Session View - Live Looping Quantization

[quandry]

I've been using Live as a live looping tool with instruments since version 2. Over time, I've used the arrangement view more and more, and dwindled down to no live looping in the session view for the last few years.

My old strategy was simple--using the session view with the global quantization set to "1 bar". I could record-arm a track, hit the record button in the session grid on said track at any time during a measure, and know that the recording would start on the "1" of the following measure. I would then play my instrument while recording (audio or midi track), and then hit the same record button in the same track/clip slot on the session grid, and the clip would record until the "1" of the following measure, at which point it would start looping. Simple system, worked great--essentially both the "start recording a clip" and the "stop recording and loop a clip" behavior were identical and tied to the global quantization (1-bar was my personal preference for that setting).

Somehow, it seems that Live 9 has eliminated this behavior, or I somehow can't seem to get the right combo of settings/preferences to make it how it used to be. I went back and confirmed in my version of Live 8 that the above behavior was normal, and that my record/warp/launch settings are identical between 8 and 9.

The thing that seems different is the new "O" "Session Record Button" seems to have replaced the "OVR" "Overdub" button, and the behavior I now get is that the record launching of a new clip/loop is consistently tied to the global quantization (ie "1 bar") setting just like previous versions of Live, but the "stop recording and loop a clip" behavior when I hit the same session clip slot button a second time is nearly instantaneous, and not tied to the global quantization.

All I want to do is to have a simple way to create live loops in session view, tied to the tempo, and with a 1-bar quantization for starting and stopping recording, so I can focus on playing my instrument and not having to hit the stop/loop button precisely (just hit it anytime in the measure prior to when I want looping to start/stop). I really hope that I'm missing something, and that somehow after all these years this simple and crucial (for looping) feature didn't get lost...

If this feature is really gone and cannot be replicated, I guess I'm then looking for suggestions for looping plug-ins, hopefully not.

Thanks in advance,

Ryan

[yur2die4]

What you're describing as happening currently is very odd behavior and not how it has worked in my experience in Live 9.

What are you using to trigger the clips?

[quandry]

Thanks for the reply. Usually I use a midi-controller to do this, but was just testing it with my mouse to get the behavior I described. From the manual for Live 9:

3. Click the Session Record button to record into the selected scene in all armed tracks. A
new clip will appear in each clip slot, with a red Clip Launch button that shows it is currently
recording. To go from recording immediately into loop playback, press the Session
Record button again.

4. Alternatively, you can click on any of the Clip Record buttons to record into that slot. To go
from recording immediately into loop playback, press the clip’s Launch button.

Seems like the behavior going from recording into loop playback is no longer tied to the global quantization, but rather an "immediate" response tied to when you hit either the clip record or session record buttons. This results in loops that are not in 1-bar increments, and rather have an odd number of beats. This makes them worthless for seamlessly live looping clips in session view--I don't want to go in and edit the loop timing/playback region, it should just loop per the global quantization settings. Anyone getting this to work like all previous versions of Live? I tested all my installs of Live 9 (32 and 64 bit, versions 9.1x and 9.2x), and the behavior is consistent.

[yur2die4]

Do you have any midi mappings in the clip properties?

Have you looked at all your midi mappings and made sure that none of them would affect your clip launching? Is your default clip launch mode in Preferenfes set to Trigger and Default Launch Quantization inside Preferenfes set to Global? (These are in the tab 'Record Warp Launch' in Preferences)

[quandry]

DUDE, thanks so much! It was the "Default Launch Quantization" inside Preferences--it had been set to "None". I have no idea when I mis-adjusted that, oops. All back to normal now, thanks again.