Using SL as a drum machine

Using SL inside Ableton Live

Moderator: jesse

Post Reply
boxxen
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2010 10:41 am

Using SL as a drum machine

Post by boxxen »

Hi everyone.

First of all, thanks Jesse for a great program. I just wish I knew how to use it as well as I'd like.
Here is my setup:
Macbook 10.5.8
Ableton Live 6.0.1
Novation ReMOTE 25SL
Jack Server, Soundflower etc

I have an audio track that sends audio to a send track (where SL is). I have a midi track that sends midi into SL. I have the midi inputs and outputs in >preferences set so that Live sees SL. I think one of the problems is with the way I have the midi set up. Basically I did what it says in the other threads, but I have come to the conclusion that the program just doesn't like me.

I'm having trouble getting SL responding consistently with Live. Sometimes it doesn't respond to the buttons even if they were previously working. I mapped the midi in Live in the device bar at the bottom; would it be better to map them directly into SL?

:?: :?: :?: :?: :?: :?:
But here is the real problem:
What I want to do with SL is to make it into a drum-machine. I have 8 drum pads on the front of the ReMOTE and I want to be able to record a short snippet of any one of three audio tracks (I'll do this with sends most likely) then play it back with the drum pads (does not have to be quantised). I want a very short loop length on the tracks because I want to use them as one shots anyway. I will probably have 8 channels with 8 separate SL instances
1. How do I set the loop length manually and consistently? A 1/32 or a 1/16 would be best.
2. How do I record it into SL without it going straight into looping? Using substitute or replace makes it go directly into looping. (I know that's kind of the point of the program though...)
3. Is there a way to do this using a minimum of buttons? I was hoping one for record and one for playing.
boxxen
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2010 10:41 am

Re: Using SL as a drum machine

Post by boxxen »

OK
so clicking around the board a bit made me realise that maybe Jack wasn't working...
I have made an aggregate device in Audio/Midi
I cannot change any preferences in Jack at all.
These are stuck:
Driver > coreaudio
Interface > soundflower 2ch
Sample rate > 44100
Interface output channels > 2
Interface input channels > 2

In the routing I only have
Send ports:
System > capture_1; capture_2
Receive ports > playback_1; playback_2

If I run Jack inside Live it says that Jack is offline, both as a VST and an AU. I'm pulling my hair out. There so many parameters to go wrong...
jesse
Posts: 554
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:46 am
Contact:

Re: Using SL as a drum machine

Post by jesse »

First of all, if you are using the AU plugin version of SL running inside Live you do not need JACK (at least for SL). Secondly, why are you running both Jack and soundflower? What is your current use for soundflower? What audio interface are you using, built-in?

Aside from all that, let me answer your SL questions. You will have more control if you map the midi in SL itself, not in Live.

If you finish the record with Mute or Pause it won't do any (audible) looping. If you finish with One-Shot it will playback one time then mute itself. I assume your "play" would be One-Shot in this scenario, but I'm afraid you would currently need two buttons (Record and Mute/Pause) to do the recording the way you want. I would need to add another combo command record_or_mute to support what you want in a single button easily. As for loop length, there is no easy way to have it record a fixed length automatically, but you can quantize it to 1/8th notes, select 'sync' on the loop.

Just guessing, but I bet there are much more appropriate plugins (even free ones) to do this kind of drum sampling thing that would be far easier to set up.
boxxen
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2010 10:41 am

Re: Using SL as a drum machine

Post by boxxen »

Thanks Jesse for your quick response!

Hah, I didn't know why I was using Jack and Soundflower. I guess I just have them because I thought they would be useful. My interface is NI Audio 2DJ. I use them sometimes for DJing to people over skype...
Is there any way that the command record_or_substitute could be incorporated into the program? Most of the time I need to use the substitute command, but for the first one I need to hit record (I'm assuming) so that it sets the loop length. If there was an option to manually set the length of the loop then that would make my life a whole lot easier. I have looked into getting a different program, I'm not sure (apart from updating my copy of Ableton to 8) that there is a program that does this... Perhaps I don't have the right combination of words... was trying "realtime" "sampler" "software sampler" "dynamic sampler" etc etc.

Keep getting lead back to SL though...
Post Reply