Pretty sure she uses the IAC driver on the Mac. Unless I misunderstand what you mean.
Yes, I’m talking about the whole workflow and implementation. The IAC part is really just the MIDI signal routing.
The important point is that (according to some sources) Elise does NOT use the traditional Ableton Clip recording/launching capability, which would be the direct analogue to the Ardour Cue/Clip capability.
Instead, she uses a separate looper plugin (it’s a bundled part of Ableton Live, but it’s not part of the Clip launching workflow). The direct equivalent in Ardour would be to use a conventional audio track (e.g. in Edit mode) with a looper plugin like SooperLooper or Guitarix GxLiveLooper (if it supported MIDI triggering, which it does not).
She creates multiple tracks with looper plugin added, and configures each looper to trigger its record, stop, and play on specific MIDI notes
She then triggers this using a separate MIDI track which is then connected to the input of the various loopers. THIS is where IAC comes in on the Mac. On Linux, you could either use Jack/Pipewire or, more probably, just route the MIDI within Ardour.
There is, to my mind, a strong analogy between this approach and the Ardour ability to place cues on the normal linear timeline. The difference is that Ardour can currently only trigger playback of cues.
The approach Elise apparently uses is not the only way to do Live Looping in Ableton Live but it works for her style, which is largely about recording and layering multiple audio loops. But the clip launching capability in Ableton can also be used for live looping performances and, I suspect, could also be driven from a pre-orchestrated MIDI track.
From an Ardour perspective, in theory there’s nothing to stop anyone replicating Elise’s workflow using a looper plugin (assuming there’s a decent one), or even a standalone app like Sooperlooper wired into a MIDI track in Ardour using Jack/Pipewire. This could be even be done on older Ardour versions.
But this discussion is really about the Clip launching capabilities and where they are, how they can be used, and where they might go. So, other than the scheduling side which, as I have said, has analogies to placing cues on the linear timeline in Ardour, I think there’s not much relevance to the approach used by Miss Trouw.
Cheers,
Keith
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Oh wow, that’s a very detailed description, thank you!
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Thanks idd for the elaborate explication!
If that is in scope I’m hyped! Though I’m more in for controlling that kind of stuff live than for scripting it beforehand. But that means that will be possible too I figure!
I understand that. I don’t think you can easily mix them up though, even if the rec-enable buttons would be synced. They both require a different follow up action to actually start recording. For the track, the main record button needs to be turned on. For clips, you need to also press the record button of a specific trigger slot if I’m correct.
But I guess having them synced might lead to some unwanted behavior in some more exotic circumstances. It’s just that it could be part of the solution for being able to start recording in a trigger slot by a midi command.
You can already start recording in a trigger slot with a MIDI command. You just cannot use MIDI learn, you must use a MIDI binding map (and the actions involved are not well documented).
I’ll see if I can find a way to figure out how.
Maybe I can help documenting them better.