Recording looping (was: Looperlative - Max Time?)

[Per Boysen <per@boysen.se>]

I agree with Kim that it does make more sense to record everything  
and that's what I usually do. Here are some methods I have been using:

It's easiest in Mobius standalone version where you simply press a  
"Start recording" button and start making noise. This will give you  
one stereo file. You can set Mobius to pass the audio input through  
and then you will also get you're live input instrument playing  
recorded. If using many parallel loops you will have to also keep a  
good level mix between the looping channels (as they will all be  
summed into one stereo file). I like this method because it's simple  
and true to the live looping performance. Most "work-in-progress"  
files I have posted recently were created this way.

Then there is also the multichannel recording concept. I like this  
too because it gives you more control to tweak the recording for best  
fidelity. I also dislike it because of that ;-) One easy way to  
achieve that is to use Ableton Live as the host and recording  
software. You open looping plug-ins on dedicated channels and set  
other dedicated channels to fetch hardware loopers from separate  
audio card inputs. You can also use effects in Live. Direct audio  
streams to some tracks you set up in Live, record enable these tracks  
and start recording Clips by a Toggle Scene command (clicking a cell  
in the master column). Eventual pre mixes can be decided on when  
directing the output from the looping channels to the "to be  
recorded" channels. I find this recording method very nice when  
looping with the Augustus Loop plug-in because with that looper you  
can assign pedals and midi clips to change the pitch of the loop  
while playing. The drawback is that the old (non-intel) macs are so  
slow that you can not run many loopers in parallel. But you may have  
to set the host tempo in Albeton Live because Live is rather flakey  
when it comes to following MIDI Clock tempo. For solo gigs I prefer  
to set the tempo with the "first cached loop" method and that's why I  
like the "EDP into recorder" or Mobius standalone setup better. For  
group live looping though, the multichannel method rocks, because  
then all musicians tend to sync up to a global clock anyway.

A more experimental recording concept is to only record your source  
audio input and the MIDI controller data. This will let you  
"reconstruct" the looping performance aftwerwards. I tried this with  
a EDP/Repeater rig and it worked out just fine. I ended up with one  
audio track with my own instrument playing and one MIDI track from  
the MIDI foot pedal I was using to control the two hardware loopers  
during the performance. Back in the studio I connected the gear and  
fed the two looping devices with the recorded audio and the recorded  
MIDI. What happened then was that my live looping performance was "re- 
performed". I was then able to record different parts of the  
performance to separate audio tracks for a better sounding mix.



On 30 jan 2006, at 04.45, mark sottilaro wrote: (on FC saved Repeater  
loops)
> I found trying to get the loops off the
> compact flash card to be like memories of a dream
> where you know there was more but you can't quite get
> it.

Nice wording, Mark :-)   When recording the entire performance I have  
often found the opposite scenario: a new dream does arise when you  
listen back to the recording.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.looproom.com (international)
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
--->  iTunes Music Store (digital)
www.cdbaby.com/perboysen