The Letter - Song to learn

The continuing saga of MIDI sync of the Boss looper and Ableton. (Actually, it goes even deeper than that!!!)

My objective has been to use Ableton, (or some DAW), and/or a drum machine, synced up with the Boss RC50 looper, to create unique live performances. I'm all about solo-ing, and improvisation. And, these tools offer a guitarist a unique opportunity. BUT, they can be extremely .... complicated.

In this instance, I used Band In The Box, (look it up), to create the original backing track. Then, I exported that to MIDI file. Then, I imported the MIDI into Ableton. I goobered around with it in Ableton until I got something I kind of liked. (Although, in hindsight, I'd like a LOT more drums....). That required finishing up the backing track, as well as working out all the guitar licks, and the song form, etc. Then, I MIDI synced it to the RC50, and created.... this work of ART !!!!

I like the tools, but there's still more I'd like to do. The backing track, (Ableton), isn't near as .... dynamic.... (aka LOUD), as I'd like it to be. (For a $500+ piece of software, it should be doing more "stuff".....) However, I'm finally getting the knack of importing stuff into Ableton, and editing it. I got nowhere to go from here, but up tho.........

The MIDI stuff is working OK. I originally tried going FROM Ableton to Boss RC50, but that SUCKED..... The RC50 could NOT get the same tempo as Ableton, and was constantly slowing down. The only way I got it to work was to sync FROM RC50, TO Ableton. SOoooo, I had to work everything out around that foundation.

Finally, this is fun, BUT, it makes playing the guitar VERY difficult. Because, I'm no longer just playing the guitar. Now, I'm effectively, (.... well ok... "essentially", I'll let you decide how "effective" I was...), playing band conductor, as well as drum "manager", BESIDES just playing the guitar. I'm not gonna kid you. This is work..... I don't know what you think of my guitar playing here. BUT, it's a fact, it would be easier IF I didn't have to concentrate on 3+ things all at once.

Here's some ideas for you to focus on in the video. And, if you want more info, feel free to comment or email. I'll respond as I can.

• Using Ableton as a backing DAW. Composing backing tracks in Ableton.
• Syncing Ableton with Boss loopers. It can be done using MIDI, but it isn't perfect....
• The song arrangement. I used at least three different arrangements for the lead work on this song. There's some standard positional soloing here, plus some chord substitutions, and a few other things. I'll try to put together a tab, and add it here later.... (I'd be interested to hear how many people would like to have a tab for this....)
• The sound recording. Here again, I used my Zoom H4 to record this live. That works, but it could sound much better if more effort was put into just the recording technique(s).