Update: I'm very happy to see that this tutorial has been helpful for so many people, and I still believe it teaches many of the fundamental aspects of scripted looping; however, I'd like to point out that I no longer use Bink Looper in my live performances. I've switched over to a plug-in called ClyphX Pro that offers all the same features with a more convenient UX and workflow. It also allows for scripted quantization (with % accuracy and % swing) and real-time loop transposition (i.e. I can program in key-changes in the middle of my songs), two big features that I'd always wanted to have. For those of you looking for a free plug-in to try out, Bink Looper might be the way to go. For anyone wanting to perform scripted looping live on stage, I DO NOT RECOMMEND Bink Looper, as it is known to glitch from time to time. Even a 1% failure rate is not tolerable for live situations. If you're comfortable spending a bit on ClyphX Pro, I highly recommend the investment.
Hi Connor. Thanks for your great video. Could you make a video about Clyphx Pro - especially about clip quantization? How can you automatically quantize a clip right after recording without having to press anything?
@@mathiasscheitzeneder1685 I use the "waits" function to delay the "clip qntz" command so that it happens within 1-2 beats from the moment the loop is finished recording. The qntz command must be sent to the clip after it's done recording, or it won't work.
@@connorshafran perfect. Thanks. I try my best to do it myself. May I contact you again if I have another question? As Miguel already said, an overview video about Clyphx Pro from you would be extremely cool.
thanks! yes i definitely wish i'd had a tutorial as well. i spent so much time going frame by frame through that binkbeats/ableton video, trying to figure out how to route everything. hopefully this will save people some time!
You're a gentleman and a scholar! And I actually mean those complements -- this is very helpful, and it's so kind of you to share it for free. I'm still early in my live looping journey, but as I continue to dive deeper, I'll take some private lessons from you.
Thanks so much for this tutorial, so smooth and easy to understand basic concepts around this great plugin. I'm working on my own template and i think color is a big thing when it comes to organize things visually... but i noticed two things: 1- When the monitor is set to "In" on a track, the clips won't show any color but grey. 2- If you follow this advice Connor is giving in the description box: "I didn't mention this in the video to save time, but I find that it's good practice to delete/move the source files of your Dummy Clips so that Ableton can't find them. Rather than playing a silent clip, it'll be playing the empty shell of a clip. " you don't get any clip color neither. In this particular scenario, what i found to be an alternative is to record a silent line and set the clip gain to -inf. Just in case someone is going crazy trying to find out what happens with clip colours.
Mate this video was eye opening. Thank you so much, you have no idea how much you just impacted my thought process of how i want to go live with my music.
Great video. I am struggling a bit though. It works fine without a delay, but for some reason when I add the delay the clip won't launch. I know I have it positioned correctly (between arm and loop length). When I set the delay, everything looks good. But then after I try to run it (and it doesn't work), the red circle by "launch" is no longer red, but a hollow circle. What could I be missing?
I haven’t reached the end of the vid yet but it seems like this is all stuff you can do in ableton with the built in “looper” and automating the “state” in arrangement view. Right? Am I missing something?
Great video, could you please help with this issue; say if you have you two midi instruments say a drum rack and a wavetable and both of them are being controlled by the one midi keyboard. I have my dummy clip set on the drum rack to arm, record for 4 bars and then launch which works perfect but then when I go to record the wavetable which is also set up with its own bink looper again to arm, record for 4 bars and to launch I am still triggering the drum rack notes because it is still armed. Is it possible to set up the dummy clip so it automatically un-arms a midi instrument once you have finished recording the set amount of bars you have programmed to loop? Or is there another work around that you would recommend? I know I could midi map the arm ON and OFF to buttons on my midi keyboard for each track but it would be great if I didn’t have to do manually un-arm each midi instrument after every time I record with them. Really appreciate any advice or help Thanks
Issues like this are why I ultimately moved over to ClyphX Pro, a more comprehensive plug-in for Ableton. With CXP, you can automate the arming and unarming of the track from the same dummy clip, and that dummy clip doesn't need to be on the "source" channel (which is a huge deal). If you'd rather stick with Bink Looper, you can split your midi keyboard so that one half of the keys goes to a different midi channel, and then assign your wavetable / drum rack to match. In general, I just try to avoid Midi. Hardware synths are much more fun. :)
This was a fantastic tutorial. Thanks for putting the time and energy into making this. I use ableton to automate my arrangements with sensory percussion, think I could definitely use looping as a more consistent component of my songs!
hey Connor, your tutorial is fantastic, thanks for that! I have AL11 Standard, do you confirm I ll need the Suite version to run Bink Looper? I get the "This device is currently not available in this version of Live", so do you confirm I need to upgrade? thanks so much in advance
As said: Great vid. Good explanation. Only one question. Every former track is still armed after arming the next track. As long as you're using different midi instruments for input, this doesn't matter. But if you want all the input from the same midi device it's becoming a little messy. Changing the prefs doesn't affect this. Any idea to solve it?
Hi Connor, could yoiu please help me with Bink? I setup my first midi track and when It goes to the second one ( both MIDI ) start to play both instrument ( keyboard + bass ) at the same time. I tried to Setup arm on and off but no success, after start record the first Dummy clip the arm didn't goes off. what you think is the best idea here to ARM one by one in the exactly moment ? Thanks for the attention!
fantastic video! and "practice" is exactly correct. i used the bink looper (and clyphXpro) in my 2019 set but had to figure most of it out on my own because i didn't have the benefit of this thorough tutorial. great job!
Thank you so much for these videos! Such incredible knowledge and experience poured out here. I cant believe you only have 2k subs. I hope to see that grow.
Such a helpful video. I was so excited when I saw BINK Looper last year, but I couldn't get it to work for me. I think your explanation will get me there. Thank you!
This is a very nice Tutorial. I just wonder if there is a good way of using the Session view for a complete Live-set or if this gets too messy. I like the Arrangement view a lot for live backing tracks and by looping I want to reduce these backing tracks. But completely changing to Session view I cannot imagine yet, maybe just because of my limited Ableton experience..
Hi there! A while ago I started playing around with the BinkLooper and your video was the bible back then. That's why I'm back, I've tried many things but cannot figure out the following. I'm putting a live set with multiple songs together and struggling to understand how to record each song's samples (the one put at the top). Using one sample scene at the top worked just fine for one song, but, for instance, that scene will have only one tempo, which is gonna, most likely , differ from the rest of the songs. I also tried having multiple sample scenes (one per song, say) and using the scene selector automation, but that only allows to interact with 8 scenes, which can be a problem depending on the amount of songs I guess. Do you know what the right approach is to handle this scenario? thanks heaps!
Thank you! I just got ableton 10 standard and have been making the transition from looping with a pedal to looping with software... reason I made the switch is because I wanted to be able to do more and create living compositions as opposed to being limited to one time structure. I was trying to figure out how to delay recording and bring things in and out and was having trouble... thanks to this video I think I’m going to get the bink looper plug in and invest my time learning this technique... steep learning curve but it will be worth it. Cheers!
Hi! can u explain how u add bink looper to ur Ableton 10 standard? when I drag it on a time line there is an Information "this device is not avible in this version of Live" did you have a problem with that?
@@coffeetoaststudios6576 I've got no problem while installing for Live 10. Anyway it should ask you to optimize itself for newer version and you should simply click yes. Hope it helps.
dude, like everything you have posted, it is so crisp and well put together. i just want to say thank you for your work and for sharing it. this has insipred me to really rethink a lot of things and i am going to have some great fun re imagining the live process
I'd like to ask you that, can we run Binklooper in arrangement view? Because whenever I move a clip to the arrangement view, the envelope tab in the clip does not have "binklooper" option. Thank you.
20:14 this is so precious. i found it extremely hard to tackle this problem. loved the video and the age of mythology music you're making as well ahaha
Incredibly well organized and effective teaching. The Bink Looper is daunting, but simple enough when explained the you’ve laid it out. This is exactly what I want to do…so thank you very much for the inspiration! I’ll subscribe and watch your work. Maybe I’ll come back for some private learning…let’s see. Cheers.
Yoooo came back to say I just dropped my first Live Looping performance video and it was largely due to this video! Thank you for such a detailed tutorial
In most of the videos I have online, I trigger the scenes manually by pressing a button. Recently, I've switched over to using ClyphX Pro, and I trigger the scenes automatically with locators in arrangement view.
Great video! How do you deal with latency, when running through ableton? do you just have a killer laptop/computer and keep it 32samples or is there a hack to this? :)
Great tutorial Connor, thank you very much. Quite relevant topic and very carefully explained. Congratulations! Could we say that the whole point of this video is to automate almost everything instead of mapping MIDI notes and pressing many buttons in a live performance? I am a kind of newcomer to Ableton Live, so it seems that there is a monumental effort to programming every automation for a whole live performance…but it may worth it, right?
Thank you for your video. One question. Is it possible to automate the quantization of the clip directly after the recording of the loop or do I have to make another dummy clip for that in a new scene? Thank you for your answer!
Thanks for your tutorial, I personnaly use clyph x to do same things but with scripts (to avoid recreating dummy clips doing always the same actions). Very interesting approach too for the effects management, I think I will use it in the future. How do you manage your drum recording sound card latency ? With the quantization after recording ?
The latency issue was a huge problem until I got myself a Presonus Quantum interface. Even on my clunky old computer, I get 5ms round trip at 128 samples. That's still barely enough to feel a tiny, tiny bit of latency when I'm playing hand percussion, but I've learned to play around it.
@@connorshafran Thanks for the information, I did not know this interface, my focusrite has a bigger latency because of the DSP processing. I think I will try to make the exchange :). I guess you also have chosen your processing plugins for their latency. I would be really interested to discuss more about it with you if possible. Here are some first experimentations I did with my set-up : th-cam.com/video/HreMZjnLyfQ/w-d-xo.html
Hi Connor (or anyone else who has helpful feedback!), this is great! I've been trying to recreate your workflow here with Clyphx Pro, and haven't always been successful in Session view; I am, however, able to make everything happen with X-cues in Arrangement view. Is that the best way to approach the "Binkbeats" flow w/Clyphx Pro? I'd rather work in Session view, as it makes more sense to me with multiple songs, but I'll keep plugging away with Arrangement view if you think that's best. Thanks again!
I must thank you man. Never thought that something like this cloud be done. You should do a screen recording video on Ableton while you playing your stuff!
Thank you so much! This is the exact tutorial I needed. Bink’s explanation on Ableton’s channel is a little hard to follow at times. I would love to talk handpan with you as well!!
Bink Looper came on my radar in about March 2020 (early pandemic lockdown) when I decided to learn live looping. I decided to go the ClyphX Pro route, and noticed that the Bink Looper manual even says "if you have Clyphx Pro..." I see on one of your other videos that you use CXP. I'm open to using Bink Looper alongside ClyphX, but I'm not quite sure what it would add to it. Do you still use Bink Looper, or just ClyphX Pro?
@@connorshafran That tells me what I need to know. If someone as deep into this device doesn't use it alongside CXP, then I'll just stick with CXP. I have been able to create really complex arrangements using ClyphX (it's a real rabbit-hole, and so much fun to mix things up!) And I appreciate what you said to a different commenter, that you just train yourself to minimize your mistakes on that track, or live with the imperfections. In fact, the imperfections and different timbre/input velocity/etc lets the audience know that they are watching it unfold live, and I'm not just triggering pre-recorded loops. Great job!
Hi Connor, thanks for sharing this! Can I ask what you set your buffer size to when you are live looping? I’m getting some pops at 128 samples. I feel like at 256 samples I am noticing the latency. Is it possible to live loop successfully with such a high latency time? Thanks
I use an extremely fast thunderbolt interface at 128 samples to get an overall latency of 5.83ms. 128 can be rather limiting, but limitations nurture creativity. Hope that helps!
Great video and looking forward to playing around with this very soon. I have question, not sure if it’s possible as it almost goes against ableton a bit. Is there a way to make the looper trigger to the restarting of another loop? So like with hardware loopers you can record a loop on the fly then that can be the fixed length of loops going forward. Do you know of this is doable? Just as this setup requires playing to an already decided tempo etc rather than setting the pace/bar length yourself.
Interesting question. I'll have to think about it a bit, but the quick answer is... "kind of." There are some duct-tape workarounds to get that desired effect, but Bink Looper just really isn't designed for free-improv. The real trick (one that I'm still working on, but might share a tutorial on one day down the road), is designing an Ableton template that lets you easily integrate free improv looping and Bink Looper concepts into the same set. And I say "free improv" to distinguish it from "structured improv," because Bink Looper is really great for the latter, but not the former. Over the last few months, I've been experimenting on this concept a lot, and I've been sharing these insights and techniques with the people who take lessons with me. This isn't just a big sales pitch to take lessons with me, but I do highly recommend it if you want to dive deep into these challenges and get some one-on-one assistance with issues that are specific to your setup.
connor shafran yes I think I’ve found one of those duct tape solutions - basically the ableton looper has a function whereby it sets the master tempo to the length of the first loop you create so if I make my initial loop with that the following loops fit on the grid etc.. there is probably a way that I could trigger that simultaneously to recording onto an actual track and keep it silent and just to perform that function but I’ll have to experiment. I will certainly consider signing up as I am sure more question will arise
Hey Longman no, but i do try to use as few plug-ins as possible (which can spark creativity), and stick to the standard ableton & m4l devices to keep the cpu stress low. i also use a very fast thunderbolt interface to get my round-trip down to 5.8ms / 128 samples (on my old 2013 macbook).
Hi Connor, thank you for tutorial, very helpful! I am going crazy over one part though.. at 13:02 you copy a dummy clip to another track and for you the envelopes get copied with it. I can not get that to happen. The envelopes get copied when I stay within one track, but as soon as I go horizontal with my copying, it doesn't transfer the envelopes over. Any ideas?
1. Make sure you have automation lock turned off. 2. The channels need to have exactly the same plugins. If the channel you're copying to has different plugins (even just slightly different), it won't copy correctly.
Hi Connor, Great video - very clear and detailed tutorial! I'm finding that my audio channels are being very temperamental when I trigger the loop using the dummy clips - only about half the time do they actually activate the loop, whereas my MIDI track loops work fine. Do you have any ideas as to why this is happening? It's very frustrating, particularly when I get halfway through my song! Thanks again for the great content!
Hard to know without looking through the set in detail. I recommend starting with a very small project and seeing if you can design it "bug-free" before moving onto full songs and live sets. Hope that helps.
This is my start for complex live looping. Thank you for making this vid. - What I missed is this: how can I disarm a track after the loop has been recorded? RecStop in BinkLooper doesn't seem to do that. Is this one of the reasons to switch to ClyphX?
thanks for this amazing tutorial, I'm still considering Clyphx pro, what make ou decide to use Bink ? when it seems Clyphx can give you the same option ?
Hi, I'm seeing it again and again! About the mute utility, were we able to put 01 (one) mute in a rack for all the tracks? turning on and off with the rack chain?
Felipe Fiúza - Som de Sobra if i’m understanding correctly, you want to use a dummy clip to automate the mutes on every track simultaneously. to do this, i use a “pre-master” channel. all of my efx-channels flow into busses, which flow into the “pre-master” bus. i use long dummy clips on these busses & pre-master to do group/master muting.
Great video Connor; very well done. I have one question and a comment. Is there a quick way to clear all of your loops and zero it all out once you have recorded and want to start over again? Next is a note to anyone using this setup: Bink looper will not work unless your first (top) sample loop clip area is clear. I tried making loops with the dummy clips in those spots and it took me a while to troubleshoot this! Thanks again.
Brilliant tutorial Connor, thank you. Everything seems to be working, except for the metronome count-in. Regardless of which number of bars is chosen for count-in, it seems to record as soon as you click record on scene 3. Also, I'm finding even if I delete my recorded clips to start again, clicking record still somehow plays the deleted clips (but the clips don't show up on screen because they've been deleted) and won't allow recording over them unless you undo. Have you experienced this? Thanks!
Dalong Ye-Lee i don’t recommend using the met “count-in” feature in ableton. i can’t imagine any reason why that would be necessary. as for the haunted clips, are you recording the clips into arrangement mode in the background? are you clicking the actual arrangement “record” button?
@@connorshafran gotcha, so do you usually start playing immediately as you press you press record, or do you implement a four count delay on your first clip? The reason for the count is in the time needed from clicking record to getting my hands into position on either my keyboard or my guitar. In terms of the haunted clips, I beleive I've been clicking the record button on each clip, as the record button up top records to arrangement right? Thanks for getting back to me!
Hi Connor, thanks so much for the tutorial! it's super helpful. I've been wondering how to automate disarming a certain track once I'm done recording it: There seems to be a conflict - the BinkBeats dummy clip arms the track then launches another clip, so that it's no longer able to run automations on the track, leaving the tracks armed indefinitely. Do you have any suggestion how to solve that? Thanks!
You don't need to disarm it while audio is playing. When the audio has stopped, you can disarm it. For Midi, you'll need to manually disarm, or use ClyphX Pro. Hope that helps.
@@connorshafran Thanks! It's MIDI indeed. I'd like to use the same MIDI controller for recording different virtual instruments and looping them binkbeats-style.
@@Avishh Midi is tough. Even with Clyphx, back-to-back looping on two different midi channels (using the same controller) can be messy. My solution is to not use midi ;)
Lately, I've been doing one-on-one sessions with musicians and producers who want to build a live-looping set tailored to their performance style. The goal is to help people get past that "ugh"-stage. Planning out a road-map and isolating the necessary tools is the key. Write me an email or DM me if you're interested in a session (there's no long-term commitments- you can book the lessons one at a time)
Great tutorial! I have a question. Why wouldn't you do all the scripted looping in the arrangement view? Isn't it way easier to do all the automation that way?
It's possible with Bink Looper, but then you're stuck with predetermined phrase-lengths. In session mode, you could write a "solo" section and have it loop until you're done soloing, and then you manually tell it to move to the next scene. If you want to do stuff like that in arrangement mode, you'll need to get clever with ClyphX Pro.
@@connorshafran Thanks for the quick reply! I am working on a looping template in the arrangement view. I find that the stock looper of Ableton does a pretty good job by automating the record/play/stop buttons. But the fact that I can't loop a section in the arrangement view is indeed a pity.. Maybe I should check out the ClyphX plugin.
@@moreniekmeijer Yeah. And you can't quantize or adjust the loops once they're recorded, which is my main problem with the Looper Device. With ClyphX Pro, you can tell the arrangement-view loop function to toggle on and off, as well as jump to certain measure numbers in your arrangement. Pretty nifty.
Hey Connor! Great video man - thanks so much for making this! Wondering if you ever record multiple sound sources at the same time via BINK Looper? for example, live drums. I'm running into an issue where the scene selector automation doesn't seem to reading when recording 5 mics on a kit.
I learnt a lot from this video! Thank you. I'm struggling with this one thing though. I want to play on a channel and keep playing while I activate the dummy clip that starts the recording. But, as soon as I activate the dummy, I get no audio through the channel, even though it's armed. What am I doing wrong? Thank you in advance!
When you play the dummy clip on your source channel, it will cut off the audio flowing through that channel. That's just how Ableton works, unfortunately. Ideally, you can just launch the dummy clip earlier (before you start playing) and add a delay to the loop. If that's not possible for some reason (if you're using Bink Looper while improvising), I would use two duplicate channels- one for allowing the audio to pass through uninterrupted, and the second one to record the loop (while muted). Once the loop is recorded, toggle off the mute on the second channel to hear it play back.
@@connorshafran do you know if it works with Live 11? I'm just getting lines of 'empty' in the scene selector. (thanks btw really acknowledge & appreciate the great work you've put in here.) It also looks like
Thousand thanks for this video! I remember asking for it! I'm getting ready to record my first session. Still organizing ideas. Do you suggest anything else? 1) Choose instruments, input channels, define the composition. 2) Organize the order of operations. 3) Practice / record a preliminary session to pre-mix and define automations. 4) Record!
Clécio Rimas sounds good. you’ll hammer out the workflow the more you do it. i recommend starting with unimportant compositions (that won’t break your heart if done poorly). work out all the major kinks before moving on to serious projects. good luck!
Thanks Bro! An ally to me is Clyphx scripts. It help me in the order of operations ... allows hands free. The focus now issue is to improve performance by playing the instruments. This, as you say, bring improvement in the workflow
my video ... some small mistakes, but happy with the first experience =D I used the utility in the instrument channel (in the fx channels the signal was not completely muted) th-cam.com/video/paB9KMBkhk8/w-d-xo.html
I'm a Jazz musician and am trying out Abelton for looping long form songs (e.g., Jazz standards, 32 bars). I have Abelton Lite and "Looper" is only on the full version, so I got that trial. I have the Akai APC4oMkii control surface. Without using Looper, it is virtually impossible to make the parts play together, i.e., to have the high hat actually on 2 and four... Sure, I can post record input the bars beats 16ths to be the same, but that's pretty "out there" for looping. Since I'm using MIDI instruments for keys, I figured Abelton might be the way to go. Just got full version and Looper last night. Stumbled across this Bink plug in. Ideally, I'd just play (NO metronome or quantization; I have great time and have been playing Jazz for decades), and then record the next part without setting in advance the number of bars, but it just doesn't seem possible with Abelton. There is always a delay before it starts to record, no matter what I do. Does one use Bink INSTEAD of Abelton's Looper? I don't need the full Ableton (nearly $400 USD) except for the looper). Would this Bink or the ClyphX Pro solve these problems? Thank you very much!
why don't you use the monitoring in off mode ? it eliminates any latency problem, no matter your buffer size and avoids the bleeding in the different channels, is it a bink looper related problem ?
Very nice tutorial! Any suggestions on how to avoid bleeding if you want to record a new loop in Audio 2 while keeping the Audio 1 loop playing? I saw that in 18:43, the Audio 1 loop is just being muted for the duration of the Audio 2 loop recording.
I have a problem with the delay function. If i have the delay turned on(and in the right position in the dummy clip)The binklooper won't let me record using the dummy clip unless i start the clip at the exact same time session view(e.g. Pressing space to start with the clip pre selected) If i do not do this and press the dummy clip mid performance, the clip never starts recording at all.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share all this hard-won information.. Just a quick question... What are you using to trigger and move thru scenes while you are playing? All the best..
i've experimented with different techniques. in my last video, i launched the scenes using the push 2 controller, but it only works well if there aren't many scenes. i generally prefer to map the scene-launch button to a physical button somewhere, like a midi controller (with it set to automatically move to the next scene after launching).
connor shafran Thanks Connor.. And congratulations on the beautiful production that is Attention Compression.. A great tune and a beautiful looking video..
Hey. Thanks for the tutorial. I'm stuck at this point: let's say I want to record 2 bars on a midi track and then right away want to record on a second midi channel while the first one is playing back. I set up the short dummy clips with the automation needed. The first scene arms and lauches the first track, the second scene arms and lauches the second track AND de-arms and lauches the first track to play. So far so good. But as soon as the first track is playing back IT'S ARMED AGAIN. I think it's cause the midi clip I record my actual part to re-arms it, but obviously that's not what I want, while I'm recording a different part on the second track. Any suggestions how to handle this?
Unfortunately, I don't have a simple solution for you. Midi tracks aren't as simple as normal audio tracks. You might want to try setting your midi tracks to only receive input from two different midi channels, and then play the parts on two different channels. A second solution could be feeding the first midi track into an audio track and have BL record the sample there (as an audio sample) so that it can stay armed without causing any issues. It'd be like having two sequential source tracks before the EFX track. Hope that helps.
i copy and paste dummy clips quite often. but unfortunately, you can only copy and paste between different stems/channels when all the effects/devices are the same, or else you'll lose the automation when you paste. it's much easier for "source" channels, because bink looper will be the only device there.
@@connorshafran one of the way is to save couple of channels directly to your user library and after to load them back into your project , its a way to duplicate them and keeping the automation
Subscribed! Thanks, this vid was much appreciated after trying to understand Bink's naming convention for my personal use, you helped clear up and answer a lot. My understanding is to use this as a template after creation for use of composing other recordings. It would be great if you had a template for us to download.
following along with this video should set people up with a good starter-template. if i offer a pre-made template, it discourages them from learning by trial and error, which i believe is essential for mastering this technique.
@@connorshafran not exactly, as they probably won't use your exact set up, just used as a place to start. It would prob even keep questions from going unanswered as most youtubers don't have time to answer every comment.
Hey, i dont know how, but the automation doesnt copy when i copy the dummy clip that you say in 13:06. I have bink loopers on both, both audio tracks... i dunno, have an idea?
If there are different default values set on the Bink Loopers on each channel, the automation might not copy. Make sure the values are all set to 0 by default and it should work (as long as there aren't any other devices or effects besides BL).
i just watched the video and i am very happy and thankful for you i just feel something is missing i have live 10 and i dont know why on the efx channel the clip is not the same as in your video . it has a grey color even when i change the color and when i copy it ,it is pasted without the automation, it looks as if it is not activated like in your video what am i doing wrong...i followed every step and dont bother if u get instagram msg too hehehe
If I do it from being stopped and I have a one bar count-in, track 2/2 starts a bar early cuz it counts me pressing it first as the first bar (even though it's just the count-in before recording track 1/2). This makes sense, but I wonder what the best work around is, I set the delay time to 18 beats instead of 16 and it works, but is that what an expert would do?
Well, I hope this doesn't sound snarky, but imho, an expert wouldn't be using the Bink Looper anymore ;) This is kind of a 'legacy' tutorial, as I now highly recommend using ClyphX Pro. That being said, the problem you're describing would also occur in CXP, since it's related to how Ableton's quantization works. The real solution: you need to have Ableton's transport playing before you start any loops.
@@connorshafran Great thanks, not snarky, it's informative! Anyway, every tutorial using any looper in Ableton they always have the input channel monitor set to In which means two things: 1. You have to listen with latency 2. The loops are guaranteed to be recorded off time (at high buffer sizes it's way off time, at lower buffer sizes it's better but it kills the intended groove). I'm currently looping with Bink with the monitor set to off and it works perfectly (while direct monitoring through interface). I can even add fx to the channel and everything stays in time with loops that are perfectly on time. I don't know why everyone accepts a delay while recording and off-time loops!
@@Tapepusher What you're missing here, which is crucial to looping with Ableton, is that you can get audio interfaces that don't have a lot of latency. I don't use direct monitoring (because of course I want to hear the signal processing i'm doing in ableton), and I have a round-trip latency of only 6 ms (128 sample buffer size), which is basically imperceptible. Get yourself a nice audio interface with Thunderbolt and forget about latency problems.
Very nice tutorial! One thing that would have been helpful in knowing, though, is that not only does the clip quantization have to be turned off (like you said at 11:18) but the global quantization needs to actually be set to something reasonably coarse, like 1 bar or at least 1/4. I had it set to 1/16 and that caused the recorded notes (I'm using the midi version of bink looper) to be offset by 1/8T into the produced clip. Very strange. Probably because the clip recording automation does not have time to trigger the new clip recording in time to catch the incoming midi notes with such fine quantization. If the clip starts recording X time too late then all the notes are offset by X in the resulting clip. I'm running Live 11 so maybe that affects things too. Thanks again!
Update: I'm very happy to see that this tutorial has been helpful for so many people, and I still believe it teaches many of the fundamental aspects of scripted looping; however, I'd like to point out that I no longer use Bink Looper in my live performances. I've switched over to a plug-in called ClyphX Pro that offers all the same features with a more convenient UX and workflow. It also allows for scripted quantization (with % accuracy and % swing) and real-time loop transposition (i.e. I can program in key-changes in the middle of my songs), two big features that I'd always wanted to have.
For those of you looking for a free plug-in to try out, Bink Looper might be the way to go. For anyone wanting to perform scripted looping live on stage, I DO NOT RECOMMEND Bink Looper, as it is known to glitch from time to time. Even a 1% failure rate is not tolerable for live situations. If you're comfortable spending a bit on ClyphX Pro, I highly recommend the investment.
Will you do a video on ClyphX?
@@miguelpulido1683 It's been on my to-do list for a while, but I haven't yet figured out how to present all the concepts in an efficient way.
Hi Connor. Thanks for your great video. Could you make a video about Clyphx Pro - especially about clip quantization? How can you automatically quantize a clip right after recording without having to press anything?
@@mathiasscheitzeneder1685 I use the "waits" function to delay the "clip qntz" command so that it happens within 1-2 beats from the moment the loop is finished recording. The qntz command must be sent to the clip after it's done recording, or it won't work.
@@connorshafran perfect. Thanks. I try my best to do it myself. May I contact you again if I have another question? As Miguel already said, an overview video about Clyphx Pro from you would be extremely cool.
Extremely well done, Connor. You have created a great resource for everyone that I wish I had when first starting with Frank’s plugin.
thanks! yes i definitely wish i'd had a tutorial as well. i spent so much time going frame by frame through that binkbeats/ableton video, trying to figure out how to route everything. hopefully this will save people some time!
connor shafran I remember doing the same. At least 1,000 views from that tutorial have to be mine.
You're a gentleman and a scholar! And I actually mean those complements -- this is very helpful, and it's so kind of you to share it for free.
I'm still early in my live looping journey, but as I continue to dive deeper, I'll take some private lessons from you.
It's incredible that the bink looper is free, but this tutorial is sweet as hell. You and bink are making my dreams come true, man. Thanks!!!
Thanks so much for this tutorial, so smooth and easy to understand basic concepts around this great plugin.
I'm working on my own template and i think color is a big thing when it comes to organize things visually... but i noticed two things:
1- When the monitor is set to "In" on a track, the clips won't show any color but grey.
2- If you follow this advice Connor is giving in the description box: "I didn't mention this in the video to save time, but I find that it's good practice to delete/move the source files of your Dummy Clips so that Ableton can't find them. Rather than playing a silent clip, it'll be playing the empty shell of a clip. " you don't get any clip color neither.
In this particular scenario, what i found to be an alternative is to record a silent line and set the clip gain to -inf.
Just in case someone is going crazy trying to find out what happens with clip colours.
I've only just watched the intro and I had to stop to say thank you!!!!!!!! Back to the vid, now.
BINK+Dummy Clips+Randomiser+envelope assignments+Effects rack = WOW!
Mate this video was eye opening. Thank you so much, you have no idea how much you just impacted my thought process of how i want to go live with my music.
Dude... you're a legend. I can't even imagine the amount of time you spent learning this technique. This is great help. Thank you !
I have more gray hairs than when I started, that's for sure.
I don't know what is more impressive your video about the bink looper or your music. Thx for the Inspiration!
Great video. I am struggling a bit though. It works fine without a delay, but for some reason when I add the delay the clip won't launch. I know I have it positioned correctly (between arm and loop length). When I set the delay, everything looks good. But then after I try to run it (and it doesn't work), the red circle by "launch" is no longer red, but a hollow circle. What could I be missing?
Hi, did you manage to figure it out? I'm having the same problem
Ok I think I got it, looks like your issue might be the same. Make sure the short dummy clips aren't set to "looping", which they are by default.
Great tutorial. no fuss or stress and lays out the fundamentals perfectly. Thanks for sharing.
I haven’t reached the end of the vid yet but it seems like this is all stuff you can do in ableton with the built in “looper” and automating the “state” in arrangement view. Right?
Am I missing something?
From the first day I saw Binkbeats, I knew that's something I would love to try. Thank you so much for putting up the work.
Great video, could you please help with this issue; say if you have you two midi instruments say a drum rack and a wavetable and both of them are being controlled by the one midi keyboard.
I have my dummy clip set on the drum rack to arm, record for 4 bars and then launch which works perfect but then when I go to record the wavetable which is also set up with its own bink looper again to arm, record for 4 bars and to launch I am still triggering the drum rack notes because it is still armed.
Is it possible to set up the dummy clip so it automatically un-arms a midi instrument once you have finished recording the set amount of bars you have programmed to loop?
Or is there another work around that you would recommend?
I know I could midi map the arm ON and OFF to buttons on my midi keyboard for each track but it would be great if I didn’t have to do manually un-arm each midi instrument after every time I record with them.
Really appreciate any advice or help
Thanks
Issues like this are why I ultimately moved over to ClyphX Pro, a more comprehensive plug-in for Ableton. With CXP, you can automate the arming and unarming of the track from the same dummy clip, and that dummy clip doesn't need to be on the "source" channel (which is a huge deal).
If you'd rather stick with Bink Looper, you can split your midi keyboard so that one half of the keys goes to a different midi channel, and then assign your wavetable / drum rack to match.
In general, I just try to avoid Midi. Hardware synths are much more fun. :)
@@connorshafran clyphX is awesome, could also use IAC drivers or Windows equivalent
Love the guitar you are using in the beginning, would you mind sharing which brand it is? HSS offsets are not easy to come by...
Thankyou for this, brother - just what I needed. Fills in all the gaps in what's currently available from Ableton and Binkbeats :-)
This was a fantastic tutorial. Thanks for putting the time and energy into making this. I use ableton to automate my arrangements with sensory percussion, think I could definitely use looping as a more consistent component of my songs!
I searched for this functionality for weeks. Thank you so much
hey Connor, your tutorial is fantastic, thanks for that! I have AL11 Standard, do you confirm I ll need the Suite version to run Bink Looper? I get the "This device is currently not available in this version of Live", so do you confirm I need to upgrade? thanks so much in advance
Great tutorial! I have a question. I can only select the first eight scenes with the scene selector (in the automation control). Is that normal? Thnx!
Man, thank you so much for this tutorial, have been looking for a comprehensive tutorial on Bink Looper for about a week! 🤙
i'm really glad to be able to help! i've had so many people tell me that they couldn't find a tutorial, so it just seemed right to make this :)
I’m so happy you made this video. I’ve been searching for this kinda thing for years!!!
As said: Great vid. Good explanation. Only one question. Every former track is still armed after arming the next track. As long as you're using different midi instruments for input, this doesn't matter. But if you want all the input from the same midi device it's becoming a little messy. Changing the prefs doesn't affect this. Any idea to solve it?
Hi Connor, could yoiu please help me with Bink?
I setup my first midi track and when It goes to the second one ( both MIDI ) start to play both instrument ( keyboard + bass ) at the same time.
I tried to Setup arm on and off but no success, after start record the first Dummy clip the arm didn't goes off.
what you think is the best idea here to ARM one by one in the exactly moment ? Thanks for the attention!
this has smashed my head right in but i want to know it - brilliant tuition my friend... love your stuff too!
fantastic video! and "practice" is exactly correct. i used the bink looper (and clyphXpro) in my 2019 set but had to figure most of it out on my own because i didn't have the benefit of this thorough tutorial. great job!
Thank you so much for these videos! Such incredible knowledge and experience poured out here. I cant believe you only have 2k subs. I hope to see that grow.
Such a helpful video. I was so excited when I saw BINK Looper last year, but I couldn't get it to work for me. I think your explanation will get me there. Thank you!
WOW Connor NICE ONE DUDE xxxxxxx
BRILLIANT this is the best video I've seen on this process.
This is a very nice Tutorial. I just wonder if there is a good way of using the Session view for a complete Live-set or if this gets too messy. I like the Arrangement view a lot for live backing tracks and by looping I want to reduce these backing tracks. But completely changing to Session view I cannot imagine yet, maybe just because of my limited Ableton experience..
These days, I mostly use ClyphX and a combination of arrangement view and session view.
Hi there!
A while ago I started playing around with the BinkLooper and your video was the bible back then. That's why I'm back, I've tried many things but cannot figure out the following.
I'm putting a live set with multiple songs together and struggling to understand how to record each song's samples (the one put at the top).
Using one sample scene at the top worked just fine for one song, but, for instance, that scene will have only one tempo, which is gonna, most likely , differ from the rest of the songs.
I also tried having multiple sample scenes (one per song, say) and using the scene selector automation, but that only allows to interact with 8 scenes, which can be a problem depending on the amount of songs I guess.
Do you know what the right approach is to handle this scenario?
thanks heaps!
Delete the samples after each song.
Thank you! I just got ableton 10 standard and have been making the transition from looping with a pedal to looping with software... reason I made the switch is because I wanted to be able to do more and create living compositions as opposed to being limited to one time structure. I was trying to figure out how to delay recording and bring things in and out and was having trouble... thanks to this video I think I’m going to get the bink looper plug in and invest my time learning this technique... steep learning curve but it will be worth it. Cheers!
Hi! can u explain how u add bink looper to ur Ableton 10 standard? when I drag it on a time line there is an Information "this device is not avible in this version of Live" did you have a problem with that?
@@coffeetoaststudios6576 I've got no problem while installing for Live 10. Anyway it should ask you to optimize itself for newer version and you should simply click yes. Hope it helps.
@@coffeetoaststudios6576 As I understand Binklooper is a Max for Live device, so It will not work with Ableton Standard
dude, like everything you have posted, it is so crisp and well put together. i just want to say thank you for your work and for sharing it. this has insipred me to really rethink a lot of things and i am going to have some great fun re imagining the live process
cole gillespie I’m very happy to be able to help. :)
I'd like to ask you that, can we run Binklooper in arrangement view? Because whenever I move a clip to the arrangement view, the envelope tab in the clip does not have "binklooper" option.
Thank you.
It's not designed for arrangement view. You'll need ClyphX Pro for that. Sorry!
20:14 this is so precious. i found it extremely hard to tackle this problem. loved the video and the age of mythology music you're making as well ahaha
Incredibly well organized and effective teaching. The Bink Looper is daunting, but simple enough when explained the you’ve laid it out.
This is exactly what I want to do…so thank you very much for the inspiration! I’ll subscribe and watch your work. Maybe I’ll come back for some private learning…let’s see.
Cheers.
Hi Connor. Thanks for this very valuable tutorial. Do you prefer this method or ClyphX Pro for scripted looping, and why?
Nevermind! I see your pinned comment now saying that you've switched to ClyphX Pro. Thanks :)
Yoooo came back to say I just dropped my first Live Looping performance video and it was largely due to this video! Thank you for such a detailed tutorial
This is truly awesome thankyou. How do you automate changing scenes?
In most of the videos I have online, I trigger the scenes manually by pressing a button. Recently, I've switched over to using ClyphX Pro, and I trigger the scenes automatically with locators in arrangement view.
Great video! How do you deal with latency, when running through ableton? do you just have a killer laptop/computer and keep it 32samples or is there a hack to this? :)
Presonus Quantum 26x32 interface (thunderbolt). 128 samples buffer size. I have 6 ms round trip latency. Also, don't use any plugins that add latency.
Huge thank you! Greetings from Bogotá, Colombia.
Great tutorial Connor, thank you very much. Quite relevant topic and very carefully explained. Congratulations! Could we say that the whole point of this video is to automate almost everything instead of mapping MIDI notes and pressing many buttons in a live performance? I am a kind of newcomer to Ableton Live, so it seems that there is a monumental effort to programming every automation for a whole live performance…but it may worth it, right?
Thank you for your video. One question. Is it possible to automate the quantization of the clip directly after the recording of the loop or do I have to make another dummy clip for that in a new scene? Thank you for your answer!
Thanks for your tutorial, I personnaly use clyph x to do same things but with scripts (to avoid recreating dummy clips doing always the same actions). Very interesting approach too for the effects management, I think I will use it in the future. How do you manage your drum recording sound card latency ? With the quantization after recording ?
The latency issue was a huge problem until I got myself a Presonus Quantum interface. Even on my clunky old computer, I get 5ms round trip at 128 samples. That's still barely enough to feel a tiny, tiny bit of latency when I'm playing hand percussion, but I've learned to play around it.
@@connorshafran Thanks for the information, I did not know this interface, my focusrite has a bigger latency because of the DSP processing. I think I will try to make the exchange :). I guess you also have chosen your processing plugins for their latency. I would be really interested to discuss more about it with you if possible. Here are some first experimentations I did with my set-up : th-cam.com/video/HreMZjnLyfQ/w-d-xo.html
Hi Connor (or anyone else who has helpful feedback!), this is great! I've been trying to recreate your workflow here with Clyphx Pro, and haven't always been successful in Session view; I am, however, able to make everything happen with X-cues in Arrangement view. Is that the best way to approach the "Binkbeats" flow w/Clyphx Pro? I'd rather work in Session view, as it makes more sense to me with multiple songs, but I'll keep plugging away with Arrangement view if you think that's best. Thanks again!
I must thank you man. Never thought that something like this cloud be done. You should do a screen recording video on Ableton while you playing your stuff!
Thank you so much! This is the exact tutorial I needed. Bink’s explanation on Ableton’s channel is a little hard to follow at times. I would love to talk handpan with you as well!!
Glad it helped! Hit me up on instagram messages, I'm always down to talk handpans (and DCI/WGI).
That's cool! Does blink looper work with Ableton Live 10 Standard or do I need Suite?
Bink Looper came on my radar in about March 2020 (early pandemic lockdown) when I decided to learn live looping. I decided to go the ClyphX Pro route, and noticed that the Bink Looper manual even says "if you have Clyphx Pro..." I see on one of your other videos that you use CXP. I'm open to using Bink Looper alongside ClyphX, but I'm not quite sure what it would add to it. Do you still use Bink Looper, or just ClyphX Pro?
Just CXP these days!
@@connorshafran That tells me what I need to know. If someone as deep into this device doesn't use it alongside CXP, then I'll just stick with CXP. I have been able to create really complex arrangements using ClyphX (it's a real rabbit-hole, and so much fun to mix things up!)
And I appreciate what you said to a different commenter, that you just train yourself to minimize your mistakes on that track, or live with the imperfections. In fact, the imperfections and different timbre/input velocity/etc lets the audience know that they are watching it unfold live, and I'm not just triggering pre-recorded loops. Great job!
For some reason the dummy clip doesn't seem to launch when the delay is set beyond 32 beats, any thoughts? Thanks!
Thanks for the thorough indtructions. I had to figure it out by looking at stills of the video, s by Frank himself. Great job!
Hi Connor, thanks for sharing this! Can I ask what you set your buffer size to when you are live looping? I’m getting some pops at 128 samples. I feel like at 256 samples I am noticing the latency. Is it possible to live loop successfully with such a high latency time?
Thanks
I use an extremely fast thunderbolt interface at 128 samples to get an overall latency of 5.83ms. 128 can be rather limiting, but limitations nurture creativity. Hope that helps!
@@connorshafran thank you Connor.
Great video and looking forward to playing around with this very soon.
I have question, not sure if it’s possible as it almost goes against ableton a bit. Is there a way to make the looper trigger to the restarting of another loop?
So like with hardware loopers you can record a loop on the fly then that can be the fixed length of loops going forward. Do you know of this is doable?
Just as this setup requires playing to an already decided tempo etc rather than setting the pace/bar length yourself.
Interesting question. I'll have to think about it a bit, but the quick answer is... "kind of." There are some duct-tape workarounds to get that desired effect, but Bink Looper just really isn't designed for free-improv. The real trick (one that I'm still working on, but might share a tutorial on one day down the road), is designing an Ableton template that lets you easily integrate free improv looping and Bink Looper concepts into the same set. And I say "free improv" to distinguish it from "structured improv," because Bink Looper is really great for the latter, but not the former.
Over the last few months, I've been experimenting on this concept a lot, and I've been sharing these insights and techniques with the people who take lessons with me. This isn't just a big sales pitch to take lessons with me, but I do highly recommend it if you want to dive deep into these challenges and get some one-on-one assistance with issues that are specific to your setup.
connor shafran yes I think I’ve found one of those duct tape solutions - basically the ableton looper has a function whereby it sets the master tempo to the length of the first loop you create so if I make my initial loop with that the following loops fit on the grid etc.. there is probably a way that I could trigger that simultaneously to recording onto an actual track and keep it silent and just to perform that function but I’ll have to experiment.
I will certainly consider signing up as I am sure more question will arise
congragts! incredible tutorial. i will start with this technique., some month from now i hope showing my progress. Thanks and Regards From Argentina.
thank you for the great tutorial! Have you encountered any latency issues when the structure and the effect chain are growing?
Hey Longman no, but i do try to use as few plug-ins as possible (which can spark creativity), and stick to the standard ableton & m4l devices to keep the cpu stress low. i also use a very fast thunderbolt interface to get my round-trip down to 5.8ms / 128 samples (on my old 2013 macbook).
Hi Connor, thank you for tutorial, very helpful! I am going crazy over one part though.. at 13:02 you copy a dummy clip to another track and for you the envelopes get copied with it. I can not get that to happen. The envelopes get copied when I stay within one track, but as soon as I go horizontal with my copying, it doesn't transfer the envelopes over. Any ideas?
1. Make sure you have automation lock turned off.
2. The channels need to have exactly the same plugins. If the channel you're copying to has different plugins (even just slightly different), it won't copy correctly.
Hi Connor,
Great video - very clear and detailed tutorial! I'm finding that my audio channels are being very temperamental when I trigger the loop using the dummy clips - only about half the time do they actually activate the loop, whereas my MIDI track loops work fine. Do you have any ideas as to why this is happening? It's very frustrating, particularly when I get halfway through my song! Thanks again for the great content!
Hard to know without looking through the set in detail. I recommend starting with a very small project and seeing if you can design it "bug-free" before moving onto full songs and live sets. Hope that helps.
This is my start for complex live looping. Thank you for making this vid. - What I missed is this: how can I disarm a track after the loop has been recorded? RecStop in BinkLooper doesn't seem to do that. Is this one of the reasons to switch to ClyphX?
Yep! :)
@@connorshafran thanks -----> switched
thanks for this amazing tutorial, I'm still considering Clyphx pro, what make ou decide to use Bink ? when it seems Clyphx can give you the same option ?
baptiste sejourne good question. honestly i just started using bink looper before i knew about clyphx. bink looper is also free.
@@connorshafran yes, Clyphx can do the same, but it's difficult to find a good tutorial about it, I will keep you updated with my discoveries
This is brutal! thank you so much for making this!
Hi, I'm seeing it again and again! About the mute utility, were we able to put 01 (one) mute in a rack for all the tracks? turning on and off with the rack chain?
Felipe Fiúza - Som de Sobra if i’m understanding correctly, you want to use a dummy clip to automate the mutes on every track simultaneously. to do this, i use a “pre-master” channel. all of my efx-channels flow into busses, which flow into the “pre-master” bus. i use long dummy clips on these busses & pre-master to do group/master muting.
Great video Connor; very well done. I have one question and a comment. Is there a quick way to clear all of your loops and zero it all out once you have recorded and want to start over again? Next is a note to anyone using this setup: Bink looper will not work unless your first (top) sample loop clip area is clear. I tried making loops with the dummy clips in those spots and it took me a while to troubleshoot this! Thanks again.
Just map bink looper's "delete" button on every channel to one physical controller button.
@@connorshafran Excellent, thanks a lot Connor.
Brilliant tutorial Connor, thank you. Everything seems to be working, except for the metronome count-in. Regardless of which number of bars is chosen for count-in, it seems to record as soon as you click record on scene 3. Also, I'm finding even if I delete my recorded clips to start again, clicking record still somehow plays the deleted clips (but the clips don't show up on screen because they've been deleted) and won't allow recording over them unless you undo. Have you experienced this? Thanks!
Dalong Ye-Lee i don’t recommend using the met “count-in” feature in ableton. i can’t imagine any reason why that would be necessary.
as for the haunted clips, are you recording the clips into arrangement mode in the background? are you clicking the actual arrangement “record” button?
@@connorshafran gotcha, so do you usually start playing immediately as you press you press record, or do you implement a four count delay on your first clip? The reason for the count is in the time needed from clicking record to getting my hands into position on either my keyboard or my guitar. In terms of the haunted clips, I beleive I've been clicking the record button on each clip, as the record button up top records to arrangement right? Thanks for getting back to me!
Hi Connor, thanks so much for the tutorial! it's super helpful.
I've been wondering how to automate disarming a certain track once I'm done recording it:
There seems to be a conflict - the BinkBeats dummy clip arms the track then launches another clip, so that it's no longer able to run automations on the track, leaving the tracks armed indefinitely.
Do you have any suggestion how to solve that?
Thanks!
You don't need to disarm it while audio is playing. When the audio has stopped, you can disarm it. For Midi, you'll need to manually disarm, or use ClyphX Pro. Hope that helps.
@@connorshafran Thanks! It's MIDI indeed. I'd like to use the same MIDI controller for recording different virtual instruments and looping them binkbeats-style.
@@Avishh Midi is tough. Even with Clyphx, back-to-back looping on two different midi channels (using the same controller) can be messy. My solution is to not use midi ;)
Hi, thanks for you video. How do your private lessons work. I'd be interested.
Thanks
Lately, I've been doing one-on-one sessions with musicians and producers who want to build a live-looping set tailored to their performance style. The goal is to help people get past that "ugh"-stage. Planning out a road-map and isolating the necessary tools is the key. Write me an email or DM me if you're interested in a session (there's no long-term commitments- you can book the lessons one at a time)
Great tutorial! I have a question. Why wouldn't you do all the scripted looping in the arrangement view? Isn't it way easier to do all the automation that way?
It's possible with Bink Looper, but then you're stuck with predetermined phrase-lengths. In session mode, you could write a "solo" section and have it loop until you're done soloing, and then you manually tell it to move to the next scene. If you want to do stuff like that in arrangement mode, you'll need to get clever with ClyphX Pro.
@@connorshafran Thanks for the quick reply! I am working on a looping template in the arrangement view. I find that the stock looper of Ableton does a pretty good job by automating the record/play/stop buttons. But the fact that I can't loop a section in the arrangement view is indeed a pity.. Maybe I should check out the ClyphX plugin.
@@moreniekmeijer Yeah. And you can't quantize or adjust the loops once they're recorded, which is my main problem with the Looper Device.
With ClyphX Pro, you can tell the arrangement-view loop function to toggle on and off, as well as jump to certain measure numbers in your arrangement. Pretty nifty.
Hey Connor! Great video man - thanks so much for making this! Wondering if you ever record multiple sound sources at the same time via BINK Looper? for example, live drums. I'm running into an issue where the scene selector automation doesn't seem to reading when recording 5 mics on a kit.
I do record lots of channels simultaneously. I would need more info from you to know how to fix the issue.
I learnt a lot from this video! Thank you.
I'm struggling with this one thing though. I want to play on a channel and keep playing while I activate the dummy clip that starts the recording.
But, as soon as I activate the dummy, I get no audio through the channel, even though it's armed.
What am I doing wrong? Thank you in advance!
When you play the dummy clip on your source channel, it will cut off the audio flowing through that channel. That's just how Ableton works, unfortunately. Ideally, you can just launch the dummy clip earlier (before you start playing) and add a delay to the loop.
If that's not possible for some reason (if you're using Bink Looper while improvising), I would use two duplicate channels- one for allowing the audio to pass through uninterrupted, and the second one to record the loop (while muted). Once the loop is recorded, toggle off the mute on the second channel to hear it play back.
Great. Straight to the point. Thanks.
Im using Ableton 10 and looks like looper is not working. Any updates?
Nice! Is the Bink Looper not working in Live 10 Standard?
It should work. I was just late to get Live 10.
@@connorshafran do you know if it works with Live 11? I'm just getting lines of 'empty' in the scene selector. (thanks btw really acknowledge & appreciate the great work you've put in here.) It also looks like
Thank you so much!!! This is exactly what I was looking for!! ❤🙏🤘
Thousand thanks for this video! I remember asking for it!
I'm getting ready to record my first session. Still organizing ideas. Do you suggest anything else?
1) Choose instruments, input channels, define the composition.
2) Organize the order of operations.
3) Practice / record a preliminary session to pre-mix and define automations.
4) Record!
Clécio Rimas sounds good. you’ll hammer out the workflow the more you do it. i recommend starting with unimportant compositions (that won’t break your heart if done poorly). work out all the major kinks before moving on to serious projects. good luck!
Thanks Bro! An ally to me is Clyphx scripts. It help me in the order of operations ... allows hands free. The focus now issue is to improve performance by playing the instruments. This, as you say, bring improvement in the workflow
my video ... some small mistakes, but happy with the first experience =D I used the utility in the instrument channel (in the fx channels the signal was not completely muted) th-cam.com/video/paB9KMBkhk8/w-d-xo.html
I'm a Jazz musician and am trying out Abelton for looping long form songs (e.g., Jazz standards, 32 bars). I have Abelton Lite and "Looper" is only on the full version, so I got that trial. I have the Akai APC4oMkii control surface. Without using Looper, it is virtually impossible to make the parts play together, i.e., to have the high hat actually on 2 and four... Sure, I can post record input the bars beats 16ths to be the same, but that's pretty "out there" for looping. Since I'm using MIDI instruments for keys, I figured Abelton might be the way to go. Just got full version and Looper last night. Stumbled across this Bink plug in. Ideally, I'd just play (NO metronome or quantization; I have great time and have been playing Jazz for decades), and then record the next part without setting in advance the number of bars, but it just doesn't seem possible with Abelton. There is always a delay before it starts to record, no matter what I do. Does one use Bink INSTEAD of Abelton's Looper? I don't need the full Ableton (nearly $400 USD) except for the looper). Would this Bink or the ClyphX Pro solve these problems? Thank you very much!
FANTASTIC tutorial. Thank you!
why don't you use the monitoring in off mode ? it eliminates any latency problem, no matter your buffer size and avoids the bleeding in the different channels, is it a bink looper related problem ?
Very nice tutorial! Any suggestions on how to avoid bleeding if you want to record a new loop in Audio 2 while keeping the Audio 1 loop playing? I saw that in 18:43, the Audio 1 loop is just being muted for the duration of the Audio 2 loop recording.
Might try programming an unarm on the first audio source at the moment the second source is armed
Hey dude, this is a bit random to get a reply a year later but did you ever figure out how this could be done?
Haha I actually could not even remember this comment here. I‘m not using Ableton anymore and think I could not find an answer back then
@@BloeFa91 Fair enough, thanks for replying dude haha
Dose BLINK Looper compatible with live11?
amazing tutorial, thanks so much for taking the time to explain all this!
Awesome video! Super helpful. Connor, you rule! Thank you!
I have a problem with the delay function. If i have the delay turned on(and in the right position in the dummy clip)The binklooper won't let me record using the dummy clip unless i start the clip at the exact same time session view(e.g. Pressing space to start with the clip pre selected) If i do not do this and press the dummy clip mid performance, the clip never starts recording at all.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share all this hard-won information.. Just a quick question... What are you using to trigger and move thru scenes while you are playing? All the best..
i've experimented with different techniques. in my last video, i launched the scenes using the push 2 controller, but it only works well if there aren't many scenes. i generally prefer to map the scene-launch button to a physical button somewhere, like a midi controller (with it set to automatically move to the next scene after launching).
connor shafran Thanks Connor.. And congratulations on the beautiful production that is Attention Compression.. A great tune and a beautiful looking video..
Thanks for the video, quite a complicated process but will give it a go... !
You're an Angel man, thanks a lot and Sending Best to you and all yours!
Hey. Thanks for the tutorial. I'm stuck at this point: let's say I want to record 2 bars on a midi track and then right away want to record on a second midi channel while the first one is playing back. I set up the short dummy clips with the automation needed. The first scene arms and lauches the first track, the second scene arms and lauches the second track AND de-arms and lauches the first track to play. So far so good. But as soon as the first track is playing back IT'S ARMED AGAIN. I think it's cause the midi clip I record my actual part to re-arms it, but obviously that's not what I want, while I'm recording a different part on the second track. Any suggestions how to handle this?
Unfortunately, I don't have a simple solution for you. Midi tracks aren't as simple as normal audio tracks. You might want to try setting your midi tracks to only receive input from two different midi channels, and then play the parts on two different channels. A second solution could be feeding the first midi track into an audio track and have BL record the sample there (as an audio sample) so that it can stay armed without causing any issues. It'd be like having two sequential source tracks before the EFX track. Hope that helps.
Any tips on how to save dummy clip presets making the workflow easier?
i copy and paste dummy clips quite often. but unfortunately, you can only copy and paste between different stems/channels when all the effects/devices are the same, or else you'll lose the automation when you paste. it's much easier for "source" channels, because bink looper will be the only device there.
@@connorshafran one of the way is to save couple of channels directly to your user library and after to load them back into your project , its a way to duplicate them and keeping the automation
Thanks for sharing! Fantastic video and great attitude.
Wow! This is incredible, so clearly explained. Thank you so so much!
Subscribed! Thanks, this vid was much appreciated after trying to understand Bink's naming convention for my personal use, you helped clear up and answer a lot. My understanding is to use this as a template after creation for use of composing other recordings. It would be great if you had a template for us to download.
following along with this video should set people up with a good starter-template. if i offer a pre-made template, it discourages them from learning by trial and error, which i believe is essential for mastering this technique.
@@connorshafran not exactly, as they probably won't use your exact set up, just used as a place to start. It would prob even keep questions from going unanswered as most youtubers don't have time to answer every comment.
Thank you for a such detailed tutorial!! It’s just awesome!
Hey, i dont know how, but the automation doesnt copy when i copy the dummy clip that you say in 13:06. I have bink loopers on both, both audio tracks... i dunno, have an idea?
If there are different default values set on the Bink Loopers on each channel, the automation might not copy. Make sure the values are all set to 0 by default and it should work (as long as there aren't any other devices or effects besides BL).
The long dummies should be longer than the planned lenght of your performance, right?
They just need to be as long or longer than your longest scene. I've never really needed more than 2 minutes or so.
Thank you so much, perfectly explained, detailed, sequenced... just perfect! :)
This has been soooo helpful. Thank you!
i just watched the video and i am very happy and thankful for you
i just feel something is missing
i have live 10 and i dont know why on the efx channel the clip is not the same as in your video . it has a grey color even when i change the color and when i copy it ,it is pasted without the automation, it looks as if it is not activated like in your video
what am i doing wrong...i followed every step and dont bother if u get instagram msg too hehehe
Thanks, that made some things clearer. Cheers!
If I do it from being stopped and I have a one bar count-in, track 2/2 starts a bar early cuz it counts me pressing it first as the first bar (even though it's just the count-in before recording track 1/2). This makes sense, but I wonder what the best work around is, I set the delay time to 18 beats instead of 16 and it works, but is that what an expert would do?
Well, I hope this doesn't sound snarky, but imho, an expert wouldn't be using the Bink Looper anymore ;)
This is kind of a 'legacy' tutorial, as I now highly recommend using ClyphX Pro.
That being said, the problem you're describing would also occur in CXP, since it's related to how Ableton's quantization works.
The real solution: you need to have Ableton's transport playing before you start any loops.
@@connorshafran Great thanks, not snarky, it's informative! Anyway, every tutorial using any looper in Ableton they always have the input channel monitor set to In which means two things:
1. You have to listen with latency
2. The loops are guaranteed to be recorded off time (at high buffer sizes it's way off time, at lower buffer sizes it's better but it kills the intended groove).
I'm currently looping with Bink with the monitor set to off and it works perfectly (while direct monitoring through interface). I can even add fx to the channel and everything stays in time with loops that are perfectly on time. I don't know why everyone accepts a delay while recording and off-time loops!
@@Tapepusher What you're missing here, which is crucial to looping with Ableton, is that you can get audio interfaces that don't have a lot of latency. I don't use direct monitoring (because of course I want to hear the signal processing i'm doing in ableton), and I have a round-trip latency of only 6 ms (128 sample buffer size), which is basically imperceptible. Get yourself a nice audio interface with Thunderbolt and forget about latency problems.
Very nice tutorial! One thing that would have been helpful in knowing, though, is that not only does the clip quantization have to be turned off (like you said at 11:18) but the global quantization needs to actually be set to something reasonably coarse, like 1 bar or at least 1/4. I had it set to 1/16 and that caused the recorded notes (I'm using the midi version of bink looper) to be offset by 1/8T into the produced clip. Very strange. Probably because the clip recording automation does not have time to trigger the new clip recording in time to catch the incoming midi notes with such fine quantization. If the clip starts recording X time too late then all the notes are offset by X in the resulting clip. I'm running Live 11 so maybe that affects things too. Thanks again!
Yeah, I forgot to mention that. I put it in the video description but it's not so obvious.