Playtime: Follow actions

[helgoboss]

[ThoughtPhotography]

Follow actions https://www.ableton.com/en/live-manual/12/launching-clips/#follow-actions for clips (slots), scenes (rows), and tracks (columns). Aside from experimentation/probability they're also widely used for simplifying the number of clips required for a live performance.

For example, the multiplier sets the number of loops before a follow action is triggered. So if set to 4x and next a 4 bar loop would play for 16 bars until moving to the next clip, or you could have a 1 bar loop with 8x to if you want it to work well in a row with 8 bar loops etc.

Track follow actions act as a global override for all clips in a track, but would also be useful as the default for all clips that haven't been changed. That way you could easily change a whole column to play in reverse order (previous clip), but also have a clip with a random follow action which will jump to a different clip in the track and continue playing in reverse order from there etc. All you need to do is change the track follow back to next and normal order is restored. Without track follow actions every clip in a track would need changing manually to try something simple, then change them all back again (potentially dozens of steps vs. 2)

https://forum.cockos.com/showpost.php?p=2769543&postcount=365

[Pav9146]

This feature is very necessary. If it works, then it will be just amazing

[urtaur]

It would be amazing

[sevenseas298]

A great idea!

Implementation of a text-based clip/scene sequencer for Playtime 2 might be worth considering.

I use ComputerScare's "I Love Cookies" VCV Rack module in many of my Playtime 2 clip sequencing patches.

...simple syntax and very useful - powerful randomization and sequence variation capabilities.

[PianoGeek15]

100% support this idea!

It would also be interesting to implement some sort of "Clip Lineup" where you can create a long arrangement using just a few rows of clips. Use case scenario would be using Playtime to run tracks for a live event. The advantage to the Clip Lineup would be that you could have just one row for each section of the song and bounce between them, instead of creating a long stack of sections (and I'd rather not have to manually trigger song sections live).

[helgoboss]

@PianoGeek15 When I hear "Clip lineup", I immediately think of this existing feature: https://docs.helgoboss.org/playtime/advanced-usage-scenarios/control-with-items.html