Guitar Looping

[Steven H]

Here's what I'm trying to do:

- I want to play record a riff on guitar for, say, 8 bars. No problem so far.

- Then I just want to play guitar over it on a new track. For how many bars: I don't know. Until I get tired of soloing. Then problem is that for each 8 bars it wants to keep saving the recording inside the original area so in the end I have to drag and drop dozens of snippets, taking care to line em up and re-activate them just to listen to the whole thing at once. It's a tremendous pain.

Is there a better way of doing this?

 

 

[filo]

I'm not sure if I understand it enough, so let me describe my steps for simple looping (I do that very often at home).

1. add guitar VST to track1

2. record rhythm guitar to track 1

3. set loop area on track 1

3. unselect record icon and "listening" icon on track 1 (on the right side of record icon)

4. set "listening" icon on track 2

5. add guitar VST to track 2

6. push Play button (the track 1 is playing with rhythm guitar) and then noodling thru track 2

 

[msmcleod]

For your solo recording, what I'd recommend is:

• Setting the record mode to "Sound on Sound",
• checking "Mute Previous Takes"
• Enabling Auto Punch (set the punch-in & punch-out to be the same as you've set for your loop)

e.g.:

 

When you expand the take lanes, you should see each solo as a separate take. 

Just solo the one you want to keep.

[Gswitz]

Cakewalk doesn't do this well.

If you are willing to play the first bit then hit stop... Click the clip and ctrl+l and drag the clip out, you can then record over the loop on another track... This gets you what you are talking about but the flow gets interrupted and it is fiddly. This is what Filo describes above.

Th3 has a Looper you can trigger with a midi pedal. Thu, the newer version, has a better Looper, but they are still working on it. I've been using it this weekend and enjoying it, but there are times when I'm like wtf.

When you use the Looper with the midi pedal, you can record the long guitar track but listen back hearing the loops. You could also record the actual output as well on an aux track.

Edited February 18, 2019 by Gswitz

[scook]

Could use the Matrix View to loop the original 8 bar clip then while the Matrix View is playing the original clip record on another track.

Here is one way to do it...

Assume the original 8 bar clip is on track one.

Make sure CbB will loop the clip as expected. To do this, turn the clip into a groove clip by selecting it and typing CTRL+L. The clip should completely fill all 8 bars. If it does not, open the clip into the Loop  Construction View and adjust the beat count until the clip fills all 8 bars. May want to rename the clip in clip properties and drag it to the browser saving it for future use.

Create a new audio track (track two)

Open the Matrix View

Drag the clip from track one into cell(1,1) in the Matrix View, set the row to play on track two and set Follow Transport on. Click on the clip in the cell. The clip should be flashing.

Archive track one

Create a new audio track for the new solo and set the track up for recording

Start recording

 

The 8 bar clip in the Matrix View should play as long as the transport is running.

 

[chuckebaby]

I've seen this a few times in past couple weeks.

I can loop a 4 or 8 beat guitar part for 100 measures in under a couple minutes. Im not saying im cool or anything, im just saying its fairly easy when snap is selected.

- Make sure your snap is set to 1/2 or Whole.

- Drag/Select the 8 bar region

- Hold CNTRL and Drag to copy/paste.

- Once you have 2 done it becomes easier / Select both clips Drag and drop using Copy/paste.

- then there's 4 parts easily copy/pasted into 8 parts (then 16, then 32, then 64, exc).

 

[Craig Anderton]

Here's the closest I've come to the "D" shortcut in Ableton Live and Studio One:

1. Copy the loop, then place the cursor at the end of it.

2. Call up Paste Special, then specify the number of repetitions you want.

3. Click OK.

Note that you can also copy to a different track if you'd like.

[John Vere]

The thing is there's always 4 or more ways to do just about anything in Cakewalk.  

I use sort of what Chuck does no problem. 

record the first clip for how ever many measure.

Right click and and select "Groove clip looping" ( CTRL L ) 

now I use the magnifier to zoom out to see whole song, drag clip to end or ??   

Insert a new audio track and have at it.  

[Craig Anderton]

1 hour ago, Cactus Music said:

The thing is there's always 4 or more ways to do just about anything in Cakewalk.  

And each one is best for a certain application! What I like about the scook Matrix View method is you can have other loops in there for inspiration. My method is good when you want to have LOTS of repeats. The Chuck and Groove Clip methods are fast.

[Gswitz]

There are lots of ways to do it with interruption. Doing it without interruption is tricky.

I like Scook's idea of using the Matrix. You can trigger loops with a midi controller to start different sections when you're ready. :-)

[Steven H]

You folks are awesome! Thanks; I'm going to try em out.

[synkrotron]

6 hours ago, Chuck E Baby said:

I've seen this a few times in past couple weeks.

I can loop a 4 or 8 beat guitar part for 100 measures in under a couple minutes. Im not saying im cool or anything, im just saying its fairly easy when snap is selected.

- Make sure your snap is set to 1/2 or Whole.

- Drag/Select the 8 bar region

- Hold CNTRL and Drag to copy/paste.

- Once you have 2 done it becomes easier / Select both clips Drag and drop using Copy/paste.

- then there's 4 parts easily copy/pasted into 8 parts (then 16, then 32, then 64, exc).

 

This is how I create so called "loops."

Never did like matrix. Not that it's a bad thing, I am just inherently lazy and I've been using the drag and drop copying method for quite a while before matrix view was implemented.

[Starship Krupa]

On 2/18/2019 at 5:39 AM, scook said:

Could use the Matrix View to loop the original 8 bar clip then while the Matrix View is playing the original clip record on another track.

Oh brill. This is a good excuse for me to cozy up to the Matrix View. I like to record my own loops and then jam over them, and hadn't considered the Matrix View as a tool to facilitate that, even though my other DAW, Mixcraft, implements a similar Ableton Livesque triggered cell thing.