How do I set up guitar/effects pedals in Ableton to use for production?

[kbridge]

hey guys,

I'm interested in buying a few cheap effects/guitar pedals to use for my productions - I don't care if they're shitty/poor quality, I want to use them to mash up my drum and synth loops into long audio strips to later cut up and use etc (e.g Glimpse's style, should anyone have watched any videos of him showing his techniques).

So what I need to know, is how to set up a guitar pedal so that I can record FROM Ableton, through the pedal and back into Ableton, and how I would connect this through my audio interface?

Any help?

[Tarekith]

What audio interface are you using? Does it have at least 2 stereo ins and 2 stereo outs?

[kbridge]

yessir, I have a Focusrite 2i2 with 2ins and 2outs

[Tarekith]

That only has one stereo in and out actually, so there's no way to do what you want with your current soundcard.

[kbridge]

That only has one stereo in and out actually, so there's no way to do what you want with your current soundcard.

oops - and if I had two, it would be interface plugged in - via usb - to my computer, then the interface to my monitors, then how would the connection work between the interface and pedals?

[Tarekith]

You;'d go from one pair of outputs on the card to your monitors like normal. Then you'd connect another stereo out from the card, to the stereo inputs on the pedal, from the pedal outputs you would go back to the soundcard inputs. In Live, you could just set a track to output to the same audio output that is feeding the pedal, and to get audio back from the inputs connected to the pedal as well.

Now you could send any track in Live to this special audio track, effectively turning it into a send feeding the pedals.

[kbridge]

You;'d go from one pair of outputs on the card to your monitors like normal. Then you'd connect another stereo out from the card, to the stereo inputs on the pedal, from the pedal outputs you would go back to the soundcard inputs. In Live, you could just set a track to output to the same audio output that is feeding the pedal, and to get audio back from the inputs connected to the pedal as well.

Now you could send any track in Live to this special audio track, effectively turning it into a send feeding the pedals.

Ah, so I could effectively have just one audio channel set up routed through the pedal(s), use that track for the warping, use of the pedal effects, then simply drag the complete audio from that to a separate audio track and just leave that to be the permanent pedal channel? I don't know why this is so hard for me to visualise, I've been working on music for a while now, embarrassing how this concept has had me so confused ha!

[Tarekith]

Instead of creating a sending to say a reverb channel in Live, you're effectively doing the same thing just feeding an external audio effect. Actually, I just realized I'm doing it old school. Live has an External Audio Effect that you can use for this too. Basically you wire everything up the same way, but use the device to access the pedals like any other audio effect. The manual for that device covers it better than I could.

[Patch]

There are literally THOUSANDS of free guitar effect VST's. Just drop 'em onto a channel in Live and record a new clip...

[Tarekith]

Some pedals are unique sounding though, just like some VSTs are. My Tera Echo or Strymon Timeline do things no other delay effect plug in I know does for instance.

For normal delay duties though, I'd be inclined to agree with you, it's WAY easier with plug ins.