Same button/pedal for NextLoop and NextTrack?

[Per Boysen]

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone has a tip on the best way to set up the same pedal to do both Next Loop and Next Track? I also plan to use a second pedal for Previous Loop and Previous Track.

So far I have looked into using a multiscript:
!name Next Loop or Track

!multiclick 1000
Message Next Loop or Track
end

Label click
NextTrack
end

Label endClick
NextLoop
end
There are three issues I need help to solve:

1) If clicking once it it goes Next Loop. If double-clicking it first goes Next Track as excpected, but while settling at the next track it also goes "Next Loop" on the new track - which is bad. I'm looking for suggestions on how to either fix that or ideas about a different approach than using a multiscript for this purpose!

2) If clicking once it it goes Next Loop, but not on the next cycle as I wish (I use "SwitchQuant = Cycle"). The track selection goes Next after two cycles. This must be because the multiscript needs the first cycle to wait and find out that there is no second click coming within the stated 1000 milliseconds and not until after that the multiscript throws in the "Next Track" command. So I guess I need some way to temporarily disable the global SwitchQuant setting in the script?

3) The other script that targets Previous Loop/Track is built accordingly, but doesn't work at all. It seems the script statements PreviousLoop and PreviousTrack do not exist?

[Jeff]

There are three times a !multiclick script runs:

- on the first click (where you have "Message Next Loop or Track")
- on each subsequent click (label click)
- after 1000 millieconds have passed without a click (Label endClick)

The reason you're getting the NextLoop after the loop switch is because
"Label endClick" is still called 1 second after the second click. This
is your first problem.

The second problem is because the NextLoop happens in the "Label endClick"
so this will be 1 second after the first click which may be after
your quantization point.

If you always use SwitchQuant you could do this:


!name Next Loop or Track
!multiclick 1000

NextLoop
end

Label click
Undo
NextTrack
end


The NextLoop always happens first, but if SwitchQuant is on it will be
delayed. If you click a second time before the switch, it will
Undo the NextLoop and then do NextTrack.

[Per Boysen]

Thank you, that was a really elegant solution!

Oops! This doesn't work well either. On one click or a long-click it goes NextLoop, as expected. But on a double-click it goes both NextLoop on track one and NextTrack to track two. Ideas?

(I use SwitQuant = Cycle)

[Jeff]

It might be simpler to use !sustain The script does NextLoop normally
so you can cycle through loops but if you hold it down it does NextTrack

!name NextLoop/Long-NextTrack

# we'll get sustain events every 1/2 second, only
# change tracks once
Variable trackChanged

NextLoop
end

Label sustain
if trackChanged != true
if nextLoop != 0
# we are loop switching, undo the switch
Undo
endif
NextTrack
set trackChanged true
endif
end

[Per Boysen]

I tried this last suggested script, but has a flaw. Pushing once works just fine; Mobius goes to the next loop. Whe doing a long press though, It selects Track 2 while also going to the next loop on Track 1. The empty loop on Track 1 is now left in Overdub Mode while I am on Track 2 - not a favorable situation ;-)

[buzap]

I tried this last suggested script, but has a flaw.

Hi Per

haven't gone through the code but just one suggestion:
Have you tried putting the NextLoop in "for ... next"? Just to make sure you trigger the right track.

best regards
Buzap

[bmalt]

Per, did you find a solution that was working for you to do NextLoop / NextTrack from same pedal? I've boiled my setup down to 5 pedals to pretty much control everything I need to control for basic multitrack live looping. If I could do nextLoop / Next track with 1 pedal I could get this down to 3 pedals. That would rock.

[Per Boysen]

Per, did you find a solution that was working for you to do NextLoop / NextTrack from same pedal? I've boiled my setup down to 5 pedals to pretty much control everything I need to control for basic multitrack live looping. If I could do nextLoop / Next track with 1 pedal I could get this down to 3 pedals. That would rock.No, and I doubt it will be possible anyway, without the need for time travel. But I'm ok with that, in fact I find it better to use one button for next track and another for previous track - because I usually want to sketch up a (improvised) tune as fast as possible to keep the music interesting for the listeners. For the same reason I have even ditched Next/Previous Loop totally; what I do iinstead is to have five direct-loop-call buttons so I will always have instant access to any of the possible five loops on the selected track. Then I also have a little MIDI hand mixer/buttonpad on the side where I duplicate these commands, in case feet should be occupied with something else.

I like to keep the looping setup simple and for the music I mostly do live this doesn't always equal "less pedals". But having too many pedals can be devastating, so you have to find the balance where your music of choice meets the ergonomics of your performance flow.

These days I try to use a Stick as the audio source instrument, as often as possible, and that instrument puts less stress on the need for looping because it offers two fretboards that can have different sounds through unique outputs and you can kind of play them "as two musicians" much an a way I previously needed to fake with live looping when using a flute as the source audio input instrument. And this Stick also has one fretboard doubling up with MIDI, giving me two more parallel live audio inputs to work with; the Roland GR55 output and whatever soft synths I run on the lappy pre looper.

ops... got to stop here. Didn't intend to hack away that far.. :-)