HELP! Automatically/Continuously playing scenes

[davidmolina]

I play in an electro/alternative band (http://www.facebook.com/kingslynnmusic). We're getting ready to start playing shows and I've been searching for a more efficient way to do this and fix the gaps in my setup but can't find anything. Hopefully you guys can help me.

What I need: I need to play all the pre-recorded effects but have control over volume of all clips and have the ability to re-arrange the song easily (not while performing but before a show, during practice, etc). Also, be able to play a whole set and have smooth, automatic transitions between songs including tempo change.

My solution: I split all the effects/loops into clips and arrange them in different tracks (thus having volume control) in scenes. (I will add some screenshots tonight) Typically a scene will be a section of the song like the intro, verse, chorus, etc. Sometimes I'll split a song section (verse, chorus, etc) into 2-4 scenes. I set all the clips to play the next clip using "Follow Action". Since the clips automatically go to the next clip when "Follow Action" is set to play next then I'll fill in each of the empty cells with a silent clip with the appropriate time length so that all the clips will play in scene order and trigger the later clips at the right time. Once the last clips of a song are playing the first clips of the next song will immediately be next, thus starting the next song.

The problem: I can't make each scene play automatically without having set all the clips to follow action (it gets pretty tedious for a 6 or more song setlist.) I do all the programming in my band but I am also the drummer so I can't be hitting the enter button to start each scene. I need to be able to hit play and have each scene play automatically in the order I have it. I'm trying to avoid having to put all the clips into the arrangement view because I want the ease of simply moving clips to re-arrange a song or even extend it if needed and the session is visually easier to follow.

My other problem is every song has a different tempo. This is easily adjusted by entering the tempo in the Master track for each scene. No problem there. The problem comes when the next song is up. Since the clips are all playing from one clip to the next, it won't pick up the tempo that I've set in the Master track UNLESS I actually hit the scene's play button. If I leave the whole thing playing from the beginning it will keep the tempo of the very first clip. Obviously since I'm playing drums I can't be hitting the play button for each scene.

Hope you guys can help. I've been going crazy trying to find a way to solve this and make it more efficient. Thanks!

David

[S4racen]

www.thestudiosessions.org within the modul4r series are two devices, one called Follow and the other called liquid... Each of these give the ability to record a follow action per clip that isn't linked to a finite time but instead works at the clip end or stop allowing to loop on the fly (which is also built into the Liquid device)....

As well as the usual follow actions per clip of next previous etc. you also have the option of doing the same for scenes, triggering of which should pick up the tempo changes if your scene is named 138bpm for example....

You would need max4live however to use the devices....

Cheers
D