daniel.]

I finally found a super convenient way to deal with this problem once and for all

Go to your template project set, create a MIDI clip and press STRG+k (or right-click the "Loop" button in the "Notes" section and choose the second entry which is "Tastenzuweisung bearbeiten" in German, so I guess something like "edit key mapping" in the English version).

Choose a letter you like to (de-)activate loops (I chose a small "L"), then ESC, save the template.

From now on for each clip you are working on, a loop can be activated or deactivated simply by pressing "L".

If you are using a programmable mouse (such as a Corsair Ironclaw) you can create a shortcut for "STRG+J & L". Now each MIDI-Clip you consolidate with the press of a single button comes ready to be looped. Enjoy

PS. This works as of now with Ableton Live 10.1.