Hello!
I'm more or less a lurker of this community, and read a lot of the stuff you guys post. Mostly learning basic workflows and stuff.

I would like to know if you know of any easy way to do live-looping (recording 1/2/4/8 bars then leave it looping and/or stop the loop whenever you want) without any external controllers. I know there are a couple of pedals and controllers specifically made for this, but, being the newb that I am, it'd be quite the waste of money.

So I'm looking for a way to do that on the software side.
Ideally using midi input to start/stop recording specific tracks.
Right now I've been able to do something like that in FL using the performance mode + Edison and linking the buttons on my novation launchkey to the record controls. But it's quite complicated and counterintuitive. Having to use the mouse really gets in the way.

I did a search over the forums and a guy asked about live looping 3 years ago, and people told him mobius or the looping feature of Ableton could do the trick.

Are there any other applications, vsti's, or workflows you could recommend me?

Thank you

 

Yes, indeed I do looping with Ableton and being able to map/learn almost any control to any MIDI controller or computer keyboard key is a very powerful thing.
For example: In session view, you could map clip triggers to MIDI Notes or button switches and arm clips for recording while you play. You could also map Stop/Record buttons to Midi Notes and so on.

I have another old little trick for you:
Kill an old USB mouse but keep the electronics and USB cable, mount the board into a foot switch and connect the switch with the mouse's switch for the left button. Then connect the mouse to the second USB port of your machine, usually both work simultaneously without problems. You'll need some electronics knowledge or a good friend doing it for you, but the nice thing is that this works for ANYTHING on screen that can be clicked with your mouse.
You just have to position the mouse pointer on the control, then actuate the foot switch.
A foot switch is good for looping, as you don't need your feet to play most instruments

 

Prodyon Livemachine


augustusloop
Elottronix

All vsts

Don't know about simple..I'm trying to get Livemachine going.
There are other standalones but I kept the list to vsts.

 

If novation's pads weren't so hard to link and didn't insist on using the same port and keys as the keyboard itself this'd be so much easier. Damn novation!
Otherwise it's been going pretty good, setting up proper controls seems to be the most important part.