KVR Audio

dellboy · Post by **dellboy** » Thu Jan 31, 2019 6:40 pm

For fun I like to set a 5 bar loop - press record - and drag and drop instruments and play. Drop down to the next track while recording continues and drag a new instrument and play. Keep doing this until I get bored or inspiration strikes.

Trouble is, most DAWs wont do this, they usually either stop recording, crash, or are just too awkward to respond this way.

To work like this its pretty much essential to have "autoarm the track" otherwise the flow is broken.
Anyways, up to now I have tested a number of DAWs and there is a very clear winner on my low powered machine - Studio One 4.

I tried Studio One 4 - Waveform 9 - Reaper - Ableton Live lite - Cubase LE 9.5 -Cakewalk Sonar - and Energy XT 2. 5.

Studio One 4 pro was miles in front with dragging and dropping and deleting on the fly without hardly missing a beat. Cubase was a clear second. I have yet to try Bitwig.

Can any DAW beat Studio One ?

dellboy · Post by **dellboy** » Fri Feb 01, 2019 10:40 am

Anyone know how to loop record in Reaper so I can test it ?

I have searched for a way to disable takes but nothing I do has any effect, the active loop is written over by the next take.

antic604 · Post by **antic604** » Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:30 am

I'm more curious about why a "5 bar loop"

And indeed try Bitwig.

gentleclockdivider · Post by **gentleclockdivider** » Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:53 am

antic604 wrote: Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:30 am I'm more curious about why a "5 bar loop"

And indeed try Bitwig.

Uh , maybe because it creates motion when played against other 4 bar loops

antic604 · Post by **antic604** » Fri Feb 01, 2019 12:08 pm

gentleclockdivider wrote: Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:53 am
antic604 wrote: Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:30 am I'm more curious about why a "5 bar loop"

And indeed try Bitwig.
Uh , maybe because it creates motion when played against other 4 bar loops

He said nothing about loops, though - "drag and drop instruments and play"

I'm aware of polyrhythms and stuff.

LawrenceF · Post by **LawrenceF** » Fri Feb 01, 2019 1:15 pm

antic604 wrote: Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:30 am I'm more curious about why a "5 bar loop"

I was curious about that as well and thought maybe so he can have a one bar lead in to pause a bit for every loop cycle.

dellboy · Post by **dellboy** » Fri Feb 01, 2019 3:11 pm

antic604 wrote: Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:30 am I'm more curious about why a "5 bar loop"

Yeah, so am I, and I am the OP

It should be a four bar loop, but I set the marker to five.

dellboy · Post by **dellboy** » Fri Feb 01, 2019 4:07 pm

antic604 wrote: Fri Feb 01, 2019 12:08 pm
And indeed try Bitwig.

I have just done that, and it is outstanding, probably the best so far, or at least equal to Studio One 4.

I only have Bitwig 8 track, so I set the markers to 4 bars, loaded the included piano and set the track to loop. I Started recording and laid down a simple chord track,and it looped perfectly and I could hear it. Without stopping record, I dragged across a bass instrument and recorded while listening to the previous track. Bitwig did not glitch. You can keep doing this and it behaves impeccably, even if you delete tracks while recording continues.

Because I only have Bitwig 8 track it went into demo mode because I exceeded the track count, and it did not even hiccup!

The only criticism I have is that autoarm did not work as I dropped down to the next track using my PC keyboard, whereas Studio One has no trouble doing this. I am sure Bitwig is capable of doing this, so maybe it needs a re-install or something. Its just a slight annoyance as it breaks the flow.