I use live looping at about half of the gigs that I play. I’ve found that the built in looper has different strengths and weaknesses, and can be used in many, but not all,situations. I use the internal looper for some things, and an external looping solution for others. The external solution is Ableton Live via an X32 Rack mixer & audio interface.
Built-in looper:
- solo gigs, when recording a chord progression to solo over later (looper at the end of the chain)
- tweaking amp and FX parameters when setting up presets (beginning of chain - allows you to separate your “musician” and “engineer / sound designer” roles)
- building pad-like textures to “sit behind” guitar playing (looper early in a parallel chain with lots of ambient and mod FX afterward - this masks the loop start/stop point)
Ableton:
- When I need to use multiple presets for a looped section
- When I need loops that are different lengths (e.g. 1-bar repeating percussive part and 4-bar chord progression)
- When I need automatic tempo syncing for loops and delays/rhythmic FX. Axe tempo set by Ableton, which can automatically be set based on the looper plugin. As soon as the loop is recorded, the tempo is set and all of the tempo-based FX sync up.
- When I’m already at 80% CPU on the Axe preset and haven’t added the looper block yet
You can certainly control just about anything with the Mastermind, including Ableton. I originally had a layout on my FC12 in which I had all 6 control switches set up to control different parameters in Ableton via MIDI CC. This works fine, but I started actually using some of the control switches for amp parameters on the Axe, and decided to go back to using my Mastermind LT for Ableton looping.What do you use to trigger the looper in Ableton? I have a Mastermind GT16 I’d like to use if possible. I already have Ableton on my laptop.
You can certainly control just about anything with the Mastermind, including Ableton. I originally had a layout on my FC12 in which I had all 6 control switches set up to control different parameters in Ableton via MIDI CC. This works fine, but I started actually using some of the control switches for amp parameters on the Axe, and decided to go back to using my Mastermind LT for Ableton looping.
If you want to use your mastermind to control Ableton, the easiest way is just to connect it to the computer via USB. I use the editor app to program it. There’s some great info on the RJM forums about how to do this. Basically you just want each foot switch to send a midi CC, and then you get Ableton to “learn” the foot control for each function you want to map. You probably want to make sure you are not powering it with both a power supply and a USB cable (at least my MM LT says not to).Do you need a special cord to control Ableton on your computer via midi or does the axe somehow do it through the Midi block. It would be great if you were able to post a little video on how you set it up. I know there are more than several people on here that would like to have a more functional looper to use with the axe. Several questions might be answered like
How to get the Mastermind (FC) to talk to ableton
How to program simple loop functions in ableton
Or maybe you know of a thread somewhere that explains the basics of setup. I had a Softstep that I was using that plugged directly into my computer but alas I sold it because of pedal space etc. The Softstep worked fine but I was always hopeful to use the GT16.
Hey, I made a video earlier today. I posted it in this thread: https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/live-looping-rig-ableton-axe-fx-iii.155418/It would be great if you were able to post a little video on how you set it up. I know there are more than several people on here that would like to have a more functional looper to use with the axe. Several questions might be answered like
How to get the Mastermind (FC) to talk to ableton
How to program simple loop functions in ableton