RE: Mobius & Live...why

[Jeff Larson <jeff.larson@sailpoint.com>]

> I've already got ProTools and Sonar, so I don't think I need
> another DAW.

I don't know about ProTools but Sonar isn't a particularly good host
for looping plugins (or at least wasn't as of versionn 5).  Most DAWs
are designed around the tape deck metaphor where you have to start and
stop the transport and "arm" tracks for recording in order to get
things flowing.  Sonar also had this goofy "audio engine" you had to
turn on and off.

The worst thing about Sonar though is that you couldn't record the
output of an effect plugin into a track in real time.  The thinking is
that effects are always applied at dynamically to a dry signal so you
can change them later.  You can hear the effect as the track is
recording, but what is recorded is the dry signal.  Since Mobius has
to be an effect in Sonar, this means you can't have Sonar record a
Mobius performance.

The nice thing about Live is that was designed for live performance
rather offline editing.  I found it easier to use as a virtual "rack"
where you can combine plugin chains without worrying about recording.

> Since I first posted this message, I had another thought about Live
> and Mobius. If you're using a MIDI foot controller, you can record
> both your linear audio as well as MIDI input, and as such can play
> back a looping performance by routing the real time linear audio as
> well as the MIDI commands back in to Mobius. That would enable you to
> do things like fix minor mistakes in the audio, or better adjust
> things like feedback and volume in the MIDI data stream, and then
> re-render the looping performance.
>
> I wonder if anyone is actually doing this?

I tried this once but due to the slight quantization of MIDI events
I never got back exactly what I performed the first time.  But it may
be close enough depending on what you want.  This is the way you
would have to work in Sonar because it can only record the dry signal.

Jeff