BrainModular

hello all.
very new here and just tried usine a few days ago. very interested in a new piece of software for live performance. Ableton isn't really working out for me and I haven't enjoyed my experiences with it so i'm looking for something new.
was wondering if I can create a small checklist and find out whether Usine could be something i'm looking for?

I'm using lots of samples and loops, triggering, cutting and going wild with on the fly. Sort of like building up a live set from elements of songs that i've written but in a dj kind of way, triggering different loops and sounds like i would with clips in Ableton, going in and out of different songs without stopping and starting a new song/set over again.

Also, i'm hoping to be able to load some soft synths to play from my midi keyboard and also some VST effects and control certain parameters with my midi controllers.

Last of all, there is some external midi gear I have like a Machinedrum and an MPC i'm looking to sync upto my computer/usine as well. Ableton couldn't stay in sync with these to save it's life so hopefully i'm hoping Usine syncs a bit better?

Thank you very much! It's been great to be able to play with this software for the last few days. Hopefully I can make it a fulltime piece of kit in my live PA.

Cheers, Louis.

welcome to the Usine gear.
Usine should rock for all your purposes.
We are working on the Time clock external sync patches, which have to be improved.

thanks for the heads up Olivier
As i'm wanting to be able to do the types of things I can do in Ableton, i'm curious to know, what kind of methods/modules should I be using to try and do the things I can do in Live.
I have .wav loops i'm wanting to trigger to build up the song on the fly and go in and out if different sets of .wav loops to progress to the next song etc.

I'm totally up for writing music in Usine but in the Live PAs i'm doing i'm not wanting to a whole lot of sound creation on the spot just more so putting together the songs i've written in a live situation.

In Ableton it's quite easy to set all this up and trigger it in beat as well but I don't think Usine is capable of doing this but i'm happy to work around it.

Thank you, Louis.

bump?

hi there,

put simply, usine is capable of pretty much everything once you get the hang of it. I guess the main question is what in Ableton live IS working for you and what ISN'T? I.e. what do you want to be like in Live and what do you want different, in how your setup works.

If you are very new to Usine we should take one simple entity, a tiny part of what you're aiming to have, and help you see how to build that and slowly you'll get the hang of it. For most of us it's a neverending process - building the gig setup of our dreams. And once you realize anything is possible, that realization also starts to make you come up with new ideas. And that's the beauty of it.

For playing with WAV-loops you should get to know the Sampler modules, its file list and how the different sync modes (triggering modes) work. There are many add-ons made by Olivier or by other users that incorporate sampler modules but I reckon looking inside those patches *might* put you off with what seems to be complexity. You might be more comfortable building the understanding from scratch - to start with.

The Master Synchro module is the source for any time based information. If you want to have something happen on Bar 1 beat 1 - that's where you get that information from, so have a look at that.

Also, pretty much absolutely anything you build, you work a lot with Math and Math/Logical modules and Events Control modules.

Otherwise, give us a detailed description on some simple part of what you're aiming for and we can help you get started.

Welcome onboard.

antwan

For most of us it's a neverending process - building the gig setup of our dreams. And once you realize anything is possible, that realization also starts to make you come up with new ideas. And that's the beauty of it.

best summed up!

thanks for the great post antwan
i think the main reason i began getting frustrated with Ableton Live is because I was having a fair amount of trouble with it's unsteady and untrust worthy midi capabilities. trying to sync external gear to it was always a disaster so I was hoping to try and find some other live performance based software that I could use with my external midi gear but with the tightness that i'm looking for. without the laggyness i'm finding in Ableton Live!

usually what i tend to do is build up a large collection of wav loops that i've created in my productions. unload them into the session view into Ableton and then use these as the basis to build up the live performance of my songs.
i have midi controllers that i trigger of scenes and clips and whatever with. and setup different effects and midi assignments so i'm able to manipulate and cut and chop my loops up on the fly.
having the triggering all happening in time is also handy too.
also. in ableton i like to setup a selection of midi clips and whatever to trigger my external midi synths and drum machines but as you can tell as of late it hasn't worked so well for me
syncing to my midi gear and being able to send note sequences to certain bits of gear is vital!
i was going to try and use something like seq24 because that's exactly what i'd like for the control of my external gear. but i didn't really want to attempt to migrate over to a linux system.

usually i'll have like 8 channels in ableton setup with different varieties of loops in each and then setup my midi controllers so i can control volumes, effects, and clips in each channel.

will defs take a deep look at the sampler module.

anymore tips and ideas?

thank you so much for your time and words!
louis.

oh sure. working on it. will post more a bit later today.

antwan

thanks antwan will check back here soon!

thanks for all the help

So, thanks for the more in-depth info. First a few notes on general level, then a funny little introduction to get you started on patching.

Well, routing audio and midi (both internally and externally) doesn't get much more versatile than Usine.
My example: I have a MPC1000 slaving to Usine succesfully (haven't tried the other way) - and although i had perfect sync in Live for instance aswell I didn't have enough options; if the Live sequencer was running, so was the MPC etc. What I have in Usine is MPC receiving the midi clock from Usine all the time, but the MPC is independent. Only when Usine sees that the Play / Play Start was pressed on the MPC does it start the MPC on the next bar 1 beat 1 etc. Similar customized setups are endless. You can have eight different devices/midi ports both inwards and outwards from Usine plus each device can of course be sending receiving many midi channels. You can route anything to anywhere.
Just a warning: To get to where you want to be with your workspace will take A LOT OF WORK for a newbie. We are programming, after all. But the journey is pretty. And we are here to help.

The sampler is the source module for .WAV loops, the Piano Roll is for Midi loops. You can divide your elements into patches (many patches per track) and/or tracks (a total of 16 tracks with many patches in Usine Pro) as you find best.

You can either play with Quantize options for timing certain triggers or controls (found by right-clicking it) - this hasn't always seemed to do it's job perfectly though. Don't know the current status.

For Scenes - as far as I understand the term - I would opt to have a look at the conductor. In the conductor you can store a snapshot of the state of pretty much everything in the workspace, including master tempo. So probably you might end up with one (or perhaps several) conductor snapshots per song or for different parts of songs.

Very soon after you get into creating patches you will want to start to work on building an interface for your patches either in the Global Interface Builder or the Local Interface Builders. Even if you use controllers to control parameters it's still good to get into arranging the controls and displays nicely.

NOTE:
I recently noticed my MPC sync / control patch didn't work in versions higher that 3.63. Mind you, I haven't yet downloaded and tried anything above 3.65. I was planning to look into this in the next couple of days and find out what's up.

***

Just a tour of simple examples to get you started with the sampler module:
In an empty track and patch add a Sampler. Ctrl-drag and release from the out pin(s), you will have the sound routed to the outputs. Double-clicking the sampler will open the file list. Add some sample/loop you want to play with. Now look at the sync mode of the sampler module. It's set to loop. If you have your audio engine running this means the sample should already be playing and looping. It's not looping in any relation to the timebase though.

Let's change the sync mode to Play button. The sound will stop. Now ctrl-drag and release from the play inlet of the sampler module. You will end up with a play button which you can find in the control panel of the patch. Now when you play that button the sample will play, on your command, once. Now right-click that button and select Quantize Bar. When you next press the button, it will wait for beat 1 of the next bar and play the sample once. Also by right-clicking the button you can do a midi learn for that interface element (if you have your control surface selected and active in the setup). You can also do a key learn and use the computer keyboard for triggering the button.

Okay select the play button in the patch and delete it. Add a master synchronisation (hi cpu) to the patch. This is the module with all the timebase and synchro stuff. The outlets named "[something] led" give a trigger at certain moments. Try connecting the cyc led outlet to the play inlet of the sampler. Now it's triggering the sampler on every first beat of a bar.

Next, delete the Master Synchro module and add a Switch (interface design), a 0to1 (events control) and a 1to0 (events control).
The sampler's sync mode still being "play button" let's try something else:
Do the following connections:
Switch.out > in.0to1
Switch.out > in.1to0
0to1.out > play.Sampler
1to0.out > stop.Sampler
Make a key learn on the switch. Then right-clicking on the Switch select Remote mode toggle. This means when you press the assigned key on the keyboard for the first time it switches on and when you press the second time it switches off. The moment it switches on (0to1) is routed to trigger the play of the sampler. The moment the switch goes off (1to0) triggers the stop. Now it will only play for as long as the switch is on.

One final little example of some event control patching:
Leave the Switch but delete the connection cable leading to the sampler. Also change the Remote mode of the switch to Absolute. Add the following modules: a 0to1 (events control), a Pass Event Flow (events control) and a And (math/logical). Now make the following connections:
Switch.out > in.0to1
Switch.out > A.And
Sampler.stopplay > B.And
Sampler.stopplay > pass.PassEventFlow
And.out > in.PassEventFlow
0to1.out > play.Sampler
out.PassEventFlow > play.Sampler
In this case it will be re-triggering the loop as long as you keep the assigned key pressed. A break down of what we just did: When switch goes on (0to1) it triggers play. When sample reaches end (stopplay) it re-triggers play IF the switch is still on (1) at the time the stopplay trigger hits. I.e. IF switch is TRUE and stopplay is TRUE then LET PASS the stopplay trigger into the play inlet. Try it out.

That's just some sort of quick introduction in the ways to build towards different goals. A scratch of the surface. Now, try building something according to how you want it to work and when you're lost we will help you. Ask any question, don't worry whether it's a "stupid question" or not.


We'll take it from here Have fun, be patient.

antwan