The standard solution live looping setup - one trigger (OSX)

Hi,
I am gathering informations for weeks now on how to build a multitracks over-sampling & looping setup in ableton live on OSX. I met dozens of users willing to do so, but didn't gather a easy-standard solution. My will is to do so here.

what you need:
- a mac on osx
- ableton live
- BMTP for X
- 1 trigger: pad/pedal

I uploaded a live template and a .bmtp online so you can have a look at it:
http://www.amplestudio.com/xf1/ll/1pedal-looping/

Please help to complete this work, as it isn't fully operationnal. The idea is to find a 100% working solution and post it here, so finally the community has access to a highly expected standard-and-working setup for osx. thanks.

to be fixed:
- the track launch recording function do not work
- the track arm only work for track 1, 4, and 8

Hi,

the preset looks good to me. I'm not an Ableton expert, so I assume that the problem is in the Ableton setup.

In order to verify that MT is doing what it's supposed to do, check the Log (from the options).

Thanks,
Florian

Ok people, IT WORKS!

you can upload the .bmtp and the live template from the link above.
You have a fully working 8 tracks oversampling setup.

You only have to change from BomeMT the INCOMING MIDI MESSAGE, using capture midi, and using the Midi trigger of your choice.

One question:
Is it possible to trigger Incoming midi message with a USB keyboard on BMTP/OSX? if yes how?
EDIT: incoming keystroke as trigger is currently under development

very elegant.

i have a couple of requests (that i tried to figure out myself), if thats possible mate. i just got myself an fcb1010 so i have 10 switches on 10 banks sending cc numbers at the moment.

i tried to modify this to use only 5 layers, where one pedal starts to record, another pedal plays back the loop, and when the record pedal is pressed again it starts to record on the other track (this is to prevent instant overdubbing), hitting the play pedal will play this aswell as an overdub loop. also i need 5 pedals for stop the clips (one per layer then) and also i need one for stopping ALL clips.

you up for the task of modifying this to that? cause if you are, you are definetly my top hero of the year

i have a bug, and im not sure where its coming from, either bomes of live, but after running it for a while it stops syncing with the global quntisation setting, meaning that its mad hard to loop anything properly heh.

Actually I had the same issue, instant recording is a pain in the translator!

Find here the new 1pedal-looping-pause.bmtp
http://amplestudio.com/xf1/ll/1pedal-looping/

behavior is now, record/stop/record/stop, a lot easier musically

cu

genetic wrote:Actually I had the same issue, instant recording is a pain in the translator!

Find here the new 1pedal-looping-pause.bmtp
http://amplestudio.com/xf1/ll/1pedal-looping/

behavior is now, record/stop/record/stop, a lot easier musically

cu

ill take a look at that later this week.
i took the liberty of modifying your setup a bit, and now it works as follows:
pedal 1 cycles through the tracks to arm (5 in total), pedal 2 starts the record, then on the second push it start the playback of the loop. pedal 3 stops all clips, and pedal 6 through 10 stops layer 1-5.

what im working on now is a way to trigger the 5 to 10 pedals to either stop the layer (say, pedal 8, which is the 3rd layer then), or if the layer is not playing, start playback.

also, the live template i have now is set up so that you can start recording loops in any scene, instead of just the first one.
it has an in bus and an outbus, which are hidden away in the send channels, so you have a master group for fx/mastering/whatever, and you have individual track fx control aswell

also, the way i have set my template up means that you can route other things into the tracks aswell: vst plugins, external inputs, native instruments, the works. just send to the input track, and youre done!

ill upload the template and my modified bmtp preset tomorrow.

quote: i have a bug, and im not sure where its coming from, either bomes of live, but after running it for a while it stops syncing with the global quntisation setting, meaning that its mad hard to loop anything properly heh.

>> same here, it is tricky to use! you have to start/stop recording sharply on time, if not it's freestylin.
That actually is a HUGE drawback for me. I called ableton to know if it was possible to define a length for a recording. answer is no -_-

>>please post your templates as I also got myself a decent 10 switches pedal today

p.

genetic wrote:quote: i have a bug, and im not sure where its coming from, either bomes of live, but after running it for a while it stops syncing with the global quntisation setting, meaning that its mad hard to loop anything properly heh.

>> same here, it is tricky to use! you have to start/stop recording sharply on time, if not it's freestylin.
That actually is a HUGE drawback for me. I called ableton to know if it was possible to define a length for a recording. answer is no -_-

>>please post your templates as I also got myself a decent 10 switches pedal today

p.

well. heres my template then.
a little zip file for you, inside the zipfile is a Readme.txt, which contains a little info about the template, a setup.jpg which is just a little picture of how i set it up, what pedals do what etc, the als template and the .bmtp preset.

this is how it works at the moment:

the top row starts/stops the currently playing layer, pedal 1 cycles (like yours did before), pedal 2 records/plays back the newly recorded layer and pedal 3 stops all layers.

this is set up so you can record on any scene in your set. i will add navigation controls eventually i guess (if noone beats me to it). set up to use prg change messages at the moment, youll figure it out heh.

heres the .als template + the the bmtp file and all that:
http://nwrecords.com/storage/Looper.zip

worth noticing is that exclusive arm must be on, and that the "To Output" must have monitor set to in and its audio to sends only, to prevent any hot signals going through when arming tracks.

oh, and it also syncs to the global quantisation

I tried your setup. all fine.

Nevertheless I still find impossible to loop something properly which is the whole thing about this setup... tell me if I missed something:

I currently record a loop and it's always either 4+ or 3+ / or 15+ or 16+ in Live. I tried the different quantization methods in Live preferences.
I even included the tap tempo as a trigger on one pedal, but this doesn't help.
>> I don't understand why the loops don't start on time 1. Instead of this they get looped from their starting point and therefore loose the time signature after a while.
any help?

genetic wrote:I tried your setup. all fine.

Nevertheless I still find impossible to loop something properly which is the whole thing about this setup... tell me if I missed something:

I currently record a loop and it's always either 4+ or 3+ / or 15+ or 16+ in Live. I tried the different quantization methods in Live preferences.
I even included the tap tempo as a trigger on one pedal, but this doesn't help.
>> I don't understand why the loops don't start on time 1. Instead of this they get looped from their starting point and therefore loose the time signature after a while.
any help?

well, it has to be a live bug. i was considering a bug with mt at first, but lets say that something screws up in mt it still wouldnt send out the keystroes, and if it did send out the keystrokes they should still snap to global quantisation. if they dont then it has to be something with live.
try switching the quantisation int he record warp launch settings ont he clip behaviour to something other then global, exit live and restart it and set it back to global. i did this and then it worked. heh.

my mistake. all good now, it's amazing!

I corrected a little bug from your setup: the Rec. was always on, and generated feedback. Also added a sixth track

check it here:
http://www.amplestudio.com/xf1/ll/1peda ... pedal.bmtp

I'd like to setup the scene change, post it if you managed to implement it.

peace

genetic wrote:my mistake. all good now, it's amazing!

I corrected a little bug from your setup: the Rec. was always on, and generated feedback. Also added a sixth track

check it here:
http://www.amplestudio.com/xf1/ll/1peda ... pedal.bmtp

I'd like to setup the scene change, post it if you managed to implement it.

peace

oh did it? i didnt notice :p
ill check it in a bit, been busy with refurnishing my apartment hehe.
currently got in the live 8 beta so im not really in the mood to setup a live looping template, seeing how i now got the looper in l8 instead. but yeah, ill take a look. im still thinking about the best way to make the scene navigation, cause i only have 2 extra pedals left on bank 00 now. im thinking there has to be a good way to determine whether its a long click or a short click, cause then i could have a long click (or press then) to launch scene and another one for undo.

or even better: switch to bank 1 and then use that one for navigation etc. might even throw in a reverse sample button then. 4 bars or less and it can reverse while playing afaik