triggering samples in live performance

[emeute]

Hi - wondering if a midi pro might know the best way to trigger a prerecorded sample to loop continuously during a live performance. My setup is:

- live drummer
- live guitar/vocals that can step on a midi footswitch to trigger the samples
- Behringer FCB1010 footswitch
- Mac laptop running Yellow Tools/Independence Free

The idea is that I have a simple song with a verse and a chorus, and I want to trigger a bass line using the footswitch. When the song starts, I'll trigger the verse sample with a footswitch so that it loops continuously. When the song switches to the chorus, I'll trigger the chorus sample and it will loop until we reach the verse again, then I'll step on the verse pedal, etc.

I have the bass lines for the verse and chorus set up in Independence (2 bars each, looping), and can trigger them to play with the footswitch. I programmed the footswitch to play a note and a sustain pedal "on" message at the same time; that works to turn the sample on and keep it looping continuously, as if my foot were on the pedal the whole time. There are two problems with that:

- How do I get them to stop playing? I tricked Independence into stopping the verse sample when the chorus sample is triggered, by setting polyphony to 1. But how do I stop it at the end of the song? Tried programming all-notes-off and all-sounds-off control messages, also tried a sustain pedal control "off" message, but that doesn't make the sample stop.

- How do I make sure the drummer won't get ahead or behind the tempo of the bass line? What the way most people do this stuff? Drummer plays to a click track, or do something fancy like program the expression pedal to adjust the sample tempo if the drummer gets off tempo?

I have to think that there's an industry-standard way of doing this and I am just missing it here. Seems like everything I try is just a "kluge" -- what do other people do?

Thanks in advance,
Mike

[Andrew_Malloy]

Ableton Live is perfect for this. You really wouldn't even need to have the full pro version, you could do this in Ableton Live Intro. Then you could set up a MIDI note from almost anywhere to trigger start/stop on the loop.

[midiextender]

If you need to trigger MIDI from a distance.. like on a large stage etc. there are ways to extend midi signals with Cat5 cable or Fiber Optics.