Ableton LIVE - live looping device

["Doug Cox" <dougcox@pdq.net>]

OK, here's an attempt to describe a little of what I've discovered about
using Ableton LIVE as a live looping device.  I figured that I'd describe 
my
signal and MIDI flow, so technical questions can be answered:

Guitar
|
G-Major --------->SPDIF into LIVE
| (right)     | (left)
|               |
EDP#1    EDP#2

So, LIVE is getting my signal pre-EDP.  I'm not feeding EDP loops to LIVE
(yet).  I think I like this approach better for now.  I'm using an Edirol
UA-30 with a USB ASIO driver to bring the signal into my laptop.  Very low
latency, no pops or crackles, very nice.

MIDI goes from an FCB-1010, into my laptop (for LIVE), into EDP#1, then
EDP#2, then to the G-Major.  More about FCB1010 and LIVE in a minute.  
Using
this setup, I can ask LIVE to drive the clock, or let the EDP's run
independently (out of sync) with LIVE.

With the right MIDI routing, I could have the EDP's drive the clock, and
have LIVE slave to that clock.  My current setup doesn't allow for this.  I
like it this way for now.

OK, so... now to LIVE software setups.  I've been experimenting a lot, and
have tried a number of different approaches and configs.  I'm going to
describe the approach I'm starting to settle on, but you can extrapolate a
lot of other ideas from this.

I setup a template with the following:
-  Arm four different tracks to record the SPDIF line in
-  MIDI notes are assigned to the start button on each of the four clips.
The FCB1010 pedals assigned to these notes will now start the recording, 
and
after a clip is recorded, they become loop restart (and stutter) pedals.
-  FCB1010 expression pedals are setup to control the clip volume when that
clip is selected.  So, I do have to "restart" a loop to activate expression
pedal control of that loop's volume.  Not a biggie - I like restarting
loops! :)
-  Set the clip update rate to 1/32 in Preferences/Misc
-  Set Clip Defaults to LaunchMode: Trigger, Loop: On, Quantization: 
Global.
This allows the control panel Quantization setting to control quantize on
all of the clips that you record.  I have FCB1010 pedals setup to change 
the
control panel quantize to different values.

Finally, I have FCB1010 pedals setup to delete any of the 4 clips (loops).
LIVE doesn't offer a direct MIDI interface to delete a loop, so I grabbed
Bome's MIDI Translator (www.bome.com/midi/translator/), and now I can map
MIDI notes to fire off keyboard macros.  So far I'm only using this to
delete clips, but it's a pretty powerful tool to have with LIVE, because I
can see many other things I might want to execute with a pedal, for a
specific piece or technique.

So, a common way for me to use this basic setup:

For rhythmic pieces, I usually take this approach to start:
Load a simple rhythm clip into clip 5, and start with that.  I know, evil.
Prerecorded loop.  Not live-looping!! :)  But it's a good way to get a
practice session started.  One thing about LIVE is that you can't currently
define the loop length (and therefore the tempo of the piece) on the fly.
Gotta set the clock, and start the piece playing.  It's a very "rhythmic"
technical approach, but it certainly doesn't preclude arrhythmic,
ambient-style music.
Alternatively, I sometimes set quantize to "Bar" (meaning 1 measure), and
start by recording a guitar sound (note, scrape, slap, whatevah) into a one
bar clip, creating my own metronome.

>From this point, I can change quantization to whatever I want, record 
>loops
in the other slots, delete loops, change loop volumes, etc.  Regarding the
earlier points about overdub and multiply: by setting quant to bar, you can
create overdub/mult-like effects by playing the overdub into the next clip
for an even number of bars.

However, I've really moved towards using LIVE to create more complex,
evolving loops by using small quant settings (1/4, 1/8, 1/32) and building
polyrhythmic loops.

By the way, once I start LIVE, I can put my EDPs into one of the presets
that synchs to MIDI clock (again, using an FCB1010 pedal), and slave the
EDP's to LIVE.

For more ambient, arrhythmic stuff:
Who cares about the tempo? :)  Tempo setting is as important as what time 
it
is :)  I usually set quant to a small value, and build textures.  I can set
the EDPs to ignore clock, and I have unsynched EDP power!

So, that's a basic overview of what I've tried in the last 2 weeks.  This 
is
just scratching the surface of LIVE, and I'm sure others on this list will
be able to take this example and add/modify/expand it based on their own
knowledge.

Some other comments:

Limitations:
- You can't overdub, insert, or multiply with clips.  See above for
workaround ideas.
- You can't set the loop length on the fly.
- You can't control clip properties directly with MIDI.  This seems to be 
an
oversight, in my opinion.  You can control many things with MIDI in LIVE,
but not the clip properties, which is where the pitch setting is :(  
When/if
they fix this, nifty stuff can happen.


Other possibilities:
- I haven't spent much time with plugins.  LIVE can use VST plugins, and
there's endless possibilities there.
- Interestingly, LIVE *does* allow MIDI control of the parameters of its 
own
native plugins.  So, You can use your MIDI controller for loop manglage.
This is one way to workaround the pitch control problem - there's a "grain
delay" plugin that can change the pitch of a clip, but it doesn't sound so
great to my ears.
- LIVE can route any channel to any output, so I've considered getting a
2-out audio device, so that I can pipe a click track to a headphone amp, 
and
distribute it to myself and a drummer I sometimes jam with.

OK - my brain hurts.  Hope this generates some good discussion on things
folks have done with LIVE!!

Doug