Exactly! Just like any other DAW you can draw loops with pencils. But with zenAud.io, rather than having one pencil, you have two: one for drawing loops you intend to perform live -- so-called record loops --, and the other type allows you to refer to the record loops.
The upshot is, quite simply, you don't have to operate the looper manually, meaning you can simply focus on playing your part.
Is there any facility for altering the song structure during playback, so for example the performer can decide to keep on repeating section 1 for as long as they want, before somehow triggering the move into into section 2?
(I heard of a band years back, who after their drummer quit, got a drum machine and programmed it to play the drum parts of their songs. Trouble was, during a gig they might decide they wanted to jam for longer than normal. Their solution to this was that a member of the band would walk over and stop the drum machine right in the middle of the song, and they'd just carry on playing without it, until they were ready to return to the pre-defined song structure.)
Good question. The answer is a qualified yes. zenAud.io supports on/off triggering via command tracks, which can learn midi CCs or the like. You can then route the trigger to transport position (you just type in the bar you want to jump to), allowing to jump anywhere you like in the song. zenAud.io handles these jumps fine. So basically you could set up a an intro to a song, and once you've got all your "base" loops, you can use automation to trigger a jump to the "scenes" of your song.
You can use the same facility to automate jumping to another song if you're performing a full set. In this case, you don't want to trigger it manually so you use scripted automation (basically automation that is drawn rather than captured via some MIDI device).
I say a qualified yes because there are a couple of features that would make this better. I intend on implementing them within the next month. First among which is ability to overdub rather than simply record. Second, I want you to be able to specify a quantisation value for the trigger. So instead of triggering immediately (requiring good timing), it would jump at the end of the current bar or at the end of the region in question.
Hope that answers your question. By the way, there's more detail in this comment thread on YouTube where I discuss this exact topic with another (potential) user.
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[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 49.2 ms ] threadThe upshot is, quite simply, you don't have to operate the looper manually, meaning you can simply focus on playing your part.
(I heard of a band years back, who after their drummer quit, got a drum machine and programmed it to play the drum parts of their songs. Trouble was, during a gig they might decide they wanted to jam for longer than normal. Their solution to this was that a member of the band would walk over and stop the drum machine right in the middle of the song, and they'd just carry on playing without it, until they were ready to return to the pre-defined song structure.)
You can use the same facility to automate jumping to another song if you're performing a full set. In this case, you don't want to trigger it manually so you use scripted automation (basically automation that is drawn rather than captured via some MIDI device).
I say a qualified yes because there are a couple of features that would make this better. I intend on implementing them within the next month. First among which is ability to overdub rather than simply record. Second, I want you to be able to specify a quantisation value for the trigger. So instead of triggering immediately (requiring good timing), it would jump at the end of the current bar or at the end of the region in question.
Hope that answers your question. By the way, there's more detail in this comment thread on YouTube where I discuss this exact topic with another (potential) user.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7cxTCf0FbU