Speed, Reverse, and Separating the Play and Record Heads on Enso

Enso can change the speed and playback direction of a loop. This is classic live looping functionality, although Enso's core flexibility with this is deeper than many devices typically allow. But Enso can also run its "play" and "record" heads in different directions and/or speeds at the same time, which is a far more unusual approach. Among other things, it means that overdubs can immediately come back at us in a different direction or speed than what we just played them at, which leads to many compelling (and occasionally confounding!) possibilities for developing and evolving a loop.
0:00 Uppin’ atom
0:21 Pitch/speed, reverse, and separating the play and record heads
1:28 Enso's options for changing speed in various increments
2:25 Exploring sectors at a reduced playback speed
3:22 Sectors at higher playback speed
4:02 Reviewing ”old fashioned” live looping pitch/speed manipulation
5:49 Running the record head at a slower speed than the play head
7:00 Running the record head faster than the play head
7:39 Further developments with play/record discontinuity and feedback manipulation
8:58 Traditional live looping reverse technique
10:34 Running the play and record heads in different directions
13:56 Inadvertent overdub adjacency
14:46 Changing both pitch and direction of the play and record heads
16:06 So pitch! Very speed!
16:38 Inadvertent dog(e) whistles
17:30 Overdubbing with gradually descending play speed
18:14 Bringing it all back home
Deep thanks to the following Patreon supporters for helping to finance this tutorial:
(in alphabetical order)
Randolf Arriola
Richard Atkinson
Steve Ball and Tiny Orchestral Moments
Dan Burke
Steven Clements
Phil Clevenger
Laurence Cramp
Hal Dean
Tony Douglas
Rejyna Douglass-Whitman
Jeff Evans
Christopher Evans
Shawn Farley
Christopher Fedak
Jason Fink
Jens-Christian Fischer
Pepe Flores
Gaetano Fontanazza
Ross Garren
Joel Gilardini
Randy Greene
Anthony Hancock
Phil Heiliger
Louis Hesselt van Dinter
Philipp Hirtler
Bob Holub
Fedor Indutny
Ted Killian
Zak Kramer
Todd Lainhart
Jeff Larson
Rebecca Lee
Ken Luke
Dino Meneghin
Jesse Nason
Michael Peters
Matt Pogue
Matt Rowe
Gene Schwartz
Keith Spicknell
Darin Stewart
Chris Stromquist
Nik Tembe
Nakarin Teerapenun
Bernhard Wagner
Paul Weber
Frank Welte
#enso #livelooping #audiodamage #audiodamageenso #reverse #backmasking #varispeed #repitching #softwarelooping #plugins #midicontrol #midi #andrelafosse #arturia #beatstep #arturiabeatstep #glitch #guitarlooping #geartalk #guitar #guitarist #musician #music #guitarsdaily #knowyourtone #gearybusey #tonefordays #cleantone #toneheaven #gearnerds #gearphoria #gearpassion #pedalboard #pedalboardoftheday #notpedalbored #pedalboardfrenzy

[@Alex_Martz]

Thanks for your videos on Enso!, I hope the people at Audio Damage see this so they can continue updating Enso as it hasn't been updated in almost 2 years, I wish they could improve the reduction of artifacts when moving sectors

[@MultiMam12345]

Awesome videos. love Enso. Main thing i learned with Enso is to always record everything you do. 👍

[@jmaz1100]

Zynaptiq Pitch Map will force all the pitches into your scale of choosing. Audio will have artifacts but the results can be stunningly weird and wonderful. Record forward and backward, slow down and speed up the pitch and it all stays in key. Welcome to sound on sound looping 2.0.

[@jmaz1100]

Fix stuff in Melodyne after.

[@Dekalboy]

When you see that what is the value of an RC 505 , wich appears so limited compared to Enso , right ?

[@andrelafosse]

The Boss stuff is really coming from more of a "song structure" kind of approach. It's geared towards being able to quickly record one or more loops, and switch between them. Things like Enso, and most of the other gear I cover, are much more in the "sound design" school: lots of options for manipulating and evolving a loop in many different ways, but not particularly focused on getting song structures happening. There's stuff the Boss gear does that Enso doesn't, as well! But I agree that I find this side of things waaaaaay more inspiring, personally.

[@2010yadayada]

Absolutely great tutorial, thank you very much Andre. Since yesterday i have got enso too. I see that you play live into enso. How can i make this in Ableton (with an additional external soundcard). I'm a clarinet player and i want to do this in the same way via mic. Thank you.

[@andrelafosse]

Thanks! I set the Ableton buffer as low as possible, to minimize latency. If I run into issues with crackling or glitchy (in a bad way) audio, I raise the buffer a bit at a time, until I've found something that's workable. I monitor through Ableton, so I'm not hearing any of the pre-Ableton signal. Then, it's creating a MIDI track in Ableton that receives the Enso commands, and routing the MIDI out from that to whatever track Enso is active on. Let me know if that makes sense, and/or if you have questions. :)

[@andrelafosse]

Something else just occurred to me: since you're a clarinet player, and getting your sound acoustically, you probably don't need to hear your "dry," pre-Enso sound through Ableton, unless there are specific software-based things you do to the clarinet (other than Enso) that you want to be able to hear.

[@2010yadayada]

@@andrelafosse Hi Andre, thank you very much for your efforts to support me. It seems that I have some problems in understanding the monitoring in Ableton. Here are my settings in Ableton: 2 Tracks (1 Audio and 1 Midi, where Enso is loaded in). I connected a mic into my extern soundcard to trigger the Audio channel (Audio Ext. In) > no problem. But what follow afterwards? How is the Miditrack (respective enso) able to capture the audiosignal? How do I have to set the Midi-configuratin? You wrote: ... "Then, it's creating a MIDI track in Ableton that receives the Enso commands, and routing the MIDI out from that to whatever track Enso is active on." I don't understand this sentence. A Miditrack will create automaticaly? ("Then, it's creating a MIDI track..."). Apart from this, I have read about monitoring in the Ableton manual, that the soundcard must activated in the Midipreferences?? is this so? My soundcard does only appear in the Audiopreferences, in Midipreferences it won't appear...maybe this is the point for the issue? I would be glad, if you can describe me exactly the Midisettings (if possible ;)). Thank you very much

[@2010yadayada]

@@andrelafosse Hi Andre again, I've connected another external soundcard (Motu 828) to rule out that it might be an issue with the soundcard. The Motu is recognized in Abletons Midi-Preferences, so I clicked to Track. In Abletons Midichannel the Motu is listed now. In any case, it still doesn't work. I don't know how and what exactly I have to set in the Ableton tracks. I think it would help me a lot, if you can tell me your Ableton settings (routing prozedure). I spent a lot of time to find out what's the problem (YT, manual (Ableton, Enso)), with no results. You are the only one, so far, to input an extern audio signal via Audiotrack to Enso by playing the guitar. Thank you very much again for your kind support.

[@andrelafosse]

@@2010yadayada Hi! Try this: www.dropbox.com/s/b00y9p7w9ksn411/enso.png?dl=0