Re: MIDI Looping

[Florian Anwander <fanwander@mnet-online.de>]

Hi

> I don't think so. But this is typically something I imagine can be built 
> in MAX.
basically you always have to define what shall be recognized as a 
pattern. Whether it is a time orientated definition like a bar or a 
certain number of notes. But you have to say: what _is_ a pattern and 
what is _not_ a pattern. If you do not do this you will always run into 
the trap with two repeating notes being recognized as two repetions of a 
one-note-pattern. (And saying a single note cannot be a pattern is not 
good, because you may want a steadily repeating single sustained base 
note).


> Another suggestion to reach a similar effect in MIDI looping is to 
> define certain MIDI note numbers to trig certain functions. Then you 
> simply play those notes to give looping commands like "record", "stop 
> recording", "new track" etc.
This is a very nice idea. It makes the handling much easier.

> Logic will be using its global cycle mode for looping, 
> which means all loops has to be of the same length. 
Not necessarily. You can setup a very long song length (two thousand and 
something bars which can be several hours - depending on tempo and 
measure settings), and use then the loop function per sequencer. That 
way also a individual loop length per track can be achieved.




I went through all this, because looping with MIDI (or CV/Gate) was 
exactly what I was looking for. All this requires extensive preparation 
on a laptop. Maybe this does not disturb others, but I wanted to get 
away from that kind of making music. I don't want to klick thousand 
times anymore, before I can play a single note of music. After all that 
trials and tribulations I finally decided to use standard audio looper 
hardware - an Electrix Repeater and a Lexicon Jamman - and record my 
synths there. This is of course my personal point of view based on my 
being bored after 25 years of making music with computers and doing my 
dayjob in a software company.

Florian