For all the crazy and wonderful stuff you can do with the Beat Repeat, one thing I get lots of mileage out of in performance situations is using it as simple looper. Obviously, there are lots of ways to loop on the fly in Live, but this one is just so darn simple to set up, and can be operated with a single button. Here’s how the Beat Repeat should be set up:
The key parts of the setup are:
- Chance = 0%. The loop is activated manually with the Repeat switch.
- Grid = 1 Bar
- Output Mode = Ins. Insert mode cuts the input signal as soon as you hit Repeat.
Some of the controls on the Beat Repeat are irrelevant for this setup. For example, Interval, Offset and Gate can be parked anywhere.
That’s it. Map a button on your MIDI controller to the Repeat switch and you’re done. You’ll instantly get a loop of whatever bar is currently playing when you press Repeat. If you want to get crazy, map Grid to a knob on your controller for repetition madness.
Just be aware that if you need a clean 1 Bar loop, Grid should be set to 1 Bar when you hit Repeat. Capturing loops with grid set to a different value, and then changing Grid to 1 Bar can yeild weird results.
