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Re: Octatrack vs Ableton Live quick help



Sergio, you should really download the manuals for all these gear and
compare them properly based on your musical ideas. No one here knows
exactly what you want to do and by asking like this you will only
receive answers based on what we use the gear for in our musical
vision.  I'll try to put in some answers anyway, but please remember
that I'm basing my performances to a great deal on what I'm avoiding;
meaning I have technically restricted my setup quite drastically in
order to allow more musical actions, using fewer things but trying to
learn them well and become fast within my limitations so the musical
flow can prosper freely. That's just my choice. You may want to make
other priorities.


On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 12:46 PM, Sergio G <simpliflying@gmail.com> wrote:
>> From: perboysen@gmail.com
>
>> in Ableton Live you will be able to time-stretch or
>> pitch-shift a loop if you record it as an Audio Clip. You can't do it
>> if you record it in the Looper plugin or into some third-party looper
>> plugin.
> While in OT you can, isn't it? That's what I know.

Yes, I'm under the impression that time-stretching works pretty fine
in OT. After having read the manual, watched a number of OT demo vidos
on YoutTube and listened to Anders posted OT sessions.

Myself I don't do time-stretching at all. But I do a lot of speed
shifting to loops I record on the fly. Speed shifting is the way
vintage samplers worked; if you transpose the pitch up the loop speeds
up and if you transpose the pitch down the loop slows down. I think
this can introduce interesting rhythms too, but it can be tricky with
rhythmic loops.

>>  Myself I don't have an OT.
> Ehm, and why do you think that for me it is better the OT than Ableton or
> Moebius?

Because you mentioned time-stretching among the things you want to do
to a real-time live audio input.



>> I have chosen to use only software in a laptop; the looperMobius to be
>> specific.
> Could you tell me some things in which Moebius is better than Ableton for
> livelooping?

That would take hours. One important feature is the scripting option;
you can type down a sequence of commands on a text file, save it to
disc and have it show up as a command in Mobius. That way you can
trigger any kind of weird processing from just one pedal/button/knob
controller. I like that. I do scripted stuff like playing one note (as
audio, by singing or using an instrument) and kick a pedal to
instantly create a four note chord from that single master note. I
also have a foot pedal bank that can fade in or fade out any track in
the background, thus allowing me to play or mix other stuff while that
happens. Mobius is designed for doing processing like that to live
audio while Live is designed for live remixing of recorded audio. But
you can perfectly well run Mobius as a plugin in Live and have access
to both concepts. Here's an intro to Mobius that can give more info
http://www.circularlabs.com/doc/v2/starting.htm


>> Mainstage is much more
>> configurable; meaning I can do things like setting up any kind of
>> "graphic conductor" for the musicians.
> What do you mean for Graphic Conduttor? Said like that it makes me think 
> of
> something I have briefly read about MAX for Live. Or you mean just 
> graphic
> interface?

I sure use Max for Live in my Live setups. What I mean exactly by
"good graphic conductor" is:

- A big moving waveform on the screen showing the next bars to come up
of whatever pre recorded audio you are playing along to.
- Text markers in that waveform to tell you the chords and other musical 
cues.
- Text area telling you what part is playing right now.
- Text area telling you what part is coming up next.
- Counter counting down beats until the next part is being cued.

This was simply not possible in Live but with Mainstage I could set it
up like on this screenshot
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4963264/pboy_mobius_mainstage.png


> Stupid question: if I want to use a software looper, may I safely assume
> that I need a quite good and powerful laptop to avoid freezes etc?

No. What you need is knowledge about how to set up and the computer in
a stable way. Even a 1 GB single core CPU would allow multi track
looping (but maybe not also effect processing and stuff).


> And is it
> generally needed a Mac? (this would be another reason more to buy the 
> OT).

It's pretty much the same processors in all pc's today no matter if
they run Mac OS or Windows. Mobius and Live work on both systems, but
for Mainstage you would need to use a Mac.


>> I also like the idea of building and having instant access -
>> both in the studio and on the stage - to my personal library of
>> channel strips.
> Ok, that is a bit too early for me, I mean that I have absolutely no idea
> what you are talking about, and it is a feeling that I like, because 
> makes
> me feel I am learning and that I am collecting an info which will allow 
> me
> to learn faster in the future. Could you say something more about that?

A channel strip is like a saved preset for a bunch of effects that you
have set up in a specific order and tweaked to sound great. Think
about it as a virtual "stomp box pedalboard". In Live you may save
such effect chains as a "rack". But the concept of Logic and Mainstage
sharing the same library is what I appreciate, since I like using both
apps. I also tend to get better sound with those apps than with Live,
but that may just be me. I've heard producer getting a great sound out
of Live so it should be possible.

All great questions, Sergio! :-)