Use like Boss Loop Station?

[Dorpond]

So I was thinking of getting a Boss Loop Station, but then thought to myself "Wait, Mixcraft does a lot of things - maybe I can use that and save 600 bucks!"

So is there a way that I can use Mixcraft like that? I'd love to be able to be jamming live at a party, and either hit a key on the computer keyboard to start/start recording or maybe even have a foot pedal controller to trigger that (better for live).

And then while that loop is playing, start playing the next track, and so on, until I have myself a 'song' that I can then play lead on.

Please let me know!

[GovernmentMule]

Sure!
As a matter of fact you probably could do a lot more in Mixcraft then on a dedicated looper.

The downside would be the looper would have dedicated knobs and buttons for certain functions.
On a computer you would have to learn to do it on the fly with a mouse and the keypad which may be slower or you could get a midi controller to do the same functions.

I would suggest reading up on the performance panel in Mixcraft. ( Page 171 in the Mixcraft 9 manual )
The performance panel is something I do not deal with so I can not help with that, but I think it is made for what you are looking to do.

There is probably some video's out there somewhere too! Hopefully somebody else with more experience at this will come along and guide you more.

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi,

You can also use punch in/punch out with loop recording:

Mixcraft University: Punch and Loop Recording

Greg

[Dorpond]

OK, so I checked out that video and that last section seems to do a lot of what I want. Kind of...
https://youtu.be/npJyywE9ju8?t=223

With it constantly looping and recording, it gives me little time to switch instruments/change volumes/effects, etc, so is there a way I can arm/disarm while it is looping, instead of it non-stop recording during the live session? I just didn't want to have either dirty stuff recorded, or several "empty" tracks.

To better paint the scene, I want the loop to keep playing while I am changing / adjusting things for the next recording, but not recording until I arm it during the playing loop.

Again, looking to make this easy during live performances without recording EVERYTHING that I am doing.

Thanks!

[Dorpond]

Take a look at 3:25 here:
https://youtu.be/2fQbtp2BgY4?list=RD2fQbtp2BgY4&t=205

He stops recording, the loop keeps playing, he changes instruments, gives it a test, adjust volumes, and then finally records again.

How would I be able to arm and disarm like that during the loop?

[TrevsAudio]

Sounds like a job for the Performance Panel - YouTube 'Mixcraft performance panel' - a couple of vids there...

[Dorpond]

That doesn't seem to fit the bill either.

[Dorpond]

Let me explain why:

1. Each of the performance boxes requires a certain fixed length. Try to get perfect timing live, in front of an audience, on an electric guitar, when the

2. Metronome can’t be set to visual only. I was hoping that I could have a visual metronome that would just flash on the screen to help with timing, so that I couldhave a better chance of fitting my song into the perforce loop length. I don’t see any option for that and if I turn the volume all the way down, the metronome doesn’t function. In front of an audience, I really don’t want the audience hearing the first track being recorded with the click click beeps.

When looping things live, I don’t necessarily know how many bars a loop is going to be or what my timing is going to be. Live is more organic, and can’t be fit into perfectly predetermined little sized boxes.

I am hoping I can pull this off. Mixcradt can do just about anything under the sun, and if not, I am hoping the devs take note of this conversation, because I think that adding this capability would only require a couple little settings:

A. Arm/disarm while recording during looping (must be triggerable via a key, foot switch, midi) so we can “insert new track now”
B. (Performance Panel): have the ability to set the loop length to auto-set to the length of first loop recorded.
C. Have a visual flashing metronome, for those who wish to attempt to fit their loops into predetermined box sizes. I personally don’t want to attempt that live, but I was really surprised there wasn’t a visual only option in the metronome settings.

[cactus-head]

Hi,

I haven't used the performance panel much at all but I'll check it out to see if I can learn it and lend a hand. It would be useful for me anyway to understand it. But in the meantime, if you haven't, check out mixcraft university about the performance panel and recording:
https://acoustica.com/mixcraft/videos/u ... ance-panel

At least as far as the metronome goes, a quick search yielded this free VST:

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MMetronome

Take a look and see if it is useful.

What I would guess from your query comes down to a lot of initial setup. You would need a MIDI controller of some kind so you could switch to different sets and clips on the fly as well as arm and disarm tracks. You would of course want this all set up before you do anything.

Also, you probably would want to create a fixed template of certain number of tracks so that your MIDI mapping and tracks are always setup and ready to go. Maybe something like 6 MIDI tracks and 2 audio tracks. It's up to you. Also, I would recommend you choose a limited number of effects that would be on each track: maybe a delay, reverb and chorus. Keep it simple. I would suggest a send track that has the effects on that and you route your tracks through that but I can see that getting complicated when you want some tracks to have the effect and some not to and you end up dialing in the amount of send and then your volumes change etc.

To reiterate you want to create a fixed template of tracks instruments and effects and you want to map all of the appropriate controls to a MIDI controller. The drop down selections would need to be controlled by the computer and mouse - but you could get fancy and create keyboard shortcuts with "AutoHotKey." That's a whole other level and direction if you want to add that, but it could give you complete control. So for your situation, the prep work will be the most important thing - getting your tracks and your performance panel setup so that the only thing you end up doing is pressing the appropriate controls on your controller (and computer) to record, loop and playback.

I know you talked about organic development and non-fixed bars etc., but I think you should start in a "defined" environment and come to understand what can be created within in that. There are overall project settings like time signature which you can't really change live because your clips in the performance panel won't change their length and that's something you'd have to keep in mind.

[Dorpond]

@cactus-head , that would be great if you could try to get it working on your end. Sometimes it takes a second set of eyes to find the obvious.

If Mixcraft can't do this type of thing, I think it could, with very little coding, so I'd hope the devs would keep that in the back of their minds when releasing the next version of Mixcraft. I've always looked at Mixcraft as being that tool that does just about everything. I really don't want to have to buy an expensive looper, when I am SO CLOSE to being able to use Mixcraft instead.

[cactus-head]

I tried but couldn't get recording in the performance mode to respond to MIDI triggers - so that kinda defeats the whole purpose. You can still use the mouse to click around and you can play back specific cells or sets with MIDI key assignments. But the recording isn't MIDI learnable it seems.