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ableton live 9 power: the comprehensive guide

1. Source Ableton Edit Clicking the Edit button will open the audio file in the sample editor you have selected in File Folder preferences Audio editors are useful for performing a variety of operations on your audio files particularly when you want to edit destructively Now this may not sound very appealing at first but there are times that you want to make a change that permanently affects the audio file itself Modifying the Sample properties in Live only changes that audio file s playback characteristics That s why it s called non destructive editing While you are editing your sample file the Clip View s waveform display will say Sample Offline When you finish editing just save your changes and return to Live The newly edited sample will be loaded into the clip Save By default adding an audio file to Live causes an analysis ASD file to be created in the same folder as the audio file This file contains basic information about the file including the data needed to draw the waveform display in the Clip View When you click Save all of the current clip settings warping loop settings and so on are written into the analysis file The next time you add the audio file to a Set these clip settings will be recalled automatically Reverse Live s Reverse feature the Rev button is not instantaneous don t expect it to be It is however a whole lot of fun when used properly Click the Reverse button and L
2. CLIP TRANSPORT You can start playing a clip from any point you choose without having to move the Start Marker To do this simply hover the cursor just above the editor which turns into a speaker icon When you click the clip will begin playing from the closest location allowed by the clip s Launch Quantization In other words if the clip s Quantize setting is set to 1 Bar yov ll be able to start playback from the beginning of any bar in the clip This makes it easy to jump to any point in a track even during a performance since the jumps are quantized Loop Settings The loop settings consist of three controls Loop Position and Length The first of these Loop is a large switch that enables or disables the loop The second two controls determine where the loop begins and how long it is These parameters Position and Length are displayed as numeric values and as a brace running along the top of the editor see Figure 5 8 Dragging the right edge of the brace changes the Length while dragging the left edge will change both Length and Position simultaneously Drag the brace from its center to change the Loop Position while leaving its Length the same A single click on the Loop brace will select it and allow you to adjust it with the arrow keys The left right keys will move it by the grid size and the up down keys will move it by the current Loop Length Live also lets you define the loop points as the clip is playing by pre
3. Another difference will be the available output routings for audio in the mixer When looking at the Master Out and all of the individual track Output Type menus yov ll find that the list is populated with ReWire busses instead of the outputs of your audio interface These are the pathways that lead from Live into the master application By default Live will send all of its audio out of the Mix L R bus If you want however you can send different tracks into different busses and have the master application receive these on different tracks Note that ReWire also gives you the capability to access Ableton s built in instruments from the master application However note that this will not work with any plug in instruments which cannot be loaded into Live when in slave mode Let s look at how to set up Pro Tools to run with Live as a slave The procedure for setting up ReWire varies from host to host so consult your sequencer s documentation if you re working with a program other than Pro Tools First start Pro Tools and open a new session Then insert the Ableton Live ReWire plug in and select Mix L Mix R as seen in Figure 6 16 Figure 6 16 Configuring a track in Pro Tools to receive ReWire input from Live INSERTS A E INSERTS A E INSERTS AE INSERTS A E INSERTS AE Ableton Live Moc L Mbc R__ REWIRE Source Ableton Now you are ready to work with Live Go ahead and open the application you should see the message
4. Aftertouch 1004 100 q Attack 0 00 ms g Retrigger Control Out E ccoo Source Ableton Envelope Follower Envelope Follower is a Max Audio Effect which like LFO does not actually process the audio directly Instead it measures the gain of the incoming signal and generates a modulation curve which can be mapped to a device parameter For example if you place Envelope Follower in a snare drum track it will measure the volume of the snare drum Use the Map button to assign the modulation to a device parameter Envelope Follower will then measure the snare drum s volume and modulate the mapped parameter in response To change the range of the modulation adjust the Min and Max boxes next to the Map button If you set Max below Min negative modulation will be generated This means that the mapped parameter will get turned down as the volume of the source increases For example if you place the Envelope Follower in a snare drum track but map it to the volume of a synthesizer part you could cause the synth part to swell after every snare drum hit by leaving Max and Min at their default values and adjusting Rise and Delay to taste Or you could make the synth part duck on every snare drum hit just like you would with sidechain compression by setting the Max value below Min Device Randomizer Randomization can provide a great starting point when doing sound design This device provides you with an easy way to scramble the par
5. Fades have two adjustable handles The top handle controls the length of the fade In the first fade shown in Figure 4 36 the top handle could be dragged to the left to create a longer more gradual fade The center handle controls the fade s slope changing it to more of a scoop or a bump shape NO FADES ON ME Don t like fades In Live s Preferences there s a setting called Create Fades on Clip Edges in the Record Warp Launch tab If you turn this off not only will Live stop creating fades at clip boundaries but it will also allow you to delete existing fades Select the fade and pres Ctrl Cmd Delete or click the top fade handle and then press Delete Exporting Audio After you have finished your Live song and you like the way it sounds it is time to get it out of your computer burned to CD and onto the streets Before you can start burning CDs though you need to render your arrangement to a stereo audio file Figure 4 37a shows the Export Audio Video dialog formerly known as Render to Disk that appears when you press Ctrl Cmd R Figure 4 37b shows the only difference in this dialog when it is invoked from the Session View the Length value Figure 4 37a The Export Audio Video dialog in Arrangement View Source Ableton Figure 4 37b The Export dialog in Session View differs only in that the length of the output file must be specified in the Length field Export Audio Video Source Ab
6. Setting Preferences in Live section of this chapter which automatically downloads new versions as needed This is done in the background and is usually quite fast since all that is downloaded are small patches to the program rather than an entire new version For those of you who like to handle it manually you ll find Check for Updates in the Help menu handy This will take you to a Web page to download the latest version The advantage of this method is that the download page contains additional information and links such as new features and available downloads You can always find out what version you re running by opening the About Live screen from the Live menu on a Mac or the Help menu on a PC Basic Computer Specifications Since everyone uses Live differently it s tricky to give a one size fits all recommendation for computer specs There are users who use almost nothing but Live s built in devices keep their track count low and release great music using nothing but a four year old laptop Others use power hungry plug ins extensively and make densely layered music with loads of tracks challenging even a top of the line system Therefore it s important to understand some of the details of how hardware affects performance and how you can get the best machine for your budget Processor Speed The biggest performance bottleneck for most digital audio computers is the processor speed Live is a program that prioritizes
7. ll see some colored boxes These are Quick Routing schemes which can help speed the process of setting up a new patch Unlike the similar looking algorithms in Operator these shortcuts are just timesavers all they do is set the filter routing and turn the amplifiers on and off For example clicking on Quick Routing 4 in the lower right hand corner sends both oscillators into Filter 1 the output of Filter 1 into Filter 2 and turns off Amp 1 so that only the output of Amp 2 is heard Collision Collision takes the concept of designing percussion sounds to a whole new level see Figure 8 21 Just as Tension can be used to create either familiar stringed instruments or otherworldly beasts Collision is just as much at home producing the sound of a marimba or let s say a hybrid hand drum metal tube with a decay of 25 seconds Figure 8 21 Collision Ableton s percussion powerhouse py cre e Q Gs DEG o0 ts A koi gt Hit lt MA kad re oa e E Source Ableton Before getting too deeply into the unique details of Collision I recommend that you at least read over the section on Electric It s a far simpler instrument that covers some of the important concepts of physical modeling and since an electric piano is essentially a percussion instrument it s particularly relevant here Tension also contains some important concepts that we ll be discussing here too In particular Tension uses the co
8. Frequency Shifter The Frequency Shifter is a powerful effect capable of creating subtle modulation or massive sonic deconstruction This device shown in Figure 9 32 can do ring modulation and frequency shifting so it s like two effects in one Figure 9 32 The Frequency Shifter not for the faint of heart Source Ableton Frequency shifting adds a fixed amount in Hertz to the incoming signal producing strange inharmonic sounds Start out by adjusting the Fine knob leave Frequency alone Try creating a shift of about 3Hz and pull the Dry Wet down to 50 to hear some really cool phasing effects Clicking the Wide switch will give the effect stereo depth as it raises the pitch in the left channel while lowering it in the right You ll also notice that it changes the label of the Fine switch to Spread Now move on to the Frequency control This one requires very little explanation it s not a subtle effect Switching into Ring mode changes the effect to ring modulation which involves both adding and subtracting a fixed amount resulting in a slightly different but still bizarre sounding effect In Ring mode the Drive control can be enabled to add distortion to the signal Use the numeric box to dial in the right amount The LFO is used to modulate Frequency automatically It is nearly identical to the LFO in the Auto Filter with the exception that the Amount knob is labeled in Hz so you know exactly how much the LFO will vary th
9. You can also assign a MIDI button or computer key to an on screen slider or knob In this case pressing the button or key will make the slider or knob toggle between its lowest and highest settings Key and MIDI mappings are saved with the Set so every song can have a different control scheme If you find yourself always making common assignments you can assign them and save them as part of your default set see File Folder in Chapter 2 Overview Just below the Control Bar is the Overview If you don t see it select Overview from the View menu as shown in Figure 3 22 The Overview which resembles a very small timeline is there purely for navigation and reference purposes to show you where you are in the Arrangement So long as you have clips in the Arrangement View it offers a bird s eye view of your entire composition displaying tiny colored lines representing the clips Figure 3 22 Live s Overview is a view from above Source Ableton In the Session View the mouse transforms into a launcher when placed over the Overview Clicking will cause Live to jump to that point in the Arrangement In the Arrangement the Overview contains a black rectangle to indicate the portion of the Arrangement that is currently visible Dragging the edges of this box causes the display to zoom in or out making more or less of the timeline visible You can also use the Overview for navigating Place the mouse pointer over the po
10. t any clips playing in the Session before you record new clips in the Arrangement This can be done by clicking Back to Arrangement or Stop Clips READY SET GO The Count In feature can be accessed easily from the Control Bar by opening the Metronome s drop down menu Select the number of bars of count in you want and you re ready to go The next time you start recording Live will count you in with the metronome so you can get a clean start Punching In and Out In the good old days of recording to tape it was common to replace only a section of a recording using a technique called punching If you had a good vocal track with a weak phrase the engineer would wait until that moment press Record while the singer replaced it and then disable recording before erasing the next phrase In digital audio we do the same thing but it s much less nerve wracking since digital recording is nondestructive Punching in Live is easy While playing back click Arrangement Record to start recording and once again to stop No special steps are necessary However you can also make Live automatically begin recording at a specified point and stop at another This is really handy if you re both the engineer and performer In Chapter 3 there s a brief introduction to setting these points known as Punch In and Punch Out They can be set visually by dragging the bracket that sits above the track display or set numerically in the Control Bar
11. uses the location of the clip s transients to time compress or stretch the audio see Figure 5 25 Conceptually the way this works is quite simple When Live detects transients in a drum loop it is identifying each hit in relationship to its position in the bar this kick drum occurs on beat 1 this snare drum occurs at beat 2 and so on Live then knows where to put each drum hit regardless of the tempo just like it does with a MIDI file Figure 5 25 The small gray triangles above each beat indicates where Live has detected the transients Source Ableton For most rhythmic material preserving transients will produce the best results The other options in the Preserve menu provide compatibility with earlier versions of Live and allow you to tell the Warp engine to look at the audio as a series of evenly spaced segments such as 1 8 or 1 16 If you have a one bar loop with the Transient value set to 1 16 Live s default behavior will be to treat the file as if it were sixteen equally sized segments Live then plays these chunks back as if they were sixteenth notes at the current tempo Next let s further examine what happens to your audio when you speed it up or slow it down If the beat being warped needs to be sped up to match the tempo of Live the segments will be moved closer together As this happens Live will time compress the end of each segment making the duration of each drum hit slightly shorter so the decay does
12. Auto Filter section in Chapter 9 Live s Audio Effects for more explanation of fundamental filter concepts Global Parameters All of Live s instruments use a handful of common commands such as polyphony and pitch bend range that aren t particular to the instrument s specific synthesis or sampling style So instead of covering them with each instrument I I start out with this handy reference that can be applied to all of them Just bear in mind that each synth does not have every single one of these parameters gt Detune Makes fine pitch adjustments to the entire range to a maximum of 50 cents one half of a semitone gt Error Introduces a random amount of tuning variation to each note as might happen with an unfretted string instrument like a cello gt Glide Same as Portamento see below For instruments that offer a choice between Glide and Portamento use Glide to get the classic monosynth glide described below and Portamento for polyphonic operation gt Pitch Bend Controls how much the instrument will respond to pitch bend messages Adjustable from 0 for no response at all to 12 or 24 semitones depending on the instrument gt Portamento Causes each note to slide into the next at a rate determined by the Time parameter For the classic portamento behavior of old monosynths set Voices to mono when enabling this setting With Legato enabled only notes that overlap will slide together The Pr
13. Freeze command created with the Consolidate command and files not created by the current project Clicking the Show button will reveal these unused files in the File Browser where you can choose what you want to do with them While I heartily recommend getting rid of unnecessary files to recover disk space I also strongly recommend backing up the entire project first extra files and all before deleting anything Bad things can happen Like a lot of what I have to say this recommendation is based on a true story Figure 13 10 Getting rid of unnecessary audio files can reclaim a lot of disk space F Unused Samples 2 samples 9 1 MB in this Project are not used by any of its Live Sets Live Clips or presets However other Projects or applications might use samples from this Project Toll me more 2 recordings 9 1 MB Show 0 freeze samples 0 Bytes Show 0 consolidated samples 0 aS C Show Show 0 other samples 0 Bytes Show Source Ableton The final section of the Project Manager is the Packing section This section lets you create a Pack from your project A Pack is simply a compressed archive file much like a zip file containing everything in the project folder If your project uses external files there will be a warning message to remind you that the Pack will be missing some necessary files If your plan is to transport this Pack to a different machine it s important to use Collect All
14. Running as ReWire Slave in Live s splash screen as it starts up Looking over at the master track in your Live Set yov ll see that the master output is set to Mix L R the same input we selected in Pro Tools Even before there is sound coming out you be able to see ReWire at work Notice that pressing Play in either Live or Pro Tools causes both sequencers to start running and that changing the tempo in Pro Tools causes Live s tempo to change as well Now you can drop some clips into Live or open an existing Set in Live and you hear Live s Master output through Pro Tools If you want to control Live s instruments from Pro Tools there are a few additional steps First create a MIDI track and place one of Ableton s instruments on it for this example we ll use an Operator Next create a MIDI track in Pro Tools If you haven t done so already the order of the steps isn t important here Set the output of your MIDI track in Pro Tools to the Live track as seen in Figure 6 17 That s it Figure 6 17 Any instruments loaded in Live will show up as valid outputs in the master application 1 Operator channel 4 2 Analog channel 5 3 Drum Rack channel 6 Predefined Source Ableton If you want to route tracks from Live directly into individual tracks in the host just select a ReWire bus for a track s output in Live and create a track in your host to receive audio via this bus Figures 6 18 and 6 19
15. Save a Copy This command is the same as Save As in that it allows you to save the file under a new name but instead of opening the newly named copy the Save a Copy command will keep the version you are currently working on open while simply saving the new copy to disk Collect All and Save The most comprehensive save method is Collect All and Save Live allows you to add files to a Set from anywhere on your hard drive s This is very convenient as you may have sample libraries where you keep content that may be used across many different projects However over time hard drives get reorganized or left at home or in the studio and you re faced with the inconvenience of opening a Set and discovering there are samples missing Collect All and Save eliminates this problem by copying all files used by the Set into the Project folder NO PLUG INS Even though Collect All and Save works wonders for keeping all your files together keep in mind that any external plug ins VST and AU used in a Set cannot be saved within the project This means that if you transport your song to a different computer all of the plug ins used on your song must be present on that computer as well Unless you know you have all the necessary plug ins on the system you are moving to it s a good idea to Freeze plug in dependent tracks before moving your session see Chapter 7 Using Effects and Instruments 4 Making Music in Live IN THIS CHAPT
16. The envelope is triggered as soon as MIDI note input is received after which it modulates the mapped parameter through a range of values according to the ADSR settings and the Min and Max boxes Be aware that even though this device displays a graphical representation of the envelope you l have to make the adjustments with the knobs below The Envelope s overall speed is set by the box to the left of the Map button Sequencers The next two devices are very different but since they re both based on a similar step sequencing concept I ve decided to call them sequencers The first is a MIDI sequencer in a more conventional sense it generates a series of notes at varying pitches The second is in the business of chopping up an incoming audio and sending it out transformed in a variety of ways Mono Sequencer The Mono Sequencer offers a different approach to MIDI sequencing Instead of using MIDI clips to sequence devices the Mono Sequencer allows you to use an approach based on the step sequencers from the early days of analog While this might seem like a limited way to program parts at first what you may find is that its limited tool set and approach sends you off into unexpected areas and gets you making parts you might not have otherwise come up with The Mono Sequencer see Figure 13 14 is organized around a main window that displays the steps of the sequencer 16 by default At the bottom of the window is the step enable area
17. These can be dragged to change the envelope shape from linear to exponential When dragged you ll notice the controls below refresh to show numeric values for the slope you re drawing The Modulation Tab The Modulation tab see Figure 8 15 gives you four different modulation sources you can use to continuously modulate and change nearly any parameter in Sampler There is a Modulation Envelope here as well as three separate LFOs and a familiar range of controls Figure 8 15 The Modulation tab Bow F 1 wav UFO Source Ableton Aux Envelope The left most section of this tab is the interface for the auxiliary envelope which can be used to apply ADSR modulation to a variety of Sampler s parameters It can be switched on by using the Aux button on the left edge of the interface If you click the drop down choosers labeled A and B at the bottom of this part you will see a long list of other parameters in Sampler Any of these can be selected as a destination to be modulated by the envelope The A and B choosers enable you to select two simultaneous modulation targets to be affected LFOs There are three LFOs here you can also use to modulate a wide variety of parameters in Sampler The first one labeled LFO1 has four particular global parameters Volume Filter Pan and Pitch The other two LFO2 and LFO3 can be freely assigned to a list of parameters in Sampler just as with the Modulation Envelope the A and B c
18. This isn t much of a problem if you re playing a lead or melody part The trouble arises when you try to play a chord which a monophonic synth is incapable of The solution devised was an Arpeggiator that would quickly play all the notes you held on the keyboard in series or other repetitive patterns As a result even though the notes don t play simultaneously you can hear the chord being played because the notes are played in such quick succession After the Set loads press a key on your MIDI keyboard or just use the computer keyboard to play a note What is this You hold down a note and a steady stream of eighth notes comes out Now try holding down two notes Instead of hearing both notes playing eighth notes Live will play each of the notes alternately Now try holding three notes Live will play each of the three notes in series and repeat That s the Arpeggiator at work see Figure 10 1 intercepting your played notes and turning them into a sequence of notes before handing them over to the instrument loaded in the track Figure 10 1 The Arpeggiator on this track is creating instant sequences from the MIDI notes it receives aens Offset Transpose Key Rate Gate Steps Decay Syn F 18 50 1 1000 m Retngger Beat Repeats Distance Ta Ges f int Source Ableton There are many ways to tweak the performance of the Arpeggiator You can change the note order employed by the
19. and then independently adjust the level of the effect For example if you want to put a large amount of reverb on a snare drum you typically don t want to turn down the level of the drum itself you just want to crank up the reverb and leave the drum alone Enter the Return effect When an effect is used on a Return track you add the processed signal to the unprocessed signal and gain the flexibility that comes with having dry and wet on separate tracks For time based effects such as reverb and delay this is a perfect scenario With other effects such as EQ this approach rarely makes sense since the goal is to replace the unprocessed signal with the processed one Sends and returns are covered in detail in the Return Tracks section of Chapter 6 Tracks and Signal Routing if you need more information Using Return Effects To get started with this method add an effect to a Return track just like you would with any other track To get signal to flow through the effect turn up the associated Send knob on the track you want to process For example place the Reverb device on Return A and turn up Send A on your snare drum track to add some reverb to the snare see Figure 7 6 How much you turn up the Send determines how much signal is sent to the Return and how much of the effect is added Keep in mind that the Send knob does not divert signal to the Return track it copies the signal to the Return track This means that the
20. be 2 450Hz When in Variable mode the oscillator frequencies are no longer shown Instead you are presented with Coarse and Fine adjustments which express the operator s frequency as a ratio of the base frequency An operator with a Coarse setting of 2 will sound an octave higher than one with a Coarse setting of 1 An operator with a Coarse setting of 0 5 will sound an octave lower You can use the Fine adjustment to create ratios that are fractions such as 1 5 Coarse 1 Fine 500 or 2 25 Coarse 2 Fine 250 Tucked away in the display is a parameter named Wave The option below it is currently set to Sin a sine wave Click on Sin to open a menu with all of the available wave shapes Try out a few of them to hear how they sound The saw and square waves have multiple shapes denoted by a number after the name The number in the waveform name tells you how many harmonics were used to create the wave shape In the case of Saw3 only three harmonics were used the fundamental the second harmonic and the third harmonic As a result the Saw3 waveform still resembles a sine wave more than a sawtooth wave As you go further down the menu of waveforms you l see saws with greater numbers of harmonics Saw64 uses 64 harmonics to generate the sawtooth wave and sounds like a traditional analog sawtooth while D signifies a digital sawtooth the brightest of the bunch This same numbering scheme is true for the Square waves as well The Osci
21. create a two bar loop This process can be repeated indefinitely having the two bar loop become four bars and so on Quantizing Your Performance Quantizing is the process of aligning events to a timing grid When quantizing a MIDI clip you re making sure that the notes are aligned fully or partially to the grid Quantizing can be done either while you record or after the fact If you want to quantize while recording you have to visit the Record Quantization submenu under the Edit menu After you select a quantization value here any recording you make will be perfectly aligned to the rhythmic subdivisions you have selected Figures 5 19a and 5 19b show how this works This is a dream come true when programming drumbeats since every recording will be rhythmically tight Live can quantize notes to a grid of 1 4 notes 1 16 note triplets or anything in between Figure 5 19a Here are some unquantized MIDI notes BS i Chramn Source Ableton Figure 5 19b The same part recorded with quantizing Notice how each note s left edge is aligned with one of the grid lines Source Ableton Of course most music does not demand strict rhythmic quantization Many musicians prefer to keep the natural feel of a performance only using partial quantization or none at all You can turn off Live s automatic quantizing by choosing No Quantization from the Record Quantize menu For many situations this i
22. frequency bands This setting will be most apparent when using the kill feature of the EQ Three on a full song For example drag a whole song an MP3 with lots of bass into a clip slot and place an EQ Three on the track Click the 48 button place the FreqLow control at 200Hz and kill the low band yov ll hear the bass disappear from the song Now try clicking the 24 button You may notice that you can hear a little more bass The EQ Three is a handy performance tool but doesn t have the same sound quality as EQ Eight And because it s modeled on mixer circuitry it even affects the sound with all the controls at their default If you need the particular functionality this device provides but want the sound quality of EQ Eight look in the Performance amp DJ folder under Audio Effect Rack in the Browser You ll find a Rack called EQ Three Rack which provides similar functionality but is built using EQ Eight SONIC JIGSAW PUZZLES Try placing three different drum loops on three different tracks each armed with an EQ Three Then isolate the bass in one track the mids in another and the highs in the remaining track You l now have one hybrid beat consisting of kicks snares and hi hats from different loops Try swapping or automating the kills for other rhythm combinations Auto Filter One of Live s greatest live performance effects Auto Filter seen in Figure 9 4 is a virtual analog style filter with four selectab
23. is moved from left to right it enables the sample in the range shown in the editor The Sample Selector has 128 steps so it s perfect for mapping to MIDI CCs In the example shown in Figure 8 11 the selector can be moved to enable one of the three layers shown Figure 8 11 By using the Sample Select Editor you can have loads of different samples at your fingertips just by turning a knob on your MIDI controller Sample Selector Source Ableton The Sample Tab The Sample tab is where you can set the playback characteristics of individual samples A large part of this tab is devoted to displaying the waveform of the sample you currently have selected see Figure 8 12 The name of the sample is displayed below in the Sample drop down chooser box You can select a particular sample to edit by clicking it in the Zone Editor window by using this chooser or by clicking the Hot Swap button next to the chooser which will take you to the Browser and show you a list of samples used in the current instrument Figure 8 12 The Sample tab Source Ableton At first glance the Sample tab appears similar to the display of Simpler and it serves a similar function However Sampler gives you more power to control how each of your samples plays back and loops Note that the settings in the Sample tab will affect only the sample or multiple samples that are currently selected in the Zone Editor gt RootKey sets the reference pitch
24. kits Sweet Notes Mode When you select a track containing any instrument other than a Drum Rack Push switches into its unique keyboard mode This is Ableton s take on how to program melody or harmony using a grid instead of a piano keyboard If you re an experienced keyboardist this may be a mere curiosity or it may be a fun new way to experiment After all you re sure to come up with some different ideas when playing a totally new instrument OLD SCHOOL Consider plugging a sustain pedal into one of the input jacks on the back of Push You may find that it makes the pads much more expressive and playable for melodic instruments Also remember that if you prefer a traditional keyboard controller there s no reason you can t hook one up to your computer and use it alongside Push By default this mode presents you with only the notes in a given scale C major by default Each blue pad marks the tonic root note of the scale Therefore anyone who knows a little music theory will expect to see a blue pad followed by seven white pads and then another blue note And indeed on the bottom row that s exactly what you do see but beyond that the pattern doesn t continue because Ableton has taken advantage of the fact that a grid is two dimensional unlike a piano keyboard which is strictly linear By default notes are organized in fourths along the vertical axis and steps along the horizontal axis This is similar
25. or the sound system are connected to the output specified in Master Out and you re all set Above Master Out is Cue Out which specifies the output that will be used for previewing cueing and the metronome Next to the Master s volume slider you find the Preview Cue volume knob which adjusts the volume of Cue Out By default Cue Out will be set to the same outputs as the Master Out and for many studio setups this is just fine However if you select unique outputs for your Cue Out a number of possibilities arise most of which are useful for performance For example by sending Cue Out to the headphone output of your audio interface you now have the ability to preview files in the Browser or hear the metronome without those signals going out of the Main Out and into the sound system Another thing that happens when Cue Out and Master Out are set to different values is that the Solo Cue switch is activated Click on it to select either Solo or Cue When Cue is active the Solo buttons on the audio tracks will turn to Cue buttons headphone icons When you press a Cue button Live will route that track to the Cue output so you can hear it through your headphones Bear in mind that Cue works independently of the volume fader In other words clicking Cue does not stop the signal from going to the Master or wherever else you may be sending it In a DJ setup you d need to keep the track s volume fader down in order to cue a s
26. playback curves automating customizing effects fades preferences Session View skins Cut command Cut Time command cutting clips frequencies loops D Damper section Electric Tension data viewing MIDI DAWs digital audio workstations deactivating clips devices decay Decay knob Impulse decoding caches Default Launch mode Defaults folder delays Delay Compensation Filter Delay Flanger Grain Delay Ping Pong Delays Reverb Simple Delay Delete command Delete Time command deleting automation Clip Stop buttons files lanes desktop computers See computers destination tracks Detune button Device Activator switch Device Chooser Device mode Push devices See also plug ins accessing adding applying Arpeggiator Auto Filter Chord Compressor controls dropping hot swapping inserts MIDI See MIDI Multiband Dynamics Note Length Pitch presets Racks randomizers Reverb Scale third party plug ins types of Velocity dialog boxes Export Audio Video Quantize Slice to New MIDI track Diffusion Network Reverb digital audio workstations See DAWs disabling automation MIDI devices Disk Overload displays Operator distortions Dynamic Tube Erosion Overdrive Redux Saturator Vinyl Distortion DJ mixers Don t Show Again warnings downbeats downsampling dragging See also moving devices importing exporting Draw Mode Drive knob Saturator drivers ASIO Drop Areas
27. properly cut loops Live can typically determine the necessary information for warping automatically However there are many cases where you need to specify where important timing events occur using Warp Markers see Figure 5 24 You might do this to move an individual note with bad timing or even to dramatically change the timing and sonically mangle a chunk of audio If you re trying to sync up a song with a constantly fluctuating tempo this can require quite a few Warp Markers but don t worry Live s Auto Warp feature can usually be coaxed into doing most of the work for you Figure 5 24 Warp Markers are the key to total timing control or intentional timing madness Source Ableton Before getting into the nitty gritty of working with Warp Markers let s explore the warping controls within the Sample Box Segment BPM Segment BPM calculates the tempo of the audio in a clip based on the position of its Warp Markers This value is then used by Live to set the playback speed Let s start off with a simple example If Live s tempo is set to 70 BPM and Segment BPM is 70 then Live will not change the playback speed of the audio If the tempo is changed to 140 BPM however Live would know from the Segment BPM value that it needs to play the audio at double its original speed to match the master tempo What makes Segment BPM potentially a bit complicated is the fact that it refers not just to the entire clip but a
28. see Figure 4 27 Figure 4 27 Selecting the clip and the rest of the empty bar allows you to duplicate both the clip and the empty space This way the clip lands at the beginning of the next bar Source Ableton Drag clips by their title bar to move them At the left and right boundaries of a clip your mouse turns into a bracket and you can click and drag the clip s edge to change its length If an audio clip s Loop switch in the Clip View is enabled you ll be able to resize the clip beyond its original length and cause it to loop as long as you want Otherwise you can only drag until the start or end of the audio file it references MIDI clips can be extended indefinitely in either direction which will just add empty space to the clip Cut Time Paste Time Duplicate Time Delete Time In the Edit menu yov ll also see a set of basic editing commands with the word Time appended These commands work on all tracks simultaneously based on the arrangement selection While the standard editing commands operate only on clips and automation these commands allow you to edit time itself Welcome to the future Let s say you want to move the bridge of a song It s currently after the second verse and you decide you want it after the third verse In the track display select the range of time where the bridge is currently located It doesn t matter what track you make the selection in or even if there are any clip
29. the louder the output Yov ll find that 50 is a good value to start with but you should experiment and adjust to your taste and playing style Figure 8 1 Modulation boxes like the one shown here are used to route a modulator to the parameter they sit near This example shows the very common routing of MIDI velocity to output volume Source Ableton You ll see boxes marked Velocity or sometimes Vel all over the place in Live s instruments because velocity can be mapped to many parameters other than volume For example turning up the value of a Vel box located near a Pan control allows you to move the sound from left to right as the velocity increases Figure 8 2 shows Analog s filter section Here we see that the cutoff frequency has three modulation sources LFO2 Key and Env Turning any of these to a non zero value engages modulation The greater the value the greater the depth of the modulation and the more it deviates from its original value Key is used to make the modulation respond to the pitch of the input note the higher the note the more the cutoff frequency will increase The LFO and Env controls are used to apply modulation generated by the built in LFO and envelope sections Figure 8 2 Many instrument parameters can be modulated by multiple sources simultaneously However when learning it s best to start with one at a time Source Ableton To fully understand these last two you ll need to know a bit
30. you ll find the Envelopes Box If it s hidden click the E icon in the lower left hand corner to reveal it Click in the title bar of the Envelopes Box to make the editor display envelopes To return to the standard display click in the title bar of either the Sample Box or the Notes Box Within the editor there are two different types of envelopes that can be edited automation and modulation Automation envelopes are what this book has discussed so far Modulation envelopes are very similar in that they can be used to automatically change device or mixer parameters but they are very different in a few other respects TERMINOLOGY In previous versions of Live a clip s modulation was simply referred to as a Clip Envelope Envelope itself is just a generic term to describe how a parameter changes over time Since Live 9 introduced automation to the Clip View you need to specify what type of envelope you re referring to automation or modulation First modulation is relative as opposed to automation which is absolute In Figure 5 32a you ll see an automation envelope for the mixer volume The first breakpoint is highlighted and a box appears above showing that the breakpoint is set to a value of 8 dB Figure 5 32a Automation is used to set absolute values Source Ableton In Figure 5 32b you ll see a modulation envelope for the same parameter It s roughly the same size and shape but notice t
31. 15 The Browser is for accessing all of the content and devices you ll use in Live Source Ableton Basic navigation of the Browser should be familiar to anyone with a working knowledge of Windows Explorer or the Finder on a Mac Any item containing additional content such as a folder has a triangle to its left which can be clicked to unfold the item and display the contents within The left and right arrow keys can be used for folding and unfolding as well The Browser can also perform functions similar to the Explorer or Finder You can drag and drop files and folders from one location into another as well as rename and delete files Right clicking on a Live Set or other file in the Browser will bring up a contextual menu with options for creating folders and other common tasks Categories and Places The left area of the Browser is divided into two sections Categories and Places Below these headings you ll see a list of icons that I ll refer to as views Categories is a fixed set of views for exploring different types of content while Places contains views for exploring content by location rather than type Let s take a look at Places first Places Places is customizable but by default it only contains the following views gt Packs Live Packs contain content for Live such as presets and samples This view allows you to view all of the packs you ve installed and browse their contents As you load up your compute
32. 45540 2 ISBN 10 1 285 45540 1 eISBN 10 1 285 45541 X Cengage Learning PTR 20 Channel Center Street Boston MA 02210 USA Cengage Learning is a leading provider of customized learning solutions with office locations around the globe including Singapore the United Kingdom Australia Mexico Brazil and Japan Locate your local office at international cengage com region Cengage Learning products are represented in Canada by Nelson Education Ltd For your lifelong learning solutions visit cengageptr com Visit our corporate website at cengage com Printed in the United States of America 1234567151413 Acknowledgments Many thanks to everyone whom I ve had the pleasure of working with on this book Marta Justak for editing me and making sure I make sense Brian Jackson for really knowing his stuff and being a great technical editor and Orren Merton for giving me the chance to do this book and overseeing the project I d also like to extend my gratitude to the fine folks at Ableton for all their support particularly Dennis DeSantis who was always available to answer questions and kick around tricky concepts About the Author Jon Margulies is a producer and performing artist who has been called the Mr Miyagi of Ableton Live A lifelong professional musician and computer wizard Margulies has performed as Hobotech at festivals such as Coachella SXSW Winter Music Conference and Burning Man He is the author of
33. Ableton Saving multiple versions is an essential part of any experienced producer s process How often you Save a new copy is up to you The important thing is to leave a breadcrumb trail a record of what changed when Having done this you can recover previous settings in case they are accidentally lost or you can simply decide you don t like the direction you ve gone and go back and try again Saving the Live Set Live offers four ways to save project files Save Live Set Save Live Set As Save a Copy and Collect All and Save If you are familiar with common computer documents such as word processor applications Save and Save As work in exactly the way you d expect Save which can be done by pressing Ctrl Cmd S saves the document in this case a Live song file called a Set in its present state under its present filename This is the most common way you will save while you are working on a new song especially when you like the results Save Live Set As Ctrl Cmd Shift key S is the command for saving the current song file in its current state under a different name and is usually done only when you want to begin a new song or modify an existing song without changing the original version To do this select File gt Save Live Set As select the location where you would like to place the file and type the song s newest name If you are modifying a song but would like to preserve a copy of it in its current state use File gt
34. Ableton Live 7 Power and Ableton Live 8 Power and the co author of Your Ableton Live Studio Visit hobo tech com for Jon s latest Ableton Live tips and music downloads Contents Introduction Chapter 1 Live 9 What Is Live What Sets Live Apart Goals of This Book The Online Files Chapter 2 Getting Live Up and Running System Requirements Ableton Live s System Requirements for Macintosh Ableton Live 9 Power s Mac Recommendations Ableton Live s System Requirements for PC Ableton Live 9 Power s PC Recommendations Installing Running and Updating Live 9 Live Installation Tips Mac OS X Live Installation Tips Windows Updating Live Basic Computer Specifications Audio Interface Specs What Do You Need to Know About ASIO Drivers Choosing a MIDI Controller Setting Preferences in Live Look Feel Audio MIDI Sync File Folder Library The Record Warp Launch Tab The CPU Tab Licenses Maintenance Chapter 3 Live Interface Basics Before We Begin Showing and Hiding Working with Knobs Sliders and Boxes Common Editing Commands Context Menus The Info View The Help View Session View Clip Slot Grid Tracks and Scenes The Scene Launcher The Mixer Arrangement View The Arrangement Mixer Clip View and Track View The Clip View The Track View The Browser Categories and Places The Control Bar Tempo Time Signature and Quantization Quantization Transport Controls Punch In Out and Arrangement Loop Dr
35. Arpeggiator the speed at which the notes are played the length of each note and the quantization in relation to the grid of the current Set Style The Style drop down menu is used to select the note order pattern employed by the Arpeggiator The default setting is Up which means that the Arpeggiator plays each of the held notes in sequence starting from the lowest note and working up to the highest before repeating The Down option is the exact opposite the Arpeggiator starts with the highest note and works down before repeating The UpDown and DownUp patterns are simply hybrid patterns made from the individual Up and Down patterns The UpDown style will make the Arpeggiator play up the note sequence and then back down again before repeating The DownUp style does the opposite The Up amp Down and Down amp Up modes are the same as the UpDown and DownUp modes except that the top and bottom notes of the scale are repeated as the Arpeggiator changes direction The Converge style works by playing the lowest note followed by the highest note It will then play the second lowest note followed by the second highest The pattern will continue by playing the third lowest note followed by the third highest note and so on until all the notes in the scale are exhausted The pattern will then repeat The Diverge style is the opposite of Converge and Con amp Diverge places the two patterns end to end The Pinky and Thumb styles are interesting in t
36. Chasse v Track Display Source Ableton The Beat Time Ruler displays bar numbers and if you zoom in enough it will show beats and sixteenths as well When you float your mouse pointer over the Beat Time Ruler it turns into a magnifying glass which can be used to zoom by dragging vertically and scroll by dragging horizontally To zoom from the keyboard use the and keys You can also scroll by holding down Shift and using the scroll wheel on your mouse Next is the Scrub Area where the mouse turns into a speaker Click to make the Arrangement play back from where you clicked If Live is running when you click in the Scrub Area playback will jump according to the global quantize setting If you want Live to respond immediately or you want to be able to drag the speaker for traditional scrubbing behavior set Quantize to None in the Control Bar The final method for controlling the transport involves mousing over the Scrub Area of the Arrangement When your mouse turns into a speaker icon you can click and Live will immediately begin playing from this location You can even do this while the transport is running to jump to a different position in the arrangement There are two ways to view tracks in the Arrangement View folded and unfolded refer to Figure 4 21 A track can be unfolded by clicking on the downward pointing triangle next to the track name Holding down Alt while clicking here will fold or unfold all tra
37. Clips If Auto Assign Colors is off the Default Clip Color determines which color Live will assign to all new clips Of course color will not affect the sound and is strictly a matter of preference Colors The Skin setting sets Live s overall color scheme To find the scheme you like best simply click the drop down menu and use the up and down arrows on your keyboard to scroll through the options The three controls below are used to customize the skin you select Brightness adjusts the overall lightness of the skin Color Intensity and Color Hue work in conjunction with each other With Color Intensity set to a non zero value you can adjust Color Hue to pick a specific color tint Plug In Windows The three options in the next section of the Look Feel preference tab determine how Live will display a plug in s custom display window When Multiple Plug In Windows is activated you can open more than one plug in window at a time When this is off open plug in windows will be closed any time a new one is opened Keeping this option off can help minimize screen clutter With this preference turned off you can still open multiple plug in windows manually by holding down the Ctrl Cmd key when opening a new plug in window The second option Auto Hide Plug In Windows will make plug in windows appear only for those plug ins loaded on a selected track For example if you have a MIDI track loaded with an instance of Native Instrument s Bat
38. Compressor cytomic Source Ableton All of the basic controls found in Compressor are the same here with the exception that the output Gain knob is called Makeup and the Attack Release and Ratio settings are limited to the same values found on the original hardware Make sure to read the Compressor section if you need a briefing on the basic functionality of this device The primary difference with Glue Compressor is that it is optimized for dealing with complex sources like a drum buss or an entire mix and it models the circuitry of the analog device on which it s based and thus is capable of producing some sonically pleasing color With the Soft switch enabled the device s grit and color is maximized as an additional waveshaping algorithm is used to limit peaks and produce subtle distortion One control unique to Glue Compressor is Range This setting gives you the ability to limit the amount of compression applied to an absolute value For example setting range to 10dB means there will never be more than 10dB of gain reduction applied regardless of the Threshold and Ratio settings This is very handy when using this device on a buss or an entire mix because in these cases it s often desirable to use very small amounts of gain reduction sometimes a maximum of 2 or 3dB The unfold switch in the title bar can be used to expose the Sidechain controls These work just like those of Compressor so review that sectio
39. Draw Mode in the velocity lane you will not be able to specify which note to edit when two or more occur at the same time Instead you I set all the notes to the same velocity Fortunately there s also an easy shortcut for editing velocity that works whether or not Draw Mode is turned on Just hold down Ctrl Cmd while holding the mouse pointer over a note and it will change into a splitter Drag the splitter up or down to change the velocity Since Live color codes notes to show their velocity you may not have to use the velocity editor at all and can just fold it to save Space on your screen RISE AND FALL With Draw Mode turned off hold down Ctrl Cmd and draw a ramp in the velocity lane to create a range of increasing or decreasing note velocities To set a range of notes to the same velocity select them and drag up or down until all notes are at the maximum or minimum When you move back toward the center they will all remain at the same velocity Stretch Markers With one exception creating a selection area causes a set of handles called MIDI Stretch Markers to appear above the editor No markers appear when you select only simultaneously occurring notes These can be used to flexibly adjust the duration and timing of the selection If the Envelopes view is showing these markers can also be used to adjust automation or modulation see Figure 5 17 Figure 5 17 MIDI Stretch Markers allow you to do some elastic editing t
40. Grain Delay granular resynthesis grids controllers modifying Groove overview of Groove menu Arpeggiator Groove Pool grooves clips Groove section clips Group command groups chokes clips effects Follow Actions Group tracks Guitar Rig 5 H Half Double BPM hard drives Help View Henke Robert hertz See Hz hiding elements in interviews high cut filters highs high shelf filters Hi Pass filters Hi Q button Hold button Arpeggiator hosting effects Hot Swap button Hot Swap Groove button hot swapping devices hue Hybrid DJ Hz hertz I importing dragging dropping MIDI clips third party instruments video Impulse Info View In mode Input Channel menu Input Configuration screen Input Output section Session View Input Processing section Reverb inputs inserts See also adding devices markers Insert Silence command installing instant mappings instruments See also devices AAS Analog Collision Drum Rack Electric envelopes External Instrument filters global parameters Impulse loading modulation Operator overview of presets Racks Sampler Simpler Tension third party Track View Instruments category intensity colors interfaces Amp Analog Arrangement View audio specifications Auto Pan Beat Repeat Browser window Cabinet Chorus effect Clip View Collision context menus Control Bar controls Corpus Drum Rack Dynamic Tube editing comma
41. Hercules SpaceBroak Project Y Project Contents This Project contains 25 1 MB of data 2 Live Sots 1 7 MB 0 Live Clips 0 Bytes 0 Prosot Files 0 Bytos 7 Samples 23 4 MB 0 Defects 0 Bytes Source Ableton UPPER MANAGEMENT What if you want to manage files for a project or Set other than the one you have open Fear not Even though the Manage Files command opens the current Set project by default there s a way to get to others without closing your current Set Simply navigate to a Live Set in the File Browser and right click it Select the Manage File option that appears in the context menu and it will open in the File Manager If you want to manage a project instead right click the project folder and choose Manage Project from the context menu Here s another trick that may save you some time The next time you want to replace a sample right click the waveform in the Clip View and choose Manage Sample File from the context menu The File Manager will open with that sample highlighted in the samples list The next area of interest is the Unused Files section see Figure 13 10 When working on a project it s possible to generate many extra audio files that don t end up getting used These could be multiple takes of a live performance or earlier versions of a loop before you effected and resampled it to perfection This section differentiates between files that were recorded into the Set created with the
42. I recommend leaving this option on as the default unless the downbeat transient seems too quiet It is possible that the fade can soften the initial attack of the downbeat for instance shaving the attack of a one shot sample so you may need to turn this off from time to time Because the Arrangement View contains a more sophisticated set of tools for creating fades this option is not available there RAM Live streams audio files from disk as they play With each additional audio clip that plays the computer will have to stream another file from disk Your hard disk can stream only a finite amount of data per second and when Live requires more than the disk can provide you get audio dropouts When you hear audio problems check to see if the Hard Disk Overload Indicator the letter D in the right hand corner of the Control Bar is lighting up To alleviate this you can load audio clips into your computer s RAM which is accessed much faster than the hard disk by pressing the RAM button Remember to be conscious of the size of the files you re loading into RAM Even if you re using only 10 seconds of an 8 minute file Live will still load the whole file into memory The problem with this feature is that your operating system may decide to swap contents from RAM to hard disk Live has no control over when this happens so you may not always see the performance benefit you expect from using the RAM switch If rapid access to audio f
43. Live s Ping Pong Delay bounces a signal from left to right Source Ableton Notice that the same Sync and delay time boxes are also present in Ping Pong Delay When Sync is activated Ping Pong Delay will rhythmically synchronize your audio delays from left to right according to your beat division chooser Once you deactivate Sync you can set the delay time manually from 1 to 999ms Next to the Sync switch is a tiny little button labeled F This is the Freeze button When active it will cause the Ping Pong Delay to repeat indefinitely without fading away and without adding new audio into the loop Therefore you can freeze what is repeating by activating this button When you deactivate it the delay will continue to decay and repeat as normal Filter Delay Next in Live s group of delay effects is the powerful Filter Delay This effect is actually three delays in one one stereo delay and two mono delays one on each stereo channel Individual delays can be toggled on and off via the L L R and R boxes on the far left seen in Figure 9 15 Similarly each high and low pass filter can also be switched on and off via the green box labeled On default setting in the upper left hand corner next to the X Y controllers Figure 9 15 Live s very flexible Filter Delay Notice that the L R input is disabled in this example causing the device to produce completely independent results for the left and right channels Fitter
44. Once the gate opens it remains open until the signal goes below the Threshold value minus the Return value In other words if Threshold is 10dB and Return is 5dB the gate will open for signals above 10 and stay open until the signal goes below 15 To get a feel for this set Return to zero and adjust Threshold until only the highest peaks of the signal come through At some point yov ll discover a phenomenon called chatter where the gate opens and closes rapidly as the signal crosses back and forth across the Threshold Increasing Return will stop the chatter and impart a more natural sound to the gating Figure 9 9 Live s Gate effect O Gate Threshold 12 0 08B Return 3 00 dB Attack Hold Release Floor ma G E CO 350ms 100ms 150ms 4000B Source Ableton The Attack Hold and Release settings determine the rate at which the gate opens and closes For instance a very short attack will make the gate open quickly when the threshold is exceeded sometimes resulting in harsh audible clicks Similarly the Hold and Release functions affect how long the gate remains open after the signal has fallen below the Threshold Hold is a fixed minimum amount of time the gate must stay open while Release is the speed at which it closes The Flip switch turns the gate upside down only signals below the threshold will get passed While not often the most practical thing the Flip switch can be used to
45. Once the points are set punching is enabled with the two buttons located to either side of the Loop button as seen in Figure 4 8 When you click Record Live will start running but will wait for the Punch In time before it actually starts recording It will continue recording until it reaches the Punch Out point You may of course use either Punch In or Punch Out by itself if you choose Figure 4 8 Configured as shown Live will automatically begin recording at bar 21 and then stop recording four bars later The two bent line icons are the Punch In and Punch Out switches een lee e 4 0 0 Source Ableton MIDI Overdub MIDI Overdub allows you to record additional note or controller data into a MIDI clip without erasing what s already there This is a handy feature when it comes to programming drumbeats since you can build them one piece at a time For example you could make a two bar loop with just a kick drum and then play the additional parts snares hi hats layer by layer as the clip continues to loop MIDI Overdub has all sorts of uses If a piano part is really tricky you can record the left hand and right hand parts separately Or you can build a drum part one drum at a time and generate variations while you re at it For example start with a simple drum pattern perhaps just kick drum and hi hat for the intro of your song then use Duplicate to copy the clip and launch the copy Now you can use MIDI Overdub to add
46. Rack and a MIDI file will be generated to play the slices back The Drum Rack comes equipped with some preprogrammed Macros for tweaking the envelope and the loop properties of each slice Try turning Loop Length up and Loop Compress down for some buzzing glitchy madness Many of the other options in the menu place the slices into Zones within a Sampler instead These presets use a wide variety of Sampler s modulation options to generate sonic variation Make sure to try out your keyboard s modulation wheel while using these presets as many of them are programmed to respond to it Ableton updates these presets when new versions of Live are released so don t be surprised if the contents of this menu change from time to time After you ve clicked OK and waited for a few seconds you l have a brand new MIDI track all loaded and ready to go Just launch the new MIDI clip and you hear your loop playing back just as if it were the original audio clip This is where things get interesting Try rearranging deleting or adding MIDI notes or try creating a brand new clip and using individual slices to program a beat Also make sure to check out the macros that have been programmed for you in the new Drum Rack For most rhythmic material selecting Transient in the top menu will yield good results Occasionally you might find that Live is chopping the audio into too many slices For example sometimes Live will place a transient in the mi
47. Reverberate during Reverberation Reflections E Creare oes Joos re f_ oor Reflection Freeze the Diffusion Network Generator Reverb Output Source Ableton Input Processing The first link in Reverb s signal chain is the Input Processing section Here you have on off selectable Low and High Cut filtering as well as a Predelay control The Low Cut and High Cut X Y interface allows you to trim your input s frequencies before they are reverberated Similar to Live s other delays the X axis shifts the frequency of the cut 50Hz to 18kHz while the Y axis changes the bandwidth 50 to 9 0 You can also turn each filter off by deselecting its green illuminated box I recommend spending some time playing with this filter each time you use this effect Think of these filters as altering the acoustic characteristics of a room For instance a concrete room may not reproduce low frequencies as well as an acoustically engineered studio room Each room will favor completely different frequencies Also check out the Predelay control for adding milliseconds of time before you hear the first early reflections or delayed sound of the forthcoming reverberation Predelay is very useful for preserving the definition of the sound you re adding reverb to Even with longer decay times you can crank up the predelay to prevent the original sound from becoming too wet or buried by the effect While the Predelay can range from 50 to 25
48. The reason this section is called the Hybrid DJ is that whether you perform original songs tracks you download improvised multitrack loop jams or mashups the techniques and concepts of DJing hold some relevance for all of them and they are the conceptual glue that can be used to look at these varied approaches in a unified way Preparing Your Audio Files The process of DJing with Live is twofold First comes the work of downloading ripping and warping songs followed by the joy of putting it all together in a performance Live supports multiple compressed and uncompressed file formats You can use WAV AIFF SD2 MP3 AAC Ogg Vorbis Ogg FLAC and regular FLAC which means you can use most audio files yov ll ever encounter While 320kbps MP3 files are of high enough quality for most applications bear in mind that Live will decompress any compressed file into the Decoding Cache when you add it to a Set Therefore not only are you potentially compromising sound quality when using compressed audio but you also end up using more disk space because you re storing both a compressed and an uncompressed version of the file Once you have your songs pulled together you re ready to begin the second step of prepping a file for DJing In order for Live to keep the song in time with any others that you may be playing yov ll need to place Warp Markers in the file to indicate the location of beats in the track Warping an entire son
49. This is determined automatically when you drop a sound source onto a pad If you change this value you ll see the change reflected in the pad display In other words if you ve dropped a sample called Kick1 onto pad C1 and then change the MIDI Receive for this chain to D1 yov ll see Kick1 jump to that pad Each pad is hardwired to its note and location The Send setting is much more flexible Here you can choose what note is sent to your sound source By default it s set to C3 which is the Simpler s default root note So a C3 will play back the sample at its original pitch Modifying this setting could be useful if you want to use a pitched sine wave as part of a kick sound Change the Send note so the pitch matches the key of your song Choke Groups Occasionally it s necessary to configure some of the sounds in your kit so that playing one stops or chokes the other The classic use for this is hi hat With a real world drum kit you cannot have an open and closed hi hat sound happening at the same time Whenever the closed hi hat plays the open one should stop immediately and vice versa If you ve used the Impulse drum machine you may already know that it has one choke group hardwired to cells 7 and 8 Just press the Link switch on pad 8 and the two pads automatically choke each other when played Drum Racks offer the flexibility of 16 different choke groups which can be assigned to any group of pads To set up the c
50. WORK AROUND You can still warp multiple clips even if the underlying audio files aren t of the same length You just have to generate new audio files first Line up the files in the Arrangement View and trim them until they are the same length If you need to make a clip longer hold down Shift and highlight both the clip and the necessary amount of empty space in the timeline Then use the Consolidate command to write new audio files of the specified length Tempo Master Slave If you are in the Arrangement View you will see another control just above Seg BPM the Tempo Master Slave switch see Figure 5 31a This control allows you to designate any clip as the tempo master by toggling its Master Slave switch to Master The current tempo master clip will always play as if Warp were off but will cause the master tempo to follow the timing of the clip s Warp Markers instead of the other way around see Figure 5 31b This means that all warped clips will follow the timing fluctuations of the Master clip Figure 5 31a Master Slave only appears in Arrangement View Click the switch to toggle between Slave and Master Source Ableton Figure 5 31b Because the clip above is set to Master pseudo tempo automation appears in the Master track based on the location of the clip s Warp Markers Source Ableton Let s say that you have a piano recording that you want to add some additional programmed parts and loops to It s a well played
51. You may find it useful for zeroing in on the frequency you want to boost or cut Next in line is the Mode menu Stereo is the standard mode for all stereo and mono signals L R differs from Stereo in that it allows you to equalize the left and right channels of a source separately as seen in Figure 9 2 Select L in the Edit switch to EQ the left side then press Edit again to switch over and EQ the right side Bear in mind that L R mode can be used to create stereo effects on mono sources by EQing left and right differently M S mode allows you to separately EQ the middle of a mix material that is purely mono and the sides of a mix material that is purely stereo Adaptive Q is a feature inspired by the behavior of some classic analog EQs It causes the Q to change automatically when adjusting the gain of bell and shelf filters It has no effect on the other filter types The theory is that the more you boost the more desirable it is to narrow the range of frequencies you re boosting to avoid dramatic changes in the overall gain of the signal Bear in mind that you can achieve the same results with or without this feature turned on You may however find that it makes the operation of the EQ more intuitive and musical The Scale control is an ingenious bonus that changes the gain of all EQ bands simultaneously So if you ve created the perfect EQ curve but decide that you ve laid it on a bit thick you can scale it back a bit
52. a menu that will show you a list of controllers that can be plugged into Live and use remote controlling immediately without any mapping Because there are so many different styles of controllers this technology varies widely from device to device To see how it s implemented for various controllers open up Help View from the Help menu and then scroll all the way down to the bottom and click on All Built in Lessons In here you find the Control Surface Reference which documents the behavior of all supported controllers It s also possible for third parties to allow any MIDI controller to behave as a control surface in Live but this involves the installation of a script file on your computer The details of this go beyond what we can cover in this book so make sure to follow the manufacturer s directions for any controller that promises custom control surface support Visit hobo tech com tag control surface for more information on custom control surface configuration Setting Preferences in Live Preferences are more than merely your personal whims about how you would like Live s interface to be colored or where your files are automatically saved From the Preferences screen you will be able to control default loop traits audio and MIDI interface settings and audio latency settings If you re brand new to Live you may just want to skim this section for now Some of this stuff will make a lot more sense once you ve spent some
53. a powerful and simple way to get creative with clips Launch Launch Mode Trigger Gate Toggle Repeat Source Ableton gt Trigger The most common Launch mode for use in most performance situations is Live s Trigger mode Each time you fire a clip it will launch Once a clip is launched and playing you will be able to stop its playback only by pressing one of the Clip Stop buttons located in the same track This mode ignores the up tick release of the mouse button computer keyboard key or MIDI note Each clip can be fired as rapidly as the quantization will allow and each time the clip is fired it will restart the clip from the beginning even if it was already playing gt Gate When triggering a clip in Gate mode you will hear the sound only for as long as your mouse or keyboard key is depressed This is an excellent setting for dropping in snippets of sound without playing the entire clip In short holding down your left mouse button or MIDI computer keyboard key will play the clip continuously until you let up gt Toggle With Toggle mode engaged the Clip Launch button basically turns into an on off switch for the clip If you launch a clip that is playing it will stop Launch the stopped clip and it will begin playing This also works at the scene level if you trigger a scene with clips set in Toggle mode Each time you trigger the scene clips that are playing will stop and stopped clips will start Bea
54. a separate window to display their parameters When you load an external plug in Live displays a generic X Y object in the Track View see Figure 7 8 the axes of which can be set to any of the plug in s parameters via the menus below Clicking the wrench icon opens up the plug in s custom graphical interface Figure 7 8 Plug ins show up as generic placeholders On the left there s a VST instance of Absynth The Rough Rider to the right is an Audio Unit OOA Absynth 5 DROO Rough Rider lt disadiea gt Source Ableton WARNINGS By using a third party plug in you are incorporating a new piece of program code into Live Usually this is nothing to worry about However a buggy plug in can malfunction in all sorts of ways In the worst cases this could mean outputting high volume digital noise or causing Live to crash Just because a plug in works well in another host is no guarantee that it will behave the same way within Live There s nothing to be afraid of though Download and experiment to your heart s content Just be sure to test at low volumes save your work often and never ever try out an untested plug in on a gig If Live determines that a plug in has caused a crash it will offer to disable the plug in so it doesn t happen again However there may be cases where you need to do this manually This is a simple matter of removing the plug in from the plug in folder See Installation Tips in Chapt
55. adjustment of the instrument s temperament Increasing this value will change the tuning such that higher notes are slightly sharper and lower notes are slightly flatter which for pianos can result in a more natural and brilliant overall sound gt Unison Duplicates the final output of your instrument Unless used in conjunction with the Detune or Delay parameters all this does is make the signal louder Slight detuning will create a chorusing effect while larger values can be used to create strange out of tune harmonies Delay increases the effect by delaying the unison layer up to 100ms gt Voices Controls how many notes can sound at once Reducing the number of voices will save CPU power When set to Mono one voice any note played will cut off any currently playing note This is useful for emulating the behavior of classic monosynths Impulse Impulse is Live s basic drum instrument see Figure 8 3 Where Drum Racks offer endless flexibility Live s more limited Impulse offers instant usability due to its sparse controls and simple design Figure 8 3 The clean and crisp Impulse interface sports eight slots for samples Clicking the slot displays its editable parameters Source Ableton Sample Slots The upper portion of Impulse is made of eight squares or sample slots each of which can hold one sample and can be triggered via MIDI or with the mouse When you hover the mouse over a slot a play button is revealed al
56. and Arm buttons which function the same way as their audio track counterparts Figure 4 3 An audio track an empty MIDI track and a MIDI track with an instrument device loaded Notice that there s a note in the Arm button of the MIDI tracks which makes it possible to tell them apart from audio tracks even when an instrument is loaded Source Ableton When a virtual instrument is loaded onto the track see Chapter 7 Using Effects and Instruments the full set of mixer controls will appear Drag an instrument from the Sounds or Drums view of the Browser into an empty MIDI track if you want to see this transformation in action A MIDI track with an instrument inserted is essentially a hybrid MIDI audio track It passes MIDI input from MIDI clips or a MIDI controller into an instrument which produces audio in response The audio is then optionally processed with effects and passed into the mixer A MIDI track without an instrument can be used to send data to external hardware such as sound modules Notice that the lower menu in the empty MIDI track shown in Figure 4 3 is labeled Midi To To sequence external hardware select the port and channel the hardware is connected to and you re all set You can also use the External Instrument device for this purpose as explained in Chapter 8 Live s Instruments Understanding Clips Clips are created by dragging files into the Session or Arrangement or by recording new au
57. and sparkly guitars and synths to pass but will suppress basses and any other instruments in the lower frequency range How low is up to you Band pass filters are basically high pass and low pass filters put together thus only frequencies falling between the two filters will pass sounding similar to a telephone at times Band reject filters work opposite of band pass only audio lying outside of the cutoff frequency can pass Frequency and Resonance To get going with Live s Auto Filter you will want to select a filter type Low Pass is a good starter then use the X Y controller to dial in Frequency X axis and Q Y axis Or if you prefer Frequency and Q resonance using the numeric boxes below the display Increasing the Q resonance control will increase the intensity of the filter by adding a resonant peak around the cutoff frequency while lowering it will cause the filter to roll off more smoothly If you really crank up the Q you can get some very intense effects as you move the filter frequency This can sound great but be sure to watch your volume LFO To the right of the X Y controller is the LFO which can be used to modulate the filter frequency The Amount knob controls the amplitude of the modulation while the Rate controls its speed Next to the Rate knob is the Shape menu These waveshapes are fairly self explanatory the sine wave at the top creates smooth changes while the square wave creates choppy ones Th
58. another way to get familiar with how it works Play the note C and notice the lower left hand corner light up Now click a different box in the leftmost column and play the note C again What note is being output now Just count up in semitones from the bottommost box or turn your head sideways and imagine that you are looking at the grid as a vertical piano keyboard If you ve clicked four boxes up from the bottom yov ll now be hearing the note E flat You can use the grid to create musical scales The pattern of indicators on the grid in Figure 10 6 is that of a major scale Any attempt to play a black key on the keyboard will result in the MIDI note being transposed up to its nearest neighbor in the scale since no black keys are used in C major NO SCALE So you re just starting out and don t know all your musical scales No problem Ableton has included common scales in the presets of the Scale effect You can load one and then use the Base knob to adapt it to your working key The Base control can be used to change the starting point of the grid In the previous example hanging the Base control to G will change the scale to a G major Every key played on the keyboard will now be forced to one of the pitches in the G major scale Notice that changing Base also moves the piano keys so the bottom row and first column are G instead of C The Transpose and Range boxes do what the Pitch effect does transposing any incoming MID
59. any tracks that don t have a clip in that particular scene Spend a little time playing with this and you ll get a sense of how powerful this feature is for quickly arranging musical ideas Figure 3 7 Click the triangle to launch all the clips in the scene row Source Ableton The Mixer Live s mixer see Figure 3 8a is made up of several sections which can be shown or hidden independently using the View menu or the buttons shown in Figure 3 1 One of these sections is called Mixer and contains basic mixing controls such as volume When I refer to the Mixer with a capital M I m referring to this component while other references to the mixer are considering the conceptual whole Live has several different types of tracks covered in detail in Chapter 6 some of which have unique mixer features but most of them share the controls shown in Figure 3 8b Figure 3 8a Here s the mixer with every section shown Each of these sections is explained on the following pages Crossfader Source Ableton Figure 3 8b A fully expanded mixer channel Peak Level Numeric Volume Display Pan Track Activator mute switch Solo Cue Arm Recording Source Ableton Like many features of the Session View the mixer is also available in the Arrangement View However the Session View is more intuitive to use for many tasks and offers a few additional features I 1l use the term Session Mixer when it s necessar
60. are as follows gt Ratio This control only exists for the Membrane and Plate types and controls the overall shape and size of the resonator Higher values produce much more complex harmonics and produce a less distinct pitch This control interacts heavily with the Quality menu which determines how complex the overtones can get gt Brightness Acts like a master tone control Low values heavily favor low harmonics and can produce some serious volume so watch your ears gt Inharmonics This is a pitch control for the overtones produced by the resonator The most important thing to know about this control is that it is extremely sensitive especially with Quality set to Full and sometimes produces unexpected results Try adjusting this control using your arrow keys 1 at a time gt Listening Labeled ListeningL and ListeningR these controls are easiest to understand if you think of them as controlling the placement of a pair of microphones being used to record your virtual percussion instrument They both affect the tonal characteristics of the sound and the stereo field When they are set to the same value you ll get a mono sound while adjusting them to opposing values gives you a much wider sound gt Hit If you ve ever played drums you know that they produce a very different sound depending on where you hit the skin The Hit control moves the point of impact from the center to the edge as you increase its value This produ
61. be engaged simultaneously For example when Solo Exclusive is on only one track may be soloed at a time If you click the Solo button of another track the previous track s solo status will turn off The same is true for Arm Exclusive Only one track can be record enabled when this button is active You can override the Exclusive setting for either Solo or Arm by holding down Cmd Ctrl while clicking these switches in the Mixer The Clip Update Rate is the frequency with which Live recalculates changes made to a clip during playback For instance if you transpose a clip in Live while the Clip Update Rate is set to 1 32 note you will hear nearly instant changes to the pitch of the loop in the clip Conversely choosing a Clip Update Rate of 1 4 note or the even slower rate of Bar meaning one update per measure will result in changes occurring more slowly Record Session Automation specifies how the Session View behaves when the Automation Arm switch is turned on When set to Armed Tracks automation in the session view will only be recorded into tracks that are armed for recording If this option is set to All Tracks all your knob movements and other automation will be recorded regardless of whether the tracks are armed or not Warp Fades This section includes various settings relating to Live s Warp engine which controls the time flow of clips keeping everything in sync The Loop Warp Short Samples menu determines the default state of
62. beginning from the attack phase Finally the Free switch can be used to bypass the Sustain portion of the envelope Since the envelope will now jump from the decay to the release phase it will always be the same regardless of how long the note is held The most common example of a Free envelope is a percussion sound a short attack and decay phase immediately followed by a release MAKING FILTER ENVELOPES WORK If you re finding that adjusting the filter envelope isn t doing anything it s probably because you haven t entered a value in either of the envelope Env fields for the filter Unlike the volume envelope which works automatically you have to specify how much the filter envelope should be modulating the filter s frequency or resonance or it won t do anything at all In the display enter an envelope amount under Freq Mod or Res Mod to specify how much the filter should be modulated by the envelope Bear in mind that the frequency or resonance value shown in the shell is the starting value for the filter The Env field can then be set to a positive or negative value to indicate whether the envelope should be increasing or decreasing that value as the envelope plays LFO The two LFOs are completely independent of each other and can be used to control a variety of other parameters as discussed in the previous sections The only control here is the Rate since the LFO amount is controlled within the module that it is bei
63. below the Chain selector the associated Chain will be active otherwise it will not By default the zones for each chain are lined up at the far left of the editor with the Chain selector directly above as seen in Figure 7 20 If you grab the Chain selector and drag it to the right the Rack will immediately go silent Zones can be moved by grabbing them from the center and dragging and resized by dragging at the edges The mouse pointer will turn into the bracket shaped trim tool that you see when resizing clips in the Arrangement Figure 7 20 Click the Chain switch to reveal the Chain Select Editor at the right Show Chain Selector Chain Selector E carak EA x nm m A roa j Ai m NY N Zones Source Ableton If the Zones are arranged as seen in Figure 7 21 the Chain selector can be used to switch between Chains by dragging it across the top of the editor The Chain selector can be MIDI mapped or mapped to a Macro knob so you can select Chains without having the editor open Figure 7 21 In the configuration shown only one Chain will ever be active at a time since none of the Zones overlap With the Chain selector in its displayed position the Saturator chain will be active i c Conme o o w nm xn o a w 7 04 12 120 127 pme jsa ia 7 _ _ _ r r a Senne SE ae _ ha iio ic i mel Source Ableton It s also possible to have Zon
64. bottom The default position for Bit Reduction is 16 bit off As you reduce the bits you will hear an increasing amount of noisy grit infect the sample Anything below 4 bits causes a dramatic increase in gain so use caution The numerical setting will indicate the bit depth for example 8 8 bit 4 4 bit Extremists can try trimming it down to 1 bit but be warned this gets LOUD When it comes to sample rate reduction the settings are a little more inexact In Hard mode downsampling will stick with whole integers such as 1 2 and 3 up to 200 for dividing the sample rate while in Soft mode you can adjust from 1 to 20 to the nearest hundredth of a point 1 00 or 19 99 A setting of 1 means you are not hearing any sample rate reduction oddly the higher the number the lower the resulting sample rate For a quick course spend a minute perusing the Ableton factory presets such as Old Sampler and Mirage This will give you a basic template to work from Also while you are in Playback mode try toggling between Hard and Soft Downsampling with different settings for a cool effect Vinyl Distortion The imperfections of vinyl have actually become quite lovable these days Whether you are missing the dust pops and crackles of an old record or the warped vinyl sound of a record left out in the sun vinyl has a certain retro charm Though CDs and digital recordings are great they are hopelessly clean and free of these impurities Of cours
65. by increasing the Width knob This can help create a lush tonal pad that blends well with a mix You can also use the input filter to remove frequencies that may be overpowering or saturating the resonator banks The Gain knobs are used to achieve a blend between the various resonators allowing you to emphasize certain pitches over others Spectrum Spectrum isn t an audio effect but it does process audio see Figure 9 34 Instead of changing the sound that passes through it Spectrum generates a real time display of the audio s frequency content This can be very useful for isolating problematic frequencies or for helping you learn more about the important frequencies in various sounds thus improving your mixing skills As of Live 9 the EQ Eight includes a built in spectrum analyzer so this device may get a bit less use Nevertheless it provides some additional flexibility the EQ version doesn t have so it s worth knowing a bit about Figure 9 34 Spectrum is here to help you visualize your sounds Source Ableton The display represents frequencies horizontally from low to high and amplitudes vertically By default the amplitude range is set to Auto which can be a little confusing In Auto mode the decibel range shown automatically adjusts to the overall volume of the material being monitored so the display may jump around a bit If you re new to the Spectrum device I recommend turning off the Auto switch in the lower rig
66. by the fact that Live uses launch quantization to start and stop recordings Assuming that the Quantization Menu in the Control Bar is set to its default value of 1 Bar all recordings will start and stop at the beginning of a bar and you always end up with loop lengths that make sense Doing multiple takes is as easy as clicking additional Clip Record buttons in the track Every time a new recording starts the previous one ends You can then go back and listen to each take individually to find the best one Or you can use the Arrangement View to combine the best parts of each take into one perfect supertake Of course the nicest thing about this workflow in the Session View is that it allows you to quickly build layers and sections of a song without ever stopping Live You can then audition all of your new clips and organize scenes to start arranging the sections of your song ON THE LEVEL Before you start an audio recording check your input signal level to make sure that it s not too high or too low The track s meters will show the volume of any incoming signal as soon as the track is armed Play as loud as you plan to play during the recording while watching Live s meters If the signal is too loud the meters reach the top and turn red it could distort or clip the recording If the level is too low your sound may become grainy when turning it up to match the rest of your song If you re recording at 24 bit or mo
67. can be used to launch an entire row of clips contained within a group Group tracks also contain stop buttons that can be used to stop all clips in the group Figure 6 5 Group Tracks contain audio and MIDI tracks MeL Source Ableton If you ever want to add an additional track to a group just drag the track until it is adjacent to the other grouped tracks Conversely tracks can be removed from groups by dragging them away Also be aware that if you delete a Group track all of the tracks within it will get deleted as well If you want to ungroup the tracks within a group right click on the title bar of the Group track and select Ungroup from the context menu When tracks are grouped their Ouput Type automatically changes from Master to Group as seen in Figure 6 5 If a track is routed somewhere other than Master before grouping its output routing will be left alone and it won t pass through the Group Track With Live s flexible routing you can easily take advantage of folding or Group Launch buttons and still send the signal wherever you want GROUP IN A GROUP If you re wondering whether it s possible to put a Group Track within a Group Track the answer is no However you can get some of the same benefits by creating a submix within a group Submixing is explained in the Submixing and Multing section Audio Routing If you explore Live s Input Type and Output Type menus you discover th
68. can really make a drum loop pop out It should be used sparingly and deliberately too much of it is harsh sounding Logarithmic release is a more refined sounding mode and can be used to shape transients with a greater degree of transparency KICK ME PART 2 After you ve used the EQ Eight to dial in a nice kick drum tone place a Compressor on the track You use the Compressor to shape the amplitude of the kick sound similar to using an ADSR envelope on a synth The setting for the Ratio dial depends on the amount of attack already present in the kick sound If there s already a decent amount of punch a ratio of 4 to 1 may be all that s necessary If the kick is flat and has no life a 10 to 1 ratio may be in order You ll need a fairly short attack time somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 to 20ms If the attack is too short the drum will sound short snappy and clipped Use a slightly longer setting for the Release 25 to 50ms depending on the bass drum s acoustics If the drum has a long tone a longer release will keep the tail end of the tone from popping up in volume after the loud transient of the drum has passed If on the other hand the drum has a short tone or if the drum is played quickly a short release time will allow the Compressor to open fully before the next drum hit If the release time is too long only the first kick drum hit will sound right while the others that follow shortly after will be too q
69. change so by itself it doesn t really tell us much about what these effects do Generally speaking when we speak about modulation effects we are talking about ones that are driven by an LFO such that an inherent part of the effect is the sound of it changing over time Make sure that you re clear on the role of the LFO in the Auto Filter and Auto Pan effects and you ll have a much easier time understanding the ones in this section That said some of these effects also produce quite useful results without using the LFO section at all As usual carve out some time to explore each one fully Chorus When you listen to a group of people singing a chorus each member of the group has slightly different timing and intonation even if they re singing the same words with the same melody The result is a large and lush vocal sound achieved by the variations in all of the voices The Chorus effect attempts to re create this phenomenon by taking the input signal delaying it by varying amounts adding a touch of random Pitch Shift and then blending the results with the original In other words Chorus effects assume that two sounds are better than one It is common to run synthesizers guitars vocals and strings through a chorus The doubling or even tripling effect of a chorus makes solo voices sound more powerful takes up more space in a mix and therefore sounds more present Live s Chorus see Figure 9 18 features two parall
70. clips in a track but in any given track only one clip can play back at a time In the Session View this is seen in a behavior described earlier launching a clip stops playback of any currently playing clip in the same track In the Arrangement View this behavior can be demonstrated by dragging a clip and dropping it on top of an existing clip The clip you dropped replaces what was there before They can t overlap and both play simultaneously The same rule applies to clips in the Session and Arrangement Views As mentioned previously the two views are just different ways of looking at the same set of tracks Therefore any given track can either have a clip playing back from the Session View or the Arrangement View never both simultaneously In order to hear clips play back from the Arrangement View you need to explicitly give control to Arrangement View otherwise the clips in the Session View will win out This takes some getting used to and like all good rules there are a couple of exceptions But not to worry Read on and practice using the program It will all make sense eventually I promise While playing back an arrangement you re free to return to the Session View to launch clips When you do this two things will happen in the Arrangement to show you that clips from the Session have taken over the clips in the Arrangement will be dimmed grayed out and a triangular play button will appear at the far right of th
71. control an envelope Dynamic Processing In the audio world dynamics refers to the volume or amplitude of a sound More specifically it refers to the change in volume of a sound The sound of a drum kit can range from quiet ghost notes on a snare drum to the thundering sound of the kick drum and toms and it is therefore considered to have more dynamic range than a distorted guitar which usually plays at a more consistent volume It therefore makes sense that dynamic processors would alter the volume of signals passing through them But why would you want to do this Like EQing dynamic processing can be used to compensate for problems arising in the recording process It can also be used to control the natural peaks that occur during live vocal performances to exaggerate the transients in a part or for a variety of creative effects Compressor Compression can add clarity and power to your mixes if done properly Done wrong it can suck all life from what once was a brilliant track For audio engineers compression is one of the hardest things to learn to use properly and is one element that separates the big fish from the little guppies Live 9 has a totally revamped compressor the best sounding and most flexible one yet The most immediately noticeable feature of the Live 9 compressor is that it offers three unique views for visualizing the way it changes a signal s gain Before getting into the nitty gritty of compression let s
72. control until the signal begins to exceed the Ceiling Then yov ll see the Gain Reduction meter begin to flash and you II hear the overall level of the signal become louder without ever clipping As you continue to increase the gain you ll start to get some distortion and will eventually destroy all of the dynamics in the signal so listen carefully and go easy if in doubt The Release knob can be used to fine tune the Limiter s release characteristics but for most applications Auto will work just fine Lookahead functions like a simple Attack control At lower values it responds faster to peaks which results in more limiting but also a potential increase in distortion This is always the trade off with increasing gain through limiting The more you apply the less dynamic and more distorted the signal becomes To find the right amount it s a good idea to put on some headphones and crank up the gain until you can hear distortion then back off until you ve found an acceptable level The switch marked Stereo should generally be left alone unless you don t mind messing with the stereo image of the material you re working with In Stereo mode a peak in either channel will cause gain reduction to occur on both sides preserving the stereo image By changing this to L R you can treat each side separately Multiband Dynamics If you re still wrapping your head around what dynamics processors do then you may want to spend mor
73. controller in the MIDI Preferences tab Live will transmit the data to configure your controller properly Creating a basic drum kit with a Drum Rack is easy Just drop a drum sample from the Browser onto any pad Once you ve dropped the sample the pad will be updated to display the sample name instead of the note name A play button for previewing the sample will appear as will mute and solo switches To see what s going on under the hood you need to look at the Chain List and the Devices of the Rack see Figure 8 24 The buttons for showing these are to the left side of the pads and look and function identically to those on a standard Instrument Rack It s also possible to display the Device View by double clicking on a pad Figure 8 24 Our new Drum Rack with chains and devices shown R gron Q E 000 100 wo 000 ar Fae feg Res Vei LFO cox Essa Type Key Erv rie azome o ros OJ Source Ableton First notice the far right hand side of the Rack As I mentioned a moment ago Drum Racks have no built in sample playback capability so here you see that Ableton s solution to this is to automatically create a Simpler when a sample is dropped onto a pad The Simpler offers loads of options for tweaking the playback of the sample so this is an excellent solution There s no reason however that you need to use the Simpler to play back your samples nor is there any reason that your Drum Ra
74. desired amount of gain reduction You can even adjust the Dry Wet mix and boost the Sidechain Gain control so you re getting compression triggered by both the kick and the bass The Sidechain EQ can also be used without an external Sidechain source In this case a copy of the audio that you are compressing is used to feed the Sidechain This technique is frequently used for de essing which is the process of softening the sharp sss sound that can occur in vocal parts By filtering out all the lower frequencies or boosting the sibilant frequencies often 8kHz and higher you can force the Compressor to respond only when a strong sss escapes the vocalist s lips Typically this will require some careful tweaking of the Threshold and a very fast attack Gate Where compressors focus on reducing volume spikes above a certain threshold gates help turn down low level signals beneath a certain threshold Gates are a tool for reducing background noise microphone bleed and undesirable reverb decay They are also a creative tool for chopping up audio loops and creating wild rhythmic effects by using the sidechain Figure 9 9 shows Live s Gate effect A gate effect operates just like it sounds Certain audio can make it through the gate while other audio cannot The minimum level to get through the gate is set by the Threshold slider Any incoming sound quieter than the threshold will cause the gate to close thus attenuating the signal
75. dropping See also moving devices importing exporting Drum Programming mode Push Drum Rack drums automation Impulse kick sounds loops pads quantizing synthesizers transposing Drums category Dry Wet knobs modulation Simple Delay dumps presets Duplicate command Duplicate Loop button Duplicate Time command dust pops dynamic processing Dynamic Tube dynamic variations Groove E early reflections Reverb Edit button Sample box editing Arrangement View automation commands devices MIDI buttons clips multiple clips nondestructive time velocity Edit menu editors Chain Select Editor resizing MIDI Sample Select Editor Zone Editor effects See also devices audio Amp Auto Pan Beat Repeat Cabinet Corpus delays distortions dynamic processing EQ External Audio Effect filters Frequency Shifter Looper modulation Resonators Spectrum Utility Vocoder automation customizing Master tracks MIDI Arpeggiator Chord Note Length Random Scale Velocity playing live Return tracks sounds tempo Track View Electric elements showing hiding interviews empty chains enabling Draw Mode loops MIDI devices remote control sends End control Envelope Max Envelope Follower Max Envelope knob Flanger Phaser envelopes filters instruments Operator Pitch Osc tab Sampler Simpler Transposition Modulation types of unlinked volume Volume Modulation Envelopes box EQ equalizers EQ Three equalizers
76. drum track the audio from that drum track will now come out of Return A as well This feature is typically used for effects processing in particular to add time based effects such as reverb and delay Input Output The Input Output section is used for recording and for various advanced routing techniques The Audio From section is used to specify the source that a track will receive signal from Input while Audio To determines where the signal from the track goes Output Audio From consists of two menus Input Type and Input Channel In audio tracks Input Type determines the source that the track will record or monitor while Input Channel is used to specify a specific input from the selected source For example if you want to record a guitar that s plugged into Input 2 of your soundcard you d select Ext Input from the top menu and 2 from the second For MIDI tracks the Input Type is used to select which MIDI device yov ll use to record a performance By default this is set to All Ins meaning All Inputs which typically works just fine unless you have a very complex setup with a lot of MIDI gear You can then use Input Channel to limit input to a specific MIDI channel or leave it on the default which receives all channels Audio To consists of Output Type and Output Channel Just like the Inputs these can be used to route audio to external outputs on your soundcard or MIDI to external hardware It s also possible to route s
77. elegance and ease of use rather than extreme CPU efficiency That said there are many tasks that Live can handle even when running on a very humble computer For example playing back many tracks of audio takes very little CPU power unless you re using a lot of effects Sets which rely heavily on MIDI tracks and virtual instruments are often very demanding on the CPU unless you re mostly using built in devices like Simpler and Operator which are very CPU efficient Keep an eye on the CPU meter in the upper right hand corner to get a practical feel for all this Obviously a more powerful CPU will provide you with the most ease and flexibility But this doesn t mean you have to break the bank buying the absolute newest and fastest Buying a step down from the top can save you quite a bit of money which you can put toward a quality soundcard and a good pair of speakers or headphones Your music will be better for it Hard Drives Get the biggest hard disks you can afford You will fill up every single drive you buy and faster than you think And don t forget extra backup drives 7200 RPM drives are ideal for audio but not absolutely essential depending on how you use your system If you re buying a desktop computer these are by far and away the most common type of drive so this isn t a special consideration Laptops are often equipped with 5400 RPM drives which are fine for most performance applications and many production situat
78. enabled This means that Live will change only the start location of a note when it quantizes the length of the note will remain the same If you enable End as well Live will make sure that the note ends on a grid subdivision too This is handy for rapid fire synth bass sequences because each note will be on beat and the same length If you wanted you could deselect Start making Live fix only the end of each note The last parameter in the dialog box is the Amount value Normally this is set to 100 which forces every note to the nearest grid subdivision If you set this value to 50 Live will move the notes only halfway to the proper place The result is a tighter performance but one that is not completely rigid PARTIAL QUANTIZING Sometimes you may not want to quantize an entire clip Maybe the hi hat feels just right but the snare is a bit too wonky or maybe one section needs to be quantized to straight 1 16s and another section to 1 16 note triplets In this case just select the notes you want to quantize by dragging over them in the editor or Shift clicking on individual notes Now quantization will be applied to these notes only After you ve set up your quantize settings you can immediately apply them to any MIDI clip without opening the Quantize window by using the Ctrl Cmd U keyboard shortcut When combined with the Current Grid setting in the Quantize dialog this shortcut can be a real time saver Step Recordin
79. envelope for editing The Volume envelope is always active while the Filter and Pitch envelopes must be activated by clicking the square switches to the left Note that to activate the Filter envelope you must also engage the Filter button described below Also bear in mind that to hear the effect of either the Filter or Pitch envelope you must also assign an envelope amount in the Filter or Pitch section as explained below Pan To the right of the Envelopes section is the Pan control Panning can be modulated with the LFO and randomness When Random is turned up for the Pan control a new position in the stereo field is chosen every time a note is triggered To generate continuous movement without triggering new notes you ll have to use the LFO Filter The Filter is located in Simpler s lower left hand corner and is engaged by clicking the Filter button It contains the basic Freq cutoff and Resonance controls along with a Mode menu for selecting the filter type The remaining controls are used to assign modulators to the cutoff frequency The Env knob scales the amount of Filter Envelope signal used to change the filter cutoff The higher the value the more the envelope causes the cutoff frequency to deviate from its original value Key is used to change the cutoff value of the filter based on the pitch of the incoming MIDI note The higher the pitch the higher the filter cutoff will be This helps emulate real sounds which g
80. example What if you could buy something that would turn down the TV whenever something loud came on It would keep the commercials at the same volume as the TV show and it would also keep loud things like car explosions from blasting your neighbors awake in the middle of the night Enter the compressor To get our imaginary TV compressor to work there are a few settings you have to choose The first one is called Volume Trigger You set this one to the volume where the box should start turning down the volume You set this to a point just slightly louder than the TV show you re watching This guarantees that the compressor doesn t turn down your show at all However when a commercial comes on it will be louder than the Volume Trigger and the compressor will engage The next control you re supposed to set on this thing is the Turn Down Amount When the compressor engages as a result of the Volume Trigger being exceeded the volume will be turned down by the Turn Down Amount Setting this to infinity makes the compressor turn down the volume to match the Volume Trigger Thus the commercial is turned down to the volume of the TV show The third setting is the Turn Down Time This setting sets the time that the compressor takes to turn down the volume once the commercial starts If this value is set to a long time like five seconds the compressor will take five seconds to turn down the volume when the commercial comes on The point here is
81. example if you select the key of G the entire range of the pads changes and the blue notes all become G instead of C One interesting way to generate chord patterns using Push is to repeatedly press the same pads while changing the key in Scale mode If you do this in Fixed mode you get subtler changes with individual notes moving a half step as necessary to stay in key With Fixed mode turned off you ll get very clear movement from chord to chord as you change key For example if you play a C major triad C E G with scale set to C and change the key to G the whole chord will move up a perfect fifth G B D Device Mode Push the Device button to edit device parameters in the selected track see Figure 11 14 Device view is very easy to use as long as you understand how to navigate devices and Racks Tracks can contain multiple devices each with many parameters all of which are edited using Push s eight encoders Navigation is done using both the buttons underneath the display and the In and Out buttons There are two types of navigation you ll be doing navigating from device to device and navigating within Racks with multiple chains Navigating from device to device is a simple matter When a track contains multiple devices they re shown along the bottom of the display Use the top row of buttons to select a device and the bottom row to activate or deactivate When a device is selected the encoders will instantly map to w
82. for four bars and then starts looping Figure 5 40 The Start End and Loop properties of the envelope are enabled when Unlink is activated Source Ableton Bear in mind that each envelope be it modulation or automation can be linked or unlinked as you choose This means you can have envelopes of many different lengths all happening simultaneously You can also create envelopes of odd lengths that will change their position in relationship to the loop points of the clip over many bars Imagine taking a two bar MIDI clip and modulating a synth s filter with an envelope 7 bars long while modulating the parameters of a delay and a distortion using envelopes 3 and 5 bars long To the average listener the pattern would be nearly impossible to discern and the modulations would sound random Audio to MIDI Live provides several ways to start with an audio clip and create a MIDI clip from it The Convert to New MIDI Track features are new to Live 9 while the Slice to New MIDI Track feature has been around for a while now Slice to New MIDI Track provides an easy way to chop up a sample and trigger it via MIDI while the various Convert modes actually analyze the musical information in the audio and generate a MIDI clip based on it Convert to New MIDI Track This feature comes in three flavors There s a method optimized for melody one for harmony chords and another specifically for drums What these functions do is analyze the audio
83. for that control from the timeline and from all Session clips Using Scenes In the studio the Session View is conceived of primarily as a powerful sketchpad for creating parts and experimenting with ideas And indeed it shines in this capacity However unless you take some time to organize your ideas it can quickly turn into an unwieldy mess You think you remember which parts went well together and what order you were launching the clips in but next week when you come back to it yov ll remember nothing Trust me this is based on a true story The ultimate solution to this problem is to create an arrangement in the Arrangement View This is the place where you make final decisions about the flow of your song That said there s often an intermediate step where you want to organize your ideas and create sections before beginning the process of creating a final arrangement This is where scenes really come in handy On stage scenes are a powerful tool as well Not only do they allow multiple clips to be launched simultaneously but they can also be used to adjust tempos and time signatures automatically Scenes are horizontal rows of clips in the Session View Drag clips that go together into the same scene and use the Scene Launch buttons in the Master track to launch them all simultaneously As shown in Figure 4 16 this method can be used to build an arrangement that is both clear and very flexible Scenes can be launched i
84. generate some interesting glitchy effects on your beats and can be very effective when used in conjunction with the Sidechain Floor is the amount of gain reduction applied when the Gate is closed When used as a corrective tool for microphone bleed or noise reduction you may need to experiment with less gain reduction to get natural sounding results When Gate is being used as an effect try turning this all the way down for the most dramatic effect The Sidechain opens up loads of creative possibilities for the Gate Its settings are identical to those described in detail in the Compressor section in this chapter For an interesting experiment try the Auto Filter sidechain example involving a sustained pad and a drum loop with the Gate By opening and closing the Gate using a beat you can turn the pad into a chopped up rhythm part Glue Compressor This compressor takes its odd name from a common piece of audio engineer speak namely the ability of compression to make a mix sound glued together This difficult to describe quality refers to the final result sounding like a cohesive whole while still being composed of clear and carefully delineated elements One of the most famous compressors for achieving this result is the master buss compressor found in SSL consoles the compressor on which Glue is modeled see Figure 9 10 Figure 9 10 The Glue Compressor brings a bit of big console sound to Live s sound palette O Glue
85. get familiar with the interface The three possible views are selected via the icons that run along the bottom of the device see Figure 9 6 Figure 9 6 Live s Compressor offers three unique views selected with the buttons shown above Source Ableton The views are as follows gt Collapsed default The most compact of all the views showing simple meters for Threshold Gain Reduction GR and Output Gain Threshold and Output Gain are adjusted using the slider attached to the right side of the meters In this view the Lookahead and Envelope controls cannot be adjusted gt Transfer Curve This view differs from the Collapsed View only in that the Gain Reduction meter is accompanied by an X Y grid displaying the relationship of input signal the horizontal axis to output signal the vertical axis Dragging the yellow dot horizontally adjusts the Threshold while dragging it vertically adjusts the Ratio gt Activity This view is a scrolling representation of how the gain of the signal changes over time The input signal is represented in gray as peaks and valleys along the bottom while the gain reduction is shown as a jagged orange line across the top Note that Threshold and Ratio are adjusted using number boxes at the top when using Activity View Compression Basics In brief a compressor is a device that will automatically turn down the volume of sound passing through it To explain this concept let s use a simplified
86. here then the effect of the oscillator will fade in slowly You could use this with AM oscillation to create a tremolo effect that slowly fades in after a note is struck for example You can change the envelope settings by moving the breakpoints of the envelope itself or by adjusting the values in the readouts There are a range of waveforms to choose from for the modulation oscillator including a selection of basic sine sawtooth and square waves You can choose these in the drop down chooser labeled Type You can also adjust a number of parameters here to affect the speed and synchronization properties of the waveform whether or not it is synced with the tempo of your project The Pitch Envelope The lower part of the Pitch Osc tab contains an additional set of controls for a separate pitch envelope There is a graphical display for editing as well as numerical controls This envelope can be used to create pitch changes in your samples The setting just to the left of the envelope labeled Amount will adjust the total amount of pitch shifting effect in semitones The Filter Global Tab The Filter Global tab see Figure 8 14 contains the controls for Sampler s powerful morphing filter as well as a Global volume envelope Both of these affect the master output of Sampler Figure 8 14 The Filter Global tab Freq Few Amount Lz d Type Rea Irta Morph Kay n om Source Ableton The Filter The filter in Sample
87. in both the Session and Arrangement views 1 Drag a device from the Browser and drop it anywhere on a track as shown in Figure 7 2 2 Select the destination track by clicking on it and then double click the desired device or plug in shown in the Browser 3 Double click the title bar of a track to expose its Track View then drag and drop the device directly into the Track View see Figure 7 3 When loading effects the benefit of this method is that you can drop the device directly into any position in the effects chain 4 Instead of dragging the device out of the Browser click on the triangle to the left of the device to reveal its presets Now drag or double click the preset instead of the device There s more on presets below Figure 7 2 Click and drag a device from the Browser to a track Source Ableton Figure 7 3 By dragging devices straight into the Track View you can insert them at any point in the chain that you want cam x Dyn Owe Gre Owa ae MM n a We OS BOS Bose OO C0 Ie AE me alaa fc 3 u Siu Wik o SB cwo tom ws oo MES SHS SHS soy Source Ableton There s no fixed limitation on how many effects you can place in a track The only limitation is your CPU power and your sanity Instruments on the other hand have a very serious limitation there can only be one in any MIDI track When you add an instrument to a MIDI track that already contains one the new instrument replaces the o
88. in favor of its flat step style Figure 4 33a In Draw Mode it s easy to create tempo synced steps in your automation axi eee Source Ableton QUANTIZE KEYS You can manually change the grid resolution with these keystrokes Ctrl Cmd 1 Makes the grid smaller Ctrl Cmd 2 Makes the grid larger Ctrl Cmd 3 Toggles triplet mode on and off Ctrl Cmd 4 Toggles the grid on and off When the grid is off you will be able to draw values anywhere You can also select different Adaptive or Fixed Grid modes by right clicking Ctrl clicking a track in the Arrangement View When Draw Mode is off you will be creating breakpoint envelopes see Figure 4 33b The automation will be displayed as lines with little circles known as breakpoints You can click on the lines to create or delete breakpoints and you can drag the breakpoints around to reshape the graph Figure 4 33b Turning Draw Mode off reveals individually adjustable breakpoints Source Ableton To move a chunk of automation first drag to highlight all of the automation you want to move Then grab a breakpoint and drag Note that breakpoints cannot be dragged to the left or right of other breakpoints unless you hold down Shift which will cause breakpoint to be deleted as you drag over them You can move a line segment in between two breakpoints by positioning the mouse on the segment and then holding down Shift while dragging Or you can move the mouse just ab
89. in pitch changes COMPLEX AND COMPLEX PRO Designed for use on entire songs the Complex modes are the ones to go for when none of the other modes produce sufficient quality Complex Pro comes in particularly handy when transposing audio with vocals since it allows you to change the pitch within reason without making the singer sound like a chipmunk or a troll The magic of these modes comes at the cost of higher CPU usage with Complex Pro being the more power hungry of the two Unless you re strapped for computer power or you like the artifacts produced by Complex mode you should generally use Complex Pro for its higher sound quality Just be aware that the Pro version can strain Live enough to produce glitches in the audio output without the CPU meter reporting abnormally high usage If your computer is having a tough time keeping up with the added load of the Complex mode you can Freeze the track see Chapter 7 or resample the clip see Chapter 6 Warp Markers Warp Markers are the pins that fix audio events to a specific moment in time An audio clip always has a minimum of one Warp Marker which by default is placed at the very beginning In the simplest situations this is all that s needed In the more complex scenarios numerous Warp Markers can be used to radically reshape audio changing the timing and duration of numerous individual segments If you have an audio file that has sloppy timing you can use a few Warp Markers to
90. in rhythm with your song The default Retrigger mode is Off which means that the Arpeggiator will never restart its pattern even if you play new notes while the Arpeggiator is running The pattern will only restart when you stop all notes and play new ones If you set this to Note the pattern will restart any time a new note is played Therefore if you re holding three notes and play a fourth note the Arpeggiator will immediately restart now including the fourth note in its pattern The last mode Beat will cause the Arpeggiator to restart automatically at the rate you specify with the neighboring knob By default this value is set to one bar If you hold a three note chord while this is on yov ll hear the Arpeggiator pattern start over on every downbeat of a bar Repeats By default Live will arpeggiate the notes you play for as long as you hold them This is because the Repeats amount is set to Infinity by default If you change this knob to a numerical value the Arpeggiator will only run its pattern the specified number of times before stopping Setting this to a low value such as one or two repeats and choosing a quick setting for the rate will cause the Arpeggiator to strum the notes of your chord That is they ll play quickly and then stop This little burst of arpeggiation is reminiscent of old video game soundtracks Transposition Controls Grouped together into a column near the center of the Arpeggiator are the Tran
91. insert which means you insert it directly into the path of the signal you want to process If you drop an effect into an audio track MIDI track or Group track you re using it as an insert The other way to get an effect into your mix is to put it on a Return track One of the big differences between these two methods is the relationship of the processed wet signal to the unprocessed dry signal When an effect is used as an insert the wet signal typically replaces the dry signal unless the effect has a Dry Wet knob for blending the two signals together For example if you place an EQ on a track and turn a few knobs you re no longer hearing the unprocessed signal at all which makes sense the reason you use an EQ is to transform the sound such that it contains more of the frequencies you want and less of those you don t On the other hand when you use a reverb or delay effect you re typically looking to keep the dry signal intact and add the ambience that the effect provides This means that when a reverb is used as an insert the Dry Wet knob is extremely important since it will determine not just how much of the effect you hear but how much of the original signal you hear as well This approach has a particular problem As you increase the Dry Wet knob toward 100 you re not just adding effect you re simultaneously decreasing the amount of dry signal Sometimes it s important to be able to set the level of the dry signal
92. installed content by category gt Sounds This view shows Live s factory Instrument and Instrument Rack presets organized by type of sound See Chapters 7 Using Effects and Instruments and 8 Live s Instruments for more information on Instruments and Racks gt Drums Here yov ll find Drum Rack presets as well as a folder called Drum Hits This folder contains both drum samples with WAV and AIF extensions and individual drum presets with ADG extensions for adding to your Drum Racks gt Instruments Audio Effects MIDI Effects This view displays Live s built in devices which are described in detail in Chapters 8 9 and 10 Devices can be unfolded to show folders containing their presets Instrument presets saved into the User Library will appear under their associated device in a folder called User gt Max for Live In this view you ll see that Max for Live devices are categorized by Instrument Audio Effect and MIDI Effect just like Live s built in devices The truth is that these devices can go beyond any of these categories and extend Live in all sorts of wild and wonderful ways gt Plug ins This is where you access your third party software effects and plug ins You can use a wide variety of third party plug ins with Live in either VST PC Mac or AU Mac only formats Plug ins can be either instruments or effects but aren t automatically separated into categories To tell the
93. is different from the others Gone are the graphic envelopes and in their place is a collection of colored squares Figure 8 7 The global parameters of Operator ooon oO oo 88 ooo Source Ableton While the term algorithm may conjure up images of mind bending calculus formulas you ll be pleased to know that Operator provides a simple way to visualize an algorithm using the assortment of colored squares in the display By default the upper left algorithm will be active its squares are solid colors as opposed to outlines Notice that the colored letters in the oscillator section to the left are the same colors as the squares in the algorithm s display The colored squares are therefore a map or flowchart of how the oscillators interact with each other You can read an algorithm from the top down but I also like to look at it from the bottom up from time to time If you look at this first algorithm starting at the bottom you ll see that the bottom square is a yellow A This is oscillator A You ll also see that there is a little yellow line extending downward from this square This line shows that oscillator A will be outputting a signal that you can hear If you look at the next block above A yov ll see a green square with a B inside This block has a line extending downward from it too but it connects to oscillator A instead of being an output This means that the waveform created by oscillator B will be used
94. is connected to as seen in Figure 9 37 Audio from the track will now be routed through your external device Then you can use the Gain knobs to adjust levels to and from the device What s really cool though is that there is a Dry Wet knob for blending the send and return signals This means that you don t have to mess with the Mix control on an external effect You can just leave your effects set up with direct signal at 0 and make fully recallable adjustments of the Dry Wet balance from within Live Figure 9 37 The External Audio Effect shown above will route audio through whatever hardware is connected to input and output 4 on your audio interface External Audio Audio To Gain Peak inf i 0 00 dB Audio From Gain a4 Peak inf ae 0 00 dB eo Dry Wet e Porat Latency 62 7 Source Ableton The remainder of the controls in the External Audio Effect device deal with timing issues The Phase switch inverts the phase of the returned signal to correct phase cancellation problems that could occur when blending dry and processed signals The Latency control compensates for delay incurred by routing the audio to and from the hardware device The benefits here become obvious quickly If you have enough I O on your audio interface you can keep external processors connected and create presets for them Not only can you quickly access your hardware in this fashion but you can also insert your hardwar
95. jump to the currently playing clip from your controller you ll have to map the Clip Status indicator as explained in Chapter 11 Remote Control Figure 12 8 Map the Set buttons shown above for on the fly looping Map the Loop switch too for enabling or disabling the loop Source Ableton Beats Bass and Beyond Thanks to the fact that you ve warped all of your audio files and they are playing on a temporal grid you can easily add loops to enhance your Set An extra beat can be used to smooth the transition between songs or you can segue into an improvised loop jam before playing the next track Or load up a Virtual instrument track and perform parts live If you want you can record new MIDI clips during the gig and create loops on the fly A word of caution here Since the possibilities here are literally endless start simple and expand as you get more comfortable performing with Live What you re able to pull off during practice is often a bit beyond what you can during the gig Having 10 extra tracks may theoretically afford you much more leeway to improvise during a show but having so much to keep track of can also turn seriously stressful if things don t go as planned Live Arranging It can be really handy to make multiple clips from a single song each having different starting points and loops see Figure 12 9a Having these on hand will allow you to launch the clips in any order you want remixing the arrangemen
96. knob selects the base length of the MIDI notes that the effect will output and the Gate modifies this base by the percentage you select For example as in Figure 10 3 if Mode is set to Sync Length set to 1 4 and Gate set to 50 the Note Length effect will output eighth notes half a quarter note In Note Off mode this MIDI device will output MIDI note messages when you release your fingers from your MIDI keyboard This will cause the notes to play through your MIDI instruments and the length of the notes produced can be set using the timing controls below You can also use three other controls in Note Off mode The Release Velocity control determines the velocity of the output note relative to the velocities of the notes you played on your controller and Decay Time sets the length of time it will take for an incoming note s velocity to decay to zero The Key Scale control can be used to alter the length of the output MIDI note messages according to the pitch of the notes you play on your controller from low to high Set positive or negative values here to invert the relationship of pitch to note length Pitch The Pitch device transposes the MIDI notes sent to an instrument resulting in a higher or lower part see Figure 10 4 This can be very handy in a variety of situations such as finding the best key for a singer Let s say you have a MIDI track playing a piano accompaniment Just drop a Pitch effect onto the track and dial in t
97. linger on long after you ve stopped playing your keyboard Decay and Sustain work in conjunction with each other Decay specifies how long it takes for the volume to reach the Sustain level The trick here is to understand that Decay is a measurement of time while Sustain is a parameter value in this example volume To best understand how this works turn Sustain all the way down This means that the Sustain level is silence Now you can use the Decay control to adjust how long it takes for the note to decay to silence Once you ve got a grip on this try setting Sustain to 12db Decay to 50ms and Attack all the way down This creates a percussive transient every time you play a note since the first 50ms of the note is 12dB louder than the note s sustain Filters All of Live s instruments contain a variety of filter types often in both 12 and 24dB Octave variations These numbers refer to the severity or slope of the filter The higher the number the more steeply the filter reduces the frequencies outside the filter s range Generally this means a more intense or aggressive effect especially with high resonance values Some of Live s instruments use the following abbreviations LP low pass HP high pass and BP band pass So HP24 means a high pass filter with a 24dB Octave slope A few instruments have special filter types which I ll explain as necessary If you re totally new to filters I recommend reading the
98. mean it can t be used as a control surface Some devices require additional software installation after which the device will appear as an available control surface Check with the hardware manufacturer for more information Manual Controller Setup Below the Control Surface menus is list of the MIDI devices connected to your system Any device that you want to use for remote control must have its Remote switch turned on Figure 11 2 shows two controllers enabled for different purposes The first controller can only be used for remote control The second device can only be used to record MIDI clips and play virtual instruments Figure 11 2 Turn Remote on to enable remote control Turn Track on to enable a controller for standard MIDI recording D Input nanoKONTROL SLIDERKNOB On C On C On gt Input Analog Experience The Player on Jon JC or Source Ableton It s also possible to turn both Track and Remote on for a single device If you ve got a keyboard controller that also has knobs and sliders you may do exactly that As long as you avoid doing any remote mapping of piano keys and other controls that you re going to use for Track input you ll be just fine Yov ll also find that Live allows you to select a MIDI controller in the Control Surface menu and enable it as a remote below This is handy because it enables instant mappings and manual mappings on the same controller For example let s say you re usi
99. more about these types of modulation sources which will be explained next There are other modulation types Pll be mentioning as well and it can be a lot to absorb Don t worry as long as you understand the basic principle of assigning a destination to a source you l eventually get it all Start simple take your time and experiment LFOs and Envelopes All of Live s instruments contain LFOs and Envelopes for generating modulation While they vary a bit from instrument to instrument they all have many things in common LFOs Low Frequency Oscillators are typically used to generate repetitive modulations such as vibrato tremolo and the rhythmic wobbles heard in a lot of contemporary electronic music All of Live s instruments have a selectable waveform to determine the shape of the LFO Sine waves produce the smoothest effect while sawtooth and square waves can be used to generate modulations with more rhythmic aggression At the bottom of each instrument s wave menu is a random LFO style sometimes referred to as noise or S amp H sample and hold All of Live s LFOs can be synchronized to the current tempo or set in Hertz cycles per second For Hertz click the button marked Hz or to synchronize click the button marked with a musical note The Rate knob will update to display either cycles per second or note divisions depending on the mode you select Envelopes are used to create modulations that begin when a no
100. more acts these days where Live is functioning both to play beats and to process acoustic instruments or vocals to blend them better into an electronic context For example to add an effect to a live source run the mic or line into an input on your computer s audio interface and select it as an input on an audio track Switch the track s monitoring to In and place the effect of your choice on the track see Figure 12 10 The effect can now be controlled by a mapped controller or by automation which causes changes to happen in sync with the song Figure 12 10 With a valid input selected and Monitor set to In you can pass audio through a track for effects processing Audio From Monitor Source Ableton Real Time Loop Layering Using Live s Looper see Chapter 9 Live s Audio Effects or the recording functions within the Session View see Chapter 5 you can record new clips easily and layer them on the fly For example you can play a simple bass line loop it and then layer a rhythm part on top of it You can then improvise on top of these new loop creations making a song right before the audience s eyes and ears The method for achieving these layers is accomplished best with a MIDI foot controller such as the KMI SoftStep so you can control Live with your feet leaving your hands free to play your instrument There are many ways to configure a live looping setup so it s best to start simple You can map Arm sw
101. of disk space depending on Live Version Ableton Live 9 Power s Mac Recommendations gt Modern quadcore processor gt 8GB RAM gt Mac OS x 10 6 or later gt Audio interface soundcard gt A hard disk big enough that you can keep 10 of it empty Ableton Live s System Requirements for PC gt Multicore processor gt 2GB RAM gt Windows XP Vista Windows 7 or 8 gt Windows compatible soundcard preferably with ASIO driver gt Between 6GB and 55GB of disk space depending on Live Version Ableton Live 9 Power s PC Recommendations gt Modern quadcore processor gt 8GB RAM gt Windows 7 or 8 gt ASIO compliant audio interface soundcard gt QuickTime 7 or later gt A hard disk big enough that you can keep 10 of it empty Installing Running and Updating Live 9 If you are brand new to Live and haven t yet picked up a copy or have never installed audio software before then this section is for you Here are a few general tips about getting your hands on Live 9 Live can be purchased as a download or in a boxed retail version The download version is sold only through the Ableton shop www ableton com en shop The only difference between the two is that the boxed version includes printed manuals so if you don t care about these go ahead and buy the download The DVDs in the box do offer the convenience of not having to download the content packs but the software itself is usually out of da
102. of the dialog The menu below allows you to choose the type of video encoding you desire If you need to customize the video settings in any way to optimize it for Internet streaming for example use the Edit button next to Encoder Settings As you will probably notice once you start working with video clips any audio editing commands that you apply to the audio track hosting your video clip will affect the video playback as well In other words you can use all of Live s warping and editing functions to create video and audio edits So get busy taking advantage of Live 9 s video export capabilities to create some warped video mashups YouTube awaits Managing Files No matter how careful you are it s going to happen files will get lost or misplaced or you re going to occasionally get confused about where all those great sounds from last year s project came from The good news is that Live s File Manager is here to help you get a handle on what s going on Select Manage Files from the File menu to open the File Manager When it opens yov ll be given the option to manage either the current Set the current project or the Live Library gt Manage Set This will present you with options and information pertaining only to the current Set You can locate missing samples collect external sample files into the project folder or simply view all of the samples in your Set gt Manage Project Remember what we just said about
103. of the hammer hitting the fork so it also affects the attack of the piano sound Noise however is independent of the tone that the fork produces Think of it as an additional percussive attack that you can blend in using the Level control to give the sound more definition To get a better understanding of how Noise affects the sound turn both of the Level controls in the Fork section down to 0 and play with the noise Pitch and Decay Fork Some electric pianos such as those made by Yamaha use actual strings to produce sound just like an acoustic piano The most familiar electric piano sound however is the sound of a hammer striking a metal tuning fork the design of the famous Rhodes piano The tuning fork consists of two distinct parts a stiff metal wire the tine and a tuned metal resonator the tone bar The tine is struck by the hammer and it causes the resonator to vibrate creating a distinct pitch To understand how the Tine and Tone subsections of the fork work start by turning the Level control for Tone to 0 and the Level and Decay for the Tine to 100 This will allow you to hear clearly only the Tine portion of the sound It sounds very much like you might imagine a hammer hitting a stiff wire a high frequency ping with very little body to the sound Increasing the Color control will bring out more of the higher frequencies while reducing it will make the sound darker The Decay control can be used to mak
104. on the mode selected in the pop up menu below the knob When you select Trigger in that menu Live gives you a new grid size anytime you start the Repeat function It will hold the grid size until you stop or retrigger the Repeat The 1 4 1 8 and 1 16 settings will change the Grid setting at the specified time interval The Auto setting will change the grid size after every repeat This can get really hairy as you can have a single repeat of 1 64 followed by a repeat of 1 6 followed by 1 16 followed by 1 2 and so on The results are truly unpredictable Offset and Gate These two knobs determine when an automatic repeat will start and how long it will last When Offset is set to 0 the repeat will start the instant it is called by the Interval and Chance knobs If you turn this knob clockwise you lI see it count up in 1 16 notes with the knob turned up halfway the value will be 8 16 This means that the Beat Repeat won t start until the third beat of the bar You ll also see the Repeat markers move in the display as a visual aid The Gate knob sets how long the repeats will last once triggered If set to 4 16 the repeat will last for a quarter note If set to 8 16 the repeats will last for half a bar Therefore using Offset and Grid you can specify any location in the audio to repeat as well as how long to do it To hear all these properties at work launch the Automatic Scene This will play the same drumbeat but through a Beat R
105. on your audio interface they won t get included at all To render from Session View the steps are as follows 1 Determine how long you want your loop or rendered audio section to be There is no need to render more than one repetition of the audio segment however you can often make your music more interesting by embellishing the repeated loop and then rendering both the original and the varied loop as two loops 2 Launch all of the clip s you want to be rendered Once you ve got them all playing stop the sequencer 3 Select File gt Export Audio Video to call up the Export Audio Video dialog and type in the length of the file to be rendered as determined in Step 1 4 Click OK or press Enter and select the drive folder where you want to save your new loop To render from the Arrangement View do the following 1 Select the portion of the arrangement that you want to render This selection can be made by click dragging on any track clicking on a clip Shift clicking to select a series of clips or adjusting the loop brace to the desired length and clicking on its top bar 2 Select File gt Export Audio Video to call up the Export dialog Note that the range you have selected in Step 1 is displayed at the bottom of the dialog 3 Select the Rendered track Select Master to create a final mix select an individual track or select All Tracks to export all tracks individually 4 Click OK or press Enter and select the d
106. only use Repitch mode which sounds excellent but limits your ability to match songs by key My personal approach is to take each song on a case by case basis and listen closely before making a decision As with so many things musical the last and best advice is to use your ears and experiment Performance Techniques Now that you ve got your Warp Marked files ready we are going to discuss a variety of techniques used by artists on stage Let s start by looking at traditional DJs their equipment and their performance methods but again this information is relevant to just about everyone performing with Live For DJs learning these techniques and expanding on them will move you into a new and constantly evolving world that blurs the line between DJing and live performance The DJ Mixer In Figure 12 5 I have set up Live s Session View like a standard two channel DJ mixer There are two audio tracks each assigned to different sides of the crossfader There are EQs loaded onto each of the audio tracks and a few DJ Audio Effect Racks on the Master track Figure 12 5 A simple Live Set ready for DJing with a bonus third track for extra beats a Cue Out Routed to Headphone Output of Audio interface Master Out Connected to Sound System Solo Cue Switch Set to Cue Click Cue Switch lo Preview Tracks Tracks Set to Opposite Sides of Crossfader Source Ableton In order to cue or preview tracks you ll need an audio inte
107. operations in the Browser and certain parameter changes in complex plugin devices Be aware that the Undo queue is emptied when you save a Set or quit Live While the fundamental concepts behind Live are equally important to all users the actual music making process differs quite a bit from person to person Like most things discovering your method is a matter of practice and experimentation We ll be looking at some standard approaches here so it s well worth your time to familiarize yourself with them however in most cases there s no one right way to do things so don t be afraid to find your own way The basic procedure goes like this gt Create individual musical parts Record bass parts guitar riffs keyboard lines drum grooves and MIDI instruments or import samples and MIDI sequences These are called clips gt Create song sections Arrange clips that go together horizontally in the Session View to make scenes Each scene represents a section of your song such as intro verse and chorus gt Record an Arrangement Launch clips and scenes in the Session while using Arrangement Record to capture your song into the Arrangement View gt Finalize the song Edit the Arrangement add effects to the mix layer additional parts finalize the automation and export the song to disk Clips and Tracks Clips are the musical building blocks of Live They come in two varieties audio and MIDI Audio clips pr
108. orn jC or Source Ableton The first part of this tab contains options for setting up natively supported control surfaces in Live If you are using an interface that Live supports you can use one of the drop down choosers in the first column labeled Control Surface to select it from a list Once selected Live will have all the necessary information to support the device In many cases the Input and Output ports will be selected automatically but if you need to select them manually they are usually the ports with names similar to the control surface Depending on which controller you are using Live may need to do a preset dump to the device after you have selected it in order to initialize it with the correct control values In this case the Dump button at right will become active not grayed out and you will need to click it once to do the dump The second part of this window shows a list of the MIDI Input and Output devices available on your computer There are columns for the names of each MIDI port found by Live plus columns named Track Sync and Remote In order for a MIDI device to communicate with Live it has to be enabled as a Track Input or Output as a Sync source or as a MIDI Remote Control Enabling Track for a MIDI Input device means that you can use it as an input to a MIDI track This would be enabled for something like a keyboard that you use for playing notes on a virtual instrument Enabling Track for a
109. part with a mostly steady tempo but since it wasn t recorded to a click track there is some natural variation to the time One way you could use warping in this context is to straighten out the timing of the piano track by adding Warp Markers so the piano lines up perfectly with the sequencer tempo However if the piano has a nice feel this could make the whole recording feel rigid and dull Instead you could add a Warp Marker to the downbeat of each bar in the piano part and set the clip to Master Now Live s tempo will breathe with the pianist s rhythm and all of your MIDI clips and warped loops will breathe along with it If you toggle the Master Slave switch back to Slave or delete the clip the tempo automation will stop and the former tempo will resume If you want to keep the tempo information from the clip right click on the Control Bar s Tempo field and choose the Unslave Tempo Automation command All clips will then be set to Slave and the tempo information will become standard automation in the Master track Bear in mind that if you set more than one clip to be the Tempo Master the bottommost one will be in control and the others will be ignored When Live s EXT switch visible only when an external tempo source is enabled is enabled the Master Slave switch has no effect and will appear to be disabled in all clips Clip Modulation To the right of the Sample Box for audio clips or the Notes Box for MIDI clips
110. phase problems when combining multiple recordings of the same source such as when multiple microphones are used Vocoder Vocoders have a long and storied history Originally popularized in the 1970s by artists from Kraftwerk to ELO the vocoder is famous for its ability to create talking synthesizers and singing robots by applying the complex envelope of a human voice to any sound source Throughout the years many other applications have been discovered for Vocoders and Ableton has used these developments to create a very useful modern implementation of this classic effect see Figure 9 36 Figure 9 36 Live s amazing Vocoder Source Ableton A vocoder deals with two different signals the Modulator and the Carrier The effect is created by splitting the Modulator a vocal or any other signal you choose to run through it into an array of narrow frequency bands and then analyzing the amplitude of the individual bands in real time to produce an envelope that can be applied to another sound known as the Carrier In Live s Vocoder the Modulator is the signal being produced by the track into which the Vocoder is inserted So if you were to drop a Vocoder into a vocal track the clip playing on that track would be the Modulator The Carrier is selected from the menu in the upper right corner of the effect The options are as follows gt Noise This setting uses a built in noise oscillator to generate the output signal The X Y co
111. piles of features from day one you get to decide how involved your Drum Racks are When you re learning you can keep them simple As you get more comfortable you can turn them into programming monsters using Macros nested Racks effects and MIDI devices Pads and Chains When an empty Drum Rack is dropped onto a track it appears as 16 pads each one displaying the name of the MIDI note it is mapped to see Figure 8 23 While only 16 pads can be displayed at a time there are actually 128 pads available one for each possible MIDI note The grid to the left of the pads shows an overview of all 128 while the black square highlights which 16 are in view Drag the square to show a different group of pads Figure 8 23 An empty Drum Rack Source Ableton PAD CONTROL If you use a pad controller that s listed as one of Live s supported control surfaces such as the Akai MPD32 you re in for a treat Select your controller in the Control Surface menu in the MIDI tab of the Preferences dialog Then record arm your Drum Rack track click in the title bar and the 16 pads on your controller will always stay mapped to the 16 pads that are in view for the Drum Rack If it s not working make sure that you are on the default preset for your controller try preset 1 If it still doesn t work you may need to do a preset dump Check the documentation to determine how your device receives dumps then click the Dump button next to your
112. place while the window moves smoothly under it When set to Page the window will stay stationary while the cursor moves When the playback cursor reaches the right edge of the screen the window jumps ahead so the cursor appears again on the left The Scroll option is much harder on your CPU so if you are experiencing dropouts or sluggish response set this option to Page The next option here Hide Labels helps give you a little more screen real estate once you ve memorized all of Live s components and don t need the labels anymore When set to Show the Live interface will look normal When set to Hide all of the little labels on the interface such as Track Delay and Audio To will disappear Permanent Scrub Areas turns on or off the scrub area at the top of the Arrangement View or the lower half of the waveform display in the Clip View With this preference turned on your mouse will automatically turn into a speaker icon in either of these locations and can be used to jump to any location With it turned off you l have to hold down the Shift key to see the Scrub tool Zoom Display is used to scale the entire Live interface larger or smaller During gigs I set my display to 120 so it s easier to see what I m doing Clip Colors With Auto Assign Colors turned on Live will randomly choose a color for each new clip you create A clip s color can be changed at any time in the Clip View which will be covered in Chapter 5
113. practical example Using this technique you can create a highly modular setup where useful tracks and clips can be imported at will Even if you don t specifically create templates in this fashion bear in mind that any Set can be unfolded in the Browser revealing its tracks and clips This means you can grab musical elements from any Set at any time Be aware that unfolding large Sets is a rather resource intensive process and may move quite slowly If your computer stalls as you drag from the Browser be patient Hold the mouse button down and wait until Live shows that the imported elements are ready to be dropped When importing templates that contain clips you ll discover that you have the option of dropping the clips into existing tracks or dropping them into the Drop Area to create new tracks Because templates can also contain devices it s important to know that should you choose to drop the clips into tracks the devices will only be imported if the existing tracks contain absolutely no devices Also note that when importing Sets containing no clips into the Session View you ll have to drag the Set to the title bar area and you won t be allowed to drop it in the clip grid If you export a Set containing audio clips there is a file management issue to consider Remember that Sets only reference audio files they don t contain them Therefore you need to consider whether you want Live to copy the audio files along with the e
114. re sure has a completely steady tempo then you re almost done Scroll over and find the next clear downbeat If you re working with rhythmically complex music this might not be until the beginning of bar 3 or 5 If you ve tapped the tempo fairly accurately the downbeat should already be pretty close to the beginning of the bar Just drag it into place spot check the track against the metronome and you re probably done If the song drifts a few minutes in check the Seg BPM box as mentioned earlier and try rounding the tempo up or down to the next whole number Otherwise adjust a downbeat later in the track to line it up with the beginning of the bar If doing this throws off the timing earlier in the track then your material is not completely steady and yov ll have to use multiple Warp Markers as described next Remember to experiment freely the Undo command is your friend If you re working with material with rhythmic fluctuations you ll need a Warp Marker every so often For some material every 32 bars may be enough and for others you may need one every bar or more Sometimes this is as simple as zooming in at the beginning of every four bars double clicking to create a Warp Marker at the downbeat and dragging it over to the beginning of the bar In problem cases you might have to use the loop technique see Figure 12 4 Figure 12 4 This loop doesn t play back smoothly Notice that I ve created a Warp Marker at
115. recording temporarily so you don t have to worry about recording over sections you want to keep We will cover recording in detail in Chapter 4 so don t worry if this description seems a little brief Figure 3 20 Live s Loop Start and Loop End controls also double as the punch in and punch out locations The brace seen below can also be moved or resized to adjust these values Source Ableton Draw Mode Computer MIDI Keyboard Key and MIDI Map System Performance and MIDI I O The first item in this area of the Control Bar is used for turning Draw Mode on and off see Figure 3 21 This is colloquially referred to as the pencil tool but you won t find that term anywhere in the Live manual Used for drawing automation and MIDI this mode is toggled on and off with a quick press of the B key or temporarily invoked by clicking and holding B The piano keyboard icon turns MIDI input from the alphanumeric computer keyboard on and off this is a feature that allows you to use your computer s keyboard as a MIDI input device which can be handy when working on a laptop on the go The Key Key Map Mode Switch and MIDI MIDI Map Mode switch buttons are your entrance points to controlling Live without using your mouse This feature is called remote control and is discussed next Figure 3 21 Pictured above is the fourth segment of Live s Control Bar From here you can monitor your hardware CPU load and MIDI input output and set up y
116. replace a Filter Delay with a Reverb or a built in synth like Operator with a plug in synth like Massive Figure 7 12b The Browser in Hot Swap mode gt E Flanger y Frequency Shifter 5 Damien adv E Dirty Tromolo adv Source Ableton Content Swapping Hot Swapping can also be used to load content into Impulse Simpler and Drum Racks To reveal the Hot Swap buttons float your mouse over a sample slot in Impulse or the sample display in Simpler The Q shortcut doesn t work to swap samples in these devices yovu ll end up swapping device or preset instead so you ll have to use the mouse Once you re in Hot Swap mode everything works the same except that the Browser will only display sample files Drum Racks are a little different In a Drum Rack Q can be used to swap out the contents of a pad as long as it s highlighted first You can highlight a pad by clicking on it or by using the arrow keys to navigate between pads You can also use the D key to toggle between highlighting the Drum Rack itself and the last selected pad This way you can swap out drum kits or build an entire drum Rack from scratch entirely from the keyboard When swapping pads the Browser allows you to select either sample files or instruments either built in or plug in since Drum Racks are relatives of Instrument Racks which are used to host other devices Instrument Racks are covered in detail later in this chapter while Drum Racks
117. reveals a generic display of the plug in s parameters Source Ableton If the device has more than 32 parameters no parameters will be shown and yov ll have to configure it to display the ones you want to map To add a parameter click the Configure switch in the title bar and move any control in the plug in window A horizontal slider will appear for every control you move These sliders can be mapped like any other control About MIDI Controllers To remotely control Live literally any MIDI controller can be used MIDI devices come in different varieties best suited to different tasks but it doesn t matter whether you ve got an old MIDI synthesizer or the latest LEDencrusted behemoth they re all compatible What varies is the physical controls they offer and how much configuration they require While there s quite a bit of configuration that can be done within Live it s important to understand that the specific MIDI messages sent by your controller can impact the results you get Some controllers allow you to program every knob and button to send specific messages while other controllers do not Typically you can expect piano keys and drum pads to send note messages while knobs and sliders and anything that can be moved through a range transmit control change messages Whether or not you need a programmable controller depends on the complexity of your MIDI setup and what you need to do with it For example there may
118. saving multiple versions When you ve done this using the Manage Project feature is very useful For example it can tell you how many external samples you have for every version of your Set and collect them into the project folder so you can make sure that your project is self contained for each and every version of your Set that you have saved gt Manage User Library This feature will give you information about all of the presets and samples stored in your User Library It can be used to get things back into shape if files have gotten moved or lost Manage Set Let s take a look at what happens when you choose Manage Set Figure 13 5 shows the window entitled Current Live Set that opens when you choose this option Like all of the File Manager s windows it s broken into several sections each with a small triangle to the left that can be used to hide or show the section The first section is View and Replace Files Clicking the View Files button will reveal a list of all of the samples used in the Set see Figure 13 6 The Location column next to the sample name will tell you if the file is located within the project folder in an external location or is missing Clicking the Edit button to the left of the sample name will open the file in the audio editor you have specified in the File Folder tab of the Preferences screen Figure 13 5 Manage Set reveals a window with information about the locations of the files in your set
119. show how to do this in Pro Tools Figure 6 18 Choose a ReWire bus as the output for a track in Live Source Ableton Figure 6 19 Receive audio from the same ReWire bus on a track in Pro Tools Ableton Live __ bor Source Ableton 7 Using Effects and Instruments GONE ARE THE DAYS WHEN HAVING AN ARSENAL OF EFFECTS AND INSTRUMENTS MEANT OWNING PILES OF KEYBOARDS stomp boxes and rack units labeled with tape and connected with miles of cable Every piece of gear needed for the music production process from the first drum beat to the last dab of reverb now exists in software form Sure there s still lots of hardware out there that is fun to use and sounds great but for the most part it s no longer a necessary part of making great music Device Types In this chapter we ll be getting acquainted with how software effects and instruments generically referred to as devices are used in Live Some devices are built in meaning they come with Live and can t be used directly within any other music program Others are plug in devices meaning they are made by companies other than Ableton and are designed such that they can be used in just about any music program you ve got Instruments are just what they sound like devices for creating sound These fall into two categories synthesizers that generate sound and samplers that play back audio files and don t have the ability to generate sound from scratch If you re new
120. space in the arrangement moving clips and automation to the right to make room Before using Insert Silence you must create either an arrangement selection or place the insert marker at the location you want to add silence to Depending on which you do first the command will behave differently If you use Insert Silence after making an arrangement selection it will place a range of empty space equal to the length of the selection If you place the insert marker instead Live will display the dialog shown in Figure 4 28 asking how much space you want to insert Figure 4 28 Type in the amount of space you want to insert EEE Source Ableton Splitting and Consolidating Clips You can break a clip into smaller clips using the Split function To do this it s easiest to unfold the track first Once the track is unfolded you can find the point at which you want to split the clip Now click the location for your cut and use Edit gt Split The clip will be split into two clips see Figure 4 29 These new clips will be completely independent of one another meaning they can have their own unique clip settings such as transposition warping loop points and so on Figure 4 29 Just click and split to break clips into smaller ones for independent editing Source Ableton You can also join several clips into one clip for easier use Select the clips that you want to join and select Consolidate from the Edit menu Live will quickly re
121. stringed instruments ranging from cellos to pianos The many parameters offered by this instrument also give you the opportunity to create some bizarre sounding instruments that could never exist in the real world Figure 8 18 Tension allows you to create stringed instruments of many different types including oddities such as a violin played with piano hammers Tension Swing FiteriGiobal alas OH C EXCITATOR Protrusion Stitiness Velocty Position Damping DAMPER Mass Stfiness Velocity Poston Damping Precirum VA S AD S S OGaed QNA A A 75 5o S0 25 S0 so so S 25 sx Wei 000 J CE E E ve STRING 000 50 50 ow C TERMINATION Fing Mass Fing Sut Fret Swe C Pickup Booy Decay LowCut HighCul SwBody Volume Vel A eases ou ww be fax eG O Gx A oo aB Source Ableton The Tension interface is broken into several sections modeling different aspects of a stringed instrument the Excitator that causes the string to vibrate the Damper that reduces the string s vibrations and the Termination which emulates the effects of fingers and frets the type and size of the instrument s body the pickup for emulating electric instruments and finally the string itself Tension also features a second page of parameters for the filter and other aspects of the instrument not related to string modeling Note that each section has an on off switch next to the section name allowing you to bypass a set of parameters compl
122. the Clip Cuttin Clinic earlier Select groups of clips and use Consolidate to turn them into a single clip Templates In the File Folder tab of Live s Preferences you re allowed to save a default Set that s loaded whenever you start Live or select File gt New Live Set However with all the different uses for Live chances are that you won t be able to create a one size fits all template to handle every situation In this section we ll look at a few approaches to working with reusable Sets One easy way to manage a collection of templates is by using the Templates folder In your User Library create a folder called Templates if there isn t one already and save your template Sets into it see Figure 13 3 When you double click to open a Set from this folder Live will automatically open a copy of the Set and name it Untitled This way you don t have to worry about accidentally editing your template Figure 13 3 Use this folder to store your reusable Sets Double click to open a copy or just drag one into the currently open Set Source Ableton Drag and Drop Import and Export Also bear in mind that Sets can be imported into other Sets by dragging them from the Browser Conversely you can export Sets by dragging one or more tracks or a group of clips into the User Library or another folder in the Places area of the Browser See Live Arranging in Chapter 12 Playing Live Live for a
123. the context menu and typing in the time signature you want see Figure 4 26 Editing and deleting a time signature change is done from the context menu as well Just right click on the time signature change and select Edit to alter the time signature or Delete to remove it Figure 4 26 Time signature changes in the Arrange View Source Ableton LOOP RECORD The Arrangement Loop can be quite handy for recording For example perhaps your song is done except for lead vocals Create a loop around any part the singer is having trouble with and start recording Go make a cup of tea while the singer sings it over and over and pick the best take or edit together a few takes when he s done Arrangement Editing By editing the contents of the arrangement you can fix mistakes change the structure of your song and creatively modify clips in ways that go beyond what s possible in the Session The standard Cut Copy Paste Duplicate and Delete can all be used in the Arrangement View to copy clips or automation Paste will place the contents of the clipboard at the insertion marker while Duplicate will place a copy immediately to the right of the selection It s important to note that Duplicate operates on a range of time not just the clips or automation For example you can select a full bar of time in a track even though it only contains one short clip on the first beat and use Duplicate to place a copy of the clip one bar later
124. the navigation can take some getting used to This is an area where I strongly suggest you play with the controller while keeping a close eye on your screen Follow the little blue hand that appears in the title bar of the devices It s the key to knowing what Push is controlling at any given moment AUTOMATE IT To automate device controls press Automate this enables the Automation Arm switch in Live and then press Record Automation is written from the moment you move an encoder until the moment you stop touching it Push s encoders are touch sensitive Working with Plug Ins At the time of this writing Push only allows you to browse built in devices To work around this create Racks for your plug ins For example if you want to use Native Instruments Massive create an Instrument Rack containing Massive and save it as a preset When you browse devices using Push the new Rack will appear in the Instrument Rack category If you want to use Push s device controls with plug ins you l have to set them up using the Configure switch as explained in Remote Controlling Plug in Devices earlier You may also want to assign your favorite controls to the Rack s Macro knobs but strictly speaking this is not necessary The controls you add by configuring the plug in will all become available to Push either way They ll be distributed into eight banks according to the order in which the generic sliders are displayed in Live W
125. the title bar of any track and cause its Track View to be displayed In the previous example this means you could drag a clip to the title bar of a MIDI track wait for the Track View to appear and then drop the clip into the device Harnessing Follow Actions Follow Actions are some serious stuff The carefully thought out rules governing Follow Actions will allow you to do innumerable things limited only by your imagination Not only can they be used to enhance live performances but they are also a wonderful compositional aid helping you create variations you might never have thought of on your own Check out the Follow Actions section in Chapter 5 Clips for a refresher on how all of this works Here are a few ideas for using Follow Actions gt Loop variations Here s another technique that s useful when you want a part to be very steady but want to keep it from becoming stale Create two or more loops that are nearly identical but have subtle variations such as an extra hi hat or kick drum hit Set the first clip to randomly trigger the second clip from time to time Yov ll set the second clip to retrigger the first The result is that you get a constant beat with an additional snare hit thrown in occasionally mimicking the way a real drummer would modify his beat on the fly gt Fills Follow Actions can be used to make sure the main beat always comes back after you trigger a drum fill Figure 13 2 shows a s
126. them left or right Analog v ear ay Pearle oi maa sel BE Noise 0 048 F1F2 Color S 682 Hz 0sc2 0 048 F1 F2 50503 Source Ableton Chains are processed in parallel which means that the incoming signal is split and passed to each chain independently In other words if you have an effect Rack with five chains then you have five copies of the incoming signal going to five different device chains In the case of Instrument Racks this means that you can create layered sounds by simultaneously triggering multiple instruments processing each instrument with different effects Also bear in mind that Racks can contain other Racks So even if you re a novice sound designer you can create massive sounds by layering multiple Rack presets together If this has you rubbing your hands together and cackling like a mad scientist you ve got an idea of how powerful this is If you re not don t worry head to the laboratory for some experimenting and you will be soon EMPTY CHAINS Chains can also be created manually by using the Create Chain command in the context menu of the Chain List This is handy for creating an empty chain This might not sound useful at first but in Audio Effect Racks it can sometimes be very useful to have a chain that passes the dry unprocessed signal to blend with the effects in the other chains With layered Racks the mixing features of the Chain List bec
127. therefore cut off the one before it resulting in a continuous sound but with one playing faster than before For this reason you ll probably find that you have better success speeding up loops or transposing them down both methods use the same process than slowing them down or pitching them up which requires looping the grains With careful setting of the Grain Size value you can achieve nearly transparent warping Tones such as bass guitars synthesizers vocals keyboards or other long sustaining instruments will usually sound much less processed when playing in Live s Tones mode You can adjust Live s Grain Size to help reduce undesirable audio artifacts TEXTURE Texture mode is built for atmospheric sounds with no definite pitch but it can also work well on other complex sounds such as orchestral samples and keyboard pads Like Tones mode Texture mode is based on granular resynthesis In an effort to cloud the repetitive artifacts from looping grains a Flux value is added that when increased allows Live to randomly change the grain sizes used in the process This also adds a sense of stereo imaging to mono files RE PITCH Re Pitch mode is more like vinyl DJing Live will alter the pitch of the sample depending upon the playback speed This mode produces no artifacts and thus usually sounds the best especially if the sample is played close to its original tempo Re Pitch merely alters the file playback speed which results
128. to an otherwise dark sound All of the controls for Noise are located in the shell The filter routing works just like it does for the oscillators and the Color control is a simple low pass filter that can be used to reduce the high frequency content of the noise Filters and Amplifiers Once the sound wave leaves the Oscillator module it proceeds on to the filters While filters are an essential part of most sounds strictly speaking they do not need to be used Both Filter modules can be turned off and Analog will work just fine Which filter will be used to shape your sound is determined by the filter routing in the Oscillator modules While the two filters are essentially identical they do have a few subtle differences Both have menus for selecting a filter type and the usual frequency and resonance controls The first difference between the two is that Filter 1 has a control called To F2 which can be used to send the output of Filter 1 to Filter 2 This gives you the option of running the two filters in series one after another instead of in parallel To fully understand what is possible here it s also important to understand that the filters and the amps are hard wired to each other in other words Filter 1 is passed to Amp 1 automatically while the same holds true for Filter 2 and Amp 2 So even if you route Filter 1 to Filter 2 it will still be going to Amp 1 Let s look at an example For starters we ll assume that you hav
129. to change the frequency of oscillator A which is output to your speakers In this arrangement oscillator B is called a modulator and oscillator A is a carrier Knowing this information you can now see what parts oscillator C and oscillator D play in this algorithm They are additional modulators Oscillator D will modulate oscillator C which modulates oscillator B which modulates oscillator A the carrier Now look across to the right The eighth algorithm over is shaped like a box When you select this algorithm you will see the familiar arrangement of oscillator B modulating oscillator A The difference this time is that oscillator C is now a carrier you will hear the waveform it generates modulated by oscillator D You can think of this as a dual FM synth where you can create two unique waveforms simultaneously which can be used in layers to thicken your sound or to create two independent sounds that interplay with each other The next algorithm to take special note of is the horizontal arrangement at the far right When using this algorithm you will no longer be using any of the oscillators as modulators they all be sent directly to the output In this each oscillator will output its own unique waveform which can be mixed together and filtered very much like a classic analog synth Below the algorithms is the routing matrix which gives you enormous modulation flexibility We ll discuss this after we ve gone over mor
130. to create some variations Click to the right of a Scene Launcher to select a scene and then use Duplicate to copy the scene directly below the scene you are working in Now delete or modify clips in the new scene to create variations There are a number of different ways to launch and move between scenes In addition to pressing the Scene Launch button you can trigger a scene by pressing the Enter Return key as long as the scene number name is highlighted Changing the highlighted scenes can be done with the arrow keys so it s easy to navigate and trigger each scene from the computer keyboard without doing any special mapping Live also features a couple of Preferences specifically for working with scenes see Chapter 2 When Select Next Scene on Launch is set to On Live will automatically move down one scene every time a scene is launched with the Enter key The Start Recording on Scene Launch preference can be turned on to allow recording to be initiated by launching Scenes By default a track s Arm status is ignored when launching clips so empty clip slots in armed tracks will simply cause the currently playing clip in that track to stop Programming Scene Tempos and Time Signatures From time to time you may want to make instantaneous jumps to different tempos while in the Session View By naming a scene using a special convention you can cause Live to change tempos when the scene is triggered To switch the tempo to 85 BPM
131. to make the pan stall at the left and right extremes Sometimes even though the Amount knob is set to 100 it doesn t sound like the sound is fully panning from left to right especially when being mixed in with the other parts of the song This is because the sound is panned fully left and right for only an instant before the Auto Pan begins to pan it back again Turning up the Shape knob results in flat lines at the top and bottom of the waveform causing the pan motion to sit at these extremes for a moment before panning back to the other side The result is a more pronounced panning motion that can be heard best over an entire mix The final controls of the Auto Pan are the Waveform Selection buttons that control the shape of the modulation just like in other LFOs you ve encountered in Live The last button in the lower right is for a random waveform where the volumes of the left and right channels are changed at random When this mode is selected the Phase knob adjusts the left right deviation of the randomness When set to 0 the random pattern will influence the left and right volumes identically resulting in random changes to the sound s volume When set to 100 the difference between the left and right volumes will increase resulting in random panning patterns CHOP IT UP When Phase is set to 0 degrees the Auto Pan will simply turn the volume of the sound up and down Try this out load an entire song onto a track and us
132. to manually compensate When Live is compensating for devices that generate large amounts of latency you will find that virtual instruments respond sluggishly and any audio signals you monitor are noticeably delayed Check Reduced Latency When Monitoring under the Options menu to compensate for this 8 Live s Instruments LIVE FEATURES EIGHT VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS Impulse Simpler Operator Sampler Analog Electric Tension and Collision Impulse and Simpler come free for all Live users while the others are included in the Live Suite or must be purchased separately Under the Instruments view of the Browser yov ll actually see 11 items three of which aren t exactly instruments but are included in the same category nevertheless Drum Racks and Instrument Racks both work in conjunction with other virtual instruments to make customized meta instruments ranging from the very simple to the mind bogglingly complex External Instrument is a handy utility for easy integration of hardware instruments and multi timbral plug ins General Principles Before getting into a discussion of each individual instrument it s important to mention some concepts and functionality that are common to all instruments Make sure to read this section thoroughly first and refer back to it as necessary Live s instruments are a deep topic that an entire book could be devoted to Instead of endlessly listing every parameter of every device I ve ma
133. to the arrangement of notes on a string instrument such as a guitar or bass And just like those instruments this means that the same chord or scale can be played in a variety of locations in the grid Play the lower four pads of the grid in order from left to right When you get to the fourth pad notice that the far left pad in the second row lights up as well This means they are the same pitch The note layout can be changed by pressing Scales once and then holding down Shift The first two options in the display 4th and 4th gt allow you to choose between the fourths being vertical or horizontal while the second two options allow you to switch to horizontal or vertical thirds The last two options are Sequential These abandon the scheme of having a vertical vs horizontal interval and simply organize the notes in steps along either axis SENSITIVE SOUNDS Push s default pad sensitivity may work just fine while banging out drum parts but when playing melodies and chords it s a bit too stiff for most people Hold down User to reveal the Pad Sensitivity setting in the display Even turning it up one notch makes a big difference If sensitivity is not what you re after press Accent This will cause all pads to play at maximum velocity regardless of how hard you play The Scales button reveals controls for selecting the key and scale of the note grid For example to play in Bb Lydian mode you would scroll in the first menu to L
134. to this realm these two types may sound very different but in fact they have much more in common than you may think Both use similar sets of sound shaping tools such as filters and modulators such as envelopes for designing sounds Instruments can only be used in MIDI tracks Effects come in two flavors Audio and MIDI Audio Effects are the most common type and can be used in any type of track processing the audio coming from audio clips or the sound coming out of an instrument Audio Effects are used in a wide variety of ways to remove unwanted frequencies EQ to create the sound of a room or a stadium Reverb or to mangle a sound into something radically different Frequency Shifter MIDI Effects can only be used in MIDI tracks They transform a performance before it reaches an instrument This could be turning a single note into a chord Chord or turning a chord into a melodic pattern Arpeggiator This chapter will also give you the lowdown on Racks which are used for combining multiple devices into an easy to use bundle If you re a beginner you ll primarily interact with pre made Racks from the Library and you l enjoy how they provide instant tweakability while hiding the complexity within For more advanced users Racks are a bottomless pit of wonder offering endless possibilities for creative routing and customization For a complete reference of every built in device in Live see Chapters 8 Live s Instrumen
135. velocities sent to the instrument while the instrument continues to output an uncompressed sound The Random knob defines a range of randomness that can be applied to the incoming velocities As this knob is increased a gray area will form on the grid showing all the possible velocities that may result from the random factor The Out Hi and Out Low knobs determine the highest and lowest velocities that will be output from the effect The Range and Lowest values work like their counterparts in the Pitch and Scale effects The Clip Gate and Fixed buttons determine the action taken when an input velocity is outside of the operation range set by the Range and Lowest values In Clip mode any velocity outside of the range will be bumped into range The Gate mode will only allow notes with velocities within range to pass Fixed mode will force every incoming velocity to be set to the value determined by the Out Hi knob Finally the Operation menu can be used to specify whether the effect should process the incoming note s velocity release velocity or both BREATH OF LIFE Velocity randomization can be used to add subtle variation to a programmed part Humans can t play with the consistency of a machine so randomizing the velocity of certain parts a small amount can make a beat sound more alive This is especially effective on hi hats and shakers 11 Remote Control AS BRIEFLY EXPLAINED IN CHAPTER 3 Live Interface Basics nearl
136. which is used to determine whether or not a note will be sent at that step Above is an area for editing five parameters of each step pitch velocity octave duration and repeat Repeat determines how many rapid fire repeats of the note occur in the step Even at the lowest value the repeats are really fast and generate buzzing machine gun type effects Figure 13 14 Try creating MIDI sequences using Mono Sequencer instead of MIDI clips Then create MIDI clips to transpose the sequences as they play Click Here to Select Which Use This Menu to Choose Set This to Transpose to Lane You Want to Edit the Playback Behavior Enable Repitching of the of the Current Lane Sequence via MIDI Click Here to Turn Steps On or Off Source Ableton One of the very cool and unusual things about this sort of step sequencing is that you can decide to play the sequence forward backward or even randomly Each parameter can have its own behavior so you could have the octave sequence play in random order while the pitch plays backward and forward It s true that 16 steps may not sound like much but techniques like this allow you to generate quite a lot of variety from a small amount of programming Also of particular interest is the way that Mono Sequencer handles MIDI input By default it is set to Transpose which re pitches the entire sequence based on note input This makes the mono sequencer into a very powerful tool a sort of arpeggiator on steroid
137. 0 to 250Hz range To find the frequency you want to cut first boost the band and sweep it up and down while listening carefully for the drum s most resonant frequency By cutting this tone the bass now occupies its own space the low frequencies where you feel it and the high frequencies where you hear it and cleans up the sonic image The range from 150Hz to 300Hz can be extremely problematic in many mixes EQ Three The DJ style EQ Three is concerned only with three frequency bands lows mids and highs As you can see in Figure 9 3 the EQ Three has three main dials GainLow GainMid and GainHi The frequency range of these dials is determined by the FreqLow and FreqHi knobs at the bottom of the effect The GainMid knob will boost or cut all the frequencies between FreqLow and FreqHi The GainLow will adjust all the frequencies below FreqLow and the GainHi knob will handle everything above FreqHi Figure 9 3 Lows mids and highs are under your complete control with EQ Three EQ Three OA Source Ableton Because this device is modeled after a DJ mixer yov ll find that when turning the Gain knobs down they eventually reach infinity meaning the frequencies are completely cut If you want you can use the kill buttons labeled L M and H located below each Gain knob to toggle that frequency range on and off with ease The 24 and 48 buttons determine the slope either 24dB octave or 48dB octave at the edges of the
138. 0ms to simulate a normal sounding room the Predelay works best below 25ms Early Reflections Early reflections are the first reverberations heard after the initial sound bounces off the walls floor or ceiling of the room yet they arrive ahead of the full reflection or tail At times they sound like slapback delays or mushy portions of the whole reverberated diffused sound The Reverb houses two early reflection controls Shape and Spin Spin s X Y interface controls Depth Y axis and Frequency X axis apply a subtle modulation to early reflections Results may range from shimmering highs to whirligig panning flourishes For quicker decay of early reflections try increasing the Shape control gradually toward 1 00 Lower values will blend more smoothly with the normal reverb diffusion Global Settings In Reverb s Global settings section you can select the quality level of the reverb Eco Mid or High The three settings will demand small moderate and large processor power respectively You may also determine the size of the imaginary room via the Size control which ranges from 22 small quiet to 500 large loud A Stereo Image control selects from 0 to 120 degrees of stereo spread in the reverberation Higher values will be more spread out while lower ones approach a mono sound Diffusion Network The Diffusion Network is by far the most complex looking area of the Reverb effect These controls help put the final touches
139. 16th rather than all of the way Once you ve got your Quantize settings set just click OK You can also use the Quantize command Ctrl U Cmd U Mac to apply quantization to a clip using the previously set Quantize settings Setting Warp Markers for Multiple Clips If you have two or more clips based on audio files of exactly the same length Live will allow you to set Warp Markers across multiple clips simultaneously This is especially convenient when you are working with a multitrack recording of a performance and you want to give all the tracks exactly the same warp timing You can do this quite easily by simply selecting all of the clips you want to work with in the Arrangement View before making your warp adjustments The Warp Markers you set here and their timing will automatically apply to all of the other clips you have selected For example here s a good technique you can use for syncing up a live band recording with Live s tempo First import each track from your original multitrack recording onto a separate audio track in Live and then make sure that they are all exactly the same length Select all of them in the Arrangement View Then find the track that is rhythmically simplest and clearest to insert your Warp Marker settings Using a separate bass drum track often is the easiest way to go a stereo drum mix will work as well Once you have set the timing of this track all of the other tracks also will follow WARPING
140. 61_Poppota_Metropoll TOTEE tee Source Ableton Finally it s also possible to simply use Live as a replacement for CD players or turntables and do all of your mixing on a standard DJ mixer All of the previous examples have you sending a single stereo pair out of the computer into the sound system or a single channel on a DJ mixer as is often the case When you do this you need a MIDI controller to handle your volumes and EQs Using the routing shown in Figure 12 7 you can send different tracks directly out of different outputs on your interface and handle volume crossfade EQ and cuing on the DJ mixer Figure 12 7 These two tracks are routed to separate outputs and can be sent into two different channels on a mixer Source Ableton Looping Live lets you define loop points on the fly by using the Set buttons for the Position and Length parameters in the Clip View see Figure 12 8 While a clip is playing you can press Set Position to set the point where the loop begins and Set Length to set the loop s end point and turn the Loop switch on in one step When you turn the Loop switch off the clip will continue to play to the end If you turn it back on again the clip will jump back to playing the loop As you d expect the Set switches can be mapped to a controller but remember since these buttons are in the Clip View the controller will only set the loop points for the clip that s currently being displayed To
141. 7 9 Unfold devices to reveal their presets CATEGORIES d Sounds 89 Drums Ay Instruments J Audio Effects gt MIDI Effects Max for Live lt P Plug ins Name v Analog gt Ambient amp Evolving gt Bass Y Brass Ensemble Brass adv E Horn Deep Mono Brass adv Horn2 Hollow Brass adv Source Ableton Audio Unit presets are a little different Just like built in devices there s a triangle for unfolding the device but you won t see any presets here until you create some yourself Factory presets for AU devices are accessed through the plug in s GUI Consult the manufacturer s documentation for more information on this To save your own AU presets you can either use the plug in s preset management interface or you can save them into Live s Browser as explained below Saving presets is useful for two reasons One is simply a matter of organization Let s say you find an Operator preset you like Rather than having to remember its name wouldn t it be handy to save it toa separate location where you keep all your favorites The other reason is to preserve settings you ve programmed yourself Either way you ll be using the User Library At the far right of the device s title bar is a small floppy disk icon the Save Preset button Clicking this button causes a new preset to appear in the User Library see Figure 7 10 Type in the name that you want and press Enter If you make further e
142. 76 United States Copyright Act without the prior written permission of the publisher For product information and technology assistance contact us at Cengage Learning Customer amp Sales Support 1 800 354 9706 For permission to use material from this text or product submit all requests online at cengage com permissions Further permissions questions can be emailed to permissionrequest cengage com Ableton Ableton Live Operator Sampler and Push are trademarks of Ableton AG Mac the Mac logo Mac OS Macintosh and QuickTime are trademarks of Apple Computer Inc registered in the U S and other countries The Audio Units logo is a trademark of Apple Computer Inc Windows Windows 2000 Windows XP and DirectX are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries SONiVOX is the brand name trademark of Sonic Network Inc VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH ASIO is a trademark and software of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH ReWire and REX2 are trademarks of Propellerhead Software Mackie Control is a trademark of LOUD Technologies Inc All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners All images Cengage Learning unless otherwise noted Library of Congress Control Number 2013932037 ISBN 13 978 1 285
143. Auto Warp Long Samples Dotautt Warp Mode Create Fados on Clip Edges Launch Source Ableton Record The Record section makes various default settings relating to how Live records audio Any time you record new audio whether through resampling or from an input on your soundcard it will use the Record parameters you set here First you can record in WAV or AIFF format Sonically these file types are identical Historically WAVs are associated with PC and AIFF with Mac but nowadays the difference is largely irrelevant and both types can be used on both platforms More important is the Bit Depth which should usually be set to 24 At 24 bit you can capture highly detailed recordings at lower levels If you have to record at 16 bit for some reason you need to be more conscious about getting a higher level into the computer while being cautious not to overload the inputs go into the red The next option in this section is Count In When set to None Live will begin to record immediately when the transport is engaged If you select a value here such as 1 Bar Live will provide one bar of count in time the metronome will sound but Live will not be running before it begins to record This feature is useful if you re recording yourself and you need some time to get to your instrument after you ve engaged recording The Exclusive buttons are used to determine whether or not more than one track s Solo or Arm switch can
144. Back and Forth bidirectional arrows When On is selected the sample will play from beginning to end until either it reaches the Sample End or the volume envelope on the Filter Global page comes to the end of its release stage whichever comes first With Loop enabled the sample will play from the beginning until the loop end at which point it will revert to the loop start and continue looping Loop Back and Forth differs only in that when it reaches the loop end point it will play backward until it reaches the loop start Toggling the Link button automatically sets the sample start to the same point as the loop start and prevents them from being set to separate values Activating one of the looped Sustain Modes also allows you to modify the Release Mode which determines what will happen during the release phase When set to Off the sustain loop simply continues through the release phase of the volume envelope When set to On single arrow however the sustain loop is disabled during the release phase and the sample plays through to the end point Selecting one of the loop modes enables the Release Loop notice the second loop brace to the right refer to Figure 8 12 a separate loop with an end point fixed to the Sample End value With either Loop double arrow or Loop Back and Forth bidirectional arrows the sustain loop is deactivated during the release phase allowing the sample to play through to the end at which point it loops b
145. But for designing traditional percussion sounds LFOs offer some interesting options For example with Retrig off and a nice slow Rate you can use an LFO to modulate a resonator s Pitch or Hit parameter so that every time you strike a note it has a slightly different quality see Figure 8 22 Figure 8 22 An example of Collision s LFO in action C Collision Over A ma jowo Conon Oar jRate foo Ive 00 ke ma Destination Amount Source Ableton The LFO and MIDI sections of Collision are very similar to those of Sampler although the MIDI mapping implementation for Collision is much simpler Please refer to the Sampler section earlier in this chapter for a further discussion of these controls Drum Rack For many of us Drum Racks are one of the best things to happen to drum programming in a long time A Drum Rack is an Instrument Rack that is customized for drum roll please programming drums While Drum Racks have much in common with standard Instrument Racks they have a number of unique features We ll focus on those features in this section What s particularly interesting about Drum Racks is that they have no built in synthesis or sample playback capabilities As opposed to powerful complex plug ins like Battery and Stylus RMX a basic Drum Rack is incredibly simple The beauty of the Drum Rack is that it can be powerful and complicated but it doesn t have to be Instead of having to deal with
146. Complex and Complex Pro Each mode also features a special set of controls that will appear below it We will cover these below Also don t forget that you can simply turn off Live s Warp Engine altogether and play the sample at its default speed and pitch Here s a list of what kinds of different sounds you can expect when choosing among these six Warp modes BEATS Beats mode is a great mode for rhythmic loops percussive samples and even entire songs You will usually want to use Beats mode with percussion drums and sounds characteristically containing minimal sustain This includes samples that you might not think of as beats such as a funk rhythm guitar part or perhaps a minimal techno track When Beats mode is used with sounds that are too textured or lack rhythmic definition you may hear artifacts DEFINITION OF TRANSIENT The Transient setting is a critical element of Live s beat warping functionality But what is a transient to begin with A transient is the short sharp attack portion of a sound A transient occurs at the instant a stick hits a drum or a string is plucked The soft attack of bowed strings may have no transient In warping terminology transient is often used to mean a chunk of audio such as an entire snare hit with a transient at the beginning Beats mode looks at your audio as a series of segments the size of which is determined by the Preserve menu The default value in the Preserve menu Transients
147. Delay Delay Time 2 o aaa k t D ON sM Source Ableton The Filter Delay device is made up of three individual delays each with its own filter The X Y controllers work in the same way as the Ping Pong Delay The Y axis determines the bandwidth Q while the X axis shifts the frequency Each delay also features its own beat division chooser with tempo syncable delay times On the right hand side of the plug in you will see Feedback Pan and Volume controls specific to each delay Each feedback control will reroute the delayed signal back through that delay s input just like all Live delays Each delay s Pan knob can be used to override its default setting For instance if you pan the L delay top delay to the right side with the top Pan knob you will hear it on the right Instead of a Dry Wet knob the Filter Delay has separate Volume knobs for each delay The unaffected signal level is controlled with the Dry knob located in the lower right hand corner For a 100 wet signal turn the Dry setting to 0 IN TRANSITION Right click in the title bar of the Simple Ping Pong or Filter delays to reveal the Transition Modes Jump Fade and Repitch Select Repitch and play with the delay time while passing a signal through As the delay time changes yov ll hear the raising and lowering of the delayed signal s pitch just like you would with a tape delay or analog delay unit Jump works almost identically to the de
148. E CECE R ERE EEE Source Ableton Over the years since its inception Live has evolved into a fully featured music production suite with powerful MIDI editing VST Audio Units and ReWire support and with the advent of Live 9 futuristic features such as Audio to MIDI and Push a hardware controller for Live that promises the ability to create most of a song without ever having to grab your mouse or computer keyboard What Sets Live Apart The digital audio world has exploded since Live s first days Even the average computer is extremely powerful and all the major software companies have studied their competitors features and expanded their products in ways that make formerly incomprehensible innovations commonplace There has never been a better time to get into the game for a beginner it s almost impossible to go wrong That said there are still many things that make Live a unique program Although this list is far from complete these few items from Live 9 s feature set show a few ways in which Live stands apart from the rest gt Ableton is one of the original innovators in the area of real time time stretching and pitch shifting While most DAWs now have time and pitch manipulation features Live s flexibility and ease of use remains unparalleled With a few mouse clicks you can adjust pitch and time for synchronization tasks or insane sound mangling gt To achieve even more flexibility and elasticity the Slice to N
149. ER we ll be covering the core concepts and basic workflow of Live This is a big chapter with a lot of information but if you spend the time to take it all in you ll find the rest of the book much easier to manage Also bear in mind that this chapter builds heavily on Chapter 3 Live Interface Basics so unlike some of the other content in this book these two are really meant to be read in order The rest of the chapters are spent digging into the details of various components audio clips MIDI clips devices and advanced techniques such as the Groove Engine and Follow Actions I ll also be introducing many important commands While Live has a very manageable set of commands compared to other programs there are still quite a few to learn With a few exceptions I Il be directing you to Live s main menu bar and its many context menus when new commands are introduced The menus display keyboard shortcuts next to the commands and I strongly recommend taking a moment to learn them as you go UNDONE There s a good reason that most programs have the Undo command as the first option in the Edit menu The only way to learn a program is to get in there and experiment knowing you can back out of any mistakes you make It may sound funny to say but Ableton Live has one of the best Undo features in the business Unlike some other programs almost everything you do can be undone Exceptions include the Solo and Arm switches some file
150. For many of us volume controls just make more sense on faders rather than knobs For precision studio work a nice big fader with a long throw range of motion is handy but not essential Motorized faders are great in the studio but probably not necessary on stage In the world of MIDI a crossfader is just a sideways fader Whether or not you need one depends entirely on your style Live s crossfader can be controlled by any MIDI input so you can get the functionality of a crossfader from a variety of nontraditional controls gt Buttons Some light up and some don t Some have a nice chunky feel while others are downright wispy For use in the studio turning the metronome on and off or controlling Live s transport these issues probably aren t very important But during a gig having nice buttons that light up when you click them can make all the difference gt Joysticks and Touchpads These are often referred to as X Y controllers since they can be moved along two axes From a MIDI standpoint a joystick or touchpad is seen as two separate controllers one for the horizontal axis and one for the vertical As you move one of these controllers two different control messages are simultaneously transmitted Control Surfaces Another factor to consider when picking a control surface is whether or not it is a supported Control Surface for Live In Live s MIDI preferences see The MIDI Sync Tab later in this chapter there is
151. Give it a try Filter Click the Filter button to engage this section The Mode menu is used to select the filter type while the Freq and Res knobs set the cutoff and resonance Notice that the resonance can be randomly modulated just like Stretch Note that the filter is applied after the saturation stage This is because distorting a sound can yield some unwieldy high harmonics which you may want to tame with a low pass filter Volume Pan and Decay This section is used to set the output level Volume and stereo position Pan for each individual sample The Decay knob shapes the tail end of a sample If the button below the Decay knob is in Trigger mode the Decay knob will dictate the fade out time from the moment the sample is triggered It doesn t matter how long you hold the pad or key that is triggering the sample the decay time will always be whatever value is specified by the Decay knob This is classic drum machine behavior In Gate mode the fade out won t begin until a MIDI Note Off message is received when you lift your finger off a key With long decay values you may not notice any difference between these two modes But with short values it becomes more obvious For example try using Gate mode with a Decay time of 50ms You find that this allows you to create variations in your drum parts by editing the length of the MIDI notes Try making some snare hits longer than others or varying the length of hi hats to kee
152. I Sampler Source Ableton The interface here allows you to take the MIDI input from a number of specific parameters The MIDI parameters available as sources for modulations are listed along the left hand edge of the tab including Key pitch Velocity Off Vel release velocity Chan Pres aftertouch Mod Wheel and Pitch Bend Any of these input sources can be mapped to two different modulation destinations simultaneously using the Destination A and Destination B dropdown choosers You can set the amount of modulation with the Amount A and Amount B controls By routing the Velocity parameter to control volume you can make your samples play back more loudly or softly when those channels receive higher or lower MIDI velocity messages or for example when you play harder or softer on your MIDI controller keyboard Note that you can also do this with the Vol lt Vel control on the Filter Global page Importing Third Party Instruments As mentioned previously if you already own any collections of multisampled instruments in AKAI GigaStudio Apple ESX24 Garageband SoundFont or Kontakt format you can import these into Sampler for easy access in Live To import a third party instrument preset into Sampler locate the file in the Browser and double click to convert it to a Sampler preset If this doesn t work you may be able to open the preset by dragging it from the Browser and dropping it onto Sampler You can see all of your impo
153. I data by a fixed value and limiting the notes that will be accepted IN SCALE The Scale effect can keep you in key and it can also keep the results of a Random effect in key too If the Random plug in is generating too many notes that are out of key load up a Scale effect and set it to the appropriate scale Any stray note from the Random effect will be knocked into key by the Scale plug in By combining a Random and a Scale plug in you can make a random arpeggiator that arpeggiates the pattern of notes entering the chain The Fold switch will prevent Scale from outputting any notes more than six semitones higher than the input note However it doesn t just make these notes disappear Instead it drops these notes down an octave In other words if you ve mapped an incoming D3 such that a B3 would be output enabling the Fold switch would cause B2 to be output instead Velocity The previous four MIDI effects in Live are concerned with controlling MIDI pitch information Velocity on the other hand deals with can you guess velocity data It s very much like a Compressor or Scale plug in for velocities The grid display is like the display used in the Scale device see Figure 10 7 Input velocities are mapped across the X axis the bottom of the grid while output velocities are on the Y axis the right edge of the grid Figure 10 7 The grid of the Velocity effect shows the effect of adjusting the various parameters in r
154. IDI implementation editing Live s mix automation and using virtual EQs and compressors for professional audio results The Online Files To get you going as quickly as possible you can find online files containing custom built Live Sets to illustrate the topics in this book as you read about them After all what fun is it to read about music It s much more fun to hear music Download and install the Live Pack hosted at www hobo tech com livepower onto your computer Once you ve done this you Il be able to get to the files by clicking on Packs in the Browser and unfolding the Live 9 Power pack 2 Getting Live Up and Running BEFORE YOU DIVE IN AND START PRODUCING HITS it is important to take amoment to verify that your computer system is up to speed and that you ve installed Live properly This chapter will provide a few recommendations to help you through the installation process along with some tips for fine tuning your Ableton Live studio I ll cover both Mac and PC setup and talk about several methods for optimizing your system Also remember that Ableton s technical support www ableton com en help contact support is an excellent way to get to the bottom of anything not covered in this book as is Ableton s online user forum found at http forum ableton com which is usually rich with tips tricks and advice System Requirements Listed in the pages that follow are Ableton s posted system requirements f
155. Live but if you need to do it after the fact you can use the Authorize at ableton com or Authorize offline buttons on this screen see Figure 2 8 Offline authorization is only necessary for computers that are never connected to the Internet If you select this option Live will give you a code that you will enter by logging into your ableton com account and selecting Authorize offline You can then download a file that can be copied to the offline computer and opened to authorize Live Figure 2 8 The Licenses Maintenance tab Preferences Authorize this computer online Authorize via another computer meme oina with an internet connection Mamo nance Got Software Updates Cor Leam More Send Usage Dots CoE Leam More Source Ableton Maintenance As mentioned previously in the Updating Live section you can turn on Get Software Updates to make Live automatically keep itself up to date Updates are downloaded while Live is running and take effect the next time the software is launched At the time of this writing this feature is not 100 reliable so you may still want to manually check for updates from time to time Send Usage Data is a feature that anonymously shares configuration and usage information with Ableton The data is uploaded when you launch Live and is used to fix bugs and develop improvements based on common usage habits IMPORTANT NOTE START TRANSPORT WITH RECORD As this b
156. MIDI Output allows Live to send MIDI data from a MIDI track to an external piece of hardware such as a synthesizer The Sync option enables the port as a MIDI Sync source or destination This will have to be turned on for at least one port for any of the Sync functions to work When using Sync input the EXT switch will appear in the Control Bar and can be used to force Live to slave to an external tempo source The last column Remote is especially nifty By enabling a remote input you can map any of Live s on screen controls to a physical controller Remote output is used for sending MIDI feedback to MIDI controllers with motorized MIDI knobs and faders or those with light up encoders and so forth If you have a control surface with these types of controls moving an on screen control with the mouse will cause the MIDI controller to reflect that change Takeover Mode helps with handling control surfaces and MIDI remote devices that do not receive MIDI feedback With these devices moving a control with the mouse causes the physical controller to become mismatched with its associated on screen control When set to None the controls on screen will jump to whatever value the MIDI controller is sending immediately This is very simple but can result in sudden volume changes and other unnerving parameter jumps Pick up mode requires that you move the MIDI control to the value of the on screen control while Value Scaling moves the on screen contro
157. Ping Pong Delay Filter Delay Grain Delay Reverb Modulation Effects Chorus Phaser Flanger Distortions Overdrive Saturator Dynamic Tube Erosion Redux Vinyl Distortion Miscellaneous Amp and Cabinet Auto Pan Beat Repeat Corpus Frequency Shifter Resonators Spectrum Utility Vocoder External Audio Effect Looper Chapter 10 Live s MIDI Effects Arpeggiator Style Groove Hold Offset Rate and Sync Gate Retrigger Repeats Transposition Controls Velocity Chord Note Length Pitch Random Scale Velocity Chapter 11 Remote Control Enabling Remote Control Control Surface Setup Manual Controller Setup Instant Mapping Remote Mapping The Mapping Browser Special Mappings Remote Controlling Plug In Devices About MIDI Controllers Push Getting Started Drum Programming Notes Mode Device Mode Working with Plug Ins Chapter 12 Playing Live Live The Hybrid DJ and Remixer Preparing Your Audio Files Performance Techniques Live Bands and Other Performance Concepts Click Track Tap Tempo Live Effects Real Time Loop Layering Theater Chapter 13 Live 9 Power Getting Your Groove On Clip Cuttin Clinic Harnessing Follow Actions Minimizing Performance Strain Templates Drag and Drop Import and Export Defaults Scoring to Video Importing Video The Video Window Keeping Sound and Video in Sync Saving Exporting Managing Files Manage Set Manage Project Max for Live Drum Synths Modulato
158. See EQ Erosion Error parameter Excitator section Collision Tension Export Audio Video dialog box exporting audio dragging dropping MIDI clips presets video External Instrument external outputs external samples External Sync Indicators F Fade button faders fades formatting Record Warp Launch tab features feedback Flanger Grain Delay Phaser Feedback control File Folder tab files See also Sets adding from Browser windows deleting managing MIDI See MIDI moving searching storing Filter Simpler Filter button Impulse Filter Delay Filter Global tab Sampler filter modulation filters Analog Auto Filter envelopes Hi Pass instruments Morphing M Operator Sampler Filter section Tension finding lost files Fixed grid mode Flanger Flatten command flows signals FM synthesis Fold button folders Defaults projects Templates Follow Actions applying clips menus Follow Behavior Follow control Fork section Electric formatting clips fades grooves locators loops Master tracks Racks sounds Operator tracks Freeze button Freeze command freezing tracks frequencies filters Grain Delay LFOs Multiband Dynamics Phaser Frequency Shifter G gain outputs Gain Reduction meter Gate Gate dial Arpeggiator Gate mode Glide parameter global parameters Analog instruments global quantization Global section Electric Impulse Tension Global settings Operator Reverb Glue
159. Source Ableton Figure 13 6 You can unfold a sample to reveal all of the clips that contain it Source Ableton View Samples reveals the sample list which shows you all of the samples in your Set and all of the clips that contain them You can replace samples or open your audio editor from here Clicking the Hot Swap button to the left of the sample name will reveal the file s location in the File Browser While the Hot Swap button is highlighted any file you double click in the File Browser will be used to globally replace that sample in your Set That means that any clip that is based on this sample will be updated to use the new sample All of the other properties such as loop points and transposition of the clip will be retained Another way to globally replace samples in your set is simply to drag a file out of the File Browser and drop it into the File Manager directly onto the sample you want to replace Looking at the title bar of the File Manager you ll notice a set of three Web Browser style buttons in the upper right hand corner You can use the Back button the left pointing arrow to return to the Set Management overview If at any point you want to return to the main File Manager window you can use the Home button on the far right Finding Lost Files Below the View and Replace Files section of the Manage Set window is the Missing Files section see Figure 13 7 Clicking the Locate button in this section will brin
160. The LFOs are hardwired to their corresponding oscillators Osc1 can only be modulated by LFO1 and Osc2 can only be modulated by LFO2 The Pulse Width section is only enabled when a square wave is selected as the waveform shape Try sweeping this from 0 to 100 and yov ll hear the tone go from being narrow and pinched to big and fat Modulating the Pulse Width with the LFO is a great way to add some subtle movement to your sound Note that unless the LFO is actually switched on the LFO modulation amount will be disabled Hidden within each Oscillator module is a second oscillator that can be controlled via the Sub Sync section When Mode is set to Sub an additional note will sound one octave below the pitch of the main oscillator The volume of the Sub tone is set by the Level control If you want some real nastiness however try setting Mode to Sync When set to Sync the additional oscillator is not heard directly Rather it is used to control the main oscillator by forcing it to restart from the beginning of the waveform for each cycle of the Sync oscillator This changes the harmonic content of the main oscillator with the pitch and intensity increasing as you increase the Ratio the frequency of the sync oscillator Finally in between the two oscillators is the Noise module a sound generator that produces white noise Noise has many uses not only in producing percussion sounds but also for adding a bit of extra attack or texture
161. This is where you tell Live how much to apply the Groove s timing to the clip At values lower than 100 the clip s accents will be moved only part of the way to the locations specified in the Groove At 0 no timing adjustments will be made gt Random By increasing the Random value you add timing randomization to the clip A little randomness can emulate the natural timing variations that occur with live musicians Unless you re looking to create some serious chaos this setting is best used at lower values gt Velocity This setting determines how much the velocity fluctuations in the Groove should be applied to the clip Be aware that some Grooves in the Library don t contain any velocity information so changing this value won t have any effect Note that this value can be set to negative values to invert the velocity as well When applying grooves to audio clips velocity creates volume fluctuations This is usually the case with MIDI clips as well but that s ultimately determined by the instrument gt Amount This is the Global Groove Amount It sits at the top of the Groove Pool and is applied to all Grooves in the Set It acts as a global control for the Timing parameter in each of the grooves Note that Amount can be set to values greater than 100 to move all Groove Timing percentages above their specified amount When you ve applied a groove to a clip not only does it appear in the Groove Pool but it also become
162. This type of button also appears elsewhere throughout the interface to reveal additional controls and features Make sure to try these out as you come across them Figure 3 2 Some views are shown or hidden using these triangular fold unfold buttons Source Ableton Finally yov ll find all of Live s optional views can be shown or hidden from the View menu Open this menu and learn the keyboard shortcuts that are displayed next to the various commands Yov ll be glad you did Working with Knobs Sliders and Boxes Live has several different controls for adjusting values which all have a lot in common even though they look different see Figure 3 3 Sliders are adjusted by dragging vertically just as you d expect What might not be obvious is that knobs and numeric boxes are dragged in the same vertical fashion These controls can also be adjusted by single clicking and then using the up and down arrow keys Finally numeric boxes can be adjusted by simply typing in a value which is often faster than dragging the mouse Any control can be returned to its default value by single clicking it and then pressing Delete Additionally some knobs have a triangle which can be clicked to reset to default see the Transpose knob in Figure 3 3 for an example Figure 3 3 All three of these control types can be adjusted by dragging vertically Numeric Box rar 92 00 mili 4 4 00 veer Volume Knob Slider Source Able
163. While this may sound fairly pedestrian get ready for a major paradigm shift if you ve never worked with a physical modeling synth before Because you ll be working with controls that model physical events you ll need to be aware that many of the parameters affect each other dramatically Especially in the case of Tension it s possible to create patches that don t create any sound at all You ll need to think more in terms of inventing and playing an instrument rather than twiddling knobs Will a very smooth bow moved very quickly across a violin string with very little force produce any sound What if you move it slowly Electric Electric the simplest of the physical modeling instruments is an electric piano emulator see Figure 8 17 Instead of reproducing actual electric pianos through sampling physical modeling is used instead This means that sound is produced via mathematical equations representing the various physical aspects of the instrument itself Figure 8 17 Electric gives you the power to design a wide array of electric pianos C Electric sog MALLET DAMPER PICKUP Source Ableton Electric s interface is divided into four sections dedicated to different aspects of how an electric piano produces sound the mallet the metal fork that gets struck by the mallet the damper that controls the tine s resonance and the magnetic pickup that converts the sound into electricity The fifth section Global dea
164. You ll see every clip you launched laid out left to right in the timeline and the movement of every volume you adjusted represented as a red line called automation When you start playback while looking at your new arrangement Live may not do exactly what you expect Instead of playing back the arrangement you just recorded Live ignores it and resumes playing the same clips that were playing back when you stopped recording Confused Excellent Everyone is at this point To hear the arrangement you ll have to click on Back to Arrangement as seen in Figure 3 10 Once you do you ll immediately start to hear the Arrangement View clips play back and yov ll also notice that they pop into full color instead of being dimmed out as they were before So what s going on here Read on and I I explain Figure 3 10 The button in the top right corner of this figure is called Back to Arrangement This all important control allows you to hear the contents of the Arrangement View Source Ableton Relation to the Session View Although the Arrangement and Session Views may seem very different they are closely related The main difference is the way in which they handle clips Arrangement View deals with them in a linear fashion clips play in the order they show up in the timeline from left to right Session View is a non linear beast clips are launched interactively to play in any order you want Both views allow you to place multiple
165. a blinking cursor in the track display and a downward pointing arrow above Source Ableton Figure 4 23 The Arrangement Selection is indicated by the pair of angled triangles above the track display The Arrangement Selection can be set by dragging in an unfolded track or clicking on a clip s title bar Source Ableton Setting Playback Position When you stop and start Live it doesn t resume playback from where you stopped Instead playback begins from either the insert marker or the arrangement selection If you want to resume playback from where you last stopped use Shift spacebar If you want to temporarily play back from a different location click in the Scrub Area to change the playback position without relocating the insert marker To play back from the very beginning of the Arrangement 1 1 1 click Stop while Live is already stopped Looping You can loop a section of your arrangement by enabling Loop in the Control Bar see Figure 4 24 To the left of the Loop button is a numerical display indicating the bar and beat that the loop begins while on the right you will see another numerical display showing the length of the loop These values can also be edited by moving the brace that sits above the track display and dragging its edges to resize Figure 4 24 Turn on Loop to repeat a section of the Arrangement a Source Ableton Often yov ll find that you want to set the loop points to match the exact l
166. a new audio clip be it a loop or a one shot sound The Auto setting will cause Live to try and determine the nature of an imported sample on the fly and set its loop and warp settings accordingly Live typically does well at automatically determining settings for short samples and when it makes mistakes they are easy to correct The next option relates to Live s Auto Warp feature When the Auto Warp Long Samples option is on Live will attempt to determine the tempo of the imported audio file and will place Warp Markers into the audio clip automatically This will only happen on long samples files that Live assumes to be complete songs Auto Warp works better with some kinds of material than others for example dance music with clear tempo and transients so what you do with Live will determine whether or not you want this setting enabled With long samples Live sometimes makes mistakes that are difficult to correct so turning this feature off can be desirable You can still use Auto Warp but yov ll invoke it manually as explained in Chapters 5 Clips and 12 Playing Live Live Default Warp Mode specifies which of Live s warping algorithms will be applied to new clips There are six Warp modes beats tones texture re pitch complex and complex pro all of which produce different results when modifying the tempo or the pitch of a clip The Warp modes are explained in detail in Chapter 5 Until you ve mastered these i
167. about the music you ve made with Live Thanks for reading Index A AAS Applied Acoustic Systems instruments absolute values accessing devices activators clips Activity Monitor Activity view Adaptive grid mode Adaptive Q adding clips devices files from Browser windows lanes presets randomization scenes tracks Add Lane for Each Automated Envelope command add ons Operator ADSR Attack Decay Sustain and Release algorithms Operator Amount knob Amount parameter Amp amplifiers Analog analysis spectrum analyzers Any option appearance Look Feel tab applications Max overview of plug ins See plug ins Applied Acoustic Systems See AAS applying devices Follow Actions grooves Insert Silence ReWire scenes areas Drop Areas Arm button Arm section Mixer Arpeggiator Arrangement Position control Arrangement Record button arrangements remixing selecting Arrangement View Browser window clips formatting resizing devices editing Export Audio Video dialog box interfaces loops overdubbing recording switching viewing arrangers Arrange View ASIO Audio Stream Input Output drivers Ask setting assigning colors clips schemes keys to keyboards Attack Decay Sustain and Release See ADSR Attack control audio clips See also clips converting to MIDI modulating properties Sample box warping effects Amp Auto Pan Beat Repeat Cabinet Corpus delays distortions dynamic processing EQ External Aud
168. ack to the Release Loop point until the end of the release phase Sustain Loop Crossfade labeled Crossfade sets fades at the loop boundaries in order to smooth out the loop You can also use Sustain Loop Detune labeled Detune to make small adjustments in pitch as desired The Interpol interpolation control lets you decide which algorithm you want Sampler to use when transposing samples You can choose from No Normal the default Good Better or Best Interpolation Your choice here can have a significant impact on the overall quality of sound coming out of Sampler but you also need to remember that selecting Better or Best will increase the hit on your CPU You can engage the RAM mode switch if you want to load the entire multisampled instrument into your computer s RAM memory instead of streaming it from disk in real time the default mode This can be used to alleviate any disk overload problems you encounter when using Sampler but if you have many samples loaded into RAM this will eat up your available memory quickly and affect the performance of your computer software adversely By default Sampler will load only the beginning of each sound into memory at first and then stream the rest of the sound from your hard drive as it plays The next tabs include a number of controls that shape and modify the sound of your samples Let s look at what you can do with them The Pitch Osc Tab The Pitch Osc tab see Figure 8 13 con
169. active Frequency and Feedback The large X Y area in the middle of the Phaser is for adjusting the center frequency and the feedback amount Move the dot on the screen left and right to adjust frequency or use the number box in the lower left corner Vertical movement will adjust the feedback whose number box is in the lower right corner You normally won t find a feedback control on a typical Phaser but it s a control that Ableton added to its Phaser to help emphasize the Phase effect LFO and Envelope Phaser s LFO section is used to automatically modulate the Frequency parameter This section is a duplicate of the LFO found in the Auto Filter You ll use the Speed controls to set the LFO rate either in relation to the current tempo or freely in Hertz The relation of the left and right LFOs is set with the Phase Spin controls Finally the LFO s overall influence on the Phaser frequency is set with the Amount knob Like the LFO the Envelope is identical to the envelope follower yov ll find in the Auto Filter device It works by using the volume of the incoming signal as a means to modulate the frequency of the Phaser The speed at which the envelope follower responds to changes in input volume is governed by the Attack and Release knobs Use the top knob Envelope Amount to increase the envelope s influence on the Phaser frequency Flanger The Flanger bears an extremely close resemblance to the Phaser both in design a
170. ae U CENGAGE i tee Vaari ABLETON LIVE 9 POWER 7 h AP roleasiotial Technical Referarce 3 ABLETON LIVE 9 POWER The Comprehensive Guide of ye yk xe By Jon Margulies Ableton Live 9 Power The Comprehensive Guide Jon Margulies Cengage Learning PTR ee CENGAGE gt Learning Professional Technical Reference Australia Brazil Japan Korea Mexico Singapore Spain United Kingdom United States s CENGAGE gt Learning Professional Technical Reference Ableton Live 9 Power The Comprehensive Guide Jon Margulies Publisher and General Manager Cengage Learning PTR Stacy L Hiquet Associate Director of Marketing Sarah Panella Manager of Editorial Services Heather Talbot Senior Marketing Manager Mark Hughes Acquisitions Editor Orren Merton Project and Copy Editor Marta Justak Technical Reviewer Brian Jackson Interior Layout Tech MPS Limited Cover Designer Mike Tanamachi Indexer Larry Sweazy Proofreader Megan Belanger 2014 Cengage Learning PTR ALL RIGHTS RESERVED No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced transmitted stored or used in any form or by any means graphic electronic or mechanical including but not limited to photocopying recording scanning digitizing taping Web distribution information networks or information storage and retrieval systems except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 19
171. ag up or down to adjust the buffer size In Windows you will probably need to open your soundcard s own proprietary driver interface or control panel which can be launched with the Hardware Setup button Next we see the Input Latency and Output Latency values Output latency is the amount of lag time between when you trigger a sound or action and when you hear it If you re cranking a knob and can hear Live lagging behind you that s output latency at work Input latency arises because audio is buffered on the way into the computer so Live receives this audio a little later than it should Fortunately Live can automatically compensate for this when recording ROUND IT OFF While some soundcard drivers will adjust the buffer in increments of one sample Ableton recommends that you set your buffer to one of the binary round numbers that we see so often on our computers 64 128 256 512 1024 and so on Audio interfaces are designed to report their latencies to Live so it can offset its operations properly However in practice the reported amount is sometimes not completely accurate and you find that your audio recordings are slightly out of sync To correct this you must manually enter the unreported latency into the Driver Error Compensation box Follow the step by step instructions in the Driver Error Compensation lesson from the Help View to determine and correct unreported latency Test The Test section of the Au
172. ake some noise EQ and Filters The first batch of effects we ll dive into are the filters and equalizers EQ for short These types of signal processors are used to attenuate reduce in volume and amplify increase in volume only specific frequency ranges within an audio signal Engineers will use filters and EQs to finely craft the frequency distribution of the tracks in a song resulting in beautiful rich and detailed final mixes Of course these tools can also be used to radically reshape sound creating unique effects in their own right EQ Eight A parametric EQ is a powerful frequency filtering and timbre shaping tool While many hardware and some software mixers have some type of equalization available on every channel you will need to add an EQ plug in manually to a track anytime it s needed in your Live project The goal when using an EQ is to either boost or diminish certain audio frequencies in order to overcome problems arising from poor recordings to reduce muddiness from overlapping frequencies in other sounds or to emphasize certain characteristics of the sound to make it cut through the mix OVERSAMPLE For the highest sound quality in the high frequency spectrum right click in the title bar and select Oversampling from the context menu This feature causes EQ Eight to process at a higher sample rate internally resulting in fewer artifacts at the cost of slightly higher CPU usage To make Oversampling the default
173. am after you export one of these formats gt Sample Rate If you re exporting audio that will be sent out for mixing or mastering you should select the highest sample rate used in your set typically the same as the In Out Sample Rate in the Audio tab of Preferences If you re exporting audio that s going straight to consumer formats like MP3 or CD use the standard rate of 44100 gt Bit Depth When exporting for consumer formats bit depth should be set to 16 When exporting for mixing or mastering higher bit depths are typical Live s internal bit depth is 32 therefore any audio that is processed within Live is technically 32 bit Bear in mind however that 32 bit files are very large and not supported by all programs For most pro audio applications 24 bit is just fine gt Dither Dithering adds low level noise to digital audio to hide the distortion that occurs when reducing bit depth It is commonly accepted that when outputting at 16 bit some dithering should be used try POW r 2 as a default for most pop and electronic music If you re outputting at 24 bit Triangular is the safest dither method to use although some say not to use any at all Search the Internet for endless pages of incomprehensible discussion on the topic gt Create Analysis File When this setting is activated Live will also create an ASD file in addition to the rendered audio file This is helpful when exporting files that will be reimported into L
174. ameters of any device as part of your sonic explorations Just like LFO and Envelope Follower Device Randomizer must be mapped before it will do anything First click on the Map button and then on the title bar of the device you want to randomize The device will offer two different modes of randomizing Auto which applies continuous random modulations and Trigger which generates random values when the Randomize button is pushed A word of caution when using Device Randomizer with complex devices such as synthesizers Yov ll quickly discover that randomizing these sorts of devices produces a lot of unusable results It s not that you should expect randomization to ever produce consistently great results but the more complex the device you re randomizing the greater the chance that yov ll get results that produce no sound or a terrible sound To get this under control click the Edit tab and press the unfold switch Here yov ll be presented with all of the parameters of the mapped device next to an On Off switch Any parameters set to Off will be excluded from the randomness Envelope Envelope is a Max MIDI Effect that generates freely assignable ADSR modulation in response to note input It works just like the built in envelope on an instrument but you can assign it to anything you like This opens up not just the possibility of adding additional ADSR envelopes to instruments but also to have effect devices controlled by an envelope
175. and Save first Max for Live For many years now Max MSP or just Max for short has been a favorite of those who need to create customized audio and MIDI tools whether they are simple MIDI patchers software instruments or the brains behind complex interactive multimedia installations using sound and video In fact before Ableton Live came along most of the laptop performers I knew were using software built in Max MSP Now this graphical programming environment integrates directly with Live It is included with Live Suite and available as an add on for Live Standard users The integration of Max with Ableton Live is one of the most innovative things to happen in music software for quite some time because it integrates a completely open ended programming tool into a stable sequencer with a familiar workflow With Max for Live you ll get a powerful set of instruments and effects plus the ability to download many additional devices from the ever growing community of Max programmers If you re the programming type yov ll also be able to create devices that act just like Live s built in devices and make tools that interact with the Live API application programming interface This means that you have access to the guts of Live itself and can programmatically access things such as Live s tempo a clip s groove properties a current Set s track names or nearly anything you can think of If all this talk of programming and APIs
176. and apply less EQ overall The Scale control goes all the way up to 200 so you can use it to increase gain as well Finally the Gain control should not be overlooked Remember that boosting and cutting frequencies changes the overall gain of your signal If you re doing a lot of boosting then you may need to bring down the gain to avoid clipping Conversely cutting the frequencies you don t like and then boosting the gain of a signal is often the best way to bring out the qualities you do like In the upper left hand corner of EQ Eight yov ll find a triangular unfold button Clicking on this yields dramatic results As you ll see in Figure 9 2 this gives you a giant graphical display to work with above and a full set of controls for each filter below Figure 9 2 Here s EQ Eight in its expanded view Notice that the device is now in L R mode While you can see both EQ curves simultaneously you can only edit whichever band is shown in the Edit switch EQ Eight Source Ableton KICK ME PART 1 Many people will try to add bass with an EQ to get it to cut through the mix The end result is that you end up feeling the kick more your subwoofer will really be bumpin but it still sounds muddy because it is occupying the same frequency bands as other instruments in the mix To get that deep yet punchy tone that really cuts through try using a bell filter with a high Q setting to cut frequencies in the 15
177. and the Wave menu now reads User This makes for a truly overwhelming number of options for programming this synth If you re new to Operator it might make more sense to get a handle on simple FM before you start building all sorts of custom waveforms However the mad scientist in you may win the day and demand a purely experimental approach to sound design That s OK too FM in Action Enough talk already It s time to hear what all of this sounds like Load up an Operator in its default state and play a note you should hear a single sine wave You are hearing oscillator A by itself Now while holding the note turn up the level of oscillator B As you do this you will hear the sound of oscillator A change This is because oscillator B is modulating oscillator A resulting in what are called side bands Oscillator A becomes more and more brilliant more upper harmonics as you increase the level of operator B increasing the modulation amount If you turn oscillator B back down again oscillator A will revert to a sine wave Conceptually this is the opposite approach seen in traditional subtractive synthesis where one starts with a bright complex wave such as a sawtooth and then removes high harmonics with a low pass filter With FM synthesis we can actually start with a harmonically simple sound like a sine and add high harmonics by adding modulation For your next experiment turn up oscillator B again and then play with the Coar
178. ansport controls views networks Diffusion Network Reverb No Action option noise Analog Collision reducing background nondestructive editing notch filters Note Length notes Arpeggiator Chord Duplicate command MIDI clips quantizing Scale Notes box Notes mode Push Nudge controls O objects commands offline authorization Off mode Offset Offset button Arpeggiator opening See also starting Clip View crossfaders Track View operating systems See Macintosh Windows Operator optimizing hard drives orange digits Oscillator display Operator oscillators Analog LFOs modulation Operator Other option Out Hi knob Out Low knob outputs ASIO drivers external gain ReWire Saturator signals virtual Output section Reverb Output switch Amp Cabinet Output Type setting overcompression See also compression Overdrive overdubbing Arrangement View Session View P Packs View pads Drum Rack drums Pan control Simpler Pan knob Impulse Pan section Mixer parallel compression parallel processing Chains parameters Choices instruments Pitch Quantize Beat Random Pitch Rate Arpeggiator Retrigger Arpeggiator Spray Sync Arpeggiator partial quantizing Paste command Paste Time command PCs personal computers See also Macintosh Windows ASIO support installing system requirements peaks transients pencil tool percussion sounds Collision performance Auto Filter EQ Three har
179. antization Globa SIAT Source Ableton Velocity Just below the Quantization box is the Velocity Amount This value works only for clips launched by MIDI It uses the incoming velocity level of the MIDI note to set the playback volume of the clip At 0 the velocity has no effect on clip playback volume it plays at its original level At 100 the clip s velocity sensitivity will be extreme probably too sensitive for most situations This works for both audio and MIDI clips Follow Actions Live s Follow Actions allow an amazing level of automation within the Session View Using Follow Actions you can set rules by which one clip can launch another Any particular clip can launch clips above and below it replay itself or even stop itself all based on odds and a time period that you can program You can think of Follow Actions as a virtual finger that launches for you Follow Actions open up so many creative possibilities that yov ll find a list of potential applications listed in Chapter 13 Live 9 Power Follow Actions work on groups of clips which are clips arranged above and below one another in the same track see Figure 5 5 An empty clip slot inserted between two clips divides them into separate groups Follow Actions cannot be used to trigger clips in different groups or tracks Figure 5 5 The track on the left features one group of clips while the track on the right has two groups Sou
180. any engineers sound shaping toolkits While Amp and Cabinet are certainly useful for processing direct recorded guitars and basses they are also great for applying distortion and unusual EQ characteristics to a wide variety of sources When you re having trouble getting a sound to find its unique place in a mix sometimes these devices provide just the color and edge you need Amp The most important control in this device is the Amp Type selector which offers the following modes Clean Boost Blues Rock Lead Heavy and Bass see Figure 9 27 As you ll discover quickly each of these modes sounds radically different from one another Run a signal through Amp and try them out You ll know pretty quickly which of these works for the sound you re trying to process if any As you move from left to right the models tend to produce more distortion until you get to Bass which is a clean model optimized for bass guitar but may produce good results on a variety of sources Figure 9 27 Are you ready to Rock Cean Bont Ees oa Lesa Ream Eass oot Bass Middle Treble Presence A 100 500 611 5 00 5 00 Source Ableton Once yov ve picked a model experiment with the Gain control Decrease it if you want a bit less distortion and crank it up to hear the amp model at its most aggressive Adjusting Gain will change the overall volume of the signal use the Volume control to compensate for this The Bass Middle an
181. aper Drive and set the amount as desired Get the idea You can use any of these five modulators to control two different parameters of your choice simultaneously Below the routing matrix you see seven more parameters The three parameters on the right are used to set the pan position of Operator s output along with Key and Random modulator amounts The Interpolation and Antialias controls are mostly there for backward compatibility with older versions of Operator which did not have these settings Leaving them on results in a smoother more polished sound at the cost of a slightly higher CPU load Sampler Sampler is Simpler s big brother a fully featured multisampling instrument with a full complement of modulation filtering and mapping options see Figure 8 8 Figure 8 8 Ableton s Sampler unfolds to show a layer zone editor ODS On M ei Loos LI ooo ECE TETO 100 00 4 oe Source Ableton Although Live has had basic sampling functions since the introduction of Simpler Sampler vastly expands Live s sampling capabilities by introducing support for multisampling as well as a wide range of sound design and modulation options What does this mean Unlike Simpler Sampler can hold many samples at once Instead of simply transposing a single sample up or down the keyboard multisampling uses many samples to capture the sound of an instrument at multiple points in its frequency and dynamic range The theory and pra
182. apped to another one You can tell the plug in that you want every incoming D transposed up to E You can also tell it that you want incoming Es to be taken down to Cs Remapping pitches like this could be a great practical joke on a keyboard player but it also has some very practical uses as well Don t play keyboards well Don t know your scales The Scale device will transpose all the wrong notes you play to the proper pitches for the appropriate key This mapping is achieved with a 12x13 grid of gray squares that are laid out as piano keyboards The columns in the grid refer to the input notes while the rows refer to output notes If you look at Figure 10 6 you ll see that the bottom left grid square is on This means that when a C note enters the far left column it runs into the orange indicator in the last row which is the C output row So in this case all entering C notes will still exit as C notes The next column over is the input column for C notes As you look down the column you run into the indicator light on the third row from the bottom which is the output row for D notes This means that when a C note enters the Scale effect it leaves as a D note Figure 10 6 The Scale effect lets you remap MIDI notes using a unique grid interface Incoming MIDI Notes are Fed into the Columns then Exit on the Rows Source Ableton The Scale effect can be a bit confusing and takes a while to get used to Here s
183. arallel Compressor Computer MIDI Keyboard computers basic specifications installing preferences system requirements configuring absolute values Audio Device control surfaces Drum racks External Instrument Global Settings Operator Language latency Lookahead loops manual controller setup preferences Audio tab CPU tab File Folder tab Library tab Licenses Maintenance tab Look Feel tab MIDI Sync tab Record Warp Launch tab program change messages quantization ratios Release Envelope ReWire sample rates system requirements Warp Markers conflicts See also troubleshooting keyboards mapping connection types consolidating clips content accessing hot swapping context menus Control Bar Control Chooser controllers grids MIDI envelopes remote control Push styles controls See also buttons Attack Color devices Feedback interfaces Knee Length Loop Loop End loops Simpler Macro Controls Nudge pads Pitch Envelope Poles Position Release swing transport Transpose Arpeggiator warping control surfaces configuring MIDI devices Converge style Arpeggiator converting audio to MIDI Convolution Reverb Max Copy command Corpus CPUs central processing units CPU tab crackles Create Analysis Files option Create Chain command Create menu creating See formatting crossfaders mappings Session View Zone Editor Cubase cues mixing sounds Current Project View cursors
184. are covered in Chapter 8 Racks Racks allow multiple devices to be grouped together to create a custom superdevice that can be treated as if it were a single device There are Racks for each of Live s device types Audio Effect Racks which contain audio effect devices MIDI Effect Racks for MIDI devices and Instrument Racks which can contain not only instrument devices but also MIDI and audio effects In some ways Racks are just like other devices there s an Activator switch in the upper left corner which bypasses every device in the Rack a Save button for saving the Rack as a preset and a Hot Swap button for selecting a different Rack Live comes with numerous preset Racks and there are many available from third party content developers as well Rack presets are explored just like any other type of preset in the Browser For example to browse for audio effects just unfold Audio Effect Rack in the Audio Effects view and you ll see various effects organized by type Instrument Racks appear in two different areas of the Browser under Instrument Rack in the Instruments view and also in the Sounds view Rack Basics Racks have three parts which you can reveal or hide as necessary Macros Controls Chain List and Devices Use the buttons at the left edge of the Rack to hide or show the different sections see Figure 7 13 Figure 7 13 A fully expanded Instrument Rack Macro Controls Chain List Devices Show Hide S
185. are recording is forced to travel through your operating system your system bus and host application to end up on your hard drive Like bad plumbing the signal may be coming down the pipe but there are unnecessary clogs and corners that must be navigated along the way The gist is that your computer is performing calculations remember it s all numbers for the computer and though they are blazingly fast it takes a moment for the processor to finish and the result is latency Live 9 supports ASIO on PCs ASIO is unnecessary on Mac OS X thanks to Core Audio Yov ll be happy to know that most popular consumer and professional grade audio cards support the format too It has become an industry standard and can cut latency down to barely detectable levels Properly installed ASIO drivers will make Live as responsive as a hardware instrument with less than eight milliseconds of audio delay practically unnoticeable ASIO helps Live users hear the instantaneous results of MIDI commands audio input output mouse moves and keyboard commands Someday we ll all look back and laugh that latency was ever an issue but for now count your blessings that there is ASIO See the Setting Preferences in Live section later in this chapter for more on the infamous L word ASIO FOR ALL If you re stuck using the internal soundcard of your PC or have an audio card that doesn t support ASIO there still may be hope for you Michael Tip
186. at are within the main folder of other projects The other Show button will reveal samples in other locations Note that Live considers the Library to be a project so any files from the Live Library are considered to be contained in another project Below the two Show buttons are switches that will allow you to collect copy these external samples into your project folder These differ from the Collect All and Save command in that they allow you to specify what samples should be copied into the project You can differentiate between files that are in other project folders and files elsewhere To actually copy the samples and save the current Set use the Collect and Save button at the bottom of the File Manager Manage Project Manage Project contains several features that are identical to Manage Set except that they act on all Sets in the project so Pl just focus on the features that are different here The first area of the Manage Project window is the project location it just shows you the path of the current project After that is the Project Contents section which tells you the number of Sets Live Clips Preset Files and Samples in the project Clicking any of the Show buttons will reveal the referenced files in the File Browser see Figure 13 9 Figure 13 9 Project Contents tells you about all sorts of different files that exist within your project Project SpaceBreak eo Y Project Location Users jonmargulies Music
187. at of a sound is in the bass such as a bass guitar or synth you may want to reduce the high frequency content of this sound to make space for your singer s voice and your drummer s hi hat In this case you d use the EQ to reduce the highs and possibly to boost the lows in the bass track Conversely you can often benefit by using a high pass filter on vocals and other instruments that don t have a lot of low frequency content Especially when working with voices and real instruments there are often low frequencies such as rumble from air conditioners and the like doing nothing but consuming headroom and muddying up your mix In addition to solving problems EQs can also doa lot to sweeten certain sounds Using a high shelf to boost 10k can help acoustic guitars sparkle and a bell to boost 60Hz can give a weak kick the extra power you re looking for DOUBLE STACK For aggressive cuts boosts and effects you can stack EQs by assigning the same parameters to two or more filters For example you could use two 12dB low cut filters both set to 150Hz and a Q of 75 to create a 24dB octave filter right in between the two built in filter slopes Along the right side are a variety of useful controls The spectrum analyzer can be turned on or off and the headphones Audition mode switch can be used to listen to only the filter you re currently adjusting Click and drag a filter in the graphical display to hear this feature in action
188. at tracks can receive or send audio to other tracks For example you could create an audio track that records the output of another track while you launch clips and tweak effects In Figure 6 6 you ll see the input of track B has its Input Type set to track A In the Input Channel chooser below you ll see three options Pre FX Post FX and Post Mixer These options allow you to choose where in the signal path the audio is routed from or tapped Figure 6 6 Track B is configured to record from Track A The Input Channel menu gives you the power to tap the signal with or without effects jj Post Mixer Source Ableton gt Post Mixer The signal is tapped after it is processed by any effects and passed through the mixer Any changes to panning or volume made in the mixer affect the signal gt Post FX The signal is tapped after the effects in the Track View but before the mixer Changes to panning or volume made in the mixer do not affect the signal gt Pre FX Taps the signal directly before any effects or mixing Submixing and Multing In Figure 6 7 pay attention to the Output Type choosers and you I see the source tracks are routed into an audio track called DESTINATION This is commonly known as a submix You may notice that all I ve done is to manually create the routing behavior of a Group Track several tracks are mixed together before being sent to the Master Unlike Group Tracks however this meth
189. ate them or draw a marquee around a group of notes to select them and then move or edit them as a group Once notes are selected they can also be moved using the arrow keys To create a MIDI note with the standard mouse pointer double click in the editor Double clicking an existing note will erase it Regardless of which mode you re in the mouse will change into a bracket shaped or trimmer tool when moved to the edge of a note This tool is used to change the length of notes When dragging with this tool the note length will change smoothly at first only snapping to the next grid line when dragged very close to it Once it snaps to the next grid line it will continue to snap only allowing you to make edits sized to the grid Not to worry just hold down Ctrl Cmd while dragging to disable the grid Note lengths can be adjusted from the keyboard by holding down Shift and using the left right arrow keys Add Ctrl Cmd to disable the grid while resizing QUICK SELECT There s a quick shortcut for selecting every instance of a particular pitch or drum in a MIDI clip Just click in the piano keyboard or next to the drum name if you re using Drum Rack or Impulse to select all of the notes in that lane The area directly above the note editor will display a highlighted area called the selection area whenever a selection is made A selection can be made by clicking on a note Shift clicking to select a range of notes or clicki
190. ated by the envelope and the LFO Figure 8 19 The Filter section can be used to give some additional flavor to your modeled string instruments Cito Source Ableton For the Global parameters see the Global Parameters section earlier in this chapter Analog Analog is Ableton s take on a classic subtractive synthesizer see Figure 8 20 Two oscillators and a noise generator feed two filters and two output amplifiers There are two independent LFOs that can be used to modulate nearly any aspect of the sound and each module has its own envelope section as well So much has been written about the principles of subtractive syntheses that instead of covering all of this ground for the millionth time we re going to focus most of our energy in this section on what makes this little synth unique Figure 8 20 Analog is a powerful analog style subtractive synthesizer _ Analog S Detune 7 j Sse Oaoa mel Done CC LEG nmi lIQ amp amp mete oad 00 a Color Ona He Fira 237 Source Ableton Analog s interface is similar to Operator in that it is divided into a series of modules that surround a center window that will be updated to provide additional parameters for whichever module is currently selected Again here we will use the terminology shell to refer to the basic controls in the outer ring of the interface and display to refer to the center window The modules for Analog are as follows
191. ators and LFO that will modulate the Filter Cutoff frequency The amount of envelope modulation is set with the Envelope parameter The other parameters in the display determine how key position and velocity will affect the filter Operator has a total of 14 filters types eight of which are the standard Ableton filters The additional filters are the Ladder and SVF types in low band and hi pass versions These filter types both offer distinctly different pleasing tonal qualities with the SVF offering the capability to self oscillate with high resonance values and the Ladder type producing a sound modeled on some classic analog filter designs Moog comes to mind Make sure to experiment with them all In addition to the new filter types Operator s filter also includes a saturator waveshaper found in the display The Shaper menu offers you four types two of them being classic saturation Soft and Hard and two being more unusual digital sounding effects Sine and 4 bit The Pitch Settings Below the Filter section is the Pitch section which contains an envelope as well as some other unique pitch related controls To make the Pitch Envelope work yov ll have to switch it on using the switch at the left and turn the Pitch Env dial as well You can use both positive and negative values here so it s possible to reverse the effects of the envelope As with the LFO you can choose which oscillators will be modulated with the Pitch envelo
192. ats are both assigned to Choke group 1 Notice also the Send a column which shows us the open hi hat is being sent to the Ping Pong Delay Chain Receive Play Choke Send a Voi Pan A Open Hat ast v co Ji vii into ooes c iid jis Closed_Hat Fe v ces jv moa Goes Cc ae s Drop Devices Horo a Ping Pong ij ooa c_ jd j s Drop Audio Effects Here Source Ableton For example let s say you have a reverb on return track A in Live s Mixer You have a Drum Rack in which you want to add a bit of this reverb to just the hand claps and nothing else To do this just create an empty Return Chain and send the hand claps to it Then in the Audio To menu of the Return Chain set the output to return track A where your reverb is located EXTRACTION TEAM Once you re finished programming your drums you may want to split each drum out to its own individual track To do this just right click in the title bar of a drum in the Chain Mixer or the Chain List and select Extract Chains Now you ve got a new track with just that one drum and a new MIDI clip containing just the part for that drum This technique is particularly useful if you need to render each drum to an individual audio track for mixing in another program External Instrument External Instrument allows you to control an external synth from a MIDI track and make it behave like a virtual instrument track Make sure to read th
193. aunch Live yov ll be offered the opportunity to register Live or run it in Demo mode Authorizing will open your Web browser and take you to ableton com where yov ll have to log in to or create a user account If you ve bought the download version from ableton com your Live 9 serial number will already be entered in your account and the authorization process should begin immediately Ableton enables you to install Live on two computers If you replace one of your computers it s possible that authorizing your new computer will fail because you ve used up your unlocks Not to worry just email customer support to explain the situation and they take care of you Updating Live Like any good piece of modern software Live is constantly under development with bugs being fixed and functionality added and improved More than some software companies Ableton releases updates quite regularly so it s very easy to fall behind This is not something you should lose any sleep over not only is it very easy to update but there s nothing wrong with taking an if it ain t broke don t fix it attitude toward the software on your computer However before you tear your hair out trying to figure out why something isn t working on your system it s a good idea to make sure you re running the latest version The easiest way to stay up to date is to turn on Live s Get Software Updates feature see Licenses Management in the
194. avier after the repeat It s almost necessary to turn this down when you re using small grid sizes because the repeats become so fast that they start to make a tone of their own The Decay knob will cause the volume of each consecutive repeat to be quieter than the first This means that your repeats will slowly or quickly fade away to silence each time you trigger Repeat Pitch The Pitch controls can be used to introduce pitch shifts into your repeats The Pitch knob will simply transpose the repeated sound down by the specified number of semitones The Pitch Decay knob works similarly to the Volume Decay knob except that it makes the pitch drop further and further with each consecutive repeat It s possible to make the repeated sound drop so low in pitch that it becomes inaudible This is a neat tool to use in conjunction with the Volume Decay because you can make your repeats drop in pitch and fade away at the same time Filter This filter functions in the same way as the filter in the Ping Pong Delay except that the repeated sounds are not fed back through this filter When Repeat is on you can engage the filter and choose a specific frequency range for the repeats This can give your repeats a lo fi sound in comparison to the normal part You can even change the filter frequency and width while Repeat is running for even more animation Corpus Corpus is the effect version of Collision see Figure 9 31 It s included when you
195. aw Mode Computer MIDI Keyboard Key and MIDI Map System Performance and MIDI I O MIDI and Computer Keyboard Remote Control Overview File Management Sets and Projects Saving the Live Set Collect All and Save Chapter 4 Making Music in Live Clips and Tracks Creating Tracks Audio Tracks and MIDI Tracks Understanding Clips Adding Files from the Browser Organization and Navigation Recording Recording in Session View Session Record Button Arrangement Record Button Recording in Arrangement View MIDI Overdub Overdubbing in Session View Overdubbing in Arrangement View Recording Automation Using Scenes Arrangement View Recording from Session into Arrangement Back to Arrangement Transport and Navigation Locators and Time Signature Changes Arrangement Editing Automation Editing Fades Exporting Audio Chapter 5 Clips Common Properties of Clips The Clip Box The Launch Box Sample Notes Editing Multiple Clips MIDI Clips Editing MIDI Clips Adjusting the Grid Editing Notes and Velocities MIDI Editing Buttons Quantizing Your Performance Step Recording Program Change Importing and Exporting MIDI Files Audio Clips The Sample Box Warping Clip Modulation Modulating Audio Clip Properties MIDI Controller Envelopes Unlinked Envelopes Audio to MIDI Convert to New MIDI Track Slice to New MIDI Track Groove Chapter 6 Tracks and Signal Routing The Master Track Return Tracks Group Tracks Audio Routing Submixing and Multing Resamp
196. ax for Live can change your world Want to do rhythmic modulation of a reverb s decay time or randomly change the waveform in Operator Piece of cake LFO comes in both an audio effect and a MIDI effect version and both of them have identical basic functionality Either one can be used to control any type of device The only difference is that the MIDI version can respond to MIDI input as well More on this in a moment After dropping LFO into a track click on the Map switch and it will start blinking see Figure 13 12 Now move the control to which you want to assign the LFO This can be a device or mixer parameter in the same track or on another track If you want to assign it to a plug in device parameter you ll have to first make sure that the parameter is visible to Live as explained in the Remote Controlling Plug In Devices section of Chapter 11 Remote Control Figure 13 12 The LFO modulating the Frequency parameter of Erosion Source Ableton As soon as the control is mapped it will become grayed out it can t be adjusted manually while the LFO has control and it will bounce back and forth to show the LFO s modulation Adjusting the LFO itself is very similar to adjusting the LFO on Live s built in devices but the parameters have different names Depth changes the amount of modulation while Rate adjusts the speed Above Rate is a switch that can be switched between Freq and Sync to allow modulatio
197. ay want to experiment with when using transposition for sound design purposes Latency Settings The next section of the Audio tab adjusts a number of settings relating to the buffer size and latency of your soundcard You may need to experiment with these settings a bit to get the best possible performance on your particular computer system Before we get to the experimentation though let s make sure we understand the problem First recognize that there is both output latency and input latency There is a minimum amount of latency that must occur as signal passes through your A D converters into your computer just as there is also a certain amount of time that it takes for your computer to send audio to your soundcard and through the D A converters While this is a very short period of time things are complicated somewhat by the fact that we need our audio to play back without interruption while at the same time our CPU is being interrupted constantly handling myriad other tasks while our audio is playing back This is where buffers come into play If you ve ever used a portable CD player or an iPod with a hard disk in it you ve deal with digital audio buffers before On these devices there is a slight lag between when you press play and when you start to hear the song That s because before you hear anything a certain amount of audio is loaded into the device s memory the buffer and then the audio is played back from the memory
198. ays get better performance with ASIO drivers so you should always choose ASIO on a PC if this option is available Next after Driver Type is the Audio Device setting where you actually choose the specific soundcard you want to use In Windows you will see only a single menu here in Mac OS X you will see separate settings for Audio Input Device and Audio Output Device Theoretically you could choose different devices for input and output in practice however you will probably get the best performance by using a single audio interface at a time so you ll probably want to choose the same device for both input and output If you are not recording you don t need to choose an input device at all Note that you may not find the audio device you want to use when using certain driver types For example the builtin audio cards on laptop computers don t support ASIO so yov ll only find these cards listed when MME DirectX is selected for Driver Type The Channel Configuration settings include two buttons Input Config and Output Config Clicking one of these opens another small pop up window that activates various inputs and outputs on your soundcard for use in Live Only those inputs and outputs that you activate here will appear in Live s other menus and selectors If you don t need to use all of the inputs and outputs you may want to leave them inactive here as doing so will save you a bit of computing power Please note that Live wil
199. b to both of its extremes and then listen to what happens when you bring Envelope down to 300 With a negative Envelope value less distortion is produced for louder sounds bringing back more of the loop s original punch The Tone control determines what frequencies higher or lower are most affected by the tube distortion effect while Drive sets how much of the incoming signal is routed through the tube Setting the Drive control higher will result in a dirtier output The Bias control works in conjunction with the Drive control It determines how much distortion the tube is capable of producing As you turn this up to the top the signal will really start to break apart into dirty fuzzed out noise You can modulate the Bias control with the Envelope controls at right The higher the setting of the Envelope knob the more the Bias setting will be influenced by the level of the input signal You can use the Attack and Release knobs to adjust how quickly the envelope reacts to the input Erosion Erosion uses an unusual method for sonic degradation By rapidly modulating a very short delay time strange distortion artifacts are created The modulator can be Noise Wide Noise or Sine as seen beneath the X Y interface pictured in Figure 9 24 Figure 9 24 Live s Erosion device window primarily taken up by its unusual X Y field Freq Width Amount Source Ableton Depending upon which mode you currently have active Ero
200. be cases where you want to use several controllers and have each one transmit on a different MIDI channel to avoid conflicts There might be a case where you want a button to be momentary sends one message when the button is pushed and another when it is released as opposed to toggle sends one message when pushed and a second message when pushed again These are settings that are set within the controller and cannot be changed from within Live Sometimes this is done with lots of menu diving on the hardware read the manual carefully and sometimes this is done with a software editor generally a much easier task So if creating a highly customized performance setup is a task you need to accomplish you should consider buying at least one controller with a good software editor such as a Korg Nano or any of the controllers from KMI or Livid Some controllers require that you install separate software before you can use them with Live Some such as the Novation LaunchPad won t work at all until a driver is installed while others will work as generic MIDI controllers right out of the box but require additional software installation to allow control surface support with Live Just make sure to the check the manufacturer s website for the latest downloads and yov ll be all set Push Push is Ableton s own dedicated hardware controller for Live Conceived of as an instrument rather than simply a MIDI controller Push focuses h
201. browse through Live s Groove Library After you select a groove you can customize it in the Groove Pool Click the wavy lines above the Clip View to open up the Groove Pool You can also drag grooves directly from the Browser into the Groove Pool ie vL ox ios ox J os 4 Groove Pool Show Hide Groove Pool Hot Swap Clip Groove Clip Groove Source Ableton After you ve selected a groove by double clicking it you should hear it take effect immediately and it will appear in the Groove Pool The Groove Pool displays one row for each groove that is used in the current Set For each groove the following parameters are available gt Base In order to shift the timing of certain beats in a clip Live needs a point of reference For example if Base is set to 1 16 it will examine every 1 16 note chunk of a clip and evaluate how much if at all the accents within it need to be moved to match the timing of the Groove gt Quantize This setting determines how much real time quantization is applied to the clip based on the setting of the Base parameter In other words if Base is set to 1 16 then Live will first quantize the clip to 1 16 notes before making the timing adjustments contained in the Groove file At percentages lower than 100 Live will move each accent only a portion of the way to the nearest 1 16 Doing this allows you to keep some of the clip s original timing before applying the groove to it gt Timing
202. buy Collision or the Live Suite making it the only audio effect that doesn t come with the basic version of Live The majority of the effect is nearly identical to Collision so we ll be focusing on the aspects that differentiate it here Like Collision this effect is only included with Live Suite Figure 9 31 Corpus processes any sound source you want using Collision s resonators The Sidechain section at the left allows you to control the pitch of the resonators via MIDI anson me armoa v mesum v C1 Fier S 26163 Ratio Decay Materai Listeningl io S Fine 50 1326 oe Ga c3 oc Spresd inharm Kos Source Ableton The main difference between Collision and Corpus is that there is no Excitator section This is because the effect uses the input signal to get the virtual resonator vibrating The area that would be used for the Excitator is instead filled by an LFO which controls the pitch of the resonator For more information on how Ableton s LFOs work please consult the Auto Filter and Auto Pan sections of this chapter What makes Corpus really interesting is its Sidechain section which is displayed by clicking the triangular unfold switch in the title bar Unlike the other Sidechain sections we ve looked at this one uses a MIDI track as its source because Corpus can receive MIDI notes to control the pitch of the resonators So for example I could use Collision to produce some unusual re
203. by mechanical sensors it triggered servos to play notes on the piano Viewing MIDI Data The Piano Roll View in Live features a lane for each note on the MIDI scale When looking at Figure 5 13 you ll see an image of a piano keyboard at the left side of the window From each of these keys is a lane extending to the right where notes can be placed Notes placed in these lanes trigger their corresponding key in the scale Turn on Preview to hear notes as you draw or move them Figure 5 13 The MIDI editor can be resized and the piano roll zoomed and scrolled so you can always see what you need to see Fold hides unused lanes _ Drag Here to Resize Preview Drag Here to Zoom or Scroll E 2 a il T Source Ableton You can zoom in and out of the vertical piano keyboard thus allowing you to see more or less of the 128 possible notes in the MIDI scale Zoom in by moving your mouse over the piano keyboard at the left of the window When the mouse changes to a magnifying glass you can drag horizontally to zoom and vertically to scroll To enlarge the editor move your mouse above the editor until it becomes a splitter and then drag upward If you want you can make the editor take up the entire screen and use Shift Tab when you need to see the clip grid or track display INTO THE FOLD Live s MIDI display has a unique feature that hides any lanes that don t contain MIDI data When the Fold button located jus
204. ce Amount and Rate When the device is first loaded it will have a flat line through the middle of its display and you will hear no effect The reason you hear nothing is because the Amount knob is set to 0 As you turn this knob up yov ll hear the sound begin moving left and right The higher you set the Amount knob the wider the left to right movement will be As you increase the Amount knob yov ll also see the graphic begin to change on the Auto Pan interface When the Amount reaches 100 yov ll see two sine curves representing the left and right channels What these curves tell you is that when the left channel is at full volume the right channel will be at its lowest volume see Figure 9 29 As the left channel drops in volume the right channel will rise and vice versa The button below the Amount knob will switch the left and right Pan assignments Normal vs Invert Figure 9 29 By looking at the picture in the Auto Pan window you can see the relationship of the left and right channels over time Auto Pan Source Ableton The Rate will change the speed of the left right motion created by the Auto Pan Yov ll see that as you turn up this knob not only does the left right speed increase but yov ll also see the graphic waveform change in kind The rate can be set in either cycles per second Hz or divisions of the beat the musical note button Phase and Shape Next on the list of Auto Pan controls
205. ces a minimal change for all of the resonators except Membrane and Plate gt Bleed Increasing the Bleed mixes in more of the unprocessed sound of the excitator With Quality set to full this doesn t have much impact since the excitator tends to get lost in the harmonics With Quality set to basic however turning this value up can create some very interesting timbres The only other controls that you may find unfamiliar here are the Structure switches which brings us to an important aspect of Collision You actually have two resonators selectable via the tabs at the top of the interface to work with when designing your sound Structure determines whether the output of Resonator 1 will be sent to Resonator 2 for further processing 1 gt 2 or if both resonators will act in parallel as if they were being struck simultaneously by the same excitator 1 2 By default Resonator 2 is turned off so you ll have to click on its on off switch in the tab if you want it to be used Also you can edit both resonators simultaneously by clicking the link icon in between the two tabs or make both identical by using the Copy button above the Ratio control Be aware that using both resonators especially when running in series can produce some serious gain so be careful when you turn on Resonator 2 The LFO and MIDI Tabs You may think of LFOs as primarily being useful for sounds like strings and pads where you can use them to give a sound motion
206. ck Alternately you can render un freezable tracks by using Resampling or track to track recording as explained in Chapter 6 Next to Unfreeze Track yov ll also see the Flatten command which is used to commit to the frozen version of the track Flatten converts the frozen track into a standard audio track and populates it with the temporary audio clips that were created when the track was first frozen Now you can edit and tweak the audio to your heart s content and even add new effects for further sonic exploration DRAG IT Sometimes you may want to get your hands on some of a track s frozen audio without flattening the track To do this just drag any frozen audio or MIDI clip to an audio track Like magic the frozen audio appears in the new track ready for editing or further effects processing Delay Compensation Just as all devices use CPU power all devices generate latency When a signal passes through an effect it takes the device a small amount of time to perform the processing and the result is a slight delay By default Live compensates for this delay so it s not something you usually have to worry about However because there are rare cases where delay compensation can cause sync problems it can be turned off by unchecking Delay Compensation under the Options menu There are also cases where Live cannot automatically compensate for all of the latency generated by a plug in If this occurs you can use Track Delay
207. ck from the Browser into a track As you can see in Figure 7 15 there s not much to look at in an empty Rack You add devices to the Rack by dropping them directly into the Rack s Chain List or Devices area When a device is first added into a Rack a Chain is automatically created Figure 7 15 An empty Audio Effect Rack Audio Effect Rack ECD a Macro 1 f Maaro 2 Macro 3 maoo 4 gt Macro 6 tomo 7 pai Drop Audio Effects Horo Source Ableton GROUP IT You can also place devices in the Track View into a Rack by using the Group command from the Edit menu or a device s context menu To group multiple devices into a Rack first select all of the devices by Shift clicking their title bars To remove a Rack and leave its individual devices in the track highlight the Rack and select the Ungroup command in the Edit menu or the context menu Chains When adding additional devices to a Rack you can drop them into the Devices area or directly on a Chain However you can also create a new chain by dropping a device into the drop area of the Chain List In Figure 7 16 this is the part of the Chain List that reads Drop MIDI Effects Audio Effects Instruments or Samples Here Figure 7 16 A layered Instrument Rack utilizing two built in instruments and a VST instrument All three instruments will play simultaneously when MIDI input is received The Chain controls are used to balance the levels of the Chains and pan
208. ck while the Input Channel for each audio track is set to an individual drum With these inputs selected the drums will be sent to the individual audio tracks instead of the Impulse track You can now place different effects on each drum or record the drums to separate audio clips or both When working with plug in devices there will typically be an additional step where you must configure the plug in to send different sounds to different virtual outs Consult the plug in documentation for more information Figure 6 10 When Input Type is set to a track containing an instrument with virtual outputs Input Channel will display the individual outs lj Ride AmbientLoudPuncty Stick Mid Medium impulse Source Ableton SUPERGROUP After creating separate tracks to process the virtual outputs of an instrument it is often helpful to group them together by using a Group Track This way you get the best of all worlds individual tracks for each sound a track for group effect processing and volume adjustments and the ability to fold all the tracks into the space of a single track External Outputs So far every technique discussed here has to do with routing signals to various destinations within Live s mixer It s also possible to route tracks directly to physical outputs on your interface To do this select Ext Output as a track s Output Type and set Output Channel to a specific output One common scenario for routing to
209. cking the start marker so the timeline above the waveform makes sense in relationship to the rest of your clips Figure 12 3 With this song the tempo is correct but the song starts exactly one beat late peta et pt t pte 73 p59 aD 34 Dd p39 33 p34 ee SR p43 44 pE BH S92 94 6 OD Od O04 oF 1 8 Source Ableton Just like everything else becoming a warping master takes practice Different tracks require different tweaks to get them just right The techniques described previously will work for the majority of music you will encounter however there will be cases where you need to warp your audio from scratch Let s take a look at that next Manual Warping The best way to begin warping a song manually is by tapping to figure out the tempo as closely as possible Start by turning off the Warp button in the Clip View This will make the clip play at its original speed regardless of the tempo of your Live Set Launch the clip and begin tapping along with the song using the Tap Tempo button For better accuracy map this button instead of clicking with the mouse Since Live s Tempo display is accurate to two decimal places yov ll probably get tempos like 125 82 BPM or 98 14 BPM instead of round numbers like 110 BPM or 85 BPM After you ve got the rough tempo zoom in and move the Start flag to the first clear downbeat of the song Then right click on Start and select Set 1 1 1 Here If you re working with material that you
210. cks in the arrangement The unfolded track can be resized easily by dragging up or down at the bottom edge of the track s Mixer section While keeping tracks folded is convenient for getting an overview of your arrangement unfolded tracks are easier to edit When a track is unfolded a miniature waveform or MIDI display is revealed for the clips I ll be referring to this area as the display and the colored bar above it as the title bar of the clip These aren t official Ableton terms but we ve got to call them something Insert Marker and Arrangement Selection Unfolded clips are easier to edit because you can click within the display to place the insert marker or click and drag to select a range of time within the clip called the arrangement selection If you want to make a selection within a folded track you ll have to hold down Alt Shift while clicking In the upcoming sections these will be mentioned quite a bit and you ll see why they are important To place the insert marker click anywhere in the track display except in the title bar of a clip see Figure 4 22 If you click in the title bar of a clip the entire clip gets highlighted and you set the arrangement selection instead see Figure 4 23 The arrangement selection can also be set by clicking and dragging in the track display To extend an existing selection Shift click at the location you would like to extend it to Figure 4 22 The Insert Marker shows up as
211. cks need to be based on sample playback You can just as easily drop a synth onto a pad and use synthesis to create your drum sounds Once you ve picked out some samples or synths and gotten a basic drum kit together you can start customizing your sounds with effects Drop a Saturator into your snare chain to add some extra bite or a Velocity device into your hi hat chain to generate some random velocity variations See where this is going Your Drum Racks can become completely customized beasts with features that can rival any drum program out there Your imagination is really the only limit It s also important to note here that a pad isn t limited to triggering only one sampler or synth Want to create a sound that consists of several layers of samples or synths or both No problem You can create a layered sound in one step Simply drag samples or devices to a pad while holding down Cmd Mac or Ctrl PC Live will automatically create a nested rack with one chain for each sample or device see Figure 8 25 Triggering the pad will play all of the chains simultaneously Figure 8 25 Here s a chain in a Drum Rack that triggers both a kick drum sample and an Operator for some lowend madness instrument Rack oe a e a rey wer EEA Sj viens oes c_4 4 15 Ol Operator Hesse lt _ss1 n Source Ableton MIX IT UP As your Drum Racks grow in size and complexity you may want to u
212. clip to detect pitches and transients and generate a MIDI sequence from them This sequence can then be used to trigger the sound of your choice So for example you could record yourself singing a melody and then convert it to a MIDI track and have the melody played by a synthesizer Generally speaking you shouldn t expect this feature to extract parts from fully mixed songs It s much more well suited to converting individual parts It s also best not to expect a high degree of precision in the conversions although you may sometimes The conversion process is very sensitive to a wide variety of factors and it s better to expect a conversion to give you a Starting point rather than a finished product On the other hand as a tool for generating raw material that you ll make new parts out of you may have a lot of fun with this feature Take a melody and convert it using the drum s algorithm or the harmony algorithm for example Obviously not everything you get from intentionally misusing the technology will be great but occasionally it will get the creative juices flowing The basics of using these commands is very simple Right click on an audio clip and choose Convert Harmony to New MIDI track Convert Melody to New MIDI track or Convert Drums to New MIDI track depending on the audio you re converting All of the methods create a new track with a default instrument loaded and a new MIDI clip generated from the analysis Afte
213. configuration If you make a mistake as you go just hold down the footswitch for two seconds to Undo or Redo When stopped holding the button for two seconds will clear out Looper completely The configuration options are many Before these next experiments stop the sequencer and click the Clear button to empty out Looper Now let s say that you want the second press of the MultiFunction Transport to take you into Play mode instead of directly into Overdub Scan your eyes over to the right where you l see Record lt x bars gt Then lt gt Click the plus sign You ll see it change into a Play icon and you re done Or try changing x bars to 2 bars Now you can start up Live playing back a click or a drum loop and a single click of the big button will record for two bars and jump automatically into the next mode Just below you ll see a menu labeled Song Control Imagine that you want a double click to stop not just the Looper but also all clips playing back in Live Change this menu to Start amp Stop Song and you re all set With one footswitch you can begin recording a loop automatically have Live start playing back prerecorded loops in time with your loop overdub additional layers and then stop the entire song By now you may have also realized that some of Looper s functions are quantized just like clips That s what the Quantize menu below the Multi Function Transport is for This is very usefu
214. context menu DUB STYLE There s loads of fun to be had with delay effects in Return tracks For example place a Ping Pong Delay in Return A with a fairly high Feedback setting Now momentarily crank the Send knob up and down for various tracks in your song to create dramatic effects on individual drum hits or other musical phrases Use this technique as a live performance effect or record the Send movements as automation in the studio Third Party Plug Ins While Live offers an impressive collection of devices right out of the box you may also want to use plug in effects and instruments from other manufacturers Live supports the VST and Audio Units Mac OS X only plug in standards allowing limitless expansion possibilities for your virtual studio Plug in effects and instruments are not separated into multiple views as they are with the built in devices To tell them apart notice that plug in instruments have a small piano keyboard in their Browser icon while effects do not see Figure 7 7 Audio Units are automatically organized by manufacturer while VSTs can be manually organized by creating folders in the VST plug in folder This can t be done in the Browser so yov ll have to use your computer s file management system Figure 7 7 The piano keyboard lets you know that Kontakt 5 is an instrument Guitar Rig 5 is an effect F Guitar Rig 5 Kontakt 5 Source Ableton Unlike built in devices plug ins use
215. cord Session View only This is a multi function button that works in close conjunction with the Push controller but is used without Push as well It is used to record new clips as well as to overdub MIDI and automation These topics are covered in the Recording section of Chapter 4 gt Prepare Scene for New Recording Session View only This button was also created with Push in mind but it can be used without it It s only enabled when a non empty scene is selected and at least one track is armed for recording Clicking it immediately gives youa clean slate you re moved to an empty scene and any playing clips in armed tracks are stopped immediately Punch In Out and Arrangement Loop This section of Live s Control Bar shown in Figure 3 20 is used in conjunction with the Arrangement View The first box displays a number indicating the loop s starting point while the last box shows the length In other words Figure 3 20 shows us that the loop starts at the beginning of bar 111 and is 28 bars long This is also displayed graphically in the Arrangement by a brace that appears over the looped bars In the center of this section is the Loop switch When depressed the loop is activated and the Arrangement will indefinitely repeat the portion of the timeline defined by the position and length values just mentioned The bent lines on both sides of the Loop switch are called punch points These can be used to automatically enable
216. ctice of multisampling could fill an entire large book on its own Setting up the intricate sample mapping required to accurately re create the sound and feel of a complex acoustic instrument like a violin is an advanced topic that we can t really cover here in any depth That s OK because the main reason you encounter multisampling is with presets such as Live s Grand Piano There are other simpler creative uses of multisampling as well which you can use to create your own sounds that have nothing to do with emulating acoustic instruments Looking at the Sampler interface yov ll see that its functions are organized into a number of different tabs including Zone Sample Pitch Osc Filter Global Modulation and MIDI Let s have a look at each of these and see how they work The Zone Tab Clicking the Zone tab brings up Sampler s Zone Editor It s used to map samples across key and velocity ranges and it appears above the main Sampler interface as seen earlier in Figure 8 9 The Zone Editor opens in its own special window directly above the Track View Figure 8 9 The Zone Editor showing key zones with crossfades Source Ableton On the left side of the Zone Editor is the sample layer list All of the individual samples belonging to a given instrument will appear here referred to as layers For very large multisampled instruments this list might be hundreds of layers long Note that selecting any layer by clicking it
217. cting Split in the Mode menu above This allows you to load two different impulses simultaneously one for the early reflections and one for the reverb tail The right side of the Pro version can be unfolded to expose several different editors for further tweaking Damping lets you change the characteristics of the reverb by adjusting which frequencies are absorbed or reflected by the space while Modulation can be used to apply subtle pitch effects or full on chorus Shape gives you control over the level of the early reflections and allows you to tweak the length of the impulse response with fades All of these options make for some very interesting sound design possibilities but be aware that convolution uses some serious processing power and each of these modules adds more to the burden Disable any modules you re not using to save power Even using the standard version of this effect you ll find it to be a bit heavy on the CPU Consider using it on a return track and share the reverb between multiple tracks Alternately use it as an insert and then Freeze and Flatten the track Doing so opens up all sorts of fun editing possibilities Try it Adding More Devices A quick Internet search for Max for Live devices will reveal numerous sites where additional devices can be downloaded many of them for free Max for Live devices are files with an extension of axmd Strictly speaking they can be dragged from anywhere on your hard driv
218. d Treble controls adjust the lows mids and highs respectively with Presence acting as an additional high end adjustment for adjusting the sparkle The Presence knob varies quite a bit in the various amp models so make sure to experiment Cabinet In the real world the signal coming out of a guitar amplifier is almost always passed into a speaker cabinet where its output is then captured by a microphone In the virtual world of Live you can achieve this same effect by placing the Cabinet effect after Amp When Amp is run on its own without Cabinet see Figure 9 28 you ll notice that it produces some very intense treble frequencies just like a real guitar amp would One of the first things yov ll notice when adding Cabinet to the signal path is the taming of these intense high frequencies and the imparting of a mellower characteristic to the sound Figure 9 28 Amp s best buddy Cabinet Source Ableton The first parameter for adjusting the sound is the Speaker menu The configurations in this menu follow the convention lt number of speakers gt x lt speaker size gt So for example 4 x 10 means a cabinet with four 10 inch speakers in it Selecting a speaker configuration is much more art than science although you may notice that the 12 speakers reproduce a bit more low end than the 10 ones The 4 x 10 Bass cabinet reproduces the most high end sound of the bunch as it models a style of bass cabinet that contains tweet
219. d Button The Arrangement Record button also handles several functions see Figure 4 7 It s used to record new clips in the Arrangement View as well as to overdub automation and MIDI Arrangement Record is also used to initiate recording clips from Session into Arrangement This might sound like a lot and it is Figure 4 7 Arrangement Record is used to record new clips into the Arrangement Like Session Record it also has several other functions that are discussed later in this chapter ie Source Ableton Depending on your workflow you l probably use some of these functions more than others So as you get familiar with the Live workflow all of this will make sense eventually For starters though you Il want to take some extra time to familiarize yourself with each of these functions as they are explained in the upcoming sections Recording in Arrangement View If you ve made recordings in just about any other DAW from Pro Tools to Garageband this way of working will be familiar To record clips into the Arrangement View just arm a track and click Arrangement Record To stop recording you can click Arrangement Record again disarm the track or simply press the spacebar In addition to allowing the type of recording described here Arrangement Record also causes clips to be recorded from the Session into the Arrangement which can take some getting used to If you want to avoid this behavior make sure that there aren
220. d as well see Figure 7 25 Figure 7 25 A frozen track in the Arrangement View Notice the slashes to the right of the clip indicating the tail of a delay effect Right clicking on a frozen track reveals the Unfreeze and Flatten commands in the context menu svn C isle Pg Pong Oe om e a Flatten a_i Source Ableton What happens behind the scenes is that Live disables all of the clips and devices in the track and plays back the temporary audio files instead All standard editing functions Cut Paste Duplicate Consolidate etc and most track controls output routing volume pan etc still work but most detailed editing such as changing device or clip parameters is impossible Adding new devices to frozen tracks is prohibited as well If you need to tweak frozen parameters you can unfreeze the track again right click the track and select Unfreeze Track to immediately restore the track to its original state You can now use the track as normal and refreeze the track when you re done CAN T FREEZE Be aware that there are a few cases in which tracks can t be frozen and you ll get an error message explaining why the track can t be frozen If you get an error because you re using a sidechained device such as Compressor you can work around this by first grouping the track you want to freeze see Group Tracks in Chapter 4 Making Music in Live and moving the sidechained device to the Group Tra
221. d drives minimizing strain playing live Permanent Scrub Areas Phase knob Phaser Piano Roll View pianos See also instruments Electric plug ins Pickup section Electric Tension Ping Pong Delays Pinky style Arpeggiator Pitch pitch loops Random shifting Velocity Pitch Bend parameter Pitch Envelope controls pitches remapping Pitch Osc tab Sampler Pitch parameter Pitch section Operator Simpler Places section Browser window Play Again option Play at Double Tempo button Play at Half Tempo button playback See also launching Arrangement Record Clip Update Rate cursors Drum Rack loops overdubbing positioning Sample Offset modulation Simpler Start button Play button Play First Last option playing live bands Hybrid DJ performance techniques Play Order style Arpeggiator plug ins Amp Beat Repeat Cabinet Corpus devices Dynamic Tube EQ Erosion External Audio Effect Filter Delay Flanger Frequency Shifter Grain Delay Looper Overdrive Phaser Ping Pong Delay Push Redux remote control Resonators Reverb Saturator Simple Delay sources Spectrum storing Track View Utility Vinyl Distortion Vocoder windows Plug ins category polarity Poles control Portamento parameter Position control positioning playback post faders pre faders preferences configuring Prepare Scene for New Recording button presets adding Audio Unit devices dumps exporting
222. d may want to listen to a Click track which is a metronome sound synchronized with the parts in your song Usually this amounts to nothing more than turning on Live s metronome and setting the Cue output to a pair of headphones like we did in the DJ example earlier The drummer will usually be the one who needs the click He ll play along with the metronome in the headphones and the band will play along with him As a result you all play together with Live Of course since everything is tempo synced in Live you could use a regular drum loop as the click track Instead of turning on the metronome load a drum loop onto a track and send it to the headphones Some musicians will find it easier to play against a drum loop as opposed to the generic metronome sound Tap Tempo Along with playing to Live s click track you can make Live play to your click track Assign a MIDI button or key to Live s Tap Tempo button As your band plays you can tap in your tempo and Live will follow it A drummer can assign an electronic trigger to the Tap Tempo and then tap a few beats here and there to keep Live in sync COUNT OFF Give Live four taps as you count off the beginning of your song Live will start on the down beat along with the rest of your band and it will continue playing at the tempo you tapped Live Effects Besides being a flexible backup player for your band Live can also act as a flexible effects box There are more and
223. d next Source Ableton Clip Activator The circular power switch in the upper left corner can be used to disable the clip This is handy if you want to leave a clip in place but signify that it is not being used It is particularly useful when working in Arrangement View because it will allow you to mute a clip but leave it in place in case it is needed later Clips can also be deactivated by selecting them and pressing zero on your computer keyboard or by selecting Deactivate Clip from the context menu Clip Name and Color The first two settings in the Clip section see Figure 5 2 are purely cosmetic they have no impact on the behavior or sound of the clip The first field is the Clip Name which can be as many characters as you want Clips can also be named using the Rename command and colors can be selected by right clicking on a clip and using the color chooser If you create a clip by dragging a file from the Browser the clip will be named the same as the file When you record a new clip it will be given the name of the track in which it is created To help keep multiple takes recordings in order Live adds a number to the beginning of the clip and file name as each new one is created If you use long clip names you ll only see the first nine characters in Session View when using the default track width This can be remedied by dragging the right edge of a track s title bar to widen the track Clip color may see
224. ddle of a drum hit causing it to be chopped into two separate drum pads in the resulting MIDI track If this happens examine the transients and right click on any that you think are unnecessary and use the Delete Transient s command For completely customized beat slicing use Warp Marker as the slicing division after placing a Warp Marker at each segment you would like sliced Groove Before we get too far into discussing Live s groove features let s talk a little bit about the concept of groove in general Simply put musical parts that have a certain amount of rhythmic variation or imprecision as well as changes in dynamics often have a more compelling feel than parts that are perfectly quantized and even in volume This is not to say that absolute precision always sounds bad but sometimes it s useful to contrast extremely tight tracks against looser ones There are also cases where a robot like beat is just the thing It all depends on the musical context Using music technology to adjust the timing of a beat automatically is not new Many classic drum machines like Roland s TR 909 have a shuffle control The shuffle control delays certain beats of a sequence to create a shuffle or swing feel A swing is a very simple type of groove To create a 1 8th note swing all you have to do is slightly delay every other 1 8th note in a beat starting with the second The more you delay the alternate 1 8th notes the more intense the sw
225. de an effort to draw attention to the most important aspects of each instrument to help you through the hardest part of the learning curve Bear in mind that sound design and synthesis are subjects that go far beyond the discussion of any individual instrument If you re new to this topic you may want to explore the excellent and free Sound on Sound series Synth Secrets located on the Web at www soundonsound com sos allsynthsecrets htm Modulation Modulation is just a fancy term for changing something For example instead of saying that you got a great sound by repeatedly changing the filter frequency you can impress your friends by talking about your awesome filter modulation Modulation always has a source and a destination In the above example the filter s cutoff frequency is the destination The source could be an instrument s built in envelope or LFO or it could be a standard MIDI message such as velocity or pitch bend In all of Live s instruments yov ll find numeric boxes that are used to specify modulation amounts For example in Figure 8 1 you ll see a Volume knob with a box below marked Velocity This box is used to specify how much a note s velocity will affect the instrument s volume At zero every note will come out at the same volume regardless of how hard you bang on your MIDI controller As you increase this value you find the instrument starts to behave like a piano the harder you strike a key
226. dio Preferences generates a test tone sine wave so you can test your system You can also adjust the volume and frequency of the test tone using the other parameters in this section Here are the steps for testing your system 1 Turn on the test tone 2 Set the CPU Usage Simulator to its maximum value 80 3 Decrease the buffer size until you start to hear crackling or dropouts in the test tone 4 Increase the buffer size until these artifacts go away This test will yield a buffer size that will guarantee smooth audio performance in almost all situations This will be a good value to use for live performance where stability is paramount For situations where you need lower latency you can test with a lower simulated CPU usage or as long as you are working in the studio just lower the buffer size as low as you want it and increase it if you have problems MIDI Sync This brings us to the third Preferences tab the MIDI Sync tab shown in Figure 2 3 This is where you enable or disable MIDI devices and specify how they are used in Live Figure 2 3 The MIDI Sync tab found in Live s Preferences box eeeneciacheals 090000 D Input Analog Experience The Piayer on om C or gt input Launchpad input Launchpad On J on JC or D Input nanoKONTROL SLIDERKNOB Of Of J On gt Output Analog Experience The Player On JC om JC om D Output Launchpad Output Launchpad Om J _ om J om D Output nanoKONTROL CTRL Con L
227. dio and MIDI performances into Live MIDI clips can also be created by double clicking in an empty clip slot or by selecting Insert MIDI Clip from the Create menu Audio clips refer to audio files They do not contain them A clip merely contains the information necessary for Live to play an audio file from disk However audio clips have all sorts of special properties such as the ability to flexibly adjust the pitch and tempo of the audio Not only that but you can also create many different clips from the same audio file without needing multiple copies of the audio on your hard disk A single audio file can be referenced from as many clips as you want each having its own parameters loop points transposition Warp markers automation and so on This ability to duplicate chop and mangle clips all day without affecting the underlying audio file is sometimes referred to as nondestructive editing and it is one of the things that makes Live and every other modern DAW so powerful However this fact also warrants a few words of caution Should a referenced audio file become altered by another application such as a wave editor each clip that used that file will now play with the same alteration If you delete the file that is referenced by a clip the clip and any other clips that used that file won t play anymore This is why it can be very important to use Collect All and Save see Chapter 3 to copy audio files into your project folder in o
228. dits to the preset and press the Save Preset button again just press Enter without typing a new name to overwrite the preset with your new settings Figure 7 10 When you save a preset it goes to the User Library You can create folders to organize them however you want PLACES v 0 NewProsets o Packs v Ovals dok User Library t a Pad Current Project gt Purple C Library Sounds gt 7 Scathing 7 Sounds H Op Saw Pad adg Add Folder Sj Rad aupreset Source Ableton The User Library can be organized in any way you like Right click to bring up the context menu and select New Folder then drag around the presets just like you would in your computer s file management system Make a folder for your favorite factory presets and another for your own or organize them by type of sound or by the colors the sound makes It s up to you NAME GAME If you name your preset folders to match those of Live s built in preset folders for example Ambient amp Evolving Bass Pad and so on your presets will automatically appear alongside the factory presets in the Categories area of the Browser If you right click in the title bar of a built in device you ll see an additional way to save a preset the Save as Default Preset command If you select this the device s current settings will be saved and used whenever a device is added to a track Managing VST Presets The preset ma
229. e Ableton thought about this too and as a result we have Vinyl Distortion see Figure 9 26 Figure 9 26 Live s Vinyl Distortion effect hopes to make you miss your turntable just a little bit less BY on fo 14 real 127 He JB8 3 00 Source Ableton Vinyl Distortion is divided into three separate sections Tracing Model Crackle and Pinch While the controls for Tracing Model and Pinch look identical each section generates a totally different sound Also note that the Soft Hard and Stereo Mono switches are also a part of the Pinch effect If Pinch is off these controls will remain grayed out inactive Tracing Model adds a subtle amount of harmonic distortion to your audio as a means of simulating wear and tear on vinyl or an old stylus To adjust the intensity of the distortion increase the Drive by moving the yellow circle along the Y axis which ranges from 0 00 to 1 00 Adjust the frequency of the harmonic on the X axis which ranges from 50Hz to 18kHz or input a value manually by typing in the box To adjust the size of the bandwidth you are affecting hold down Alt Option and click drag forward or backward on the yellow circle The Pinch section of Vinyl Distortion is a more drastic and wild sounding distortion at the input level The resulting richer stereo image is from Pinch s 180 degrees out of phase harmonic distortions Like the Tracing Model you can increase the intensity of the distortion through the Y axis Th
230. e control They are useful to have in device format because they allow you to place these functions anywhere in any signal path For example many producers avoid using automation on the Mixer s volume control and automate the Gain knob on a Utility device instead This leaves the Mixer volume as a final stage where overall volume adjustments can be made without disturbing the automation DC is a high pass filter for removing extremely low frequencies below the audible range Channel Mode Panorama and Width Channel mode gives you complete flexibility over which portion of a stereo signal is utilized and the option of swapping the left and right channels as well Let s say you have a stereo file and you want to use only the left channel Setting this menu to Left outputs the left channel on both sides as if it were a mono signal Panorama is a simple pan control Width is useful because it allows you to change the balance of the middle purely mono information to the sides information that is unique to the left and right channels At 200 all mono information is eliminated leaving only the purely stereo At 0 the inverse is true This control is useful for checking mono compatibility adjusting the stereo width of a signal or for building custom Mid Side processors using Audio Effect Racks Phase The bottom switches allow you to separately invert the phase of both the left and right channels This comes in handy to correct
231. e it should be A Dry Wet control here sets the amount of effect being heard When the Soft Clip button is activated an additional instance of the Analog Clip curve will be applied to the final output HI QUALITY Saturator Flanger and Dynamic Tube all have a Hi Quality mode that can be turned on by right clicking in the title bar and selecting Hi Quality from the context menu This mode reduces aliasing and produces a sweeter tone in the high frequencies but uses a little more CPU power Dynamic Tube The Dynamic Tube effect models the distinct effect that vacuum tubes can have on audio see Figure 9 23 It doesn t really sound like most distortion effects It can provide some extremely subtle effects somewhere between compression and distortion while its more aggressive settings sound like equipment malfunctioning Figure 9 23 The Dynamic Tube saturation effect Dynamic Tube o Dry Wet Envetope 100 E Output 33 g z Attack A B c 0 00 68 20 0 ms Drive Tone Bias oa Release 6 7168 0 02 15 29 0 ms Source Ableton This effect allows you to choose between three different tube models A B and C with C being the most distortion prone tube and A being the cleanest of the bunch With Bias set at 0 tube A won t produce any distortion at all It can however produce some very hot sounding compression To get familiar with Dynamic Tube try it out on a drum loop Sweep the Tone kno
232. e Auto Pan Set its Rate to 1 8 shape to 100 Phase to 0 degrees Offset to 270 degrees and Waveform to sine As you increase the Amount knob you begin to hear the track volume jump up and down in 1 8 note steps in sync with the song Turn up Amount to 100 and you ll have chopped the song into tiny Slices For a really crazy effect try slightly altering the Phase knob When the two waveforms are just slightly out of phase you ll hear each strobe zip across your speakers as one side is turned on just slightly before the other Beat Repeat Glitch heads rejoice Ableton brings you the Beat Repeat device see Figure 9 30 Now you can produce the classic beat stutter with the push of a button or even cause repeats to happen randomly Figure 9 30 Th Th Th This dev v v v ice is sw ee ee ee ee t Source Ableton Grid and Variation You set the size or length of the repeated segment with the Grid knob Turn on Repeat and try tweaking this knob Yov ll hear the Repeat size change in real time an awesome effect for remixing The No Trp button will remove the triplet values when scrolling through the grid sizes which is handy if you want to keep all the rhythmic repeats in sync The Variation knob just to the right of the Grid knob introduces randomness to the grid size When set to 0 the grid will always be what you ve set with the Grid knob As this value increases Live automatically changes the grid based
233. e Tone knob which is a handy way to tame high frequencies Sometimes a sound will sound okay at one pitch but may sound harsh when played an octave or two higher This is because FM synthesis is capable of producing extremely high overtones which may sound unpleasant Grab the Tone knob to get this under control Within the display for the Global Settings below the algorithms is Operator s routing matrix This setting allows many different parameters to be modulated in a variety of ways making this synthesizer dramatically more powerful than it was before The first item to notice here is located in the Connection B column and is marked Pitch This is the Pitch Bend range which is explained in the Global Parameters section Running vertically along the left side of the display are the various modulators that Operator can respond to Velocity Key Aftertouch Pitch Bend and Mod Wheel The menus and numeric values that appear across each row are for routing these modulators to specific parameters For example let s say you want the velocity of incoming notes to control the overall volume of Operator To do this just set Connection A in the Velocity row to Volume and set Amount A to specify how velocity sensitive you want the volume to be 70 is a good default value Now what if you want the velocity to control the waveshaper too so as you play harder the notes also become more distorted No problem just set Amount B to Sh
234. e X axis will configure the frequency range You will want to pay special attention to the Soft Hard boxes to the right of the X Y interface in the Pinch section Soft mode is engineered to sound like an actual dub plate acetate while Hard mode will sound more like a standard vinyl record Also the Stereo Mono switch applies to the Pinch effect only No vinyl simulator would be complete without a vinyl pop and crackle effect Crackle provides two simple controls Volume and Density Volume is obviously the level of the hiss and crackle in the mix Density adds a thicker amount of noise to the output Note that you will hear the crackle and hiss whether Live is in playback mode or not Miscellaneous This last section of devices covers Live s more esoteric and hard to classify plug ins Some of these could have been squeezed into other sections of this chapter but they are all unique enough that it made sense to give them their own section Amp and Cabinet Amp and Cabinet are two completely independent effects designed by the modeling wizards at Softube While they can certainly be used separately they are designed to go hand in hand Amp models the signal path of several classic guitar and bass amplifiers while Cabinet reproduces the sound of a variety of speaker cabinet and microphone combinations These two effects are included with Live Suite only Guitar amplifiers and speaker cabinets both real and virtual have long been part of m
235. e a song is going The beauty of Live is that moving to the Arrangement View doesn t mean you have to be done with the Session View You can continue returning to it to compose new ideas and experiment with old ones If you re only using Live as a performance platform the Arrangement will likely be of secondary importance to you However there are many exceptions to this There are some performers who organize performances using the Arrangement View and take advantage of Live s unique locators which can be launched like clips There are also certain types of editing that are impossible in the Session so you may end up using the Arrangement to prepare clips for performance There are a few methods for getting clips into the Arrangement You can add files from the Browser and record new clips just like you would in the Session Or you can use the fun and interactive process of recording clips from the Session View Recording from Session into Arrangement When Live 1 0 first hit the scene there were two features that immediately made it stand out The improvisational Session View really made eyes pop But no less significant was the ability to perform with Session clips and capture every move every launched clip mixer adjustment and device tweak into the traditional timeline of the Arrangement View To this day it remains a uniquely fun and musical way to compose with a computer Let s take a look at the process Start off by clic
236. e and dropped into a Set Realistically however you ll be much better off if you keep them all located in one place Making a folder in your User Library is the easiest bet When moving a Set to a different computer any Max devices used in the Set must be included with the project The Collect All and Save command handles this for you so as long as you execute this command before moving the Project folder yov ll be all set Parting Thoughts As you can imagine there are many more tricks and tips still waiting for you to discover There are as many different ways of working with Live as there are different kinds of music The more time you spend experimenting the more you will discover what works for you And that s really all that matters There s no right way to work with Live just different methods some of which you will find more efficient and inspirational Also check out Ableton s user forum which will teach you that no matter what you ve learned someone else is doing things totally differently Sometimes you ll pick up tricks that will greatly enhance your workflow and sometimes yov ll just be reminded that finding your own way is the most important thing of all Either way you re invited to share your ideas and interact with other Live users It s a great community to be a part of Please visit me at hobo tech com for my latest Live tips and musical releases Feel free to drop a note and let me know
237. e available fields when editing multiple clips The Transpose Detune Velocity and Volume settings of audio clips however can be adjusted by a relative amount For example if the Transpose setting of one clip is 2 and another is 3 turning up the Transpose knob 2 ticks while selecting both clips will result in the first clip being set to 0 while the second clip is set to 5 To reset a control of all selected clips to the default value select the control and press Delete MIDI Clips If you re using Live to compose music you l probably be using MIDI clips extensively Whether you re performing with a controller or drawing in parts from scratch you ll need to know your way around the MIDI clip In this section we ll take a closer look at their properties and at MIDI editing in particular Editing MIDI Clips MIDI is incredibly flexible Recorded notes can be effortlessly transposed to different pitches extended or shortened and moved to a different location in time When you edit MIDI clips in Live you not only have the ability to change the notes that were recorded but also to create new ones by hand In fact many producers prefer to draw parts directly into the clips instead of playing them when programming drum parts for example It allows them to create specific performances such as perfectly repeating 1 16 notes that are all the same duration and velocity Editing data by hand also allows you to create precise au
238. e best way to get a feel for the different waveshapes is to crank up the Amount add a bit of resonance and listen The bottom two waveshapes are random sample and hold the first one being mono while the second one generates separate random values for the left and right channels When the Phase control is set to 180 degrees the LFO will generate opposite modulations for the left and right channels creating a stereo effect In other words as the frequency of the left channel is increased the frequency of the right channel is decreased Increasing or decreasing the Phase will bring the phase relationship of the left and right LFOs closer together until eventually they become identical The Rate control can be adjusted in Hertz by clicking the Hz switch or synchronized to the tempo by clicking the switch with the note icon Depending on which you select there are different options available for the Phase control When Rate is set to Hertz two switches appear near the Phase knob When the lower switch is clicked the Spin knob appears Spin changes the speed of the left and right LFOs relative to each other creating a swirling effect When Rate is set to tempo sync the Offset knob appears This can be used to create some interesting rhythmic effects As you increase the Offset you shift peaks and troughs of the LFO off the beat instead of right on it Envelope The Envelope knob determines how much the input signal s volume will modulate t
239. e both filters and both amps turned on and that both of your oscillators are routed to Filter 1 only Filter 1 is set to send 100 of its signal to Filter 2 This causes the output of Filter 1 to be sent both to Amp 1 and Filter 2 because the To F2 control is a send it taps the signal and passes it to the second filter without interrupting the signal flow to Amp 1 This means that if you want to truly hear the filters operate in series you need to turn Amp 1 off completely Now the signal will flow from Filter 1 to Filter 2 to Amp 2 and then on to the master output If you leave Amp 1 turned on yov ll hear a combination of the output of Filter 1 along with the output of Filter 1 and Filter 2 running in series Filter 2 features a Slave switch which allows its cutoff frequency to be controlled from Filter 1 With Slave enabled the Frequency control of Filter 2 controls the difference between the two cutoff frequencies This could be used to create a dual filter with two peaks that are always the same distance apart Then whenever Filter 1 is modulated whether manually or by an LFO Filter 2 will follow it With either of the filters selected Analog s display will display options for the envelope see below as well as a few other options Selecting a drive mode will cause the filter to overdrive with the Asymmetrical modes tending to create a more harmonically rich sounding distortion and the Symmetrical modes being a bit on the nast
240. e devices anywhere in a device chain or a Rack Looper Ableton creating an effect called Looper may sound like a strange and redundant thing After all isn t Live already known for being a looping monster Well Looper was designed to deal with the fact that folks who record loops on the fly using instruments or voice have some very specific needs that haven t always been addressed by Live Lots of people have used Live in this way over the past few years but it s often required various hacks and work arounds to get it to behave more like some of the popular hardware loopers Rather than exhaustively documenting every single feature of Looper the Looper section in Live s manual is outstanding I m going to focus here on taking you through a few practical experiments so you can really understand what this device is all about To get started with Looper quickly drop it into an empty audio track and focus on the extra large button called the Multi Purpose Transport see Figure 9 38 It starts by displaying a Record icon Arm the track for recording or set Monitor to In and spend a moment picking a tempo in your head Do not start playback in Live just click the large button while simultaneously starting to count your tempo into a microphone 1 2 3 4 After a bar or two click the button again Once you ve done this you should notice a few very interesting things First Live s sequencer is now running and you should hea
241. e frequency Since this effect can change pitch so dramatically it often works well on sources where it is not important to retain a specific tonality Make sure to give it a workout on drums and percussion Resonators Similar to Corpus when a sound is fed through the Resonators it causes a set of virtual resonators to start vibrating or creating a tone at their set pitches and volumes see Figure 9 33 Even though this effect has quite a few controls it s conceptually much simpler than Corpus Figure 9 33 The Resonators device will start generating pitches based on an input signal Resonator Additional Stereo Base Settings Resonators Speed Filter i Curves f Source Ableton To begin crank the Dry Wet mix knob fully clockwise to isolate the sound of the resonators Turn off the Input filter so a full range sound is feeding the device Adjust the settings for Resonator I first since the other four resonators base their tones and pitches on the first You ll see that you have control of the decay of the resonators best heard on sparse percussion tracks as well as the color and pitch Once the first resonator is set engage the other resonators and use the Pitch knobs to set their frequencies relative to the first This makes it simple to create chords using multiple resonators then transpose them all using the first resonator s Pitch knob Resonators II and III and Resonators IV and V can be panned apart from each other
242. e note with 100 being attack only 100 being release only and 0 being both To hear what the Damper section is doing it s easiest if you crank the Att Rel knob to 0 or greater so it sounds when the note is released The damper noise on the attack is much harder to hear since it is masked by the attack of the piano Also it s important to note that the amount of damper noise heard can be affected greatly by the Pickup settings Pickup Much like an electric guitar the vibrations produced by a mallet striking fork are converted into an electrical signal through the use of a pickup so they can be amplified The Pickup section customizes the design and position of the pickup which has a huge impact on the final sound Before looking at the knobs you want to turn your attention to the pickup type the R and W buttons in the lower left hand corner of the Pickup section When set to W the pickups have the high end bite typical of the electrostatic pickups in a Wurlitzer piano The R setting has the pronounced mids and full low end associated with a Rhodes piano s magnetic pickups To get familiar with the Symm and Distance controls start out with Distance at 100 and Symm at 0 Symm controls the pickup s symmetry in relation to the fork At 50 the pickup is centered directly in front of the tine Moving the knob to the left moves the pickup increasingly above the tine emphasizing the higher harmonics while moving it to the rig
243. e notes this same amount by typing the new bottom pitch in this case F2 or the new top pitch preceded by a minus sign C3 Play at Double Tempo Half Tempo These buttons can be used to exactly halve or double the playback speed and the duration of selected notes If no notes are selected all of the notes are adjusted as is the clip s loop length The first thing you might notice about them is that their markings seem counterintuitive The reason that Play at Half Tempo is marked 2 is that playing something at half tempo means it takes twice as long to play Reverse and Invert Want to hear what your MIDI sequence sounds like backward or upside down These buttons have got you covered The results that these buttons produce are often in the strange and twisted category but sometimes that s just what you need Like the double half buttons these operate on selected notes or the entire clip if none are selected Force Legato Legato is an Italian word that s used to signify that notes should be played or sung such that they are smoothly connected to one another This button provides an easy way to move the end of every selected note so that it reaches the start of the next one If no notes are selected the entire clip is modified Duplicate Loop This button addresses one of the most common needs in MIDI programming duplicating an entire pattern A very common workflow is to program a one bar loop then double it and add variations to
244. e of the basics of Operator The Oscillators Leave the algorithm set to the default vertical arrangement and click on operator A in the shell The algorithms in the display will now be replaced with an envelope and additional parameters These are all of the control parameters for operator A By default each operator is set to produce a sine wave with instantaneous attack and release Try playing a few notes to hear this for yourself In the shell all you can set is the tuning and volume of the oscillator You can also click the colored ABCD buttons to turn the oscillators on and off Tuning and volume have a tremendous impact on the sounds resulting from FM synthesis so these controls have been made easily accessible Tuning has two modes Variable and Fixed The Variable setting the default causes the operator to change frequency based on the notes you play The Fixed setting enabled by clicking the Fixed box of an operator causes it to ignore incoming note information and will instead sound at the specific frequency that you set in the shell When in Fixed mode the two tuning options will be Freq and Multi which stand for frequency and multiplier respectively The operator s frequency is determined by multiplying the Freq by the Multi value If the frequency is 100Hz and the multiplier is one the resulting frequency will be 100Hz 100Hz x 1 100Hz If the frequency is 245Hz and the multiplier is 10 the operator s frequency will
245. e the sound range from a short percussive hit to a drawn out ring Once you have a handle on the Tine part of the sound the Tone section is fairly self explanatory This is obviously the sound of the tuned resonator that produces the lion s share of the piano s tone Again you can get familiar with this aspect of the piano s sound by turning down the Level control in the other sections and listening to it by itself The Decay control adjusts how long the note rings out while the key is held down while the Release determines how long the note rings after the key is released Don t expect to hear long release times like you would with a synth however Because we re modeling the behavior of a vibrating piece of metal in contact with a damper see below the release time is necessarily fairly short Damper In a real electric piano the dampers control the sustain feature of a note When a key is struck the same mechanism that moves the mallet also moves the damper away from the fork so it can resonate When the key is released the damper moves back into place causing the tone bar to stop ringing In the Damper section you can control both the hardness of the damper surface and the noise made by the dampers moving back and forth As the Tone value is increased harder dampers are modeled and the damper noise becomes brighter and more pronounced The Att Rel knob controls whether damper noise is heard on the attack or the release of th
246. e time with Live s basic Compressor and Gate before digging into the Multiband Dynamics device see Figure 9 12 If you re already a seasoned engineer then you re certainly familiar with the power of this type of processor This section assumes that you know the basics of compression and gating so make sure to read through the Compressor and Gate sections if you need to brush up on these concepts Figure 9 12 Live s Multiband Dynamics Source Ableton Essentially a multiband compressor the most common type of multiband dynamics processing is what you get if you breed an EQ and a compressor For example in the case of the EQ Three the signal gets split into three different bands each of which has its own volume control one for turning each of the bands up or down separately In the case of a multiband compressor each of the bands gets its own dynamics processor capable of automatically turning the volume of that band down depending on the volume of that band in the input signal For the Multiband Dynamics device Ableton has created a processor that is capable of both upward and downward compression and expansion which means that each band can be automatically turned either down or up in response to the signal going either above or below a given threshold There s an awful lot of functionality packed into this relatively small interface In the case of Live s new Multiband Compressor the three bands are laid out from t
247. e times in a row even with 1 1 odds Sample Notes The next box in the clip view differs for audio and MIDI clips Audio clips display a box called Sample while MIDI clips have a box called Notes The left sides of these boxes differ in the Sample and Notes boxes but the right sides contain identical parameters for adjusting the clip s playback range and loop length Start and End A clip can contain more audio or MIDI than you actually want to play back In other words you may have a four bar clip but decide to use only the first bar You may have a five minute song from which you isolate a great drum fill in the middle These adjustments are made using the Start End and Loop controls Start determines where the clip begins playback The Start position is shown both as a numeric value and as a right pointing flag in the editor to the right End determines where the clip stops playback when the Loop switch is disabled This is an important point so I Il also say it a different way when Loop is enabled End has no effect This parameter is displayed as a left pointing flag in the editor and as a numeric value directly below Start Both of these values can be edited by dragging the flags or by editing the numeric values directly as shown in Figure 5 7 Figure 5 7 You can define a smaller section of a clip to use by setting the Clip Start and End Markers Clip Start Clip Start Clip End i Clip End Source Ableton
248. e track see Figure 3 11 Figure 3 11 The top track has been overridden by a clip in the Session Source Ableton To hear what s going on in the Arrangement again you have two choices Click Back to Arrangement as described above to restore the Arrangement for all tracks or click the triangular button on the right to restore an individual track This relationship between the two views means that you can arrange a song in the Arrangement View but return to the Session View at any point for further experimentation For example maybe you re not crazy about a percussion track in a song you re working on Just head back to the Session View to launch a few percussion loops while listening to your arrangement If you find something you like hit Arrangement Record to replace the part When you re done use the methods described previously to return control to the Arrangement The Arrangement Mixer The Arrangement View s mixer controls are located on the right side of the screen as seen in Figure 3 12 Also notice that there s a triangular unfold switch which is used to enlarge the track so that all of the mixer controls are visible and a detailed view of the clips in that track can be seen as well Figure 3 12 All the mixer controls can be accessed from Arrangement View Track Activator Solo Arm Track Delay Input Output Volume Master a Sends Pan Source Ableton Every mixer control seen in the S
249. e whether Live will save audio analysis data for quick loading in the future The first time an audio file is used in Live the program will create a waveform display and perform additional analysis on the file When this option is enabled Live will store this information in a file on your computer s hard disk The file has the same name and location as the sample it is associated with and uses asd as its extension The next time the audio file is used in a Live Set you won t have to wait for the graphical display to be rendered again because the file analysis has been saved The Sample Editor setting is for defining the location of your favorite wave editor such as Sonic Foundry s Sound Forge Steinberg s Wavelab DSP Quattro or the excellent freeware program Audacity Your preferred editor will launch when you press the Edit button in an audio clip Temporary Folder sets a location to temporarily store any files Live needs to create in the course of its operation Again in most cases you won t need to change this from its default setting This is the folder into which Live places all new recordings made before a Set is saved for the first time The Max application section allows you to tell Ableton Live where to find the installation of Cycling 74 s Max program which is required to use Max for Live devices After you ve installed Max use the Browse button to navigate to the install location typically in Applications or Progra
250. ead of the MIDI track outputting the audio as would happen when a virtual instrument is loaded onto a MIDI track yov ll need another audio track to hear the results This means that the MIDI info leaves on one track and the audio returns on another EXTERNAL INSTRUMENTS INTERNALLY The External Instrument device handles sending MIDI to a ReWire application and receives the audio back from that application in the same track It s as easy as dropping an external device into a MIDI track and configuring it using the same settings you would for a ReWire track For a complete explanation of External Instruments see Chapter 8 Using Live as a ReWire Slave The exact steps for opening Live as a ReWire slave depend partly on the master application you use In some cases you may need to enable ReWire channels in the master application before Live is launched otherwise Live may not open in slave mode Be sure to check the master application s manual for recommendations on how you should do this The only hard and fast rule though is that the ReWire master must be launched before Live When Live launches as a slave you Il see this noted on the splash screen during launch When using Live as a slave you l notice many subtle differences in available options throughout the program The first thing to be aware of is that Live will be sending audio to and receiving MIDI from the master program instead of your audio and MIDI hardware
251. eal time New Velocities Exit on the Right Edge Velocities Enter f Along the Bottom of the Graph Source Ableton In its default setting there is a straight line from the bottom left corner of the grid to the upper right corner of the grid This means that every input velocity maps to the same output velocity Increasing the Drive knob will cause the line in the grid to begin to curve This new shape shows that low input velocities near the left edge of the grid are mapped to higher output velocities This will raise the volume of notes played quietly while leaving the loud notes basically unchanged Decreasing the Drive knob below zero has the opposite effect causing loud input velocities to be mapped to lower output velocities Only the loudest input notes will still leave the plug in with high velocities The Comp Compand meaning Compression Expansion knob is like the Drive knob except that it creates two curves instead of one Turning this knob up past zero exaggerates the velocity curve by making quiet notes quieter and loud ones louder Lowering the Comp knob below zero has the opposite effect forcing more of the values to the middle of the range Be aware that like the Pitch effect the Velocity effect is changing the notes fed into an instrument Because of this increasing the Comp knob will not make the part sound compressed as it would if you placed a Compressor after the instrument It will merely limit the
252. eavily on the initial compositional phase programming drums creating parts with virtual instruments and tweaking devices Therefore it s important to understand that this focus is very MIDI centric and comes with some limitations For example at the time of this writing there is no way to arm an audio track from Push However it s safe to assume that Push will evolve a great deal The Live user manual has a very good step by step guide for getting up and running with Push and you should definitely consult it to make sure you have the most up to date information What s presented here is meant to accompany that information rather than replace it Select Read the Live Manual from the Help menu rather than consulting the printed manual for information on Push the digital version is much more up to date One very important thing to know about Push right out of the gate is that many of the command buttons are designed to do one thing when pushed and another when held down For many of the buttons on the right Scales Repeat Accent Note Session a single push switches Push into a new mode while holding the button down enables the mode temporarily and returns Push to its previous state when you release it In the case of the buttons on the left it s a bit different For example a single push of Quantize immediately performs quantization Holding it down presents quantization options including the option to turn record quantizat
253. ed The Audio to MIDI folders are used to customize the MIDI tracks that are created when the Convert to New MIDI Track commands are used Drag instruments from the Track View into these folders and the next time you convert audio to MIDI the instruments you ve chosen will be used in the new MIDI tracks TRACK TIP If you find that you re regularly setting the same routings or adding the same devices when you create new tracks you can create default track settings In the context menu of a track s title bar select Save as Default Audio Track or Save as Default MIDI Track The track settings are saved in the Defaults folder as an als file Scoring to Video They say timing is everything Nowhere is this more evident than in scoring music for the moving image Whether you are adding sound effects mood music or creating a complete soundtrack Live s ability to easily manipulate the timing of audio makes it a great tool for fitting sound to picture Importing Video Getting video into Live is simple Just locate the video file you want to import in the File Browser and drag it into your Live Set The audio will be loaded on an audio track in Live and the video will appear in a special floating video window Only video files in QuickTime format mov mp4 or any other format playable by QuickTime are supported You can only work with video in the Arrangement View If you drop a movie into the Session View the clip will load a
254. edback controls the duration and intensity of the effect By increasing the percentage of Feedback you raise the effect s signal output to its own input The circular signal created by Feedback will radically shape the delay from slapback echo short delay time low feedback to a wild echo chamber potentially spiraling out of control with large amounts of feedback ALL WET When effects plug ins are located in one of the Return tracks set the Dry Wet setting to 100 wet Since the original source sound is still audible through Live s Mixer there is no need to route any dry signal through the effect Ping Pong Delay Like a game of Ping Pong Ableton s Ping Pong Delay see Figure 9 14 plays a game of stereo tennis with your sound by serving it up from left to right In looking at this device you may notice that many of the controls are similar to the Simple Delay covered earlier Like Simple Delay Ping Pong Delay is a stereo delay with built in tempo synchronizing capability and it sports the same delay time beat division chooser boxes as well as the same Dry Wet and Feedback controls however Ping Pong Delay is a little more creative in terms of what frequencies actually get delayed repeated You will find a band pass filter complete with an adjustable X Y controller axis to adjust both the cutoff frequency and the width of the frequency band the Q You can select between 50Hz and 18kHz anda Q from 5 to 9dB Figure 9 14
255. ediately I strongly recommend that you experiment with different values to get a feel for this feature and that you return quantization to 1 Bar when you re done It will make life much easier as you re learning the program Also bear in mind that there s lots more information on launch quantization in the Clips section of Chapter 4 SO FINE To make fine adjustments to the Tempo the values to the right of the decimal point and small adjustments to other controls such as volume hold down the Ctrl Cmd key while dragging Transport Controls Most starting and stopping in Live is best handled with the spacebar tap it once to start tap it again to stop however the second area of Live s Control Bar has Start and Stop buttons see Figure 3 19 You will also find the Arrangement Record Automation Arm and a few other advanced controls that will be covered in Chapter 4 Figure 3 19 Here is the transport section of Live s Control Bar This is mission control for playback recording and automation Source Ableton The next section of the Control Bar contains basic transport controls along with several controls that deal with recording clips and automation Recording and automation are complex topics that will be dealt with in upcoming chapters so Pll just be giving basic definitions on these controls for now gt Follow When turned on Live s display will follow the song position in the Arrangement or the cli
256. eel for this try launching a drum loop and a bass loop on two different tracks While the loops are playing back move the Start position of the bass loop and listen to how the groove changes Figure 5 10 Try offsetting the clip s Start to create loop variations Source Ableton ORANGE DIGITS When adjusting loops you may occasionally find numbers in the loop settings or Start End display that are orange This means that the number displayed is not exact For example if a loop length is listed as 1 0 0 with the last 0 in red the clip may actually be 1 0 01 beats long A loop this long will at first sound correct but will drift over time since it s a tiny bit too long This can be fixed easily by typing in the correct number and pressing Enter Editing Multiple Clips Many of the clip parameters explained here can be edited for multiple clips simultaneously When you select multiple clips only the controls that can be changed for all selected clips will be shown see Figure 5 11 Controls that are set to different values will display an asterisk instead of a value Figure 5 11 Edit multiple clips simultaneously and save yourself some time Preserve Source Ableton Some of the options such as Clip Name and Clip Color will be set identically for all clips For example if you change the Clip Name to Hot Drums all of the selected clips will take on the same name This same behavior is true for nearly all of th
257. el delays that can be set for 01 to 20ms or linked by activating a tiny equal sign Figure 9 18 Live s Chorus effect Note the tiny equal sign between the delays This button syncs the two Amount Rate 3 65 ms 1 90 ms 20 Torrz so Source Ableton Delays 1 and 2 The effect s first delay will always be active when the Chorus is on To adjust the delay s timing slide the fader The adjustable Highpass filter knob bypasses chorusing low frequencies which can often become muddier and less defined when doubled The definable range is 20Hz to 15kHz Delay 1 can be used on its own or in parallel with Delay 2 Chorus s Delay 2 can add even more thickness and intensity to your sounds Delay 2 can run in two separate modes Fix and Mod and can be bypassed by selecting the top visible button labeled Off Fix mode will force Delay 2 to the timing specified by its slider Mod mode will allow the delay time to be modulated by the effect s Mod source Modulation The Chorus s Modulation section is where the effect gets its movement This section controls a sine wave oscillator an LFO which can be used to change the timing of the two delays Whether you are going for completely unrecognizable new sounds or just looking for a little more stereo spread you will want to spend some time fiddling click dragging with the Modulation X Y controller Horizontal moves change the modulation rate from 03 to 10Hz while the vert
258. en sound more exciting when contrasted against something that s pushing or pulling against them a little bit For some people this subtlety is achieved by performing parts live to get the natural timing variation that comes with performance For others it s a process of surgically adjusting MIDI notes or Warp Markers ahead or behind You can hold down Ctrl Cmd to disable the grid temporarily while dragging or just zoom in until the grid is 1 256 or smaller It s also possible to make entire tracks rush or drag by using the Track Delay Try starting out with values of 10ms if you want to experiment with this gt Variation Some people like to make tons of variations in the Session View while composing while others build an arrangement first and then create variations in the Arrangement View by using Split and then making modifications to the separated clips It doesn t have to be anything fancy taking the kick drum out for a beat or two altering a note in the bass part or inserting a dramatic pause are just a few of the many ways you can keep things interesting To really get busy with variation get into the Clip Cuttin Clinic that follows Clip Cuttin Clinic No matter how good your programmed parts are you still find ways to enhance them through creative editing in the Arrangement View And the better an editor you are the more fun you can also have with prerecorded loops using them as raw material instead of jus
259. en using gain sensitive effects such as compression and distortion which produce different results depending on the volume of the incoming audio Warping Warping is the term used to describe Live s time stretching and compressing technique The technique of warping an audio file to match the tempo groove and pitch of a song involves many parameters but the most important of these is the Warp button at the top of Figure 5 23 With Warp off the clip plays the audio at its original tempo However once Warp is engaged you can change the playback speed and pitch of the audio independently as well as make adjustments to its timing and groove Figure 5 23 The warping controls of the Sample Box When a different Warp mode is selected different controls will appear below the mode menu Warping r OnO Warp Mode Source Ableton In order for Live to work its warping magic it needs some information about the audio it s working with For example to match a file to the current master tempo Live needs to know the original tempo of the file so it can determine how much to speed it up or slow it down For music with a completely steady tempo this is a simple matter However in cases where the music wasn t played to a click track or programmed with a sequencer it s a bit more complicated since the actual tempo changes from bar to bar It might only fluctuate by a fraction of a BPM but it still matters When working with short
260. ength of a clip or a series of clips in your arrangement To do so select the clip s and use Edit gt Loop Selection which automatically sets the loop points to the position and length of the selection and enables Loop in one step Yov ll also notice there s a Select Loop command in the Edit menu This enables you to create an arrangement selection across all tracks from the loop points The more editing you do in the Arrangement the more this will come in handy For example you might Select Loop and then use Duplicate to copy the part of the song you re currently looping Locators and Time Signature Changes Locators are used to mark sections of a song such as the start of a verse chorus or bridge However Ableton did not stop there it has given you the ability to launch the locators like you would clips thus allowing you to perform custom arrangements right in the Arrangement View Creating Locators To place a locator right click in the Scrub area the area directly above the top most track and select Add Locator from the context menu Or you can set locators interactively using the Set button in the upper right corner This method will place a locator at the position of the playback cursor while Live is running or at the insert marker or start point of the arrangement selection when Live is stopped see Figure 4 25 Figure 4 25 Every time you click Set a new locator will be created at the current play position Fou
261. ents MIDI clips Stop button Stop option storing files plug ins strain minimizing performance Stretch dial Impulse stretching real time time Stretch Markers Stretch parameter stringed instruments String section Tension Style menu Arpeggiator styles controllers Follow Behavior submixing Suite version support ASIO drivers plug ins surfaces control Sustain mode swing controls switches Color Saturator Commit Device Activator Legato mode Makeup Tempo Master Slave synchronization Simple Delay video Sync option Sync parameter Arpeggiator synthesizers Analog drums External Instrument monophonic system requirements T tabs Audio CPU File Folder Filter Global Sampler Library Licenses Maintenance Look Feel MIDI Collision Sampler Sync Modulation Sampler Pitch Osc Sampler Preview Browser window Record Warp Launch Sample Sampler Zone Sampler tails Takeover Mode Tap Tempo button Task Manager Tat Tempo templates Templates folder tempo effects manual warping slicing Tat Tempo Tempo Master Slave switch Tempo Nudge button Temporary Folder Tension Termination section Tension Texture mode third party instruments See also instruments third party plug ins See also plug ins thresholds Thumb style Arpeggiator time Beat Time Ruler editing Follow Actions Groove launch quantization real time time stretching signatures modifying programming Warp Markers Time knob Impulse ti
262. epeat on another channel Chance Interval and Repeat In its default state Beat Repeat s Chance parameter is set to 100 which means that repeats will be generated every interval With interval set to 1 Bar you l hear repeats once per bar If you set Chance to 50 there will only be a 1 in 2 chance that the Beat Repeat will trigger It s also possible to set the Chance knob to 0 and trigger the repeat effect manually using the Repeat button Try this out As soon as you click Repeat you re off to the races Click the Repeat button again to turn it off and the regular beat will resume Obviously this button is named well Mix Insert and Gate These three buttons control the output mode of the Beat Repeat So far you ve been using the Insert mode In Insert mode the original drumbeat is silenced whenever repeats are occurring Click the Mix button and try using the Repeat button In Mix mode yov ll hear the original drum beat while the repeats occur the two are being mixed together The final mode Gate always silences the original signal and only outputs the repeats This mode is useful when you ve placed the Beat Repeat on a return track especially if you ve chained additional effects after the Beat Repeat Volume and Decay The Volume knob sets the volume of the repeated sounds Note that the first repeat is always at the original volume I like to decrease the volume a little bit so that the music comes back in he
263. er 2 Getting Live Up and Running for more information on plug in locations Managing Presets Most effects and instruments can produce a wide variety of results Some devices Redux for example have limited functionality and a small set of parameters to match while others like Operator have so many parameters that even experienced users may be endlessly surprised by the sounds that can be produced To improve the usability of complex devices we have presets a collection of parameter settings that can be instantly loaded to configure the device for a particular sound Knowing how presets are loaded managed and created is important for producers of every skill level At first you load a device s presets to become familiar with what it can do and get up and running quickly Once you ve gained some expertise with programming the device or you ve stumbled on something cool sounding through experimentation and dumb luck my favorite method you can Save your sound as a preset for easy recall later Managing Presets Built In and Audio Unit For Live s built in devices all preset management is done via the Browser Just click the triangle to the left of the device icon to reveal the device s presets often categorized for easy browsing see Figure 7 9 These presets can be added directly into tracks as explained earlier or added by hot swapping them into an existing device see the Hot Swapping section Figure
264. ern is a little more controlled It will create a random pattern from your held notes play it and then create another random pattern and play it The result is that you have fewer repeated notes because Live will play all the notes at least once before it creates a new pattern The Random Once pattern is like Random Other except that it builds only one random pattern After the Arpeggiator plays the random pattern once it will play it again identically The result is anew random pattern every time you play new notes but a pattern that repeats while you hold the notes Pretty cool huh Groove The Groove menu is used to add a swing feel to the Arpeggiator s patterns The intensity of the swing is determined by the Global Groove Amount value which is displayed at the bottom of the Groove Pool Hold The Hold button will automatically latch or sustain the notes you play so that you don t have to continually hold notes while a pattern plays Switch this on and try playing a chord When you release the notes on your keyboard the Arpeggiator will continue to play Now play another chord The Arpeggiator will stop the old pattern and will start the new one when it receives your new notes Offset This dial is used to offset the start point of the Arpeggiator pattern by the specified number of steps For example if the style is set to Up and you play a C major triad the resulting pattern from the Arpeggiator will be CE GCEG If yo
265. ers for delivering crisp highs The next adjustment is the microphone type and placement Condenser microphones tend to capture more high end sounds and a more balanced sound overall while Dynamic mics are known for their focus and punch when used on speaker cabinets Placement has a big impact on sound as well Off Axis placement tends to capture more low end sounds while Far placement emulates recording the speaker from across the room capturing room reflections and a sense of space Output Finally both Amp and Cabinet allow stereo or mono operation via an Output switch and have a Dry Wet knob for blending unprocessed signal with the output Be aware that both devices are relatively CPU hungry and running them in stereo doubles the required resources Auto Pan Auto Pan is a conceptually simple but surprisingly powerful device It will automatically pan the position of the track from left to right in cycles It does this by alternately turning down the volumes of the left and right sides of the channel When the left side is turned down the sound will be heard from the right thus making it sound as if the track were panned to the left The mixer s Pan control is not affected at all The Auto Pan interface is split into two sections The top section contains a graphical representation of the volume pattern being applied for display purposes only The Auto Pan is adjusted by using the knobs and buttons on the lower half of the interfa
266. es fade in and out as the Chain selector is moved To create fades hover the mouse over the edge of a Zone until it turns into a bracket and then move it upward slightly until the small bar running along the top of the Zone is highlighted Click and drag to create a fade as seen in Figure 7 22 Figure 7 22 Fades can be used to gradually increase or decrease the volume of a Chain as the selector is moved With the Chain selector in the position shown the top Chain is turned almost all the way down while the Chain below is near full volume r 0 8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64 72 80 a a m a a n na m m a n Source Ableton om Key amp Velocity Instrument Racks feature two additional Zone editors for further customization Key and Velocity These Zones are accessed by the buttons marked Key and Vel directly above the Chain List Key Zones are used to activate chains based on the incoming MIDI note while Velocity Zones will activate chains based on incoming MIDI velocity Key Zones are handy for creating performance presets left hand triggers a bass sound right hand triggers piano while Velocity Zones allow you to create expressive sounds adding or switching layers as the keys are struck harder These Zones are moved resized and faded just like the Zones in the Chain Select Editor so make sure to read the preceding section if you haven t already Across the top of the Velocity Zone Editor see Figure 7 23 you ll see n
267. esholds the sound may become muffled or muted as a result of the volume squashing what is going on On the other hand extreme gain reduction sometimes called overcompression is also useful as a special effect Compressor s other two controls Attack and Release determine how long it takes for maximum gain reduction to occur after a sound crosses the Threshold and how long it takes for the sound to return to its original level after the sound has dropped below the Threshold With a high Ratio and low Threshold slowly turn up the Attack and yov ll start to hear more of the sound s natural transients passing through Typically a small amount of attack time 5 to 10ms is best for retaining some sense of dynamics When used on drums Attack times less than 5ms can produce some interesting effects but at the risk of squashing the natural transient in a way that makes the sound dull and lifeless Use cautiously Longer attacks are often used with horns bass and other sounds that naturally have more gentle transients A compressor s release settings are often less noticeable when long A long release time means that the compression continues to work for a given length of time in milliseconds after it has been engaged and the signal level has dipped back below the threshold Typically a short release time will force the Compressor to repeatedly engage and disengage start and stop and a listener will be more apt to hear the repeated contra
268. ession is also available in the Arrangement The only difference is visual The controls have been turned on their sides and are represented by values instead of graphical controls Also unlike Session View the sends are displayed as part of the Mixer section Clip View and Track View The bottom of your screen is shared between two views The Clip View which allows detailed manipulation of audio and MIDI and the Track View which is for working with devices such as effects and instruments To access the Clip View double click on a clip In the Session you can double click anywhere but on the launch button while in the Arrangement you can click anywhere except for the waveform MIDI display that s visible when the track is unfolded The Track view is accessed by double clicking on the top area of a track where its name is shown called the title bar You can easily switch between these views using the Shift Tab keyboard shortcut Both views can be hidden or shown by pressing Cmd Option L or via the Detail section of the View menu The best way to understand how these two views work together is to think of the Track View as happening after the Clip View For example let s say you have a bass loop playing back in a track The Clip View is where you would change the loop itself modifying its key timing and loop points The sound then flows into the Track View and is processed by any effects you ve added In the case of MIDI clip
269. et brighter as their pitch increases The LFO knob determines the amount of LFO signal used to modulate the cutoff Notice that the Env and LFO amounts are disabled unless their associated modulators are engaged LFO To the right of the Filter section is the LFO engaged with the LFO button Depending on the assignments you make it can be used to modulate the Filter Frequency Pitch Pan and Volume The shape of the LFO is selected from the Type menu The Rate section changes the speed of the LFO The LFO speed can be further modified with the Key value Turning this up means that higher notes will have a faster LFO speed than lower ones You can also use the Attack value to have the LFO gradually fade in instead of starting immediately when a key is pressed This is great for lead sounds where you d like to introduce vibrato after you ve held a note for a moment Retrig and Offset are used to manipulate the position of the LFO When Retrig is on a new LFO cycle will start every time a MIDI note is received With Offset you can change the overall position of the LFO which is particularly useful when using it in synced mode For example 1 4 note LFO could be offset 180 degrees so the peaks occur in between every beat instead of directly on them Pitch Immediately to the right of the LFO section is the Pitch section the majority of which is explained in the Global Parameters section at the beginning of this chapter The LFO box sets the am
270. et velocity and playing quiet notes the velocity will increase to the Target over the specified Decay time The Retrigger button will cause the velocity scaling to restart with each new note that is added to the chord Otherwise new notes will be constrained to the current values of the decaying velocities Chord The Chord device see Figure 10 2 will generate new MIDI notes at pitch intervals relative to an incoming MIDI note This will allow one MIDI note to trigger a chord on the receiving instrument Figure 10 2 The Chord device builds a multinote up to six notes MIDI chord from one input note Source Ableton When the Chord device is first loaded it will have no effect on incoming MIDI notes they will pass straight through As soon as you move one of the Shift knobs it will become active The knob sets the interval in semitones for the new MIDI note For example setting Shift 1 to 4 and playing a C will cause both a C and E note to be sent from the plug in Setting Shift 2 to 7 will create a C major chord when you play just the C note Playing G will result in a G major chord G B and D You can define up to six notes to be added to the incoming note using the dials Just below each dial is a value that determines the velocity of the new note relative to the velocity of the incoming note You can use this if you don t want all of the notes in the chord to be the same volume If Shift 1 is set to 50 50 the E in the re
271. etely While learning how to use Tension it s going to be helpful to turn off other sections while learning a new one It s a necessary evil or benefit of modeling that many parameters closely interact with each other For example a bow that is applied to a string with very little force will only produce sound if the bow is moved very slowly There are many such interactions in this instrument Excitator This section deals with one of the most fundamental aspects of any stringed instrument the physical relationship between the string and the object that excites it into motion Here you can choose to use a bow a piano hammer or a plectrum pick to get your sound going Depending on the Excitator you choose from the menu yov ll be presented with different parameters for defining the object you ve chosen and the way that it s used With this section turned off you l probably get no sound at all out of Tension although it is possible to create sounds that consist of damper noise and the string s decay For a bow you ll first see the parameters for Force how hard the bow is pushed against the string and for Friction the amount that the bow material naturally resists the string Velocity determines the speed at which the bow is moving while Position moves the bow all the way from the string s end 0 to its midpoint 50 Hammers have a totally different set of parameters You can adjust the mass and stiffness of t
272. everb tail diffusion When not in use deactivate the Chorus button to save system resources The final section in Diffusion Network controls the density thickness and scale coarseness of the diffusion s echo The Density control ranges from 1 a lighter sounding reverb to a 96 rich and chewy reverb while Scale can run from 5 to 100 gradually adding a darker and murkier quality to the diffusion A high Density setting will diminish the amount of audible change made by Scale controls Output The Output section is the final link in the Reverb signal chain At this stage just three knobs Dry Wet Reflect Level and Diffuse Level put the finishing touches on your masterpiece Dry Wet controls the ratio of original unaffected sound to affected reverberated sound that you hear coming from the effect s output The Reflect Level control knob adjusts the amplitude level of the early reflections specified in the Early Reflections box from 30 to 6 dB The louder you make the early reflections the more you will hear an echo of the true sound which will sound even more like a slapback delay as opposed to a reverb In similar fashion the Diffuse Level controls the amount of Diffusion Network level in the final Reverb output A low diffusion level will diminish the reverb tail while a high amplitude of Diffusion Network will increase the overall presence of the effect Modulation Effects The term modulate simply means to
273. evices that you don t mean to use for this purpose For the most complex MIDI setups the easiest way to avoid conflicts is to have each device transmit on a different channel The Mapping Browser Whenever you enter the Key or MIDI Map mode the Browser transforms to show you all of the current mappings Not only does this give you a useful reference of every mapped control but it also allows you to specify control ranges using the Min and Max parameters For example in Figure 11 9 yov ll see a track volume configured so it can t go above OdB as opposed to its default of 6dB a very handy technique to avoid clipping during performance Figure 11 9 The top mapping shows a volume control limited to a maximum of OdB In the second mapping the Invert Range context menu is being used to flip the Min and Max levels 1 Kit Core 909 Mixer Track Volume 3 Operator Operator LFO Synced Rate s if 1 48 Source Ableton You can also set Max below Min in order to invert the behavior of a control You may be wondering why you d want to do this but there are actually a few common cases Let s say you ve got a tempo synced LFO mapped to a knob By default turning the knob up will make the LFO slower because its value is getting higher you re moving from 1 32 to 1 16 and eventually all the way up to 4 bars Toa lot of folks it makes more sense to have the LFO get faster as you turn up the knob Special Mappings There a
274. ew MIDI Track command can cut a loop into multiple samples and generate a MIDI file to play them back in order much in the way Propellerhead s ReCycle and Dr Rex would Speaking of which Live natively supports REX files as well gt Live is very easy to use with MIDI controller hardware Whether you re using a device designed for Live such as Push APC 40 or Launchpad or a generic MIDI controller of some sort it s simple to get your hands off the mouse and onto pads knobs and the like Even if you don t have a controller Live s flexible mapping feature allows you to control just about anything with a single keystroke on your computer keyboard gt Live lets you build customized groupings of effects and virtual instruments called Racks With powerful routing options you can create layers splits and complex effects like never before Drum Racks take this concept to another level allowing you to build drum banks with combinations of audio samples synthesized sounds and effects gt Max For Live included in Live Suite and available as an add on for Live Standard allows Live to be infinitely extended These extensions range from effects such as convolution reverb to step sequencers parameter randomizers video tools and interface tools such as Already Played which will change the color of a clip once it s played to make it easier for DJs to keep track of their sets Max For Live devices are fully programmable so if y
275. external outputs is DJing with Live using a standard DJ mixer In Figure 6 11 you ll see two tracks configured to send their outputs to tracks 1 2 and 3 4 respectively By connecting these two stereo pairs to channels on a mixer you can mix and cue just like you would if you were using two turntables or CD players Figure 6 11 Send tracks to individual outputs on your audio interface to mix using a hardware mixer Source Ableton Advanced MIDI Routing Just as audio signals can be routed between tracks so can MIDI signals All of the core concepts of routing are covered in the previous audio routing section so you may want to read through that before digging into these MIDI techniques In some cases the MIDI routing process is very similar to that of audio routing For example to send a MIDI signal to multiple tracks simply create additional MIDI tracks and set their Input Type to the track sending MIDI as seen in Figure 6 12 Figure 6 12 The three tracks to the right will all receive MIDI from the clips playing in track 1 MIDI Source Ableton Using this configuration you could program clips in track 1 MIDI and have them trigger instruments in all four tracks A similar result can be produced using Instrument Racks but some prefer this technique Routing multiple MIDI tracks to a single instrument is a bit different than its counterpart in the audio world submixing In Figure 6 13 you ll see a track configured
276. f its ends by a finger and possibly a fret as opposed to a piano ora dulcimer where the strings are fixed between two pegs and tuned to the desired pitch The Finger Mass refers to the force that is being applied with the finger At lower values the pitch becomes less distinct as the string is terminated in a less stable fashion If Fret Stiffness is increased with a low Finger Mass setting you will hear the string buzzing against the fret much like it did during your first guitar lesson With a low Fret Stiffness you ll generally get a less distinct pitch from the string unless that is you increase the Finger Stiffness to compensate for the lack of clear frets on the neck Switching on the Pickup section changes the sound from that of an acoustic instrument to the output of a magnetic pickup The Position control changes the location of the pickup At 0 the pickup is placed at the string s termination point much like the bridge pickup on an electric guitar As the value is increased to 50 the pickup is moved closer to the midpoint of the string more like an electric guitar s neck pickup Body The Body serves two purposes in the creation of our modeled string instruments First the instrument body acts as an amplifier of the strings vibrations which can add additional fullness and a longer decay to the sound The Body also filters the frequencies that it radiates further coloring the final sound To get an understanding
277. farthest to the right has one parameter that none of the other slots has the Link switch This links slots 7 and 8 together so they cannot play at the same time This is typically used for open and closed hi hat samples which classic drum machines and actual drumsets do not allow to sound simultaneously When enabled triggering slot 7 or 8 will immediately cut off the sample playing in the other slot Start Transpose and Stretch Now that you know how to trigger the samples let s look at how to change the sound using the playback parameters offered in Impulse The first section of controls affects the sample itself it can be tuned time stretched shortened and have its front end cut off Pitch can be randomized or modulated by input velocity The Soft button performs a fade at the beginning of the sample to soften its attack Transpose works as you d expect raising or lowering the pitch of the sample Stretch is a bit more interesting and is used to elongate the sample or shorten it Long stretch times generate some weird artifacts so make sure to experiment with this one and try it out while adjusting Transpose as well The Mode button changes the stretching method In Mode A Impulse waits a brief moment before stretching in order to ensure that the stretching doesn t distort the attack of the sound For punchy drum sounds this is especially important Mode B on the other hand begins stretching the instant the sample starts t
278. fault Fade mode but it allows the production of digital artifacts created by changing delay times Fans of a glitchy digital sound palette may like this mode The Input switches at the far left are used to turn the delays on and off while the On Off switches next to the filter can be used to enable or disable filtering of the signal These options make the Filter Delay the most customizable of Live s delay units Grain Delay Grain Delay is among Live s more complex and creative effects The Grain Delay is the same as Live s other delays in that it has many of the same controls Delay Time Feedback Dry Wet mix and Beat Quantize settings While the other delays we ve seen so far had a filter at the input stage the Grain Delay has a granular resynthesizer instead The basic concept is that Grain Delay dissects audio into tiny grains staggers the delay timing of these grains and then opens up a toolbox full of pitch randomized pitch and spray controls for some far out sound design results While all the common delay controls exist in this device the lion s share of the Grain Delay interface seen in Figure 9 16 is taken up by a large parameter assignable X Y controller Figure 9 16 Live s Grain Delay can take audio apart randomly altering the structure and pitch before replaying the sound ii 6 Grain Delay Source Ableton Frequency This is the second parameter in the delay interface but its setting affects all
279. ferent animals there are a number of behaviors and settings that are common to both types of clips all of which will be discussed here The Clip View is divided into several different areas the editor on the right which displays audio waveforms Warp Markers MIDI notes and envelopes and several parameter boxes to the left the clip box which is always shown and the Launch Sample audio clips Notes MIDI clips and Envelopes boxes all of which can be shown or hidden using the switches in the lower left corner See Figure 5 1 Figure 5 1 The Clip View contains multiple sections that can be shown and hidden using the icons at the lower left corner of the window An audio clip is shown For MIDI clips the Sample box is replaced by the Notes box Editor Show Hide Switches Source Ableton Be aware that the editor is used to view both audio MIDI data and the envelopes of a clip Click in the title bar of the Sample or Notes box to show audio or MIDI in the editor and in the title bar of the Envelopes box to show envelopes If you re not focusing on envelopes it s a good idea to hide the Envelopes box This will save space and help avoid any confusion The Clip Box The clip box is always visible in the Clip View see Figure 5 2 Here you ll be able to adjust some basic properties of the clip and enable a groove if you choose Figure 5 2 The clip box is always visible It contains some basic and some advanced controls explaine
280. for the current sample When a given sample is triggered by an incoming MIDI note matching the RootKey it will be played back at its original pitch MIDI notes higher or lower than the RootKey will transpose the sample accordingly gt Detune makes fine adjustments to the sample tuning 50 cents gt Volume adjusts sample volumes individually gt Pan adjusts the left right position of individual samples gt The Reverse button causes the entire multisample to play backward when triggered In this case sample playback begins from the sample end point and proceeds backward to the sample start point gt When the Snap button is engaged the start and end points of your sample will snap to the waveform zero crossing points in order to avoid clicks or pops in playback To the right the rest of the controls in the Sample tab work together with the Global Volume envelope in the Filter Global tab to determine how your samples should be played back The Sample Start setting determines where the playback of the sample will begin when triggered while the Sample End setting determines where playback will end Sustain and Release The Sustain and Release modes are selected with the various arrow buttons located at the center of the area below the sample display These determine how sample playback works during their respective phases of the ADSR volume envelope There are three Sustain Modes On single arrow Loop double arrow and Loop
281. g Live offers yet another way of creating MIDI clips step recording Step recording allows you to place notes into a MIDI clip from your controller keyboard without having to perform them in real time This technique can only be used to add notes to an existing MIDI clip so either you ll be using it to overdub notes into a clip you ve recorded or with empty clips that you ve created by double clicking in an empty clip slot To do step recording you need to arm the MIDI track for recording and turn on the Preview switch in the MIDI editor Now notes or chords can be added by holding down keys on your controller and then pressing the right arrow key to determine the length of the notes The right and left arrow keys are also used to navigate through the clip so pressing the right arrow without holding down notes allows you to enter rests or skip ahead to another part of the clip entirely When in the MIDI map see Chapter 11 Remote Control you ll notice two arrows appear below the fold switch These can be remote mapped to allow you to step back and forth through your MIDI clips from your controller without using the arrow keys on your computer s keyboard Program Change Program change messages are used to recall presets on the destination MIDI device By setting the Program and Bank values in the Notes Box see Figure 5 21 each clip can recall a different preset from the same instrument when it is launched Hardware i
282. g sounds like quite an undertaking but with practice yov ll find yourself doing it faster and faster In fact while I wouldn t ever recommend this there have been a few times I ve ended up warping songs on stage during a gig This section assumes that you re already familiar with the basics of warping covered in Chapter 6 Tracks and Signal Routing so refer back to it if necessary Also one final note before we begin Don t forget to press the Save button after you ve gotten your song warped Otherwise the next time you drag the song into a set your properly placed Warp Markers won t be there Analyzing and Auto Warping Every time you bring a new audio file into Live for the first time it gets analyzed At the very least this means that the waveform display gets generated and stored in a file with an ASD extension When this file is generated Live makes guesses about the length and original tempo of the file For short evenly timed properly cut loops this is a very simple process For entire songs it s somewhat more complicated This is why Live has a special preference for dealing with entire songs Auto Warp Long Samples located in the Record Warp Launch tab of the Preferences dialog ANALYZE THIS You may have noticed by now that the first time you drop a song into Live it takes some time to analyze it Here s a trick for those of you who have a big collection of tracks and want to save some time Navi
283. g on the status of the Mute and Solo buttons gt Browsing Press Browse to select instruments or press Add Effect to browse effects To add MIDI Effects hold down Shift and press Add Effect Instrument presets are organized by device and then by a predefined set of categories If you save your own presets into folders that match the Ableton categories they will automatically be aggregated into that category when browsing Presets saved into folders with different names will be shown in a category called Others gt Launching Press Session for the clip launching matrix The Scene Grid buttons to the right of the pads are used to launch scenes When Note is selected the up and down arrows launch scenes but not in the conventional way Global quantization is ignored and the clips all behave as if they re in Legato mode This means that you can navigate from scene to scene in an extremely fluid way without ever interrupting the flow Drum Programming When a track containing a Drum Rack is selected Push automatically switches into Drum Programming mode Programming drums on the Push is a lot of fun While many controllers focus on performing drum parts using pads or step sequencing using a grid Push does both simultaneously The top half of the pads is the step sequencer By default it represents two bars with 16 steps in each bar Each row constitutes one half of a bar This can be changed by selecting a different note division usi
284. g up a list of missing samples in the Set Instead of having a Hot Swap button next to these samples there is a Search button which can be used to execute a search for the file in the Browser Figure 13 7 The Missing Files window can be used to identify and replace individual samples or automatically search for all lost audio files Missing Files 1 of the reforenced sampios are missing Toll mo moro Y Automatic Search Source Ableton The other way to replace missing samples is to use the Automatic Search feature in the Missing Files window see Figure 13 7 What s nice about this feature is that it lets you search for all of your missing samples in one shot instead of one at a time Here s how it s done 1 Expand Automatic Search to reveal the search options and set the Search Folder switch to Yes unless you only want to search your project folder and the Live Library in which case you can skip to Step 3 2 Click the Set Folder button and navigate to the folder you want to search Any subfolders in this location will be searched as well 3 Set the Search Project and Search Library switches to Yes if you believe your files may be in the current project folder or the Live Library 4 Click the Go button at the top of the window When the search is completed Live will tell you how many Candidates how many potentially correct files were found and how many samples it was able to automatically replace wit
285. game in Live If you re planning on using compressed audio files like MP3 or FLAC make sure to read up on the Decoding Cache in Chapter 2 Getting Live Up and Running A great way to get to know Live is by using audio loops such as those included in the Live 9 Power Live Pack Loops are also available from companies such as Big Fish Audio and Loopmasters as well as in Live s core library Don t underestimate the power of what can be done with prerecorded loops As you become expert at manipulating clip properties editing clips in the Arrangement using effects and other features such as the Slice to New MIDI Track yov ll discover that loops are just raw material from which a large variety of useful and original sounds can be created Standard MIDI files have a file extension of MID They are included with some third party content libraries and can be exported from other programs such as Reason and Logic for use in Live You can also explore the Clips view of the Browser to find clips to use in Live These are files saved in the Live Clip format Live Clips can be audio or MIDI and can contain devices as well For example a MIDI Live Clip can contain not just a MIDI sequence but an instrument as well So it s like a preset that contains a sound and a musical part One caveat to know when working with Live Clips is that their devices only get loaded if the track you drag it into does not already contain any devices In othe
286. ganized by task such as recording or programming beats Exploring these topics is highly recommended for new users or experienced users moving into a new area of the program Make sure to scroll to the bottom of the Help View and click the link that reads Show all built in lessons to see all of the included content Figure 3 5 The Help View offers useful lessons and reference guides What s New in Live 9 A Tour of Live Recording Audio Creating Beats Playing Software Instruments Audio 1 0 MIDI Controllers Source Ableton Session View Live s Session View sometimes referred to as the Session for short is far more than just a tool for live performance It s the launch point for many compositions where ideas are sketched out and quickly captured without worrying about how and where they be used in the final production The next phase of the process is handled in the Arrangement View but there s no need to worry about that right now Just focus on having fun in the Session View SPACE OUT The spacebar starts and stops audio in Live as it does in most other audio software applications Clip Slot Grid The Session View s defining characteristic is the grid that covers most of the screen Live s clip slot grid is a palette upon which to create organize and experiment with the sonic colors that will eventually become your masterpiece Just as a painter will mix colors before starting to paint toda
287. gate to a folder full of tracks in the Browser Then right click the folder and select Analyze Audio from the context menu Go grab a beer or do some laundry and when you return the tracks will be ready to go If you let Live automatically use Auto Warp on your songs and the material you re working with is straightforward it will often do most of the work for you Don t ever assume that it will do all of the work for you Always check the tracks and look out for some of the common problems discussed next One common problem in Live is that the first downbeat of the song is wrong This means that it gets the tempo right but the song will be offset from the metronome and other clips In other cases the introduction to a song sometimes confuses Auto Warp enough that it gets the tempo wrong as well In Figure 12 1 you ll see a dance track where Live has made a few errors The introduction has no kick drum and the syncopation of the rhythms has confused Auto Warp as to the location of the first downbeat and the tempo To help Live out we re going to place 1 1 1 where the kick drum comes in instead of at the beginning of the song This is done by a combination of ears and eyes Listen for the area where the kick comes in and then zoom in on that section Use the Scrub tool to launch the song from this section and visually locate the first kick drum This takes a little practice but pay attention and you l get it Figure 12 1 Even th
288. h it This creates an interesting opportunity and a potential problem After playing a part you can quickly quantize an individual hit by pushing the step twice The first push deletes the hit and the second re creates it perfectly aligned to the grid Just be aware that if you ve played a note really late or early it may appear on the step before or after the one you intended Using the step sequencer to edit parts you performed however can be tricky What if you want to experiment with turning certain hits off but don t want to lose the timing when you turn them back on again Instead of deleting notes hold down the Mute button while pushing the notes you want to remove The notes will be deactivated and they will switch to a dim yellow color Hold Mute and press them again to reactivate them Fortunately Push also has an Undo button so you can easily step backward if you forget this workflow QUANTIZE A single push of Quantize will quantize the entire clip To quantize a single drum hold down Quantize and then press a drum pad Voila Only that drum gets quantized The loop length controls occupy the lower right set of pads At first these may appear to be the most uninteresting part of the drum programming controls but they are actually a brilliant solution to a basic problem When programming longer drum parts you re often faced with the need to focus on an individual bar while working on its details and then jump bac
289. h the candidates it found The missing samples list will now be updated to show the replaced files changing their location status to either Project or External There will be two main reasons a file does not get replaced automatically Either the missing file cannot be found at all or more than one file has been found that matches the name of the missing file In this case the location will read Candidates and the number of possible replacement files found will be listed in the Candidates field see Figure 13 8 Figure 13 8 When more than one file with a matching name is found Live needs you to intervene and pick the right one gt beware the anti cruise Candidates 2 Source Ableton Clicking on the button will reveal a list of all the matching files in the File Browser You have a few choices to determine which is the right one First you could simply enable the Preview button and decide by ear Another option is to right click in the Browser s header and show the Path Place or Date Modified columns in the Browser Once you ve found the right file you can double click or drag and drop as described earlier External Samples The final area of the Current Set window is the External Files section refer to Figure 13 5 If all of your samples are already within the current project folder this section will be empty If not the first Show button will allow you to view all samples that exist outside of the current project folder but th
290. has its own project Inside the project folder is the Set als file Live Projects 4 BassFace Project B BassFace als Samples Ableton Project Info WalterKirk vs SpockDude Project s Polenberg s Lament Project BB Hobotech Kassiejones Project Source Ableton What you want to make sure you don t do is save all of your new Sets into an already existing project folder as seen in Figure 3 24 This becomes a nightmare when any sort of project sharing or advanced file management is necessary later Figure 3 24 A project folder with a bunch of random unrelated Set files inside it This will eventually drive you crazy v B Experiment One Project a Toodleoo als B New Song als K Experiment One als k Drum Jam als gt i Samples L Ableton Project Info Source Ableton This is not to say that you never want to save multiple sets into the same project folder In fact this is often a desirable thing to do when saving multiple versions of the same song using the Save As command as seen in Figure 3 25 Figure 3 25 A project folder with several versions of the same song in it These might be Sets with different purposes such as radio edits or alternate mixes or simply a way of ensuring that you can get back to an old version in case you change something and want to go back v EB BassFace Project BassFace 4 als BassFace 3 als BassFace 2 als BassFace l als gt J Samples b J Ableton Project Info Source
291. hat if you launch Session clips containing automation that automation will be recorded as well After recording this automation will no longer be shown in the Clip View as Session automation is but will instead be shown in the track display of the Arrangement View For more information on viewing and editing automation see the Automation Editing section later in this chapter When you re finished recording take a look at the Arrangement View The tracks will now be filled with clips and any tracks containing automation will display a red automation line as seen in Figure 4 19 However yov ll also notice that every clip is grayed out and starting playback does not cause the arrangement you just created to play back What s going on here The answer lies with Back to Arrangement Figure 4 19 After recording every clip launched in the Session appears in the Arrangement The clips are grayed out however and the Back to Arrangement button appears above the upper right corner of the timeline This indicates that the Session clips are still in control Back to Arrangement Button Individual Track Back to Arrangement Buttons Sl Ee BE o E 2S St oe ee oe es en Ka cS Ei 3 2 Source Ableton SESSION TO ARRANGE AND BACK AGAIN As you work on your masterpieces you ll sometimes want to manually drop a Session clip into the Arrangement View To do this click a clip and hold down the mouse butt
292. hat the value displayed for the first breakpoint is 65 What s going on here Figure 5 32b Modulation makes relative changes to a control s state Modulation envelopes are displayed with a shaded area below to differentiate them from automation Source Ableton When you automate a control you re specifying absolute values such as set the volume to 8dB When you modulate a control you re specifying a relative change to the control s current value such as set the volume to 65 For most device and mixer controls the current position is considered to be 100 and you can modulate it all the way down to its lowest possible value which is considered 0 Therefore unlike automated controls you can freely make manual adjustments to modulated controls Manually changing an automated control causes the automation to be disabled while manually changing a modulated control simply causes the range of the modulation to change Another feature of modulation envelopes is that they can be used to tweak some properties of audio clips such as the transposition and clip gain You can even modulate the clip s playback position Sample Offset as a way to create variations and glitches A final and very important difference between automation and modulation is the relationship to the Arrangement View When Session clips containing automation envelopes are recorded into the Arrangement the automation is recorded into the t
293. hat they alternate the note order with the highest and lowest note played respectively For example when using the PinkyUp mode the Arpeggiator will play the lowest note followed by the highest note the pinky note It will then play the second lowest note followed by the highest note again The Arpeggiator will continue to work up the scale of held notes alternating each with the high pinky note until the pattern repeats The ThumbUp mode works in the same way except that the lowest held note the thumb note gets inserted between each step of the scale The Play Order style is nice in that the Arpeggiator works through the scale of held notes in the exact order as you played them For example if you play the notes C E G and A the resulting pattern will be CEGACEGACEGA If you play the notes in a different order like E C G then A the pattern will be ECGAECGAECGA The Chord Trigger style breaks away from the traditional arpeggiator methodology in that it plays more than one note at a time In fact it repeatedly triggers every one of the notes you held down The result is a stuttered chord The final style options are random modes that will generate unpredictable patterns from your held notes The Random mode simply chooses a note at random from your held notes for each step it plays In this mode it s possible for Live to choose the same note repeatedly it s truly random The Random Other patt
294. hatever eight parameters Ableton has deemed the favorites If you ve selected a Rack these will be the eight macro knobs if they ve been assigned Figure 11 14 In Device mode all of the available chains and devices are shown along the bottom while the encoders control the device parameters Instrument Chain Audio Effects 1 Kit 668 Hi Hat FitrDlay EQ Eight GlCmerss In Out Buttons Source Ableton To dig deeper you l need to push the In button This takes you to a new page where the device s controls are organized into banks a maximum of eight Along the bottom you see the names of the banks which can be selected with the top row of buttons BANK JOB Be aware that with some devices you won t be able to get to every single parameter no matter how many banks you navigate through The workaround here is to create a Rack For example when programming Operator I like to be able to access the oscillator s waveform which isn t a part of any of the banks To solve this I ve saved a Rack containing Operator and mapped the waveform control to a macro knob When a Rack containing multiple chains is selected pushing the In button causes the display to show each chain Use top row of buttons to select the chain you want to edit then push In again to display the devices within Select a device and continue as described previously Because Live allows nested Racks device chains can be very deep and
295. he hammer followed by the speed at which it hits the string Velocity and the hammer s location Position The final control Damping controls the stiffness of the mechanism that brings the hammer into contact with the string At higher values the action is very springy so the hammer bounces right off the string allowing it to vibrate loudly At lower values the hammer action is very stiff muting the string somewhat as it lands firmly upon it Hammer bouncing simulates a hammer that is dropped onto the string and allowed to bounce multiple times Again here you see a complex interaction of forces Generally speaking the velocity is going to have the largest effect on how much the hammer bounces with low values producing little volume a series of rapid bounces that can become as subtle as a slight buzz and the highest values emulating the behavior of a hammer dropped from a very great height producing a long trail of bounces with several seconds between the initial attack and the first bounce A plectrum is a fancy name for a guitar pick It has the same set of parameters as a hammer with the exception of protrusion which replaces mass Protrusion specifies the amount of the surface of the pick that comes in contact with the string Lower values mean just the tip of the pick is being used to pluck the string while higher values use more of the pick and result in a louder sound Damper The Damper section controls how the st
296. he MIDI Arrangement Overdub switch shown in Figure 4 10 It s on by default Once it s enabled just arm a MIDI track press Arrangement Record and you re in Overdub mode Figure 4 10 MIDI Arrangement Overdub enables overdubbing into Arrangement clips Neg Source Ableton It s important to understand that recording in the Arrangement works differently and requires more caution than it does in the Session View This is because you can destructively record over MIDI clips in Arrangement something that is not possible in Session In other words if you arm a MIDI track and click Arrangement Record while MIDI Arrangement Overdub is disabled yovu ll start recording a new MIDI clip that contains only your new performance Fortunately Live has an Undo command Recording Automation Nearly everything in Live can be automated Want a synth part to slowly fade in over 32 bars No problem just automate the volume Want an effect to kick in on every other snare drum hit Automate the effect s Device Activator Automation has been an important part of sound mixing for a few decades now In contemporary electronic music it s more important than ever because it s an essential tool for building evolving arrangements out of loop based elements To record automation in Session or Arrangement enable Arrangement Arm shown in Figure 4 11 The basic process for recording automation is incredibly simple Just move the controls you want t
297. he Tap Tempo button is a handy song starting feature in Live For a quick test drive of one of Tap Tempo s features click the button four times and your project will begin at that tempo This is a great feature if you need to sync up with your drummer or manually synchronize to another device such as a turntable or CD player Next up are Live s project Tempo and Time Signature settings which are found just to the right of the Tap Tempo button Live can handle tempos ranging from 20 to 999 BPM beats per minute time signatures with numerators ranging from 1 to 99 and denominator choices of 1 2 4 8 and 16 an absurdly huge range of possibilities Moving to the right of Time Signature you come to Tempo Nudge Down followed by Tempo Nudge Up These controls are used to change Live s master tempo momentarily in order to bring it into sync with another source much the way a DJ beat matches two tracks by physically dragging the record back or speeding it up slightly before letting go of it Tapping these controls will yield very slight tempo changes less than 1 BPM while holding them down can be used to slow the tempo to a third of its original value or speed it up by as much as two thirds Releasing either control immediately returns Live to its original tempo When the Metronome button is engaged you will hear a click metronome that can serve as a guide for new recordings and help with loop editing The volume of the click can be adj
298. he current grid setting is 1 16 Notes will snap to 1 16 note timing when dragged and any notes drawn will default to a duration of 1 16 This Is the Current Grid Resolution Source Ableton gt Ctrl Cmd 1 This will decrease the value of the grid If the grid was set to 1 16 before it will be 1 32 after using this key command gt Ctrl Cmd 2 This has the opposite effect of the command above A grid value of 1 16 will change to 1 8 after using this command gt Ctrl Cmd 3 This key command toggles Triplet mode on and off A previous setting of 1 8 will turn to 1 8T 1 8 note triplet after pressing these keys Use this key command again to switch Triplet mode off gt Ctrl Cmd 4 This turns the entire grid on and off When the grid is off the grid value display will turn gray You will be able to place MIDI data anywhere you like while the grid is off To re enable the grid use this key command again Editing Notes and Velocities After you ve got your desired grid timing selected you re ready to start manipulating MIDI notes Live displays MIDI notes in a style known as a piano roll This term comes from the old player pianos that were programmed using rolls of paper These rolls had small slots cut into them each representing a specific note on the piano keyboard or one of the other instruments mounted inside A note that played for a long time was triggered by a long slot in the paper As the paper rolled
299. he filter frequency This type of modulator is commonly known as an envelope follower because it creates an envelope that follows the signal s amplitude Positive values cause the filter frequency to be turned up while negative values turn the frequency down as the volume increases The effect can be fine tuned by using the Attack and Release controls Attack determines how long it takes for the frequency to reach its maximum value while Release determines how long it takes for it to return to its original value Crank the Envelope knob to get familiar with these controls Short Attack and Release times will tend to give you a funky clucking effect because you ll get more of the filter sweep for each note Longer times will tend to make the effect more subtle since it takes longer for the filter to open up and it tends not to release all the way back to its original value before opening again Quantize Beat The Quantize Beat parameter affects filter modulation generated either by the LFO or the envelope by forcing the filter frequency to change in tempo synchronized steps The steps are specified in 16ths ranging from 5 32nd notes to 16 1 bar To get a feel for what this Quantize Beat does load it on to a track with a sustained pad and configure the Auto Filter as shown in Figure 9 5 You may have to adjust the frequency so you hear a nice up and down sweep Now try clicking the On switch a few times As it goes on and off y
300. he new key Figure 10 4 Twist the Pitch knob to transpose the MIDI data passing through the effect Easy huh _ eeeeeeeene ereeeee Source Ableton The two values at the bottom of the Pitch device set the range of notes that can be used with the effect If the bottom value labeled Lowest is set to C3 only MIDI notes C3 and higher will be allowed to enter the effect The range value determines by interval the highest note that can enter the effect So if the range is set to 12 notes C3 through C4 will enter the effect Only after the incoming notes have passed the range test will they be transposed up or down This situation may also arise when using patches on synthesizers that have splits If you try to transpose the MIDI information out of the appropriate key zone the synth will start playing the notes with the patch assigned to the other zone TRANSPOSING DRUMS There is a situation in which the Pitch effect will have unusual results when transposing drum parts Because Impulse and Drum Racks assign drum sounds to individual notes yov ll end up changing which drums play rather than transposing the pitch of the drums For example if a kick drum is loaded into the first cell of Impulse and a snare is loaded into the second MIDI note C3 will trigger the kick and D3 will trigger the snare If you use the Pitch effect with the Pitch knob set to 2 playing C3 will result in triggering the snare drum rather than
301. hen configuring drag them into the order you want For example if you want all of your filter controls to be in the first bank make sure they are the first eight parameters listed 12 Playing Live Live MOST BOOKS WRITTEN ABOUT MUSIC PRODUCTION SOFTWARE WOULD NOT INCLUDE A CHAPTER LIKE THE ONE YOU RE ABOUT TO READ As you will discover it s a real treat to use the same software to create your music and perform it Because of its flexible control methods and instant response to user input Live is the perfect companion for a gigging musician Live performs wonders in all types of scenarios ranging from DJ gigs to improvisational music and theater Regardless of what type of musician you consider yourself to be I recommend reading all the information presented in this chapter Any technique relating to the use of Live is pertinent innovations can come from taking ideas from one musician s style and applying them to your own style The Hybrid DJ and Remixer Whether or not DJing and remixing is your thing it s worth studying this section You already know that Live can sync loops together with Warping DJs use this powerful mechanism to sync entire songs together They also use an array of clips to manufacture new arrangements of the songs literally creating their own remixes right in front of the dancing masses By learning the techniques employed here yov ll achieve a firmer grasp on manipulating the tempo of any piece of audio
302. hile audio clips must play a specific audio file stored on a hard disk the MIDI clips don t require any sort of external support file that you need to keep track of When you import a MIDI file Live copies the data from the MIDI file into the Live Set Live will never use the original MIDI file again so should that file be changed or lost the Live Set will still play perfectly Live imports MIDI parts from Standard MIDI Files SMFs which come in two flavors Type 0 and Type 1 Unless your MIDI file has only one part in it Type 0 won t do you any good in Live all the parts are squished into one track Type 1 on the other hand has the MIDI parts split into separate tracks for each instrument There will be a track for the bass some for the drums and tracks for any other part in the song all of which will be displayed below the MIDI file when you open it in the Browser Live lets you import these tracks into new clips by dragging the tracks into your session or arrangement like regular clips If you ve got a song in another software or perhaps something stuck in an older hardware sequencer and you want to transfer it to Live SMFs will usually take care of the job The format has been around for a long time so you can be assured of compatibility however SMFs don t necessarily retain everything from a computer project When exporting songs done in other programs application specific features such as automation won t appear in a
303. hoke group choose a choke group number from the Choke menu refer to Figure 8 27 and assign it to all of the sounds you want included in the group It doesn t matter which number you use just make sure to use the same number for each sound Now triggering any of the sounds in the group will automatically cut off any of the others Sends and Returns To use the built in sends and returns of a Drum Rack you first have to create a Return Chain just like in Live s mixer where you created a return track and the Send knobs were automatically created First show the Return Chains by clicking the button marked R at the lower left hand corner of the Drum Rack Now you can drag an effect in to create a new chain or you can right click in the drop area and select Create Chain to create an empty Return Chain More on why you would want an empty Return Chain in a minute You can create up to six Return Chains After you ve created a Return Chain you can view the sends see Figure 8 27 Now you can dial in as much effect as you want for each drum individually By default the output of your returns will be mixed in with the output of the Drum Rack This however can be changed so that the output of the returns is routed to a return track in Live s Mixer This could simply be for convenience or this routing could be used to send your drums to an effect in one of the Mixer s return tracks Figure 8 27 In this example the open and closed hi h
304. home to devices Audio Effects MIDI Effects Instruments and Plug Ins see Figure 3 14 Until you add some devices the Track View will be empty except for a caption that tells you what sort of devices the track will accept Audio tracks can only accept Audio Effects while MIDI tracks can use any type of device Signal flows from left to right in the Track View passing from one device to the next To see the Track View in action click on the Audio Effects view in the Browser and drag an effect device into a track All clips played in this track will now be processed by this effect We ll be discussing effects and instruments in greater detail in Chapters 8 Live s Instruments and 9 Live s Audio Effects but for now all that s important is to have fun and experiment Figure 3 14 Here s the Track View with a couple of effect devices loaded in ORe OO Auto Finer oe Source Ableton The Browser Before you start having fun with Session and Arrangement views it s important to familiarize yourself with Live s content portal the Browser The Browser window see Figure 3 15 provides the means to access all of the elements you will add to a Live Set such as samples MIDI files Live s built in devices Instruments MIDI Effects and Audio Effects and third party plug ins The Browser is available in both the Session and Arrangement Views and can be hidden to save space when you re not using it Figure 3
305. hoosers enable you to select two simultaneous modulation targets to be affected by each LFO Each of these LFOs can be set up to sync to the tempo of your Live Set or be timed in cycles per second You can choose which of these behaviors you want from each LFO by clicking on the Hz Hertz button or on the small button with a picture of a musical note just to the right of it Then use the control to the right of this labeled Freq or Beats depending on which mode you have selected to set the exact frequency of the oscillator You can select from a variety of standard waveforms for each LFO such as square sawtooth and sine waves Additionally the LFOs can be forced to start from the beginning of the cycle every time a key is pressed by enabling the Retrig switch With this turned off the LFO will run freely The Offset control is particularly useful when using a synced LFO For example let s say you re modulating a low pass filter so that it rises to its peak value on every quarter note By changing Offset to 90 yov ll invert the pattern so the peak frequency occurs on every offbeat instead The MIDI Tab I m sure you won t be surprised when I tell you that the MIDI tab see Figure 8 16 is the place where you set up MIDI modulation routings for Sampler Here you can use various MIDI parameters as modulation inputs and use them to affect various parameters in Sampler Let s look at how to do this Figure 8 16 The MIDI tab
306. ht and instead specifying a range of 0 to 100 dB Once you get a feel for this you can adjust the range to your liking The Graph setting can be used to switch the display between Bins a series of vertical lines or Line which traces the overall frequency curve The Bins look awfully pretty but can be quite distracting so you may prefer Line instead Max causes the display to maintain a constant line representing the peak value for every frequency This is a very useful feature and generally recommended For most uses the rest of the controls never need to be adjusted The Refresh value can be increased to decrease CPU load and the Avg value can be turned up if you re less interested in monitoring individual peaks and want to focus on the average spectral content of a signal In the upper left corner of Spectrum yov ll find an unfold switch that will super size the display Utility The humble Utility shown in Figure 9 35 never generates much excitement but it is a very handy device with a variety of audio tools Some of the features seem so simple that you may not realize how they ll be useful until the day you stumble into a circumstance where you need just that thing Figure 9 35 Utility is a nifty little problem solver O vat O Mute oc Gain Z 0 00 dB Panorama Source Ableton Mute DC and Gain Mute and Gain are just what they sound like a button for silencing the signal and a simple volum
307. ht shifts the pickup position lower emphasizing lower harmonics Note the dramatic change as you sweep symmetry from 0 to 100 Distance controls how far from the fork the pickup is The farther away the pickup is from the fork the more spectrally balanced the sound will be while moving it closer will emphasize the frequencies produced by the part of the fork it is closest to and will produce more overdrive Adjusting the distance has a different effect depending on what type of pickup you are using In the case of the W pickup decreasing the distance will increase the high end bite and decrease the amount of bass overall The R pickup works a little differently First watch your speakers and your ears because decreasing the distance of the R pickup increases the volume of the sound As the R pickup is moved closer there is an overall increase in drive and intensity in the highs and mids without much low end attenuation Global The Global section gives you control over the overall characteristics of Electric For information on this section see the Global Parameters section earlier in this chapter Tension Tension is the most interesting and unusual beast of the AAS Ableton instruments see Figure 8 18 As a string modeling synth it takes the modeling concepts that you saw in Electric to a whole different level Where Electric models a specific type of instrument Tension applies modeling generically to the entire range of
308. ical axis increases the amount of modulation from 0 to 6 5ms So if Delay 1 is set to 1ms and you have a modulation amount of 1ms the LFO will continually change the delay time between 0 and 2ms The modulation rate changes the speed of the LFO from subtle movements to bubbly vibrations You also have the option of typing in values by simply clicking on the box typing a number within the allotted range and pressing the Enter key The LFO will modulate both delays in stereo This means that the delay times used for the right and left channels will be different which increases the stereo intensity of the effect This also means that if both delays are being modulated there will be four different delay times at any given moment How s that for fattening up a sound If you are looking for radical sonic redesign the 20 button multiplies the Chorus LFO rate by 20 While this may not sound great all of the time the 20 multiplier will push the envelope of the dullest of sounds Feedback Polarity and Dry Wet For increased intensity the Feedback control will send part of the output signal back through the delays The more feedback you elect to add the more robotic and metallic your sounds will become The positive and negative polarity switch determines whether the signal being fed back to the delays is added to or subtracted from the new input signal To hear the greatest contrast between the two polarities you should use short delay time
309. idechain Expanding the Sidechain section see Figure 9 8 reveals a powerful set of controls for shaping your sounds When the Sidechain switch is enabled the gain detector listens to the source specified in the Audio From menus instead of the signal being processed This external source can be the output of a track or any source that Live s routing system can access For example you could use the top menu to specify a track containing a Drum Rack and the second menu to pick the kick drum chain within the rack A classic use of sidechain compression is to use the kick drum to trigger gain reduction in the bass track to solve the problem of competing frequencies in the low end of a mix If you re not sure what this means try it out load Compressor onto a bass track and set its Sidechain to the kick drum Yov ll immediately see the device begin responding to the kick drum signal instead of the bass Figure 9 8 Compressor is shown here in Activity view with its Sidechain section open The Sidechain section features an EQ so you can trigger compression using only certain frequencies of the Sidechain source The settings here show how you might trigger bass compression using the kick drum in a drum loop O Compressor Senor Qe Audio From _ _ F iter k JAR Freq Source Ableton PUMP IT UP In much of contemporary electronic music sidechaining signals to the kick drum is an essential part of the sound Yov
310. ier side The Freq Mod and Res Mod sections specify how much the filters frequency and resonance are modulated by the LFOs the pitch Key and the envelope The display looks nearly identical when the Amp modules are selected the only difference being there is no Drive control and the Modulation section applies to Volume and Pan Filters and Amp Envelopes Since the envelope sections for the filters and the amplifiers are identical in design we ll discuss them both together The envelope is an ADSR Attack Decay Sustain Release envelope that can be adjusted either by dragging the breakpoints in the graphical display or by changing the values in the numerical display to the right In the numerical part of the Envelope display you ll see one special value in addition to the usual ADSR values Sustain Time The standard Sustain value is a decibel level the volume that the note sustains while you hold the key down By default Sustain Time is set to inf meaning that the note will sustain indefinitely as long as the key is held Sustain Time specifies a length of time that the note will decay over even if the note is held down At the far right of the envelope display you ll see the Loop menu which creates some very interesting variations to your sound By selecting one of the Loop modes you be telling Analog to repeat a part of the envelope instead of playing it through start to finish AD R will repeat the Attack and Decay p
311. ifferent clip in the same column or track In other words Live only allows one clip at a time to play back in any given track This means that any time you have two clips you want to play simultaneously they must be in separate tracks That s why Figure 3 6 is organized as shown with the drum parts in one track the bass parts in another and so on Tracks and Scenes The columns of the grid are referred to as tracks while the rows are called scenes The type of track determines what type of clips it contains Audio tracks can only contain audio clips while MIDI tracks are strictly for MIDI clips There are also types of tracks that can t contain clips at all but we ll get to those in Chapter 6 Tracks and Signal Routing We ll also be getting further into the workings of scenes later but for now just know that scenes are a handy way to organize musical ideas For example when you ve got a drum bass and keyboard part that work well together drag around the clips in the grid so the ones you like are all in the same scene The Scene Launcher At the far right of the screen you ll see a special track called Master Each slot in this track has a Scene Launch button which is used to launch every clip in the scene simultaneously see Figure 3 7 When you launch a scene in this way it s as if you clicked in every single clip slot even the empty ones containing stop buttons Therefore launching a scene also stops playback in
312. ignals to other tracks within the set but I ll explain the how and why of that technique in Chapter 6 You may notice that the Output Channel menu is disabled by default This is because Live s two default track settings are Master and No Output neither of which has channel settings If you pick a different Output Type the second menu will activate The Monitor section controls whether or not the signal from the Audio From can be heard through Live s mixer It has three modes gt In The input source is passed through to the mixer at all times gt Auto The input source is passed through to the mixer if the track is armed for recording and there is no clip playing back in the track gt Off The input source is never passed through to the mixer If you re an experienced engineer these modes should be quite familiar If not don t worry Just leave your tracks set to Auto the default Pll be explaining different routing configurations as necessary throughout the book and you can refer back here if you don t remember what the different modes mean Crossfader Live also features a DJ style crossfader For many years analog crossfaders have been used by DJs to enable the mixing of two tracks together with one simple gesture Scratch DJs have taken crossfader technique to incredible levels transforming the mixer into a musical instrument Live s crossfader consists of two components the crossfader itself located at
313. igure 4 13 Arrangement automation shows up in the timeline as seen here Source Ableton Overdubbing automation into the Arrangement is also quite simple Just enable Automation Arm click Automation Record and start twisting knobs and pushing buttons However there s one important caveat here Unlike Session View which can be set to record automation into only armed tracks Arrangement automation is always recorded into all tracks Not only that but you must take extra care to make sure that you haven t unintentionally left tracks armed For example if you want to record some simple volume automation into an audio track you just recorded you need to disarm the track beforehand Otherwise you l end up simultaneously recording the automation and recording over the track Probably not the desired result ALWAYS AUTOMATED When recording clips from Session View into Arrangement View automation will be recorded no matter what If there s Session automation contained in the clips it will always be recorded into the Arrangement Additionally manual tweaks made in any track in which you ve launched a clip will be recorded even if Automation Arm is disabled See Recording from Session into Arrangement later in this chapter for more information on this process Disabling and Re Enabling Automation When a parameter is being automated a red LED see Figure 4 14 appears next to it so that you know it s being contr
314. il4 Launch Mode Repeat Signature Legato 4 i 4 E Quantization Groove 1716 St ight veil 00 Follow Action es o a v Y r 7 Source Ableton Minimizing Performance Strain No matter how fast and new my computer is I always seem to find a way to tax it beyond its capabilities While most of Live s built in devices are pretty CPU efficient you can bring your system to its knees by using a lot of them in Sets with loads of tracks Third party plug ins are harder to generalize about Some are very lightweight while others can cripple your system with just one or two instances Here are a few tips for staying on top of your CPU load gt Freeze tracks This feature will render everything on the track into an audio file so effects and virtual instruments can be disabled Simply right click on the track s name and choose Freeze track from the Context menu If your computer is really struggling select every track you re not currently editing and freeze them all at once If you need to edit anything that s been disabled by Freeze you can unfreeze the track make your edits and then refreeze it If you can t Freeze something due to a routing issue you can always record from track to track see Chapter 6 Tracks and Signal Routing or use Export Audio Video to export a single track gt Eliminate clips using Complex mode Unless it s absolutely necessary to use Complex or Complex Pro use a different Warp mode F
315. iles is a major concern for you purchasing a solid state drive SSD is probably a better option Transpose and Detune The Transpose and Detune controls see Figure 5 23 change the playback tuning of the clip without changing its playback speed Transpose shifts pitch in semitones while Detune adjusts it in small steps known as cents one hundredth of a semitone While transposing generally produces artifacts in the audio small shifts in pitch can often be made with acceptable sound quality as long as you use the appropriate Warp mode for the audio you re transposing The Complex Pro mode can produce some very high quality results when transposing at the cost of high CPU usage There s more about Warp modes in the Warping section GOING WAY OUT Although Transpose is useful to make a loop match the key of your song you ll discover that wild new sounds can be found by tweaking the tuning up or down by multiple octaves and experimenting with different Warp modes Once a sample is altered this much new textures and sounds can emerge Take time to experiment Clip Gain The Clip Gain slider which is unlabeled and located just to the right of the Transpose knob is used to adjust the individual volume of a clip This is a very convenient way to balance audio levels without using automation Just bear in mind that you re changing the volume of the audio before it flows through effect devices This is particularly important wh
316. imeline and no longer appears in the Clip View Modulation on the other hand remains in the clip This is because modulation and automation can actually be used simultaneously Figure 5 33 shows automation slowly sweeping a filter s cutoff frequency from low to high while a clip s modulation moves the frequency rhythmically above and below its automated value Figure 5 33 Here s an example of automation and modulation being used in conjunction D en Od ANd Cdd dd Aid AA G AAA AAM LAA A Oh LA GA AAA Source Ableton Modulation cannot be recorded using the methods explained in Chapter 4 Making Music in Live It can only be programmed manually in the editor The editing techniques for modulation are identical to that of automation Yov ll be using breakpoints and Draw Mode and with a few exceptions anything that can be automated can be modulated as well With the release of Live 9 Ableton has hidden modulation envelopes by default Before you can program modulation for a control you ll have to reveal it in the editor There are a few ways to do this In the Session View launch the clip you want to add modulation to Then right click on the control you want to modulate and select Show Modulation from the context menu as seen in Figure 5 34 If you want to add modulation to an Arrangement clip instead just select the clip before right clicking on the control You can also reveal modulation by first navigating a cli
317. in dark These are fun in the studio and a must have for many live performers Ableton s new Push is designed around a button grid which can launch clips and do much more as well gt Keys Even if you don t play the piano you ll probably want to have at least two octaves of piano keys to play with Some keyboards come with extra controls faders knobs etc and may be all you need Simple keyboard controllers may need to be supplemented with another controller for knobs and buttons There s nothing wrong with the latter approach In fact it can be quite convenient to have several small controllers After all you might not need one of them for gigs and you ll save space in your gig bag over a larger fully featured controller gt Drum Pads Some people can t live without them If you like to bang out your beats drum pads can make it much more fun That said I know folks who have no problem playing great beats on a piano keyboard or simply drawing in every note with the mouse Drum pads vary in feel and sensitivity so make sure to get ones you like gt Knobs Some knobs have a nice smooth feel and have a limited range just like a knob on an old synth Others turn endlessly and click as you turn them These are usually referred to as encoders The former are much better for musical tasks such as filter sweeps A bad feeling or awkwardly placed knob is no fun to use so try before you buy gt Faders and Crossfader
318. in its name Source Ableton The real power of the Browser is revealed by clicking on the other views which will display a filtered list of content matching your search term For the search shown in Figure 3 16 clicking on Sounds will reveal a list of folders containing presets with pad in the name The same holds true for Places By combining search terms with filtering by type Browse or location Places you should be able to find anything you need without much suffering Preview Tab The Preview Tab is located at the bottom of the Browser Previewing can be toggled off and on by clicking the headphones icon shown in Figure 3 17 When turned on the icon turns blue and you be able to hear the sounds you re browsing right away Audio files such as you d find in the Samples view will play back automatically when selected and an image of the waveform will appear to the right of the headphones In the case of Live Clips this same area will display the words Click to Preview You can follow this instruction or use the right arrow key to begin playback Figure 3 17 The Browser s Preview allows you to listen to audio or MIDI clips at either the current project tempo or their original tempo Source Ableton QUICK PREVIEW The right arrow key can be used to preview individual files when the Preview switch is disengaged Every instrument preset found under Sounds or Instruments installed with Live 9 has a
319. in milliseconds or samples to compensate for sluggish hardware plug ins that generate excessive latency or as a creative tool Theoretically Live can automatically compensate for all plug in latency but this depends on the plug in accurately reporting its latency to Live which not all plug ins do Positive values make the track play back later while negative values make it play earlier For example you might be sending MIDI to an external synthesizer and hear that it s responding late and messing up the groove Set track delay to 50ms to bring it into sync Or maybe you ve got a hi hat clip that you think would sound better if it lagged a little behind the beat Set its Track Delay to 10ms to add a little vibe Note that in order to hear the effects of Track Delay Delay Compensation must be activated under the Options menu To make the Track Delay setting visible at the bottom of each track select the Track Delay option under the View menu Arrangement View Beginners may think of it as merely Live s other window but Arrangement View sometimes called the Arrangement for short is incredibly important It s the place where final decisions about composing and arranging are made and where songs are completed If Session View is the spontaneous right brain tickling creative screen Arrangement View is the analytic left brain stimulating finishing touches side of Live You may notice that Live s Arrangement Vie
320. ing about editing loops of a given length After all a loop is by definition a repeating sample or phrase That is just what loops do they loop And by default each envelope in a clip is the same length as the clip itself allowing you to create repetitive automation or modulation patterns that recur every time the clip repeats itself However by unlinking an envelope you can create modulations or automations with lengths and loop points independent of the clip which gives you a mind boggling array of options Sometimes you may want to extend a given loop beyond its original borders For instance you have a repetitive twobar drum loop and you really wish that you had an eight bar loop to make it sound more lifelike and less repetitive One way to accomplish this is by unlinking the clip s envelopes By changing the length of an envelope so that it is different from the length of the clip you can introduce just this kind of variation to your loops Anytime you click the Unlink button see Figure 5 40 the audio or MIDI note display disappears from the editor because the envelope is now an independent entity with its own length and looping properties These points are adjusted using a loop brace and familiar looking Start End Position and Length controls in the Envelopes Box but in this case you re affecting the envelope only Feel free to make an unlinked envelope of eight bars over a two bar loop or one that starts on beat one goes
321. ing will be While a swing control on a drum machine isn t news Live s Groove Engine does a few things that are downright futuristic Not only can Live apply a traditional shuffle to both MIDI and audio clips but it can also quantize audio to correct timing or remove swing as well as apply a whole variety of other grooves such as those associated with samba and rumba Far from simply being able to delay certain beats to add swing to a loop the Groove Engine can shift individual beats in either direction and add some randomization to the timing as well Grooves can also contain velocity changes which can be used to modify dynamics as well This could be a simple matter of making the downbeat of a bar slightly louder than the other beats or it could be a complex flow rising and falling throughout the bar To apply a groove to a clip press Hot Swap Clip Groove as seen in Figure 5 42 This will cause the Browser to display the groove files in Live s Library Now you can browse until you find the groove you re interested in If you re new to working with grooves and shuffles open up the Swing folder and select one of the groove files contained within to get started If you re an experienced percussionist or perhaps a user of Apple s Logic Pro or Akai s MPC series drum sequencers you be happy to find all sorts of familiar grooves contained within the other folders Figure 5 42 Using the Hot Swap Groove button enables you to
322. instead of just moving it For example you might create multiple copies of a clip and set different loop points or make a copy of an entire track and apply radically different effects to create a layered sound MULTISELECT Many commands and actions can be applied to multiple objects simultaneously Command Ctrl click to select nonadjacent objects or Shift click to select a range In the Session View groups of clips can also be selected by dragging an area around the clips with the mouse The trick is that you must click and drag from an empty clip slot and then move the mouse across the clips you want to select For example you might want to select multiple clips and apply the same color or move several tracks simultaneously You can also adjust the Mixer for multiple tracks simultaneously For example to reduce the volume for several tracks by the same amount select multiple tracks and then adjust the volume of any of them The faders of every selected track will move by the same amount Finally it s often overlooked as to how easy it is to navigate just about every part of Live using the arrow keys After you ve selected a Session View clip by clicking on it you can move up down left or right to select other clips using the arrow keys If you use the Up arrow to move above the top most clip you ll now have selected the track and can move to other tracks with the Left and Right arrows The arrow keys can also be used in conj
323. instruments Racks slicing VST plug ins Preview tab Browser window Previous Next option Priority parameter processing dynamic See also dynamic processing processor speed program change messages programming Drum Programming mode Push time signatures projects Manage Project saving properties clips modulating audio clips Pseudo Warp Markers punch points Push Q quantization clips drums MIDI clips Quantization button Quantize Beat parameter Quantize command Quantize dialog box Quantize parameter R Racks RAM random access memory RAM button Random random access memory See RAM randomization adding randomizers devices random modes Arpeggiator Random Other pattern Arpeggiator Random parameter Random Pitch parameter Rate knob Rate parameter Arpeggiator ratios configuring real time time stretching recommendations system requirements recording Arrangement Record Arrangement View automating clips dynamic processing levels loops overdubbing See also overdubbing quantization Session Record button Session View step Record Warp Launch tab reducing background noise Redux Re Enable Automation button re enabling automation clips Release control Release Envelope Release mode remapping pitches remixing arrangements See also mixing remote control enabling instant mappings MIDI plug ins Push remote mapping remote output Rename command renaming scenes rendering Repea
324. io Effect filters Frequency Shifter Looper modulation Resonators Spectrum Utility Vocoder exporting interface specifications loops moving recording routing tracks Audio Device Audio Effects category Audio Stream Input Output drivers See ASIO drivers Audio tab Audio Unit presets Authorize Offline buttons Auto Filter Auto Hide Plug In Windows automation curves deleting device controls editing effects envelopes lanes recording viewing warping Automation Arm button Auto mode Auto Open Plug in Custom Editor Auto Pan Auto Warp feature auto warping Aux button Sampler B background noise reducing Back to Arrangement buttons backups hard drives bands playing live banks Base parameter basic specifications computers bass Beat Repeat beats Beats mode Beat Time Ruler Behles Gerhard bell filters Bit Depth bleed microphone Body section Tension boosting frequencies boxes clips modulation bridges moving scenes brightness Browser window adding files from devices accessing adding Hot Swap mode mapping Browsing function Push Buffer Shuffler Max built in devices See also devices C Cabinet caches decoding Decoding Cache carriers Operator Categories section Browser window central processing units See CPUs cents Chains chains Drum Rack Chain Select Editor channels mixers virtual mixers Choices parameter chokes groups chopping See cutting Chord Chord Trigger style Arpeggia
325. ion on or off Similarly holding down Fixed Length allows you to select a predetermined length for all newly recorded clips while a single push is used to turn this mode on or off Another word of advice When learning Push keep an eye on your computer screen as well Even though the ultimate goal may be to make music on Push and avoid gazing at Live you ll get a more solid understanding of what s going on if you watch what happens to your clips and devices on screen while working with the hardware THE BRIGHT SIDE Push is fully bus powered and does not require that you use the power supply that comes included When the power supply is used the buttons pads and display all glow brighter Getting Started Here are a few things about Push that yov ll need to know right away see Figure 11 13 Figure 11 13 Most of Push s functions are clearly labeled and easy to find All of the buttons are backlit When a button goes dark that means that it has no functionality in the current mode Record and Overdub Notes and Automation Source gt gt These Buttons Change What s Shown in the Display bes Ses eee i 3 8 38 el fa ris Create Music Create Musical ECLI E an to Launch Clips Use the Left Right To a Arons So C iii Start and Use the Up Down Arrows Stop Live to Navigate Scenes or Move the Clip Grid Ableton Tracks Navigate from track to track using the left and right a
326. ions as well A slower drive can become a problem when Sets grow large and complex with many audio tracks and samples playing back simultaneously When this happens you ll hear audio dropouts and the D Disk Overload icon in the upper right hand corner will begin to flash For the highest performance possible it s great to have multiple hard drives For example you could have one for operating system and applications a second for sample libraries and a third for your musical projects This way each drive has less work to do and can keep up more easily RAM As your Live Sets grow and become more complex they use more RAM memory It s important not to run out of memory while running Live because when you do it crashes There s no built in way to monitor memory usage as there is with CPU power and disk usage so yov ll have to run Activity Monitor in OS X or Task Manager in Windows to see where your system memory is going If your system has a relatively small amount of RAM it s important to quit other applications while running Live Whether you re prone to running out of RAM depends on how you use your system Some plug ins are memory hungry for example using Max For Live and ReWire both demand more memory because they involve running additional applications Live is now available in both 64 bit and 32 bit versions The only difference between these two versions is how much RAM they can utilize A 32 bit applicatio
327. ip s Master Slave switch set to Master This makes the video Live s tempo master meaning that any changes to the Warp Markers in the video will change Live s master tempo not the playback speed of the video Setting the video as the tempo master enables you to define hit points in the video which will affect the playback speed of the other clips in your session Changing the speed of the video to match your music will not make you a very popular film composer Saving Exporting After you have finished your new soundtrack you will want to save your work either as a new movie or as an audio file to be turned over to a film editor If you re just exporting audio there are a few things to bear in mind First the safest bet for turning in your soundtrack to an editor is to make an audio file the exact length of the video you were given so the start points line up exactly and there won t be any confusion about where your sound cues go Second if you re exporting audio only don t forget to mute the audio on the video track otherwise you ll get a file containing both the dialogue and the music The standard sample rate for digital video is 48 kHz but for Internet streaming 44 1 kHz is just fine That said when creating audio for someone else s film or video project the best policy is simply to ask them the format they want To create a video select File gt Export Audio Video and turn on Create Video File in the bottom section
328. is Resampling see Figure 6 9 Selecting this input allows you to record a new clip from the output of the Master track This is a quick and easy way to grab audio from whatever is going on in Live at the moment Mute tracks you don t want to record or solo the tracks you want recorded and go When resampling into a track its output is automatically muted to avoid feedback Figure 6 9 Select Resampling as the source for an audio track to record Live s main output Source Ableton Virtual Outputs Some of Live s built in devices and some third party plug ins have multiple virtual outputs which can be useful in a variety of ways For example perhaps you re using Impulse Live s basic drum instrument and you want to send each drum to a separate track for individual processing Or maybe you re using a multitimbral instrument like Native Instruments Kontakt which can load multiple instruments simultaneously Virtual outputs make it easy to monitor or record each sound separately They re easy to miss however unless you know where to look Whenever you load an instrument with virtual outputs into a MIDI track the virtual outputs will become available in Input Type menus for the audio tracks in the Set Let s take a look at an example using Impulse Take a look at Figure 6 10 Yov ll see a track containing an Impulse drum kit along with several audio tracks Each of these tracks has its Input Type set to the Impulse tra
329. is mode will yield the most artifact free stretching This is the default setting Figure 5 26 Transient Loop mode and Transient Envelope have a big impact on the results when changing the tempo or pitch of a clip Source Ableton The numeric box next to Transient Loop Mode is the Transient Envelope This value determines if a fade should be applied to each audio segment In No Loop mode reducing this value can be used to create dramatic gating effects even when you re playing the audio at its original tempo Playing with this value is highly recommended When Transient Loop Mode is set to either of the looped modes lowering the envelope tends to produce less dramatic results but can still be very useful for smoothing out time stretching artifacts TONES Tones mode is based on a technique called granular resynthesis As a file is played back it is broken into grains The idea is that when you loop a grain you get a continuous tone that represents that sound frozen in time By splitting the audio into grains and spreading the grains apart Live slows down the tempo of the audio playback however since each grain is still played at its original pitch there will be empty space between each grain Looping each grain fills space to time stretch the file Of course looping each grain isn t necessary when speeding up playback of a file As the grains are brought closer together they will overlap one another Each grain will
330. is same technique can be done with some plug in devices as well If you re working with a plug in with virtual inputs and outputs your best bet may be to program it using the External Instrument device which is explained in Chapter 8 Live s Instruments ReWire These days most music applications are incredibly powerful and don t have any serious limitations that would prevent you from using them to create a piece of music from start to finish However every program has its strengths and some producers find it useful to use different programs for different things For example you might create some loops in Reason and have them play alongside your song in Live Or perhaps you re working on a Pro Tools session and you want to take advantage of Live s warping features or built in instruments All of these things can be done by importing and exporting audio between the programs but sometimes it s easier to use ReWire which allows you to link together multiple pieces of music softwarea With this technology audio and MIDI stream seamlessly from one program into the other and the transports and tempos of the two applications are linked making them act like one mega program For the most part ReWire is very transparent to use You don t need to install or configure it separately and it launches automatically when needed Its behavior is determined by the order in which you launch your music applications and how you route sig
331. is the Phase knob If you move this knob while watching the waveform graphic you ll see that this knob adjusts the phase relationship of the left and right curves or the position where the waveforms start When set to 180 degrees the two curves are out of phase meaning one channel is at full volume while the other is silent If you twist this knob down to 0 degrees the two curves will now be in sync you ll see only one curve resulting in the left and right channels changing volume in sync The Auto Pan will no longer pan the signal from left to right it will simply turn the volume of the whole signal up and down This is where the Auto Pan device begins to function beyond what its name implies and it becomes a chopper or rhythmic volume control Below the Phase knob yov ll find either the Phase and Spin buttons when in Hz mode or the Offset knob when in Beats mode These controls work identically to their counterparts in the Auto Filter so review that section if you need the details on how they work The last knob on the Auto Pan is the Shape knob As this knob is turned clockwise the waveform will slowly morph into a square wave When set to 100 this will cause the Auto Pan to flip flop the audio between the left and right channels there will be no motion through the center Of course setting this knob at an amount less than 100 will allow you to hear some of the left right transition In real terms we use this knob
332. itches to enable or disable recording and scene navigators see Chapter 11 to move up or down in the Session View The Session Record and New buttons can also be mapped for jumping to an empty clip slot and starting a new recording with a minimum of footwork Theater Sound cues are one of the most important elements for adding realism to a stage production Sound effects such as wind rain thunder city traffic church bells and crying babies are played through the house system and sometimes music cues play a role as well In order to play a sound instantly when using Live you ll need to turn off Launch Quantization either in Live s Control bar or individually in your clips Yov ll also commonly switch off Warp so the sample will play at its original pitch and speed 13 Live 9 Power IN THIS FINAL CHAPTER we ll be looking at an assortment of more advanced techniques along with a few things that just don t fit anywhere else such as the File Manager and Max For Live Getting Your Groove On The power of loop based music is also its biggest problem repetition While repetition can be magic for keeping a dance floor moving the feel can become stagnant ultimately making music monotonous and uninspired To combat this it is important to understand the three heavy hitters of groove dynamics timing and variation What you ll find in this chapter are suggestions that can be used in addition to rather than in place
333. ith For example the context menu for a track contains commands to create additional tracks as well as commands to delete or duplicate the selected track Context menus are typically invoked by right clicking with the mouse If you re on a Mac you may need to configure your OS X Keyboard and Mouse preferences to enable the right mouse button or you can Control click with the left mouse button instead If you re using a MacBook you can also configure the trackpad to register a right click when you click with two fingers The Info View The Info View is a retractable display in the lower left corner of Live that provides information about whatever control your mouse is hovering over see Figure 3 4 The information displayed here is brief but very handy and even if it doesn t answer every question it will at least tell you the name of the thing you re looking at which is a great help if you want to look it up in this book or gasp in the Live manual I strongly recommend you keep the Info view open while learning Live The gt key can be used to quickly hide it to protect your reputation when a friend looks over your shoulder Figure 3 4 The Info View can be hidden or expanded to give you quick bits of pertinent Live wisdom Source Ableton The Help View This view can be opened by selecting Help View from the View menu see Figure 3 5 This view differs from the manual in that it provides step by step tutorials or
334. ith the power of modern software giving you the best of both worlds Figure 1 1 Here is a quick peek at the Session View grid in Live 9 The rows make up musical sections called scenes and the columns function as virtual mixer channels Source Ableton Another area Live specializes in is stretching audio to any desired tempo or pitch Want to use that SOBPM drum loop in the 105BPM song that you re working on Not a problem Want to transpose the key and change the tempo of some Ozark mountain fiddle music to sync it up with a dance floor banger as this author has been known to do It takes a little skill with Live s Warp feature but once you get the hang of it you 1l be amazed at how easy it is to combine a wide variety of musical elements with varying keys and tempos Not strictly an improvisation and performance tool Live sports a traditional timeline like that found in other digital audio workstations or DAWs such as Digidesign s Pro Tools Apple s Logic MOTU s Digital Performer Cakewalk s SONAR and Steinberg s Cubase and Nuendo Live s timeline called the Arrangement can be used to capture your improvisations for final polishing editing and mixing To get an idea of what we re talking about look at Figure 1 2 which features a screenshot of Live s Arrangement View Figure 1 2 If you ve used other digital audio workstations Live s Arrangement View should look familiar AE CRERRA HARA ERE STE CEC
335. ive since the ASD file contains waveform display data and information such as tempo gt Export to SoundCloud SoundCloud is an Internet service for sharing your music If you have an account with them this option streamlines the process of uploading your song IMPORTANT NOTE START TRANSPORT ON RECORD As this book was on its way to the printer Ableton added an important new preference to the Record Warp Launch tab Start Transport with Record This preference affects the behavior of both of Live s Record buttons When set On the default recording behaves as described in the rest of this book When Start Transport with Record is set Off clicking Arrangement Record or Session Record will prepare Live for recording without starting playback To begin recording you must then press Play This behavior will be familiar to users of prior versions of Live Additionally Session Record will not initiate clip recording as described in the Session Record Button section of this chapter 5 Clips CLIPS ARE THE MUSICAL BUILDING BLOCKS OF LIVE As such you ll eventually want to gain a deep knowledge of their inner workings and this chapter is designed to help you do just that From simple tweaks like clip name and color to the far out manipulations possible with Warp Markers and grooves there s an awful lot going on in the Clip View that you need to know about Common Properties of Clips While MIDI and audio are very dif
336. ive yov ll need to have at least one of these options turned on In OS X Use Audio Units and Use VST System Folders allow Ableton s use of plug ins in their respective formats PCs can t use Audio Units and don t have a VST system folder so you ll have to specify the folder on your hard drive that contains the VSTs you want to use On a Mac you can also specify a custom location for VSTs that can be used instead of or in conjunction with the System folder Library The first option in the Library tab is Collect Samples on Export see Figure 2 5 This affects Live s behavior when clips are dragged from the Session or Arrange views into the Browser in order to create new Sets or Live clips If it s set to Yes Live will always copy any necessary samples into the new location along with the new Sets or Live clips you are creating If it s set to Never the new Sets or clips will refer to the original locations of the samples they use I recommend setting this preference to Ask which invokes a dialog asking you if you want to export files This gives you additional control and allows you to learn by doing Figure 2 5 The Library tab Preferences Browser Bohavior Collect Filles on Export Always X Content Locations instaltation Folder tor Packs Meer ModoleclvMustic Abietorvt actory Packs Gat more Pecks af abieton com Location of Live 6 Library Browse Users nodolecty Music ibrary_ Sounds actory Abie
337. ive creates instant mappings which means that some of Live s controls are automatically mapped to the controller However regardless of the controller you use Live makes it easy to create your own customized mappings To assign a key on your computer keyboard first click the Key Map Mode switch refer to Figure 3 21 or press Ctrl Cmd K An orange overlay will appear over any control that can be mapped Click on the control you want to map and press a key on your keyboard to map it Then press the Key Map Mode switch again to restore Live to normal operation and you re done Be aware that when Computer MIDI Keyboard is enabled much of the computer keyboard will not function for remote control Before you can use a MIDI controller for remote control you must visit the MIDI Sync tab of the Preferences screen and set Remote to On as explained in Chapter 2 After you ve done that click the MIDI Map Mode switch in the Control Bar shown in Figure 3 21 above or press Ctrl Cmd M The blue overlay that appears indicates the controls that can have a MIDI message assigned to them Click on the control you want to map and move the MIDI control you want to map it to WITH THE PUSH OF A KNOB Live will allow you to assign MIDI knobs and sliders to on screen buttons In this case the button in Live will turn on when your MIDI control passes its midpoint 64 on a scale of 0 to 127 It will switch off when you move the control back under 64
338. ive will create a new audio file a reversed version of the original This new audio file will be named the same as the original but it will have the letter R added to the end Okay so it s not truly a Reverse button as in play the sample backward Instead the Reverse button means play a backward version of the sample This means you have to wait for the R file to be made the first time you reverse but from that point on Live will just choose the original or reversed file to play allowing you to switch directions almost instantaneously Because of the nature of the Reverse feature you may want to avoid using this button during live performances Instead I recommend you make two clips one normal and one reversed Hi Q This button simply switches the audio clip between high quality and low quality interpolation used for transposition If this button is on the clip will play using better pitch shifting and resampling algorithms but it will also place a slightly heavier strain on your CPU I recommend leaving this option on for all clips setting Default SR amp Pitch Conversion to High Quality in Preferences gt Audio will make this the default and turning it off only if you have a slower computer and you need to save every bit of CPU power Fade To help an audio file loop seamlessly no clicks or pops when the file loops around Live can perform a quick 4ms volume fade at the end of the clip
339. just include 85BPM in the name of the scene and launch it The scene can be empty you don t need to trigger any clips when you launch this scene if you merely want to change tempos You can remove all the Clip Stop buttons select them and press Ctrl Cmd E so that none of your clips are stopped One instance where programming scene tempos is particularly helpful is when you re organizing a large batch of clips into a Set so that a single Live Set contains multiple songs One group of scenes may belong to one song at a given tempo while another group of scenes represents a different song and tempo and so on Scenes can also be named to create changes in the time signature Time signatures are represented as fractions with the numerator number of beats per bar being any value from 1 to 99 and the denominator type of beats being 1 2 4 8 or 16 Scene names can contain both time signature and tempo changes as long as the two values are separated by at least one character see Figure 4 17 Figure 4 17 Live is smart enough to recognize tempos and time signatures in scene names Launching these scenes will cause the indicated changes to take effect immediately Source Ableton Removing Clip Stop Buttons In Figure 4 18 you ll see that only some of the empty clip slots have square Clip Stop buttons Removing the Clip Stop button from a clip slot will allow a playing clip on the track to continue playing when the scene is lau
340. k out to listen to the bar in context Repeating this process over and over can be a hassle but with the loop length grid it s a piece of cake Each pad in the loop length section represents one of 16 possible bars Pushing any of these buttons causes the clip to jump immediately to this bar To specify a range of bars hold one pad and then press a second For example pressing pad 1 the one in the upper left of the loop area causes bar 1 of the clip to loop Holding down pad five and then pressing pad 8 creates a four bar loop including bars 5 through 8 THE DON T TOUCH STRIP The touch strip is used to navigate the Drum Rack s Pad Overview Be careful not to lean on it while you re playing the drum pads or you could end up playing an empty set of dull yellow pads If this happens run your finger along the strip until the drum pads glow bright yellow again and you ll be back in business Replacing Individual Drums Push makes it easy to load sounds into the pads of a Drum Rack one at a time The trick to doing this is to make sure that the pad is selected before pressing Browse otherwise you ll end up browsing for entire kits First press Device and then press one of the drum pads At the far left of the display you ll see the name of the kit followed by the name of the pad Press the button directly below the pad to select it Now when you press Browse yov ll be taken to individual drum hits rather than entire
341. king Stop in the Control Bar twice The second click sets the Arrangement playback position to 1 1 1 Next click Arrangement Record and perform your song by launching clips moving sliders and turning knobs Remember that Arrangement Record is also used to record brand new clips into the Arrangement so make sure that no tracks are armed When you click Arrangement Record recording will begin immediately Depending on how you work this may or may not be a problem Here are a few methods to get a clean start gt Use the Metronome s drop down menu to select a count off This will give you a moment to get ready after pressing Arrangement Record gt Launch all of the clips for the intro of your song and then click Stop twice When recording begins these clips will start playing back and you can take it from there gt Shift click Arrangement Record This arms recording but does not start playback As soon as you launch a clip recording will begin When you re finished press the Spacebar to stop or click Arrangement Record to disable recording while playback continues If you want to re record a section or add new clips just press Arrangement Record again Newly launched clips will be recorded clicking Clip Stop buttons will cause Arrangement clips to be erased Everything else will be left alone When recording clips from Session to Arrangement automation is always recorded regardless of the Automation Arm status Also note t
342. l always seek out the audio interface last saved in the preferences each time the program launches If Live cannot find the soundcard if for instance you have unplugged it or swapped it out Live will still launch but with no audio enabled In this instance the CPU meter will be red and display the word OFF You won t be able to play any sound in Live until you go to the Audio Preferences and select a new audio device Sample Rate The In Out Sample Rate setting in the Audio Preferences tab will determine the recording quality of both Live s output and recorded input The most common sample rate is 44 100Hz or 44 1kHz which is the sample rate for CDs and most consumer digital audio The sample rate for digital video is 48k Some producers work at higher sample rates in the interest of sound quality and downsample the audio in the mastering process There is much debate on this topic the details of which go beyond the scope of this book Bear in mind that higher sample rates means larger file sizes and greater CPU demand There is also another setting here labeled Default SR amp Pitch Conversion When set to High Quality Live will set the Hi Q switch to its On position for all newly created clips This causes Live to use a cleaner algorithm when converting sample rates and transposing clips Unless you re really strapped for CPU power leave this in the Hi Quality position You can always turn it off for individual clips which you m
343. l because it can be used to make sure that loop recording or playback starts at the beginning of the bar The Quantization menu also affects the behavior of the Double and Half Speed buttons Next to the Speed knob you notice up and down arrow buttons These are used to double or halve the speed of your loop a very common feature on looping pedals Like these hardware devices changing the speed of a loop also changes the pitch just like a clip in Repitch mode You I see this reflected by the Speed knob its value is displayed in semitones It s possible to make all sorts of crazy loop textures by recording elements at different speeds Record a guitar loop drop it by an octave and overdub a new layer over that Now raise them both by two octaves and press the Reverse switch Add additional material before returning to the original speed and pressing the Reverse switch again Rinse and repeat If you want to change the length of your loop without changing the speed use the 2 and x2 buttons above Since there are a couple of gotchas with these back up the loop you ve created first Just click and drag from the Drag Me area of Looper and drop into a clip slot Now while your loop is playing back in Looper use x2 to double the length of the loop which duplicates the loop and allows you to overdub new phrases twice the length of the original loop Using 2 cuts the loop length in half and throws away the rest of it Bear in mind
344. l in the direction that the MIDI control is moved until the upper or lower limit is reached at which point normal MIDI control resumes File Folder The File Folder tab see Figure 2 4 is used to specify various external file locations manage plug ins and handle Live s cache for decoded MP3 files Figure 2 4 The File Folder tab Save Current Set a5 Oetautt Croato Analysts Files Sampie Editor No sampie editor has been selected Temporary Foider Browse Users bonussrrnyMusic Abletor Live Recordings Download the isiest version of Max tom cycing74 com Decoding Cache Minimum Froo Space Maximum Cache Size Cache Fotdor Browse Users Donusarrny Litrary Caches Abteton Cache Piug tn Sources Rescan Plug ins Use Audto Units Use VST Plug in System Folders Use VST Plug in Custom Folder Source Ableton The first setting here Save Current Set as Default is used to save the current Live Set as the template Set that will be loaded each time Live is launched This can be helpful for preconfiguring commonly used settings such as MIDI assignments input and output routings and common effect patchwork such as EQs on every channel Note that you can save only one template in this Preferences tab For additional templates you can create additional Sets and store them in the Templates folder of your User Library More on this in Chapter 13 Live 9 Power The Create Analysis Files option lets you determin
345. lave If you wanted to use Reason Live would be the master and Reason would be the slave Using Live as a ReWire Master When Live is used as a ReWire master its operation is essentially identical to when it s being used without ReWire The main difference is the routing You l need to configure Live to receive audio from the slave application and you may need to send MIDI into the slave as well To receive audio create an audio track and set its Input Type to the slave as seen in Figure 6 14 What you select in the Input Channel depends a bit on how you have the slave application configured By default Live will select the slave application s main stereo out ReWire supports up to 64 virtual outputs which can be used if you want to route individual instruments from the slave into different tracks in Live Figure 6 14 Here outputs 1 and 2 from Reason are inputs for an audio track j 1 2 Mix L adie Prone l Reason __ l i 172 Mix L v Jif Monitor Source Ableton After you have selected the ReWire source for a track you can record the audio from the slave application as a new clip or simply monitor the source ReWire synchronizes the programs so clicking Play in Live will cause the parts from the slave to play right along in time Just bear in mind that while ReWire is itself very light on system resources running multiple audio applications can be very taxing on CPU and RAM ReWire can also be used to send MIDI f
346. ld one Spoiler alert In the section on Instrument Racks I m going to tell you how to put more than one instrument in a MIDI track but for now just go with it THE BIG PICTURE Yov ll quickly discover that it s very easy to add enough devices to a track so that they can t all be seen at one time When this happens the devices will simply scroll off to the right At the lower right hand corner of your screen yov ll see a miniaturized image of all of the devices in the track with a black rectangle indicating the devices that are currently in view Just like in the Arrangement View you can slide the rectangle around to view different parts of the device chain My favorite trick for keeping devices in view however is folding them Just double click in a device s title bar and it will collapse sideways taking up a fraction of the screen space that it did before It s easy to keep your devices folded and just unfold the one you re working with at the moment Inside the Track View As first mentioned in Chapter 3 the Track View is the name for the area in which devices appear If you want to become a device master you need to know your way around the Track View In case you ve forgotten remember that you can always get to the Track View by double clicking in a track s title bar or by using the Shift Tab keyboard shortcut Activate Deactivate and Edit Every device has a circular Device Activator switch in the
347. le classic filter types high pass low pass band pass and band reject Each of these can be controlled via the effect s X Y controller and modulated by an envelope and any of seven different low frequency oscillator LFO shapes As you may have gleaned from the EQ Eight explanation suppressing certain frequencies allows you to carve out specific problems or overcooked frequencies The Auto Filter can do this as well but it shines as a creative effect capable of a wide variety of sounds Figure 9 4 Live s Auto Filter device If you ve just been reading so far you really need to get up and try this one No really gt Auto Filter a Envelope LFO S amp H Audio From zZ Amount Shape 1 ve J ek s Gain Attack Rate 00068 som AIAN ene w EI Dry Wet Relesse anizo Beat Q Phase Offset wa D wo 200me AAMA 10 200 Source Ableton Filter Type Running along the bottom of the graphical display are four icons for selecting the Auto Filter s type They are from right to left low pass high pass band pass and band reject Low pass simply means that the low frequencies pass through the filter but nothing else does For instance if used on an entire song the bass guitar and kick drums will be audible though a little dull sounding due to the lack of highs Some sounds may disappear completely such as small cymbals or shakers Conversely a high pass filter will allow shimmering cymbals
348. leton In both the Session and Arrangement Views the Export Audio Video dialog presents several important decisions to make To begin you will need to know the exact length of the section of audio you are rendering If you are rendering from Session View then you are likely rendering only a four eight or sixteen bar section whereas in the Arrangement View you may well be rendering an entire song and can select the amount of desired rendering time by highlighting the portion of the arrangement you want to render or its entirety For instance if you want to render a four minute song simply drag highlight the entire length of the song on any track Note that you also need to select which output to render selected in the Rendered Track box For creating a final mix you should select the Master output You also have the option to render any of the individual tracks or the Render All Tracks option which will render each of your tracks individually all at the same time This last option can be extremely useful if you want to export individual tracks for mixing in another audio sequencer such as Pro Tools or Logic Remember that rendering the Master output will include only the output that is routed to the Master track If you want to create a submix of a few tracks you can solo those tracks and only those will be heard in the final mix Also don t forget that if you have any tracks bypassing the Master and being routed directly to outputs
349. lict Live will warn you and automatically remove the old mapping before implementing the new one When a control is mapped to a computer key it s labeled as seen in Figure 11 6 Live recognizes both lowercase and capital letters most special characters and the numbers on the numeric keypad The only computer keys you can t map are those reserved for special purposes such as the spacebar Return and Tab keys To remove a manual mapping enter Map mode click on the control and press Delete Figure 11 6 The letters q and w have been mapped to the Track Activators of tracks 1 and 2 Source Ableton Let s take a closer look at what happens when you map MIDI controllers After the control is mapped Live displays a small box showing the MIDI channel and message that have been mapped see Figure 11 7 When notes are mapped Live tells you the note name If you send a CC you ll see the CC number after the MIDI channel Figure 11 7 The Track Activator has been mapped to note Al on MIDI channel 1 The volume slider is mapped to CC 22 also on channel 1 Source Ableton When it comes to CCs there are two types absolute and relative Faders and knobs are typically absolute controllers They send values from 0 to 127 and can move any control from the bottom of their range up to the top with a resolution of 128 steps If you re manually mapping absolute controllers it s a good idea to make sure you understand the takeover m
350. ling Virtual Outputs External Outputs Advanced MIDI Routing ReWire Masters Slaves Using ReWire with Live Using Live as a ReWire Master Using Live as a ReWire Slave Chapter 7 Using Effects and Instruments Device Types Using Devices From Browser to Track Inside the Track View Insert vs Send Return Using Return Effects Managing Presets Hot Swapping Rack Basics Chains Macro Controls Zones Freeze and Flatten Delay Compensation Chapter 8 Live s Instruments General Principles Modulation LFOs and Envelopes Filters Global Parameters Impulse Sample Slots Simpler Overview of the Interface Operator Overview of the Interface Creating and Shaping Sounds Sampler The Zone Tab The Sample Tab The Pitch Osc Tab The Filter Global Tab The Modulation Tab The MIDI Tab Importing Third Party Instruments The AAS Instruments Electric Mallet Fork Damper Pickup Global Tension Excitator Damper String Termination and Pickup Body Filter Global Analog Oscillators and Noise Filters and Amplifiers Filters and Amp Envelopes LFO Global Collision Excitators Resonators Drum Rack Pads and Chains Advanced Settings MIDI Routing Choke Groups Sends and Returns External Instrument Chapter 9 Live s Audio Effects EQ and Filters EQ Eight EQ Three Auto Filter Dynamic Processing Compressor Makeup Output Gain and Dry Wet Sidechain Gate Glue Compressor Limiter Multiband Dynamics Delay Effects Simple Delay
351. ll analyze the clip and create a new groove file based on the timing and dynamics of the clip If you want to save this new clip to the Library right click in the Groove Pool and select Browse Groove Library Now you can drag the groove from the pool into the Browser and it will be saved for use in future sets 6 Tracks and Signal Routing ONE OF LIVE S OFTEN UNSUNG FEATURES IS ITS INCREDIBLY FLEXIBLE ROUTING If you re just getting started as a producer you may not have use for everything described in this chapter right away However if you re coming to this chapter with some experience I predict you ll enjoy how easy it is to route multiple MIDI tracks into one instrument or record from one track to another In the following pages we ll be exploring some track types that haven t been discussed yet such as Groups and returns and looking at some interesting uses for regular audio and MIDI tracks We ll also take a look at ReWire which is a brilliant utility for sending audio between different applications and synchronizing their sequencers A lot of the techniques presented here involve use of the mixer s Input Ouput section so make sure to visit the View menu and have it displayed when following along Figure 6 1 shows an audio and a MIDI track with this section shown so make note of the chooser names since I ll be referring to them quite a bit Figure 6 1 To be a routing ninja you need to know your way aro
352. ll hear this technique used to create dramatic pulsating effects sometimes called pumping Not strictly used on bass pumping can be used to give rhythmic energy to pads leads percussion and even effects like delay and reverb Insert Compressor onto a track and set its Sidechain source to the kick Set Mode to Peak Ratio to maximum Attack to minimum Knee to OdB and Env to Linear Now with audio playing back reduce the threshold until you re seeing and hearing some very intense gain reduction The Release control is where you fine tune the effect Crank it up to somewhere between 200ms and 1s In this range you get an audible swelling in between each kick drum hit The exact value you use depends on the tempo of the song how busy the kick part is and the feel you re going for Once you ve got the hang of this you can fine tune the other settings to taste But what if your kick drum is already mixed into a drum loop We can work with that After you ve set the sidechain input to the track that your drum loop is on enable the EQ section Now solo the bass track and click the headphones icon Sidechain Listen directly to the left of the EQ switch Now you re hearing the Sidechain source the drum loop instead of the bass track Select the low pass filter and bring the frequency down until most of the other drums disappear Then you can turn off Sidechain Listen and tweak the Compressor controls until you get the
353. llator Display Once you dig into FM synthesis with Operator you find that the various algorithm waveform tuning options offer a wide array of wild and complex tones But there s even more flexibility available Operator also allows you to visually edit the built in waveforms by graphically adding and subtracting harmonics Above the Envelope display click on the box marked Oscillator next to the box marked Envelope This changes the display to show you the harmonics of the waveform being used for the currently selected operator If Sine is selected from the menu below you see exactly one bar all the way to the left of the display This tells you that the wave is composed of a simple fundamental pitch with no higher harmonics Now try selecting Saw3 from the menu This is the sawtooth wave we discussed earlier composed of only three harmonics With Saw64 you ll see harmonics cascading across the display illustrating the complex sound of a true sawtooth wave Once you have a basic understanding of what you re looking at here things get really interesting When your mouse floats above the harmonics display it turns into a pencil allowing you to freely alter the wave s harmonics Try it start slowly increasing or decreasing the right most harmonics to make the sound brighter or darker Then go crazy with it drawing or deleting harmonics as you please Notice that as you do this the waveform display below changes as well
354. lly know how to get around the controls we ve dealt with so far The rest of the controls in the Resonator section are very important because they re going to introduce a lot more complexity and it s often easier to digest this sort of material in chunks The next section determines the physical properties of the Resonator in other words the primary component of the instrument itself If you ve followed along with the previous experiments this would be a good time to switch back to the Mallet excitator and turn the Noise section off just to keep things simple The easiest aspect of the Resonator to set is the type which is specified in the menu you set to Plate at the beginning of this section Six of the resonator types fit into three categories beams planes and cylinders There s also a string type resonator which in terms of its parameters is identical to the beams Beams are not what get emitted from your light saber instead think of the beams in your ceiling These are the bars that you strike when playing a xylophone or vibraphone Marimba is simply a special type of beam that has a deep arch cut out from the bottom Membrane and Plate are two types that I m describing as planes because they are both thin flat surfaces Membrane being a flexible material stretched tightly such as a drum head and Plate being flat pieces of metal Finally Tube and Pipe are both cylindrical objects the only difference being that Pipe is o
355. lope you are currently viewing on the track To add additional lanes select a different envelope from the Device and Control Choosers and click the plus sign Conversely each automation lane has a minus sign that can be used to remove the lane Instead of removing lanes you may just want to hide them This can be done with the additional Fold button that appears at the bottom of the track s title bar Figure 4 32 Use the plus icon in a track s title bar to add an automation lane Use the minus icon in a lane s title bar to remove it The Add Lane for Each Automated Envelope command will automatically create a new lane for each automated parameter A eT ee J esn eee Le a ne a Oe OO ee OE nee ATO AD Rammer ane Aad nee For Et Ramanand Caiga s Coe TER pny Orac Or a be menama SS G f Devos On Source Ableton Editing Automation You can change the shape of the automation graph using two techniques one of which involves the standard mouse pointer and another that uses Live s pencil tool known as Draw Mode Toggle Draw Mode on and off with the B key In Draw Mode yov ll draw with the pencil creating flat steps that are each the same width as the current grid setting see Figure 4 33a This will allow you to create tempo synced automation effects such as volume gates or timed effect sends The pencil will overwrite any ramps that may have been made in the breakpoint mode
356. ls the behavior of some popular effect boxes for guitar As the term is usually used to signify Overdrive see Figure 9 21 produces a warm harmonically rich effect that is useful on a wide variety of sources Even at high settings it does not produce the harsh clipping that Saturator is capable of Figure 9 21 Overdrive Live s stomp box distortion Source Ableton The heart of Overdrive is the Drive knob turn it up to get more distortion There are two different EQ adjustments as well the bandpass filter above which is applied to the signal before the drive circuit and the Tone knob which adjusts the tone post drive This gives you a lot of flexibility For example cutting some lows with the bandpass filter may clean up the mud that you might get from distorting a bass while the Tone knob can be used to control any harsh sounding artifacts that the Drive circuit adds to the signal To further customize the sound use the Dynamics and Dry Wet controls Dynamics is a simple compressor high values preserve the original dynamics of the sound while low values increase the compression Don t underestimate the importance of the Dry Wet control In the previous example you would use this control to make sure that you added in enough of the dry signal to compensate for the low end that you ve removed from the overdriven one Saturator If you like the sort of effect produced by Overdrive but you need something more progra
357. ls with overall instrument settings that aren t electric piano specific Mallet This section controls the characteristics of the mallet or hammer that causes the metal fork to vibrate Stiffness represents how hard the surface of the mallet is so lower values will produce a gentler attack while higher values will tend to make the sound more percussive and less full bodied Force is the speed at which the mallet hits the fork with higher values tending to produce more overdrive and growl Since both of these controls affect how much the fork is made to vibrate they interact with each other closely For example both values affect the overall volume of the sound but in different ways A very hard mallet hitting the fork with a small amount of force will tend to produce a hard attack but a relatively weak overall sound A soft mallet hitting a fork very hard will produce a much fuller sound at a similar volume to the first setting but with a much weaker attack Both of these parameters can be modulated by both the velocity and the pitch of incoming MIDI notes This is where physical modeling gets interesting It s fairly intuitive to see that modulating the force with velocity will create a real world situation whereby more force is applied as you strike the key harder However we are also given the option of making our electric piano s hammers get harder as we play louder or softer if you want The Noise subsection models the noise
358. lso take a look above the Envelope display and yov ll see that there s a percentage box marked E below the Filter display This applies the envelope to the filter frequency as well If you need more info on ADSR Envelopes brush up on them in the sections on Simpler and Analog Resonators Continuing over to the right you l get into the Resonators section which has the biggest impact on the overall sound First you ll come to the pitch section which contains some controls that should be relatively familiar Tune controls the overall tuning of the instrument in semitones while Fine tunes Collision in cents 100ths of a semitone Notice that below the Tune knob it is mapped 100 to Key which makes it fully responsive to the notes on your MIDI keyboard Adjusting this value will allow you to make some more unusually tuned instruments For example with Key set to 50 a movement of a semitone on your keyboard will only produce a change of a quarter tone in Collision and so on The Pitch Envelope controls determine whether or not Collision reaches its target pitch immediately after it receives note input or if it slides into the final pitch Time determines the length of the slide while Pitch controls how much higher or lower the initial pitch is than the target If you re new to synth programming and really want to get a handle on this instrument this would probably be a good time to stop reading for a bit and make sure that you rea
359. lso be helpful to place a Limiter in your Master track to make sure that you don t clip your outputs That said it s important to make sure that you re not hitting the Limiter unnecessarily and crushing your dynamics For this reason dial in negative gain on the Limiter try 3dB for starters which will give you some extra headroom to mix tracks and loops together This way limiting only occurs if something extreme happens Live Bands and Other Performance Concepts Many gigging bands are using some form of accompaniment either prerecorded tracks or beat boxes to embellish their sound Many times the bands feature multi instrumentalists who write more parts for a song than can be played at once When you have the multitracking capabilities of Live at your disposal you can easily compile the parts you need for accompaniment and break them into scenes As you perform you can move through the scenes or you can record an arrangement to play again during a gig MAKING THE SCENE To quickly get a chunk of your Arrangement into the Session View select a range of time in the Arrangement View then right click and choose Consolidate Time to New Scene from the context menu When you return to the Session yov ll have a brand new scene with the material you selected This can provide a great starting point for preparing a multitrack performance Set Click Track In order to stay synchronized with Live one or more members of the ban
360. lso to the segment of audio in between two Warp Markers Click on a Warp Marker to display the Segment BPM of the audio in between the selected Warp Marker and the one preceding it Strictly speaking however this only applies to audio with a fluctuating tempo or cases where Warp Markers have been used to alter the original timing of the audio For audio with a completely steady tempo only one Warp Marker is necessary and the Segment BPM will reflect the tempo of the entire clip Half Double BPM The two buttons below the Segment BPM window will either double or halve the tempo of the clip Pressing the 2 button will multiply every Segment BPM by two The result is that the clip will play at half speed This may be counterintuitive but remember that you re not telling Live to play this clip at twice the speed but rather you re telling it the actual tempo of this audio is twice as fast Pressing 2 will have the opposite effect This is helpful when Live incorrectly guesses the length and tempo of a new audio clip For example if Live identifies a 170 BPM drum n bass loop as 85 BPM a click of the 2 button will fix this immediately Warp Modes Choosing the correct Warp modes is essential for clean musical warping The Warp mode affects the way in which Live approaches stretching and pitch shifting your audio clips Six different Warp modes are available in the audio clip s Warp section Beats Tones Texture Re Pitch
361. ly being displayed in the Clip View Therefore if you use a MIDI knob to transpose a clip you can click on another clip and the same MIDI knob will now transpose the new clip The crossfader is another control that offers additional options when in Map mode In Figure 11 11 you will see that the crossfader has three sections Mapping the center section to a MIDI controller will give you access to the entire range of the fader while the outer edges let you map the absolute left and right positions for fast cuts This way you can have a crossfader that is controlled by a single MIDI fader three individual keys or any combination thereof Welcome to the future Figure 11 11 The crossfader is different than most of Live s controls in that it has three separate areas that can be mapped to MIDI controllers or the computer keyboard Source Ableton Remote Controlling Plug In Devices Controlling the parameters of a plug in device such as a VST audio effect is a little more difficult due to the fact that each plug in has its own unique graphical interface Because of this Live cannot superimpose the mapping overlay on the plug in controls while in Map mode To solve this problem Ableton has included an unfold switch at the upper left corner of a plug in s title bar Unfold the plug in as seen in Figure 11 12 to reveal a generic display of the plug ins parameters Figure 11 12 Pressing the small triangle in the corner of the plug in
362. m Files Decoding Cache In order for Live to play MP3 format files they must first be decoded decompressed into standard WAV files These resulting files are stored in the Cache The parameters in this section determine how Live will handle the creation and cleanup of the decoded files The first option Minimum Free Space is the amount of free space that you always want available on the hard drive If you set this to 500MB Live will stop increasing the size of the cache once there is only 500MB available which can be extremely important if you only have one hard drive on your entire computer system frequently the case for laptop users This setting will ensure that a minimum amount of space is available on the drive for swapping files and other housekeeping tasks Alternately Maximum Cache Size can be used if you would rather set a hard limit for the Decoding Cache For example you might want to make sure that the cache never gets bigger than 10GB regardless of how much drive space you have left Yov ll notice that if you add an MP3 to your Set and Live decodes it Live will not have to decode the file again if you drag the same MP3 into a Set at a later time This feature works this way because the decoded file is still in the cache If the decoded file gets deleted you ll have to wait again for the previously decoded MP3 to be decoded again The larger your cache is the less this will happen Plug In Sources To use plug ins in L
363. m apart yov ll notice that instrument plug ins have a small piano keyboard in their icon while effects do not Like built in devices plug ins can be unfolded to reveal presets but typically all you ll see are presets you ve created yourself since most plug ins manage factory presets internally gt Clips Live Clips are musical parts saved in a special format that allows them to also contain devices and automation which can t be saved with standard audio or MIDI files Bear in mind that while Live Clips can be audio or MIDI there s no way to tell them apart in the browser so yov ll just have to jump in and try them out gt Samples Here yov ll see every audio file in the Live Library the User Library and any folders you ve added to Places This is typically a pretty gigantic list of files so it s mostly used in conjunction with the search function described next Searching for Files Even with all of the handy views offered by the Browser you still find the Search function quite handy To get started just type something into the search box at the top of the Browser As soon as you begin to type you ll see a new view called All Results appear in the Browser see Figure 3 16 As you d expect this view displays every file containing the search term regardless of its type Figure 3 16 Searching the word pad and selecting All results on the left shows you every file from every place that has pad
364. m like a bit of aesthetic fluff at first but color coding your clips can be a huge benefit in performance or when working on complex productions For example you could make all your bass parts shades of blue in your songs or use colors to indicate different genres in your DJ set Time Signature The clip s Time Signature labeled Signature determines the numbering of the grid markers in the editor What it does not do is change the time signature tempo or any other audible aspect of the clip This parameter is strictly to make the editors visually coherent when working in different meters Clip Groove The Groove section is one of the more complex and mind blowing features found in the Clip View Using Live s Groove features you can modify the timing and dynamics of your clips in unlimited ways Groove is a deep topic that requires a good knowledge of clips so it s explained in a separate section later in this chapter Clip Nudge Controls Next are the Clip Offset Controls which are composed of two buttons at the bottom of the Clip Box These controls allow you to offset a clip easily by a quantized value or to sync clips manually without quantization These controls work differently than the Tempo Nudge controls Clip Nudge changes the offset of a single clip relative to Live s master tempo while Tempo Nudge momentarily changes the master tempo and thus the playback tempo of all clips Pressing the two arrow buttons the Nudge bu
365. makes your head spin don t worry There are plenty of devices that come ready to use as is and many more that can be downloaded separately In this next section we ll take a look at some of the devices that come included with Max for Live and at the process of adding on devices The programming itself is a very deep topic that goes well beyond the scope of this book so there will just be a very brief look at this side of things To get started with Max for Live you have to install it first because it s not part of the basic Live installation Just visit the Software page of your account at ableton com and you find it there If you ve installed Max and it s still not working visit the File Folder tab of the Preferences screen and check the Max Application Preference which should point to the location where Max is installed All of the devices discussed next are found in the Max for Live view of the Browser If the devices are missing you ll need to download the Max for Live Essentials pack from the Your Packs page of your ableton com account Drum Synths Drum samples are great With a working knowledge of how to program Simpler Sampler and Drum Racks you can get a great deal of variety out of a modest number of samples However there are still good reasons to work with purely synthesized drums There is something about being able to freely shape a drum sound while pushing against the natural limitations of a partic
366. maximum values here or right click and select Invert Range to swap Min and Max Macro Mapping s Path Name Min Max Saturator Saturator Drive Amp Amp Gain Source Ableton After making your Macro assignments click the Map button in the Rack s title bar to exit Map mode IN CONTEXT It s possible to edit Macro Control assignments without ever entering Map mode Just right click on the device parameter you want to map and yov ll see a full set of mapping commands in the context menu Zones Racks can be further customized with Zones which allow you to dynamically activate and deactivate chains or even crossfade between them For example you could create a multi effect Rack that allows you to switch between effects with the turn of a knob or create an Instrument Rack that routes different note ranges to different instruments There are three zone types Chain Select Key and Velocity The Chain selector exists in every type of Rack while Key and Velocity only pertain to Instrument Racks The Chain Selector Above the Chain List yov ll see a button marked Chain Click on this to expose the Chain Select Editor This editor consists of two sections the Chain selector a vertical orange bar at the top that can be dragged horizontally and the Zone Editor that allows you to create a map of active chains The position of the Chain selector determines which chains will be active If there is a Zone directly
367. melines See also arrangers Time Signature Timing parameter Tippach Michael Toggle Draw mode Toggle mode Tones mode tools EQ Three Gate Glue Limiter pencil touchpads Tracing Model Track Activator Track Activator section Mixer Track Delay tracks Arpeggiator audio Click crossfaders destination devices effects See effects Follow Actions formatting freezing Group Master MIDI See also MIDI converting enabling disabling External Instrument processor speed routing multiple Mixer moving overview of recording Return See also Return tracks ReWire routing Tracks function Push Track View Transfer Curve view Transient Loop mode transients transitions crossfaders Filter Delay transport controls Transpose button Transpose controls Arpeggiator Transpose dial Impulse Transpose parameter transposing clips drums keys Transposition Modulation envelope Trigger mode triggers Volume Trigger troubleshooting keyboards Licenses Maintenance tab mapping turntables types connection of content of controls of devices of envelopes of filters U Undo command Unison parameter unlinked envelopes updating User Library View Utility V values absolute variations clips Groove Velocity parameters Zones Racks velocity Arpeggiator clips mapping MIDI clips verses versions video scoring to Video window viewing See also showing automation clip boxes Drum Rack MIDI data waveform
368. mmable Saturator is where you turn next as shown in Figure 9 22 This effect not only has a variety of analog distortion models but it is also capable of producing digital clipping and has a flexible waveshaper Figure 9 22 The Saturator Subtle edge or gateway to destruction Saturator oe Drive 0 00 dB Coc 0 00 dB Base Depth Drive Curve Depth ee Sa AN 700 6 00 poos Oe 7 gt Un Damp Period 0 00 1 00kH 30 0 00 60 0 0 00 000 100 Source Ableton Waveform Display The top of the Saturator interface is dominated by the large waveform display Manipulating the controls below the display will give you insight into how the effect modifies your signal by looking at the resulting curve You can choose six different modes of signal shaping using the drop down menu below the display Analog Clip Soft Sine Medium Curve Hard Curve Sinoid Fold and Digital Clip each with its own distinct characteristics The Waveshaper mode allows flexible control of the waveform through the six adjustable parameters listed just below the drop down menu gt Drive Not to be confused with the Drive knob see below determines the amount of influence of the wave shaping effect gt Curve Adds harmonics to the signal gt Depth Controls the amplitude of a sine wave superimposed over the distortion curve gt Lin Alters the linear portion of the shaping curve gt Damp Flattens the
369. more about the details of each one before understanding the how and why of using them in a Set Everything you need to know will be explained in the coming chapters The Control Bar Running across the top of the screen is the Control Bar which handles all common transport functions start stop playback position loop tempo along with important system information and helpful tools such as tap tempo and a metronome In this section we ll move from left to right examining every function Tempo Time Signature and Quantization The left side of the Control Bar deals with all things timing related see Figure 3 18 The buttons are from left to right External Sync Switch External Sync Indicators Tap Tempo Tempo Tempo Nudge Time Signature Metronome and Quantization Figure 3 18 This subsection of the Control Bar is devoted to time EXT TAP 120 00 miim 44 4 00 1Bar Source Ableton You won t see the external controls unless you ve already set up an external sync source or destination in the MIDI Sync Preferences tab see Chapter 2 Getting Live Up and Running You ll need to do this if you want Live s tempo to be set by an external device or if you want Live to control the tempo of a drum machine synth or sequencer The External Sync switch engages or disengages Live s MIDI synchronization to an outside source while the monitoring lights announce that the MIDI sync signal is being sent or received T
370. move individual hits to just where you want them Setting up Warp Markers can be done manually or by using Live s Auto Warp technology When working with short audio files such as prerecorded loops Live automatically detects the tempo with a high degree of accuracy If you re a DJ yov ll probably be using Auto Warp extensively to prep your music library to play back in sync For rhythmically imprecise material or material that you want to dramatically change you ll be creating and moving Warp Markers manually When a piece of audio requires manual adjustment to get it to sync up or to get it mangled to perfection these are the tools yov ll be working with First let s get our terms straight gt Transient Transients appear as small gray triangles above the waveform display They are automatically created by Live for any audio clip with its Warp switch turned on Transients can be manually inserted or deleted from the editor s context menu or by Alt Option gt Warp Marker Locks a segment of audio to a location on the timeline They appear as yellow markers directly above the waveform display Warp Markers can be created by clicking anywhere in the waveform display or just above it gt Pseudo Warp Marker When the mouse is moved over a Transient a gray Pseudo Warp Marker temporarily appears When dragged these markers will become permanent Warp Markers if they are followed by any existing Warp Markers Otherwise they ca
371. movements increase the Feedback Because the Flanger uses a delay there will be a pitch to the effect which is related to the Delay Time parameter As the delay time is shortened the pitch will seem to rise When you crank up the Feedback the pitch will become even more pronounced Envelope and LFO These two sections are identical in functionality to those of the Phaser and Auto Filter except they modulate the delay time of the Flanger To push things to the max switch the Feedback polarity of the Flangers by clicking the small button next to the Feedback number box in the bottom right corner of the X Y control By default the LFO is set to 100 to create the classic swoosh that flangers are known for Distortions This brings us to the third group of Ableton s devices the Distortion effects While each of these effects can quickly and drastically alter your audio content taking time to learn the ins and outs of these babies can take your mixes to a whole new level Note that both Saturator and Dynamic Tube have a Hi Quality mode to reduce aliasing artifacts in high frequency sounds This mode is turned on by right clicking in the device s title bar and selecting Hi Quality from the context menu There s only a small CPU hit for using this feature so it s generally recommended to turn it on Overdrive Overdrive is the simplest of Live s distortion effects Instead of trying to be the most flexible effect Overdrive mode
372. much more aggressive with the Q without concern gt Notch Like a bell curve with extremely high Q and extremely low gain Gain has no effect for this filter type It s especially useful for removing problems such as resonant room frequencies gt High shelf Same as low shelf but acts on high frequencies A little high shelf boost can be a great way to add sparkle to tracks without coloring the sound too much gt High cut Also known as a low pass filter it s the same as low cut but cuts low frequencies High frequencies are a bit less forgiving when it comes to aggressive cutting so unlike low cut this filter has more of a tendency to sound like an effect especially with high Q values Try using a shelf or a bell first to see if you can accomplish the desired result To adjust the specific frequency that a filter acts on you can work directly in the graphical display or use the knobs to the left Experiment for a moment and you II see these are just two different ways of doing the same thing Yov ll also find that when you click on the filter numbers along the bottom the knobs refresh to show you the parameters for whatever filter you click Perhaps the most important power that EQ holds is its ability to preserve headroom in a mix By reducing less important frequencies in a sound or cutting frequencies that conflict with other instruments you end up with mixes that sound louder and clearer For instance if the me
373. n t get cut off due to the faster tempo If the beat is getting slowed down Live has to either stretch out the playback of each segment or leave a space between segments since the original decay of the hit won t be long enough to fill the space at the slower tempo To stretch out the decay Beats mode loops the last portion of the segment the fading sound of the transient If you re thinking that this might end up sounding a little strange you re right It is however the best solution given that Live is doing all of this time stretching in real time That said it is generally easier to speed beats up without noticeable artifacts than it is to slow them down Live gives you full control over how this looping is done via the Transient Loop Mode menu see Figure 5 26 gt No Loop single arrow Live plays each segment to its end without doing anything to fill the space until the next segment plays This yields extremely clean results because there s no looping but it may leave audible spaces in between each note or drum hit Let your ears decide whether or not this is acceptable or desirable gt Loop Forward double forward arrows Loops the decay of each segment forward This mode tends to produce glitchier results and works more like an effect gt Loop Back and Forth bidirectional arrows Live loops the decay of the segment forward and backward in order to fill empty space at slowed down tempos Generally speaking th
374. n SMF export If you need to take the MIDI part from a clip and send it to another Live Set or a different program you can export the MIDI data as an SMF Select the clip and choose Export MIDI clip from Live s File menu Yov ll be prompted to give a name and destination for the exported data Choose a location and name and click Save Audio Clips You may be surprised to discover just how creative you can get with audio in Live Obviously if you re going to be recording live instruments and vocals audio clips will be a big part of your life But even if MIDI is the backbone of your compositional process you ll still find that manipulating audio can produce a broad array of weird and wonderful results for your tracks Live s warping features can be used to synchronize any sample to the tempo of your track And of course if you re going to be DJing with Live you ll need to have a solid understanding of working with audio The Sample Box Before digging into the details of warping let s take a closer look at the Sample box see Figure 5 22 which contains a number of audio specific controls Figure 5 22 The Sample box contains controls concerning audio speed pitch volume and warping In the Arrangement you ll notice that the Fade switch does not appear and there s an extra switch marked Slave Bass B1 wav 44 1 kHz 16 BA 2 Ch er HE0 Face RAM Transpose CD CD Ost Grain Size Detune 0 00 dB 47 32
375. n any order and allowed to play for as long as you like Figure 4 16 Scenes can be used as song sections such as the verse chorus or bridge Drums _ Bass Per Metocy rx Mest Be fintrochors Tsp aco ama J recrea J space eoa Simu e verse CE SE Ome a e CS Oc Coo Sc i Cc e Source Ableton The song shown in Figure 4 16 is organized from top to bottom with the top most scene being the intro and the song progressing downward Each row can house whole musical sections new song directions or merely a slight modification in the piece currently playing If you run out of scenes or just want to add a new one at a specific location select Insert Scene from the Edit menu The new scene will be inserted below the currently highlighted scene You can also create a new scene containing clips you like in one step When you come across a combination of clips that sound good together select Create gt Capture and Insert Scene to create a new scene that is populated with the currently playing clips To change the location of scenes as you create them just click on the scene s title or number and drag it to the new location To rename a scene use Edit gt Rename Press Enter Return to accept the new name or Escape to leave it as it was Or you can press Tab to rename the next scene down TWO SCENES ARE BETTER THAN ONE When working on a song arrangement it can be really useful to make a copy of an entire scene and use it
376. n be dragged to adjust the timing of the clip and will return to being normal Transients when released Ableton describes Warp Markers as being pins that can be used to attach a piece of audio toa certain point in time This is a great way of looking at it So in order to correct the timing of the audio shown in Figure 5 27 the first thing you would do is double click to create a Warp Marker above the late snare hit Dragging the hit so it lands on beat 1 2 moves not just the snare hit but also all of the audio before and after it see Figure 5 28 The first hit however stays locked in place because of its Warp Marker although its decay gets compressed slightly to compensate for the fact that the snare hit has gotten moved earlier Figure 5 27 There is always at least one Warp Marker in an audio clip when the Warp mode is engaged Transient markers temporarily become Pseudo Warp Markers when you hold the mouse over them Source Ableton Figure 5 28 When the snare hit is moved to beat 1 2 the hits to either side are also moved slightly earlier Source Ableton Now let s say you want to move the hi hat accent between beats 1 1 and 1 2 so it lands right on 1 1 3 Just grab the Pseudo Warp Marker that appears when you mouse over the transient and drag it to 1 1 3 You re done The existing Warp Markers keep the other hits locked down while you move the hi hat into place see Figure 5 29 There s a shortcut that allow
377. n can t use more than 4GB of RAM while 64 bit applications have an astronomically high RAM limitation At the time of this writing the 64 bit version of Live does not support video Max For Live or The Bridge integration with Serato Scratch Live although Ableton is working to correct this Also be aware that 32 bit plug ins will not work in the 64 bit version of Live unless you use a third party plug in bridge to accomplish this In the near future all these issues will be resolved and we ll live happily ever after in a 64 bit world but for now most of us survive just fine in 32 bit This means 8GB of RAM is plenty for most users Assuming you don t need to be running many different applications at once this leaves 4GB to handle the OS while leaving 4GB for Live If you find that you re crashing Live by going over the 4GB RAM limit then you ll have to switch to 64 bit and make sure your computer has plenty of RAM in it Audio Interface Specs Almost invariably the audio capabilities that come standard with your PC or Mac are lacking Without a specialized audio interface sometimes called a soundcard you find yourself hitting limitations in terms of routing flexibility connectivity and sound quality Choosing an interface can be tricky since there are so many choices on the market Here are a couple of items to consider when purchasing an interface Connection Type The most common types of audio interfaces connect t
378. n in hertz or tempo synchronized divisions of the beat Offset determines the LFO s center point To get a clearer understanding of this set Depth to 0 so no modulation occurs Then move Offset to adjust the mapped parameter to whatever sounds like a good starting point As you increase the Depth yov ll hear the LFO modulate the value farther away from this point There s a menu for selecting the shape of the LFO Jitter is used to introduce some randomness into the LFO shape while Smooth rounds off the edges Small amounts of jitter can be very effective for introducing some subtle irregularities while higher values are downright chaotic Smooth doesn t have a big effect if you ve selected Sine in the Shape menu but when combined with harder edged shapes like rectangle it can produce some interesting results The LFO available under Max MIDI Effect LFO MIDI looks just like the audio version until you unfold it see Figure 13 13 This one looks identical except for the unfold switch at the right which reveals controls that allow you to control the LFO from various MIDI parameters just like you would be able to do on an instrument For example you can map the LFO speed to velocity or key input and you can set note input to retrigger the LFO if you choose Figure 13 13 MIDI LFO allows your performance to dynamically change the modulation 00w gt Key Control Depth Rate auia Pk Be oe Velocity 0 004 0 004 Modwheel 0 004 E
379. n of this chapter for more information on this topic Limiter Ever notice that when you complete a mixdown of your music it s still not nearly as loud as commercial tracks that you ve bought This is because after the mixdown phase most tracks go through a separate mastering process to balance the overall frequency characteristics and also to increase the overall loudness of the track In fact volume has become such an obsession with many artists and labels that it s now routinely discussed in engineering circles as the loudness wars The number one weapon used to fight in this war is the Limiter see Figure 9 11 Figure 9 11 Live s Limiter is great for getting your tracks a few dB hotter Source Ableton Live s Limiter is the simplest of all of the dynamics processors It simply prevents the signal from ever going above the volume specified by the Ceiling parameter In traditional audio engineering terms a Limiter is a compressor with a ratio of 10 1 or greater although usually when you see a brickwall limiter device such as this one its ratio is generally fixed at inf meaning that the signal is never allowed to exceed the threshold The Limiter has no threshold control That s because the Ceiling functions as the threshold If your Ceiling is set to 1dB and you feed it a signal that contains no peaks above 1 then the Limiter will have no effect To apply limiting you would simply increase the Gain
380. n the Session View you can progress through the song with just one button Start Recording on Scene Launch determines if clips will begin recording when launched by a scene Having this option off will allow you to launch Scenes without recording even if some tracks are armed Having this option turned on can be useful for recording several clips simultaneously or starting recording in one track and clip playback in another at the same time The CPU Tab The CPU section of Preferences has only three settings which the average user will never touch see Figure 2 7 Figure 2 7 The CPU tab Preferences Mute oreMulliprocessor Support ae Maite Ore Munipro lt essor RewWire Source Ableton Multicore Multiprocessor Support should generally be left on because all modern computers are based around a multicore or multiprocessor architecture When off Live will be forced to run on a single processor which may be useful for troubleshooting or serve as a way to throttle Ableton Live if you are running other CPU intensive applications alongside Live But in almost all cases you should allow Ableton to make full use of all your machine s CPU cores There is also another option to enable Multicore Multiprocessor support when you are using Live in ReWire mode Try turning this off if you re having problems using Live as a ReWire slave with another program Licenses Maintenance Typically authorization is done the first time you run
381. n unpleasant sounding rooms By exaggerating the volume of the peaks it s possible to effectively turn down some of the room reflections Makeup Output Gain and Dry Wet If you ve been experimenting with the Compressor at this point you ve probably noticed that even though you re applying all sorts of gain reduction the signal isn t getting softer in fact it may actually seem to be getting louder This is due to the Makeup switch in the lower left corner being activated It s automatically compensating for the amount of gain reduction being applied to the peaks and bringing up the overall level of the signal While this works nicely there might be times where you just want to turn down errant peaks without bringing up the overall level To do this just turn off Makeup Whether or not it s turned on you can always tweak the output level using the Output control Dry Wet is a handy control for blending some uncompressed signal into the Compressor s output For everyday mix tasks where controlling the peaks in a signal is the goal this knob should stay at 100 no dry signal However when using Compressor with more extreme settings this control has enormous potential When using compression as an effect you may love the squashed sound you get but find there s a big downside in terms of lost transients and natural tone With Dry Wet you can dial some of the original sound back in to complete the sonic picture S
382. nagement scheme for third party VST plug ins is straightforward and similar to the methods employed by other DAW programs Live can store the current settings of a plug in using the preset icons at the top of the plug in window see Figure 7 11 Figure 7 11 Preset management buttons found in each VST plug in s title bar Open an a he Effect Bank Save the Current Effect Bank n none Source Ableton The drop down menu in the plug in window contains a list of previously stored presets for the effect or instrument including those provided as starters from the manufacturer Selecting a preset from the menu will load it and replace the settings currently being used by the plug in If this menu is inaccessible it s because the manufacturer has integrated preset management directly into the graphic interface of the plug in accessed with the wrench icon in the upper left corner of the plug in window While presets for built in devices are automatically stored in the Library VST presets can be saved anywhere you want Just click in the floppy disk icon refer to Figure 7 11 and choose a location on your hard drive It s probably a good idea to choose a centralized location for these preset files so you don t lose track of them Hot Swapping There s an icon containing two arrows in a circle that yov ll find in the title bar of every device and in a few other spots within certain devices as well This is the Hot S
383. nal within the applications themselves Masters In any ReWire setup there is always one program designated as the ReWire master The ReWire master is the program that will be communicating with the computer s audio hardware and will accept audio streams from other ReWire applications When a ReWire compatible application is opened it checks to see if any other ReWire compatible applications are already running If not it gets designated as the master Therefore always launch the program you want to be the master first Slaves All ReWire compatible programs launched after the Master will be designated ReWire slaves Slaves don t actually communicate with the computer s audio hardware at all Instead their audio outputs are routed to the ReWire Master application Since the audio is being passed through the Master application you will not hear the slave application unless you configure the application s internal routing properly The exact method for doing this varies from application to application In Live the process is very simple and will be explained below Using ReWire with Live Live can act as both a ReWire master and a ReWire slave Not all programs have the capability to function in both modes For example Steinberg s Cubase SX can only function as a ReWire master Propellerhead s Reason can only be used in slave mode So if you wanted to use Live and Cubase together Cubase would be the master and Live would be the s
384. ncept of a designable Excitator namely an object with changeable characteristics that is used to strike a resonating object In the case of Tension the struck object is some sort of string In Collision it s a variety of different objects associated with different kinds of percussion instruments For the initial experiments here find the menu in the Resonators section that contains the different resonator types and set it to Plate The first similarity to Electric that yov ll notice in Collision is the presence of percentage boxes marked Key and Vel sometimes K and V to save space located below a number of the controls These are here to map the controls so they follow the velocity of the incoming MIDI messages or the pitch Negative values are allowed here as well so you can have controls change in inverse proportion to velocity and key Excitators The Excitator section of Collision is broken into two parts Mallet and Noise Mallet is fairly straightforward Looking at the far left you ll see Volume and Stiffness Stiffness controls the relative softness or hardness of the mallet Yov ll find that as you increase it from 0 the sound generally gets louder and brighter up until around 60 after which the sound continues getting brighter but the overall loudness is decreased as it starts producing fewer low harmonics The Volume control simply controls the overall level of the Mallet excitator The only reason this is needed is beca
385. nched To remove a Clip Stop button right click in a clip slot and select Remove Stop Button Don t worry you can get the Stop Button back by right clicking again and selecting Add Stop Button This feature is particularly handy when working with longer clips For example let s say you have a long clip containing ambient sound effects in scene 1 You want them to keep playing in scene 2 If you copy the clip into scene 2 the sound effects clip will start over again from the beginning when the scene is launched By removing the stop button from scene 2 you can allow the ambient effects to continue playing instead of restarting Figure 4 18 Launching the second scene in this example will allow the first clip ChillyBeat to keep playing while launching new synth and bass parts Source Ableton Arrangement View Where the Arrangement View fits into your workflow depends a lot on what you do If you re primarily interested in producing music it s absolutely essential The Arrangement is where you really put the song together beginning middle and end In fact for many producers the Arrangement comes into play quite early in the production process The Session View is great maybe one of the greatest things ever for the initial part of the production process but even if you re clever at organizing ideas with Scenes you ll find that laying your ideas from left to right forces you to make decisions and get clear on wher
386. nd use see Figure 9 20 A flanger works by taking a sound delaying it by a continuously changing amount and blending it back with the original sound This introduces constructive and destructive interference between various frequencies in the sound producing a characteristic comb filter effect The Flanger has a much more metallic edge than the Phaser Its sound can become quite abrasive with high feedback settings as yov ll see in a moment Figure 9 20 In the old days flanging involved playing two identical recordings on tape machines and then touching the flanges of one of the tape reels to subtly shift the timing of the two recordings Live s Flanger makes the same effect easier and cheaper to achieve Delay Time Feedback f i MED oara 200ms Source Ableton Hi Pass Filter As mentioned previously the Flanger will make a copy of the input signal and mix it back in with the original after a brief delay Often this can product inharmonic unpitched results which can make melodic parts muddy To alleviate this effect you can pass the input signal through a Hi Pass filter When the delayed signal is mixed back in with the original the flanging will take effect only on the higher frequencies leaving the lower frequencies intact Delay and Feedback This looks quite similar to the X Y control in the Phaser doesn t it Functionally it s the same horizontal movements adjust the delay time while vertical
387. nder a new clip containing all the parts you had selected When Live consolidates a clip it creates a new audio file in your project folder in Samples gt Processed gt Consolidate Bear in mind that Consolidate operates on a range of time not just clips so you can make new clips by combining empty space with existing clips For example you could use Consolidate to create a one bar clip out of a mostly empty bar with a short audio clip in the middle see Figure 4 30 This new clip could be copied to the first beat of any bar and retain the placement of the sample Figure 4 30 Consolidating this short sample into a bar long clip makes it easy to copy to other locations while retaining the timing of the sample Source Ableton Automation Editing Automation editing is important for a few reasons First no matter how well you perform automation while recording there will be times when you want to change it later Often it s easer to make changes by editing instead of re recording There are also cases where it s easier to draw in automation manually rather than record it Automation is displayed as a line graph representing changes to a parameter over time The meaning of the line shown in the automation track is determined by the parameter being controlled In the case of level controls such as Volume or Send volumes increase as the line moves upward For other controls such as Pan a line in the center of the track represents a ce
388. nds EQ Erosion External Audio Effect Filter Delay Flanger Frequency Shifter Grain Delay Impulse Looper Multiband Dynamics Operator Overdrive Phaser Ping Pong Delay preferences Redux Resonators Reverb Sampler Session View See also Session View Sets Simple Delay Simpler Spectrum Tension Track View transport controls Utility Vinyl Distortion Vocoder interviews showing hiding elements Intro version Invert button J joining multiple clips joysticks jumping to locators K keyboards Computer MIDI Keyboard conflicts keys plug ins Key button Key Map Mode switch keys keyboards Pitch transposing Key Zones Racks kick sounds Knee control knobs Amount Comp Drive Saturator Dry Wet See also Dry Wet knobs Envelope MIDI Out Hi Out Low Phase Rate Shape L lanes automating Language configuring latency Launch box clips launching clips quantization Record Warp Launch tab Scene Launch button scenes Launching function Push Launch mode clips layering loops Legato mode switch Length control levels recording LFOs Low Frequency Oscillators Analog Auto Filter Collision Flanger Max modulation Operator Phaser Sampler Simpler Library tab Licenses Maintenance tab limitations of RAM Limiter lines moving Live 8 Library View live playing bands Hybrid DJ performance techniques loading instruments locations insert markers Library tab loops scenes locators L
389. ng an APC40 but you find that you never want to use the Arm buttons during performance By enabling the Remote switch for its input port you can map these buttons to whatever you want and the instant mapping behavior will be disabled only for those buttons If you delete the manual mapping the instant mapping comes back instantly KEYBOARD CONFLICTS Unlike MIDI remote control computer keyboard remote control is automatically enabled However you need to be aware that the Computer MIDI Keyboard setting the piano keys icon in the Control Bar turns most of your computer keyboard into a MIDI keyboard and may disable your mappings Turn this switch off to avoid problems with computer keyboard remote control If you keep it on you ll be limited to using keys not implemented as part of the computer MIDI keyboard If there s a conflict the keyboard will flash when you press the conflicting key Instant Mapping Instant mappings vary quite a bit depending on the type of controller you re using but they fall into a few categories Many control surfaces have basic mixer control For example the APC40 contains eight faders that control volume and several rows of buttons that control the Arm Solo and Track Activator switches It s also very common for control surfaces to have a bank of eight knobs that will automatically map themselves to the currently selected device This topic will be discussed in detail next Control surfaces
390. ng and dragging to draw a selection marquee Note that it s even possible to create a selection area without selecting any notes simply by dragging in an empty area of the editor The length of the selection area is particularly important when using commands that operate on a range of time For example when Duplicate is used on MIDI notes the copy will be placed at the end of the selection area Therefore the notes shown in Figure 5 15 will be placed at the beginning of the next beat The note editor also supports the Cut Time Paste Time Duplicate Time Delete Time and Insert Silence commands described in the Arrangement Editing section of Chapter 4 These commands will replicate or remove ranges of time according to the current selection area Figure 5 15 Even though all the notes are on the first 1 16 note the selection area shown is a quarter note long The Duplicate command could now be used to place a copy of these notes at the start of the next beat 12 123 13 Source Ableton Clicking in an empty area of the editor inserts a blinking cursor which is useful if you re using the standard Cut Copy and Paste commands Once you ve cut or copied a selection click to place the cursor before pasting to determine where the notes will be placed Bear in mind that whenever you ve selected a group of notes they can all be edited simultaneously Not only can you move them but you can also resize them or you can
391. ng the 1 4 to 1 32t Grid buttons at the right but I d suggest starting out by mastering the 16 step grid and then venture into the other divisions later To add drum hits to the sequence first push one of the Drum Rack pads in the lower left to select a drum Then push buttons in the step sequencer to add the selected drum to a given step Hold down a step to reveal additional controls in the display You can adjust velocity and note length and move the note forward or backward a small amount by twisting the Nudge encoder DOUBLE VS DUPLICATE Once you ve created a part you can make it twice as long by pressing Double Duplicate on the other hand makes a copy of the currently playing clip and places it in the clip slot below To record drums live just press Record and bang away on the pads Whether or not your performance is quantized as you record is up to you Hold down Quantize to display the settings for turning Record Quantization on or off My preference is to leave quantization off while recording and then quantize after the fact if necessary When perfectly quantized parts are necessary I use the step sequencer This is a great advantage offered by having both programming approaches handy When you play Push using the pads the steps will appear in the grid even when they haven t been quantized This is a cool feature that allows you to see how your pattern looks on the grid even though it may not be strictly aligned wit
392. ng used to modulate The rest of the controls for the LFO are located in the center window Use the Wave and Width selectors to control the shape of the LFO When the Triangle wave is selected the Width control can be used to change the wave shape to ramp up or ramp down With Rectified selected and Width at 50 the LFO is a square wave while modulating Width in either direction changes the pulse width Retrig the R switch controls whether or not the LFO starts over is retriggered with each key press Offset is used to adjust the phase of the wave With a tempo synced LFO this could be used to move the peaks of the wave that occur before or after the beat Delay will wait a specified length of time after a keypress to begin the LFO while Attack will cause the amplitude of the wave to fade in over the amount of time specified Global Most of Analog s Global parameters are covered in the Global Parameters section earlier in this chapter but a few things warrant special attention The first switch in this section turns Vibrato on or off Vibrato is a simple LFO that modulates the pitch of the oscillators Only two controls are available here the Amount which controls the depth of the modulation and the Rate which controls the speed The last switch in this section is marked Gli for Glide For information on Glide refer to the Portamento section earlier in this chapter At the left hand side of the display you
393. nly if the green Sync button is depressed for that channel right or left Sync means that the delay is set to synchronize with the song tempo beats per minute If you disengage the Sync you can manually set delay time with precision of up to 1 1000 of a second by click dragging up or down on the Time field box Note that with Sync engaged this same box allows adjustment of the delay time by a percentage This means that you are slowing or speeding up the delay below or above the current project tempo In other words you can add a little slop or even approximate a triplet feel if your delays are sounding too strict DOUBLE WIDE Any signal can be given stereo width by using an easy delay trick Set both the left and right sides of a Simple Delay to Time mode and then set the left delay to 1ms and the right to 20ms Next set the effect to 100 wet It will sound as if the center has dropped out and the signal is coming only from the sides To further customize this effect experiment with different delay times and Dry Wet settings The Dry Wet knob determines how much of the effect versus original sound you hear Dry is the term audio engineers use to refer to the original sound while wet is the delayed or affected sound A setting of 12 o clock or 50 for Dry Wet will create a delay signal that is at the same volume as the original A 100 Wet setting means that you will no longer hear the original sound only the delay effect Fe
394. nstruments are typically configured so they automatically respond to program changes Software instruments vary Some will work automatically while others may require special configuration in order to recall presets Live s built in instruments don t respond to program changes so this is a technique for third party plug ins and hardware devices only Figure 5 21 Use the Program Change settings to automatically recall presets when a clip is launched Pgm Change Source Ableton A Program Change is a MIDI message with a value between 0 and 127 and refers to a memory location in your MIDI device s sound bank The way a manufacturer maps the Program message to the memory slots is entirely up to them but generally a Program Change of 0 will cause the first sound on the instrument to be loaded So using the Program Change message you can recall up to 128 presets But what if your device has more than 128 sounds That s where the Bank Change message comes into play A bank holds 128 programs So you can recall any sound in your MIDI device by first specifying the containing bank followed by the program number Some devices require that banks be specified with two numbers the Bank and Subbank Thus the presence of the Sub setting below Bank in Figure 5 21 Importing and Exporting MIDI Files Live stores all MIDI data and parameters for MIDI clips within the Live Set You can see the individual MIDI clips and tracks within the Browser W
395. nt to start compressing which is done with the Threshold To do this set the Ratio to the maximum reduce the Attack to its minimum and set the Release to 500ms With the Threshold at its default run the signal and watch the Gain Reduction meter to see if any compression occurs If not start to move the Threshold downward until you notice the Gain Reduction meter starts to respond This means that you ve found the Threshold at which some of the transients are loud enough to trigger the Compressor As you keep moving the Threshold slider downward the Gain Reduction meter will begin to respond more often and will also show a greater amount of attenuation If you keep reducing the Threshold there will come a point where nearly every element of the sound you re compressing the transients and the quieter tones will all be beyond the Threshold thus causing the Compressor to work nonstop always in some state of gain reduction Back off the Threshold to a point where only the peaks are triggering the Gain Reduction meter The Compressor s Ratio control determines the amount of compression expressed as a ratio of the input volume to the output volume For instance 2 to 1 compression means that when a sound goes over the threshold by 2dB you will hear only a 1dB increase at the output And 4 to 1 would mean that for a 2dB increase only a dB change would be audible at the output You may also notice that for larger Ratio settings and low Thr
396. nt with the Warp modes to generate different artifacts Don t forget the Rev button which can be used to reverse clips as well After reversing a slice you may find that you have to slide the clip in the timeline to correct any unpleasant timing variations this creates Zoom in until the grid is super fine or hold down Ctrl Cmd to temporarily disable the grid You can also generate variations by moving the Start marker within individual slices To do this select the clip and then make sure the Loop switch is turned on in the Clip View If it s not moving Start and End will simply move the boundaries of the clip in the timeline Now move Start or even move around the loop brace and you see that the clip remains in the same place in the timeline but you re moving the audio within it You may find that this technique is more interesting when used on slightly longer slices since you ll get bigger chunks of the original material offset in interesting ways Occasionally when working with audio clips you may realize that it would be easier or more fun to manipulate the audio from a MIDI device No problem Just drag the clip into a Drum Rack Impulse Simpler or Sampler You can even drop the clip directly into the Track View of an empty MIDI track and cause a Simpler to be created The clip s Start position will be used within these devices automatically HOVER While dragging an object in Live you can hover the mouse over
397. nter pan position Lower values move the pan left while higher values move the pan right Viewing Automation Before you get into editing automation though there are a few things you need to know about viewing it Session automation is shown in the Envelopes box of the Clip View see Figure 4 31a Arrangement Automation is shown in the track display as seen in Figure 4 31b Figure 4 31a Session automation Source Ableton Figure 4 31b Arrangement automation Device Chooser Control Chooser Source Ableton With Session automation it s only possible to view one automated parameter at a time By default the Arrangement also displays one parameter at a time but it s possible to display many parameters at once using multiple Automation Lanes Let s take a look at the basic method first and then we ll get into multiple lanes As seen in Figures 4 31a and 4 31b both Session and Arrangement have a pair of menus known as the Device Chooser and the Control Chooser The Device Chooser displays the devices contained within the track as well as the Mixer The Control Chooser selects a specific parameter from the device selected in the first menu For example to see the track s volume automation you d select Mixer in the first menu and Track Volume in the second menu If an Auto Filter effect is loaded onto the track you can view its Cutoff automation by choosing Auto Filter and then Cutoff Freq Live makes it easy
398. ntrol surface 0 KA Auto Filter amp Source Ableton If you right click in the title bar of the device you will see a context menu including the option Lock to Control Surface for each of the designated control surfaces you have connected This enables you to always control a specific device no matter where your immediate focus is in Live If you want to see the details of how Ableton has mapped the controls of your particular control surface into Live there is a Control Surface Reference in the Help View which contains a list of all currently supported hardware devices and the details of their instant mappings BE THERE NOW While in the MIDI map notice that the title bar of a device can be mapped just like any device parameter This enables you to map a button on your controller that will select the device mapping it instantly to your control surface Clip Launchers The easiest way to launch clips is to use a control surface with a clip launching matrix such as the LaunchPad APC40 or Push When a grid controller is connected and configured a rectangle appears around the area of the session view that is being controlled The rectangle can only be moved from the controller not from within Live The clip launching matrix will give you visual feedback to show you the status of the clips in the Session For example the LaunchPad s buttons will glow yellow to indicate that a clip is loaded green to indicate that a cli
399. ntroller below modifies the sample rate and density of the noise to produce different colors This setting is particularly good for producing percussive sound effects gt External This is the setting you use for classic Vocoder effects Specify another track to use as the source such as a synth pad and the vocal on the carrier track will appear to be singing the synthesizer sound gt Modulator The most unusual of the bunch this setting uses the modulator signal as the carrier This allows you to create some very unusual effects by manipulating the other controls such as Depth Range and Release Or you can use this mode to use Vocoder as a powerful EQ gt Pitch Tracking In this mode a monophonic oscillator tunes itself to the pitch of the carrier signal and produces a wave chosen by the switches below The accuracy of the tracking will vary greatly depending on the source material with polyphonic material producing some very unpredictable results At the top of this section is the Enhance switch which can be used to restore high frequencies that get lost during the vocoding process At the bottom section of the interface are the Unvoiced controls which help the Vocoder handle unpitched aspects of the sound such as consonants To deal with the fact that these sorts of sounds may not produce an audible result in the Vocoder s output a noise signal is synthesized to compensate for this To activate this feature turn up the Unv
400. o automate while recording These could be mixer controls such as volume and pan or effect and instrument device parameters whether built in VST or AU Figure 4 11 Automation Arm is the key to recording automation CAE Source Ableton Session Automation Session automation can be recorded while you record new clips or it can be overdubbed afterward In order to record automation the Automation Arm switch must be enabled It is turned on by default so you may have already started recording automation without doing anything special The process of recording automation couldn t be easier While recording a new clip modify the device or mixer controls of your choosing For example while recording a new MIDI clip tweak the filter cutoff of the virtual instrument yov re using The change to the filter is recorded into the clip alongside any notes you ve played Once you re done recording the automation it can be viewed and edited in the Clip View as seen in Figure 4 12 Figure 4 12 Session automation is viewed in the Clip View This is covered in detail in Automation Editing later in this chapter Source Ableton Automation overdubbing is enabled with the Session Record button Again the basic process is simple Make sure that Automation Arm is enabled click on Session Record and make some parameter changes When you re done click Session Record again to stop recording automation There s one very importan
401. o both notes and envelopes Source Ableton Dragging the markers works similarly to moving notes in that they move smoothly at first and then snap to the grid once the first grid line is reached The way they adjust notes however is unusual and can take some getting used to The marker that is moved will adjust the notes while the other marker acts as an anchor The way the notes are adjusted depends on which direction you drag If you drag a marker to increase the size of the selected area you drag it away from the other marker the notes are elongated and their timing is slowed down Dragging a marker toward the other one compresses the timing and duration of the notes If you continue to drag the marker you can actually drag it past the other one and reverse the order of the notes MIDI Editing Buttons In the Notes box there are several buttons used for MIDI editing as well as a handy Transpose function see Figure 5 18 Figure 5 18 There are a few MIDI editing buttons in the Notes Box Source Ableton Transpose This nifty box shows you the range of the selected notes in the clip or all notes if none are selected For example if you program a melody that runs from middle C to the G above Transpose will display C3 G3 Drag up or down in this box to transpose the notes up or down or type in a numeric value For example typing in 7 will move the notes down seven semitones a perfect fifth Alternately you could move th
402. o hide the editor Freeze and Flatten Devices use CPU power Some use more than others but overall it s just a fact of life For the most part the usage of CPU power is managed pretty efficiently For example a virtual instrument won t drain the CPU unless it s playing Not only that but it will use less CPU power to play one note than it will to play 10 notes simultaneously However even with a powerful computer you II still encounter situations where your computer is struggling to keep up with all the devices you re using The Freeze function will help you manage these situations Freeze works by temporarily rendering a track s output to an audio file A frozen track uses much less CPU power but is limited in how much it can be edited Let s take a look at how this works The easiest way to invoke the Freeze command is to right click in a track and select Freeze Track from the context menu You ll have to wait a moment while Live processes the audio obviously tracks with long clips or a large number of clips will take longer When finished the track will look more or less the same You I see all the original clips and devices but key editing features are turned ice colored indicating that they are frozen and not editable In the Arrangement View yov ll also notice a crosshatched region immediately following any clip being processed with delay or reverb This indicates that the effect tail has been rendere
403. o play Ableton recommends Mode A for sounds that are lower in pitch such as kick drums and Mode B for higher pitched sounds like hi hats Turning up Start causes the sample to play back from a position later in the file This can be used creatively to chop off the beginning of a sound or to correct for empty space at the beginning of a sample file The Soft button is somewhat related to the Start dial in that it affects how Impulse plays the beginning of the sample When Soft is off Impulse simply plays the sample the instant it is triggered When Soft is turned on Impulse will perform a short fade in The result is that the attack of the sample is softened without changing the length of the sound If you try this with the kick drum you hear that the snap at the beginning of the sound is softened while the beefy punch of the drum remains Notice that Transpose and Stretch can both be modulated by velocity while Transpose also has a Random modulator beneath it Turn this up to apply pitch randomization to the sample A small amount of this can add subtle life and variation to an otherwise static sample Saturation The Saturation section is the simplest to use of the five controls in Impulse Engage the Sat button and turn up the Drive to achieve overdriven percussion sounds Small amounts of distortion can be helpful when you need to add some edge or aggression to a sample while large amounts can mangle a sound beyond recognition
404. o your computer via either USB or FireWire Desktop computers can use PCI and PCIe cards which fit into slots inside your computer and offer the best performance of any format available Apple computers are equipped with a high speed Thunderbolt connector for which audio interfaces are just beginning to emerge on the market Unless you re designing a very high performance audio system designed to record many tracks of audio simultaneously USB and FireWire are just fine In fact the old FireWire 400 speed and USB 2 0 are more than adequate for most audio systems so don t let someone tell you that you ve got to have FireWire 800 or USB 3 0 to survive Those of you who need a faster connection you know who you are Inputs and Outputs Most soundcards have a minimum of two input channels a right and left input which can be used separately or together as a stereo pair More inputs are a must if you re planning on recording multichannel sources such as a live band But since many musicians overdub one track at a time when recording two inputs often work just fine The advantage to multiple outputs is increased integration with the world outside your computer For example multiple outputs give you the ability to send drums to outputs 1 and 2 while sending the vocals to output 3 Then you can send these outputs to different channels on a hardware mixer to apply EQ and outboard effects If you just have a single stereo output on your soundca
405. ock Envelopes Lookahead Look Feel tab Loop control Loop End controls Looper loops Arrangement View configuring cutting drums enabling layering pitch playback recording Simpler volume loudness wars low cut filters Low Frequency Oscillators See LFOs lows low shelf filters M Macintosh installing plug ins system requirements Macro Controls maintenance Licenses Maintenance tab Makeup switch Mallet section Electric Manage Project Manage Set managing clips files presets devices VST plug ins manual controller setup manual warping Map mode mapping Auto Filter Browser window instant instant mappings remote Sampler special markers Auto Warp feature insert MIDI Stretch Markers Pseudo Warp Markers Stretch Markers Warp Markers masters ReWire Master tracks Max application Max for Live category memory menus context Control Surface Create Edit Follow Actions Groove Arpeggiator Input Channel Quantization Style Arpeggiator messages program change meters Gain Reduction Metronome button metronomes microphone bleed MIDI clips See also clips buttons editing controller envelopes converting audio to editing importing exporting modifying grids notes velocities program change messages quantization step recording Stretch Markers Computer MIDI Keyboard controllers data editors effects Arpeggiator Chord Note Length Pitch Random Scale Velocity Effects category loops Map button note
406. ockwise from the lower left corner Oscillator A Oscillator B Oscillator C Oscillator D LFO Filter Pitch and Global If you click on one of these sections the display will change to show its associated parameters Try it click anywhere within the oscillator A section The display will show a graphic envelope as well as a myriad of values below it If you click on the Pitch section a different set of information will be shown in the display Ableton has placed the most tweakable parameters of Operator into the shell so that you can access them at all times The more intricate details are neatly tucked away within the display If you d like you can even hide the display leaving only the shell exposed by clicking the little triangle in the upper left corner of the interface Also along the top title bar are the standard controls for recalling and saving presets Creating and Shaping Sounds So how do you operate Operator It depends on what type of synthesis you re trying to achieve As you re about to see Operator can pull off both subtractive and FM synthesis and it has some additive synthesis features as well The Algorithm Click on the Global section in the shell This is the area in the lower right corner containing the Volume and Tone controls The global parameters will now be shown in the display see Figure 8 7 If you ve been clicking around through the other sections in Operator yov ll notice that this display
407. od makes it easy to record the submix Just click Arm and start recording in the destination track to create a new audio clip from the submixed tracks Figure 6 7 Three tracks all routed to a single destination The track called DESTINATION is a regular old audio track Some DAWs make you use special tracks for this sort of thing but not Live Source Ableton Multing is a recording engineer abbreviation for multiplying sending a signal to multiple destinations simultaneously It s conceptually the opposite of submixing Instead of sending multiple sources to one destination you re sending one signal to multiple destinations This is done by creating a new audio track and setting the Input Type to another track in the set In Figure 6 8 there are three destination tracks receiving the signal from a single source Notice that the source track still passes the signal directly to the Master due to its Output Type setting Figure 6 8 The three destination audio tracks are all receiving the signal from the track called SOURCE Source Ableton Whether you are submixing or multing bear in mind that you must either arm the destination track if its Monitor status is Auto or set its Monitor status to In Otherwise the signal will not be passed through Review the Input Output section in Chapter 3 for more information on monitoring Resampling Another handy option you find in the Input Type menu of every audio track
408. odes on the MIDI Sync tab of Live s Preferences as explained in Chapter 2 Relative CCs are typical of endless knobs called encoders A relative control message is one that tells Live move this value up or move this value down in other words there s no direct correlation between the value of the controller and the value in Live It just takes the control from its current position and moves it in one direction or another Remote messages come in a number of different flavors but typically Live can automatically detect which type is being used Whenever you map a control the menu seen in Figure 11 8 is displayed in the lower left hand corner of the screen Take your time when mapping a CC move it slowly and Live will detect its type If a type is incorrectly detected yov ll see the control jump around or other bizarre behavior when you try to use it If this happens check the controller s documentation and manually enter it in the menu Figure 11 8 This menu shows you the type of CC your controller is sending OC UD Ji to ChannolCC 1 22 Mode Adsoiute Source Ableton MIDI MESS Bear in mind that manual mappings are not bound to a specific controller For example if you map the note C3 on channel 1 Live will respond to this note regardless of the MIDI controller that sends it This is why you have to be careful when you have a lot of controllers connected Make sure not to enable remote control for d
409. oduce sound from audio files on disk while MIDI clips contain MIDI data for playing either virtual or hardware instruments Clips in the Session View are played or launched by clicking the triangular Clip Launch Button at the left side of the clip Clips in the Arrangement View are played as the playback cursor the thin vertical line that moves from left to right when Live is running passes over them In the clip slot grid audio and MIDI clips look exactly the same and there s no way to tell them apart However in the Clip View the difference is immediately apparent as seen in Figures 4 1a and 4 1b It s also easy to tell audio and MIDI apart in the Arrangement as seen in Figure 4 2 Figure 4 1a Audio clips display a waveform EN SPN AEN AN Source Ableton Figure 4 1b MIDI clips display sequences of MIDI notes Source Ableton Figure 4 2 Clips in the Arrangement View can be resized to change how long they will play Note that it s easy to tell the MIDI track notes are displayed from the audio tracks waveform is displayed OOO Er t t LAS TE erry T a TAATTAAATAAATLUAT ime Source Ableton As briefly explained in Chapter 3 clips are contained within tracks Before going further into the details of working with clips let s take a closer look at tracks Creating Tracks Tracks are created using the commands in the Create menu Insert Audio Track Insert MIDI Track and Insert Return Track The
410. oduction of Max For Live in version 8 Live has an ever expanding community of programmers creating add on devices to extend the program s functionality What Is Live Live is a program written for musicians by musicians Initially Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles paired in the Berlin based electronica group Monolake were looking for a better way to create their own music through the use of a computer Both were experienced sound designers and had spent time working for Native Instruments one of the industry s chief authorities on software synthesizers and sound design software At the time the industry lacked a user friendly software application conducive to creating music as a musician would both intuitively and spontaneously In 2000 they formed Ableton and released Live 1 0 an audio only program oriented around live performance hence the name What made Live so unique from day one was the Session View a customizable grid which is used to organize and play musical elements such as drum loops guitar riffs and synthesizer parts While most other music sequencers are organized around a timeline which is used to lay out musical elements in a left to right fashion Live s Session view allows musical elements to be composed on the fly and mixed and matched at will a highly fluid and interactive process that was traditionally the domain of hardware synths loopers and drum machines see Figure 1 1 Live combines this workflow w
411. of Live s built in Groove feature Be aware that some of this is very subtle stuff and it is not always immediately apparent to the untrained ear For example when I m talking about dynamics here I m not talking about a song having a quiet section and a loud section Rather I m talking about the variations in the volume of the hi hat part over the course of a bar gt Dynamics Whether you re working with audio or MIDI it s worth exploring the effect of subtle volume changes on your parts Altering the velocity of a few MIDI notes or adding a volume envelope to tweak a couple of hits in an audio loop is one of the simplest ways to breathe life into your sound Dynamic variations can be built in to shorter loops with envelopes while working in the Session View and then more can be added in the Arrangement View using Automation For example you might decide to make one hit slightly louder every eight bars gt Timing It s not uncommon to hear drummers and bass players talk about being ahead of the beat or behind the beat For example the bass player may play right on the beat while the drummer plays the 2 and 4 snare hits slightly behind Or perhaps the drummer plays ahead of the beat ever so slightly rushing the snare and hi hats while the bass player lays back These subtleties are often what make music rhythmically compelling It s not that you should avoid perfectly quantized rhythms it s just that they oft
412. of the different body types try experimenting with different ones first setting High and Low Cut to 0 and setting the Str Body ratio to 100 all body sound no direct string sound Turning up the Decay as well will tend to exaggerate the effect of the body and make its effects even clearer As you might expect a piano body offers the smoothest response across the frequency spectrum while the violin body tends to bring out the higher frequencies more Next to the Body Type menu there is a menu to select the size ranging from extra small to extra large Larger body sizes tend to make the instrument sound more diffuse and farther away while smaller sizes make the instrument sound closer and more present Filter Global The Filter section see Figure 8 19 is located on Tension s second page of parameters and consists of a multimode filter that can be modulated with both an envelope and an LFO In addition to the common filter types yov ll also find a formant filter F6 and F12 in the Filter menu which is a filter modeled on the resonance of the human vocal tract Adjusting the resonance of this filter sweeps through the vowel sounds A E I O U and is capable of producing some very powerful resonant frequencies so be prepared to lower the output volume or you may find yourself running into some nasty distortion Below the Frequency and Resonance controls yov ll find additional controls to specify how much you want these values to be modul
413. oiced knob to the desired level and adjust the Sensitivity until it responds to the Modulator properly When it s all the way up the Unvoiced synthesizer no longer responds to these sounds and produces a signal continuously The center display is where you can really get into the nitty gritty aspect of manipulating the filter bank The mouse becomes a pencil when it s held over the graphical display and can be used to partially or fully suppress a particular band When Carrier is set to Modulator you can use this technique to use the Vocoder as a powerful filter The first control along the bottom of the display is Bands which controls the number of bands used to analyze the Modulator More bands means more accurate analysis and a more natural sounding output which may or may not be what you want What s natural about a singing synthesizer anyway Range specifies the upper and lower limits of the bands and can be used to remove any excess frequencies at the extremes BW stands for bandwidth and controls the width of each filter At values other than 100 the filters either have gaps between them or overlap each other producing a variety of interesting effects Use your ears The Gate control can be used to clean up the Modulator signal by suppressing any bands below the threshold By default no gating occurs as its setting is inf Level is a volume control for the effect output Use this in conjunction with Dry Wet to get the pe
414. olled by automation If you manually change an automated parameter the automation will immediately stop and the LED will turn gray to indicate that it s been disabled The automation display refer to Figures 4 11 and 4 12 will turn gray as well Figure 4 14 The small square next to the Filter Freq knob indicates that it s being automated Filter Freq Source Ableton Another thing happens when you manually change an automated control The Re Enable Automation switch turns orange as seen in Figure 4 15 Clicking on this causes automation to resume for all automated parameters in all tracks and clips immediately Figure 4 15 Click Re Enable Automation to bring all your disabled automation back at once Source Ableton Re enabling automation is an area where there s a difference between Session and Arrangement Session automation is automatically re enabled whenever you launch a clip containing automation In other words Session automation can only be disabled if you manually change the automated parameter while the clip is playing back The next time you launch the clip its automation will be active DELETE AUTOMATION If you decide that you want to get rid of all automation for a given control there s an easy shortcut Just right click on the control knob slider and so on and select Delete Automation from the context menu Be aware that this is a very powerful command since it deletes all the automation
415. ollowed by my recommendations The minimum system requirements can be a very different matter from a desirable system configuration This is true with most software applications and Live is no exception Ableton Live is a power hungry program and ideally your system should be put together with the most power you can afford Don t worry though not only is power very affordable these days but there are strategies for making epic sounds with a less than epic computer See the Latency Settings later in this chapter and Freeze and Flatten in Chapter 7 Using Effects and Instruments for more information If you re just starting out as a music producer you be able to get away with using a computer with fairly modest specifications until you get deeper into the production process at which point you may need to upgrade due to audio dropouts and system instability If you re an experienced producer with a big arsenal of plug ins you may be surprised at how quickly Live eats your computer s CPU power and RAM Or you may not it all depends on the program you re coming over from All of the following recommendations are minimums Ableton provides the minimum to run Live at all while my recommendations are the minimum to run Live in style Ableton Live s System Requirements for Macintosh gt Multicore processor gt 2GB or more RAM gt 1024 x 768 display gt Mac OS x 10 5 or later gt Between 6GB and 55GB
416. ome particularly important This is where you balance the levels of each layer and use the Activator and Solo switches as you work to help zero in on different parts of the sound The chains for an Instrument Rack can also be viewed directly within the Session View The title bar of a track containing an Instrument Rack will have an Unfold button next to the track name Clicking this reveals the Chain Mixer a mini track for each chain in the Rack see Figure 7 17 Clicking in the title bar of any of the tracks in the Chain Mixer will cause the devices for that Chain to be displayed in the Track View which can be quite handy when managing complicated Racks Figure 7 17 The Chain Mixer contains chains named Analog 5ths and Ambient The chain called Ambient contains another Rack so it can be unfolded as well to show the chains within Source Ableton Macro Controls With the potential to include a large number of devices a large Rack can become cumbersome to navigate The Macro Controls address this issue by giving you a set of eight freely mappable controls To assign Macro Controls click the Map Mode button at the top of the Rack see Figure 7 18 Clicking this button highlights every controllable parameter of every device in the Rack and switches the Browser into mapping mode so it displays all current mappings for the Rack Figure 7 18 In Map mode you can select a device parameter and then click the Map button belo
417. on as you press and then release the Tab key Now you can drag that clip to wherever you want it in your arrangement and drop it in The same technique also works for dropping clips from the Arrangement into the Session Back to Arrangement Since the Session and Arrangement Views share the same set of tracks there has to be a way to determine which view will be in control Remember any track can only play back one clip at a time This means it s an either or situation Either a track plays back Arrangement clips or Session clips never both Ableton s scheme for handling this problem is to allow Session clips to automatically override Arrangement clips whenever they are launched Arrangement clips are re enabled manually via the Back to Arrangement buttons When a Session clip is launched any Arrangement clips in that track are grayed out to indicate that they are currently disabled This explains the grayed out Arrangement mentioned above Until you explicitly give control to the Arrangement the Session stays in control There are two global Back to Arrangement buttons both of which function identically One is located in the Session View next to the Stop Clips button in the Master track see Figure 4 20 The other one appears conditionally in the Arrangement View as seen in Figure 4 19 By default the Session s Back to Arrangement button is gray and the one in the Arrangement is completely invisible As soon as anything is done
418. on for clip properties is easy Just select Clip in the Device Chooser and they ll appear in the menu below Volume The Volume Modulation envelope changes the clip s gain It provides an easy way to quickly cut chunks out of a loop or make small dynamic changes Because it doesn t interfere with any automation or manual volume changes you may make to the track it s very simple to use at any point in the production process see Figure 5 36 Figure 5 36 This modulation changes the playback volume of various hits in this drum loop silencing some completely and cutting others short Source Ableton Transposition The Transposition Modulation envelope will modulate the location of the Transpose knob allowing you to program pitch changes slides or entire harmonic progressions for the clip Because changing the pitch of a clip often produces interesting artifacts this can be used as a sound design tool as well Transposition begins as a flat line Every line above zero is one semitone up while every line below zero is a semitone down as seen in Figure 5 37 Figure 5 37 Transposition can be modulated up or down by 48 semitones Source Ableton Be aware that to make smooth pitch slides you ll have to be using a Warp mode other than Beats which only allows one transposition change per transient Also notice that you can scroll the range of the editor vertically by dragging the scale at the left or you can enlarge the edit
419. on the actual reverberation that follows closely behind the early reflections From here you will be able to decorate and control the finer points of the reverberated sound To begin with High and Low shelving filters can further define your imaginary room s sound By shaving off the highs for instance your room may sound more like a concert hall or large auditorium while brightening up the diffusion raising the high shelf will approximate a bathroom reverb Similar to X Y interface controlled filters each filter s X axis determines frequency while the Y axis controls bandwidth Turning these filters off will conserve some system resources Beneath the High and Low shelving controls you will find the Reverb s Decay Time settings which range from an extremely short 200ms to a cavernous 60 second long tail Long reverbs are mesmerizing but can make audio sound muddy and jumbled if used profusely To test the coloring and sonic quality of your Reverb you can use the Freeze control Any time you press Freeze Reverb will indefinitely hold and reproduce the diffusion tail When Flat is activated the low and high pass filters will be ignored In other words your frozen Reverb tail will contain all frequencies An active Cut command prevents further audio from being frozen even if it is passing through the Reverb The second X Y interface in the Diffusion Network labeled Chorus can add subtle motion or wobbly effect to the overall R
420. oncepts of Live explaining essential aspects of the interface and outlining Live s unique workflow The following chapters provide a detailed and highly practical reference guide to topics such as clips tracks devices and hardware control The final chapters of the book are devoted to important concepts for performance and useful advanced techniques Companion Website Downloads You may download the companion website files from www hobo tech com livepower or www cengageptr com downloads 1 Live 9 EVERY SO OFTEN a new piece of technology or software application makes an indelible mark on the way things are done Ableton s Live has instigated a revolution in the audio software world by transforming computers into playable musical instruments without sacrificing the power that digital audio workstations are known for You I find all the features you d expect such as multitrack audio and MIDI recording nonlinear editing quantization pitch shifting freezing delay compensation and more This comes as the culmination of years of software development infused with DJ and electronic music making instincts Live is also widely used for DJing live performance sound installations and just about any on stage or non studio use you can imagine Unlike other software programs that are based on a traditional DJ paradigm Live allows artists to create a highly customized performance environment limited only by imagination And with the intr
421. ong with a small rectangular Mute switch on the left and a Solo switch to the right To load a sample drag an audio file from the Browser into one of the slots You can also load samples by using the Hot Swap button in each slot or you can even drag in audio clips directly from Session or Arrangement Each slot has a full set of editing controls but you can only edit one slot at a time the knobs below are used to edit the currently selected slot In other words before editing a sample you must first click on the slot containing it The MIDI notes assigned to trigger the eight cells are the white keys between C3 middle C and C4 one octave above middle C However when you re editing the MIDI data of a clip playing Impulse the normal piano keyboard will be replaced with the names of the samples assigned to each note HAS ANYBODY SEEN MY KEYS If you re using a small MIDI controller or the computer keyboard keys you may find yourself bashing away on the notes but hearing nothing from Impulse This frequently occurs when the keyboard has been transposed to the wrong octave With Impulse any notes outside the range C3 to C4 are ignored If you re using the computer keyboard for MIDI input the Z and X keys will transpose the keys When transposing the keyboard yov ll see the current key range listed at the bottom of the screen To transpose the range of your MIDI controller consult its documentation Note that slot 8 the
422. ong without sending it out to the dance floor Return Tracks By default there are two return tracks in a new Live Set You can add more up to 12 by choosing Insert Return Track from the Create menu Return tracks are lettered A L instead of being numbered and can be shown or hidden under the View menu You probably find these tracks mostly useful for effects processing but you may discover other uses for them as well Return tracks don t host clips Instead the signal is routed to them using send knobs see Figure 6 3 You don t have to do anything to create a send knob they are added automatically every time a return track is created Sends can be hidden or shown independently of return tracks so visit the View menu if you don t see them on your screen Figure 6 3 Each return track has a corresponding send knob in every track to Route Signal to a Return Turn Up a Send Source Ableton Let s say you have a drum loop playing on track 1 If you turn send A all the way up the drum loop will now be sent at full volume to return A while still playing out of track 1 In this case the result will be to double the volume of the drum loop since it will now be playing out of two tracks Obviously that s not a very interesting result However if you put effects on return A you can route any signal through these effects by turning up send A For a full discussion of using effects on return tracks see Inse
423. ook was on its way to the printer Ableton added an important new preference to the Record Warp Launch tab Start Transport with Record This preference affects the behavior of both of Live s Record buttons When set On the default recording behaves as described in the rest of this book When Start Transport with Record is set Off clicking Arrangement Record or Session Record will prepare Live for recording without starting playback To begin recording you must then press Play This behavior will be familiar to users of prior versions of Live Additionally Session Record will not initiate clip recording as described in the Session Record Button section of Chapter 4 3 Live Interface Basics ONE OF ABLETON S DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS IS LIVE S SIMPLE elegant interface Only two views are needed to accomplish everything in Live Session View and Arrangement View Session View is geared for use in live performance for loop experimentation and as a quick multitrack sketchpad while Arrangement View facilitates detailed editing and song arranging In this chapter we ll be covering the basics of getting around Live Pll also mention a few things that you may not use until you re deeper into the program but nevertheless need to be discussed at the outset Before We Begin To get started it s important to know that a Live file is called a Set When you first open Live you re presented with an empty Set containing four
424. op to bottom instead of left to right Each band has its Activator and Solo switches while the high and low bands each have an On Off switch which can be used to make the device use just two bands or even one band in which case it s not a multiband processor at all Below each of the On Off switches you l also see a number box for specifying a frequency These are the crossover points for the device and they define the exact range of frequencies that each of the bands controls So yov ll see that the High frequency band includes everything above 2 5kHz by default but by changing this value you can easily make the High band include only frequencies above 5kHz The Mid band then handles everything below 5kHz down to whatever frequency is specified for the Low band As you play a signal through this device you l see meters in the center display for each band showing the volume of the signal The clear blocks at the far left and right of the display are a graphical representation of the Threshold and Ratio settings The left hand block is used to display settings for either upward compression making a signal louder when it dips below a given threshold or standard expansion making a signal quieter when it dips below a given threshold which is similar to gating The right hand blocks make settings for upward expansion making a signal louder when it exceeds a given threshold or standard downward compression In any of these cases
425. oportional setting will automatically adjust the portamento time so that larger intervals slide longer than shorter ones gt Priority Determines how the instrument handles the maximum number of voices set by the Voices parameter being exceeded When more notes are sounded than Voices permits Priority will tell the instrument which notes to prioritize and which to cut off High cuts off the lowest notes first Low cut off the highest notes first or Last cuts off the oldest notes first gt R Retrigger This function of the Retrigger switch varies depending on context In the case of an LFO or Envelope this button determines whether or not each MIDI note will restart the LFO or Envelope from its starting point For example for a pad with long evolving envelopes this Retrigger probably isn t a desirable behavior you want to be able to hold notes down and have any additional ones you add pick up the envelope at its current position When this switch appears in the global section of an instrument it can be turned off to allow one note struck multiple times to use more than one voice instead of retriggering the same voice This only applies to sounds with long release times in the volume envelope and it can generally be left on gt Semi or Transpose Transposes the entire range of this instrument in semitones gt Spread A simplified version of Unison see below that creates a detuned stereo output gt Stretch Allows the
426. or by dragging upward at the top to reveal the full range of 48 semitones Sample Offset Sample Offset allows you to manipulate the clip s playback position as it plays back The horizontal grid lines represent sixteenth notes The area above the center line moves the playback position forward while the area below moves it backward see Figure 5 38 Sample Offset only works when a clip s Warp mode is set to Beats Figure 5 38 This Sample Offset modulation causes the first drum hit to repeat four times The first step down causes playback to jump back one sixteenth the second step causes a jump of two sixteenths and so on Source Ableton Bear in mind that the value in the Preserve menu will determine the size of the chunks that get offset If Preserve is set to Transients or 1 4 you ll get some unusual results if you make a lot of sixteenth note offsets However unusual results is generally what you re going for with this envelope so take your time and experiment If you re looking to do some meticulous micro editing of your beats you ll be happier doing it in the Arrangement View MIDI Controller Envelopes In addition to all of the types of automation and modulation discussed so far MIDI clips also have the ability to send standard MIDI control messages such as Pitch Bend Modulation Volume and Foot Pedal sustain Control messages can be recorded from a MIDI controller during any recording regardless of whe
427. or clips where you need it for sound quality reasons right click on any clip or group of clips that use Complex and select Consolidate A new clip will be written to disk It will sound identical as long as you don t change the tempo but will no longer use Complex mode gt Delete unused elements If you have unused tracks that have been silenced with the Track Activator remember that those tracks may still be wasting resources Delete them If you re finished working in the Session view and only need the Arrangement delete everything from the Session Not just the clips Delete the scenes as well until you re down to the minimum of one empty scene Use Save As to save a new version of your Set before deleting in case you need to get anything back gt Increase your buffer Be aware of the impact of your Buffer Size in the Audio tab of Live s Preferences on CPU usage The smaller your buffer the higher the drain on your computer s resources will be It s not uncommon during a final mixdown to set the Buffer Size to its maximum value to help your computer keep up with numerous instruments and effects You can reduce it back to a small size later if you need low latency gt Lower the edit density Sometimes simply having a large number of clips close together in the Arrangement will make it difficult for your hard drive to keep up This can happen as a result of extensive vocal editing or from using the techniques described in
428. orld counterpart Rather it s an imaginary object that consists only of a burst of noise It can be used in conjunction with or instead of the Mallet excitator Just bear in mind that you must use one or the other if you want Collision to produce any sound at all For now turn off the Mallet excitator so you can hear the Noise section on its own You find that this produces a similar sound to the Noise control we worked with previously but it is far more customizable When you first turn it on you may not notice much sound coming out If this is the case increase the Volume control and also have a look at the Filter section immediately to the left As you increase the cutoff frequency of the low pass filter using either the graphical or the numeric display you ll be able to hear the noise more clearly and yov ll also notice the sound of the resonator getting brighter as well The Filter section contains your basic filter types along with an LP HP filter which combines a high pass and a low pass filter to produce a very flexible band pass type filter What makes the Noise section really interesting is the envelope below By adjusting the phases of the ADSR envelope you can create a completely different pallet of sounds as a long sustained noise signal vibrates the resonator more like a bow than a mallet or stick Try increasing the Attack to one or two seconds and yov ll hear what I mean Figure 8 26 shows this configuration A
429. ortions of the envelope until the key is released while ADR R will repeat the Release portion as well This makes it possible to use the envelope as more of an LFO cycling through a series of values When ADS AR is selected the envelope works normally until the key is released at which point the Attack portion repeats before the Release which could be used to create an additional swelling or short attack at the end of each note Looking to the left there are a few switches above the graphical display that are worth mentioning First the Linear and Exponential switches are used to control the type of slope that occurs between the envelope s breakpoints Linear slopes are increments or decrements in value that change at a constant rate over the time of the envelope segments which is a fancy way of saying they are straight lines Exponential slopes start out as straight lines but curve more dramatically toward their destination point as they get closer Because exponential curves tend to approach their target value very quickly before curving they sound shorter than linear envelopes The Legato switch may take a moment to understand but it s well worth it When enabled instead of the envelope starting over every time a new note sounds the envelope will continue if the two notes overlap In other words if a new note is played while another is held down the new note s envelope will start at the existing note s envelope position instead of
430. ost any material you will encounter Selecting the Right Warp Mode This is a topic on which there are many different opinions and no overarching consensus Theoretically Complex Pro mode provides the best quality for warping entire songs but in practice this isn t always the case Factors that affect the sound quality of warped audio include the original spectral characteristics of the song the amount you are speeding up or slowing down the song and whether or not you are transposing the song or playing it back at its original pitch If you know you re not going to change the tempo or pitch of a song during a performance you should use any mode other than the Complex modes At the original tempo pitch the other Warp modes have no effect on the sound quality while the Complex modes always do For heavily percussive dance tracks Beats mode can work very well I will generally select No Loop the forward arrow from the Transient Loop Mode menu see Chapter 5 when using Beats mode This can give the track a slightly choppy sound when slowing tracks down but I happen to like that for some material The downside of Beats mode for entire songs is that it can create an unpleasant warbling in the bass sometimes You may feel that your songs don t work well in either Complex or Beats mode There are many musicians who feel that Texture mode provides the best overall balance of sound quality and preservation of transients There are others who
431. otes to those of a selected key and mode With the top Transpose menu choose Major or Minor After you make your selection you can choose a root note with the Key menu below it For example set the Transpose menu to Minor and change the Key menu to D Now press and hold D All the notes in the resulting pattern will be transposed to the nearest note within a D minor scale Velocity The final controls in the Arpeggiator are for modifying the velocity of notes as they play Normally these functions are off which makes each note of the arpeggiation pattern sound at its played velocity That is if you press C lightly while striking G hard the resulting pattern will have quiet C notes and loud G notes The purpose of the Velocity controls here is to create a pseudo envelope for the volume of the arpeggiation Of course this can be used to modify not just volume but whatever parameter velocity is mapped to in the instrument you re using When you turn Velocity on with the top button the Arpeggiator will modify the velocities of the notes as they repeat The bottom dial sets the Target velocity and the Decay knob above it determines how long the Arpeggiator takes to modulate from the original velocities to the Target For example if you set Target to 10 and Decay to 1 000ms and play a note with full velocity the Arpeggiator will reduce the velocity of each consecutive note it plays to 10 over one second You can invert this by setting a high Targ
432. ou ll hear the modulation go from a smooth sweep to a choppier sound This is the sound of the filter frequency jumping to a new value once every 16th note Now you can experiment with other Beat values and play with the Phase as well Sidechain In Figure 9 5 you may have noticed the Sidechain section of the Auto Filter to the left of the Envelope section This section is only displayed if you click the small triangle in the title bar Sidechaining refers to having an audio source other than the one you are currently processing trigger the envelope for an effect In other words in the case of the Auto Filter you can have the envelope follow the dynamics of any track in Live instead of following the dynamics of the signal that you are processing with the Auto Filter Let s take a look at how this works If you tried out the Quantize Beat example earlier you ll want to keep working with the same sustained pad for this example too We ll also need another track to serve as the sidechain source This can be an audio or a MIDI track but it should output something percussive with strong transients Now in the Sidechain section set the Source to the percussion track as seen in Figure 9 5 Also make sure the LFO Amount is set to 0 There s no reason you can t use the LFO at the same time but for learning purposes it s best to keep it simple Figure 9 5 Specify a sidechain input to have the envelope of your Auto Filter follow a diffe
433. ou ve got the skills you can modify any device to taste or create your own from scratch gt Live 9 introduces a new set of Audio to MIDI features that can analyze audio of drums melody or harmony and produce a new MIDI track ready for you to tweak and process to your heart s content Want to sing a melody and then have a synth play the melody Now you can Goals of This Book Like Live Ableton Live 9 Power was written by a performing musician I ve spent plenty of time performing with Live and have been recording and remixing in Live for years Live is built to be musical and this book will aspire to be the same It is my hope that you will have many long hours of enjoyment using Live while creating some interesting new music Although this book is designed to be a power user book don t be deterred if you are new to Live new to music or new to computer based production This book will serve as a basic guide for interfacing with Live and an advanced tips and tricks collection for taking advantage of Ableton s industry rocking technology If you are already familiar with Live this book should feel like a souped up reference manual with some powerful tips and musical ideas for you to incorporate into your Live vocabulary This book should help you optimize Live s settings for speed and sound which should translate into maximum musical output Ableton Live 9 Power covers some sticky but rewarding topics such as Live s M
434. ough this song s first downbeat is at the very beginning Auto Warp has placed 1 1 1 a bit further in Also look at the Seg BPM box and you ll see that Live has guessed the tempo to be 83 33 even though it s actually 125 Source Ableton After you ve located this first clear downbeat right click the transient marker above it and select Set 1 1 1 Here as seen in Figure 12 2a Then right click the Warp Marker that gets created and select Warp From Here There are several different versions of this command so refer to Chapter 5 Clips if you need more information Finally move the start marker to the left as seen in Figure 12 2b so the clip plays back from the introduction Make sure that you move it back an even number of bars For example if the intro is 16 bars the start marker should be at 16 1 1 Figure 12 2a Once you ve identified the first clear downbeat right click and select Set 1 1 1 Here Then right click again and select Warp from Here Warp From Hore Warp From htere Start st 120 00 BPM Warp From bere Straight Warp 120 00 BPM From Here Warp as 125 Bw Loop Source Ableton Figure 12 2b After helping Auto Warp figure things out you can pull the start marker back to 16 1 1 so the song plays back from the beginning of the intro Source Ableton Another common mistake that Auto Warp makes is getting the tempo wrong by a tiny fraction Very often it s really easy to
435. ount of LFO modulation to apply to the pitch of the sample also known as vibrato Similarly the Envelope box sets the amount of pitch modulation applied by the Pitch envelope Bear in mind that the Envelope and LFO amounts are disabled unless their associated modulators are engaged Volume At the far right you ll find Simpler s Volume control along with amounts for the various modulators that can be assigned to it Velocity is explained in the Modulation section at the top of this chapter Operator Introduced in Live 4 1 Operator is Ableton s first add on instrument Operator is a very flexible instrument which allows you to use three different types of synthesis to craft your sounds FM subtractive and additive Overview of the Interface Operator represents a slight departure from the user interface scheme set forth by Impulse and Simpler While Operator still conveniently sits within the Track View see Figure 8 6 it does not display all information and parameters at once Operator is a deep and complex synth so many of the parameters have been consolidated into the center window of the interface Figure 8 6 The Operator interface has two sections the center window the display and the eight sections surrounding it the shell Source Ableton Looking at the interface yov ll see a large center window called the display surrounded by eight sections collectively referred to as the shell The shell sections are cl
436. our Key and MIDI controls Source Ableton Knowing how much gas is left in the tank or whether you re running on fumes is important in the computer world Here to help Live s CPU Load Meter continuously shows the amount of strain on your system for audio processing If this bar approaches 100 percent you may begin to experience performance degradation or audio dropouts The Hard Disk Overload Indicator the letter D just to the right of the CPU meter will flicker red if your computer is not able to get data from the hard drive quickly enough This will also result in dropouts and usually occurs because your hard drive is too slow for the number of audio clips you are trying to play back simultaneously The two small indicators at the far right light up when a MIDI signal is present The top indicator shows MIDI input while the bottom one shows output There also are two similar indicators between the MIDI Map mode and Key Map mode buttons These illuminate when remote control messages are sent in or out of Live MIDI and Computer Keyboard Remote Control Just about everything in Live from launching clips to tweaking device parameters can be remotely controlled from a MIDI controller or the computer keyboard What follows is a brief introduction to a topic that is covered in detail in Chapter 11 Remote Control If you re using Ableton s Push or one of the many controllers for which Live has control surface support L
437. output volume of the source track will stay the same regardless of the Send knob position Figure 7 6 Return tracks are particularly handy when working with reverbs and delays In this example there s a Reverb on Return track A Notice that the Send knobs turned up in the Percussion and Keys tracks add some effect to these tracks Porcusoion vocais Keys fever L a Drop Files and Devices Here 25 76 Source Ableton There s a Send knob on every track which you can adjust to add varying amounts of effects to any track For our snare drum example you might crank the Send up high to add a dramatic effect while turning it to a low level on the hi hat track for a subtle ambience This is not only convenient but it s also CPU efficient Plug in reverbs in particular can be very demanding on your processor and using many instances can place an unnecessary burden on your computer Using the Send Return approach allows you to share one device between many tracks There s one important caveat to observe when placing effects on returns always set the effect to 100 wet If the effect has a Dry Wet knob turn it all the way up If the effect has an independent Dry control turn it all the way down Do whatever it takes to ensure that the effect on the Return track is outputting only processed signal The unprocessed signal is unnecessary since it s still being output from the original track If you allow return effects to pass an
438. ove or below the segment until it turns blue and then drag it These same mouse techniques can also be used to move an entire range of automation up or down Simply drag to highlight the range of automation you want to adjust and then drag the entire range when it turns blue This method is handy because it prevents unintentional left right movement There are a couple of other modifier keys you should know about for adjusting automation Automation segments can be curved as seen in Figure 4 34 by holding down Alt Option while dragging a segment For making very fine value adjustments hold down Ctrl Cmd while dragging a breakpoint or segment Not only will you get a greater degree of precision but left right movement is constrained as well Figure 4 34 Automation curves in action Double click while holding Alt Option to restore the curve to a straight line Source Ableton Right clicking on a selected range of automation reveals a special set of automation editing commands not shown in the Edit menu Cut Envelope Paste Envelope and so on The shortcuts for these commands are easy to remember because they re just the default key command Alt Option For example Cut Envelope is Alt Option Ctrl Cmd C Automation is deleted with Ctrl Cmd Delete WARP AND STRETCH Session automation can also be moved and resized using Warp Markers and MIDI Stretch Markers both of which appear as handles directly above the envelope edi
439. p s Device Chooser and Control Chooser menus to show the automation for a particular control see Automation Editing in Chapter 4 Then you ll be able to select Show Modulation from the editor s context menu Figure 5 34 Show Modulation can be accessed from a control s context menu or from the editor in the Clip View Show Modulation Source Ableton Once you ve created modulation it will be accessible from the Control Chooser In Figure 5 35 there s some modulation programmed for the Frequency parameter of an Auto Filter Notice that there is an item called Frequency Modulation listed which reveals the modulation envelope and another called Frequency which reveals the automation envelope for the same control Figure 5 35 Once modulation is programmed you can get back to it easily from the Control Chooser Source Ableton When modulation is affecting a parameter it doesn t directly change the knob slider or number box the way automation would Instead it makes a subtler indication Knobs will highlight the area of the knob s range that s being modulated while sliders will display a small dot indicating the current modulated value Modulating Audio Clip Properties As mentioned previously it s possible to modulate some properties of audio clips These deserve special mention since they re fundamentally different than the device and mixer adjustments discussed in Chapter 4 Revealing the modulati
440. p from the group The same clip will never be launched What makes Follow Actions particularly interesting is the ability to create two possible actions for each clip Live will choose between Follow Action A and Follow Action B at random but this randomness can be constrained using a mathematical ratio Chance A and Chance B are used to set the odds that each action will occur By default the odds are 1 0 meaning that the Follow Action on the left will always be performed Odds of 0 1 will cause the right Follow Action to always be performed Odds of 1 1 will give you a 50 50 chance of either action being performed You can put in any values you like such as 2 3 or 1 200 Bear in mind that whenever No Action is encountered no further Follow Actions will occur even if the clip is looped This is because Follow Actions are only evaluated after a clip is launched If you want to create a chance that a clip will either continue to loop or launch another clip use Play Again instead This way the clip will continue to evaluate its Follow Actions PLAYING THE ODDS Note that odds are calculated afresh every time a Follow Action is performed If you have a clip with Follow Action odds of 1 1 and Live chooses the left Action the first time it does not mean that Live will choose the right Action the next time Just as it is possible to roll the same number on a die time after time it is quite possible for Live to choose the left Follow Action fiv
441. p is playing back and red to show that a clip is recording Some controllers have different color schemes If multiple grid controllers are connected Live will display multiple rectangles in different colors Whether you want them side by side to control different tracks or above one another controlling different clips in the same tracks is up to you It s a very flexible system see Figure 11 4 Figure 11 4 This is how the Session View might look with two different clip launching control surfaces connected The colored rectangles can be freely adjusted in any direction Tl WiiWii a halk hd halk V Vow VEVEY e e e lt 3 a A gt P 5 3 e e Source Ableton Clip launchers will only work if the device is enabled as a control surface If the controller is only enabled as a remote yov ll still be able to send messages from the buttons in the matrix but they won t automatically control clips Remote Mapping As explained in Chapter 3 the basic process of mapping is easy First enter Map mode see Figure 11 5 click the control you want to map and then press the key or move the MIDI control you want to assign control to Figure 11 5 Click Key to map your computer keyboard or MIDI to map MIDI remote controllers Source Ableton MULTI MIDI In most cases Live will allow you to map a single physical control to multiple on screen controls simultaneously In cases where this would cause a conf
442. p position in the Clip View to keep the currently playing part visible It works in conjunction with the Follow Behavior preference in the Look Feel tab of Preferences gt Arrangement Position This box provides a continuous readout in measures beats and subdivisions of where you are in the song whether you re listening or recording You can manually enter a start time value into this box or drag up and down with the mouse to change the setting gt Play amp Stop These buttons start and stop playback you can also toggle between play and stop using the spacebar gt Arrangement Record This button is used to initiate recording clips and automation into the Arrangement gt MIDI Overdub When recording MIDI into the Arrangement this button can be enabled to allow notes to be added to existing MIDI clips When disabled MIDI clips are overwritten during recording gt Automation Arm This enables the recording of Session Automation and allows overdubbing of automation into the Arrangement View This is a somewhat complex topic and will be covered in detail in Chapter 4 gt Re Enable Automation Just as it s possible to override Arrangement clips by launching clips from the session it s also possible to override automation by manually changing an automated parameter Whenever automation has been overridden this button will light up Clicking on it will restore automation for all clips and tracks gt Session Re
443. p things interesting In Trigger mode this won t work all the hits will be reduced to a 50ms blip regardless of the note length At the bottom of this section yov ll find buttons marked M and S for muting or soloing the current slot Global Volume Time and Transpose The Global section contains a master Volume knob plus master Time and Transp transpose knobs These last two knobs function just like the Transpose and Stretch knobs described previously except that they apply to the entire kit Simpler When it comes to quick sample playback and manipulation nothing is simpler than Simpler What is Simpler A simple sampler of course However don t be fooled Simpler offers a wealth of creative possibilities within its humble interface such as independent Pitch Filter and Amp Envelopes as well as portamento and other effects Overview of the Interface The Simpler interface looks quite similar to Impulse but it has one large sample window instead of eight sample cells see Figure 8 4 Simpler works with only one sample at a time and its contents are displayed in this main window You can zoom in and out on the waveform by clicking it when you see the magnifying glass cursor appear and dragging up and down with the mouse Figure 8 4 Simpler is the go to instrument for quick and easy sample playback Source Ableton Simpler can be loaded with a new sound by dragging a sample from the Browser or an audio clip from
444. pach has programmed a freeware driver called ASIO4ALL which is available at www asio4all com If you use it you will have solved your latency problem but yov ll still want to consider a new audio interface because the converters in a pro interface will sound much better than those used in standard soundcards Choosing a MIDI Controller Whether you re using Live to perform or produce you re going to want some sort of MIDI controller as part of your setup There is a lot you can do with only your computer keyboard and a mouse but at some point you l want to play a melody bang out a beat or crank a knob to apply some effects The most important thing in picking a controller is to understand your needs but this can be tricky if you are totally new to production If that s the case the best thing I can recommend is to get something affordable and push it to its limits it s the one guaranteed method for discovering what your needs are Here are some factors to consider gt Grid Some controllers are designed specifically for use with Live such as the Novation LaunchPad and Akai APC 40 and they feature a grid of buttons for launching clips in the Session View When connected a colored rectangle appears in the Session View to indicate which area of the clip grid is available to the controller On the controller each grid button that corresponds to a clip lights up while buttons corresponding to empty clip slots rema
445. pe Often it s not necessary to modulate all the oscillators Of course if you don t modulate them all you might get inharmonic results However this can be desirable on the attack of a sound such as when making drum sounds CUT IT SHORT Make sure to explore Operator with your mouse s right button it s jam packed with all sorts of shortcuts For example the Frequency knob s context menu includes a Play by Key option that configures the filter to track the keyboard perfectly while the oscillator display has an Export AMS option that exports a custom user waveform to an audio file with an ams extension that can be used as a sound source for Sampler In the display of this section youv ll find the Glide setting which is explained in the Global Parameters section at the top of this chapter The Global Settings The last section of Operator contains Global Settings for the instrument You re already familiar with the algorithms contained there but there are still a few more things you should know First the Time control This knob adjusts the speed of all of the envelopes in Operator simultaneously You can slow them down dramatically or speed them up to a point where you hardly notice them This is a great tool for performing final tweaks to a sound you ve mostly finished designing It s also a great dial to tweak on presets or to automate to add expressiveness to a sound To the right of the Time knob is th
446. pear in the display Pay close attention to the four lettered boxes matching the oscillators By default these are all turned on and the four oscillators will all have their pitches modulated by the LFO To get a feel for what you can do with this LFO try turning off the routing to your carrier oscillator s and route the LFO to the modulators only An interesting feature of Operator s LFO is that it s not relegated to low frequency slow speed The LFO s range can be adjusted with the tiny drop down menu next to the wave shape The options are L for low frequency mode H for high frequency mode and S for sync In high frequency mode you can run it into audio range thus making it available as another audio oscillator for your FM experiments The Filter Coaxing your desired tone from an FM synth is not easy especially for beginners However generating a complex waveform with FM is easy The filter allows you to treat this complex FM waveform as the starting waveform for subtractive synthesis taking advantage of the simplicity a classic filter offers Thanks to Operator s FM capabilities your arsenal of waveforms is nearly limitless Like the LFO the filter must be turned on before it will have any effect Do this by clicking the box just to the left of the Filter Type menu Yov ll see the center display spring to life with color indicating that the filter is active The filter contains the same six parameter envelope as the oper
447. pen at both ends while Tube is closed The controls below vary somewhat depending on the type of resonator you ve selected The simplest resonator is Tube so let s look at that first The only controls available here are Decay and Radius Decay is common to all the resonators and is probably the simplest to understand This is how long it takes for the resonator to decay to silence Radius determines the width of the Tube and has a major impact on the high harmonics produced A low radius produces a subtle subby sound that could sound great layered in with a kick drum or bass sound Switching over to Pipe you may not notice much of a difference in the sound The only difference in the controls available here is Opening and when this control is at 100 it s nearly identical to Tube As you decrease Opening from 100 you ll hear a high frequency buzzing in the sound get louder and more complex For all of the other resonator types the Radius control is replaced by Material While this control represents a different physical property in practice it is very similar Going from low to high values takes you through a range of tonal possibilities from dark and deep to extremely bright You ll also notice that when selecting a resonator other than the two cylinders the Quality menu becomes enabled This feature controls how complex the harmonics generated by Collision are and therefore the CPU usage The remaining physical property controls
448. ply not possible to make every single edit at a zero crossing and ever get anything else done that is To address this most DAWs and audio editing programs have the ability to create fades to prevent popping when audio files are silenced or cut together This is particularly important when comping together takes such as multiple passes of a vocal track When doing this it s sometimes necessary to make extremely precise edits sometimes placing an edit in the middle of a word for example In these cases crossfades are essential By simultaneously fading out one piece of audio while fading in the other these minute transitions can be made far more smooth and convincing Fades are not automation but they appear in the Arrange View as if they were see Figure 4 36 They are automatically created at every clip boundary so depending on your workflow you may not find yourself viewing fades very often However in cases where you re doing some intense editing or you want to experiment with some creative crossfading you ll need to view your fades so you can customize them Figure 4 36 When a clip is followed by silence a fast fade is automatically created to avoid clicks and pops When two clips are adjacent to each other a crossfade is created causing the sounds to overlap and fade into each other Weveration te Cee TTR 5 t Auto A K i s N N q WAAAY WAAAY WIV BORER AMA Nee Source Ableton
449. preview snippet built in When previewing yov ll hear a two second sample of the instrument playing middle C For Drum Rack presets yov ll hear a loop of a beat being played with that particular kit Presets from older versions of Live or those created by third parties may not have preview snippets When you come across these you have to add them to your set and try them out in order to hear them If you use preview during playback Live will begin the preview at the beginning of the next bar and attempt to play the preview at the current Master Tempo With factory content and loop libraries this feature should work perfectly but for longer files and content where Live can t determine necessary Warping info it may not If you want to preview a lot of content quickly it s better to stop the sequencer first CUEING THE MIX You can adjust the volume of loops heard via Live s preview feature by rotating the Preview Cue volume knob in the Master track In Session View this control appears as a knob with headphones next to it In Use Items from the Browser are added into Sets by dragging and dropping them into tracks You can also double click but I strongly recommend using drag and drop until you re quite familiar with getting around the program Double click doesn t always do what you d expect and it can be a bit confusing Obviously there are quite a few different things in the Browser and you need to know
450. ps colors groups color schemes MIDI controllers Warp modes Semi parameter sends devices Drum Rack enabling Master tracks return tracks sequences Max of MIDI notes Session Record button Session View adding devices automation recording viewing Browser window clip scenes crossfaders Export Audio Video dialog box Input Output section Mixer overdubbing recording rules sends switching Track Delay Sets exporting formatting Manage Set managing saving settings See configuring S amp H sample and hold Shape knob shaping sounds Operator shells Operator shifting pitch showing elements in interviews side bands Sidechain section signals See also routing dynamic processing flows outputs Simple Delay signatures time modifying programming silence fades Insert Silence Simple Delay Simpler sizing clips skins customizing slaves ReWire Slice to New MIDI track dialog box slicing tempo sliders slots sample Impulse SMEs Standard MIDI Files Solo in Place Solo section Mixer songs See also Sets sounds cues kick Operator synchronization Sounds category sources plug ins special mappings specifications audio interfaces computers Spectrum spectrum analyzers splitting clips Spray parameter Grain Delay Spread parameter stacking EQs Standard MIDI Files See SMFs Standard version Start button Start dial Impulse starting Auto Warp Push Record Warp Launch tab Scene Launch button steps c
451. r Locators Click Set to Create a Locator J T 1 Meindest Ce p_a Source Ableton Each time you make a locator it will be given the name Locator followed by a number To give the locator a more useful name right click on the locator and choose Rename You can change the position of locators after you ve made them by clicking the locator and dragging it to a new location in the timeline If you want to remove the locator click to select it and then press Delete Jumping to Locators The best part about locators is your ability to jump between them seamlessly while the arrangement is playing All you have to do is click on a locator it will begin to flash green and playback will jump to that location subject to global quantization You can also use the two arrow buttons to the left and right of the Set button to jump to the previous or next locator What makes Live s locaters unusually cool though is that you can assign MIDI messages and computer keys to these locators just like any other control in Live This means that the arrangement is now nearly as flexible as the Session View in that you can repeat sections of the song at will or jump to other areas as you see fit Even the most complex of arrangements is now opened up for your experimentation thanks to these locators Time Signature Changes Time signature changes can be created by right clicking in the Scrub area choosing Insert Time Signature Change from
452. r has a number of different modes available including a Morphing filter M with 12dB and 24dB varieties as well as standard low pass band pass and high pass types The Morphing filter is interesting in that it can smoothly transition from one filter type to another for example from low pass to high pass sweeping across the frequency spectrum and resulting in some unusual filter shapes along the way Try routing the Morph control to an external MIDI controller and automating it for some very interesting filter effects The SVF filter type behaves like the Morphing filters but it provides different tonal characteristics Of special notice in the filter section is the Shaper below This offers the same distortion waveshaping modes offered by Operator with the additional option of changing its position in the signal path Click the arrow directly above the Shaper switch to apply waveshaping before or after the filter Try this out and you I see this is no small distinction Just changing the order of operations here has a big impact on the sound The Volume Envelope The volume envelope is a global envelope it will affect how the final output of Sampler is heard You have standard Attack Decay Sustain and Release controls here as well as an Initial setting that allows you to specify the volume at the moment the envelope is triggered Also notice the small blue handles in the graphical display in between those representing the ADSR values
453. r in mind that stopping of the clip will respect the current quantization just the way launching does gt Repeat Repeat mode is a way of retriggering a clip by holding down the mouse or assigned key MIDI note Any time the mouse or key is held the clip will continuously restart itself at the rate specified by the clip s Quantize setting If the setting is 1 4 holding down the mouse key will cause only the first beat of the clip to play over and over again When the mouse or key is released the clip will play through its entirety like normal This mode can create fun stutter effects but should be used sparingly probably not a good choice for default behavior Legato Mode Switch Below the mode menu is the Legato switch When enabled the clip will begin playback from the relative position of the currently playing clip in the same track For example let s say you have two eight bar clips set to Legato mode The first clip is launched and allowed to play for two bars before the second one is launched Instead of playing from the beginning it starts at bar 3 since that s where the previous clip would have been had it been allowed to keep playing This feature allows you to switch between several different clips dipping in and out of various sections of each clip With low launch quantization values this feature makes it possible to generate a large number of variations from a relatively small number of clips Clip Quantization You ma
454. r the conversion you can swap out the instrument to customize the sound You can also drag an audio clip to an existing MIDI track and a dialog will appear giving you the three conversion choices gt Convert Drums to New MIDI Track analyzes audio assuming it contains drums and produces anew MIDI clip that will play a similar pattern on a Drum Rack Generally this technique does a very good job of identifying clear kick snare and hi hat parts However it will falter depending on how unusual and complex the drum sounds are Not to worry though with a bit of editing this conversion method produces very usable results on a wide variety of material gt Convert Melody to New MIDI Track will typically generate usable results if the source has strong transients and the signal is steady in pitch Complex modulating synthesizer tones and weak vocal performances or emotional ones with a lot of note sliding and other vocal artifacts will produce less accurate results gt Convert Harmony to New MIDI Track is the fussiest of all of the methods Even with a solo keyboard or guitar part it will often generate chords containing strange extra notes or leave notes out entirely Your mileage will vary greatly depending on the material you feed it so keep it simple and be prepared to edit the results Slice to New MIDI Track Slice to New MIDI Track is a whole different animal than the conversion methods discussed earlier This method breaks the o
455. r the loop of your counting Take a look at Live s master tempo and turn on the metronome Live has set its tempo by the length of the loop you just recorded Pretty cool Figure 9 38 If you re a fan of hardware loopers such as the Boomerang or Loop Station you re going to have a lot of fun with Looper Source Ableton Now take a look at the big Multi Purpose Transport button and the small row of icons just above it The small icons will always tell you what mode you are currently in Right now you ll see a highlighted plus sign letting you know you re in Overdub mode Any additional sounds you make will get added to the loop The big button is displaying a Play icon Clicking it will take you into Play mode and stop the overdubbing Clicking it repeatedly will toggle you back and forth between Play and Overdub allowing you to either add additional layers to your recording or just listen to playback Finally double click the large button and Looper will stop playback without stopping Live s sequencer So without digging too deeply into this device s options you should get a pretty good idea of how powerful this baby is right out of the box If you haven t already guessed the big reason for putting so much functionality into one button is to make it really easy for instrumentalists to control it via MIDI Just map a single footswitch control and you re ready to begin recording improvised loop odysseys with no further
456. r with Packs yov ll find this an incredibly handy way to explore gt User Library New to Live 9 this area conveniently separates your personal content from that installed by Live or add on Live Packs Whenever you save your own device presets Live stores them in the User Library For presets that have associated sample files such as Simpler presets the sample files are copied here as well This area is also home to items such as Defaults and Slicing Presets F gt Current Project This view displays everything contained within the project folder of the currently open Set Typically this is samples and Sets but other files of your choosing can be stored here as well For more information on Project Folders please see Saving Your Work later in this chapter gt Live 8 Library For users upgrading from Live 8 this view will display the old Library If you have a Live 8 Library but it does not appear here visit the Library tab of the Preferences screen to locate it You can also add any folder from your hard drive to Places by using the Add Folder option at the bottom For example you might want to add sample libraries or your DJ music folders Folders added here will be scanned and added to Live s database which can take a while if the folders are large This feature enables fast searching and also allows content to be shown in the appropriate Browse areas Categories The Categories area displays both factory and user
457. r words if the track has even one device in it you ll only get the audio or MIDI If this sounds like a lot right now don t worry Live Clips will make much more sense once you ve got a handle on the various elements they contain Organization and Navigation Like most modern music programs Live gives you the power to create a lot of content very quickly The downside of being able to move quickly is the potential for stress and confusion that piles up as you add piles of loops and record new parts Don t skimp on organization Trust me your music will be better for it The first step in clarifying your workspace is to use the Rename command frequently as explained in Chapter 3 The next step is to use color You can right click on clips tracks and scenes to bring up a color chooser and apply colors in any way that makes sense to you For example you might want to make all your drum tracks and clips shades of red and your basses blue It s also important to move clips tracks and scenes to meaningful locations It may sound obvious but don t underestimate how much easier it is to work on a Set where all of the drum tracks are next to each other as opposed to scattered around This logic applies to clips and scenes as well Tracks and scenes can be moved by clicking and dragging the titles while clips can be moved by dragging their colored areas If you hold down Alt Option while dragging an object you ll create a copy
458. rather than directly from the hard drive This ensures that if you knock the player around and cause the disk to skip audio will continue to play back from the buffer while the device finds its way back to the place where it skipped As long as the device can keep filling the buffer with data before it s all been played back yov ll never hear any problems no matter how hard you whack it The same concept applies to your computer If something causes your CPU usage to spike momentarily and you don t have a big enough buffer audio mayhem will ensue So how big to set your Buffer Size It depends A very small buffer gives you low latency and makes your system very responsive but it demands a lot of your CPU A large buffer is easier on the CPU and ensures smooth performance but increases latency Therefore you may have to experiment with your system to get the settings right and you may have to change them depending on what you re doing For example on stage you want to make sure you ve got a big enough buffer to avoid audio dropouts or artifacts without generating so much latency that you can t perform comfortably In the studio you might keep the buffer low during the early parts of the production process increasing as your song becomes more complex and more CPU power is needed You may or may not be able to adjust your soundcard s buffer size from this Preferences menu While in Mac OS X you can usually just click and dr
459. rce Ableton The time and conditions for a Follow Action are set in the three sections at the bottom of the clip s Launch window The first section the Follow Action Time determines how much time elapses between when the clip is launched and the Follow Action occurs Figure 5 6 specifies that the action Play Next will be performed after one bar elapses Figure 5 6 These parameters determine the Follow Action behavior of the clip If Chance A and B are both set to a non zero value Follow Action A or B is randomly chosen based on their ratio Follow Action Time Follow Action B Chance B Source Ableton The options in the Follow Action menus are as follows gt No Action No action is performed This is the default action for all new clips With No Action selected in both menus no Follow Action will occur gt Stop Stops playback gt Play Again Relaunches the currently playing clip gt Previous Next Triggers the clip above or below the current one If the clip at the top of a group triggers the Play Previous action it will wrap around and trigger the bottom clip of the group and vice versa gt Play First Last Triggers the top or bottom clip in a group If the top clip in a group triggers the Play First action it will relaunch itself gt Any Launches a randomly chosen clip from the group Live might retrigger the same clip with this option gt Other Launches a different randomly chosen cli
460. rd all mixing has to be done inside the computer Is this something you should necessarily be worried about Not at all If you are just getting started or you are not sure what all of this is about then chances are there s no need for you to concern yourself too much about having lots of outputs The exception to this rule is if you plan on performing with Live in which case you will want to have a minimum of four outputs two stereo pairs which allows you to use one pair as your main output and the other for cueing prelistening to tracks or clips in your headphones just like a DJ After you ve decided whether you need 2 4 6 8 or more channels you may also want to consider what types of connecters the interface uses For example if you re always connecting to DJ mixers it may be more convenient to have RCA outputs on your interface rather than 1 4 inch or XLR Ultimately though this shouldn t be a deal breaker since you can always connect with the proper cables or adapters What Do You Need to Know About ASIO Drivers ASIO Audio Stream Input Output was first invented by German software slinger Steinberg www steinberg de or www cubase net Originally ASIO drivers were created to help musicians and producers using Cubase to record multitrack audio digitally with a minimal amount of time lag within their digital system This time lag can be a real buzzkill and it is called latency Latency occurs because the sound you
461. rder to help protect them from being modified by other projects or programs Unlike audio clips all of the data in MIDI clips is stored within the Set als file MIDI clips can be created by dragging in standard MIDI files but it s most common to create them yourself by recording a performance using a MIDI controller such as drum pads or a keyboard or by drawing in notes manually using the MIDI editor Adding Files from the Browser Adding new clips is a matter of dragging an audio file standard MIDI file or Live Clip from the Browser into a clip slot or a track in the Arrangement View Files can also be added directly from Windows Explorer or the OS X Finder Since tracks can only hold one type of clip audio or MIDI make sure that you drag audio files into audio tracks and MIDI files into MIDI tracks or drag them into the Drop Area to create new tracks automatically You can also grab multiple files Shift click to select a range of files or Ctrl Cmd click to select multiple nonadjacent files and add them as a group By default the clips will all be created on the same track To have Live drop the files into separate tracks press and hold Ctrl Cmd before dropping the files You ll see the clips change their arrangement and you can then choose their final destination Live can work with just about any audio you ve got any audio file in WAV AIFF SDII MP3 Ogg Vorbis Ogg FLAC or FLAC format on your computer is fair
462. re you can record at lower levels and still have excellent audio quality so this is generally recommended If for some reason you need to record at 16 bit it s much more important to get the highest level possible without clipping Session Record Button The Session Record button see Figure 4 6 is a multi function button which is relevant to the prior section because it can be used to record new clips It s also relevant to the upcoming sections because it is used to overdub automation and MIDI in the Session View When you click on Session Record it will start recording in the empty clip slots of the highlighted scene for any armed track in which a clip is not currently playing Clicking it a second time will stop recording and begin playback of any newly recorded clips Just like the Clip Record buttons Session Record is quantized to make it easy to record properly timed loops Session Record s role in MIDI overdubbing recording automation will be discussed later in the section entitled Automation and MIDI Overdub Because this button does several different things it provides a very streamlined workflow but it also creates the potential for confusion Make sure to take some time experimenting with this button as you learn about its different functions to avoid surprises later Figure 4 6 Session Record can be used to record new clips It also enables MIDI and automation overdubbing Source Ableton Arrangement Recor
463. re out Below the grid is a button marked Dice which is used to transform the sequence for the currently displayed parameter Select Random in the adjacent menu and click Dice to generate a random pattern or Permute to apply limited randomization to an existing pattern You ll also find options to shift the pattern in a variety of other ways left right invert and so on Click Auto to automatically Dice the parameters every time the sequence cycles around Convolution Reverb For some this device alone may be worth the upgrade to Max for Live Convolution is a technology that allows the ambience of a space to be re created from an audio sample called an impulse response or IR Not limited to real spaces impulse responses can be created from hardware effects units or synthesized to generate wild new Reverb and Delay effects Convolution Reverb is the basic version of this effect while Convolution Reverb Pro offers more comprehensive tweaking at the cost of greater CPU usage see Figure 13 16 To get started with Convolution Reverb press Hot Swap and the Browser will present you with a long list of presets based on many different IRs In the Pro version presets can be loaded using the two menus at the bottom of the display Figure 13 16 A much more powerful alternative to Live s built in Reverb device Ot Real Paces St Albans Cathedral 4 Source Ableton Convolution Reverb Pro also lets you go one step further by sele
464. re quite a few ways that Live can be mapped that may not be apparent at first glance For example the Tempo control has two segments when in Map mode The left segment is for coarse adjustments while the right adjusts in fractions of a BPM Figure 11 10 shows a few areas of interest when it comes to mapping The title bar of a track can be mapped in order to show its Track View The clip status area can be mapped to show the Clip View for the currently playing clip in that track If no clip is playing this mapping won t do anything Relative clip launchers allow you to launch a clip based on the currently selected scene but notice that these only appear in Map mode In the Master track you l see some additional controls in the same row as the relative clip launchers These are used for navigating through the scenes The up down arrows can be mapped to move up or down one row at a time while the numeric box can be mapped to an encoder for scrolling through scenes Figure 11 10 A few hidden goodies in Map mode Map the Title Bar to Show the Track View Map the Clip Status Area to Show the Clip View Relative Clip Relative Scene Scene Launcher Launcher Navigation Controis Source Ableton TWEAK THAT CLIP You can assign MIDI and key controls to many parameters in the Clip View Be aware however that mappings in the Clip View do not stay stuck to a particular clip Instead the assignments work on whatever clip is current
465. rent audio source Pad iosa soraa JC aan O o g g gt Auto Filter amp Sidechain Envelope LFO S amp H Audio From Famoun Shape ba d 1 i G a ij Pre FX y p u s OM 0 00 i Alt 4 CAAM ta Quantve Beat ECI D mmr moma ms ee ee Source Ableton Now play back both clips and slowly raise the Envelope control As you do this you 1 hear the filter on the pad begin to rise and fall with the hits in the drum loop If you re not getting enough of an effect even with the Envelope cranked you can increase the Gain to feed more signal to the Sidechain The Dry Wet knob controls how much the sidechain signal is mixed with the direct signal before it is sent to the envelope In the current example a setting of 50 would mean that the envelope would follow the dynamics of a 50 50 blend of the drum loop and the pad At 0 the sidechain is bypassed completely PRE OR POST In the sidechain example earlier you may have noticed that the sidechain source is set to Pre FX refer to Figure 9 5 This is because we want to tap the signal before it gets to the mixer By using either the Pre or Post FX setting you can mute the sidechain track in Live s Mixer and still have it reach the sidechain input This way you can get the rhythmic envelope without having to hear the drum loop Pre FX is especially useful if you have some heavy effects on a track but you want to use that sound unaffected to
466. rface with four outputs two outs for the main mix and two others to feed your headphones Many audio interfaces have assignable headphone outputs while others have the headphone out hard wired to a specific pair of outputs In this case we re assuming that outputs 1 2 will feed the headphones Therefore in the Master track outs 1 2 are specified for Cue and 3 4 for Master Connect outputs 3 4 to the sound system Now you re ready to cue tracks through the headphones as shown previously Please note that enabling Cue on a track does not remove it from the Master You ll need to turn off the Track Activator button or turn down the volume to keep it only in the headphones Once the track is properly cued you can bring up the volume and send it out to the mains Figure 12 6 shows another approach A Cue track is used to hold tracks before you play them It has its Cue switch on and Track Activator off so any audio clip in this track will be heard only in the headphones Tracks like these can be used as virtual record crates Load all the songs you think you might want to play Then after you re done previewing it drag the clip from the cue track over to Deck A or Deck B Figure 12 6 This setup features an additional cue track You launch clips on this track for private headphone listening before dragging it onto one of the live tracks Cue gt 1552698_Foodback_Originall gt 1561215 Bad Girls Go To gt 15618
467. rfect blend Depth determines how dynamic the resulting effect is By default the volume envelope of the modulator is applied to the carrier This control can be turned down to reduce the dynamic range of the output signal or increased to exaggerate it The Attack and Release controls can be used to further shape the Volume Envelope Note that the Release control goes up to a whopping 30 seconds and can be used in conjunction with the Noise carrier to create some really intense builds Finally the Formant knob can be used to alter the frequencies of the filters that get applied to the carrier signal This can be used to create some unusual frequency shifting effects or can be used to change the perceived gender of the modulator when voice is used This effect has so many uses it s well worth spending some time with Try using the Noise carrier to add some extra snap and depth to a snare drum sound use a drum part as the modulator to create a rhythmic synth part by using a pad as the carrier or try that same drum loop Pitch Tracking mode to generate some unusual melodic material The possibilities are literally endless External Audio Effect External Effect is in a class by itself Instead of processing audio it provides a flexible insert point for interfacing with external hardware Using effect boxes in your Live productions has never been easier Insert an external effect device ina track and select the inputs and outputs your processor
468. right click in the title bar after turning it on and select Save as Default Preset from the context menu The frequencies are often referred to as lows mids and highs or other subdivisions such as low mids or high mids High frequencies are found in the register called treble while low frequencies are referred to as bass Low mids mids or high mids make up the middle section from left to right of the sonic spectrum Live s EQ features a built in spectrum analyzer to help you visualize the frequency content of your sounds which can be a great help when your ears need a little help Live s EQ Eight features up to eight adjustable bands or filters each of which can be individually enabled or disabled see Figure 9 1 Figure 9 1 Live s powerful eight band EQ In this example only bands 1 4 are in use Turning off the bands you re not using saves CPU power EQ Eight x_v Sy O Sy Ky Oy lt Evy Ba B Be EOS EZS TLS Source Ableton Each filter can be used to cut or boost frequencies ranging from 30Hz to 22kHz using one of a variety of different filter types Each filter can be turned on or off using the eight switches running vertically across the bottom of the interface Above each on off switch is a menu for selecting a filter type The filter types from top to bottom in the menu are as follows gt Low cut 12db amp 48dB Also known as a high pass filter it aggressively removes freq
469. riginal audio into slices and then creates a new track containing a MIDI clip to trigger the slices in order To invoke this command right click on a clip and select Slice to New MIDI Track from the context menu Next you ll be presented with a dialog offering a couple of options see Figure 5 41 The first menu allows you to choose how many slices your audio should be divided into A good value to start with here would be whatever value you would use for the Transients setting in Beats mode If the beat is based on 1 8th note divisions try slicing at this value There s also an option to slice at Warp Markers This means that anywhere you ve created a Warp Marker a slice will be created In other words you can control how many slices are generated by adding Warp Markers before doing the slicing Figure 5 41 The Slice to New MIDI track dialog Make sure to experiment with the different slicing presets Slice to New MIDI track The current clip region is 16 beats long this will result in 56 silices Slicing Preset Bun r Source Ableton The Slicing Preset menu gives you a few presets that will affect the MIDI track that gets created To fully understand these options yov ll need to know a bit about Drum Racks and Sampler so you may want to explore Chapter 8 Live s Instruments The first option Built In creates a MIDI track containing a Drum Rack Each slice of the loop will be mapped to a pad in the Drum
470. ring is made to stop vibrating In the case of a piano it emulates the behavior of the felt dampers coming into contact with the strings when the key is released and the sustain pedal is off In the case of a guitar the damper could be the guitarist reducing the pressure on the string with the fingering hand or using the palm of the strumming hand to mute the strings Looking at the Damper s controls you l see that they are the same as those of the hammer in the Excitator section This makes sense because the sound produced by the damper is affected by all of the same qualities the overall mass the stiffness of the damper s surface the velocity with which it comes into contact with the string and its position along the length of the string The final control Damping determines how stiff the damper mechanism is String Here is where you ll set the properties of the string itself The Decay and Ratio work closely with one another The Decay setting controls both the string s initial decay time right after the attack and the release time after the key is released With Ratio set to 0 the string s decay will begin after the note is struck and continue to decay naturally regardless of how quickly the key is released At 100 the note will decay naturally as long as the key is held down but will cut off abruptly as soon as the key is released To get a better sense of this set Decay to a high value and then experiment wi
471. rive folder where you want to save your new loop By default the Rendered Track menu is set to Master The Master track is where all of your individual tracks are summed together into a single stereo signal so this is what you would use to output a final mix The next option in this menu All Tracks is incredibly useful if you want to mix in another program It creates individual files for every single track in the Set The rest of the menu entries allow you to choose a single track for export The rest of the options in Export Audio Video are as follows gt Normalize Analyzes the exported file to find the highest peak then increases the volume of the file by the amount necessary to make this peak OdB This makes the file as loud as possible without clipping Leave it off for most applications gt Render as Loop Primarily used to export loops with reverbs and delays Live calculates the decay tail of the effect that would occur after the exported file ends and renders it at the beginning This avoids the problem of the decay cutting off abruptly when looping the exported file gt Convert to Mono Exported file is mono instead of stereo gt File Type WAV and AIFF files are identical in sound size and just about every important way Windows does not natively support AIFFs though most pro audio programs do so use WAVs if you need universal compatibility If you want to make an MP3 the conversion must be done in a different progr
472. rks When a clip plays back its signal passes through every device in the Track View before arriving at the mixer Therefore the effects will transform the signal for every clip in the track Signal flows through the Track View from left to right In the case of effects this simply means that the output of a device is passed on to the next device to the right and so on This is an important point because the order that effects are placed in can have a big impact on the final result To change device order just click on the title bar and drag the device to a different position Make sure to experiment MIDI tracks can host MIDI Effects Instruments and Audio Effects which make them a bit more complex than Audio tracks which can only host Audio Effects MIDI Effects always appear to the left of the Instrument since they process the MIDI before it reaches the Instrument while Audio Effects appear to the right since they process the audio coming out of the instrument Take a close look in the track view and yov ll notice a small level meter in between each device Audio Effects have an audio level meter before and after the device which helps you track how the effect may be changing the signal s gain MIDI Effects display a dotted meter that shows the presence of MIDI data Some MIDI devices can perform MIDI filtering which blocks some MIDI messages so if your MIDI data is disappearing these meters can help you determine where the p
473. roblem is Finally Instruments have a MIDI meter to the left and an audio meter to the right showing you MIDI coming in and audio flowing out see Figure 7 5 It s possible to have a situation where an instrument is producing no signal a sample playback device with no sample loaded or a synthesizer with all its oscillators turned off for example so this is another case where these handy meters can save you some headaches when diagnosing a signal flow problem Figure 7 5 There are meters to either side of each device to show the signal flow Notice the dotted meter to the far left shows MIDI data entering the Simpler To the right of the Simpler there s an audio meter showing sound exiting the Simpler and entering the Redux effect Source Ableton MIX IT UP The question often arises what do you do if you only want an effect on a certain clip and not on the others The simple answer is to put the clip or clips on a separate track and add only the effects appropriate to those clips It s also possible to temporarily turn effects on and off by automating an effect s Device Activator also known as the Device On parameter This can be a very useful technique but still it s often easier and less confusing to simply use a separate track to provide special effects where needed Insert vs Send Return There are two primary ways that audio effects are used The most common method is to use the effect as an
474. rom the master to the slave This allows you to control compatible applications the way you would control a virtual instrument in Live Select the ReWire application in Output Type and the specific device in Ouput Channel see Figure 6 15 Figure 6 15 These three MIDI tracks are being routed to the Subtractor ReDrum and NN XT modules in Reason They can now be programmed and automated using the power and convenience of Live s clips 5 MIDI From Monitor Monitor Monitor i Ato n n Ato MIDI To MIDI To MIDI To Reason 9 Reason 4 SubTractor 19 Redrum 1 y NN XT 1 y Source Ableton Bear in mind that a destination channel will be listed only if there are devices or elements in the Slave application that are active and able to receive MIDI messages For example if you load an empty rack into Reason there will be no output devices listed in the lower box If you make a few devices like a Subtractor ReDrum and NN XT sampler these devices will be individually selectable in the lower box of the MIDI track s Input Output section Not all ReWire slave applications are capable of receiving MIDI input from the master application If a program is not able to receive MIDI it will not be listed as an available output destination in the MIDI track Remember in order to hear the results of your MIDI messages sent to the slave yov ll need to have an audio track set up to monitor the return signal from the slave So inst
475. rough this section even if you don t have any hardware instruments This device is also useful to anyone who uses instruments via ReWire or plug ins with multiple virtual outputs such as Native Instruments Battery or IK Multimedia SampleTank Before the External Instrument device was introduced sequencing external MIDI synthesizers always required two tracks a MIDI track to control the synth and an Audio track for returning the audio from the synth Not only does External Instrument allow this entire setup to be done with one track but it takes advantage of Live s delay compensation as well After dropping External Instrument into a MIDI track use the MIDI To menus to specify the port to which your hardware is connected and the MIDI channel if necessary Arm the track for recording and play a few notes the hardware should register the MIDI input Next make sure that your hardware is connected to an input on your audio interface and select this input in the Audio To menu see Figure 8 28 Voila You should now begin to receive audio into the track Figure 8 28 This External Instrument device is configured to send MIDI to a synth connected to the Analog Experience output port and to receive audio from the synth through inputs 1 amp 2 External instru Source Ableton As mentioned earlier you can also use this device to make working with some software instruments easier as well Any multitimbral instruments in the Se
476. rrow buttons Click this box and twist a knob on your MIDI controller Now you can twist the knob to perform the nudge You should use an endless encoder knob for this KEEP THE GROOVE After you ve nudged a track to perfection you may want to be able to recall exactly how much you ve nudged it so it can be played back exactly the same the next time you launch it To do this select Capture and Insert Scene from the Create menu This will make a copy of whatever clips you currently have playing back and create a new scene with just those clips in it Any tracks that you ve nudged will have their Start markers moved by the amount they were nudged The Launch Box In Live we use the term launch to indicate the playing back of a Session clip Launching is a customizable behavior that offers a variety of creative options These options are set in the Launch Box which is shown or hidden using the L icon in the lower left hand corner of the Clip View Launch Mode The Launch mode see Figure 5 3 determines what happens when a clip s launch button is pressed or the clip is launched via MIDI or the computer keyboard Be aware that the behavior of the Launch modes is linked to the Quantization setting explained next To experiment with the different modes I recommend that you set Quantization to a relatively low value such as 1 16 as it will make the differences in the modes much easier to understand Figure 5 3 Launch modes are
477. rrows in the lower right corner Alternately tracks can be selected using the buttons beneath the display when Volume Pan amp Sends Track or Clip are shown When a track is selected it is automatically armed for recording New tracks are created by pushing Add Track By default a MIDI track is created and the display switches to Browse mode Hold down Add Track to create different types of tracks Clips Press Note when you want to create new MIDI clips Push is in Note mode by default so you may be able to skip this step New clips are created by pressing Record or by entering a note in the step sequencer as explained later Press Record a second time to stop recording and begin looping When Fixed Length is turned on pressing Record creates a clip of a specified length and begins looping automatically Pressing New does not create a new clip but instead moves you to an empty clip slot so you re ready to make a brand new clip To edit a clip s loop properties press Clip gt Mixer Press Volume or Pan amp Send to see an overview of these settings for eight tracks at a time Which eight tracks are shown is determined by the position of the colored rectangle in the clip grid in Live Press Session and use the left right arrows to move the grid Hold down Shift to move left right in banks of eight Press Track to see detailed information for an individual track The second row of buttons is used to mute or solo tracks dependin
478. rs Sequencers Convolution Reverb Adding More Devices Parting Thoughts Index Introduction Ableton Live 9 Power The Comprehensive Guide is an all inclusive guide to making music with Ableton s revolutionary live performance and studio software Written for all Live users from beginners to seasoned pros this book explores each fundamental feature in Live although it does presume a basic familiarity with music making and digital audio This book is intended to supplement and expand on the information included in the Live manual and built in lessons so don t forget to take advantage of these great resources Finally this book also includes downloadable materials which can be found at www hobo tech com livepower What You ll Find in This Book You l find the following areas covered in this book gt Composing arranging and mixing music with Live gt Using Live s built in instruments and effects and working with plug ins gt Performing with Live on stage gt Essential information on Live s add ons including Max For Live and the Push hardware controller And much more Who This Book Is For This book is for anyone who wants a solid foundation in using Ableton Live While it contains all of the basic information needed by beginners it also delves into deeper topics providing real world tips and examples for power users How This Book Is Organized This book starts out with an overview of the most important c
479. rs you can select this option to automatically turn the clip into an even loop The number shown here will depend on the current project tempo If Live determines that it will have to do the least amount of warping to turn the clip into a one bar loop as opposed to a two bar loop the program will display 1 in place of X in the menu item above If you increase the project tempo by almost double Live will see that it is now easier to make the clip a two bar loop and will suggest that by showing 2 in place of 1 in the menu option Note that there are also a number of other options in this context menu to help you work with your sample files including the important Set 1 1 1 Here command This command will renumber the grid to start from beat 1 at the selected location Quantize One of the cool features that comes with Live is the ability to quantize audio clips much the way you can with audio While viewing a clip s waveform display select Quantize Settings from the Edit menu The Quantize To setting specifies the location on the grid to which transients should be moved In other words if this value is set to 1 16 Live will find each transient most closely adjacent to the 1 16 note divisions of the grid and automatically move them there Setting Amount to a value less than 100 will yield partial quantization In the prior example 70 quantization would cause each accent to be moved 70 of the way to the nearest 1
480. rt vs Send Return in Chapter 7 Using Effects and Instruments By default sends are post fader This means that they pass signal to the returns after the track s volume control So turning down a track s volume by 6dB will also turn down the signal being sent to any return tracks by 6dB With the volume fader all the way down the returns will be silent as well As shown in Figure 6 4 a send can be configured pre fader instead which means that the send is completely independent of the volume fader and will pass the signal regardless of the track s volume Figure 6 4 Sends can be set to either pre or post fader by using these switches in the Master track Source Ableton Under the Options menu there s an item called Solo in Place which is checked by default For most applications you l probably want to leave it this way With Solo in Place enabled you be able to solo a track without muting any return tracks that receive a signal from it With it disabled soloing a track causes all returns to be muted Finally note that one of the options for a track s Output Type is Sends Only This is an easy way to prevent the signal from going to the Master track so it s only heard when a Send is turned up This is an unusual configuration but there are occasionally primarily performance situations where this is handy YOU SEND ME Notice that even return tracks have sends but by default the sends on return
481. rted instruments in the Instruments view under Sampler gt Imported Some more complex multisampled instruments will be converted to Instrument Rack presets using multiple instances of Sampler in order to better translate the sound of the original For most multisample formats Live will import the audio samples into the Library where they will appear as new samples under Samples gt Imported However note that in the case of Apple EXS24 GarageBand and Kontakt multisample formats Live will create new Sampler presets that reference the original WAV or AIF sample files This means that they will not work if you remove the original WAV or AIF samples However Live s File Manager also offers the option to collect and save these external samples into the Library if desired The AAS Instruments The remainder of Live s built in instruments are developed in partnership with Applied Acoustic Systems a software company that specializes in modeling technology Physical modeling concerns itself with creating mathematical equations that imitate or model the behavior of real world acoustical events Three of these synthesizers Collision Electric and Tension are based on familiar physical processes hammers hitting tone bars and guitar picks plucking strings for example Analog on the other hand models behavior that goes on under the hood of an analog synthesizer so from a synthesis standpoint it s going to be a bit more familiar
482. rtion of the Overview bar you want to move to and a magnifying glass icon will appear click once and you will be moved to the corresponding location in the arrangement To zoom in and out hover over the Overview bar depress the mouse button left on PC and move the mouse up and down to zoom in and out respectively Clicking and moving the mouse left or right will scroll the visible area of the timeline File Management Learning how to do effective file management seems incredibly boring at first but yields great benefits later when you are enjoying the creative process of making music rather than tearing your hair out searching for lost samples and digging through multiple versions of songs trying to figure out the right one Here s my advice Adopt good practices at the outset rather than make a mess and have to clean it up later Sets and Projects The first time you save a Set Live 9 will automatically create a project folder called lt Set name gt Project to hold all the files associated with the Set Before you get too deep into using Live choose a location on your hard drive to save all of your Live projects Whenever you start a new song save it into this folder For example let s say you create a folder called Live Projects Every new song you start gets saved into this folder so eventually you will have a folder full of projects as seen in Figure Ben Figure 3 23 A neatly organized projects folder Each new song
483. s Overdub button processor speed recording See also recording remote control routing Stretch Markers Sync tab tabs Collision Sampler tracks Track View mids minimizing performance strain Missing Files window mixdown phase Limiter Mixer mixers Arrangement View Session View mixing automation Chains crossfaders cueing DJ mixers modes Beats Complex Complex Pro compression Device Push Draw Mode Drum Programming Push Gate grids Hot Swap mode Launch mode Legato mode switch Map Multisample Mode Notes Push random Arpeggiator Release Repeat Re Pitch Sustain Takeover Mode Texture Toggle Toggle Draw Tones Transient Loop Trigger Warp Record Warp Launch tab selecting modifying frequencies grids loops properties scenes Simpler time signatures volume modulation Chorus clips Flanger instruments oscillators Phaser Sampler Modulation tab Sampler modulators Max Operator Monitor section Session View monophonic synthesizers Mono Sequencer Max Morphing filter M moving bridges devices files lines Multiband Dynamics multing multiple clips editing joining Warp Markers multiple outputs Multiple Plug In Windows multiplying See multing multirecording Multisample Mode multisampling N naming clips scenes navigating Arrangement View Browser window clips Clip View Control Bar Operator preferences Sampler scenes Session View Simpler Track View tr
484. s You can experiment to create cool patterns and then grab your MIDI keyboard and turn these patterns into bass lines or leads In the Transpose and Gate setting the sequencer will only run as long as a note is held down as opposed to standard Transpose mode which keeps the steps running all the time Also be aware of the Pattern knob at the upper left corner Turn this and yov ll discover that this device can hold up to 12 totally unique sequences The Pattern knob is an enormously powerful performance control Not only do you have transposable randomizable sequences but you can also switch between them with the turn of a knob My one piece of advice when you start playing with this device is to make sure that your loved ones can reach you as you may disappear for several weeks Buffer Shuffler The Buffer Shuffler is an experimental glitchy beast that may not make a lot of sense at first If you find that to be the case first get your head around Mono Sequencer and yov ll have an easier time with it Instead of generating a sequence of MIDI notes this device takes incoming audio divides it into slices and then transforms each slice using a step sequencing paradigm The centerpiece of Buffer Shuffler is a grid that displays a user adjustable number of steps see Figure 13 15 These steps represent how many slices the incoming audio will be divided into The individual steps can then be modified in a variety of ways The default view i
485. s Zoom Display views Activity Arrangement View See also Arrangement View Arrange View Browser window Clip View navigating session automation Collapsed Current Project View Help View Info View Live 8 Library View navigating Packs View Piano Roll View Session View See also Session View Track View Transfer Curve User Library View Vinyl Distortion virtual instruments See also instruments virtual mixers virtual outputs Vocoder Voices parameter volume dynamic processing envelopes Limiter modifying Volume control Simpler Volume knob Impulse Volume Modulation envelope Volume section Mixer Volume Trigger VST plug ins See also plug ins WwW warnings Don t Show Again Warp commands warping audio clips manual Warp Markers Warp modes Record Warp Launch tab selecting waveforms Analog Saturator viewing windows Browser See also Browser window Missing Files plug ins Video Windows installing X X axis Y axis Z Zones Zoom Display zooming MIDI editors tempo
486. s in that track As long as you create an arrangement selection from the start of the bridge to the end you re all set Cut Time will remove every clip in the bridge and slide over everything that happens after it to fill the gap Now place the insertion marker after the third verse where you want the bridge to begin and use Paste Time to insert the clips you just cut Live pushes the rest of the arrangement over to the right to make room for the clips you re pasting Note that you must click in the top most track when placing the insert marker Live pastes the tracks from the top down so if you click in any other track the clips will get pasted into the wrong tracks This example should give you a pretty good idea of how Duplicate Time and Delete Time work as well Duplicate Time places a copy at the end of the selection shoving everything in the way over to the right Delete Time simply removes an entire chunk of the song The keyboard shortcuts for these commands are easy to remember Just add Shift to the key command for the standard version For example Cut Time is Ctrl Cmd Shift X The exception is Delete Time which is Ctrl Cmd Shift Delete Take a moment to test out these commands and familiarize yourself with how they work They are one of the most powerful features of the Arrangement View Insert Silence Insert Silence is found under the Create menu It s similar to the Time commands in that it allows you to insert empty
487. s there s no audio flowing out of the clip instead it s MIDI data which is like a set of instructions for example what notes to play when These notes flow into whatever instrument is hosted in the Track View which in turn produces sound and sends it into the Mixer The Clip View When the Clip View is open it shows the details of whatever clip is currently selected in the Session or Arrangement see Figure 3 13 In the lower left corner there are switches used to show and hide the different sections Launch Sample for audio clips Notes for MIDI clips and Envelopes When you re in the Arrangement the Launch box isn t shown since its settings are only relevant in the Session Figure 3 13 Here s the Clip View for an audio clip Source Ableton The parameters in the Clip View are a big subject that we ll be covering over the next three chapters At first all that s important to know is that this is where you refine tweak and mangle individual clips Launch an audio clip and then explore this view and experiment a little bit Crank the Transpose knob and yov ll hear the pitch change immediately Next to Transpose there s a volume slider which can be used to adjust the volume for this clip only unlike the volume control in the Mixer which will change the volume for any clip playing back in that track Press the button marked Rev to make the audio play backwards The Track View The Track View is
488. s and increase the Chorus Feedback The results are often frequency and pitch related For example a low frequency sound becomes a high frequency sound a pitch may shift by as much as an octave and so forth Finally the Dry Wet control determines the amount of original versus chorused signal going to output Phaser The Phaser see Figure 9 19 introduces phase shifts in the frequencies of a sound When this effect is in motion it has a sort of whooshing sound that can give your sounds a smooth sense of warmth and motion It can also cut into your sounds if cranked up too far thanks to some unorthodox controls Figure 9 19 Star Fleet requires that you be equipped with a Phaser at all times Frequency 100 1 74 xr Source Ableton Poles Color and Mode The Phaser uses a series of filters to create the phase shifts you hear in the sound The Poles control sets the number of filters or notches that are used in the Phaser If you use a lower number of poles the Phaser effect will not be as pronounced as when you use a larger number of poles The button below the Poles knob sets the mode for the Phaser The button toggles between Earth and Space This switch adjusts the spacing of the notch filters but that s not important What you need to know is that when Earth doesn t provide an intense enough effect for you it s time to move to Space The Color control will further change the overall tone when Earth mode is
489. s audio only Once loaded the video clip will look like any other audio clip in Live except that you will see virtual sprocket holes in its title bar Video clips in the Arrangement View behave more or less just like audio clips Thus by dragging a video clip into the arrangement and aligning it with the beginning of the first measure you can quickly start scoring to picture and creating a soundtrack You can use Live s FX and audio editing tools to edit the video clip s associated audio in the Arrangement View just like any other audio clip You will find that Consolidate Crop and Reverse operations will cause your video clip to be replaced by an audio clip The Video Window The Video window opens automatically when you add video to the Arrangement Start Live and the video will follow playback You can drag the video window around wherever you want You can resize it by clicking on the lower right corner or expand it to full screen mode by double clicking on the video itself If you close the Video window it can be reopened from the View menu Keeping Sound and Video in Sync The most common application for video in Live will probably be for creating a new soundtrack for a video clip of a given length In this application the most important thing is not to disturb the timing of the video inside Live To maintain sync simply drag your video clip to the beginning of the Arrangement View and make sure that you have the video cl
490. s available to every clip in your set To apply the groove to additional clips just select it from the Clip Groove menu In Figure 5 42 Clip Groove appears as a grayed out box that reads None After there are grooves in your Groove Pool this turns into a menu BEHIND THE GROOVE If you want to examine the contents of a groove just drag it out of the Browser or the Groove Pool and drop it into a MIDI track What you I find is that a groove file is really just a MIDI clip that Live uses as a template for timing and dynamics Try it Commit One thing that s great about working with grooves is that they are applied in real time as the clip plays In other words no direct changes to the clip itself are made Adjustments to the groove can be made continuously as you work on a track and these changes will immediately affect any clips utilizing that groove However there may be cases where you want to apply a groove to a clip in a more permanent way To do this press the Commit switch directly below the Groove menu in the Clip Box In the case of a MIDI clip this will actually move individual notes to conform to the groove and apply any necessary changes in velocity For audio clips Live creates Warp Markers to apply timing variations and a volume envelope to create changes in dynamics ANALYZE THIS Want to create your own grooves for use with Live s Groove Engine Just drag an audio or MIDI clip into the Groove Pool Live wi
491. s explained earlier The Warp commands are accessed by right clicking in or above the waveform display and selecting one of the following options gt Warp from Here This tells Live to analyze the clip starting at the selected location and continuing to the right It will attempt to detect tempo based on the audio tracking fluctuations and placing Warp Markers as needed Everything to the left of the selected marker will remain intact gt Warp from Here Start at X BPM This option uses the current project tempo as a starting point and attempts to detect any tempo variations that occur later If you ve already determined the approximate tempo of the audio file using Tap Tempo this option will often yield good results when the standard Warp command fails gt Warp from Here Straight This mode attempts to set the tempo of the clip using one Warp Marker only This should be used only when warping music that you know to have a completely steady tempo This command is very handy because it prevents Auto Warp from becoming confused by syncopations which otherwise might cause it to incorrectly detect a tempo fluctuation and place incorrect Warp Markers gt Warp X BPM from Here This simply sets the current Warp Marker to the current tempo of the Set If there are any Warp Markers to the right they will be erased in the process gt Warp as X Bar Loop If you already know that the file you re working with has an even number of ba
492. s out after the initial attack This is what creates the harmonic complexity at the beginning of every note The remaining parameters in the display for an oscillator govern how velocity and key follow will affect the operator s pitch and level For starters the Vel parameter will modulate the operator s volume based on velocity positive values will cause the operator to increase in volume as you play harder while negative values will attenuate the operator the harder you play If you use this setting on a modulator it will have a similar effect to applying velocity scaling to a Filter Envelope in subtractive synthesis The harder you play the more FM modulation will result thus causing a brighter sound The Key parameter will cause the operator to play louder or softer depending on the value you use as you move into the higher registers of your keyboard This is similar to the key follow found in the filter sections of many subtractive synths The LFO Moving to the right side of the Operator interface yov ll find the LFO section right at the top On a synthesizer an LFO is used to create repetitive automations for other parameters of the synth On a subtractive synthesizer LFOs will often be used to modulate the filter cut off or the volume The LFO of Operator can do this and much more To activate the LFO turn it on with the little box to the left of its Waveform menu in the shell Once active you ll see all the parameters ap
493. s the best choice since it s easy to quantize later if you choose THE UNDO TWO STEP When Live is set to quantize a recording automatically you ll still be able to undo the quantizing in case you left it on by accident The first time you press Ctrl Cmd Z after recording the recorded notes will move to their original unquantized locations The second Undo will erase the clip allowing you to make another To quantize an existing clip first select the notes you want to quantize If you want to quantize the entire clip you can simply click in an empty part of the editor when no notes are selected Live assumes you want to quantize the whole thing Then select Quantize Settings from the Edit menu see Figure 5 20 The first value at the top sets the quantize grid Generally this should be set to the smallest subdivision that occurs in the part In other words if you ve played a part containing 1 8 notes and 1 16 notes you d select 1 16 If you select 1 8 the Quantize function will move the 1 16 notes to the closest 1 8 note and mess up the part The Current Grid option will quantize to the size of the grid shown in the MIDI editor Figure 5 20 Live s Quantize dialog box will tailor the method by which Live quantizes your notes Live Quantize To Adjust Note Amount Source Ableton Below the Quantize selection is the Adjust Note selection with two buttons labeled Start and End By default only Start is
494. s used to rearrange the slices This view is labeled Left which refers to the left channel of the stereo signal By default the left and right channels are linked but you can unlink them if you want to rearrange the two channels independently Figure 13 15 Buffer Shuffler gateway to glitched out mayhem Source Ableton Move the blocks up or down to determine which slice gets played on which step The default diagonal pattern plays the slices in order move them up or down to trigger earlier or later slices on a given step Below each step is an arrow or an X which determines the direction of a particular slice and whether or not it is muted Click to cycle between forward backward and mute Along the left of the grid are the other parameters that can be sequenced These are basic parameters such as Amp volume and special effects such as Shift and Stutter Click on one to reveal a sequencer for this parameter Along the bottom of each view you ll see a Min and Max value for specifying the range across which the parameter can be sequenced For example when Gate is selected you can move a block upward to allow more of the slice to play while moving it to the bottom mutes it completely With Shift selected you can move a block upward to increase the amount of frequency shift that is applied or move it to the bottom to bypass the effect on that step Get a feel for how these parameters work and the others will be easy to figu
495. s you to create three Warp Markers in one click for just this purpose Just hold down Ctrl Cmd before double clicking to create a new Warp Marker Figure 5 29 With the hits at 1 and 1 2 locked into place you can move the hit in between without throwing anything else off Source Ableton This process can be repeated indefinitely to put every hit just where you want it Although if you re just looking to get every hit perfectly lined up with the grid refer to the Quantize section later in this chapter Another possibility when you re working manually with Warp Markers though is to create a completely new rhythm by dragging hits to locations other than those for which they were originally intended Figure 5 30 shows the same audio clip warped to play a completely different rhythm Figure 5 30 Warping can be used to turn a boring beat into a syncopated masterpiece be faima E Ain in MS A p 1 ROA VANIMA ipa Source Ableton WARP EM ALL If you re looking to do some serious mangling with Warp Markers drag in the editor to select a range or use Ctrl Cmd A to select the whole clip and use Insert Warp Marker from the Create menu A Warp Marker will be created for each transient in the range Auto Warp When working with longer audio files Live uses a technology called Auto Warp to analyze the file and insert Warp Markers where needed This process however is not perfect and you ma
496. scale their velocities all at once Editing Velocity Directly below the note editor is the velocity editor Typically changes in velocity will result in a change in the volume of the note However this behavior is actually controlled by the instrument receiving the MIDI and you find that some sounds are velocity sensitive while others are not Some presets will map velocity to other values such as filter cutoff To learn more about mapping note velocity read up on Live s instruments in Chapter 8 Live s Instruments The velocity editor can be folded or unfolded and resized by dragging the lower boundary of the note editor see Figure 5 16 When Draw Mode is turned off the velocity of each note is represented by a vertical line with a small circle at the top To adjust the velocity just drag the circle up or down With Draw Mode on the circle disappears and you can draw velocities directly into the velocity editor Figure 5 16 The velocity lane can be enlarged by dragging at the top or hidden by clicking the fold switch in the lower left corner Source Ableton Since multiple notes can occur in different lanes at one time in a MIDI clip it s possible for the velocities of multiple notes to be stacked on top of one another making it difficult or impossible to change the velocity of a particular note To work around this select the note in editor first and you ll then be able to edit its velocity If you use the
497. se commands can also be accessed in the context menu that appears when you right click in the title bar of any existing track To remove a track click on its title bar and press Delete Tracks can also be created by dropping items from the Browser into the Drop Area the empty part of the Session and Arrangement views labeled Drop Files and Devices Here For example you could drop an audio file here to automatically create an audio track or drop an instrument to create a MIDI track This method of track creation is particularly handy when dragging in Live Clips Live Clips can be audio or MIDI and at the time of this writing there s no way to tell them apart Drag them into the Drop Area and Live will automatically create the right type of track Audio Tracks and MIDI Tracks Audio tracks can contain audio clips and audio effects All an audio track requires to produce sound is an audio clip effects are completely optional and completely fun MIDI tracks can contain MIDI clips instruments and MIDI effects A MIDI track is a little more complicated than an audio track in that a MIDI clip alone isn t enough to produce sound an instrument is required as well Figure 4 3 shows an empty MIDI track which looks a bit different than the tracks next to it A MIDI track without a virtual instrument inserted does not output audio thus there are no Volume Pan or Send knobs in the mixer You still have the Track Activator Solo Cue
498. se knob The result will be another constant tone but one with a different harmonic structure As you turn up the Coarse knob you will be changing the frequency ratio between oscillators A and B in whole numbers for example 1 to 2 1 to 3 1 to 8 and so on Things start to get strange however when you begin to change the Fine adjustment Hold a note and slowly increase the Fine setting With a small change the sound will go out of tune and with a large change will become without tune This is because the frequencies of the modulator and carrier are no longer at a musically coherent whole number ratio Next try switching oscillator B into Fixed mode and play some notes As you play across the range of the keyboard yov ll get constantly changing inharmonic modulations which are the result of the modulator staying at a fixed pitch while the carrier s pitch changes But enough math for now If you want to explore the principles behind FM synthesis further there are many scholarly works on the topic For now all that s important to know is that messing with fine tuning or switching modulators into Fixed mode moves you out of the realm of the melodic into sci fi weirdness synthetic percussion and all out mayhem A HIDDEN MODULATOR While the Operator algorithms select which oscillators will be modulators for others there is another hidden modulation you can perform as well Click on an oscillator s section to show i
499. se the Chain Mixer which is accessed by clicking the triangular unfold button located in the title bar of the track containing the Drum Rack This feature explained fully in the Racks section of Chapter 7 Using Effects and Instruments can make navigating a complex Drum Rack much easier Advanced Settings Whenever the Show Hide Chains button is highlighted a few buttons that are unique to Drum Racks appear in the lower left hand corner see Figure 8 26 Figure 8 26 These buttons give you access to some custom features of Drum Rack Chains They are only visible when the Show Hide Chains button is highlighted Input Output Sends Returns i Auto Select Source Ableton The first button shows additional Input Output options for the chains With this turned on you can view the MIDI routing options and choke groups for each chain see Figure 8 27 The Audio To setting is only used for Return Chains which we ll discuss later The next two buttons marked S and R are for viewing the sends and returns Yes Drum Racks havetheir own Send Return bussingsystem The last button is an arrow iconcalled Auto Select which makes it easy to find and view the chain you want by automatically highlighting the chain for the last pad that was triggered MIDI Routing When the Input Output section is in view it s possible to adjust the MIDI routing of the chain The Receive menu specifies what MIDI note triggers the chain
500. see this mistake just by looking at the Seg BPM box For example a track may be identified as 124 99 when it s really 125 BPM However this is a judgment call you must make by ear What I do is turn on the metronome and then float my mouse just above the waveform display so it turns into the Scrub tool the speaker Then I spot check the track by launching it from various points in the track In the case of a minute discrepancy you won t be able to hear it drift from the metronome until several minutes in To correct an error like this just type the corrected value into the Seg BPM box and check it again PAINT BY NUMBERS Sometimes when you type a tempo into the Seg BPM box you I find that it s grayed out This is because this Segment BPM can only be edited after you ve clicked on a Warp Marker even if there s only one in the clip For clips with multiple Warp Markers the Seg BPM box displays the tempo for the segment between the Warp Marker you click on and the next Warp Marker in the clip In Figure 12 3 we re looking at a Talking Heads track that s been Auto Warped Notice that there s a number of Warp Markers due to the natural fluctuations in the tempo In this case Live has done a good job with the tempo but it s placed the downbeat an entire beat off If you pull the start marker back to 1 4 everything syncs up pretty well However you ll still want to execute the Set 1 1 1 Here command by right cli
501. signal acting as a sort of super fast noise gate gt Period Determines the density of the ripples in the sine wave These controls are specific to the Waveshaper and are not available in other modes Drive On a dynamic distortion unit such as this the Drive knob is where you demolish your sound you find this to the left of the waveform display The higher the Drive amount the more the input signal is amplified This forces more of the signal into the distortion range slaughtering the sound at high levels If you re getting too much distortion you can reduce the Drive into negative amounts so that only a slight portion of the signal is distorted Below the Drive you ll see the DC offset switch which removes extremely low frequencies that can t be heard But it does consume headroom in your mix especially when processed with an effect that increases gain such as the Saturator Color When the Color toggle switch is on the four controls below it also become active These controls are similar to the tone controls on a guitar amp The Base knob will increase or decrease the amount of bass distorted by the effect The last three knobs set a high frequency EQ with specs for frequency width and depth gain Output As you increase the Drive amount you will increase the volume of the distortion often to the point of overpowering other instruments in your mix Pull the Output down a bit to bring the sound back wher
502. sion will use either a sine wave or a noise generator to modulate a very short delay The only difference between the two noise modes is that Wide Noise uses a separate noise generator for each channel resulting in a stereo effect To control the degree of Erosion s effect on a sound move along the Y axis to change the level of the modulation signal and the X axis to control the frequency For Wide Noise the Width can be adjusted by holding Alt Option while dragging vertically In my experience the most consistently pleasing results are achieved using the Sine modulator Try cranking up Amount and automating Frequency for some glitchy goodness Redux While you re digging into tools for sonic decimation you will definitely want to check out Live s Redux device Redux is a bit depth and sample rate reducer that can make even the prettiest of guitars or anything else for that matter saw your head off see Figure 9 25 Of course results need not be this drastic if you are capable of restraint In fact reducing the fidelity of a sample is like a tip of the hat to old Roland Emu and Akai 8 and 12 bit samplers or even old 2 and 4 bit computer based samples Commodore 64 anyone Figure 9 25 Live s Redux is a talented bit depth and sample rate reducer Source Ableton The controls for Redux are split into two tidy sections with a Bit Reduction knob and On Off switch on top and a Downsample knob and Hard Soft switch on the
503. snare hits This will leave you with two MIDI clips one with just kick and hats and the other with a snare added You can then duplicate the MIDI clip again and layer on an additional part such as a shaker or congas Using this technique you can build a collection of drum variations quickly To overdub MIDI into an existing MIDI clip you must first arm the track for recording Once you ve done that the procedure for MIDI overdubbing differs in Session and Arrangement Overdubbing in Session View In the Session View launch the clip you want to overdub on and arm the track You ll be able to play your controller and hear what you re playing along with the clip At this point your playing isn t being recorded so this is a handy way to practice before doing the overdubbing MIDI overdubbing is initiated by clicking on the Session Record button see Figure 4 9 After doing this you ll see the clip s launch button turn from green to red Now any notes you play or knobs you turn on your controller will be recorded into the clip Figure 4 9 MIDI overdub recording allows you to record into an existing MIDI clip without erasing what s already there Session Record Is Enabled sien gt 02 Recording at the MIDI From All Channev Monitor on MIDI To o e o o e e e o Track Is e Armed Source Ableton Overdubbing in Arrangement View In the Arrangement View MIDI overdubbing is enabled with t
504. sonance on a synthesizer sound and use the synth s MIDI part to make sure that the resonance is perfectly tuned to every note played by the synth To get this working pick a MIDI track from the menu in the Sidechain section and then click the Frequency switch to enable it Since the Sidechain makes this device behave like a hybrid effect unit synthesizer the other controls in the Sidechain section are very synth like Last and Low determine how Corpus responds to multiple MIDI notes being input simultaneously with Last tuning the resonator to the pitch of the last played note or Low choosing the lowest note Pitch Bend determines how much the resonance can be controlled by pitch bend messages At the bottom of the Sidechain section is the Off Decay switch which causes the resonators to stop resonating when Note Off messages are received via MIDI When turned on the speed with which the resonators are silenced is controlled by the percentage box below When off the Decay controls the resonator decay without regard to the length of the incoming MIDI notes Looking to the right past the LFO controls yov ll notice that the pitch controls are slightly different than Collision If you re using the Sidechain you ll see Transpose and Fine controls which can be used to change the resonator pitch relative to the Sidechain input Otherwise there s just a Tune control In either case you can use Spread to detune the left and right channels
505. spose controls These parameters will allow the Arpeggiator to shift the pattern in pitch as it repeats Start by turning the Steps knob to 1 Now play a single note Yov ll no longer hear a single note being repeated Instead you ll hear two notes the note you re holding plus a note one octave higher This is because the Distance knob is set to 12 semitones which is an octave By turning Steps to 1 you ve instructed the Arpeggiator to shift its pitch by the Distance amount once for each repetition of the pattern Turn Steps up to 2 and listen to what happens Now the Arpeggiator plays three notes for each key you press This also works when holding multiple notes the Arpeggiator will play the pattern once and then play it again for each step indicated transposing by the Distance amount each time Now try this Set Steps to 8 and Distance to 1 semitones Now when you hold a single note the Arpeggiator plays nine notes chromatically If you hold C the Arpeggiator will play C C D D E F F G G and then repeat This is because the Arpeggiator is shifting the pattern which is only the one note you re holding eight times after it has played the original pitch transposing it one semitone each time Change the Distance amount to 2 and listen to what happens Obviously you can create some transposition patterns that will fall outside of the key you re working in To remedy this there are two menus that can be used to constrain the n
506. ssing the buttons marked Set next to Loop Position and Loop Length These buttons are both quantized to the value in the global Quantize menu so it s easy to interactively create perfect loops Figure 5 8 It s easy to loop any portion of the audio or MIDI within a clip lt Loop Length Loop Position Loop Length Source Ableton Bear in mind that Start and Loop Position can be adjusted independently This means that you can have clips that don t begin to loop right away as seen in Figure 5 9 Figure 5 9 A clip can be set to loop at a different point than it initially plays back from sb MoD A T E T PE e E F Source Ableton This is useful in a variety of situations For example imagine you have a drum loop that starts with a crash cymbal Instead of looping the entire clip resulting in the crash cymbal sounding every time the clip repeats you can specify a loop area after the crash cymbal This way you ll hear the crash the first time you trigger the clip but you won t hear it again until you relaunch the clip Or in a DJ set it can be very useful to set up a song to play from the beginning and then loop somewhere toward the end to buy you extra time when mixing into the next song It s also possible to place the clip Start within the loop at a point other than the loop start see Figure 5 10 By offsetting loops from each other a great deal of rhythmic variation is possible To get a f
507. sts sometimes referred to as pumping or breathing and low frequency distortion Short release times can still be a cool sounding effect for drums and diced up pieces of audio where the signal repeatedly crosses the Threshold The Auto switch just below the Release knob enables program dependent release meaning the release time is automatically adjusted based on the material that passes through it This setting is particularly well suited when compressing an entire mix since there may be several different types of peaks that cause gain reduction all of which sound better with different release times This is also the type of release built into the famous LA 2A compressor which is legendary for sounding great on vocals even when applying large amounts of compression Knee Lookahead Release Envelope The Knee control is called as such because it adjusts the point in the compression graph where the line bends ergo the knee As the Knee is increased the bend in the line rounds out What this represents is the Ratio and the Threshold becoming more dynamic and gradually applying gain reduction as the signal approaches the Threshold Especially with high ratios the sound produced by compressors can be harsh and unnatural This effect is partly caused by a compressor leaving a signal completely unprocessed and then slamming on the gain reduction every time the Threshold is passed a behavior known as hard knee compression B
508. sulting chord will only have a velocity of 64 when the incoming C has a velocity of 127 Try slowly changing this value while playing repeated notes to hear how the additional note fades in and out of the chord DANCE CHORDS Chord stabs and pads are a staple of electronic music Originally these fixed chords were created by detuning some of the oscillators in a synthesizer so that they sounded at musical intervals usually 7 a perfect fifth against the base oscillators The Chord effect can be used to easily create the same effect There are a number of chords already built for your use in the presets Note Length The Note Length MIDI effect see Figure 10 3 can be used to change the duration of incoming MIDI note messages This can be used to make a MIDI part sound more rhythmically consistent or creatively automate note durations It can also be used to trigger your MIDI instruments with Note Off messages instead of Note On messages Figure 10 3 The Note Length MIDI device Note Length eam Trigger Release Vel Note On Mode 7 Time 50 i Length Decay Time i gt H 100 ms 60 0 Key S Gate 100 0 00 Source Ableton The Note Length MIDI effect has two trigger modes which you can toggle to Note On or Note Off In Note On mode only the timing controls are active Mode Length and Gate You can use the Mode toggle button to sync the durations to the song Master tempo or not as you like The Length
509. surface but includes Browser integration a custom drumprogramming interface and a variety of other features that go beyond the typical controller Enabling Remote Control In order to use a MIDI controller as a remote it must be enabled in the MIDI tab of Live s Preferences see Chapter 2 Getting Live Up and Running for more information Some supported devices can be enabled in the menus at the top while others must be configured using the switches below There are even cases where you may set up a single device in both areas Let s take a closer look Control Surface Setup When a MIDI controller is natively supported by Live it appears in the Control Surface menu shown in Figure 11 1 When you select your controller in this menu it can automatically implement certain behaviors in Live known as instant mappings Many control surfaces can be automatically detected by Live so they will work from the moment you plug them in and you won t even need to take this step Live allows you to use up to six control surfaces simultaneously Figure 11 1 Select your controller in the Control Surface menu to enable instant mappings The controller s Ports are usually identical or very similar to the controller name Preferences Control Surfaco Input Output Launchpad if Source Ableton If your controller doesn t appear in this menu it means it s not natively supported by Live However this doesn t necessarily
510. t s just fine to leave this setting on Beats or Tones Finally the Create Fades on Clip Edges preference can be turned on or off In its On position the Fade switch will be turned on for all new Session View clips which creates a fixed 4ms fade at the start and end and will create an editable fade whenever an Arrangement View clip is created or split Fades are typically desirable because they prevent the ugly digital popping that can occur when editing or looping audio For more about fades see Chapter 4 Making Music in Live Launch When triggering a clip to play Live gives us some options called Launch modes The full rundown on these modes can be found in Chapter 4 For now I recommend leaving the mode on Trigger or Toggle The next setting Default Launch Quantization determines the default point at which new clips will be launched in relation to the time grid Unless you ve got an advanced understanding of this subject you should leave this set to Global which means the clip s quantization will automatically follow the global quantization value in the Control Bar Launch quantization is discussed in detail in Chapters 3 and 4 Select Next Scene on Launch is a setting designed primarily for live performance Any time a scene is launched by keyboard or remote control Live will automatically advance the scene selector to the one below it If you ve already laid out the sections of your song in a top to bottom arrangement i
511. t above the Piano Roll display is activated the display will be condensed and yov ll see only the lanes that contain notes Basic Editing There are two methods for editing MIDI data with the standard mouse pointer or with Live s pencil tool known as Draw Mode To enable Draw Mode click the pencil in the Control Bar or simply press the B key on your keyboard see Figure 5 14 A short press toggles Draw Mode on and off while holding B will temporarily enable Draw Mode and restore the standard mouse pointer when you release it This technique works in reverse as well temporarily enabling the standard mouse pointer while in Draw Mode Figure 5 14 Enable Draw Mode to draw and erase notes with a single click CALL Source Ableton When Draw Mode is on you can add notes in the editor by single clicking The notes you create will automatically be set to the length of the current grid setting If you continue to hold the mouse button after you create the note you can drag up and down to set its velocity If you click and drag horizontally the pencil will create a series of notes in that lane which is great for hi hat patterns You can also drag up and down to set the velocities of the whole group Clicking an existing note with the pencil will erase it While Draw Mode is very convenient for many editing tasks there are a few things you can only do with the standard mouse pointer For example you can click and drag notes to reloc
512. t and end flags The audio that gets played and looped is determined by the Start Length and Loop controls a V Source Ableton The first three knobs change the start position loop length and end position of the sample When Start is set to 0 playback begins from wherever you ve placed the right pointing start flag in the Sample Display Length specifies how much of the sample can be played When this value is set to 100 playback can continue as far as the left pointing end flag in the display With the Loop switch enabled the Loop knob becomes active It specifies how much of the sample will loop expressed as a percentage from the end as specified by Length The Fade knob applies a crossfade to the loop s connection points to smooth out any pops you may encounter when the sample starts over The Snap button helps prevent these pops by forcing the start and end points of the Loop area to snap to a zero crossing Although it might not be apparent at first some of the controls in this section are extremely expressive to adjust in real time For example altering the loop length and start positions on the fly can change the timbre and tone of the sample in wild and wonderful ways Envelopes The next set of controls to the right are Simpler s envelopes There are three envelopes available Volume Filter cutoff and Pitch The names of these three envelopes are clickable tabs which can be used to bring up the associated
513. t mode Re Pitch mode requirements system resampling resizing clips MIDI editors Resonators section Collision Retrig Retrigger parameters Arpeggiator returns Drum Rack Return tracks devices effects Reverb reverb Convolution Reverb Max decay Reverse button revisions See editing ReWire RootKey routing audio MIDI tracks R Retrigger parameter rulers Beat Time Ruler rules Session View S sample and hold See S amp H Sample box audio clips MIDI clips warping controls Sample Editor Sample Offset modulation Sampler samplers samples configuring external playback Samples category Sample Select Editor sample slots Impulse Sample tab Sampler Saturation section Impulse Saturator Save button Save Current Set as Default setting saving Collect All and Save presets Sets video Scale scaling Zoom Display Scene Launch button scenes applying formatting tempo schemes colors scoring to video Scroll option Scrub Area searching files for lost files sections See also navigating Body Tension Clip View Damper Electric Tension Excitator Collision Tension Filter Tension Fork Electric Global Electric Reverb Tension Input Processing Reverb loops Mallet Electric Operator interface Output Reverb Pickup Electric Tension Pitch Operator Simpler Resonators Collision Saturation Impulse Sidechain Termination Tension Segment BPM selecting arrangement selection cli
514. t of the song right in front of your audience Once you ve created these clips you can highlight them all and drag them into the Browser to create a new Set see Figure 12 9b You could drag them into the User Library or create a folder on your hard drive just for this purpose and add it to Places as explained in Chapter 3 Live Interface Basics The next time you want to play this song drag the Set from the Browser into your DJ Set and your stack of clips will be ready to go Figure 12 9a These four clips are all made from the same song This approach makes it easy to jump around within a song and extend or shorten sections during performance o Feedback INTRO Feedback DROP A Feedback AMBIENT Feedback DROP B o Source Ableton Figure 12 9b This Set was created by dragging the four clips from Figure 12 9a into the Browser It s completely unfolded here so you can see the clips contained within v 0 0s music y BE Foodback als v SS Deck A EE Feedback INTRO EE Feedback DROP A EEE Feedback AMBIENT EE Feedback DROP 8 Source Ableton Master Effects Don t forget that in addition to all of the sonic mayhem you can create with Insert and Send effects you can also put effects in the Master track Experiment with using a Beat Repeat Auto Pan or a Redux just to name a few on the entire mix This can work wonders for emphasizing breakdowns or smoothing over transitions It can a
515. t prefabricated musical ideas While the techniques shown here are for all sorts of material I find they are often easiest to learn with drum beats But that said the only goal here is experimentation and discovery so dig in with any material you like Most of these techniques will be demonstrated with audio but you find that many apply to MIDI as well For techniques that are audio only you can still try it out on your MIDI parts as long as you Freeze and Flatten them first Sometimes the simplicity of audio and the power of Live s Warping tools beats the flexibility of MIDI Before getting started with the following experiments turn on the Loop switch in the Arrangement so you can hear what you do while you edit Figure 13 1 shows a drum loop that s been cut into multiple slices using Split Ctrl Cmd E After doing this it s easy to rearrange the order of the slices Use Duplicate to copy certain ones and Delete to remove others Even if you do this randomly many a happy accident will occur If you need to bring your mashed up beats back into the Session View use Consolidate to make a new clip out of the slices Figure 13 1 Repeatedly split any clip Then go crazy Source Ableton Once you ve sliced up a clip there s lots of other fun to be had Try using the 2 and 2 buttons in the Clip View to double or halve the original tempo of a slice Add crazy Warp Markers or change the transposition and then experime
516. t preference you have to consider when overdubbing Session automation It s in the Record Warp Launch tab of Live s Preferences and is labeled Record Session Automation in When set to Armed Tracks yov ll only be able to overdub automation into tracks that are armed The appeal of this setting is that it prevents you from unintentionally recording automation by forcing you to arm tracks The other setting All Tracks allows you to record automation into any clip regardless of the track s Arm status This setting is extremely flexible and it comes with a different advantage you can record automation without arming any tracks so you don t have to worry about inadvertently overdubbing MIDI while you work If you find that you re generally focusing on one track at a time recording clips and automation in a single pass you re probably best by using the Armed Tracks preference If you prefer to jump around creating clips in many tracks and then recording automation for several at a time yov ll find All Tracks easier to use Like many workflow choices it s a trade off The only way to find what s best for you is to experiment boldly and use Undo to clean up any messes you make Arrangement Automation Just like in the Session View the Automation Arm button must be enabled for automation to be recorded While recording new clips any parameter changes you make will be recorded and displayed as seen in Figure 4 13 F
517. t will appear in the routing menus as if they were hardware see Figure 8 29 Instruments accessible from any currently loaded ReWire slave application will also appear here To use these instruments with the External Instrument device just configure the MIDI To and Audio From menus to the virtual ports on your software instruments Figure 8 29 External Instrument can also transmit MIDI and receive audio from multitimbral plug ins and ReWire applications such as Reason Source Ableton FREEZE When it s time to record the audio from External Instrument into the Set use the Freeze command Live is smart enough to know when you re freezing a track that s communicating with external hardware so it invokes a real time process to record the audio through your soundcard s inputs 9 Live s Audio Effects WHAT ARE AUDIO EFFECTS The question is nearly impossible to answer Ranging from subtle mixing tools to extreme sound manglers effects are used in every part of the music production process A delay may be an integral part of a synthesizer sound a distortion unit may be used to give a snare drum some extra bite and equalizers and compressors may find their way onto nearly every track in a song during final mixdown In this chapter Pll discuss all 34 of Live s effects giving some tips as to how each might be used along the way But don t take my word for it using effects is all about experimentation So get in there and m
518. tack of drum parts The top clip is the main beat Every clip below it is a drum fill Each of these variations has Follow Actions A set to First as shown in the figure By having all of the fill clips trigger the main beat right after they start you ve guaranteed that the main beat will start on the next bar The main beat clip is set to Bar Quantization In this example each of the fill clips has a Launch Quantization of 1 16 so you can launch multiple clips one after the other and piece the fill together in real time Don t just try this with beats try it with other types of parts too Create multiple clips and treat them with different effects and parameter tweaks Set them to Legato mode so that the playback position is traded off as you switch clips It will sound like you re performing crazy processing on the part as you switch between the clips gt Legato madness Make a dozen or more variant clips Set them all to Legato with a Follow Action of Any Set the Follow Action times to something pretty short 1 8 or 1 16 and let it rip Live will start jumping randomly between all your variations Use Arrangement Record to capture the results and then edit together your favorite bits in the Arrangement View Figure 13 2 The top clip is set to Bar Quantization while the others are set to 1 16 Each fill clip launches the first so the beat will always kick in after the fills N Fili 2 plrms 0 4 Ale Clip Launch F
519. tains a range of controls for Sampler s Modulation Oscillator and Pitch Envelope which are used to modulate the audio output from the playback in the Sample tab Figure 8 13 The Pitch Osc tab _ Megaphatness Pad Zoea Sample PuchvOec FitlerGlobel Moduenons MIN it gan yt roe JL ston Ibm ore JL wan Joo CAtack Decay Rewate ee Te Alt aa si ra i inaw Pook Sunsin End L Soreed Tramp Deine _ 00 4 00 00 None X E CET Hoa 4 Ansck on ae Tene lt Vel Tene Zn Shh Gade Time Source Ableton The Modulation Oscillator The upper part of the Pitch Osc tab is occupied by the controls for Sampler s modulation oscillator This oscillator makes no sound of its own but it is used instead to modify your samples via frequency or amplitude FM or AM modulation You can toggle between these two modes using the FM and AM buttons on the left side of the interface If you use the modulation oscillator for amplitude modulation you are affecting the volume you can use this to create interesting tremolo effects or other more radical changes in volume Used for frequency modulation the modulation oscillator can transform your samples by creating FM style effects reminiscent of Ableton s FM based synth Operator described in the previous section The Modulation oscillator s control interface features an image of an envelope at left showing the ADSR envelope stages for the oscillator If you select a long attack time
520. talling Live onto a Windows machine is much like installing any other Windows based application After you open Setup and follow the instructions Live s installer will ask you where you would like to place the Ableton folder and its files I recommend using the installer s default setting which will place Live in your computer s Program Files folder Also pay special attention to where your VST plug in folder exists It is common practice to keep all VST plug ins stored in one common location so that every VST compatible application will be able to use them For instance if you have Steinberg s Cubase SX installed on your computer you can instruct Live to look for plug ins in the Steinberg shared VST folder which is commonly located at Program Files gt Steinberg gt Vstplugins You can set Live to use the same plug in folder MAC USERS TAKE NOTE OS X has a built in location for storing all of your plug ins Library gt Audio gt Plug ins I find that it s handy to drag this folder to the Places area in a Finder window for easy access Some plug ins come with installation programs that place the files here automatically while others may require you to copy them yourself Inside this folder you find separate folders for each type of plug in that OS X supports Live can only use VSTs which go in the VST or VST3 folder or Audio Units which go in the Components folder just to make things confusing The first time you l
521. te by the time it gets to you and you end up having to download the latest version anyway The truth is that printed manuals are often a bit out of date as well since features are regularly being improved and completed Live 9 comes in three versions Intro Standard and Suite gt Intro A stripped down version of Live that supports 16 tracks 8 scenes 19 audio effects all seven MIDI effects and four sample packs of audio content gt Standard Includes unlimited tracks and scenes 31 audio effects all seven MIDI effects and 14 sample packs of audio content gt Suite Includes all six add on instruments Analog Collision Electric Operator Sampler Tension Max For Live and a handful of useful Max For Live devices all 34 audio effects and 25 sample packs gt For a detailed comparison of the three flavors of Ableton Live please refer to www ableton com en live feature comparison Live Installation Tips Mac OS X Installing Live 9 on Mac OS X is a breeze After downloading open the disk image dmg file and drag Live 9 to the Applications folder on your hard disk For quicker access to Live you may want to install a shortcut onto the OS X dock To do this simply open your Applications folder and drag the program icon to the dock An instant shortcut is made To remove the item from the dock drag it to the Trash or to the desktop and watch it go poof and disappear Live Installation Tips Windows Ins
522. te is pressed and conclude when it is released Most of Live s instruments have envelopes for volume filter frequency and pitch Depending on the instrument there may be additional envelopes or assignable envelopes that can be used to control any parameter you want If you re new to working with envelopes the volume envelope is the one you should master first Most of the envelopes yov ll encounter use the traditional four stage design Attack Decay Sustain and Release ADSR Some instruments have additional envelope stages which will be explained in the individual instrument sections However if you re not sure how these work initially don t sweat it Just focus on the ADSR and you I be fine Here s a brief explanation of how a volume envelope works Once you ve wrapped your head around this you ll have no trouble understanding the other envelopes as long as you re willing to be patient and do some experimentation As soon as a MIDI note is received the Attack stage begins This stage determines how long it takes the sound to reach its full volume Turned all the way down the note will sound instantaneously while high values will cause the note to fade in slowly The Release stage happens as soon as the note is released This stage determines how long it takes for the note to fade to silence once you release it When turned all the way down the note will be silenced immediately while long values will cause it to
523. terface has been disconnected the Arm switch may not appear or will be disabled You re free to arm multiple tracks and record many clips simultaneously if you want MULTIRECORDING Can t seem to arm more than one track at a time Hold down the Ctrl Cmd key and then click the Arm buttons To allow multiple tracks to be armed without doing this change the Exclusive setting in Preferences see Chapter 2 Recording in Session View Once a track is armed for recording all of the square Stop buttons in the track s clip slots will turn to circular Record buttons see Figure 4 5 Click one of them to start recording a new clip and then bang on your MIDI controller yodel into your microphone or slap the bass You stop recording by clicking a Clip Stop Button or by clicking on the Clip Launch Button of the clip you re recording This second method is really handy because the new clip will immediately start looping and the music keeps flowing Figure 4 5 The track on the left is armed so the clip slots now contain circular Clip Record buttons Source Ableton NO LOOP If you click a Clip Launch button to stop a recording and the clip doesn t start looping this means the Default Launch mode has been changed in Live s Record Warp Launch Preferences Set it to Trigger and yov ll be all set There s a full discussion of Launch Modes in Chapter 5 Clips Recording loops in the Session View is made easy
524. tery and another track with Rob Papen s Predator Battery will be hidden when the Predator track is selected and vice versa This can also help minimize screen clutter and thus is especially useful for laptop users The third option here is the Auto Open Plug In Custom Editor box When active the plug in window will be opened immediately after the plug in is loaded onto a track This makes perfect sense since you ll usually need to make some modification to the plug in after you load it Audio The next tab in Live s preferences the Audio tab see Figure 2 2 is used to select an audio interface and makes adjustments to its performance Figure 2 2 Live s Audio Preferences tab If you re using a PC this window looks a little different but the basic functionality is the same ENS T Sieinberg UR28M 6 10 Oui Steinberg UR2AM 10 Ox input Config C Output Contig MmOut Sampie Rate Dotault SR amp Pitch Conversion Source Ableton Audio Device The first section of the Audio tab is labeled Audio Device The first setting you can choose here is the Driver Type you want to use for your audio interface On the PC options will include MME DirectX and ASIO and in Mac OS X you will see just one choice Core Audio After you select the driver type you want to use you will have a selection of audio devices to choose from in the subsequent drop down menus As noted previously you will alw
525. th different Ratio values making sure to test each value with both a long key press and a short one The Key value can also be used to control how much note pitch will modulate the decay time The trick here is that since you re modeling real world strings lower notes will always decay longer than higher ones Just imagine what happens when you hit the lowest note and the highest note on a piano with the sustain pedal on The Key control modulates this natural behavior So by raising this value you can make the higher notes ring longer and the lower notes shorter than they usually would Lowering the Key value will exaggerate the instrument s natural decay behavior The Inharmonic and Damper controls both affect the tone of the instrument in dramatic ways Inharmonic controls how much the upper partials of the string are out of tune with the harmonic series As opposed to a theoretical perfect string that produces a perfectly pure tone strings in the real world have inharmonic qualities Depending on the Excitator you are using you ll notice different effects from increasing this value With a bow the upper frequencies of the sound will become more like noise whereas a hammered string will simply begin to sound more out of tune with itself as the higher harmonics are detuned Termination and Pickup Termination applies to stringed instruments that are fingered In other words an individual string is terminated or ended on one o
526. that using x2 now will not restore the loop It just duplicates the newly truncated loop Also be aware that Live s Undo command cannot be used to back out of these commands You have to use the Looper s Undo instead which only has one level of undo Fortunately you can drag the clip you made from the loop back into Looper and get right back to where you Started I m pretty confident that there are many uses for Looper that have yet to be discovered Spend some time experimenting and see what you come up with 10 Live s MIDI Effects MIDI EFFECTS LIKE AUDIO EFFECTS allow you to alter MIDI data before it reaches its destination A MIDI effect can be used by itself on a MIDI track whose output is some external MIDI sound device or before a virtual instrument in the Track View MIDI data passes through the MIDI effect which then passes the altered MIDI on Note that MIDI effects do not change the sound that comes out of an instrument the way audio effects do Instead MIDI effects change the notes coming in to those instruments Arpeggiator Since we are discussing the MIDI effects in alphabetical order we get to start with the coolest MIDI device of them all the Arpeggiator Arpeggiators came into existence in the early days of monophonic synthesizers Monophonic means only able to play one note at a time When synthesizer technology was in its infancy that s all you could hope to get out of a synth just one note at a time
527. the Compressor section in this chapter for more information Delay Effects Ableton s Delay effects group may just be the company s most creative effects ever Each effect features solid tools for both assembling new rhythmic variations and creating innovative textures with repeated long sounds While many of the delays have some similar controls each delay is also somewhat specialized and has some unique features As you explore them one by one don t be afraid to do lots of experimenting and get lost in your own creativity Simple Delay While you may think we are starting simple Live s Simple Delay is still a formidable stereo tempo syncable delay with a rhythmic beat division chooser see in Figure 9 13 Figure 9 13 Live s Simple Delay plug in Simple Delay E a Source Ableton Looking at the device you can see two separate beat division choosers one for the left channel and one for the right If you are in Sync mode where the small Sync box is illuminated in green each boxed number represents a multiple of the 1 16 note delay time For instance choosing a 4 would mean a four 1 16 note delay or a full 1 4 note hold before you would hear the delayed note sound An 8 would be two beats and 16 would be four beats typically an entire measure In either of the beat division choosers you can select 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 or 16 for your delay multiple As mentioned this beat dividing works o
528. the Session or Arrangement View Since Simpler is designed to hold just one sample any new sound dragged into the instrument will replace the previous one The sample you load into Simpler can be triggered from any MIDI note C3 middle C will trigger the sample at its original pitch while higher and lower notes will transpose the sample up or down Please note that Simpler does not use the Warp engine changing pitch without changing time Instead the sample is simply slowed down or sped up to lower or raise the pitch MULTISAMPLE MODE When using Simpler presets you may find the sample display window empty reading Multisample Mode instead This is the result of a clever Ableton hack that allows Simpler presets to be created in Sampler which allows multisampling If you own Sampler you can get under the hood and fully edit these presets by right clicking in Simpler s title bar and selecting Simpler gt Sampler Sample and Loop controls The upper left corner of Simpler contains the knobs you I use to set all the basic parameters for sample playback Any changes you make with these knobs will be shown graphically in the Sample Display window However there are also two parameters that can only be set in the display the absolute start and end points These are represented by two flags which should look familiar from the Clip View see Figure 8 5 Figure 8 5 Simpler can only play back the audio enclosed within the star
529. the actual downbeat of the next bar Once I drag it left to line up with end of the loop it sounds great 22 2 Source Ableton The loop technique works like this After tapping the tempo adjust the loop brace around the first one or two bars of the clip and begin playback Chances are the loop won t play back smoothly Look to the right of the loop brace and see if you can identify the downbeat of the next bar in the waveform display Create a Warp Marker for it and drag it so that it lines up with the right hand edge of the loop brace Depending on whether your tapped tempo was too fast or too slow you may have to drag it to the left or right Use your ears and zoom in as far as necessary to tweak things until the loop sounds correct Then move the loop brace ahead so it begins on the downbeat you just adjusted click on the brace and press the up arrow and repeat the process Every now and then you can get great results using a combination of manual and automatic warping Sometimes Auto Warp can get a few bars of material right and then makes a mistake In this case try dropping a Warp Marker at the downbeat every time the warping drifts off then right click it and use the Warp From Here command For some material this can be a real time saver While there is no silver bullet to make sure you always get everything warped properly this section arms you with a very powerful set of techniques that can be adapted to alm
530. the bottom of the master track and the Crossfader Assign switches at the bottom of every other track To use it you will have to assign tracks to either the A left or B right side of the crossfader As you move the crossfader to the right you increase the volume of all channels set to B while decreasing the volume of all channels set to A The reverse holds true when you move it to the left Unassigned tracks are disregarded by the crossfader and play back regardless of its position Opening the crossfader s context menu reveals the transition modes which determine the volume curve used when transitioning between A and B Constant Dipped and Intermediate are curves that slowly change the volume across the entire range of the crossfader With all three of these modes there s a gain reduction to both sides in the center position Dipped reduces gain the most Constant the least to compensate for the volume overload you can get from mixing together two powerful sources like dance tracks Fast Cut Slow Cut and Slow Fade have both sources at maximum amplitude before the center position is reached Slow Fade provides the largest amount of transition between the two with Fast Cut providing almost none Track Delay Track Delay isn t a mixer control in the traditional sense but it provides a very valuable service in the world of digital audio It allows the output of a channel to be delayed or advanced by small amounts of time measured
531. the kick Random As the name suggests the Random device will randomize the incoming MIDI notes We can determine how liberal Live is with its randomization using the controls shown in Figure 10 5 Figure 10 5 The Random MIDI device will shift the pitch of incoming notes a different amount every time Source Ableton The first control in this effect is the Chance value This knob sets the odds that an incoming MIDI note will be transposed At 0 the effect is essentially bypassed because there is no chance a note will be transposed At 100 every MIDI note will be subject to randomization At 50 roughly every other note will be randomized Once a note is chosen by the effect to be transposed it will be shifted using the rules set up with the three remaining controls The three parameters make up part of a sort of formula that determines the transposition The Choices parameter determines the number of random values that can occur If the value is set to 3 a random number with a value of 1 2 or 3 will be generated This number is multiplied by the value of the Scale knob The result is the number of semitones the MIDI note will be shifted So if the Scale knob is set to 2 the resulting random transpositions will be 2 4 or 6 semitones The final variables in the formula are the Sign buttons If Add is selected the resulting random value will be added to the MIDI note causing it to move up in pitch Sub will subtract the random
532. the others so Pl explain it first In the Grain Delay small grains of sound are quickly dispersed The Frequency setting determines the size and duration of each grain that will be subsequently delayed and can range from 1 to 150Hz The default setting of 60Hz means that each second of incoming audio is divided into 60 grains This means that a low setting creates a large grain while higher Frequency settings create smaller grains High frequency settings lots of small grains will help keep sounds with rhythmical timing such as drum loops intact through the resynthesis process Low frequency settings will sound more natural for long sounds such as textures and pads If you are having trouble getting a desirable setting out of the Grain Delay set the frequency to 150 and work backward from there Spray The Spray parameter roughs up the sound adding noise and garble to the delayed signal This setting will allow the Grain Delay to choose a random delay offset amount for each grain If the Frequency setting above is a high value the effect of Spray will be more pronounced as there are more grains to randomize every second The delay time for Spray can range from 0 to 500ms Smaller values tend to create a fuzzy sounding delay effect while a larger Spray setting will completely take apart the original signal Pitch versus Random Pitch Like the Spray parameter Random Pitch tends to throw sound around The amount of randomness can range from 0
533. the threshold is set by dragging the edges of the boxes left or right making them longer or shorter and the ratio is specified by dragging up or down anywhere within the boxes Yov ll see that depending on the direction you drag the box turns either orange or blue Blue signifies ratios of greater than 1 which means gain reduction while orange signifies ratios of less than 1 meaning there will be a gain increase when the threshold is crossed To view these values numerically click the B for Below or A for Above in the lower right hand corner of the display Below shows you the settings for the left hand block while Above shows the ones on the right The T for Threshold will adjust the Attack and Release times In practice multiband processors are often used in mastering For example you might want to leave the low end of a dance track big and uncompressed while giving the mids more of a squeeze so they don t get painful at high volumes When you re learning to use Multiband Dynamics don t be afraid to turn off the Activator switch for two of the bands and just focus on one For example if you ve got a part that sounds too crisp but EQing it makes it sound too dull try turning the mid and low bands off and see if you can get what you want by applying a little compression to the top Multiband Dynamics also features a Sidechain section which functions just like that of Compressor except that it lacks an EQ section Refer to
534. ther or not Automation Arm is enabled That s because technically they are not automation at all these messages are recorded as MIDI data just like the notes are For this reason MIDI control messages also can t be viewed or edited in the track display of the Arrangement They appear within the clip only To reveal controller envelopes select MIDI Ctrl in the Device Chooser The Control Chooser will then display a long list of MIDI control messages see Figure 5 39 Figure 5 39 MIDI controller envelopes can be edited just like standard automation a ve mf d MIDI Ctv Channel Pressure 1 Modulation 2 Breath Source Ableton When you look through the list of available MIDI controllers you l see some of them have already been named such as Volume Breath Pan and Expression This is because part of the MIDI standard defines certain controller numbers for certain musical tasks Controller 10 is generally Pan Controller 7 is usually Volume and so on Whether these controllers actually have any effect will be determined by the MIDI device on the receiving end Just about any virtual or hardware instrument will respond to pitch bend but beyond that you ll need to look at your MIDI device s manual specifically the MIDI implementation chart usually at the end of the manual to see a list of the MIDI controllers and messages for the instrument Unlinked Envelopes Until this point we ve been talk
535. time using the program To open the Preferences dialog box on a PC select Options gt Preferences on a Mac select Live gt Preferences When you first open the preferences you will see a small pop up window with a number of tabs marked on the side Look Feel Audio MIDI Sync File Folder Record Warp Launch CPU and Licenses Maintenance We ll have a look at each of these in turn Look Feel On the Look Feel tab see Figure 2 1 you ll find a number of settings having to do with Live s appearance and the way it presents information to you Let s look at all the settings Figure 2 1 The Look Feel tab in Live s Preferences Source Ableton The Language setting chooses the language to use for Live s menus and messages The internal help menus interface text and informational messages can be set to read in French Spanish German and English The Don t Show Again Warnings setting deals with the various warnings that come up when you first perform certain actions in Live Typically these warnings will only be seen the first time you perform a particular action and then you won t see them again If you want to bring back all these messages and restore Live to the state it was in when you first installed it click Restore here The third option Follow Behavior determines the graphical style used when following the song position in the Arrange and Clip Views When set to Scroll the playback cursor will stay in
536. tively You will see all of these controls on Live s Compressor shown in Figure 9 7 Figure 9 7 Live s Compressor shown here in Transfer Curve view O Compressor OA Source Ableton Many people believe that a compressor makes sounds louder But as you can see in the illustration above a compressor makes loud sounds quieter Still engineers do employ compressors as part of a technique for making sounds louder Compressors make the dynamic range of audio smaller so the overall level can be higher Imagine that you have some audio that ranges from 30dB to OdB If you compress the audio such that every peak over 10dB is reduced to be no greater than 10dB you can then raise the level of the whole signal by 10dB Now you have audio that ranges from 20dB to OdB resulting in a much greater perceived loudness Threshold Ratio Attack and Release Compression is useful in a variety of situations but keeping peaks under control is by far one of the most common In electronic dance music sidechain compression actually may be the most common of all tasks Some parts such as drums and vocals have many very short peaks called transients while others such as a synth part with resonant filter modulation may have peaks that occur more slowly Knowing how to compress a sound is all about knowing what result you re trying to achieve How do you properly control peaks First you need to identify the volume at which you wa
537. to 161 in terms of intensity 0 being the lowest intensity The plain old Pitch parameter ranges from 12 to 36 half steps while allowing for two decimal point interim values In other words fine tuning a delayed signal s pitch to an actual discernible tone would be best suited for the Pitch control trying to eliminate destroy or add movement to a pitched signal is the strength of high Random Pitch values You can use Pitch and Random Pitch in tandem for some robotic and wild pitch modifications As with the Spray control the higher the Frequency setting the more pronounced the Random Pitch effect will be because there are more grains to be resynthesized Putting Grain Delay to Use Now that you have some idea of just what kind of mischief the Grain Delay is up to it s time to get familiar with using Grain Delay s X Y interface The parameters it controls are selected by clicking one of the boxes located along the side and bottom Along the X horizontal interface you will see the boxes for Delay Time Spray Frequency Pitch Random Pitch and Feedback The vertical Y axis can be set to control Spray Frequency Pitch Random Pitch Feedback and Dry Wet controls To set feedback to be controlled by the Y axis simply click on the vertically aligned box labeled Feedback just above the Dry Wet setting To enable the X axis to control the delay time click the Delay Time box in the bottom left corner Now you re ready to graphicall
538. to cut the volume on the commercial the moment it comes on so you set the time to 10ms Now the commercial is turned down within 10ms of coming on The last value is Turn Up Time This is the opposite of the Turn Down Time where you specify how long it should take for the compressor to turn the volume back up again after the commercials are over You don t want to miss any of the dialogue when the show starts so you set this to 10ms as well But this causes an unforeseen problem any time the announcer s voice dips below the Volume Trigger even just trailing off at the end of a word the volume shoots back up to its original level causing low level sounds such as breaths to become unnaturally loud Therefore you set the Turn Up time to one second This way the announcer s voice will stay down until the end of the commercial at which point it will fade back to full volume over one second So that s it You ve now mastered the compressor It turns down commercials that exceed the volume of your TV show within 10ms and then returns the volume to normal one second after the commercials are over Nice If you ve looked at a compressor at all hardware or software you know that I replaced the real names of the controls with fake names in the example above Here s the decoder The Volume Trigger is really the Threshold control The Turn Down Amount refers to the Ratio Turn Down Time and Turn Up Time refer to Attack and Release respec
539. to find automated parameters by placing a red LED next to devices and parameters containing automation At the bottom of both menus you also find the Show Automated Parameters Only command which collapses the two menus into one and shows only automated parameters You can select Show All Parameters from this menu to return to the default view If you select a parameter that has not been automated a light dotted line is displayed Click on this line and use the editing techniques explained in Editing Automation to create automation manually SKIP THE CHOOSERS Here s a trick that let s you view automation without navigating the automation choosers at all First select the view that contains the automation you want to see Session or Arrangement Then click on the Mixer or device control you want to view automation for For example to view Arrangement Automation for the feedback of a Ping Pong Delay switch to Arrangement and then click on the Feedback knob The track will display the automation immediately Automation Lanes In Arrangement View it s possible to view more than one lane of automation at a time The easiest way to view all of a track s automation is to right click on the track name and select Add Lane for Each Automated Envelope from the context menu see Figure 4 32 If you want to view only certain envelopes you can click the plus sign below the track name This will add a new lane for whatever enve
540. to override the Arrangement they both light up Clicking on either one causes the Arrangement to take control immediately Figure 4 20 The Session View has a Back to Arrangement button in the Master track Source Ableton You can also give control to Arrangement tracks on a per track basis Whenever a Session clip is launched a triangular button appears at the far right of the corresponding Arrangement track In Figure 4 19 you ll see these arrows displayed in every track Click on an arrow to re enable Arrangement clips for that track only Bear in mind that you don t have to have anything in the Arrangement to override it For example when you first launch Live and are looking at a completely empty set the Back to Arrangement buttons are gray As soon as you launch a single Session clip they turn orange Clicking Back to Arrangement will stop playback of any Session clips you ve launched because Live will give control to the tracks in the Arrangement View which are currently empty Transport and Navigation Before digging into the details of navigating and editing in the Arrangement let s get some terms straight The Arrangement View has several different areas and a few interface elements that might not jump out at you at first Figure 4 21 shows them all Figure 4 21 The majority of the Arrangement View is taken up by the track display Beat Time Ruler Scrub Area Folded Track Unfolded Track KI S08
541. to send signal into a track called 1 MIDI Notice that there are two choices in the Output Channel menu The first is the track s input Track In while the other is an input that feeds directly into the instrument in the track in this example Operator is loaded Figure 6 13 This configuration allows you to pass MIDI directly into the Operator on track 1 MIDI Source Ableton If Track In is selected you ll have to make sure 1 MIDI has its monitoring set up correctly Monitor In or Monitor Auto and the track is armed With this setup the monitoring status of the destination track will prevent you from being able to play any clips in that track If Operator is selected the monitoring status is ignored which means that the destination track can trigger Operator with its own clips while additional tracks feed MIDI into Operator as well Sound complicated Well yes it is a little This does allow for some interesting programming techniques however For example you could have a four bar legato bass loop playing in the Operator track while occasionally triggering additional notes from a second track to create slides and variations Just like instruments can have multiple virtual outputs some have multiple inputs For example if you repeat the above experiment with a Drum Rack in the source track instead of an Operator you ll see that the Output Channel menu allows you to route the MIDI to a specific drum within the Rack Th
542. tomation such as perfect volume fades and quantized filter modulations If you ever want to create a MIDI clip entirely through editing there s no need to record at all Just double click in an empty clip slot to create an empty MIDI clip and edit away Adjusting the Grid All editing in a MIDI clip is governed by the timing grid Anytime a note is created or moved it will snap to the grid values If your grid is set to 1 4 you l be able to align the MIDI notes only to the 1 4 note of the clip You can also change the grid settings allowing you to make more precise rhythmic adjustments You can even turn the grid off completely for free form editing Live has two grid modes Adaptive and Fixed The grid mode can be selected by right clicking anywhere in the Note Editor and selecting from the context menu Adaptive mode the default simply changes the grid value according to the zoom level The grid values get smaller the more you zoom in on your MIDI notes Fixed grid keeps the resolution at the value you select regardless of the zoom level Changing the Fixed grid resolution can be done with the key commands outlined next As you execute these key commands yov ll see the grid value change in the MIDI data window see Figure 5 12 reflecting your modification Note that before using the following key commands you must click on the grid to select it otherwise you might be adjusting the Quantize menu in the Control Bar Figure 5 12 T
543. ton Common Editing Commands Under the Edit menu yov ll see Live s editing commands Some of these are specialized commands we ll be discussing later while others are common commands you want to learn right away because they are used throughout the program For example Duplicate can be used to make a copy of just about anything you can select with the mouse clips tracks scenes and devices Rename works the same way It s good to get in the habit of naming things especially tracks and clips before your Sets get too big and confusing When using Rename press Enter to confirm the name Esc to cancel or Tab to confirm the name and jump to the next object As you d expect Live supports Cut Copy and Paste for moving and duplicating clips tracks and devices as well There are many editing commands that can be applied to multiple objects simultaneously For example it s possible to duplicate several clips in one step or to adjust the volume of several tracks simultaneously To select multiple objects hold down Ctrl Cmd while clicking on them Alternately Shift click can be used to select a range In other words to select tracks 1 through 8 click on the title bar of track 1 and then Shift click on the title bar of track 8 Context Menus Context menus contain a list of commands relevant to a particular object They are a very useful part of Live s interface and are something you should plan on becoming very familiar w
544. ton Library Location of User Library Browse Usersobotecty Musiot teaterCore User Library Source Ableton Content Locations Installation Folder for Packs enables you to select where Ableton will install any new Live Packs that you install Live Packs can contain many different types of content including presets samples clips and Sets They can be downloaded from ableton com and from some third party vendors such as Loopmasters Once you ve installed a Live Pack it s content will be accessible from the Browser as explained in Chapter 3 Live Interface Basics If you re upgrading from Live 8 yov ll want to set Location of Live 8 Library to the location of your old Library Live 9 installs a brand new Library so you need to do this in order to access your custom presets or other Live 8 content The Live 8 Library will appear in the Places area of the Browser The last option here is the location of your User Library This can be any location on your hard drive The User Library is where any custom presets you save will be stored so it s highly recommended that you place it in a location that gets backed up regularly The Record Warp Launch Tab As you might guess this tab contains settings dealing with Live s recording warping and clip launch functions see Figure 2 6 Figure 2 6 The Record Warp Launch tab Clip Update Rate Record Session automation in Warp Fades Loop Warp Short Samples
545. tor Chorus effect choruses Click tracks Clip Gain slider Clip Launch button Clip Record buttons clips activators adding Arrangement View audio modulating properties Sample box warping boxes Clip View colors consolidating cutting effects See also effects Follow Actions formatting grooves Groove section groups Launch box launching Launch mode loops managing MIDI buttons editing controller envelopes converting audio to editing importing exporting modifying grids notes velocities program change messages quantization step recording Stretch Markers modulation multiple naming navigating Notes Sample box Nudge controls overdubbing overview of properties quantization recording re enabling resizing scenes splitting Time Signature transposing unlinked envelopes velocity Clips category Clips function Push Clip Stop buttons Clip Update Rate Clip View navigating session automation closing Draw Mode Collapsed view Collect All and Save Collision Color control colors clips schemes Color switch Saturator commands Add Lane for Each Automated Envelope Copy Cut Cut Time Delete Delete Time Duplicate Duplicate Time editing Flatten Freeze Group Insert Silence objects Paste Paste Time Quantize Rename Undo Warp Commit switch Comp knob Complex mode Complex Pro mode compression dynamic processing Glue modes Multiband Dynamics p
546. tor Warp Markers often have to be created manually while MIDI Stretch Markers appear automatically whenever a range of automation is selected These will both be discussed in detail in Chapter 5 Clips Lock Envelopes To the right of the Scrub Area is a switch with a lock icon refer to Figure 4 21 This is Lock Envelopes which is used to lock automation to the timeline By default moving copying or deleting clips will move copy or delete automation as well If you want to edit clips without editing automation turn on Lock Envelopes This will cause automation to remain at its current location regardless of the movement of the clips Fades Unless you ve done a lot of audio editing you may not realize what a big deal it is to be able to fade and crossfade audio clips automatically Well if that s the case let me tell you it is While Live s Fades feature can be used for what is commonly thought of as a fade a song slowly decreasing in volume or smoothly transitioning into another song fades are also important to anyone who has to chop up audio First with digital audio there is always the zero crossing problem If a digital audio file is ever suddenly cut off anywhere other than the exact center of the waveform display as seen in Figure 4 35 there will be an unpleasant popping sound Figure 4 35 Without a fade this audio clip will pop when it ends C E Source Ableton In the real world it s sim
547. tracks two audio and two MIDI To the Set you ll add prefabricated elements such as samples or Live Clips and create new parts by recording audio or programming MIDI parts with virtual instruments Don t worry if you don t know what all of this means That s what the book is about To switch between Session and Arrangement Views press Tab You can also use the horizontal and vertical line icons in the upper right of your screen But seriously use Tab Try it now Showing and Hiding As you work with this book you may notice that the figures don t always match what you see on your screen This is because Live allows various interface elements to be shown or hidden At the far right of Live s screen you ll see a set of show hide buttons Try clicking on them and you l see various sets of controls appear and disappear The ones pictured in Figure 3 1 are for various aspects of the mixer but that s not important yet Just be aware that these turn up in various parts of the program Whenever you see them click them on and off to see what happens Figure 3 1 Buttons like these appear in various places in Live to show or hide interface elements Source Ableton In the corners of the screen except for the upper right you ll see a different type of show hide buttons containing a triangle see Figure 3 2 These are used to show or hide the Browser Info View and Track Clip View all discussed later in this chapter
548. tracks are disabled To enable them right click the Send knob and select Enable Send Any send in Live can be disabled by right clicking it and choosing Disable Send The Send control will now appear grayed out Group Tracks Think of a Group Track as a track that contains other tracks The audio from the tracks within the group flow into the group track instead of directly to the Master although this can be customized if you want Unlike audio MIDI and return tracks group tracks are not created from the Create menu Instead they are created by first selecting one or more audio or MIDI tracks and then selecting Edit gt Group Tracks One use of Group Tracks is for traditional submixing such as you might use with drums For example let s say you have each of your drums on an individual track In this case it s very helpful to be able to adjust the volume of all of the drums simultaneously as well as to be able to process the drum mix with some compression Group Tracks make the process incredibly easy Not only do they simplify submixing but Group Tracks offer other advantages as well First notice the Fold switch the small triangle in the title bar of the Group Track This allows you to hide or show the tracks as desired And of course since this is Live there s also a twist for live performance If you look closely at the Group track in Figure 6 5 you notice that some of the slots contain triangular play buttons which
549. ts 9 Live s Audio Effects and 10 Live s MIDI Effects Using Devices Devices are accessed from the Browser see Figure 7 1 as described in Chapter 3 Live Interface Basics The Audio Effects MIDI Effects and Instruments views are dedicated solely to Live s built in devices Sounds is a special view that shows all of Live s factory Instrument and Instrument Rack presets organized by type while Drums is a hybrid view that is used for accessing both Drum Racks and drum samples The Plug ins view displays any third party effect or instrument devices you ve installed on your computer Max for Live devices are like built in devices because they can only be used in Ableton Live but they are also like plug ins because additional devices can be downloaded and added to your collection With a few exceptions that will be covered later in this chapter devices function identically regardless of whether they are built in plug in or Max for Live Just bear this in mind as you read through the chapter Unless otherwise specified any reference to an effect or instrument applies to all types Figure 7 1 Devices are accessed from any of the categories shown here Sounds highlighted above displays Instrument and Instrument Rack presets Source Ableton From Browser to Track Adding a device from the Browser is easy There are several different ways to load devices onto a track all of which work identically
550. ts parameters in the display If it s not currently being modulated by any other oscillators you ll notice that the Feedback parameter becomes enabled This uses the output of the oscillator as a modulation input for itself If you start with a sine wave and turn the Feedback parameter up to 50 the result will be nearly identical to a sawtooth wave If you have a waveform other than sine selected the result will be extremely strange Try it out The Envelopes Each oscillator has its own volume envelope Not only that but the Filter and Pitch sections also have their own envelopes as does the LFO That s seven envelopes for a single voice That s quite a lot compared with Simpler which has only three envelopes per voice You heard in the previous experiments how the volume of a modulator would affect the timbre of the carrier Therefore using an envelope to change the volume of a modulator will allow you to change the harmonic content of a sound as it plays like using a filter envelope in subtractive synthesis Continuing on with the experiment we started earlier crank up oscillator B to full volume and modify its volume envelope so it decays to silence very quickly an example of this envelope shape is shown in Figure 8 8 The sound now has some motion to it it has an aggressive attack that quickly decays into the fundamental sine wave This is because oscillator B plays at full volume when you strike a note but it quickly fade
551. ttons will perform the shift The clip should be playing when you do this Each time you press an arrow the start and playback positions of the clip will change by an amount determined by the Global Quantize setting Don t confuse this with the clip s Launch Quantization which will be explained next If the Global Quantize is set to 1 Bar the clip s start location will be shifted by 1 Bar with every click of the Nudge buttons If you want to offset by a smaller amount select a smaller Quantize value With Global Quantize set to None the Nudge buttons will offset the clip by minute increments allowing you to make your clip sit just the tiniest bit ahead of or behind the beat For an example let s say you re DJing with Global Quantize set to 1 16 rather than 1 Bar in order to occasionally offset a track to create a new groove The Clip Nudge controls could be used while pre listening to correct the placement of a track that was launched a little too early or too late or to experiment with different offsets before bringing the track in Or you could launch a track with Global Quantize set to 1 Bar and then change it to None and nudge the clip so it rushes or drags a tiny bit THE THIRD CONTROL While it looks like the Nudge controls are limited to only two buttons there is a third control that can be accessed only through MIDI assignment When you enter the MIDI Map mode Ctrl Cmd M you ll see a tiny box appear between the a
552. two oscillators a noise generator two filters and amplifiers the LFOs and finally the Master Clicking anywhere in any of these modules will change Analog s display to show its envelopes LFO routing or any other parameters that may apply Finally also note that the name of each section for example Osc1 is also a switch that can be used to turn the module on or off Oscillators and Noise The oscillators are where the sound begins In the Osc modules you can select the shape of the waveform adjust its volume and tuning and set whether it gets routed to Filter 1 Filter 2 or both The default value for filter routing is 50 50 meaning the signal is split equally between both filters Dragging up or down in this control will show the ratio of how much signal is distributed to each filter until the display reads F1 Filter 1 only or F2 Filter 2 only at which point the signal is no longer split between the two filters With the Osc1 or Osc2 module selected the display contains controls for adjusting the oscillator s pitch pulse width and optional Sub or Sync oscillator The graphical display on the left displays the pitch envelope which is used to make the oscillator s pitch rise or fall into its target pitch This display corresponds to the Pitch Env Initial the starting pitch and Time how long it takes to reach the final pitch controls seen to the right Below you can determine if the pitch is to be modulated by the LFO
553. u set Offset to 1 the pattern will be EGCEGC The starting point of the pattern has been shifted to the right by one step therefore the pattern begins on the second note of the chord E as it plays Rate and Sync The next two parameters Rate and Sync are related to one another The Rate knob is used to set the speed at which the Arpeggiator plays each step of its pattern The default selection is 1 8 notes When the neighboring Sync button is on the Rate will be constrained to note values If you turn Sync off the Rate will now be running free of the current project tempo and will play at the exact rate specified here in Hertz Yov ll find that you can get the Arpeggiator running quite fast when you turn Sync off even to a point where the individual notes in the scale are blurred This is a neat special effect and is also reminiscent of SID based synth music like that of the Commodore 64 of yore Gate This dial is used to set the length or duration of each note played by the Arpeggiator By default this value is 50 which means that the notes are only half as long as the rate at which they are played Therefore with Rate set to 1 8 the notes are only 1 16 note long If you set this to 25 each note will only be 1 32 note long This is a great parameter to tweak while the Arpeggiator is running Retrigger The Retrigger parameters can be used to cause the Arpeggiator to restart its pattern when triggered with a new note or
554. uencies below the specified frequency For this filter type Q adjusts the resonance how much the cutoff frequency is emphasized or reduced Gain has no effect for this filter type The 48dB octave version appears with x4 next to the icon indicating that its slope is four times as steep and reduces the frequencies below the cutoff much more dramatically Using these to remove unnecessary low frequencies from as many tracks as possible can really clean up your mixes gt Low shelf Reduces or boosts all frequencies below the specified frequency With a low Q setting the gain change will be a gentle linear slope At high Q values the change becomes more drastic and you get an additional emphasis around the filter frequency For example if you re cutting with a high Q you get a boost right above the filter frequency and the greatest gain reduction directly below it A low shelf is a great way to make a broad boost or cut to the low frequencies without excessive coloration When boosting you may want to combine with a low cut to keep the lowest frequencies under control gt Bell A parabolic shaped boost or cut of a given range of frequencies For this filter type the Q adjusts the bandwidth of the filter how much the adjacent frequencies are affected This is where the most surgical adjustments in a mix occur Use caution with high Q values in the high frequencies as they can sound harsh With low frequencies however you can get
555. uiet because the Compressor is still attenuating the signal The Threshold should be at a point where every kick played at normal volume will trigger the Compressor But if the Threshold is too low the Compressor will squash the volume and never let go Compression Modes On the right side of the Compressor you ll see three different compression modes Peak RMS and Expand In Peak mode the Compressor will respond to any signal that goes over the threshold whereas RMS responds more slowly and will have less effect on transients The advantage to RMS is that when applying compression to complex sources such as an entire mix you may not always want an overall gain reduction in response to an individual transient However since RMS will allow transients greater than the threshold to pass straight through it s not well suited to anything where you need very accurate control such as drums Expand is a different beast entirely This mode exactly inverts the Compressor s behavior from reducing the gain of high level signals to increasing them instead Expansion is useful when working with signals that may sound lifeless due to a dynamic range that is too small such as a signal that was initially recorded with too much compression There s a limited amount that this can help though so don t record with a lot of compression unless you really know what you re doing Additionally expansion can sometimes help with recordings made i
556. ular synthesis engine that yields all sorts of satisfying results Synthetic sounds can also be automated and velocity can be mapped to create variations and movement that would be hard to get with sampled drums The latest version of Max for Live comes with a brilliant tool kit for synthesizing drums a series of modules designed to be used in the pads of Drum Racks each one specialized for producing a different type of sound Yov ll find these modules under Max Instrument or if you want to get up and running quickly check out the pre built Drum Racks Go to the Drums view in the Browser and look for the Racks with DrumSynth in the name Just drop one of these devices into a MIDI track or into a pad of a Drum Rack and you re ready to go There are too many of them to discuss all of the parameters in detail but since they are all customized to produce one particular kind of sound it s hard to go wrong Twist some knobs and experiment As shown in Figure 13 11 unfolding the device reveals a matrix for mapping note velocity Use the switch to the left of a parameter to map velocity to it The default scale of 0 to 100 works for most applications 100 equals whatever you have manually set the parameter s value to When a parameter has been mapped to velocity its knob turns from blue to yellow Figure 13 11 The DrumSynth Kick loaded into a Drum Rack Unfold to Reveal Velocity Mapping Source Ableton You ll also find a s
557. umbers from 1 to 127 representing the incoming velocity The Zones below are used to specify which chains will be active for a given velocity range Figure 7 23 In this example the Operator chain only sounds when the velocity is over 40 and only reaches its full volume at velocities over 80 The Massive chain sounds at all times regardless of velocity Source Ableton In Figure 7 23 we are using Velocity Zones to filter the MIDI data coming into the Rack and determine which instrument it will trigger In this image the lowest velocity notes will trigger the FM8 instrument and the highest velocities will trigger Absynth 4 Notes within a middle range of velocities will trigger both instruments simultaneously Across the top of the Key Zone Editor is a piano keyboard representing the incoming MIDI note see Figure 7 24 The Zones below are used to specify which chains will be active for a given note range In Figure KEYZONE you ll see a Rack configured so the bottom three octaves of the keyboard trigger an acoustic bass sound while the remainder of the keyboard triggers piano Figure 7 24 Key Zones in action The lower range of the keyboard is directed to the top Chain while the other Chain handles input from the rest of the keyboard s range z AAM AIMINIINIAIINIRIINIRIINIRILRIMIINIAIIRIRIININ lt Oh Pano E emc i _ e Source Ableton When you re done working with Zones click the Hide button t
558. unction with Shift to select multiple objects Recording Unless you re strictly using Live to DJ or work with pre existing material you ll need to create some clips of your own The basic process for recording new audio and MIDI clips is very similar so we ll be taking a general look at recording first Obviously there are some big differences between audio and MIDI and these will be discussed next Regardless of whether you re recording into the Session or Arrangement Views the first two steps of recording are the same select a valid input source and arm the track for recording see Figure 4 4 Input Output and Arm are both introduced in the Mixer section of Chapter 3 Figure 4 4 An audio and a MIDI track both ready for recording Select an Input _ Source Here Arm Tracks for Recording Here Source Ableton If you re making an audio recording make sure that the inputs you want to record from are enabled in the Input Configuration screen If you re making a MIDI recording make sure that your MIDI controller s input has Track set to On in the MIDI Sync tab of Live s Preferences Review the Audio and MIDI Sync tabs in the Setting Preferences in Live section of Chapter 2 Getting Live Up and Running for more information Arming a track is simple just click the Arm button so it lights up Be aware that if no input is selected or the selected input has become invalid for example your audio in
559. und Input Output input Type input Channel Output Type Output Channel Active when necessary Source Ableton The Master Track The Master track is created automatically and cannot be deleted By default all tracks route their output to the Master see Figure 6 2 where they get mixed together It also serves as the final stop to process the sound before is gets sent out to the speakers For example it s common for performers and DJs to use the Master track for effects and for producers to sweeten a final mix with some compression and EQ That said until you re an experienced engineer it s probably best to leave the Master track empty when producing Devices audio effects only can be dropped into the Master track just like any other track Instead of clip slots however the Master track contains Scene Launch buttons which are described in Chapters 3 Live Interface Basics and 4 Making Music in Live This track also has some special controls in the Mixer and Input Output sections which we ll take a look at next Figure 6 2 Your entire mix will pass through the Master track before heading out to the speakers Solo Cue Switch Preview Cue Volume Source Ableton When audio leaves the Master track it goes to the output specified in Master Out This can be any enabled output on your audio interface see Audio in Chapter 2 Getting Live Up and Running Just make sure that your monitors
560. upper left hand corner which can be used to deactivate or bypass the device see Figure 7 4 When deactivated instruments produce no sound and effects pass the signal through unchanged When using effects it s often important to temporarily bypass a device so you can hear exactly what s going on with the sound Also bear in mind that a deactivated device uses no CPU power so this can also be a useful technique when trying to determine if a particular device is overloading your system Clicking in the title bar of a device selects it and allows you to use commands from the Edit menu Also note that once a device is selected you can select the adjacent devices using the left and right arrow keys Cut Copy and Paste can be used on devices as can Duplicate The Rename command works as well allowing you to give a descriptive name that specifies how a device is being used Finally if you decide you want to permanently remove a device just click in the title bar to highlight it and press Delete Figure 7 4 Bypass devices by clicking the circular switch in the upper left Also note the standard editing commands available in the context menu O Overdrive Cut Copy Duplicate Rename Source Ableton Signal Flow It s critical to understand that once added to a track effects process any signal passing through the track A common misunderstanding is to think of putting an effect on a clip That s not how it wo
561. use there is a second entirely independent excitator and you may need to balance the relative levels of the two For now just make sure that it is turned up loud enough for you to hear Collision s output clearly Moving over to the next column of knobs you see Noise and Color Noise refers to the sound that is made by the mallet coming into contact with the resonating object So for this to make sense you have to think of the sound as containing two distinct sounds the initial impact of the objects colliding followed by the resonance of the struck object Like the Mallet s Stiffness control the Noise parameter tends to decrease low harmonics and overall volume above 60 Try this experiment Park the Stiffness and Color controls at about 50 and Noise at 0 Slowly increase the Noise control until you can start to hear a flinty chiff sound in the initial impulse Now turn down the Stiffness You ll hear the fundamental pitch of the resonator get less distinct and the noise component of the sound will become much clearer and more noticeable Next sweep the Color control back and forth and you lI be able to clearly hear how this adjusts the harmonic content of the noise The next section over is the Noise excitator which can be turned on by clicking in the box next to the word Noise This is a slightly strange beast because while it acts as a physical object that causes the resonator to vibrate it does not have any real w
562. usted by using the Preview Cue volume knob in Live s Master track the same knob you use for adjusting the preview volume when browsing for samples Notice that there s a small arrow to the right of the metronome Clicking it reveals a drop down menu for Count In settings which are explained in the Preferences section of Chapter 2 Quantization Finally we come to the Quantization menu which is used to set Live s global quantization for launching clips You may be familiar with the concept of quantization if you ve worked with sequencers or drum machines before In music quantization means eliminating or reducing imprecision by forcing rhythms to conform to a predefined set of values For example you might play a drum part on a set of pads and then quantize it to correct any hits that were played early or late The quantization dealt with in this menu is for launch quantization which is a little different than the common example shown previously You may have noticed while experimenting in the Session View that clips don t start playback immediately when you click on them Instead they wait until the beginning of the next bar and play back in sync with the other currently playing clips In other words the launching of the clip is being quantized to 1 Bar the default value in the Quantization menu Exploring this menu you ll see that you can quantize to a whole range of values including None which allows clips to play back imm
563. value from the current note The Bi setting will randomly choose between adding or subtracting the value The indicator lights on the plug in panel will show when the note is being transposed up or down Let s run some quick examples to make sure you understand the math behind the plug in 1 If the Choices knob is set to 1 and the Chance knob is set to 50 about half the time a transpose value of 1 will be generated by the Choices knob If Scale is set to 12 and the Sign mode is set to Add the incoming notes will be transposed up one octave half of the time 2 If the Choices knob is set to 4 and the Chance knob is set to 100 a transpose value of 1 to 4 will be generated for every MIDI note You can then set the Scale knob to 3 and leave the Sign mode on Add In this situation every note will be transposed Chance at 100 by one of the following semitone amounts 3 6 9 or 12 1 Choices 3 Scale 3 2x3 6 3x3 9 and 4x3 12 3 If the Choices knob is set to 2 the Scale knob is set to 12 and the Sign mode is set to Sub the resulting transposition will be either 1 or 2 octaves down 1 12 12 and 2x12 24 Above the direction switches is an additional switch for selecting Alternate mode instead of Random mode In Alternate mode the effect will cycle through all of the possible values in order So in example 2 above the output will be transpositions of 3 6 9 12 in order repeatedly Scale Scale allows an incoming MIDI note to be m
564. w a Macro Control to assign it Notice that the Saturator s Drive control is already mapped J Audio Effect Rack ap amp Macro 1 Drive Macro 3 Macro 4 5 Cran rege Conve N Q q Q A Redux TOX sma Uo 3 0 e Yo o Saturator ime caa nA M M J M JIK pom i Goa E Ia Coc Ma Macro 6 Ma Macro 8 Coker Ana Nase PN AA Drop Audio Effects Here aY G G G IG C mac Jii C Man JIC J E v T Source Ableton Click a parameter and then click on the Map button under one of the Macro Controls to assign it If you click on a control that s already assigned the button will read Unmap instead Just like MIDI controllers a Macro knob can be mapped to control many parameters simultaneously For example you could control the filter cutoff of all of the synths in an Instrument Rack with a single knob While in Map mode the Browser displays all of the mappings for the Rack as seen in Figure 7 19 This is handy when designing complex Racks and also allows you to edit minimum and maximum values for the mapped parameter For example in Figure 7 19 you could adjust the Min and Max values for the Saturator s Drive so it only ranges from 12 to 12dB Bear in mind that you can set Min to be greater than Max thereby inverting the behavior of the Macro Control so it turns the value down as you turn the knob up Figure 7 19 In Map mode the Browser displays mappings You can edit minimum and
565. w closely resembles other multitrack applications see Figure 3 9 These programs such as Cubase Logic and Pro Tools are based on horizontal left to right audio arrangers also called timelines If you like this method of working you will be right at home making music in the Arrangement Figure 3 9 Live s Arrangement View is where songs are finished Each horizontal line in Arrangement View represents a track that corresponds to a vertical channel in the Session Mixer Source Ableton For those who didn t read the figure caption here it is again Each track in Session View corresponds precisely to its track counterpart in Arrangement View If you have eight tracks in Session View you will have eight tracks in Arrangement View You can add a track in either view and it will appear in the other Clips can be added to this view by dragging and dropping just like you would in Session View or by using a method called Arrangement Record which allows an arrangement to be created interactively by launching clips and tweaking controls such as track volumes and effect parameters While this is a fairly deep topic the basics are quite simple Try this out 1 Click on Arrangement Record the solid circular record button at the top of the screen next to Play and Stop 2 Launch some clips in the Session View and adjust some track volumes 3 Press the spacebar to stop and press Tab to switch to the Arrangement View 4
566. wap button which is used for loading device presets swapping out devices and loading content into Drum Racks Simpler and Impulse Hot Swap mode is entered by clicking the icon or by pressing Q on your keyboard To exit Hot Swap mode you can press Q or Esc or click on the X that appears in the title bar of both the Browser and the device being swapped Device Swapping In the upper right corner of every device you find a Hot Swap button see Figure 7 12a When activated the Browser will jump to the available presets for that device Double clicking on a preset or highlighting a preset and pressing Return will load it into the device The biggest advantage to this feature is being able to swap out sounds using only the keyboard Use the up down arrow keys to navigate in the Browser the left right arrow keys to open close folders and switch views and finally Return to load the sound Figure 7 12a The Hot Swap button is just to the left of the floppy disk icon the Save button Frequency Shifter i b IS amp H_ Frequency Source Ableton When using a device s Hot Swap button the Browser s title bar turns orange and displays Swapping lt device type gt device type being Instrument Audio Effect or MIDI Effect as shown in Figure 7 12b This is to indicate that Hot Swap mode allows you to do more than just load a new device preset You can actually load any device or preset of the same type So for example you could
567. will load its sample into the Sample tab for examination The next thing we ll look at is the Key Zone Editor which is displayed by selecting the Key switch above the list In Figure 8 9 I have created a custom instrument by importing four kitchen bowl samples you can see here in the Zone Editor how the different samples are mapped across the keyboard Samples are triggered only when incoming MIDI notes lie within their key zone By default the key zones of newly imported samples cover the full MIDI note range Zones can be moved or resized by clicking and dragging in the middle or from their right or left sides Zones can also be faded in or out over a number of semitones at either end by clicking and dragging the narrower small line above refer to Figure 8 9 This makes it easy to set up smooth crossfades from zone to zone The Zone Editor can also be used to trigger samples according to velocity range In Figure 8 10 there is a pad sound composed of three long samples overlapped by velocity The combination of samples you will actually hear when a note is played depends on the velocity of the triggering MIDI notes Figure 8 10 Velocity mapping in the Zone Editor Source Ableton The last option is the Sample Select Editor which is shown by clicking the Sel switch This is a very Ableton touch and works like the Chain Selector in an Instrument or Effect Rack As the sample selector the horizontal orange bar above the editor
568. witch marked Keyboard in this area When used directly in a track rather than in a Drum Rack you can turn this on to allow the synth to be pitched across the keyboard Otherwise its pitch will be fixed and it won t track the keyboard s pitch at all You may find that because these devices all produce a particular sort of synthetic sound they aren t suited to all your needs They can still be quite useful however For example you may want to use a sampled kick and snare to form the backbone of your song but use synthetic hats and claps It also works well to layer synthetic and sampled drums Just drop a Max for Live drum synthesizer module into a pad that already contains a sampled drum while holding down Alt Cmd to create a layered pad containing both the sample and the drum synth Modulators Max for Live includes several devices that are totally unlike any of Live s built in devices These devices which I ve decided to call modulators are strictly in the business of controlling the parameters of other devices The other devices could be effects or instruments or even Live s Mixer By getting clever with these modulation devices you can essentially turn Live into one big modular synthesizer Instead of comprehensively covering every modulator I ll be diving deep on a couple of devices and covering all of the core concepts that you need in order to figure out how they all work LFO This device is a great example of how M
569. witches Source Ableton When working with preset Racks you primarily interact with the eight Macro knobs which allow you to tweak selected parameters of the devices contained within without having to understand the details of how every device works To create your own Racks or modify presets beyond what the Macros will allow you ll need to work with the Chain List and the individual devices as well A Chain is a lot like a track in that it has basic mixer controls volume pan and an activator switch see Figure 7 14 Just like a track a Chain can contain multiple devices which process audio in series from left to right fashion However bear in mind that despite the fact that the Chain s controls appear to the left of the Devices they process the signal last after the final device within the Chain When a Rack has multiple Chains they operate in parallel a concept Pll explain next Figure 7 14 A Chain has all the mixer controls of a track Input Meter Output Meter I I is il f FX Car Alarm 0046 e Volume Pan Mute Solo Hot Swap Source Ableton The Rack s devices show up to the right of the Chain List Bear in mind that you can only view the devices for one Chain at a time For Racks with multiple Chains click on the Chain you want to edit and its devices will appear in the Devices area To create a Rack from scratch drag the Instrument Rack Audio Effect Rack or MIDI Effect Ra
570. with a bank of 16 drum pads can be used to automatically control Drum Racks This is particularly handy when using large kits which use more than 16 pads because the control surface s drum pads will stay mapped to whichever of the Drum Rack s 16 pads are currently selected in the Pad Overview To enable the drum pads on this type of control surface you must enable the Track switch for the control surface s input port Device Controls Instant mapping is especially useful when it comes to working with devices Assuming that you already have a supported control surface selected in your MIDI preferences click on the title bar of any device see Figure 11 3 You will see a small hand appear indicating that it has been mapped to the controller Turning your controller s eight device control knobs will manipulate the first eight parameters of the device you ve selected or the eight macro knobs if you ve selected a Rack Your control surface will also have a button that allows you to get to additional banks of eight parameters of the device should it have more Many control surfaces have left right buttons for navigating to other devices in the track If not you can select devices using the mouse or the left right arrow keys on your computer keyboard As soon as a new device is selected the hand appears and the device controls map to it Figure 11 3 The blue hand indicates that the Auto Filter has been mapped to the device controls of a co
571. xported Set This is handled by the Preferences screen shown in Figure 13 4 Figure 13 4 When exporting Sets and presets Live gives you full control over whether or not all the referenced files are exported as well Preferences Source Ableton You will discover that when exporting to locations other than the User Library Live automatically creates a Project folder for the exported Set unless you export it into an existing Project folder If you choose to export the audio files as well they will be placed inside this new Project In the User Library this is handled behind the scenes CLIP TIP If you drag a single clip into the Browser a Live Clip is created A Live Clip is sort of like a Set containing only one clip It contains not only audio or MIDI but also the devices from the track the clip was originally on Defaults In your User Library yov ll see a folder called Defaults Live uses the contents in this folder as templates for a variety of objects When you right click in the title bar of a device and select Save as Default Preset a device preset or als file is created in this folder There are a few other behaviors you can customize here as well For example inside the Dropping Samples folder you ll find a folder called On Drum Rack Configure a Simpler or Sampler any way you like and then drag it into this folder The next time you drop a sample on to a Drum Rack your custom configuration will be us
572. y s music producers will often gather and create appealing sounds in the clip slot grid before giving form to a song Each cell in the grid shown in the Session View Ableton calls them clip slots can contain a clip see Figure 3 6 A clip is a piece of audio or MIDI that can be launched via the mouse computer keyboard or MIDI controller Try dragging a few loops out of the Live 9 Power Live Pack and dropping them in clip slots Then launch them by clicking their triangular play buttons For more information about loading clips into slots read The Browser later in this chapter Figure 3 6 The clip slot grid with a few clips loaded in some slots Each clip has its own launch button Drums Break Bass Piano lv orums I gt Breas P eass Piano Ech orums JP cn ereak i Pa E Pler orums PJerercak Plesss PPan plex orums Pv erea PE Pano m m m _ E Source Ableton Every empty slot contains a square stop button The bottom of the clip slot grid also contains a permanent row of stop buttons that will remain visible even if you ve filled every slot in the grid above Clicking the square in one of these slots will cause any clip playing on the track above it to stop Also there is another box labeled Stop Clips in the Master track at the right This button as its name implies will stop all clips both audio and MIDI when triggered There s another way to stop a clip by launching a d
573. y be familiar with quantization as a technique to correct the timing of MIDI performances However the Quantization menu in the Launch Box deals with something called launch quantization which is quite a different animal It still deals with correcting timing but only in terms of launching and stopping clips as the name suggests Proper Clip Quantization settings ensure that clips will start on time and in sync with each other even if they are triggered a little early by us sloppy humans When you launch a clip Live waits to play it back until the next quantization interval is reached For example with a quantization setting of 1 Bar the clip will wait until the downbeat of the next bar to begin playing In the interval between when a clip is launched and when it actually begins playing back the Clip Launch Button blinks With quantization set to None a clip will start playing the instant it is launched Quantization is selected from the drop down menu shown in Figure 5 4 By default clips are set to Global which causes the clip to follow the Quantize setting in the Control Bar In Live s Preferences it s possible to change the default quantization to a value other than Global but for most applications you probably don t want to do this It s handy to have most clips follow global quantization and override that behavior only when necessary Figure 5 4 The Quantize settings for a clip Launch Launch Mode Trigger Qu
574. y everything in Live can be controlled via MIDI or your computer keyboard This is referred to as remote control Most of this chapter will focus on MIDI control since it s deeper and more flexible than computer keyboard control Because the computer keyboard can only transmit key presses it s best suited to simple tasks like launching clips or controlling on off switches MIDI controllers on the other hand can have buttons keys knobs joysticks sliders and X Y pads This can make them seem awfully complicated but in fact most MIDI control is fairly simple Regardless of the physical design of your hardware most MIDI remote control is communicated with two types of data note messages and control change or continuous controller messages also referred to as CCs There are also numerous controllers on the market that can act as control surfaces for Live which means there is no configuration required for them to work These include devices designed for Live such as the Akai APC40 and Novation LaunchPad as well as numerous other devices from a variety of manufacturers However even if you re working with a control surface there are going to be cases where a little customization is required and knowledge of Live s remote control system will really come in handy At the end of this chapter you ll find an extended section on Ableton s own Push This is a controller for Live that incorporates all of the functionality of a control
575. y increasing the Knee you can specify a range of decibels below the Threshold over which gain reduction should be applied In other words with a Threshold of 10dB a Ratio of 10 1 and a Knee of 10dB a small amount of gain reduction will occur to signals hitting 20dB the Threshold minus the Knee value For signals between 20dB and 10dB an increasing amount of gain reduction will be applied until the full Ratio of 10 1 is reached for signals exceeding 10dB The result of this soft knee compression is that the dynamic structure of the Compressor s output is closer to the original signal and a more natural sound is produced Next to the Knee you l see a menu marked Look which sets the Lookahead Because analog compressors respond to audio in real time there is a limit as to how quickly they can respond to a peak In this digital realm this limitation can be overcome by having the gain detector look ahead at the audio to determine exactly when to act By increasing the Lookahead amount you can increase the Compressor s accuracy in responding to fast transients and also generate some extreme compression effects impossible with analog compressors The Release Envelope marked Env can be set to either Logarithmic or Linear In Linear mode the results you get are a bit more effect oriented Use it when you want something to sound compressed It s great at getting a squashed overcompressed sound and it
576. y manipulate these controls Vertical moves affect the Y axis while horizontal moves alter the X axis SHIFT MY PITCH UP One of the more straightforward applications for the Grain Delay is to provide an echo at a pitch different from the original track Leave the Spray and Random Pitch values at 0 and choose your delay time normally If the Pitch value is at 0 the Grain Delay will be working like the Simple Delay in that it delays only the incoming signal Change the Pitch setting to transpose the echo to a new note For example choosing a Pitch setting of 12 will cause the delayed signal to come back an octave higher than the original This can be fun on vocal parts Reverb While Ableton s Reverb device may not seem like a delay it is certainly from the same time based effect family Reverberation occurs when sound bounces off a surface usually many surfaces many times In the process of reflecting the original sound dissipates becoming diffuse and eventually disappearing altogether Depending upon the shape and reflective qualities of the room certain frequencies will be more pronounced than others in the reverberated sound or tail The number of controls may seem daunting but as we step carefully through the signal path you will see that it all makes sense Before we get carried away take a quick look at Figure 9 17 Figure 9 17 Live s feature laden Reverb plug in Filter Frequencies Filter Frequencies Early before They
577. y still have to adjust the Warp Markers manually There are two ways to use auto warping first let Live do it automatically and second manually invoke it using the Warp commands from the context menus By default Live will analyze and add Warp Markers whenever you add a long audio file to your set In the Record Warp Launch tab of the Preferences screen you can disable this behavior by setting Auto Warp Long Files to Off Depending on the material you re warping you may find it quicker to manually invoke Auto Warp because the Warp commands let you give Live hints about the contents of the file and how to place the Warp Markers TEMPO TIP Before using Auto Warp it s a good idea to set the tempo of your Set to the approximate tempo of the audio you re importing For example if you re preparing a techno DJ set try setting the tempo to 127 BPM If you re not sure what tempo to use tap the tempo in while playing the audio back unwarped This prevents Live from detecting a tempo that is half or double the desired result Live uses the current tempo as a hint so if you import the techno tracks I just mentioned while Live s tempo is set to 70 BPM they ll end up warped as being 63 5 BPM They Il be in sync with the clock but will play back at double their original speed when Live is set to 127 BPM This may cause you to lose your residency at the club To fix this problem if it occurs use the Half or Double BPM button
578. y to differentiate the two Let s take a look at each section now Mixer gt Volume Drag to adjust the volume of a track or type in a decibel value into the numeric display if you re in the expanded view gt Pan Drag to move the signal left or right in the stereo field gt Track Activator In most mixers this is referred to as the mute switch When turned off the track is silenced gt Solo Activating Solo mutes all other tracks If you want to Solo more than one track at a time Cmd click Ctrl click the Solo switch or change the Exclusive preference on the Record Warp Launch tab of the Preferences dialog This button can be switched to act as a Cue switch as explained in Chapter 6 gt Arm Allows new clips to be recorded If you want to Arm more than one track at a time use Cmd click Ctrl click or change the Exclusive preference on the Record Warp Launch tab of the Preferences dialog The Arm button can also be used to enable Session Automation recording which is discussed in Chapter 4 Making Music in Live If you click and drag the top edge of the Session Mixer upward you can resize it better to see levels when mixing see Figure 3 8b When resized the Peak Level display appears indicating the maximum level reached during playback Click on Peak Level to reset it Sends Sends are used to route audio into Return tracks which are covered in Chapter 6 For example if you turn up Send A on a
579. y unprocessed signal you l get the undesirable and confusing result of increasing the volume of the unprocessed signal whenever you turn up a Send PRE OR POST On the right side of the mixer there is a button labeled Post for each Send knob These buttons determine whether the Send knobs take their signals pre fader or post fader Post fader is the default setting for each track which causes the amount of signal sent from the Send knob to vary based on the track s volume slider If you re fading down a vocal part that is sending to a reverb the amount being sent to the Reverb will also diminish causing it to fade out as well The pre fader position click the Post button to turn it to Pre causes the Send level to remain the same even if the track s volume is adjusted This is particularly handy when using compression in a return track a technique called parallel compression Since compressors behave very differently depending on the level of the input signal it s handy to have independent control over the volume of the send and the track You ll see that the Return track itself also has Send knobs This allows you to output a portion of the returned effect to another Return The Return track can also send back into itself allowing you to create feedback loops watch your volume Because of the feedback risk the Sends on Return tracks are disabled by default If you right click on a Send you can enable it from the
580. ydian and then select Bb in the row of keys shown If you re not experienced with music theory you can study to make sense of this or take it as a purely experimental endeavor If you find a scale you like you ll be able to use this scale across any other parts you create and every other part will be in key Bear in mind that at the time of this writing the scale settings are not saved with the Live Set so if you re experimenting you l need to make a note of your scale settings if you want to be able to return to your set another time and play in the same key For some types of music you ll be able to select a single scale and make an entire song However much great music moves across keys and uses notes outside of a single key center to create harmonic and melodic interest Fortunately the scale display also allows you to switch from In Key to Chromatic mode which provides a layout in which every note is included but only the notes from the selected scale are lit This provides an interesting perspective on scales and allows you to move outside them when necessary The scale display also lets you turn Fixed mode on or off In Fixed mode the pads always keep their original orientation which means that the lower right corner is always C When you switch keys the available notes change but the overall range of the pads is unaffected With Fixed mode turned off the grid reorients itself around whatever root note you select For

ableton live 9 power: the comprehensive guide

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