Need some advice with Ableton Live setup

DJ Software & Apps Ableton
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1

Need some advice with Ableton Live setup

Hey guys. Need a little help with an Ableton Live setup for live performance.

I’m planning on buying an Akai APC40 mk2 for clip triggering. Might get a Push but I’m pretty set on an APC40.

What I want to be able to do is make loops on guitar, bass guitar, an electric drum kit and then trigger clips on the Akai and sing over the top. Ive taken a look at the looper function in Live but I can’t figure out how to route the instruments to separate channels so I can record the loops and then play them back, record more loops with different effects and turn them on and off when I want using the Akai. Is there an easy way to move loops from the looper to the session view slots without having to manually drag the file from the looper.

The problem I’m not sure how to get around is arming the tracks to record and being able to record loops in different channels quickly. I still need to give the tracks themselves some thought as this may make it easier, but Ive seen people do something similar but really quickly and I can’t find tutorials for several external inputs that are a combination of audio inputs and MIDI inputs.

Would using foot pedals for each instrument to trigger recording work?

Hope that all makes sense and I would appreciate any kind of help you guys can give me. If you have any questions about what I’m looking for then please ask. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts :slight_smile:

Thanks

2

Footpedals would definitely work - but it sounds like you really need to get your head around recording/arming/soloing tracks first.

I think you’d definitely be better off recording directly to cells rather than using Lives Looper.

3

Have you checked the YouTube videos by Kid Beyond?

He’s a beatboxer, but has a live performance set-up that sounds exactly like what you’re trying to do.

4

The Korg NanoKontrol is PERFECT right out of the box for this.

5

Agreed

I’ve never used the looper for … well loops. I just set the quantize and on some input channels use any blank grid squares as a start stop for each recorded loop

This records and/or plays individual inputs per channel and assigns to a button based on stop and start - any other effects can be assigned on a per channel basis. Basically every blank square on an input channel acts as its own loop record/play and grid square to re-play segments at later stages during the set.

The only limit to how many channels you can record simultaneously is your sound card

6

Thanks for you advice. So if I bought a foot pedal with 8 buttons, can I program Ableton so pressing button 1 will start recording in a chosen cell in the first channel selected on the Akai in the red box that appears with such a device? I would probably want to record different numbers of bars in each recording so can I quantize the recording in/out to the start of any bar and have the foot button start and stop the recording and then to have the recording play back immediately?

Seems really complicated to explain but I’m sure it’s a lot easier to visualize haha. Any suggestions welcome. Cheers

7

This is very helpful, thanks very much!

I only want to record one instrument at a time but I would need four inputs for four instruments which is no problem on my soundcard.

I will do some tests with some different instruments and see if that does the trick for me. May take some practise but this will certainly get me on my way :slight_smile: