Ableton Retrospective Looper Template

An 8 Channel Retrospective Looper Template for Ableton Live

What is a retrospective looper?

On a traditional looper you press a button to start the loop, then play the phrase.

A retrospective looper is always listening. When you press the loop button the phrase you just played is instantly looped. It is an incredible tool for improvisation, sound design, and experimentation.

This template allows you to select loop lengths between 1 and 16 bars (i.e. how many of the bars that were just played) in multiples of 2 (1,2,4,8,16 bars)

Features:

• 8 channel retrospective looper (always listening -- loops are created by a button press after the phrase is played)
• Selectable loop lengths of 1 bar, 2 bar, 4 bar, 8 bar, and 16 bar (per-track)
• 8 macro insert FX available on all 8 tracks
• Overdubbing of both input audio and channel insert FX
• Loop length may be shortened/extended by pressing a different "bar length" button after the loop has been started (the loop will be truncated, or repeated to the new length)

Requirements:

• Ableton Live 10, 11 or 12 (Standard or Suite)
• An Ableton Controller, such as the Ableton Push, Novation Launchpad, Akai APC, etc.
  • Note: the template will work without an external controller, but it is optimized for tactile control
• ClyphX (free) https://github.com/ldrolez/clyphx-live11
  • ClyphX is needed as this template makes use of its clip sequencing functionality (PSEQ) for the retrospective overdub feature
  • Easy drag-and-drop installation process (video install/setup guide is included)

Design:

• All 8 loopers are "listening" to audio from the "Looper Bus" channel. What you play in can be looped on any channel, at any bar length with the push of a button.
• The loop delete/reset button is mapped to the stop button of each channel, with the master stop all button mapped to the "reset scene" which will reset all loops. By default the initialize (clear/reset) action must be held for 1 bar to help avoid accidental erasing of active loops

Instructions:

• Install latest ClyphX release from https://github.com/ldrolez/clyphx-live11/releases and follow install instructions within zip file
• In Ableton Settings select ClyphX on an empty controller slot, and set input and output to "None"
• Load the Ableton Retrospective Looper Template
• Create an instrument channel, and route this tracks output to "Looper Bus". The loopers are listening to audio sent to the "Looper Bus" channel.
• Turn on the metronome (optional, but helpful)
• Hold the stop all button, this will initialize (clear and reset) all loopers on all channels and ensure they are ready for looping
• Play your instrument, and when you like something you played press a loop length button on any channel!