[LAU] composing live w/ loops

[Esben Stien]

Josh Lawrence <hardbop200 at gmail.com> writes:

> I have a good friend who is a rapper

I rap. 

> I'd like to get everyone's take on how they would do this with
> Linux.

I use supercollider. 

> 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.

I setup supercollider with many synths, audio samples and
patterns. Then I set the tempo and it will switch tempo exactly on a 4
bar end. Same with patterns, I can change each element, the bass, the
fillers, the theme, the beat and even all elements of the beat exactly
on a 4, 8, 16 bar end.

I don't do much recording as you seem to want and I've never done that
with supercollider. What I do is mostly synthesize the beat directly
and load precut audio samples of 2, 4 etc bars. If you want to do loop
recording, I've done some sooperlooper, but it still lacks some very
vital functions for me to use it effectively.

This is however not what you want to do if you have a rapper in the
studio, in my opinion. For me, I need everything setup and no pauses,
being able to change beat and elements within the beat to have it
progress somehow, then just record everything.

> I need to be able to get to things rather quickly so I don't hold my
> rapper up waiting

I've hooked everything up to a MIDI controller, so I can do everything
I need live from there. 

A thing with rappers; never stop recording, get everything and just
change beats often;).

-- 
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