Ableton Forum

Hey all,

So I am using ableton as a live looper, and unlike most of the posts that I am reading, I am looping to and from my guitar AMP, not a digital preamp ( I use the send/return. going to my audio interface, and back out). In theory and somewhat in practice it works. I can loop audio, and I use my berhinger fcb1010 to record loops. but there are a number of issues that are present and I'm not sure how to fix them:

1. humming, I get a lot of humming from my amp when I do this. I've tested the same cables out on hardware effects using my send/return loop with none of these issues, meaning that it is either ableton, or my interface (tascam 1800). I have used soft reducer on ableton but it does not do a whole lot, and ends up killing my dynamics anyways. Any possible solutions to this? Anyone who has experienced it?

2. most importantly, I'm not really sure how I can use multiple loopers and keep them synced. I have one instance of looper that routes to my guitar amps, and another instance that is connected to a bass amp. even though ableton does 'auto quantize' and I have the bass set to 'follow song tempo' (with the guitar loops set to 'set song tempo'), I find it impossible to get the loops on. I've heard a couple of techniques, one is that when you record the initial loop, ALL instances of looper record initially so that they are all the same length (and if you want to actually fill the secondary loopers with audio, then you just overdub). to do this I would need to somehow have audio routed to the loopers but also be able to select which looper is actively receiving input. Any advice/experience?

Any input would be extremely helpful. Ive been tempted to just buy a boss RC series pedal and make it work from there (which I'm sure it would), but when it comes down to it I know that doing this with ableton is possible, and once I figure it out it will be well worth the effort.


cheers

humming: this is because the line out of your interface vs using a mic out. I believe the line out is carrying a bit of electricity which causes this (someone may need to correct me on this). To convert it get a DI, I use this one:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audi ... 9000000000

As far as advice for looping... drop looper first and record into clips. Either have a drum beat you can loop to, or on your first loop give yourself a click to work with. Either that, or use looper the first time to set the time, then use clips after that.

Hope that helps.

interesting, this seems like it should do the trick actually. How would I go about getting the signial in my PC? Would I send the xlr from this into my interface then? And would humming be an issue when I return the signal from my interface to my amp? I would not be able to use xlr for return, mabye I should buy two?


and im looking into clips lots, I'm just more comfortable with the looper because it works out better with a foot pedal

On second thought, I've found out that the issue is grounding, but I do not need the box. when I use the same outlet as my laptop and interface, the noise goes away. I'm not sure why, but it works. I may still consider this product for the future though, so thanks anyways

ekord123 wrote:interesting, this seems like it should do the trick actually. How would I go about getting the signial in my PC? Would I send the xlr from this into my interface then? And would humming be an issue when I return the signal from my interface to my amp? I would not be able to use xlr for return, mabye I should buy two?


and im looking into clips lots, I'm just more comfortable with the looper because it works out better with a foot pedal

I've never used my guitar amp's effects in/out for monitoring, so you'll have to work out what works best. For my setup I would just DI into my interface from my guitar and then go out from my interface into my PA. Sounds like you figured out what works best for you though.

As far as using clips you should be able to program that in pretty easily. You have 10 banks of 10 on your foot pedal. If you leave bank 1 for your looper and set bank 2 for your clips you simply map one button (I use the top one) to 'arm track' and the bottom one to the generic 'play track' (which will record if armed) on that track. Each bank will then give you 5 tracks to work with. You can also use that first bank's extra buttons you aren't using for looper and use that to navigate scenes up and down so all of your controls are at your feet. This is what I do and it works well.

I see, I guess I havent bothered with clips because most of what I play is compounded on top of older tracks (where I can just press + and overdub and everything is fine). The biggest trick I am trying to get now is getting the quantizing on so that If I use a time effect on a dummy clip it will activate at the same rate as my loop. But its looking like I may just have to play to a click when I record an initial track and route it to headphones. when it extracts a tempo from my loop it is always imperfect unfortunately.

thanks for the advice though, I'll look more into clips.