Ableton Forum

I recently bought the behringer pcb1010 foot pedal for an ableton based live loop setup. I have made decent progress thusfar and am able to loop and layer but i haven't gotten to the point where I dont have to touch the computer at all and there are a couple odd behaviors I dont understand.

What I want to do:
1. Create 4-8 seperate channels with various effects and record loops onto each channel one at a time. Channel seperation is important so i can have more control over different effects on each channel. I will, however, occasionally overdub onto the same channel as well.

2. Be able to do all of this with minimal or no touching of the laptop, preferably with only pedal pushes.

Some Problems I am running into:
1. I dont quite understand how to monitor. If I have a channel set to 'Auto', i can't monitor. I need to set it to 'In' to be able to hear it or even have it send its signal to the looper. I was reading about the loopers own monitor settings and i tried them all but none of them work because the sound isn't even getting to the looper unless I click 'In' on the channel itself. I don't understand the concept of a single dedicated monitoring track/bussing system to always be able to monitor. I tried various setups along this line but none of them seem to work.

2. Overdub Mode doesn't seem to work as expected. I can press the pedal and the blocks will turn orange to show that the unit is in overdub mode but will quickly turn back into yellow and everything played for the short time it was orange doesn't get recorded anyways.

any feedback would be appreciated.

joe

I have some remaining questions as well, but this fantastic program is like an onion, theres always another layer!

Here are a few things I have found to work. Try setting up an input channel with monitor on, and send the signal to the master out. Now set up another audio channel with its input set to your previously created channel, and out to master. Put a looper on this channel, and set it to pass audio "never". That word threw me, but it makes it so that you don't get a summing of two signals at the master with a gain increase. It does however create and pass the loops you create in it (you should notice the meters on the looper are getting signal on the input side but not on the output side - until you trigger the loop). You can create lots of looper audio tracks, and have your first audio input track routed to them. Or any other signal.

Another thing that I am finding promising (without having completely wrapped my head around it yet) is the use of effect racks full of loopers, and using a midi controller to select the chain. Set the loopers up in the rack the same way, and it works a charm. On your controller you should use a single cc#, and have the value determine the chain that you are looping on. There is an excellent post on this forum that is specific to the fcb1010 and this yechnique, look around and you'll find it!

The overdubbing thing you mention is odd - some people seem to be having issues with later builds and looper, 8.03, 8.04 etc. Maybe try to get back to 8.01 until they iron out the troubles.

Good luck, I know I won't have to mention have fun - it's almost too much fun isn't it!?

With Monitor set to Auto, you will only be able to monitor the Record-Enabled tracks.

Sorry, I can't help with your other questions--we're still noobs to Live.