Let's make Ableton Live Obsolete: Slicing Stems Quickly to Subdivisions

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

BIT OF BACKGROUND:

After learning how to wield the OT as the most supreme drum machine out there, overshadowing TR8-S by far, (thanks to the Elektronauts on this thread How to quickly turn OT into TR-8s?) now, I’m taking the next step to use it as a substitute for Ableton Live.

I am a song oriented musician who is looking to perform live, keeping stems flexible enough to remix the song structurally, depending on the situation. For instance, instead of starting the song with Intro, the drum stem from the Chorus kicking off the track. I should be able to remix tectonic layers to experiment on stem level and take advantage of the SCENES. This would benefit the song during production enormously, and possibly alter its initial image in my mind, which can only be a good thing, creatively speaking.

So now, I need to take the stems of a song and quickly map it out on OT.

WHAT I HAVE DONE SO FAR:

I have bounced stems region by region from Logic Pro: intro, verse, chorus, etc.
I coded the stems for the sake of organisation as such: 1 Bass Intro, 2 Bass Verse…
I imported these each sectional stem to a pattern in a bank as one shot triggers that loop.
So on A01 I have 1-Bass-Intro
on B02 I have 2-Bass-Verse
on C03 I have 3-Bass-Chorus. (When you have many stems per region, it’s easy to see what is what this way on file.)

So, the plan is to use the arranger to sequence a traffic for the song.

This was my intuitive way to get from A to B without asking anyone. :slight_smile: I am sure, it’s a buggery.

BUT… I am sure there is an easier and more efficient way to handle this operation.

HERE IS THE BIG QUESTION:

Can I just get away with importing the whole Stem file, without bouncing region by region to keep separation of Intro, Verse, Chorus?
Can OT slice a big file based on SUBDIVISIONS locked to the tempo of the song?
Say, you take the Bass Stem, and tell the slicer to make a slice precisely on bar 16? Start the next one from bar 16 to bar 32.
Or there is a whole another feature on OT that I should know about which can basically make the Ableton Live obsolete.

Hope my question isn’t too diluted like my mind trying to figure out the mighty OT.

Cheers

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#3

4 posts were split to a new topic: Sezare56’s off topic posts

#4

It can, but you have to make a precise selection with Trim before slicing, because slice grid is made from Trim selection.
In audio editor, select start / end according to bar 16, with the right sample values* > Slice page > Create slice grid.

Or, if your stem is already 64 bars for example, slice it in 64 slices, play it and resample it > slice it again. If someone have a better solution, I’m interested in! (Subdivision functions in Trim would be great).

*with correct tempo / math / correct sample rate you can get perfectly precise start / end sample values.

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#5

Describe how you’d like the OT to work after you’ve done the prep. How would you like to interact with it to progress through a performance?

#6

The stems are bounced at precise regional breakpoints. Which means as one shot triggers everything should line up between Bank-Pattern changes in the arranger mode. Currently, experiencing sync issues with one-shot-triggers. Like parts from Verse showing up in the intro, etc. Is that because One shot trigs need to be manually armed at each launch?

My stems are precisely bounced from Logic per region, dedicated to a section of the song. Verse, Chorus, etc.

“Or, if your stem is already 64 bars for example, slice it in 64 slices, play it and resample it > slice it again. If someone have a better solution, I’m interested in! (Subdivision functions in Trim would be great).”

I am not at all interested in sampling. It’s a backing track. I want to be able to make different arrangements of these stems that’s all. So slicing shouldn’t be necessary, since I have sliced them on DAW already.

#7

In addition to what I outlined above, I suppose, the only thing I can add is that I should like to hit play and have the backing stems, spread over 6 tracks in OT, play according to what I programme in the arranger.
Like in Ableton Live a strip of scenes launch, they can loop and retriggered via midi-pedal.
So, ultimately, I would love to be able to control the traffic of the song via midi pedal, if I want to extend the chorus, I can tell the machine and all stems play nicely.

Right now, the arranger mode is creating a fine mess with the way I described above. :frowning:

Hope I am being clear enough. Thanks for the heads engaged!

#8

As far as I know, the arranger can’t be controlled by external midi. So maybe you should abandon the idea of using the arranger for everything. What you might want to try, is using the OT’s midi tracks with midi loopback to cue and trig audio tracks . You could partially use the arranger, and then take control over midi, and finish using the arranger again. (Not sure if this fits your requirements, but this hybrid approach might give you ideas.) The midi implementation chart at the end of the manual is your friend here. Midi loopback is a technique that is frequently used by some gurus on the forum, and I started to successfully use it myself to achieve actions that are not native functionalities …(I’m not a guru myself though, I’m into the OT for two months only (what a journey, btw!))

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#9

One shot trigs of a track have to be armed again after 1 one shot has been played. Not practical at all in you case > use 1ST trig condition instead.
Check also scale multiplier, patterns or individual tracks can be played up to 1/8 slower and last 4x8 = 32 bars (still 64 steps max).

Midi control of patterns is easy : send a program change.
Possible to alternate pattern and arranger modes.

I misunderstood your question, I thought you wanted to slice a precise bar in 16 for example.

So for big files with slices I can see several possibilities :

Fastest if your stems are already exported, you can import them in Octachainer and make a sliced file.

If you don’t want to use Octachainer nor want to make your individual slices in OT by hand, you can export files you can divide in 128, 64, 32, 16… etc in Logic.
That way it is easy to slice in OT, and you can choose length of intro / verse / etc with the LEN parameter.

For your Bass Stem exemple : make a 64 bars export. Apply a 64 slices grid in OT.
Select slice 1, choose LEN =16 (SRC / Playback Setup with Slice mode, and LEN = Slices).
The bass will be played 16 bars.
For next one select slice 17, LEN = 16

You can also use Start mode if you want 128 divisions, same principle.

If you don’t want to mess with LEN parameter, you can delete useless slices. With the same example, keep slice 1, delete slices 2-16, keep slice 17, delete slices 18-32, etc…

#10

Before you start the sequencer press stop twice quickly, (double stop). This will ensure the current part is kicked in and activate all one-shots, might help with your verse/intro mixup. Another though I had was the start silent and silence tracks options, ones a global behavior setting in the prefs and the latter is in the pattern settings available per track. By default a sample from the previous pattern will play through on the similar track of the pattern you switched to until a trig is reached, if that track has only disarmed on-shots the previous track will play though. If track is start silent the previous tracks sample enters the release phase of the amp.

There’s also some options in the personalize menu that apply to arming/disarming one shots, you should check those out and you might find some other useful customizations if yo haven’t liked there yet…

Party On.

#11

Several one shots on one track, even on several patterns = no party. :slight_smile:
Unless you hold yes continuously.

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#12

Sh*t man what’s you sayin? :smile: By all means rock the cosmic party, ain’t no holden down yes gonna bring me down… :smiley:

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#13

Midi loopback = party time

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#14

Midi loopback to send arm message to rearm one shot trigs? :stuck_out_tongue:

I don’t think one shot trigs are the best choice for @KiNo anyway. 1ST or A:B TRC / different scale…

If a track contains several one shot trigs, all one shot trigs of that track will be disarmed once one of the one shot trigs has been activated by the sequencer.

#15

Read my FlexiPickup trick, I use a miditrack to arm one-shots at a specific moment

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#16

I will but OP was using one shots to play stems, not for recordings.
Different purpose.

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#18

If we ever duel Octatracks, I’ll take you both down with one shot! :rofl:
Hopefully it never has to come to that. :grin:

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