Continue notes around loop point

[Ian1971]

It's possible this can already be done but I can't figure it out. In Ableton live you can have a loop where the last note will continue back at the start as illustrated in this screenshot. How can I achieve this with playtime 2?

[helgoboss]

Cool, I didn't know that's possible. I can't test now how this actually behaves in Ableton. My assumption is that right after triggering the clip, the note A1 starts playing a tiny bit before the first beat. Then it stops. Then it starts again and stops within the loop. And a tiny bit before the end of the loop (beat 9), it starts playing again, extending into the next loop.

Is that correct?

[Ian1971]

Yes, the first time around the loop it will miss the A1 at the start but at the end of the loop the a1 will continue back at the start. If necessary I get around the missing first note by making the clip 1 bar longer and triggering it a bar early. Then have the loop start 1 bar in. e.g.

[helgoboss]

Okay. There is a clip option in Playtime called "Downbeat". It is a different concept than MIDI notes that exceed the loop boundary. But at least in this case, it should lead to the same result (with the exception that the first note is actually played in the first loop and skipped in the last loop, unlike in Ableton Live).

The idea is to set the downbeat to e.g. half a beat and then edit your MIDI clip. It should then start half a beat before the bar. There's also a related recording feature "MIDI: Detect downbeat", which automatically sets this option in order to capture notes that were played before the start of the bar.

Let me know if this helps.

There's also one other option: Changing the MIDI reset behavior, but not sure now if it can achieve exactly the same result.

[Ian1971]

I did wonder about the downbeat option, but I didn't fully understand it. So, if moved all the midi notes forward slightly, then set the downbeat to that equivalent amount, I'd achieve the same result?

[helgoboss]

Yes. Basically that. Or first set the downbeat and then open the clip MIDI editor. Then it's more clear at which grid line the clip starts.