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Ableton Live - 5.0 Instruction Manual

1. The Clip View for an a LL raodo Audio Clip MIDI clips have these additional Clip View controls e The MIDI Editor toggles with the Envelope Editor on the right hand side of the Clip View and allows editing and creating MIDI notes and velocities 91 e The Notes box contains settings pertaining to how Live plays a MIDI clip and what it displays in the MIDI Editor The Clip View for a MIDI Clip To make best use of the screen real estate you can show or hide the Launch Envelopes and Sample or MIDI boxes using the Clip View Box selector in the Clips box You can also toggle between the Sample Display MIDI Editor and the Envelope Editor by clicking in the title bars of the Sample Notes box and the Envelopes box respectively Clip Launch Sample PHOENIX Launch Mode PHOENIX 4 Warp Start et Trigger 44 1 kHz 16 Bit 1 Ch Seg BPM _oj _1 903 Signature egal EdiD Rep Save End el 494 Quantization Hi Q Fade RAM 4ej 52 286 Groove Globa Transpose x ca Vel 0 0 Beats 0p Follow Action A Position Set The Clip View Box ue ce Ze Selector Shows and XS EET od ae J aa Hides Various Clip View Components 8 1 THE CLIP BOX 92 8 1 The Clip Box Launch Sample The Clip Box 8 1 1 Clip Activator Switch Using this switch you can deactivate a clip so that it does not play
2. 6666660 genuini LELE A E e ee beg e JU EIE UI TREE RETI The Software Specific Controls 1 Shift Option Control Alt Used to access additional Mackie Control options 2 SMPTE Beats Toggles between displaying beats bars and SMPTE in the time display 22 5 SOFTWARE SPECIFIC CONTROLS Name Value Switches the meters in the main display on off Note that these meters appear only when pan assignment mode is active F Keys These keys can be mapped freely to controls in Live 5 ViewArr On Toggles Arrangement View and Session View When the Mackie 10 11 12 13 Control s Shift key is held down this sets the program focus to the Arrangement View or Session View whichever is currently on screen ToggleDetail Rec Rdy Toggles Clip View and Track View When the Mackie Control s Shift key is held down this sets the program focus to the Clip View or Track View whichever is currently on screen ViewBrowser SnapShot Shows hides the Browser When the Mackie Control s Shift key is held down this sets the program focus to the Browser ViewDetail Touch Shows Hides the Clip Track View When the Mackie Con trol s Shift key is held down this sets the progr
3. The Transport Controls 1 Previous Next Locator Using these buttons you can skip forward or backward through the Arrangement from locator to locator Note that the Arrangement start and end are also marked with invisible locators to which you can navigate 22 4 TRANSPORT oO om A W N using these buttons The LEDs above these buttons are illuminated when a previous next locator is available in the respective direction Loop On Off Toggles the Arrangement Loop switch on off Punch In Punch Out Toggles Live s Punch In Punch Out switches on off Home Jumps to the Arrangement start 1 1 1 End Jumps to the Arrangement end Rew Forw When pressed once these buttons will move the play position one beat backward forward When held down the buttons move forward backward in increments of one bar during Arrangement playback one beat if the Ar rangement is stopped Holding down the Mackie Control s Alt button when the Arrangement is playing will also move in one beat increments forward backward Stop Stops Arrangement playback Play Plays the Arrangement from the song start or insert marker Record Toggles the Record button on off Arrows e n the Session View the arrows navigate through the Session View grid Pressing the zoom button in the middle of the arrows will fire the currently selected clip or stop another playing clip in the same track if the currentl
4. Flip e i mar ew III sa i Resonators Fitter Mode LU Frequency Decay Note 50 0 The Track View appears in the bottom area of the Live screen 7 Audio B 192 Devices in the Track View 15 1 USING THE LIVE DEVICES 193 15 1 Using the Live Devices 1 Audio PHOENIX TU Percussive exture I MIDI Effects Click on the Live Device Browser selector to access the palette of Live s built in devices You will notice that MIDI effects audio effects and instruments each have their own folders in the Browser To place one instance of a device in a track click on the desired device and drag it into the Track View of an appropriate track You can also select a track by clicking on its title bar then double click or press on a device in the Browser to add it to the selected track Note If you are using an external input signal to feed your Live track using the default settings you will need to activate the track s Arm button in the mixer in order to hear the input through the devices in your track s device chain This is how you would play live instruments through effects on a track for example or use a MIDI keyboard s input to play a track s instrument Note that you can easily move from this setup into recording new clips for further use in Live If you have alternative monitoring preferences please see the appropriate manual section fo
5. 00 00 287 Link Dutto M as e ios TELE E e 285 pan and voluNi amp assa cexs xk en errare nion 286 sample slots and controls 284 saturator and envelope iioi eoe exa 286 Start Tune and Stretch sue 285 Info View isssese RR ene y insert electis c nee IU UT EE 193 InStr rent cios er e e x REA CLAY VENT OPE 193 Ire SRM MS 201 UC AEE EAE E E 172 Insert Audio Track command 172 insert Marker 00 c cece eee cee ee 66 Insert MIDI Clip command 2 22 ars 124 Insert MIDI Track command 172 Insert Return Track command 174 Insert Scene command usuuuuuuu 85 Insert Silence command suuu 75 instruments 0 cee eee see devices K Keep Offset button iiieceee err re 95 Key Map Mode 8WitChi z cedes ohh ra ern es 313 Key MIDI In Indicator 00 cece eee eee 156 Key MIDI Out Indicator ee eee 156 keyboard shortcuts 00 cece cece eee eee 347 365 L latency see Sync Delay setting Launch Dox decree be etis 90 139 Launch Modes 00 c eee eee eee eee eee 140 Launch Sample Editor button 103 Legato Mode 2 2cece rer reed Ea 142 lOSSONS seit dic dpud suai as NU Rose nde 7 libraty ss ee Lise I RA t RR o b Rer e edaudess 44 Link Unlink Envelope switch ssuuse 233 Live Clips ET 58 Live Device Browser 0
6. lssleseeeeeesse 126 and drawing velocities 005 136 and grid lines cee eee eee Tsi 135 and recording MIDI 008 185 creating and editing notes 133 editing velocities cece eee 135 loop region settings for 08 131 navigatiOnz ovato Peleo tited E CD Ud uA af 127 rearranging notes iIn 08 182 MIDI effects ce cee eee e eee see devices MIDI TileSis c E ipn eR ER RE ED E RP TAS Gedney 30 MIDI implementation 9200s xat Ce arat ran 316 MIDI interface setup 005 see routing 366 MIDI Map Mode switch cci d tn 315 MIDI Preferences sess 9 MIDI synchronization cece eee eee 335 MIDI Timecode Frame Rate preference 337 MIDI Timecode Start Offset preference 338 MIDI Track In Indicator eee eee eee 156 MIDI Track Out Indicator 00 eee eee ee 156 MIDI tracks o223 5 ececseseee dee bee see tracks Misc Preferences cee ce eee eee 9 rci 34 169 Mixer Section selector 0 cece eee eee 171 modulation RR see clip envelopes monitor MIR dand du wets urea qe qe rat 174 MONTONG ses sonawae sels ena ER RR RO or eR n 150 monitoring through Live see Audio Preferences MPS TGS oec beta Pea HESS see samples Multiple Plug In Windows option 205 MNG ae oninia px see Track Activator switch Cli PS ages 92 N Na
7. To refer delay time to the master tempo activate the Sync switch which allows using the Delay Time beat division chooser The numbered switches represent time delay in 16th notes For example selecting 4 delays the signal by four 16th notes which equals one beat a quarter note of delay With Sync Mode active changing the Delay Time field percentage value shortens and extends delay times by fractional amounts thus producing the swing type of timing effect If the Sync switch is off the delay time reverts to milliseconds In this case to edit the delay time click and drag up or down in the Delay Time field or click in the field and type in a value You can route each parameter to the XY controller s horizontal or vertical axis To assign a The Grain Delay Effect 18 13 GRAIN DELAY 257 parameter to the X axis choose it from the parameter row below the controller To assign a parameter to the Y axis use the parameter row on the left side The Feedback parameter sets how much of the output signal returns to the delay line input Very high values can lead to runaway feedback and produce a loud oscillation watch your ears and speakers if you decide to check out extreme feedback settings You can transpose the grain pitch with the Pitch parameter which acts much like a crude pitch shifter The Spray control adds random delay time changes Low values smear the signal across time which adds noisiness to the s
8. ableton Reference Manual Live Version 5 2 for Windows and Mac OS Created by Bernd Roggendorf Gerhard Behles Robert Henke awi Reiner Rudolph Stefan Haller Torsten Slama Eduard Mueller Stefan Franke Frank Hoffmann Andreas Zapf Hans Thomas Mueller Henrik Hahn Ralf Suckow Gregor Klinke Matthias Mayrock Friedemann Schautz Ingo Koehne Reference Manual by Rose Knudsen Gerhard Behles Jakob Rang Robert Henke Torsten Slama Loops and samples provided by Big Fish Audio Web www bigfishaudio com E mail info bigfishaudio com Address 11003 Penrose Street Suite C Los Angeles CA 91352 N IH Copyright 2006 Ableton AG All rights reserved This manual as well as the software described in it is furnished under license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license The content of this manual is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be construed as a commitment by Ableton Ableton assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this book Except as permitted by such license no part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of Ableton Macintosh Audio Units and QuickTime are registered trademarks of Apple Computer Inc Windows is
9. LFO to Osc Destination A D The LFO modulates the frequency of the respective oscillator if this is turned on LFO Envelope Rates Velocity Time Vel This parameter exists for filter pitch LFO and volume envelopes It is therefore listed in the section on envelopes LFO Rate Key Rate Key The LFO s frequency can be a function of note pitch If this is set to 10096 the LFO will double its frequency per octave functioning like a normal oscillator LFO Amount Velocity Amt Vel This setting adjusts modulation of the LFO intensity by note velocity Oscillators A D Shell and Display Osc On This turns the oscillator on and off Osc Coarse Frequency Coarse The relationship between oscillator frequency and note pitch is defined by the Coarse and Fine parameters Coarse sets the ratio in whole numbers creating a harmonic relationship 20 3 OPERATOR 309 Osc Fine Frequency Fine The relationship between oscillator frequency and note pitch is defined by the Coarse and Fine parameters Fine sets the ratio in fractions of whole numbers creating an inharmonic relationship Osc Fixed Frequency On Fixed In Fixed Mode oscillators do not respond to note pitch but instead play a fixed frequency Osc Fixed Frequency Freq This is the frequency of the oscillator in Hertz This frequency is constant regardless of note pitch Osc Fixed Multiplier Multi This is used to adjust the range of the fixed frequency Multiply
10. PC Mac context menu s Analyze Audio command Once analysis is finished you can view the results of Auto Warp s assumptions about the file 28 55 BAA for a ELM sar db BUR At niji 0 00 toI AR As long as Auto Warp made the correct set of informed guesses the clip will be ready to play in perfect sync with Live s project tempo However if Auto Warp does not quite do what you want you can control its results The remainder of this section will focus on various ways of guiding Live s auto warping Remember that the metronome in the Control Bar will Auto Warp s Results in the Clip View 9 2 TIME WARPING SAMPLES 119 probably come in handy as you warp longer pieces TAP 129 1 414 og T 1 1 f imo Q Desktop H The Metronome Switch It might happen that Auto Warp guesses the tempo correctly but gets the downbeat wrong To remedy this you can do the following e Zoom in and drag the 1 1 1 marker to the desired position e Use the start marker s PC Mac context menu to select the Set 1 1 1 Here command Set 1 1 1 Here Warp From Here 7 Warp From Here Start At 129 00 BPM Warp From Here Straight iis bean Warp 129 00 BPM From Here Warp As 256 Bar Loop Using the Context Menu to Direct Auto Warp Directing Auto Warp is also relatively simple when you have imported a perfectly cut loop You can tell Auto Warp to work accordingly using the Warp As Bar
11. Scenes can be renamed using the Edit menu s Rename command One can quickly rename several scenes by executing the Rename command and using the computer s Tab key to move from one scene to the next Each scene can actually store a tempo setting as part of its name so that it changes the project tempo upon launch this is accomplished by selecting the scene and renaming it with a viable tempo e 9 96 BPM Any tempo can be used as long as it is within the range allowed by Live s Tempo control 20 999 BPM ci 2 L DEus 4 A Session View Scene This Scene Will Change the Tempo to 96 BPM 7 3 THE TRACK STATUS FIELDS 82 7 3 The Track Status Fields You can tell a track s status by looking at the Track Status field just above the active track s mixer controls ze i mi m T The pie chart icon represents a looping Session clip The number to the right of the circle is the loop length in beats and the number at the left represents how many times the loop has been played since its launch Audio From H The progress bar icon represents a one shot non looping Session clip The value displays the remaining play time in minutes seconds WID Trom MIDI From A microphone icon appears in an audio track that is set to monitor its input A keyboard icon appears in a MIDI track under these same circumstances Audio From Audio F A Track Playing a Looping Session Clip A One shot Session
12. 328 Bank Channel Flip and Return Buttons 22 3 BANK CHANNEL AND FLIP RETURN 329 increments of eight or more if a fader extension is installed to the right or left respectively To go to the first last page hold down the Mackie Control s Shift button while pressing these 2 Channel You can use the channel and buttons to scroll through the additional tracks singly setting them to the Mackie Control s eight channel strips To go to the first last track hold down the Mackie Control s Shift button while pressing these 3 Flip When flip mode is enabled as shown by the illuminated LED above the button the functionality of the V Pots and faders is switched This is the case in all available assignment modes 4 Return By default the channel strips display only those tracks in Live that contain clips When return mode is enabled as shown by the illuminated LED above the button the channel strip will show and control the return tracks All assignments and modes will function otherwise identically 22 4 TRANSPORT 330 22 4 Transport ME CONTROL 8488 84 G4 Gee e Fama 0000 marane ascom e e MACKIE a E e rinnnagnmam amm pn rame um rt ran pendens B Eg 88 O ini 5s z u JU EIL UU T TUR
13. Live will search for the contents typed in the Search field throughout the entire Browser root Alternatively you can search within a single folder in the Browser with the PC 6 Mac context menu s Search In Folder command After entering search criteria begin the search by pressing on your computer key board Live will find files that contain the search criteria in their name or suffix e g wav The search results will also include files that contain the entered criteria in any part of their file path This means that a search for bass for example will yield not only files with names containing the word bass but also those located in folders with names containing the word bass Compressed sample metadata tags are also included in the search making it possible to search for songs from a specific album or artist for example Searching file paths and metadata can be deactivated with the Search In Path and Search In Metadata settings available in Live s Options menu or via the context menu The names of MIDI tracks within multitrack MIDI files are also included in searches Note that the first search of any folder will always take longer than subsequent searches as Live creates an index of the folder s contents to facilitate efficient searching You can abort an in progress search with the Exit Search button located to the right of the Search field A second click on this button closes Search Mode returning the Browser to
14. mae The entire device group along with its component device settings can be stored as a preset by clicking its Preset Save button and typing a new name in the Device Browser Groups containing an instrument are stored with the respective instrument in the Device Browser groups without an instrument appear in the MIDI Effect Groups or Audio Effect Groups folders Device groups can be browsed loaded organized searched and used just like single device presets Devices can be ungrouped via the Ungroup Edit menu command Ctr G PC G _ 8G Mac shortcut or respective PC 5 Mac context menu command 15 2 Using Plug Ins The collection of devices that you use in Live can be extended with plug ins Live supports Steinberg Media s VST Plug ins and Apple Computer s Audio Units Plug ins Mac OS X only A Device Group in the Track View 15 2 USING PLUG INS 202 Working with VST and Audio Units Plug ins is very much like working with Live devices VST and Audio Units instruments can only be placed in Live MIDI tracks and like Live instruments they will receive MIDI and output audio signals Plug in audio effects can only be placed in audio tracks or following instruments Please see the section on working with Live devices for general information about working with devices in Live TAP 12 414 Oe EXT Y Apple 1 Audio v E AuBandpass PHOENIX v iE AUDynamicsProcessor AUGraphicEQ T v iE AUHighS
15. 1 to provide a correct interpretation of the flow of musical time in the sample 2 to mess up the flow of time in the sample If a single event in a percussion loop comes late just pin it to the Warp Marker which shows the beat position at which you actually want to hear that event You may want to pin the adjacent beat positions as well to avoid affecting neighboring regions in the sample Using Warp Markers to Manipulate the Groove Removing a sample s natural groove by applying Warp Markers is an interesting creative method particularly in conjunction with Live s ability to impose an artifical groove onto clips in real time 9 2 TIME WARPING SAMPLES 118 9 2 5 Syncing Longer Pieces Live s Auto Warp algorithm makes longer samples and entire songs readily available for integration into your project You can use the Browser to import long samples or MP3 Ogg Vorbis Ogg FLAC and FLAC files When you drag a file into Live that is too long to justify the assumption that it is a loop or a one shot Live will auto warp the clip by default though this can be changed in the Default Preferences Note that for the auto warp mechanism to work files which are being imported into the program for the first time will need to undergo a first time analysis process and will not be immediately available for playing or editing As explained in the section in this manual on analysis files analysis can be batch processed with the
16. Cti J 6 PC 8 6 Mac 7 8 9 and 0 shortcuts Note that any setting other than Global or None will quantize the clip s launch when it is triggered by Follow Actions 11 4 VELOCITY 142 11 4 Velocity Clip Launch Sample egatc The Velocity Amount The Velocity Amount control allows you to adjust the effect of MIDI note velocity on the clip s volume If set to zero there is no influence at 100 percent the softest notes play the clip silently For more on playing clips via MIDI see the respective section 11 5 Legato Mode Clip Launch Sample Leoa egato D Rep Saw The Legato Mode antizat Hi Q Fade RAM Switch Suppose you have gathered in one track a number of looping clips and you now want to toggle among them without losing the sync For this you could use a large quantization setting one bar or greater however this might limit your musical expression Another option which works even with quantization turned off is to engage Legato Mode for the respective clips When a clip in Legato Mode is launched it takes over the play position from whatever clip was played in that track before Hence you can toggle clips at any moment and rate without ever losing the sync 11 6 FOLLOW ACTIONS 143 Legato Mode is very useful for creating breaks as you can momentarily play alternative loops and jump back to what was playing in the track before Unless all the clips involved play the
17. Dragging and dropping material from the Browser into the space to the right of Session View tracks or below Arrangement View tracks will create a new track and place the new clip s there 3 Rhodes 4 Perc s 5 Beats Digital 02 e In the Session View double clicking or pressing on a file in the Browser will automatically create a new track to the right of the other tracks and load it with the clip e Files can be dropped directly into Live from the Explorer Windows Finder Mac 5 1 5 File Maintenance in the Browser You can use Lives File Browsers for all of the file maintenance activities that you are familiar with on your operating system e Move files and folders by dragging and dropping or by copying cutting and pasting Copying cutting and pasting can be done with either Edit menu commands or key board shortcuts A file can be moved from one File Browser to another by dragging it Dropping a Clip to Create a New Track 5 2 SAMPLE FILES 52 over the target Browser s 5 button Rename files and folders using the Edit menu s Rename command or the Cti J R PC G 38 R Mac shortcut Cancel renaming with the key Create folders by opening the context menu with PC amp Mac and then selecting the Create Folder command Delete files and folders using the Edit menu s Delete command or your computer s Backspace or Delete key De
18. Filter frequency is modulated by note pitch according to this setting A value of 100 means that the frequency doubles per octave The center point for this function is C3 Filter Envelope Rates Velocity Time lt Vel This parameter exists for filter pitch LFO and volume envelopes It is therefore listed in the section on envelopes Filter Frequency Envelope Envelope Filter frequency is modulated by the filter envelope according to this setting A value of 100 means that the envelope can create a maximum frequency shift of approximately 9 octaves LFO Shell and Display LFO On This turns the LFO low frequency oscillator on and off Turning it off when it is unused saves some CPU power 20 3 OPERATOR 308 LFO Waveform Select from among several typical LFO waveforms Sample and Hold creates random steps and Noise supplies band pass filtered noise All waveforms are band limited to avoid unwanted clicks Cyclic waveforms restart with each note on message LFO Range The LFO covers an extreme frequency range Choose Low for a range from 50 seconds to 30 Hz or Hi for 8 Hz to 12 kHz Due to the possible high frequencies the LFO can also function as a fifth oscillator LFO Rate Rate This sets the rate of the LFO The actual frequency also depends on the setting of the LFO Range and the LFO Rate Key controls LFO Amount Mod This sets the intensity of the LFO Note that the actual effect also depends on the LFO envelope
19. In the following sections we will look at some practical examples and ideas for Follow Actions 11 6 1 Looping Parts of a Clip Let s say that you want to play a longer clip but then you want only the last eight bars to loop You can set this up using Follow Actions 1 Drag the clip into the Arrangement View and make sure that the Clip View s Loop switch is not activated Use the Edit menu s Split command to split the clip between the non looping and looping parts 2 Click and drag the resulting two clips into the Session View by letting the mouse cursor hover over the Session View selector Drop the two clips into a track They now form a Follow Action group 2 Audio 3 Audio 4 MIDI 3 Setup Follow Actions for the first clip You will want to make Follow Action Time equal to the clip s length Set the Follow Action A chooser to Play Next Clip Creating a Group With the Two Clips 11 6 FOLLOW ACTIONS 146 with a Chance setting of 1 leaving Follow Action B alone Now this clip is set up to advance to the looping clip after it plays 4 Activate the Loop switch for the second clip The first clip will now proceed to the second after it has played in its entirety the second clip will simply play in a loop until it is stopped 11 6 2 Creating Cycles One of the most obvious possibilities that Follow Actions open up is using a group of samples to form a musical cycle If we organize several clips as a group and use the
20. No Output 2 IOn Signals from the tracks can be sent to the outside world via the computer s audio and MIDI interfaces to other programs that are connected to Live via ReWire or to other tracks or on olm devices within Live Likewise a track can be set up to receive an input signal to be played through the track s devices Again tracks can receive their input from the outside from a ReWire program or Track Routing Is Set up Using the In Out Section in the Arrangement Top or Session View Bottom 4 10 RECORDING NEW CLIPS 39 from another track or device in Live The Monitor controls regulate the conditions under which the input signal is heard through the track 4 10 Recording New Clips Audio tracks and MIDI tracks can record their input signal and thereby create new clips Recording is enabled on a track by pressing its Arm button Hold down the PC Mac modifier to arm several tracks at once When the Control Bar s Record button is on every armed track records its input signal into the Arrangement Every take yields a new clip per track i H o T me a a 1 2 3 4 EA A B A B E A Track Arm Button as Appears in the Session View It is also possible to record into Session View slots on the fly This technique is very useful for the jamming musician as Session recording does not require stopping the music When a track is armed its Session slots e
21. RGR 4 50 kHz 0 47 IGOR 0 0 dB Size eS Diffuse Level 830 Hz 585 0 30Hz 175 100 00 Tow 90 0 Hz 075 o23Hz 075 0 0 dB Predelay Shape Stereo Image Decay Time Freeze Density Scale Dry Wet 2 50 ms 0 50 100 00 1 20 s 60 96 40 The Reverb Effect 18 21 1 Input Processing The input signal passes first through high and low cut filters whose X Y controller allows changing the band s center frequency X axis and bandwidth Y axis Either filter may be switched off when not needed to save CPU power Predelay controls the delay time in milliseconds before the onset of the first early reflection This delays the reverberation relative to the input signal One s impression of the size of a real room depends partly on this delay Typical values for natural sounds range from 1ms to 25ms 18 21 REVERB 268 18 21 2 Early Reflections These are the earliest echoes that you hear after they bounce off a room s walls before the onset of the diffused reverberation tail Their amplitude and distribution give an impression of the room s character The Shape control sculpts the prominence of the early reflections as well as their overlap with the diffused sound With small values the reflections decay more gradually and the diffused sound occurs sooner leading to a larger overlap between these components With large values the reflections decay
22. modes Each filter band can be turned on or off independently Turn off bands that aren t in use to save CPU power To edit the filter curve click and drag on one of the filter dots in the XY View Horizontal movement changes the filter frequency while vertical movement adjusts the filter band s gain To adjust the filter O also called resonance or bandwidth hold down the PC Mac modifier while dragging the mouse You can also use the numbered filter selector buttons to select a band for editing then edit parameter values with the Freq Gain and Q dials and or type values into the number fields below each dial To achieve really drastic filtering effects assign the same parameters to two or more filters or use more than one EO Four As boosting will increase levels and cutting will decrease levels use the Gain slider to optimize the output level for maximum level consistent with minimum distortion 18 9 Erosion t2 Erosion Noise Wide Noise Sine Freq Width Amount 183kHz 030 550 _ The Erosion Effect 18 10 FILTER DELAY 251 The Erosion effect degrades the input signal by modulating a short delay with filtered noise or a sine wave This adds noisy artifacts or aliasing downsampling like distortions that sound very digital To change the sine wave frequency or noise band center frequency click and drag along the X axis in the XY field The Y axis controls the modulation amount If you
23. modulations in conjunction with the loop feature can be used to create very very complex things The pitch envelope can be turned on or off for each individual oscillator and for the LFO using the Destination A D and LFO buttons in its display It can also be turned off altogether via the pitch section of the shell The pitch envelope amount is adjusted with the adjacent 20 3 OPERATOR 301 Pitch Env control Tip If the pitch envelope is only applied to the LFO and is looping it can serve as another LFO modulating the rate of the first And since the envelope of the LFO itself can loop it can serve as a third LFO modulating the intensity of the first 20 3 5 Filter Section A Filter il Banapass v Freq S 764 Hz J initial Peak OLDO Mode Loop Envelope As mentioned earlier the filters are not the main focus of this instrument However they can be very useful for modifying the sonically rich timbres created by the oscillators And since the oscillators also provide you with the classic waveforms of analog synthesizers you can very easily build a subtractive synthesizer with them The filter section offers 12 dB low pass band pass high pass and notch filters Note that the notch filter is not of true notch filter design but a bell shaped curve with very low gain which removes more of the frequencies around the center Filter cutoff frequency and resonance can be adjusted in the shell Fi
24. sample before it has been analyzed Please see the section on analysis for an explanation 5 2 1 The Decoding Cache To save computational resources Live keeps the decoded sample files of compressed samples in the decoding cache a sub directory of the Audio Record Folder Maintenance of the cache is normally not required as Live automatically deletes older files to make room for those that are new You can however impose limits on the cache size using the Misc Preferences Decoding Cache section The cache will not grow larger than the Maximum Cache Size setting and it will always leave the Minimum Free Space on the hard disk Pressing the Cleanup button in the Decoding Cache preferences will delete all files not being used by the current Live Set Decoding Cache Minimum Free Space 100GB Maximum Cache Size Of 100GB Cleanup Preferences for the Decoding Cache 5 2 SAMPLE FILES 54 5 2 2 Analysis Files asd An analysis file is a little file that Live creates when a sample file is brought into the program for the first time The analysis file contains data gathered by the program to help optimize the stretching quality speed up the waveform display and automatically detect the tempo of long samples When adding a long sample to a project Live might tell you that it cannot play the sample before it has been analyzed This will not happen if the sample has already been analyzed i e Live finds an ana
25. simply say Pan slightly left 21 2 MIDI REMOTE CONTROL 318 There are several types of relative controllers Signed Bit Signed Bit 2 Bin Offset and Twos Complement Live can recognize the type of relative controller you are working with as you make remote control assignments and you can help this by moving the relative controller knob slowly to the left when you make the assignment If you know the relative controller type you can manually select it in the chooser that appears in the Status Bar at the bottom of the Live screen while mapping a Live control Live will do the following with relative MIDI controller messages e Session View Slots Value increment messages are treated like note on messages Value decrement messages are treated like note off messages e Switches Increment messages turn the switch on Decrement messages turn it off e Radio Buttons Increment messages make the radio button jump forward to the next available option Decrement messages make it jump backward e Continuous Controls Each type of relative MIDI controller uses a different interpre tation of the 0 127 MIDI controller value range to identify value increments and decrements Convention Mode Increment Decrement Relative Signed Bit 001 064 065 127 Relative Signed Bit 2 065 127 001 064 Relative Bin Offset 065 127 063 001 Relative 2 s Comp 001 064 127 065 Please consult the documentation that came w
26. 00 0 008 193 Live Packs isis ese bre eer aee reg 63 Locate In Browser button 0008 49 foro io e ORDER Em 68 Lock Envelopes command i22 eed ba eknd 219 Lock Envelopes SWIECITas iius eir eeber ed px erg 219 loop brace in the Arrangement sssereeserereerer 70 With elip8 cisco rb aao raa a n E En RP asa 101 Loop Selection command suuueuueu 70 Loop Start Punch In Position fields 70 Loop switch Clip VIEW i seda exeo Ade ehe 101 233 234 Control B t 26e exe epe it pee bem bt des 70 with MIDIS cada igs dx b ARD rA eeaes 131 Loop To Next Locator command 69 Loop Punch Region Length fields 70 Loop Region controls 15 ose e bae Edna 97 101 and clip envelopes n n s dade se Y aie a 233 with MIDI CSS eus sahara OE rites 131 INDEX Loop Warp Short Samples preference 123 M Mackie Controleer incantare ioraa iias 321 mapping to MIDI keys ssssseses 41 314 and recording sisse esee 189 Master Out chooser sss ss esee esses 177 Master track sse 173 Metronome switch 00 e cece ee eee eee 186 MIDI exporthg ed sirere auia a ase a ed dna 58 quantizing E E EEES 132 187 sending bank program changes 109 LII poro M ax see clips MIDI controllers see Mackie Control MIDI controllers messages 0 eee eee 316 MIDI Editor 90 124 and drawing MIDI
27. 1 The Notes Box 8 3 THE NOTES BOX 109 8 3 1 Tempo Controls The Orig BPM field displays Live s interpretation of the tempo at which the clip s MIDI was recorded When dragging up or down in the Original BPM field or clicking the 2 and 2 buttons you will see that the notes in the MIDI Editor are correspondingly stretched or compressed This is useful for aligning notes that you have recorded without a tempo reference like Live s metronome 8 3 2 Bank and Program Change Live can send MIDI bank program change messages to external devices According to the settings in these controls launching a clip also sends its bank program change message If you are using Live to send MIDI to your synth this means that each MIDI clip in your Live Set can play a different sound on your synth Live offers messages for 128 banks with 128 sub banks each of which has 128 programs Please see the documentation that came with your synthesizer to determine how many of these messages it can use If you do not want your clip to send program or bank change messages simply set the bank program choosers to None 8 3 3 MIDI Loop Region These controls manage how the contents of a MIDI clip are played and shown in the MIDI Editor They work the same way as those for audio clips In the MIDI Editor the zoom scroll area is located above the beat time ruler the scrub area just below 8 4 CLIP DEFAULTS AND UPDATE RATE 110
28. 23 1 SYNCHRONIZING VIA MIDI 337 Then activate external sync either by switching on the EXT button in the Control Bar or using the External Sync command in the Options menu The upper indicator LED next to the EXT button will flash if Live receives useable sync messages dE m e When Live is synced to an external MIDI device it can accept song position pointers from this device syncing it not only in terms of tempo but in terms of its position in the song If the master jumps to a new position within the song Live will do the same However if the Control Bar s Loop switch is activated playback will be looped and song position pointers will simply be wrapped into the length of the loop 23 1 3 MIDI Timecode Options Timecode options can be set up per MIDI device Select a MIDI device from the MIDI Sync Preferences Active Device list to access the settings The MIDI Timecode Frame Rate setting is relevant only if MIDI Timecode is chosen from the MIDI Sync Type menu The MIDI Timecode Rate chooser selects the type of Timecode to which Live will synchronize All of the usual SMPTE frame rates are available When the Rate is set to SMPTE All Live will auto detect the Timecode format of incoming sync messages and interpret the messages accordingly Note that you can adjust the Timecode Setting up Live as a MIDI Slave The External Sync Switch 23 2 CONNECTING VIA REWIRE 338 format that is use
29. 291 setting assigns higher notes a higher LFO rate If Key is set to zero all voices LFOs have the same rate and may just differ in their phase The LFO will modulate the filter pitch panorama and volume according to the setting of the LFO amount controls in each of these sections The time taken for the LFO to reach normal level can be set with the Attack control 20 2 7 Pitch Pan Volume and Voices Simpler plays back a sample at its original pitch if the incoming MIDI note is C3 however the Transpose control allows transposing this by 48 semitones Pitch can also be modulated by an LFO or pitch envelope using the amount controls in this section The pitch envelope is especially helpful in creating percussive sounds Simpler reacts to pitch bend MIDI messages with a sensitivity of 5 semitones You can also modulate the Transpose parameter with clip envelopes and external controllers The Voices parameter sets the maximum number of voices that Simpler can play simultane ously If more voices are trying to play than what you have allocated with the Voice control voice stealing will take place in which the oldest voice s will be dropped in favor of those that are new For example if your Voices parameter is set to 8 and ten voices are all vying to be played the two oldest voices will be dropped Simpler does try to make voice stealing as subtle as possible A small LED near the Voices control flashes when a voice has been
30. 5 The Automation Control chooser selects a control from the device chosen in the Automation Device chooser The labels of automated controls have an LED 16 4 1 Drawing Envelopes With Draw Mode enabled you can click and drag to draw an envelope curve ze 2 adi To toggle Draw Mode select Draw Mode from the Options menu click on the Control Bar s Draw Mode switch or press PC Mac The Draw Mode Switch 16 4 DRAWING AND EDITING AUTOMATION 218 Drawing an Envelope Drawing creates steps as wide as the visible grid which you can modify using a number of handy shortcuts For freehand drawing you can hide the grid using the Snap to Grid Options menu entry or the Ctd 4 PC G 884 Mac shortcut 16 4 2 Editing Breakpoints With Draw Mode off the envelope display looks and works differently The line segments and the breakpoints connecting them become draggable objects Clicking and dragging in the envelope s background defines a selection Here is what you can do e Double click at a position on a line segment to create a new breakpoint there e Double click on a breakpoint to delete it e Click and drag a breakpoint to move it to the desired location If the breakpoint you are dragging is in the current selection all other breakpoints in the selection will follow the movement 16 4 DRAWING AND EDITING AUTOMATION 219 To Move all Breakpoints Within the Selection Drag Any One of Them Your move
31. 8 4 Clip Defaults and Update Rate You can change the rate at which Live applies your Clip View settings to a running clip Clip View changes will be quantized by the rate selected from the Clip Update Rate chooser in the Misc Preferences Certain clip settings such as Launch Mode and Warp Mode can be set up as defaults for all new clips This is done in the the Default Preferences Chapter 9 Tempo Control and Warping Unlike music stored on tape or in a traditional digital audio workstation the music in Live remains elastic at all times Live is capable of time warping samples while streaming them from disk so as to synchronize them to the current project tempo This happens without affecting the pitch which can be changed independently Mixing and matching audio from different origins is therefore extremely easy 9 1 Tempo 9 1 1 Setting the Tempo ges EL 111 The Control Bar s Tempo Field 9 1 TEMPO 112 The Control Bar s Tempo field allows you to change the playback tempo of your Live Set at any time in real time You can even automate the tempo to create smooth or sudden tempo changes along the song timeline You can have an external sequencer or drum machine play along with Live or have Live play along with the sequencer The respective settings are made in the MIDI Preferences and the EXT switch next to the tempo control is activated to have Live follow an external MIDI clock source Please refer to the secti
32. Absynth wfComputer K T Track Out Monitor Monito Monitor Recording the Output of a Complex Instrument in Audio Tracks e 9990990900000 e 909000000000 A setup similar to the one described above accomplishes the task We have one MIDI track hosting the virtual instrument and we use additional audio tracks to record the audio result of playing the instrument 12 7 INTERNAL ROUTINGS 162 12 7 3 Creating Submixes 1 Snare 2 Bass 3 Hi Hats 4 Submix 5 Audio Tue Des hudio From Audio From X AudioFrom AudioFrom Audio From Ext In Ext In gt No input No input 1 2 n a 1 2 n a Monitor Monitor Off Oni Auto On Ato Oif Audio To Audio To Audio To 4 Submix 4 Submix 4 Submix Master Track In Track In Track In o S S S Submixing the Individual 4 Drums of a Drum Kit flonitor On Auto Off Audio To vil aster A A A a nev 9 Suppose we have the individual drums of a drum kit coming in on separate tracks for multitrack recording In the mix we can easily change the volumes of the individual drums but adjusting the volume of the entire drum kit against the rest of the music is less convenient Therefore we add a new audio track to submix the individual drums The drum tracks are all set to output to the submix track which outputs to the
33. Browse Mode Beginning a new search aborts any current searches by default a Diait 1a A useful feature of Live s Browser search function is the Locate In Browser button found to the right of the Search field After finding a particular file in Search Mode you can select the file and click this button to open the file in Browse Mode where its location in the folder hierarchy will be displayed Exiting Search Mode 5 1 WORKING WITH THE FILE BROWSERS 50 Live allows you to preview files in the File Browser before they are imported into the program Previewing is activated using the Browser s Preview switch Click on the files or use and 4 to select and listen to them You can adjust the previewing volume using the Preview Volume knob in the mixer T If your audio hardware offers multiple audio outs you can privately audition or cue files via headphones connected to a separate pair of outs while the music continues to play To learn how to set up Live for cueing please refer to the appropriate manual section Hint You can preview files even when the Preview switch is not activated by pressing The Locate In Browser Button The Preview Switch The Preview Volume Knob 5 1 WORKING WITH THE FILE BROWSERS 51 5 1 4 Adding Clips from the Browser There are several ways to add clips to a Live Set e Files can be dragged and dropped from the File Browsers into tracks in the Session or Arrangement View
34. CPU spent on Simpler by doing some of the following e Turn off the Filter if it is not needed e Use filter types that are less expensive when possible A filter s cost correlates with the steepness of its slope a LP 24 is more expensive than a LP 12 Turn off the LFO for a slightly positive influence on CPU Stereo samples need significantly more CPU than mono samples as they require twice the processing Decrease the number of simultaneously allowed voices with the Voice control 20 3 OPERATOR 293 20 3 Operator ul Attack Initial Operator is an advanced and flexible synthesizer that combines the concept of frequency modulation FM with classic subtractive synthesis It utilizes four multi waveform oscillators that can modulate each other s frequencies creating very complex timbres from a limited number of objects Operator includes a filter section an LFO and global controls as well as individual envelopes for the oscillators filter LFO and pitch The full version of Operator is not included with the standard version of Live but is a special feature available for purchase separately For details please visit the Ableton webshop where you will be offered the opportunity to buy Operator online Once you have purchased Operator you will need to unlock it before using it as described in the chapter on unlocking 20 3 1 General Overview The interface of Operator consists of two parts the display
35. Cirl Alt G6 HAt Hide Show Sends cw J At S G Se Alt JE 347 25 2 ACCESSING MENUS Windows Macintosh Hide Show Mixer Ctrl At J u G 8At uM Hide Show Crossfader Ctr J At F G HAt SF Open the Preferences N A So Bil Close the Preferences N A Esc 25 2 Accessing Menus 348 Under Windows you can access each menu by pressing and the first letter of the menu Att JF for File for instance While a menu is open you can use e YJ to navigate the menu items e to open the neighboring menu e Return to choose a menu item 25 3 Adjusting Values Windows Macintosh Increment Decrement x HA Large Increment Decrement Page Page y Page t Page Return to Default Delete Type in Value 0 9J 0 9 Go to Next Field Bar beat 16th mm Abort Value Entry Esc Esc Confirm Value Entry Return Return 25 4 BROWSING 349 25 4 Browsing In addition to the shortcuts shown here editing shortcuts can also be used in the Browser Windows Macintosh Activate Browser Search Mode cu J J F SG BA JE Load Selected Item From Browser Return Return or Double Click or Double Click S
36. Clip Monitoring the Input Playing the Arrangement 7 4 SETTING UP THE SESSION VIEW GRID 83 If the track is playing clips from the Arrangement a miniature display representing the Arrangement clips being played appears 7 4 Setting Up the Session View Grid Clips arrive in the Session View by being imported from the File Browsers or through recording be 7 0 3 106 1 be r7 3 8106 8 9 09 09 90 0 0 0 fie r8 d 116 okeas R If you are dragging multiple clips into the Session View Live defaults to arrange them vertically in one track Hold down PC Mac prior to dropping them so as to lay the clips out in one scene Clips can be moved around the Session grid by drag and drop To move several clips at once select them by using the amp or Ct PC Mac modifier before dragging You can also click into an empty slot and rubber band select from there Scenes can be reordered by drag and drop as well Dropping Multiple Clips Into the Session View 7 4 SETTING UP THE SESSION VIEW GRID 84 7 4 1 Select on Launch By default clicking a Session View clip s Launch button also selects the clip since you will typically want the Clip View to show the newly launched clip However some power users don t want the current focus e g a return track s devices to disappear just because a clip has been launched especially when starting a clip in order to try it with the retu
37. In Device Browser and will not be re scanned again until they are reinstalled 15 3 2 VST Programs and Banks Every VST Plug in instance owns a bank of programs A program is meant to contain one complete set of values for the plug in s controls 1H M i P vir 5 m WarpVox hg To select a program from the plug in s bank use the chooser below the title bar The number of programs per bank is fixed You are always working in the currently selected program that is all changes to the plug in s controls become part of the selected program Note that VST programs are different from Live device presets Whereas the presets for a Live device are shared among all instances and Live Sets the VST programs belong to this specific instance of the VST Plug in The VST Plug In Program Chooser 15 3 VST PLUG INS 210 gt more feedback mach z pad makeu O Renaming a VST Plug In Program To rename the current program select the VST program chooser and execute the Edit menu s Rename Plug In Preset command Then type in a new program name and confirm by pressing Return The VST Program Bank Load Button Left and The VST Program Bank Save Button Right VST programs and banks can be imported from files Clicking the VST Program Load button brings up a standard file open dialog for locating the desired file Windows only Please select from the File Type menu whether you want to locate V
38. MIDI sync master and slave e MIDI Timecode MIDI Timecode is the MIDI version of the SMPTE protocol the standard means of synchronizing tape machines and computers in the audio and film industry A MIDI Timecode message specifies a time in seconds and frames 335 23 1 SYNCHRONIZING VIA MIDI 336 subdivisions of a second Live will interpret a Timecode message as a position in the Arrangement Timecode messages carry no meter related information when slaving Live to another sequencer using MIDI Timecode you will have to adjust the tempo manually Tempo changes cannot be tracked Detailed MIDI Timecode preferences are explained later in this chapter With respect to MIDI Timecode Live can only act as a MIDI sync slave not a master 23 1 1 Synchronizing External MIDI Devices to Live Live can send MIDI Clock messages to an external MIDI sequencer or drum machine After connecting the sequencer to Live and setting it up to receive MIDI sync turn the device on as a sync destination in Live s MIDI Preferences m The lower indicator LED next to the Control Bar s EXT button will flash when Live is sending sync messages to external sequencers 23 1 2 Synchronizing Live to External MIDI Devices Live can be synchronized via MIDI to an external sequencer After connecting the sequencer to Live and setting it up to send sync use Live s MIDI Preferences to tell Live about the connection Choosing a MIDI Slave for Live
39. Master The submix track gives us a handy volume control for the entire drum kit 12 7 4 Several MIDI Tracks Playing the Same Instrument Consider a MIDI track containing a virtual instrument a Simpler playing a pad sound for example We have already recorded MIDI clips into this track when we realize that we would like to add an independent parallel take for the same instrument So we add another MIDI 12 7 INTERNAL ROUTINGS 163 track We could now drag another Simpler into the new track but we would really like to reuse the Simpler from the pad track so that changing the pad s sound affects the notes from both tracks MIDI From MIDI From All Ins Ait Ins v 1 All Chann e E All Chann e Monitor Monitor On Auto On Auto Audio To MIDI To Master B Pad v Feeding an Additional MIDI Track Into an l Existing MIDI Track to ll Reuse its Instrument This is accomplished by setting the new MIDI track s Output Type chooser to Pad Note that the Output Channel chooser now offers a selection of destinations We can either feed the new track s output into the input of the pad track or we can directly address the Simpler The Track In option in the Output Channel represents the pad track s input signal the signal to be recorded which is not what we want We instead select Simpler Ch 1 to send the new track s MIDI directly to the Sim
40. Play Next Clip Follow Action with each clip they will play one after the other ad infinitum or until we tell them to stop Cycles can be peppered with occasional rearrangements through the addition of other Follow Actions such as Play Any Clip with smaller relative Chance settings 11 6 3 Temporarily Looping Clips There are some interesting applications of Follow Actions when it comes to creating tem porary musical loops The default setting for Follow Action is actually a 1 0 chance that Nothing happens after the Follow Action Time which means that there is effectively no Follow Action But now imagine a group consisting of one single clip Follow Action A is set to Play Clip Again with a Chance of 8 Follow Action B is set to None with a Chance of 1 The clip uses a long sample and Follow Time is set to one bar Clicking on the clip will play the first bar after which it will be very likely that it will play the first bar again However after a few repetitions it will eventually come to Action B Nothing and continue playing the rest of the sample 11 6 FOLLOW ACTIONS 147 Or a clip can be played from its start to a specific point when its Follow Action tells it to Play Next Clip The same file can be used in the next clip in the group but this one can be set to loop This second clip can have any manner of Follow Action settings so that it might then play forever for a specified time or until random ch
41. Resonators effect 0 cece ccc neces 265 return tracks cc cece eee e cece unease 35 173 Reverb effect cocotte po tee be deeds 267 Diffusion Network 269 Early Reflections 0 scene eens 268 Global Settings seen eee eee 268 Input Processing sisse eh 267 OULDUL PR EET 269 Reverse button sisse 107 Revert Offset button 0 0 0 esses 95 ReWire ole dete diddddadedtde adi vada 338 live as master cetero ERZV S ES 156 Live as Slave ccc cee e 340 recordings sd ees ee oper nn see recording tutorialSi cssc RR bs see Ableton Root button sc eres et pre rrr decane 47 FOUUNG rep laicays Poa tesira eri eas 37 149 and computer KeVB iiec ele enit exor eis 154 and external audio in out 6 152 and external MIDI in out 153 and instruments 00 0 ccc e cece eee 162 and layering 0 cece cece eee eee ee eee 167 and post effects recording 160 INDEX and recording MIDI as audio 161 and ReWire sss 156 and sidechain Inpllbis seca qa a ERR ek 166 between tracks 0 e cece eee eee eee 159 for creating submixes 0 0 eee ee 162 with external synthesizers 155 S rcg CP see Ableton DAM PIS SES 90 Sami ple Displays uo Loco Eo eor rid 90 98 Sample Editor preference 000000 103 jjjjs c PNE 29 destructive editing lesse 103 high
42. Return or Double Click or Double Click 25 20 Using the Context Menu A context menu is available in Live for quick access to many commonly used menu items To access the context menu PC Mac on the part of the interface where you would like to execute a particular command It is worth noting that Live s context menu may sometimes contain applicable settings from the Preferences You should change these options with care as they will affect not only the currently selected item but the general settings of the program Some commands only appear in the context menu These are the Create Folder Analyze Audio Search In Folder Close All Folders and Refresh commands from the Browser the 25 20 USING THE CONTEXT MENU 358 special grid marker commands for directing Auto Warp detailed options for zoom adaptive and fixed grid line width and copying and pasting for Operator s envelopes and oscillators Chapter 26 Index 359 Index A Ableton e mail addresses Sal S cile ela ku e el YR EIU aV Ue 21 technical SDBBOFE 25e Lage rra RE hn 21 web addresses gore cr T RR 340 registration eis netter a rr ebendus 14 tutorial Saioaren aaee ARP 340 unlocking eee eee etes 16 WEBS Bac vxus iris p ada Papb Ra ddcPUpi dd 19 Active Devices list esses cece eee eee 153 Adaptive Grid Options cass osx uedes sau ad iX asa 73 Add Remove Stop Button command 84 analysis files esses 5
43. SAMPLE BOX 97 When the Warp switch is off Live plays the sample at its original normal tempo irrespec tive of the current Live Set tempo This is useful for samples that have no inherent rhythmic structure percussion hits atmospheres sound effects spoken word and the like Turn the Warp switch on to play rhythmically structured samples such as sample loops music recordings complete music pieces etc in sync with the current song tempo To verify this note that a warped sample s speed follows the tempo as you change the Control Bar s Tempo control Live offers a number of controls to adjust the time warping engine for optimal stretching quality For accurate warping Live needs to know the sample s metrical structure For properly prepared loops tempo and duration are calculated automatically most of the time this is accurate enough that the sample is immediately ready for use in Live For other samples you may have to provide some hints The Control Bar s Tempo Control 8 2 THE SAMPLE BOX 98 8 2 2 Sample Loop Region and Display Zooming and Scrolling l a y E E m TOIT The Clip Zoom Scroll 7 Audio forall ee HP Area Zooming and scrolling in the Sample Display work much like they do in the Arrangement View Using the zoom scroll area in the top half of the waveform you can click and drag vertically to smoothly change the zoom level and horizontally to scroll the display SE ELEC alae
44. The Clip Overview provides additional zoom scrolling functionality It always shows the complete clip from start to end The black rectangular outline represents the part of the 8 2 THE SAMPLE BOX 99 clip that is currently displayed You can click within the outline and drag horizontally or vertically to scroll or zoom To have the Sample Display follow the play position and scroll automatically turn on the Follow switch or use the Follow command from the Options menu 2 e ove Se tat g NE The Follow Switch Playing and Scrubbing Clips The section of the sample that plays when a clip is launched is set with the clip s region and loop controls An unlooped clip will play from its start marker to its end marker or until it is stopped MUT Mi lli Hilt m A ANo i DLL T RT m vo UNAT VRTY NINN 0 00 00 010 The Clip Start and End Markers These markers can be clicked and dragged to new positions in the Sample Display or they can be moved with the and keys To move the entire clip region i e both the start and end markers select the start marker hold down 6 and use the arrow keys 8 2 THE SAMPLE BOX 100 You can also adjust the clip start and end numerically using the respective value fields to the left of the Sample Display For warped clips these fields display values as bars beats sixteenths for unwarped clips the display is in minutes seconds millis
45. Tone Volume ooo j B A C 4 N70 96 12 dB Typically FM synthesis makes use of pure sine waves creating more complex waveforms via modulation However in order to simplify sound design and to create a wider range of possible sounds we designed Operator to produce a variety of other waveforms including noise The instrument is made complete with an LFO a pitch envelope and a filter section Note that lots of classic FM synthesizers create fantastic sounds without using filters at all so we suggest exploring the possibilities of FM without the filter at first adding it later if necessary Operator will keep you busy if you wantto dive deep into sound design If you wantto break the universe apart completely and reassemble it you should also try modulating Operator s controls with clip envelopes or track automation Operator s Global Display 20 3 OPERATOR 296 20 3 2 Oscillator Section and Aliasing gt a Fixed Level 7 a 534 1 dB gi DID n The oscillators can basically play back five waveform types sine square sawtooth triangle and noise as chosen from the Wave chooser in the individual oscillator displays The first of these waveforms is a pure mathematical sine wave which is usually the first choice for many FM timbres Since FM synthesis has a long tradition in hardware synthesizers we added some variations of the pure sine wave that allow for more realistic modeling of
46. a composed piece of music back to the improvisational stage Chapter 8 Clip View The Clip View is where clip properties can be set and adjusted 4 Clicking the Clip _ Overview Opens the The Clip View is opened by clicking on the Clip Overview or double clicking a clip in the Session or Arrangement View 88 89 Y Ws m ll In the Session View clicking on a Track Status Field opens the Clip View for editing the clip that is currently running in the track The properties of more than one clip can be edited collectively in the Clip View as a multi selection To create a multi selection click and drag to highlight the clips or select one clip and use the PC Mac or modifiers to add to your selection The properties available in the Clip View for a multi selection depend on the contents of the clips generally only properties which the clips have in common are shown hords 3 Rhodes 4 Perc s 5 Beats PHOENIX rhodes shaker guitarchord rhodes shaker Drums A Drums B p Drums C Drums B guitarchord Drums E Controls such as sliders and knobs behave slightly differently when they are part of a multi selection If the clips in a multi selection have differing values for any particular knob or slider parameter clip transposition for example the range of these values will be displayed and can be adjusted with the control Dr
47. and delivers the mix at the instrument s audio out Any audio effects following Impulse in the same track process the composite signal Sometimes it is desirable to take an individual drum sound out of the mix for individual effects processing and mixing This is possible because Impulse offers its sample slots as audio sources to other tracks The Instrument Has Been Isolated in a Dedicated Track 12 7 Audio ESTLK idio From e o AR 22AMPLE 3 Audio 4 MIDI INTERNAL ROUTINGS 5M IDI melody 165 Drums EN NENNEN Audio From MIDI From 4 MIDI Y ij Slot 8 Env l Track Out ij ci drm 08 Impulse ij ci arm 13 Impulse drone All ins mje ij 5 4 045 Impulse ij 106fm 15 Impuise l zkvk 1 019 ait Impulse B l zkvk 2 089 aif Impulse ij olo 115 Impulse ij Slot 8 Empty Impulse Computert Auto 1 To 999990999 We simply create an audio track and select from its Input Type chooser the track with the Impulse The Input Channel chooser now offers in addition to Track Out the audio signal at the end of the track s device chain Impulse s eight individual outputs labeled according to the sample used in each slot Notice that routing an individual output from Impulse into another track automatically takes this signal out of Impulse s own internal mix This convenience is not standard behavior of most plu
48. are now replaced by Cue switches with headphone icons When a track s Cue switch is pressed that track s output signal will be heard through the output selected in the Cue Out chooser Note that the Track Activator switch on the same track still controls whether or not the track is heard at the Master output The Cue Volume control adjusts the volume of the cueing output The Cueing Related Session Mixer Controls 13 6 TRACK DELAYS 178 Note that when cueing is set up and activated the output of audio files that you are previewing in the Browser is also heard through the Cue Out 13 6 Track Delays A Track Delay control is available for every track in Live The control allows delaying or pre delaying the output of tracks in milliseconds in order to compensate for human acoustic hardware and other real world delays This section of the interface can be shown or hidden using its respective Mixer Section selector Track Delay Track Delay mi oooms oooms I Track Delay Track Delay 000ms 0 00ms_ We do not recommend changing track delays on stage as it could result in undesirable clicks or pops in the audio signal Micro offsets in Session View clips can be achieved using the nudge buttons in the Clip View however track delays can be used in the Arrangement View for such offsets Note that delay compensation for plug ins and Live devices is a separate feature and is automatic by default U
49. automation sss 215 220 and MIDI notes isssseeeeeeeees 133 and rendering to disk 0008 56 and return tracks 0 cee eee eee eee 174 ANd SCENES wide iiie b lebte Coe eer 81 and tracks soeben eoe dE e dexrs 172 in the Browser 0 cece eee eee eee eee eee 51 with Clip Stop buttons 2 c sessadigeusads des 84 WITCIDS RR Rm 92 with scenes se tsead eke saa eaten mer peer 84 effects xo ead ier Lo does danse he eid see devices Envelope EOilol estes bodie Fetet decre eats 90 223 envelopes see automation see clip envelopes Envelopes DOK ve wor ty etess SAU cb roS uta 90 223 EQ Four effect eorce ordo ee dried eee nes 249 EQ Three effect csse be ER eer 248 Erosion effect ecce cde ert DEP UE HER 250 Exclusive Atm eptibfi iv iudei Loss aser da races 172 Exclusive Solo option solos rra atr ERR ERR 172 Exit Search button 0 cece eee eee eee eee ee 49 Export MIDI Clip GOTIRTRTI Ead qucd parre ede 58 exporting audio see Render to Disk external sync see MIDI synchronization F QNO PE see Ableton File Browser esses 46 opening Sets with the e eee 24 Filter Delay effect 0 cee cece 251 Fixed Grid command e cee e eee ees 74 Fixed Grid Options iarsauehanaaasevadacin ER wx 73 FLAC Tile n see samples Flanget effect 2 2 oo cep seen heeded 253 Fold button 2 s ceci cete he bn 130 Felder DU
50. beats can shift slightly forward With a Global Groove setting of 50 for example the notes will wait until 2 3 of the way through the beat to play where an 8th note triplet would normally fall 16th and 32nd note swing works similarly but on a smaller scale Every other note shifts forward toward the nearest 16th or 32nd note triplet position Returning to our rubber band analogy we can see that Swing 8 can actually affect more than just 8th notes Actually any notes that do not lie directly on a beat will be affected when the rubber band is stretched including 16th and 32nd notes By the same token Swing 16 where our rubber band is anchored to positions just an 8th note apart can affect 32nd notes The Control Bar s Global Groove Control 8 1 THE CLIP BOX 94 Groove can be applied to both MIDI clips and audio clips Applying groove to audio clips does require that the Warp switch be activated and a Warp Mode other than Re Pitch selected If an audio clip is in Beats Mode the Transients setting must be greater than or equal to the Clip Groove chooser s swing setting e g with a Transients setting of 1 16 Swing 8 and Swing 16 can be used but not Swing 32 Because of this feature s dependency on note timing we recommend that you quantize MIDI clips prior to applying groove provided you want predictable results For audio clips any swing contained within the original sample can be removed by appropriately setting Warp M
51. by note velocity via the displays Amt lt Vel control The LFO s intensity is also affected by its envelope 20 3 4 Envelopes Operator has seven envelopes one for each oscillator a filter envelope a pitch envelope and an envelope for the LFO All envelopes are constructed similarly and feature some special looping modes An envelope s shape is defined by six parameters three rates and three levels A rate is the time it takes to go from one level to the next For instance a typical pad sound starts with the initial level inf dB which is silence moves with an attack rate to its peak level moves from there to the sustain level with a decay rate and then finally after note off occurs back to inf dB at the release rate Operator s display provides a good overview of the actual shape of any particular envelope and lets you directly adjust the curve by clicking and dragging Hint Envelope shapes can be copied and pasted from one place to another in Operator 20 3 OPERATOR 300 using the PC Ctr Mac context menu With FM synthesis it is possible to create spectacular endless permuting sounds the key to doing this is looping envelopes Loop Mode can be activated in the lower left corner of the display If an envelope in Operator is in Loop Mode and reaches sustain level while the note is still being held it will be retriggered The rate for this movement is defined by the Loop Time parameter Note that envelopes
52. by pressing a keyboard key turning a knob etc on your MIDI controller To assign a Session slot to a MIDI note range for chromatic playing first play the root key this is the key that will play the clip at the default transposition then while holding down the root key press keys below or above the root to define the limits of the range 4 Leave MIDI Map Mode by again pressing the MIDI Map Mode switch MIDI assignments can be deleted using your computer s Backspace or Delete key while MIDI Map Mode is active 21 2 3 Mapping to MIDI Notes MIDI notes send simple on off messages to Live s interface elements MIDI note on and note off messages have the following effects on controls in Live e Session View Slots Note on and note off messages affect clips in the slot according to their Launch Mode settings e Switches A note on message toggles the switch state e Radio Buttons Note on messages toggle through the available options 21 2 4 Mapping to Absolute MIDI Controllers Absolute MIDI controllers send messages to Live in the form of absolute values ranging from 0 to 127 These values lead to different results depending on the type of Live control 21 2 MIDI REMOTE CONTROL 317 to which they are assigned A value message of 127 for example might turn the Volume control on a Live track all the way up or play a Session View clip Specifically MIDI controller messages from 0 to 127 have the following effects on controls in Liv
53. cece cece eens 122 Time Ruler Format option cse ves red toes 337 Toggle Mode cece cece cent eee eee ee 140 Tones Mode 2 2 cscvcrscdetiveeses ove teceetedies 122 Track Activator switch eee e eee eee 172 Track Delay control 00 cece eee eee eee 178 Track Delays selector 0 cece eee eee eee 178 track meter scs is ceey eror Ste EI e neces 172 Track Status field iioc er e ere t edat 82 INDEX Track title bar i esses exe ed os 172 Track View 1 cece cece cece ee 191 uc cT 26 ACUVALNG ha visa ses aiwag as s neg Gla wey HR 172 audio and MIDIin 0e cece eee 28 automation in 1 ee eee eee ee 216 compensating for device delays 178 devices in sess 191 in Arrangement View 2 00008 71 iri Session VIEW sss vere bes vr e NE PESOS wean 80 INSEMING stat ce eee ao T 172 mixer controls in 2 cece cece eee eee 170 MULING 663 0209 023 desaais don peE A doaparawnes 122 ESIZING sins e ers rH ES Ee RE ERES 173 l et rn tracks apnena a S 123 returns esu DERE ERE E UI i RENE A apes 35 the Master track 0 0s eee e eee 123 unfolding 6 cee eee eee eee eee ee 72 217 Transient Resolution chooser 05 121 WANSPOM E 66 Transpose quick chooser button see quick chooser buttons Transposition knob cee eee eee eee 103 Trigger Mode sss 140 Triplet Grid command isses esee act tat adea 7
54. currently selected track in the main display Using the page buttons see item 5 below you can then scroll through the available devices and choose a particular device to edit by pressing the V Pot When you are done editing device settings you can change the selected track or press the device assignment switch again to return to scrolling and selecting devices When device settings are being changed the name and settings of the selected device are shown in the main display You can use the V Pot to change parameter values as described in the introduction to this section 22 2 V POTS AND ASSIGNMENT SWITCHES 327 5 Previous Next If in any of the above assignment modes especially with de vices more than one page of parameters is available these buttons will scroll through the pages LEDs above these switches illuminate when more pages are available before or after the current one 22 3 BANK CHANNEL AND FLIP RETURN 22 3 Bank Channel and Flip Return gt 8484 84 44 Ga ee ee 1 Bank If more than eight tracks are being used in Live these buttons can be used to page through the additional tracks and set them to the Mackie Control s eight channel strips The bank and buttons page the channel strips in
55. ee 263 Volume coritrol 5 cec i dtesawen tk wea 172 Volume quick chooser button see quick chooser buttons VST Plug ins using sleseeesees see devices W Warp BPM From Here command 120 Warp As Bar Loop command 119 Warp From Here Start At command 120 Warp From Here Straight command 120 Warp From Here command 52 o eee rre 120 Warp Markers i i eese seeds tan ida raa E dk aas 113 saving settings cece esee 105 Warp Mode chooser sidus adiu de aera vas 121 WarpVIodeSuss iid Ee gebe bie petet eeu 121 Warp SwitcIi cuis ssa dez cesa qi eeae iid eda taedas v 96 Warplng eeesescekesbien kh emo ek sa Red 113 lange Pleas M MMC 118 manipulating grooves 8 WZ odd length OD secsnsiiiimeseierawnctawes 116 straight loops Lise doa pio Fue sen RR Aa 114 UNCUT OOPS cse ipa a d Rd une frt alioi 115 WOeDSIOEEa deca ad eee ete bi OUR R see Ableton Widen Grid command seessssss 73 372
56. effective for creating vibrato effects The Offset control shifts the start point of each LFO along its waveform The Auto Pan Effect 18 3 BEAT REPEAT 240 The device s influence on incoming signals is set with the Amount control 18 3 Beat Repeat Grid Variation 1 00 kHz Filter 1 48 o Repeat No Tip Trigger Mix Ins Chance Gate Pitch Pitch Decay Volume Decay 63 0 9 16 0 0 dB 0 00 Beat Repeat allows for the creation of controlled or randomized repetitions of an incoming signal The Interval control defines how often Beat Repeat captures new material and begins re peating it Interval is synced with and set in terms of the project tempo with values ranging from 1 32 to 4 Bars The Offset control shifts the point defined by Interval forward in time If Interval is set to 1 Bar for example and Offset to 8 16 material will be captured for repetition once per bar on the third beat i e halfway or eight sixteenths of the way through the bar You can add randomness to the process using the Chance control which defines the likeli hood of repetitions actually taking place when Interval and Offset ask for them If Chance is set to 10026 repetitions will always take place at the given Interval Offset time if set to 096 there will be no repetitions The Beat Repeat Effect 18 3 BEAT REPEAT 241 Gate defines the total length of all repeti
57. envelope movements not only from one point in time to another but also from one parameter to another However there is obviously no meaningful conversion from a pan movement to say an equalizer frequency and all Live can do is somehow preserve the gesture 16 4 5 Editing the Tempo Automation The ability to dynamically stretch and compress audio to track any tempo or tempo variation is one of Live s specialties In Live the song tempo is just another automated control To edit the song tempo envelope unfold the Master track choose Mixer from the top envelope chooser and Song Tempo from the bottom one The Lock Envelopes Switch 16 4 DRAWING AND EDITING AUTOMATION 221 When adjusting the tempo envelope you might want to scale the value axis display which is the function of the two value boxes below the envelope choosers The left box sets the minimum and the right box sets the maximum tempo displayed in BPM Note that these two controls also determine the value range of a MIDI controller assigned to the tempo The Tempo Envelope Chapter 17 Clip Envelopes Every clip in Live can have its own clip envelopes The aspects of a clip that are influenced by clip envelopes change depending upon clip type and setup clip envelopes can do anything from representing MIDI controller data to modulating device parameters In this chapter we will first look at how all clip envelopes are drawn and edited and then get into the det
58. envelopes for any of the listed controllers by drawing steps or using breakpoints You can also edit clip envelope representations of controller data that is imported as part of your MIDI files or is created while recording new clips Names of controllers that already have clip envelopes appear with a little LED in the Control chooser Live supports most MIDI controller numbers up to 119 accessible via the scroll bar on the right hand side of the menu Note that devices to which you send your MIDI controller messages may not follow the conventions of MIDI control channel assignments so that Pitch Bend or Pan for example will not always achieve the results that their names imply 17 5 UNLINKING CLIP ENVELOPES FROM CLIPS 232 A MIDI Controller Clip 1716 Envelope Many of the techniques described in the following section on unlinking a clip envelope from its associated clip can be adapted for use with MIDI controller clip envelopes 17 5 Unlinking Clip Envelopes From Clips A clip envelope can have its own local loop region settings The ability to unlink the envelope from its clip creates an abundance of exciting creative options some of which we will present in the rest of this chapter 17 5 1 Programming a Fade Out for a Live Set Let us start with a straightforward example Suppose you are setting up a Live Set and wish to program a fade out over eight bars to occur when a specific clip is launched but all you have is
59. for Simpler and Operator 1 2 9 Using Devices e Browser based device preset management e Device groups for saving multi effect combinations together with instruments e Device delay compensation for Live and plug in instruments and effects e Live can receive MIDI messages from plug ins e VST Plug ins can be stored in various directories 1 2 WHAT S NEW IN LIVE 5 5 1 2 10 Miscellaneous e PO Mac context menus for many commands and settings e Zoom adaptive or fixed grid options e Count in recording e Monitoring status easily visible when the In Out section is hidden e Files Sets and presets can be dragged into Live from the Explorer Windows Finder Mac Chapter 2 First Steps When you install Live and run it for the first time you will be presented with the Products Preferences tab If you own Live you can authorize your copy of the software by selecting it from the listed products and clicking the Unlock button at the bottom of the window Please see the chapter on unlocking Live should you have questions or concerns that arise during the unlocking process If you do not yet own Live you can close the Preferences and proceed as Live will run in Demo Mode by default In Demo Mode you will be able to work with all of Live s features with the exception of saving and exporting 2 1 LEARN ABOUT LIVE 7 2 1 Learn About Live Live comes with a set of interactive lessons to take you step by step through
60. length change This means that the rythmical structure can become quite ambiguous with higher Pitch values The Pitch Decay control tapers the pitch curve making each repeated slice play lower than the previous one Warning This is the most obscure parameter of Beat Repeat Beat Repeat includes a combined low pass and high pass filter for defining the passed frequency range of the device You can turn the filter on and off and set the center frequency and width of the passed frequency band using the respective controls The original signal which was received at Beat Repeat s input is mixed with Beat Repeat s repetitions according to one of three mix modes Mix allows the origial signal to pass through the device and have repetitions added to it Insert mutes the original signal when 18 4 CHORUS 242 repetitions are playing but passes it otherwise and Gate passes only the repetitions never passing the original signal Gate mode is especially useful when the effect is housed in a return track You can set the output level of the device using the Volume control and apply Decay to create gradually fading repetitions 18 4 Chorus Chorus eo Delay 1 Delay 2 Modulation Polarity Highpass 7 1 00 kHz Feedback 00 lt Dry wet Amount Rate 300ms 7 00ms 7 90 ms 101Hz 50 The Chorus effect uses two parallel time modulated delays to create chorus
61. like Live requires a powerful CPU and a fast hard disk This section will provide some insight on these issues and should help you avoid and solve problems with running audio on a computer 24 1 Managing the CPU Load To output a continuous stream of sound through the audio hardware Live has to perform a huge number of calculations every second If the processor can t keep up with what needs to be calculated the audio will have gaps or clicks Factors that affect computational 342 24 1 MANAGING THE CPU LOAD 343 speed include the processor s clock rate e g speed in MHz or GHz architecture memory cache performance how efficiently the processor can grab data from memory and system bus bandwidth the computer s pipeline through which all data must pass For this reason many people involved with pro audio use computers that are optimized for musical applications The Control Bar s CPU meter displays how much of the processor s computational potential is currently being used For example if the displayed percentage is 10 percent the computer is just loafing along If the percentage is 100 percent the processor is being maxed out it s likely that you will hear gaps clicks or other audio problems Note that the CPU meter takes into account only the load from processing audio not other tasks the computer performs e 9 managing Live s user interface Audio calculations have the highest priority in Live Therefore even if th
62. of the decay segment If set to Beat or Sync it will start again after a given beat time In Sync Mode this behavior will be quantized to song time 20 3 OPERATOR 311 Envelope Beat Sync Rate Repeat The envelope will be retriggered after this amount of beat time as long as it is still on When retriggered the envelope will move at the given attack rate from the current level to the peak level Envelope Loop Time Time If a note is still on after the end of the decay sustain segment the envelope will start again from its initial value The time it takes to move from the sustain level to the initial value is defined by this parameter Envelope Rates lt Velocity Time lt Vel Envelope segments will be modulated by note velocity as defined by this setting This is especially interesting if the envelopes are looping Note that this modulation does not influence the beat time in Beat or Sync Modes but the envelope segments themselves Chapter 21 MIDI and Key Remote Control To liberate the musician from the mouse most of Live s controls can be remote controlled with an external MIDI controller and the computer keyboard This chapter describes the details of mapping to the following specific types of controls in Live s user interface 1 Session View slots Note that MIDI and computer key assignments are bound to the slots not to the clips they contain 2 Switches and buttons among them the Track and Device Activator switches t
63. of Selection Ctrl J At G SAt 25 14 Clip View Sample Display The shortcuts for zooming and loop region settings also work in the Sample Display Windows Macintosh Move Selected Warp Marker Select Warp Marker Cr J amp 369 G 88 09 Scroll Display to Follow Playback Move Clip Region with Start Marker 6 JSS 4 JSS 354 25 15 CLIP VIEW MIDI EDITOR 25 15 Clip View MIDI Editor 355 The shortcuts for zooming snapping drawing and loop region settings also work in the MIDI Editor Windows Macintosh Quantize Ctrl G 8 Scroll Editor Vertically y Page y Page Scroll Editor Horizontally Ct Page Page G Wk Pagel Page Copy Note Ctl Drag Alt J Drag Change Velocity From Note Editor Alt Drag G 88 Drag Add Delete Note in Edit Mode Double Click Double Click Scroll Display to Follow Playback Ctrl 88 Move Clip Region with Start Marker amp C jJ 25 16 Grid Snapping and Drawing Windows Macintosh Toggle Draw Mode cw B S 89 B Narrow Grid Ctl Jd c gi Widen Grid cu j 2 SG ee Triplet Grid Ctrl JB 83 Snap to Grid Cu J4 c Ba Fixed Zoom Adaptive Grid Ctrl 5 G 5 Bypass Snapping Whi
64. operation in ReWire slave mode differs from the usual operation in some regards e Live will not have direct access to the audio interfaces audio input output is handled by the ReWire master application No audio input will be available to Live e The sample rate is determined by the host application rather than by Live e External synchronization will be disabled synchronize to the ReWire master application instead Live will not send sync or controller messages to the MIDI output Controlling Live via MIDI is still possible e Live will not act as a ReWire master application For instance you cannot run Rebirth as a ReWire slave of Live while Live is running as a ReWire slave of Cubase You can however run both Live and Rebirth as ReWire slaves of Cubase at the same time 23 2 3 More on ReWire You can find tutorials on connecting Live to specific ReWire master programs at the Ableton tutorial website The Ableton FAQ website is the first place to go if you encounter ReWire related problems 1 http www ableton com tutorials 2http www ableton com faq 23 2 CONNECTING VIA REWIRE 341 If you cannot seem to find an answer there please contact the Ableton support team 3http www ableton com support Chapter 24 Computer Audio Resources and Strategies Real time audio processing is a demanding task for general purpose computers which were likely designed to run spreadsheets and surf the Internet An application
65. play for the length defined by the Length parameter Both parameters are defined as a percentage of the whole region so setting start to 25 percent and length to 50 percent for example will start playback 1 4 of the way through the sample and stop playback at the 3 4 mark using 50 percent of the sample Samples are played by Simpler as one shots or as loops depending on whether or not the Loop switch is active When looping is active the Loop control dictates the length of the loop starting from the end of the playing sample Simpler will play the first instance of a looped sample beginning with the Start point then continue playing only the length of the loop It is possible for glitches or pops to occur between a looped sample s start and end points 20 2 SIMPLER 289 due to the discontinuity in waveform amplitude i e the sample s loudness The Snap switch will help mitigate these by forcing Simpler s loop markers to snap to zero crossing points in the sample points where the amplitude is zero Note Snapping is based on the left channel of stereo samples It is therefore still possible even with Snap activated to encounter glitches in the right channel of a stereo sample You can also smooth the transition from loop end to loop start by using the Fade control which crossfades the two points This method is especially useful when working with long textural samples 20 2 3 Zoom Quite often one starts with a longer regi
66. pressed and released A Track s Crossfade Assign Buttons Each track has two Crossfade Assign buttons A and B The track can have three states with respect to the crossfader e f neither Assign button is on the crossfader does not affect the track at all 13 5 SOLOING AND CUEING 176 e If Ais on the track will be played unattenuated as long as the crossfader is in the left half of its value range As the crossfader moves toward the right across the center position the track fades out At the crossfader s rightmost position the track is muted e Likewise if B is on the track s volume will be affected only as the crossfader moves left across its center position It is important to understand that the Crossfade Assign buttons do not affect the signal routing The crossfader merely influences the signal volume at each track s gain stage The track can be routed to an individual output bus regardless of its crossfade assignment In studio parlance you can think of the crossfader as an on the fly VCA group As with almost everything in Live your crossfading maneuvers can be recorded into the Arrangement for later in depth editing To edit each track s crossfade assignment please choose Mixer from the Envelope Device chooser and X Fade Assign from the Control chooser The crossfader s automation curve is accessible when Mixer is chosen from the Master track s Device chooser and Crossfade is selected
67. rotary encoder to move the loop 8 2 THE SAMPLE BOX 103 through a sample in increments the size of the chosen quantization interval 8 2 3 Clip Pitch and Gain Sample Transpose Ost a ane The Clip Pitch and Gain Controls The Transpose control shifts the clip pitch in semitones The Detune field fine tunes the clip in cents 100 cents one semitone The Clip Gain slider calibrated in dB changes the clip gain 8 2 4 Destructive Sample Editing Sample Ie pl Save The Launch Sample p rant Editor Button The Launch Sample Editor button opens the sample in a sample editing application as specified in the Misc Preferences To process a sample in an external program you will have 8 2 THE SAMPLE BOX 104 to stop Live s playback Upon returning to Live the edited version of the sample will be played back The current set of Warp Markers is retained only if the sample length remains the same as before Remember that changes to one sample may affect other clips playing the same sample 8 2 5 Replacing the Clip s Sample To replace the sample referenced by the clip with a different sample drop the new sample directly from the File Browser into the Clip View Clip settings like pitch and volume will be retained The Warp Markers will be retained only if the new sample has the exact same length as the old sample Tip When bringing multitrack audio from another program into Live for remixing it is convenient to s
68. same sample differing by clip settings only you might hear dropouts when launching clips in Legato Mode This happens because you are unexpectedly jumping to a point in the sample that Live has had no chance to pre load from disk in advance You can remedy this situation by engaging Clip RAM Mode for the clips in question 11 6 Follow Actions Follow Actions allow creating chains of clips that can trigger each other in an orderly or random way or both A clip s Follow Action defines what happens to other clips in the same group after the clip plays A group is defined by clips arranged in successive slots of the same track Tracks can have an unlimited number of groups separated by empty slots Clip Launch Sample gt 1 The Follow Action Time control defines when the Follow Action takes place in bars beats sixteenths from the point in the clip where play starts The default for The Follow Action Controls 11 6 FOLLOW ACTIONS 144 this setting is one bar 2 The Follow Action choosers allow selecting two different Follow Actions A and B 3 The Chance A and Chance B controls set the likelihood of each of the two Follow Actions occurring If a clip has Chance A set to 1 and Chance B set to 0 Follow Action A will occur every time the clip is launched As we can see from this example a Chance setting of 0 means that an action will never happen Changing Chance B to 10 in this scenario m
69. sound assigned to each keyboard key Audio signals are recorded and played back using audio tracks and MIDI signals are lFor an introduction to digital audio and MIDI please see http img uoregon edu emi emi php and http www midi org The Play Stop Record and Back to Arrangement Buttons 4 5 AUDIO CLIPS AND SAMPLES 29 recorded and played back using MIDI tracks The two track types have their own corre sponding clip types Audio clips cannot live on MIDI tracks and vice versa Information about inserting reordering and deleting audio and MIDI tracks is found here 4 5 Audio Clips and Samples An audio clip contains a reference to a sample also known as a sound file or audio file or a compressed sample such as an MP3 file The clip tells Live where on the computer s drives to find the sample what part of the sample to play and how to play it When a sample is dragged in from one of Live s built in File Browsers Live automatically creates a clip to play that sample Prior to dragging in a sample one can audition or preview it directly in the Browser the switch in the Browser with the headphone icon activates previewing SampleLibrary D OAO T v cark water 1 Audi fal ca fu co PLYR 2 vw CELLULAR fu EASTLK fo fan fa generator Audie faa hard drive w misc ELECT Monitor f PHOENIX Live offers many options for playing samples in exciting new ways allowing you to create an ab
70. stolen Panorama can be set with the Pan control and this control can be further affected by a random factor or modulated by the LFO Finally the output volume of Simpler is controlled by the Volume control and can also be dependent upon note velocity as adjusted by the Velocity control Tremolo effects can be achieved by increasing the influence of the LFO over volume with the respective control 20 2 SIMPLER 292 20 2 8 Glide and Spread Simpler includes a polyphonic glide function When this function is activated new notes will start with the pitch of the last note played and then slide gradually to their own played pitch Glide can be turned on or off and adjusted with the Glide Time control Simpler also offers a special Spread parameter that creates a rich stereo chorus by using two voices per note and panning one to the left and one to the right The two voices are detuned and the amount of detuning can be adjusted with the Spread control Tip Whether or not spread is applied to a particular note depends upon the setting of the Spread parameter during the note on event To achieve special effects you could for instance create a sequence where Spread is 0 most of the time and turned on only for some notes These notes will then play in stereo while the others will play mono 20 2 9 Strategies for Saving CPU Power Real time synthesis needs lots of computing power However there are strategies for reducing CPU load Save the
71. subdivisions e g sixteenth notes The Phase control lends the sound stereo movement by setting the LFOs to run at the same frequency but offsetting their waveforms relative to each other Set this to 180 and the LFOs will be perfectly out of phase 180 degrees apart so that when one reaches its peak the other is at its minimum Spin detunes the two LFO speeds relative to each other Each delay is modulated at a different frequency as determined by the Spin amount Adjusting the HiPass control will cut low frequencies from the delayed signal The Dry Wet control adjusts the balance between the processed and dry signals Set it to 10096 if using Flanger in a return track 18 12 Gate The Gate effect passes only signals whose level exceeds a user specified Threshold A gate can eliminate low level noise that occurs between sounds e g hiss or hum or shape a The Gate Effect 18 12 GATE 255 sound by turning up the threshold to where it cuts off reverb or delay tails or truncates an instrument s natural decay The Threshold slider sets the gate s sensitivity If the gate is open and passing signal i e the signal exceeds the gate threshold the green LED lights The Floor parameter located above the threshold fader can allow attenuating signals below the threshold rather than just cutting them off If set to inf dB a closed gate will mute the input signal A setting of 0 00 dB means that even if the
72. surrounded on either side by the shell The shell offers the most important parameters in a single view and is divided into Thttp www ableton com shop The Operator Instrument 20 3 OPERATOR 294 eight sections On the left side you will find four oscillator sections and on the right side from top to bottom the LFO the filter section the pitch section and the global parameters If you change one of the shell parameters the display in the center will automatically show the details of the relevant section When creating your own sounds for example you can conveniently access the level and frequency of all oscillators at once via the shell and then adjust each individual oscillator s envelope waveform and other parameters in its display Operator can be folded with the triangular button at its upper left This is convenient if you do not need to access the display details Coarse Fine Fixed Level Q Q 1 Qae Each of Operator s oscillators can either output its signal directly or use its signal to modulate another oscillator Operator offers nine predefined algorithms that determine how the oscillators are connected An algorithm is chosen by clicking on one of the structure icons in the global display which will appear if the bottom right global section of the shell is selected Signals will flow from top to bottom between the oscillators shown in an algorithm icon Operator Folded 20 3 OPERATOR 295 Time
73. that each time the sample is dragged into the program it will automatically The Key MIDI Map Controls 4 14 SAVING AND EXPORTING 43 appear with these settings This is especially useful if you have made warp settings for a clip and want to use it in multiple Live Sets Exporting audio from Live can be done from both the Session and Arrangement Views Live will export the audio coming through on the Master output as an audio file of your specifications via Render to Disk Live can also export individual MIDI clips as MIDI files Exporting and saving material for later use in Live can be done very conveniently with the Live Clip format Session View clips can be dragged back out of a Live Set to the File Browsers and thereby exported to disk as Live Clips oe EX b Beats Pxoenix Acoust Backbeat 120 Intro PT Backbeat 120 R 1 f 20_KRide 0 Live Clips are a very powerful way of storing ideas as they save not only the clip s Clip View settings but also the corresponding track s instruments and effects chain Live Clips in the Browser can be previewed and added to any open Live Set just like sample files In the Live Set they restore the original clip s creative options Using Live Clips you can build your own personalized library of e MIDI sequences with matching instruments and effects e g a MIDI drum pattern with the associated Impulse and effects settings e Different regions or loops re
74. that the string track s output is audio and not MIDI When routing MIDI in from another track we are tapping the MIDI at the latest possible stage which is just before the instrument Chapter 13 Mixing 13 1 The Live Mixer Live includes a mixer section that is accessible from two views 169 13 1 THE LIVE MIXER 170 124 13 The Arrangement View Mixer In the Arrangement View the mixer appears as a horizontal strip to the right of the track area To display all mixer controls for a track unfold the track using the triangular button next to its name and adjust its height accordingly The Session View Mixer The Session View is a standard vertical mixer layout You ll likely find the Session View mixer more intuitive than the Arrangement mixer which comes in handy when you work with automation Note that the Tab key toggles between the Arrangement and Session Views The View menu options listed below show or hide mixer components You can use different 13 1 THE LIVE MIXER mixer view setups in the Session View and in the Arrangement View e In Out e Sends e Returns e Mixer e Track Delays e Crossfader 171 The Mixer Section selector on the right hand side of the screen makes it possible to quickly show or hide different mixer components Stop Clips Cue Out ii 12 Master Out Let s look at the mixer controls cu OME
75. the Arrangement display Navigating the Arrangement View 1 To smoothly change the zoom level click and drag vertically in the beat time ruler at the top of the Arrangement View you can also drag horizontally to scroll the display 2 To zoom in and out around the current selection use the computer keyboard s and keys To pan the display click and drag while holding the Ctrl PC Mac modifier 3 The Arrangement Overview is like a bird s eye view of your music It always shows the complete piece from start to end The black rectangular outline repre 6 2 TRANSPORT 66 sents the part of the Arrangement that is currently displayed in the Arrangement display below To scroll the display click within the outline and drag left or right to zoom out and in drag up and down 4 To change the displayed part of the Arrangement drag the outline s left and right edges 5 To see a specific part of the Arrangement in more detail click on itin the Overview and drag downwards to zoom in around that part Note that you can also drag horizontally to scroll the display Using this method you can zoom and scroll to focus around any part of the Arrangement with just one mouse motion 6 To have the Arrangement display follow the song position and scroll automati cally turn on the Follow switch or use the Follow command from the Options menu 6 2 Transport There are a number of ways to cont
76. the key features of the program The lessons are organized in a table of contents which can be opened directly in the program via the Help menu We highly recommend following the lessons Many users have told us that the lessons helped them get familiar with the program very quickly We also recommend that you read the Live Basics chapter which encapsulates everything that Live is and can do and is therefore a worthwhile read for both beginners and expe rienced users The remaining chapters of this manual serve as in depth reference for the material introduced in Live Basics 2 1 1 Using the Info View and Index Live s Info View tells you the name and function of the user interface element currently under the mouse 2 2 SETTING UP PREFERENCES 8 uL x D j uw various 1 2 3 4 Rh WAVES aif Info View Vinyl Distortion a Provides a brief description of the Tracing Model Crackle user interface element the mouse is Volume currently over To save screen space G fold in the Info View by clicking the o m A i 00 triangle shaped button in the lower left o 00 Fre 4H Blo32 ensity corner Pinch Soft Hard Stereo Mono The Info View If you require more information on a specific user interface element or topic please consult this reference manual The index found at the end of the manual contains the names of all user interface elements and will lead you to the relevant section 2 2 Setting up Preferen
77. their positions in the Arrangement 139 11 2 LAUNCH MODES 140 To view the Launch box open the Clip View of a Session View clip by double clicking the clip then activating the leftmost Clip View Box selector panel Use the Clip View Box Selector to Bring up the Launch Box Note that you can edit the launch settings of more than one clip at the same time by first selecting the clips and then opening the Clip View 11 2 Launch Modes Clip Launch Sample 44 1 kHz 16 Bit 1 Ct j BPM The Clip Launch Mode Edit Repl Save Chooser The Launch Mode chooser offers a number of options for how clips behave with respect to mouse clicks computer keyboard actions or MIDI notes e Trigger down starts the clip up is ignored e Gate down starts the clip up stops the clip e Toggle down starts the clip up is ignored The clip will stop on the next down 11 3 CLIP LEVEL OUANTIZATION 141 e Repeat As long as the mouse switch key is held the clip is triggered repeatedly at the clip quantization rate 11 3 Clip Level Quantization Launch Sample egat Edit Repi Quantization H O Fade RAM Global v The Clip Quantization e OU CIN Chooser The Clip Quantization chooser lets you adjust an onset timing correction for clip triggering To disable clip quantization choose None To use the Control Bar s Global Quantization setting choose Global Global quantization can be quickly changed using the
78. times The Dry Wet control adjusts the balance between the processed and dry signals Set it to wet only if using the Chorus in a return channel 18 5 COMPRESSOR 244 18 5 Compressor reti ec P 12 0 dB H Ratio Attack Release m 160 003ms 4 80 ms A Compressor reduces gain for signals above a user settable threshold Compression re duces the levels of peaks opening up more headroom and allowing the overall signal level to be turned up This gives the signal a higher average level resulting in a sound that is subjectively louder and punchier than an uncompressed signal The two most important parameters are the Threshold and the compression Ratio The Threshold slider sets where compression begins Signals below the threshold are not processed Signals above the threshold are attenuated by an amount specified by the Ratio parameter which sets the ratio between the input and output signal For example with a compression ratio of 3 1 if a signal above the threshold increases by 3 dB the compressor output will increase by only 1 dB If a signal above the threshold increases by 6 dB then the output will increase by only 2 dB The red gain reduction meter shows how much the gain is being reduced at any given moment The more reduction the more audible the effect a gain reduction above 6 dB or so might produce the desired loudness but significantly alters the sound and is easily capable of destroying its dynamic structure
79. to 1 the result is pretty brutal Each sample contains either a full positive or full negative signal with nothing in between Bit Reduction defines an input signal of OdB as 16 bit Signals above OdB are clipped and the red overload LED will light up Turning off Bit Reduction results in modest CPU savings 18 20 Resonators Resonators c2 9 4 Gain 0 00 dB The Resonators Effect 18 20 RESONATORS 266 This device consists of five parallel resonators that superimpose a tonal character on the input source It can produce sounds resembling anything from plucked strings to vocoder like effects The resonators are tuned in semitones providing a musical way of adjusting them The first resonator defines the root pitch and the four others are tuned relative to this pitch in musical intervals The input signal passes first through a filter and then into the resonators There are four input filter types to select from low pass band pass high pass and notch The input filter frequency can be adjusted with the Frequency parameter The first resonator is fed with both the left and right input channels while the second and fourth resonators are dedicated to the left channel and the third and fifth to the right channel The Note parameter defines the root pitch of all the resonators ranging from C1 to C5 It can also be detuned in cents using the Fine parameter The Decay parameter lets y
80. to receive its input signal from Track A This works because every track that delivers a signal of the appropriate type appears in Track B s Input Type chooser Audio To a 2 Track B Track In Both approaches result in Track A s output being fed into Track B Approach 1 leaves Track B s in out settings alone and we can at any time add more tracks that feed their output into Track B This is the method of choice for many to one routings such as submixes or several MIDI tracks playing the same instrument Approach 2 on the other hand leaves Track A unaffected except for Track B tapping its output We can easily add more tracks like Track B that all tap Track A s output Instrument Two Ways to Route Track A into Track B 12 7 INTERNAL ROUTINGS 160 layering is a good example of such a one to many routing setup The rest of this section presents internal routing examples in more detail 12 7 1 Post Effects Recording Let s say that you are feeding a guitar into Live building up a song track by track overlaying take onto take It is certainly powerful to have a separate effects chain per track for applying different effects to different takes after the fact You might however want to run the guitar signal through effects a noise gate or an amp model for instance before the recording stage and record the post effects signal 3 Audio 4 Guitar 5 Audio 6 Audio 7 Pad Audio From Audio From Audio From
81. vintage digital synthesizers The differences between these sine waves are very subtle and whether or not they are audible is highly dependant upon the individual sound We also added Sine 4 Bit and Sine 8 Bit to provide the retro sound adored by C64 fans and Saw D and Square D digital waveforms which are especially good for digital bass sounds Another special case is the noise waveform This is not real noise generated by a random generator but a looping noise sample For more statistical noise one could modulate the noise oscillator with another oscillator or with real noise from the LFO The square triangle and sawtooth waveforms are resynthesized approximations of the ideal shape The numbers included in the displayed name e g Sq6 define how many harmonics are used for the resynthesis Lower numbers sound mellower and are less likely to create aliasing when used on high pitches Hint Oscillator waveforms can be copied and pasted from one oscillator to another using Oscillator D s Display and Shell Parameters 20 3 OPERATOR 297 the PC Ct J amp Mac context menu Aliasing distortion is a common side effect of all digital synthesis and is the result of the finite sample rate and precision of digital systems It mostly occurs at high frequencies FM synthesis is especially likely to produce this kind of effect since one can easily create sounds with lots of high harmonics This also means that more complex o
82. work Buy Find out about buying options and buy Live 5 online Unlock Once you own Live 5 unlock Live 5 using the Serial Number you received from Ableton To continue using Live 5 in Demo Mode simply close this dialog Click Here if You Are Unlock Interested in Buying Live 3 3 2 What if Change My Computer s Components If the Challenge Code of your computer changes for some reason Live will indeed ask you to unlock the software another time The Challenge Code does not change however when computer peripherals are replaced audio or MIDI hardware printers modems The Challenge Code may change if the motherboard processor or network card is replaced On some computers reformatting a hard drive also changes the Challenge Code 3 3 3 Can I Unlock Live More than Once The standard Live license allows you to use Live on only one computer at a time However if you have registered your product the Ableton server will provide you with two Unlock Shttp www ableton com register 3 3 COPY PROTECTION FAOS 21 Keys in good faith that you will use Live on only one machine at a time Just proceed as described in the corresponding section You can therefore run Live on both a studio desktop computer and a tour laptop but not at the same time Should the Ableton server reject your demand for another Unlock Key please contact Ableton s technical support They can be reached by e E mail e Telephone 49 0 30 288
83. you are using for remote control This is done in the MIDI Sync tab of the Live Preferences where you can select devices for remote control input and output 21 2 MIDI REMOTE CONTROL 315 The Active Devices table lists all available input and output MIDI devices To use a device for remote mapping make sure the corresponding switch in the Remote column is set to On You can use any number of MIDI devices for remote mapping Live will merge their incoming MIDI When Live recognizes a MIDI message the Control Bar s MIDI In indicator will flash Audic MIDUSyn Plug Defaults Mis Product Selecting a MIDI Device for Remote Control Turn external devices on for remote control in the Output section when working with con troller boxes that use endless knobs or motorized faders These devices need to be updated when a control s value changes in Live because the position of the motorized faders or LED chains has to match the new value 21 2 2 Assigning MIDI Remote Control The MIDI Map Mode Switch Once your remote control setup has been finished in the Preferences giving MIDI controllers and notes remote control assignments is simple 1 Enter MIDI Map Mode by pressing the MIDI switch in the upper right hand 21 2 MIDI REMOTE CONTROL 316 corner of the Live screen Notice that assignable elements of the interface become highlighted 2 Click on the Live control you wish to assign to MIDI 3 Send a MIDI message
84. your ownership of Live Because your Serial Number is a valuable good you should keep it in a safe place and out of reach of unauthorized hands Please be aware that sharing your Serial Number will render it unusable The only way for Ableton technical support to help you get back your Serial Number if you lose it is via your registration data Therefore please register your product as otherwise you might lose your property 3 2 Step 2 Unlocking Live The second step of authorizing Live is called unlocking Unlocking means associating your Serial Number with a specific computer Please be aware that the standard Live license grants you the right to use Live on only one computer at a time You can however unlock 2http www ableton com register The Fields for Entering Your Serial Number 3 2 STEP 2 UNLOCKING LIVE 15 Live with your Serial Number more than once under the legal and technical conditions described later 3 2 1 The Unlock Key For unlocking you require an Unlock Key that can only be created by the Ableton server Unlocking therefore requires access to the Internet The computer from which you connect to the Internet does not have to be the same computer for which you wish to unlock Live but it does make things easier 3 2 2 The Challenge Code The Ableton server creates the Unlock Key from your Serial Number and a so called Chal lenge Code The Challenge Code is a fingerprint that Live takes of your com
85. 2 Set the Global Quantization chooser to one bar To automatically quantize the notes you are about to record choose an appro priate value for Record Quantization Double click any of the Session View slots in the desired MIDI track the one containing the Impulse or other instrument A new empty clip will appear in the slot The new clip will default to a loop length of one bar but you can change that by double clicking the clip and changing its loop properties Arm the track Launch the clip The notes you play are added into the looping clip and you can observe your recording in the Clip View By default the Control Bar s Overdub switch is activated so that you can build your pattern layer by layer However if you would like to pause recording for a moment to rehearse you can deactivate the Overdub switch The contents of the clip will continue to play but you can play along without being recorded When you are ready to record again simply turn on the Overdub switch 14 4 RECORDING IN SYNC 186 8 Stop recording by pressing a Clip Stop button or the Stop button in the Control Bar Note that holding PC Mac while double clicking the empty slot to create a new clip will implicitly arm the track and launch the clip At any time while overdub recording is going on you can use the Undo command to remove the last take or even draw move or delete notes in the Clip View s Note Editor Note that you ca
86. 3 ice tet Save tea dene ORA TUE RARE RURISS 291 sample controls 0 0 cece eee 288 Sample VIEW ascen stan nann aTa iena 288 Transpose ss cisci des 291 VOICES uoc esbpE PLORA 291 Velum 291 ZOOM mM T ge ssh adie beh dated ons 289 site or secondary licenses 0 2 0ee 21 Snap to Grid command 0 ce eee eee 74 Solo SWItGhi deiv sta dee EE Nd tated EE 1412 Solo Cue Mode switch 0 cece eee 177 Bound HSS ci ee E ERR S Igor eresi see samples Sounds folder 0 cee eee ce eet e teen e eens 62 Split UST Sana eee EC alea Cic von ea edd 125 Split command iau des ded d anda arabe dada 75 start end markers eee eee eee eee eens 99 stop AI Clips DUTON iua cec grax n PER nee e 87 SLOP HERD Sa diea dE Lube REOR C OVE Er pads 66 SWING esea ede ERU Ed ES d see groove feature Sync Delay setting 0 eee e eee 338 Sync In Indicator cece eee eee eee eee 155 Sync Out Indicator lesse eee eee 155 synthesizer MIDI s t p iiio inn see routing T Tap Tempo DEBIT audeas 4d coo pe ER dad dt Ra 112 with Warping CA A aee ORE Rao E el sand 120 technical sUpport cepe Kary chen n aaaea 21 Template Save button 0 cece 61 tempo AULTOMAUNG 2 5 lisi dies dA es RR A estan 220 MIDI mapping ranges 065 221 ufo EHE 111 tapplhng vseuess evden wave bee xe e Aes 112 Tempo TEAS assa edbess aed ba up a iah 927 311 Texture Mode cece
87. 4 storing clip settings in 000 105 analysis of files Datch proceSSiNg eoe oec eor S SY bio UE du dh 55 Analyze Audio command cece eee eee 55 Arm Recording button 0 00 172 181 Arpeggiator effect cece 273 360 Arrangement see Arrangement View Arrangement Overview 0 0 eee ee 65 Arrangement Position fields 006 67 Arrangement View cece cece eee eee 64 and copying to Session 87 and Session View sees 25 gid Snapp Giese ei pdsckbesbo de e eed eva iaae 73 insert marker coerente px te pz 66 looping INANE PM RM 70 navigation sober e Pp ow Pep P Mees edes 65 recording new clips in the 182 SCIUD area EP 67 Arrangement Viewselector 0e cee e ee 25 asd 1iles dere SI see analysis files a dio CUPS iss pocos ha och CER Eae pd see clips audio effects ssssssssssssssssss see devices audio files 2 e ree onset see samples audio interface setup see Audio Preferences see routing Audio Preferences esses 8 Audio Record Folder preference 189 audio tra Ks e ee aie reper repete es see tracks INDEX Audio Units Plug ins using see devices authorization 0 see copy protection Auto Filter effect 0 0 0 cee cece eee eens 237 Auto Pan elfect 5 coi oce Perte Eee teas 239 Auto Hide Plug In Windows opti
88. 4 tutorials cuiri niare ideana see Ableton see lessons U Undo command and Arrangement editing 130 371 and automation editing 215 and recarded elipic iis eae SL VE e pora da 183 and recording MIDI 0 0005 187 and track freeze 2 eee cece eee 344 Unfold Track button 0 cece eee 72 217 Unfreeze Track command ssesuuues 344 Unlock Key 22k eee eRERIRR 15 Unlocking Live sec redeat rt pr rere pP 14 more than once 20 Ofllin so 6 canes ense UE MUS EPIO Pe RP ERR 16 ONNES siegt a a e du Ld 15 updates see Check for Updates command Use Audio Units preference 211 Utility eect iocis oreet o Er ru RR e pers 270 V Variable Bit Rate files see samples Velocity Amount field 00 cess eee eee 142 Velocity Editor cesses 125 Velocity effect ps cese rer LE ee 281 View menu commands Crossfader Option i1 dase cU debe sd 170 In Out OPTION ca irr I rere 34 149 170 Mixer option csse esr ir re res 34 170 Returns option 000e 34 170 173 Sends OpIOP cones Ces ey de oae n id 34 170 Track Delays Option cases deree ood tarea 170 View Selector button esssssseeeseeeeese 9 View Show Hide button 2 eee eee 10 INDEX views working with see View menu commands see View Selector button see View Show Hide button Vinyl Distortion effect 00 cee eee
89. 763 151 available Monday to Friday 11 to 15hrs CET e Fax 49 0 30 288 763 11 To speed up the process please e Register your copy of Live e Include a brief explanation of the circumstances To use Live on more than one computer at a time you require a secondary license or a site license Ableton offers these licenses at special rates Please contact the sales team for details 3 3 4 Can I Play my Set from a Computer That Is Not Unlocked In Demo Mode you can load and perform a Live Set with no time limitation You cannot however save or export your work When you go on tour consider taking along your Live 5supportGableton com 7http www ableton com register 8orders ableton com 3 3 COPY PROTECTION FAOS 22 program CD and a CD with the last state of your Live Set s In case of an emergency you can install and run Live on any computer available and play your backup Live Set s 3 3 5 How Can I Turn Demo Mode Off If Live is unlocked but other products are set to Demo Mode Live will also run in Demo Mode and you will not be allowed to save or export your work To turn Demo Mode off in this case activate the Hide option for each additional product in its respective Product Preference page TA E The Ableton Synthesizer Operator has not yet been unlocked and is running in Demo Mode In Demo Mode you can explore the product s functionality but you cannot save or export your work Buy Find out about buying
90. 9 can also create a locator using the context menu in the scrub area above the tracks or via the Insert menu Note that the position of a new locator is quantized according to the Control Bar s Quantization menu setting You can recall jump to locators by clicking on them or with the Previous and Next Locator buttons on either side of the Set button Locators can also be recalled using MIDI key mapping Note that locator recall is subject to quantization Double clicking a locator will select it and start Arrangement playback from that point After jumping to the first or last locator in the Arrangement the Previous and Next Locator buttons will jump to the Arrangement start or end respectively Locators can be moved by clicking and dragging or with the arrow keys on your computer keyboard To name a locator select it by clicking its triangular marker and choose the Rename Edit menu command or use the Ctr R PC G 38 R Mac shortcut Locators can be removed with your computer s backspace or delete key the Insert menu or the Delete Locator button Note that the locator context menu offers a quick way of looping playback between two locators with its Loop To Next Locator command The Locator Controls 6 4 THE ARRANGEMENT LOOP 70 6 4 The Arrangement Loop For Live to repeatedly play a section of the Arrangement activate the Arrangement loop by clicking on the Control Bar s Loop switch You can set loop length num
91. Color chooser i Lise dep e Rea ERER hn 92 Clip Envelope Control chooser sea nnn 224 Clip Envelope Device chooser 223 clibenvalopeli cis seseas S erhbRERREQU RIA 1A 41 222 and changing note pitch 225 and changing note volume 227 as LFOS connard te A epo aa 235 changing clips TOF iio koe eC EERRREt hb 229 creating long loops with 234 for MIDI controls lesse 231 general editing of eee eee 223 imposing rhythm WI edcesan coke aa rachat 235 loop region settings for 232 mixer control modulation with 229 scrambling beats with 05 227 unlinking from Ole cecus Res eade Re xx R RR 233 using for fade outs ssssssssssususn 232 Clip Fade switehi l Lade TE RERERMRRERR EN REXS 106 Chip Galt Sel ussuaassoadxr basi e nali caic w wands 103 Clip Groove chooser ssseesesseeseesee 93 INDEX Clip Launch DUET ia de adi se Rad e ul a 79 Clip Name field 24 aorsaei E be E pP RR rer hs 92 Clip Nudge buttons ssssseseeeeseeseesl 94 Clip OVE MEW int Liceo er teni dua a 88 for zooming scrolling ssssuseese 98 Clip Quantization chooser sssseeueuue 141 Clip Record DUtEODus ecol e ERRARE 39 184 Clip Signature elds iiu do ase yu eux equ wk des 93 Clip Stop button 0 eee 79 adding removing cece eee eee eee 84 Clip Update Rate prefe
92. Control Bar s Tap Tempo button to tap along and set the project tempo to match that of the clip 3 Turn warping on again and use the Warp From Here Start At command to tell Auto Warp to use your tapped tempo and warp from there Warp From Here Straight tells Auto Warp that this is a clip with no tempo variations i e an electronically produced piece Auto Warp will therefore set a single Warp Marker according to its guess about the original file s tempo Warp BPM From Here will also set only a single Warp Marker but in this case Auto Warp is forced to interpret the piece as exactly matching the project tempo This is useful in cases when you happen to know the exact BPM value of an electronically produced piece and can type it into the Control Bar before warping Of course your Warp Markers will be saved with the Live Set In addition you probably 9 3 ADJUSTING FOR GOOD STRETCHING QUALITY 121 want to save them with the sample so that they are reconstructed the next time you drag the file into Live To do this click the Clip View s Save button Note that if a sample has a saved set of Warp Markers Auto Warp will have no effect When this is the case you can use any of the PC 6 Mac context menu commands described in this section to initiate auto warping 9 3 Adjusting for Good Stretching Quality Live offers a number of time stretching methods to accommodate all sorts of audio material The time stretching
93. DI 138 is activated and draw the ramp into the Velocity Editor while holding the amp modifier so that you affect only the selected notes Notes in the Note Editor display their velocity in their coloring light notes play softly and vice versa To change the velocity of notes without the Velocity Editor open click any selected note and drag vertically while pressing the the PC Mac modifier 10 4 8 Deactivating Notes To deactivate or mute a note or notes in the MIDI Editor select itand PC Ctl amp Mac to access the context menu The Deactivate Note s command will mute the note making it appear gray in the display To reactivate notes use the context menu s Activate Note s command Chapter 11 Launching Clips The Live Session View is set apart by the fact that it gives you the musician an spontaneous environment that encourages performance and improvisation An important part of how you take advantage of the Session View lies within how you configure your various Session View clips This chapter explains the group of settings used to define how each Session View clip behaves when triggered or launched 11 1 The Launch Box Remember that clips in the Session View are launched by their Clip Launch buttons or remote control Clip launch settings are made in the Launch box The Launch box only applies to Session View clips as Arrangement View clips are not launched but played according to
94. Device Groups Every Live device can store and retrieve particular sets of parameter values as presets As presets are stored independently from Live Sets new presets become part of a library that any project can draw from Live s Device Groups allow saving combinations of devices and their settings as a single preset This feature allows for the creation of powerful multi device creations and effectively adds all the capabilities of Live s MIDI and audio effects to the built in instruments 4 9 Routing As we have seen all tracks deliver signals either audio or MIDI Where do these signals go This is set up in the mixer s In Out section which offers for every track choosers to 4 9 ROUTING select a signal source and destination The In Out section accessible through the View menus In Out entry is Live s patchbay Its routing options enable valuable creative and technical methods such as resampling submixing layering of synths complex effects setups and more Audio From 1 All Channew 2 MIDI From MIDI From sife ll sire 5 jj 5 E MIDI From Ext In P All Ins All Ins v All Ins Y Ill 1 2 v 1 All Channes All Channes 1 All Channe Monitor Audio To In Auto Om in Auto OM In Auto Off Monitor Monitor Audio To Audio To Monitor n Auto Off MIDI To Master v Master Master v
95. If you want to save CPU power turn off features that you do not need or reduce the number of voices Specifically turning off the filter or the LFO if they do not contribute to the sound will save CPU power For the sake of saving CPU resources you will also usually want to reduce the number of voices to something between 6 and 12 and carefully use the Spread feature The high quality setting can also be turned off to conserve CPU resources Note that turning off the oscillators will not save CPU power 20 3 9 Finally Operator is the result of an intense preoccupation with FM synthesis and a love and dedi cation to the old hardware FM synthesizers such as the Yamaha SY77 the Yamaha TX81Z and the NED Synclavier Il FM synthesis was first explored musically by the composer and computer music pioneer John Chowning in the mid 1960s In 1973 he and Stanford Uni versity began a relationship with Yamaha that lead to one of the most successful commercial musical instruments ever the DX7 John Chowning realized some very amazing and beautiful musical pieces based on a syn thesis concept that you can now explore yourself simply by playing with Operator in Live We wish you loads of fun with it 20 3 10 The Complete Parameter List The function of each Operator parameter is explained in the forthcoming sections Remem ber that you can also access explanations of controls in Live including those belonging to Operator directly from the s
96. Loop command Live will propose a loop length that makes the most sense given the current project tempo Decreasing the project tempo can for instance lead Live to assume the loop is 8 bars at 90 BPM instead of 16 bars at 180 BPM Sometimes more detailed control of Auto Warp is necessary The best way to go about warping a clip that requires more detailed attention is in sections working gradually from 9 2 TIME WARPING SAMPLES 120 left to right You can set a Warp Marker by double clicking one of the gray grid markers to the right of each correctly warped section pinning it into place The shortcuts for working with the clip loop brace and start end markers can speed up this process considerably You might also find it helpful to select multiple Warp Markers for moving by appending to your selected Warp Marker with the or Ctd PC Mac modifiers held down The four Warp From Here commands provide various ways of resetting Warp Markers to the right of the selected grid or Warp Marker leaving Warp Markers to the left untouched These commands are also available from the start marker Warp From Here runs the Auto Warp algorithm on the material to the right of the selected marker Warp From Here Start At directs Auto Warp to use the project tempo as a starting point for tempo tracking The strategy here is as follows 1 Deactivate the Warp switch for the clip and play it or the section in question unwarped 2 Use the
97. MIDI is imported from a MIDI file the data gets incorporated into the Live Set and An Audio Clip s Properties as Displayed in the Clip View The Control Bar s Tempo Field 4 6 MIDI CLIPS AND MIDI FILES 31 the original file is not referenced thereafter In the Live File Browsers a MIDI file appears as a folder that can be opened to reveal its individual component tracks which can be selectively dragged into the Live Set tap 120 00 4 4 0 oe Ex Ef lt Q9 moi Loops by Keytex amp amp MIDI Files Are Dragged in from Live s File Aor Browsers As expected a MIDI clip s contents can be accessed and edited via the Clip View for instance to change a melody or paint a drum pattern A MIDI Clip s Properties as Displayed in the Clip View 4 7 DEVICES AND THE MIXER 32 4 7 Devices and the Mixer A track can have not only clips but also a chain of devices for processing signals Double clicking a track s title bar brings up the Track View which shows the track s device chain e u LIII e v u eu pamm m p x eo a uU ecos eu m n j M Lidl O Gae O O Resonators Thresh Filter Mode On eA Frequency Decay a 350ms W 500 Hz Noise 12dB Release eile Freq 40 0 68 5 45 kHz Fip 5 00 ms The Track View Displaying an Audio Track s De
98. Mac to access the context menu and then select the Close All Folders option to show only top level folders Double clicking the Device Browser icon will also close all sub level folders e Press to load a device or preset EQ Four u The Browse Presets Button Clicking the Browse Presets button will temporarily link the Browser to a device bringing up the relevant presets in the Browser With the device and Browser linked in this manner you can quickly browse load and audition different presets You can even load a different device to replace the current one by selecting one of the new device s presets from the Browser and pressing Return To load a device s default factory settings select the parent folder of its presets i e the one with the device s name from the Device Browser The link between the Device Browser and the device will be broken when a different Live view is selected or when the Browse Presets button is again pressed Note that although importing via the Browser is the recommended method presets can also be dropped directly into Live from the Explorer Windows Finder Mac 15 1 USING THE LIVE DEVICES Saving and Organizing Presets You can create and save any number of your own presets in the Device Browser EQ Four Po 0 ra n 6 12 100 1k 10k 198 Click the Preset Save button to save a new preset You can then confirm Live s suggested name or type in one of your own Note that a pr
99. O 0 00 Rand i 198 100 500 0 00 nfdB 189s 00 o 10 0 ms Fiter Freq Res Vel Transp LFO Glide Spread Vel 120B Release 24 st 0 00 om Type m Detune Env Time 40 0 dB L2 168 iz 661 0 4 0st 4 300 00 E fiip 5 00 ms 6 Boats gt a To remove a device from the chain click on the name and either press your computer s Delete or Backspace key or select Delete from the Edit menu To change the order of devices drag a device by its name and drop it between any of the other devices in the Track View or drag it onto another track in the mixer to place the device in that track Generally devices can be placed reordered and deleted without interrupting the audio stream i uto Filter Devices can be turned on and off using their Activator switches Turning a device off is like temporarily deleting it The signal remains unprocessed and the device does not consume CPU cycles Live devices generally do not load down the CPU unless they are active For more information please refer to the CPU load section Note that the Freeze Track command mentioned in the CPU load section is especially helpful when working with CPU intensive devices Devices in Live s tracks have input and output level meters These meters facilitate finding a problematic device in the device chain Low or absent signals will b
100. RO res dad v v E Eee uten edad 47 Follow Actions epe E E ERE eS 143 Follow command 0 00 00 cece eee eens 66 99 Follow switch 0 0000 eee 66 99 113 129 Freeze Track command 0 eee eee e eee 344 freezing tracks i oce eee pipe Rev 344 364 G Gate effect 254 Gate Mode wisi cecus eR UR etd ds 140 Global Quantization chooser 00 08 39 and Session recording e eee ee 183 Grain Delay effect 00 c eee eee eee 256 Grain Flux field 0 tasei eee eee e ees 122 Grain Size field 0 cece cece eee eee eee 122 Grain Size knob 1 eee eee eee ee 122 grid and Arrangement editing 73 and envelope drawing 218 and MIDI editing eee eee 131 in editing clip envelopes n ese titia 235 working with the 0 cee eee eee ee 783 groove feature isse iere eder e eds 93 Group Devices command ssssssuuu 200 H hard disks rere ERR PERS see CPU Hard Disk Overload indicator s 346 hiding products BN pP 22 High Quality switch ssssssssesessssss 105 VO erede paa a aee E SEE see routing importing TIE oisi ota e prine ded b de pedit 51 Impulse instrument coacta reta pha 284 and individual outputs ice es och 287 INDEX and MIDI 0 0 cece cece eee eee ees 284 TRG ess le LE IRE a Sek dedu adeadantaeed os 286 global parameters
101. S 116 Setting the Warp Markers for a Badly Cut Loop 9 2 3 Syncing Odd Length Loops If you import a sample that contains a seven bar loop Live initially assumes the loop is eight bars long or four depending on its length and plays it out of sync For correct playback the last marker needs to show a eight not a nine To achieve this do the following 1 Double click on the last Warp Marker to delete it 2 Double click on the eight to create a new Warp Marker 3 Drag the new Warp Marker to the sample end If Live s initial guess had been a four bar loop the eight would not have been accessible In that case you could initially drag the Warp Marker at the end toward the left until the eight became visible Theoretically this should have done the job for our seven bar loop Practically though it is very likely that moving the markers led to a change of the loop start and end points This is because the loop is tied to the meter grid and therefore moves with the Warp Markers which define the meter grid Live makes sure the loop fits in the sample and therefore has to change its length if required by a Warp Marker change 9 2 TIME WARPING SAMPLES 117 9 2 4 Manipulating Grooves You can now create any number of Warp Markers by double clicking on one of the gray grid markers Drag in a straight looped sample set a few Warp Markers and move them around to see what happens Warp Markers really serve two purposes
102. ST Device Program files or VST Device Bank files To save the currently selected program as a file click the VST Program Bank Save button to bring up a standard file save dialog select VST Device Program from the Format menu Macintosh from the File Type menu Windows select a folder and name For saving the entire bank as a file proceed likewise but choose VST Device Bank as a file type format 15 4 AUDIO UNITS PLUG INS 211 15 4 Audio Units Plug Ins Audio Units Plug ins are only available in Mac OS X In most respects they operate just like VST Plug ins AUMultibandCompressor crossover threshold 4 threshold 1 60 00 dB crossover 1 threshold 2 D S A A 200 Hz 65 00 dB crossover 2 threshold 3 A A 900 Hz 80 00 dB An Audio Units Plug In The first time you open Live Audio Units Plug ins will not appear in the Plug In Device Browser In order to activate your Audio Units as a plug in source please press the Activate button in the Plug In Device Browser or go to the Plug In Preferences via the Live menu There you will find the Active Sources section Turning on the Use Audio Units option activates Audio Units Plug ins so that they appear in Live s Plug In Device Browser Note that you can always turn this option off later if you decide not to use Audio Units 15 4 AUDIO UNITS PLUG INS 212 Active Sources Re Scan Plug Ins Re Scan Use Audio Unit
103. Set the Global Quantization chooser to any value other than None to obtain correctly cut clips eccccccccccecec 9999999099 9 uu gt 8 Recording a New Clip Into the Session View 2 Activate the Arm button for the tracks onto which you want to record Clip Record buttons will appear in the empty slots of the armed tracks 3 Click on any of the Clip Record buttons to commence recording A new clip will appear in the slot with a red Clip Launch button that shows it is currently recording To go from recording immediately into loop playback press the clip s Launch button 4 Alternatively you can click a Clip Stop button or the Stop button in the Control Bar to stop recording leaving the new clip silent Note that by default launching a Session View scene will not activate recording in empty 14 3 RECORDING record enabled slots belonging to that scene However you can use the Start Recording on Scene Launch option from the Misc Preferences to tell Live that you do want empty scene slots to record under these circumstances 14 3 3 Overdub Recording MIDI Patterns Live makes pattern oriented recording of drums and the like quite easy Using Live s Impulse instrument and the following technique you can successively build up drum patterns while listening to the result Or using an instrument such as Simpler which allows for chromatic playing you can build up melodies or harmonies note by note 1
104. Spin amount The Dry Wet control adjusts the balance between the processed and dry signals Set it to 10096 if using Phaser in a return track 18 15 Ping Pong Delay O PingPong O The Ping Pong Delay effect uses a single tapped delay line to create a delay that jumps from the left to the right output The Ping Pong Delay Effect 18 15 PING PONG DELAY 260 The delay is preceded by a low and high pass filter that can be controlled with an XY controller To define the filter bandwidth click and drag on the vertical axis To set the position of the frequency band click and drag on the horizontal axis To refer delay time to the master tempo activate the Sync switch which allows using the Delay Time beat division chooser The numbered switches represent time delay in 16th notes For example selecting 4 delays the signal by four 16th notes which equals one beat a quarter note of delay This delay time represents the time it takes for the input signal to appear at the left channel The delay time between the input and the right channel is twice as long If the Sync switch is off the delay time reverts to milliseconds In this case to edit the delay time click and drag up or down in the time field or click in the field and type in a value The Feedback parameter controls how much of the right channel output signal returns to the delay line input The feedback loop als
105. The basic musical building blocks of Live are called clips A clip is a piece of musical material a melody a drum pattern a bass line or a complete song Live allows you to record and alter clips and to create larger musical structures from them songs remixes DJ sets or stage shows A Live Set consists of two environments that can hold clips The Arrangement is a layout of clips along a musical timeline the Session is a real time oriented launching base for clips Every Session clip has its own play button that allows launching the clip at any time and in any order Each clip s behavior upon launch can be precisely specified through a number of settings erm cmi AR Paes E m ET o z The Arrangement is accessed via the Arrangement View and the Session via the Session A Live Set in the Browser Accessed via the Library Button Clips in the Session View Left and in the Arrangement View Right 4 3 TRACKS 26 View you can toggle between the two views using the computer s Tab key or their respective selectors Because the two views have distinct applications they each hold individual collections of clips However it is important to understand that flipping the views simply changes the appearance of the Live Set and does not switch modes alter what you hear or change what is stored The Arrangement and Session View Selectors Arrangement and Session interact in useful though potentially confusing w
106. This is something that cannot be undone in later production steps Keep this in mind especially when using a compressor limiter or The Compressor Effect 18 5 COMPRESSOR 245 sound loudness maximizing tool in the master channel Less is often more here Because compression reduces the volume of loud signals and opens up headroom you can use the Out put slider so that the peaks once again hit the maximum available headroom The Output meter shows the output signal s level A second set of two essential parameters defines how fast a compressor reacts to input level changes Attack time and Release time Attack defines how long it takes to reach maximum compression once a signal exceeds the threshold while Release sets how long it takes for the compressor to return to normal operation after the signal falls below the threshold A slight amount of attack time 5 10 ms allows peaks to come through unprocessed which helps preserve dynamics If these peaks cause overloads you can try shortening the attack time but extremely short times take the life out of the signal and may lead to a slight buzziness caused by distortion Short release times can cause pumping as the compressor tries to figure out whether to compress or not while generally considered an undesirable effect some engineers use it on full drum kits to give unusual sucking effects 18 6 COMPRESSOR II 246 18 6 Compressor Il D Compressor Il ac Ratio Attack R
107. Waveforms v Drums Y Cymbal 20 KRide 01 wav Adjusting the Main Window Split Chapter 3 Unlocking Live Live is protected against illegal use by a copy protection scheme This scheme has been designed to meet the highest security standards while avoiding hassles for the customer If you find this procedure to be an inconvenience please understand that the copy protection secures your investment It allows Ableton to provide you with support and to continue developing Live Authorization of Ableton products takes place in the Preferences Products tab which will appear when you start Live for the first time Here you can choose to authorize unlock or purchase any Ableton products available to you for example the Operator instrument Please note that products such as Operator are sold separately from Live but are unlocked using the same procedure described in the following sections They can also be individually set to Demo Mode in the Products tab so that you can try them out 12 13 This software incorporates 2 Ableton products that you can separately demo buy or unlock Produet Status d The Products Tab in the Preferences Clicking on any product listed in the Products tab will give you the option of unlocking or buying that product Please click the Unlock button here to complete the unlocking process in two steps If you have not yet purchased the product you can do so online by clicking the Buy bu
108. a controller simply by sending the desired MIDI message for example by turning a knob on your MIDI control box Your assignments take effect immediately after you leave MIDI Map Mode Session clips can be mapped to a MIDI key or even a keyboard range for chromatic playing MIDI keys and controllers that have been mapped to Live s controls are not available for recording via MIDI tracks These messages are filtered out before the incoming MIDI is passed on to the MIDI tracks ta Key E mor ES gt 4 J ar Session clips switches buttons and radio buttons can be mapped to computer keyboard keys as well This happens in Key Map Mode which works just like MIDI Map mode Live offers in addition to this general purpose mapping technique dedicated support for Mackie Control compatible mixer surfaces which allows for mouse free operation of the program 4 14 Saving and Exporting Saving a Live Set saves everything it contains including all clips their positions and settings and settings for devices and controls An audio clip can however lose the reference to its corresponding sample if it is moved or deleted from disk The links between samples and their clips can be preserved with a special command the Save Set Self Contained command which makes a copy of each sample and stores it in a Sounds folder along with the Live Set A separate Save button in the Clip View saves a set of default clip settings along with the sample so
109. a one bar loop 17 5 UNLINKING CLIP ENVELOPES FROM CLIPS l Envelopes My 12 1005 104 12 122 23 124 13 32 Clip Start T j m Volume gt 1 3 4 Transpose End Wome 3 3I 1 Pan Loop Region Loop Position AIL SUL 1j Length S ol o Q 4j 1 Choose the Clip Volume envelope and unlink it from the sample The clip envelope s loop braces now appear colored to indicate this envelope now has its own local loop region settings The loop region controls in the Envelopes box come to life 2 Make sure the clip envelope s Loop switch is off Notice the Sample box s Loop switch is not affected The sample will keep looping although the envelope is now playing as a one shot 3 Type 8 into the leftmost envelope loop length value box 4 Zoom the envelope display out all the way by clicking on the Envelope s time ruler and dragging upwards 5 Insert a breakpoint at the region end and drag it to the bottom zero percent Now as you play the clip you can hear the one bar loop fading out over eight bars 233 Using a Clip Envelope to Create a Fade Out Over Several Repetitions of a Loop Please note toggling Linked Mode changes the envelope data Toggling back and forth effectively deletes the envelope data To return to the previous state please use the Edit 17 5 UNLINKING CLIP ENVELOPES FROM CLIPS 234 menu s Undo command 17 5 2 Creating Long Lo
110. a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH ReWire is a trademark of Propellerhead Software AB Mackie Control is a trademark of LOUD Technologies Inc Ogg Vorbis and FLAC are trademarks of Xiph Org Ableton is a trademark of Ableton AG All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders Chapter 1 Welcome to Live 1 1 The Ableton Team Says Thank You Live is the result of musicians wanting a better way to create produce and perform music using a computer A great deal of effort has been put into making Live easy and fun to use yet at the same time capable of helping you create music with unlimited depth and sophistication This effort continues even as you read these lines in fact a new improved Live version might already be available for download Please check on our website nowt or choose Check for Updates from the Help menu We hope you enjoy using Live and that it enhances your creative process Should you have suggestions about how we can improve Live please let us know 1 http www ableton com downloads 2contact ableton com 1 2 WHAT S NEW IN LIVE 5 Your Ableton Team 1 2 What s New in Live 5 1 2 1 Remix Features e Support for MP3 Ogg Vorbis Ogg FLAC and FLAC compressed audio files e Auto Warp e Complex Warp Mode for warping music containing beats tones and textures e Clip scrub nudge an
111. actly 45 degrees try this with a 1 32 Transients setting Repeating Steps and Slowing Time with the Sample Offset Envelope 17 3 MIXER AND DEVICE CLIP ENVELOPES 229 17 2 5 Using Clips as Templates As you are making creative use of clip envelopes the clips containing them develop a life of their own independent of the original sample You might wonder at a point What does this clip sound like with a different sample This is easy to find out by selecting the clip so that it is displayed in the Clip View and dragging the desired sample from one of the File Browsers or the Session or Arrangement View onto the Clip View All clip settings including the envelopes will remain unaltered only the sample will be replaced Notice this procedure affects only the selected clip whereas replacing a sample with the Clip View s Replace button will affect all clips using that sample 17 3 Mixer and Device Clip Envelopes Clip envelopes can be used to modulate mixer and device controls Since mixer and device controls can also be controlled by the Arrangement s automation envelopes this is a potential source of confusion However clip envelopes differ from automation envelopes in one important way Whereas automation envelopes define the value of a control at any given point in time clip envelopes can only influence this defined value This difference allows the two types of envelopes to work together in harmony when controlling the same param
112. age grain size used The actual grain size is determined in a signal dependent way For signals with a clear sense of pitch contour a small grain size works best Larger grain sizes help avoid artifacts that can occur when the pitch contour is unclear but the tradeoff can be audible repetitions 9 3 3 Texture Mode Texture Mode works well for sound textures with an ambiguous pitch contour e g poly phonic orchestral music all sorts of noise atmospheric pads etc It also offers rich potential for manipulating all kinds of sounds in a creative way The Grain Size control determines the grain size used unlike in Tones Mode this is a setting that Live will use unaltered without factoring in the signal s characteristics Fluctuation introduces randomness into the process Larger values give more randomness 9 3 4 Re Pitch Mode In Re Pitch Mode Live doesn t really time stretch or compress the music instead it adjusts the playback rate to create the desired amount of stretching In other words to speed up playback by a factor of 2 it s transposed up an octave This is like the DJ stretching 9 4 DEACTIVATING WARPING 123 method of using variable speed turntables to sync two records or what happens to samples in samplers when they re transposed The Transpose and Detune controls have no effect in Re Pitch Mode 9 3 5 Complex Mode Complex Mode is a warping method specifically designed to accommodate composite signals that c
113. agging the knob or slider to its absolute maximum or minimum value will make the clips settings thereafter identical adjustable as a single value MIDI clips and audio clips in Live have different sets of properties and consequently do not share the same set of Clip View controls The two types of clips do have the following in common Clicking a Session View Track Status Field Opens the Clip View Creating a Clip Multi Selection 90 e The Clip box contains basic clip settings e The Envelopes box and the Envelope Editor manage the clip s envelopes which are used to modulate the effects mixer and clip or MIDI controls Clip envelopes and their associated Clip View components are covered in detail in a separate manual chapter e The Launch box controls clip launch behavior and as such only appears for Session View clips Setting Session View clip launch properties is covered in detail in a separate manual chapter Audio clips have these additional Clip View controls e The Sample Display toggles with the Envelope Editor on the right hand side of the Clip View and controls Live s sample warping capabilities and clip playback settings e The Sample box contains settings pertaining to how the clip plays its sample and displays it in the Sample Display PHOENIX Warp Stan 44 1 kHz 16 Bit 1 Ch Seg BPM 9 9
114. ails of their various applications 222 17 1 THE CLIP ENVELOPE EDITOR 223 17 1 The Clip Envelope Editor Clip Launch Sample Use the Clip View Box ooo Fa Selector to Bring up the Envelopes Box To work with clip envelopes bring up the Clip View s Envelopes box by activating the rightmost Clip View Box selector panel The Envelopes box contains two choosers for selecting an envelope to view and edit Sample i Wa 44 Ec Repl Fade RA k EE Loop T ransient Position Length The Clip View s Envelopes Box The top menu is the Device chooser which selects a general category of controls with which to work Device chooser entries are different for different kinds of clips 17 1 THE CLIP ENVELOPE EDITOR 224 e Audio clips have entries for Clip the clip s sample controls every effect in the track s device chain and the mixer e MIDI clips have entries for MIDI Ctrl MIDI controller data and every device in the track s device chain The bottom menu the Control chooser selects among the controls of the item chosen in the top menu In both the Device and the Control chooser you can easily identify the items that have a non neutral clip envelope by a little LED appearing next to their names The quick chooser buttons below the menus select commonly edited controls Clicking the menus or the quick chooser buttons brings up the Envelope Editor
115. akes Follow Action A occur much less often approximately once out of every ten clip launches There are eight Follow Actions available gt Play Clip Again restarts the clip Play Next Clip triggers the next clip down in the group If a clip with this setting is last in a group this Follow Action triggers the first clip t Play Previous Clip triggers the previous clip the one above the current one 3 Play Any Clip plays any clip in the group m Stop simply stops the clip after it has played for the chosen Follow Action Time Note that this overrides clip loop region settings Play First Clip launches the first top clip in a group z Play Last Clip launches the last bottom clip in a group There is also the possibility to choose no Follow Action by leaving the chooser blank Note that a Follow Action happens exactly after the duration that is specified by the Follow Action Time controls unless clip quantization is set to a value other than None or Global Follow Actions circumvent global quantization but not clip quantization So why do you need these things Music is repetition and change Music based on loops 11 6 FOLLOW ACTIONS 145 or short melodic fragments has a tendency to sound static Follow Actions allow you to create structures that will repeat but can also be surprising Remember that you can always record the results of your experiments so this can provide a good source for new material
116. am focus to the Clip View or Track View whichever is currently on screen Undo and Redo Undoes redoes the last change made to the Live Set The LED will illuminate if there is an available action to undo redo BTA Cancel Stops clips in the Session View from playing differently than how they were recorded into the Arrangement and returns to playing the Arrange ment The LED will illuminate if there is an Arrangement state available to which to return Locator Marker Deletes a locator when a locator is currently selected and the song is stopped Otherwise it creates a new locator at the current play position DrawMode Enter Enables disables Draw Mode for drawing notes and en velopes Follow Mixer Toggles Follow Mode which scrolls Live s display to follow playback 334 Chapter 23 Synchronization and ReWire 23 1 Synchronizing via MIDI The MIDI protocol defines two ways to synchronize sequencers both of which are supported by Live Both protocols work with the notion of a sync master which delivers a sync signal that is tracked by the sync slave s e MIDI Clock MIDI Clock works like a metronome ticking at a fast rate The rate of the incoming ticks is tempo dependent Changing the tempo at the sync master e g a drum machine will cause the slave to follow the change The MIDI Clock protocol also provides messages that indicate the song position With respect to MIDI Clock Live can act as both a
117. ample pressing a V Pot returns a control to its default value Pressing a The V Pots and Assignment Switches 22 2 V POTS AND ASSIGNMENT SWITCHES 326 V Pot when dealing with a control that has various options filter type choosers for example selects the options in sequence With controls having only two options e g an on off switch pressing a V Pot toggles the options There are six assignment switches to the right of the channel strips on the Mackie Control These select which parameters are displayed in the main display and set these parameters to be available for control with the V Pots The two character display above the assignment switches shows the currently selected assignment mode 1 I O Switches the V Pot and main display to I O mode This allows Live s track inputs and outputs to be set with the V Pots e Click once to select the track s Input Type chooser e Click twice to select the track s Input Channel chooser e Click three times to select the Output Type chooser e Click four times to select the Output Channel chooser 2 Send Switches the V Pot to control the levels of all available Send controls for the currently selected track If more than eight sends are available you can navigate through them using the previous and next buttons see item 5 below 3 Pan Assigns the V Pot and main display to the track s Pan control 4 Devices Pressed once this will bring up all available devices for the
118. ample with a Count In setting of 2 bars up to 1 1 1 at which point recording commences Note that count in recording does not apply when Live is synced to external MIDI devices or being used as a ReWire slave 14 7 Setting up File Types The following Misc Preferences are relevant to the sample files that are created by recording The Count In is Displayed in the Control Bar 14 8 USING REMOTE CONTROL FOR RECORDING 189 The sample file type you would like Live to create can be chosen from the Record File Type chooser in the Misc Preferences The bit depth of the sample file you will create by recording can be chosen from the Record Bit Depth chooser in the Misc Preferences e The Audio Record Folder selected in the Misc Preferences is the disk location where Live will put the samples you record into an unnamed Live Set When the Live Set is saved Live will attempt to move space permitting all samples from the temporary record folder to the saved Live Set s Sounds folder You can save time by setting up reasonable defaults for the clips you are recording in the Defaults Preferences tab In particular it is smart to indicate the rough category of sound to be recorded by choosing the appropriate default Warp Mode If you decide later on a different song tempo the program will automatically maintain good sound quality usually without further adjustment 14 8 Using Remote Control for Recording Using Key Map Mode and MIDI Map M
119. an arpeggio once or twice Another interesting effect can be achieved by combining this feature with the Retrigger parameter which we will explain in a moment This can be used to create rhythmically generated arpeggios separated by pauses The Retrigger parameter resets the pattern so that it starts again from the beginning Retriggering can be deactivated Off set to occur when new notes are pressed Note or set to occur at a specified song position or beat time Beat Beat retriggering can be specified in terms of notes or bars and is aligned with song position An LED in the upper right corner of the section indicates when the pattern has been retriggered 19 1 2 Transposition and Velocity Sections The pattern generated by Arpeggiator can be transposed the device s transposition controls allow forcing this transposition into a specific major or minor key or using the Transpose chooser Shift option doing it in semitones The distance between transposition steps is set in scale intervals for Major and Minor transposition or semitones for Shift transposition with the Distance control Using the Steps parameter you can choose the number of times the sequence is transposed A setting of 8 will transpose the sequence a total of eight times playing it in higher notes each time The dynamics of Arpeggiator are controlled using the velocity section With Velocity set to On and Target set to 0 for example the sequence will gradually fade ou
120. ance leads to the next clip in the group 11 6 4 Adding Variations in Sync Paired with clip envelopes and warping Follow Actions can be used to create all sorts of interesting variations within a group of similar clips You could for example use Follow Actions to randomly trigger clips with different MIDI controller clip envelopes so that fine variations in pitch bend or modulation of an instrument or synth could occur as the clips in a group interacted Audio clips could morph between different effect or clip transposition settings Using Follow Actions and Legato Mode together provides a powerful way of gradually changing a melody or beat Imagine that you have several identical clips of a melody that form a group and they are set up to play in Legato Mode Whenever their Follow Actions tell them to move on to another clip in the group the melody will not change as Legato Mode will sync the new play position with the old one in beat time The settings and clip envelopes of each clip or even the actual notes contained in a MIDI clip can then be slowly adjusted so that the melody goes through a gradual metamorphosis 11 6 5 Mixing up Melodies and Beats You can let Follow Actions perform unpredictable remixes and solos for you Use a clip containing a beat or melody and copy it so that there are several instances of it forming a group Alternatively you can use several different beats or melodies that you want to mix together The s
121. and in the View menu Like the normal clip tracks the returns and the Master can host any number of effects However whereas a clip track s effect processes only the audio within that track return tracks can process audio sent to them from numerous tracks For example suppose you want to create rhythmic echoes with a delay effect If you drag the effect into a clip track only clips playing in this track will be echoed Placing this effect in a return track lets it receive audio from any number of tracks and add echoes to them Tracks are Represented by Track Title Bars 13 4 USING LIVE S CROSSFADER 174 9 A clip track s Send control regulates how much of the clip track s output feeds the associated return track s input What s more even the return track s own output can be routed to its input allowing you to create feedback Please use this feature with care as runaway feedback can boost the level dramatically and unexpectedly Every return track has a Pre Post toggle that determines if the signal a clip track sends to it is tapped before or after the mixer stage i e the pan volume and track active controls The Pre setting allows you to create an auxiliary mix that is processed in the return track independently of the main mix As the return track can be routed to a separate output this can be used to set up a separate monitor mix for an individual musician in a band The Master track is the default destination fo
122. arkers prior to applying the artificial swing of the Groove setting 8 1 5 Clip Offset and Nudging To jump within a playing clip in increments the size of the global quantization period you can use the Nudge buttons in the Clip box gt uM uv These buttons can also be mapped to keys or MIDI controllers In MIDI Map mode a scrub control will appear between the Nudge buttons and can be assigned to a rotary encoder wheel for continuous scrubbing Using the Nudge Buttons to Jump Through a Clip 8 1 THE CLIP BOX 95 The Scrub Control in MIDI Map Mode With quantization set to values less than one bar it is easy to offset clip playback from Live s master clock by launching clips using the Nudge buttons or scrubbing within the clip E Clip Offset from Global Time as Shown in the Clip s Display When clip play is offset from global time in this manner a little dot will illuminate in the Sample Display or MIDI Editor to display the offset start position 8 2 THE SAMPLE BOX 96 Clip Launch Using the Keep and Revert Buttons to Manage Meter Offset The current offset as indicated by the dot can be made permanent by moving the start marker to the dot s position and this is exactly what the Keep button found just beneath the Nudge buttons does Or the current offset can be undone using the Revert button 8 2 The Sample Box 8 2 1 Warp Controls Sample The Clip Warp Controls 8 2 THE
123. awing 17 5 3 Imposing Rhythm Patterns onto Samples So far we have been talking about imposing long envelopes onto small loops You can also think of interesting applications that work the other way around Consider a sample of a song that is several minutes long This sample could be played by a clip with a one bar volume envelope loop The volume envelope loop now works as a pattern that is repeatedly punching holes into the music so as to perhaps remove every third beat You can certainly think of other parameters that such a pattern could modulate in interesting ways 17 5 4 Clip Envelopes as LFOs If you are into sound synthesis you may want to think of a clip envelope with a local loop as an LFO This LFO is running in sync with the project tempo but it is also possible to set up a loop period odd enough to render the envelope unsynchronized By hiding the grid you can adjust the clip envelope loop start and end points completely independent of meter grid Chapter 18 Live Audio Effect Reference Live comes with a selection of custom designed built in audio effects The Working with Instruments and Effects chapter explains the basics of using effects in Live 236 18 1 AUTO FILTER 237 18 1 Auto Filter 6a Envelope LFO S amp H Amount G Auto Filter Amount Shape G amp The Auto Filter effect provides classic analog fil
124. ay time control adjusts the time required for this tail to drop to 1 1000th 60 dB of its initial amplitude High and low shelving filters provide frequency dependent reverberation decay The high frequency decay models the absorption of sound energy due to air walls and other materials in the room people carpeting and so forth The low shelf provides a thinner decay Each filter may be turned off to save CPU consumption The Freeze control freezes the diffuse response of the input sound When on the reverber ation will sustain almost endlessly Cut modifies Freeze by preventing the input signal from adding to the frozen reverberation when off the input signal will contribute to the diffused amplitude Flat bypasses the high and low shelf filters when freeze is on If Flat is off the frozen reverberation will lose energy in the attenuated frequency bands depending on the state of the high and low shelving filters The Echo Density and Scale parameters provide additional control over the diffusion s den sity and coarseness and when the room size is extremely small have a large impact on the coloration contributed by the diffusion The Chorus section adds a little modulation and motion to the diffusion Like the Spin section you can control the modulation frequency and amplitude or turn it off 18 21 5 Output At the reverb output you can adjust the effect s overall Dry Wet mix and vary the amplitude of reflections and diffusio
125. ayed pitch Note that all envelopes are not retriggered in this case if notes are being played legato Glide Time Time This is the time it takes for a note to slide from the pitch of the last played note to its final pitch when Glide is activated This setting has no effect if Glide is not activated Pitch Envelope to Osc Destination A D The pitch envelope affects the frequency of the respective oscillator if this is turned on Pitch Envelope to LFO Destination LFO The pitch envelope affects the frequency of the LFO if this is turned on 20 3 OPERATOR 307 Filter Shell and Display Filter On This turns the filter on and off Turning it off when it is unused saves CPU power Filter Type Low pass band pass and high pass are second order filters with resonance Their names imply the part of the spectrum they affect The notch filter passes everything apart from its center frequency and is more audible with low resonance settings Filter Frequency Freq This defines the center or cutoff frequency of the filter Note that the resulting frequency may also be modulated by note velocity and by the filter envelope Filter Resonance Res This defines the resonance around the filter frequency of the low pass and high pass filters and the width of the band pass and notch filters Filter Frequency Velocity Freq lt Vel Filter frequency is modulated by note velocity accord ing to this setting Filter Frequency Key Freq Key
126. ays One can for instance improvise with Session clips and record a log of the improvisation into the Arrangement for further refinement This works because Arrangement and Session are connected via tracks 4 3 Tracks Tracks host clips and also manage the flow of signals the creation of new clips through recording sound synthesis effects processing and mixing 4 3 TRACKS 27 Ww 2 MIDI E H y 3Audio w v Session and Arrangement share the same set of tracks The tracks are vertically laid out from left to right in the Session View and horizontally from top to bottom in the Arrangement View A simple rule governs the cohabitation of clips in a track A track can only play one clip at a time Therefore one usually puts clips that should play alternatively in the same Session View column and spreads out clips that should play together across tracks in rows or so called scenes The exclusivity of clips in a track also implies that at any on time a track will either play a Session clip or an Arrangement clip but never both So who wins When a Session clip is launched the respective track stops whatever it is doing to play that clip In particular if the track was playing an Arrangement clip it will stop it in favor of the Session clip even as the other tracks continue to play what is in the Arrangement The track will not resume A Track in the Arrangement View A Sce
127. brace to the left right by the current grid setting and 4 shift the loop brace left right in steps the size of its length The Clip Loop Controls 8 2 THE SAMPLE BOX 102 PC Mac shortens or lengthens the loop brace by the current grid setting e Ciri INH PC C HAH Mac doubles or halves the loop length Regardless of the position of the loop brace clip play upon launch will begin at the position marked by the start marker which means you can set up the clip to run into a loop s 25 27 28 29 B 31 35 l5 5 tte pam p logo loso loss Setting the Clip to Run Into a Loop The Loop Length and Position fields are equipped with Set buttons which can be used to create loops spontaneously during playback e Playing the clip and then clicking the Set Loop Position button moves the beginning of loop to the current playback position rounded to the global quantization setting and engages the loop Then clicking the Set Loop Length button moves the end of the loop to the current playback position This lets you capture the music in a loop on the fly While the loop is still off you can click the Set Loop Length button to set the loop to end at the current playback position without changing its preset length This simultaneously activates looping The Set buttons the Loop switch the loop brace and the start end markers can all be mapped to MIDI controls You could for example use a
128. c SENE Hh Q m g us Dn 6 S3 4 itor paa 4 Audio 2 3 sire M o 4 None 0 5 Perc s 6 Beats 4 4 Es 53 o ji Tid The Mixer Section Selector The Mixer Controls 13 2 AUDIO AND MIDI TRACKS 172 1 The Meter shows the track s RMS average and peak output level While moni toring however it shows the input level 2 The Volume control adjusts the track s output level 3 The Pan control positions the track s output in the stereo field To reset the pan control to center click on the little triangle 4 To mute the track s output turn off the Track Activator switch 5 The Solo switch solos the track by muting all other tracks but can also be used for cueing Tracks can only be soloed one at a time unless the Exclusive Solo option in the Misc Preferences is deactivated Alternatively you can hold down the PC Mac modifier to solo more than one track 6 If the Arm Recording button is on the track is record enabled Tracks can only be armed one at a time unless the Exclusive Arm option in the Misc Preferences is deactivated Alternatively you can hold down the PO Mac modifier to arm more than one track 13 2 Audio and MIDI Tracks Audio and MIDI tracks in Live are for hosting and playing clips as explained earlier You can add new audio and MIDI tracks to your Live Set s mixer at any time using the ap
129. cal movements in Draw Mode correspond to velocity changes This means that with one horizontal motion and one vertical motion you can draw multiple notes and their velocities without releasing the mouse button If you change velocity with this vertical movement Live will remember the change and use your new velocity on any notes that you Copying Above and Pasting Below a Loop 10 4 EDITING MIDI 135 draw afterward You may sometimes by dragging or by drawing place a new note on top of one that already exists If the new note overlaps with the beginning of the original note the original note will vanish The original note is invisible but still exists and will reappear intact if the new note is moved away again If the new note overlaps with the tail of the original the original note s length will change so that it lasts just until the new note s beginning This too is not an irreversible action and the old note length will be restored if the new clip is again moved 10 4 6 Changing Note Length Clicking and dragging on a note s left or right edges changes its length Note length can only be changed when Draw Mode is inactive and will be quantized unless the PC Mac modifier is held down while dragging 16 16 2 H M M E Tip To set a group of notes to the same length select them all grab the end of the longest one drag them all down to zero length and then extend them 10 4 7 Editing Ve
130. can also be shown or hidden from the mixer with the Mixer Section selector on the far right hand side of the screen 149 150 Audio From Ext In i 1 2 MIDI From MIDI From All Ins All Ins y f All Channes All Channew Audio From Ext In il 1 2 Monitor Monitor Monitor Monitor Ld i 1n Auto A 1n AGG Off 1n Auto Off 1n A Cue Out a Audio To Audio To Audio To MIDI To Audio To 1 2 v Ma Master Master v No Output Master Master Out i 1 2 For every track except the Master the In Out section has the same layout e The upper chooser pair Audio MIDI From selects the track s input Audio tracks have an audio input and MIDI tracks have a MIDI input Return tracks receive their input from the respective sends e The Monitor radio button selects the monitor mode or the conditions under which the track s input is heard through the track e The lower chooser pair Audio MIDI To selects the track s output All tracks have audio outputs except for MIDI tracks without instruments Remember that instruments convert MIDI to audio Within a chooser pair the upper chooser selects the signal category Ext for instance for external connections via an audio or MIDI interface and is called the Input Output Type chooser If this signal type offers sub selections or channels t
131. can set the number of samples processed at any one time by the plug in Higher settings may result in a noticeable performance increase but will also result in higher latencies With the As Audio Buffer setting selected the plug in will calculate the exact number of samples per millisecond as the computer s sound card This setting usually means that very few dropouts or performance problems will occur especially with DSP cards The size of the computer s sound card buffer i e the number of samples it calculates per millisecond can be set using the Audio Preferences Buffer Size setting 15 3 VST Plug Ins 15 3 1 The VST Plug In Folder When you start Live for the first time you will need to activate your VST Plug in sources before working with VST Plug ins Depending on your computer platform you may also have to tell Live about the location of the VST Plug in folder containing the devices you want to use In order to set up your VST sources press the Activate button in the Plug In Device Browser or go to the Plug In Preferences via the Options menu or the Live menu in Mac OS X There you will find the Active Sources section 15 3 VST PLUG INS Audio MIDUSync Plug In Defaults Misc Products Use VST Plug in Custom Folder VST Plug in Custom Folder Not Set For Windows proceed as follows 1 Use the VST Plug In Custom Folder entry to tell Live about the location of your VST Plug ins Click the Browse button to ope
132. ces Live s Preferences dialog is where you can find various settings that govern how Live looks behaves and interfaces with the outside world This dialog is accessed with the Options menu s Windows Live menu s Mac OS X Preferences entry Live s Preferences are distributed over several tabs e The Audio Preferences are used to set up Live s audio connections with the outside world via an audio interface Please take the time to follow the program s built in Setting up Audio I O lesson which will walk you through all the steps required to set up and optimize the settings for any given system To access the lesson choose 2 3 THE MAIN LIVE SCREEN 9 Lessons Table of Contents from the Help menu e The MIDI Sync Preferences are used to help Live recognize MIDI devices for three separate and distinct purposes Playing MIDI notes To learn how to route an external device into Live for MIDI input or how to send MIDI to an external device please see the chapter on routing Controlling parts of the interface remotely This subject is covered in detail in the chapter on remote control Syncing the program with an external sequencer or drum machine either as a master or a slave Please see the manual section on sync for details e The Plug In Preferences pertain to the use of plug in virtual instruments and effects as described in the chapter on using plug ins e The Default Preferences allow customizing the default s
133. ch can be reached via the Input and Output Channel choosers Configure option Note that the Audio Preferences also provide access to the Channel Configuration dialogs which determine which inputs and outputs are used and whether they are available to Live as mono or stereo pairs Essentially the Channel Configuration dialog tells Live what it needs to know about how the computer is connected to the other audio components in your studio 12 2 1 Mono Stereo Conversions When a mono signal is chosen as an audio track s input the track will record mono samples otherwise it will record stereo samples Signals in the track s device chain are always stereo even when the track s input is mono or when the track plays mono samples 12 3 EXTERNAL MIDI IN OUT 153 Mono is turned into stereo simply by using the identical signal for left and right channels When a track is routed into a mono output the left and right signals are added together and attenuated by 6 dB to avoid clipping 12 3 External MIDI In Out MIDI from the outside world is routed into Live just like audio From the Input Type chooser of a MIDI track you can either select a specific MIDI input device or All Ins which is the merged input of all external MIDI devices The Input Channel chooser offers the individual input channels of the selected MIDI device and the merged signal of all channels All As is the case with audio inputs the Input Channel chooser also has meters n
134. croll Up Down DA x Open Close Folders 5 Preview Selected File gt gt Set Selected Folder as Browser Root Return Return 25 5 Transport Windows Macintosh Play from Start Marker Stop Space Space Continue Play from Stop Point A Play Arrangement View Selection Ctrl Alt Record F9 F9 Back to Arrangement F10 F10 Activate Deactivate Track 1 8 F1 F8 Jj F1 F8 j 25 6 EDITING 350 25 6 Editing Windows Macintosh Cut Ctrl JK S 8K Copy Ctrl JC G BC Paste Ctl Jv S 89 v Duplicate Cti D G6 WD Delete Delete Undo Ct JZ G6 BZ Redo cei J JZ SG BA JE Rename Ctrl J R G R Select All Ctrl _ JA G SA By holding down an additional modifier key some of the above commands can also be applied to Windows Macintosh Clips and Slots Across all Tracks A A l Time Across all Tracks A The Selected Part of the Envelope Alt can be used to move from one track or scene to another while renaming 25 7 Loop Brace and Start End Markers The loop brace and start end markers must first be selected before any of the following commands will apply to them 25 8 SESSION VIEW COMMANDS Windows Macintosh Move Start Marker to Position Click Cl
135. currently selected It might also display settings for a clip multi selection In avoiding unpleasant musical surprises it is important to remember that creating remote control mappings for any control in the Clip View interface could potentially affect any clip in the Live Set For this reason we recommend mapping Clip View controls to relative MIDI controllers to prevent undesirable jumps in parameter values Chapter 22 Mackie Control The comprehensive Mackie Control mixing surface puts all of Live s real time creative power at your fingertips Mackie Control allows for mouse free program operation and navigation Through the bi directional connection between Live and the Mackie Control any changes made in the program are reflected in the mixing surface and vice versa To establish this connection open Live s MIDI Sync Preferences At the bottom of the window you will find the Remote Control Surfaces options Selecting Mackie Control from the Control Surface chooser and then setting the necessary input and output will establish the connection between Live and the control surface It is possible to expand the number of Mackie Control channel strips available using a hardware extension This extension is separately set up in Live s Preferences signified by MackieControIXT in the Control Surface chooser If the Mackie Control extension is selected from the topmost chooser it will control the Live tracks beginning at the left hand s
136. d and resize the track in order to completely see the In Out section A 1Audio A 2 MIDI Audio From All Channe MIDI From MIDI From 5 Il siis 5 jj sis MIDI From Ext In All Ins All Ins v All Ins x 1 All Channes f All Channew 1 All Channew Monitor In Auto Off Audio To Master v OF on OI Audio tracks default to recording a stereo signal from the external input pair 1 2 MIDI tracks default to recording all MIDI that is coming in through the active external input devices The computer keyboard is by default activated as a pseudo MIDI input device allowing you to record MIDI even if no MIDI controller hardware is currently available The Track In Out Section in the Arrangement Top and Session View Bottom 14 2 ARMING RECORD ENABLING TRACKS 181 For every track you can choose an input source other than the default any mono or stereo external input a specific MIDI channel from a specific MIDI in device audio from ReWire slave programs or a signal coming from another track The Routing chapter describes these options in detail 14 2 Arming Record Enabling Tracks i T T ED b ISDN 5 5 Leys zi s a mu il zn To select a track for recording click on its Arm button It doesn t matter if you clic
137. d for display in the Arrangement View Go to the Options menu and then access the Time Ruler Format sub menu The MIDI Timecode Offset setting is also only relevant if MIDI Timecode is chosen from the Sync Type menu You can specify a SMPTE time offset using this control Live will interpret this value as the Arrangements start time 23 1 4 Sync Delay The Sync Delay controls which are separately available for each MIDI device allow you to delay Live s internal time base against the sync signal This can be useful in compensating for delays incurred by the signal transmission The Sync Delay for a specific MIDI device appears as you select the MIDI device from the MIDI Preferences Active Device list To adjust the delay have both Live and the other sequencer play a rhythmical pattern with pronounced percussive sounds While listening to the output from both adjust the Sync Delay control until both sounds are in perfect sync M Sync MIDI Ti 4 00 ms Rate ELT ut Adjusting Sync Delay 23 2 Connecting via ReWire Live supports the ReWire interface for connecting with another ReWire compatible audio program running on the same computer 23 2 CONNECTING VIA REWIRE 339 The ReWire technology developed by Propellerhead Software provides ReWire compatible programs with e common access to the audio hardware e shared transport functionality e synchronization to audio word clock and song positioning e exchange of audio s
138. d improved transport controls 1 2 2 Organizational Tools for Files and Sets e File search function e Better browsing for files and folders e Live Clip format for easy storage and retrieval of clip and device settings e Import and export of Live Sets and their components directly from the Browser e Open Recent Set command 1 2 3 Clip and Track Enhancements e rack Freeze for conserving CPU resources and simplifying project sharing 1 2 WHAT S NEW IN LIVE 5 e Track Delay controls to control for human acoustic and hardware delays e Multi selection clip editing e Clip deactivation option 1 2 4 Working with Arrangements e Launchable Arrangement Locators e New Arrangement Transport e Track I O in the Arrangement View 1 2 5 Editing MIDI e Detailed and adaptive MIDI quantization options e Preview in the MIDI Editor e MIDI note deactivation option 1 2 6 MIDI and Key Remote Control e Mackie Control support e Improved mapping for the crossfader 1 2 WHAT S NEW IN LIVE 5 1 2 7 Resources e Valuable library of clips device presets and Live Sets e Library expansion and customization with Live Packs e New interactive built in program lessons 1 2 8 Live Effects and Instruments e Beat Repeat for reorganizing and shredding beats and vocals e Phaser and Flanger e Auto Pan for LFO driven manipulation of amplitude and panning e Saturator for subtle to drastic distortion effects e Arpeggiator e New features
139. d in the MIDI Editor s key tracks when the Fold button is active even if the given key track is void of MIDI notes Mapping can be transposed from the default by applying a Pitch device or it can be rearranged by applying a Scale device The Impulse Instrument 20 1 IMPULSE 285 Each of the eight samples has a proprietary set of parameters located in the area below the sample slots and visible when the sample is clicked Adjustments to sample settings are only captured once you hit a new note they do not affect currently playing notes Note that this behavior also defines how Impulse reacts to parameter changes from clip envelopes or automation which are applied once a new note starts If you want to achieve continuous changes as a note plays you may want to use the Simpler Slot 8 s parameters also include a Link button located in the lower left corner which links slot 8 with slot 7 Linking the two slots allows slot 7 s activation to stop slot 8 s playback and vice versa This was designed with a specific situation in mind but can of course be used for other purposes Naturalistic closed hi hat cymbals will shut down open hi hat cymbals Each slot can be played soloed or muted using controls that appear when the mouse hovers over it 20 1 2 Start Tune and Stretch The Start control defines where Impulse begins playing a sample and can be set to up to 100 ms later than the actual sample beginning The Transposition contr
140. der is inserted as an audio effect into the string track It has a sidechain input for the speech signal which has to be delivered from another track So we create an additional audio track named Speech and set its Output Type chooser to the Strings 12 7 INTERNAL ROUTINGS 167 track From the Output Channel chooser we select the vocoder s sidechain input 1 Speech 2 Strings 3 MIDI 4 MIDI Audio From _ Audio From jo From MIDI From px lean ot Routing a Speech Signal P Vokator FX Carbon Into a Vocoder s 2 not support Sidechain Input Some vocoder plug ins include a built in synthesizer to generate the carrier signal In this case the only difference from the above procedure is that the vocoder instrument is dragged into a MIDI track Feeding the side chain audio input works as described above 12 7 8 Layering Instruments Suppose that we have a MIDI track containing an instrument playing a string sound which we would like to lubricate by adding a brass sound playing the same notes This can be easily done by adding a MIDI track that contains an instrument playing the brass sound and setting its Input Type chooser to tap the string track s output signal 12 7 INTERNAL ROUTINGS 168 3 Audio 4 Strings 5 Brass 6 MIDI Ze Audio From No Input Audio To Using an Auxiliary MIDI Track to Layer XM Instruments Perhaps you wonder why this works given
141. down the PC Mac modifier while drawing or moving breakpoints to obtain a finer resolution To scroll the display hold down the Ctri PC Mac modifier while dragging Pitch is modulated in an additive way The output of the transposition envelope is simply 17 2 AUDIO CLIP ENVELOPES 227 added to the Transpose control s value The result of the modulation is clipped to stay in the available range 48 48 semitones in this case 17 2 3 Muting or Attenuating Notes in a Sample Click on the Volume envelope quick chooser to access an audio clip s volume envelope By drawing steps in Draw Mode or creating shapes with breakpoints you can impose an arbitrary volume shape onto the sample 12 13 14 E jl 1 1 3 12 123 13 133 14 143 1 16 patch teet Te EL lites 0 00 0 00 500 0 01 0 01 500 The volume envelope s output is interpreted as a relative percentage of the clip volume slider s current value The result of the clip envelope s modulation can therefore never exceed the absolute volume setting but the clip envelope can drag the audible volume down to silence 17 2 4 Scrambling Beats One very creative use of clip envelopes is to modulate the sample offset Sample offset modulation makes the most sense for rhythmical samples and is only available for clips that are set up to run in the Beats Warp Mode Imposing a Volume Envelope on a Sample 17 2 AUDIO CLIP ENVELOPES 228 Try sample offset m
142. ds It is located next to in the same folder as My Live Set 5 8 Live Packs Live s library is broken down into several Live Packs that can be separately downloaded installed and uninstalled A Live Pack is a single file much like a ZIP file that expands into many files upon installation Live Packs are available from installation CDs or the Ableton website To install a down loaded Live Pack drag the file into Live double click the file or select Install Live Pack from the File menu A list of all installed Live Packs is kept in the Preferences Products tab You can select individual Live Packs from the list and click the Uninstall button to remove them You can of course remove rename alter and add to the individual files that come with Live Packs at will making someone else s library your own http www ableton com downloads Chapter 6 Arrangement View The Arrangement View displays the Arrangement which contains music laid out along a song timeline like a multitrack tape Set b amp 1 Bass 2 Chords 3 Rhodes 4 Perc s 5 Beats A Piece of Music Laid out in the Arrangement View eo ef w Nm 6 Crash 64 6 1 NAVIGATION 65 The Arrangement View is a powerful editing tool that easily lets you combine and arrange musical material of all types MIDI loops sound effects and complete pieces of music 6 1 Navigation Live offers several fast methods for zooming and scrolling
143. e Chapter 20 Live Instrument Reference Live comes with a selection of custom designed built in instruments The Working with Instruments and Effects chapter explains the basics of using instruments in Live 283 20 1 IMPULSE 284 20 1 Impulse Impulse m Volume perc06 hh08 hh66 hhcym0 kick019 Ludwig kick635 Congah 2 86 dB Pan Volume time o Statt Transp Stretch Drive Freq Res Decay Oi 0 000ms Ost 00 171 185kH O70 200s 000dB 00 Velocity Velocity Velocity Velocity Velocity Transp 70 amp 38 isa 0 00 0 00 Random Mode Random 00 A S M 5 Impulse is a drum sampler with complex modulative capabilities The eight drum samples loaded into Impulse s sample slots can be time stretched filtered and processed by enve lope saturation pan and volume components nearly all of which are subject to random and velocity based modulation 20 1 1 Sample Slots Samples are dragged and dropped into Impulse s eight sample slots from the Browser or the Session and Arrangement Views Samples can be deleted with your computer keyboard s Backspace Delete key Imported samples are automatically mapped onto your MIDI keyboard providing that it is plugged in and acknowledged by Live C3 on the keyboard will trigger the leftmost sample and the other samples will follow suit in the octave from C3 to C4 Impulse s eight slots will appear labele
144. e e Session View Slots Controller values above 63 are treated like note on messages Controller values below 64 are treated like note off messages e Switches Controller values 64 and above turn the switch on Controller values below 64 turn it off e Radio Buttons The controller s 0 127 value range is mapped onto the range of available options e Continuous Controls The controller s 0 127 value range is mapped onto the param eter s range of values Live also supports pitch bend messages and high precision controller messages with a 0 16383 value range The above specifications apply to pitch bend and high precision controllers as well except that the value range s center is at 8191 8192 21 2 5 Mapping to Relative MIDI Controllers Some MIDI controllers can send value increment and value decrement messages instead of absolute MIDI messages These controls prevent parameter jumps when the state of a control in Live and the corresponding control on the hardware MIDI controller differ For example imagine that you have assigned the pan knob on your controller box to the pan control in a Live track If the hardware control is panned hard right and the Live control is panned hard left a slight movement in a hardware pan knob that sends absolute messages would tell Live to pan right causing an abrupt jump in the track s panning A pan knob sending relative messages would prevent this since its incremental message to Live would
145. e chain There it is first processed by any number of MIDI effects A MIDI effect receives and delivers MIDI signals One example is the Scale effect which maps the incoming notes onto a user defined musical scale The last MIDI effect in the chain is followed by an instrument Instruments for instance Live s Simpler and Impulse receive MIDI and deliver audio Following the instrument there can be any number of audio effects as in an audio track simpler ccu p SUA EN Length Fade e e Amp Attack Decay Sustain Release Q 000 Rate Attack Transp LFO LFO 0 00 Rand a o 99x Ghde Spread mj 24 st 0 00 om Detune Env Time 12 dB 40 0 dB Snap 0 05ms 286s infdB 189s LFO 7 54 Env 55 9 98 Hz 0 4 ost 4 300 00 Flip Release 5 00 ms 6 Boats 7 If a MIDI track has no instrument and no audio effects then the track s output is a plain MIDI signal which has to be sent somewhere else to be converted into audio In this case Live s Crossfader MIDI Effects an Instrument and Audio Effects in a MIDI Track 4 8 PRESETS AND DEVICE GROUPS 37 the track s mix and Send controls disappear from the mixer Breakdown The Mixer for a MIDI Track without an Instrument 4 4 Al ot 2 3 A B A H 4 8 Presets and
146. e CPU shows a high percentage of processor usage the audio stream should remain uninterrupted However non critical functions such as screen redraws might slow down because these tasks are handled only when the audio processing lightens up a bit 24 1 1 CPU Load from Multichannel Audio One source of constant CPU drain is the process of moving data to and from the audio hardware This drain can be minimized by disabling any inputs and outputs that are not required in a project There are two buttons in the Audio Preferences to access the Input and Output Configuration dialogs which allow activating or deactivating individual ins and outs Live does not automatically disable unused channels because the audio hardware drivers usually produce an audible hiccup when there is a request for an audio configuration The CPU Load Meter 24 1 MANAGING THE CPU LOAD 344 change 24 1 2 CPU Load from Tracks and Devices Generally every track and device being used in Live incurs some amount of CPU load However Live is smart and avoids wasting CPU cycles on tracks and devices that do not contribute anything useful For example dragging devices into a Live Set that is not running does not significantly increase the CPU load The load increases only as you start playing clips or feed audio into the effects When there is no incoming audio the effects are deactivated until they are needed again If the effect produces a tail like re
147. e Unlock Key as a file Transfer the file to the target computer via a diskette or CD ROM Then press the Unlock dialog s Load Unlock Key button to load the Unlock Key file Live 4 Live 3 or Live 2 Download Unlock Key MAC Please hold the Option key while clicking here and the Unlock Key should begin to download PC Please right click here and save the Unlock Key to disk Transfer the Unlock Key Unlock xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx txt to the computer where Live is installed Start Live and in the Live unlock dialog press Load Unlock Key Finally load the Unlock Key in the file selection dialog Note If transferring the file to the computer seems too inconvenient and you The Unlock Key Can Be are already using Live 4 Live 3 or Live 2 you can enter the Unlock Key Downloaded as a Text manually File OR it might be more convenient to print the webpage with the Unlock Key on it On the target computer press the Enter Unlock Key button to open a dialog with fields for typing in the Unlock Key Typing it in is easier than it first appears because the fields will turn red if you type the wrong string 3 2 STEP 2 UNLOCKING LIVE Live 4 Live 3 or Live 2 Enter the Unlock Key o manualy enter the Unlock Ke Nith Liv y g button in the dialo g and en ng the nu yw gt itis such a long number you should print this pa ge to avoid any typing mi S me of you it mic ght be more iiie ipe Note The Unlock Key is case sensiti
148. e Warp Markers which have to be set correctly for Live to play long files in sync Note that you can use the Save button without affecting any existing clips Save just saves default settings for future clips using this sample The clip data becomes part of the analysis file that accompanies the sample Note that storing default clip settings with the sample is different from saving the clip as a Live Clip which also saves devices and device settings 8 2 7 High Quality Interpolation Sample le The High Quality Switch 8 2 THE SAMPLE BOX 106 If the High Quality switch is on Live uses an advanced sample rate conversion algorithm that provides better sound quality at the expense of a higher CPU load Samples processed with the Hi Q algorithm generate less distortion particularly at high frequencies when transposing a sample and or matching an imported sample s sampling rate to the system s sampling rate Note This feature involves only sample rate conversion not the time stretching quality There are dedicated controls for adjusting the stretching properties 8 2 8 Clip Start and End Fades Sample The Clip Fade Switch The Clip Fade switch when enabled applies a short fade to the clip start and end to avoid clicks at the clip edges The length of the fade is signal dependent and ranges from 0 4 milliseconds 8 2 9 Clip RAM Mode Sample Ra The RAM Mode Switch If the RAM Mode switch is on Live is
149. e a few rules for the reversing process First any Warp Markers will remain fixed to their positions in the sample This means that a Warp Marker on the downbeat of the second bar of a clip will end up on the downbeat of the second to last bar after reversal Clip loop region settings are similarly flipped Second clip envelopes remain fixed to their The Reverse Button 8 3 THE NOTES BOX 108 position in time Therefore a mixer volume envelope that lowers the volume of the first half of a clip will continue to do exactly that after reversal The reversal process is quite fast about as fast as copying but for very long samples it might take a little time When this is the case the Status Bar in the lower portion of the Live screen will give you a progress display and further actions in the program will be temporarily locked though running clips will continue to play You can play the reversed clip and perform other actions in the program as soon as Live begins to draw the new waveform into the Sample Display Once a sample is reversed a link to the reversed sample will be maintained until the you quit the program and reversing the same clip again or a copy will be instantaneous It is not recommended that you reverse clips in a live performance situation as a slight glitch can sometimes occur while Live reapplies the warp and loop settings 8 3 The Notes Box Launch Position Ga 1 1 Length Seb 1 2l
150. e apparent in the level meters between devices and relevant device settings can then be adjusted or the device can be turned off or removed Note that no clipping can occur between devices because A MIDI Track s Device Chain Can Contain All Three Device Types A Device Activator Switch 15 1 USING THE LIVE DEVICES 196 there is practically unlimited headroom Clipping can occur when an overly strong signal is sent to a physical output or written to a sample Further information about track types in Live can be found in the Routing and O chapter including information on using return tracks to distribute the effect of a single Live device amongst several tracks After reading about using devices in Live it might also be interesting look into clip envelopes which can modulate individual device settings on a per clip basis 15 1 1 Live Device Presets Every Live device can store and retrieve particular sets of parameter values as presets Browsing and Loading Presets Presets for Live instruments and effects are managed through the Live Device Browser Each device in the Browser appears as a folder that can be opened to reveal its presets i Low Ei Monobass IF Squa Presets in the Device Browser 15 1 USING THE LIVE DEVICES 197 You can browse and load presets quickly with the computer keyboard e Scroll up and down using the and keys e Close and open device folders using the and keys e Use PCO 6
151. e changes the clip s length Moving a Clip Changing a Clip s Length 6 6 SELECTING CLIPS AND TIME 72 6 6 Selecting Clips and Time With the exception of moving and resizing clips Arrangement editing in Live is selection based You select something using the mouse then execute a menu command e g Cut Copy Paste Duplicate on the selection This editing method lends itself to an efficient division of labor between the two hands One hand operates the mouse or trackpad while the other hand issues the keyboard shortcuts for the menu commands The menu eventually is only used as a reference for looking up the keyboard shortcuts Here is how selection works Clicking a clip selects the clip Clicking into the Arrangement background selects a point in time represented by a flashing insert mark Clicking and dragging selects a timespan To access the time within a clip for editing unfold its track by clicking the triangular button next to the track name Notice that you can adjust the height of the unfolded track by dragging the split line below the Unfold Track button Clicking and dragging in the waveform display below the clip s horizontal strip allows you to select time within the clip Note that you can actually unfold all of your tracks at once by holding down the PC Mac modifier when clicking the Unfold Track button Adjusting an Unfolded Track s Height 6 7 USING THE EDITING GRID 73 e Clicking o
152. e same computer 12 5 REWIRE SLAVE ROUTING 157 An Audio Track Receiving Audio From and a MIDI Track Sending MIDI to Reason The following example shows how to send MIDI from one of Live s MIDI tracks into an instrument within Propellerhead s Reason and then route the audio result back into an audio track 1 m First start Live Then start Reason and set up the Reason rack as desired 2 3 4 Select Reason from the MIDI track s Output Type chooser The Output Channel chooser presents you with a list of the instruments that you currently have in your Reason rack select the instrument you want to address Select Reason from the audio track s Input Type chooser From the audio track s Input Channel chooser select the audio channel that corresponds to the instrument to which you are sending MIDI Set the audio track s Monitor radio button to In 12 6 RESAMPLING 158 8 Select All Ins from the MIDI track s Input Type chooser 9 Arm the MIDI track Now any MIDI that you are playing into Live will arrive in Reason which will generate the corresponding audio back into the audio track ready for further processing in Live s mixer and effects If you want to continue work on the project without reopening Reason simply record Reason s audio by arming the audio track and engaging Record Mode 12 6 Resampling Live s Master output can be routed into an individual audio track and recorded or resa
153. e slots 20 2 Simpler Start Loop Length Fade Decay Sustain Release LFO Pan Volume amp Q0 Q9 Q 0 6 0 E 33 0 400 500 38 0 0 05ms 740ms 53dB 1 10s 00 0 0 00 Filter Freq Res Vel Rate Attack Transp LFO Gide Spread Vel 32 0 10 m Ost 4 2 50 s Off Q 31 0 Key N Key Detune Env Time Voices 223Hz 822 422 0 0 o 4 ost 4 300 00 12 v The Simpler Instrument 20 2 SIMPLER 288 Simpler is an instrument that integrates the basic elements of a sampler with a set of classic synthesizer parameters A Simpler voice plays a user defined sample section which is in turn processed by envelope filter LFO volume and pitch components 20 2 1 Sample View The Sample View displays the sample waveform Samples can be dragged into Simpler either directly from the Browser or from the Session or Arrangement View in the form of clips In the latter case Simpler will utilize only the section of the sample demarcated by the clip s start end or loop markers Samples can be replaced by dragging in a new sample 20 2 2 Sample Controls Simpler plays a specific region or loop of the sample as determined by a group of sample controls The Start and Length controls work together to specify where Simpler begins and ends its sweep of the sample As the name implies Start defines where sample playback starts The sample will
154. e triangle shaped button in the plug in s title bar The X Y control field can be used to control two plug in parameters at once and is therefore especially well suited for live control To assign any two plug in parameters to the Live panel X Y field use the drop down menus directly beneath it Once a plug in is placed in a track you can use it just like a Live device e You can edit all of its parameters and drag it to different locations in the device chain or to other tracks according to the rules of audio effects and instruments e You can map MIDI controller messages to its parameters e You can modulate its continuous parameters with clip envelopes e You can also use the multiple I O features of some plug ins by assigning them as sources or targets in the routing setup of tracks See the chapter on routing for details 15 2 2 Showing Plug In Panels in Separate Windows aaa The Plug In Edit Button 15 2 USING PLUG INS 205 The Plug In Edit button opens a floating window that shows the original VST or Audio Units Plug in panel Changing parameters on the floating window has the same effect as changing them in the Live panel and vice versa There are a few important Plug In Preference settings for working with plug in edit windows e f activated the Auto Open Plug In Windows Preference assures that plug in edit windows open automatically when plug ins are loaded into tracks from the Browser e f the Multiple Plug In Wind
155. econds Notice that you can use the Set buttons here to place the markers during playback Setting markers this way is quantized according to global quantization Clicking in the scrub area in the lower half of the waveform or above the beat time ruler will make clip playback jump to that point Using Clip Start and End Controls to Change Clip Length The Clip Scrub Area 8 2 THE SAMPLE BOX 101 The size of this jump is quantized by the global quantization setting which can be quickly changed using the Ct 6 PC G6 89 6 Mac 7 8 9 and shortcuts While the mouse is held down over the scrub area a portion of the clip the size of the chosen quantization setting will be repeatedly played With small quantization settings or a setting of None this allows you to scrub through the music Looping Clips To have the clip play as a potentially infinite loop turn on the Loop switch Note that the Warp switch must be activated before the Loop switch is accessible as unwarped clips cannot be looped You can click and drag to change the position and length of the loop brace in the Sample Display or you can type exact values into the Loop Length and Position fields to the left of the display p Loop E Position Sei o o o Length Ga oj 0 57 The loop brace can be selected with the mouse and its position changed with commands from the computer keyboard e and nudge the loop
156. ee eee ee 76 context MENU 6 cece eee 357 Control chooser see Automation Control chooser see Clip Envelope Control chooser control surfaces see Mackie Control Copy Envelope command sssuueu 220 copy protection 6 eee eee eee eee e 12 count in for recording 0 cece ee eee eee 188 Count In setting eese rere ent sae 188 CPU M M 342 CP Loadmieter z io pecu ances e UR eens 343 Create Analysis Files preference 54 Create Folder command sssssssssuu 52 crossfader 0c cee e cece cece e ees 35 174 and remote control eee eee eee 175 automating the cece eee ee eee 176 Cue Out Choose wc ccooese cce ue cease 177 CUS points 5 2 Ip pb RP RR EUN see locators eur 176 Cut Envelope command 0005 220 INDEX Cut Scenes command 060 c cece eee ee 84 Cut Time command cece eee e cence eee 74 D Decoding Cache preferences suss 53 Default Preferences isses 9 and recording elipisss cess eb dr a eR En 189 for clip SENINGS sos esi eos E ELE pup ey ceine 110 Delay Compensation option 4 213 Delete Automation command 215 Delete command and devices s sese e xr aoe 195 and envelopes isi esed iae pibe dx skeie dvds 224 and key mepplhg aas exapprea v qERE SEC PERRA 313 and MIDI mapping a35scse sese ud Ue xs 316 and tracks eo
157. eggiator works just like it does for clips so that the intensity of the groove is set in the Control Bar With the Hold parameter active Arpeggiator will continue to play the pattern even after the keyboard keys have been released The pattern will be repeated until any other keyboard key is pressed When Hold is active and any of the original keys also remain physically held notes can be added to the pattern simply by playing them Notes can also be removed from the pattern in this scenario by playing them a second time allowing the gradual buildup and rearrangement of the pattern over time Tip If you want the pattern to stop playing momentarily deactivate Hold The Offset parameter shifts the sequence of notes in the pattern by the number of places selected with the control This is best illustrated with an example A setting of 1 makes the second note in the pattern play first and the first note last If you imagine the pattern as a circle of notes that is played in a clockwise direction from a set start point the Offset 19 1 ARPEGGIATOR 276 parameter effectively rotates this circle counter clockwise one note at a time changing where in the pattern play begins With the Repeats parameter the pattern can be set to repeat a specified number of times until it is retriggered A setting of inf will repeat the pattern indefinitely Hint This feature provides an excellent way of emulating the strum of a guitar or playing a chord as
158. elease E Ahead Side Chain 2 1 00 ms 20 0 ms ma Gain m om 7 El 6 Compressor ll is a state of the art compression unit the tool of choice for a wide range of dynamic processing applications including limiting and loudness maximization Compressor Ils design is a lot more sophisticated and capable than Compressor l s It includes frequency selective compression using a sidechain EQ variable look ahead times and two response modes Peak and RMS Compressor is still a valuable sound design tool in spite of or rather because of its simplicity and roughness which can add interesting flavors to your sounds A compressor can only react to an input signal once it occurs Since it also needs to apply an attack release envelope the compression is always a bit too late A digital compressor can solve this problem by simply delaying the input signal a little bit Compressor Il offers three different predelay times zero ms one ms and ten ms The results may sound pretty different depending on this setting Keep in mind that using ten ms of predelay makes the output appear significantly later You may have to delay other tracks with a Simple Delay in order to stay in sync Compressor ll can either react to short peaks within a signal or to something that is more related to how people perceive loudness The parameter for this is the Peak RMS switch If you intend to use Compressor ll as a limiter in the master sectio
159. elope can be adjusted using the Decay control which can be set to a maximum of 60 0 seconds Impulse has two decay modes Trigger Mode allows the sample to decay with the note Gate Mode forces the envelope to wait for a note off message before beginning the decay This mode is useful in situations where you need variable decay lengths as is the case with hi hat cymbal sounds 20 1 5 Pan and Volume Each sample has Volume and Pan controls that adjust amplitude and stereo positioning respectively Both controls can be modulated Pan by velocity and a random value and Volume by velocity only 20 2 SIMPLER 287 20 1 6 Global Parameters The parameters located to the right of the sample slots are global controls that apply to all samples within Impulse s domain Volume adjusts the overall level of the instrument and Pitch adjusts the transposition of all notes The Time control governs the time stretching and decay of all samples allowing you to morph between short and stretched drum sounds 20 1 7 Individual Outputs When a new instance of Impulse is dragged into a track its signal will be mixed with those of the other instruments and effects feeding the audio chain of the track It can oftentimes make more sense to isolate the instrument or one of its individual drum samples and send this signal to a separate track Please see the Routing chapter to learn how to accomplish this for Impulse s overall signal or for Impulse s individual sampl
160. emplate als is located in Live s Preferences folder and can be copied or deleted from there The easiest way to locate this folder is to search your disk for Template als 5 6 Offline and Lost Files If you load a Live Set or Live Clip that references samples missing from their referenced locations Live will issue a warning message and ask whether you want to locate the missing files If you do not the Live Set or Live Clip will open anyway with the clips that reference missing files marked Offline Live will play silence in place of the offline clips You can find the missing files by selecting offline clips and clicking the Clip View s Replace button 5 7 The Sounds Folder and Self Containing The Sounds folder is a Live Set s private location for storing samples All samples that are recorded into a Live Set end up in this Live Set s Sounds folder Live offers a convenient method for gathering all the files that are referenced by a Live Set in this folder When you choose the File menu s Save Set Self Contained command Live copies all externally refer enced files there After Live has self contained the files there will no longer be references to samples spread over one or more hard drives You can back up the Live Set along with 5 8 LIVE PACKS 63 its Sounds folder or send it to collaborators via the Internet and all files used in the project will be included The Sounds folder for My Live Set is called My Live Set Soun
161. en the signal has passed through the device chain it ends up in Live s mixer As Session and Arrangement share the same set of tracks so they share the mixer The mixer can be shown in both views for convenience To optimize the screen layout the individual mixer sections can be shown or hidden using the View menu s entries 4 7 DEVICES AND THE MIXER 35 1243 3 The Live Mixer in the Arrangement View Top and Session View Bottom The mixer has controls for volume pan position and sends which adjust the contribution each clip track makes to each return track s input Return tracks cannot host clips only effects Via their sends all tracks can feed a part of their signal into a return track and share its effects The mixer also includes a crossfader which can create smooth transitions between clips playing on different tracks Live s crossfader works like a typical DJ mixer crossfader except that it allows crossfading not only two but any number of tracks including the returns 4 7 DEVICES AND THE MIXER 36 Devices that receive and deliver audio signals are called audio effects Audio effects are the only type of device that fit in an audio track or a return track However two more types of devices are available for use in MIDI tracks MIDI effects and instruments Consider a MIDI track playing a clip The MIDI signal from the clip is fed into the track s devic
162. enu to change device or clip settings On slower machines you can unfreeze processor intensive tracks one at a time for editing freezing them again when you are done Besides providing an opportunity to conserve CPU resources on tracks containing a large number of devices the Freeze command simplifies sharing projects between computers Computers that are a bit low on processor power can be used to run large Live Sets as long as any CPU intensive tracks are frozen This also means that computers lacking certain devices used in one Live Set can still play the Set when the relevant device tracks are frozen The samples generated by the Track Freeze command are stored in your temporary recording folder until you save your Live Set at which point they are moved to your Sounds folder Note Frozen Arrangement View tracks will play back any relevant material stretching beyond the lengths of their clips e g the tails on Reverb effects In the Session View only two loop cycles are included in the frozen clip which means that clips with unlinked clip envelopes will play back differently when frozen if those envelopes are longer than two loop cycles 24 2 Managing the Disk Load A hard drive s access speed which is related to but not identical to rotational speed can limit Live s performance Most audio optimized computers use 7200 RPM or faster drives Laptops to save power often use 5400 RPM or slower drives which is why projects on lapt
163. er Live Sets that were created with older versions of Live will open without device delay compensation To manually turn latency compensation on or off use the Delay Compensation option in the Options menu Unusually high individual track delays or reported latencies from plug ins may cause no ticeable sluggishness in the software If you are having latency related difficulties while recording and playing back instruments you may want to try turning off device delay com pensation however this is not normally recommended You may also find that adjusting the individual track delays is useful in these cases Note that device delay compensation can depending on the number of tracks and devices in use increase the CPU load Chapter 16 Automation and Editing Envelopes Often when working with Live s mixer and devices you will want the controls movements to become part of the music The movement of a control across the song timeline is called automation a control whose value changes in the course of this timeline is automated Practically all mixer and device controls in Live can be automated including the song tempo 16 1 Recording Automation Creating automation is straightforward All changes of a control that occur while the Control Bar s Record switch is on become automation Try recording automation for a control for instance a mixer volume slider After recording play back what you have just recorded to see and hear the effec
164. er effect 2 2o tu Te pus 258 367 Ping Pong Delay effect ee eee 259 Pitch Bend quick chooser button see quick chooser buttons PitehieflecEs s seti exer RR HERR dacs a 278 Play DULLON a regeer xod ex male ee ta a ad 66 Plug In Device Browser 0 0 e eee ee 202 Plug In Device Browserselector 202 Plug In Edit button 0 0 0 e eee eee ee 204 Plug In Performance setting 005 206 Plug In Preferences 0000eceee eee 9 206 Plug In Unfold button 00 e eee eee 203 plug ins using eee see devices pre listening samples see previewing Pre Post switches 0 0ce cece eee eee 174 Preferences iius dossier d ete Soe x Ra 8 Preset Save button 00 cece eee eee eee 198 Preview switch 0 cee eee ee 50 126 127 Preview Volume knob 0 00eee eee es 186 previewing in the Browser 0 0 eeee cece eee eee ee 50 in the MIDI Editor 2 20005 126 Previous Locator button 2 e eee eee 69 DIOCeSSOF ite dive nine ruere e Vasa xas see CPU Products Preferences cece eee e eee 9 12 and Live Packs 0ec eee e eee ee eee 63 Punch In Out switches 00 0eceeeee eens 183 Q quantization command for selected MIDI notes 132 INDEX for clip auri Mer exea edber redo Y aan 141 for MIDI notes during recording 187 Quantize menu com
165. erically using the Control Bar fields The left hand set of fields determines the loop start position while the right hand set determines loop length The Edit menu s Loop Selection command accomplishes all of the above at once It turns the Arrangement loop on and sets the Arrangement loop brace to whatever timespan is selected in the Arrangement The loop brace can be selected with the mouse and manipulated with commands from the computer keyboard e and nudge the loop brace to the left right by the current grid setting The Control Bar s Loop Switch The Loop Start Fields Left and the Loop Length Fields Right The Arrangement s Loop Brace 6 5 MOVING AND RESIZING CLIPS 71 e and shift the loop brace left right in steps the size of its length e The PC Mac modifier used with the arrow left and right keys shortens or lengthens the loop by the current grid setting e The PO Mac modifier with the arrow up and down keys doubles or halves the loop length You can also drag the Arrangements loop brace Dragging the left and right ends sets the loop start and end points dragging between the ends moves the loop without changing its length 6 5 Moving and Resizing Clips A piece of audio or MIDI is represented in the Arrangement View by a clip sitting at some song position in one of Live s tracks 4 4 4 Bass guitarchord rhode m 4 4 Dragging a clip s left or right edg
166. eset with unsaved changes is shown in the Device Browser with an asterisk next to its name Presets can be organized in the Browser in a manner similar to files e They can be put in sub folders with the aid of the PC 6 Mac context menu s Create Folder command e Presets can be moved to different folders within their device s folder by dragging and dropping or by copying cutting and pasting e Presets can be renamed using the Edit menu s Rename command or the Cti J R PC R Mac shortcut e To delete a preset select it and press your computer s Delete key or use the respective Edit menu command The Preset Save Button 15 1 USING THE LIVE DEVICES 199 Searching for Presets Live s search function is available in the Device Browser to help with finding presets by name EX gt Opening Search Mode in the Device Browser Clicking the Search button in the upper right corner of the Device Browser or using the PO s39 amp JF Mac shortcut will open the Browsers Search Mode Live will search for the contents typed in the Search field throughout the Device Browser After entering search criteria begin the search by pressing on your computer key board You can abort an in progress search with the Exit Search button located to the right of the Search field A second click on this button closes Search Mode returning the Browser to Browse Mode Beginning a new search aborts any current
167. ession of rhythmical sources If you are not used to working with compressors play a drum loop and spend some time adjusting Attack Release Threshold and Gain It can be very exciting 18 7 EQ THREE 248 18 7 EQ Three t2 EQ Three eO GainLow GainMid GainHi 3 603 S S N 0 00dB 0O0 00dB 0 00 dB t LH If you have ever used a good DJ mixer you will know what this is An EO that allows you to adjust the level of low mid and high frequencies independently Each band can be adjusted from infinite dB to 6 dB using the gain controls This means that you can completely remove for example the bass drum or bassline of a track while leaving the other frequencies untouched You can also turn on or off each band using the On Off buttons located under the gain controls These buttons are especially handy if assigned to computer keys EQ Three gives you visual confirmation of the presence of a signal in each frequency band using three green LEDs Even if a band is turned off you can see if there is something going on in it The internal threshold for the LEDs is set to 24 dB The frequency range of each band is defined via two crossover controls FreqLo and FregHi If FreqLo is set to 500 Hz and FreqHi to 2000 Hz then the low band goes from 0 hz to 500 Hz the mid band from 500 Hz to 2000 Hz and the high band from 2000 Hz up to what ever your soundcard or sample rate supports A very important contr
168. et Root To Library PC e Mac context menu command ale Moving through the files in Live s Browser can be done with either the mouse or the computer keyboard e Scroll up and down in the Browser with and Library Is this Browser s Root The File Browser s Folder Up Button The File Browser s Root Button The Library Button 5 1 WORKING WITH THE FILE BROWSERS 48 e Close and open folders with and P e Jump to the parent folder of any closed folder using Hint If executed on a top level folder this is an alternative to pressing the Folder Up button and will move the Browser root up one level To clean up the Browser use PC Ctrl Mac to access the context menu and then select the Close All Folders option to show only top level folders Double clicking any of the three File Browser icons will also close all sub level folders t Double Click These Icons to Clean up the Browser Note that you may occasionally want to refresh the Browser if you are working on a network To do so PC Mac to open the context menu and then select the Refresh command 5 1 2 Searching for Files Live s File Browsers are equipped with a search function for finding files Clicking the Search button in the upper right corner of the Browser or using the PO Mac shortcut will open the Browser s Search Mode Activating Browser Search Mode 5 1 WORKING WITH THE FILE BROWSERS 49
169. et Warp Markers for only one of the composite samples and copy the same set of Warp Markers to the other tracks This can be easily done provided the individual samples have the exact same length which usually is the case if they all have been exported from several tracks in one go Pick the sample with the clearest rhythmical pronunciation and set the Warp Markers for this sample as described elsewhere Next make enough copies of this clip to hold all the individual samples and drop the samples from the Browser into the clips The Warp Markers will be retained because the samples all have the same length Sample LJ The Replace Sample button is for replacing a sample throughout the entire Live Set All clips that reference the old sample will reference the new sample which is selected using a file chooser dialog Live retains the clip properties the Warp Markers are kept if the The Replace Sample Button 8 2 THE SAMPLE BOX 105 new sample has the same or a greater length as the old sample and discarded otherwise This function is also useful for locating missing samples that are marked offline 8 2 6 Saving Default Clip Settings with the Sample Sample sae The Save Default Clip TORRE Button The Save Default Clip button saves the current clip s settings with the sample Once saved Live will restore the current clip settings whenever you drop the sample into a Live Set This is especially useful with regards to th
170. eter Imagine that you have recorded volume automation for an audio clip so that it gradually fades out over four bars What happens to your fade out when you create a clip envelope that gradually increases the mixer volume over four bars At first your fade out will become a crescendo as the clip envelope gradually increases the volume within the range allowed by the automation envelope But once the decreasing automated value meets with the increasing clip envelope value the fade out will begin as automation forces the absolute control value and the operable range of the clip envelope down 17 3 MIXER AND DEVICE CLIP ENVELOPES 230 17 3 1 Modulating Mixer Volumes and Sends Notice that there are actually two volume modulations Clip Volume and Mixer Volume The latter is a modulation for the mixer s gain stage and therefore affects the post effect signal To prevent confusion a small dot below the mixer s volume slider thumb indicates the actual modulated volume setting Modulating the Mixer Volume The Little Dot Below the Volume Slider Thumb Represents the Modulated Volume Setting As you raise and lower the Volume slider you can observe the dot following your movement in a relative fashion Modulating the track s Send controls is just as easy Again the modulation is a relative percentage The clip envelope cannot open the send further than the Send knob but it can Modulating a Send The reduce the actual send value to m
171. ext to every entry to represent activity on the respective in channel 12 3 1 The Preferences Active MIDI Device List The MIDI Device List in the Preferences 12 3 EXTERNAL MIDI IN OUT 154 You can configure which MIDI devices are made available to Live using the Active Devices section in the MIDI Preferences This section lists all available input and output MIDI devices For Live s tracks to receive send MIDI from to a specific MIDI device make sure the corresponding switch in the Track column is set to On You can use any number of MIDI devices for track MIDI input output the mixer s In Out section allows you to individually address them 12 3 2 Playing MIDI With the Computer Keyboard The computer keyboard can be used as a pseudo device for generating MIDI notes from computer keyboard strokes Using this pseudo device you can generate MIDI even without a real MIDI input device To turn the computer MIDI keyboard on use the Control Bar s Computer MIDI Keyboard button or the Ctrl J amp K PC Mac shortcut to the Options menu entry The center row of letter keys on the keyboard will play notes corresponding to the white keys on a piano beginning on the left with the note C5 The black keys on a piano correspond to the upper row of computer keys The four leftmost letters on the lower row of the keyboard are used to transpose the note range and to set velocity The results of chang
172. ferencing the same source file A Live Clip in the File Browser 4 15 THE LIBRARY 44 e Variations of a sample loop created by applying Warp Markers clip envelopes and effects e Ideas that may not fit your current project but could be useful in the future 4 15 TheLibrary Live comes with a library of sound ideas that can serve as a starting point for your own creations The first part of the library is a large preset collection for Live instruments and effects accessible through the Live Device Browser The second part of the library is accessed via the Library button in the upper right corner of the File Browser ow 3 Browsing the Library s Creative Options There are three folders e Clips is a collection of Live Clips that offer a broad stylistic variety of sound ideas Live Clips have a very open format and can serve both as a starting point for your own creations and as a resource for learning new sound design tricks e Sets is the default location for Live Sets e Waveforms is a repository of samples such as one shot drum hits and single cycle waveforms to be used for sound design purposes particularly in conjunction with Live s built in Simpler and Impulse instruments 4 15 THE LIBRARY 45 The library is built from several Live Packs which can be separately downloaded installed and uninstalled Live Packs are available from installation CDs or the Ableton website 2http www ableton com d
173. from its Control chooser 13 5 Soloing and Cueing By default soloing a track simply mutes all other tracks The signal from the soloed tracks is heard through their respective outputs with the pan setting of each track preserved Soloing a clip track leaves the return tracks unaffected solo in place Soloing a return track affects all other tracks Live allows you to replace the standard soloing operation with a cueing operation that lets you preview tracks as though you were cueing a record on a DJ mixer This allows choosing clips and adjusting effects without the audience hearing before bringing tracks into the mix In order to set Live up for cueing you must be using an audio interface with at least four dedicated outputs or two dedicated stereo outputs The respective settings are accessible 13 5 SOLOING AND CUEING 177 in the Session View mixer Make sure you have Mixer and In Out checked from the View menu eoepecsccccccce The Master Out chooser selects the output on your interface to be used as the main output The Cue Out chooser selects the output on your hardware interface to be used for cueing This has to be setto an output other than that selected for the Master If the desired outputs don t show up in these choosers please check the Audio Preferences Activate cueing by setting the Solo Cue Mode switch to Cue The tracks Solo switches
174. g in instruments however 12 7 6 Using Multi Timbral Plug In Instruments Many plug in instruments support multi timbral operation A multi timbral instrument is like several instruments in one with each component part or whatever term the manufacturer uses receiving MIDI on a separate MIDI channel Usually the multi timbral instrument Using Impulse s Individual Outs to Separately Process Sample Slots 12 7 INTERNAL ROUTINGS 166 offers individual outputs so that the parts can be separately routed into the mixer Or the instrument might offer a submixer of its own MIDI From MIDI From Monitor Monitor Monitor Monitor Pe Tracks Feeding MIDI to and Tapping Audio From the Parts of a Multi Timbral Instrument Sending MIDI to a multi timbral instrument is a variation of a case described above One MIDI track hosts the multi timbral instrument and additional MIDI tracks are used to feed its individual parts Each additional MIDI track has its Output Type chooser pointed to the track that contains the instrument and its Output Channel chooser referencing the target MIDI channel Additional audio tracks can then be used to tap the instrument s individual outputs as described earlier 12 7 7 Feeding Sidechain Inputs Some effects have so called sidechain inputs A vocoder for instance imposes spectral characteristics taken from one signal say spoken word onto another signal for instance a string pad The voco
175. g the Saturator in a return channel The Saturator Effect 18 17 SIMPLE DELAY 262 18 17 Simple Delay Simple Delay eo ES The Simple Delay provides two independent delay lines one for each channel left and right To refer delay time to the master tempo activate the Sync switch which allows using the Delay Time beat division chooser The numbered switches represent time delay in 16th notes For example selecting 4 delays the signal by four 16th notes which equals one beat a quarter note of delay If the Sync switch is off the delay time reverts to milliseconds In this case to edit the delay time click and drag up or down in the Delay Time field or click in the field and type in a value The Feedback parameter defines how much of each channel s output signal feeds back into the delay lines inputs Internally there are two independent feedback loops so a signal on the left channel does not feed back into the right channel and vice versa The Dry Wet control adjusts the balance between the processed and dry signals Set it to full wet if using the Simple Delay in a return channel The Simple Delay Effect 18 18 VINYL DISTORTION 263 18 18 Vinyl Distortion Vinyl Distortion Tracing Model jon 0 00 Freq 684 Hz B 0 32 Hard Stereo Mono The Vinyl Distortion effect emulates some ofthe typical distor
176. gate is closed there is no effect on the signal Settings in between these two extremes attenuate the input to a greater or lesser degree when the gate is closed The Attack time determines how long it takes for the gate to switch from closed to open when a signal goes from below to above the threshold Very short attack times can produce sharp clicking sounds while long times soften the sound s attack When the signal goes from above to below the threshold the Hold time kicks in Note to tech heads the gate has hysteresis so the release occurs about 3 dB lower than the threshold After the hold time expires the gate closes over a period of time set by the Release parameter 18 13 GRAIN DELAY 256 18 13 Grain Delay Grain Delay DO QOPingPong OC 0 00 ms Spray 60 0 Hz 11 2 S9 4 5 J 6 8 16 Syn F 0 00 4 Feedback Dry Wet u 100 KHz 400 i The Grain Delay effect slices the input signal into tiny particles called grains that are then individually delayed and can also have different pitches compared to the original signal source Randomizing pitch and delay time can create complex masses of sound and rhythm that seem to bear little relationship to the source This can be very useful in creating new sounds and textures as well as getting rid of unwelcome house guests or terrifying small pets just kidding
177. ge ment Position fields 67 Arrangement Playback Begins from the Insert Marker Scrubbing Arrangement Playback Setting the Play Position in the Arrangement Position Fields 6 3 LAUNCHING THE ARRANGEMENT WITH LOCATORS 68 The Arrangement Position fields show the song position in bars beats sixteenths To change the values e Click and drag up or down in any of these fields e Click and type a number then hit Return e Click and decrement or increment the value with and 4 5 Arrangement playback can be started at a particular point in one of your clips using the scrub area in the Clip View 6 Several Arrangement playback positions can be set using launchable locators Note that any computer keyboard key or MIDI message can be mapped to the transport controls as described in the respective chapter 6 3 Launching the Arrangement with Locators es a i Using Locators to suitarchord purarcngra Launch Play in the RR nba modes2z _ rhodos mde2 Arrangement Locators can be set at any point in the Arrangement This can be done in real time during playback or recording with the Set Locator button and will be quantized according to the global quantization value set in the Control Bar Clicking the Set Locator button when the Arrangement is not playing will create a locator at the insert marker or selection start You 6 3 LAUNCHING THE ARRANGEMENT WITH LOCATORS 6
178. ggle switch states e Keys assigned to radio buttons will toggle through the available options 21 2 MIDI REMOTE CONTROL 314 Please be sure not to confuse keyboard remote control functionality with Live s ability to use the keyboard as a pseudo MIDI device that can generate MIDI notes from computer keystrokes for use with instruments 21 2 MIDI Remote Control Live can be controlled remotely with an external MIDI device such as a keyboard or controller box Live also supports Mackie Control a topic that is covered in a separate chapter in this manual for completely mouse free program operation Before we explain how remote control assignments are made and implemented let us first make the distinction between MIDI remote control and a separate use of MIDI in Live input for MIDI tracks Let s say that you are for instance using a MIDI keyboard to play an instrument in one of Live s MIDI tracks If you assign F2 on your MIDI keyboard to a Session View Clip Launch button that key will cease play F2 on your MIDI track s instrument as it now belongs solely to the Clip Launch button MIDI keys that become part of remote control assignments can no longer be used as input for MIDI tracks This is a common cause of confusion that can be easily resolved by looking at the Control Bar s MIDI indicators 21 2 1 MIDI Remote Input and Output Before making any MIDI assignments you must first set up Live to recognize whichever MIDI device s
179. h is on become automation Changing an automated control s value while not in Record Mode is similar to launching a Session clip while the Arrangement is playing It deactivates the control s automation in favor of the new control setting The control will stop tracking its automation and rest with the new value until the Back to Arrangement button is pressed which will resume Arrangement playback 4 12 CLIP ENVELOPES 41 4 12 Clip Envelopes Envelopes can be found not only in tracks but also in clips Clip envelopes are used to modulate device and mixer controls Audio clips have in addition clip envelopes to influence the clip s pitch volume and more these can be used to change the melody and rhythm of recorded audio MIDI clips have additional clip envelopes to represent MIDI controller data Clip envelopes can be unlinked from the clip to give them independent loop settings so that larger movements like fade outs or smaller gestures like an arpeggio can be superimposed onto the clip s material Clip Envelopes An Envelope for Clip Transposition 4 13 MIDI and Key Remote To liberate the musician from the mouse most of Live s controls can be remote controlled via an external MIDI controller Remote mappings are established in MIDI Map Mode which is engaged by pressing the MIDI switch in the Control Bar 4 14 SAVING AND EXPORTING 42 In this mode you can click on any mixer or effect control and then assign it to
180. h note This is especially useful when modulated with clip envelopes Pan Key Key If Pan Key is set to higher values low notes will pan relatively more to the left channel and higher notes to the right Typically this is used for piano like sounds Pan Random Rnd This defines the extent to which notes are randomly distributed between the left and right channels 20 3 OPERATOR 306 Pitch Shell and Display Pitch Envelope On This turns the pitch envelope on and off Turning it off if it is unused saves some CPU power Pitch Envelope Amount Pitch Env This sets the intensity of the pitch envelope A value of 100926 means that the pitch change is exactly defined by the pitch envelope s levels A value of 100 inverts the sign of the pitch envelope levels Spread If Spread is turned up the synthesizer uses two detuned voices per note one each on the left and right stereo channels to create chorusing sounds Spread is a very CPU intensive effect Transpose This is the global transposition setting for the instrument Changing this param eter will affect notes that are already playing Pitch Bend Range PB Range This defines the effect of MIDI pitch bend messages Pitch Envelope Rates Velocity Time lt Vel This parameter exists for filter pitch LFO and volume envelopes It is therefore listed in the section on envelopes Glide G With Glide on notes will slide from the pitch of the last played note to their pl
181. hanging their transposition They can be moved either by clicking and dragging or with the arrow keys on your computer keyboard in either case they are subject to grid and offset snapping If you are playing the clip while you move notes you can listen to them play in their new assignments as you drag them without waiting until you have released the mouse button Multiple notes can be selected and moved in unison Rubber band select more than one note with one mouse motion by clicking in empty space then dragging diagonally upward or downward to enclose the notes in the dotted line that appears You can use the 6 modifier to click and add individual notes or additional rubber band selections to your current selection You can also remove a single note from your selection by holding down and clicking on it Holding and clicking on the piano roll selects all notes in a single key track There are two options for quantizing MIDI notes in Live As previously mentioned you can move notes so that they snap to the visible grid lines Alternatively you can select a note or notes and choose Quantize from the Edit menu or use the PC Mac hotkey This brings up a dialog box with several quantization options 10 4 EDITING MIDI 133 Quantize To 1 4 Adjust Note Stat End Using the options presented here you can select a meter value for quantization and set either the note start or end or both to be quantized Q
182. hat prompt MIDI compatible synthesizers or instruments such as Live s Simpler to create specific musical output MIDI files are exported by hardware and software MIDI sequencers Importing MIDI files into Live works differently than with samples MIDI file data is incorporated into the Live Set and the resulting MIDI clips lose all reference to the original file MIDI files appear as folders in the File Browser opening the folders gives you access to the file s individual tracks also called voices or instruments 5 4 LIVE CLIPS 58 1 Bass BRK Drums mid Bass guitai Bass guitar Bass them v Dub 110 t DUB BASS mid Bass guita guitar p DUB Drums mid p DUB Lead mid b DUB Piano mid HHOP 095 A MIDI File and Its HOUSE 12 Tracks in the Browser 5 3 1 Exporting MIDI Files Live MIDI clips can be exported as Standard MIDI files To export a MIDI clip use the File menu Export Selected MIDI Clip command This command will open a file save dialog allowing you to choose the location for your new MIDI file Exporting a MIDI file is different from saving the clip as a Live Clip as described in the relevant section 5 4 Live Clips Individual Session View clips can be exported to disk in the Live Clip format for easy retrieval and reuse in any project 5 4 LIVE CLIPS 59 To save a clip from the open Live Set to disk simply drag it from the Sessio
183. he Control Bar s tap tempo metronome and transport controls 3 Radio buttons A radio button selects from among a number of options One instance of a radio button is the crossfader assignment section in each track which offers three options The track is assigned to the crossfader s A position the track is unaffected by the crossfader or the track is affected by the crossfader s B position 312 21 1 KEYBOARD REMOTE CONTROL 313 4 Continuous controls like the mixer s volume pan and sends 5 The crossfader the behavior of which is described in detail in the respective section of this manual 21 1 Keyboard Remote Control The Key Map Mode Switch Creating remote control assignments for your computer keyboard is straightforward 1 Enter Key Map Mode by pressing the KEY switch in the upper right hand corner of the Live screen Notice that assignable elements of the interface become highlighted when you enter Key Map Mode 2 Click on the Live control you wish to assign to a key 3 Press the key to which you wish to assign the control 4 Leave Key Map Mode by again pressing the Key Map Mode switch Keyboard assignments can be deleted using your computer s Backspace or Delete key while Key Map Mode is active Keyboard assignments will be implemented by Live in the following ways e Clips in Session View slots will be affected by mapped keys according to their Launch Mode settings e Keys assigned to switches will to
184. he first time they are imported into Live you may want to pre analyze them Pre Analyzing Audio P POEM Files To pre analyze all the files contained in any folder in the Browser use the PC 6 Mac context menu s Analyze Audio command This process can also be cancelled via the context menu 5 2 4 Exporting Audio The File menu s Render to Disk command allows exporting Live s Master audio output as a new sample The resulting file can be used to burn an audio CD for listening purposes or a data CD which could serve as a backup of your work or be used with other digital audio applications 5 2 SAMPLE FILES 56 Which Signal Will Be Rendered Render to Disk will always render the signal at Live s Master output If you are monitoring the Master output you can be sure that the rendered file will contain exactly what you hear To export individual tracks deactivate all tracks other than the ones you want to export by turning off their Track Activator switches in the mixer When Render to Disk is invoked while the Arrangement View is up Live will render the selected time range If you would like to render the current Arrangement loop choose the Select Loop command from the Edit menu prior to choosing Render to Disk Keep in mind that the selection of tracks is irrelevant The signal to be rendered is the Master output If you choose Render to Disk while the Session View is up Live will ask you to specify the length of the
185. helfFilter Audio From T AUHI pass AULowpass Audio Units and VST Plug ins are browsed and imported using the Plug In Device Browser which is accessed via its selector Plug in instruments can be differentiated from plug in effects in the Browser as they appear with a keyboard icon The Browser s search functionality is only available for Audio Units Plug ins as is loading presets directly from Track View devices via the Browse button In some instances factory presets for Audio Units will only appear in the Browser once the device has been placed in a track and its Browse button activated Note The first time you start Live no plug ins will appear in the Plug In Device Browser as you must first activate your plug in sources Activating your plug in sources tells Live which plug ins you want to use and where they are located on your computer Information on activating and deactivating plug in sources can be found later in this chapter by plug in type in the sections on the VST Plug in folder and Audio Units Plug ins The Plug In Device Browser and Selector 15 2 USING PLUG INS 203 If you install de install a plug in while the program is running Live will not detect your changes or implement them in the Plug In Device Browser until the next time you start the program Use the Re Scan button in the Plug In Preferences to re scan your plug ins while Live is running so that newly installed devices become immediately avai
186. hey are available from the lower chooser or the Input Output Channel chooser In our Ext example these would be the individual audio MIDI inputs and outputs The Mixer s In Out Section and Mixer Section Selectors 12 1 MONITORING 151 12 1 Monitoring Monitoring in the context of Live means passing a track s input signal on to the track s output Suppose you have set up an audio track to receive its input signal from a guitar Monitoring then means that the signal from your live guitar playing actually reaches the track s output via the track s device chain If the track s output is set to Master you can hear the guitar signal processed by whatever effects are used and delayed by whatever latency the audio hardware interface incurs over your speakers The In Out section offers for every audio track and MIDI track a Monitor radio button with the following three options e The default Auto monitoring setting does the right thing for most straightforward recording applications Monitoring is on when the track is armed record enabled but monitoring is inhibited as long as the track is playing clips e To permanently monitor the track s input regardless of whether the track is armed or clips are playing choose In This setting effectively turns the track into what is called an Aux on some systems The track is not used for recording but for bringing in a signal from elsewhere for instance a ReWire slave prog
187. hink of it as adding inertia to the response Lower Release values cause the envelope to respond more quickly to falling input signals Higher values extend the envelope s decay The Auto Filter also contains a Low Frequency Oscillator to modulate filter frequency in a periodic fashion The respective Amount control sets how much the LFO affects the filter The Rate control specifies the LFO speed It can be set in terms of hertz or synced to the project tempo and set in terms of meter subdivisions The second option allows for creating controlled rhythmic filtering Available LFO waveform shapes are sine creates smooth modulations with rounded peaks and valleys square triangle sawtooth up sawtooth down and sample and hold generates random positive and negative modulation values in mono and stereo There are two LFOs one for each stereo channel The Phase and Offset controls define the relationship between these two LFOs Phase keeps both LFOs at the same frequency but can set the two LFO waveforms out of phase with each other creating stereo movement Set to 180 the LFO outputs are 180 degrees apart so that when one LFO reaches its peak the other is at its minimum Spin detunes the two LFO speeds relative to each other Each stereo channel is modulated at a different frequency as determined by the Spin amount For sample and hold the Phase and Spin controls are not relevant and do not affect the sound Instead the Aut
188. hold down the PC Mac modifier key while clicking in the XY field the Y axis controls the noise bandwidth The Frequency control determines the color or quality of the distortion If the Mode control is set to Noise this works in conjunction with the Width control which defines the noise bandwidth Lower values lead to more selective distortion frequencies while higher values affect the entire input signal Width has no effect in Sine Mode Noise and Sine use a single modulation generator However Wide Noise has independent noise generators for the left and right channels which creates a subtle stereo enhancement 18 10 Filter Delay Fitter Delay Input Filter Feedback Pan Volume On 704 Hz 4 00 P Sync 21 50L 40dB 449 Hz 4 00 Sync 46 0 40dB 4 00 C 24 SOR 60dB The Filter Delay Effect 18 10 FILTER DELAY 252 The Filter Delay provides three independent delay lines each preceded by linked low pass and high pass filters This allows applying delay to only certain input signal frequencies as determined by the filter settings The feedback from each of the three delays is also routed back through the filters Each of the three delays can be switched on and off independently The Filter Delay plug in assigns delay 1 to the input signal s left channel delay 2 to the left and right channels and delay 3 to the rig
189. ht channel The Pan controls at the right can override the delay channels outputs otherwise each delay outputs on the channel from which it derives its input Each delay channel s filter has an associated On switch located to the left of each XY controller The XY controllers adjust the low and high pass filters simultaneously for each delay To edit filter bandwidth click and drag on the vertical axis click and drag on the horizontal axis to set the filter band s frequency To refer delay time to the master tempo activate the Sync switch which allows using the Delay time beat division chooser The numbered switches represent time delay in 16th notes For example selecting 4 delays the signal by four 16th notes which equals one beat a quarter note of delay With Sync Mode active changing the Delay Time field percentage value shortens and extends delay times by fractional amounts thus producing the swing type of timing effect found in drum machines If the Sync switch is off the delay time reverts to milliseconds In this case to edit the delay time click and drag up or down in the Delay Time field or click in the field and type in a value Feedback controls how much of the output signal returns to the delay line input Very high values can lead to runaway feedback and produce a loud oscillation watch your ears and speakers if you decide to check out extreme feedback settings Each delay channel has its own volume control
190. ich are oftentimes mapped out along a keyboard in sections corresponding to percussion type Enlarge the MIDI Editor by Dragging the Window Split Between Session and Clip Views 10 4 EDITING MIDI 131 e g snares grouped together two octaves down from hi hat cymbals etc When working with a MIDI file created by such a mapping sometimes only one or two of each type of percussion sound is used and it becomes unnecessary to view the entire keyboard range Fold be The Fold Button Extracts 0 Key Tracks Containing mm musa ES El EI Notes When editing MIDI you might find that you want to change which part of the clip you are listening to or loop the clip in order to listen to it repeatedly You can use the loop region markers for this Use the Loop Region Markers to Select a Specific Region of the Clip to Play 10 4 3 Grid Snapping Most functions in the MIDI Editor are subject to grid snapping You can hold down the PC Mac modifier while performing an action to bypass grid snapping 10 4 EDITING MIDI 132 Note movements will also snap to an offset which is based on the original placement of the note relative to the grid This is useful for preserving a groove or loose playing style that you do not necessarily want to set straight 10 4 4 Arranging and Quantizing Notes As we have seen notes in the MIDI Editor can be moved both horizontally changing their position in time and vertically c
191. ick Nudge Loop Left Right KG Move Loop By Loop Length Double Halve Loop Length Ctl WA Shorten Lengthen Loop Ctrl JS G 89069 Select Material in Loop Click Loop Brace Click Loop Brace or Ctrl JL or SA JL 25 8 Session View Commands See also the editing commands Windows Macintosh Launch Selected Clip Slot Return Return Select Neighbouring Clip Slot Arrow Keys Arrow Keys Select all Clips Slots Ctd JA OG BA Copy Clips Ctrl Drag Alt Drag Add Remove Stop Button cti JE E Insert MIDI clip Ctl A JM C HA J M or Double Click Slot or Double Click Slot Insert Scene Cti J G sel Insert Captured Scene Ctrl eE jt G s jl Drop Browser Clips as a Scene Ctrl G 88 351 25 9 ARRANGEMENT VIEW COMMANDS 25 9 Arrangement View Commands 352 The shortcuts for zooming snapping drawing and loop region settings also work in the Arrangement View See also the editing commands Windows Macintosh Split Clip at Selection Ctd J G6 WE Consolidate Selection into Clip Ctr JU G 89 Loop Selection cm JE 6 BL Insert Silence Ctrl jf c i Pan Left Right of Selection Ctrl Alt Sse Alt Unfold all Tracks Alt U
192. ick and drag vertically in the note ruler to change which octaves are shown or drag horizontally to change the vertical zoom size of MIDI notes and the keyboard 3 Click and drag over one or more notes to define a selection Then double click on the note ruler to automatically zoom in on your selection If no notes are selected double clicking the note ruler will zoom in on the area from the lowest to the highest note in the clip 4 To zoom in and out around the current selection use the computer keyboard s and keys 5 The Clip Overview just beneath the MIDI Editor can also be used for navigation It always shows the complete contents of the selected MIDI clip The black rectangular outline represents the part of the clip that is currently displayed in the Editor above To scroll click within the outline and drag left or right to zoom 10 3 MIDI EDITOR NAVIGATION AND TRANSPORT 129 in and out drag up and down 6 Change the length of what is shown in the Editor by dragging the left or right edges of the outline in the Clip Overview 7 To quickly change what is shown in the Editor click on a section that you want to examine in the Clip Overview then drag downwards to zoom in or scroll by dragging left and right 8 The Page Up and Page Down keys on your computer keyboard scroll the Note Editor vertically The PC Mac modifier will change this to horizontal scrolling EJ gt m e ove E8 wr 2 The Control Bar
193. ide of the program and should therefore be placed to the left of the Mackie Control mixing 321 322 surface If selected from the lower chooser the Mackie Control extension should be placed to the right of the main Mackie Control The following sections will describe how to operate the Mackie Control with Live You may find the mixing chapter to be particularly useful in locating and understanding Live s track controls 22 1 CHANNEL STRIPS 323 22 1 Channel Strips The Eight Channel Strips and the Master Strip The Mackie Control s eight channel strips and master strip are automatically assigned to tracks in Live Each of these strips has a set of track controls including a motorized fader and a V Pot for controlling any number of track parameters The Mackie Control s bank channel 22 1 CHANNEL STRIPS 324 controls allow reassigning the channel strips to access an unlimited number of Live tracks 1 Arm By default this arms the track for recording in exclusion of all other tracks To arm the track nonexclusively i e in addition to other tracks hold down the Mackie Control s Control button while pressing this Note that a Misc Preference setting in Live allows deactivating exclusive track arming When this setting is deactivated the behavior of this knob with respect to exclusive and nonexclusive arming i
194. in Loop Mode can loop very quickly and can therefore be used to achieve effects that one would not normally expect from an envelope generator While Loop Mode is good fortextures and experimental sounds Operator also includes Beat and Sync Modes which provide a simple way of creating rhythmical sounds If set to Beat Mode an envelope will restart after the beat time selected from the Repeat chooser In Beat Mode the repeat time is defined in fractions of song time but notes are not quantized If you play a note a bit out of sync it will repeat perfectly but stay out of sync In Sync Mode however the first repetition is quantized to the nearest 16th note and as a result all following repetitions are synced to the song tempo Note that Sync Mode only works if the song is playing and otherwise it will behave like Beat Mode Note To avoid the audible clicks caused by restarting from its initial level a looped envelope will restart from its actual level and move with the set attack rate to peak level The rates of all the envelopes in Operator can be scaled in unison by the Time control in the global section of the shell Note that beat time values in Beat and Sync Modes are not influenced by the global Time parameter Envelope rates can be further modified by note pitch as dictated by the Time Key parameter in the global section s display The rate of an individual envelope can also be modified by velocity using the Time Vel parameter These
195. in a mix of the signal already in the track and the new input signal The Overdub option only applies to MIDI tracks 4 To prevent recording prior to a punch in point activate the Punch In switch This is useful for protecting the parts of a track that you do not want to record over and allows you to set up a pre roll or warm up time The punch in point is identical to the Arrangement Loop s start position 5 Likewise to prevent recording after the punch out point activate the Punch Out switch The punch out point is identical to the Arrangement Loop s end position 6 When you are recording into the Arrangement Loop Live retains the audio recorded during each pass You can later unroll a loop recording either by repeatedly using the Edit menu s Undo command or graphically in the Clip View After loop recording double click on the new clip In the Clip View s Sample Display you can see a long sample containing all audio recorded during the loop recording process The Clip View s loop brace defines the audio taken in the last pass moving the markers left lets you audition the audio from previous passes 14 3 2 Recording Into Session Slots You can record new clips on the fly into any Session slots 14 3 RECORDING 184 4 3 1 e Ex gt e we 1 Audio 2 Audio 3M 4 MIDI gow reves 398144 Doo swe r6 d 116 rRAIN 1 moj Take 0 47 1 q v A J LIS i 1
196. in the selection The new samples are essentially recordings of the time warping engine s audio output prior to processing in the track s effects chain and mixer Hence the new sample incorporates the effects of in clip attenuation time warping and pitch shifting and of the respective clip envelopes however it does not incorporate the effects To create a new sample from the post effects signal please use the Render to Disk command The new samples can be found in the Sounds folder a disk location specific to the Live Set in which you are working Please see the relevant section of this manual for more information Chapter 7 Session View In Live s Arrangement View as in all traditional sequencing programs everything happens along a fixed song timeline For a number of applications this is a limiting paradigm e When playing live or when DJing the order of pieces the length of each piece and the order of parts within each piece is generally not known in advance e In the theatre sound has to react to what happens on stage e When working along with a piece of music or a film score it can be more efficient and inspirational to start with an improvisation which is later refined into the final product This is exactly what Live s unique Session View is for 78 7 1 SESSION VIEW CLIPS 79 7 1 Session View Clips JW REVER T reagas r6 116 4 Amn Take LH an Dus The Control
197. ing these values are displayed in the Status Bar at the bottom of the Live screen As it happens when the computer keyboard is set to send notes between C3 and CA the keys are mapped to MIDI notes such that the center row of the keyboard ASDF addresses the Impulse percussion sampler s sample slots This means that you can play and record drum patterns right off the computer keyboard Note that when the computer MIDI keyboard is activated it will steal keys that may have Activating the Computer MIDI Keyboard 12 3 EXTERNAL MIDI IN OUT 155 otherwise been assigned to remote control elements of the Live interface To prevent this you can turn the computer MIDI keyboard off when it is not needed 12 3 3 Connecting External Synthesizers Routing MIDI to an external synthesizer is straightforward The Output Type chooser is set to whatever MIDI port the synthesizer is connected to the Output Channel chooser is used to select which MIDI channel to send on Important If you are using a keyboard synthesizer both as a master keyboard to play into Live and as a sound generator then please make sure to check the synthesizer s Local Off function Every synthesizer has this function which effectively separates the keyboard from the sound generator allowing you to treat both components as if they were separate devices This allows you to use Live as the hub of your MIDI studio which receives MIDI from the keyboard and dispatches the inc
198. inus infinite dB Send Knobs Position Ring Indicates the 2 2 3 2 OQ Modulated Value 17 3 2 Modulating Pan The Pan envelope affects the mixer pan stage in a relative way The pan knob s position determines the intensity of the modulation With the pan knob set to the center position modulation by the clip envelope can reach from hard left to hard right the modulation amount is automatically reduced as you move the pan knob towards the left or right When the pan knob is turned all the way to the left for instance the pan clip envelope has no effect at all 17 4 MIDI CONTROLLER CLIP ENVELOPES 231 17 3 3 Modulating Device Controls All devices in a clip s track are listed in the upper clip envelope Device chooser Modulating the devices controls works just as you would expect When modulating device controls it is important to keep the interaction of clip envelopes and device settings in mind Unlike a device preset the clip envelope cannot define the values for the devices controls it can only change them relative to their current setting 17 4 MIDI Controller Clip Envelopes Whether you are working with a new MIDI clip that was recorded directly into Live or one from your files Live allows you to edit and create MIDI controller data for the clip in the form of clip envelopes Choose MIDI Ctrl from a MIDI clips Device chooser and use the Control chooser below it to select a specific MIDI controller You can create new clip
199. ith your MIDI controller if you need further information on relative MIDI controllers 21 3 RELATIVE SESSION VIEW NAVIGATION 319 21 3 Relative Session View Navigation Notice that you can make not only absolute mappings to individual slots and scenes but also relative mappings to move the highlighted scene and operate on the highlighted clips In Key or MIDI Map Mode a strip of assignable controls appears below the Session grid 4 gt Esmu melody Computert Drums J orsilent m ok Or 1 Assign these buttons to keys notes or controllers to move the highlighted scene up and down The Relative Session 5 li Mapping Strip 2 Assign this scene number value box to a MIDI controller preferably with an endless knob to scroll through the scenes For details see the discussion of Relative Map Modes 3 Assign this button to launch the highlighted scene If the Misc Preferences Select Next Scene on Launch option is checked you can successively go through the scenes 4 Assign these buttons to launch the clip at the highlighted scene in the respective track Relative session mapping is useful for navigating a large Live Set as Live always keeps the highlighted scene at the Session View s center 21 4 MAPPING TO CLIP VIEW CONTROLS 320 21 4 Mapping to Clip View Controls The Clip View displays the settings for whichever clip happens to be
200. jr Ext In Guitar 4 Guitar v 1 2 n a ii Track Out ii Track Out Monitor Monitor Mo On Auto On Auto Off Audio To Audio To Audio To Master s Master Master ALLL This is easily accomplished by devoting a special audio track for processing and monitoring the incoming guitar signal We call this track Guitar and drag the desired effects into its device chain We do not record directly into the Guitar track instead we create a couple more tracks to use for recording Those tracks are all set up to receive their input from the Guitar track As for monitoring we set the Guitar track s Monitor radio button to In because we always want to listen to our guitar through this track no matter what else is going on in Live The An Example Setup for Pre Effects Recording 12 7 INTERNAL ROUTINGS 161 other tracks Monitor radio buttons are set to Off 12 7 2 Recording MIDI as Audio When working with MIDI and complex software instruments it is sometimes more useful to record the resulting audio than the incoming MIDI A single MIDI note can prompt for example Native Instruments Absynth to produce something that sounds more like a piece of music than a single tone This output lends itself more to representation as an audio waveform than a single note in a MIDI clip particularly when comparing the editing options MIDI From 3
201. k a track s Arm button in the Session View or in the Arrangement View since the two share the same set of tracks By default armed tracks are monitored meaning that their input is passed through their device chain and to the output so that you can listen to what is being recorded This behavior is called auto monitoring and you can change it to fit your needs Clicking one track s Arm button unarms all other tracks unless the PC Mac modifier is held Arming a track selects the track so you can readily access its devices in the Track View Track Arm Buttons in the Session Left and Arrangement Right Mixers 14 3 RECORDING 182 14 3 Recording Recording can be done in both the Session and the Arrangement Views If you want to record onto more than one track simultaneously and or prefer viewing the recording linearly and in progress the Arrangement View may be the better choice If you want to break your recording seamlessly into multiple clips or record while you are also launching clips in Live use the Session View 14 3 1 Recording Into the Arrangement 1 dM 2 Y 1Audio w 2Audio amp 3 MIDI 4 MIDI a e a i Recording Into the Arrangement 1 Recording commences when the Control Bar s Record button is activated and the Play button is pressed 2 Recording creates new clips in all tracks that have their Arm button on 14 3 RECORDING 183 3 When the Overdub switch is on the new clips conta
202. lable in the Plug In Device Browser Hint You can also use Re Scan if you believe that your plug in database has somehow become corrupted Holding down the PC Mac modifier while pressing Re Scan will delete your plug in database altogether and run a clean scan of your plug ins 15 2 1 Plug Ins in the Track View O more feedback machine stereo delay fFeedback1_0 A A A A 0 340532 value 0 000000 value 0 000000 value 0 000000 fFeedbackLimi fRes 0 fFeedback2 0 finLR 1 fRes 1 A A A AA 0 500000 value 0 000000 value 0 779999 value 1 000000 value 0 000000 fFoedback3_0 fDelay 1 0 000000 value 0 250000 value 1 000000 valuo 0 500000 value 0 187500 value 1 000000 value fSyncBPM fFilt 0 fFeedback 0 fOutV 0 fFilt 1 fFeedback0 1 M M M 0 000000 valuo 0 775205 value 4 000000 value Off value 0 500000 value Once a plug in is dragged from the Browser into a track it will show up in the track s Track View The original plug in panel graphics will be replaced with a Live panel which will usually represent all of the plug in parameters accurately and completely unless they are simply too numerous or are not modifiable in real time When this is the case the plug in s original editor panel can be opened in a separate window A VST Plug In in the Track View 15 2 USING PLUG INS 204 2 Z The Plug In Unfold Saas Button You can view or hide the VST Plug in s parameters by toggling th
203. le Dragging Alt OG 88 25 17 GLOBAL QUANTIZATION 25 17 Global Quantization Windows Macintosh Sixteenth Note Quantization Ctrl 6 G 89 6 Eighth Note Quantization Ctrl JZ G 7 Quarter Note Quantization Ctrl Je G 89 8 1 Bar Quantization Ctrl JQ G 8e Quantization Off ctl Jo G 0 25 18 Working with Sets and the Program Windows Macintosh New Live Set Cirl N G WN Open Live Set Ctrl J O G 88 0 Close Live Set cti W G HW Save Live Set Ctrl J S BS Save Live Set As Cri JS JG 86 Quit Live Cir JQ G aA Hide Live N A G HH Render to Disk Ctrl JA JR G 89 JR Export MIDI file Ctrl Ji JE G WA JE 356 25 19 WORKING WITH PLUG INS AND DEVICES 357 25 19 Working with Plug Ins and Devices Windows Macintosh Show Hide Plug In Windows Cirl P S WP Open Second Multiple Windows with So 88 Plug In Edit Button Open Mac Keystroke Plug In Window N A num with Plug In Edit Button Group Ungroup Devices Ct OQ 88 Activate Deactivate All Devices in Group Alt Alt Device Activator Device Activator Click to Append Devices to a Selected A A Device Load Selected Device From Browser Retum
204. leting items within Live moves them to the system trash if necessary you can recover items from the system trash via your computer s operating system Note that while you can rename or delete entire MIDI files via the Browser this is not possible with the individual MIDI tracks contained within them This is also the case with the individual components of Live Sets 5 2 Sample Files A sample is a file that contains audio data Live can play both uncompressed file formats WAV AIF and Sound Designer Il for Mac and compressed file formats MP3 Ogg Vorbis Ogg FLAC and FLAC A note on using Variable Bit Rate VBR files Please install QuickTime for decoding purposes if you do not already have it on your system It can be downloaded from the Apple website As Live plays the samples directly from disk you can work with a large number of large samples without running into RAM memory limitations Live can combine uncompressed mono or stereo samples of any length sample rate or bit depth without prior conversion To play a compressed sample Live decodes the sample and 1 http www apple com quicktime download mac html 5 2 SAMPLE FILES 53 writes the result to a temporary uncompressed sample file This usually happens quickly enough that you will be able to play the sample right away without waiting for the decoding process to finish Note When adding a long sample to a project Live might tell you that it cannot play the
205. lly quantizing MIDI notes while recording The Record Quantization chooser in the Edit menu allows selecting the meter subdivisions with which your recorded notes will align When recording into Session slots or into the Arrangement record quantization is an independent step in Live s Undo history This means that if for example you recorded with Record Quantization set to Eighth Note Triplet Quantization and then changed your mind using the Edit menu s Undo command would undo only the quantization and leave your recording otherwise intact For Session and Arrangement recording the Record Quantization setting cannot be changed mid recording The Preview Volume Knob 14 6 RECORDING WITH COUNT IN 188 When overdub recording with the Clip View Loop activated changes to the Record Quan tization take effect immediately and they cannot be separately undone with the Edit menu command Recorded MIDI notes can also be quantized post recording with the Edit menu s Quantize command as described in the chapter on editing MIDI 14 6 Recording with Count in A count in for recording can be set in Live s Misc Preferences When the Count In preference is set to any value other than None Live will not begin recording until the count in is complete The Arrangement Position fields in the Control Bar display the count in in orange as bars beats sixteenths The count in runs from negative bars beats sixteenths beginning at 2 1 1 for ex
206. loading the audio referenced by the clip into the computer s memory rather than reading it from disk in real time RAM Mode can help with these problems 8 2 THE SAMPLE BOX 107 e Your computer hard disk is too slow to deliver audio for as many tracks as desired in real time For more information on disk related problems please refer to the respective section e You are experiencing audio dropouts when playing clips in Legato Mode Use RAM Mode with care as RAM is usually a scarce resource Your computer is using the hard disk for swapping out RAM contents that have not been used in a while The more clips you are running in RAM Mode the higher the likelihood for them to be swapped out Live can handle disk overloads more gracefully than swapped out audio arriving late Disk overloads result in unwanted mutes whereas RAM overload results in both mutes and rhythmical hiccups 8 2 10 Reversing Samples Sample TU This function creates a new sample by reversing the sample referenced by the current clip It then reapplies the old clip s settings according to some rules that we will explain in a moment and replaces the original sample with the reversal in the Clip View The new sample is stored in your temporary recording folder until you save your Live Set at which point it is moved to your Sounds folder The reversed sample has an R appended to the end of its name so that it is easily distinguishable from the original There ar
207. locities To change velocity for a MIDI note click and drag on the associated marker in the Velocity Editor To help you locate the velocity marker belonging to a MIDI note that may be stacked Changing Note Length 10 4 EDITING MIDI 136 vertically with others Live highlights the velocity marker for whichever note your mouse is hovering over Velocity changes will be shown numerically in a small display in the time ruler Changing Note Velocity As in the Note Editor you can select multiple velocity markers to change by clicking with the modifier held down Tip To set a group of notes so that they all have the same velocity select their markers in the Velocity Editor drag them up to maximum velocity and then decrease velocity to the desired value As we saw earlier Draw Mode allows drawing identical velocities for all notes within a grid tile Velocity drawing can be limited to only those notes that are currently selected if the modifier is held To draw markers individually as you would want to with a crescendo for instance deactivate grid snapping with the PC Mac shortcut or simply hold down the PO Mac modifier 10 4 EDITING MIDI 137 Drawing Identical Velocities Above and a Crescendo Below Tip To draw a velocity ramp with notes that are all in the same key track press and click on the piano roll to select all notes within the desired key track make sure Draw Mode 10 4 EDITING MI
208. lter frequency can also be modulated by note velocity note pitch the LFO and the filter envelope The Freq lt Vel Freq Key and Envelope controls in the filter s display set these three functions respectively Operators Filter Section 20 3 OPERATOR 302 20 3 6 Global Controls The maximum number of Operator voices notes playing simultaneously can be adjusted with the Voices parameter in the global display Ideally one would want to leave this setting high enough so that no voices would be turned off while playing however a setting between 6 and 12 is usually more realistic when considering CPU power Tip Some sounds should play monophonically by nature which means that they should only use a single voice A flute is a good example In these cases you can set Voices to 1 If Voices is set to 1 another effect occurs Overlapping voices will be played legato which means that the envelopes will not be retriggered from voice to voice and only pitch will change A high quality setting HiQ can be switched on and off in the global display controlling the interpolation algorithm of the oscillators and LFO This setting will affect the sound of some waveforms more than others especially the noise waveform and also affects CPU resources Global Volume and Transpose controls for the instrument can be found in the global section of the shell and a Pan control is located in the global section s display Pan can be modulated by a rando
209. ly clips The Session clips and the Arrangement clips in one track are mutually exclusive Only one can play ata time When a Session clip is launched Live stops playing back the Arrangement in favor of the Session clip Clicking a Clip Stop button causes the Arrangement playback to stop which produces silence 7 5 RECORDING SESSIONS INTO THE ARRANGEMENT 87 The Back to Arrangement Button 1 Bass Arrangement playback does not resume until you explicitly tell Live to resume by clicking the Back to Arrangement button which lights up to remind you that what you hear differs from the Arrangement 8 TI The Stop All Clips T ll Button To disable all Arrangement clips simultaneously click on the Stop All Clips button in the Master Track Status field The clips in the Arrangement and in the Session View exist independently from one another which makes it easy to improvise into the Arrangement over and over again until it s right Furthermore you can move clips not only within the Session grid but also from the Session View to the Arrangement and vice versa by using Copy and Paste or by dragging clips over the e or O selectors When pasting material from the Arrangement into the Session View Live attempts to pre serve the temporal structure of the clips by laying them out in a matching top to bottom order Moving through the scenes from the top down you can reconstruct the original ar rangement This is useful for taking
210. lysis file for this sample or if the Default Preferences Auto Warp Long Samples preference has been deactivated To prevent waiting for analysis of longer samples you can pre analyze them via the Browser as we will see in a moment An analysis file can also store default clip settings for the sample Clicking the Clip View s Save button will store the current clip s settings with the sample s analysis file The next time the sample is dragged into Live it will appear with all its clip settings intact This is particularly useful for retaining Warp Marker settings with the sample Storing default clip settings with the analysis file is different from saving the clip as a Live Clip as described in the relevant section The analysis file s name is the same as that of the associated sample with an added asd extension Live puts this analysis file in the same folder as the sample Samples that have an asd file are displayed like this in the Browser eo Samples without an asd file look like this The analysis files themselves do not appear in Live s Browsers Note that you can suppress the creation of asd files by turning off the Create Analysis Files option in the Misc Preferences All data except for the default clip settings can be recreated by Live if the asd file is missing however this will take some time for longer samples 5 2 SAMPLE FILES 55 5 2 3 File Pre Analysis To avoid waiting for longer samples to be analyzed t
211. m factor or by note pitch using the adjacent Rnd and Key controls respectively MIDI pitch bend messages will affect Operator as defined by the PB Range control in the pitch section of the display 20 3 OPERATOR 303 20 3 7 Glide and Spread Attack Decay Spread Transpose Initial Peak Sustain PB Range A ain TL i 10096 41 96 0 st Mode Rate Glide T Loop Time Operator includes a polyphonic glide function When this function is activated new notes will start with the pitch of the last note played and then slide gradually to their own played pitch Glide can be turned on or off and adjusted with the Glide Time control in the pitch display Operator also offers a special Spread parameter that creates a rich stereo chorus by using two voices per note and panning one to the left and one to the right The two voices are detuned and the amount of detuning can be adjusted with the Spread control in the pitch section of the shell Tip Whether or not spread is applied to a particular note depends upon the setting of the Spread parameter during the note on event To achieve special effects you could for instance create a sequence where Spread is 0 most of the time and turned on only for some notes These notes will then play in stereo while the others will play mono Operator Pitch Section 20 3 OPERATOR 304 20 3 8 Strategies for Saving CPU Power
212. mand sssssss 132 quick chooser buttons 0008 224 R RAM Mode switch eeessee esses 106 Random effect 0 cece eee e eee cence eee ee 279 Re Piteh Mode oder Fe rm S REU PYRS 122 Re Scan Plug Ins preference uuu 202 Record Bit Depth preference 4 189 Record button isis ce hee nk 85 Record File Type preference ssss 189 Record Quantization 0 cece eee ee eee 187 recording and remote control 0 eee eee eee 189 audio and MIDI 0 0 ce eee eee 179 AUTOMATION 6 3 40 6 eee edad Rr ere 214 overdubbirig o tre er 182 185 punch in punch out 0 eee eee 182 resampling the Master output 158 with count in 6 6 eee eee eee e 188 recording an Arrangement 0 cece ee 85 recording automation 0ee eee eee 214 Redux effect cereos eter RE od eae 264 Refresh command isses 48 registration e cce rk eee en see Ableton remote control see mapping to MIDI keys Remote Control Surfaces settings 321 Rename command 368 in the Browser issssee e 52 WHT CUPS eiiie Ret ead ob i deed Edi teaiin 92 WIth loCators cic ete Rey pA 69 WIEN plugs etu va eer vati PU irae v a 210 Render to Disk llus 55 Repeat MOS M 141 Replace Sample button 62 104 resampling 05 158 see recording
213. means of recording e or by double clicking an empty Session slot in a MIDI track 124 10 2 THE MIDI EDITOR 125 e or by selecting an empty Session slot in a MIDI track and choosing the Insert menu s Insert MIDI Clip command e or in the Arrangement View by selecting a timespan in a MIDI track and choosing the Insert menu s Insert MIDI Clip command 10 2 The MIDI Editor To bring up the MIDI Editor double click a MIDI clip to open the Clip View You can use the Clip View Box selector to make sure the Notes box is showing then click in the title bar of the Notes box to bring up the MIDI Editor on the right hand side of the screen Clip Notes The MIDI Editor is comprised of two editing windows the upper Note Editor and the lower Velocity Editor You can resize the Velocity Editor by dragging on the split line that runs between it and the Note Editor You can also show and hide the Velocity Editor using the triangular button on the left hand side of the split line The MIDI Editor 10 2 THE MIDI EDITOR 126 Switch to Draw Mode by activating the Control Bar s Draw Mode switch You can now draw MIDI notes into the Note Editor with the mouse Deactivating Draw Mode allows notes to be selected and moved around by clicking and dragging either vertically to change their transposition or horizontally to change their position in time EM Provided your MIDI track s device chain contains an instrument activating the Pre
214. ment is constrained by the neighboring breakpoints unless you hold down the modifier while dragging which will eliminate breakpoints as you wipe over them Holding down the PO Mac modifier while dragging switches to a finer resolution Click and drag a line segment between two breakpoints to move it vertically without affecting the breakpoint s horizontal position If the line segment is in the current selection the envelope is moved vertically across the selected timespan Live inserts breakpoints at the selection s edges to make sure the move only affects the selected part of the envelope Dragging an Envelope Line Segment Moves the Segment Vertically 16 4 3 Locking Envelopes When moving clips Live normally moves all automation with the clip Sometimes you might want to lock the envelopes to the song position rather than to the clips and the Arrangement View s Lock Envelopes switch does just that 16 4 DRAWING AND EDITING AUTOMATION 220 You can also choose to lock envelopes from the Options menu za 16 4 4 Edit Menu Commands There are a number of useful Edit menu commands for editing envelopes To cut or copy automation from a track independent of the associated clip use the Edit menu s Cut Envelope and Copy Envelope commands respectively To simultaneously copy and paste a selection of envelope into a track s future use the Duplicate Envelope command Note that Live allows you to copy and paste
215. method and additional controls for each method are set up in the Clip View s Warp box The Warp Modes are different varieties of granular resynthesis techniques Granular resyn thesis achieves time compression and expansion by repeating and skipping over parts of the sample the grains The Warp Modes differ by the selection of grains as well as by the details of overlapping and crossfading between grains Let s investigate which Warp Modes work best for different types of signals and how to adjust the warping controls for clean stretching It s also fun to misuse these controls to achieve interesting artifacts instead of correct stretching 9 3 1 Beats Mode Beats Mode works best for material where rhythm is predominate e g drum loops as well as most pieces of electronic dance music The granulation process is optimized to preserve transients attacks note onsets in the audio material Use the Transients control to guide Live s assumptions about where to find transients in the waveform If there is no rhythmical activity at odd 16th notes choose 8th etc For 9 3 ADJUSTING FOR GOOD STRETCHING QUALITY 122 some interesting rhythmic artifacts choose large transient values in conjunction with pitch transposition 9 3 2 Tones Mode Tones Mode serves well for stretching material with a more or less clear pitch structure such as vocals monophonic instruments and basslines Grain Size provides rough control over the aver
216. more rapidly and the diffused onset occurs later A higher value can sometimes improve the source s intelligibility while a lower value may give a smoother decay Spin applies modulation to the early reflections The 2 D control accesses the depth and frequency of these modulations A larger depth tends to provide a less colored more spectrally neutral late diffusion response If the modulation frequency is too high doppler frequency shifting of the source sound will occur along with surreal panning effects Spin may be turned off using the associated switch with modest CPU savings 18 21 3 Global Settings The Quality chooser controls the tradeoff between reverb quality and performance Econ omy mode uses minimal CPU resources while First Class delivers the richest reverberation The Size parameter controls the room s volume At one extreme a very large size will lend a shifting diffused delay effect to the reverb The other extreme a very small value will give it a highly colored metallic feel The Stereo Image control determines the width of the output s stereo image At the highest setting of 120 degrees each ear receives a reverberant channel that is independent of the other this is also a property of the diffusion in real rooms The lowest setting mixes the output signal to mono 18 21 REVERB 269 18 21 4 Diffusion Network The Diffusion network creates the reverberant tail that follows the early reflections The dec
217. mpled Resampling can be a fun and useful tool as it lets you create samples from what is currently happening in a Live Set that can then be immediately integrated It can be used to record tracks that include processor intensive devices so as to delete the devices or for quickly previewing before rendering to disk The Resampling option in any audio track s Input Type chooser will route the Master output to that track You can then decide on what exactly you will be resampling and mute solo or otherwise adjust the tracks that are feeding the Master output You will probably want to use the Master Volume meter to make sure that your level is as high as possible without clipping indicated by red in the meter Then you can arm the track and record into any of its empty clip slots Note that the recording track s own output will be suppressed while resampling is taking place and will not be included in the recording Samples created by resampling will be stored in the Live Set s Sounds folder 12 7 INTERNAL ROUTINGS 159 12 7 Internal Routings Live allows for inter track routings These routings albeit potentially confusing enable many valuable creative and technical options Inter track routing can work two ways 1 Track A is set up to send its output signal to Track B This is possible because every track that can receive an output signal of the appropriate type from Track A shows up in its Output Type chooser 2 Track B is set up
218. n Peak is probably The Compressor II Effect 18 6 COMPRESSOR II 247 better since it reacts more to the actual signal level while RMS is usually more musical But as always if it comes to compression trust your ears and not the meter The most exotic feature of Compressor ll is the sidechain EQ The sidechain is the part of the signal that is used to control the compressor Normally the sidechain signal is the same as the input signal However it can make sense to apply some filtering here Imagine a bass drum a snare and some chords in the background The bass drum has a pretty high level and it will normally determine how the compressor reacts If you now turn the side chain EO on and set its Frequency to 100 Hz and the Gain to 15 dB the bass drum will not influence the compression anymore and the behavior of the compressor will be very different You could also set the Frequency to around 1 kHz and turn up the gain to make the compressor more responsive to the snare Since the EQ is only in the sidechain and not part of the normal signal path it will not change the sound of the input signal It only changes how the compressor reacts to different frequencies of the input Unlike Compressor Compressor Il has a built in compensation stage that counteracts the gain loss due to the compression and makes it much easier to adjust the other parameters Careful adjustment of attack and release times is essential when it comes to compr
219. n View to the File Browser and drop it into any folder You can then type in a new name for the clip or confirm the one suggested by Live with fetum eT Backt at 120 Rid B FI Backbeat 0 Tom EI Backbea Live Clips are a great way of storing your ideas for later use or development as they save not only the original clip including all its clip and envelope settings but also the original track s devices In order to recreate a Live Clip s device chain either import it into a track containing no clips or devices or drag it into the space in the Session or Arrangement View containing no tracks Note that Live Clips that are imported into tracks already containing devices or clips will appear with their clip settings but not their devices You could for instance drop a bass line Live Clip on an existing track that drives a bass instrument rather than creating a new track Clips belonging to any Live Sets already on disk are also Live Clips Please see the section on importing and exporting Sets for more on this topic Note that storing default clip settings with a sample s analysis file is different from saving a Live Clip The default clip in the asd file annotates the sample with sensible default values warp gain and pitch settings so that it will play in a defined way when it is added to a Set Live Clips on the other hand are stored on disk as separate musical ideas For example you could create a number of variations f
220. n a folder search dialog for locating and selecting the appropriate folder 2 Once you have selected a VST Custom Folder and Live has scanned it the path will be displayed Note that on Windows Live may have found a path in the registry without the need for browsing 3 Make sure that the Use VST Plug In Custom Folder option is set to On so that your selected folder is an active source for VST Plug ins in Live Note that you can choose not to use your VST Plug ins in Live by turning off the Use VST Plug In Custom Folder option 207 Setting up VST Plug In Sources for Windows 15 3 VST PLUG INS 208 Audic MIDUSyn Plug Defaults Mis Products Use VST Plug In System Folders Use VST Plug In Custom Folder VST Plug In Custom Folder Not Set Setting up VST Plug In Sources for Mac OS X Set up your VST Plug ins under Mac OS X by doing the following 1 Your VST Plug ins will normally be installed in the following folder in your home and local directories Library Audio Plug Ins VST You can turn Live s use of these plug ins on or off with the Use VST Plug ins in System Folders option 2 You may have an alternative folder in which you store your VST Plug ins perhaps those that you use only with Live You can use VST Plug ins in this folder in addi tion to or instead of those in the System folders To tell Live about the location of this folder click the Browse button next to the VST Plug In C
221. n also add notes to existing Session clips while the Overdub switch is on 14 4 Recording in Sync Live keeps the audio and MIDI you have recorded in sync even when you later decide on a different song tempo In fact Live allows you to change the tempo at any time before after and even during recording You could for instance cheat a bit by turning down the tempo to record a technically difficult part and pull it up again afterwards It is important to record in sync to make sure everything will later play in sync The Metronome Switch The easiest way to record in sync is to play along with or to use the built in metronome which is activated via its Control Bar switch and will begin ticking when the Play button is pressed or a clip is launched 14 5 RECORDING QUANTIZED MIDI NOTES 187 To adjust the metronome volume use the mixer s Preview Volume knob Notice that Live s metrical interpretation of the audio being played can be edited at any time using the Warp Markers Warp Markers can be used to fix timing errors and to change the groove or feel of your recordings Using Warp Markers you can fix things in your recordings that would otherwise require complicated editing or could not be done at all Likewise the metrical interpretation of recorded MIDI can be changed after recording using the MIDI clip s Original BPM controls 14 5 Recording Quantized MIDI Notes If you will be recording MIDI you have the option of automatica
222. n the loop brace is a shortcut for executing the Edit menu s Select Loop command which selects all material included within the loop e Holding Shift while clicking extends an existing selection in the same track or across tracks Clicking the Loop Brace to Select the Loop for Editing 6 7 Using the Editing Grid To ease editing the cursor will snap to grid lines that represent the meter subdivisions of the song tempo The grid can be set to be either zoom adaptive or fixed You can set the width of both zoom adaptive and fixed grid lines using the PC Mac context menu available in either the Arrangement View track area or the Clip View display The following shortcuts to Options menu commands allow quickly working with the grid e Use PC Mac to narrow the grid doubling the density of the grid lines e g from eighth notes to sixteenth notes e Use Ct 2 PC Mao to widen the grid halving the density of the grid lines e 9 from eighth notes to quarter notes 6 8 USING THE TIME COMMANDS 74 e Use PC Mao to toggle triplets mode this would for instance change the grid from eighth notes to eighth note triplets e Use PC Mac to turn grid snapping on or off When the grid is off the cursor does not snap to meter subdivisions e Use PC Mac to toggle fixed and adaptive grid modes The current spacing between adjacent grid lines is displayed in the lowe
223. n with the Reflect Level and Diffuse Level controls 18 22 UTILITY 270 18 22 Utility uitity C Mute Gain 0 00 dB t R Width 100 Phz L Phz RI Utility can perform some very useful tasks especially in combination with other effects Most obvious is the Gain control which allows adjusting the level of the input signal from 36 to 36 dB The Gain control is located below the Mute button which simply turns the signal off if pressed Note The active mute controls of a track are always placed at the very end of the signal chain However since you can place Utility anywhere in a signal chain you can use its mute function to cut the input of a delay line or reverb without turning off the output of these devices The Left Right buttons allow further processing of only the left or right channel of a sample If for example Left is turned on the right channel is ignored and the left channel appears on both outputs This is especially useful if you have a stereo file that contains different information on both channels and you want to use only one The Width control acts as a continuous mono to stereo controller when set from O to 100 percent However beyond 100 percent the output starts to fold in on itself In the full right position the output contains only the difference between the left and right channels If The Utility Effect 18 22 UTILITY 271 either the Left or Right button is activated
224. ne in the Session View 4 4 AUDIO AND MIDI 28 Arrangement playback until explicitly told to do so This is what the Back to Arrangement button found in the Control Bar at the top of the Live screen is for This button lights up to indicate that one or more tracks are currently not playing the Arrangement but are playing a clip from the Session instead We can click this button to make all tracks go back to the Arrangement Or if we like what we hear we can capture the current state into the Arrangement by activating the Record button Disengaging Record Mode or stopping Live using the Stop button leaves us with an altered Arrangement 4 4 Audio and MIDI Clips represent recorded signals Live deals with two types of signals audio and MIDI In the digital world an audio signal is a series of numbers that approximates a continuous signal as generated by a microphone or delivered to a loudspeaker A MIDI signal is a sequence of commands such as now play a C4 at mezzo piano MIDI is a symbolic representation of musical material one that is closer to a written score than to an audio recording MIDI signals are generated by input devices such as MIDI or USB keyboards It takes an instrument to convert MIDI signals into audio signals that can actually be heard Some instruments such as Live s Simpler are for chromatic playing of one sound via the keyboard Other instruments such as Live s Impulse have a different percussion
225. nfold button Alt Unfold button Scroll Display to Follow Playback Cti F S gF 25 10 Commands for Tracks See also the editing commands Windows Macintosh Insert Audio Track Cirl C 88 Insert MIDI Track A Cti T 4 6 8T Insert Return Track Cti At Jm c At J T Rename Selected Track ctl JR G R While Renaming Go to next Track amp Arm Solo Multiple Tracks Ctrl Click G 88 Click Add Device from Browser Double Click Double Click 25 11 COMMANDS FOR BREAKPOINT ENVELOPES 353 25 11 Commands for Breakpoint Envelopes The shortcuts for zooming snapping drawing and loop region settings also work in the Envelope Editor and Arrangement View See also the editing commands Windows Macintosh Finer Resolution for Dragging Enable Dragging Over Breakpoints 25 12 Key MIDI Map Mode and the Computer MIDI Key board Windows Macintosh Toggle MIDI Map Mode Ciri JM Toggle Key Map Mode Cti JK Computer MIDI Keyboard Ct D K EC 89 J K 25 13 ZOOMING DISPLAY AND SELECTIONS 25 13 Zooming Display and Selections Windows Macintosh Zoom In Zoom Out c Drag Click to Append to a Selection US I Cim Click to Add Adjacent Clips to Multi Selection amp A y Click to Add Nonadjacent Clips to a Multi Ctrl C 838 Selection Follow Auto Scroll Ctrl G 8 Pan Left Right
226. noise density set by the Density control The Volume control adjusts the amount of gain applied to the noise 18 19 Redux B Redux C Bit Reduction QN rm 16 Overload Downsample ma 1 Nostalgic for the famed low resolution sound quality of the Ensoniq Mirage Fairlight CMI or Commodore 64 computer Redux returns us to the Dark Ages of digital by reducing a signal s sample rate and bit resolution The Downsample section has two parameters Downsample and a downsample Mode switch If the downsample dial is set to 1 every input sample passes to the output and the signal does not change If set to 2 only every second sample will be processed so the result sounds a bit more digital The higher the number the lower the resulting sample rate The Redux Effect 18 20 RESONATORS 265 and the more deconstructed the sound Downsampling is like applying a mosaic effect to an image There s a loss of information and sharp edges occur between the blocks The Downsample Mode switch defines if the downsampling either interpolates over a smaller range soft down to 20 0 samples or does not interpolate over a larger range hard down to 200 samples Bit Reduction is similar but while downsampling superimposes a grid in time bit reduction does the same for amplitude If the Bit Reduction amplitude dial is set to 8 amplitude levels are quantized to 256 steps 8 bit resolution If set
227. ns are called Warp Markers A Warp Marker forces the software to arrive at a specific point in the sample at a specific musical time You can use any number of Warp Markers to create an arbitrary mapping of the piece s inherent rhythm to a musical meter Warp Markers are set in the Clip View s Sample Display by double clicking any of the gray grid markers They can then be dragged or moved with the arrow keys to different positions in the clip Warp Markers are deleted with the keyboard s Backspace or Delete key Ie When working with your sample you can have Live scroll the Sample Display to follow playback Use the Control Bar s Follow switch to activate this feature It also might be helpful to vertically resize the Sample Display by dragging on the split line between the Clip View and the Session View track area Double Clicking a Grid Marker Creates a Warp 9 2 TIME WARPING SAMPLES 114 2 gt m e ove e o In the following sections we will look at a couple of applications for time warping sam ples Warping is of course an optional feature and you have several different options for deactivating warping as described in the respective section in this chapter Note For a tip on how to apply the same set of Warp Markers to several multitrack samples please see here Of course your Warp Markers will be saved with the Live Set In addition you probably want to save them with the sample so that they are reconstructed the nex
228. nusually high Track Delay settings or reported latencies from plug ins may cause noticeable sluggishness in the software If you are having latency related difficulties while recording and playing back instruments you may want to try turning off device delay compensation however this is not normally recommended You may also find that adjusting the individual track delays is useful in these cases Note that the Track Delay controls are unavailable when device delay compensation is deactivated The Track Delay Control and Selector Chapter 14 Recording New Clips This chapter is about recording new clips from audio and MIDI input signals Note that this is a different kind of recording than the capturing of Session clips into the Arrangement For successful audio recording please make sure the audio preferences are set up properly For more on this please see the built in program lesson on setting up Audio Preferences Also keep in mind that devices such as microphones guitars and turntables do not operate at line level meaning that they will need to have their levels boosted before they can be recorded For these devices you must therefore use either an audio interface with a preamp or an external preamp 179 14 1 CHOOSING AN INPUT 14 1 Choosing an Input 180 A track will record whatever input source is shown in its In Out section which appears when the View menu s In Out option is checked In the Arrangement View unfol
229. o Filter offers two kinds of sample and hold The upper sample and hold type available in the chooser provides independent random modulation generators for the left and right channels stereo while the lower one modulates both channels with the same signal mono 18 2 AUTO PAN 239 18 2 Auto Pan Amount Rate Phase Fa oz S 49 9 Hz 295 Rz 9 Normal F 0l 0 9 55 1 Auto Pan offers LFO driven manipulation of amplitude and panning for creating automatic panning tremolo and amplitude modulation and beat synchronized chopping effects Auto Pan s LFOs modulate the amplitude of the left and right stereo channels with sine triangle sawtooth down or random waveforms The Shape control pushes the waveform to its upper and lower limits hardening its shape The waveform can be set to Normal or Invert use Invert to for example create the saw up waveform from the saw down waveform Auto Pan s LFO speed is controlled with the Rate control which can be set in terms of hertz Rate can also be synced with the project tempo and set in meter subdivisions e g sixteenth notes Though both LFOs run at the same frequency the Phase control lends the sound stereo movement by offsetting their waveforms relative to each other Set this to 180 and the LFOs will be perfectly out of phase 180 degrees apart so that when one reaches its peak the other is at its minimum Phase is particularly
230. o includes a filter that can color the feedback sound thus producing different timbres with successive echoes The Dry Wet control adjusts the balance between the processed and dry signals Set it to full wet if using the Ping Pong Delay in a return channel 18 16 SATURATOR 261 18 16 Saturator i Saturator Freq Width 1 00kH 30 0 00 Saturator is a distortion effect that can add that missing dirt punch or warmth to your sound Incoming signals are clipped to the Drive control s setting in dB Signal clipping has several modes Clip Soft Medium Hard and Sine In Clip mode the signal is clipped completely and immediately Soft Medium and Hard modes soften signal clipping to varying degrees Sine mode can be used for special effects The meter in the display will show how much Saturator is influencing a signal Activating the Color button enables two filters The first of these controlled with the Base control dictates how much the effect will be reduced or increased for very low frequencies The second filter essentially an equalizer is used for controlling higher frequencies It is shaped with the Freq cutoff frequency Width and Depth controls The Output control reduces or increases the level at the device output The signal at the device input can be amplified using the Drive control The Dry Wet control adjusts the balance between the processed and dry signals Set it to full wet if usin
231. ode you can operate Live s recording functions without using the mouse You can map the Control Bar s Record and transport controls as well as the track Arm buttons For recording into the Session slots you can map the individual slots as well as the relative navigation controls to initiate recording remotely for instance 1 Two Take gt Poo HH e Lil The Scene Up Down Buttons 14 8 USING REMOTE CONTROL FOR RECORDING One key is used to jump to the next scene 2 Audio 3 MIDI Master reas aorta 2 16 6 Stop Clips SE an and another key to start and end recording in the respective track 190 A Track Launch Button Chapter 15 Working with Instruments and Effects Every track in Live can host a number of devices These devices can be of three different sorts e MIDI effects act upon MIDI signals and can only be placed in MIDI tracks e Audio effects act upon audio signals and can be placed in audio tracks They can also be placed in MIDI tracks as long as they are downstream from an instrument e Instruments are devices that reside in MIDI tracks receive MIDI and output audio 191 lete the name e to nsert The Track View is where you insert view and adjust the devices for the selected track To select a track and open the Track View to access its devices double click the track s name Freq eo 12dB Release 40 0 dB 5 45 kHz
232. odulation with a one bar drum loop Make sure Beats Mode is chosen in the Envelopes box choose Clip from the Device chooser and Sample Offset from the Control chooser The Envelope Editor appears with a vertical grid overlay In envelope Draw Mode set steps to non zero values to hear the loop scrambled What is going on Imagine the audio is read out by a tape head the position of which is modulated by the envelope The higher a value the envelope delivers the farther away the tape head is from its center position Positive envelope values move the head towards the future negative values move it towards the past Fortunately Live performs the modulation in beats rather than centimeters A vertical grid line is worth a sixteenth note of offset and the modulation can reach from plus eight sixteenths to minus eight sixteenths Sample offset modulation is the tool of choice for quickly creating interesting variations of beat loops We discourage using this technique for analytical cut and splice tasks they are much easier to perform using Live s Arrangement View and the results can easily be consolidated into new clips 1 12 13 14 2 Some sample offset envelope gestures have a characteristic effect a downward escalator shape for instance effectively repeats the step at the envelope s beginning Similarly a smooth ramp with a downwards slope is slowing time and can create nice slurring effects when the slope is not quite ex
233. oftware by placing the mouse over the control and reading the 20 3 OPERATOR 305 text that appears in the Info View Parameters in this list are grouped into sections based on where they appear in Operator Global Shell and Display Time This is a global control for all envelope rates Tone Operator is capable of producing timbres with very high frequencies which can sometimes lead to aliasing artifacts The Tone setting controls the high frequency content of sounds Higher settings are typically brighter but also more likely to produce aliasing Volume This sets the overall volume of the instrument Algorithm An oscillator can modulate other oscillators be modulated by other oscillators or both The algorithm defines the connections between the oscillators and therefore has a significant impact on the sound that is created Voices This sets the maximum number of notes that can sound simultaneously If more notes than available voices are requested the oldest notes will be cut off High Quality HiQ This changes the interpolation algorithm of the oscillators and the LFO If turned off some timbres will sound more rough especially the noise waveform Turning this off will also save some CPU power Time Key The rates of all envelopes can be controlled by note pitch If the global Time lt Key parameter is set to higher values the envelopes run faster when higher notes are played Pan Use this to adjust the panorama of eac
234. ol adjusts the transposition of the sample by 48 semitones and can be modulated by incoming note velocity or a random value as set in the appropriate fields The Stretch control has values from 100 to 100 percent Negative values will shorten the sample and positive values will stretch it Two different stretching algorithms are available Mode A is ideal for low sounds such as toms or bass while Mode B is better for high sounds such as cymbals The Stretch value can also be modulated by MIDI note velocity 20 1 IMPULSE 286 20 1 3 Filter The Filter section offers a broad range of filter types each of which can impart different sonic characteristics onto the sample by removing certain frequencies The Frequency control defines where in the harmonic spectrum the filter is applied the Resonance control boosts frequencies near the points in the spectrum where frequencies are excluded by filtering Filter Frequency can be modulated by either a random value or by MIDI note velocity 20 1 4 Saturator and Envelope The Saturator gives the sample a fatter rounder more analog sound and can be switched on and off using the appropriate switch The Drive control boosts the signal and adds distortion Note Turning Drive up makes almost every signal get much louder and so will usually require that volume be lowered manually Extreme Drive settings on low pitched sounds will produce the typical overdriven analog synth drum sounds The env
235. ol is the 24 dB 48 dB switch It defines how sharp the filters are The EQ Three Effect 18 8 EO FOUR 249 cutting the signal at the crossover frequency The higher setting results in more drastic filtering but needs more CPU Note The filters in this device are optimized to sound more like a good powerful analog filter cascade than a clean digital filter The 48 dB Mode especially does not provide a perfect linear transfer quality resulting in a slight coloration of the input signal even if all controls are set to 0 00 dB This is typical behavior for this kind of filter and is part of EO Three s unique sound If you need a more linear behavior choose 24 dB Mode or use the EO Four 18 8 EO Four D EQ Four O 3 44 kHz 3 75dB 1 00 0 00d0B The EQ Four effect is an equalizer composed of four parametric filters Equalizers are useful for changing a sound s timbre Filter One can switch among three responses bell curve boosts or cuts over a range of frequencies low shelf boosts or cuts frequencies lower than the specified frequency or low cut cuts frequencies below the specified frequency Filters Two and Three are always bell curves Filter Four can switch among bell curve high shelf boosts or cuts The EQ Four Effect 18 9 EROSION 250 frequencies higher than the specified frequency or high cut cuts frequencies above the specified frequency
236. ombine the characteristics covered by other Warp Modes it works well for warping entire songs which usually contain beats tones and textures Complex Mode is a rather CPU intensive function using approximately ten times the CPU resources required by the other Warp Modes As such you may want to freeze tracks where Complex Mode is in use or record the results as a new clip to use as a substitute 9 4 Deactivating Warping You can direct Live s assumptions about new samples using the Default Preferences If the Auto Warp Long Samples preference is on Live assumes that long samples contain music that should be played in sync with the project tempo If you would rather have Live default to playing long samples as they are disengage this preference Regardless of how Live interprets new samples by default you can always override these decisions on a per clip basis by toggling the Clip View s Warp switch Chapter 10 Editing MIDI Notes and Velocities A MIDI clip in Live contains notes and controller data for playing a MIDI instrument This instrument can be a virtual instrument in a MIDI track s device chain or an external synth fed via the track s output routing The MIDI clip provides the device with a musical score to play specifying note pitch length position and dynamics referred to as velocity in the MIDI lexicon MIDI is composed and edited in Live s MIDI Editor 10 1 Creating an Empty MIDI Clip MIDI clips are created e by
237. oming MIDI as well as the MIDI from the clips as appropriate 12 3 4 MIDI In Out Indicators Live s Control Bar contains three pairs of indicator LEDs that tell you about incoming and outgoing MIDI These indicators tell you not only about the presence of signals but also about their use In every pair the upper indicator flashes when a MIDI message is received and the lower indicator flashes when a MIDI message is sent The three indicator pairs represent 1 MIDI Clock and Timecode signals that are used for synchronizing Live with other sequencers The Control Bars MIDI Indicators 12 4 MASTER AND CUE OUTS 156 2 MIDI messages that are used for remote controlling Live s user interface ele ments 3 MIDI messages coming from and going to Live s MIDI tracks MIDI messages that are mapped to remote control Live s user interface elements are eaten up by the remote control assignment and will not be passed on to the MIDI tracks This is a common cause of confusion that can be easily resolved by looking at the indicators 12 4 Master and Cue Outs The Master track is the default destination for audio signals The Master track in turn is routed to the external audio outputs The Cue Preview Out can be independently routed to allow for instance for previewing samples and cueing tracks via headphones 12 5 ReWire Slave Routing Live can send MIDI to and receive audio from any ReWire slave application installed on th
238. on 205 Auto Open Plug In Windows option 205 AUto Warp cies vetpir ih tag rre ER eS OE dade 118 Auto Warp Long Samples preference 123 automation oce REI ycbEeETEISSE 40 214 and grid lines eee eee eee eee 218 drawing a i ce bibl RR RE EP 217 COILING 4 53 rages wae Conekeases 218 overriding reactivating eee 215 recording isis ker si dace pue 214 Automation Control chooser ssuuuu 217 Automation Device chooser 0005 217 B Back to Arrangement button 28 86 215 Beat Repeat effect 0 cee eee 240 beat time ruler and Arrangement editing 65 and editing envelopes csi eise s ease 233 and editing MIDI ce eee eee 127 in the MIDI Editor eee eee 128 Beats Mode cies E EEUEEER de tue eee 121 breakpoint envelopes see automation see clip envelopes Browse Presets button 0 00008 197 Browser see File Browser see Live Device Browser see Plug In Device Browser 361 browsing files 00 ce eee cece eee eee enes 46 C Capture and Insert Scene command 85 Challenge Code cece cece cece eee eens 15 Check for Updates command 1 Chord effect 2 21 2 2 solu ei doce dhe e enia 277 CHORUS effet irec vais dd ida eA OR UR RA E RU dat 242 Clip Activator switeh 5 0 05 03 occaeca men eb y ea 92 Moro RP 90 Chip
239. on of a sample and ends up using only a small part of it Simpler s two Zoom buttons and allow you to zoom in around the selected length or zoom out to access a larger area When zooming in on small portions of long samples it will probably be necessary to repeatedly shrink the highlighted sample region as Simpler will zoom no further than the length of this region Note After zooming in the Start Loop and Length parameters will be resized so that there is no audible difference This means that the Start and Length values are altered by zooming and automation or clip envelopes utilizing these parameters will behave differently after the operation 20 2 4 Envelope Simpler contains the classic ADSR Envelope section as seen in most synthesizers for shaping the dynamic structure of the sample It also has two additional envelopes one for the filter and one for pitch which are available by toggling the respective buttons in the envelope section Attack controls the time in milliseconds that it takes for the envelope to reach its peak value after a note is played Decay controls the amount of time it takes for the envelope to drop down to the Sustain level which is held until the note is released Release 20 2 SIMPLER 290 time is the amount of time after the end of the note that it takes for the envelope to drop from the Sustain level back down to zero The influence of envelopes on pitch and filter cutoff can be decided using
240. on on synchronization for details 9 1 2 Tapping the Tempo You can use Live s Tap Tempo function to set the tempo at any time As you click the Control Bar s Tap Tempo button once every beat the tempo of the Live Set will follow your tapping It s better to assign the Tap button to a computer key than using the mouse Click on the Control Bar s KEY switch to enter Key Map Mode then select the Tap button press the key you would like to use for tapping click the KEY switch again to leave Key Map Mode The assignment will take effect immediately The Tap button can also be assigned to a MIDI note or controller like a foot switch in a similar fashion Although Live responds to your tapping immediately it does apply some degree of inertia to prevent sluggish behavior in the software The more taps Live receives in a row the more precisely it will be able to conclude the desired tempo You can also use tapping to count in If you are working in a 4 4 signature it takes four taps to start song playback at the tapped tempo The Tap Button The Key Map Mode Switch 9 2 TIME WARPING SAMPLES 113 9 2 Time Warping Samples Live s ability to play any sample in sync with a chosen tempo is a unique and important feature In addition you can warp the rhythmic flow of a piece changing its feel or even move notes to other meter positions Think of a sample as a rubber band that you want to pin to a musical time ruler In Live the pi
241. ops from Short Loops Let us take this a step further For a different part of your set you would like to use the same one bar loop because it sounds great but its repetition bores you You would like to somehow turn it into a longer loop We depart from the clip we just set up to fade out over eight bars Activate the clip volume envelope s Loop switch Now as you play the clip you can hear the eight bar fade out repeating You can draw or edit any envelope to superimpose onto the sample loop This of course not only works for volume but for any other control as well how about a filter sweep every four bars Note that you can create as much time as needed in the Envelope Editor either by dragging the loop braces beyond the view limit or by entering values into the numeric region loop controls You can choose an arbitrary loop length for each envelope including odd lengths like 3 2 1 It is not hard to imagine great complexity and confusion arising from several odd length envelopes in one clip E e The Sample Left and Envelope Right Start Marker 17 5 UNLINKING CLIP ENVELOPES FROM CLIPS 235 To keep this complexity under control it is important to have a common point of reference The start marker identifies the point where sample or envelope playback depart from when the clip starts Note that the start end markers and loop brace are subject to quantization by the zoom adaptive grid as is envelope dr
242. ops usually have lower track counts The amount of disk traffic Live generates is roughly 24 2 MANAGING THE DISK LOAD 346 proportional to the number of audio channels being written or read simultaneously A track playing a stereo sample causes more disk traffic than a track playing a mono sample cee The Disk Overload indicator flashes when the disk was unable to read or write audio quickly enough When recording audio this condition causes a gap in the recorded sample when playing back you will hear dropouts Do the following to avoid disk overload e Reduce the amount of audio channels being written by choosing mono inputs instead of stereo inputs in the Audio Preferences Channel Configuration dialog e Use RAM Mode for selected clips e Reduce the number of audio channels playing by using mono samples instead of stereo samples when possible You can convert stereo samples to mono using any standard digital audio editing program which can be called up from within Live The Disk Overload Indicator Chapter 25 Live Keyboard Shortcuts 25 1 Showing and Hiding Views Windows Macintosh Toggle Full Screen Mode Fil cti Ftt Toggle Session Arrangement View S t Toggle Track Clip View amp is A Jm Hide Show Track Clip View A IF Fiz Double Click Clip Track Double Click Clip Track Hide Show Info View 2 Hide Show Overview Ctd At JO G SAt JO Hide Show In Out
243. options and buy Operator online Unlock Once you own Operator unlock Operator using the Serial Number you received from Ableton Hide Deactivate Domo Mode for Operator To continue using Operator in Demo Mode simply close this dialog Buy Unlock Click Here to Hide a Product s Features You can always choose to show a product again later and then try out its features by using them in Demo Mode 3 3 COPY PROTECTION FAOS 23 3 3 6 What Do Do About Problems or Questions Regarding Copy Pro tection Please contact technical support They are happy to help supportGableton com Chapter 4 Live Basics This chapter introduces the essential concepts of Live We advise you to read this chapter early in your Live career as a solid understanding of the program s basic principles will help you fully exploit Live s potential for your music making 4 1 Live Sets The type of document that you create and work on in Live is called a Live Set Live Sets can be opened either through the File menu s Open command or via the built in File Browsers 24 4 2 ARRANGEMENT AND SESSION 25 TAP 120 00 4 4 Oe EXT Q Library t Ob Clips Sets VstPresets 1 Audio Pressing the Library button in Live s Browser will take you to Live s library of creative tools There are a number of starter Sets here double clicking a Live Set s name in the Browser will open that Live Set 4 2 Arrangement and Session
244. otes in the pattern according to the order in which they are played This UpDown and DownUp Down amp Up and Up amp Down Converge and Diverge Con amp Diverge Pinky Up and Pinky UpDown Thumb Up and Thumb UpDown 19 1 ARPEGGIATOR 275 is therefore only recognizable when more than one chord or note has been played In addition to the Arpeggiator styles above there are a number of random styles Random randomly selects incoming MIDI notes for playback Random Other creates a random pattern from incoming MIDI notes and then plays the randomly generated chord repeatedly Random Once creates a random pattern from incoming MIDI notes and repeats the pattern until it has been transposed or retriggered at which point a new pattern is created Arpeggiator will play the pattern of notes at the speed set by the Rate control which can be calibrated in either milliseconds or beat time using the neighboring Sync Free button With Sync chosen Arpeggiator will be synced to song time A Gate control to the right of Rate determines the length of notes played by Arpeggiator as a percentage of the current Rate setting Any setting larger that 100 will therefore play notes that overlap i e are legato The rhythmic pattern generated by Arpeggiator does not necessarily have to be straight patterns can be given groove with the respective control just beneath the Mode chooser Groove in Arp
245. ou adjust the amount of time it takes for the resonators to be silent after getting an input signal The longer the decay time the more tonal the result will be similar to the behavior of an undamped piano string As with a real string the decay time depends on the pitch so low notes will last longer than higher ones The Const switch holds the decay time constant regardless of the actual pitch Resonators provides two different resonation modes Mode A provides a more realistic sounding resonation while Mode B offers an effect that is especially interesting when Resonator l s Note parameter is set to lower pitches The brightness of the resulting sound can be adjusted using the Color control All of the resonators have an On Off switch and a Gain control A resonator that is turned off does not need CPU Turning off the first resonator does not affect the other ones Resonators Il through V follow the Note parameter defined in Resonator but they can each be individually transposed 24 semitones using the Pitch controls and detuned in cents using the Detune controls 18 21 REVERB 267 The output section features the obligatory Dry Wet control and a Width parameter that affects only the wet signal and blends the left and right outputs of Resonators II V into a mono signal if set to zero 18 21 Reverb Reverb eo Input Processing Earty Reflections Global Diffusion Network Reflect Level Low Cut High Cut Spin Economy
246. ou e Ill The Back to 1 Bass 2 Chords 3 Rhodes 4 Perc s Arrangement Button When one or more of the automated controls in your Live Set are not active the Control Bar s Back to Arrangement button lights up This button serves two purposes 1 It reminds you that the current state of the controls differs from the state captured in the Arrangement 2 You can click on it to reactivate all automation and thereby return to the automa tion state as it is written on tape 16 4 Drawing and Editing Automation In the Arrangement View automation curves can be viewed and edited as breakpoint envelopes drumioo m Track Volume An Automation Envelope in the 4 Arrangement View 16 4 DRAWING AND EDITING AUTOMATION 217 1 To access a track s envelope unfold the track by clicking the triangular button next to the track name 2 Clicking on one of the track s mixer or device controls will display this control s envelope 3 The envelope appears on top of the audio waveform or MIDI display Its vertical axis represents the control value and the horizontal axis represents time For switches and radio buttons the value axis is discontinuous 4 The Automation Device chooser either selects the track mixer one of the track s devices or None to hide the envelope It also provides you with an overview of what devices actually have automation by showing an LED next to their labels
247. ound High Spray values completely break down the structure of the source signal introducing varying degrees of rhythmical chaos This is the recommended setting for anarchists The Random Pitch control adds random variations to each grain s pitch Low values create a sort of mutant chorusing effect while high values can make the original source pitch completely unintelligible This parameter can interact with the main Pitch control thus allowing degrees of stability and instability in a sound s pitch structure The size and duration of each grain is a function of the Frequency parameter The sound of Pitch and Spray depends very much on this parameter Grain Delay now also has a dry wet control it can be routed to the vertical axis of the XY controller 18 14 PHASER 258 18 14 Phaser Color 50 0 Dry Wet nes 100 Frequency 1 00 kHz Phaser uses a seri sound The Poles contro ec LFO S amp H Amount Shape FS Envelope 0 00 Attack 0 00 Rate c 0 6 00ms 0 50 Hz Release Phase f d Feedback D D 0 00 200 ms 180 es of all pass filters to create a phase shift in the frequency spectrum of a creates notches in the frequency spectrum The Feedback control can then be used to invert the waveform and convert these notches into peaks or poles Filter cutoff frequency i s changed with the Frequency control which can be adjusted in tandem with Feedback
248. ow much the oscillator s level depends upon note pitch The center point for this function is C3 Osc D Feedback Feedback Osc D can modulate itself The modulation is dependent not only on the setting of the feedback control but also on the oscillator level and the envelope Higher feedback creates a more complex resulting waveform Envelope Display Envelope Attack Time Attack This sets the time it takes for a note to reach the peak level starting from the initial level The shape of this segment of the envelope is linear Envelope Decay Time Decay This sets the time it takes for a note to reach the sustain level from the peak level The shape of this segment of the envelope is exponential Envelope Release Time Release This is the time it takes for a complete fade out of a note after a note off message is received The shape of this segment is exponential The note will fade out from the value of the envelope at the moment the note off message occurs regardless of which segment is currently active Envelope Initial Level Initial This sets the initial value of the envelope Envelope Peak Level Peak This is the peak level at the end of the note attack Envelope Sustain Level Sustain This is the sustain level at the end of the note decay The envelope will stay at this level until note release unless it is in Loop Sync or Beat Mode Envelope Mode Mode If this is set to Loop the envelope will start again after the end
249. ownloads Chapter 5 Managing Files and Sets Various types of files are used in making music with Live from those containing MIDI and audio to more program specific files such as Live Clips and Live Sets This chapter will explain everything you need to know about working with each of these file types in Live However we should first take a look at Live s File Browsers through which most files arrive in the program 5 1 Working with the File Browsers 5 1 1 Browsing the Folder Hierarchy Files are browsed and imported from disk using Live s on board Browsers which can be pointed to any folder location on the computer The Browsers can also be searched based 46 5 1 WORKING WITH THE FILE BROWSERS 47 on specific criteria a topic that we will cover in the next section Each File Browser can have its own root directory shown at the top of the Browser the contents of which are available for browsing below The Browser root can easily be changed The Folder Up button moves the Browser root one step up in the disk hierarchy You can also set the Browser root to any folder in the Browser by selecting the folder and clicking the Root button double clicking the folder or pressing Note that there are three File Browsers that you can set up to point to commonly used folders el To set the root of the Browser to Live s library of clips Sets and presets use the Library button just to the right of the Root button or the S
250. ows option in the Plug In Preferences is activated you can open any number of plug in windows at once Even with this option off you can hold down the PC Mac modifier when opening a new plug in window to keep the previous window s from closing e Using the Auto Hide Plug In Windows preference you can choose to have Live display only those plug in windows belonging to the track that is currently selected You can use the View menu s Show Hide Plug In Windows command or the Ctl J P PC G 89 P Mac shortcut to hide and show your open plug in windows Notice that the name of the track to which the plug in belongs is displayed in the title bar of the plug in editor window Macintosh only The floating VST Plug in editor windows do not receive computer key strokes If it is necessary to type into the plug in window for instance for entering a serial number or unlock code hold down while clicking the Plug In Edit button The editor window will then appear as a normal application window rather than as a floating window and receive your typing Note that this functionality is intended only as a workaround for a plug in limitation We recommend closing the window after you have finished typing then reopening it normally before working with the plug in parameters 15 3 VST PLUG INS 206 15 2 3 Plug In Performance Options The Plug In Preferences contain a Performance setting for balancing plug in latency and performance Here you
251. pler bypassing the recording and monitoring stage With this setup we can choose to record new takes on either track and they will all play the same pad sound 12 7 INTERNAL ROUTINGS 164 7 Pad 3 8 Pad 9 Pad 2 0 0 0 MIDI From MIDI From MIDI From All Ins v No Input All ins v f All Chann f All Chann Monitor Monitor On Auto On Auto MIDI To Audio To MIDI To B Pad gt Master v 8 Pad 1 Simpler 1 Simpler_ Y m m m We might be bothered by the fact that muting the pad track by turning off its Activator switch also mutes the other MIDI track To be precise the other track keeps playing but its MIDI is played by an instrument that is out of the mix This can be easily remedied by cutting the clips from the pad track and pasting them into a third track that can be independently muted and that can hold its own MIDI effects The original pad track now acts as a mere instrument container As we are not recording new clips into this track we can set its Input Type chooser to No Input which makes its Arm button disappear and helps to avoid confusion when the mixer s In Out section is hidden 12 7 5 Tapping Individual Outs From an Instrument Some software instruments like Live s Impulse percussion sampler offer multiple audio outputs for the signals they produce By default Impulse mixes the output of its eight sample slots internally
252. propriate Insert menu commands Tracks can also be created by double clicking or pressing on files in the Browser to load them or by dragging objects from the Browser into the space to the right of Session View tracks or below Arrangement View tracks Devices or files loaded into Live in this manner will create tracks of the appropriate type e g a MIDI track will be created if a MIDI file or effect is dragged in 13 3 RETURN TRACKS AND THE MASTER TRACK 173 A track is represented by its track title bar You can click on a track title bar to select the track and then execute an Edit menu command such as Rename on the track One can quickly rename a series of tracks by executing this command and then using the Tab key to move from title bar to title bar 2 Audio 3 MIDI 4 MIDI You can drag tracks by their title bars to rearrange them or click and drag on their edges to change their width in the Session View or height in the Arrangement View Tracks are deleted using the Edit menu s Delete command 13 3 Return Tracks and the Master Track In addition to tracks that play clips a Live Set has a Master track and up to twelve return tracks these cannot play clips but allow for more flexible signal processing and routing The return tracks and the Master track occupy the right hand side of the Session mixer view and the bottom end of the Arrangement View Note that you can hide and show the return tracks using the Returns comm
253. puter s components For details please see the corresponding section 3 2 3 Unlocking Online Unlock Online This method of unlocking Live is much faster and easier than unlocking Unlocking Live Online If the computer you want to unlock Live for is connected to the Internet the only thing you need to do is press the Unlock Online button Live will then create a connection to the Ableton server send your Serial Number and Challenge Code and receive the Unlock Key 3 2 STEP 2 UNLOCKING LIVE 16 from the server No information other than this is exchanged between your computer and the Ableton server 3 2 4 Unlocking Offline Unlocking Live Offline If the computer you want to unlock Live for is not connected to the Internet you can use any other computer to access the Ableton server s web interface This is a website with fields for entering your Serial Number and the Challenge Code which you can copy from Live s Unlock dialog Please enter your Serial Number and Challenge Code to retrieve an Unlock Key Unlock Offline Serial Number Challenge Code The Live Unlocking Web Site 3http www ableton com unlock 3 2 STEP 2 UNLOCKING LIVE 17 If you have entered your Serial Number and Challenge Code correctly another website will appear to provide you with the Unlock Key There now are two options for transferring the Unlock Key to the computer that is to be unlocked Follow the weblink to download th
254. quality interpolation s 105 offline missing csse 62 played from RAM Mode 4 106 replacing i ed dodo bd uad ida ea 104 reversing css vradvzeUpiene Cuentos Sehr s 107 saving with a Set cece eee eee eee 62 saving with clip settings 105 time warping isses 113 Working With coe dived eae Re pee ts 52 Saturator effect 4 us vsuds ois sa qi eu waus VES EQUES 261 Save a Copy command eee eee ee 60 Save As commind cec p RES 60 Save command cerco eee seas 60 Save Default Clip button 5 54 105 Save Self Contained command 62 Scale effect lessen 280 369 Scene Launch button 0 cee eee eee eee 80 Scene Select field 0 cece eee ee eee 319 Scene Up Down buttons suus 189 319 SCENES steed Rp e dou ge PIS eU EOS NEN 27 80 and and MIDI key mapping 319 lero 84 recording die ie ded pere a tee te eed 184 scrubbing playback in the Arrangement View sssueues 67 inthe Clip VIEW tains des SUE CORR E er d 100 Search bUttON 522 5 s ies eee tek te ia ret 48 Search In Folder command sssuuses 48 Search In Metadata aptlefi sv oed aa dore amne 49 Search In Path Optloh suu eius dex dee ved dae vend 49 searching in the Device Browser 199 searching in the File Browser sssuusue 48 Select Loop command qiiae adhi s y
255. r component tracks and clips Each of the clips belonging to a Live Set is a Live Clip 5 5 LIVE SETS 61 These tracks and clips can be selectively previewed and dragged into the current Set or the entire Live Set can be dragged in to merge the two Dragging a Set into the space to the right of Session View tracks or below Arrangement View tracks will create new tracks to host the new content whereas dragging a Set into existing tracks will replace any current clips Note that if a Set is dragged into existing tracks containing clips or devices its tracks corresponding device chains will not be loaded You can export a selection of Session View clips as a new Live Set by dragging them to the File Browser To export a Set first click and drag or use the amp or Ctrl PC Mac modifiers to select more than one Session View clip Then simply drag the clips to a folder in the File Browser where you can either confirm Live s suggested name or type in one of your own 5 5 3 Template Sets Use the Default Preferences Template Save button to save the current Live Set as a template Live will use these settings as the initialized default state for new Live Sets You can use this to pre configure e Your multichannel input output setup e Preset devices like EOs and Compressors in every track A Live Set in the Browser 5 6 OFFLINE AND LOST FILES 62 e Computer key mappings e MIDI mappings The template Live Set T
256. r information on how to make these settings The Live Device Browser Selector 15 1 USING THE LIVE DEVICES 194 e 990900900000 Play with the device s controls to change the result or get more hands on by assigning device controls to MIDI or key remote control To learn what a device does and how to operate it consult the Live Audio Effect Reference chapter Live MIDI Effect Reference chapter or the Live Instrument Reference chapter To add another device to the track simply drag it there or double click its name to append it to the device chain Signal processing travels from left to right on the track e You can drop audio effects in at any point in an audio track s device chain keeping in mind that the order of effects determines the resulting sound as effects on the left will pass altered signals on to those on the right e The above also applies to a MIDI track s device chain e f you drop an instrument into a MIDI track s device chain signals following to the right of the instrument are now audio signals available only to audio effects Signals preceding to the left of the instrument are available only to MIDI effects This means that it is possible to have a MIDI track device chain consisting of all three types of devices first a MIDI effect then an instrument and finally an audio effect MIDI and Audio Track Arm Buttons 15 1 USING THE LIVE DEVICES 195 Stat Loop Length Fade Sustain Release LF
257. r right corner of the Arrangement View or Clip View 6 8 Using the Time Commands Whereas the standard commands like Cut Copy and Paste only affect the current selection their Time counterparts act upon all tracks by inserting and deleting time e Cut Time cuts a selection of time from the Arrangement thereby moving any audio or MIDI on either side of the cut area closer together in the timeline This command reduces the length of your Arrangement by whatever amount of time you have cut Note that the Cut Time command affects all tracks not only the selected ones A Gap Between Clips Has Been Deleted by First Selecting it Then Executing the Delete Time Command e Paste Time places copied time into the Arrangement thereby increasing its overall duration by the length of time you have copied 6 9 SPLITTING CLIPS 75 e Duplicate Time places a copy of the selected timespan into the Arrangement thereby increasing its overall duration by the length of the selection Delete Time deletes a selection of time from the Arrangement thereby moving any audio or MIDI on either side of the deleted area closer together in the timeline This command reduces the length of your Arrangement by the amount of time you have deleted Note that the Delete Time command affects all tracks not only the selected ones Insert Silence inserts as much empty time as is currently selected into the Arrangement before the selection 6 9 Split
258. r the signals from all other tracks Drag effects here to process the mixed signal before it goes to the master output Effects in the Master track usually provide mastering related functions such as compression and or EQ You can create multiple return tracks using the Insert menu s Insert Return Track command but by definition there is only one Master track 13 4 Using Live s Crossfader Live includes a crossfader that can create smooth transitions between clips playing on different tracks Live s crossfader works like a typical DJ mixer crossfader except that it allows crossfading not only two but any number of tracks including the returns The Send Controls and Pre Post Toggle 13 4 USING LIVE S CROSSFADER 175 The crossfader is accessed via the Session View mixer Q 2 Li The Crossfader The crossfader is a horizontal slider that can be mapped to any continuous MIDI controller absolute or incremental In addition to the crossfader s central slider its absolute left and right positions are separately available for MIDI or keyboard mapping There are two special scenarios for remote control with respect to the crossfader e A key mapped to any one of the three assignable crossfader positions left center or right will toggle the crossfader s absolute left and right positions e Mapping to two of the three fields allows for a snapping back behavior when one of the assigned keys is held down and the other is
259. ram With this setting output from the clips is suppressed An In monitoring setting can be easily recognized even when the In Out section is hidden by the orange color of the track s Activator switch e Monitoring can be turned off altogether by choosing the Off option This is useful when recording acoustic instruments which are monitored through the air when Audio and MIDI Track Arm Buttons 12 2 EXTERNAL AUDIO IN OUT 152 using an external mixing console for monitoring or when using an audio hardware interface with a direct monitoring option that bypasses the computer so as to avoid latency Generally it is preferable to work with an audio interface that allows for negligible latencies a few milliseconds If you are recording into Live with monitoring setto Off you may want to make the Audio Preferences Overall Latency adjustment which is described in the built in program tutorial on setting up the Audio Preferences 12 2 External Audio In Out An audio interface s inputs are selected by choosing Ext In from the Input Type chooser of an audio track The Input Channel chooser then offers the individual input channels Entries in this chooser each have meters next to their names to help you identify signal presence and overload when the meter flashes red Setting up the audio interface s outputs works the same way via the output chooser pair The list of available inputs and outputs depends on the Audio Preferences whi
260. rence 110 Clip VIBW ciii serbe Rr px REIR REPE RETS 88 and playing the Arrangement 68 and remote control mapping 320 SCIUD ALG wired esL ereect AER PESE EE 100 Clip View boxes selector 9T 125 139 223 CIIBE a phakic ess iore V Roos ok lia c Shey do EC 25 adding fades to 0 cece eee eee 106 arranging editing ce eee eee eee eee Z1 as TEM Plates cesen usinnan a 229 audioclips ep 29 clip multi selections 008 89 deactivating muting csse sess 92 editing MIDI notes velocities 124 importing from TIIBS soin ese eut quartus ds 51 in Arrangement View 2 00008 2 in audio MIDI tracks cee eee eee 28 in Session View 0 e eee eee eee 29 BM EPUM HE TNT ERE egenks 58 managing meter offset 0 2 00 eee 95 MIDI clIpSsus soror Ert ger ERETER ERES 30 renamlng z sc iHbLRSAN DEEANN EG 22 FEVEISING sep phe P CERIS Er PX 107 saving settings for cee ereen 105 setting properties of 88 Close All Folders command 48 197 Complex M d ss deepest ax ERR dads d 123 compressed audio files see samples Compressor erect co esee quu Vd Per da dad 244 Compressor Il effect 2 eee 246 Computer MIDI Keyboard button 154 Computer MIDI Keyboard option 154 Consolidate command s
261. rn track device settings Turn off the Select on Launch option from the Misc Preferences if you prefer the view to remain as is when you launch clips or scenes 7 4 2 Removing Clip Stop Buttons 1 Audio 2 Audio 3 Audio 4 MIDI You can add and remove Clip Stop buttons from the grid using the Edit menu s Add Remove Stop Button command This is useful for pre configuring the scene launch behavior If for instance you don t want scene 3 to affect track 4 remove the scene 3 track 4 Stop button 7 4 3 Editing Scenes There are a number of useful commands in the Edit and Insert menus that apply to scenes e Cut Scenes cuts out scenes with selected slots from the Session View thereby reducing the total number of scenes Please note that the Cut Scenes command affects all tracks not only those containing selected slots Slots Without Clip Stop Buttons 7 5 RECORDING SESSIONS INTO THE ARRANGEMENT 85 Paste Scenes works like Paste but inserts blank scenes before pasting Live inserts enough scenes to fit the material from the clipboard The new scenes will be inserted behind the current selection Duplicate Scenes works like Duplicate but inserts blank scenes before pasting Live inserts enough scenes to fit the material from the clipboard Delete Scenes deletes all scenes with selected slots from the Session View thereby reducing the total number of scenes Please note that the Delete Scenes command affects all tracks not only tho
262. rol Live s transport with the computer keyboard and mouse 1 You can start Arrangement playback by clicking the Control Bar s Play button and stop playback by clicking the Stop button Arrangement playback can also be toggled on and off by pressing the keyboard s space bar s ong vr Bar e The Play and Stop Buttons in the Control Bar 2 You can set the Arrangement playback position by clicking anywhere along the Arrangement to place the flashing insert marker Double clicking the Stop button 6 2 TRANSPORT will return the Arrangement play position to 1 1 1 i2 25 Bass To continue playback from the position where it last stopped rather than from the insert marker hold down the modifier while pressing the space bar 3 Clicking in the scrub area above the tracks will make playback jump to that point The size of these jumps is quantized according to the Control Bar s Quantization menu setting While the mouse is held down over the scrub area a portion of the Arrangement the size of the chosen quantization setting will be repeatedly played With small quantization settings or a setting of None this allows you to scrub through the music 9 13 9 3 3 41 45 49 Bass Bass Bass Bass I guitarchord fguitarchord gutarchra 0 E moas modes modes mrodes2 4 The song position can be adjusted numerically using the Control Bar s Arran
263. rom the same audio clip by using different warp pitch envelope and effect settings and store them all as separate Live Clips In the Browser you could then independently sort and preview these clips even though they are all referring to A Live Clip in the Browser 5 5 LIVE SETS 60 the same source sample 5 5 Live Sets The type of document that you create and work on in Live is called a Live Set 5 5 1 Creating Opening and Saving Sets Use the File menu s New command to create new Live Sets and the Open or Open Recent command to open existing ones In the File Browser you can double click or press on a Live Set to open it The File menu s Save command saves the current Live Set exactly as it is including all clips and settings You can also use the Save As command to save the current Live Set under a different name and or in a different directory location or the Save a Copy command to create a copy of the current Live Set with a new name and or new directory location Saving a Live Set leaves the samples referenced by that Live Set s clips in their current locations If these files are later moved Live will attempt to help you find them when next you open that particular Live Set The File menu s Save Set Self Contained command can help you avoid missing files altogether 5 5 2 Importing and Exporting Sets with the Browser Live Sets can now be opened in the File Browsers just like standard disk folders to reveal thei
264. rresponding to the 12 notes in a full octave Darker squares represent the black keys on a keyboard The base of the diagonal scale the lower left square shown on the map can be changed using the Base control The X axis of the map shows incoming note values and the Y axis their outgoing equivalents Use mouse clicks to move or delete the yellow squares which define where an incoming note will be sent on the scale Deleting a note on the scale map means that it will no longer play The Range and Lower Limit controls define the note range within which scale mapping will take effect Outside of the range defined by these controls the Scale effect will be inapplicable and the LED light will flash to indicate that some notes are not being processed The Scale Effect 19 6 VELOCITY 281 by the effect but are playing at their unaltered pitch 19 6 Velocity velocity Velocity re maps the 127 MIDI note velocity values The Out Low and Out Hi knobs control the outgoing velocity from 1 to 127 which is represented by the Y axis of the X Y display Incoming velocities that are shown in the display are within the range chosen by the In Low and In Hi choosers and are represented on the X axis The resulting curve shows how velocity is being altered by the effect If In Low and Out Low are both set to 1 and Out Hi and In Hi are set to 127 the display will show a straight diagonal line that indicates the equivalen
265. rrow Grid command e cee e eee ee 73 New command cece cece e ene e nes 60 Next Locator button 0 c eee eee e eee 69 normalizing rendered audio 0005 56 Note Editor eerte maet dee nena 125 Notes D0X 4ii icdcodediotiddeooieddtdeegendaes 91 Nudge buttons see Clip Nudge buttons INDEX O eS ESI oC Lise QR ON ER COR i an 62 Ogg files obe cepere d see samples Open Open Recent command suu 60 Operator instrument 00 22 rosaa 293 algorithms 0 e cee eee eee eee ee 294 aliasing and Tone cee eee ee eee 297 and CPU resources eee 304 SNVEIO DES MUR 299 filtet ects sirrin erana i ch awn ty e netos 301 Glide and Spread ces exuere n 303 global controls 0 cece eee eee 302 layOUta csccsewcdadageereuavaveessnceee ines 293 Blow EE 298 OSCIIlatOrS oie deen tne dovrei er x EE 296 parameter liste cus edo bdbtet bU talis 304 DESI cs saiuesbesad faa sida E vas ex pd 293 UNIOCKING ceo e Er Ree EET DE EUR 12 Original BPM field 000200 109 115 Overdub Switch 00 c eee e eee ee 183 185 Overdubbing isse Rr sidered etes 185 P Pan control esie reete thee EE E ER ER 172 Pan quick chooser button see quick chooser buttons Paste Scenes command 0 008 85 Paste Time command sese ee eee 74 pencil tool i dau da ad eee n see Draw Mode Phas
266. s active the frequency of the oscillator is controlled in the shell with the Frequency Freq and Multiplier Multi controls Operator includes a special Osc Vel control for each oscillator that allows altering frequency as a function of velocity This feature can be very useful when working with sequenced sounds in which the velocity of each note can be adjusted carefully Part of this functionality is the adjacent quantize control If this control is activated the frequency will only move in whole numbers just as if the Coarse control were being manually adjusted If quantize is not activated the frequency will be shifted in an unquantized manner leading to detuned 20 3 OPERATOR 298 or inharmonic sounds which very well could be exactly what you want The amplitude of an oscillator depends on the Level setting of the oscillator in the shell and on its envelope which is shown in its display and can be adjusted from there It can also be modified by note velocity and note pitch with the Level Vel and Level Key parameters available in the lower portion of each oscillator s display The phase of each oscillator can be adjusted using the Phase control in its display As explained earlier oscillators can modulate each other when set up to do so with the global display s algorithms When an oscillator is modulating another oscillator two main properties define the result the amplitude of the modulating oscillator and the frequency ra
267. s on Se Activating Audio Units Use VST Plug in System Folders On Plug Ins Audio Units Plug ins sometimes have a feature that allows choosing between different modes for the device You might be able to choose for example between different levels of quality in the rendering of a reverb Choosers for these device modes can only be accessed through the original plug in panel which is opened using the Plug In Edit button a 2i UBandpass M Opening an Audio Units Plug In Window Audio Units have presets that function just like those for the Live effects However some AU presets cannot be dragged to different locations in the Browser as they are read only Audio Units presets have an aupreset extension and are stored in the following directory according to their manufacturer s name Home Library Audio Presets Manufacturer Name Plug in Name 15 5 DEVICE DELAY COMPENSATION 213 15 5 Device Delay Compensation Live automatically compensates for delays caused by Live and plug in instruments and effects including those on the return tracks These delays can arise from the time taken by devices to process an input signal and output a result The compensation algorithm keeps all of Live s tracks in sync regardless of what their devices are doing while minimizing delay between the player s actions and the audible result Device delay compensation is on by default and does not normally have to be adjusted in any way Howev
268. s Follow Switch The area displayed in the Note Editor can be set to scroll with playback using the Follow switch from the Control Bar PTT The MIDI Clip Scrub Area You can click in the scrub area just below the beat time ruler to start playback from that point rounded by the global quantization setting Learning about the loop region controls and associated shortcuts can also be helpful in getting around in the MIDI Editor and playing selections quickly and easily As you work with MIDI you may find yourself needing extra screen space You can click and drag vertically on the window split between the Session or Arrangement View and the Clip 10 4 EDITING MIDI View to enlarge the MIDI Editor q q S s Solo A B o7 27 272 273 27 4 28 28 2 10 4 Editing MIDI 10 4 1 Non Destructive Editing 130 You can always return your MIDI clip to its previous state by using the Edit menu s Undo command Furthermore if the MIDI clip being edited originated in a MIDI file on your hard drive none of your editing will alter the original MIDI file as Live incorporates its contents into your Live Set when importing 10 4 2 Folding and Looping An important feature of the MIDI Editor is the Fold button located in the upper left corner Activating this button will immediately hide all rows or key tracks that do not contain MIDI notes This is very useful when working with percussion kits for example wh
269. s for a O 0 46 32 Session View Clip 1 Each clip in the Session View has a triangular button at the left edge Click the button with the mouse to launch clip playback at any time or pre select a clip by clicking on its name and launch it using the computer s key You can then move on to the neighboring clips using the arrow keys Please refer the manual section on clip launch settings for details on how to customize this behavior 2 Click on a square Clip Stop button to stop a running clip either in one of the track s slots or in the Track Status field below the Session grid Clips can be controlled remotely with the computer keyboard or a MIDI controller They can even be mapped to MIDI note ranges so that they play chromatically Clips can be played at any time and in any order The layout of clips does not predetermine their temporal succession the Session grid offers random access to the clips it contains Notice that even if you stop playback for a Session View clip the Play button in the Control Bar will remain highlighted and the Arrangement Position fields will continue running These fields keep a continuous flow of musical time going so that you can always know your position in song time during a live performance or while recording into the Arrangement regardless of what your individual Session clips are doing 7 2 TRACKS AND SCENES 80 You can always return the Arrangement Position fields to 1 1 1 and stop pla
270. s reversed Signal LED Shows an armed track s input signal level from MIDI or audio shows an unarmed track s output signal level Solo Activates deactivates soloing for the track in exclusion of all other tracks To solo the track nonexclusively i e in addition to other tracks hold down the Mackie Control s Control button while pressing this Note that a Misc Preference setting in Live allows deactivating exclusive track soloing When this setting is deactivated the behavior of this knob with respect to exclusive and nonexclusive soloing is reversed Mute Mutes unmutes the track nonexclusively 5 Select Selects the track both in Live and on the Mackie Control for various functions V Pot Fader The fader controls track volume by default but can be flipped to control track panning Please see the next section for the details on V Pots 22 2 V POTS AND ASSIGNMENT SWITCHES 22 2 V Pots and Assignment Switches ele e eje eje e So Se a or vr verme S pss Dooa a m 2 e Cele e o o o o s UNUM S 325 The Mackie Control s V Pots have dual functionality in many cases as they can be both rotated and pressed When being used to adjust single parameters those belonging to track devices for ex
271. sample to be rendered The Render to Disk dialog will come up with a bars beats sixteenths field where you can type in the desired length Live will capture audio from the Master output starting at the current play start position for whichever duration you have specified Rendering Options The Render to Disk command opens a dialog that offers several rendering options e Normalize f this is activated the sample resulting from the render process will be normalized i e the file will be amplified so that the highest peak attains the maximum available headroom e Render as Loop If this is activated Live will create a sample that can be used as a loop For example suppose your Live Set uses a delay effect If Render as Loop is on Live will go through the rendering process twice The first pass will not actually write 5 3 MIDI FILES 57 samples to disk but add the specified delay effect As the second pass starts writing audio to disk it will include the delay tail resulting from the first pass File Type Bit Depth Sample Rate These options specify the type of sample to be created Create Analysis File If this is activated Live will create an asd file that contains analysis information about the rendered sample If you intend to use the new sample in Live check this option Convert to Mono If this is activated Live will create a mono file instead of a stereo file 5 3 MIDI Files A MIDI file contains commands t
272. scillator waveforms such as Saw32 tend to be more sensitive to aliasing than pure sine waves Aliasing is a two fold beast A bit of it can be exactly what is needed to create a cool sound and a bit too much can make the timbre unplayable as the perception of pitch is lost when high notes suddenly fold back into arbitrary pitches The Tone parameter in the global section allows for controlling aliasing Its effect is sometimes similar to a low pass filter but this depends on the nature of the sound itself and cannot generally be predicted If you want to familiarize yourself with the sound of aliasing turn Tone up fully and play a few very high notes You will most likely notice that some notes sound completely different from other notes Now turn Tone down and the effect will be reduced but the sound will be less bright The frequency of an oscillator can be adjusted in the shell with its Coarse and Fine controls An oscillator s frequency usually follows that of played notes but for some sounds it might be useful to set one or more oscillators to fixed frequencies This can be done for each individual oscillator by activating the Fixed option This allows the creation of sounds in which only the timbre will vary when different notes are played but the tuning will stay the same Fixed Mode would be useful for example in creating live drum sounds Fixed Mode also allows producing very low frequencies down to 0 1 Hz Note that when Fixed Mode i
273. se containing selected slots Insert Scene inserts an empty scene below the current selection Capture and Insert Scene inserts a new scene below the current selection places copies of the clips that are currently running in the new scene and launches the new scene immediately with no audible interruption This command is very helpful when developing materials in the Session View You can capture an interesting moment as a new scene and move on changing clip properties and trying clip combinations 7 5 Recording Sessions into the Arrangement Your Session View playing can be recorded into the Arrangement allowing for an improvi sational approach to composing songs and scores 7 5 RECORDING SESSIONS INTO THE ARRANGEMENT 86 Bass guitarchord The Control Bar s Record Button Bass juitarchor When the Record button is on Live logs all of your actions into the Arrangement e the clips launched e changes of those clips properties e changes of the mixer and the devices controls also known as automation To finish recording press the Record button again or stop playback 8 D The Arrangement Selector To view the results of your recording bring up the Arrangement View As you can see Live has copied the clips you launched during recording into the Arrangement in the appropriate tracks and the correct song positions Notice that your recording has not created new audio data on
274. searches by default e Ex gt i Bass Exiting Search Mode A useful feature of Live s Browser search function is the Locate In Browser button found to the right of the Search field After finding a particular preset in Search Mode you can select 15 1 USING THE LIVE DEVICES 200 it and click this button to open the preset in Browse Mode where its location in the folder hierarchy will be displayed The Locate In Browser a Button 15 1 2 Device Groups Device groups allow you to save powerful multi device creations effectively adding all the capabilities of Live s MIDI and audio effects to Simpler Impulse and Operator presets To create a device group multi select any number of devices in the Track View by clicking on their title bars Then select the Edit menu s Group Devices command use the Ciri G PC G G Mac shortcut or select Group Devices from the PC Ct Mac context menu The devices will melt into one new device 15 2 USING PLUG INS 201 je Phattener s Il s Il S Il s I Ei Il s y Ee L 9 g LIII eua Y lt Start Loop Sustain Release LFO 0 00 Rand 19 8 100 nfdB 189s 00 Filter Freq Transp LFO Glide On 24 st 0 00 om Type wi Detune Env Time LP2 168 Hz 0 4 ost 4 300 00 B 9 MIDI
275. showing the selected envelope instead of the Sample Display or MIDI Editor You can toggle the display by clicking on the title bars of the Sample Notes and Envelopes boxes The techniques for drawing and editing clip envelopes are the same as those for automation envelopes in the Arrangement View If you create a nice section of envelope that you want to have repeat several times try the following 1 Enclose the desired selection in the loop brace and click the brace so that it is selected This will execute the Edit menu s Select Loop command which selects all material in the loop 2 Copy the envelope with PC Mac 3 Shift the loop brace to the right by one loop length with 4 4 Paste the envelope with PC Mac Note that you can use the arrow keys to quickly manipulate the loop brace and start end markers in other useful ways to expedite clip envelope editing tasks To delete a clip envelope i e to set it back to its default value first go to Edit Select All then to Edit Delete 17 2 AUDIO CLIP ENVELOPES 225 Let us now look at some uses of clip envelopes 17 2 Audio Clip Envelopes Clip envelopes extend Live s elastic approach to audio and in conjunction with Live s audio effects turn Live into a mighty sound design tool Using clip envelopes with audio clips you can create an abundance of interesting variations from the same clip in real time anything from subtle corrections
276. t eventually reaching O velocity The Decay control sets the amount of time Arpeggiator takes to reach the Target velocity With Retrigger activated retriggering of the sequence will also retrigger the velocity slope 19 2 CHORD 277 Tip The velocity section s Retrigger option can be used in conjunction with Beat retriggering to add rhythm to the dynamic slope 19 2 Chord Chord ec Shift 1 Shit 2 Shift 3 Oe Ost Ost Ost 100 4 100 4 100 4 Shift 4 Shift 5 Shift 6 This effect assembles a chord as the name implies from each incoming note and up to six others of user defined pitch The Shift 1 6 knobs allow selecting the pitch of the notes that contribute to the chord from a range of 36 semitones relative to the original Setting Shift 1 to 4 semitones and Shift 2 to 7 semitones for example yields a major chord in which the incoming note is the root The Velocity control beneath each Shift knob makes further harmonic sculpting possible given that the instrument allows for changes in volume or timbre as function of velocity It is a relative control with a range of 1 to 200 percent 100 percent defined as playing at a velocity equal to that of the incoming MIDI note Use the Velocity controls to do anything from adding slight overtones to washing out most of the other chord elements The order in which pitches are added to the chord is inconsequential The effect of a 12 semitone shift added
277. t 173 in the Browser 0c cece cece cece e 52 Delete Locator button 0 c cece eee 69 Delete Locator command sssssss 69 Delete Scenes command sus 85 Delete Time command essssss 75 Demo Mode 0 0 ccc ccc cee n 19 TUNING OFF ace pce ett ree terrere 22 Demo Sets occ tease va deans ge me e Rare dS 24 Detune field sse 103 Device Activator switch 0 ccc eee aee 195 Device chooser see Automation Device chooser see Clip Envelope Device chooser COVICES sich odisea waded ees RUE SEU plese 32 compensating for delays suus 213 de vice ODDS cs aaq qe ire d Sida AES UE ed 200 DIeSets cos iaie obe d be did 196 the Live audio effects 0208 236 the Live instruments 000 eee 283 the Live MIDI effects 0 0 0 ee 272 using Audio Units Plug ins 211 using Live devices eee e eee eee 193 using plug in devices 0 08 201 using VST Plug ins 0 cece ee eee 206 Double Halve Original BPM buttons 109 115 Draw Mode eec e gue 217 and drawing MIDI 0 00 0 126 with clip envelopes n csse sa ears 225 Draw Mode command ssesssssssssn 217 Duplicate Envelope command 220 Duplicate Scenes command 85 Duplicate Time command sisi cer eorr Renee 75 E Edit menu commands and
278. t of an effect bypass Softly played notes are being output quietly and vice versa If instead Out Hi is set to 1 and out Low to 127 the slope of the line will be reversed and softly played notes will actually produce the loudest output What happens to incoming notes that are outside of the range set with the In Low and In High controls This depends on which Mode is selected Clip Mode does just what it says It clips incoming note velocities so that they stay within the range Gate Mode removes The Velocity Effect 19 6 VELOCITY 282 incoming notes altogether if their velocities are outside of the range You will see the little LED in the effect flash when a note is blocked by gating In Fixed Mode the Out Hi velocity defines all outgoing note velocities regardless of incoming note velocity The Random function adds or subtracts a random value to the all velocities and is repre sented by a gray area on the display curve The Drive and Compand controls can be combined to create more complex curves Com pand is a simultaneous expanding and compressing tool When set to values greater than O it forces incoming notes to the outer boundaries of the curve making them play either loudly or softly Compand values of less than 0 on the other hand force outgoing velocity toward the mid range Drive pushes all values in the curve to the outer extremes Use these two controls together to sculpt or even redefine the dynamic structure of a piec
279. t of the control movement You will notice that a little LED has appeared in the slider thumb to indicate that the control is now automated Try recording 214 16 2 DELETING AUTOMATION 215 automation for track panning and the Track Activator switch as well their automation LEDs appear in their upper left corners drumloop Volume Pan and the Track Activator Switch Have Been Automated 16 2 Deleting Automation To delete automation data simply select an automated control by clicking on it and choose the Edit menu s Delete Automation command The automation LED disappears and the control s value stays constant across the entire song Note that this will not work with controls that are switches like the Track Activator switch because they cannot be selected by clicking You can only delete automation for switches by editing their breakpoint envelopes 16 3 Overriding Automation In practice you will often want to try out new control moves without overwriting existing automation data Well nothing is forever in the world of infinite Undo but it s easy to disable a control s automation temporarily to avoid overwriting existing data If you change an automated control s value while not in Record Mode the automation LED goes off to indicate the control s automation is inactive Any automation is therefore overridden by the current manual setting 16 4 DRAWING AND EDITING AUTOMATION 216 2 4 4 mlo ove J
280. t time you drag the file into Live To do this click the Clip View s Save button 9 2 1 Syncing Straight Loops When you import a sample that represents a well cut musical loop of 1 2 4 or 8 bars in length Live usually makes the correct assumptions to play the loop in sync with the chosen tempo It places two Warp Markers one at the sample s beginning and one at the end The Follow Switch in the Control Bar 9 2 TIME WARPING SAMPLES 115 A One Bar Loop as It Appears in the Clip View by Default The Orig BPM field displays Live s guess of the loop s tempo if you happen to know the tempo of the loop you can type it in here Sometimes Live s guess of the original tempo is wrong by half or double If so correct this by clicking on the buttons labeled 2 and 2 respectively The sample plays at double speed when you press 2 because you are changing Live s interpretation of the sample s tempo which serves as a point of reference for determining the required time stretch factor 9 2 2 Syncing Uncut Loops When importing a loop that has not been edited into a well cut loop Live will play it out of sync Suppose there is a portion of silence at the sample beginning prior to the first beat You can easily correct this by moving the Warp Marker labeled with a 1 to the first beat s onset Likewise you can eliminate silence after the actual loop end by moving the Warp Marker at the sample s right edge 9 2 TIME WARPING SAMPLE
281. tart and end for each clip can be set differently as can clip envelopes and 11 6 FOLLOW ACTIONS 148 other clip settings As long as Follow Action Time in each clip is equal to the length of the clip that you want to play you can set up two Follow Actions with different Chance values in each clip launch a clip and surprise yourself 11 6 6 Creating Nonrepetitive Structures Follow Actions are great when it comes to sound installations as they allow you to create structures that play for weeks or months and never exactly repeat You can set the Follow Action Time controls in a series of clips to odd intervals and the clips will interact with each other so that they never quite play in the same order or musical position Remember that each clip can have two different Follow Actions with corresponding Chance settings have fun Chapter 12 Routing and I O In the context of Live routing is the setup of the tracks signal sources and destinations i e their inputs and outputs Routing happens in the mixer s track In Out section which offers for every track choosers to select a signal source and destination The mixer s In Out ou section is Live s patchbay You can check the In Out View menu entry to access the In Out section in the Session or Arrangement View Note that in the Arrangement View unfolding and resizing the track makes the complete In Out section available in the Session View the In Out section
282. tate for new projects and their components as well as selecting options for new recordings e The Misc ellaneous Preferences include various options Here you can select Live s system language and a color scheme or skin for the Live user interface e The Products Preferences are used to manage licensing and installation of the Live platform and add on components like the Operator instrument and Live Pack library packages 2 3 The Main Live Screen Most of your work in Live happens in the main Live screen This screen consists of a number of views Each view manages a specific aspect of your project As screen space is limited the Live views cannot all be up at the same time 2 3 THE MAIN LIVE SCREEN 10 Each one of the selector buttons at the screen borders calls up a specific view click this one for instance to access the Live devices A View Selector To hide one of Live s views and free up screen space click on the triangle shaped button next to it To restore the view click the button again Wavelorme A View Show Hide rums Button You can run Live in Full Screen Mode by selecting Full Screen from the View menu To leave Full Screen Mode click the button that appears in the lower right corner of the screen Full Screen Mode can also be toggled by pressing the F11 key You can adjust the main window s horizontal split by dragging 2 3 THE MAIN LIVE SCREEN 11 Q Library gt Sets VstPresets Y
283. ted by two variables The Choices control defines the number of different random notes possible from a range of 1 to 24 the Scale control value is multiplied by the Choices control value and the result dictates the pitches that random notes are allowed to have relative to that of the incoming note For example with Chance set to 50 percent Choices set to 1 and Scale set to 12 half of the resulting notes will play at the original pitch and half will play 12 semitones higher But with Chance set to 50 percent Choices set to 12 and Scale set to 1 half of the resulting notes will play at the original pitch and half will play at one of any that are 12 semitones higher These examples assume Sign buttons that are set to Add The Sign controls decide whether the random alteration adds to the original note s pitch subtracts from it or does a little of both The LEDs below the Sign controls give you a visual idea of how output pitch compares with that of the original Hint Try using the Scale effect after Random to obtain random values within a specific The Random Effect 19 5 SCALE 280 harmonic range 19 5 Scale ee Base p 9 Transpose Scale alters incoming note pitch based on a scale mapping Each incoming note is given an outgoing equivalent on the X Y scale map of the effect All incoming Cs for example might be converted to outgoing Ds The X Y scale map is 12 squares in length and width co
284. ter emulation It can be modulated by an envelope follower and or an LFO to create moving filter effects There are four different filter types low pass high pass band pass and notch For each type the X Y controller adjusts frequency to adjust click and drag on the X axis and Q also called resonance to adjust click and drag on the Y axis You can also click on the Freq and O numeric displays and type in exact values Low Q values create a broad filter curve while higher values introduce a narrow resonant peak to the sound With band pass filtering Q sets the bandwidth of the passed signal The Quantize Beat control applies quantized modulation to the filter frequency With Quan tize Beat off frequency modulation follows the control source Turning this feature on updates the filter modulation rhythmically with stepped changes that track the master tempo The numbered buttons represent 16th notes so for example selecting 4 as a beat value produces a modulation change once per beat The Envelope section controls how the envelope modulation affects the filter frequency The Amount control defines the extent to which the envelope affects the filter frequency The Auto Filter Effect 18 1 AUTO FILTER 238 while the Attack control sets how the envelope responds to rising input signals Low Attack values cause a fast response to input levels high values integrate any changes gradually creating a looser slower response T
285. the Width control has no function and is therefore bypassed At the bottom of the device you will find two Phase e controls one for each channel As the name implies they invert the phase of each channel Chapter 19 Live MIDI Effect Reference Live comes with a selection of custom designed built in MIDI effects The Working with Instruments and Effects chapter explains the basics of using effects in Live 272 19 1 ARPEGGIATOR 273 19 1 Arpeggiator ac Transpose Velocity Shift o Key c vj Retrigger Steps Decay o 1 00s Distance Target 12 st Live s Arpeggiator effect takes the individual notes in a played MIDI chord or notes played singly and plays them as a rhythmical pattern The sequence and speed of the pattern can be controlled by the device which also provides a full complement of both classic and original arpeggiator features Arpeggiators are a classic element in Eighties synth music The name originates with the musical concept of the arpeggio in which the notes comprising a chord are played as a series rather than in unison Arpeggio is derived from the Italian word arpeggiare which refers to playing notes on a harp 19 1 1 Style and Rate Sections Arpeggiator s Style chooser determines the sequence of notes in the rhythmical pattern The Arpeggiator Effect Up and Down 19 1 ARPEGGIATOR 274 Play Order places n
286. the envelope amount controls in each of these sections 20 2 5 Filter The Filter section offers classic 12 dB or 24 dB low pass band pass and high pass filters as well as a notch filter each of which can impart different sonic characteristics onto the sample by removing certain frequencies from the waveform The most important parameters are the typical synth controls Frequency and Resonance Frequency determines where in the harmonic spectrum the filter is applied Resonance boosts frequencies near the points in the spectrum where frequencies are excluded by filtering The best way to understand the effects of these controls is to play with them The Frequency parameter can be modulated by an LFO note velocity and an envelope each of which have an amount control in the Filter section The Key tracking control allows for shifting the filter s frequency according to note pitch 20 2 6 LFO The LFO low frequency oscillator section offers square sine triangle sawtooth up saw tooth down and random waveforms The main control in this section is the Rate control which changes the LFO frequency within a range of 0 05 to 30 Hz LFOs are applied individ ually to each voice or played note in Simpler Square triangle and sawtooth LFOs restart each time a new voice is played while sine and random do not The Key parameter changes the definition of each LFO s Rate as a function of the pitch of incoming notes A high Key 20 2 SIMPLER
287. thickening and flanging effects Each delay has its own delay time control calibrated in milliseconds Delay 1 has a high pass filter that can remove low frequencies from the delayed signal Greater high pass values let only very high frequencies pass through to Delay 1 Delay 2 can switch among three different modes When off only Delay 1 is audible In Fix Mode only Delay 1 s delay time will be modulated When Mod is activated Delay 2 will receive the same modulation as Delay 1 The Chorus Effect 18 4 CHORUS 243 To set both delay lines to Delay 1 s delay time turn on the link button This is especially useful if you want to change both delays with a single gesture The Modulation X Y controller can impart motion to the sounds To change the modula tion rate for the delay times click and drag along the horizontal axis To change the amount of modulation click and drag along the vertical axis You can also make changes by entering parameter values in the Amount and Rate fields be low the X Y controller The Amount value is in milliseconds while the modulation frequency rate is in Hertz Clicking the 20 switch multiplies the modulation frequency by 20 to achieve more extreme sounds The Feedback control determines how much of the output signal feeds back into the input while the Polarity switch sets surprise the polarity Polarity changes have the most effect with high amounts of feedback and short delay
288. this value with the value of the oscillator s Freq knob to get actual frequency in Hz Osc Output Level Level This sets the output level of the oscillator If this oscillator is modulating another its level has significant influence on the resulting timbre Higher levels usually create bright and or noisy sounds Osc Waveform Wave Choose from a collection of carefully selected waveforms including slight derivations of sine waves that are especially useful for creating emulations of vintage digital hardware synthesizers Osc Phase Phase This sets the initial phase of the oscillator The range represents one whole cycle Osc Frequency lt Velocity Osc lt Vel The frequency of an oscillator can be modulated by note velocity Positive values raise the oscillator s pitch with greater velocities and negative values lower it Osc Freq lt Vel Quantized O This allows quantizing the effect of the Frequency lt Velocity parameter If activated the sonic result is the same as manually changing the Coarse parameter for each note Volume Envelope Rates lt Velocity Time lt Vel This parameter exists for filter pitch LFO and volume envelopes It is therefore listed in the section on envelopes 20 3 OPERATOR 310 Osc Output Level Velocity Vel This defines how much the oscillator s level depends upon note velocity Applying this to modulating oscillators creates velocity dependent timbres Osc Output Level Key Key This defines h
289. ting Clips The Split command can divide a clip or isolate part of it To split a clip in two halves 1 2 3 unfold the track in the waveform or MIDI display click at the position where you want the clip to be split execute the Split command To isolate a part of a clip 1 2 unfold the track in the waveform or MIDI display drag a selection over the part of the clip you want to isolate execute the Split command to divide the original clip into three pieces 6 10 CONSOLIDATING CLIPS 76 The Result of Splitting a z Clip 6 10 Consolidating Clips The Consolidate command replaces the material in the Arrangement View selection with one new clip per track This is very useful for creating structure Consolidating Several T Clips Into a New Clip 6 10 CONSOLIDATING CLIPS 77 Suppose you have by editing or improvising come up with a layout of clips that sound good in Arrangement Loop Mode Selecting that part of the Arrangement for instance by using the Edit menu s Select Loop command and then executing the Consolidate command creates a new clip that can be treated as a loop You can now for instance drag the clip edges to create more repetitions You might also want to drag the new loop via the Session View selector into a Session View slot for real time arrangement purposes When operating on audio clips Consolidate actually creates a new sample for every track
290. tio between both oscillators Note that Oscillator D can modulate itself via the Feedback parameter available in its display 20 3 3 LFO Section A Initial Peak Sustain 9i 919 5i 919 C Mode The LFO in Operator can practically be thought of as a fifth oscillator It runs at an audio rate and it modulates the frequency of the other oscillators It is possible to switch modulation by the LFO on or off for each individual oscillator and the filter using the Destination buttons in the LFO s display The LFO can also be turned off if it is unused Operator s LFO Parameters 20 3 OPERATOR 299 The LFO offers a choice of classic LFO waveforms sample and hold S amp H and noise Sample and hold uses random numbers chosen at the rate of the LFO creating the random steps useful for typical retro futuristic sci fi sounds The noise waveform is simply band pass filtered noise Tip FM synthesis can be used to create fantastic percussion sounds and using the LFO with the noise waveform is the key to great hi hats and snares The frequency of the LFO is determined by the LFO Rate control in the shell as well as the low high setting of the adjacent LFO Range switch The frequency of the LFO can follow note pitch be fixed or be set to something in between This is defined by the Rate Key parameter in the LFO s display The intensity of the LFO is set by the LFO Mod control in the shell This parameter can be modulated
291. tions in sixteenth notes If Gate is set to 4 16 the repetitions will occur over the period of one beat starting at the position defined by Interval and Offset Activating the Repeat button bypasses all of the above controls immediately capturing material and repeating it until deactivated The Grid control defines the grid size the size of each repeated slice If set to 1 16 a slice the size of one sixteenth note will be captured and repeated for the given Gate length or until Repeat is deactivated Large grid values create ryhthmic loops while small values create sonic artifacts The No Triplets button sets grid division as binary Grid size can be changed randomly using the Variation control If Variation is set to O grid size is fixed But when Variation is set to higher values the grid fluctuates considerably around the set Grid value Variation has several different modes available in the chooser below Trigger creates variations of the grid when repetitions are triggered 1 4 1 8 and 1 16 trigger variations in regular intervals and Auto forces Beat Repeat to apply a new random variation after each repetition the most complex form of grid variation in Beat Repeat especially if triplets are also allowed Beat Repeat s repetitions can be pitched down for special sonic effects Pitch is adjusted through resampling in Beat Repeat lengthening segments to pitch them down without again compressing them to adjust for the
292. tions that occur on vinyl records during playback These distortions are caused by the geometric relationships between the needle and the recorded groove The effect also features a crackle generator for adding noisy artifacts The Tracing Model section adds even harmonic distortion to the input signal Adjust the amount of distortion with the Drive knob or click and drag vertically in the Tracing Model XY window To adjust the distortion s frequency or color drag horizontally in the XY window or double click on the Freq field and type in a value Holding the PC Mac modifier while dragging vertically in the XY window changes the frequency band s Q bandwidth The Pinch Effect section adds odd harmonics to the input signal These distortions typically occur 180 degrees out of phase creating a richer stereo image The Pinch Effect has the same controls as the Tracing Model but generates a rather different sound The Drive control increases or decreases the overall distortion amount created by both the Tracing Model and Pinch The Vinyl Distortion Effect 18 19 REDUX 264 There are two distortion modes soft and hard The soft mode simulates the sound of a dub plate while hard mode is more like that of a standard vinyl record The stereo mono switch determines whether the Pinch distortion occurs in stereo or mono Set it to stereo for realistic simulation of vinyl distortions The Crackle section adds noise to the signal with
293. to entirely new and unrelated sounds 17 2 1 Clip Envelopes are Non Destructive Using clip envelopes you can create new sounds from a sample without actually affecting the sample on disk Because Live calculates the envelope modulations in real time you can have hundreds of clips in a Live Set that all sound different but use the same sample You can of course export a newly created sound by rendering or by resampling In the Arrangement View you can use the Consolidate command to create new samples 17 2 2 Changing Pitch and Tuning per Note Drop a sample loop from the Browser into Live and play it Click on the Transpose envelope quick chooser button You can now alter the pitch transposition of individual notes in the sample as you listen to it The fast way to do this is by enabling Draw Mode and drawing steps along the grid Deactivate Draw Mode to edit breakpoints and line segments This is useful for smoothing the coarse steps by horizontally displacing breakpoints 17 2 AUDIO CLIP ENVELOPES 226 The Transposition Envelope with Steps Top and Ramps Bottom Note that the warp settings determine how accurately Live s time warping engine tracks the envelope shape To obtain a more immediate response reduce the Grain Size value in Tones and Texture Mode or choose a smaller value for the Transients control in Beats Mode To correct the tuning of individual notes in the sample hold
294. treams The programs in a ReWire connection play distinct roles The ReWire master accesses the audio hardware and provides mixing facilities the ReWire slave s have no direct link to the audio hardware but instead send their audio output into the Master s mixer Common ReWire master applications are Digidesign Pro Tools Steinberg Cubase and Nuendo Emagic Logic Audio MOTU Digital Performer Cakewalk Sonar and Cycling 74 Max MSP Common ReWire slave applications are Propellerheads Rebirth Propellerheads Reason Arturia Storm Cakewalk Project 5 and Cycling 74 Max MSP Live can act as both a ReWire master and slave Note that the ReWire protocol itself does not consume much CPU power However as expected running two audio intensive programs on the same computer requires more resources than running a single program 23 2 1 Running Live in ReWire Master Mode The step by step procedure for sending MIDI to and receiving audio from a ReWire slave program is presented in the routing chapter 23 2 CONNECTING VIA REWIRE 340 23 2 2 Running Live in ReWire Slave Mode If you have not used Live yet please launch Live so that it can install its ReWire engine in your system Live will run in ReWire slave mode if it detects a running ReWire master application upon startup Therefore always start the ReWire master application first and then start Live Likewise you will first have to quit Live then the ReWire master application Live s
295. tton You can always return to the Products Preferences tab later or visit the Ableton webshop to make a purchase Live s Preferences are available via the Options menu or the Live menu in Mac OS X The Real Time Music Production Platform Live 5 has not yet been unlocked and is running in Demo Mode In Demo Mode you can explore the product s functionality but you cannot save or export your work Buy Find out about buying options and buy Live 5 online Unlock Once you own Live 5 unlock Live 5 using the Serial Number you received from Ableton To continue using Live 5 in Demo Mode simply close this dialog Selecting the Unlock gm Button in the Products Tab Thttp www ableton com shop 3 1 STEP 1 ENTERING YOUR SERIAL NUMBER 14 3 1 Step 1 Entering Your Serial Number As an owner of Live you have received a Serial Number from Ableton either via e mail if you ordered Live directly from Ableton or on a card as part of the Live package serial Number Please enter the Serial Number f fr Ableton After selecting Unlock in the Products tab you will be presented with six fields for typing in your Serial Number Each field holds four characters The Serial Number is composed of numbers 0 9 and letters A F If you accidentally type the wrong string into a field the field will turn red When you have successfully entered the Serial Number click the Ok button to proceed The Serial Number identifies
296. uantizing the note end will stretch the note so that it ends at the chosen meter subdivision You can also quantize notes without giving them that quantized feel using the Amount control which will move notes only by a percentage of the set quantization value 10 4 5 Creating and Editing Notes Selecting a note or notes makes it subject to commands from the Edit menu such as Copy and Paste You can use the PC Mac modifier to click and drag a copy of a note to a new location The Edit menu s Select Loop command selects all notes that begin within the loop brace The Select Loop command can also be executed without the menu by simply clicking the loop brace This command can speed up editing when coupled with the loop brace s shortcuts Let s say you have arranged a nice 1 bar loop in the Note editor and you want to duplicate it a couple of times You can click the loop brace to select the notes that begin within the loop execute the Edit menu s Copy command shift the loop to the right by one loop length with 4 and execute the Edit menu s Paste command Quantizing MIDI Notes 10 4 EDITING MIDI 134 1 174 18 182 18 3 e 17 3 17 4 38 182 18 3 EJ Ss 3 Em EATE ERIT As we have already seen creating new MIDI notes is as simple as activating Draw Mode and drawing them into the Note Editor MIDI notes can also be added and deleted by double clicking when Draw Mode is inactive Verti
297. undance of new sounds without actually changing the original sample all the changes Samples Are Dragged in from Live s File Browsers 4 6 MIDI CLIPS AND MIDI FILES 30 are computed in real time while the sample is played The respective settings are made in the Clip View which appears on screen when a clip is double clicked 44 1 kHz 16 Bit 1 Ch Seg BPM WEG ae RAM D C Tame Transpose Beats ov Position ene Ost Rv Detune Length Oct 4 000dB Mene ea audio Many powerful manipulations arise from Live s warping capabilities Warping means chang ing the speed of sample playback independently from the pitch so as to match the project tempo as adjusted in the Control Bar s Tempo Field rar Aa 50 00 ext 5 The most elementary use of this technique and one that usually requires no manual setup is synchronizing sample loops to the chosen tempo Live s Auto Warp algorithm actually makes it easy to line up any sample with the project tempo such as a recording of a drunk jazz band s performance It is also possible to radically change the sonic signature of a sound using extreme warp settings 4 6 MIDI Clips and MIDI Files A MIDI clip contains musical material in the form of MIDI notes and controller envelopes When
298. usi ng the effect s X Y controller The device has two modes Space and Earth for changing the spacing of notches along the spectrum and he Color control nce the color of the sound This effect can be further adjusted with the Periodic control of the filter frequency is possible using the envelope section You can increase or decre ase the envelope amount or invert its shape with negative values and then use the Attack and Release controls to define envelope shape Phaser contains two LFOs to modulate filter frequency for the left and right stereo channels LFOs can have six possible waveform shapes sine square triangle sawtooth up sawtooth down and random The extent of LFO influence on the filter frequency is set with the The Phaser Effect 18 15 PING PONG DELAY 259 Amount control LFO speed is controlled with the Rate control which can be set in terms of hertz Rate can also be synced with the project tempo and set in meter subdivisions e g sixteenth notes The Phase control lends the sound stereo movement by setting the LFOs to run at the same frequency but offsetting their waveforms relative to each other Set this to 180 and the LFOs will be perfectly out of phase 180 degrees apart so that when one reaches its peak the other is at its minimum Spin detunes the two LFO speeds relative to each other Each filter frequency is then modulated using a different LFO frequency as determined by the
299. ustom Folder entry to open a folder search dialog for locating and selecting the appropriate folder 3 Note that you can turn off your VST Plug ins in this folder using the Use VST Plug In Custom folder option Once you have configured your Plug In Preferences the Plug In Device Browser will display all plug ins it finds in the selected VST Plug in folder s as well as any sub folders Itis also possible to use VST Plug ins stored in different folders on your computer To do this create a Mac OS or Windows alias of the folder where additional VST Plug ins are stored and then place the alias in the VST Plug In Custom folder or in the VST Plug In System folder on Mac OS X selected in Live s Plug In Preferences The alias can point to a different 15 3 VST PLUG INS 209 partition or hard drive on your computer Live will scan the set VST Plug in folder as well as any alias folders contained therein Some VST Plug ins contain errors or are incompatible with Live During the scanning process these may cause the program to crash When you re launching Live a dialog will appear to inform you about which plug in caused the problem Depending on what Live detects about the plug in you may be given the choice between performing another scan or making the problematic plug in unavailable If you choose to re scan and they crash the program a second time Live will automatically make them unavailable meaning that they will not appear in the Plug
300. ve Unlock Key XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX 18 Manually Enter Your Unlock Key 3 3 COPY PROTECTION FAOS 19 3 3 Copy Protection FAOs 3 3 1 Can I Use Live or Other Ableton Products Without a Serial Num ber If you do not yet own Live you can work with Live in Demo Mode Demo Mode offers Live s complete functionality but saving and exporting are disabled Live will run in Demo Mode by default if it has not been authorized You can try out other Ableton products such as the Operator instrument by individually switching them to Demo Mode in the Products tab of the Preferences Demo Mode can also be deactivated on a product by product basis in the Product Prefer ences If running Live or another product in Demo Mode raises your interest in purchasing it please select it from the Products Preferences tab and then click the Buy button or visit the Ableton webshop This site contains information about Ableton s distributor and dealer network It also offers you the opportunity to buy Ableton products online Live s Preferences are available via the Options menu or the Live menu in Mac OS X 4http www ableton com shop 3 3 COPY PROTECTION FAOS 20 The Real Time Music Production Platform Live 5 has not yet been unlocked and is running in Demo Mode In Demo Mode you can explore the product s functionality but you cannot save or export your
301. verbs and delays deactivation occurs only after all calculations are complete While this scheme is very effective at reducing the average CPU load of a Live Set it cannot reduce the peak load To make sure your Live Set plays back continuously even under the most intense conditions play back a clip in every track simultaneously with all devices enabled 24 1 3 Track Freeze Live s Freeze Track command available from the Edit menu can greatly help in managing the CPU load incurred by devices and clip settings When you select a track and execute the Freeze command Live will create a sample file for each clip in the track calculating and freezing the contribution of devices and clip parameters Thereafter clips in the track will simply play back their freeze samples rather than repeatedly calculating processor intensive device and clip settings in real time Most device and clip features in frozen tracks are not accessible However launching clips can still be done freely and mixer controls such as volume pan and the sends are still 24 2 MANAGING THE DISK LOAD 345 available Note that track freeze is not part of Live s Undo history but executing the Edit menu s Undo command to undo an action that affected a frozen clip will automatically unfreeze the respective track Once any processor issues have been resolved or you have upgraded your machine you can always select a frozen track and choose Unfreeze Track from the Edit m
302. vice Chain 7 Audio B Live s built in audio effects MIDI effects and instruments are available from the Device Browser and can be dragged from there into the Track View or onto a track title bar 4 7 DEVICES AND THE MIXER 33 Audio From Ext In ua un Monitor Live s Built in Devices Texture 1n Auto Off Are Available from the Audio To C Li Device Browser You can also use plug in devices in Live VST and Audio Units Mac OS X only Plug ins are available from the Plug In Device Browser rar 12000 4 1 4 o oe exr Ei ws Y Audio Units Y Apple v iE AuBandpass 1 Audio v E AUDynamicsProcessor v E AUGraphicEQ 258889 v EEE AUHighShelfFilter JI Audio From Plug In Devices Are Available from the Monitor Plug In Device Browser Consider an audio clip playing in an audio track The audio signal from the clip reaches the leftmost device in the chain This device processes changes the signal and feeds the result into the next device and so on The number of devices per track is theoretically unlimited 4 7 DEVICES AND THE MIXER 34 In practice the computer s processor speed does impose a limit on the number of devices you can use at the same time a topic that deserves separate discussion Note that the signal connections between audio devices are always stereo but the software s inputs and outputs can be configured to be mono in the Audio Preferences Wh
303. view switch in the MIDI Editor allows you to hear notes as you select and move them Note velocity is adjusted in the Velocity Editor by clicking and dragging on the associated markers You can also use Draw Mode in the Velocity Editor It will draw identical velocities for all notes within a grid tile After drawing a few notes and moving them around you will probably want to know how to get around in the Note Editor So before we get into detailed editing information we will first explain MIDI Editor navigation The Control Bars Draw Mode Switch Previewing MIDI Notes 10 3 MIDI EDITOR NAVIGATION AND TRANSPORT 127 10 3 MIDI Editor Navigation and Transport Notes 1 2 3 4 Shown Vertically and i Note Scale Position Is Beat Time Horizontally The MIDI Editor has both vertical and horizontal navigation Along the horizontal axis lies a time ruler which shows note position along a musical timeline The vertical axis contains both the note ruler displaying octaves CO C10 and a representation of a piano keyboard the piano roll Note that if the Preview switch at the top of the piano roll is activated you can listen to the results of your piano roll playing 10 3 MIDI EDITOR NAVIGATION AND TRANSPORT 128 MIDI Editor Navigation 1 To smoothly change the time zoom level click and drag vertically in the time ruler Drag horizontally in the time ruler to scroll from left to right 2 Cl
304. when launched in the Session View or during Arrangement playback Clips can also be activated deactivated directly from the Session or Arrangement View with their PC Mac context menus 8 1 2 Clip Name and Color The Clip Name field allows naming the clip By default a clip s name matches the name of the file it references but in general the clip name is independent from the file name Renaming an audio clip does not rename the referenced sample file To rename a file select it in Live s File Browsers and then choose the Edit menu s Rename command The Clip Color chooser allows choosing a clip color 8 1 THE CLIP BOX 93 8 1 3 Clip Signature Using the Clip Signature fields you can specify the signature of an audio clip s sample This setting is relevant only for display it does not affect sample playback 8 1 4 Groove The Clip Groove chooser selects the type of groove used for the clip Swing 8 for example applies an 8th note groove The Global Groove control defines the amount of the groove for every clip in the Live Set So how does it work Imagine a simple one bar MIDI clip that has a time signature of 4 4 Our MIDI clip is made up of 8th notes eight of them that play either on or between each of the four beats With a Clip Groove setting of Swing 8 the timing of our one bar clip becomes a bit like a rubber band that is pinned down at each beat but flexible in between The 8th notes that fall between
305. which can be turned up to 12 dB to compensate for drastic filtering at the input The Dry control adjusts the unprocessed signal level Set it to minimum if using the Delay 18 11 FLANGER 253 in a return channel 18 11 Flanger Flanger eo Envelope LFO S amp H Hi Pass E Shape 100 Hz Dry Wet Delay Time Feedback 100 250 ms Wi 0 90 Flanger uses two parallel time modulated delays to create flanging effects Flanger s delays can be adjusted with the Delay Time control The Feedback control sends part of the output signal back through the device input while the Polarity switch or sets the polarity Delay Time and Feedback can be changed simultaneously using the effect s X Y controller Periodic control of delay time is possible using the envelope section You can increase or decrease the envelope amount or invert its shape with negative values and then use the Attack and Release controls to define envelope shape Flanger contains two LFOs to modulate delay time for the left and right stereo channels LFOs can have six possible waveform shapes sine square triangle sawtooth up sawtooth down and random The extent of LFO influence on the delays is set with the Amount control Flanger s LFO speed is controlled with the Rate control which can be set in terms of hertz The Flanger Effect 18 12 GATE 254 Rate can also be synced with the project tempo and set in meter
306. with the Shift 1 control for example is equal in effect to a 12 The Chord Effect 19 3 PITCH 278 semitone shift added with the Shift 6 control Note that no two notes of the same pitch can contribute to the chord and that selecting the same shift value twice e g 8 semitones on both Shift 2 and Shift 3 will result in the latter control becoming gray indicating that it is a duplicate and therefore not in use Actually there is no such thing as two notes with the same pitch playing at the same time within the entire Live universe 19 3 Pitch A Pitch amp C Pitch Pitch is a transposition tool that changes incoming note pitch by 48 semitones The Range and Lower Limit controls act together to set a pitch range through which notes are allowed to pass Notes outside of the defined pitch range will be blocked and the effect s LED light will flash when this happens Notes outside of the pitch range are limited based on their untransposed pitch prior to the transposition stage of the effect The Pitch Effect 19 4 RANDOM 279 19 4 Random Random la Chance 32 Random adds an element of the unknown to the otherwise commonplace pitch parameter The Chance control defines the likelihood that an incoming note s pitch will be changed by a random value You can think of it as being something like a dry wet control for randomness The random value that determines the pitch change is crea
307. xhibit Clip Record buttons and clicking one of these commences recording Clicking the Clip Record button again defines the end of the recording and launches the new clip As these actions are subject to real time launch quantization the resulting clips can be automatically cut to the beat B ovn ear The Control Bar s Quantization Chooser Session recording in conjunction with the Overdub option and Record Quantization is the 4 11 AUTOMATION ENVELOPES 40 method of choice for creating drum patterns which are built up by successively adding notes to the pattern while it plays in a loop It only takes a MIDI keyboard or the computer keyboard and a MIDI track with Live s Impulse percussion instrument to do this 4 11 Automation Envelopes Often when working with Live s mixer and effects you will want the controls movements to become part of the Arrangement The movement of a control across the Arrangement timeline is called automation a control whose value changes in the course of this timeline is automated Automation is represented in the Arrangement View by breakpoint envelopes which can be edited and drawn m Mixer The Automated Pan m Track Panning v i Control and its Clear Envelope Envelope Practically all mixer and effect controls in Live can be automated even the song tempo Creating automation is straightforward All changes of a control that occur while the Control Bar s Record switc
308. y selected slot is empty To stop playing the selected clip hold down the Mackie Control s Options button while pressing zoom and use the Alt button to add remove the selected slot s Clip Stop button Note that the LEDs associated with the zoom buttons will display the play status of a clip an illuminated LED signifies a playing clip a blinking LED signifies a clip that has been triggered but is not yet playing and an unillu minated LED signifies a stopped clip or empty slot 331 22 4 TRANSPORT 11 12 e In the Arrangement View with the zoom button enabled i e its LED illu minated you can use the arrow buttons for zooming and scrolling in the currently selected track When zoom is not enabled the arrow buttons can be used to select tracks Scrub This fires the currently selected scene in the Session View and has no effect in the Arrangement View To stop all running clips hold down the Mackie Control s Options button while pressing this Jog Wheel In the Session View the jog wheel scrolls through the scenes In the Arrangement View the jog wheel moves the play position To change global quantization hold down the Mackie Control s Control button while turning the jog wheel You can also use the Mackie Control s Alt button in the Arrangement View to move the play position in smaller increments 332 22 5 SOFTWARE SPECIFIC CONTROLS 333 22 5 Software Specific Controls gt 84848 84 G6 8G
309. y 72 and clip envelopes aedis de dux aa vd ad uda d 224 and editing MIDI en 133 and rendering to disk 000 56 Select Next Scene on Launch option 81 Select on Launch preference ssuuu 84 Send controls 0 000 ce eee ence eees 35 173 serial number cese ee pre be US ee bte Qd 14 Session VIEW ie ecetek ese pne rede E eee PR SES EE 78 and Arrangement View lsssssssse 25 es oj s eT 83 copying to Arrangement 06 87 recording an Arrangement suus 85 recording audio in eee eee 183 Session Viewselector s sees 25 INDEX Set 1 1 1 Here command eee eee 119 Set Locator button 00 cee cee eee eee eee 68 Set Locator command cece eee eee ees 68 SOUS vos co dL dtes FOREN OFT Eines VU WRITES 24 exporting and importing io ierra 60 saving a Template oss ecd rene qia rd dates 61 saving self contained 0 ee0e ee 62 shortcuts e eee eee see keyboard shortcuts Show Hide Plug In Windows command 205 shuttle irse decere eret see groove feature Simple Delay effect iere ie bb Er re E e anh 262 Simpler instrument ssssssslsss sss ssssee 287 and CPU resources 00 cece eee ees 292 curl M 289 filteporsies otii hada Reap none 290 Glide and Spread ssssussuuuuus 292 FEQ cte ree ET AD ENSE eR Eden 290 PAM 2
310. yback for the entire Live Set by pressing the Control Bar s Stop button twice _ he nga Position Fields and the Stop Button 7 2 Tracks and Scenes Each vertical column or track can play only one clip at a time It therefore makes sense to put a set of clips that are supposed to be played alternatively in the same columns parts of a song variations of a drum loop etc sooo f Resized Session View i ii ii ii ii i TN LL Tracks For convenient access to more clips at once you can resize Session View tracks by clicking and dragging at the edges of their title bars Tracks can be narrowed this way so that only Clip Launch buttons and essential track controls are visibile 7 2 TRACKS AND SCENES 81 The horizontal rows are called scenes The Scene Launch buttons are located in the rightmost column which represents the Master track To launch every clip in a row simultaneously click on the associated Scene Launch button This can be very useful in organizing the live performance of a song with multiple parts The scene below a launched scene will automatically be selected as the next to be launched unless the Select Next Scene on Launch option in the Misc Preferences is set to Off This allows you to trigger scenes from top to bottom without having to select them first Computer keys or a MIDI controller can be used to launch scenes and scroll between them

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