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Hi, I'm not sure if this is the best thread for this question but I wasn't sure where else would have been best. I am a drummer who also performs poetry and sometimes sings straight up songs. I have a gig lined up in December and want to record the concert and also make a sort of concert film/documentary of it. As it's not a high paying gig I am considering hiring just one other musician who does a lot of live looping and also using live looping for my drums so I can then focus on delivering the poems and songs from out front since, for the poetry especially, when I play drums at the same time I don't quite retain the feel I want in how I deliver my poetry. Originally I thought of hiring a full band, including a drummer so I could just focus on the mike, however that would cost me much more than I'm likely to make as it's a small venue.

So looping will be a way of cutting down on costs but I am wondering how best to go about recording this in a multitrack session that I can then edit and do post production on.

I am trying to decide whether it would be best to invest in a live loop station such as the boss RC 300 and run everything I want to be in a particular loop through a mixing board. Here's a link to that particular loop station.
http://looperpedalreviews.com/loop-station-boss-rc-300-review/
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The problem I foresee with this is that all the drums will be on one track that I can't modify after. For example I wouldn't be able to add effects or adjust the levels to the snare or bass drum separately. I thought maybe just copying the track several times and putting different eq on each one to bring out certain elements such as snare or bass if needed? The musician who I hope to hire has this station and I could maybe get him to control the foot pedal while I play or maybe I could buy one of my own. I read they can be daisy chained and one set as a slave and the other as a master, though I've also read that the RC-300 can be a master but not a slave to another non RC-300.

The other thing I have researched is perhaps using Ableton Live. It seems like I may have more control over post production with this? I do already have an 8 channel Scarlett audio interface and I have a 12 channel mixing board that I could perhaps use in some way. Here are a few videos on Ableton that I've been looking at to try to get an idea if this would be a better way to go.

- How to Loop Pedal with Ableton Live

- 3 Ways to Live Loop like Elise Trouw hands free

Finally I've seen some videos that have been recorded using live looping and I think the sound production is pretty good such as by Walk off the Earth and Elise Trouw. Here are links with examples.
Walk off the Earth - Looper -

Foo Fighters vs Bobby Caldwell by Elise Trouw -

Any insights on how they might have done these from an audio production standpoint. Would they have used looper pedals, Ableton live, or perhaps a combination of both. Do you think that there may have been someone who was controlling everything in real time with Ableton Live in addition to the one person playing all the instruments. What's my best bet to do this DIY and on the cheap with reasonable results, and without a huge budget. I already have mics, and audio interface, but am not sure which way to go.

I would appreciate any hints or tips anybody can give me, and if you've ever recorded something like this maybe you could describe a bit how you approached it. Also, if you think I should have put this in a different subcategory to get a better answer let me know.

Thanks much in advance!

Comments

pcrecord Sat, 08/17/2019 - 04:55

I'm not into loopers at all. But what I like about it is when the performer build the loop in front of the audience and then use it for a song..
In you case, I feel you want to do too many things.
Have you consider going into a studio and record your backing track from start to end.. then go live, push play and perform the part(s) you want to do ?

The majority of DAWs can loop.
If I need to, I record a part to a click. Copy paste that part many times
then record another and do the same
on and on until loop parts are recorded and then I can move them around in the DAW..
At the end I prefer not doing this and record all parts and repetition so the aren't all the same .. but that's just what I prefer.. ;)