Zynthian loads a swing drum pattern saved specifically for this song. This would be one of the patterns available under “sequence options…import from SMF” under “SD>System Midi>beat patterns” (e.g., “slowbigband>1 groove slowbigband”).
I cue this to start with a mapped control on the Zynthian (e.g., the P1 user-defined control)
The swing beat starts and serves as the controlling loop for the sooper looper
I record loops into the sooper looper with the drum beat in the background the whole time.
I stop the song and stop the drum. Ideally it is a toggle that earlier started the drum pattern.
I load another zs3 for a bossa song.
Zynthian loads a bossa drum pattern saved specifically for this song. This will also be loaded from “sequence options…import from SMF” under “SD>System Midi>beat patterns”.
I cue this to start with a mapped control on the Zynthian (e.g., the P1 user-defined control)
The bossa beat starts and serves as the controlling loop for the sooper looper.
I record loops into the sooper looper with the drum beat in the background the whole time.
I stop the song and stop the drum. Ideally it is a toggle that earlier started the drum pattern.
There are some options but you may need to tweak the workflow a little.
You can use zs3 to load the instrument presets and parameter overrides, e.g. to select different drumkit for Fabla but sequencer patterns are stored per snapshot, not ZS3. So you may need to put your drum patterns on different launchers, e.g. song 1 on launcher 1, song 2 on launcher 2, etc.
There isn’t currently a way to launch sequences from MIDI events so these may need to be launched from the launcher view or from a hardware controller like the Novation Launchpad.
By using the SooperLooper Sync2Clock preset, you can synchronise the sequencer and Sooperlooper.
You can save and recall loops in SooperLooper so you could prerecord a loop in SooperLooper with the drum pattern if you want to do a simple, single pattern loop performance. Then you can use zs3 or preset selection to switch between preset drum loop templates.
We should have a generic way to trigger sequences from MIDI events. It was lost when we migrated to the new launcher. I think a device driver could be an answer to that.
You can save and recall loops in SooperLooper so you could prerecord a loop in SooperLooper with the drum pattern if you want to do a simple, single pattern loop performance. Then you can use zs3 or preset selection to switch between preset drum loop templates.
I don’t think I would be able to manually press record and stop exactly enough to capture the playing drum pattern.
Can a loop instead somehow load the SMF pattern in the same way that I would in zynseq? I have attached step-by-step instructions starting from the Sequence Options screen:
If I could load a pattern that way as the controlling loop, then I wouldn’t need to troubleshoot any further with sync2clock, which I am not yet able to get to work.
You want to convert a MIFI pattern into an audio clip so you need to load the pattern into your drum chain. With the sync2clock option, you can start the drum pattern looping, go to sooperlooper and start recording. It will wait until the next bar before starting. Then press top before the end of the last drum pattern bar. It will stop recording at the end of the bar. You should now have a perfect drum loop.
Thanks @riban. I tried doing this but it seems that playing a drum pattern and recording it quantized to begin and end on time is still inconsistent. Sometimes it records right on, other times it records a second later and ends a second later. I also wasn’t able to figure out how to save the loop.
I think for now I will stick with how I’ve been using it so far, which is to play a drum pattern in realtime as Loop 1 and let Loop 1 be the controlling loop for everything else. There’s always the chance I don’t get it exactly right, but I imagine with practice I should be more consistent. Sooper Looper always works exactly as planned in this mode.
Here’s another song I recorded just now using that technique, a “super slow” version of “Superstition.” Very simple setup with just MD5 electric piano on the main keyboard, jazz bass on my auxiliary keyboard, and GM drums on the drum pads.