Recording a 128 step (8 bar) loop with 1-shot Rec Trigs

What the previous posts ^ said. The problem is that the track scale is ignored by the sequencer for record trigs :frowning:

(FWIW Flex is less buggy than Pickup.)

Seems like a “well-known fact” but I don’t have encountered a buggy behaviour yet. Most topics on “PUM bugs” are over 4-5 years old. I only have my OT for 2 months, but PUM’s were the main reason I got one in the first place so I’ve been using these from the beginning in spite of the many “why don’t you use Flex” replies being triggered each time I mention PUM’s in a post. Anyway, each time I have a PUM misbehaving, until now it has always been a lack of understanding on my behalf.

For the record, I don’t use Flex machines for live looping (guitars and bass) because you need to set everything up first. With a PUM I hit a footswitch to start recording next time the pattern loops, and hit it again when I want to stop and start looping the recording next time the pattern loops, regardless of how many bars I recorded. If that is possible with a Flex I’d be happy to learn how!

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That’s good!! Don’t go searching for bugs :smiley:

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The problem is I’m trying to make this happen live on the fly, won’t have time for a lot of fiddling around with stuff in the moment anyway

I think this functionality not being possible with Flex machines is a big reason why PUMs even exist in the first place! :grin: though this does sound similar to what I want to achieve…

BTW, I figured out a way around this, but it isn’t with 1 shot trigs. I’m using Quick Record mode instead, which in some ways is even nicer because, while I do have to remember to hit the REC# button again to get the recording to stop, I can achieve sampling longer than 8 bars!

Also, it feel slightly easier to keep track of than remembering where all my 1 shot rec trigs are…but I just have terrible memory, so that’s more of a ‘me’ problem :sweat_smile:

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But you can’t quantize lenght, can you?

Everything is possible with Flex. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
It can replace master track and all machines except Statics.

Ok. Some know how to, some don’t… I don’t.

i do it this way:

  • set pattern resolution to 1/8 or whatever to fit 128 steps comfortably within pages
  • qrec and qpl set to plen
  • rlen set to max
  • trig one2

in settings - personalize turn quick rec mode on

thus you’ll get something in between pickup machine and usual flex. trigger recording and playing manually by pressing rec1 button (no need for combo). the closest way to ableton’s clip workflow for sampling on the fly

EDIT: actually I find that settings QREC and QPL are more convenient on 16, thus you won’t need to keep in mind the actual length of your pattern and just hit rec right before the first beat to initiate sampling.

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You will, for sure! :slight_smile:

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Yeah looks like you got it, unfortunately there’s no direct way to automatically stop a recording longer than 64 steps, with rlen max you need to use one2mode and manually enter a stop recording command, qrec is your friend for quantizing the start and stop recording. This can be done with manual sampling as you’ve found but you can also initiate sampling with a one-shot and end it with track+rec, although there is a bug on latest OS where if you start recording with a one-shot you have to press track+rec twice, only once is needed on OS 1.25H.

Long samples can easily be made on Pickups too but you still need a button press to end the recording. There’s some weird avenues to get a set length like already having a set length recording playing and entering PU “replacing” mode, or having a master PU and then slaves with the “Len” parameter, but they all require button presses, extra track, etc…

@pinup57, I haven’t done it but I’m pretty sure you can control the flex recordings same way as pickups using the recorder midi note triggers or the corresponding CC 59/60 values which access the note triggers by CC. There shouldn’t be any more setup required to use flex than PU besides assigning the recorder buffer but you just do that once and save the part, you have to setup pickups too it’s just one more step for flex. If your good with PU’s though probably no need to switch, I use them too all day long (you’ll eventually find some niggles though, there’s a few things I’ve found I must avoid). You also asked about quantize flex record length responding to jkam6033, you can’t automatically but you can use qrec and one2mode just like Pickups…

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Thanks @Open_Mike, that’s what I found too. What’s interests me is the quantized record lenght, and, especially, the auto-play. Because it’s all about live performance and serendipity, I want to have the freedom to produce a perfect loop of un undefined number of bars. With a flex you need to place a trig to get the recording buffer to play.

I have succesfully recorded >4 bar in a PU, loop off , with a Flex on another track that has the PU’s recording buffer as a source and a conditional trig so that the condition is true every (lenght of recording) and that works, but takes up 2 tracks and you need to decide how many bars you’ll record when you’re setting it up.

On the other hand, now that I think about it, The following should work too. Indeed the Flex recorder responds to the same midi commands as the PUM. So if I trigger the recording with QREC= Plen , max rec lenght, and one2 mode, loop off and set a conditional trig on beat1, the sample will be triggered each time the condition is true so the lenght doesn’t really matter, if it’s a bit shorter then X*bar it’ll loop just fine (because retriggered on the 1st beat) and if it’s a bit longer it’ll cut off. Must avoid to have a note ringing over the bar change though. If I preset the condition to 1:2 given that generally I tend to do 8 bar loops on bass I’ll have the time to change that condition afterwards to 1:4 if ever I just laid down a 16 bar groove.

It’s a matter of rehearsing such a routine.

But for live looping, I think I will stick to PUM’s for now, and try to master them fully, only then I will move on to another chapter of the OT book.

BTW I have run into a PUM weirdness when the other day a buddy dropped by with his drumkit. We started a jam, me on bass, and I attempted to make a PUM recording and having the OT set the tempo (which I had never done before). I somehow got only weird tempo’s like 152.8 when we were in the 120-ish BPM… most probably a user error!

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Yeah, PU’s start getting wonky if you stray out of sequencer tempo sync (sequencer already going) and/or start making loops of different lengths. My music tends to 64 step patterns and sequenced synced loops of 64, 128, 256, 512, and 1024 steps, this works great with PU’s. Even with sequencer sync try a 4 bar loop and then add another PU and record a 6 bar loop… :open_mouth: The tempo change you experienced happens on PU’s when you try to record quantized with sequencer running your bpm is below about 81 or above about 162, the OT will either double or half the tempo, somehow the tempo detection still acts.

I haven’t though about undefined different length recordings on one recorder/flex. I use one-shot recorders and flex to loop my 64 step AR patterns, and I use the PUs for the undefined various length instrument loops. I have an idea of two though, I’ll check it out…

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I could do it once with play free track, auto played quantized at the end of the recording, but it is not easy to setup. So I admit the ready to record, the auto-play with non defined length and the overdub are Pickups strengths.

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We can stop the flex recording just like a PUM at the start of the next pattern by setting a trig with midi note #64 on a midi track, page 1 beat 1, and send it back to the OT (midi loop, n’est ce pas @sezare56 :wink: ) on the auto-channel. Start with the midi track muted, then unmute it in the last pattern loop. (Program a footswitch to mute/unmute the miditrack if like me you control looping with a footcontroller because guitar ). Now the Flex recording will have a lenght of an exact multiple of bars in the current BPM without need to preset the lenght

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Ugh… Not sure I’m following. :thinking: :smiley:

Track recorders can record quantized multiple pattern cycles using one2mode and qrec, I set qrec to 64 and just press track+rec on the last pattern cycle of the recording.

Did you find a way to have the sample loop correctly within the constraints of a pattern when you don’t know the length it will be beforehand? For me I thought the issue was getting the sample to loop correctly without being re-trigger from the beginning prematurely if you make a longer recording? Quantized sequencer synced multi pattern length recordings just needs one2mode and qrec…

Theorically and from what I succeeded to do with short loops, if you send Combo Rec followed by C2* to play the recording just after, you can start and hear recording quantized.
In One 2 mode, if you send Combo Rec + C2 again, recording should stop, and be played quantized just after the end of the recording.

C2 for track 1. C6 is unfortunately not quantized, maybe a workaround…

So sample on loop and just trigged to play once from midi immediately after stop record? No play trigs on flex track as to avoid early re-trigger?

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Yep. Trigging rec and play. Once it records, twice it loops.

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Ahh, maybe that’s where pinup was at, it’s hard to tell sometimes without full parameter disclosure. :grin:

I think I’ll stick to pickups for this… :smile:
(for nauts that didn’t read the whole thread I’m talking specifically about re-recording different length loops that playback in real time as you go using a track recorder, not simply making fixed length long track recorder loops)

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So I tested again, it works really well with Inputs AB/CD (note C#4), but playback may stops when using combo C4* with SRC3 for overdub. It can be used as a crazy random but quantized time pitch delay.

Recording a 128 step (8 bar) loop with 1-shot Rec Trigs

*I guess it doesn’t work because of the lack of +1/384 microtiming when quantized.