This is one way. I haven’t done this yet but it I’ve gleaned the method from a couple of users on the board and put the following together based on that information. Hopefully one of them might jump in and correct any errors in my understanding.
Mix your stems down to a max 8 tracks - 7 if you want to use channel 8 as Master on the OT or keep a spare channel for live sample triggering and/or mix resampling.
Make sample chains from each stem for each track, keeping their lengths appropriate for slicing in the OT. i.e 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48 or 64
So let’s say you have a track that splits comfortably into 48 x 8 bar sections. You can then load those 8 x 384 bar stems into the OT, assign them to machines and tracks and slice each one of them to 48s.
Set the Tempo Multiplier to 1/2 so those 8 bar loops will work within the OT 4 bar scale.
Then use scenes to lock in the next stem slice for each track and parts to give you access to more scenes as and when required. The OT gives you 16 patterns per bank, 4 parts and sixteen scenes per part = total of 64 scenes per bank. If you use 1 bank per song / track that will give you a 16 track set without having to stop and load a new project. Each of your stems will take up 8 sample slots (they have to be static machines as they are large files and will eat up the OT ram too quickly for you to use Flex). Once more you will be able to play a 16 track set this way as there are 128 static sample slots ( 8 stem chains x 16 tracks = 128).
Working this way you don’t have to worry about patterns too much as the same pattern with a trig on the first beat of each track can be used in each bank.(or see Biologik’s transition tip below for plays free, ableton style launching without programmed trigs. It’s very cool) It’s the scenes and slice locks that are going to move you through your sliced stems.
With that basic structure it’s up to you how much Live flexibility you leave yourself. You could say leave one channel free on the OT to trigger off samples live over the top of your looping sections using slots mode. The 128 flex sample slots could for example be populated with up to about 8 minutes of stereo samples ( depending on how much ram you assign to your recording buffers). You could also use that spare track to resample your mix and remix elements of it by assigning the recorder buffer to play back on that track and programming triggers and p locks to mess with your tune …depends on your style I guess.
Check out Biologik’s transition tip here.
This method enables you to create smoother transitions between tracks , swapping out one track at a time if you wish.
Hope this helps and provides some pointers for further exploration. I’m still trying to find the best workflow for prepping stuff for Live performance myself. The OT gives you so many options it can get mighty confusing…
If you use Live as your daw this clip might help you figure out how best to mix down your tracks into stems to load into the OT. He’s actually detailing how to go from a studio multitrack version of take Live arrangement to one that can be played live from Ableton’s session view but the principle remains the same and will give you ideas about how best to approach it even if you use another daw.
http://vimeo.com/1701545
Have fun.