Automatically Switching Time Signatures in Session View
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 12:59 pm
Up until now, when my band perform live we have been using Ableton in Arrangement view - with all tempo and time signature changes for the set pre mapped out using automation and locators / markers. We're looking at adding a launchpad to our rig and switching over to Session View to get a little bit more control over our set and have the option to improvise a bit more instead of being locked into pre determined arrangements.
We've been able to set up a new live set which does pretty much everything we need where we essentially start a new song by launching a scene which determines the tempo and time signature for each song as well as launching a click track and backing tracks which we then play live instruments over the top of. The only issue we have with this though is that there are sections in a couple of our songs that have regular time signature changes throughout (e.g. a repeated section of one bar of 9/4, one bar of 6/4 then 4 bars of 4/4 ) which we are unsure on how to make work in session view. This was no issue in arrangement view as it was easy enough to just add markers throughout the set which would automatically change the time signature when required - however it seems that the only way to change the time signature in session view is to launch a whole new scene. This would be fine if there was only one or two changes per song, but considering in some songs the changes need to be made every bar this would be physically impossible for us to do. We are also using a couple of instances of the 'Looper' effect which are all quantized to either 2 or 4 bars, so it's important that we're able to get ableton to keep up with the time signature changes so our loops don't go all whack.
We're also open to the idea of just keeping some of the more difficult songs in arrangement view with all of the time signature changes pre mapped out as they are already. However when we've tried this, anytime a new scene in session view is launched which changes the time signature, all of the pre mapped time signatures in arrangement view are effectively deleted until 'Re-Anable Automation' has been selected - so we're not sure how / if it's possible to have both views coexist in this way without messing up each other.
Basically thought we'd just open it up to you guys and see if anyone had any suggestions on what the best way to go about things is??
Cheers!
We've been able to set up a new live set which does pretty much everything we need where we essentially start a new song by launching a scene which determines the tempo and time signature for each song as well as launching a click track and backing tracks which we then play live instruments over the top of. The only issue we have with this though is that there are sections in a couple of our songs that have regular time signature changes throughout (e.g. a repeated section of one bar of 9/4, one bar of 6/4 then 4 bars of 4/4 ) which we are unsure on how to make work in session view. This was no issue in arrangement view as it was easy enough to just add markers throughout the set which would automatically change the time signature when required - however it seems that the only way to change the time signature in session view is to launch a whole new scene. This would be fine if there was only one or two changes per song, but considering in some songs the changes need to be made every bar this would be physically impossible for us to do. We are also using a couple of instances of the 'Looper' effect which are all quantized to either 2 or 4 bars, so it's important that we're able to get ableton to keep up with the time signature changes so our loops don't go all whack.
We're also open to the idea of just keeping some of the more difficult songs in arrangement view with all of the time signature changes pre mapped out as they are already. However when we've tried this, anytime a new scene in session view is launched which changes the time signature, all of the pre mapped time signatures in arrangement view are effectively deleted until 'Re-Anable Automation' has been selected - so we're not sure how / if it's possible to have both views coexist in this way without messing up each other.
Basically thought we'd just open it up to you guys and see if anyone had any suggestions on what the best way to go about things is??
Cheers!