Many of you Ableton Live users might have seen this article over at the Ableton Web site concerning follow actions. Anyway, it’s worth repeating, it’s a short and to the point article. This article is especially good for anyone who wants to set up an Ableton Live system for personal jamming purposes, guitar playing for example, hint hint.

For me, I was really looking seriously at maybe getting the Line 6 Spider Jam system, but realized that: hey, I have Ableton Live, I could write any kind of jam setup I want.  So even if the new Line 6 Spider Jam is elegant, as well as the new LM4 Looper system from Line 6 (not yet shipping), you have a lot of flexibility using Ableton Live to create similar setups using the follow action model and lots of loops. You could even emulate the guitar loop processing part itself in case someone is interested.

Then all you need is the laptop hooked to the amp via the CD3/MP3 input, or just feed it to the PA via a mixer and the job is done. The last part is to control the start and stop. For a guitar player, the only real good option is to get a cheap midi foot pedal controller, but you could get those for $100 or below. I’ve even seen those who take an old mouse and convert it to a cheap start/stop foot button. Anyway, if someone else has good ideas how to control Ableton Live via a cheap foot pedal, let us know.

I think I need to get Line 6 T-shirts… My studio is getting full of Line 6 gear. I just got a Line 6 Spider III 75 guitar amp. I have an old Marshall JCM900 50W combo (that I’m trying to sell just now), as I wanted a light-weight guitar amp for session work.)

The nice thing with Spider III amps is that they have 12 amp simulation models, each sounding different. Yes, it does not sound exactly as a Marshall, and a trained ear could hear some issues with the mid-range levels, especially when pushing through a 12″ Celestion speaker.

Anyway, for a majority of the audience they would not notice anything. But for me as a guitar player I could have fun with all kinds of interesting settings, all built into the amp, including many basic effects.This one is also a 33 pound unit, so it’s easy to transport around.

Plus, it’s fun having so much flexibility as a guitar player on stage.