OBJECTIVE: Change the character of loops by taking advantage of Live’s groove-oriented functions.
BACKGROUND: You can overlay “grooves” on the timing of audio and MIDI clips to change the clip’s timing and velocity, thus creating different “feels.” Live’s Library includes a bunch of preset Grooves, but note that you can also extract groove timing data from MIDI and audio clips to create custom grooves.

STEPS

1. With an audio clip loaded, click on the Clip Overview to reveal clip parameters.

2. Locate the Grooves folder in the Library, then click on the Groove Pool button to open the Groove Pool. This will show all available grooves for the Live set.

3. For quick groove auditioning, click on the Clip’s Hot Swap button.

4. The Groove Browser goes into Hot Swap mode. Click on a groove to select it, then click on the groove’s Hot Swap button to audition it. This groove will appear as an entry in the Groove Pool.

5. When you find a groove you like, you can tweak the various parameters (Timing, Randomness, and Velocity, as well as Quantization) for that groove in the Groove Pool. Note that tweaking automatically exits Hot Swap mode.

6. When not in Hot Swap mode, you can add more grooves to the Groove Pool by double-clicking on groove presets in the browser.

7. All currently available grooves in the pool appear in a drop-down menu in clip view; selecting a groove applies it nondestructively to the clip. To write the groove to the selected audio clip, click on the Commit button just below the dropdown menu.

TIPS

¦ In Step 4, you can use the up/down arrow keys to step through groove presets, then click on the Hot Swap button to audition the preset.
¦ In Step 5, note the Amount control at the top. This is a “master” control that varies the amount of Timing, Randomness, and Velocity simultaneously and proportionately.
¦ In Step 6, if in Hot Swap mode, double-clicking on a browser groove replaces the currently selected groove in the Groove Pool.