[LAU] composing live w/ loops

[Josh Lawrence]

Hi everyone,

I have a good friend who is a rapper, and he wants to get together and
do some collaboration and make some jams.  I'd like to get everyone's
take on how they would do this with Linux.  My thought process is
this:  Find a few drum loops that are tasty prior to the session, and
start those playing.  Then, maybe record a bassline (synth), some
comping (my hardware keyboard), etc.  Having the ability to turn these
loops on/off to build a track would be nice.

My problem is I can't think of the right combination of applications
to do this.  My synths are dssi...what app could handle the looping
portion?  Does Ardour support loops yet?  Maybe some funky combination
of sooperlooper and something else?  I don't mind doing some
planning/setup prior to the session, but I need to be able to get to
things rather quickly so I don't hold my rapper up waiting on me to
figure out how to work things.  :)

Any and all ideas are welcome, as I have never used Linux in a live
jam situation before.

(FYI, I've read Dave Phillips' great articles on working with loops in
Linux, but I need something that lends itself to live composition.)

-- 
Josh Lawrence
http://www.hardbop200.com