Ableton Forum

hi guys.

i wanted to ask a few questions based on this video for novation/ableton:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZMNSjJB ... re=related

as you can see the guy has to rip his hands from the instrument at the last second in order to tell ableton to stop recording a loop and this is very tricky. if you get it wrong and hit the wrong button live it could look pretty bad.

i want to know if there is an easier way of looping audio in clips (so you can separate them) but be able to stop recording and playback using a foot pedal. for example if there was a way to map a foot pedal to tell ableton stop & playback 'which ever clip is currently recording' it would be great and you wouldnt have to take your hands off the keys. even better... to be able to pre-specify the loop length like in looper but again, this wont allow you to separate out clips so you can mute/solo them live.

also as you can see in the video, his midi looping is quantised, but is it possible to turn off quantise for certain overdubs (without going to the menu and using the mouse)

i dont think its possible to map a midi controller to turn quantise on and off... or is it?

the same questions goes for being able to control quantise swing from a midi controller so not EVERY beat sounds rigid or SWUNG... you could get a mixture of both.

i hope all the questions doesnt burn your heads out too much.

thanks!

benji

One feature that I always debate with using is 'select clip on launch'. When a clip is selected, the Enter key can retrigger it (if I recall correctly). It works best with the apc's footpedal input, as one of those defaults to launching selected clip.

Apc also has a quantization button. It might be my favorite button on there haha. I forget the name of the script, but there is something that lets you make clips that change settings and functions in Live. I'm pretty sure that would give you quantize on/off.

sounds great.

whats this script that you talk about?

not sure how i see that 'select clip on launch' working for me?

i say that because the clip I'm recording into isn't always the one that selected... when overdub is on all clips that are playing will be put into overdub mode if track record arm is on so its not about the selected clip, its about the recording clip.

you see?

Sorry, I had forgotten the name. It is called clyphx. Maybe you have tried it already, I actually don't know what it is all capable of haha

Yeah, sorry about the select on launch thing, I hadn't considered more complex recording sessions

thanks. clyphx is just for windows. I'm on mac. there must be an alternative. ill have a look around.

cheers

i tried to achieve kind of the same thing, these are my conclusions so far:

- u can map single clip slots on dedicated buttons on a footswitch. means apc style, push/ step on a button to start recording in a clip, push the next one (in the same track) to stop it and start a new one. problem is, no overdubs possible. the previously recorded clip will stop when u record another one in the same track.

- record on scene launch (to be enabled in the prefereces menu): if u dont mind having a complete scene launched for every clip u record, u could map scenes to a footswitch or use follow actions. but same problem as above regarding playing along with what u previously recorded.

- u can map the track play button of a whole track which appears in lives mapping mode to a footswitch. the advantage is u can record in whichever clip slot is highlighted, which u can do with only one button but u have to manually select the slot. but it should be possible to have the arrow keys of the keyboard mapped on a footswitch so u could selct slots without using the mouse. but again, no overdub style playback. this is the way i am doing it at the moment.

the general problem is that live cant do overdubs with audio instruments (except for the looper). theres only midi overdubbing. so if u want to have instant playback of what u just recorded and play along u would have to use several tracks to record in and find a way to stop recording a clip in track A and start recording a clip in track B in the same time. maybe u could map the record arm buttons (in exclusive mode) of several tracks on dedicated footswitches, or the track play buttons as mentioned above. not sure though if disabling record arm on a recording clip safes the recording or aborts it, same for track play.

hope this is helpful. cheers