how to use ableton live as a looper

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:17 pm

nope, stale bread is a user who'd piss and moan on and on about having a proper slicer in Live 6. like this thread I was in the camp saying I can already slice stuff, just do this and that, workarounds. now Live 7 has a slicer and stale bread is doing cartwheels over it.

I totally hear where you're coming from, the other thing is we have no idea how the rest of the fools up in here use Live. I can imagine you do stuff that's heavier than the usual boom-tsk boom-tsk.

my analogy was to dumb examples as GW Bush is to dumb __________.

TroyP · Post by **TroyP** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:18 pm

Actually, I think Herbie might could do that.

I agree, 1) it's about making it easy, 2) the syncopation is what makes it tough to do.

But until the feature is there, it can be learnt (I passed the SAT too!) If I can learn it, anyone can! Well, most anyone.

TroyP · Post by **TroyP** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:24 pm

...I'm curious, what would you say your confidence level is right now when you go on stage as far as getting all your loops going smoothly?

About 99%. I've been doing them live for about 3 months and have only had a couple minor issues. I've learned that when there isn't a click playing, the timing flucuates quite a bit, even with folks who have all been practicing with a click or metronome.

So, I tap 3 times during the first verse (say, if I'm going to start Live at the chorus) including one time during the last phrase before Live is to be started. I also have a continuous knob assigned to tempo, so I can slowly tweak us up or down to where we should be. So far, so good.

I think the key is practicing firing the loops in rehearsal exactly like we will in performance. That's helped a bunch.

exaltron · Post by **exaltron** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:26 pm

Tone Deft wrote:nope, stale bread is a user who'd piss and moan on and on about having a proper slicer in Live 6. like this thread I was in the camp saying I can already slice stuff, just do this and that, workarounds. now Live 7 has a slicer and stale bread is doing cartwheels over it.

I totally hear where you're coming from, the other thing is we have no idea how the rest of the fools up in here use Live. I can imagine you do stuff that's heavier than the usual boom-tsk boom-tsk.

my analogy was to dumb examples as GW Bush is to dumb __________.

Word, and I actually continue to piss and moan that I have to upgrade to Live 7 just to be able to slice (which I'm sure I'll discover I need to buy Sample and some other vst to achieve what I want). Not to mention slicer will probably not be able to handle the high phat content of my loops, so I'll have to buy Sharpener when that comes out.

Basically I am a spoiled artist, I just come up with the ideas and insolently demand that the rest of the world toil to make them happen. Braaak, it's a living.

exaltron · Post by **exaltron** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:29 pm

TroyP wrote:Actually, I think Herbie might could do that.

I agree, 1) it's about making it easy, 2) the syncopation is what makes it tough to do.

But until the feature is there, it can be learnt (I passed the SAT too!) If I can learn it, anyone can! Well, most anyone.

OK, OK, I'll go home tonight and practice up. Re Herbie, I'll ask him next time we're hanging out doing bong hits. But he has to do it WITHOUT the aid of herbal enhancements.

exaltron · Post by **exaltron** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 4:25 am

Ha, ha, so I came home and tried and tried to get that tap tempo thing going, and I ended up with this:

http://www.exaltron.com/mp3s/capella01.mp3

All vocals, with just a little delay and filtering. Started with those rhythmic scats that I was able to tap in from. Definitely gonna try to work that kind of stuff into my shows. Too bad I can't beatbox a drum n bass beat

Thanks to all who shamed me into it..

YILA · Post by **YILA** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:15 am

im doing allot of this.. it took me ages to get it right.. found its better to assign tap to a key stroke rather than a midi trigger.. it just seems to tap tighter cause theres no pressure sensitivty etc..

I always seem to miss the first beat when live looping, i've taken to using some quantize, nothing worse than a kick missing on beat 1!

It still seems to be pot luck... i've played along with the london synfionetta with some success, but only after i made them aware of what i was trying to do and get them to latch onto me a bit too.. live musicians will always be drifting....

Dchild · Post by **Dchild** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:32 am

A great preset comes with Bomes midi translator

http://www.bome.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1583

forge · Post by **forge** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:02 am

exaltron wrote:Ha, ha, so I came home and tried and tried to get that tap tempo thing going, and I ended up with this:

http://www.exaltron.com/mp3s/capella01.mp3

All vocals, with just a little delay and filtering. Started with those rhythmic scats that I was able to tap in from. Definitely gonna try to work that kind of stuff into my shows. Too bad I can't beatbox a drum n bass beat

Thanks to all who shamed me into it..

hey! nice work man!

TroyP · Post by **TroyP** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 5:03 pm

I like it! Good job. I didn't notice any problems with the entrances. Did you do that all "live" (no work afterward to tweak it)?

Lazos · Post by **Lazos** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 5:16 pm

forge wrote:
exaltron wrote:Ha, ha, so I came home and tried and tried to get that tap tempo thing going, and I ended up with this:

http://www.exaltron.com/mp3s/capella01.mp3

All vocals, with just a little delay and filtering. Started with those rhythmic scats that I was able to tap in from. Definitely gonna try to work that kind of stuff into my shows. Too bad I can't beatbox a drum n bass beat

Thanks to all who shamed me into it..
hey! nice work man!

+ 1 That was really nice stuff!

pepezabala · Post by **pepezabala** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 5:19 pm

Multichannel-Looping triggered with just one pedal is possible. Tone deft made a template available for doownload, look at this thread: http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... ound+robin

exaltron · Post by **exaltron** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 5:34 pm

TroyP wrote:I like it! Good job. I didn't notice any problems with the entrances. Did you do that all "live" (no work afterward to tweak it)?

Thanks y'all! By tweaking you mean besides all the pitch correction software?

Actually the only thing I tweaked was the beatboxing b/c it was a bit behind the beat due to latency. The rest is as improvised, then I just went back and bounced the "arrangement" as I had freestyled it (though perhaps it was a bit more concise as I could just fire off the loops I had created.

A capella is a dodgy business if you're not Kid Beyond. Sometimes it can come out sounding decent, other times you just sound like a wanker. I guess if I had the discipline to whittle my improvisations into reproducible compositions I would have a better time of it. O to have a bit of patience and foresight..

TroyP · Post by **TroyP** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 5:40 pm

Well then, I think it was really a good job, because that's pretty much how it happened...and you haven't a ton of practice at this. Keep going. You'll be surprise how quickly it gets much easier.

exaltron · Post by **exaltron** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 6:10 pm

TroyP wrote:Well then, I think it was really a good job, because that's pretty much how it happened...and you haven't a ton of practice at this. Keep going. You'll be surprise how quickly it gets much easier.

thanks again! I think the vocal improv that I've been doing along with beats, guitar, trumpet, etc. can translate pretty well to a capella, provided the tonal center doesn't drift (which it still does for me). I'm much more confident with instruments- here's a good example of a semi-freestyle I did a few weeks ago with kind of a glitchy Miles Davis feel (stylistically of course, I would never compare myself to him in terms of skill):

http://www.exaltron.com/mp3s/spelunker.mp3

But again, I had to start that with a fixed tempo. Then I can just stomp on the scene at 1 and hope I'm pretty close to it (at least I can catch up easily if I'm off).

TroyP do you have any of your stuff posted? I looked on your profile but I didn't see anything.