Basic Looping Questions

[SooperNoob]

Okay before I am accused of laziness, I have read the documentation over twice (didn't understand it much) and have done Google Searches as well as watched YouTube videos, etc.

So I have SL working as an AU plugin in Logic. I can record and overdub. However...

1) I want to be able to stop the recording exactly at 4 bars or 8 bars or whatever so that my loop loops smoothly. I have tried quantize or round or whatever but nothing seems to help me get the loop to be a certain length. It is always 8.14 measures long or 7.13 measures long, etc. Seems like there should be a straight-forward way of setting this up.

2) When I mess around with the quantize setting to try to attend to point #1 above, I select QUANTIZE = LOOP or QUANTIZE = CYCLE. However in either of those cases, my recorded material is played back in mono (L side only) then stereo the second time through. And this does not seem to help me set the loop length.

3) Is there a metronome so that I can play in time? Seems like a fairly reasonable feature. SL must have that somewhere, yeah?

4) Where are the other stupid people? Actually, I am not stupid (compared to some others). Why do I not see basic operation instructions in plain language or step-by-step instructions? Am I the only one who is struggling with this stuff?

5) Congratulations and thank you for creating this open source tool. I am sure that it will come to be a valued tool in my bag. I understand that Zoe Keating uses this. She is a mighty wonderful cellist. If you haven't heard her compositions, you owe it to yourself to look her up.

[JeffHendricks]

Which version are you using? And are you triggering record/dub from inside Logic, how are you making the loops? Can you load a .wav file into SooperLooper and play it back? Try a few other things, just to see where exactly it's broken at.

[SooperNoob]

Which version are you using? And are you triggering record/dub from inside Logic, how are you making the loops? Can you load a .wav file into SooperLooper and play it back? Try a few other things, just to see where exactly it's broken at.

This is ver. 1.6.14 for intel macs. I am using it as an AU plug in Logic. I do not understand your question about triggering from "inside Logic." Let me go through my approach.

*) I have the SL GUI up. I have mapped a MIDI CC: command to RECORD function.

*) I hit the MIDI button and RECORD flashes (because I have the input threshold set to something above -infinity)

*) I strike a key on my MIDI keyboard which I treat as a downbeat and the recording begins

*) I conclude my recording and hit RECORD on SL again...recording stops

*) Full of excited anticipation, I play my loop back to hear what it sounds like. The recorded material is there, but it does not loop in a regular 4 bar pattern (or 2 bar or 8 bar or whatever) and so it sounds like a 4 bar phrase with one flat tire

How do I control this so that it loops in a REGULAR phrase? Think Ableton Live, etc... In Live, you set up a clip so that it is EXACTLY 4 bars long or whatever. It does not argue with you or think it knows better than you. When you record, whether you are done or not, it loops at EXACTLY 4 bars. This way, when you play it back, there is no stuttering, skipping or loping.

And does SL have a metronome? It seems useless for me to guess where the tempo is unless I can play along with a click.

Any help availalbe for this? Am I just being a dipshit? Thanks for any help that can be provided.

[jesse]

This is ver. 1.6.14 for intel macs. I am using it as an AU plug in Logic. I do not understand your question about triggering from "inside Logic." Let me go through my approach.

*) Full of excited anticipation, I play my loop back to hear what it sounds like. The recorded material is there, but it does not loop in a regular 4 bar pattern (or 2 bar or 8 bar or whatever) and so it sounds like a 4 bar phrase with one flat tire

Your settings for sync source and quantize are very important here. It sounds like in a recent post you ran across a bug where it would record one channel of the stereo loop correctly, but the other side ran long.... I have seen the issue before and that is unfortunate. You need quantize set to cycle, and sync enabled on the loop.

How do I control this so that it loops in a REGULAR phrase? Think Ableton Live, etc... In Live, you set up a clip so that it is EXACTLY 4 bars long or whatever. It does not argue with you or think it knows better than you. When you record, whether you are done or not, it loops at EXACTLY 4 bars. This way, when you play it back, there is no stuttering, skipping or loping.

And does SL have a metronome? It seems useless for me to guess where the tempo is unless I can play along with a click.

But to do what you want inside Logic you probably want to have your sync source set to Host/Jack and then set the tempo you want in Logic itself, you should see it reflected in the SL gui. This way you can use the metronome provided by Logic (SL does not have one). Now you'll want to do almost all the steps you outlined above and be sure to hit the finishing record a little early so that it will round up to the length you want (with quantize set to cycle it should be a multiple of a bar).

If you continue to have issues I can look more deeply into how SL operates with Logic.

[SooperNoob]

Thanks, Jesse. I'll give that a shot and post again if I have other questions or issues.

[subvocal]

SooperNoob wrote:
...I understand that Zoe Keating uses this. She is a mighty wonderful cellist. If you haven't heard her compositions, you owe it to yourself to look her up.

Zoe is astonishing! We're opening a show for her in May here in Madison.

I am having difficulty just getting sound to come out of SL. I see the inputs and outputs are getting signal but nothing comes out of the main outputs in Mainstage. I know there must be something I have not done but I cant find that info anywhere and I am not the brightest star in the sky, as well...
Have looked around the forum for a step by step instructional on SL and cant find that thread, if it exists.

Jesse, Can you point me to a beginners thread and thank you.

Mainstage
Macbook pro 2.53
RME Fireface 800

[subvocal]

so I can get SL to run as a stand alone looper but still cant figure out how to use it in Mainstage, which is how I would like to use it.
I have the plugin placed correctly and it shows up as an insert, the GUI starts up, I see signal in the looper but no audio comes back through? Ive set my audio preferences in Jack, in Mainstage... Ive tried with Jack, without jack.. I've messed with routing in jack (neither mainstage or my audio interface (RME fireface800) doesnt show up there) What is it I havent done?
Is there an idiots thread somewhere on this forum for people like me?...