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Re: Changing the Subject line--was RE: making the switch from Repeater to Ableton Live



On Jun 22, 2004, at 3:51 AM, Gary Lehmann wrote:

> Uh--I read all these posts anyway, but . . .
> How about that Ableton Live?
> How steep is the learning curve for us sample and solo guys?

In a way Ableton Live is easier to set up with a midi foot controller, 
compared to the Repeater. You don't have to do that much programming 
since Live has "midi learn" function to map different controller data 
to certain functions. You just put Live in midi learn mode, click at 
the graphical representation of the function (could be "play", "mute" 
or anything) and finally step on the foot controller button to send the 
midi message. That's it! Just watch out with those FCB1010 bursts of 
multi msg sending (like with the Repeater).

> Has anyone actually sold their main hardware looper and gone with the
> software approach?

Not yet. No software looper I have come across does overdub recording 
into a loop, sound-on-sound wise (without other inconvenient  
drawbacks). Both the EDP and the Repeater does this very good.

A partial workaround I tried was to use the plug-in Lexicon PSP42 in 
Ableton Live. Then you can easily tweak feedback and other parameters 
from a midi expression pedal, thanks to the external midi controller 
mapping in Live. But this is more like using a bunch of tape delay 
units for sound-on-sound looping. It's not the same thing as actually 
record in overdub mode on a EDP or Repeater. For frippertronics-like 
work I guess Ableton Live with the soft-lexicon should work fine.

Another cool Repeater function, that is not available in Ableton Live, 
is to re-pitch a loop/sample/clip by external midi control. In Live you 
can do it by using the mouse but that's not to much help if you are 
busy playing instruments with your hands. I and others have been 
actively asking for Ableton to make external midi control available 
also for so called "sample or clip parameters", but as the upcoming 
version 4 has yet been presented I'm afraid this matter was not looked 
into. If midi pedals could be mapped to "sample pitch" you could reach 
a similar "freedom in pitch" as the Repeater offers. However with the 
exception that recordings have to be made before changing the pitch.

There are however different plug-ins that can be used in Live for 
changing the pitch, but none of them sounding as good, to my ears, as 
simply re-pitching a Repeater track. But as we know software are 
instantly improving and with Live you get access to most plug-in 
parameters for your external midi controller.

All the best

Per Boysen
---
http://www.boysen.se
http://www.looproom.com