looping playback while recording continuously to a track

[kivish]

just wondering if this is possible in dp8: having a single track affected by a memory cycle loop while i record the output of that loop continuously to a separate track (not looped over or overwriting). i don't necessarily need the solution, but just wondering if this kind of functionality is supported or possible without pasting a loop or outputting to a different program. thanks!

[Shooshie]

just wondering if this is possible in dp8: having a single track affected by a memory cycle loop while i record the output of that loop continuously to a separate track (not looped over or overwriting). i don't necessarily need the solution, but just wondering if this kind of functionality is supported or possible without pasting a loop or outputting to a different program. thanks!

Have you tried using the loop tool and specifying the number of loops you want to create? I see no reason why you couldn't record a looped track via output to another track.

Shooshie

[philbrown]

just wondering if this is possible in dp8: having a single track affected by a memory cycle loop while i record the output of that loop continuously to a separate track (not looped over or overwriting). i don't necessarily need the solution, but just wondering if this kind of functionality is supported or possible without pasting a loop or outputting to a different program. thanks!

Just to add to what Shooshie said- don't use the memory cycle, create the loop within the looped track and then record to another track. Select your time range of the source track and then Region>Insert Loop. If you use memory cycle it would only work for one pass of the loop and then it would end the recording on the destination track as it loops back.

[daniel.sneed]

Is it not what the *Polar* feature in DP is all about?
It may create a new *Polar track* at each cycle.

[Shooshie]

I got the impression he wasn't trying to record live to loops, but generate a loop from existing material and record it to another track. If he wanted to record to loops, then Polar would be the choice, of course.

[tommymandel]

If I forget that I have memory loop enabled, and I go into record, it invisibly creates new takes each time it loops back - so if at first I think, "oh nuts! that was a good long take, but DP only got the first 4 bars because I had it in loop!" - I am wrong. I then look at the takes column, and there are hidden takes 2 thru x - so I can reconstruct the (long) performance, or else drag each take to a new track, all starting at bar 1, which gives independent control of each 'layer' of the loop I've created. There's a 'convert takes to tracks' command too.

Is this anything to do with what you're talking about? I think it is, but since no one has mentioned it in the learned earlier comments, it seems like there's a different issue being discussed.

Polar is awesome too, especially (in my world) for stacking vocals.

[kivish]

Thanks for the thoughtful responses -- unfortunately I'm still unable to use DP quite how I want to so I've put it off. If I describe what I currently do to manipulate sounds maybe that will help and someone will point out what a dummy I'm being with DP:

I use Adobe Audition's waveform interface and create very short selections. Since playback is always bound to the current selection in Audition, what I hear in real time is constantly changing as I isolate different parts or zoom in and out of a composition. Playback is also continuous, so I am always hearing the currently selected loop which will correspond to different sections of the same underlying audio file. I use a separate program to record from the same audio bus that generates the signal to my headphones, so essentially everything that I hear is being recorded in a separate program.

I would love to use DP for all of this, so that as I am maneuvering around a composition a single track is being continuously recorded to and no matter where I select from in the composition it still records to the end of that track.

Loops do not quite seem to get the job done as I want a default behavior that DP doesn't seem to offer. If I have to set the number of intervals I'm already taking too long to select and reselect areas in a performance. Similarly if I use POLAR it seems to only record as long as the selection, even if I set its input to the appropriate bus.

This might be a strange edge-use of DP so maybe it's not a trivial task to accomplish but I'm still hopeful that I'm critically missing some part of the program that will let me work this way. Even selecting the regions themselves is tedious because of loops having to snap to an underlying beat grid which I often want to avoid. It also seems impossible to slide the complete selection over or its in or out during a continuous loop without stopping playback.

I appreciate the help so far and thanks for taking a look

[Shooshie]

I admit to scanning only bits of your thread, because I'm running out of forum time, but if you have a logical way of working that only needs some help from MOTU, send them a proposal in which you describe it step-by-step, describe the controls you'd expect to see, how it would behave, etc. If they agree with you, they might implement it at some point. Some pretty major features have started out in users's letters to MOTU; I've lost count of the ones I've suggested that eventually made it, but it's in the dozens. Of course, that's starting back at the beginning in Performer version 1.something. There have been recent ones, too; I can't remember which ones, but I remember being happy about it! So, there's no reason NOT to give it a try.

http://www.motu.com/other/feedback/suggestions

You might also try sending it in snail mail if writing and laying out real (paper) letters happen to be a talent of yours.

Shooshie