Author Topic: Beat Looker - Beat Lookup for those without Reaktor :D (Live 8)  (Read 3447 times)

Monosylabik

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Beat Looker is a realtime scratch, beat juggle, pitch shift and reverse FX rack built from Live's own built in plug-ins.



Download and demo video:

msbkonline.com | Beat Looker - Real Time Beat Mangling Tool

Thanks to mike@TrackTeamAudio for his video on how to use Live's new delay features as a scratching simulator (original thread)

Have fun

babyelephant

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Re: Beat Looker - Beat Lookup for those without Reaktor :D (Live 8)
« Reply #1 on: April 16, 2009, 08:58:43 PM »
i wonder if its a cpu eater

Monosylabik

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Re: Beat Looker - Beat Lookup for those without Reaktor :D (Live 8)
« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2009, 03:46:10 AM »
Not really. On my comp (MBP 2.4 GHz 15 in) CPU seems to go up about 3% when it's on.

aeriae

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Re: Beat Looker - Beat Lookup for those without Reaktor :D (Live 8)
« Reply #3 on: April 17, 2009, 07:45:24 AM »
I'll look into this when I eventually get Live 8.

Lephrenic

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Re: Beat Looker - Beat Lookup for those without Reaktor :D (Live 8)
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2009, 03:41:54 AM »
I can see this being more useful if mapped differently. A pot isn't really ideal.

Also perhaps with Max For Live, actions could be quantised?
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Monosylabik

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Re: Beat Looker - Beat Lookup for those without Reaktor :D (Live 8)
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2009, 10:42:34 PM »
I can see this being more useful if mapped differently. A pot isn't really ideal.

Also perhaps with Max For Live, actions could be quantised?

The demo vid was done simply using the mouse and keyboard, which I agree is not ideal. However, with a controller and some creative mapping it can become way more useful.

One example is the Beat Juggle parameter. Live lets you map a knob parameter to a range of keys, and with it being based on a tempo synced delay, you can jump back on your beat to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 16 16ths back. So, if you set live to MIDI Map mode, select the Beat Juggle knob, then hold C and G on your keyboard, you'd get each semitone mapped to a step except for C, which would be mapped to bypass instead of 1. You could always modify the rack so you had a button that turned the bypass on/off and a bunch of others to control how many steps back you want to go.

Another option is to set your controller buttons to send the same CC, and simply map their values to the knob value that corresponds to the steps you want to juggle back:

Bypass = 0
1 = 1 to 9
2 = 10 to 27
3 = 28 to 45
4 = 46 to 63
5 = 64 to 81
6 = 82 to 99
8 = 100 to 117
16 = 118 to 127

Lephrenic

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Re: Beat Looker - Beat Lookup for those without Reaktor :D (Live 8)
« Reply #6 on: April 20, 2009, 09:53:39 AM »
Hell yeah, that's more like it.

Nice work putting this thing together, by the way. Never would've occurred to me to use the Looper in this way.
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Monosylabik

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Re: Beat Looker - Beat Lookup for those without Reaktor :D (Live 8)
« Reply #7 on: April 24, 2009, 02:48:43 AM »
I've been looking for a free alternative to Beat Lookup ever since I heard about it, because well, not everyone owns Reaktor. I tried making something in Pure Data, but it proved to be outside my skills set and was too cumbersome.

The moment I saw Looper had a Reverse function, I knew I could probably use it to do the buffer recording, but had no way to replicate the scratching. So in truth it was this mike@TrackTeamAudio's thread at the Ableton forum which made it all gel together and sparked the whole rack.

S4racen

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Re: Beat Looker - Beat Lookup for those without Reaktor :D (Live 8)
« Reply #8 on: April 28, 2009, 01:40:37 PM »
Ha, typical after thinking i'd found it out myself you go and post the same solution! I've been ripping looper apart since i got the beta of 8, should have a tutorial going up on djtechtools.com in the next week or so, i've managed with some midi loopback stuff, dummy clips and the most complex bomes set up i've ever completed (with 8 double shift fnctions, don;t record if playing, don't play if recording etc).... To have the jump actions of Beatlookup, which are infitely adjustable from the point of view of length of clip, start point, quantize, speed and direction of playback etc etc etc....

I've found the joystick on my MicroKontrol to be the best way of controlling the reverse as it reverts back to off when released, mapping down to reverse with left to right as speed means you can do some turntable style rewinds that sound different every time, something you can't do with Reaktor.....

Not sure yet on the pseudo scratching, i'm going to have to experiment more with it, but i'm sure that the frequency shifter is going to be wicked with some dummy clips stepping the pitch up quantized per beat (thinking of the old metalheads track Terminator....)

So now we can emulate, pitch up and down, infinite gate patterns with dummy clips, stutter, rewind....

What else have you guys come up with,, lets get sharing!!

Cheers
D

ps Monosylabiks weeklyish patch has been an inspiration to me many times so credit where credits due man!
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necromancer

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Re: Beat Looker - Beat Lookup for those without Reaktor :D (Live 8)
« Reply #9 on: May 19, 2009, 10:29:09 PM »
Did you help develop Traktor 3 or something? :D

Thank you SO MUCH for this. BLU is truly a resource hog on my machine and is also a bitch to set up & configure. I can't wait for MFL when there will be really no need for Reaktor's clunky interface anymore.

S4racen

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Re: Beat Looker - Beat Lookup for those without Reaktor :D (Live 8)
« Reply #10 on: May 20, 2009, 06:12:32 AM »
Did you help develop Traktor 3 or something? :D

Thank you SO MUCH for this. BLU is truly a resource hog on my machine and is also a bitch to set up & configure. I can't wait for MFL when there will be really no need for Reaktor's clunky interface anymore.

MFL I can't wait!!!

Cheers
D
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peelie

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any instructions how to use this with a PC?
« Reply #11 on: June 08, 2009, 01:28:06 AM »
hi

looking for help setting this up with a PC i have midi yoke and midiox installed. but where to go from here?

thanks in advance!

UPDATE
okay only need to use midiyoke.

in ableton options/preferences/midi sync you should be enable the midi input/output to a midi yoke. for the Beat Looker project I used midi yoke input/output 3 since the Bus Control is on channel 3 in the arrangement window. Make sure to enable the 'Track' and 'Remote' On buttons.

then simply follow the instructions given in the Beat Looker project!

cheers again for this fun project file!
« Last Edit: June 08, 2009, 07:57:50 AM by peelie »

Lord Vetinari

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Re: Beat Looker - Beat Lookup for those without Reaktor :D (Live 8)
« Reply #12 on: July 21, 2009, 09:18:52 AM »
thats what im searching for. but the beat juggle isnt working well. do i have to make extra-settings? for the reverse-function i had to start the looper manually. is there something else? what is with all the fake-clips? i cant hear a difference, when they are playing.

any tips?

cheers

Monosylabik

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Re: Beat Looker - Beat Lookup for those without Reaktor :D (Live 8)
« Reply #13 on: July 22, 2009, 01:26:55 AM »
thats what im searching for. but the beat juggle isnt working well. do i have to make extra-settings? for the reverse-function i had to start the looper manually. is there something else? what is with all the fake-clips? i cant hear a difference, when they are playing.

any tips?

cheers

You have to create a MIDI feedback loop so the MIDI notes from the control track can go out and back into Live so they can be used for Live's MIDI map, which is needed to start the Loopers automatically. One of the dummy clips is used to set the loopers to record and play at the appropriate time. The others are there to make the MIDI mapping easier. The instructions explain how use them to set it up properly. Hope it's helpful, otherwise, let me know.

S4racen

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Re: Beat Looker - Beat Lookup for those without Reaktor :D (Live 8)
« Reply #14 on: July 22, 2009, 03:16:53 AM »
Sadly i've had to stop using the loopers as i'm plagued with the set is too big error message, it would appear that even when you empty the looper each time the memory is still used up as if you didn't empty the contents....

Otherwise it's all good....

Cheers
D
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