Can AM instantly switch through a folder of files? Normally you hit the folder icon and browse, hit open, repeat. I'd like to be able to instantly shuffle through the folder. Is there a way? Thanks.
What do you mean, for composition or performance? For performance purposes, presets might due the trick (although multiple loopplayers with some sort of mixer might be more foolproof).
I may not be clear on what you mean by "instantly shufflle"...
Not 'instantly" in a strict sense, but as revo11 indicates, a fileplayer preset will recall the file you loaded, so its possible to step through files via individual presets. Unless I've missed something though, I don't think its possible to save the playback state in the preset, so you will have to automate or manually trigger playback after each preset/file is recalled as loading a new file stops playback.
If you want to 'shuffle' sound fragments, you could alternately combine your sounds if they are short, (ie combined length <= 15 secs) into one file with BubbleBlower, or if not so short take a similar preset based approach with possbly multiple instances of Bubbleblower.
Yes, I can appreciate those workarounds. What also would help is a multiple loop player object = load in 32 files and be able to shuffle them. And yes revo11 I'm using a template of multiple loop players exactly. If you ever used EST (now Sugar Bytes formerly Sonicbytes) there are arrows neat the sample name and you can just advance through the root folder instantly while playing. A loop player that you can drag 32 files into and advance through would be GREAT (with single stereo out, not multi).
Hi Chris, can you explain how you would use this musically? What's the advantage of having a 32 files in one loop player vs 32 loop players? What is it about the current setup that makes you consider them "workarounds"? Just trying to get an understanding of what the problem is. Thanks :) -- Ross.
Multiple loop players or presets requires loading each loop manually and separately as a preset or a loopplayer. Manual preparation may be fine if you have 20-30 loops, or a well defined set of loops to use in a live set, but it's less ideal if you want to quickly do more exploration or have more flexibility in a live setting with say, a directory of 100+ loops. Also, with the separate loop player option there's also the complexity of 32 loopplayers taking up space in the patch window. Not to say it's infeasible, just look at girl talk's setup.
However I'm wondering if Chris is aware that you can drag and drop from an open explorer/finder window. This approximates ableton live's rapid drag and drop workflow if you have a directory of loops you want to flip through. It's faster than the open dialog, especially if you have a directory of loops.
I see, so we're talking about two or three things:
(1) Next file/previous file browse buttons (which has, by the way, been requested before)
(2) Some kind of multi-file loop matrix contraption.
and maybe also:
(3) The long-requested media browser.
I'm wondering whether a loop matrix couldn't be better handled some other way... like more compact GUI mode for the LoopPlayer. The problem with a loop matrix is similar to the problem with Drums: either there are no separate outs available, or the prospect of multi-outs adds complexity for simple uses.
Yeah, although I may be extrapolating a bit to other approaches to deal efficiently working with large numbers of loops. Personally I don't think the next/prev buttons alone would be a great solution since that would mean the files in the directory would have to be pre-ordered somehow.
Re 2 - if you there was something comparable to a single ab live channel, that would probably work. It would basically be syntactic sugar for having a dozen loopplayers mixed to the same output (possibly with gain controls). I don't think you'd need multiple outs in this case - different routings would map to different multi-loop contraptions. They could even be fed into a matrix router for flexibility, the routing options can be handled outside the contraption.
Re media browser - since there's already drag and drop functionality, would this really add that much? The main thing is that it would look more integrated and would avoid alt-tab awkwardness in a live setting.
Anyway this isn't something I'm really advocating for... I'm not much of a loop guy.
What do you mean, for composition or performance? For performance purposes, presets might due the trick (although multiple loopplayers with some sort of mixer might be more foolproof).
I may not be clear on what you mean by "instantly shufflle"...
Not 'instantly" in a strict sense, but as revo11 indicates, a fileplayer preset will recall the file you loaded, so its possible to step through files via individual presets. Unless I've missed something though, I don't think its possible to save the playback state in the preset, so you will have to automate or manually trigger playback after each preset/file is recalled as loading a new file stops playback.
If you want to 'shuffle' sound fragments, you could alternately combine your sounds if they are short, (ie combined length <= 15 secs) into one file with BubbleBlower, or if not so short take a similar preset based approach with possbly multiple instances of Bubbleblower.
Yes, I can appreciate those workarounds. What also would help is a multiple loop player object = load in 32 files and be able to shuffle them. And yes revo11 I'm using a template of multiple loop players exactly. If you ever used EST (now Sugar Bytes formerly Sonicbytes) there are arrows neat the sample name and you can just advance through the root folder instantly while playing. A loop player that you can drag 32 files into and advance through would be GREAT (with single stereo out, not multi).
Hi Chris, can you explain how you would use this musically? What's the advantage of having a 32 files in one loop player vs 32 loop players? What is it about the current setup that makes you consider them "workarounds"? Just trying to get an understanding of what the problem is. Thanks :) -- Ross.
Multiple loop players or presets requires loading each loop manually and separately as a preset or a loopplayer. Manual preparation may be fine if you have 20-30 loops, or a well defined set of loops to use in a live set, but it's less ideal if you want to quickly do more exploration or have more flexibility in a live setting with say, a directory of 100+ loops. Also, with the separate loop player option there's also the complexity of 32 loopplayers taking up space in the patch window. Not to say it's infeasible, just look at girl talk's setup.
However I'm wondering if Chris is aware that you can drag and drop from an open explorer/finder window. This approximates ableton live's rapid drag and drop workflow if you have a directory of loops you want to flip through. It's faster than the open dialog, especially if you have a directory of loops.
I see, so we're talking about two or three things:
(1) Next file/previous file browse buttons (which has, by the way, been requested before)
(2) Some kind of multi-file loop matrix contraption.
and maybe also:
(3) The long-requested media browser.
I'm wondering whether a loop matrix couldn't be better handled some other way... like more compact GUI mode for the LoopPlayer. The problem with a loop matrix is similar to the problem with Drums: either there are no separate outs available, or the prospect of multi-outs adds complexity for simple uses.
Just some thoughts...
Yeah, although I may be extrapolating a bit to other approaches to deal efficiently working with large numbers of loops. Personally I don't think the next/prev buttons alone would be a great solution since that would mean the files in the directory would have to be pre-ordered somehow.
Re 2 - if you there was something comparable to a single ab live channel, that would probably work. It would basically be syntactic sugar for having a dozen loopplayers mixed to the same output (possibly with gain controls). I don't think you'd need multiple outs in this case - different routings would map to different multi-loop contraptions. They could even be fed into a matrix router for flexibility, the routing options can be handled outside the contraption.
Re media browser - since there's already drag and drop functionality, would this really add that much? The main thing is that it would look more integrated and would avoid alt-tab awkwardness in a live setting.
Anyway this isn't something I'm really advocating for... I'm not much of a loop guy.