Ableton Forum

Hi - I am not a techno savvy DJ, just a 50+ bass player. So please bear with my newby questions. I will describe what I am trying to do and hopefully some of you will tell me if I am on the right track.

I have a lite copy of Live that I have been playing around with, as well as the demo version.

I want to replace the Boss DR670 drum machine that I use in my church worship band. I keep running out of memory, and am starting realize its limitations vs what I could be doing with something like Live.

So far I understand Follow Actions (sort of), listing Clips in Session View to form a Group, Key Mapping, and some rudimentary editing. I have also learned how to set up clips to override the Session tempo and play at different tempos.

I intend to create complete song, drum and percussion tracks, perhaps some backgound synth added, in Pro Tools for use in Live. I will also creat clips for count in and clips for looping drum tracks. Finally I am thinking also about using clips to transition between songs of different keys and tempos, haven't quite figured out how to do this, if it is indeed possible.

Here's an example of a typical Group (key triggers by me on the laptop keyboard, they trigger the Scene names listed under Master - if that is the correct terminology):

Clip #1: Drum Track Song 1, tempo 120, triggered by Key 1, Follow Action: Next
Clip #2: Recorded Synth clip, tempo 100, looping, no Follow Action or Key trigger
Clip #3: Song 2: count in clip, tempo 100, Triggered by Key 2, Follow action: Next
Clip #4: song 2 drum clip, tempo, 100, looping, no follow action
Clip #5: Song transition: tempo 84. short clip (2 bars), key trigger 3, Follow Action: Next,
Clip #6: Drum track song 3, tempo 84, Follow Action: Stop

Any comments appreciated. I realize that i am probably only using about 10% of Live's capabilities, however I think it can really improve what we are doing during a service. Note: Song Drum Tracks include a count in.

Thanks
4string

the best way to work with songs with different tempo is to put them on different scenes & call the scene by its bpm (ex BPM120).
as for using synths you might as well find it easier to work your synths in live instead of protool .

I'm sure 4string understands what spiderprod is saying (it's in the manual, p 80) but to clarify: if you name a scene "x BPM" where x is a number from 20 to 999, then when you fire that scene Live's tempo will become that value...

Thanks for the replies guys - Yes, I did figure out how to use the scene name (X bpm) to set the tempo of the clip.

Can I ass-u-me that I am going about this the right way?

Thanks again - this is a really busy forum - I guess that shows how popular the Live program is.