SooperLooper Forum

I have
* a couple of midi capable keyboard
* a yamaha svc210 electric cello (no midi in/out, just audio)
* mac book pro
* imac
* garage band (comes with Mac)

I'd like to be able to create music like Zoe Keating - which (as far as I can tell) involves building track/loops live, via foot pedals, and layering them. I've heard she uses SooperLooper and Ableton Live and some Apple Script to tie things together.

I'm not sure how to wire this together though. Would love some pointers on:
1) how to wire a keyboard, cello, drum-pad, midi-pedals into a computer
2) best midi->computer connection
3) best software to manage tracks/recording
4) how this would be combined and routed to an amp

Sorry for the newb questions. It's been a couple decades since I played with midi and it seems to have changed A LOT.

I'm a programmer if that matters in any of this.

-ben
Seattle, WA

Well, that's a rather ambitious first post... but still, everybody's got to start somewhere.

Basically, what Zoe does is use a MIDI controller pedal and Ableton Live to just loop her cello playing. You don't even need a computer to do that, you can get a simple looper pedal from Boss or Digitech and do what she does. I think you're wanting to do more, with keyboards, drumpads, and such, so that will take quite a bit more work and equipment.

Simply put, GarageBand will give you the tools to do simple recording. SooperLooper will give you the looping capabilities. If you want keyboards and drums, you will need to hook the controllers to the laptop using a USB to MIDI converter... very likely will need one with more than 1 in and 1 out... and you will definitely need a good (i.e. usable and flexible) MIDI foot controller. The Behringer FCB1010 is about the best thing going right now, it's fully programmable, and relatively cheap.

I'd recommend starting off simple. As a musician, when I discovered looping, I wanted to do everything all at once right off the bat, and I was frustrated cause I couldn't. It takes work to figure out what works for you. I could show you my setup, but that will change depending on what I'm doing with it, and even so, might not be what you like.

Since I don't have massive amounts of inputs going into my computer, I use a simple Peavey USB-capable mixer. It only has 2 ins and 2 outs through the USB port, but that's all I need for looping. I'm not doing multitrack recording. You might want to use a more expensive "Interface" box, but for live performing, a good USB mixer is cheaper and much more flexible.

Can you give us a detailed idea of what you are thinking of doing with it?