1st Loop Workaround in Ableton's LIVE 4.0

["loop.pool" <looppool@cruzio.com>]

I'm really enjoying Live 3.0 (and about to get Live 4.0) and am planning on
starting to use it in my live shows (along with my beloved EDP, Repeater 
and
Line 6 DL4s), hopefully by Y2K4 in October. Ableton, unfortunately has not
fixed the 'first loop' capability, which means one still has to have
a prerecorded loop in  the program to play live.

Dave Hill, Jr., the really helpful Public Media and Artist Relations 
Manager
for Ableton says they are seriously looking at that capability and sent me
these two  live work arounds for the time being.

Because I have stopped doing gigs for a period of time (I toured and
performed incessantly in the last 18 months and want some time off to write
my next CD) I haven't tried these out yet, but they look good:

I wanted to share them with you all.

Option A - First Loop ambient style:

1.  Set Live's Global Quantization to "None"
2. Set every track to record the same input and activate record.
3. With MIDI pedal, start recording your first clip (record the loop)
and then again hit the same button to stop recording your clip.
4. Repeat for each track, build as many loops as you like.

Your entire performance will be out of sync/ tempo from Live's host
clock, but that would be the same as any other machine including the
echoplex, boomerang, etc. right?

Option B - First Loop locked in time

Open Live's preferences, Audio Tab and leave Global quantization to bar
or 2 bars.
1. Route outputs 1 and 2 to your headphone/cue output (providing you
don't min wearing headphones).
2. Route outputs 3 and 4 to main output.
3, Then use a pre-made loop or Live's simple click (which can be
adjusted to sound like anything you like, and any time signature you
like).
4. Record clips to the click in real-time.

I can capture a first loop with either of these options.