Live Looping with Ableton's Looper Plugin

Another way to do live looping is to use Ableton's Looper plugin. And here it is right now. It works much like old guitar pedal loopers, where you:

• Record a phrase
• Overdub phrases on top of that

Setting Up

We're going to use this to record some phrases with the OP1. I've set up three tracks:

• The OP1 is feeding into each one of these tracks.

Recording Process

The way this works is we have a big record button. When we hit this, it will start recording the loop. It will record for however many bars you specify.

• Right now, I have it set to X, which means it will continue until I hit the record button again.

When I hit the record button again:

• It will either play the loop (this button)
• Or the plus button means I will go into overdub mode, which allows me to add another layer.

I prefer to put it on play, giving me a chance to gather myself before I start recording again.

Mapping Buttons

What I'm going to do is map this button to button three on my footswitch.

• There's also a clear button, which is useful if you mess up and need to take things out.
• I'll map that to button 8.

I'll do the same thing for the other tracks:

• Map this button
• Map its clear button to button 9.

Demonstration

I'll start my little beat here to keep time. When I'm ready, I'll hit my looper and it will start recording at the next downbeat.

• When I hit record again, it takes me into playback mode.
• Now it's just playing.

You'll notice the record button has turned into a plus button, meaning if I hit it again, I can overdub.

• And there it is!
• You can overdub as many times as you want.

For example, if I cut out a little too early, I might double that and play around with my knob a bit more. Now I've got everything working.

Next, I can go to my track next to it and start adding in some other sounds.

• If I don't like that, all I have to do is hit my clear button, and it empties out the looper, allowing me to start over and try something new.

Additional Tips

You can throw out as many of these loopers as you like.

• If you like a particular clip, you can click and drag it to place it where you want.
• Now, I can clear out that looper and just hit play on this clip of whatever I just looped.

Performance Setup

The looper is very powerful for live looping, and it's hands-free.

Here are some preferences:

• I prefer it not to control the song tempo or start the song.
• If you hit the button and none is selected, nothing will happen unless your track is already playing.

Tempo Control:

• I like to keep it set to follow the song, nothing else.
• You can have it set to estimate your tempo based on what you're playing, and it can be pretty accurate.

However, since this is for a live performance, I prefer to have something going, whether it's the kick or even the metronome. This way, I can:

• Play to that
• Record everything through the looper

This ensures everything's always in sync and sounds good.

In summary, it's a great way to do some improvisation live and loop things quickly without having to touch any sort of controller. You can just use your feet and concentrate on playing!