Ableton Forum

I like L8's looper feature as far as it goes. Its great to be able to set tempo with it, and build layers. All good.

What I need to do is take that built up loop and move it to a clip slot with the drag function (I guess). That way I can then add another loop from looper or other instruments, midi, etc. that are in time with the Looper base loop.

Is there a way to move the looper clip to a clip slot with an FCB1010? Or at least without a mouse?

Thanks for suggestions. I'm sure I'm not the first one to ask this.

WFWS

more than 1 looper would solve this problem easily

no need to move

I use multiple looper tracks as well, but it would be nice to see a way to transfer to clip slot (then clear) an existing loop. The only way I could see going about this currently is to set up some extra tracks, route the looper channels into them, and resample.

I received some very useful advice on a similar question, here:
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=122825

There is always a way to get stuff done, it just might not be the way you originally envisioned!

thanks for the link

After traipsing down Mojofunk's rabbit hole, I found the post by Jekblad and spent some time playing with the Looper-per-track idea. I think I have a system that will work for me. Its sorta obvious, putting multiple loopers together.

I have an FCB1010 which I run thru Mackie emulation. That gives me cursur control with my feet. I put a clip launch on pedal 1, and up/down right/left on 4 more pedals on the 00 bank. I also put a scene launch button, and four track arm buttons all on the 00 bank of the FCB1010. I used the FCB1010 Editor to do the programming, and used Mackie emulation note numbers.

On bank 01 I assign 4 loopers, each with the multi button and a clear button programmed to the pedals and to 4 Live tracks. That takes 8 pedals on the 01 bank. The other is a transport stop button and a track/clip toggle.

I start with a looper on track one to set the tempo, and then 'its totally wide open'. I can jump to 00 bank to cursor navigate and launch any clip or scene, or to arm and record into a clip. I can jump back to 01 bank to use any of the 4 loopers. Nice!

I have yet to give it a full test, but I think it will work OK.

Mojofunk, I agree with your comment that looping music can quickly get too repetitious. Its all about finding ways to break it up. If we could move loops from the looper to a clipslot handsfree, we have a better chance of building songs with real breaks, and composing on the fly with both loops and dj style clips.

I've been thinking that I will end up looping with another musician, so there will be two of us building song components. He'll play, I'll capture his loops. He'll sing a verse, I'll tweak, clip, and DJ loops and drum breaks as he does this. I'll launch a break with a drum loop, he'll switch instruments and I'll catch another loop of his playing. We'll both solo or improvize over the building piece. You get the idea.

My current musician bandmate is not into electronic stuff (barely knows what Live is), and thinks we should just be a regular band. Its up to me to show what can be done. Now I'm closer to doing that.

Onward.

more then 1 loop will help you to solve this problem

furniture
solid oak furniture
pine furniture
Garden offices

Yow - That sounds like a pretty useful set up you've created! I suspect it'll wow your bandmates. The tech challenged will probably never get it, but they will enjoy how it impacts your music - just tell them that you are magic! I always want to talk to people about this stuff, until I see their eyes glaze over and I realize that I am babbling what seems like nonsense to them. That makes this forum even more enjoyable!

I see what you mean about the usefulness of hands free loop seating, that would be nice - I created a song in remarkable time by looping until I liked what I heard, then I whipped up an arrangement in both session and arrangement views in no time flat. It was a revelation as workflow, so fast and fun! However I am setting up my gear with an eye towards live performance also, and one thing I have (almost) learned from looping is that I don't need to fill every possible space with guitar noodling, and in fact sometimes a performance will resemble DJing as much as instrumental jamming. Well, since it is so easy to drag and drop our loops into clip slots, I say why not just do it!? Get that first one in there, then copy and paste into scenes, all while you are allowing your arrangement to luxuriate, gaining tension before you trigger the newly minted scene. Make a blues face, throw your body into it, wear a whole bunch of glow sticks, turn on the bubble machine, and use that mouse! Map the scenes to the FCB1010, and you won't often have to return to the computer keyboard. It'd be damn cool to be able to do it mouse free, but I lately have been thinking that the occasional mousery, while it isn't something that Keith Richards would have done, is actually fine.

It sounds like a cool project you are working on, good luck!

WFWS, don't despair, what you're doing is totally achievable.

It's only two of us in my band, a drummer and myself playing guitars, bass and synths, oh and singing (we play alternative rock/pop). In this style you focus a lot on the singer, the frontman's communication with the audience, so it can be challenging to have to go back and trigger scenes and such from the computer keyboard and stuff.

So I programmed my FCB1010 with 9 different templates for different purposes, some of which ressemble what you described, others just to control my bass, acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar and lead guitar (all separately) and even control the voice effects and guitar effects units or the VSynth (our main synth unit, which we use alongside Ableton's Analog and Electric). I use the Mackie protocol as well as Bome translator for added tasks (like sequencing a bunch of keystrokes or midi steps), and I also haul my Mackies on stage in case I need to do something on the fly. On my keyboard unit I have an electric piano and a Novation RemoteSL, which is what I use to trigger and control when I'm playing there. Needless to say, it was a lot of work especially since I simulated a bunch of tricks the Looper does now but with vesion 7, by using Bome and some Python programming. But it all has paid off and it all works wonders, I can do improvs on the fly as if it was a regular band playing a blues jam, or re-arrange my song on the fly during performance, or extend a drum or guitar solo, or cut it short, recall another scene to go to another section by stomping a pedal which would do something like "after 3 bars, start recording this track for 4 bars, loop for 8 bars and then go to the pre-chorus scene", etc. I run 3 tracks only for midi controlling, and I've pretty much used all the notes to control different things, so I have one track sending remote controls on channel 1, another on channel 2 and another on channel 3.

All this without touching the computer keyboard or mouse! I have my laptop and an extra monitor next to my midi keyboard and the electric piano, but I rarely look at them (because everything has been practiced to the point of exhaustion) but also because I have 2 mixes which provide queues in our earphones, some to my drummer and some to me, saying things like "record - 4 bars", or giving me queues like "chorus in 1-2-3-4".

I go from one instrument to another, keep the communication with the audience, and we make it feel very organic. The bass comes out the bass amp, the electric guitars out of their two different amps, the synths on separate channel that go to the PA or venue mixer, same with the acoustic guitar and voices. We've gotten comments from people after shows saying that they were impressed because at no time they thought "hmmm this is all computer stuff, what a gimmick, there's no bass player", to the contrary, they were totally pulled in into the way of playing all these older musical instruments along with a new one: Live.

Needless to say I also went through the same issue with my bandmate where he thought this setup was temporary, until he saw the results and the quality of the music and the show, his drumkit is all full of triggers plus he has a midi keyboard next to him, so we play it all, Live!

The only problem is setting up - it's always a bitch, but we got it down to a science using checklists for the setting up and another for the taking down. When you have a full band each one is in charge of their own instruments and amps, in this case we have the setup for a band of 6 while it's only 2 of us

Keep it up and good luck!

This sounds so close to what I want to do! Maybe more advanced than I need to get started, but right on the money. I'd give a dollar to see your show!

I may pick your brain when I get going with this. I'm gonna try to show just a basic thing at practice tonite- that we can start a track with a simple drum loop, and play with a drum loop. I'll lay the drum loop, then switch to guitar, all mouse free. If I can get him to see that we can have drums, I'll add bass loops, done live.

I've got to get these to work very smoothly, because what he expects is for the technology to fail. Once that happens, his distrust takes over.

Its good, this creative tension. He's motivating me to get my live skills ready, instead of shoegazing in the home studio.

Onward.