Live Looping with Ableton Live - Max for Live device - Full Run-Through Video

[@NeroBerg]

This gives Ableton Live the functionality of a Boss RC-505. greatness

[@mosemusica]

Just used this in my set for the first time, it worked flawlessly - so intuitive and fun to use

[@abletondrummer]

Ah great! Thx for the feedback - I can always make use of some live footage IF you want me to share this. THX

[@dreamliferenegades896]

Yooo it's Mose! Awesome seeing you pop-up here soul-brother - definitely helped me determine to go this route

[@mosemusica]

@@dreamliferenegades896 have fun!

[@SatoriMusicaofficial]

Hey- is there a way how to get visual feedback on my controller? So when I record something the button of my controller turns red and when I play something, its green (similar like launching and recording clips on a APC)

[@abletondrummer]

There are some options e.g if you have an APC and fold the group track it will show you if record or playing of loops is in progress

[@MikeManaMusic]

Again I wanna thank you SO MUCH. This Ableton is actually ready for live looping!

[@Mik_McG]

Very cool. Excited to get it, and try it out!

[@MarcCaryMusic]

i am so excited that it works on the push standalone i am having a ball. thank you

[@MarcCaryMusic]

how do we move to the next scene and record?

[@yarov_me]

Fantastic device, I love it and recommend it to my fellows musicians. Just realized that I can setup a midi foot button to send several messages to stop/play ALL loopers, hell yeah!

[@kaerustation]

do you got a cool midi foot button to recommend? i really struggle to find one..

[@yarov_me]

@@kaerustation I am using an Airstep. I’ve struggled to find something viable, too. I don’t claim my choice is the best, but I like sending several messages with one button. I have some buttons configured for two messages, one for Release and second for Long Press. This allows me to start the recording and undo, it with the same button.

[@Janw1960]

I have also a RC-600, but i'm gonna use your One Button Live Looper, thanks Tobi.

[@AlexTrimpe]

Might be a dumb question... how do I get the looper to use midi instruments instead of live audio? When I open the One Button Looper Template I would like for it to be able to immediately record notes from my midi keyboard so that I can use midi drums and things like that inside of Ableton instead of live instruments like a guitar or microphone.

[@abletondrummer]

Hey Alex - instead of Audio tracks you could just use MIDI tracks. e.g. you could delete the 10 'layer' tracks and create 10 MIDI tracks. Depending on where/how you want to send MIDI to an instrument you would need to send the MIDI to another track or have instrument on the single MIDI tracks you just created each. Cheers

[@bestjuly13]

Cool! Thanks for the effort. I guess at some point I will have to buy this too :)

[@schlapbe]

that is awesome Tobi! Congrats!

[@thomas9294]

Hi Tobi! What an awesome device which covers soo many possibilities Ableton should have implemented by default for years! Thanks a lot, purchased directly after watching your video :) The use cases you described in the video just work like a charm! One thing which is confusing me is when the looper is part of your live set, it seems you are not supposed to make any changes to the amount of tracks or even scenes, because the looper will just trigger clips while the change is happening. In my case I'm occasionally capturing and adding new scenes which I am then working with. Or it happens that I want to spontaneously a new track while the transport is running. This does not work because each time the looper is triggering clips or even removing the latest one when a change to set happens. Do you have an idea why this happens or is there any way how to prevent this from happening? Thanks a lot

[@abletondrummer]

Hey Thomas - thx for your feedback - yep I understand that this is causing an issue for your specific use case. The challenge is that Ableton Live is 'handing out' IDs and paths for tracks which are updated when adding more tracks. So when adding a track this is currently causing the looper to trigger (as it is getting updated internally) - I decided to have this as it will auto-update everything else without the need to hit "Refresh" on each looper and for the majority of users this makes more sense. I will put this on my to-do list but I can't say for sure IF this can be solved without making this less user-friendly (as you would need to "Refresh" all loopers).

[@kaluze]

Is it possible to reverse the loop, like in Ableton's native looper? I know that it's possible to reverse the clips, but I want to know if it's possible to assign a button on the MIDI controller to automatically reverse what we've recorded without going into the clips. (As in the native louper of ableton)

[@abletondrummer]

Hey unfortunately the "Reverse" clip function is not accessible via the Ableton.API... so that is not possible

[@andyg_drums]

Thanks Tobi! Immediately purchased.

[@abletondrummer]

you are a star!

[@Isaacthompson]

One more question! Can you control the target scene of the loopers via automation or midi? Thanks!

[@abletondrummer]

Yep can be changed via automation or midi dummy clip. The range is 1-1000 so that will conflict with controllers sending 0-127 but that will b adressed in the next update

[@Isaacthompson]

@@abletondrummer Ok great news, thanks! Actually it's great to have 1000 scenes. Some of us have big projects :)

[@abletondrummer]

@@Isaacthompson Yep that's why I applied this range but for the next version I m planning to make it 'selectable' if it will be a 1-128 or 1-1000 range. btw you ll find my email here blog.abletondrummer.com/contact/

[@Isaacthompson]

@@abletondrummer ok perfect! I guess we can use a second looper if there's more than 127 scenes! Blessings and thanks..

[@abletondrummer]

@@Isaacthompson I guess I would implement it actually just having a switch button to select between the two options

[@MasonToryen]

Thank you for this brother!

[@abletondrummer]

thx for your support!

[@duregeorge1014]

Hi! I purchased your device, I like it, but I think, there is a bug in it. (at least in my case) :) It works properly up to 6 tracks, but if there is more (7-10), after stopping the play (green) button doesn’t start the last track (the 10th if there are 10 tracks, the 9th if there are 9, and so on). Can you help me, how to fix this? (live 11, Max 8.5.5) Thanks!

[@abletondrummer]

Thx for the info I will check and fix that over the next days - in the meanwhile: you can trigger everything/all loops via the ‚main‘ rec/play button,yes? If your looper ‚is full‘ this is the same function like the green play button.

[@duregeorge1014]

@@abletondrummer Thank you for the quick response! :) No, the big knob behaves the same way. Here's a screen recording: drive.google.com/file/d/1rqNtiphAidX94SwhLGp9BLQ3bjpIJIgh/view

[@abletondrummer]

@@duregeorge1014 thx! I will check that and get back to you!

[@TheAsurmo]

Is it possible to use it on the LITE versión of Ableton or with some Ableton without a license? I know it wouldn't be possible to export nothing...

[@abletondrummer]

Hey - this is a Max for Live device which means you would need Max for Live which is included in Ableton Live Suite (or can be bought as an add on for Ableton Live Standard) - So this won't work with "Lite". BUT you can always get the free Ableton Live Trial which is fully functional for 3 month and after that you aren't able to save or export - BUT this gives you 3 months FULL ACCESS. www.ableton.com/en/trial/

[@MikeManaMusic]

I love your tool what a game changer! One suggestion: It would be cool if we can put the track for the looper somewhere else in the track like at the end and then choose the number/name of the track we wanna start the loop layers. This would create a better overview in the set, especially when you wanna mix all the tracks

[@abletondrummer]

Hey - from a developers point of view it is always a challenge to decide between "User friendly"/"Accessible"/"Clear" and adding more functionality/flexibility. I went for this approach as it makes it clear which tracks are being controlled. By using the PopUp windows you are able to customise the control layout even better to your needs (then using the devices track view.) Cheers Tobi

[@Iskulaatikko]

Now all i need is a sampler where i can record a oneshot and immediately launch that oneshot so i can real time sample my beatboxing as a drum pad and i’ll have everything i need for live looping. Does this work with max 8.3 or is 8.5 update necessary?

[@abletondrummer]

Max 8.3 will be fine but updating is really easy actually. kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3fbdGOKqpKXprc

[@sternenherz]

This is really really good. I bought a tiny m4l plugin called "mm.Clip Looper" a while ago, which has a similar approach in layering several clips - but the One Button Looper has what it really takes to be a great looper: You actually see what's going on! That's so good and so necessary when the background of this whole thing is a convoluted huge group track, haha. I still have absolutely no idea though, why Ableton as a company sucks so much, that since its initial release, the original Looperplugin has not been improved - and that there is no AUDIO OVERDUB IN CLIPS. I just don't get it. How hard can audio-overdub in clips be? And why did the universe decide that even though there are ten-thousand "Ableton certified trainers", Abletonfans, Abletonproducers, and especially real Ableton-Live-Performers, that noone of them had an impact on the Developers, so they finally do their work? That's the mystery of the universe. Sorry for ranting about Ableton, i guess seeing the gigantic Feature Request List of Abletons Beta Forum and zero developer-interaction with it since several years had a negative impact on my opinion.

[@abletondrummer]

haha - you can't have it all I guess. Lucky you that you got me😄

[@BlakeRowe]

Found you through Reihnart Buhr. I'm just setting up One Button Looper but can't seem to add a midi controller for triggering. When I enable midi listening by hitting S on the M4L device, it doesn't "see" any note I play on the controller. midi is coming in to the looper track but is grayed out. Ideas?

[@abletondrummer]

Hey - grayed out could mean that the Midi controller you selected is not active - please send me a screenshot via email and should be able to see what s happening

[@BlakeRowe]

@@abletondrummer Thanks for your reply! I did figure it out; my Korg Nanokey midi controller has no driver for Ableton. I used my NI-S88 for the job. I also discovered that midi tracks being controlled by the One Button Looper need to be on "auto" for monitoring, unlike "off" when recording audio. Really looking forward to digging into your M4L device!

[@abletondrummer]

@@BlakeRowe Cool. Yep Actually "IN" and NO "ARM"ing (the Red circle bottom of track to OFF") would be the best setting to have the MIDI always being routed through.

[@BlakeRowe]

@@abletondrummer Thank you!

[@rishabhrajan]

Can this work with odd time signatures? Also can the second track automatically start recording to a predetermined length without having to press a button a second time?

[@abletondrummer]

Hey regarding odd time sig: Yep you can use the time signatures within the limits of set Ableton Live's master metro (e.g. 7/8, 11/16 = everything in 1/2/4/8/16) You could as well set the global launch quantisation to something lower then 1 bar to achieve more flexibility here OR you could turn of the global launch quantisation and be completely 'free' and unsynced. It all really depends on what over all approach you are going here.

[@abletondrummer]

Regarding predetermined length: Yep there are several ways: You can set up fixed clip length via additional devices: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqO5iIt8ZZhofs0 OR you can as well set up 'dummy' clips to trigger e.g. 2 bars of rec, re-loop, 2 more bars of rec, re-loop ALL with one button. I show how to set this up here:kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJTKh5x-hs9pbbM

[@kerygmalivelooping1318]

I love it and am learning to use it to wean off of my 2 RC505s. How do you add more loopers like you show at 1:10? I would like to have one for each of my 6 instruments.

[@abletondrummer]

Hey - you just need to add more tracks and add more looper devices. They need to be arranged in this specific order I explain in this video. When you buy the looper there is a template included this way you can just drag n drop grouped tracks and add more looper quick n easy.

[@abletondrummer]

All being shown in this video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rICzeZabdq94psk

[@eTHERNALsTRAITS]

Very useful!, Lots of possibilities there, Lots of thanks!! One question That maybe you can response, is theres any way to set up ableton to start playing automaticly once It charges?, (Avoiding touch play Button...). Lots of thanks!!

[@abletondrummer]

Hey - by "once it charges" you mean when it finished loading, yes? I wouldn't go for this approach, in a live performance you want to be able to control when to start.

[@eTHERNALsTRAITS]

Hey!, Lots of thanks to this quick response... The idea its to have a folder with all the access to the ableton projects, click them and immediately It starts in a background without the necesity to click the play Button, and without loose the folder view. Lots of thanks!

[@abletondrummer]

@@eTHERNALsTRAITS well ‚everything is possible‘ + I do custom devices - if you are interested in getting a quote please send me an email -> blog.abletondrummer.com/contact

[@eTHERNALsTRAITS]

You are very kind, i Will save your email for future doubts. Again thanks for your time to response, you sin a subscriber!!

[@Isaacthompson]

Amazing work! Can this device send midi feedback? It would be cool to control the LEDs on my controller! Thanks..

[@abletondrummer]

Hey thx! The current version doesn't send MIDI feedback. I have tested a few ways to implement it but it is a little difficult to find a good way which can meet the majority of MIDI controllers as each one's requirement is very different. Which one are you using?

[@Isaacthompson]

@@abletondrummer Ok thanks! Too bad. I'd be happy for any Midi output honestly. I'm using a custom midi pedal but I've also got a Push 2 and an APC mini.

[@abletondrummer]

⁠ ah cool - an APC (or Push in Session-Clip-View) would work quite well as the (folded) looper group tracks give some great indication if something is playing or recording via the native remote scripts

[@Isaacthompson]

@@abletondrummer Ok true the APC would help. But still, it would be nice at the feet too :) Something simple just a Midi note with different velocity levels to represent the looper status would be a big help. Thanks for your time! Blessings

[@abletondrummer]

@@Isaacthompsonplease send me an email and we can investigate further options

[@frankprill4068]

I was fed up with abletons annoying and complex operation with using looping, thes loopers from abletton are not bad, but complex to setup as I wished: easy to handle. I dont want sit hours annd hours to setup ableton. I was very short to by me a RC505. Then I have seen this here, no this is not advertising, but this guy here did a great job with well thought out functions. Sorry Boss, lucky Ableton :-)

[@erikm5753]

I like the undo, but what if you want to undo the undo, or get back what you undid by mistake? It appears that is not possible yet, right?

[@abletondrummer]

You could use the Undo in Ableton‘s Edit menu for that. I have an M4L device which lets you access this via Midi/key map but I haven‘t released that yet.

[@abletondrummer]

please drop me an email - we will find a solution for that -> blog.abletondrummer.com/services-from-ableton-drummer/

[@ringoze]

Yep that's a real pain, now I avoid using a footswitch control for delete/undo as I can't get the clip back even using Live's edit menu.

[@jafalamusic]

SO excited to try this soon! A question: If you switch to a different scene, does the looper automatically "go back" to the first track (that you set up in the device) for looping into? Thanks!

[@abletondrummer]

Yes! - as soon as you select a different scene the looper will address and control ('only'!) that scene. You could as well have two instances of the looper on the same track. This way you could control recording/loop new loops on a track which already has something on there.

[@paulperold640]

Understood thx for your reply ,guess its a no no for me as i cannot afford the standard and live pakkage and only using Ableton live lite .Its an awesome program and can only dream. Good luck with your venture.

[@abletondrummer]

Yep it is a 'proper' investment - IF you want to: you can always check out the free Ableton Live Suite Trial - it is fully working for 3 month. www.ableton.com/en/trial/

[@mimicontre]

and if we select no bar and no metronome, what happens?

[@abletondrummer]

Hey - if you set the global clip quantisation to "None" (and de-activate the metro) record and re-loop will be applied immediate and you would have completely 'independent' clip loops. I guess this only makes sense for music genres like ambient, drone etc.

[@echy]

hello, I purchased it . when I pause the looping, all my loops reset to the beginning start point throwing the melody off instead of keeping their positions. any advice?

[@abletondrummer]

Heyhey - hm not quite sure if I get your use case right as usually when people stop a loop and restart them they want them to play from the start. Feel free to shoot me a short vid explaining and e mailing me that. blog.abletondrummer.com/contact/

[@drewsouthwell1027]

This is amazing, thank you! This is working perfectly however on my window there is a little (!) sign and I cannot figure out what this means. Could you explain this? Thank you so much!

[@abletondrummer]

Yep - it is a little warning sign to let you know that you have no clips/layers to record left. e.g. if you have 10 tracks you are controlling it means all 10 / the 10nth track has a clip recorded already and you aren't able to record more in there.

[@adbmusicify]

loving this so far! liking the work flow for sure -- trying to see if there is a fluid way to loop two scenes and transition between the two -- as in an "A" section on scene 1 loopers and "B" section on scene two - I'm sure there's an obvious solution lol I'm not seeing

[@abletondrummer]

Interesting idea but that would b a different concept then to the one being applied here. Of course you could automate and change the „Record to Scene“ parameter here which would give you the option to control seperate scenes. You might be even get lucky in using two Looper devices on the same Midi Track controlling the same tracks to record/loop

[@adbmusicify]

@@abletondrummer thanks for your reply-I’m excited to continue working with it

[@this.is.imagine]

Fantastic device! I have been looking for something like this for a long time. Why is the circle limited to the first two layers? It would be good to see all the layers how "far" they are into the beats.

[@abletondrummer]

Thx - This was a UI decision I had to make. When having more circles I found this to be 'too much movement' in a too little field plus the 'depth' of the circle line's would have been very thin. I have some unreleased stuff + do custom jobs if you are interested please drop me an email.

[@this.is.imagine]

@@abletondrummer I understand. I have one tip that would probably help others - to make the name of the looper available as a large font title on the looper window instead of the title on the window itself which can be quite small, especially when used in live situations. :)

[@JuanluGarcia]

How to combine this device with Arrangement Loop Control controlling "Loop OFF via MIDI Note"? Do you have to mount 2 tracks for record? I want to do different loops in various sections in Arrangement Mode in an open lenght setting. I've purchased your Loop Control and having this limitation of having to mount the track (+ the other audio/midi track/s) for recording to control the Loop OFF. If you don't mount the Loop Control Track it doesn't trigger Loop OFF. Thank you

[@abletondrummer]

Hey sorry for the late reply just seeing this. Hm TBH I don't understand your use case fully. By "mounting" you mean "ARM"ing?

[@seethruseethru]

a question, because it's driving me crazy. I did some live improvisations using the looper device, several in fact in different tracks. And pressed record in the arrangement in ableton so that later I could do a bounce of the live improvisation and have a recording, but I can't get looper to export properly the way it sounded during the improv. It usually won't stop playing the loops or if it does, they fall out of sinc or other weirdness. How can I export a live looping session?

[@abletondrummer]

Hey - when everything is recorded into the Arrangement you would need to 'clean' all loopers, click on "Back To Arrangement" to activate all the recorded clips in Arrangement and then hit export. That should be it.

[@seethruseethru]

@@abletondrummer Hello! I did that but the problem is that even though the loops are clean and the automation is activated, the button activates while exporting and so the loops work fine up to a point but then never turn off. I don't know if there are problems with conflicting information in the loopers that don't allow them to be exported properly

[@abletondrummer]

@@seethruseethru ah ok - you would just need to turn off the loopers or even delete the MIDI tracks you got the looper on - you just want to export the tracks n clips you have recorded to but don't want the M4L loopers to do anything while exporting

[@beaubrunb]

MAGISTRAL!!!

[@MultiMam12345]

Amazing stuff! Any chance of setting this up as a retrospective looper?

[@abletondrummer]

Hey - what do you mean by retroperspective looping?

[@MultiMam12345]

@@abletondrummer retrospective looping allows to improvise with a continuous recording buffer. You decide to loop after playing. It's a really intuitive way to improvise and capture what you just played. You could set it up with 2 delays for example.

[@abletondrummer]

@@MultiMam12345 Hey sorry for the late reply - Well to a limited extend: You could do this via a dummy clip triggering a recording/replay of clips e.g. of 2 bars. I m planning on doing some tuts on how to set this up.

[@redbirdsaraceno]

i think he’s reffering to what ableton calls “ midi Capture” which i use all the time for looping.

[@joonasautero661]

Wohooo... cool cool cool cool! 😁👍👍👍

[@kittensinkmusic]

incredible! SOLD! if you do create a device which can see in the future i'll buy that, too!

[@abletondrummer]

- I ll try my best to make that happen!

[@kittensinkmusic]

@@abletondrummer it'd be great to pre-quantize my playing

[@abletondrummer]

@@kittensinkmusic that was actually my first thought…

[@abletondrummer]

@@kittensinkmusic BTW -> Back to the future with this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Zn2UmqOFi9mbr5I

[@kaislate]

I have had a tough time finding the information, but is it possible to use this so that the following happens: You hit the record button and the looper goes into like a waiting mode but doesnt actually record anything until the next midi receive input (not a specific note rather it starts on any 'note on' message received) I think this might be a push only feature. But if you set count in to zero and the trigger to 'note on' maybe this will work? Tldr; - arm a track for recording, either precreate blank clips or utilize a m4l device to set default length of new clips, then the clip will start recording the moment you start playing ANY notes. (Recoridng either midi input to a clip, audio, or both at the same time.) Please let me know if this is clear enough the way i am attempting to explain it.

[@abletondrummer]

I get an idea of what you are after. First I would like to understand how this is possible on the Push - do you have reference info on that/point me e.g. to where in the manual this is covered? Thx

[@kaislate]

@@abletondrummer I haven't found it, I was just told either one of two things online... either get a push or just use count-in. Both of which are not really solutions. Edison in FL has kind of a solution with audio levels via a gate triggering and disabling record which is neat, but also not exactly what i am looking for. No solution for starting a clip record when I first start to play a note though can be found anywhere. Maybe there is a way to utilize the midi capture insert inside of ableton so that even though it won't record the midi in real time starting with a note on trigger, maybe it could create a clip and start playing it via the midi capture insert feature.

[@abletondrummer]

@@kaislate Hey - I m pretty sure that the info you got about Push being able to do this isn't right. Anyways lets look at this one step back: You want to be able to trigger "Start Transport" + "Start recording" when you play a sound. Even technically as this would be possible to program you might run into issues as the trigger recording need to be instant and coming BEFORE your sound/MIDI, so sound/MIDI would need to be deferred = not ideal and IMHO I wouldn't suggest that. HOWEVER I have a few devices which are doing that for the transport start AND I do custom stuff for cash - (asp I don't see that this would be something I would release as a product...). One more idea: For MIDI you could set up empty clips running and then using MIDI overdub - not 100% what you asking for but going into your direction

[@kaislate]

@@abletondrummer Do you think M4L device would be able to have a mode where there is a button where the device is listening or not listening... and when in listen mode the moment it detects ANY incoming midi it executes an action. That way the action could be whatever the user wants the moment the user starts playing the keyboard. The reason for this is during live performance sometimes things are happening too fast to have to arm a track make sure the track has a recordable clip and then trigger record to the clip before you can even play the first note. Having a blank clip already selected with the mouse for instance and then click enable listening device I can continue on with other external instruments and the moment i use my midi controller to play it will record a loop or whatnot. It could also be used to trigger your live looper the moment a midi note is played. Ideally this would be my use case.

[@abletondrummer]

@@kaislate You might want to have a look some of the packs and devices I already released e.g. "Note to MAP" - ( blog.abletondrummer.com/flexible-midi-mappings-and-controls-in-ableton-live-with-max-for-live/ ) + my AutoMate packs ( blog.abletondrummer.com/enable-automations-and-automate-pack-2/ ) IF you want to controller do to multiple things (or different things) -> blog.abletondrummer.com/advanced-midi-control-in-ableton-live/ In general: "listening or not listening" can be done via having devices ON / OFF - Having ALL NOTES triggering an action can be done via pitching all notes to one pitch which then triggers things via a M4L device. STILL: triggering multiple things at once needs to take the signal flow into account.

[@paulperold640]

What about a stand alone unit without Ableton live as that pakkage cost a fortune .

[@abletondrummer]

I understand where you coming from - I guess this presented live-looping approach here is interesting for people who already are using or who want to make use of Ableton Live because of it's other benefits as well.