Workflow confusion/Any Ambiloop users

[moesnodgrass]

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Hello:

I've read the entire manual and am ready to install the 30 day trial but I really have no idea how to get started.

I create drum and bass parts in a DAW and render them to .wav and play along them live. What I would like to do is make a few guitar and voice racks consisting of vsts to be floor switchable.

So where do I begin? I'm thinking that my wav files should be the clock. Do I record pedal events at appropriate clock times in each wave file, then assign the pedal events to program changes in the vsts? Maybe there is a better workflow than this but this is all that's coming to me.

Also, does anyone have any experience using Catabile in conjunction with
Ambiloop? http://www.ambiloop.com/ (http://www.ambiloop.com/)

Thanks in advance,

Moe

[pinkcanaru]

Hi there,

WAV files don't contain midi events. You will need to create midi files which are synchronous with your WAV files. Cantabile can start all the files, both audio and midi, from one play command.
Something else Cantabile can do is start a file playing back on the exact downbeat of the next measure if you ask it do so.

Hope that helps

[TiUser]

It's basically no good idea trying to sync midi tracks to audio data.

I'm no expert here but as long as audio does not contain timecode on digital level I see no chance for perfect sync. Just starting audio and midi tracks synchronously does not help keeping both in perfect sync to the end. Maybe it's good enough for practical purposes.

[pinkcanaru]

Over the period of one song, you could get lucky and have your midi retain sync with the audio.
Try it -you may be surprised.

I rendered a click audio file at 118 BPM over 120 bars and a exported its midi file from Nuendo. Imported both to Cantabile and ran in sync. Perfect.

[TiUser]

Well, I was a bit theoretical here - as I am when I say there is no reliable timing with PC's at all...

Another point is that not all audio is created with a sequencer - some is still played manually by musicians who never match perfectly a metronome click... classic musicians call it rubato, pop musicians feel, groove or whatever...

I think it's quite hard to sync that to a midi track...

But finally we agree in that sense that it may worl practically... do we?

[pinkcanaru]

Yes we agree..... but....
Not to be pedantic , but even a live track is EASY to sync with modern sequencers.
Take a look at Cubase/Nuendo's excellent tempo mapping features. With relative ease you can create a tempo map to a live performance, export the tempo map as a midi file and have excellent sync.
Export appropriately and bring audio and midi into Cantabile. Bingo.
I tested this with a tempo map that jumped wildly from 140.1 BPM down to 77 and a bunch in-between. Rendered the resultant click and a midi file. imported to Cantabile. Maintained phase within 5 ms all the way through.

But why even bother to do that? A musician who wanted to invoke patch changes in sync with a free tempo piece, as the OP seems to want to do, would only need to play the audio in a sequencer and then record a midi track along with it, inserting patch changes or whatever at the appropriate places - simply listening to the music. Tempo irrelevant but events are placed in time exactly where they need to be.

There is no doubt that this works as perfectly as it could for live performance.

PC