Ableton Forum

As far as I know audio overdubbing only works in arrangement view, whereas in session view you can only overdub midi. If that's not right, please someone let me know (*hopefulfacialexpression*).

....that's not right. No audio overdubbing anywherez. Sorry.

So what do you call what happens when (in arrangement view) you arm an audio track, activate the loop switch and the overdub switch, and then hit record and play (with a loop/punch recording region set)? I thought that is what's called overdubbing

double post

Thanks a lot, Machinate! So overdubbing means adding sound whereas what the overdub switch does with audio is simply replacing what's been there before. Then sound on sound looping is overdubbing in a loop, right?

All these new terms I have to learn ...

I see that I can sync the Llama's tempo to Live's, but, how do I sync Live's tempo to the tempo set in Llama when in Dl-4 mode. So, live's tempo would be set by my setting of a loop in Llama. Is there a way to do this or. am I on the moon.

AFAIK Ableton is not able to receive time info from a plug-in. Perhaps that is something for the feature wish-list. You could get the tap tempo functionality by assigning a midi controller to Ableton's tap button...but if you wanted to start a loop like a dl4 does and then sync ableton to that I don't think it can be done....except maybe through rewire... I know Plogue Bidule will receive tempo from a plugin and can run as a rewire slave...perhaps ableton would then sync to that tempo? Completely theoretical and a pain to set up though.

The link for the Loopy Llama is rekliner.com - in my signature...

MKS, I'll soon be releasing a version which allows you to keep overdubbing as a preference...it's not the way I loop. First I had to release the version with a play button so you can choose between the 2 ways. Until that release you could always double click the record button to get it to keep recording - although that might give you a short dropout.

Thanks for the reply. I am having tons of fun playing with the Llama. It is a great tool.

rekliner wrote:AFAIK Ableton is not able to receive time info from a plug-in. Perhaps that is something for the feature wish-list.

Plenty of people have done this with Augustus Loop and IAC, so it could definitely be done on pc as well.

what is IAC machinate?

It's short for Inter Application Communication. In this case it's a MacOSX specific method for routing MIDI from one application to another via the IAC driver which you can enable in the audio and midi settings utility.

gregmcnichol wrote:

pbajzek wrote:I like Loopy Lama, but it can't go from record mode directly into overdub mode (at least it couldn't in the last version I tried). This is very important to the way I do live guitar looping. So I have been using SooperLooper, which was mentioned earlier. It basically mimics the behavior of the EDP and is, in my opinion, the best solution on a Mac right now. It's great stuff, though the GUI has some flaws as an AU.

What do u mean going from record to over dub mode? I have it set up where i hit a button on my floor board record a loop hit it again begin play back hit it again over dub another loop and so on. Scooperlooper seemed resource hungry

I mean when I reach the end of my "record" loop, I hit "overdub" and the loop immediately begins playing AND overdubbing at the same time (the Echoplex can work this way). That way I can have delays or sustained notes overlap the beginning of the original loop. If I have to hit "play" and then "Overdub" I will cut off my sustain or echoes. It's not needed so much if you're playing rhythm guitar, for example, but I like to make heavily effected droning soundscapes with no audible beginning/endpoints. I hope I've described this clearly.

Relinker: Perhaps you would consider this feature. I really do like your plugin, but this one thing has kept me from using it.

If you know how long you want the loop to be, then you might be able to use the technique I described in this other post, not far down the forum. http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32247, basically it's just a long delay line with feedback. bung a saturator in as well and, with a bit of careful adjustment, you can simulate the sound of a tape loop delay.

It needs developing further but I think it's a good starting point and it does create seamless loops, you just have to set up the loop length in advance instead of stomping on a pedal to set the loop point.

Nolus,

Your solution is a nice one, but as you said, it depends on knowing the loop length in advance. The technique I'm describing is generally for creating longer loops(anywhere between 15 seconds to maybe 2 minutes) that aren't tempo-sync'ed. I play until I've created the atmosphere I want, then start things looping. Very improvisational. But I always like learning about everyone's different approaches to looping, so thanks for sharing that.

What I *really* wish I could do is build a guitar loop (rhythmic or not) without knowing my tempo in advance, then somehow have Live (or some other app) calculate a logical tempo/number of measures from that and then start on the 1, so I could sync drum loops to an improvised piece. I know I could play along to a click track, but I hate wearing headphones on stage and it's still not quite free enough. Ah well...