IntroductionWelcome| 00:04 | Hi! I'm Rick Schmunk, and I'm very
happy to present to you Ableton Live 8
| | 00:07 | Essential Training.
| | 00:09 | Ableton Live is a digital audio
workstation designed to take musical ideas from
| | 00:12 | notes just floating in your head, to
a finished audio ready for final performance.
| | 00:17 | I'll be teaching you Live from the
ground up, from setting up an audio
| | 00:20 | environment and hardware, to starting
your first session, to recording live
| | 00:24 | audio and MIDI into a track.
| | 00:27 | I'll show you how to apply MIDI
effects to your tracks to personalize the
| | 00:29 | sound for your needs.
| | 00:31 | I'll walk you through all the steps
you'll need to warp audio, moving it closer
| | 00:34 | to the tempo you want.
| | 00:36 | Finally, I'll show you how to work
with other DAW systems like Pro tools
| | 00:38 | and Logic to add additional processing
controls and build more layered compositions.
| | 00:44 | Let me show you how to produce
beautiful music, and we'll start with "Ableton
| | 00:47 | Live 8 Essential Training".
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| Using the exercise files| 00:00 | If you are a premium member of the
lynda.com Online Training Library, or if you
| | 00:04 | are watching this tutorial on a DVD-ROM,
you have access to the exercise files
| | 00:09 | used throughout this title.
| | 00:10 | The exercise files are contained in a folder.
| | 00:13 | There is one Live project for each video.
| | 00:17 | Inside the Live project folder, you'll
find an Ableton Live set and any samples
| | 00:22 | needed to follow along with the video.
| | 00:24 | In some cases, there are some
additional assets, like in this video project,
| | 00:28 | where there are additional
video clips and audio clips.
| | 00:33 | If you don't have access to the
exercise files, you can follow along from
| | 00:37 | scratch or with your own assets.
| | 00:39 | Let's get started!
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1. System Setup: Putting Together a Digital Audio WorkstationWhat is a digital audio workstation?| 00:00 | Computer-based recording and editing
systems are often referred to as digital
| | 00:04 | audio workstations, or DAWs.
| | 00:06 | DAWs are made up of the following components:
| | 00:08 | a computer running a music production
software program such as Ableton Live;
| | 00:13 | an external hard drive to
store your library and audio files;
| | 00:17 | a microphone, which can capture a sound
from a singer or instrument, and convert
| | 00:20 | it to an electrical signal;
| | 00:22 | an audio interface, which converts
the audio from an electrical signal to
| | 00:26 | a digital signal, and then so we can
listen to the audio coming out of the computer,
| | 00:29 | it converts the signal from
digital back to electrical;
| | 00:33 | a MIDI keyboard controller, which
will allow you to send MIDI signals
| | 00:36 | representing the notes and
chords you play to Ableton Live; and
| | 00:39 | headphones or speakers, which convert
the electrical signal back to sound
| | 00:42 | pressure waves, so that you
can hear and evaluate your music.
| | 00:47 | If you don't currently own some of
these components, and are considering
| | 00:49 | purchasing one or more of them to
complement your home recording setup, here are
| | 00:53 | some things you should consider.
| | 00:55 | Most of the processing required by a
music production application like Ableton
| | 00:59 | Live is handled by the computer.
| | 01:01 | So the experience will be more
enjoyable if you use a fast computer with at
| | 01:05 | least 4 gigabytes of RAM.
| | 01:07 | Also, your system will run more
efficiently if you store and access your Live
| | 01:11 | projects and sets on a separate drive
from where your operating system and
| | 01:14 | applications are stored.
| | 01:16 | This additional drive can be an internal
drive, but you'll probably find it more
| | 01:19 | convenient to use an external drive.
| | 01:22 | I'd recommend using a FireWire drive,
but USB 2 drives can also be used.
| | 01:26 | In either case, use a drive with
at least a 7,200 RPM spin rate.
| | 01:30 | Ableton Live will run without an
external audio interface--instead using the
| | 01:34 | computers built-in converters.
| | 01:36 | However, these converters are not nearly as
good as those found in an audio interface.
| | 01:41 | As a result, your
recordings will not be as good.
| | 01:43 | The available audio
interfaces have many options.
| | 01:46 | For example, some interfaces
connect to the computer using a USB cable.
| | 01:51 | Until recently, most of these were USB
1.0, which has a transfer rate of around
| | 01:56 | 10 megabits per second.
| | 01:57 | This is slow for audio, and so most of
these interfaces only offer a maximum of
| | 02:01 | two simultaneous inputs, and a
maximum of 48-kilohertz sampling rate.
| | 02:06 | Both the newer USB 2.0 and FireWire
interfaces are a better choice in my opinion.
| | 02:11 | Both offer sampling rates of up to 96 kilohertz,
| | 02:14 | two to eight simultaneous inputs,
and an overall more robust performance.
| | 02:19 | Look for an interface that offers
instrument and line inputs in addition
| | 02:22 | to microphone inputs.
| | 02:24 | You'll probably appreciate options
like multiple headphone outputs, built-in
| | 02:27 | MIDI interface, guitar tuner, and effects.
| | 02:31 | If you're looking to purchase a new
MIDI controller, there are several
| | 02:34 | controllers that are designed
to work specifically with Live.
| | 02:37 | A list of those controllers is
available on the Ableton web site at
| | 02:40 | ableton.com/controllers.
| | 02:43 | These native controllers offer remote
control over launching scenes and clips,
| | 02:47 | instruments and effects,
as well as mixer controls.
| | 02:51 | Most of these devices have knobs that
map to Live macros using instant mapping,
| | 02:55 | which will greatly enhance your
automation and your live performances.
| | 02:59 | Purchasing a microphone can
be a confusing experience.
| | 03:02 | It's best to focus on a microphone
purchase on a very specific choice.
| | 03:06 | For example, a small diaphragm
condenser microphone is often the mic of choice
| | 03:10 | for recording acoustic guitars.
| | 03:13 | Dynamic microphones are
typically used to record guitar amps.
| | 03:16 | Large diaphragm mics are
often best for recording vocals.
| | 03:19 | Before you purchase a microphone, do
some research, and if possible, borrow or
| | 03:23 | rent before you buy.
| | 03:25 | Also, if you're recording vocals,
I'd suggest purchasing a pop filter.
| | 03:29 | They help to knock down those
nasty plosive consonants, and can also
| | 03:32 | protect the microphone.
| | 03:34 | Purchasing speakers and
headphones are a lot like microphones;
| | 03:36 | there are so many to choose from.
| | 03:38 | In either case, you want to use
reference headphones or speakers.
| | 03:41 | They accurately reproduce sound without
the coloration that you typically get in
| | 03:45 | similar consumer devices.
| | 03:47 | Again, research is important.
| | 03:49 | Auditioning speakers with
recordings you know well is critical.
| | 03:53 | In the end, you want to be able to
record and mix your projects, knowing that
| | 03:56 | what you're hearing will
transfer to other playback systems.
| | 04:00 | Now that you understand the important
issues in choosing equipment for a home
| | 04:02 | recording studio, you can begin
assembling the necessary devices.
| | 04:06 | In the next video, we'll talk about
connecting equipment, and the best way to
| | 04:10 | power on and off your home studio.
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| Choosing the right gear and setting up a system| 00:00 | Correctly configuring and connecting
the equipment in your home studio is
| | 00:04 | essential to working effectively, and
enjoying making music using a computer.
| | 00:08 | Let's talk about setting up your system, and
the best way to power your system on and off.
| | 00:13 | If you're setting up your home studio
for the first time, you want to start by
| | 00:16 | installing Ableton Live on your computer.
| | 00:19 | You also want to check the Downloads
pages at ableton.com to make sure that you
| | 00:23 | have the latest version of the program.
| | 00:26 | The first time you start Live,
you'll be asked to authorize the program
| | 00:29 | through Ableton's web site, where you can
create an account and register your serial number.
| | 00:34 | In addition to program updates, you
should also check the Downloads page for
| | 00:38 | free Live packs, which include
device presets, samples, and clips.
| | 00:43 | After turning your computer off, you can begin
connecting the various devices in your system.
| | 00:49 | If you're using an audio interface,
connect the device to the computer.
| | 00:53 | Most interfaces connect
via a USB or FireWire cable.
| | 00:56 | If available, use the cable
that came with the interface.
| | 01:00 | You may need to power the interface by
plugging it into the wall, using an AC adapter.
| | 01:04 | But in many cases, the interface will
draw the necessary power from the computer
| | 01:07 | via the USB or FireWire cable.
| | 01:10 | Next, connect any external hard
drives you're using to the computer.
| | 01:14 | Check your drive to see whether it connects
to the computer via a USB or FireWire cable.
| | 01:19 | If you've purchased a FireWire 800
drive, it uses a different cable than the
| | 01:23 | older FireWire 400 drives.
| | 01:25 | You may need to use an adapter cable
that will allow you to connect a FireWire
| | 01:29 | 800 drive to a computer that
only has FireWire 400 connections.
| | 01:34 | Note that some computers only
have one FireWire connection.
| | 01:37 | If you're using both a FireWire
drive and a FireWire interface, connect
| | 01:41 | the drive to the computer, and then
connect the interface to the second
| | 01:44 | FireWire port on the drive.
| | 01:46 | Today, most MIDI controllers
connect to a computer using a USB cable.
| | 01:50 | If you're using an older MIDI keyboard
that only has MIDI ports, check to see if
| | 01:55 | your audio interface has an
integrated MIDI interface.
| | 01:58 | If it does, connect the MIDI out port on the
keyboard to the MIDI in port on the interface.
| | 02:03 | If the interface doesn't have an
integrated MIDI interface, you'll need to
| | 02:07 | purchase a stand-alone USB MIDI interface.
| | 02:10 | If you're going to record vocals or
instruments into Live, you'll need to
| | 02:14 | connect a microphone to one of
the inputs on your audio interface.
| | 02:17 | You'll need a microphone or XLR cable,
and I'd suggest that mic cables are an
| | 02:22 | item where you don't want to economize.
| | 02:24 | Properly cared for, a good mic cable
will last a long time, and will
| | 02:28 | noticeably improve your recordings.
| | 02:29 | Mogami or Canare cables
both offer excellent products.
| | 02:33 | Plug the female end of the mic cable
into the microphone, being careful not to
| | 02:37 | squeeze the grill on the mic.
| | 02:39 | Plug the male end of the cable into
the preamp input on the interface.
| | 02:44 | If you're using a condenser microphone,
remember that you'll need to power the microphone.
| | 02:48 | Find the Power button on the
interface, usually labeled + 48V, and enable it.
| | 02:54 | You can record live instruments by
connecting them directly to the audio interface.
| | 02:58 | Connect guitars or basses to the
instrument input using a quarter-inch cable.
| | 03:03 | If you have an external synthesizer or
drum machine that you want to use as a
| | 03:06 | sound source, plug them into a
line input on the interface using a
| | 03:09 | quarter-inch cable.
| | 03:11 | If the device has a balanced
output, use a quarter-inch TRS cable.
| | 03:15 | Last, connect your headphones to the
headphone output on the interface, and
| | 03:20 | connect your speakers to the monitor
outputs on the back of the interface.
| | 03:24 | If you're using power speakers, you
can connect the speakers using balanced
| | 03:27 | cables--depending upon the available
connections, either a TRS quarter-inch or XLR.
| | 03:32 | If you have passive speakers, you need
to first route the audio outputs on the
| | 03:36 | interface to a power amp,
and then to the speakers.
| | 03:40 | Now that you have everything
connected, you're ready to boot your system.
| | 03:43 | In order that your computer recognizes
your devices, and that you don't damage a
| | 03:46 | device, it's recommended that you
turn things on in the following order.
| | 03:51 | First, boot your external hard
drive, turn on your audio interface if
| | 03:55 | necessary, turn on your MIDI
controllers, turn on your computer, and last,
| | 04:01 | turn on your speakers.
| | 04:03 | Shut down your system in the opposite order:
| | 04:06 | speakers first, computer, controllers,
interface if necessary, then hard drives.
| | 04:15 | If you need to remove a hard drive from
your computer while it's still running,
| | 04:19 | first eject the drive, turn it off,
then unplug the drive from your computer.
| | 04:23 | Now that you have your system
connected and powered up, you're ready to start
| | 04:27 | making music using Ableton Live.
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2. Software Setup and PreferencesSetting up audio preferences| 00:00 | Using an external audio interface with
Live allows you to record and monitor
| | 00:03 | audio at a higher resolution than using a
computer's built-in audio inputs and outputs.
| | 00:08 | In this video we'll discuss how to
configure Ableton Live to work with an
| | 00:11 | external audio interface, and learn how to
activate the interface inputs and outputs.
| | 00:16 | So before you start using Ableton
Live you want to connect your audio
| | 00:19 | interface to your computer, start
your computer, and then if necessary load
| | 00:23 | the interface's driver.
| | 00:25 | Then you can go ahead and launch Ableton Live.
| | 00:28 | To access the settings that will allow
you to configure your audio interface to
| | 00:31 | work with Live, choose Preferences from
the Live menu on Mac, or the Options menu
| | 00:36 | on a PC, or use the key command
Command+Comma or Ctrl+Comma on PC.
| | 00:41 | The Preferences are organized into
tabs, and I'm on the Audio tab here.
| | 00:47 | First of all, we see the Driver Type,
which in this case I only have the
| | 00:50 | option of CoreAudio.
| | 00:52 | On a Mac or a PC if there is a driver
that's specific to your interface, you'll
| | 00:56 | need to load that, and it
should be visible in this menu.
| | 01:00 | Then we can go down and click the
Audio Input Device, and we should see your
| | 01:05 | interface listed in this list.
| | 01:06 | If not, again, you'll need to
go back and check on that driver.
| | 01:09 | So I've got the Hammerfall DSP set
currently as my input device, and I want to
| | 01:14 | check the available input, so I am
going to click the Input Config button.
| | 01:19 | And here I see that currently, out of
all the inputs and outputs available on
| | 01:22 | this device, only 1 and 2 are
enabled, both mono and stereo.
| | 01:26 | So I am going to go ahead and I am
going to enable 3 and 4 for both mono
| | 01:30 | and stereo, and I'll click OK. And I am going
to close Preferences by hitting the Escape key.
| | 01:38 | Now I'll click the Input Assignment
button on the Audio Track in Live, and I
| | 01:43 | see both 1 and 2 available stereo, 3 and 4
stereo, and then it's mono inputs 1 through 4.
| | 01:50 | I'll go back into Preferences by using
the key command Command+Comma, and I'll
| | 01:56 | see that I have the same options here
available for the Audio Output Device.
| | 01:59 | Now I am doing something different here
because I'm recording this video, but in
| | 02:04 | most cases you are going to want to
make sure that the input device and the
| | 02:07 | output device are set to the
same device to avoid conflicts.
| | 02:11 | We have the same option here for the
Output Config, and in this case this
| | 02:15 | particular interface only has two outputs.
| | 02:20 | Next, if you are going to record audio
into an Ableton Live set, you'll want to set
| | 02:24 | the sample rate, bit depth and
audio file type here in Preferences;
| | 02:28 | these settings will affect any
audio recorded into a Live set.
| | 02:31 | For Sample Rate, the options
are 44,100k, 48,000, and 96,000,
| | 02:36 | with 44.1 kHz, being the consumer
audio CD standard and 48 and 96 being
| | 02:42 | higher resolution options.
| | 02:44 | Let me go ahead and choose 44,100.
| | 02:47 | The Sample Rate and Pitch Conversion
parameter affects the audio quality of
| | 02:50 | an audio clip when it is stretched to
fit a different tempo, or transposed to
| | 02:53 | work in another key.
| | 02:55 | The default Sample Rate and Pitch
Conversion setting is a global setting.
| | 02:59 | This can also be set at the clip level if
necessary, and we'll discuss this in a later video.
| | 03:04 | So next, I'll click the Record Warp and
Launch tab, and our top option here is
| | 03:09 | File Type, and our choices are WAV and AIF.
| | 03:12 | WAV was developed for the PC and AIF
for the Mac, but today they are both
| | 03:16 | cross-platform, interchangeable.
| | 03:19 | They are both uncompressed audio
format, so they work both the same pretty
| | 03:22 | much. So I am going to choose WAV. And then for
bit depth our options are 16, 24, and 32-bit.
| | 03:29 | Again, 16 is the consumer audio
CD standard, 24 and 32 being higher
| | 03:35 | resolution options.
| | 03:36 | Now most engineers are going to
recommend that you record at a higher bit rate.
| | 03:40 | That's going to give you the biggest bang
for your buck in improving the audio quality.
| | 03:44 | I'll go ahead and choose 24-bit.
| | 03:47 | So in this video we learned how to
configure Live so that you can effectively
| | 03:50 | use an audio interface rather than
your computer's built-in interface.
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| Setting up MIDI preferences| 00:00 | If you've chosen to use Ableton
Live as your computer music production
| | 00:02 | software, it's likely that you want
to create music with Live using a MIDI
| | 00:06 | keyboard or MIDI controller.
| | 00:08 | In this video we'll take a look at how to
set up your MIDI devices to work with Live.
| | 00:12 | First, connect your MIDI device to
your computer before starting Live.
| | 00:16 | In most cases you'll be using USB
cables to connect directly to your computer.
| | 00:20 | Other devices still connect via MIDI
cables, and you'll need to connect them to
| | 00:24 | a MIDI interface before the computer or
in some cases your audio interface will
| | 00:28 | have a built-in MIDI interface.
| | 00:30 | So once you've connected your devices
and you are in Live, we'll want to go to
| | 00:34 | Live's Preferences, which are under the Live
menu--that would be in Options menu on a PC.
| | 00:39 | I'll click that, and I'll
go to the MIDI Sync tab.
| | 00:43 | On this tab we see the
devices that are hooked up to Live.
| | 00:47 | If your device works natively with Live,
you'll see this listed in this dropdown
| | 00:51 | menu under the Control Surface column.
| | 00:54 | In this case my APC40 is one of those devices.
| | 00:58 | In other cases you'll also see your
device, but you may only see it listed under
| | 01:02 | the Input and Output columns.
| | 01:04 | Now I've got an E-MU keyboard hooked up
here, so I see this as an available
| | 01:08 | input device to Live.
| | 01:10 | When I click on that I can see the
E-MU, and I don't see any additional
| | 01:14 | channels, and that's because this
particular device only has one MIDI
| | 01:17 | channel that it sends on.
| | 01:18 | I'd choose that, and
it's the same with the APC40.
| | 01:22 | Now, if I have these devices hooked up
correctly and chosen, when I play a key on
| | 01:27 | one of those devices, I should see the
light over here on the far right-hand
| | 01:32 | corner light up as I press the key,
and that's the MIDI In indicator.
| | 01:37 | The Output column choosers here,
| | 01:39 | you'll use those when you actually want
to send MIDI out of Live to an external
| | 01:43 | device, and that could be a MIDI
synthesizer or drum machine. That's actually an
| | 01:47 | external device, and will bring the
audio back into Live separately from there.
| | 01:52 | The Dump button is used for those
devices that have presets that control how the
| | 01:56 | knobs and sliders work with Live.
| | 01:59 | Now, in this case, you'll see these
are grayed out. But if you have one of
| | 02:03 | those devices you'd simply click the
Dump button and navigate to your computer
| | 02:07 | where that preset is located, and you
probably want to look that up in your
| | 02:11 | device reference manual.
| | 02:13 | In the bottom half of the window we see
the MIDI ports, and all ports available
| | 02:17 | to Live are listed here.
| | 02:19 | In order for the ports to be active, the
switches to the right of the port must be enabled.
| | 02:23 | And we see that I've got this
for both input and output for the
| | 02:27 | currently available devices.
| | 02:29 | So I've got that set to on for the
E-MU, and that's why we saw the MIDI in
| | 02:34 | indicator lighting up when I played the key.
| | 02:36 | So when that's enabled, under here in
the Track column, that enables Live's
| | 02:41 | tracks to be assigned to send and receive on
the selected port and related MIDI Channels.
| | 02:45 | The middle column for Sync is used
when you want Live to send MIDI clock
| | 02:49 | messages to an external MIDI device
that has a built-in sequencer, like a
| | 02:53 | keyboard workstation or drum machine.
| | 02:55 | Set the external device to receive MIDI
sync and enable the switch in the sync
| | 02:59 | column for that desired device.
| | 03:01 | In the Remote column we use this switch
to activate the related port if you're
| | 03:05 | using a MIDI Controller to send MIDI
messages, like control, change, messages or
| | 03:09 | fader values to Live.
| | 03:11 | And we'll discuss this topic in more
detail in the video on Controllers later,
| | 03:16 | but for the APC40 we're definitely
going to want to enable that switch, so that
| | 03:20 | we can receive messages and
send messages to the APC40.
| | 03:24 | So your external MIDI devices should
now be ready and configured to work with
| | 03:27 | Live, and you should be
ready to start creating music.
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| Optimizing performance| 00:00 | In this lesson, we'll learn how to
configure preferences that affect
| | 00:02 | computer performance, so that your
system will work at maximum efficiency
| | 00:06 | when running Ableton Live.
| | 00:07 | So again, I am going to go into
Preferences, and that's under the Live menu--or
| | 00:11 | Options menu on a PC--and I am
going to go to the Audio tab.
| | 00:15 | So let's first talk a little bit about
latency and setting the Buffer Size setting.
| | 00:20 | So computers work more efficiently
when there is a larger buffer, and
| | 00:23 | essentially what's happening is that a
chunk of data is being held for the CPU,
| | 00:28 | and when the CPU is ready it can grab it.
And the larger that piece of data is
| | 00:31 | the more efficiently the
computer is going to work.
| | 00:34 | But there is a payback for that when
using audio applications, and that is delay
| | 00:38 | as the signal passes through the
system, and that delay can be particularly
| | 00:42 | annoying when you're actually recording
because you'll play the note, and then
| | 00:45 | you'll actually here the note.
| | 00:47 | As we look right now, my buffer size is
set at 128 samples and my input latency
| | 00:52 | is about 3.7 milliseconds and the
output 4, for a total of about 7.7.
| | 00:56 | That's actually quite low, and you'll probably
be okay with a buffer size setting like that.
| | 01:02 | Now when you are mixing and editing
you can bump that up to a much larger
| | 01:06 | size, and you should be also aware that
when you change the values in this Buffer
| | 01:10 | Size field Ableton Live will let
you type any figure in there, but many
| | 01:15 | interfaces actually work with preset
sizes like 64 or 128 or 256 samples and
| | 01:22 | then multiples of that.
| | 01:24 | So in some cases you can actually type a
number in here that'll cause a conflict
| | 01:28 | with your interface.
| | 01:29 | So you want to find out what those
options are with your particular interface.
| | 01:33 | But we can actually test this out and
see how this particular interface that we
| | 01:37 | are using with Live right now will
work, and we can do that using this cool
| | 01:41 | little utility that they've built
into Preferences down here, under Test.
| | 01:45 | So what I can do is I can actually run
a test tone so that I can listen to the
| | 01:49 | audio as it's passing through the
system, and then I can simulate a heavy CPU
| | 01:54 | load by setting the CPU Usage
Simulator parameter at a higher setting.
| | 01:59 | So I am going to click in there, and I
am going to bump that all the way up to
| | 02:01 | 80%, and then I am going
to turn on the test tone.
| | 02:04 | Now right now I've set this is pretty soft, so
that we can actually talk over the top of it.
| | 02:09 | (Test tone sounding.)
| | 02:10 | So there is the test tone, and if I look
over here in the CPU Usage field out in
| | 02:16 | the Live window, we can see
that it's seeing 80% CPU usage.
| | 02:21 | Now what I'll do is I'll click in the
Buffer Size setting field, and I will put
| | 02:25 | in a smaller setting, so we'll
try 64 samples. I'll hit Return.
| | 02:28 | Now listen.
(Test tone sounding.)
| | 02:35 | It doesn't sound too bad.
Let's go down a little bit lower.
| | 02:37 | And you can start to hear a little
fuzziness happen there definitely at 32 samples.
| | 02:45 | This particular interface will let
me go all the way down to 20 samples.
| | 02:49 | You can immediately hear some
crackling there in the background.
| | 02:52 | So if I was going to record into this system,
I would probably start at either 64 or 128,
| | 02:58 | knowing that a total of about 7.7
milliseconds is not going to cause a
| | 03:02 | problem with Latency in recording.
But if I was to get up to something like
| | 03:06 | let's say 512 samples,
| | 03:09 | you can see that I would then be looking
at over 24 milliseconds of latency, and
| | 03:14 | that is going to be noticeable.
| | 03:15 | In my experience, I'll just let you
know that that actually is kind of
| | 03:18 | the breaking point.
| | 03:19 | So usually I would do this at least at
256 or lower, and we can hear that the
| | 03:24 | audio is unaffected by that buffer setting.
| | 03:27 | And I'll turn off the test tone here,
and let's drop down and take a look at the
| | 03:31 | Preferences under the CPU tab.
| | 03:33 | And the first one here is the Multicore/
Multiprocessor Support, and this enables
| | 03:37 | spreading the CPU load over multiple
processors if available on your computer.
| | 03:42 | Now, when do you need to worry
about that or how would you know?
| | 03:45 | Well, you can always take a look at
here on the CPU Load Meter in Live. And if
| | 03:49 | this is up near 100% that shows that
the computer is working at its maximum
| | 03:54 | ability, and you may end up with some
pops or clicks or distortion or dropouts.
| | 03:59 | So if this occurs, you are going to want
to increase the Buffer Size setting on
| | 04:02 | the Audio tab that we were just talking about.
| | 04:04 | And there are some other things like freezing
tracks that we'll talk about in a later video.
| | 04:08 | While we are out here there
is a disk overload indicator.
| | 04:13 | That's the one here with the D on it.
| | 04:14 | And note that hard drive speeds affect
the performance of programs like Live,
| | 04:19 | so most computers today have 7,200 rpm
drives, which are sufficient for running
| | 04:23 | audio applications. But those of you
who are using laptops, you probably have a
| | 04:28 | 5,400 rpm drive, and you may run into
problems with high track counts and other
| | 04:33 | issues where you're taxing the machine.
| | 04:34 | If that happens you may want to reduce
the track count, come back to the Audio
| | 04:39 | tab and raise your Buffer Size setting.
| | 04:43 | But in any case, there is no
reason why you wouldn't want to enable
| | 04:47 | multicore/multiprocessor support.
| | 04:49 | Another parameter we'll take a look
at here is the plug-in buffer size.
| | 04:54 | Now currently this says as audio buffer,
and what that means is that when we're
| | 04:58 | routing audio in Live to an audio
effect, like a compressor or an EQ or
| | 05:03 | something of that nature, it's going
to receive the same buffer size as the
| | 05:07 | rest of the system.
| | 05:09 | In some cases, if you're having
problems with the CPU overload or other issues,
| | 05:14 | you may want to come in here and
try and set this to a higher setting.
| | 05:18 | So this can be different than the
actual CPU buffer setting, but normally we'll
| | 05:23 | leave that as Audio Buffer.
| | 05:25 | Okay, so in this lesson we learned how
to configure the Preferences in Live that
| | 05:28 | affect system performance.
| | 05:29 | This will enable you to set up your
computer and Live so that they will
| | 05:32 | operate effectively.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Session ViewUnderstanding Session view| 00:00 | A large part of successfully using an
application like Live is being familiar and
| | 00:03 | comfortable with the software interface.
| | 00:06 | So before we dig deeper into Live,
let's take a look at the main components of
| | 00:09 | the Session View window.
| | 00:10 | Let's start with two areas of the
window that help you figure out things as
| | 00:14 | you're working with Live.
| | 00:15 | I will start here in the lower
left-hand corner with Info view.
| | 00:18 | Info view displays information on
anything that you point your mouse at.
| | 00:22 | So, if I go up here and point at this
Solo button, it will show me that that's
| | 00:25 | the Solo/Cue button.
| | 00:27 | Over on the far right-hand side
of the program, we have Help view.
| | 00:30 | Help view includes step-by-step
lessons to do certain things in Live.
| | 00:35 | I can always go to the Home area by
clicking the Home button, and then I can
| | 00:39 | come down here and I can click on
the hyperlink for Show All Lessons.
| | 00:42 | This will take me to an area where I
can click until I find something that's
| | 00:47 | pertinent to what I am trying to learn.
| | 00:49 | You can close Help view by
clicking on the little x here.
| | 00:53 | You can reopen it by coming over
to View and clicking on Help view.
| | 00:58 | Above Info view, we have the browser, and
we'll talk about that in the next video.
| | 01:02 | Above the browser, we have controls
that allow us to set tempo and change tempo
| | 01:07 | and things like that.
| | 01:08 | So the tempo over here, if I click on
that, I can either click and drag a new
| | 01:12 | tempo, or I can type a value in,
and that will affect playback.
| | 01:18 | So I click on one of our clips here.
| | 01:20 | We'll hear that playback.
| | 01:21 | (Drums playing.)
| | 01:29 | Now I'll click there and change the
tempo back to 110 and play that again.
| | 01:34 | (Drums playing.)
| | 01:39 | And we can hear that playing faster.
| | 01:42 | Now we can do that while we are playing back,
(Drums playing.)
| | 01:51 | and Live dynamically changes the tempo.
| | 01:54 | Other times you are not quite
sure what you want the tempo to be.
| | 01:57 | You can actually click on the Tap
button, while Live is playing back, and it
| | 02:01 | will calculate the tempo from your click.
| | 02:03 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:13 | So you could see that I was doing
that slower and faster by just simply
| | 02:16 | clicking on the Tap button.
| | 02:17 | Let me reset that back to 110.
| | 02:20 | To the right of the Tempo field,
I've got the Meter field.
| | 02:24 | Now I am in 44, but if I was in 34
or some of the time signature, I can
| | 02:28 | indicate that there.
| | 02:30 | To the right of the Meter field,
I've got the Metronome button.
| | 02:33 | So if I need to click to provide some
rhythmic reference while I'm trying to
| | 02:37 | record a part, I can enable the click.
| | 02:40 | (Drums playing to a click.)
| | 02:43 | So you could hear the click
playing along with that clip.
| | 02:46 | If I need a count-in prior to
recording, I can right-click on the metronome
| | 02:50 | button and choose a count-in
length from the contextual menu:
| | 02:54 | 1 bars, 2 bars, and 4 bars. And you'll hear
that number of clicks prior to actually
| | 02:59 | the start of recording.
| | 03:02 | To the right of the Tempo and Metronome
fields, I have the transport controls:
| | 03:07 | I have the Play button, Stop
button, and the Record button.
| | 03:11 | (Drums playing to a click.)
| | 03:16 | Further over on the control bar, I have
controls that work with punching in and
| | 03:20 | punching out, and looping.
| | 03:22 | So, if I need to protect an area
that's already been recorded, when I want to
| | 03:26 | record an area that needs to be fixed, I
can enable the Punch-In and Punch-Out buttons.
| | 03:31 | To the right of that, I have
buttons to do with key and midi mapping.
| | 03:36 | This first button here is called
the Computer MIDI Keyboard key.
| | 03:40 | If I record-enable a MIDI track--I am
going to click the Stop Clips button,
| | 03:45 | because I don't want that audio clip to play--
| | 03:48 | I can now trigger this MIDI clip by
simply pressing on the A key, and the other
| | 03:53 | keys to the right of that on
that row of your computer keyboard.
| | 03:56 | (Drum sounds.)
| | 04:01 | To the right of the mapping buttons, I
have the CPU load indicator, which tells
| | 04:06 | me if Live is working too hard. And to
the right of that, I have the hard disk
| | 04:10 | overload indicator, and then I
have the MIDI in and out indicators.
| | 04:15 | So for instance, if I hit that A key on
my keyboard again, you'll see that light
| | 04:19 | up to indicate that it's receiving MIDI signal.
| | 04:21 | In the middle of Session view, we have
the track area. And at the top of these
| | 04:26 | vertical tracks, I have clip
slots where I can drop clips.
| | 04:31 | I can launch a clip by simply clicking on the Clip Launch button;
(Drums playing.)
| | 04:37 | I can stop that by clicking the Stop
button or the Spacebar on your keyboard.
| | 04:45 | Below that I have controls that affect
the playback of the clips on that track.
| | 04:49 | For instance, I have the Volume
slider here, so I can change volume as the
| | 04:54 | clip is playing back.
| | 04:55 | I am going to turn off the click.
| | 04:58 | (Drums playing.)
| | 05:06 | I can also mute the track by click
the Track Activator button, or solo it by
| | 05:12 | clicking the Solo button, and record-
enable by clicking the Record Enable button,
| | 05:18 | and also affect the pan position by
clicking and dragging on the Pan knob
| | 05:23 | here, for example.
| | 05:28 | (Drums playing.)
| | 05:37 | On the far right of the track
area, we have the Show/Hide buttons.
| | 05:41 | So, if there's something on the track
itself that's not showing that you need to
| | 05:44 | use, you can show/hide those areas of
the track by clicking these buttons.
| | 05:49 | So I is for I/O, S for send, R is
for the return tracks, and this for the
| | 05:54 | mixer, for example.
| | 05:55 | And you can also use
keyboard shortcuts to do that.
| | 05:59 | For example, the I/O field can be
opened and closed by going Command+Option+I
| | 06:05 | on a Mac or Ctrl+Alt+I
on a PC. The Sends area:
| | 06:11 | Command+Option+S on a Mac or
Ctrl+Alt+S on the PC, and so on.
| | 06:17 | If I click on a clip, I'll see the details of
that clip showing down here in the Details area.
| | 06:22 | Now, since I've got a MIDI clip
selected, I can see MIDI note blobs here in
| | 06:27 | the MIDI Note Editor.
| | 06:28 | If I click on the Device view here,
I'll see the device chain that is part of
| | 06:33 | that particular MIDI clip, and I've
only got one thing happening at this time.
| | 06:37 | It's a little bit different
if I click on an audio clip.
| | 06:41 | In this case there's no device, but if
I click on the clip overview there, I'll
| | 06:46 | see the audio waveform in the Sample Editor.
| | 06:49 | I can open and close this area by
going Command+Option+L on a Mac or
| | 06:54 | Ctrl+Alt+L on a PC.
| | 06:57 | On the far right of the track area, I
have the Master track, and what look like
| | 07:01 | clip slots here are actually scenes.
| | 07:04 | That means that I can actually launch
all the clips on a row by clicking the
| | 07:08 | Scene Launch button.
| | 07:09 | I am going to click the Stop Clips
button here so that nothing is selected.
| | 07:14 | Now, when I click on this Launch button
it's going to launch all the clips on that row.
| | 07:19 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:30 | You saw when I clicked on the second
Launch button it launched the clips on
| | 07:34 | that particular row.
| | 07:35 | Now to the right of the master track
area, I have two buttons that allow me to
| | 07:40 | switch between Live's main two Windows.
| | 07:42 | Currently we are in Session view, and if
I click the button above that, we'll go
| | 07:46 | into Arrangement view.
| | 07:48 | Now, I can switch between these
windows by using these two buttons, or I can
| | 07:52 | simply press the Tab key.
| | 07:56 | Being familiar with the program's interface
is key to successfully using the application.
| | 07:59 | Now that we have taken a closer look at the
Live Session View window, we are ready
| | 08:04 | to dig in and learn how to
use the program to make music.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with Live browsers| 00:00 | Live's virtual instruments,
effects, and clips are most easily accessed
| | 00:03 | through Live's browsers.
| | 00:04 | In this video, we'll take a first
look at the different browsers and how to
| | 00:07 | preview clips. And the browser is
located up in the upper left-hand corner of
| | 00:11 | the Live Session View window.
| | 00:14 | If you don't see the browser in your
window, click the Show/Hide button--
| | 00:17 | it's on the left-hand side--and reopen that.
| | 00:21 | You can also open and close the browser
by using the keyboard shortcut command
| | 00:25 | Command+Option+B, or if you are on a
PC, Ctrl+Alt+B. You can choose one of
| | 00:30 | Live's browsers by clicking one of
the browser buttons. So I am in the Live
| | 00:34 | devices and plug-ins devices
and file browser and so on.
| | 00:40 | You can navigate through the folders
and subfolders by clicking on the little
| | 00:43 | triangle, until you get down to one
of the files, and then also close by
| | 00:49 | clicking on the triangle.
| | 00:50 | Now the main browsers in Live are
first the Live Device browser, which is
| | 00:57 | used to access Live's virtual instruments and
presets or Live's MIDI Effects and Audio Effects,
| | 01:04 | the Plug-in browser, which is
similar to Device browser except this is
| | 01:08 | where you'll find any third-party virtual
instruments or audio effects that you've purchased.
| | 01:12 | Now, currently we don't have
any loaded in the system here.
| | 01:16 | If I did, I could click the Activate
button, and Live would go out and find them
| | 01:20 | and install them for use here in Live.
| | 01:23 | Then the next three buttons are called
the File browsers, and these can be used
| | 01:27 | to access folders and files on any
available drive through presets or
| | 01:30 | user-defined locations.
| | 01:32 | So I can see all volumes here, or I
can see here that I'm in the Library.
| | 01:38 | In a different one I can have a different look,
although I'm still in the Library here.
| | 01:43 | So let's take a look at a couple of examples.
| | 01:45 | So I am going to into the Samples
area and find this Loopmasters folder.
| | 01:49 | Now, note that these loopmaster loops
are from solid sounds, and this is Live
| | 01:54 | pack that's available by
download from the Ableton web site.
| | 01:56 | So, I'm going to go into the
Loopmasters folder and then the Drum Loops folder,
| | 02:02 | and then let's check out
what's in the Deep folder.
| | 02:04 | Now, I am going to widen the browser by
clicking and dragging there, so I can see more.
| | 02:09 | So I can see that I have some WAV
files here. And if I click on them--
| | 02:13 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:17 | I'll actually hear the preview because the
Preview button was selected. And because
| | 02:21 | that's an audio file,
| | 02:23 | I actually see the waveform
displayed down here in the Preview tab area.
| | 02:28 | So, if I click on another one of these, it will automatically play.
(Drums playing.)
| | 02:34 | I can stop playback by either clicking
the Spacebar or by choosing another file.
| | 02:40 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:47 | Now, let's check out a MIDI clip.
| | 02:48 | So I am going to go into Clips, and
let's go into the Drums subfolder and into
| | 02:55 | Electronic, and I am going to go down to Echoes.
| | 02:59 | Now again, these sounds are available
from a Live pack that you can download
| | 03:03 | from the Ableton web site, and this one
is called the Drum Machines Live Pack.
| | 03:07 | So, I'll go into Echoes, and I'll see
that there are several files here. And if I
| | 03:12 | widen this again I can see a little more
information, and I can see that I'm now
| | 03:16 | looking at a MIDI clip.
| | 03:18 | Notice when I click on the MIDI clip,
it didn't immediately start playing.
| | 03:22 | That's because there's a device that is
associated with that MIDI clip, and it
| | 03:26 | takes a minute to load that.
| | 03:27 | But now I should be able to click on the Preview button--
(Music playing.)
| | 03:34 | and hear that clip play back.
| | 03:37 | Now, if preview is too soft or too
loud, you can adjust the playback level
| | 03:41 | by coming over here to Preview
volume knob and clicking and dragging and
| | 03:45 | setting the level on that.
| | 03:46 | Last, let's go up to the Device
browser, and let's take a look at a virtual
| | 03:51 | instrument in a virtual instrument preset.
| | 03:54 | So I am going to go into the Instrument
folder, and now I see a list of Live's
| | 03:59 | virtual instruments, and I am going to
go into the Impulse folder--that's a drum
| | 04:03 | machine--and into the Electronics folder,
and I'll choose one of the presets,
| | 04:08 | and I'll select that.
| | 04:09 | Now, I want you to notice that
down at the bottom here, there isn't a
| | 04:12 | Preview tab this time.
| | 04:14 | That's because this is a preset, and
presets contain settings of all the
| | 04:18 | parameters of virtual instrument
effect, but don't include a clip.
| | 04:23 | So, instead what I am going to do here
is I am going to load this by hitting my
| | 04:26 | Return key, and notice the Live
created a track, and it put that clip on the
| | 04:31 | track, and it record-enabled the track.
| | 04:34 | Now, I can audition this by simply
pressing the keys on my MIDI controller, or in
| | 04:39 | this case because I've got the computer
MIDI keyboard enabled, I can again press
| | 04:43 | the letter A to trigger that kick, and
the other sounds on that Drum Machine.
| | 04:51 | In this video, we learned about the
various Live browsers, where to find audio
| | 04:55 | and MIDI devices and how
to find in preview clips.
| | 04:57 | This will be something that you will
use every time you use Ableton Live to
| | 05:01 | make music.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with Live clips| 00:00 | Audio and MIDI clips are an
essential part of using Live.
| | 00:02 | In the video, we'll learn how to load,
play, and stop clips in Session view, as
| | 00:06 | well as how to copy and paste clips.
| | 00:09 | As we began discussing in the last
video, clips are short audio or MIDI
| | 00:12 | recordings. In Live, clips are musical
building blocks that can be used to build
| | 00:16 | a song or a section of a song.
| | 00:18 | A clip might be a drum groove,
a bassline, or even keyboard part.
| | 00:22 | Live clips are generally 2, 4, or 8
bars long, and are edited so they can easily
| | 00:26 | be repeated or looped.
| | 00:28 | So let's take a look at how to load clips.
| | 00:30 | I want to go into one of the file
browsers here, and let's look at the Samples,
| | 00:34 | and I'm going to drop down to the
Loopmasters folder and into the Bass Loops
| | 00:38 | folder and Electro, and I
have a bunch of audio clips here.
| | 00:43 | Now I can select one of those clips, and I can
load it to a track by hitting the Return key.
| | 00:48 | Now notice that Live created the
appropriate kind of track, audio in this case,
| | 00:54 | and loaded the clip to the
first clip slot on the track.
| | 00:57 | Now I can play that clip by clicking on
the Launch button here
| | 01:00 | (Music playing.)
and stop the clip
| | 01:04 | by either pressing the Spacebar or one
of the Stop clip buttons on the track, or
| | 01:09 | the Stop all Clips button
over on the Master track.
| | 01:13 | Notice that when I click that the clip
now is deselected, and the Play button
| | 01:18 | is not green anymore.
| | 01:20 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:23 | Now I started playing the clip again
because I wanted to show you that if I
| | 01:26 | stopped the clip by pressing the
Spacebar, the clip is still selected and ready
| | 01:31 | to play. And if I press the
Spacebar again, it will start playing.
| | 01:35 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:37 | We'll come back to this issue when
we have several clips in the session.
| | 01:41 | So we have loaded an audio clip.
| | 01:43 | Let's now take a look at loading a MIDI clip.
| | 01:44 | So I'm going to go into the Clips area.
Let's take a look at the Drums. And I am
| | 01:50 | going to go into the Electronic
and then down here to Eckhose.
| | 01:54 | It looks like there is a subfolder,
and then I have got some MIDI clips.
| | 01:59 | This time I'm going to load the
clip, not by hitting Return key, but by
| | 02:02 | double-clicking on the file itself.
| | 02:06 | So it took a second, but it created a
MIDI track, and it loaded the clip onto
| | 02:11 | the first clip slot.
| | 02:13 | We can tell that there is a little
bit of a difference going on here,
| | 02:16 | because now I see something down in
the details view area and specifically
| | 02:20 | I'm seeing the device.
| | 02:22 | If I go back over to the audio clip,
I'll see that there is nothing there.
| | 02:26 | Or if I click on the clip overlay, I'll see that
I've got the audio file and the sample editor.
| | 02:33 | If I go back to the MIDI clip, I'll
see that I've got MIDI data down here.
| | 02:36 | So we can see that there is a difference.
| | 02:38 | So I'm going to click the Stop Clip
button here on the bass track, and now I'll
| | 02:43 | trigger the drum groove by
clicking on the Launch button.
| | 02:46 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:52 | So we hear the MIDI clip.
| | 02:54 | Now what I can do is I can fire off the
MIDI clip again, and then I can add to
| | 02:58 | the bass clip to that.
| | 03:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:10 | Okay. So I just click the Stop button there
to stop those from playing, and I'm going
| | 03:14 | to go ahead, and I am going to click the Stop
Clips button here to deselect both of those.
| | 03:19 | I'm going to do this again, because I
want to show you how Live is going to
| | 03:22 | add that second clip.
| | 03:24 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:32 | Now hopefully, you notice that time
it took a little bit longer for Live to
| | 03:36 | launch the bass part, and that's
because of the global quantization setting
| | 03:40 | that's up here on the control bar.
| | 03:42 | Now currently it's set at the
default of 1 bar, but I can set that to
| | 03:46 | other values as well.
| | 03:48 | Now what this means is that when I
have clips playing in the session and I
| | 03:53 | launch yet another clip, it's going to
wait until the next bar before it actually
| | 03:57 | starts playing that new clip.
| | 03:59 | So, so far when we've been adding
clips to the session, tracks have been
| | 04:02 | automatically created.
| | 04:04 | So let's just take a brief second to see
how we can actually manually create tracks.
| | 04:08 | I can go over here to the Create menu,
and notice here that I have two commands
| | 04:13 | for Insert Audio Track and Insert MIDI Track.
| | 04:16 | And you should just note that if you
actually create an audio track and you
| | 04:19 | later drag a MIDI clip onto it, Live is
smart enough to know that it can change
| | 04:24 | that into a MIDI track.
| | 04:27 | Also, I could have done that using the
key command Command+T for an audio track--
| | 04:32 | and that would be Ctrl+T on a PC--or
Command+Shift+T for a MIDI track--or
| | 04:37 | Ctrl+Shift+T on a PC.
| | 04:40 | Now, I can also load
multiple clips at the same time.
| | 04:44 | So let me grab these other three
grooves here on the drums folder here for this
| | 04:49 | Eckhose drum preset.
| | 04:51 | Now I can click and drag those selected
clips onto the drum track and load those
| | 04:57 | on adjacent clip slots.
| | 04:58 | Now I'm going to fire off one of these
clips by clicking on the Clip Launch button.
| | 05:02 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:13 | Notice that when I click the succeeding
clips that they were launched, and when
| | 05:17 | they started, by default, the
previous clips stopped playing.
| | 05:21 | So that's telling us Live will only
allow one clip to play on a track at a time.
| | 05:26 | Let's do the same thing
with some more audio files.
| | 05:30 | So I'm going to drop back over here
into the Electro folder, and I'm going to
| | 05:33 | grab a couple more of the bass WAV files here.
| | 05:37 | Notice that I can either select
files contiguously by clicking and then
| | 05:42 | Shift+Clicking to select a range, or
I can Command+Click on a Mac to select
| | 05:49 | nonadjacent files, and that
would be Ctrl+Click on a PC.
| | 05:53 | Now if I want, I can click and drag those
onto that track. And again it's going to
| | 05:58 | load them on adjacent clip slots.
| | 06:03 | Now I can fire off this drum clip.
| | 06:04 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:21 | Notice that while I was launching
those clips that Live allows you to have a
| | 06:24 | clip playing on one row on one track,
and I can indiscriminately launch clips on
| | 06:30 | other tracks, regardless of
what row they're sitting on.
| | 06:33 | Now, another way I can load multiple
clips into a session is I can select them--
| | 06:39 | and I'll do that with the same three files here--
| | 06:41 | and I can Command+Click and Drag those.
This time I'm going to actually drag
| | 06:45 | those and drop them in the drop
files area. But notice that when I let go
| | 06:50 | Live is going to put those on
adjacent tracks instead of adjacent clip
| | 06:54 | slots on the same track.
| | 06:56 | That's because I
Command+Drug them into the area.
| | 06:59 | On a PC, that would be Ctrl+Drag.
| | 07:01 | Now some other things that we can do
with clips are we can move them around.
| | 07:05 | So I can Click+Select a clip, and I
can drag that to another clip slot.
| | 07:10 | I can also copy a clip by either
selecting the clip and going Command+C on a PC
| | 07:16 | and then Command+V on the next clip slot--
and that would've been Ctrl+C on a PC,
| | 07:21 | or Ctrl+V. The other way to do that
would be to select the clip and simply
| | 07:26 | Option+Click and Drag that
to the desired clip slot.
| | 07:30 | Also, you might want to rename your clips.
| | 07:32 | I can do that by right-clicking on the
desired clip and choosing Rename from the
| | 07:36 | contextual menu, or using the key
command Command+R on a Mac, or Ctrl+R on a PC.
| | 07:43 | Now I can type in the new name there.
| | 07:45 | So I might want to call that "Drum Chorus."
| | 07:49 | And that way I know that clip
belongs with the chorus of the song.
| | 07:52 | So, take some time to get
familiar with loading and launching clips
| | 07:55 | in Ableton Live.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding clip properties| 00:00 | As we've been discussing, audio and
MIDI clips are an integral part of
| | 00:02 | using Ableton Live.
| | 00:04 | In this video we'll discuss the
differences between audio and MIDI clips, and see
| | 00:08 | how those differences are
reflected in the clip properties.
| | 00:11 | We'll also learn how to adjust the
properties that affect how a clip plays back.
| | 00:15 | So there are differences in
audio and MIDI clips worth noting.
| | 00:18 | Audio clips are short audio
recordings, and if we double-click on a clip on
| | 00:22 | the audio track, notice that the clip
opens in Detail view at the bottom of
| | 00:27 | the session window.
| | 00:28 | In the Sample Editor area if
we can see the audio waveform.
| | 00:32 | If I select a clip on the MIDI track,
we'll see that the Sample Editor changes
| | 00:36 | to the MIDI Note Editor, and here I am
seeing the note blobs representing notes.
| | 00:41 | I can also click the Track View
Selector and see the device chain that's being
| | 00:46 | used with this MIDI instrument and
to convert that MIDI data into sound.
| | 00:50 | That's something that's not
necessary on an audio track.
| | 00:53 | Now audio and MIDI clips share some properties.
| | 00:55 | Let me reselect the audio clip, and I'm
going to go back into the Clip Overview.
| | 01:01 | And over here on the left-hand side of
the details view I see the Clips box.
| | 01:06 | This is actually the same
for both audio and MIDI clips.
| | 01:11 | In the upper left-hand corner, I see the
Clip Activator button, and if I disable
| | 01:15 | that, the clip won't play.
| | 01:17 | That also frees up system resources.
| | 01:20 | Under that field I see the clip name.
| | 01:23 | If you want to change that, you can
always click in there, and this time
| | 01:26 | I'll rename it "Bass."
| | 01:28 | Underneath that field I see the clip
color. And if I want to change that, I can
| | 01:32 | go ahead and bring up this drop up
menu and click a different color.
| | 01:37 | Now you can see that it's assigned here.
| | 01:39 | I see the color at the top of the box here
and then also on the clip up here on the track.
| | 01:44 | Underneath that I see the default time
signature for the clip, and below that I
| | 01:49 | see the Groove area.
| | 01:50 | That's something that we're going
to talk about in an upcoming video.
| | 01:53 | Now on audio clips only, I get the
Sample box, and at the top I see some
| | 01:58 | properties about that.
| | 01:59 | I actually see the name of the source WAV;
| | 02:01 | in this case, it's 0001 Bass.wav. And then I
see the sample rate, which is 44.1 kilohertz,
| | 02:08 | the bit rate--16-bit--and 2 channels
indicates that this is a stereo file.
| | 02:12 | Now underneath that I see the Edit
button, and if I click the Edit button this
| | 02:18 | will actually open up this file in
another program for further audio editing.
| | 02:22 | And you can indicate that program by
going into your Live Preferences--which on
| | 02:26 | a Mac is under your Live menu, or on a
PC under the Options menu--and going to
| | 02:31 | the File Folder tab, and then under
Sample Editor, you can browse your hard drive
| | 02:36 | and choose another program.
| | 02:37 | In this case, I have got it set to Pro Tools.
| | 02:39 | I'm going to close that
by hitting my Escape key.
| | 02:41 | Now, if I make changes in the clip
properties, I can save them by clicking the
| | 02:46 | Save button here. And that won't affect
other Live sets that use this particular
| | 02:50 | clip that we created earlier, but what I
recall this clip later for use in other
| | 02:55 | sets I'll get the settings that I use here.
| | 02:57 | The next button is kind of a fun one.
| | 03:00 | If I click that, it's actually going
to reverse the clip itself and will play
| | 03:03 | the samples in reverse, so that I will
hear decay first and then the attack.
| | 03:07 | Let's check that out.
(Music playing.)
| | 03:14 | Pretty cool! I'm going to undo that for right now.
| | 03:18 | Two other buttons that you might use for
effect as well are the Half Tempo and Double Tempo.
| | 03:24 | So if I click to Half Tempo button it will
actually play the clip back at twice the rate.
| | 03:29 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:33 | And if I click the Double Tempo button, I
can take it back to the original tempo,
| | 03:37 | and then again I'll actually
hear it play at half the rate.
| | 03:40 | This time it's going to pretty slow.
| | 03:41 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:45 | So that might not be the thing to do in
this particular set, but at times those
| | 03:49 | can be very, very useful buttons.
| | 03:51 | Now under the Edit button, over
here I have the Hi-Q button, or
| | 03:54 | High-Quality button.
| | 03:56 | This uses a process that requires more
processing power, but results in a higher
| | 04:00 | quality playback, and allows
for greater transposition range.
| | 04:04 | Next to that, I have the Fade button, and
when this is enabled Live automatically
| | 04:09 | drops a very, very short fade on
the beginning and ending of a clip.
| | 04:13 | This ensures that there are no clips or
pops that are heard because of poor editing.
| | 04:17 | Next to the Fade I have got the RAM
Mode button, and when this is enabled Live
| | 04:22 | will actually load this particular clip
into RAM and access it from RAM rather
| | 04:26 | than streaming it from the hard disk.
| | 04:28 | This is helpful if the track kind of
high and your experiencing dropouts or
| | 04:32 | other problems. But the recommendation here is
use this carefully and as a last alternative.
| | 04:37 | Below that I have the Transpose area
and the Clip Volume setting, and I can
| | 04:43 | change those by simply dialing these two knobs.
| | 04:46 | So if I need to play this back at a
different pitch, I can click and drag on
| | 04:50 | this, and I'll transpose
this up, and I'll click again.
| | 04:53 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:56 | And we are hearing some artifacts there.
| | 04:58 | It depends upon the particular clip on
how successful Live is going to be able
| | 05:02 | to play that back at a different pitch.
| | 05:03 | In this case, I've gone 12 steps,
which is an octave, and it's struggling a
| | 05:07 | little bit. But from my personal
experience I can tell you that going about a
| | 05:11 | minor third you can do pretty well.
| | 05:13 | Above that, it's just
really is the luck of the draw.
| | 05:16 | So let me put that back at 0.
| | 05:19 | I can also fine-tune this by dialing in
the sense field down here and the sense
| | 05:25 | divides a half step into 100.
| | 05:28 | I can also affect the clip playback
volume by grabbing this slider and moving that.
| | 05:34 | So let's check out what that does.
| | 05:35 | (Music Playing)
| | 05:44 | This is useful when you run out of
headroom on your fader, like you can't turn up
| | 05:48 | a clip loud enough actually
using the volume slider on the track.
| | 05:52 | In the next column we've got the Warp
button, and when that is enabled Live will
| | 05:56 | actually cause the clip to play back at
the same tempo as the session, regardless
| | 06:01 | of the tempo that the clip
was actually recorded at.
| | 06:04 | So this is really handy, and it will
allow us to sync this clip with other
| | 06:07 | clips, no matter what the tempo is.
| | 06:10 | Over on the far right-hand side we see
settings for how the clip is going to
| | 06:14 | loop back and forth.
| | 06:16 | I can set the start and the ending of
this clip, and in this case if I play it,
| | 06:21 | since the Loop button is not
enabled, it'll only play one time.
| | 06:23 | So I'm going to enable that.
| | 06:24 | Now I've found that it's a lot easier
to set the clip beginning and ending over
| | 06:30 | here in the sample editor than actually
dialing in and by typing in these boxes.
| | 06:34 | So if I just click on the edge of the
clip here and drag, I can set the clip's
| | 06:39 | start point to later.
| | 06:41 | I can do the same thing over here on the end.
| | 06:43 | So it's going to play these two bars
instead so the 4-bar length of this clip.
| | 06:48 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:54 | Now, notice that it looped back on itself.
| | 06:56 | Let's take a look at the MIDI
clip and see how that's different.
| | 07:00 | Now the Clip box shows the same properties.
| | 07:02 | So I have got the clip name, and I
have got the Clip Activator button.
| | 07:07 | Again, I can change the clip color and
a time signature and the groove; those
| | 07:10 | are all the same. But instead of
getting a sample box, I get the Notes box.
| | 07:15 | Again, there are a couple
of things that are the same.
| | 07:17 | For instance, see the Original BPM,
and I can use the half and double the
| | 07:21 | original tempo buttons.
| | 07:23 | But where it's a little bit
different here this in this area.
| | 07:26 | So if I'm using external MIDI device,
I can actually send bank and program
| | 07:30 | change messages to that.
| | 07:32 | So simply click the dropdown menu and
select a number here, and it will send
| | 07:37 | that bank change number, or I can go
down do the same thing with the program
| | 07:41 | change. But the clip start points and end
points and looping are exactly the same.
| | 07:46 | So understanding the differences between
audio and MIDI clips will help you when
| | 07:50 | you need to adjust their properties.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with Live scenes| 00:00 | Most music production applications
force you to work in a linear manner.
| | 00:03 | Live Session view is a great
scratchpad, which allows you to work without the
| | 00:06 | constraints of a linear workflow.
| | 00:08 | In this video, we'll learn how to work
with live clips to form scenes and then
| | 00:12 | put scenes together to form a song.
| | 00:14 | So a scene is a collection of clips
arranged in a horizontal row in Live Session view.
| | 00:18 | Usually the clips are intended to play
together and form a section of a song,
| | 00:22 | like the verse or chorus.
| | 00:23 | So remember the tracks are vertical
columns, and can only play one clip at a time.
| | 00:27 | But launching a scene
launches all the clips in that row.
| | 00:31 | You can do that by clicking on the Scene
Launch button here in the Master track.
| | 00:35 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:39 | You can stop the scene from playing by
pressing the Spacebar on your computer
| | 00:42 | keyboard, or by clicking on the Stop
All Clips button here on the Master track.
| | 00:47 | You may want to rename a scene, and
you can do that by right-clicking, and
| | 00:51 | choosing Rename from the Contextual menu,
or using the key command Command+R--or
| | 00:57 | on a PC, Ctrl+R. So you
might want to call this "Verse 1."
| | 01:00 | That will help with the
organization of your song.
| | 01:05 | So I've got a couple of scenes here.
| | 01:07 | If I fire off the Verse 1 scene and
then go to the scene number 4 here, we're
| | 01:11 | going to hear a bit of a pause while
Live starts to play the next scene, and
| | 01:16 | that is controlled by the
quantization setting here.
| | 01:19 | So if I click on that, I can see the
variety of things that I can choose.
| | 01:22 | But if I leave this at 1 Bar, that's
just telling me that if I want to trigger
| | 01:27 | another scene, I want to do that one
bar before it's going to start to play.
| | 01:31 | So I'll do this, and I'll wait
until the middle of the second bar.
| | 01:35 | Then I'll click scene number 4, and we'll
hear that trigger at the beginning of Bar 3.
| | 01:40 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:50 | Okay. For some reason my drum groove didn't play,
| | 01:53 | so I fired that off in the
middle of the other scene playing.
| | 01:57 | So other times you're going to want
to experiment a little bit, and you're
| | 02:00 | going to want to find clips that are on
different scenes, and gather them into a new scene.
| | 02:06 | So, for example, I want to create an
intro for this song, and I want to use
| | 02:10 | this Pad clip that I've got
up here as the starting point.
| | 02:13 | Now first, I'm going to
stop all clips from playing.
| | 02:16 | Then I'll be able to fire this one off
all by itself, and then add other clips
| | 02:19 | to play along with it and
decide what may or may not work.
| | 02:22 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:43 | Okay. So I like the simpler Onna Intro drum
groove that I prepared, the best for that.
| | 02:48 | I also know that I'm going to
want to add this Intro Bass to that.
| | 02:51 | So let me fire all three of those off.
| | 02:53 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:02 | Okay. So now that they're all selected like
this, I can actually capture them and
| | 03:06 | insert them as a new scene.
| | 03:08 | I can either do that by right-clicking
over here in the Drop Files area, or over
| | 03:12 | here in the Master Track area.
| | 03:14 | I'll do that and I'll choose this
Capture and Insert Scene function.
| | 03:19 | We see that here now, but also I
want that at the beginning of the song.
| | 03:22 | So I'm going to click and drag on the
Scene button over here, and drag it up
| | 03:28 | and drop it right before Verse number 1.
| | 03:31 | Again, I can rename that. Call that "Intro."
| | 03:36 | So as I'm starting to put my song
together, I notice that I want to have
| | 03:39 | maybe Intro and then Verse 1, and
then Scene 4, which is going to be the
| | 03:43 | Chorus, and I'll rename that.
| | 03:47 | After that, I'm going to
want to go back to the verse.
| | 03:50 | So I'm going to Click+Select the verse,
and I'm going to go Command+C--that
| | 03:54 | would be Ctrl+C on a PC--and then go
down and select scene 5, and then go
| | 03:58 | Command+V to paste it.
| | 04:00 | That would be Ctrl+V on a PC.
| | 04:02 | Now, something else that might happen
from time to time is that you may have a
| | 04:07 | clip that's the same on a track and
you do not want that clip to stop playing
| | 04:12 | when you get to the next scene.
| | 04:13 | So for instance, just to show you this,
I'm going to delete the Onna Groove here
| | 04:18 | on the Chorus 1 and Verse 1 scenes.
| | 04:22 | Now, I do not want the Stop Scene
button to stop the Onna Groove from playing
| | 04:27 | when I trigger the Chorus 1 scene.
| | 04:29 | So I'll simply select that, right-
click on it, and choose Remove Stop Button.
| | 04:34 | You can also use Command+E or on a PC,
Ctrl+E. I'll do that on both those clips,
| | 04:40 | and I'll click the Stop All Clips button.
| | 04:43 | Let's fire off Verse 1.
| | 04:44 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:51 | So you notice that when the Chorus
scene started, we still heard the drum
| | 04:54 | track playing, and that was because there was
no Stop button here to stop that from playing.
| | 04:59 | Now the next thing you might want to do
on occasion is have a tempo change that
| | 05:03 | occurs with a scene change.
| | 05:05 | We can simply do that by adding
that information into the scene name.
| | 05:09 | So let me go to the Chorus here,
and I'm going to call that "100bpm."
| | 05:16 | I'll fire off the Verse 1 scene, and then the
Chorus scene, and you'll hear that tempo change.
| | 05:20 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:28 | So we heard that tempo change,
| | 05:29 | but let me alert you to the fact that
if you do have tempo changes in your
| | 05:33 | scenes, you need to include that
information in every one of your scenes,
| | 05:38 | because what'll happen now if I fire
off the Verse 1 clip, it's going to play
| | 05:42 | at the tempo of the Chorus clip, because
there is no tempo information in that clip.
| | 05:46 | Just for example--
(Music playing.)
| | 05:50 | So now we can hear that it's slower.
| | 05:52 | So I can add that
information into the Name field.
| | 05:55 | I don't have to leave out the Verse 1.
| | 05:57 | I'll just put a comma and a
space in there. Back to 120.
| | 06:03 | Now, when I fire off the Verse,
you'll hear it at the faster tempo.
| | 06:05 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:14 | We hear the tempo changes.
| | 06:15 | Now, we can do the same thing with meter changes.
| | 06:18 | You can include all of that in the name,
just simply by adding at least a space
| | 06:22 | or a character in between the
scene name, the tempo, and the meter.
| | 06:26 | You can remove scenes by simply selecting a scene,
and clicking your Delete key. I'll undo that.
| | 06:33 | You can reorder them by clicking on a
scene, and dragging it to a new location.
| | 06:39 | So now that we know how scenes and
clips work, you can start creating some songs.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. File ManagementBuilding Live Sets and projects| 00:00 | In this video we'll learn to create sets
and projects, and define the parameters
| | 00:03 | for recording audio into a set.
| | 00:05 | We'll also discuss how to create
templates and how to open existing projects.
| | 00:09 | In most audio applications, the
essential working file is called the session.
| | 00:13 | In Ableton Live, sessions are referred
to as Live Sets, and can be identified by
| | 00:17 | the .ALS file extension.
| | 00:19 | Because audio applications work with a
complex set of resources--audio files,
| | 00:23 | virtual instruments, video presets,
clips and samples to name a few--file
| | 00:27 | management is critical.
| | 00:28 | When you create a Live Set,
| | 00:29 | Live will automatically save it in
a project folder of the same name.
| | 00:32 | And as you continue to work with the set,
Live will add subfolders to the project
| | 00:36 | to organize audio files,
video files, and other assets.
| | 00:39 | The only exception is when
saving a Live Set for the first time.
| | 00:43 | You set the save location
inside an existing Live project.
| | 00:47 | In that case, Live will add the new
set into the project and populate the
| | 00:51 | existing folders with any
assets that you use in that set.
| | 00:54 | So when you open Live a new default set opens.
| | 00:57 | The default set has one audio and one MIDI track.
| | 01:00 | A new Live Set can be created
by going File > New Live Set.
| | 01:04 | Now unlike most audio applications, you
can work in Live without saving a new set.
| | 01:09 | So I would recommend that as you begin
working on a new song or project, that
| | 01:13 | you define the important
session parameters and save the set.
| | 01:16 | So let's take a look at the audio parameters.
| | 01:18 | I'm going to go into preferences, which
is under the Live menu--or that would be
| | 01:22 | under the Options menu on a PC.
| | 01:23 | And I'll go to the Audio tab and down to
Sample Rate, and I'll set the sample rate.
| | 01:30 | Our options there are 44.1K, 48K and 96K.
| | 01:34 | I'll go ahead and choose 44.1.
| | 01:35 | Then I'll go to the Record Warp
Launch tab, and I'll set the File Type,
| | 01:41 | either WAV or AIFF.
| | 01:43 | They are both uncompressed and very similar,
| | 01:45 | so I'm going to ahead and choose WAV.
And the bit depth, our options are 16, 24
| | 01:50 | and 32, and I'm going to choose 24.
| | 01:54 | You can close the Preferences
window using your Escape key.
| | 01:56 | So now I'm ready to save the set.
| | 01:59 | So I'll go File > Save Live Set As,
and now I'm inside another project.
| | 02:06 | So I'm going to click the desktop.
| | 02:08 | I'm going to go ahead and give this a name.
| | 02:11 | I'm going to make sure that I'm not in
another Live Set, because you'll notice
| | 02:18 | there's an existing set out here, and
in the File Folder icon, we can see the
| | 02:23 | little Ableton Live logo.
| | 02:25 | So this New Live Set is
going straight to the Desktop.
| | 02:30 | Now as you continue to work in Live and
you make changes, you're going to want
| | 02:33 | update and save your set. And I can
go back and go File > Save Live Set As
| | 02:39 | again, and give that a different name.
| | 02:42 | If I want to track the changes, I might add
something like a V2, for version 2, on there.
| | 02:46 | If I just go Command+S to Save--or that
would be Ctrl+S on a PC--it's going to
| | 02:52 | save my changes to the existing set.
| | 02:55 | In this case, I gave it an extension of
that V2, and now I can track my progress
| | 03:00 | as I continue working.
| | 03:01 | Now you can also open existing
sets straight from the File menu.
| | 03:06 | I can do that by going Open Live
Set and navigating to the location
| | 03:10 | and choosing that set--
| | 03:11 | I am going to cancel out of there--or I
can also open sets via the Open Recent Set.
| | 03:17 | I'll come down here, and I'll choose
something that I've been working on,
| | 03:21 | and I'll reopen that.
| | 03:23 | So as you become more familiar with Live
and you develop workflows, to save time
| | 03:27 | and work more effectively, you may
want to create a custom default set.
| | 03:31 | First, I'm going to close this one,
so I am back to the default set.
| | 03:36 | But if I were to add tracks to this,
and clips and other devices--some signal
| | 03:42 | processing, reverb, and delay--I could
save that as a new default set, and when I
| | 03:47 | open Live, that would be the default.
| | 03:49 | We can do that by simply going up to
the Live Preferences again, under the Live
| | 03:54 | menu, or under the Options on a PC,
| | 03:56 | choosing Preferences and going to the
File Folder tab, and then clicking the
| | 04:01 | Save Current Set as Default.
| | 04:04 | And note: you don't get an
option here to set the location.
| | 04:07 | It's going to immediately save the new
set as default in the current location.
| | 04:11 | So you may want to know where that set is
currently saved before you click the Save button.
| | 04:16 | There is nothing more important than
knowing how to save and create files.
| | 04:21 | Now you can work in Live, knowing
that your music is going to be saved
| | 04:24 | and organized.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Learning Live file management| 00:00 | An important part of using any audio
or video application is file management.
| | 00:03 | In this video, we'll discuss how to
manage projects and sets to ensure that they
| | 00:07 | continue working at a later date, on a
different computer, without encountering
| | 00:10 | missing audio or MIDI clips.
| | 00:12 | And we'll do that through using the
Collect and Save, or Manage Files, functions.
| | 00:16 | So first of all, if you record audio
into a set that hasn't been saved, Live
| | 00:20 | will store the audio files into a temp folder.
| | 00:23 | That folder location can be
set in Preferences file folder.
| | 00:26 | I'll go up to the Live menu, choose
Preferences--that would be the Options menu on a PC.
| | 00:32 | And here under Temporary Folder, I
can browse and set a folder if I want.
| | 00:35 | Now note that once the Live Set has
been saved, the audio files related to the
| | 00:40 | set that are in the temp folder
will be moved to the project folder.
| | 00:44 | So next, we want to back up a
copy of the set or project,
| | 00:48 | you'll go to the File menu, and you
might choose an option like Save Live Set As.
| | 00:52 | What you should note that this is only
going to allow you to save this set with
| | 00:57 | a new name, and that might include
the updated changes that you've made.
| | 01:01 | But it won't actually include the
project and all the subfolders and assets.
| | 01:06 | Now Save a Copy allows you to save the
copy of everything that's in the project
| | 01:10 | folder to a new location.
| | 01:14 | But as we look at what I've got in the
project here, we'll see that I've only
| | 01:17 | got the set itself, which is the .ALS file,
and this Ableton Project Info folder
| | 01:24 | that includes the metadata about the project.
| | 01:28 | So another option that's under the
File menu is Collect All and Save.
| | 01:33 | Now this option will allow us to
specify which of the media files that are
| | 01:37 | being used by the project will be copied from
their current location into the project folder.
| | 01:42 | Now this can include files from the
Library, or factory files from the
| | 01:46 | Library, or files from other projects, or files
from other discs and folders on your computer.
| | 01:52 | So before I do that, let's go right back out,
and I'm going to switch over to the Finder.
| | 01:57 | And here's the project. And again,
I've got .ALS, or the set itself, and
| | 02:03 | this Ableton Project.
| | 02:04 | I don't have anything
else in here--no audio files.
| | 02:07 | So let's go back, and I'll go
File > Collect All and Save.
| | 02:11 | They're all checked.
| | 02:13 | Now I'll click OK, and we can see it's
quickly gone through there and copied
| | 02:18 | any of those assets into the session
project, and let's take a look at that.
| | 02:23 | So now inside our project, I've got
a Samples folder, and I've got this
| | 02:28 | Loopmasters and Bass Loops and Electro,
and I've got the WAV file that's in
| | 02:34 | there and also this .ASD file, which is
the analysis file, which allows Live to
| | 02:40 | time-stretch that clip if necessary.
| | 02:43 | So another option you might use, if
you've moved your project to another
| | 02:46 | computer, or if you're missing some
samples or clips, is to use Live's File Manager.
| | 02:52 | We can do that by going to the
File menu and choosing Manage Files.
| | 02:57 | Over in the Help area, the File
Management opens up, and it allows us to manage
| | 03:01 | files on three different levels.
| | 03:03 | I can click Manage Project, in which
case it's going to go out and analyze
| | 03:07 | what's in the project and see if
there's any broken links to the necessary
| | 03:11 | clips or audio files.
| | 03:13 | I can also do that at the Set level
or I can do that at the Library level,
| | 03:17 | which would be everything that
we see over here in the browser.
| | 03:21 | So let's go ahead and click Manage
Project, and it's looking. And now it
| | 03:26 | gives us a detailed readout
about what it found or didn't find.
| | 03:31 | So it's telling us this project
contains 2.1 MB of data.
| | 03:35 | There's a Live Set, there's one media
file in there, and then most importantly,
| | 03:41 | down in this area, it says
there are no missing files.
| | 03:44 | Now if there had been files, Live
would have sought those out and attempted to
| | 03:48 | re-link those files.
| | 03:50 | So as you create music using Live,
it's likely that you'll want to take your
| | 03:53 | work to a friend's house or
a studio to continue working.
| | 03:56 | Managing your sets and assets will
help you move Live projects, and not end up
| | 04:00 | with missing files and broken links.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exporting content from Live| 00:00 | As you work with Live, it's likely that
you'll want to save changes that you've
| | 00:02 | made to clips for use in other projects.
| | 00:05 | In this video, we'll learn how to export
clips to Live's library so that you can
| | 00:08 | access the new or changed
content from the Live browsers.
| | 00:11 | So exporting clips to the
library is very, very easy.
| | 00:14 | All we need to do is select a clip on a track
and drag it into the Library--any folder.
| | 00:20 | I like to keep things organized, so I'm
going to select my Clips folder, and I'm
| | 00:23 | going to right-click on that and
choose Create Folder from the submenu.
| | 00:29 | That way I can have a folder for my clips.
| | 00:32 | Now, all I need to do is select a
clip and drag it into that folder.
| | 00:36 | Now, when you do that, this dialog
pops up and asks you, what do you
| | 00:41 | actually want to move?
| | 00:42 | Is it just the clip itself, or is it the
samples that are being referenced by that clip?
| | 00:47 | I can go ahead and hit Copy or Don't Copy.
| | 00:50 | Now, if you're going to be using this
clip on another system, you're going to
| | 00:54 | want to copy this content, because
otherwise, you might end up with some broken
| | 00:58 | links to that, and missing files.
| | 01:00 | So I'll go ahead and click Copy.
| | 01:02 | Now, that behavior can be set in Preferences--
| | 01:06 | that would be under the Live menu on
a Mac, or the Options menu on a PC.
| | 01:11 | In the File Folder tab, under Browser
Behavior, this Collect Files on Export is
| | 01:17 | currently set to Ask.
| | 01:19 | If you always want to do this, you can
go ahead and put that on Always, and then
| | 01:23 | you won't have to go through
this dialog box in the future.
| | 01:25 | Let me escape out of there.
| | 01:28 | So that was a single clip.
| | 01:30 | I can also export multiple clips.
| | 01:32 | So I'm going to click the first one,
and then Shift+Click the last one, so I've
| | 01:36 | got all four of them selected.
| | 01:38 | I'm going to drag those into My Clips folder.
| | 01:41 | Again, the dialog box comes
up, and asks me what I want.
| | 01:44 | I'll go ahead and click Copy.
| | 01:47 | Notice it's a little bit different this time.
| | 01:48 | It looks like I've got a subfolder
with the Ableton logo on it, and the Type
| | 01:54 | over here is telling me that it's a Live Set.
| | 01:56 | Let me give that a name.
| | 01:58 | I'll just call this "My Backbeat."
| | 02:03 | Notice that it adds that .ALS
extension that tells me it's a Live Set.
| | 02:07 | Let me click that disclosure triangle.
| | 02:09 | There is a subfolder in there.
| | 02:11 | Then I can see that I have my four MIDI clips.
| | 02:14 | Now, I can also export the devices that are
being used to play these clips, separately.
| | 02:20 | Let me close that up, and I'm going
to go down to the Device browser.
| | 02:26 | And notice that I've got the devices that
are being used to play this clip down
| | 02:31 | here in Device view.
| | 02:32 | If I simply click on the title bar of
the device, I can drag and drop that into
| | 02:38 | one of the folders that I
can use at a later time.
| | 02:40 | Since this is an Impulse-related device,
I'm going to grab this and drag that
| | 02:45 | up into my Acoustic folder, inside
the Instruments and Impulse folder.
| | 02:51 | Again, it's going to ask me, "Hey!
| | 02:52 | There are some clips that are being
accessed by this particular device, and
| | 02:56 | there are samples with that.
| | 02:58 | Do you want to copy those?"
| | 02:59 | In this case, because I know the
device is here on my system and the samples,
| | 03:04 | there are there as well,
| | 03:05 | so I'm going to click Don't Copy,
and it pops up, and it asks me, "Hey!
| | 03:09 | What do you want to name that?"
| | 03:10 | I'll call that "Backbeat New."
| | 03:14 | That way, when I come in here,
I'll see that I've got both
| | 03:17 | the original and the one
that I've made changes to.
| | 03:21 | Now this particular device is a rack preset.
| | 03:24 | When I look in Device view, there
are actually several devices there.
| | 03:27 | If I pull over here, I can see that
I've got a couple of signal processors,
| | 03:30 | including a reverb, that are
part of that particular preset.
| | 03:34 | Now that is also indicated up here under
Type, by the place where it says Rack Preset.
| | 03:39 | It's telling me that this is a group
and there are multiple devices there.
| | 03:43 | Now right under that, I've
got a Ballad Device preset.
| | 03:47 | Let me pull that into the session.
| | 03:50 | If I made changes to that by clicking
on one of the parts--I'll change the
| | 03:53 | Decay here, and maybe I'll change the
level on that, and I'll go over to the
| | 03:57 | hi-hats, and I'll change the level,
and I'll move the Pan--and now I want to
| | 04:01 | save that as my Ballad preset,
| | 04:04 | once again, I'll go up to the Acoustic
folder, my Impulse device, and I'll drop that.
| | 04:12 | I'll go ahead and click Don't Copy.
| | 04:15 | In this case, I didn't really need to
worry about that because there actually
| | 04:17 | isn't a clip or samples associated with that.
| | 04:20 | But regardless, I'll do the same thing here.
| | 04:23 | I'm going to call this one "Ballad New."
| | 04:29 | Now that preset is saved for later use.
| | 04:31 | Now, I can tell that this is not a Rack
Device, because of the icon that's next
| | 04:35 | to this is only a square, and over
here under Type, it says Device Preset
| | 04:40 | rather than Rack Preset.
| | 04:41 | Now, I can also export my
entire project into the library.
| | 04:46 | We do that by locating the project on
your hard drive, through the browser.
| | 04:51 | So I'm going to go to the Desktop
and to the Exercise Files folder and
| | 04:56 | down here to 04_03.
| | 04:58 | I'll right-click on that, and I'll choose
Manage Project from the contextual menu.
| | 05:04 | That opens up this Manage Files
area over here in the Help view.
| | 05:09 | Now I can go down to the bottom
here and choose Export to Library.
| | 05:13 | Now before I do that, let me just
tell you that it's going to export the
| | 05:17 | contents of this current project.
| | 05:20 | If the current project is just a
collection of the clips and device presets,
| | 05:25 | that's what you'll get.
| | 05:27 | If there aren't any samples that are
referenced by those clips included,
| | 05:30 | they won't be there.
| | 05:32 | So if you want those, you'll actually
want to go up to your File menu and
| | 05:36 | choose Collect All and Save, so that
any audio files and samples that are being
| | 05:40 | referenced are included as part of this export.
| | 05:43 | Then all you've got to do is click
the Export button, and it's done.
| | 05:48 | Before we finish, let's also talk
about importing and exporting MIDI files.
| | 05:53 | So, importing MIDI files is also very easy.
| | 05:56 | All I need to do is locate one, and I've
got one here on the Desktop, and that's
| | 06:00 | this MIDI Import.mid file.
| | 06:02 | If I click the disclosure triangle, I'll see
that I've got actually two MIDI clips here.
| | 06:08 | I can bring those into the session and
assign some devices to that, and I'll get playback.
| | 06:15 | Now I've got two MIDI clips with this
.mid file, because this is a standard
| | 06:19 | one type MIDI file.
| | 06:20 | Now, what that means is that when
you export MIDI from a program like
| | 06:24 | Finale, Sibelius, Logic, Pro Tools,
you have the choice of exporting as a
| | 06:29 | Type 0 or a Type 1 file.
| | 06:31 | A Type 0.mid file will take all of
your staves, or all of your tracks, and
| | 06:37 | combine them down into a single stave
or track, so that when you import them
| | 06:41 | into next program, you'll get one MIDI clip.
| | 06:44 | A Type 1 file will keep all that
information separate, so that you'll get one
| | 06:48 | track per part, or one stave per part,
and when you import that, you'll get
| | 06:53 | multiple clips, as I did here.
| | 06:56 | So this was a standard MIDI file Type 1.
| | 06:59 | Now if I want to export these MIDI
files from Ableton, I'll select one, then
| | 07:04 | I'll go up to the File menu
and choose Export MIDI Clip.
| | 07:08 | But if I choose both of these--again,
I'll Shift+Click to select both of them--
| | 07:12 | and go File > Export MIDI Clip,
| | 07:14 | that option is not available.
| | 07:16 | So Ableton does not support standard
MIDI file Type 1 export: only a single clip
| | 07:22 | or a single MIDI file at a time.
| | 07:24 | So Live contains a number of very
useful utilities to manage your library
| | 07:27 | content and really makes it
easy to import and export clips.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Importing and exporting Live Packs| 00:00 | As you work with Live, it's likely
that you want to import new content.
| | 00:04 | In this video, we'll learn how to import
and export Live Packs to Live's Library
| | 00:08 | so that you can access the new or
changed content from Live browsers.
| | 00:11 | So Ableton Live has a lot of free
content on their web site. So I've changed my
| | 00:15 | browser, and I'm in the Downloads
area. And if you scroll down to under More
| | 00:20 | downloads, you'll Live Packs listed.
| | 00:22 | If you click on that, you can then see
all of the free content that's available
| | 00:28 | if you own a copy of Live and
you've registered on the web site.
| | 00:32 | Now, I won't click to download one of
these right now because it does take time,
| | 00:36 | but once you've downloaded the content to
your computer, it's very easy to bring
| | 00:40 | the content into Live.
| | 00:41 | All you need to do is locate the Live
Pack, either using your finder window on a
| | 00:46 | Mac or Explorer window on a PC, or open
it up in the Live browser. And here you
| | 00:52 | can see I've got an Import Live
Pack.alp--that's the Live Pack file--and then
| | 00:57 | double-click that, and it will open it
and populate the appropriate folders or
| | 01:02 | subfolders in your library.
| | 01:04 | Now exporting a Live Pack is easy as
well: all you need to do is locate the
| | 01:08 | project file in your browser--
| | 01:10 | I've got one here--and right-click on
that, and choose Manage Project from
| | 01:16 | the Contextual menu.
| | 01:17 | Now, that analyzes the file and then
shows us the information over here in the
| | 01:23 | Help View area, and you can go down
to Packing and choose Create Live Pack.
| | 01:29 | You need to make sure that before you
do that that all of the content that you
| | 01:32 | want as part of this Live Pack is
actually in the project. Now, if you're using
| | 01:37 | clips that reference samples were
other assets, you need to go up to the File
| | 01:41 | menu and choose Collect All and Save,
so that all of those samples are then
| | 01:46 | saved into the Live Project folder.
| | 01:49 | At that point, you can come over and
choose Create Live Pack, and I'll give this
| | 01:55 | a name, and I'm going to put that on
the Desktop for right now, and click Save.
| | 02:02 | It takes second.
| | 02:04 | If I go out to my desktop, there it is.
| | 02:09 | Now the cool thing about this it is
actually uses lossless compression as part
| | 02:13 | of the process of packing
that into that single folder.
| | 02:16 | If I click on that, you will
notice that there are no contained files.
| | 02:20 | That's because it's compressed.
| | 02:21 | Now when you double-click this on
the other end and open it up, because
| | 02:25 | its lossless compression will get
everything back and the audio quality
| | 02:28 | will be unaffected.
| | 02:30 | One last thing before we finish:
| | 02:31 | lets take a look at the Library location.
| | 02:34 | I'm want to go up to Live > Preferences--
and that's under the Options menu on a
| | 02:38 | PC--and I'm going to go down to the Library tab.
| | 02:41 | When you first load Ableton Live on to
your computer you get the option of
| | 02:45 | stipulating where the Library is located.
| | 02:48 | If you put it on the system drive, at a
later point, you may want to change that,
| | 02:52 | especially if you're on a Laptop and you
have a 5400-RPM drive and you would like
| | 02:56 | that to be on a faster hard drive.
| | 02:58 | To change the location Library, all you
need to do is click the Change Location,
| | 03:03 | point it at a new drive or a new location, and
it will copy the entire library to that location.
| | 03:09 | So Live contains a number of very
useful utilities to manage your Library content,
| | 03:13 | and it really makes it easy to
import and export Live Packs.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Searching for and auditioning clips| 00:00 | In the last video, we began an
in-depth look at the Live browsers.
| | 00:03 | In this video, we'll continue the
process and learn how to search the browsers,
| | 00:06 | audition clips, and navigate the
browsers using keystrokes and shortcuts.
| | 00:10 | In the past videos, we navigated the
browsers by simply clicking on the
| | 00:14 | disclosure triangles and getting down
to where we wanted to go, until we finally
| | 00:18 | got to a preset or a clip. There is a
lot faster way to do that, and that is
| | 00:24 | using your right and left up and down arrows.
| | 00:27 | So to go up and down through your folders,
you can simply use your up and down arrows.
| | 00:31 | To enter a folder, use your right
arrow and down arrow go into another folder
| | 00:36 | and right arrow to enter
that one. Down. Right arrow.
| | 00:39 | If you want to close a folder, you
can simply use your left arrow and left
| | 00:44 | arrow again to go up a level. Left arrow to
close that one. Left arrow to go up again.
| | 00:50 | So, while we're here in Live Devices
area, I'm want to go down into, let's say
| | 00:55 | Impulse, and into the Electronic category,
because while we're here, I want to point out a few things.
| | 01:01 | We see a lot of different kinds of
files and clips and other kinds of assets
| | 01:05 | here in the browser, and sometimes it's kind of
difficult to figure out what they actually are.
| | 01:10 | So currently, this Artefact Delirium
Device preset that I've chosen--that used to
| | 01:16 | be in the past defined by the .ADV
extension. In this newer version, we're
| | 01:22 | starting to see more information in
that Type column, but that device preset is
| | 01:26 | a preset that contains no clip.
| | 01:29 | Down below that, we see something else
that's similar to that, and that's a Rack
| | 01:33 | preset. And in this case, this is a
combination of either multiple virtual
| | 01:38 | instruments or a virtual instrument plus
a MIDI preset or an analog device preset
| | 01:45 | all combined into one preset.
| | 01:47 | So I'm going to drop down here, I'm
going click on one of the file browsers, and
| | 01:51 | I'm going to search for a file.
| | 01:53 | I'm going to do that by
clicking on the Search button up here.
| | 01:56 | I'm going to go ahead and type in
"bass wav" because I know some stuff is
| | 02:01 | out there by that name, and hit the
return key and start that. And you will
| | 02:05 | notice that I see the progress of
the search. Now, if I won't stop it, I can
| | 02:09 | click the Stop button. When the search
finishes, that Stop button turns into a Go button.
| | 02:14 | Now I can select one of the files here,
and if I want to audition that, I can come
| | 02:19 | down and click the Preview button, or
I can simply press the right arrow key.
| | 02:24 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:27 | Now I can stop playback by pressing
the Spacebar on the keyboard, or I can
| | 02:32 | press the down or up arrows. Come down
here with down arrow and select the bass
| | 02:36 | wav now right arrow to audition.
Down arrow to go to the next one, or I could
| | 02:42 | have gone up arrow.
| | 02:44 | So you can see how you can quickly
navigate through a bunch of files and folders
| | 02:48 | and audition your presets and clips by
simply doing down arrow, right arrow,
| | 02:54 | down arrow, right arrow, and so on and so forth.
| | 02:57 | I want you to notice that when I was
doing that, when I got to CompBass.wav, it
| | 03:03 | was pretty loud, and you can adjust the
preview volume by coming over here and
| | 03:07 | grabbing your Volume knob here and
turning that up or down as the case may be.
| | 03:12 | So let's do another search. I'm going to
look for one of my favorite drum presets:
| | 03:20 | Eckhoes. And that opens up, and we
see a couple different things here.
| | 03:24 | First of all, I see a folder, and I
can go into that by using my right arrow
| | 03:29 | again or clicking that triangle, and
inside that I see a folder. Now that MIDI
| | 03:33 | track folder is going
contain multiple MIDI clip presets.
| | 03:37 | So I'll enter that one, and now I can
see that I've got these multiple clips and
| | 03:42 | I can audition them again by pressing
my right arrow. Now, it's taking little
| | 03:44 | bit time because it had to load the MIDI
device it's going to actually play that
| | 03:50 | particular MIDI clip.
| | 03:51 | So let me go down a level and I'll audition that one.
| | 03:54 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:01 | Now one really useful thing is that we
can audition clips at the session tempo
| | 04:05 | while were actually playing back
clips over here in Session view.
| | 04:09 | So I'm going to go ahead and I'm going
to launch this clip on the All Purpose
| | 04:12 | track, and I've got that turned down,
and I'll turned back up the preview, so we
| | 04:17 | can actually hear that clip.
| | 04:18 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:20 | Okay now I will select the clip I want
a preview, and right arrow. And pressing
| | 04:33 | Spacebar again will stop
both of those from playing.
| | 04:36 | Now that's really cool because this
MIDI clip is actually at 130 BPM natively,
| | 04:43 | but the session is at 120, and it's
playing back 120, and I was able to audition
| | 04:48 | that file at the session tempo.
| | 04:50 | So knowing how to navigate the browsers
to find clips and presets will make your
| | 04:53 | workflow much faster and help you
to spend more time creating music.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up frequently accessed folders| 00:00 | In the Live browsers overview video, we
discussed how to navigate the browsers
| | 00:04 | and how to load clips and devices.
| | 00:06 | In this video, we'll take a deeper look
at how to set the root location of the
| | 00:09 | file browser buttons and how to
bookmark frequently accessed drives and folders.
| | 00:13 | If you remember, we have five browsers
that we primarily use, and that includes
| | 00:17 | the Live Devices browser--which is used
to access Live's virtual instruments and
| | 00:21 | presets or Live's Audio and MIDI effects--
| | 00:24 | the Plugins browser--which is used to
access third-party plug-ins, including
| | 00:28 | virtual instruments and audio effects.
| | 00:30 | By the way, it looks like
I don't have anything here.
| | 00:33 | So I want to check and see if I do.
| | 00:35 | Now I can click the Activate button,
and since this is the first time that
| | 00:38 | I've done that, it's going to open up
Live's Preferences to the file folder
| | 00:42 | tab, and we can see the button here for
Rescan plug-Ins, and I'll go ahead and click that.
| | 00:48 | Live can't find any third-party plug-ins,
so it's not going to do anything more.
| | 00:52 | But just so that you know: if you do have
third-party plug-ins, and you don't see
| | 00:56 | them you can come in here, and you
can delete the plug-in database by
| | 01:01 | Option+Clicking the Rescan button, and
it will go out and rebuild that database.
| | 01:05 | You might also want to do that if
you're in Live and you've loaded a new
| | 01:09 | third-party plug-in and you want to
rescan and pick that up so that you can use it
| | 01:13 | in your current Live session.
| | 01:14 | I am going to hit the
Escape key the close Preferences.
| | 01:18 | The next three buttons done
here are the file browser buttons.
| | 01:21 | Now the Live Devices and Plug-In
Device browser locations are fixed, and they
| | 01:25 | can't be changed. But these three
file browser locations can be set to
| | 01:29 | user-defined locations.
| | 01:31 | First of all, if I click on one of
these and go into one of these folders, and
| | 01:38 | then go away and choose one of the
other file browser buttons, when I come back
| | 01:43 | I'll return to the last place that I
was when I used that browser location.
| | 01:47 | The other thing I can do is I can go
up to the Bookmarks menu, which is up
| | 01:50 | here in the title bar of the browser, and I
can see that I do have some default locations.
| | 01:57 | I can set that to the current project,
or I can set that to the Library. And so
| | 02:02 | you'll see that currently I've got this
one set to All Volumes and this one to
| | 02:06 | the Library and this one to Desktop.
| | 02:08 | Those were three probably
very frequently accessed locations.
| | 02:12 | But if you want to set a user-defined
location that you can return to, another
| | 02:16 | way to do that is to go into a chosen
folder and come up to the Bookmarks menu
| | 02:24 | and choose Bookmark Current Folder.
| | 02:27 | Now that way if I later reset this to
something else, like let's say "Home," when
| | 02:35 | I come back into the Bookmarks menu, I
can see that bookmark where I had set that
| | 02:41 | up to go into that clips and drums area.
| | 02:43 | So now I can click that, and
I am immediately back there.
| | 02:46 | Now if you want to delete that
bookmark, all you have to do is be in that
| | 02:50 | folder and then go up to the Bookmarks menu
and say Remove Current Folder From Bookmarks.
| | 02:55 | If I do that and then go back into
the Bookmark menu, we'll see that there
| | 02:59 | are no bookmarks down here at the bottom of
these default presets that come with Live.
| | 03:04 | Now one last thing about the browser in
Live is you can change the columns that
| | 03:09 | you see displayed in the file browsers.
| | 03:12 | So if I go up here and right-click on
the title of a column, I'll see that I
| | 03:16 | have five default columns that I can add.
| | 03:19 | Now currently I only have
Type and Live Pack showing.
| | 03:22 | I can also show the size of a file or
the path, for instance, and I can resize
| | 03:27 | these columns so that I can see that
additional information. And I can widen the browser,
| | 03:32 | so I can see more information as well.
| | 03:34 | You will also notice that I
can focus the sort on a column.
| | 03:39 | Let's say I want to be on Path. And if
I click it a second time, it'll go from
| | 03:44 | ascending to a descending sort.
| | 03:46 | That's probably something you might do
more often on the Name column, and you
| | 03:49 | can see that going from ascending to descending.
| | 03:53 | So now that we've discussed how to
customize the browser, it'll be easier to
| | 03:56 | find your favorite clips and presets,
as well as access your most often-used
| | 04:00 | drives and folders.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
5. Recording MIDIPreparing to record MIDI| 00:00 | When preparing to record MIDI,
it's a good idea to have a routine.
| | 00:03 | In this video, we will go step by step
through the process, so that you'll be
| | 00:07 | ready to create music.
| | 00:08 | First, it's always a good idea to
make sure that you are receiving MIDI
| | 00:11 | signal from your MIDI keyboard, and
we can check that by looking up here at
| | 00:15 | the MIDI In indicator.
| | 00:16 | Now, when I play a key on my keyboard,
I should see that little box flash, and
| | 00:21 | it's not doing that.
| | 00:22 | So I am going to go into
Preferences, which is Command+Comma on a Mac
| | 00:27 | or Ctrl+Comma on a PC.
| | 00:28 | Now I'm going to check the
state of my devices here.
| | 00:32 | So I've got two devices that I am using,
and one is the E-MU keyboard, and I have
| | 00:36 | also got the Akai APC40 hooked up
here. And they're both recognized,
| | 00:41 | so I am going to come down here into
the MIDI Ports area and make sure that
| | 00:45 | everything is turned on like it needs
to be. Now, immediately I see that my E-MU
| | 00:48 | keyboard input under the
Track column is turned off.
| | 00:53 | That's where you actually turn on
the input for that particular device.
| | 00:57 | I'm also noticing, while I am in here,
that the APC40 Remote button is off.
| | 01:02 | Now, that should be enabled for any
external device where you're sending
| | 01:05 | MIDI back to the device.
| | 01:07 | So I'll go ahead and click
Escape to shut this dialog box.
| | 01:11 | And since this is my first track I am
going to record in this session, I am
| | 01:15 | going to go up and set a tempo. I'll
click in the Tempo field here. And if you
| | 01:19 | need to type a tempo that actually has
something past the decimal, all we need
| | 01:24 | to do is type the numbers, then a
decimal and the additional numbers.
| | 01:28 | Next, I'm probably going to want to be
able to hear that tempo, so I am going to
| | 01:31 | enable the metronome. And I am going to
want a count-in for my first track I am
| | 01:34 | going to record here,
| | 01:35 | so I am going to right-click on the
Metronome button and choose one of the
| | 01:39 | available count-ins.
| | 01:40 | Let's go with 1 Bar for now.
| | 01:42 | If I need more or less, I will
come back later and change that.
| | 01:46 | So next, I am going to need to
load a MIDI device onto my track.
| | 01:49 | So I am going to go to Live's Device
browser, and navigate down here to Impulse,
| | 01:55 | the drum machine, and then into the
Electronic folder, and I'm going to load Beat Bugz.
| | 02:01 | So I'll just drag and drop that on the track.
| | 02:05 | Now I should be able to play a key on
my keyboard and be able to hear a sound
| | 02:08 | from that drum machine.
| | 02:09 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:12 | Okay. So I've got the kick happening there.
| | 02:14 | Now, note that the samples and the
Impulse device are mapped starting at C3, which
| | 02:21 | is middle C. Now if you are playing
below that, you're probably not going to
| | 02:24 | hear anything, and if you're playing
an octaves that are way above that, you
| | 02:27 | probably also won't be triggering anything.
| | 02:29 | But that's pretty good.
| | 02:30 | I have got that happening.
| | 02:31 | Now I'm also going to want to just
briefly take a look here at my MIDI inputs.
| | 02:36 | So I've got two choosers here:
| | 02:38 | one is for the actual devices, and the
other one is for the specific MIDI channel.
| | 02:42 | Most of the time when you're using a
virtual instrument, one of Live's devices,
| | 02:47 | you'll leave these set at
All Ins and All Channels.
| | 02:50 | Let's just take a brief look here.
| | 02:52 | So it does list my APC40 and also my
computer keyboard and the E-MU keyboard
| | 02:58 | that I have hooked up here and
another interface that's on my system.
| | 03:01 | I don't really care which device that
Live is receiving input from, because I'm
| | 03:06 | only playing one at a time.
| | 03:07 | But if you are actually recording to
multiple MIDI tracks at the same time using
| | 03:11 | different devices, you are going to
want to set the specific device that this
| | 03:15 | track should be looking at.
| | 03:17 | In this case, I am going to leave it at All Ins.
| | 03:19 | This other MIDI chooser is for the
specific MIDI channel. And as I said, since
| | 03:23 | I'm only using one device, I really
don't care what channel I am receiving on,
| | 03:27 | just as long as I'm receiving the MIDI signal.
| | 03:29 | In other cases, you might want
to set a specific MIDI channel.
| | 03:33 | When you create a MIDI track and you add
a device to it, it automatically record-
| | 03:37 | enables itself, and that
allows us to hear the instrument.
| | 03:40 | After you've recorded a MIDI clip,
you may end up disabling the Record
| | 03:44 | button. And when you go to play that
track and maybe practice a little bit
| | 03:48 | more in preparation to recording
another clip, you press a key, and you don't
| | 03:52 | actually hear the sound.
| | 03:53 | So you can do two things at that point:
| | 03:56 | you can either re-enable the Record
button, or you can put the track in input
| | 04:00 | monitoring by clicking this In button.
| | 04:01 | (Drum playing.)
Now, I can hear myself again.
| | 04:05 | But when you get ready with your record,
you're going to want to put the track
| | 04:07 | back in Auto Monitoring, and record-
enable the track, and now you will be ready
| | 04:12 | to start recording again.
| | 04:13 | And last, in the future there may be a
time when you're going to want to use an
| | 04:16 | external device, like a synthesizer or
sampler or a drum machine, with Live.
| | 04:22 | To do that, you are going to need
to create a track with an external
| | 04:24 | instrument device on it.
| | 04:25 | So let me grab that from the Live
Devices browser. And I am going to drag and
| | 04:29 | drop that over here in the Drop
Files area and create another track.
| | 04:34 | Again, you want to address the MIDI
inputs, the keyboard, and the channel that
| | 04:38 | you're on, if necessary. And then to send
that MIDI signal to the outside world,
| | 04:43 | we'll need to go down here to Device
view and click on the MIDI To chooser and
| | 04:48 | set that to a device.
| | 04:50 | Now, in this case, I'll
actually choose my E-MU keyboard.
| | 04:53 | It's not actually a sound source,
but it does allow us to address this
| | 04:56 | other field as well.
| | 04:57 | So here's my device chooser, and
then again, I have a channel chooser.
| | 05:01 | So if I've got a drum machine that is
set to play on channel-1, or I have got a
| | 05:06 | bass sound on channel-2, or a
keyboard sound on channel-3, I'll choose the
| | 05:10 | appropriate MIDI channel to send to.
| | 05:12 | So, let's choose 1 here.
| | 05:15 | Now remember that MIDI data is not audio,
and I am going to want to capture the
| | 05:19 | audio output from that device,
| | 05:21 | so I'll have to plug a cable from the
device to the input of my interface.
| | 05:25 | Once I've done that, I can choose that
input from my Audio From chooser here.
| | 05:30 | So if I click on that, I'll see that I
have 1 and 2 as a stereo input. And if I
| | 05:36 | have two signals coming from that
sound module, that's a good choice.
| | 05:40 | If it's only mono though,
I'll want to choose 1 or 2.
| | 05:42 | Now that we've gone through the
process of getting ready to record MIDI,
| | 05:46 | we're ready to troubleshoot the most
common MIDI problems and ready to make
| | 05:50 | some music.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Recording and overdubbing MIDI| 00:00 | Getting ready to record MIDI is the hard part.
| | 00:02 | Now that we have a routine established
to take us through that process, let's
| | 00:06 | make a MIDI recording and learn how
to use Live's MIDI Overdub function.
| | 00:10 | So I'm set up to record here, but
let's just double check every thing.
| | 00:14 | So I've got a MIDI track here
with a MIDI device loaded on it.
| | 00:18 | The track is record-enabled.
| | 00:19 | I'll hit a key, and I should hear sound.
(Sounds playing.)
| | 00:23 | Okay. I've got a tempo established at 100.5 BPM.
| | 00:27 | I've got the click, or the metronome,
turned on. And if I right-click on that, I
| | 00:31 | can see I do have a one-bar
count-off set, so I'm ready to go.
| | 00:36 | Now when a track in Live Session view
is record-enabled, the clip slot's Launch
| | 00:40 | buttons turn into Record buttons, and
I'll just tick that out of record enable,
| | 00:44 | so you can see that it go back to a
Stop button, and then re-enable it.
| | 00:48 | Okay, so start record, all I need
to do is click the Record button.
| | 00:52 | I'll hear a count off, and
then I can start playing.
| | 00:55 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:04 | So I recorded the kick and the snare part.
| | 01:07 | I wants you to notice that when you
record in Session view, Live doesn't
| | 01:10 | truncate the clips that
we're creating to an exact bar.
| | 01:14 | We actually have to that manually.
| | 01:16 | So I'm going to go down in here to the
MIDI Editor, and I'm going to grab the
| | 01:19 | loop end, and I'm going to drag
that over to the beginning of bar three.
| | 01:23 | So a two-bar clip should end at bar three,
beat one, or a four-bar clip, for example,
| | 01:28 | should end at bar five, beat one.
| | 01:30 | So if I want to add some other
parts above that, I can turn on Live's
| | 01:35 | Overdub MIDI switch here.
| | 01:36 | And notice that the clip doesn't
have a Record button on it anymore.
| | 01:40 | But if I go into play, and I hit any
keys on the keyboard while that clip is
| | 01:44 | playing, and the track is record-enabled,
those notes will get added or merged
| | 01:50 | with the existing MIDI data.
| | 01:52 | If the Overdub button is off, and the
track is record-enabled, I'll hear the
| | 01:57 | things that I'm playing, but they won't
actually layer, or record, onto that clip,
| | 02:01 | so I'm going to add some HiHat parts.
| | 02:04 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:17 | So I've got a little clip going here.
And at this point you'll notice that not
| | 02:21 | everything in my clip
actually lines up with the beats.
| | 02:24 | There's another way to do this same process
and actually have Live fix it on the fly.
| | 02:30 | So at this point, I'm
going to create another track.
| | 02:32 | Let's go up to Create menu and insert
another MIDI track, and I'm going to
| | 02:37 | drag Beat Bugz out here again and drop it on
the track. Now that one is record-enabled.
| | 02:44 | Now on this pass, I'm actually going to
Overdub mode while I play the part in.
| | 02:49 | And I'll do each part consecutively as it loops.
| | 02:53 | So to do that one of things I'm
going to need to do first is I'm going to
| | 02:56 | actually have to insert a clip on that
track in which I'm going to record into,
| | 03:00 | because I can't actually go into
Overdub mode until there's actually
| | 03:03 | something to overdub into.
| | 03:05 | So I'm going to choose the clip
slot that I want to record into.
| | 03:08 | I'll right-click on that
and choose Insert MIDI Clip.
| | 03:12 | And before I go into record here, I'm
going to turn on Record Quantization.
| | 03:16 | Now quantization for MIDI
is rhythm error correction.
| | 03:19 | We're actually going to go
in-depth on this in a later video.
| | 03:23 | So I'm going to go down here, I'm going
to choose Sixteenth-Note Quantization,
| | 03:28 | leave the track in record, and for
right now I'm going to stop that other clip
| | 03:32 | from playing, so that we don't hear that.
| | 03:33 | And I'm going to set the loop length
here, before I get started as well.
| | 03:37 | So right now, it's only a one bar long.
| | 03:39 | Let's actually drag this out,
and let's make this a two-bar loop.
| | 03:43 | And again, that should
end at bar three, beat one.
| | 03:47 | So we can see the whole thing. I'll size that.
| | 03:51 | Okay, click the Play button, I should
hear a count off, and I'll start playing.
| | 03:55 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:19 | So we can see that I've recorded my
drum part for this, and it's all looking
| | 04:23 | like as perfectly lined up and ready to go.
| | 04:25 | So we've finally reached the point where
you're ready to use Live to record some
| | 04:28 | clips and begin putting
together your own songs.
| | 04:31 | Have some fun.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with alternate MIDI entry methods| 00:00 | Not all of us that are interested in
creating music using an application like
| | 00:03 | Ableton Live own a MIDI keyboard
or are proficient keyboard players.
| | 00:07 | Often it's necessary to enter
MIDI data using alternative methods.
| | 00:11 | In this video, we'll take a look at how
to use your computer keyboard as a MIDI
| | 00:14 | keyboard and how to enter MIDI using
step time and pencil entry methods.
| | 00:18 | So if you don't have a MIDI keyboard,
you can use your computer keyboard, by
| | 00:22 | simply switching on the keyboard
MIDI switch up here in the control bar.
| | 00:25 | That's on by default. Let's load a clip.
| | 00:28 | I'm going to over here to the Live
Device browser and into Instruments and
| | 00:33 | Impulse, and let's go into Acoustic,
and I'm going to grab Big Rocker.
| | 00:38 | I'll drop that on the MIDI track
there, so we've got the sound loaded.
| | 00:41 | And now the letters A through K on
your computer keyboard will trigger notes.
| | 00:45 | Let's give that a try.
| | 00:47 | (Music playing.)
Okay, so I hear that. There's K.
| | 00:52 | Now this works great because I've got
Impulse, and I've got the notes on my
| | 00:56 | keyboard set to trigger those notes that
are available in this Big Rocker sound.
| | 01:00 | But note that if you're playing some
other kind of a keyboard part, you might
| | 01:03 | need to use other octaves.
| | 01:05 | So I can change octaves on my computer
keyboard by simply pressing the Z key to
| | 01:09 | go down an octave, and when I do that
you'll see the readout down here tell me
| | 01:13 | which octave I moved to.
| | 01:15 | Okay, so computer keyboard
and my current octave is C2.
| | 01:19 | And X will take me back up on octave,
so I'm at C3 and C4, C5, and then Z
| | 01:26 | to get me back down to C3.
| | 01:28 | Also, you may need to adjust the
velocity that you're entering notes that.
| | 01:32 | So the letter C will adjust the velocity
down 20 and the V will adjust velocity up 20.
| | 01:37 | Now usually this is set to a default of 80.
| | 01:41 | So now, I just press the V key.
| | 01:43 | I'm up to 100, and I'll take that
back down by pressing the C key to 80.
| | 01:47 | And now I can record just as normal.
| | 01:49 | All I've got to do--
| | 01:50 | the track is record enabled,
| | 01:53 | I've got the Count off enabled, and
all I need to do is click the Record
| | 01:57 | button on a clip that I want to record on,
and start pressing A through K on my keyboard.
| | 02:02 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:09 | So on and so forth.
| | 02:10 | If I want to go in Overdub mode, just
click that, and I can layer parts on top
| | 02:14 | of that, just like if I was
recording with a normal keyboard.
| | 02:17 | Okay, let me undo that.
| | 02:19 | And next, let's talk a little
bit about using step record.
| | 02:22 | This is little bit different.
| | 02:24 | Now I've got a track, and I
have already loaded the device.
| | 02:26 | So the next thing that I'm going to
need to do to use step record is actually
| | 02:30 | insert a MIDI clip onto one of the clip slots.
| | 02:33 | So I can do that by right-clicking on
the clip that I want to use and choosing
| | 02:37 | Insert MIDI Clip from the Contextual
menu. Or I can use the key command
| | 02:41 | Shift+Command+M on a Mac,
or Shift+Ctrl+M on a PC.
| | 02:47 | And before I continue, again I'll need to
set the length that I want to record into.
| | 02:51 | Now it defaults with that insert
MIDI clip function to one bar in length.
| | 02:55 | So let's drag that out so I've got two bars.
| | 02:57 | So I'll go up to bar three, beat one.
| | 03:02 | I'll size that so we can see the whole thing.
| | 03:05 | Now next, I need to determine the
default MIDI note length as I enter.
| | 03:10 | I can do that by setting the grid.
So I'll right-click here in the MIDI Editor,
| | 03:14 | and from the Contextual menu in the
Fixed Grid area, I can choose a value.
| | 03:18 | So if I'm going to enter notes no longer
than an eighth note, I might choose an eighth note.
| | 03:22 | If there is a possibility that I might
record something that's a 16th note or
| | 03:26 | smaller, I'll choose a different one.
| | 03:28 | Let me just change that one,
so you can see the grid change.
| | 03:31 | Okay, so there is an eighth note grid,
choose it again and choose 16th notes,
| | 03:36 | and we can see that the grid just doubled there.
| | 03:38 | So to be able to hear the notes that
I'm going to play and to also enter
| | 03:43 | Step Entry mode, I need to enabled the
MIDI Editor preview switch, and that's
| | 03:47 | this button right here.
| | 03:49 | So now I'll click in the background
here on the MIDI Editor--and I can use my
| | 03:53 | right and left arrows to move around.
So I will move over to the beginning.
| | 03:57 | Now I simply need to hold down a key
on my MIDI keyboard--or in this case I'll
| | 04:02 | use the letter A on my computer keyboard--and
press the right arrow to enter that note, okay.
| | 04:08 | Now if I need to enter a rest of that
length, I'll just use my right arrow to go
| | 04:11 | over again. Enter another kick hit here.
| | 04:16 | And now I might want to put a snare in
on two. Right arrow to go over there and
| | 04:19 | hold down the S key and press right arrow again.
| | 04:23 | Now, for example, in some cases you may
want to enter a note that's longer than
| | 04:27 | the default note length.
| | 04:29 | So if you would want to do that, you hold
down the note that intended. Again, I'll
| | 04:32 | push the letter S for the snare,
and I'll put my right arrow.
| | 04:35 | And as I continue to hold down the S,
I can arrow over again to extend the
| | 04:40 | length of that note.
| | 04:42 | I can delete that by simply clicking
the note and hitting my Backspace key.
| | 04:46 | But if I had just entered the note--and I'm
still holding it down--before I release
| | 04:51 | if I just hit the left arrow,
| | 04:53 | I can delete that same note.
| | 04:55 | Now I can also enter notes in
step entry by using the Pencil tool.
| | 04:59 | Now to activate that, I'll go up to the
control bar, and I'll click on what they
| | 05:04 | call the Draw Mode switch.
| | 05:06 | I can also activate that by using
Command+B. And now when I click on the MIDI
| | 05:11 | Editor I'll enter a note of the
value of whatever the grid is set at.
| | 05:15 | So if I want to go back and enter a kick
note, I can simply click near 1.3 there,
| | 05:20 | and add a note, and add my snare.
You can see how this can get very fast.
| | 05:27 | So on and so forth.
| | 05:28 | If I need to enter hi-hat notes on the
eights, I can simply click, and then you
| | 05:37 | notice that those are snapping to grid.
| | 05:40 | If I want to enter a note that
doesn't snap to grid, you can hold down your
| | 05:43 | Command key and override that.
| | 05:45 | Now as I'm entering notes, it's also
affected by the default velocity that I've
| | 05:51 | got set, and the C and V keys also work here.
| | 05:54 | So remember, C adjusts the
velocity down 20 and the V up 20.
| | 05:59 | And our total range of
velocity is 128, so from 0 to 127.
| | 06:04 | So 20 is actually quite a bit.
| | 06:06 | Let me take that down a little
bit, and I'll give you an example.
| | 06:11 | So now when I entered that snare hit,
we can see that the velocity down here
| | 06:15 | that's indicated by this line is quite a bit
less than the velocity of the other snare hits.
| | 06:22 | Now if you want to enter a custom note
length using your Pencil tool, you can
| | 06:26 | simply hold down your
Command key and click and drag.
| | 06:31 | And notice now that it's letting me
put in a note of any length that I want.
| | 06:36 | So alternate MIDI entry methods often
save time, and are a great help to those
| | 06:40 | of us whose keyboard skills need help.
| | 06:42 | These methods can be a bit tricky, so
spend some time getting familiar and
| | 06:45 | practicing with at least one of them.
| | 06:47 | You'll be glad you did.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using multi-output virtual instruments| 00:00 | It's likely that you'll find third-party
effects in virtual instruments that you'll
| | 00:03 | want to add to your Ableton Live projects.
| | 00:05 | Some third-party virtual instruments
are very sophisticated and allow you to
| | 00:09 | route their audio outputs to multiple tracks.
| | 00:12 | Let's take a look at how you
would set this up in Ableton Live.
| | 00:15 | Okay, so I've get a MIDI track here. I'm going
to go ahead and load a plug-in on there.
| | 00:19 | I'm now in my plug-in devices, which would
be my third-party devices. I've got some
| | 00:24 | audio units--Apples and Spectrasonics
and so on so forth--and I'm going to
| | 00:28 | grab Omnisphere and drag it onto the
MIDI track. It will take just a second to
| | 00:33 | load. Okay. And there we go. And I'm going to
load some presets into this particular plug.
| | 00:40 | So I've got the first slot selected.
I will click the file browser, and let's
| | 00:45 | grab keyboard. Lets check out that sounds like.
| | 00:48 | I'll grab that one. Then I'll click
third slot, and let's get one more.
| | 01:01 | Okay, now if I click on the Multi
button here, I'll see that I've actually
| | 01:05 | loaded these three presets into
different slots. And over here on the little
| | 01:11 | header at the beginning, I can see that
this little setting here tells me that
| | 01:15 | MIDI channel one is assigned to this one,
MIDI channel two to this one, and MIDI
| | 01:19 | channel three to that one.
| | 01:21 | Okay, let me close the plug for a second.
| | 01:24 | So if I play on the first track that
I've got created here, I should hear the
| | 01:27 | sound that I load on the
first slot in Omnisphere.
| | 01:30 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:32 | Okay, so I only hear one sound. Now, I am
going to create two more MIDI tracks.
| | 01:37 | Command+Shift+T on a Mac or Ctrl+Shift+T
on a PC, and I've got two more MIDI tracks.
| | 01:44 | What I need to do is route my output
over to Omnisphere, so I'll go to the MIDI 2
| | 01:49 | chooser, select Omnisphere, and then on
the separate subset MIDI channel, I'll put
| | 01:55 | the second one on Channel 2
and the third one on Channel 3.
| | 02:01 | So if I put this track in record, I
should hear the second one.
| | 02:05 | (Bass playing.)
| | 02:08 | And the third track, the third sound.
(Choir singing.)
| | 02:12 | So I've got all three being accessed
from my MIDI tracks, but you'll notice that
| | 02:15 | each time I play the audio is
actually coming out the first track.
| | 02:20 | So what I need to do is I need to
create a couple more audio tracks that I can
| | 02:24 | use as returns coming back from Omnisphere.
| | 02:28 | So I'm going to go back into the plug,
and to do that I'm going to click on the
| | 02:32 | track. And when the Omnisphere plug-in
shows up down here in Device view, I can
| | 02:36 | click on this little gear to
actually open the plug-in window.
| | 02:40 | Sometimes that takes a second. You have
to be patient. So on each one of these
| | 02:45 | presets, I've also got an output
setting. And the first is currently set to A,
| | 02:49 | and if you look down they are all set to A.
That's why they're all are coming up that first track.
| | 02:54 | So I'll set the second one to output B
and then next one to output C. Then I can
| | 03:00 | close the plug again.
| | 03:01 | Now, I'm going to select that second MIDI
track, and I'm going to create an audio
| | 03:05 | track next to it, and that's can be
Command+T on a Mac or Ctrl+T on a PC. And I
| | 03:11 | can come down now to the Audio from,
and I want to set that to get the audio
| | 03:15 | from Omnisphere. So I'll choose
Omnisphere as the device, and then I'll choose
| | 03:20 | Omnisphere 3-4, and that's
going to equal the Outputs B. Outputs A
| | 03:26 | are actually coming through this first track.
| | 03:29 | Then I'll select this third MIDI
track, and again, I'll create another audio
| | 03:32 | return track and set its device input to
Omnisphere, and then choose five and six,
| | 03:39 | which is going to be the Output C
coming from Omnisphere. Now, to actually hear
| | 03:44 | these, I'm going to need to put
these audio tracks in Input Monitoring.
| | 03:50 | So if I record-enable the first track,
I should hear that piano--
| | 03:54 | (Piano playing.)
and I do.
| | 03:56 | If I record-enable the second MIDI track,
I should hear the second preset.
| | 04:02 | (Bass playing.)
| | 04:04 | Good. And the third track, the third preset.
(Choir singing.)
| | 04:10 | So some advantages to these setup is
now I can do my mixing here in Live.
| | 04:14 | If I want to add reverb, just bring up
my sends by clicking on the Sends button,
| | 04:20 | and then I can add reverb by bringing
up a little bit of level, and then I do have
| | 04:26 | a reverb located over here on the return track.
| | 04:29 | Additionally, if I want to EQ any one of
these tracks, all I need to do is add a
| | 04:34 | plug-in on its audio return.
| | 04:37 | So, for example, on this Bass track, I
can go into my Device browser, come up and
| | 04:42 | find a compressor, and drop that on the track.
| | 04:46 | So the MIDI that I play will then be
send to the plug-in that's sitting over here
| | 04:50 | on his first track, and the audio
that's returning from this MIDI will route
| | 04:56 | through this second audio track
and then through this compressor.
| | 05:00 | So you can see that I've now got five
tracks going for these three different
| | 05:05 | presets. And that's only three of the
eight that I can load in Omnisphere, so
| | 05:10 | that could get rather messy.
| | 05:11 | So one of the things you might want
to consider doing is actually selecting
| | 05:15 | these tracks by clicking in their
title bars and then right-clicking and
| | 05:20 | choosing Group Tracks from the contextual menu.
| | 05:23 | That way I'll have one track that
controls the overall output coming from all of
| | 05:28 | these presets in Omnisphere, and
then when I don't need to see this I can
| | 05:33 | actually fold the tracks down into the
group, so I'm only looking at one track.
| | 05:36 | So now that you know how to set up a
multiple-output virtual instrument in
| | 05:40 | Live, you can add your favorite third-party
plug-ins to your next Ableton Live Project.
| | 05:45 | And thanks to Eric Persing and my
friends at Spectrasonics for allowing me to
| | 05:48 | use Omnisphere as part of this demonstration.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
6. Editing MIDIThe MIDI Editor| 00:00 | The MIDI Editor area in Live is like a
small application, or world, unto itself.
| | 00:04 | So let's take a look at the different
components that make up the MIDI Editor,
| | 00:07 | and learn how to configure
and navigate the MIDI Editor.
| | 00:09 | So the MIDI Editor window is part of
Details view, which is located at the bottom
| | 00:12 | of Session view. Now, I can open a clip
in MIDI Editor by simply clicking on it,
| | 00:18 | and I'm looking at the Note Editor area
here. And there's a second thing I can
| | 00:22 | see down here by clicking on this
other tab, and that opens the device that's
| | 00:26 | actually playing that MIDI clip.
| | 00:27 | Let's go back to the MIDI Editor.
| | 00:30 | So the Note Editor provides a graphic
display of the MIDI events that makeup a
| | 00:34 | MIDI clip, so I've got note events and
velocity information. If you point at a
| | 00:39 | note, over here in the piano
role it displays the note number.
| | 00:42 | So I know that these note right here A1.
| | 00:46 | If I click on the MIDI note block in
the MIDI Editor, I should hear the assigned
| | 00:49 | sound. Right now, that's not working
because I need to turn on the Preview button.
| | 00:53 | Let's give that another try.
(Music playing.)
| | 00:59 | Now in some cases you may want to
reduce what you were seeing in the MIDI Editor
| | 01:03 | area, by clicking the Fold button.
This will actually eliminate any notes that
| | 01:08 | don't have any MIDI notes on them.
Now, that's particularly useful when you're
| | 01:11 | looking at a drum clip.
| | 01:12 | Let's go over here and take a
look at this Onna Groove clip.
| | 01:15 | So in this case, if I undo the Fold
button, we can see all the notes that are
| | 01:19 | there. And if I re-enable it, we can see
that I'm just seeing the notes that are
| | 01:24 | actually part of this clip. And the other
part, when I have Impulse preset up here,
| | 01:28 | I can actually see the names of the
samples that are assigned to those notes, so
| | 01:33 | that I know which ones are available.
| | 01:35 | So I've got a kick down here and a snare
and so on and so forth, and I should be
| | 01:39 | able to hear that if I enable the
Preview button. So I can simply click on the
| | 01:42 | piano role to hear what notes are there.
| | 01:45 | Now located at the bottom of the
Note Editor area is the MIDI Velocity
| | 01:49 | Editor. Here I can click one of these markers
to edit the velocity of the associated note.
| | 01:54 | So if I click on the note, we'll see
the Velocity Editor light up, and I can
| | 01:58 | click or drag to change the level of
that note. Now there's a second one hiding
| | 02:01 | in the back on because
there's hi-hat hit that's up here.
| | 02:04 | Now at the top of the Note Editor area,
we have the beat time ruler, and that
| | 02:08 | provides a time reference for the clip.
| | 02:11 | So I've got a clip that's four bars
long, and these numbers that I'm seeing
| | 02:14 | at the beginning of each bar. I can
zoom in and see more detail by simply
| | 02:19 | clicking and dragging up and down in
the beat time ruler. And you notice that as
| | 02:23 | I go in I get to see more
resolution, so I start to see not just the bar
| | 02:27 | lines, but I see the bits as well.
| | 02:29 | Now I can also zoom in and out by
moving my cursor down in here to the clip
| | 02:34 | overview hotspot, and I can do the same
thing: drag up to zoom back out drag down
| | 02:39 | to zoom in. And I can do the same
thing by clicking in the Note Editor itself
| | 02:44 | and then using my Plus
and Minus keys on my num pad.
| | 02:48 | Plus will zoom you into more
detail. Minus take you back out.
| | 02:52 | Now this grid that we're seeing in
the background can also be adjusted by
| | 02:55 | right-clicking on the Note Editor
background and choosing a value from either
| | 02:59 | the Fixed Grid area or the Adaptive Grid area.
| | 03:02 | For example, if I choose 16th notes
here, we'll see that the grid immediately
| | 03:06 | gets finer. I'll right-click
again, and let's try quarter note.
| | 03:11 | If I got a triplet figure in the rhythm
of the performance that I'm editing, I
| | 03:16 | can turn that on by clicking on a
Triplet Grid. You right-click again, and that's
| | 03:20 | a toggle so I can toggle that off
by clicking on Triplet Grid again.
| | 03:24 | Now I can change the grid using
shortcuts, and that would be, on a Mac, Command+
| | 03:29 | one through five--on a PC, Ctrl+one through
five. So if I go Command+2, I can widen the
| | 03:34 | grid--Ctrl+2 on a PC--or Command+1
or Ctrl+1 will narrow the grid.
| | 03:42 | Command+3 toggles on and off
triplets, and Command+4 will show or hide the
| | 03:48 | grid. That will toggle that on and off.
Command+5 will toggle between fixed and adaptive grid.
| | 03:55 | Now if I choose an Adaptive Grid
setting, as I click and drag to zoom in and
| | 04:00 | zoom out, that's when I'll see that grid
change and get finer or wider, depending
| | 04:05 | upon my zoom level.
| | 04:07 | One last thing I'll point out in the
MIDI Editor is the loop end and start
| | 04:11 | points. There are times when you going
to want to change these. There may be a
| | 04:15 | four-bar clip or an eight-bar clip, and
there are actually two bars inside that
| | 04:18 | clip that you want to use.
| | 04:20 | Let me choose another clip here. And I
can change those lengths by simply moving
| | 04:25 | my cursor up in here to beat ruler
and dragging the start time to the point
| | 04:30 | where I want to start and the end
time where I want that to end. And now I
| | 04:35 | simply have a two-bar clip
instead of having an eight-bar clip.
| | 04:39 | So until you're familiar with the
MIDI Editor, working here can be very awkward.
| | 04:43 | Spend some time practicing the things
we talked about, and you'll be much more
| | 04:46 | comfortable when you start to
edit your own MIDI performances.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Quantizing MIDI data| 00:00 | After recording MIDI, it's likely that
you're going to want to adjust or fix
| | 00:02 | some aspect of the performance.
| | 00:05 | In this video, we'll take a look at
how to use quantization to fix rhythmic
| | 00:08 | errors, or improve a groove.
| | 00:10 | So, all MIDI editing starts with
making a selection, and we can select MIDI
| | 00:14 | notes in the MIDI Editor with the mouse.
| | 00:16 | I am going to zoom in here by clicking
on the beat timer while we're
| | 00:20 | dragging down to zoom in a little
bit, so we can see some more detail.
| | 00:23 | So if I click on one of
the note blobs, I select it.
| | 00:27 | If I Shift+Click, I can extend
that selection to contiguous or
| | 00:30 | noncontiguous notes.
| | 00:34 | I can also click in the background of the
Note Editor and drag and close a group of notes.
| | 00:39 | Another way I can select notes is to go
over into the piano roll and click one
| | 00:43 | of the lines or spaces that the notes
are located on. Doing that selects
| | 00:48 | every note on that line or space in the clip.
| | 00:51 | And lastly, I can click in the
background of the Note Editor and then go
| | 00:55 | Command+A to select all the notes in the clip.
| | 00:57 | Now, before I do this, let's play and
hear what's going on with this clip.
| | 01:02 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:07 | Okay. So there are a couple of things happening there.
| | 01:09 | First of all, we can hear that
there are some rhythmic errors.
| | 01:11 | But when I start playback, I
don't actually see my cursor.
| | 01:15 | Now, I'm zoomed in, and that's
causing a problem, but I can get Live to
| | 01:18 | follow the movement of the cursor by
going up and clicking the Follow button
| | 01:22 | up in the control bar.
| | 01:24 | Now, when I start playback--
(Music playing.)
| | 01:29 | the window scrolls with playback.
| | 01:31 | If I hit Start again, I'll hear the
playback from the beginning of the clip.
| | 01:34 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:36 | At times, you actually want to start
playing from where the playback stopped, and
| | 01:39 | you can do that by holding your Shift
key down and clicking your Spacebar.
| | 01:43 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:45 | Another way to temporarily start
playback from a different point is to go in the
| | 01:49 | lower half of the beat time
ruler and click with your mouse.
| | 01:52 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:54 | Now, a note on that is that that
is actually affected by the global
| | 01:58 | quantization, and that's set at one bar right now.
| | 02:01 | So it's going to move to
the closest bar upon playback.
| | 02:03 | So if I click here, it just started
at bar three, and that's what it did.
| | 02:08 | So as I was playing this, I did notice that
there's one thing that I want to fix here.
| | 02:12 | So I am going to drag back
out, so I can see everything.
| | 02:14 | And notice that my clip is
not set to be four bars long.
| | 02:18 | So I'm going to drag the loop end point here
and drag that over, so it ends at bar five, beat one.
| | 02:23 | Let me zoom back in.
| | 02:25 | Now, one way I can quantize a note is
by simply selecting it and clicking and
| | 02:31 | dragging it, and it will snap to the marker.
| | 02:34 | Now, if necessary, I can change the
quantize grid, or the marker grid, by
| | 02:39 | right-clicking on the Note Editor
background and choosing a different rhythmic
| | 02:42 | value from the menu here.
| | 02:44 | Now I can also select multiple
notes and drag them at the same time.
| | 02:52 | If I want to override the grid at any
point, I can hold down my Command key and
| | 02:56 | click and drag that note.
| | 02:57 | Let me select it first, Command--that would be
Ctrl on a PC--and now I can click and drag
| | 03:02 | that closer to the location I want it
to be at, but not have it snap to grid.
| | 03:07 | So another way I can quantize notes
is select one note, or more--and I'll
| | 03:12 | drag and close a few here that are onscreen--
and then use one of the Quantize commands.
| | 03:17 | Now, those are available under the Edit menu.
| | 03:20 | Quantize would be Command+U, and
Quantize Settings would be Shift+Command+U. And
| | 03:25 | on a PC, that would be Ctrl+U and Shift+
Ctrl+U. So let's first start by bringing
| | 03:30 | up the Quantize Settings dialog box.
| | 03:33 | This allows us to set a rhythmic
value that we're going to quantize to.
| | 03:36 | And remember that the general rule is so
that you want to quantize to the smallest
| | 03:41 | rhythmic value contained in your selection.
| | 03:43 | Now, in this case, that is going
to be 16th notes with this clip.
| | 03:46 | While we're here, let's take a look at it.
| | 03:48 | I also have the ability
to set this to a triplet.
| | 03:51 | So if you're quantizing a selection,
you want to make sure that it contains
| | 03:55 | either straight sixteenths, like in
this case, or if there is triplets, you're
| | 03:58 | going to want to choose a triplet format.
| | 04:01 | Otherwise, when you quantize, you
can end up with some funny results.
| | 04:04 | So I'll choose 16th notes.
| | 04:06 | Then before I move on, I am going
to point out this Amount field here.
| | 04:10 | I can actually quantize by percentage,
and this allows you to retain some of the
| | 04:14 | human aspects of the original performance.
| | 04:16 | So if a note is way off base, if I
quantize it 90%, it's going to move
| | 04:21 | farther than a note that was already
close to where it needed to be, and I can
| | 04:25 | quantize that as well.
| | 04:26 | So let's give this a shot.
| | 04:27 | I will click OK, and we'll notice that
that looks like it's snapped to grid. But if
| | 04:32 | I zoom in even further, we'll notice
that my snare hit is still further away
| | 04:36 | from the grid than either of this hi-
hat hit up here or this one over there.
| | 04:41 | I am going to invoke the Quantize
Settings dialog box again, which if you
| | 04:44 | remember was Command+Shift+U or Ctrl+
Shift+U. So what amount is it good to set to?
| | 04:50 | Well, the general rule of thumb is that it
really depends upon your own personal playing.
| | 04:55 | For me, I find that settings between
about 85 and 90% result in the groove that
| | 05:00 | I like but still retain
some of that human performance.
| | 05:03 | So I'll quantize that.
| | 05:04 | I am going to zoom out just a little
bit, so I can see more. And let's go ahead
| | 05:09 | and let's quantize the whole thing
and check out what that sounds like.
| | 05:13 | So, Command+A to select all the notes,
and then Command+Shift+U, set your
| | 05:18 | parameters, say OK. Now, it's quantized.
| | 05:22 | So we will give that a listen.
(Music playing.)
| | 05:28 | Okay. So, that's making a lot more sense now.
| | 05:32 | Some considerations to think about
when you're about to quantize:
| | 05:35 | So first, try to re-record a
part until you get it right.
| | 05:38 | It's going to make it feel more human, and
like everything else, practice makes perfect.
| | 05:42 | But if you need to quantize
something, do it judiciously.
| | 05:45 | Don't quantize at 100%, unless that's
what's you're going for, or that's what
| | 05:49 | the music calls for, and only
quantize what needs to be quantized.
| | 05:53 | So knowing when and how to apply
quantization to a MIDI clip can really make
| | 05:57 | the difference between a MIDI project that
feels awkward or one that feels good.
| | 06:00 | Now that we've discussed how to
quantize in Ableton Live, you are ready to
| | 06:04 | make music that grooves.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Advanced MIDI editing| 00:00 | When editing MIDI, we often focus on
quantizing and fixing rhythmic errors, and
| | 00:04 | forget to use the other tools that are
available to improve a MIDI performance.
| | 00:07 | In this video, we'll learn how to
edit note duration, transpose notes, and
| | 00:11 | edit note velocities.
| | 00:13 | So again, editing MIDI
starts with making a selection.
| | 00:16 | So let's open this bass clip up in
the MIDI Editor, by clicking on the clip.
| | 00:21 | So in this clip, I've got notes that are
at the wrong length and the wrong pitch
| | 00:24 | and the wrong duration.
| | 00:25 | So let's see how we fix that.
| | 00:27 | Now, I can change a note's duration by
moving my cursor to the edge of the note
| | 00:31 | and then dragging out the length of the
note. And I am going to zoom in before I
| | 00:35 | do that so we can see a little bit more detail.
| | 00:38 | So again, just move my cursor over
the edge of the note and click and drag.
| | 00:41 | Now I have got my Follow switch on, so
we heard it play. And because the grid is
| | 00:46 | enabled, the note immediately
snapped over to this other gridline.
| | 00:50 | So let me undo that.
| | 00:52 | If I want to trim a note out or change
its duration without having it snap to
| | 00:57 | the grid, I can do two things.
| | 00:59 | I can turn off the grid by right-
clicking and choosing Off. Or because sometimes
| | 01:05 | I may want to go to the
grid and other times not,
| | 01:07 | I can override the grid by holding down
my Command key, going to the edge of the
| | 01:11 | note, Command+Dragging that note out.
And now you'll notice that I can do that
| | 01:14 | without snapping to the grid.
| | 01:16 | Now, I can do this to multiple notes at
a time by simply selecting those notes.
| | 01:21 | Let me get this back where it was.
Select multiple notes, and now I can Command
| | 01:29 | or Ctrl on the PC, click those
out so that they are all longer.
| | 01:34 | I am going to zoom back out, and I am
going to actually do that to this whole
| | 01:38 | selection of notes that starts this
clip, because it looks like they're all
| | 01:41 | about the wrong length.
(Bass playing.)
| | 01:46 | Notice that all I have to do is barely
touch the note when I click and drag that
| | 01:49 | way to include it in the selection.
| | 01:51 | So let's move to any one of these
notes, and go to the edge and then
| | 01:54 | Command+Click and drag, and I
can increase the note duration.
| | 01:59 | I am going to listen to this for just a
second, and try and find those wrong notes.
| | 02:05 | (Bass playing.)
| | 02:12 | Okay, so in the second group of notes,
these two notes that are currently on C#
| | 02:17 | should actually be Cs, and
then these D# should be Ds.
| | 02:22 | So I can transpose a note by simply
selecting it, and then hitting the down
| | 02:26 | arrow or the up arrow to move
it to the pitch that I desire.
| | 02:30 | I can do that to a group of notes by
dragging and closing them, and doing the
| | 02:36 | same thing. And if I want to move the
notes a full octave, I can do that by
| | 02:41 | holding down my Shift Key and then
either down arrow to go down to octave, or up
| | 02:46 | arrow to go up an octave.
| | 02:48 | So one of the other things that's
really overlooked when we edit MIDI is the
| | 02:52 | note velocities. And you can see down
here when I point in the Velocity Editor
| | 02:55 | area that the velocities of these
notes are really not consistent at all.
| | 03:01 | And oftentimes, when we record a MIDI
performance, we focus on the quantization to
| | 03:06 | fix the rhythmic problem, and
oftentimes it's actually not a rhythmic problem,
| | 03:10 | but it's a velocity problem, and these
really inconsistent velocities end up
| | 03:14 | having a very jumpy effect.
| | 03:17 | So to edit the velocity of the note, I
can select the note by clicking in the
| | 03:20 | middle of it and then grabbing the
velocity marker and dragging up or down.
| | 03:28 | I can also do it the opposite way by
selecting the velocity marker down here in
| | 03:32 | the Velocity Editing area and then dragging it.
| | 03:37 | You can drag and close a group of notes,
and adjust the velocity to all of them
| | 03:42 | simultaneously. And if you want to reset
them all to be the same velocity, all I
| | 03:47 | need to do is drag it down to either at
the very lowest velocity or the highest
| | 03:51 | velocity, and then return it to
the velocity that I want to be at.
| | 03:55 | I am going to turn off the Preview here
for a second, so I don't have to listen to that.
| | 03:58 | Now, watch what happens as I drag down.
| | 04:01 | Okay, now they are all at the same
velocity, and when I bring them up, they are
| | 04:05 | all at the same velocity. And that
might be a good way to initially set a group
| | 04:10 | of these so that they are more
consistent, and then you can go back and edit
| | 04:13 | the individual ones.
| | 04:15 | So I'll select these and do the same thing.
| | 04:17 | This time I'll go all the way up to the
top and then bring them down. And I missed
| | 04:22 | that one in my selection, so
I'll have to do it separately.
| | 04:27 | Now if you find editing these note
velocities down here in the Velocity Editor awkward,
| | 04:32 | you can also edit note velocities by
going up and selecting a note and then
| | 04:36 | holding the Command key down and then
dragging either up or down. And you'll
| | 04:40 | see up above that note that I have selected, the
velocity actually changing as I drag up or down.
| | 04:47 | So a couple of things you might think
about when you're editing velocities, just
| | 04:50 | has to do with how music works:
| | 04:53 | Notes are typically a little bit
more velocity when they're on the beat.
| | 04:57 | So if you have a repeating pattern and
you want it to sound, for instance, like
| | 05:00 | a drummer would play a hi-hat pattern,
the drummer is going to play a little
| | 05:04 | bit harder on the beat then off the beat.
And you can go through and adjust the
| | 05:09 | velocities so you have those
accents where they are appropriate.
| | 05:12 | So for instance, with this bass part,
I might want to go through and some of
| | 05:15 | these notes that are on the beat, just
raise them ever so slightly more than the rest.
| | 05:22 | Now if you want to draw in a
crescendo or what we call a velocity ramp, you
| | 05:27 | can hold down your Command Key or Ctrl on a
PC and click and drag across a group of notes.
| | 05:32 | You first have to select them,
so let's give that a try.
| | 05:35 | So now I am going to Command+Click across those.
| | 05:38 | Draw in the ramp and then let go,
and now I have my crescendo.
| | 05:42 | Now one last thing that you might want
to do is to actually crop a MIDI clip.
| | 05:47 | So I am going to over here and select
the drum clip for this purpose. So I've
| | 05:51 | got a 4-bar drum clip, and I'm
actually going to set the length of that by
| | 05:55 | moving the start marker and the end
marker so I have got a 2-bar clip.
| | 06:01 | And in many cases this is fine.
| | 06:02 | I can leave this alone, and it will
only play those two bars. But there might
| | 06:06 | come a point where you actually want to
make sure that that's what you have in
| | 06:09 | this clip, and that there is nothing
that might happen because the start and
| | 06:13 | end points have changed.
| | 06:14 | So I can crop this to the selection by
right-clicking in the MIDI Editor and
| | 06:19 | choosing Crop Clip from the contextual menu.
| | 06:23 | And now you'll notice that I
have only got 2-bars in that clip.
| | 06:26 | Now if you need to delete any notes,
simply Click+Select those and hit your
| | 06:31 | Delete key, or if you want the notes
to stay in the clip for use at another
| | 06:37 | time, you can right-click on them,
and you can choose Deactivate Note from
| | 06:41 | the contextual menu.
| | 06:42 | So now that we've discussed these
advanced MIDI Editing techniques, you're ready
| | 06:46 | to fine-tune your MIDI projects.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up groove in editing| 00:00 | Quantization is great for fixing
rhythmic errors, but it's time consuming to use
| | 00:04 | to impart a sense of groove
to an entire Live project.
| | 00:07 | In this video, we will learn how to use
Live's grooves to apply a rhythmic feel to
| | 00:11 | both audio and MIDI clips.
| | 00:13 | So groove quantization, or groove
templates, both refer to the process of
| | 00:16 | applying a collection of timing and
velocity attributes derived from a human
| | 00:20 | performance or from a legendary drum
machine like the Roland TR 808, Akai MPC
| | 00:25 | players, or the E-MU SP-12.
| | 00:28 | So how does it work?
| | 00:28 | Well I have a clip up here on my track
that's just 16th notes. Now, notice over
| | 00:34 | here that I have opened the groove pool.
| | 00:36 | That's this button that's on
the bottom of the browsers.
| | 00:38 | What I am going to do is I am
going to right-click in this area,
| | 00:42 | I can choose Browse Groove Library, or
I can go up into my Library itself using
| | 00:47 | one of my Library buttons, and
navigate down to the Grooves folder.
| | 00:50 | Now you notice that I've got grooves
by style, some that are even indicating
| | 00:55 | programs, like Logic, and some of the
groove templates that they have in that
| | 00:59 | particular application, and then some
that are referencing some of those famous
| | 01:03 | drum machines that I mentioned like the
MPC folder and the SP 12 down here and
| | 01:08 | so on and so forth.
| | 01:09 | So I am going to go into the Logic
folder, and I am going to browse down here,
| | 01:14 | and down towards the bottom,
| | 01:15 | I think I like this Logic Swing 1658.agr--
| | 01:19 | by the way, that indicates a groove file.
| | 01:21 | I am going to drag and drop
that down into the groove pool.
| | 01:24 | Once you've done that, you can actually
go down on the clip box of the selected
| | 01:30 | clip, and down in the Groove area, you
can click the chooser here, and you will
| | 01:35 | notice the groove that's available in
that groove pool is populating the chooser
| | 01:39 | dropdown menu. And I'll choose Logic Swing 58.
| | 01:43 | And now what should sound like
straight 16th notes actually should sound
| | 01:48 | quite different now.
| | 01:49 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:53 | So let me undo that, so that we don't
have the groove applied.
| | 01:57 | I'll play it again, so now you can hear it straight.
| | 01:59 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:02 | Very straight, right?
| | 02:03 | I will go back to that and listen one more time.
| | 02:07 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:10 | Now I am going to click to Commit button,
so we can actually see what it's doing.
| | 02:15 | And you will notice that it moved
over every other note, and now it's
| | 02:20 | imparting that swing feel.
| | 02:21 | So how is it doing that?
| | 02:23 | As I said earlier, there are timing
attributes that are part of this groove file.
| | 02:27 | Now if I look over here in the groove
pool, I can actually manipulate some
| | 02:31 | of those attributes.
| | 02:32 | So the Base column here shows a 16th
note, and what this does is set the rhythmic
| | 02:37 | value at which groove quantization begins.
| | 02:40 | For example, if you choose a 16th
note, the groove file will affect rhythmic
| | 02:45 | values 1/16th note and smaller.
| | 02:48 | Rhythmic values with an 8th note
and larger will not be quantized.
| | 02:51 | And in this case, it's not
affecting every 16th note;
| | 02:55 | it's affecting every other one.
| | 02:57 | Now the Quantize column here, if we
use that, will actually quantize the
| | 03:01 | selected clip before it applies the groove file.
| | 03:04 | The next column is the Timing column,
and this shows to what percentage the
| | 03:09 | groove file is actually being
applied to the selected clip.
| | 03:13 | And then in the last column, we have
Random, and that allows us to apply small
| | 03:18 | or large amounts of randomness to
how the groove file is being applied.
| | 03:23 | And if you're using something that's
emulating a drum machine, it's really a
| | 03:27 | great idea to add just a small
amount of randomness to add in that human
| | 03:31 | inconsistency that we all like in music.
| | 03:34 | So I might click and drag in
that and add maybe 3 to 5%.
| | 03:38 | The Amount field that's at the top is
global and affects any of the groove
| | 03:43 | files that are being used in this
session, and that sets the intensity of which
| | 03:46 | groove files are applied.
| | 03:48 | At 100%, the groove parameters are
applied as set in the groove pool.
| | 03:53 | You can go up 130% to overaccentuate
the parameters of a specific groove file.
| | 03:58 | Now we can also edit these groove files by
dragging them and dropping them on a MIDI track.
| | 04:04 | So if I take this Swing 60 and drag
it on a empty clip slot here, we can
| | 04:08 | actually see, in the MIDI Note Editor
area and the Velocity area, what this
| | 04:12 | groove file looks like.
| | 04:13 | So I can see the velocities are changing
quite a bit: every other one is quite a
| | 04:17 | bit softer. And if I come over here,
and scroll down in the piano, I will
| | 04:22 | actually, when I get down to C1,
| | 04:24 | I will see the notes that are available.
| | 04:25 | And again, this is kind of a swing type
feel, and so it's moving every other note
| | 04:31 | off the grid slightly to give it
that kind of hip-hop swing feel.
| | 04:36 | So if I take any of these
and move them around at all--
| | 04:39 | so I will select in here, and I am
going to select one of those and use my
| | 04:43 | Command+click and drag to
just make some small changes--
| | 04:46 | I can now go up and right-click on
this and choose Extract Groove. And now we
| | 04:58 | will see that the changed groove file
is over here in the groove pool. And if I
| | 05:02 | want, I can go ahead and
update that and change the name.
| | 05:06 | Now as I was saying earlier, these
groove files can be applied to both MIDI
| | 05:10 | and to audio clips.
| | 05:13 | So let me hit my Stop Clips button here,
so that these guys won't play, and I'll
| | 05:17 | fire off this scene that I have got set up here.
| | 05:19 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:23 | Okay. So, I've got one of these clips.
| | 05:25 | It's an audio file--you see that there
--and the other one is a MIDI file.
| | 05:31 | I'm going to take this Swing 58.
| | 05:35 | Another way to apply that is not to
go through the chooser down here on the
| | 05:38 | clip's box but actually to drag
that and drop it straight on the clip.
| | 05:42 | So I will do that, and now
let's give that a listen.
| | 05:48 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:54 | So we can see that that's
actually changed both of those entirely.
| | 05:58 | Now, if I go back and I select the audio file
here so that we see that, and I click Commit,
| | 06:04 | let's see what it does.
| | 06:06 | Now we can see that it's, again, moved
everyone of those over again, and I see my
| | 06:10 | work markers up here.
| | 06:12 | That's something that we will
talk about in a later video.
| | 06:14 | Let's see what it does to the
MIDI clip that we applied that to.
| | 06:19 | And again, if I zoom in deeply enough,
you will see that it's moved over every
| | 06:26 | other one of these hi-hat hits that
were on the 16th notes, but it's left
| | 06:30 | those that are on the quarters alone.
| | 06:33 | So using Live Groove files turns
groove quantization into a very simple
| | 06:37 | process that creates a powerful tool
that you can use to improve the feel of
| | 06:40 | your projects.
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|
|
7. Recording AudioPreparing to record| 00:00 | While Ableton Live includes a library
full of useful audio and MIDI clips, as
| | 00:03 | well as a collection of
great virtual instruments,
| | 00:06 | it's likely that at some point, you'll also
want to record audio into an Ableton Live Set.
| | 00:10 | In this video, we will discuss the signal
path through a computer-based recording
| | 00:13 | system, how to set the resolution for
the audio you want to record, and the
| | 00:17 | basic considerations in preparing to record.
| | 00:20 | So the components of a recording system
include the sound source which you are
| | 00:23 | going to record, and then usually a
microphone which converts a sound pressure
| | 00:27 | wave to an electrical signal, then an
audio interface whose primary components
| | 00:30 | are audio converters:
| | 00:32 | first, analog-to-digital converters
which convert the audio from an electrical
| | 00:36 | signal to a digital signal, and then so
we can listen to the audio coming out of
| | 00:39 | computer, digital-to-analog converters
which convert the digital signal back to
| | 00:44 | an electrical signal.
| | 00:45 | Note that Ableton Live will run
without an external audio interface, instead
| | 00:49 | using the computer's built-in converters.
| | 00:51 | However, these converters are not
nearly as good as those found in an audio
| | 00:54 | interface, and the resulting recordings
will not be as good. The next component in
| | 00:58 | your system would be a computer
running Ableton Live. And lastly, you will you
| | 01:02 | will need headphones or speakers which
convert the electrical signal back to
| | 01:05 | sound pressure waves, so you
can actually hear the audio.
| | 01:08 | In preparation for recording, check the
connections for the components in your
| | 01:11 | system and make sure that you've left
enough room for the cables to firmly
| | 01:15 | attach and avoid bending the
cables where they attach.
| | 01:18 | When preparing to start a recording
system, it's best to connect the audio
| | 01:21 | interface to the computer
before turning the computer on.
| | 01:24 | Also, remember the rule of "last on" and
"first off" in regards to your speakers.
| | 01:28 | This will avert any damage to the
speakers due to pops that might occur from
| | 01:32 | turning any of the other components on or off.
| | 01:34 | So I have got Ableton Live opened here, and
when you open Ableton, it opens a default project.
| | 01:40 | If we need to create a new project,
or a new Set, you can just go up to the
| | 01:43 | File menu and choose New Live Set, or
use the key command Command+N on the
| | 01:48 | Mac, or Ctrl+N on PC.
| | 01:51 | Next, you want to set the preferences that
determine the audio file type and resolution.
| | 01:55 | The Preferences are located under the
Live menu, or you can use the key command
| | 02:00 | Command+Comma, or on a PC, Ctrl+Comma.
| | 02:02 | I am going to click the Audio
tab, and we will begin there.
| | 02:06 | First, let's look at the Sample Rate parameter.
| | 02:09 | The options on Ableton
Live are 44.1, 48, and 96 kHz,
| | 02:14 | with 441 being the consumer audio
CD standard. 48 and 96 are higher-
| | 02:19 | resolution audio options.
| | 02:21 | I am going to go ahead and choose 44.1.
| | 02:24 | And before we move on, I am also going to also
take a look at the Latency and Buffer Size parameters.
| | 02:29 | Now remember that larger buffer
sizes allow the computer to operate more
| | 02:34 | efficiently, and when you're mixing and
editing that's okay. But when you are
| | 02:38 | recording, you are going to
want to use a lower buffer size.
| | 02:42 | So, options usually are in
presets of 64, 128, 256, or multiples.
| | 02:48 | Note that Ableton Live will allow you
to type any figure into this field, but
| | 02:54 | that might cause a conflict with
your converter, or your audio interface,
| | 02:57 | so make sure you know what those options are.
| | 02:59 | In this case, I will go
ahead with 128 samples. Okay.
| | 03:03 | So the next thing you will
probably do is connect a microphone.
| | 03:07 | And if that microphone is a condenser-type
microphone, then you want to locate the
| | 03:11 | phantom power button on your
interface, and that's normally labeled +48V.
| | 03:14 | We are just about ready to record,
but we will need a track for that.
| | 03:19 | Now the default set has an audio
track. Or, if we need one, we can go up to
| | 03:23 | Create menu and choose Insert Audio
Track, or use the key command Command+T on
| | 03:29 | a Mac or Ctrl+T on a PC.
| | 03:31 | I will go ahead and use the default track.
| | 03:34 | And before I record, I am going to
want to name that track, because the audio
| | 03:38 | files that are recorded to that track
will be named based upon the track name.
| | 03:42 | So in Ableton Live, we can rename a
track by clicking on the track nameplate and
| | 03:46 | using the key command Command+
R on the Mac or Ctrl+R on a PC.
| | 03:50 | So, I will just call this "Voice Over."
| | 03:53 | Okay, the next thing I want to do is
address the input that my microphone is
| | 03:58 | plugged into, so that Ableton Live can see that.
| | 04:01 | And I do that by coming down here and
choosing the Input type, which in the case
| | 04:06 | of an audio interface would be external-
in--I can click that and see the other
| | 04:10 | options, but in this case, we are ready
to go--and then choosing the input that
| | 04:14 | that microphone is plugged into.
| | 04:17 | So this particular interface has two inputs,
and I can either go stereo or mono 1 or 2.
| | 04:22 | I would only use the stereo input if I
have actually got two microphones or a
| | 04:27 | stereo microphone plugged in.
| | 04:29 | In this case, my microphone is plugged
into channel 2, so I will choose that.
| | 04:33 | And lastly, before we get ready record
here, I am going to record-enable the track.
| | 04:37 | But before I do that, let me add that
if you've got speakers that are turned on
| | 04:41 | in the room, this will cause a feedback loop.
| | 04:44 | If you are on headphones, that's no problem.
| | 04:46 | So I'll go ahead and record-enable
this, and now we can see there's audio
| | 04:50 | level on the track.
| | 04:51 | So now that we have discussed system
setup, audio file parameters, and prepping
| | 04:55 | to record, we are ready to begin
recording audio into Ableton Live.
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| Recording audio| 00:00 | Producing a song that sounds good
starts with recording good-sounding audio.
| | 00:04 | Let's discuss how on gain structure
and recording levels affect audio quality,
| | 00:08 | and learn how to record audio into Ableton Live.
| | 00:10 | As the signal passes through a
recording system, there are multiple places to
| | 00:13 | adjust the signal level.
| | 00:15 | The general rule is to raise the
signal level to the desired level at the
| | 00:18 | beginning of the signal path and
then maintain that signal to output.
| | 00:22 | The first place in the signal path
that the level can be adjusted is at the
| | 00:25 | microphone preamp in the audio interface.
| | 00:28 | The preamp is necessary because the
output level of microphones is generally low.
| | 00:32 | Use the Preamp Gain knob to
adjust the level as necessary.
| | 00:35 | While setting levels in preparation
for recording, it is best to keep your
| | 00:39 | headphone or speaker monitor levels
at a moderate or reasonable level.
| | 00:43 | This will protect your ears and your
speakers in case there is a sudden increase
| | 00:47 | in the volume level.
| | 00:48 | The monitor level is typically
controlled from the monitor output control on
| | 00:51 | the Audio interface.
| | 00:53 | When setting monitor levels, it's a
good idea to use a sound pressure meter.
| | 00:57 | The listening level should average in the
80 to 85 dB range; anything higher than
| | 01:01 | that will cause ear fatigue and ear damage.
| | 01:04 | Turn the preamp up until the signal is
averaging around -60 beyond the level meter.
| | 01:10 | To see the numeric read out on the
meter in Live, increase the height of the
| | 01:14 | meter area and the track width.
| | 01:20 | Next, record-enable the track so that you
can see the audio level showing in the meter.
| | 01:25 | If you set the preamp gain too high,
you will peak the track and if you set it
| | 01:29 | too low, the audio won't be loud enough.
| | 01:31 | So remember our target is
right there around -6 dB.
| | 01:35 | Next, click the Record button on
the desired clip to go into record.
| | 01:40 | As I talk here, you can see signal on the meter.
| | 01:43 | I am averaging around -6dB,
and down here in the hotspot,
| | 01:48 | I can see the audio waveform drawing.
| | 01:50 | If I click on that, you will see the
waveform here in the overview area.
| | 01:55 | To stop recording, press the Stop button or
Spacebar on the computer keyboard.
| | 02:01 | Okay. I will click the Record button to disable.
| | 02:04 | To synchronize the recording to the
groove or any other clips that are playing
| | 02:07 | in the session, you may
want to enable the metronome.
| | 02:09 | Remember, we can do that by clicking the
Metronome button on the control bar.
| | 02:14 | And if you need a count-in, you can right-
click on Metronome button and choose a
| | 02:18 | count-in from the contextual menu.
| | 02:20 | Our choices there are None
1 Bar, 2 Bars, and 4 Bars.
| | 02:25 | Before, during, and after recording, you'll
want to be able to monitor the input signal.
| | 02:29 | Live allows three monitoring options.
| | 02:32 | Most frequently, we are on auto
monitoring, and that means when a track is
| | 02:36 | record-enabled, the track input is monitored.
| | 02:39 | When not record-enabled, Live
automatically switches to monitoring the clips
| | 02:43 | that were already recorded
and are playing on the track.
| | 02:46 | Sometimes, you'll want to choose
Input monitoring, or the In button.
| | 02:50 | This will allow you to practice and hear
what you are playing when not recording.
| | 02:54 | You will know that you're in Input
monitoring because the In button turns
| | 02:57 | orange, and the track
activator also turns orange.
| | 03:01 | Other times, you will choose the Off option.
| | 03:03 | Off switches off
monitoring a track through Live.
| | 03:06 | This is useful when using an audio
interface that allows you to monitor record-
| | 03:10 | enabled tracks at the input to the interface.
| | 03:12 | So after you've finished an audio
recording, you need to evaluate it.
| | 03:16 | What is the difference in level
between the sound source and any noise, like
| | 03:20 | computer drives or fans?
| | 03:22 | Is the audio signal level loud
enough that it masks any noise present?
| | 03:26 | Also, are there and pops or distortion
from plosive consonants, like Bs, Ds or Ps?
| | 03:32 | If there are, you'll probably want to
re-record using a pop filter if one is available.
| | 03:36 | If not, try turning the microphone 45
degrees off axis and talk across the
| | 03:41 | microphones diaphragm.
| | 03:43 | Also, is the sound clear and undistorted?
| | 03:45 | If not, try backing off
the microphone a few inches.
| | 03:48 | Also, how is the tone quality of the recording?
| | 03:50 | Is it warm and full, or muddy and brittle?
| | 03:53 | If you don't like the tone quality,
again try turning the microphone off-axis or
| | 03:57 | try using a different microphone.
| | 03:59 | If both dynamic and condenser
microphones are available, make several recordings
| | 04:04 | and compare the differences.
| | 04:05 | Recording audio into a program like
Ableton Live can yield great results,
| | 04:09 | if you are aware of how gain structure and
recording levels affect the audio quality.
| | 04:13 | Now that we understand those issues,
you're ready to get out there and
| | 04:16 | start recording.
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|
|
8. Arrangement ViewUnderstanding Arrangement view| 00:00 | Working in Session view is a unique
way to begin building a song.
| | 00:03 | There comes a point in creating a song
where you'll probably want to work in a
| | 00:05 | more conventional, linear
manner, in Live's Arrangement view.
| | 00:08 | Let's take a look at the main
components in Arrangement view, and get
| | 00:11 | familiar with the interface.
| | 00:13 | So switching between Arrangement and
Session views is as simple as clicking the
| | 00:16 | View Selector buttons, next to the Help view.
| | 00:19 | This one here is for Arrangement view, and
the one underneath that is for Session view.
| | 00:23 | You can also switch by pressing the Tab key,
and that toggles between the two views.
| | 00:28 | So there are several elements of the
Arrange view window that are similar to the
| | 00:32 | Session view window.
| | 00:33 | Across the top, we have the control bar.
| | 00:36 | And over on the far left-hand side
we have the browsers, and then at the
| | 00:41 | bottom, the Info view. On the far right, we have
Help view. Across the bottom, we have Details view.
| | 00:48 | But time moves a little bit differently
in Arrangement view. We move from left
| | 00:51 | to right, just like a tape deck,
and tracks are stacked horizontally.
| | 00:56 | Right now, the tracks look very, very
small, but if I click one of the Track
| | 01:00 | Unfold buttons, we will
see a little bit more detail.
| | 01:03 | Over on the far right-hand side, we
have the controls for the track, which
| | 01:07 | include the Track Name; the Track
Activator button; the Solo button; the Record
| | 01:13 | enable button; the Volume area, which I
can scroll up or down to set volume; and
| | 01:19 | the Pan area, which I can scroll
up or down to set the Pan position.
| | 01:23 | Now above the Track area, I have the beat
time ruler that provides time reference.
| | 01:28 | And then I have a new ruler at the
bottom that does the same thing in
| | 01:31 | minutes and seconds.
| | 01:33 | I can zoom in the Arrangement view,
much the same as I do in the Sample Editor
| | 01:37 | area of the Details view, or
in the MIDI Note Editor area.
| | 01:41 | If I go up into the beat time ruler and
drag down, I can zoom in. Drag up, zoom out.
| | 01:47 | I can also zoom in by going up in the
Overview area and drag down to zoom in and
| | 01:53 | drag up to zoom back out.
| | 01:55 | I can also drag left or right, pan
left or right, and do the same thing in
| | 02:01 | the beat time ruler.
| | 02:02 | Now if I go down into the Track
area, I can also pan by holding down my
| | 02:09 | Command+Option keys and dragging.
| | 02:11 | If I click in the background, I can use
my Plus and Minus keys to zoom in and out.
| | 02:16 | Plus takes me in. Minus takes me back out.
| | 02:19 | I can start playback by hitting my
Spacebar and stop playback by hitting my Spacebar.
| | 02:24 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:27 | Now you notice that I am currently in
the middle of this session. If I want my
| | 02:30 | cursor to the beginning and start
playback from that point, I can hit the Home key.
| | 02:35 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:37 | If I need to get to the end of
the session, I use my End key.
| | 02:41 | I can also loop playback by
using the loop brace here.
| | 02:45 | I'll move that towards where I want
it to go. And then I can change the stop
| | 02:49 | point by clicking and dragging on the edge,
| | 02:52 | and then enable loop playback by enabling
the Loop button up here in the control bar.
| | 02:57 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:00 | And that will continue to
loop until I press the Spacebar.
| | 03:03 | Now I can move the loop point by
using my right and left arrows.
| | 03:11 | I can also start playback by
clicking in the lower half of the beat time
| | 03:15 | ruler and clicking.
| | 03:16 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:19 | If I want it to loop, I will
discontinue to hold while I click.
| | 03:22 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:26 | Now that loop length is determined by
the Global Quantization setting, up here
| | 03:30 | in the control bar, which
is currently at one bar.
| | 03:33 | So now that we've taken a first look at
Live's Arrangement view, take some time
| | 03:37 | to practice navigating, zooming, and
playing back audio in Arrangement view.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Recording in Arrangement view| 00:00 | Recording audio or MIDI in
Arrangement view is similar to Session view.
| | 00:03 | In this video, we'll review Live's
recording process, and we'll learn how
| | 00:07 | to record with pre-roll, and learn how
to use punch record in Live's Arrangement view.
| | 00:11 | So recording in Arrangement view
starts the same way as Session view.
| | 00:14 | We need to get set up.
| | 00:16 | So first, I am going to
go into my Device browser.
| | 00:19 | I'm going to find a sound to use.
| | 00:20 | Let's go into Impulse.
| | 00:21 | I'll grab Beat Bugz, and I am going to
drop that on the MIDI track. So I can see
| | 00:27 | that I've got a virtual
instrument loaded, ready to go.
| | 00:29 | The track is record-enabled.
| | 00:31 | Let me play a note to make sure I
have got MIDI signal.
| | 00:33 | (Clicking.)
| | 00:35 | Okay, and I might want to set my tempo,
| | 00:38 | so let me pull that down a little bit.
And I might want to have a click, so I am
| | 00:42 | going to enable the metronome.
And if it is the first thing I am going to
| | 00:46 | record, I am probably going to need a count-in.
| | 00:47 | So, I will right-click on the Metronome
Enable button and choose a count-off length.
| | 00:53 | So, as I said before, the track is
record-enabled. And one thing that's different
| | 00:57 | about recording into Arrangement view
is I actually need to enable the Global
| | 01:00 | Record Button on the control bar.
| | 01:03 | Now if I hit the Spacebar and
start playing, I can start recording.
| | 01:07 | Let's just add a little kick and snare here.
| | 01:09 | (Drums playing.)
| | 01:23 | So I've got a 4-bar loop started there.
| | 01:25 | Now, at this point, I might want to go
back in and start recording at bar five.
| | 01:28 | But instead of hearing a count-in, I
might want to hear what's on the track
| | 01:33 | previous to that point--what we call pre-roll.
| | 01:34 | So, I am going to go up, and I am going
to disable the count-in, so that there
| | 01:39 | is none, and I am going to enable the
punch switch up here in the control bar.
| | 01:45 | Now this little thing up here is called
the loop brace, and I am going to zoom
| | 01:48 | in so we can just see
that in a little more detail.
| | 01:50 | So I clicked in the beat time ruler up
there and drag down to zoom in. So now
| | 01:55 | I can see my loop brace right there, and that's
going to define where record is going to start.
| | 02:01 | Now I need to set where I
actual want playback to start.
| | 02:03 | So I am going to zoom in.
That's a little bit too much.
| | 02:07 | Trying to find bar four here. Let me drag
over, so I can find that. And so at this
| | 02:12 | point, playback will start at bar
four and record will start at bar five.
| | 02:18 | So the track is record-enabled.
| | 02:20 | Let me put the system in record again,
and I'll hit the Spacebar to start playing.
| | 02:25 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:38 | Okay, so I just recorded with pre-roll.
| | 02:40 | Let me zoom back out, and we can see that.
| | 02:43 | Now, if there was this mistake there, I
am going to want to get in and out and
| | 02:46 | not record over what was
previously recorded or after that.
| | 02:50 | So instead of just enabling the punch-
in point, I'm also going to enable a
| | 02:54 | punch-out point. And those points
will be determined by the start and end
| | 02:58 | points of my loop brace.
| | 03:00 | So I can either click and drag the
ends of those up here in the beat time
| | 03:04 | ruler, or I can set those
points up here in the control bar.
| | 03:08 | So, we can see that my end point is at
bar five, and my out point is two bars later.
| | 03:14 | So again, I'll click on the track
before where I want to record, so I set my
| | 03:19 | start point. My track is enabled.
| | 03:23 | I'll enable the system, and now I'll
start playback by pressing the Spacebar.
| | 03:27 | (Drums playing.)
| | 03:36 | So that's punch recording.
| | 03:38 | So recording in Arrangement view is
very similar to Session view, and now we
| | 03:42 | know how to use Live's punch-recording feature.
| | 03:44 | In the next video, we'll take a look
at one of Live's mind-blowing features:
| | 03:48 | recording from Session
view into Arrangement view.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Recording from Session view to Arrangement view| 00:00 | Live Session view is a great place to work
out ideas and build the sections of the song,
| | 00:04 | but it's often easier to mix, add
automation, and fine-tune a project
| | 00:07 | in Arrangement view.
| | 00:09 | In this video, we will use one of Live's
truly innovative features, and learn how
| | 00:12 | to record clips and scenes from
Session view into Arrangement view.
| | 00:15 | So when we enable the Global Record
button on the control bar in Session view,
| | 00:20 | anything that we play, any clips that
we launch, any scenes that we launch, any
| | 00:24 | changes that we make are recorded
from Session view into Arrangement view.
| | 00:28 | So in preparation for this, I
have set up the sections of a song.
| | 00:32 | So I have got an intro that has two
sections, and then I have got a verse, a
| | 00:37 | chorus, and a breakdown section.
| | 00:39 | What I'll do is start playing these in
the order that they might happen in a song.
| | 00:44 | Now I can do that by using my mouse
and clicking on the Scene Launch buttons,
| | 00:48 | but that can get a little bit messy.
| | 00:49 | So what I am going to do is I am going
to enable key mapping by clicking the
| | 00:52 | Key button up here.
| | 00:53 | And I am going to assign these Launch
buttons to keys on my computer keyboard.
| | 00:59 | I can do that by simply choosing the
scene and then pressing the desired key on
| | 01:04 | the computer keyboard.
| | 01:05 | So, I'll assign these to 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
| | 01:12 | And notice as I did that, those
mappings are visible over here in the
| | 01:15 | Key Mappings browser.
| | 01:17 | So now I will disable the Key Mapping button.
| | 01:20 | And notice that I am still in Global
Record. And my quantization is set of one
| | 01:24 | bar, which means that when I launch a
scene, it will start at the next bar.
| | 01:29 | So here goes number one.
(Music playing.)
| | 01:37 | Number two.
(Music playing.)
| | 01:39 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:50 | Okay. So you can stop record by pressing
your Spacebar, and now I will press my Tab
| | 03:56 | key to view what we have done.
| | 03:57 | So now I will see all the
sections of tune laid out.
| | 04:00 | So you can see where I started by
playing just the one clip and then
| | 04:04 | triggering the other part of the intro
and here's my verse section and chorus
| | 04:08 | section and so forth.
| | 04:09 | Now I can also set some locators so
I know what the parts of the song are
| | 04:14 | by simply setting my insert point and then
coming over here and clicking the Set button.
| | 04:18 | And I get a little marker up here.
| | 04:21 | If I click on that and go Command+R for
Mac or Ctrl+R for PC, I can name that.
| | 04:26 | So that would be "Verse." Come over here
and do the same thing at bar17. Click the
| | 04:32 | Set button. Select that, Command+
R, and I will name that "Chorus."
| | 04:39 | So you can go through out the song and
set the locators for the beginning of
| | 04:45 | each section of the song.
| | 04:46 | And now I can locate to those
points by simply clicking on locator.
| | 04:49 | If I need to start playback
there, now I can hit the Spacebar.
| | 04:53 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:58 | So hopefully you can see how you
can work out the elements of a song,
| | 05:02 | and you can practice with the order
of the form might be in that song,
| | 05:05 | and then you can record
that into Arrangement view.
| | 05:09 | So the different workflows related to
live session and Arrangement views offer
| | 05:12 | different solutions.
| | 05:13 | Now that we can combine those two
views and record from Session to Arrangement
| | 05:17 | view, the possibilities are endless.
| | 05:19 | Have fun!
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Reworking clips| 00:00 | One of the disadvantages of using loop
and sample libraries is that everybody's
| | 00:03 | music projects start to
sound similar after a while.
| | 00:07 | In this video, we'll learn how to use
the Session to Arrange Record feature in
| | 00:10 | Live to rework preexisting clips, to create
custom clips that we can use in our Live projects.
| | 00:16 | So I've set up a Live project here,
and I've brought in a clip from our drum
| | 00:20 | machine, Impulse, from the Clips library.
| | 00:24 | To get started, what I first want to do
is I want to copy this clip to several
| | 00:28 | other clip slots, and then choose
sections of that clip that I'm going to use to
| | 00:33 | trigger individually.
| | 00:34 | So I'm going to take my Option key,
I'll select that first clip, and I'm going
| | 00:38 | to drag that down to several other clip slots.
| | 00:44 | Now, as I work, I'm going to leave
that first clip in that first clip slot
| | 00:47 | alone, so that if I need
it again, I can pull it out.
| | 00:50 | I'm going to come down to this
first clip slot, and I'm going to start
| | 00:54 | isolating pieces of that.
| | 00:56 | Now I'm going to want to get the
kick and the snare separately, and then
| | 00:59 | later on, I'll get other pieces of the clip
that have some kind of rhythmic interest to them.
| | 01:04 | So I'm going to go down into the Note
Editor area here, and I'm going to set the
| | 01:09 | loop start and end points to
isolate just pieces of this.
| | 01:13 | So I can drag my loop end over here,
and I know that I've got a kick down here
| | 01:18 | on the first part of this loop.
| | 01:20 | I'll check that out now.
| | 01:21 | Now that it's short, I'll
hear that play several times.
| | 01:24 | (Drums playing.)
| | 01:26 | So I've got the kick.
| | 01:27 | On the second one, I'm going to drop
down, and I'm going to get the snare.
| | 01:31 | That's probably going to be over here on beat three.
| | 01:34 | So I can drag my start point here over
to beat three, or I can hold my cursor right
| | 01:40 | there around beat three and hold down my
Command key on a Mac or the Ctrl key on a
| | 01:43 | PC, and it will allow me to set
the loop start point right there.
| | 01:48 | Now I'm also going to want to set the
loop end point. And without having to go
| | 01:52 | over and pull the loop brace all the
way over, I can hold the cursor where I
| | 01:56 | want it, and then hold down
Command+Shift on a Mac, or Ctrl+Shift on a
| | 02:02 | PC, and I can isolate that very quickly.
| | 02:05 | I'm going to listen to that.
| | 02:06 | I want to get the snare, and
maybe just a little bit extra,
| | 02:09 | so I'll fire off the Launch
button on the second clip.
| | 02:12 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:14 | Make sure that's selected,
| | 02:15 | and I am on the right clip.
Take off that count-in for a second.
| | 02:21 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:25 | Okay. My problem is is that I don't have my
loop play point set at the right place.
| | 02:29 | So I'm going to click and drag that over
to the beginning of the actual loop brace.
| | 02:33 | Now I should hear that fire correctly.
| | 02:35 | Let's give it a shot.
| | 02:36 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:39 | So we've got a piece there.
| | 02:41 | Now I'll go down to the next one,
and I want to get a piece of where the
| | 02:45 | hi-hats are playing.
| | 02:46 | So I'm going to click here in the
lower half of the beat time ruler, and just
| | 02:49 | listen for a second.
| | 02:50 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:54 | Okay, so I like this part
here right around bar two, beat two.
| | 02:57 | So I'm going to hold down my Command
key, or Ctrl on a PC, again, and set my loop
| | 03:02 | point to start there.
| | 03:04 | Then I'll do Command+Shift, or Ctrl+Shift on
a PC, and I'm going to get a piece of that.
| | 03:09 | Now, I'm going to drop down to the next
one. And I heard this little fill here
| | 03:13 | that starts at beat four, and I want to get that,
| | 03:16 | so I'm going to set the loop start
point there and the loop end point here.
| | 03:24 | I'll get one more piece.
| | 03:25 | Let me listen here just a little
bit later, and see what I've got.
| | 03:27 | (Drums playing.)
| | 03:31 | Okay, so I like this last little thing here.
| | 03:33 | So loop point, start, and
the loop end is already there.
| | 03:37 | Now, I'm going to name these,
so I can keep them straight.
| | 03:40 | So I'm going to go Command+R, or Ctrl+R
on a PC, and I'll call this one "Kick."
| | 03:47 | Then to go down and rename the next clip,
I'm just going to use my down arrow.
| | 03:50 | That one was "Snare." The next one was "Hi-Hat."
| | 03:53 | Then I'll call the next one
"Fill 1," and the last one, "Fill 2."
| | 04:01 | Now, so that I can easily trigger these,
I'm going to turn on the Key Mapping
| | 04:05 | button here, and I'll set these to
some keys on my computer keyboard.
| | 04:10 | So I'll click the first one. I'll
assign that one to 1, and the next one to
| | 04:14 | 2, and 3, 4, and 5.
| | 04:19 | Now, I can look over here, and
I see the key mappings set here.
| | 04:24 | So I'll turn off that.
| | 04:26 | Now, I should be able to fire these off by
pressing the associated numbers on my keyboard.
| | 04:31 | (Drums playing.)
| | 04:35 | So on and so forth.
| | 04:36 | Now remember that the global
quantization value affects this.
| | 04:41 | So right now, when I launch one of
these clips, it's going to wait until the
| | 04:44 | next bar to do that, and I
don't want it to wait that long;
| | 04:47 | I want it to trigger almost immediately.
| | 04:49 | So I need to shorten that quantization.
| | 04:51 | And experimenting around with this, I
found that either an 8th note or a 16th
| | 04:56 | note is about the right rhythmic
length to fire off that next clip.
| | 05:00 | (Drums playing.)
| | 05:00 | So sometimes it takes some
experimenting to get that right.
| | 05:03 | You'll take some time, and
you'll work that out on your own.
| | 05:06 | So I'm going to start off,
and I'll try with the 16th note.
| | 05:09 | I'm also going to go up, and as I work,
I want my changes that I'm going to be
| | 05:13 | recording into the other
window to lock to time.
| | 05:16 | So I'm actually going to turn on
Record Quantization, and turn this on to
| | 05:20 | Sixteenth-Note-Quantization.
| | 05:23 | So I'm going to put the system in Record,
I'm going to enable my metronome, and
| | 05:27 | I'm going to set a 1-bar count off.
| | 05:30 | Remember, any of the moves now that I
make in Session view are going to be
| | 05:34 | recorded into Arrange view.
| | 05:36 | So I'm going to switch over briefly by
pressing my Tab key, and just make sure
| | 05:40 | that my cursor is at the beginning of
the Arrangement view time ruler up here,
| | 05:45 | the beat time ruler.
| | 05:46 | So I'll go back, and I'm going to hit
my Play button. And then remember, it's
| | 05:51 | just the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
| | 05:54 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:56 | Let me stop clips there first.
| | 05:57 | I'll undo what I just did.
| | 06:29 | So as I was doing that, you were seeing
the different clips that I had truncated
| | 06:33 | down here visually displaying.
| | 06:35 | Now, I'll switch over to the
Arrangement view area, and we can see what I
| | 06:39 | just played in there.
| | 06:44 | If I unfold that track, we can see the
associated MIDI data showing with the
| | 06:48 | clips that I played.
| | 06:50 | So I'm going to move that around.
| | 06:53 | Now at this point, what we'd want to
do is you just want to set playback and
| | 06:57 | start listening to pieces of this.
| | 06:59 | This is experimenting, and we just
want to find the good parts that we
| | 07:02 | actually performed.
| | 07:03 | (Drums playing.)
| | 07:04 | I'm going to turn off the click,
so I don't listen to that for a minute.
| | 07:06 | (Drums playing.)
| | 07:14 | So at some point, you'll find a section
of this that you want to rework and use
| | 07:19 | for a loop in a project later on.
| | 07:22 | To do that, we can just select an area.
| | 07:24 | Now, I want to start that right on beat four.
| | 07:26 | So I'm going to come down here in the
beat time ruler, and I'm going to separate
| | 07:30 | that particular clip by going down
and using the Split function, which is
| | 07:34 | Command+E on a Mac or Ctrl+E on a PC,
so that I've got a starting point that's
| | 07:39 | right there at bar four.
| | 07:40 | Then I'm going to listen and see if I
can get about two bars worth of this.
| | 07:44 | (Drums playing.)
| | 07:48 | Okay. So that's sounding pretty good.
| | 07:51 | Now I can go in and actually do some
editing on any one of these by just simply
| | 07:56 | clicking on the clip. And I can take
advantage of some of the things that are
| | 08:00 | down here in our Notes area.
| | 08:02 | For instance, if I want to speed up or
slow down a portion of that, I can do that.
| | 08:07 | So I just click the *2 button, and so
that part is going to play twice as fast.
| | 08:12 | So let's give that a listen.
| | 08:13 | (Drums playing.)
| | 08:17 | That adds a bit of
interesting, odd rhythmic behavior there.
| | 08:21 | Now, if this was actually audio that I
was doing this with, I would also get the
| | 08:24 | option to reverse a clip, and
that can be very, very interesting.
| | 08:28 | So the next step would actually be to select
these clips and join them into one new clip.
| | 08:35 | You do that using the Consolidate function.
| | 08:37 | So if I go up to the Edit menu, choose
Consolidate, which would be Command+J on
| | 08:42 | the Mac or Ctrl+J on a PC.
| | 08:45 | I now get one clip out of that.
| | 08:48 | If I go back over into my Library,
I've got a My Clips folder, and now I can
| | 08:52 | simply drag and drop that
into the My Clips folder.
| | 08:55 | Again, it's going to ask me if I want
to copy any of the reference samples from
| | 09:00 | the library as part of that clip.
| | 09:02 | You can do that if you're going to be
moving this to another computer. If you're
| | 09:05 | going to be doing this on your own
computer, that may not be necessary.
| | 09:08 | So I'll go ahead and click Don't Copy.
| | 09:10 | Now, I can switch back over to Session view,
and I can bring that out on its own track.
| | 09:17 | We can see that it brought out the
virtual instrument with it down here, and
| | 09:21 | I've got the new MIDI data that
was created when I recorded that into
| | 09:24 | Arrangement view. And now I can start
building my new project around this custom clip.
| | 09:30 | So the Session to Arrange Record
feature brings a whole new level of creativity
| | 09:33 | and fun to making music using a computer.
| | 09:36 | It takes a bit of practice to learn
to rework clips using this feature,
| | 09:39 | so take some time to experiment and
let your creative side have some fun.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
9. The Live MixerUnderstanding Live's mixer| 00:00 | The mixing console is the heart of any
music production system, and understanding
| | 00:04 | the function of the different devices
and signal flow through the mixer is an
| | 00:07 | important part of feeling in
control of the music-making process.
| | 00:11 | So I've got the Mixer section of the
Session view window showing here, which is
| | 00:15 | this area right here, and let's take a look
at the different devices that we can see here.
| | 00:20 | Now let me start by saying that on
the right-hand side of your master track,
| | 00:23 | we have buttons that are going to show and
hide the different options that are here.
| | 00:28 | So if I click on the IO, you'll see the
inputs and outputs go away and come back.
| | 00:33 | I've also got a button here for the
sends and R is for returns, and we'll see
| | 00:39 | those return tracks come in
and come out and so on so forth.
| | 00:44 | Down here at the bottom I've got a
couple of options that we will actually take
| | 00:47 | a look at in a later video: those are
for the track delay amounts and the track
| | 00:51 | cross fader, and as I said, we'll
take a look at those at a later time.
| | 00:55 | So, let's take a look from top to
bottom at what's happening on a track.
| | 01:00 | I've got an audio track here next to
a MIDI track, so that we can see and
| | 01:03 | compare any differences that we might
see here. But at the top we have a pair
| | 01:07 | of choosers that allow us to choose where the
audio is coming on to that particular track.
| | 01:13 | So, on an audio track it is
going to show your interface, or Ext.
| | 01:18 | In, in this case. And whatever we choose
here will then get subchannels choices
| | 01:23 | here below, in the chooser that's
below that. So in this case I can either
| | 01:27 | choose 1/2 as an audio or 1
singularly or 2. So if you are plugging in one
| | 01:33 | microphone and not two, you definitely
want to set this to one or the other.
| | 01:38 | On a MIDI track, the MIDI From choosers
then would allow you to choose where the
| | 01:44 | MIDI input is coming from, and
you can always choose All Devices.
| | 01:48 | That's always a good choice, unless you
have multiple controllers that you're
| | 01:51 | wanting to play simultaneously.
So I'm just using this E-MU keyboard right
| | 01:56 | now, and I can set it to that, but
it really doesn't make a difference
| | 01:59 | having this set at All.
| | 02:02 | And below that I see my subchannels,
which are either All Channels, which means
| | 02:07 | it will take MIDI coming in from any
device and any MIDI channel. Or I can
| | 02:11 | choose a single channel.
| | 02:12 | Now if I am only recording one track at
a time, it doesn't make a difference, so
| | 02:16 | I'll leave that at All Channels.
| | 02:18 | On both audio and MIDI tracks below
that, we see our monitoring options.
| | 02:22 | And this is how Live decides where it
is going to monitor the audio. So if I
| | 02:28 | put a track in Input, Live will only
monitor that particular track from the
| | 02:33 | input of the device.
| | 02:35 | If the track is an Auto Monitoring
mode, Live will monitor the input of the
| | 02:40 | track when it is in Record, or the
audio coming off the hard drive if you're
| | 02:45 | mixing or editing. And I
can also set the track to off.
| | 02:50 | Below that I have our output
choosers, where the audio is going to.
| | 02:54 | In this case, we see that they're
all routed to the master track.
| | 02:58 | I could also set that to External Out,
and I would then be able to choose a
| | 03:03 | subchannel on the output.
| | 03:05 | Some interfaces are going to have
multiple outputs, more than just 1 and 2.
| | 03:10 | You can use that for a variety of reasons.
| | 03:12 | Now in this case I can't choose 1 or 2
as a single output. But let me advise you
| | 03:18 | at this point that if you do that,
your Pan knob is not actually going work.
| | 03:23 | If I choose 1 signal on that track, it
is only going to be on the left side, and
| | 03:27 | if I choose 2, it is only
going to be on the right side.
| | 03:29 | Let me put that back to Master.
| | 03:33 | Below that, I have the Sends area, and
we'll talk about this in more detail in an
| | 03:37 | upcoming video. But let me just preface
that by telling you right now that sends
| | 03:42 | are a device that allow us to copy a
portion of the signal from that track onto
| | 03:48 | a virtual wire that runs behind the
scenes and then dumps that onto the
| | 03:54 | associated Return track. So, for example,
you can see that I've got these knobs
| | 03:58 | turned up on these tracks, which means
that I'm copying a little bit of that
| | 04:02 | signal onto a wire that is then
going to dump on to this A return track.
| | 04:11 | Below the sends, I have a couple of
fields that give me information on what's
| | 04:16 | happening with the track volume here.
| | 04:18 | The first of these two fields actually
gives me a readout on the peak levels
| | 04:24 | that are happening on that particular track.
| | 04:26 | So we can see that we've got differences there.
| | 04:29 | The next field below that shows the
actual position of where the track fader is
| | 04:34 | at. So if I pull that down,
you'll see that readout changing.
| | 04:37 | So that's just telling me how much I'm turning
down the audio that's coming into that track.
| | 04:44 | Below that, we will see the Pan knob, and I
can pan right by pushing up, and pan left
| | 04:51 | by pulling down with that.
| | 04:53 | If I want to Reset that, all you need
to do is carefully click here in the
| | 04:57 | triangle that's at the top of the Pan knob.
| | 05:01 | Below that, these numbers number
the tracks, but they also act as Track
| | 05:06 | Activator buttons, or Mute buttons.
So if I click that, the track is now muted.
| | 05:12 | Below that is the Solo button.
| | 05:15 | Note at this point that the Solo and
Record Arm button, which is just below
| | 05:18 | that, both are affected by a
preference. So if go Command+Comma--that would be
| | 05:24 | the Ctrl+Comma on a PC--and go into
Preferences and then the Record Warp Launch
| | 05:29 | tab, we'll see that I have this
Exclusive category, and I have these two buttons
| | 05:35 | right here that have to do with the
Record Arm button and the Solo button.
| | 05:41 | Now, with those enabled--let me close that--
| | 05:45 | I can only solo one track at a time.
| | 05:48 | If I click another Solo button, notice
that it disables the other Solo button.
| | 05:53 | Now, I can override that by holding
down the Command key and adding a second
| | 05:58 | track. And I can clear that by
then clicking that Solo button again.
| | 06:02 | I will just go back in and change
that preference, so I'll take off the Solo
| | 06:07 | button. I am going to close this by
hitting the Escape key, by the way.
| | 06:11 | Now I can click a Solo button,
and I can add them without having to
| | 06:15 | Command+Click or Ctrl+Click these,
and I can take them off one at a time.
| | 06:20 | Now by the way, I can affect
multiple tracks with choices.
| | 06:26 | In this case, so I've got four tracks
soloed, I can simply go up and Shift+Click
| | 06:31 | their track nameplates and then come
down and click any one of those, and it
| | 06:36 | will clear all of them.
| | 06:37 | It's the same thing that now that
those are selected, I could also disable the
| | 06:42 | track activator switch, so on
and so forth. So that's handy.
| | 06:46 | And you can make those choices, once
again, by either Shift+Clicking a range or by
| | 06:51 | Command+Clicking or Ctrl+Clicking
to add noncontiguous selections.
| | 06:57 | I can record-enable a track by
clicking Record button and add another one,
| | 07:02 | again, by Command+Clicking or
Ctrl+Clicking a second track. And if I want to
| | 07:08 | change that, I can go back into
Preferences again and unclick the Arm button, and
| | 07:14 | now I can record-enable multiple
tracks without having to do that.
| | 07:18 | So, two different ways.
| | 07:21 | Okay, now that we've talked about the
items that are on each track, let's talk a
| | 07:25 | little bit about the signal flow.
| | 07:27 | The track ordering of these devices
down here at the bottom is not necessarily
| | 07:32 | related to the actual signal path.
| | 07:34 | Oftentimes, these things are organized
more by the frequency of use and not by
| | 07:39 | their actual order in the signal path.
| | 07:41 | So, at the top of everything is the
audio on the track--either your MIDI, or
| | 07:47 | your audio--and then you'd get your clips,
and then after that we would actually
| | 07:52 | get any devices that are added onto
that track--either virtual instruments or
| | 07:57 | any audio devices--and those would be
down here in your track Details area.
| | 08:04 | So, in this case, let's take a
look, for instance, at Pad-Iono.
| | 08:08 | So, I've got everything here that's
related to the virtual instrument. And then
| | 08:12 | if I pull over here to the right, we
can see that I do have a reverb and a
| | 08:16 | delayed phaser device on those as well.
| | 08:19 | So the signal was then coming into the
MIDI input on that track; then we get our
| | 08:24 | Clips, which then trigger this virtual
instrument to make sound; and then these
| | 08:29 | effects--in this case the reverb and phaser--
are inserted into the signal path on that device.
| | 08:35 | The path on that particular channel
then would continue down through these
| | 08:39 | devices. And when we get to the sends, we
would either copy the signal at that
| | 08:44 | point. The send over here,
| | 08:46 | you'll notice I've got a button that
says "Post." If I click that to Pre, the signal
| | 08:51 | will actually be copied at that point.
If it says "Post," the signal will continue
| | 08:57 | and past the sends down to your Volume
slider and then your Pan knob and then
| | 09:03 | hit the sends on the way out,
before hitting the track output.
| | 09:07 | If it's set to Pre, again, it's going to
go to track input, to devices, then to your
| | 09:13 | sends, and then to your
Volume slider, and Pan knob.
| | 09:17 | Let's take a quick look at the master
fader track. And I am going to close that
| | 09:22 | for a second, so we can
see a little bit more there.
| | 09:24 | So we have our master track, and note
that there are some things missing from the
| | 09:29 | Mixer area that we obviously see
over here on the audio and MIDI tracks.
| | 09:33 | So first of all, I don't have a
track input that's available, and that's
| | 09:37 | because master track takes its input
from whatever the output that is selected
| | 09:42 | here in the Output chooser.
| | 09:44 | By default, most systems are going to
use 1/2 as your main outputs--and once
| | 09:49 | again, I do have choices for 1/2, or if
I had a multi-output device, we would see
| | 09:54 | those available here as well.
| | 09:56 | But 1 2 is your typical choice.
| | 09:59 | I also don't have sends on the master
track. And we can see that I have the Post
| | 10:04 | and Pre buttons that relate to the sends,
| | 10:07 | but I don't actually have a send
that I can route out to a return track.
| | 10:11 | As well, I can't put clips on the
slots up here because these are actually
| | 10:15 | scene launch buttons.
| | 10:17 | Now, I can put an effect on the
master track by simply going over to my
| | 10:22 | devices, in the browser, and grabbing
one of those and either dropping it on
| | 10:27 | the Title bar at the top of a track or in the
Mixer area here at the bottom of the track.
| | 10:32 | If I'll let go, you'll see that limiter, in
this case, appear down here in the Details view.
| | 10:37 | Let me close that.
| | 10:40 | And before we finish, I'm going to tab
over to the Arrangement view, and let's take
| | 10:44 | a look at the Mixer
controls that are available there.
| | 10:47 | So on this Onna Drums track, I've
got the track Unfold button opened.
| | 10:52 | If I click that again, you
can see that open and close.
| | 10:57 | On the right here, I've got all the
buttons that were available also in the
| | 11:03 | Session view mixer. So I have got the
Track Activator button, and I've got Solo
| | 11:09 | and Record Arm buttons.
| | 11:11 | Now this is the Volume knob, and I want
you to notice that when I click on that,
| | 11:14 | you'll actually see the name of that
appear over here in the automation envelope
| | 11:20 | control, so that you know what you're doing.
| | 11:22 | So if I click on that, I can also
change the volume. And if I click on the one
| | 11:26 | here that says C, that's actually your
pan position, and I can drag up or down
| | 11:31 | to change that value, and we see the
envelope changing in respect to that.
| | 11:36 | And then I've also got 2 buttons here
for sends. So if I click on that, I can set
| | 11:41 | a level by dragging up or down.
| | 11:45 | And currently, I'm not seeing the IO
because that button is not enabled. So if
| | 11:49 | open the up, I can also see my
Input choosers and Output choosers and
| | 11:54 | Monitoring section.
| | 11:56 | It should be noted that you can use
either of these controls in Arrangement view
| | 12:01 | or the ones that are in Session view
where you are playing back the session from
| | 12:05 | whatever is actually showing here in
Arrangement view, and you'll actually see
| | 12:09 | those values change.
| | 12:11 | So if I go over on the Onna Drum track
here and change the fader amount--which
| | 12:16 | currently says -3--and pull that
down and take a look at that same thing in
| | 12:20 | Arrangement view, you will see
that those values will change.
| | 12:24 | And we'll talk more about
that in upcoming videos.
| | 12:27 | Okay, you should have a much better
understanding of what's going on in the Live mixer.
| | 12:31 | In the next lesson, we'll take this to
another level and learn how to use sends
| | 12:34 | and return tracks to add
delay and reverb to your songs.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using sends and returns| 00:00 | So, no song is complete without adding
reverb and creating a sense of space.
| | 00:04 | In this video, we'll learn how to use
sends and return tracks, so that multiple
| | 00:08 | tracks can access a
reverb or delay plug-in device.
| | 00:11 | Now, effects placed on audio or MIDI tracks
only affect the signal output from that track.
| | 00:16 | That's great for effects like EQs and
compressors, but other effects are more
| | 00:20 | CPU intensive and are more effective
when shared between two or more tracks.
| | 00:25 | I can do that using a send.
| | 00:26 | A send is a virtual wire that allows us
to copy signal from a track, or tracks,
| | 00:33 | and pick it up at a different location.
| | 00:35 | In this case, the send A connects over
to return track A. I can copy signal then
| | 00:41 | by just turning up the knob here on
that track, and that will be copied onto a
| | 00:45 | virtual wire--by the way we call that a
bus--and then that will dump over onto
| | 00:50 | this return track and run through any
effects that are placed on that track.
| | 00:53 | So let me go over here into my
Reverb Audio Effects category.
| | 00:58 | I'm going to grab one of
these and drop that on the track.
| | 01:01 | So we can see the reverb down here.
| | 01:04 | And importantly, you want to make sure that
you set the Dry/Wet percentage to 100% wet.
| | 01:10 | That means that we'll have only
process signal coming out this return track.
| | 01:15 | That's good because the dry signal, or
unprocessed signal, will come through the
| | 01:19 | tracks themselves, and then we can
balance the amount of reverb we want by
| | 01:24 | turning up the send and then adjusting
the master return level, which is going
| | 01:29 | to be the fader on the return track.
| | 01:31 | I can also differentiate between how
much reverb I want from one track to the
| | 01:35 | next by simply sending more signal from a
track that I want to get more reverb on.
| | 01:41 | So let's turn up this #4 track here that far,
and we'll turn up this one about like that.
| | 01:46 | When I hit Play, we should see
level on this track.
| | 01:49 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:53 | And we do.
| | 01:54 | So if I want more or less, again, I'll
just turn up more or less send on that
| | 01:59 | track. And then in the end, if I've got
too much total reverb, I can just adjust
| | 02:04 | that by pulling that down--or
if I want more, pushing it up.
| | 02:07 | Now delay effects are
frequently used in the same manner.
| | 02:13 | So I've got a B return track over here,
and I'm going to go into my effects.
| | 02:18 | Again, let's go into the
delays. Find Ping Pong Delay.
| | 02:23 | So I'll grab one of those.
| | 02:25 | I'll just grab the default and
drop that on the return track.
| | 02:29 | And again I need to make sure that my
Dry/Wet percentage is set to 100% wet.
| | 02:34 | Now, I'll use the B send for the
tracks that I want to delay to.
| | 02:39 | So if I want to add some on the Robo Scat
track and the pad #6 track there, I'll do that.
| | 02:47 | Again, when I hit Play, we should
see now a signal on the Ping Pong Track.
| | 02:51 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:55 | There you go.
| | 02:56 | Also, note that I've set the Ping Pong Delay.
| | 02:59 | I've got Sync on, which means that
it's sinking to the tempo of the session.
| | 03:03 | And then I'll set the delay time in
this one by choosing one of these numbers
| | 03:08 | between one and 16.
| | 03:10 | That's in terms of 16th notes.
| | 03:11 | So if I want an eighth note delay, I'll put
it on two, and that will give me two 16th notes.
| | 03:16 | Now if I want to use additional sends,
in Ableton they are essentially glued
| | 03:22 | to the return track.
| | 03:23 | So if I create a return track,
I'll get its associated send.
| | 03:27 | So now you'll see that I've got a return
track C, and I've got an additional row
| | 03:32 | now of sends on all the tracks that
are labeled C. You can do that for a total
| | 03:37 | of 12 return tracks.
| | 03:39 | So now that you know how to set up a
send and return track for use with effects,
| | 03:42 | experiment with adding reverb
and delay to your Live Sets.
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| Building headphone cues| 00:00 | What a musician hears when they record has a
big impact on the success of the performance.
| | 00:05 | In this video, we'll learn how to set
up a headphone cue in Ableton Live.
| | 00:08 | So, headphone cues can be set
up a couple of different ways.
| | 00:11 | The first method, we'll go to the
master track, and we'll use the cue method
| | 00:15 | that's available there.
| | 00:16 | And you'll notice that I have a Solo button.
Now, if I click that, it turns into the Cue button.
| | 00:22 | At the same time you notice that
these Solo buttons over here turned into
| | 00:26 | little headphones, or cues.
| | 00:27 | So anything that I now turn on with
those will be fed into the headphone
| | 00:32 | cue, and you can enable multiple
tracks from the headphone cue by
| | 00:36 | Command+Clicking on them.
| | 00:37 | I'm also going to include the reverb here
by Command+Clicking on this return track.
| | 00:41 | Now what I need to do is I need to
go up and I need to set the Cue Output
| | 00:45 | chooser to a different pair of outputs
than I'm sending the master output to.
| | 00:49 | I'm able to do that because I
have a multi-output interface.
| | 00:53 | Let's take a look at Preferences.
| | 00:55 | And go Command+Comma to open that up--
that would be Ctrl+Comma on a PC--and I go
| | 01:00 | to the Audio Output Device. And if I
click the Config button, we'll notice that
| | 01:04 | my interface has four outputs enabled right now.
| | 01:08 | So three and four are going to be my cue output.
| | 01:11 | Now if you have an interface that only has
two outputs, you actually won't be able to that.
| | 01:16 | You have to have a multi-output interface.
| | 01:19 | So I'll close that.
| | 01:21 | I've got those three tracks enabled for the
cue, and I've got the cue set to the out.
| | 01:27 | That's good.
| | 01:28 | And now I can control the total amount
of signal by dialing in on this knob here.
| | 01:32 | And the in first time you check this,
you might want to make sure that you turn
| | 01:35 | it down, so it's not too loud.
| | 01:36 | So I'll go ahead and hit play.
| | 01:38 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:44 | Okay, we see that we've got
signal happening there for the cue.
| | 01:47 | Now in this particular example, or this
method of setting up a headphone cue, the
| | 01:52 | levels that are set in are the
identical levels that are on the tracks--or I
| | 01:57 | should say the mix is identical to
what's being heard in the control room.
| | 02:01 | Another way to do that is to not use
this built-in cuing. So I've gone back.
| | 02:05 | I am going to put those on solo, so
that we are back to Normal mode.
| | 02:08 | And I've got an additional
return track here, A return.
| | 02:12 | I've also set that to outputs three and four.
| | 02:15 | Now I can get signal onto this track
by going ahead and turning on the send.
| | 02:21 | If I want more drums than bass, I'll turn
that up and turn the bass down a little bit.
| | 02:27 | I'm also going to add a little bit here on
the return track, going on to that same send.
| | 02:33 | I'm also going to set the send to be pre-fader.
| | 02:38 | The reason I'm going to do that is
because as I copy the signal onto the send,
| | 02:42 | it's not going to be affected by the
position of the faders on the tracks;
| | 02:47 | therefore if I am working in the
control room, and I make a volume change on a
| | 02:50 | track, it won't affect what's
been set into the headphone cue.
| | 02:54 | The fastest way to get a musician to
stop playing is to actually change a level
| | 02:58 | on a track during playback, so that
they can hear it in their headphones.
| | 03:02 | So now with the pre-fader send, I can
do that, but since I'm picking off the
| | 03:06 | signal on the send before the fader, that
won't be heard in the headphone cue. Okay.
| | 03:11 | So I've got that send A set to go over
to this return track, which I've set to
| | 03:15 | the additional outputs three and four.
| | 03:18 | I've got those set pre-send, and now I
can control the total amount total amount
| | 03:22 | of signal that's been copied onto that,
and sent to the headphone cue by using
| | 03:26 | this fader on this track over here.
| | 03:28 | So if I go ahead and click to play
we should see signal on this track.
| | 03:31 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:35 | Okay. So setting up a cue for recording
is a crucial but often overlooked part
| | 03:40 | of making a recording.
| | 03:41 | Now you know two ways to create a cue
in Live and should be able to make the
| | 03:45 | crankiest of musicians comfortable
in your next live recording session.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Grouping tracks| 00:00 | With a DAW like Ableton Live, we are not
really limited by the number of tracks,
| | 00:04 | and so often our projects and sets get
very difficult to manage because of a
| | 00:08 | large number of tracks.
| | 00:10 | In this video, we'll take a look at
how to group tracks together for both
| | 00:13 | organizational and musical purposes.
| | 00:15 | It's often more convenient to combine
the outputs of two or more tracks because it
| | 00:19 | helps to organize a session, and it
gives you fewer faders to manage when
| | 00:22 | mixing, and you also might want to treat
multiple tracks with identical effects.
| | 00:27 | So creating groups in Ableton Live is very easy.
| | 00:30 | All we need to do is select the tracks
that we want to include in the group.
| | 00:34 | So let me Shift+Click the drum tracks
that I have here, and now I can either
| | 00:38 | right-click and choose Group Tracks, or
I can use the key command, Command+G on
| | 00:44 | a Mac or Ctrl+G on a PC,
and I've grouped the tracks.
| | 00:49 | So let's take a look at
what we have happening here.
| | 00:51 | So I still have all of the tracks
that are part of my drums, but now I have
| | 00:56 | this additional group track, and I might
want to go ahead and Command+R and rename that--
| | 01:01 | that would be Ctrl+R on a PC.
| | 01:05 | Next to that, I do see that
there is a Track Unfold button.
| | 01:08 | So if I click that, I'll only see the
group track. But for right now, let's make
| | 01:12 | sure that we can see all
the tracks by re-opening that.
| | 01:16 | So I still have the mix that I had
with the drums when I started, and
| | 01:21 | their individual levels.
| | 01:22 | But if we look at the track outputs,
we can see that they're now going to a
| | 01:27 | group, which is our drums.
| | 01:30 | Over on the drum track itself, I see
this little icon here that indicates to me
| | 01:36 | that on this particular slot, I've got clips.
| | 01:40 | So, on these first three clip slots, we
do see that I have got clips, and now I
| | 01:45 | can launch those as a group by
simply clicking on a Group Launch button.
| | 01:50 | So let me stop those from playing, and
now I'll click one of those, so we can
| | 01:54 | see that launch all of
the clips within that group.
| | 01:57 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:04 | Okay, so that's really handy.
| | 02:05 | So some other things that are going on
there, in addition, is that within the
| | 02:10 | group I can still have
individual effects on individual tracks.
| | 02:14 | So if I bring up the kick track here,
I can see that I do have an EQ and a
| | 02:20 | compressor that are on the kick
track in the device chain on inserts.
| | 02:25 | If I go to the snare track, I'll see
that there currently aren't any effects:
| | 02:30 | Snare Bottom, nothing; HiHat,
nothing; so on and so forth.
| | 02:34 | And I also still have
all of the sends available.
| | 02:37 | So if I want to do something with reverb
with all of these tracks, I can do that.
| | 02:41 | Let me close this temporarily.
| | 02:43 | So we see our sends down here, and I do
have a reverb loaded over here on return A.
| | 02:51 | So all I need to do is choose any tracks
that I want to add reverb to, and I can
| | 02:55 | raise those send levels.
| | 02:57 | So I probably want some on my snare,
and maybe a little on the hi-hat and
| | 03:03 | definitely some on my overheads.
| | 03:06 | But notice that I can leave the kick
track alone, and I won't get any reverb
| | 03:10 | added to that particular track.
| | 03:12 | So let's hit Play, and let's check that out.
| | 03:15 | (Drums playing.)
| | 03:22 | So we can hear there is a little bit of
reverb added to the snare and those other
| | 03:26 | tracks but nothing that's happening to
the kick, when we saw the level that was
| | 03:29 | associated with that.
| | 03:30 | So that's really cool.
| | 03:31 | So the groups don't get in the way of
having individual send amounts or having
| | 03:37 | individual effects added
on a track-by-track basis.
| | 03:40 | In addition to providing kind of this
organizational thing, so that we can hide
| | 03:45 | that and not see all of these
tracks, what else do they do for us?
| | 03:49 | Well, one thing: I can now raise and
lower the level of the drum tracks by simply
| | 03:54 | using this one fader.
| | 03:55 | Let's check that out.
| | 03:57 | (Drums playing.)
| | 04:04 | So I still have my drum mix here, but
if I need to make an adjustment about how
| | 04:09 | all of those drums fit into a mix within
a larger session, I can simply raise or
| | 04:14 | lower that volume by using
the fader on the group track.
| | 04:18 | Another thing that I can do is if I
like overall how the individual tracks
| | 04:22 | sound, but there might be a little bit too
much low end or a little bit too much high end,
| | 04:28 | I can actually add an effect at the
group level, and that will affect the signal
| | 04:32 | of all of the tracks that
are flowing through that group.
| | 04:35 | So if I come up here and grab like
an EQ Eight and drop that on the group
| | 04:40 | track, now the signals that are flowing
from the individual tracks are flowing
| | 04:45 | onto the group track, and they're going through
this EQ before they're going out to the master.
| | 04:53 | So let's say if I boost the low end a
little bit and I boost the high end a
| | 04:57 | little bit, now all these signals that
are flowing through here are going to go
| | 05:01 | through the drum group, through the
EQ, and have that EQ effect that I've
| | 05:07 | added, and then go out to the audio output--
which is the master in this case--and over here.
| | 05:14 | So, let's check that out.
| | 05:16 | (Drums playing.)
| | 05:22 | Okay, so I was playing that.
| | 05:24 | You'll notice that you saw some signal
over here in the meter by the EQ to show
| | 05:28 | that the signal was flowing through
that on its way through the device chain.
| | 05:33 | So groups are really cool, and in effect
what's happened here is I have actually
| | 05:37 | sub-mixed these tracks together.
| | 05:40 | And that is simply a term that we use
when we take all of the signals from a
| | 05:44 | number of tracks and put them together
before they go on to be further mixed.
| | 05:49 | And that's something that's very
commonly done in Live sound. And in the case
| | 05:53 | of mixing in a DAW,
| | 05:55 | we often do that to reduce the number
of tracks that we are working with. But I
| | 05:59 | would note at this point that I
have spoken with a number of well-known
| | 06:03 | engineers, and they all say that in
the end that they feel that sub-mixing
| | 06:07 | tracks also lends to
resulting with better-sounding audio.
| | 06:12 | Now at this point, all of the tracks
are going through this group, and it may
| | 06:16 | be that after adding this affect you
might think, "Well, hey, you know, I don't
| | 06:20 | want to run the kick through there," but
that's really helping everything else.
| | 06:24 | So I still can go to the audio output
on this one kick track and route that
| | 06:29 | back to the master, so that now these
tracks are part of the group, in terms of
| | 06:35 | the audio signals that are passing
through this track, and the kick has now
| | 06:39 | been separated from that. But visually and
organizationally, it's still part of the group.
| | 06:45 | One last thing that I comment on before
we finish this video is that in terms of
| | 06:50 | working in the Session view window, the
one other thing that using groups gives
| | 06:55 | us is the ability to trigger, or launch,
a number of clips without having to do
| | 07:01 | that through clicking a Scene Launch button.
| | 07:04 | So if you've got multiple groups or A
group and other tracks that have clips on
| | 07:09 | them, you can launch them separately by
clicking on a Group Launch button and
| | 07:16 | then adding other tracks playing back,
rather than having to do that all through
| | 07:20 | Scene Launch button. And that does give
you just one more level of versatility
| | 07:24 | and power that we didn't have before
there with group tracks in Ableton Live.
| | 07:29 | So grouping tracks is easy,
and it solves a lot of problems.
| | 07:33 | It also gives us more
options for shaping our projects.
| | 07:36 | So the next time you're trying to figure
out how to add an effect to all of your
| | 07:39 | drum or guitar parts,
remember to try grouping the tracks.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
10. Signal ProcessingWorking with effect devices| 00:00 | Individual tracks often need a little bit
of help to fit and mix with the other tracks.
| | 00:04 | In this video, we'll talk about effects
devices that can solve those problems, and
| | 00:08 | how they're added to a track in Ableton Live.
| | 00:10 | So audio signal processors are a group
of devices that can be used to change
| | 00:14 | some characteristic of an audio signal.
For example, an EQ or a filter can be
| | 00:19 | used to change the tone of signal, or a
compressor can be used to control the
| | 00:23 | dynamic range of a signal.
| | 00:25 | So adding an effect to a track is very easy.
| | 00:28 | All we need to do is allocate an
effect over in the Device browser, which I'm
| | 00:32 | already in here, and drag and
dropping it either on the track nameplate or
| | 00:38 | down here in Device view. And before
I do that, let me just add that audio
| | 00:42 | effects, which we we're looking at
here, can be added to both audio and MIDI
| | 00:46 | tracks, but on MIDI tracks
| | 00:48 | they have to be added after the
virtual instrument. And I am seeing the macro
| | 00:52 | here for the Impulse drum plug-in
that's providing the drum sounds.
| | 00:56 | So when I drag that onto the nameplate
and let go, it's added in the chain after
| | 01:02 | the actual virtual instrument.
| | 01:04 | If I want to get rid of that, I can
simply click on the title bar and hit my
| | 01:09 | Delete key, or I can select that and go
Command+X on a Mac or Ctrl+X on a PC to
| | 01:17 | cut that device and delete it.
| | 01:19 | Now I can either add a
device itself or a preset.
| | 01:23 | So if I click on the little disclosure
triangle here and go into the Category--
| | 01:28 | since I am looking at drums,
I'll go into that folder--
| | 01:31 | I'll find a preset that is a collection
of the parameters in that particular EQ.
| | 01:35 | So let's say I want something for snare EQ.
| | 01:38 | If I drag and drop that on the track,
we can see that the device itself is
| | 01:42 | already set up, with some
of the parameters adjusted.
| | 01:46 | Now, by dropping this EQ on the track,
in effect I have dropped it on what we
| | 01:50 | refer to as a track insert.
| | 01:52 | So this effect is only processing
the signal that's running through
| | 01:56 | this particular track.
| | 01:58 | Now if I switch to another track, I can
do the same thing. And I can go into a
| | 02:02 | different category, let's say I want some
kind of filter, and I can drag and drop
| | 02:07 | that there, and now this EQ
is only affecting this track.
| | 02:11 | So, one track at a time.
| | 02:13 | Now you will notice across the top of
the effects we are adding here--and I'll
| | 02:17 | go back to the Drum track--that the
controls across the top are the same in the
| | 02:23 | header at the top of the plug-in.
| | 02:25 | So on the far left, I have what's
referred to as the Activator button, and that
| | 02:30 | allows me to temporarily bypass the
signal that's flowing through that
| | 02:34 | processor, or reactivate it.
| | 02:36 | I can also come over here and click
on what we call a Hot Swap button.
| | 02:40 | So if I don't like this particular
preset, I can click on that, and now I can
| | 02:45 | simply go back into the presets that
are available here and double-click.
| | 02:49 | So now that Hat EQ 2 preset has replaced
the previous preset. And you can simply
| | 02:55 | listen and load new presets, until you
get something that's either what you want
| | 03:00 | or close to what you want--at which point
you can make changes to the preset settings.
| | 03:05 | If I like the changes that I make--for
instance, if I change this Floor Tom EQ
| | 03:11 | into a slightly different configuration--
I can save that as my own preset by
| | 03:17 | their clicking on the Save Preset
button here--at which point it shows up in
| | 03:22 | the folder that I originally pulled
that preset from, and I can rename it and
| | 03:27 | call that "My EQ"--or I can simply drag
and drop that over here into the folder.
| | 03:34 | And you will notice that it's advanced it one
number, and I can give that a different name.
| | 03:42 | I can also put multiple plug-
ins in the same device chain.
| | 03:47 | So I might want to use EQ
here and then also a Compressor.
| | 03:50 | Now when drag that device onto the
device chain, notice that I can either put it
| | 03:57 | before the EQ--you see the gold
line there, indicating if I let go with my
| | 04:01 | mouse where that device will be
added--or I can add it afterwards.
| | 04:04 | But one thing I can't do in this case
is put it before the plug-in. Remember,
| | 04:11 | audio effect devices have to
go after the virtual instrument.
| | 04:14 | So I'll drop it over here on the end,
and now I can make changes, and I've got
| | 04:19 | a device chain created.
| | 04:21 | One of the nice things about this
setup is that I do get meters after each
| | 04:25 | device in the chain so that I can
check my audio levels, so that if I get too
| | 04:29 | much gain in one place I can
make adjustments where necessary.
| | 04:32 | So let's check that out.
| | 04:34 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:43 | So you see all along there that I had
levels showing in each of the meters, so
| | 04:47 | it's showing me the status of
the signal at any one point.
| | 04:50 | So now that you know how to add effects
to a track, experiment adding effects to
| | 04:53 | tracks, and listen to what they can do.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding EQ and filters| 00:00 | In this video, we will take a closer
look at EQs and filters, learn about their
| | 00:03 | basic parameters, and discuss
when and how to use EQ-type devices.
| | 00:07 | So EQs are devices that change the
tone, or frequency response, of the signal.
| | 00:12 | And it's likely that you're probably
familiar with the type of EQ called the
| | 00:16 | graphic EQ, where there are several
sliders, each one assigned to a particular
| | 00:21 | portion of the frequency band and
you can raise that to increase that
| | 00:26 | particular frequency
range or lower it to decrease it.
| | 00:29 | But graphic EQs are not found
in a DAW like Ableton Live.
| | 00:33 | It's much more likely that you are going to
find something that's called a parametric EQ.
| | 00:38 | And in Live, we have one that
is referred to as the EQ Eight.
| | 00:42 | So I am going to grab that here from
the Live Device browser, and I am going to
| | 00:46 | drag and drop that on the EQ track.
And let me minimize this virtual instrument
| | 00:51 | by double-clicking on it.
| | 00:53 | Now I can see the EQ, and we can
talk about the parameters here.
| | 00:58 | So on the left-hand side, I have got
buttons that allow me to activate or
| | 01:02 | deactivate a particular band.
| | 01:05 | Right now, I've got four that are active,
and then I have these little switches
| | 01:09 | to choose that band, so I
can adjust its parameters.
| | 01:13 | The key to this process is these switches
that are down here on the bottom. These
| | 01:16 | are called the filter shapes.
| | 01:19 | And if we look at the line that
goes across the middle of the EQ, this
| | 01:22 | represents what's happening to the
signal as it passes through the device.
| | 01:27 | On the left-hand side we have low
frequencies, and on the right-hand side we
| | 01:30 | have high frequencies.
| | 01:32 | And if the line is flat, nothing is
happening to the signal as it passes
| | 01:36 | through the device.
| | 01:37 | Now if I click on one of these filter
shapes, we will start to see what will happen.
| | 01:40 | So this first one is called a high
pass, or low cut, filter, and you notice that
| | 01:46 | that's exactly what it's doing.
| | 01:47 | It's reducing the frequencies that
pass through here on this portion of
| | 01:51 | the frequency range.
| | 01:53 | So we have several of them available.
| | 01:55 | We have high pass, or low cut, and then
the next one here would be referred to as
| | 01:59 | a shelving filter, which is going to
allow me to boost or cut frequencies above
| | 02:04 | or below a certain frequency.
| | 02:05 | In this case, I can boost
everything below 130 Hz.
| | 02:09 | I have also got a band pass filter
which allows me to boost or cut frequencies
| | 02:17 | around a center frequency;
| | 02:20 | a notch filter that allows me to make
a deep cut at some particular frequency;
| | 02:24 | and then on the high end, we also have
shelving filters; and also in this case, a
| | 02:30 | low-pass, or high-cut, filter.
| | 02:32 | So, how might we go about using this?
| | 02:34 | Well, first of all, it's a good idea to
listen to a track and make some general
| | 02:40 | observations about things that you
want to change, or that you don't like.
| | 02:43 | For examples there may be too much bass
on something or too much midrange or not
| | 02:49 | enough high, and just make
some general observations.
| | 02:52 | And then when you start working with
the track, you can then focus on those
| | 02:56 | things that you want to fix.
| | 02:58 | And each instrument is likely to have a
number of different frequency areas that
| | 03:02 | you're going to need to work with.
| | 03:04 | For instance, on a kick drum, the
fundamental is often around 70-80 Hz, midrange
| | 03:10 | around 200 to 300 Hz, and
the snap up words of maybe 2K.
| | 03:16 | So if I wanted to adjust some of that
midrange honk that's frequently found
| | 03:20 | with a kick drum, I might start around 220 Hz.
| | 03:22 | And I will leave band one alone here
because I might want to do something with the
| | 03:27 | low range later on.
| | 03:28 | Let me use this second band.
| | 03:30 | So I will dial that frequency down
into the 200-225 Hz area. And then to help
| | 03:37 | me find the problem, I am going to take the
Gain knob, and I am going to boost that area.
| | 03:42 | And I might boost it considerably, so it
helps me dial in on what the problem is.
| | 03:47 | And then as I play the track back, I'm
going to take that frequency, and I'm
| | 03:51 | going to sweep it back and forth and
try and find a little bit closer
| | 03:55 | what's happening with that problem area.
| | 03:57 | (Drums playing.)
| | 04:00 | Let me solo that track, so
I can just hear the kick.
| | 04:03 | (Kick drum playing.)
| | 04:13 | Okay, around about 390-400 Hz, I
was hearing that midrange frequencies
| | 04:18 | accentuated that I really don't want.
| | 04:20 | So at that point, I will take the Gain knob and
actually pull it down and cut at that frequency.
| | 04:27 | Now right now, I'm cutting a pretty
wide band around that center frequency
| | 04:31 | at 390. And I can adjust that by taking the Q,
or Contour knob, and narrowing or widening that.
| | 04:39 | So again, I will give it a
listen as I make that adjustment.
| | 04:42 | (Kick drum playing.)
| | 04:49 | And with a little bit narrower Q, I'm starting
to get the clarity that I want on that kick drum.
| | 04:55 | If you don't know about those basic
frequencies associated with each instrument,
| | 04:59 | that's something that
you'll need to learn over time.
| | 05:01 | Now to help you with that, there is
a nice plug in here in Live called
| | 05:05 | the Spectrum plug-in.
| | 05:07 | And I can take that and drag that and
drop that on the track, and I am going to
| | 05:11 | put that before the EQ. And this plug-
in will do a spectrum analysis, or a frequency
| | 05:16 | analysis, of the signal that's passing
through the track and show me where the
| | 05:21 | peaks and values are in the signal.
| | 05:22 | (Kick drum playing.)
| | 05:27 | So in this case I can see the
fundamental is actually down there around about 42
| | 05:31 | Hz, and then there's another
bump up here a little bit higher.
| | 05:35 | (Kick drum playing.)
| | 05:39 | That's at about twice the fundamental
frequency, which makes a lot of sense
| | 05:43 | because the other frequencies that are
part of that kick drum sound are going to
| | 05:48 | be mathematical multiples of that fundamental.
| | 05:51 | So I will see something around 85 or
90, and then three times that at 120, and
| | 05:56 | four times that, so on and so forth.
| | 05:59 | If you don't know about those magic
frequencies that are associated with each
| | 06:03 | instrument, you can use the Spectrum
plug-in, and there is also a lot of great
| | 06:07 | articles and books out there.
| | 06:08 | For example, you might take a look
at Bobby Owsinski's book on mixing.
| | 06:12 | The other plug-in that we have here for
EQ that you should know about is the EQ
| | 06:16 | Three and let me drag and drop that
on to the snare track, for example.
| | 06:21 | Now we can see that this
is a much simpler device.
| | 06:25 | So that if you don't need to dial in
on eight separate bands and you don't need
| | 06:29 | that fine adjustment using the Q knob,
this might be the device for you.
| | 06:34 | So this one has three
bands as the name suggests:
| | 06:36 | we've got a low, mid and high band.
And you can activate that by clicking on
| | 06:41 | these switches here.
| | 06:44 | And you can either boost or cut that
band by moving the associated knob. And
| | 06:49 | as well, you can set the limit of the
low frequency range by dialing this knob
| | 06:55 | here, and that will set how large the
range is here with the low frequency
| | 07:00 | area and this low frequency boost cut,
and the same thing over here with the
| | 07:05 | high frequency range.
| | 07:07 | So remember that using EQ is not
always about making a track sound great;
| | 07:11 | it's about helping it to fit in a mix.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using compressors and dynamic processors| 00:00 | In this video, we will learn about
compressors and other dynamic processors,
| | 00:03 | become familiar with their parameters,
and discuss when and how to use them.
| | 00:07 | As a group, dynamic processors are
devices that change the dynamic range of a
| | 00:10 | signal, and they include a number of
different devices, like compressors,
| | 00:15 | limiters, expanders, and gates.
| | 00:18 | We might use them to reduce the dynamic
range of a signal that would otherwise
| | 00:21 | be too big to capture;
| | 00:23 | we might narrow the dynamic range of a
signal so that fits in a mix better, like
| | 00:26 | a vocal for instance; or even out the
attacks of rhythm guitarist or bassist.
| | 00:31 | So let's add a compressor
to the kick drum track here.
| | 00:34 | Let me go in the Live Device
browser and find the compressor.
| | 00:37 | I am going to drag that on to the
kick track and drop that after the EQ.
| | 00:43 | So the line here in the middle of this
graph display shows us what's happening
| | 00:47 | to the signal as it
passes through the compressor.
| | 00:49 | When the line goes from the lower
left-hand corner straight up to the upper
| | 00:53 | right-hand corner, nothing is happening.
| | 00:55 | So the first thing that we would do would
be to determine where to put the threshold.
| | 00:59 | And the threshold determines when the
compressor will actually start working.
| | 01:04 | When the signal is below the
threshold, nothing is happening.
| | 01:07 | When it goes above the threshold,
that's when the compressor kicks in.
| | 01:10 | So I am going to play the track, and I
am going to set that threshold point.
| | 01:14 | (Drums playing.)
| | 01:27 | Okay, and as I move the threshold down,
you heard some of the soft sounds in the
| | 01:31 | kick track actually get picked up,
and they are little bit louder now.
| | 01:34 | That's part of what happens with the compressor.
| | 01:36 | Even though it's kind of pushing down
on the top of the signal, in the end, we
| | 01:41 | are actually going to make
the overall signal louder.
| | 01:44 | So after I set the
threshold, I will set the ratio.
| | 01:47 | And the ratio determines how much
compression is actually going to happen.
| | 01:50 | So if you think of the ratio as, on
the left-hand side, the input, and the
| | 01:55 | right-hand side, the output, it will
help you to understand what it's doing.
| | 01:58 | So a ratio of 2:1 says that after I cross
the threshold for every 2dBs that I pass
| | 02:06 | the threshold, I'll only output 1.
| | 02:08 | So if I go over the threshold by 10
decibels, I'll actually only output an
| | 02:13 | additional 5 decibels.
| | 02:15 | A ratio of anywhere in the 1:1 up to 3:1,
that's kind of a modest amount of compression;
| | 02:20 | 3:1 up into the 6:1 range,
that's kind of a medium amount;
| | 02:25 | and then anything over 7 up into the
10 range is actually getting into quite
| | 02:29 | a bit of compression.
| | 02:30 | So with a kick drum like this, I might start
somewhere in the 3, upwards of maybe 5:1 ratio.
| | 02:36 | Let's give that a shot.
| | 02:37 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:49 | Okay. I like what I'm starting to get at that point.
| | 02:52 | After the ratio, I would move to the
attack and release times and adjust them.
| | 02:56 | Now initially, I would suggest that
you start with longer attack times and
| | 03:00 | shorter release times.
| | 03:02 | And part of the reason why is that
with really short attack times, you're
| | 03:05 | actually going to wipe out a lot of the
high-frequency content that's contained
| | 03:09 | within a particular sound, because a lot
of the high frequencies are around that
| | 03:14 | attack. And if we lose those, a lot of
times you end up with a very muffled,
| | 03:18 | lackluster sound. And so it's best to
start with them a little bit longer and then
| | 03:22 | dial those into taste.
| | 03:24 | And it's also different
with different instruments.
| | 03:26 | On a snare drum or kick drum, they
have pretty fast attacks, and so around one
| | 03:31 | millisecond is probably going to work.
But with other instruments that have
| | 03:35 | longer attacks, that could
actually really have an adverse effect.
| | 03:39 | So let's work with that attack time.
| | 03:41 | (Drums playing.)
| | 04:03 | So hopefully you heard that as I
dialed the attack time down to zero, we
| | 04:06 | actually started to lose a lot of the
punch on that. And as soon as I got that
| | 04:10 | little bit over one millisecond, it
really started to sound a lot better.
| | 04:14 | Now the last thing that I would take a
look at with a compressor is, as I use it
| | 04:19 | to compress the signal, I am actually
going to lose gain. And our purpose is not
| | 04:23 | to actually make the signals softer, but
to make the average level in a tighter
| | 04:28 | dynamic range, and that's going to
help us to fit it into the track.
| | 04:32 | And so one of the last things
we do is set the output level.
| | 04:35 | Now Live has a nice setting here where
you can actually do that automatically by
| | 04:39 | clicking this Makeup switch, and then
you can dial in fine adjustments using
| | 04:43 | this slider right here.
| | 04:45 | So one of the things that I'll do is
play the track, and I will click the
| | 04:49 | activator switch on the plug-in to
actually bypass it, so that I can kind of
| | 04:53 | compare the overall levels.
| | 04:55 | (Drums playing.)
| | 05:13 | Okay. And I was just touching up on the
Ratio just a little bit there. I was
| | 05:16 | hearing a little bit of decay was
being lifted up in kind of a negative way
| | 05:20 | that might add to that mix.
| | 05:22 | So that's a compressor.
| | 05:23 | Another device that we might use
that's a similar device, and that's
| | 05:26 | referred to as limiter. And a limiter is actually
a kind of compressor that uses heavy compression.
| | 05:33 | And you might use a limiter in live
sound to protect your speakers, but in
| | 05:37 | mixing and mastering, limiters are
more often used to increase the overall
| | 05:40 | loudness of a mix by
reducing the overall dynamic range.
| | 05:44 | And so oftentimes, we will put a
limiter actually on your master track.
| | 05:49 | So let me grab that, drop that
over here on the master track.
| | 05:53 | Now, we can see that we have
fewer parameters to deal with here.
| | 05:56 | So the Gain knob actually boosts the
level before limiting occurs, and then
| | 06:02 | our ceiling amount sets a point at which
the level of the signal can't get any louder.
| | 06:07 | And then last but not least, the Stereo
setting actually determines whether or
| | 06:11 | not the limiter is being applied to the
left and right together, or separately.
| | 06:18 | And I would suggest in most cases,
you're going to want to actually apply it to
| | 06:21 | both channels simultaneously because
if you don't do that and you have a lot
| | 06:27 | more signal on one side and you compress
only that side, you can actually end up
| | 06:32 | skewing the stereo image.
| | 06:34 | So let's give this a listen, and I am
going to kind of boost the gain and set my
| | 06:38 | ceiling level so that get the
overall sound that I'm looking for.
| | 06:41 | (Drums playing.)
| | 07:00 | So you can hear how I am overall
getting a higher average of signal level, but
| | 07:05 | at the same time I was actually
looking over here at the fader on my master
| | 07:08 | track, and it was always
peaking just below that 0 level.
| | 07:13 | So I was down there at that -0.94 level.
| | 07:17 | So dynamic processors, like compressors and
limiters, are complicated devices and often misused.
| | 07:23 | Practice using them to get
familiar with what they can do and how the
| | 07:26 | results sound.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Building interesting effects with delay effect processing| 00:00 | In this video, we will learn
about delay effect devices and
| | 00:02 | how they can help turn a stale mix
into a much more interesting song.
| | 00:06 | Delays are devices that delay or hold a copy
of a signal for a user-defined amount of time.
| | 00:10 | When the delayed signal is mixed back
in with the unprocessed signal, it adds a
| | 00:14 | sense of depth, or dimension.
| | 00:15 | There are several types of delay effects
devices, which are defined by the amount
| | 00:20 | of delay time and the
presence, or lack, of modulation.
| | 00:23 | For example, doubling, echo, slap back,
repeating delay effects typically don't
| | 00:28 | use modulation, whereas flanging,
phase shifting, and chorusing do.
| | 00:32 | So I have got a track set
up here called Simple Delay.
| | 00:35 | And I have got a virtual instrument
plug in on it and of couple of different
| | 00:38 | delay devices that we are going to look at.
| | 00:41 | So first of all, I will play a note, so
that we can hear that we don't have any delay.
| | 00:43 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:46 | I am going to activate this first
delay by clicking on the Activator button.
| | 00:51 | And let's take a look at the parameters.
| | 00:52 | So first of all I can set the delay time.
| | 00:55 | And I can do that in terms of having the
delays synched to the rhythm of the song.
| | 01:00 | So right now these eight buttons here
will determine the amount of delay time
| | 01:04 | based upon 16th notes.
| | 01:06 | So 1 would be 1/16th note, 2 would
be 2/16th or an 8th note, and so on.
| | 01:13 | I can unclick this Sync
button, and it will show Time.
| | 01:16 | And now I can set that in
increments of a specific time.
| | 01:20 | Right now, it's on 100 milliseconds.
| | 01:23 | So now if I press a key on my keyboard,
I should hear that I've got the delay in.
| | 01:29 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:32 | And we're hearing several repeats happen.
| | 01:34 | That's because I've got this
Feedback switch turned up down here, at the
| | 01:37 | bottom of the Delay.
| | 01:39 | And what the Feedback does is actually
take the delayed signal and return it
| | 01:43 | back to the input of the delay so that
it can be delayed at the second time.
| | 01:47 | So you get a repeat of the repeat, and so on.
| | 01:50 | So if I set this on 0, we
should hear just one repeat.
| | 01:54 | (Music playing.)
There you go.
| | 01:56 | And as I increase this, you
will hear more and more repeats.
| | 01:59 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:04 | Now with this particular delay, I can
actually have a left and a right delay set up.
| | 02:09 | Right now, they're linked together.
| | 02:11 | If I unclick the Linking button, you
will notice that I get one delay time for the
| | 02:15 | left and a different one for the right.
| | 02:17 | And in this case, I have got it set for
a 16th on left and then a quarter note on right.
| | 02:21 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:25 | And last but not least, I
have a Dry/Wet setting here.
| | 02:28 | Now when you place a time-based effect
like a delay on a track, you are going
| | 02:33 | to want to determine the amount of
unprocessed signal to process signal, or dry to wet.
| | 02:38 | If I set this all away to the dry
side, I won't get any effect at all.
| | 02:42 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:44 | Now if I set it all away over to the wet side--
(Music playing.)
| | 02:48 | In effect, all I'm doing is just delaying
that by the increment that I have here.
| | 02:53 | I am not actually hearing the dry signal.
| | 02:56 | So you are probably going to want to set
this somewhere more in the middle to taste.
| | 03:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:02 | Okay. So that's one of Live's basic delay devices.
| | 03:06 | Another one is this PingPong delay device.
| | 03:09 | And this is very, very similar,
with the exception that I have this EQ
| | 03:14 | circuit that it's included.
| | 03:15 | And what I can do here is I can set
a center frequency and then a cue
| | 03:20 | amount on how wide around that center
frequency that I am allowing signal to pass through.
| | 03:26 | Outside of this orange line here, on the
other sides, I'm actually rolling off or
| | 03:31 | cutting back on the EQ.
| | 03:33 | So again, I can move these center
frequencies around, determine where I want that,
| | 03:38 | and then with this setting I can
actually open or close the cue.
| | 03:43 | So I'm letting more or
less signal passed through.
| | 03:45 | Let's see what that sounds like.
| | 03:46 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:50 | You can kind hear the degradation of
the signal, in terms of the frequency.
| | 03:54 | And if I move this around,
you'll hear that change in time.
| | 03:57 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:04 | So that can create a very interesting
and useful effect, and later on when we
| | 04:08 | talk about automation, we will talk
about how you can actually automate a
| | 04:11 | parameter on a plug-in so it
actually changes in real time.
| | 04:15 | Now I am going to go over
this filter delay track.
| | 04:18 | I will activate that one.
| | 04:21 | And we'll see here that I have kind of
combination of the two devices we saw
| | 04:24 | on the other track.
| | 04:26 | I actually we have three delays, now I
have independent settings for each one.
| | 04:30 | So I have got Delay Time, Feedback--
as well, I have little EQ circuit.
| | 04:35 | But I can do that independently for
three different delays, and I can also pan
| | 04:40 | those left, right, and center--however I want--
| | 04:43 | and then set a volume, or gain
level, for each one of the three,
| | 04:47 | and then and overall output on that.
| | 04:50 | And this could end up
creating a very, very rich sound.
| | 04:53 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:00 | So right now, I have got one of these set at
an 8th note, the right side is set on
| | 05:05 | a quarter note, and the center is
set 1/16th past the quarter note.
| | 05:10 | So that creates a very,
very interesting delay effect.
| | 05:13 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:17 | Moving on, let's take a look at what we
have got happening here on the chorus track.
| | 05:21 | Chorus is an effect that
uses a most amount of delay.
| | 05:24 | In this particularly plug in, I
have actually got two delay lines.
| | 05:27 | One is currently set to 18.9 milliseconds--
| | 05:31 | you can change with this slider--and a
second one that I have currently got
| | 05:35 | such 13.4 milliseconds.
| | 05:37 | But one of the additional things that we
are going to do here is we are actually
| | 05:40 | going to modulate that delay time.
| | 05:43 | And we can do that in one of three ways.
| | 05:45 | If it's set to Off, the modulation is
only going to effect the first delay line.
| | 05:50 | If it's set to Fix, only the
first delay line is modulated.
| | 05:55 | And if I set it on Mod, I will
actually be modulating both of these.
| | 06:00 | Now I modulate that by an amount.
| | 06:02 | In this case, I have got
it set to .84 milliseconds,
| | 06:06 | so it's going to fluctuate the delay
time on these delays an additional 8.4
| | 06:11 | milliseconds and a less 8.84 milliseconds.
| | 06:15 | And then I can set how fast it's going to do that.
| | 06:17 | Currently, we have got that set
to happen 2.7 times per second.
| | 06:21 | So let's here what that sounds like
| | 06:23 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:27 | Now if I take the Activator button and
turn that off, we will hear that this is
| | 06:31 | actually a pretty stale-sounding preset,
| | 06:34 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:37 | and that by putting the chorus on, its
actually kind of de-tuning the sound of
| | 06:41 | it and making it sound much richer.
| | 06:43 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:45 | And again, we can change these
individually, or I can drag this parameter right
| | 06:49 | here to change both of those
simultaneously. And you can hear how we can go from a
| | 06:53 | pretty subtle effect to a pretty aggressive effect.
(Music playing.)
| | 06:58 | Here's subtle.
(Music playing.)
| | 07:09 | So depending upon what you are
trying to accomplish, that can be a
| | 07:12 | very interesting effect.
| | 07:14 | Now the other thing we can do is
we can combine this with a delay.
| | 07:18 | In this case, I've set up a delay on a send,
| | 07:20 | so I am going to copy a little bit of
signal from the chorus track and send it
| | 07:24 | over here to this return track,
where I've got a PingPong Delay set up.
| | 07:30 | And if I activate that, we
should hear both of these together.
| | 07:33 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:39 | Now notice, on the PingPong Delay,
since I have it on a return track, I've set
| | 07:44 | the Dry/Wet setting to 100%.
| | 07:47 | That's because the relatively
unprocessed signal is coming through the chorus
| | 07:51 | track and only the delay is
being added to this return track.
| | 07:55 | You can hear that that gives at a much
deeper sense of dimension than without.
| | 08:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 08:09 | So hopefully, after this video you are
as excited about delay effects as I am.
| | 08:13 | In any case, try adding some delay
effects to your mixes and experiment
| | 08:16 | with what they can do.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using reverb effectively| 00:00 | Reverb is a crucial part of
creating a successful mix.
| | 00:03 | Because re-creating in an acoustical
environment is a complicated task, reverb
| | 00:07 | plug-ins are often filled with
hard-to-understand parameters.
| | 00:10 | In this video, we will learn what
those parameters actually represent
| | 00:13 | and discuss some guidelines for using reverb
| | 00:15 | devices effectively.
| | 00:16 | Reverb is the effect that gives us a
sense of spatial dimension to a recording.
| | 00:19 | Where delay effects are fairly simple
devices which create a few echoes or
| | 00:24 | reflections at a time,
| | 00:25 | a reverb simulates thousands of
tightly spaced reflections that are perceived
| | 00:29 | as a single entity.
| | 00:30 | So that add reverb to a Live set,
| | 00:34 | we typically do that in a manner
that allows us to share a reverb
| | 00:37 | across several tracks.
| | 00:38 | That means that we are going to
actually put that reverb on a return track.
| | 00:43 | So I've got a session set up here, and
I have got my Live Device browser set up
| | 00:47 | to the Reverb category.
| | 00:48 | Now I am going to grab one of those
presets and drop that over here on this
| | 00:52 | Drum Verb return track.
| | 00:55 | Then all I need to do to add reverb to
these tracks is increase the send amount
| | 01:01 | on the various tracks
that I want to add reverb to.
| | 01:04 | So I have got two things
set up here for you to see.
| | 01:06 | Now I have got the drum track set up
as one track, where I have got a loop
| | 01:10 | that contains kick and a snare and a
hi-hat and all the other drum parts on
| | 01:14 | one particular clip.
| | 01:17 | Oftentimes, that's a very difficult way
to work and add reverb because when I
| | 01:20 | add reverb, it's going to be the same
amount to every individual element of the drums.
| | 01:24 | Here the things I did here, was I set
up a drum rack where each instrument is a
| | 01:30 | different element of the drum set. And
that's going to allow me to add differing
| | 01:34 | amounts of reverbs to
each particular instrument.
| | 01:38 | And setting up drum racks is something
that we will discuss in a later video.
| | 01:41 | So, for example, if I want more on the snare,
I can turn the send up or down as necessary.
| | 01:47 | And in this case, I don't have
any setup on the kick track.
| | 01:50 | So my individual mix here is on the
sends, and then the total amount of reverb
| | 01:55 | is controlled by the volume
slider on the return track.
| | 01:58 | So let's take a closer
look at the actual plug-in.
| | 02:03 | The first part of reverb that we hear
is the early reflections, which contain
| | 02:08 | a single reflection as sound bounces off one
object and then bounces back to the listener.
| | 02:13 | And that amount of time before that early
reflection's start is determined by the
| | 02:17 | predelay amount that I have here.
| | 02:19 | And you can roughly say 1 ms per foot
helps us determine the distance that we
| | 02:24 | are traveling to that object and
then the distance we are traveling back:
| | 02:29 | so about 20 feet in each direction.
| | 02:31 | And as I play this and increase or
decrease the predelay time, you should get a
| | 02:36 | sense of the room being larger or smaller.
| | 02:38 | Let's check that out.
| | 02:40 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:58 | Yeah, and especially there at the high
end, we are hearing the room sound
| | 03:01 | extremely large there.
| | 03:03 | But as I dialed that smaller, we did
hear that that dried up a little bit.
| | 03:06 | And it sounded like it was
a little bit tighter space.
| | 03:09 | I can also determine the kind of shape
and color of the early reflections using
| | 03:14 | the Shape setting here.
| | 03:16 | And small values are going to result in
a little bit slower, more natural decay.
| | 03:20 | And higher values are
going to be a much shorter decay.
| | 03:23 | The spin aspect here actually adds a
little bit of randomness by de-tuning the
| | 03:29 | early reflections and adding a very
subtle amount of chorus effect to that.
| | 03:33 | Let's hear what sounds like.
| | 03:35 | (Drums playing.)
| | 03:45 | It's subtle, but it's
definitely sounding a little bit richer.
| | 03:48 | Now, in the middle of this particular
plug-in, we've got some global settings.
| | 03:52 | One of those has to do with the
quality of the reverb and the amount of CPU
| | 03:56 | resources that are being used.
| | 03:58 | So I can either said that to
economy, or Eco, Mid, or High.
| | 04:03 | And depending upon how many reverbs
you're using in a session will determine
| | 04:06 | the setting that you'll choose there.
| | 04:08 | Now you can check your CPU resources by
simply looking at this meter over here.
| | 04:12 | And if you're up there, pushing
80%-90%, you are definitely going to want to
| | 04:15 | consider switching your
reverb into an economy mode.
| | 04:19 | I can also have an impact on the size of the
perceived room by using the size parameter.
| | 04:24 | Let's check that out.
| | 04:25 | (Drums playing.)
| | 04:35 | And that's particularly noticeable
when I move to a smaller room size.
| | 04:39 | And we get that very metallic ringing sound.
| | 04:41 | It's almost like you're playing in a
bedroom where you don't have any furniture
| | 04:46 | and you are really hearing
that ring that's in the room.
| | 04:48 | So a more modest setting there, or
medium setting, is going to end up in a
| | 04:52 | more natural sound.
| | 04:53 | (Drums playing.)
| | 05:00 | The Stereo parameter that's available
here actually sets the width of the
| | 05:04 | stereo image that's being output from
this plug-in. And if you go all the way up
| | 05:08 | to 120, it's actually outputting a
discrete left and discrete right image.
| | 05:14 | The second half of the plug-in here
has a lot more to do with the global
| | 05:18 | reverberation, or those reflections
that happen after the early reflections.
| | 05:23 | And again, those are those reflections
that are so tightly packed that we hear
| | 05:26 | those as one entity.
| | 05:28 | So first of all, I can set
a delay length or a decay time.
| | 05:32 | And just in general, I'll tell you
that when you're working with drums,
| | 05:35 | oftentimes you are going to want to set
a shorter decay time. In the neighborhood
| | 05:39 | of about two seconds, give or take a
little bit, is a good place to start.
| | 05:43 | And then with other instruments in vocals,
you may want to try something that is
| | 05:47 | more approaching three seconds.
| | 05:48 | Let's hear what that sounds like.
| | 05:50 | (Drums playing.)
| | 06:04 | So you heard, as I dialed that
shorter, that it really got dry quickly,
| | 06:08 | and then as I went to a longer decay
time, it got a little bit ridiculous.
| | 06:12 | But right there, around about two seconds--
especially with the drums--you get a
| | 06:16 | sense of ambience without
having that kind of washed out sound.
| | 06:20 | At other times, you may want
something that is much more aggressive,
| | 06:23 | but that depends upon the
context and the situation.
| | 06:26 | In addition, I have something up here
that's referred to as the diffusion network.
| | 06:30 | And that has a lot to do with setting
a sound of the reverb and the actual
| | 06:35 | materials that are in the room.
| | 06:36 | So if a room is made up of cement or
glass or marble or metal, it's going to
| | 06:42 | be highly reflective, and that's going to be
particularly noticeable in the high frequencies.
| | 06:48 | If a room has drapes or a lush carpet
or people wearing clothes in it, there
| | 06:53 | is going to be much more sound absorbed, and
the reverb is going to be less active sounding.
| | 06:58 | And that's because those high
frequencies are being absorbed.
| | 07:00 | So essentially what I have here with
number 2 is a low-pass, or high-cut, filter
| | 07:06 | that lets me roll off some
of that higher frequency.
| | 07:09 | Let's check that out.
| | 07:10 | (Drums playing.)
| | 07:20 | So you can hear that
immediately kind of tighten up and dry up.
| | 07:23 | And then in addition to that, we can
again add a little bit of randomness with
| | 07:27 | this Chorus setting, which is
going to de-tune some of those global
| | 07:31 | reverberation reflections.
| | 07:33 | And then lastly, again, I am going to
set a dry/wet percentage with my reverb.
| | 07:38 | Again, remember that when you put a
time-based effect like a delay or a reverb
| | 07:43 | on a return track, you want to set
that Dry/Wet to 100%, because the dry sound
| | 07:48 | is exactly coming out of the individual
tracks and our reverb sound is coming out here.
| | 07:55 | So you are going to control your reverb
return with this volume slider and your
| | 08:00 | individual dry amounts with these sliders.
| | 08:03 | And if you need to add a little more
reverb to an individual track, then you go
| | 08:06 | to a send and increase or
decrease that as necessary.
| | 08:10 | So now you know how to set up a
reverb and adjust the device parameters.
| | 08:13 | Try listening to some of your favorite
recordings and analyze what the engineer
| | 08:17 | did with the reverb setup.
| | 08:18 | Then try to re-create that
sound with one of your own songs.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up side chain effects easily| 00:00 | Side chain effects processing can be
used to create useful and interesting
| | 00:03 | effects, but it is often
perceived as difficult to set up.
| | 00:07 | Let's take a look at couple of classic
side chain effects and see how easy they
| | 00:10 | are to set up in Ableton Live.
| | 00:11 | So side chain processing uses the
signal from one track to trigger or modulate
| | 00:16 | an effect on another track.
| | 00:18 | In this first example, on the synth pad
track, I've got a sustained synth sound.
| | 00:22 | Let's hear what that sounds like.
(Music playing.)
| | 00:30 | Okay. And I will flip quickly over to the
MIDI Editor on that clip, so that you can
| | 00:36 | see that I've got a whole
note drawn in on this track.
| | 00:40 | Here's the virtual instrument, and what
I want to do is I want to add an effect
| | 00:44 | after that that will actually cut off the sound.
| | 00:47 | So I am going to go up and grab a gate
and drop that on the track after the Pad.
| | 00:54 | Now what a gate normally does is attenuate a
signal that falls below a certain threshold.
| | 01:00 | In this case, I'm actually going to use
a signal from another track to set the
| | 01:04 | level that I want to come through,
and then when that other signal is not
| | 01:09 | present, the gate will actually shut down and
close off any sound coming through the track.
| | 01:15 | So what I'm going to do is open up the
Sidechain button here, so that I can see
| | 01:19 | the side chain parameters.
| | 01:21 | I'll turn that on, and then I'm going to
actually tell it to look over at a drum
| | 01:26 | track that I have got on the first channel.
| | 01:29 | So what I need to do is have a signal
that's present on that channel that then
| | 01:32 | can trigger over here.
| | 01:33 | So I am going to this first clip,
and if I go over the MIDI Editor, I can see
| | 01:37 | that there's currently no notes on that track.
| | 01:39 | So I am going to choose something like
the kick or snare that's got a really
| | 01:42 | nice attack, so that I have a note that
will then be sent through the side chain
| | 01:48 | over to the synth pad track to trigger the gate.
| | 01:50 | So I going into Draw mode, which is
Command+B, or you can click the little
| | 01:54 | button up here--that would be Ctrl+B
on a PC-- and I am going to click it and
| | 01:59 | every other note to start off with.
| | 02:11 | Now what I want to have happen is
every time this kick hits and it sends a
| | 02:15 | signal through the side chain over to
the synth pad track, the gate will open
| | 02:20 | and let the synth sound through.
| | 02:22 | But every time that the note is not
present--every other 32nd note--that gate
| | 02:26 | will swing shut, and it should stop
the sound coming out the synth pad track.
| | 02:30 | So let's go back to this
other clip, into Device view.
| | 02:34 | So I have got the Side chain on, I have
get it set to Beat Bugs, and let's here
| | 02:40 | what this is going to do.
| | 02:41 | So I am going to trigger both clips here.
| | 02:43 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:47 | So we can hear it pulsating
in time with those kick hits.
| | 02:50 | Now if you want, we don't
actually need to hear the kick sound.
| | 02:53 | I can actually disable that track.
| | 02:56 | The signal is still can go through the
side chain, and I'll still be able to
| | 02:59 | hear this trigger, that pulsating
effect on the synth pad.
| | 03:03 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:08 | So some things you might want to
consider here in the gate plug-in:
| | 03:11 | You want to make sure your
threshold is below the sound of the signal
| | 03:15 | that's coming through.
| | 03:17 | In this case, it's already set there.
| | 03:19 | And then you can also use your attack,
hold, and release times to determine how
| | 03:24 | much of the sustain that you're
getting on that synth pad track, or how
| | 03:28 | staccato that sound is.
| | 03:30 | So first of all, I'd probably dial the
attack time pretty fast, because I want
| | 03:33 | the gate to react as quickly as
possible to that kick note that's coming
| | 03:37 | through the side chain.
| | 03:38 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:46 | So you can hear we are
getting a much clearer attack now.
| | 03:48 | The next thing I'll do is
I'll go down the hold parameter.
| | 03:52 | Each time the kick note comes through,
the gate swings open, and the sound is
| | 03:57 | allowed to come through.
| | 03:58 | When the kick note stops, the gate is
supposed to close, but the hold parameter
| | 04:02 | will actually hold that open
for a user-defined amount of time.
| | 04:06 | In this case, we can use that to determine
how much decay that we actually want to hear.
| | 04:10 | So let me play the track, and let's
listen to what that's sounds like.
| | 04:13 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:23 | So you can hear that getting more
staccato or more sustained, or legato.
| | 04:28 | In this case, just to review, the gate
is used to open and let sound through
| | 04:34 | each time a note comes through.
| | 04:36 | Now, in another case, we may want to
actually compress a sound, or reduce the
| | 04:42 | level of a sound, each
time a note comes through.
| | 04:45 | So let's take a look at what's happening
on the second clip and on this brass track.
| | 04:51 | So in this case, I've got a brass sound,
and let's hear what this clip sounds like.
| | 04:55 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:59 | So we can hear that that's a sustaining sound.
| | 05:02 | Now over on the kick track, I've
got a kick that's hitting on the beat:
| | 05:07 | 1, 2, 3, and 4, like a classic electronic kick.
| | 05:10 | And what I want to have happen is I
want the sound to dip each time the kick
| | 05:14 | comes through, so that we get that
really strong pulsating kick that you expect
| | 05:19 | to hear in electronic music.
| | 05:21 | So what I've done here on the brass
track is after the virtual instrument here,
| | 05:26 | which I have got minimized--I will
minimize that again--I have got a compressor.
| | 05:31 | And again, the compressor
does have side chain processing.
| | 05:35 | So I'll click and I will open that up.
| | 05:36 | I am going to enable the plug as well.
| | 05:39 | I've got side chain enabled, and I've
got it set to accept signal coming in
| | 05:44 | from Beat Bugs track.
| | 05:46 | So this is a little bit different.
| | 05:49 | Each time the kick hits, it's now going
to push down the volume on the brass track.
| | 05:53 | Let's hear what that sounds like.
| | 05:56 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:00 | So now you hear the sound
kind of pulsating off the beat.
| | 06:03 | And if I turn back on the kick, we can
hear the kick come through nice and strong.
| | 06:08 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:14 | And again, I am going to use the attack
time to set how quickly the compressor
| | 06:18 | pushes down the sound and
lets that kick come through.
| | 06:20 | So in this case, I have got
it dialed all the way down.
| | 06:23 | And the release time I can use to set
the sustain, or how long that kick is
| | 06:28 | going to actually compress this other sound.
| | 06:30 | So let's see how that sounds.
| | 06:31 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:42 | So you can hear that if I actually set
that release time even longer, you start
| | 06:45 | to get a very, very interesting effect.
| | 06:48 | So side chain processing can be used in
so many ways that its only limitation is
| | 06:51 | our own imagination.
| | 06:53 | So experiment with the technique, and have fun.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
11. MIDI EffectsCreating rhythmic patterns with the Arpeggiator effect| 00:00 | Live has several MIDI effects that
allow you to alter a MIDI signal before it
| | 00:03 | enters a virtual instrument.
| | 00:05 | In this video, we'll discuss how you
add a MIDI effect to a track and learn to
| | 00:08 | use Live's MIDI Arpeggiator Effect device.
| | 00:10 | So let's see how this works.
| | 00:12 | I have got one track in the session here,
and I've got this brass patch loaded on it.
| | 00:16 | So I am going to go into the Device
browser and open up the MIDI Effects folder
| | 00:21 | here, come down, and grab Arpeggiator.
| | 00:24 | And remember, I can either load the
Arpeggiator device, or I can load a device
| | 00:28 | with presets if I open up and
choose one of these items here.
| | 00:31 | I am just going to choose the default.
| | 00:34 | I am going to drag and drop that on the track.
| | 00:36 | Now, you'll notice that if I try and put
it after the virtual instrument, then I
| | 00:39 | am getting a warning message down there
at the bottom of the screen that says,
| | 00:42 | "MIDI effects have to be
inserted before the instrument."
| | 00:46 | So I'll drop it over there, and what's
going to happen then, as the MIDI signal
| | 00:51 | comes through the channel, it's first
going to go through the Arpeggiator device,
| | 00:54 | whose purpose is to take multiple notes
that you hold down in a chord and break
| | 00:59 | them into an arpeggio.
| | 01:00 | I am going to hold down one note
and let's listen to what it does.
| | 01:04 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:07 | So we hear that one note pulsating,
and it's doing it at the rhythm of an 8th
| | 01:11 | note, based upon the tempo that's
currently set in my control bar.
| | 01:15 | If I speed that up to a 16th note,
we'll hear that pulsate twice as fast.
| | 01:21 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:23 | So if I hold down two notes, it's going
to alternate those two notes at that rate.
| | 01:27 | (Music playing.)
If I hold down three notes, it will alternate the 3.
| | 01:31 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:34 | Now, if I go up to the style chooser,
we'll see that there are several arpeggio
| | 01:39 | shapes, or styles, available. So I was on Up.
| | 01:42 | Let's try Up and Down.
| | 01:44 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:48 | Okay. That's pretty easy to understand.
| | 01:51 | If I chose Converge, it's going to
play the notes on the outside of the
| | 01:54 | arpeggio, the lowest and
highest, and then the middle.
| | 01:57 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:01 | If I choose Diverge, it's going to play
the middle note and then the outer notes.
| | 02:05 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:07 | Now, we can combine those in
several ways to get different patterns.
| | 02:10 | I like the Converge and Diverge.
| | 02:13 | This time I am holding down four notes.
(Music playing.)
| | 02:18 | You get a much more random sound out of that.
| | 02:20 | Now, let's take a look at a
couple of the other parameters.
| | 02:22 | So I've got the rate set. The Gate
setting is going to allow me to control how
| | 02:27 | smooth or short the notes sound.
| | 02:29 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:33 | So, smaller values are going to
yield a very staccato, or short, sound;
| | 02:37 | whereas, longer values are going to give
me more of a sustained, or legato, sound.
| | 02:41 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:44 | If I go over 100% and change chords in
the middle of that, you will actually get
| | 02:49 | some overlapping that occurs.
| | 02:50 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:57 | Now, if I hold something down and have
the Hold button enabled, those notes will
| | 03:01 | continue to repeat until
I change to other notes.
| | 03:05 | So here, I'll hold down the C chord.
| | 03:06 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:14 | And that continued until I
change to a D minor chord.
| | 03:17 | I can also set time, by the way.
| | 03:19 | Instead of being locked to the rhythm,
I can set that in Free mode, which allows
| | 03:23 | me to set a length of time
in milliseconds or seconds.
| | 03:27 | Typically, when I use this,
I use it in Sync mode.
| | 03:30 | In the middle section, we
have a Transpose function.
| | 03:33 | This is a little bit complicated.
| | 03:35 | So when I am in the Shift mode, the
amount that I transpose is set by this
| | 03:39 | distance parameter, and that's in half steps.
| | 03:42 | You can see I can set both
positive and negative values.
| | 03:45 | If I set that to +2, I'll go up a
whole step. And I'll go up a whole step a
| | 03:50 | number of times, depending upon the Step setting.
| | 03:53 | So if I move that to 1, I'll
transpose one time a whole step.
| | 03:58 | So I am holding down C,
and we'll hear both C and D.
| | 04:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:03 | Let me dial that gate a little bit
shorter, so we get a little more separation.
| | 04:07 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:09 | If I move the step parameter to 2, I'm
going to transpose the original note, C,
| | 04:14 | two times, each a whole step.
| | 04:17 | My distance is +2, so I'll get
a whole step to D and then to E.
| | 04:20 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:22 | Now if I hold down multiple notes, I'm
going to get that same effect applied to
| | 04:27 | each note that I am holding down.
| | 04:28 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:32 | So I was holding down an A and an E,
and I was transposing both of those
| | 04:35 | two times a step.
| | 04:37 | Now, if I change the Transpose
function to Major, I'm actually in a mode now,
| | 04:43 | and it's going to force all notes
that I play, or that would be transposed,
| | 04:47 | into that mode, or key.
| | 04:49 | I am in Major, and right now I'm in
the key of C. One thing that changes here
| | 04:54 | is that the Distance function is no longer
in half steps, but is now in scale steps.
| | 04:59 | So if I set that to +1, I am
going to go up a whole step.
| | 05:02 | If I set that to 2, I am going
to go up a third in the scale.
| | 05:07 | So again, I am going to move this down to 1.
| | 05:08 | Now, if I hold down a C, it's actually
going to transpose it up a major third to
| | 05:13 | E. But if I hold down D, it's only going
to transpose a minor third because from
| | 05:20 | D to F is a minor third, and that
would be the note that's in the key.
| | 05:23 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:25 | So if I hold down two notes, I'll
transpose both of them by that increment.
| | 05:29 | If I hold down three notes, I'll
transpose that, and it will all stay in the key.
| | 05:33 | I can also transpose this
and be in another Key.
| | 05:36 | So if I wanted to go to the key of D
for instance, I can shift it there.
| | 05:41 | And now instead of the notes being forced
into the key of C, they will be forced
| | 05:44 | into the key of D. So for instance if
I hold down an F natural, it's actually
| | 05:48 | going to play an F sharp.
| | 05:49 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:53 | So I was actually holding down a D
minor triad there, and it was actually
| | 05:57 | arpeggiating based upon a D major triad.
| | 06:00 | I can do the same thing
in both major and minor.
| | 06:03 | Let's put this back on shift.
| | 06:05 | I am going to set this to one of my
favorite settings, which would be a 5th
| | 06:09 | above, and I am going to put that on a 2.
| | 06:13 | This time when it transposes it,
it's going to transpose each note that I
| | 06:17 | hold down by a perfect 5th higher than the
note, and it's going to transpose that twice.
| | 06:22 | I am going to hold down
three notes, and we'll hear that.
| | 06:25 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:29 | So we're getting a quite interesting pattern.
| | 06:31 | Now, I want that to change in time,
| | 06:33 | so I am going to turn on the Velocity function.
| | 06:36 | What will happen now is that as I hold
the notes down, they're going to change
| | 06:40 | to a target velocity set by this parameter here.
| | 06:43 | So if I want them to get softer, I'll
turn this down to a target velocity near
| | 06:48 | 0. And we'll hear, as I hold this down,
that it's actually going to decay over
| | 06:53 | time to that velocity.
| | 06:55 | Now, 1 second is pretty quick,
| | 06:56 | so I am going to make the decay time just a
little bit longer by dialing up this parameter.
| | 07:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:08 | That gives us that ability to change over
time, and that's a very, very cool effect.
| | 07:11 | Okay, and the last thing that we'll
look at here in the Arpeggiator plug-in is
| | 07:14 | this Retrigger function, and this
determines how a pattern is retriggered.
| | 07:18 | So if I turn on Retrigger, and I go to
this area over here, I can set this into
| | 07:23 | Beat mode, Note mode, or Off.
| | 07:25 | In Beat mode, it'll retrigger the
pattern based upon a length of time.
| | 07:30 | Now, it defaults to 1 bar.
| | 07:32 | So if I turn this up, for instance, to
a longer time, I'll hold those notes
| | 07:36 | down, and then you'll see this little
yellow light flash when we meet that
| | 07:40 | length of time, and it will actually retrigger
and start the pattern again at the full velocity.
| | 07:45 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:53 | So we saw that pulsate at the end of two bars.
| | 07:56 | Now I can also do this based upon
when I actually play another note.
| | 08:01 | So I'll hold down a pattern,
it'll trigger the pattern,
| | 08:03 | we'll hear the decay, and then when I
play the next set of notes, we'll hear
| | 08:07 | that retrigger at the top velocity,
and then begin to decay again.
| | 08:11 | (Music playing.)
| | 08:19 | So it's a very useful effect to have
the pattern actually change over time.
| | 08:23 | That creates a lot of interest.
| | 08:25 | So Live's Arpeggiator effect can be used
to create parts that dominate a song or
| | 08:29 | to create underlying parts that
add interesting detail to a song.
| | 08:33 | Give Arpeggiator a spin, and try it
in combination with other MIDI and
| | 08:36 | audio effects.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Building background parts with the Chord and Scale effects| 00:00 | Oftentimes you need additional
background parts to add depth to a song.
| | 00:03 | Let's take a look at Live's chord and
scale effects and see how they can be used
| | 00:07 | to quickly create simple background parts,
and also see how they can be combined
| | 00:11 | with other devices to
create interesting effects.
| | 00:13 | So I am going to go to the Live Device
browser and locate my MIDI Effects, and
| | 00:18 | I am going to grab the chord effect, and I am
going to drag this down onto this brass track.
| | 00:23 | Now remember, that MIDI effects have to
be added before the virtual instrument.
| | 00:27 | So if I try and drag this and put this
over here on the right of the instrument,
| | 00:31 | or on the output, you'll see that we get
that warning message down in the bottom
| | 00:35 | that tells us, "Insert MIDI
effects before instruments."
| | 00:38 | Go back over there.
| | 00:39 | It turns gold, and I can let it go.
| | 00:41 | So the chord effect is pretty simple.
| | 00:43 | I have a number of Shift knobs here that I
can actually transpose an incoming pitch.
| | 00:48 | So, if I grab one of these, I'll put that
up +2. And by the way, this is in half steps.
| | 00:54 | So now if I hold down a note, I should hear
the note and a note one whole step above it.
| | 00:59 | (Music playing.)
I will move that up another couple.
| | 01:01 | I should get a major 3rd if I am on four steps.
(Music playing.)
| | 01:07 | And I can continue adding more
pitches either above or below.
| | 01:11 | In this one, I will go up +7, which
is going to be a perfect 5th above
| | 01:16 | the original pitch.
| | 01:18 | So now, I am going to get the
original pitch, a major 3rd above it, and a
| | 01:22 | perfect 5th above it.
(Music playing.)
| | 01:25 | I can also take one of these and
move it below the original pitch.
| | 01:29 | So, if I might want to double one of
the notes that I have already got, I can
| | 01:32 | grab this and move it down.
| | 01:33 | So if I want to get a 5th
below, that would be minus five steps.
| | 01:38 | Now, I'll have the note, a major 3rd, a
perfect 5th above, and a perfect 5th below.
| | 01:42 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:45 | Now below that I have a velocity setting
that allows me to kind of fine-tune how
| | 01:49 | loud each note is contributing
to the chord that I am creating.
| | 01:52 | So that lower note is actually fairly dominant,
| | 01:55 | so I can bring that back a little bit.
And then I can dial up a little more
| | 01:59 | level on the top note, so that the
melody stands out just a little bit more.
| | 02:02 | Let's see what that sounds like.
| | 02:04 | (Music playing.)
Okay, that's a little bit more balanced.
| | 02:10 | So I can do that with up to six
different notes, and there are a number of
| | 02:14 | different presets available in the
Chord, MIDI Effect category here.
| | 02:19 | So I have got chords that are
like Debussy and so on and so forth.
| | 02:22 | And there's a number more of these that
you can actually download from the Internet.
| | 02:26 | So by itself, the Chord plug-in is
pretty interesting, and it allows me to play
| | 02:30 | one note on the keyboard
but generate an entire chord.
| | 02:34 | I can also use that in combination with
other MIDI effects. And in this case, I
| | 02:38 | am going to go to the Scale MIDI
effect plug-in, and I am going to drag the C
| | 02:42 | Major preset and put that on
the track after the Chord plug-in.
| | 02:47 | Now as we first take a look at this, I am
actually going to disable the Chord plug-in.
| | 02:51 | We will bring it back in a second.
| | 02:52 | So right here, I have got a matrix
that defines, when I play a note, what note
| | 02:57 | will actually be output.
| | 02:59 | So if I play the note C, you see that
that lights up, and I get the note C.
| | 03:04 | But this row right here would
correspond with C sharp, and if I play C sharp,
| | 03:09 | it's actually going to transpose it back
down and play the note C. Just to show you that.
| | 03:13 | So I am playing a C# there.
| | 03:17 | If I play D, I will get a D. If I play a
D#, I am actually still going to get a D.
| | 03:24 | Now, if I go ahead and turn on the
Chord plug-in, now when I play this, I am
| | 03:29 | actually going to be generating a
chord that is going to go into this C
| | 03:33 | Major Scale preset.
| | 03:35 | So if I play a C chord that should all work out fine.
(Music playing.)
| | 03:40 | And you can hear it generating the C Chord.
| | 03:42 | But if I go to play the note D, I'm
telling it in the Chord plug-in that I want
| | 03:46 | to transpose it up +4 steps, or a major 3rd.
| | 03:50 | And in this case, I would need to
generate an F#. But in my Scale plug-in, it's
| | 03:56 | been decided here that when I play the
note F#, I'm actually going to get an F.
| | 04:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:02 | So where I have got the Chord plug-in
to actually generate a major triad, by
| | 04:06 | adding this Scale plug-in after that,
I can force the notes into a key, and in
| | 04:11 | some cases, I will actually
end up with a minor triad.
| | 04:14 | So in this case, I'll get C major when
I play a C, D minor when I play a D, E
| | 04:20 | minor when I play an E, and F major when
I play an F, so on and so forth, all of
| | 04:25 | the chords that are part of the C major scale.
| | 04:29 | Now I can transpose the base of
that so that I get different scales.
| | 04:33 | So even though I'm in a C Major scale,
I can transpose that so that I am
| | 04:37 | actually in a different key.
| | 04:39 | And now I would do the same thing.
| | 04:41 | I would actually be in a D major scale.
| | 04:44 | So there's D major.
| | 04:45 | If I go down to C, I am actually
going to get a C# diminished chord.
| | 04:50 | Now in addition to that, there is several
scale presets that we can use besides C major.
| | 04:55 | So I have got C minor.
| | 04:57 | I have even got C pentatonic.
| | 04:58 | Let me pull that one out.
| | 05:00 | And now whatever I play is going to be
forced into just that particular scale.
| | 05:04 | You can see that there is less notes available.
| | 05:06 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:11 | So you can actually change what will
happen here by clicking and changing the notes.
| | 05:16 | So when I play F, I'll get an F,
or I get an F#, so on and so forth.
| | 05:20 | All right, so I am going to bring back
out the C major preset, and I am going to
| | 05:25 | set this to one of my favorites, which is
more based upon 5ths. And then I'm going
| | 05:31 | to add in our Arpeggiator effect
after the C major scale plug-in.
| | 05:36 | So now what's going to happen
is I am going to play a note,
| | 05:38 | it will come through the Chord plug-in
which will generate additional three notes,
| | 05:43 | then it will go into the Scale plug-in
which will force any notes played in to
| | 05:48 | the C major scale, and then it will hit
the Arpeggiator, which will break up the
| | 05:53 | chord into a rhythmic pattern.
| | 05:54 | So I am going to set this.
| | 05:55 | I will try Converge & Diverge.
| | 05:56 | I am going to set the gate to 16th note,
so it's going to pulsate, or create a
| | 06:02 | rhythm, at 16th notes.
| | 06:05 | I am also going to turn the velocity on,
so that I get velocity changing over time.
| | 06:10 | In this case, I will make it get quieter.
Now, I'll set a little bit longer decay.
| | 06:15 | And now on the brass track, if I go
over to the MIDI Editor, you can see that I
| | 06:20 | have already recorded notes here.
| | 06:21 | So I have got a C then a F, then a G,
back down to an F, and that's going to
| | 06:26 | generate a little bit of a chord
progression at the same time that we get this
| | 06:30 | drum pattern that I have
got on the second track here.
| | 06:33 | So let's go back, and let's check out what this sounds like.
(Music playing.)
| | 06:39 | Stop those clips, and I'll
play them both at the same time now.
| | 06:42 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:52 | So by themselves, the chord and scale
effects seems simple; but when combined, the
| | 06:56 | possibilities are endless.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
12. Automation/EnvelopesBuilding automation patterns| 00:00 | The ability to change Mixer and Effects
settings in real time is one of the most
| | 00:03 | powerful functions of
computer-based music production systems.
| | 00:06 | Let's take a look at how you view
and add both graphical and real-time
| | 00:09 | automation to tracks in Live.
| | 00:11 | So if you've never used automation,
probably seems like a pretty big deal, but
| | 00:16 | it's simply recording the movement of
any one of the parameters on your mixer or
| | 00:20 | any devices that you might have in the
session, like virtual instruments or audio
| | 00:24 | effects or MIDI effects.
| | 00:26 | And you record those in real time, and
then when you play the track back, you
| | 00:29 | will actually get those changes.
| | 00:31 | So this area over here under the track
title bar is where we see the controls
| | 00:36 | that allow us to choose the
parameters that we want to automate.
| | 00:40 | The top of these two
buttons is the device chooser.
| | 00:43 | If I go in on the bass audio track,
I'll choose the Mixer in this case, and
| | 00:48 | then the bottom chooser allows me to choose
the specific parameter that I want to work with.
| | 00:52 | So I have got Volume and Track Panning,
Speaker on, X-Fades, and other things like that.
| | 00:59 | I can also choose that by clicking on
the parameter over here in the Mixer area.
| | 01:03 | So if I click on the Pan field here,
you'll see that it changes its Track Panning.
| | 01:08 | And if I click on the Activator button,
you see that it changes to Speaker On.
| | 01:13 | So just note that that's a bit of an
odd name, but Speaker On is the same thing
| | 01:17 | as your Track Activator, or Mute button.
| | 01:19 | If I go to the Volume field,
we'll see that come back.
| | 01:23 | So the automation envelope is actually
superimposed over the audio or MIDI data
| | 01:27 | on the track. And if you want, you
can actually open up a separate lane
| | 01:31 | underneath that, so that you can work
without having to look at both of them.
| | 01:34 | So I click the Plus button here, and let's
move Speaker On down below the actual audio.
| | 01:40 | I am going to get rid of that by
clicking on the Minus button, and I am actually
| | 01:44 | going to choose Track Volume,
click plus, and move that down.
| | 01:48 | Now, I am going to add some
automation onto that graph.
| | 01:52 | So I can do that by simply double-
clicking on the line in a couple of places
| | 01:57 | and then adding some breakpoints in
between and moving those to simulate the
| | 02:02 | movement of the parameter that I want to change
there--in this case, the Volume slider or fader.
| | 02:07 | Now I first add those breakpoints on the
right and left of the areas that I want
| | 02:11 | to change, because if I just click one
and start moving in, I am going to move
| | 02:14 | that envelope for the entire track.
| | 02:17 | So now, if I start playback, we
should be able to watch the Volume field
| | 02:21 | change in real time. And note that
we also see a red square in the upper
| | 02:26 | left-hand corner of that field to
note that there is automation on the
| | 02:30 | associated envelope on the track now.
| | 02:32 | So let's give that a listen.
| | 02:33 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:48 | So we see that value changing in real
time, and that's really useful for when
| | 02:52 | you have areas on a track where it's
just a little bit too loud or too soft, but
| | 02:56 | the rest of the track average is really good.
| | 02:59 | So in that case, you can add little bit
of automation and either raise the level
| | 03:02 | or dip it just a little bit.
| | 03:03 | Now I can also add automation using Draw mode.
| | 03:07 | I can enable that by
clicking on my Draw Mode switch.
| | 03:09 | So let me move in on another part of the
track, and now when I move my pencil over
| | 03:15 | that graph and click and
drag, I can add automation.
| | 03:18 | Now you notice that it's kind of
notching based upon my grid, and this is one
| | 03:24 | of those times where it's really good to
remember your key commands for changing
| | 03:27 | the grid resolution.
| | 03:29 | So if I go Command+1 on the Mac or Ctrl+
1 on the PC, I can actually narrow that
| | 03:34 | grid, and Command+2 will widen it.
| | 03:38 | So you can choose a resolution that you
want to work at and then click and drag,
| | 03:42 | and now I can make much finer changes.
| | 03:45 | But even better than that is to actually
get rid of the grid entirely, and I can
| | 03:49 | do that using Command+4 or Ctrl+4 on a
PC. And that disables the grid, and now
| | 03:55 | I can draw this in freehand.
| | 03:59 | When I disable the Draw mode button, we
can see that it has added breakpoints on
| | 04:03 | the automation envelope.
| | 04:04 | If I zoom in, we can see that
there is actually quite a few of those.
| | 04:10 | So if I wanted to add automation to
another graph on this track, I can simply
| | 04:14 | click on that parameter, like Panning.
Click plus, add that one, and now I could
| | 04:19 | add automation to that particular parameter.
| | 04:22 | Now if I want to close both of these
automation lanes and get them out of the
| | 04:25 | way to reduce screen clutter, I can
click on the Minus button on each one of
| | 04:28 | those, or I can simply down the Option
Key and click one of the Minus buttons,
| | 04:32 | and that will close all of the
automation graphs on a track.
| | 04:36 | Another thing you might want to consider
automating is parameters on your effect
| | 04:40 | devices or virtual instruments.
| | 04:42 | So I am going to come down to the Robo Scat
track here and increase the track height.
| | 04:48 | I'll click that top chooser button,
and now I can see all of the devices
| | 04:51 | that are available here.
| | 04:52 | So in addition to the mixer, I've got
the Impulse drum machine, I've got an
| | 04:57 | audio effect compressor, and an audio
affect PingPong delay. And I can choose one
| | 05:01 | of those, let's say the delay
in this case, and bring that up.
| | 05:05 | And now if I click on the bottom chooser,
I can see all of the other parameters
| | 05:08 | that are available with that particular device.
| | 05:10 | Now let me suggest that one of the most
valuable ones is the Device On switch.
| | 05:15 | It's like a bypass. And so in some
cases you may want to have that Device On, in
| | 05:19 | another cases off.
| | 05:21 | And with delay it's often really
great to have them on during the ends of a
| | 05:24 | phrase, but not during the middle of
your phrase, where it might blur or muddy
| | 05:28 | what's happening on the track.
| | 05:30 | And so now I can simply add breakpoints
that set when this device is on and off.
| | 05:34 | Now currently, it looks like it's off.
| | 05:36 | I am going to want to put it
on at the end of this phrase.
| | 05:39 | So I will add an automation breakpoint
there, near the end of the phrase, and
| | 05:42 | another one over here, and now I
can simply click and bring that on.
| | 05:47 | And I can drag. That's where it
turns on at the point where I want it.
| | 05:50 | So that's very handy.
| | 05:52 | Now, the last way that I can add
automation to a track is doing it in real time.
| | 05:56 | So let's bring up the volume on this
Bass audio track again. And I am going to
| | 06:00 | right-click here in the Automation area,
and I'm going to clear the automation
| | 06:05 | that I have already written, by
clicking on the Clear Envelope function there.
| | 06:09 | And now I need to set up my system so
that I can record automation using one of
| | 06:14 | the knobs on my controller.
| | 06:16 | To do that, I am going to come up here
and click the MIDI Map Mode switch, and
| | 06:20 | anything that turns purple here are
items that I can actually automate.
| | 06:24 | So if I go on the bass audio track and
click in the Volume field and then move a
| | 06:30 | knob on my controller, I
should be able to assign that knob.
| | 06:34 | And I can look up here in the right-hand
corner at the MIDI Track In indicator,
| | 06:37 | and I can see that there's stuff
coming in, but I don't see any evidence that
| | 06:41 | its actually mapped that.
| | 06:42 | So I am going to quickly go into Preferences--
| | 06:44 | that's Command+Comma on a
Mac or Ctrl+Comma on a PC--
| | 06:48 | and on my E-MU keyboard that I'm using,
I notice that the Remote switch is not
| | 06:52 | enabled. And I need to have that
enabled if I want to do this kind of mapping
| | 06:57 | and using my knobs on my
controllers to send messages.
| | 07:00 | So I'll hit Escape to close that,
click back in that field, choose that
| | 07:04 | knob again, and move it.
| | 07:07 | And now, you will see this 1/10
come up in that field to indicate that
| | 07:12 | controller number 10 has been
assigned to that particular parameter.
| | 07:15 | Now, to record this, all I need to do
is disable that MIDI Mapping switch.
| | 07:21 | So now that I've got that set up, I am
going to move that parameter down here to
| | 07:24 | another lane, and I will click where
I want to start writing automation.
| | 07:27 | Now, I am going to go up into the control
bar and enable the Global Record switch.
| | 07:33 | Now all I should need to do is start
playback and then move the knob that's
| | 07:37 | associated with that parameter.
| | 07:39 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:52 | So that's writing automation in real time.
| | 07:55 | Before we finish, I want to show
you just a couple of things that are
| | 07:57 | available on the master track for
automating that are not available on the
| | 08:00 | other types of tracks.
| | 08:01 | So I am going to bring the master track
up, and again we see the Device chooser
| | 08:06 | and then the sub-chooser, and we see
that, yeah we have got Speaker On, and we
| | 08:10 | have Track Volume, but I have also got
Song Tempo and Global Groove Amount, which
| | 08:14 | are very interesting.
| | 08:16 | So if I choose Song Tempo and draw
automation, I can actually change the tempo
| | 08:21 | of the song in real time during playback.
| | 08:23 | And with Global Groove Amount, if I've
got grooves that are being used on any of
| | 08:27 | my tracks to add some kind of a feel
to the track, I can actually control the
| | 08:32 | percentage, or global
amount, that's being applied.
| | 08:35 | So now that you know how to add
automation in Live, you will be able to
| | 08:39 | fine-tune your mixes.
| | 08:40 | In the next video, we will take
a look at how to edit automation.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Editing existing automation information| 00:00 | As you work on finishing a Live project,
you'll often find that you want to make
| | 00:03 | changes to existing automation data.
| | 00:06 | In this video, we'll learn
how to edit automation in Live.
| | 00:08 | So we are looking at a track in
Arrangement view, and I've got automation
| | 00:11 | break points written on this envelope.
And those could have been written in any
| | 00:15 | one of the three ways: either with your
mouse, double-clicking or using the Draw
| | 00:19 | tool, or in real time.
| | 00:20 | It's all the same once it is
actually written to the track.
| | 00:22 | So I can move an automation break point
by clicking on it and dragging it to a
| | 00:26 | new location. I can get rid
of it by double-clicking on it.
| | 00:30 | Let me undo that: Command+Z or Ctrl+Z on a PC.
| | 00:35 | I can also make a change to an
automation break point using a fine adjustment,
| | 00:39 | and this works on your
movements that are up and down related.
| | 00:43 | So for instance, if I wanted to
change the location of this particular
| | 00:46 | break point, if I Command+Click on it
and drag up or down, you'll see that I'm
| | 00:51 | actually moving in very small
increments as I move. If I let go of that and drag,
| | 00:56 | you'll see that I move
in much bigger increments.
| | 00:58 | So that's Command+Click+Drag
or Ctrl+Click+Drag on a PC.
| | 01:02 | That also constrains the movement to a
vertical movement, and not right and left.
| | 01:06 | Now I can also move a range, and that
requires making a selection first. Then I
| | 01:13 | can do one of the two things.
| | 01:14 | I can click on the line at any point,
and that allows me to move it up or down.
| | 01:20 | In some programs that's called
trimming automation data, and essentially what
| | 01:24 | that allows you to do is change the
automation without changing the contour.
| | 01:29 | So if you like the ups and downs, in
this case of your volume, then all you
| | 01:33 | need to do, to make it a just a
little bit louder or a little bit softer
| | 01:37 | overall is to trim it up or down by
just clicking on the line and dragging up or
| | 01:42 | down on a selection.
| | 01:43 | Now can't move automation side to side
in that manner without holding my Shift
| | 01:48 | down and then clicking on one of the
break points. At that point, I can actually
| | 01:53 | move that selection side to side
or up and down at the same time.
| | 01:57 | One other thing that you might want to
do from time to time, especially if you
| | 02:00 | take a look at this area here, even
though it's stepped it looks like I want to
| | 02:04 | go from this break point up to that break point.
| | 02:07 | One thing you might think about doing
is deleting the break points in between.
| | 02:11 | You can do that by holding down your
Shift key and grabbing a break point and
| | 02:15 | then dragging. And that will wipe out
any break points in the direction that you
| | 02:19 | move the break points. So I am going to
Shift+Click+Drag, and as I move up to this
| | 02:23 | other one, you notice that it was
wiping out the other break points.
| | 02:27 | That's a really slick command: Shift+Click+Drag.
| | 02:30 | At other times, you may want to override
the existing automation and experiment
| | 02:35 | with other settings.
| | 02:37 | So as I'm on the track volume here, if
I go over and click in the volume field
| | 02:43 | and make a change, you'll
see a couple of things occur.
| | 02:47 | First of all, the little red box in
the corner of that particular field turns
| | 02:51 | gray to tell me that you've currently
temporarily suspended the automation.
| | 02:57 | And I also see that the pinkish-red line that
represents the automation envelope has turn to brown.
| | 03:03 | So at this point the setting here in
the Volume field is overriding any volume
| | 03:07 | automation on the track. And that's
great, as I said, for experimenting with
| | 03:11 | different settings until you're ready to commit.
| | 03:13 | If you want to go back to the
previously written automation, all we need to do
| | 03:17 | is click this Back to Arrangement
button up here in the control bar, and we'll
| | 03:21 | see that the automation turns back to
that pinkish-red color, and the little box
| | 03:26 | is back in the Volume field in this case.
| | 03:29 | So other things you might want to do with
automation is copy and paste to other locations.
| | 03:33 | Let me put this one on None again for a
second. And I'm going to zoom back out
| | 03:38 | so I can see more of the session.
| | 03:41 | And now, I'm going to make a selection
here on my volume automation graph there.
| | 03:46 | And I am going to Command+C on a Mac--
that would be Ctrl+C on a PC--and now I can
| | 03:51 | move that to another location and paste it.
| | 03:55 | Once I have that at a different
location, I can also duplicate that. And what
| | 03:59 | duplicating automation does is at the
end of your current selection it will add
| | 04:04 | that same automation.
| | 04:05 | So I'll go Command+D, and that will
be Ctrl+D on a PC, and you can see that
| | 04:10 | I have just duplicated that right at the end
of the current selection. And again and again.
| | 04:15 | I'll go Command+Z to undo some that.
| | 04:17 | It would be Ctrl+Z on a PC.
| | 04:20 | And last but not the least, there's
times when you may want to move a clip.
| | 04:23 | Now, two things may happen
with the related automation.
| | 04:27 | So if I select a clip and move it, we'll
see that the automation stayed with it.
| | 04:34 | So by default that's what happens, but
if I actually want the automation to stay
| | 04:38 | where it currently is and still be able
to move that clip, I'm going to go up here, and
| | 04:42 | I am going to click on the Lock
Envelopes button. That's a global setting, by the
| | 04:46 | way, and I am going to, again, want to
move that clip. But this time, you'll see,
| | 04:50 | when I move it, the
automation stays in its same place.
| | 04:54 | As you can see, editing automation in
Live is a simple process, and allows you to
| | 04:58 | continue to fine-tune shape a mix as
you work towards finishing a project.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using fades to mask audio pops and clicks| 00:00 | Editing audio can often result in
unwanted pops and clicks at the start and end
| | 00:03 | points of audio clips.
| | 00:05 | Let's take a look at how you use fades in
Ableton Live to mask or mute those problems.
| | 00:09 | So in Live, fades are
created using automation envelopes.
| | 00:12 | So if we take a look at the bass audio
track I have here in the Arrangement
| | 00:16 | window, I will click on the automation
device chooser, and I will see that in
| | 00:20 | addition to the mixer, I also
have the choice of making fades.
| | 00:25 | Now in this case, I have kind of set
this so there aren't any fades at all in
| | 00:28 | this session, and we'll talk
about that as we move forward.
| | 00:31 | But I can add a fade at the end of a
phrase or the beginning of a clip to mask
| | 00:36 | any of those unwanted pops or clicks.
| | 00:38 | And by the way, those occur because of
imprecise audio editing. And down below
| | 00:43 | here in the Clip Overview window, I
have actually zoomed in a little bit.
| | 00:47 | And I just want to show you that the
waveform that we see when we are really
| | 00:51 | zoomed in centers around this line
that goes through the middle, and that's
| | 00:55 | called the zero line.
| | 00:56 | And that represents no amplitude.
| | 00:59 | When you make a cut to an audio file, you will
always want to do that right at a zero crossing--
| | 01:05 | and a zero crossings is where the
actual waveform crosses the zero line--
| | 01:09 | because at that point there's no amplitude.
| | 01:12 | If you don't do that, that's when
we end up with these clicks or pops.
| | 01:16 | And when you're editing in a
hurry, that's often the result.
| | 01:18 | But as we said, we can get rid
of that in Live by using fades.
| | 01:23 | So I am going to click up here at
the end of this particular clip.
| | 01:25 | I am going to use my Plus
button to zoom in a little bit.
| | 01:29 | That's Plus over on the num pad.
| | 01:30 | And now to add a fade to the end of
this clip, all I need to do is drag across
| | 01:36 | the end of the clip.
| | 01:38 | Please notice that I have
actually temporarily disabled the grid.
| | 01:40 | And that's Command+4 on a Mac
or Ctrl+4 on a PC to do that.
| | 01:45 | So I'll make a selection across there.
| | 01:48 | And then I'm going to add a fade using
the command Option+Command+F on a Mac
| | 01:53 | or Alt+Ctrl+F on a PC.
| | 01:56 | And that adds the shape to
the automation envelope here.
| | 02:00 | At the top, we have the main handle
that allows us to select that fade,
| | 02:03 | and then we have a second handle down here
that allows us to change the slope of that fade.
| | 02:08 | So if I want the volume to fade
down more quickly, I can change that.
| | 02:12 | I can also change the length of the
fade by grabbing the upper handle and
| | 02:16 | dragging them more into the file
or towards the end of the clip.
| | 02:19 | Let me zoom back out.
| | 02:22 | Let's find a place
where two clips come together.
| | 02:24 | So I will zoom in there.
Same thing, Plus button.
| | 02:31 | Now if make a selection across where
two clips join and use the same command--
| | 02:36 | Option+Command+F on a Mac or Alt+Ctrl+
F on a PC--I have added a crossfade.
| | 02:43 | And again, we have now two handles to
adjust the lengths of those and the slopes.
| | 02:48 | So it's a smart tool, in effect,
| | 02:50 | that if I make that selection across the
beginning of a clip, I will get a fade-
| | 02:53 | in, and if I make that selection across
or two clips join a crossfade and again
| | 02:58 | across the end of the clip, a fade-out.
| | 03:00 | Now most of the time, you will actually
come into your audio, and you'll have
| | 03:06 | fades automatically added.
| | 03:08 | And that's through your preference selections.
| | 03:10 | So I am going to open my preferences,
going Command+Comma on a Mac--that would
| | 03:13 | be Ctrl+Comma on a PC.
| | 03:16 | And you will notice that we have an
option here on the Record Warp Launch tab
| | 03:20 | that says Create Fades on Clip Edges.
| | 03:23 | So if I turn that on, that will automatically
add fades on any clips that are on your tracks.
| | 03:29 | And by the way, those are audio clips only.
| | 03:31 | Don't need fades on your MIDI clips.
| | 03:34 | Now if you want to delete a clip, we
actually need to turn that preference off.
| | 03:37 | So I am going to go back in there
temporarily, and I will disable that preference.
| | 03:41 | Let me zoom back out for a second.
| | 03:43 | I am going to go end of that region.
| | 03:46 | Let me zoom back in.
| | 03:50 | Now to delete a fade, all I need to do
is select that upper handle and hit my
| | 03:54 | Delete key, and it's gone.
| | 03:56 | In some cases, reduced audio
quality is a desired effect.
| | 03:59 | But with today's audio editing tools,
pops and clicks that are a result from
| | 04:03 | poor or hurried audio editing are inexcusable.
| | 04:06 | So don't forget to add
fades to your audio clips.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding the power of clip envelopes| 00:00 | Clip automation envelopes are
overlooked but powerful aspect of Live.
| | 00:03 | Let's take a look at how you add
automation to a clip in Session view, and while
| | 00:07 | we are at it, we will see a couple of
innovative types of automation that are
| | 00:10 | unique to Ableton Live.
| | 00:11 | So in an earlier video, we took a
look at how to write automation in
| | 00:15 | the Arrangement view.
| | 00:16 | This time we'll take a look at Session
view and how to write automation to a clip.
| | 00:19 | So if we choose a clip,
| | 00:22 | we look down here in the Clip Overview
area, we can see automation by clicking
| | 00:26 | the Envelope Show or Hide button.
| | 00:29 | Then we get this extra box that appears,
and we get a couple of choosers that
| | 00:33 | work just like the choosers
that are in the Arrangement window.
| | 00:36 | But we get a few more additions in this case.
| | 00:38 | So for instance if I click on the
Device or Clip chooser, I will choose Mixer
| | 00:43 | here, and then in the sub-chooser, I can
see the same types of options that were
| | 00:48 | available in the Arrangement view.
| | 00:49 | So if I click on Volume, I now get
a volume graph, or a volume envelope.
| | 00:55 | And we can add automation in the same
way as we did in the Arrangement view.
| | 00:59 | I can click with my mouse and add
break points, and I can make adjustments to
| | 01:04 | that, so on and so forth.
| | 01:11 | And when I play back the track, we will
actually get those changes in real time.
| | 01:15 | I can delete that automation by simply
selecting it and hitting my Delete key.
| | 01:20 | In addition to that, we also get these
options that are available at the clip
| | 01:24 | level. These are a little bit different.
| | 01:27 | So I get Volume again, which is a
little bit confusing, in addition to
| | 01:30 | Transposition and Offset.
| | 01:32 | Let's first talk about why we have clip
volume in addition to the Mixer volume.
| | 01:37 | So the clip volume actually happens at
a different point in the signal path.
| | 01:41 | So as the signal is traveling through
the channel, and we get to the clip,
| | 01:45 | Clip volume will actually change the
level. And then as we proceed through the
| | 01:50 | path and go through the devices and
then get to the fader, we actually get the
| | 01:55 | mixer volume level.
| | 01:56 | So Clip volume is pre-effects, and
it affects any volume that actually
| | 02:00 | input into your effects.
| | 02:01 | But in addition to that, we get these
other two functions, and let's first take
| | 02:05 | a look at Transpose.
| | 02:07 | So Transpose is actually going to allow
me to draw in changes that will change
| | 02:12 | the pitch of the audio file
that's passing through this track.
| | 02:15 | So I'm currently at a quarter note.
| | 02:17 | And let me change the grid background,
so that we are more in line with the
| | 02:21 | rhythm of the actual audio file.
| | 02:24 | So if I right-click, let's try
an 8th note, see if that's line up.
| | 02:28 | And looks like it does.
| | 02:29 | So I am going to zoom in a little bit on
that. And now if I take my Draw mode, I
| | 02:36 | can draw in changes. And as I do that,
we can see that I can do this in steps.
| | 02:42 | And I can draw in changes of
pitch there, in terms of steps,
| | 02:46 | so two steps is going to be a
whole step, so on and so forth.
| | 02:56 | So as I play that back, it's going to
actually change the pitch of the clip in real time.
| | 02:59 | Let's give that a check.
| | 03:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:04 | If I undo that, we can hear what the
track sounded without that automation.
| | 03:09 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:13 | So we can hear it's a single pitch here for
the first four notes until we change chords.
| | 03:17 | So that could be very useful
| | 03:18 | in taking a pre-existing audio clip
that you like the rhythm, and you like
| | 03:22 | the note lengths, but you need
different notes to fit different chords or a
| | 03:25 | different chord progression.
| | 03:27 | On the next track, we have a MIDI clip.
| | 03:30 | Let's take a look at some of
the differences that are there.
| | 03:33 | So again, I can show and hide the
envelopes by clicking on this E button, or
| | 03:37 | the Envelope Show or Hide. And again, I get
the Device chooser, and I get the sub-chooser.
| | 03:43 | In this case, because I'm using a rack, I have
got quite a number of things to choose from.
| | 03:48 | I've got the virtual instrument itself
and a number of effects and other
| | 03:53 | virtual instruments that are being used here.
| | 03:55 | But if I choose that one, I can also
see the other available parameters.
| | 04:00 | And in this case, I've got some
filters and level and things like that.
| | 04:04 | And if you look at the Pad1 filter,
you can see some automation that I have
| | 04:08 | actually already written here on the track.
| | 04:11 | In addition to those parameters that
are associated with the actual virtual
| | 04:14 | instruments or effects,
| | 04:16 | I can also go to the mixer.
| | 04:18 | If I click on the sub-chooser here, we can
see that we've got volume yet once again.
| | 04:23 | So I can do that either at the clip
level, or I can do that at the mixer level.
| | 04:29 | And I would just alert you to the fact
that at the MIDI level that's only going
| | 04:33 | to be 0 to 127 resolution for your
volume changes, where at the mixer level the
| | 04:38 | resolution is going to be quite a bit higher.
| | 04:41 | In addition, I get some
quick chooser buttons here,
| | 04:44 | so that I can immediately go to
some of the more commonly used MIDI
| | 04:48 | continuous controller.
| | 04:49 | So I get Pitch Bend information
and your MIDI Volume and MIDI Pan.
| | 04:53 | And while we are at it, let's go back
to that audio clip, and we can see that I
| | 04:57 | have also got some quick choosers there as well.
| | 04:59 | In this case I've got Transpose, Volume and Pan.
| | 05:03 | Last but not least, let's take
a look at this other audio clip.
| | 05:06 | And I want to take a look at one
other type of clip automation that's
| | 05:09 | really, really powerful.
| | 05:11 | And that is the sample offset.
| | 05:13 | And what's sample offset does is
actually take pieces of your clip and move them
| | 05:18 | forward or backwards in time.
| | 05:21 | So as I draw an automation, if I go
above the 0 line, I'm actually advancing
| | 05:26 | that particular part of the clip.
| | 05:28 | And if I draw below the line, I'm actually
delaying that particular part of the clip.
| | 05:33 | Okay. And we are set at 16th notes.
| | 05:35 | I am going to zoom in just a little bit, so
we can see what we were doing a little better.
| | 05:38 | I am going to randomly draw in some changes.
| | 05:48 | By the way, I can advance things 8/16ths,
and I can delay them a maximum of 8/16ths.
| | 05:57 | So let's give that a check and see what that sounds like.
| | 06:00 | (Drums playing.)
| | 06:05 | --which is different when we hear the original,
| | 06:08 | (Music playing.)
which is just a conventional loop.
| | 06:14 | So let me redo that. Bring that back.
| | 06:18 | And you can see that it's scrambling that.
| | 06:20 | Now this isn't the surgical way that we
can do this in Arrangement view, but if
| | 06:23 | you've got to make some quick changes,
this can be very inspirational.
| | 06:26 | You can come up with some really cool things.
| | 06:29 | Now one other thing that can actually
make this even more powerful is that I can
| | 06:32 | unlink the automation from that clip itself.
| | 06:36 | And in that way, I can have clip
automation that's a four-bar loop--
| | 06:41 | I will drag this out to bar
five, beat one to accomplish that--
| | 06:46 | while the audio clip
itself is only two bars long.
| | 06:50 | And that's going to allow me to vary
that clip even more across the four-bar
| | 06:53 | span, rather than just limiting
it to the exact length of the clip.
| | 06:57 | So again, I'll use my Draw
mode to draw in some changes.
| | 07:01 | Let's hear what that sounds like.
| | 07:07 | (Drums playing.)
| | 07:17 | So if this is the first time you've
seen the power of clip envelopes,
| | 07:20 | you will probably agree that it's
fantastic way to alter the way clips play back.
| | 07:24 | Give it a try, and see what you can come up with.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
13. Warping AudioUnderstanding the basics of looping| 00:00 | Time stretching audio to different
tempos is one of Live's best-known features.
| | 00:04 | In this video, we will discuss how
Live analyzes and processes audio in order
| | 00:08 | to time-stretch clips and learn to choose a
work mode that matches the musical situation.
| | 00:12 | So time stretching enables audio clips
of different tempos to play at the same
| | 00:16 | tempo, and it does that
without changing the pitch.
| | 00:18 | So how this works in Live is that
Live analyzes each audio file and clip to
| | 00:23 | determine where transients, or attacks,
are located. And when those attacks are
| | 00:27 | periodic, it's able to derive
tempo and length information.
| | 00:31 | So I am going to go out to a folder
here that contains some audio that I have
| | 00:34 | got in this set. And we can see here
that I have got the .wav file, but then
| | 00:39 | right next to that, Live has analyzed
that and created this .ASD file. And that's
| | 00:45 | the file that contains that audio
analysis for that transient location.
| | 00:48 | So I am going to choose an audio clip.
| | 00:51 | You can see that down here in Clip
Overview. And then I am going to open up the
| | 00:55 | sample box, because in the middle
of that I have my Warping controls.
| | 01:00 | This button here, the Warp button, is
what enables Live to play this clip at
| | 01:04 | different tempos. And if that is disabled,
Live will just play it at its native
| | 01:08 | tempo that we can see down here in the
Segment BPM, which is a little more than
| | 01:13 | 80 beats per minute.
| | 01:15 | Below that we have a chooser here that
chooses the mode that Live is going to
| | 01:19 | use to warp this particular audio file.
And if I click on that, you can see that
| | 01:23 | there are several other options.
| | 01:25 | But Beats is best for drum files,
and that's what we have here.
| | 01:29 | So let's take a listen and hear
what Live does as I change the tempo.
| | 01:32 | So I am going to play this clip, and
then I am going to go up to the control bar
| | 01:35 | and change the tempo as playback as occurring.
| | 01:37 | (Drums playing.)
| | 01:50 | So something important there is that
when you speed a clip up, the transients get
| | 01:54 | closer together, and we really don't
hear any audio artifacts when we change the
| | 01:57 | tempo. But it's when you slow down the
tempo that funny things start to occur,
| | 02:02 | and that's where the real
work that Live has to do.
| | 02:05 | So Live does that based upon these
other two parameters down here in the Warp
| | 02:09 | area. In this case, it's trying to
preserve the transient location.
| | 02:13 | Other options are to set that at a
rhythmic increment, and that's useful for
| | 02:17 | creating some interesting effects.
But if you're looking to just have a natural
| | 02:21 | sound, Transients is your best choice.
| | 02:23 | Now, when you slow down the tempo, the
transients get further apart, and we end
| | 02:28 | up with gaps in the audio. And it's
this setting here, this Loop mode, that
| | 02:33 | determines what happens.
| | 02:34 | So if I put it on the first setting,
that's Loop Off, it will play each transient,
| | 02:39 | and then it will stop and wait until
the appropriate time to trigger the next
| | 02:42 | transient. And that can create a
gating effect, or leave gaps in the audio.
| | 02:46 | Let's hear what that sounds like.
| | 02:48 | I am going to slow down the tempo
here dramatically so you can hear this.
| | 02:51 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:55 | So Live isn't filling in those
gaps, and they're very, very obvious.
| | 02:59 | The other two modes are called
Loop Forward and Loop Back and Forth.
| | 03:03 | So in Loop Forward, Live is going to
play the transient till the end, and then
| | 03:08 | it's going to returned to about the
middle of that where there is a little bit
| | 03:10 | of a cross fade and play it forward again.
| | 03:13 | Let's hear what that sounds like.
| | 03:14 | (Drums playing.)
| | 03:19 | So at that very slow tempo, we can
actually hear a little bit of ringing,
| | 03:22 | a little bit of the weirdness going on.
| | 03:24 | The last one is Loop Back and Forth.
And in this case it's going to play each
| | 03:29 | segment of the audio, and it will go to
the end, and then it will actually play
| | 03:33 | it from the backwards to the forwards,
until it gets to that midpoint, at which
| | 03:37 | point it will play it forwards again.
| | 03:39 | That yields a little more
natural result. Let's hear how that sounds.
| | 03:43 | (Drums playing.)
| | 03:47 | Even at this really slow tempo, we
can hear that that sounds a lot better.
| | 03:51 | It's not perfect, but it's a lot closer.
| | 03:54 | Okay, so if I speed that back up to
little bit closer to the original tempo,
| | 03:58 | let's give it a listen -
| | 03:59 | (Clip playing.)
| | 04:03 | A little bit of artifact here and
there, but really pretty darn close.
| | 04:07 | Okay, let's take a look at a different situation.
| | 04:10 | If I look at this bass audio clip, we
are much more likely to use Tones mode,
| | 04:15 | which is optimized for more monophonic
material, like a bassline, a vocal line or
| | 04:20 | maybe even a lead line. And in this
case, we also get this Grain Size setting.
| | 04:25 | What we need to do here is think of
the audio as a pile of sand, where we were
| | 04:29 | able to control the size of the grains
of sand in that sand pile. In some cases,
| | 04:35 | having a really small grain size is
going to yield better results, and in another,
| | 04:38 | a larger grains size will work better.
And where the pitch is fairly constant,
| | 04:42 | that smaller grain size
is going to work the best.
| | 04:44 | Let's give that a listen.
| | 04:46 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:51 | So the pitch is pretty constant in this
example. And if I leave it down here at
| | 04:55 | lower setting, or a smaller grain size,
we are going to get the best results.
| | 04:59 | In other cases, you may want to use texture.
| | 05:02 | If you're working with polyphonic
material or if you want to re-pitch something,
| | 05:06 | you can use that mode. And then new
with version 8, we've got Complex Pro.
| | 05:11 | The Complex Pro is really great at
working with loops that are whole songs.
| | 05:16 | In that case, your clips are typically much
longer, and Live has to work a lot harder to do it.
| | 05:21 | In addition here with Complex Pro, we
also have control over the formants, and
| | 05:26 | that is part of when you transpose a
file keeping those elements that are not
| | 05:31 | supposed to be transposed in the
same place. And that helps us get rid of
| | 05:34 | that chipmunk effect.
| | 05:36 | So if I transpose this loop a little
bit and play it, there is a little vocal
| | 05:41 | part in here that you'll hear that
sounds very, very funny at this point.
| | 05:43 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:44 | Let me do that one more time. We are at such a
slow tempo that it's not doing a really good job.
| | 05:52 | So I am moving from 117 down to about
70. That was quite a difference. But let's
| | 05:56 | try it about 95 and hear what sounds like.
| | 05:58 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:05 | You can hear that chipmunk effect
happening with that vocal line. And if I move
| | 06:09 | this formant parameter to a higher
setting, it will sound a lot better.
| | 06:13 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:18 | It's not perfect, but it's a lot
better than it was. And if I'm doing this at
| | 06:23 | the normal pitch, I can pull the
formants down, and I can change the tempo to a
| | 06:28 | much greater degree
| | 06:29 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:41 | Pretty remarkable. So, Live's audio
warping is so effective that it's pretty
| | 06:45 | transparent to the music-making process.
| | 06:47 | In the next video, we will take a closer
look at warping and learn how it can be
| | 06:51 | used to help create loops
and fix rhythmic errors.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating tracks that loop smoothly| 00:00 | Audio warping is a tool that seems to magically
allow us to change the tempo of an audio clip.
| | 00:04 | But sometimes it's necessary to edit
our audio files in order for warping to
| | 00:07 | work the way we expect.
| | 00:09 | Let's take a look at how you can edit
transient markers and create warp markers
| | 00:13 | in order to create clips that smoothly loop.
| | 00:15 | So Live analyzes all audio files and clips to
determine where the transients and attacks are.
| | 00:19 | Now in Live, we can see evidence of that
when we zoom in. Now, notice I am looking
| | 00:24 | at this click here in the Sample Editor,
and I can see these little lines that
| | 00:28 | are appearing just above
each attack, or transient.
| | 00:31 | And if I zoom in a little bit, we will that
those convert into these little triangles.
| | 00:36 | Those are transient markers, and
that's where Live sees all the attacks in
| | 00:40 | this particular clip.
| | 00:42 | Now, those are only visible and only active
when the warp button is enabled in the Sample Box.
| | 00:46 | If I click that, they go away.
| | 00:49 | So I need to re-enable that, and I'm
also going to turn on the Loop function to
| | 00:53 | make sure that this loops.
| | 00:54 | Then I am going to close that, so that
we have a little more room to operate.
| | 01:00 | So I've chosen to work with a four-bar
section of this drum clip, and I've done
| | 01:05 | that because I need a nice little loop
to work with. But the overall file has a
| | 01:10 | symbol head at the beginning that I
don't want as part of this particular loop.
| | 01:14 | So I have found a nice four-bar section,
and I looked for one also that has a
| | 01:18 | little bit of a fill at the end, so
this is going to work great for me.
| | 01:22 | As I zoom in though, on the beginning of
bar five here, I'll notice that this kick
| | 01:26 | hit is in front of the beat, and I
want that to line up right on the beat.
| | 01:32 | So in order for me to manually change
the way Live is going to warp this audio,
| | 01:36 | I need to convert that
transient marker into a warp marker.
| | 01:41 | With the warp marker, I can
actually move the actual placement of that
| | 01:45 | particular transient.
| | 01:46 | So as I mouse over the transient, you'll
see this little other gray box appear,
| | 01:51 | and that's called the pseudo-warp marker.
| | 01:54 | I can't move that, but if I double-
click on it, I will convert it into a warp
| | 01:58 | marker, and that I can move by
simply clicking and dragging.
| | 02:04 | Let me undo that. I will turn on the
grid: Command+4 on a Mac or Ctrl+4 on a PC.
| | 02:10 | And now that will snap right onto the grid.
| | 02:13 | Okay, so let me zoom back out, and I am going
to zoom in over here on the end of the loop.
| | 02:21 | Again, I have got a transient marker
here that defines the end of the loop, and
| | 02:25 | I'm going to convert that into a
warp marker. I am double-clicking it and
| | 02:29 | snapping that onto the grid.
| | 02:33 | Okay, now as you notice, as I move those,
it was actually telescoping the audio
| | 02:39 | in between and on either side.
| | 02:41 | That's significant, and we'll talk about
that in a little more detail here in a second.
| | 02:45 | So now I've got the outside edges of
my loop pin, and I will listen to it to
| | 02:49 | make sure the loop smoothly across the end.
| | 02:51 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:10 | Okay, so for the most part it sounds
like it's grooving, but there is a little
| | 03:14 | bit of a double-hit there at
the end that I want to avoid.
| | 03:17 | So if I zoom in on the end of that clip,
I will notice that the beginning of
| | 03:22 | that transient is out in front of
bar nine, and that's not going to work.
| | 03:27 | So I'm going to select that warp marker,
delete it, and then I'm going to zoom in
| | 03:31 | on that transient marker. And I will
notice that it's actually into the attack,
| | 03:35 | and I actually need that to be
over there at the beginning.
| | 03:38 | So I can move that transient marker
by hovering my mouse over it and then
| | 03:42 | holding my Shift key down and
dragging that to the new place.
| | 03:46 | I am going to drag that over here,
and I want to make sure that that starts
| | 03:50 | right before the transient beginning.
And I want to make sure that's at a zero
| | 03:55 | crossing, so there's no audio at that point.
| | 03:57 | Now once I've found that, I can then
hover my mouse back over that, convert that
| | 04:02 | into a warp marker by double-
clicking, and then snap that on to the grid.
| | 04:08 | And we will zoom back out and
let's give that another listen.
| | 04:11 | (Drums playing.)
| | 04:24 | Okay, so that's a lot better.
| | 04:26 | Another thing that you are going to
want to notice as you're working with your
| | 04:28 | clips is the location of
all of the transient markers.
| | 04:32 | So as I look through here, they look
to be fairly regular, and they look to
| | 04:36 | be associated with transients, but in
this one little spot it looks like I don't
| | 04:40 | have one, and then that looks like
there's two right there. And that's a good
| | 04:44 | example of a couple things that can
happen when you're working with clips.
| | 04:48 | So let me zoom in on that spot. So it
looks like it's added a second transient
| | 04:54 | marker here in what's actually decay.
| | 04:57 | There might be a little bit of a spike
there that the analysis says, "Hey that
| | 05:00 | looks like a transient
marker," but it really isn't.
| | 05:03 | So I am going to get rid of that one
by simply clicking on the triangle, and
| | 05:08 | when that turns black, it's selected, and now
I can at hit my Delete key and get rid of it.
| | 05:12 | Now if I move my cursor away from
that point, you'll see that the transient
| | 05:15 | marker isn't there anymore.
| | 05:17 | If I move over to this one, I can see
where there's not one. But that looks like
| | 05:21 | that's what the hi-hat chip, or there is
actually something there that I want to
| | 05:24 | be able to warp to the tempo.
| | 05:27 | So I am going to add one there. And to
place it correctly, I am going to get rid
| | 05:31 | of the grid temporarily by pressing
Command+4 on a Mac or Ctrl+4 on a PC.
| | 05:36 | Now I can click right there
near the beginning of that.
| | 05:38 | I can zoom in if I need--and I am
hitting the Plus key on my Num Pad to do
| | 05:43 | that. And I will place that very
carefully. And now I can turn that into a
| | 05:48 | transient marker with the command
Command+Shift+I--that would be on the Mac--or
| | 05:53 | Ctrl+Shift+I on a PC.
| | 05:55 | I've got that, and now we are ready to go.
| | 05:59 | So if I need to change the tempo of
this file, those should warp correctly.
| | 06:04 | Now at other times, you may take a look
at one or more location of transients and
| | 06:10 | say, "You know that's a little bit
too far off the beat to make me feel
| | 06:13 | comfortable so I want to actually adjust that."
| | 06:16 | So if I move this particular transient
location, it's actually going to move the
| | 06:20 | ones around it. And if those are
actually located in good spots, I want to make
| | 06:25 | sure that when I move this
one, it doesn't move those two.
| | 06:28 | In effect, what I need to do is pin this
one in place and pin that were in place
| | 06:32 | so that I can move this one. And there's
a nice function in Live to allow us to do
| | 06:37 | that by simply holding down your
Command key as you hover over a transient, and
| | 06:42 | you'll notice that I see pseudo-
warp markers at all three locations.
| | 06:45 | Now I can simply double-click, convert
all three of them into warp markers, and
| | 06:51 | now when I move this one in the middle,
these two over here actually won't move.
| | 06:56 | So I can grab that and click
and snap that onto the grid.
| | 07:00 | So after you've gone through and
carefully edited your loop, you may want to save
| | 07:04 | your changes for use in later session.
| | 07:07 | We can do that by going to the sample
box and simply clicking on the Save button.
| | 07:12 | Another thing that I might want to do
is crop this particular sample so that I
| | 07:16 | have it without all the additional audio.
| | 07:19 | Before I do that, I would probably
Option+Click and drag a copy of that to
| | 07:23 | another spot, so that I can select that
one, and then right-click on the area that
| | 07:30 | I am working with, and choose Crop Sample.
| | 07:34 | So if I go back to the original you can
see that I have got the whole file, and
| | 07:38 | then if I go down to this one, I have
only got that piece that forms the four-bar
| | 07:41 | loop that I am trying to work with.
| | 07:43 | So while there is no substitute for a
good performance, warping is a great way
| | 07:46 | to fix rhythmic errors and
create clips that smoothly loop.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using warp features to quantize audio| 00:00 | Working with audio files the same
way we can edit MIDI data was a dream in
| | 00:03 | the not so distant past.
| | 00:05 | Let's take a look at how you can use
Live's warping features to quantize audio
| | 00:09 | and discuss the best method of applying
quantization to multi-track audio clips.
| | 00:13 | So setting and moving warp markers can
get tedious, especially if you have a
| | 00:16 | clip that needs a lot of
rhythm error correction.
| | 00:19 | But audio can now be quantized just like MIDI.
| | 00:21 | Let's take a look how that works.
| | 00:23 | So I've got a clip here
on this basic rock track.
| | 00:26 | I'm going to work with that. But before
I get started, I'm going to make a copy
| | 00:29 | of it, so I have something to go
back to if I don't like my results.
| | 00:33 | So I'm going to Option+Click and drag
that. And I've got 4-bar area that I want
| | 00:37 | to turn into a loop.
| | 00:38 | So before I try quantizing this, I'm
actually going to set the outside edges.
| | 00:44 | Remember, you do that by hovering your
mouse over a transient marker, and then
| | 00:48 | double-clicking the pseudo-warp marker
that turn it into the warp marker, and
| | 00:51 | then simply dragging and
letting that snap to the grid.
| | 00:55 | Let me go the other end quickly,
and I'll do the same thing.
| | 01:00 | Okay. So when I want to quantize something in
Live, I can do that to either a portion
| | 01:10 | of an audio clip or the entire clip.
| | 01:12 | So for instance, I'll zoom in here a
little bit, and we can see that these
| | 01:17 | markers right through here look
like they're all behind the groove.
| | 01:21 | So I can make a selection
here and drag across there.
| | 01:25 | Let's say I want to do this much. And
now I can quantize this by invoking the
| | 01:29 | Quantize command that found by right-
clicking on your selection, and then from
| | 01:34 | contextual menu, you can see I've got
both Quantize and Quantize Settings.
| | 01:39 | Quantize contains the last settings
that you chose when you went into the
| | 01:43 | Quantize Settings dialog box.
| | 01:45 | So I tend to avoid using the Quantize
function and always go straight to the
| | 01:49 | Quantize Settings choice, so that I can
see what my Quantize Settings are and
| | 01:54 | make any necessary adjustments.
| | 01:55 | So let's check that out.
| | 01:57 | So currently, it's set to a 16th note,
and that happens to be the smallest
| | 02:02 | rhythmic increment that's in this
selected clip, or in my selection.
| | 02:06 | So I will leave that at a 16th note.
And then I need to choose the amount of
| | 02:10 | quantization I want to apply.
| | 02:11 | Now 100% is going to hard-quantize my
selection right onto the grid, and I would
| | 02:16 | like to retain a little bit of
that human "imperfection" so to speak.
| | 02:20 | It just depends upon the context of
what you're doing, but in this case I am
| | 02:24 | going to choose something in
85% to 90% and give that a shot.
| | 02:27 | So I'll click OK, and you'll notice that
Live put warp markers past my selection.
| | 02:34 | It put one on either edge to pin
those areas, so that they wouldn't be moved,
| | 02:38 | and then added a warp marker to everything in
between and then snapped those onto the grid.
| | 02:44 | So I can do that with just a portion of
the clip, or I can actually do it with
| | 02:48 | the entire selection that I'm working with.
| | 02:50 | So let me zoom back out.
| | 02:53 | I'll select everything between those
warp markers. And this time I'm going to
| | 02:57 | bring up that dialog box by using the
shortcut, which on a Mac is Command+Shift+U,
| | 03:02 | or on a PC Ctrl+Shift+U. Again, my
quantize amount to set to the smallest
| | 03:07 | rhythmic increment in the selection.
| | 03:10 | I've got my amount set.
| | 03:11 | I'll say OK, and it's now added warp
markers to every one of those transients.
| | 03:17 | Let's check out what that sounds like.
| | 03:18 | (Drums playing.)
| | 03:34 | Sound pretty good.
| | 03:35 | Now occasionally you're also going to
want to do this with multi-track audio clips.
| | 03:40 | So I've got the same drum groove here,
separated out into individual parts.
| | 03:44 | So I've got the kick, a couples
snare tracks, hi-hat, and overhead.
| | 03:49 | So I'm going to flip over to the
Arrangement view by pressing my Tab key, and
| | 03:53 | now I'm going to select these clips.
| | 03:58 | You'll notice that after I've made
the selection the title bar here in
| | 04:02 | the sample and clips box, down in the Clip
Overview area, show a diagonal color striping.
| | 04:09 | That happens whenever you've
got multiple clips selected.
| | 04:12 | Now I've selected all the clips
because when you want to fix something in the
| | 04:15 | multi-track-audio-clip situation,
you have to do the same thing to each clip.
| | 04:20 | If you don't do that, and you adjust
just one of those clips, you're going to
| | 04:24 | move any bleed on that track out of
phase with the other clips, and you're going
| | 04:29 | to get some really
undesirable results from that.
| | 04:32 | So I've got all the clips selected.
You may find that if you want to work with a
| | 04:37 | particular clip because the transient
is more visually apparent there, that
| | 04:41 | you'll need to Command+Click or Ctrl+
Click that clip to bring that up down here
| | 04:46 | in the Sample Editor.
| | 04:47 | So now I'm looking at snare track.
| | 04:50 | Again, I want to fix this one transient,
but I don't want to change the location
| | 04:54 | of the transients to either side of that.
| | 04:56 | So to do that, I need to hold on my
Command key on a Mac, or Ctrl key on a PC, and
| | 05:01 | hover over the associated transient
marker, and when I see the pseudo-warp
| | 05:06 | marker appear, I can double-click
and turn those into warp markers.
| | 05:11 | Now if I move this one in the middle, it
won't affect the location of these other two.
| | 05:15 | Now as I move this, you should see
the results on all of the clips.
| | 05:21 | As you saw, they all snapped onto the grid.
| | 05:23 | So now you know how to quantize
audio clips and fix rhythmic errors in
| | 05:27 | multi-track audio files.
| | 05:30 | Now there's no reason for
your music not to groove.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
14. Using ControllersUsing the computer keyboard to control Live| 00:00 | MIDI controllers offer straightforward control
of mixer and device parameters in Ableton Live.
| | 00:04 | If you can't afford a MIDI
controller yet, don't worry, because in Live
| | 00:08 | the computer keyboard can also be
configured to work as an effective MIDI controller.
| | 00:12 | So there're two things that we can do
in Ableton Live to configure the keyboard
| | 00:15 | to work as a MIDI controller.
| | 00:16 | First of all, we have the
Computer MIDI Keyboard mode.
| | 00:20 | If I enable that, the letters A through
K on a keyboard, and some of the other
| | 00:25 | letters, actually will trigger
notes from your virtual instrument.
| | 00:29 | So if I select the bass track here--
and we can see that I've got a virtual
| | 00:33 | instrument there, and I'm going to flip
over--actually let me bring up a clip so
| | 00:38 | that we can see the keyboard here.
| | 00:40 | So if I press the letter A with the
Computer MIDI Keyboard button enabled on
| | 00:44 | the control bar here, we should see
the letter C3 light up, and we do.
| | 00:50 | So if I press A, I'm going to get C.
If I press S, I'm going to get D. D will
| | 00:56 | get me E. F will get me F in that case.
| | 01:00 | G will get me G. H will get me A. J will
get me B, and K will take me to the next
| | 01:07 | octave, which in this case will be C4.
| | 01:11 | Now for black keys, if you look at your
computer keyboard you'll realize, so if
| | 01:15 | A is C and S is D and D is E, then the
keys on your computer MIDI keyboard above
| | 01:21 | that in between the keys
will act as your black keys.
| | 01:23 | For instance, so W will act
as C# and E will act as D#.
| | 01:30 | Now I can change octaves here and what
I'm triggering by pressing my Z and X Keys.
| | 01:35 | Z you'll notice will take me down an
octave, so now I'm triggering C2. And if I
| | 01:42 | go another Z, I'll drop down another octave.
| | 01:44 | So I'm at C1 through D2. And if I use
the letter X, I can go back up in octave
| | 01:50 | each time I press the key.
| | 01:51 | So now I am back to C2 and D3.
| | 01:54 | Another time C3, and now I'm up to C4.
| | 01:59 | Also, I can control the velocity that
I'm triggering, using my C and V keys.
| | 02:05 | So I'm back to C3 as middle C, and
if I press the C, it's that loud.
| | 02:10 | If I press the letter C on the computer
keyboard, it will drop my velocity 20 at a time.
| | 02:16 | So now I should be softer at 60 velocity.
| | 02:19 | I will press V. It will take me
back up 20 each time. And I'll have a maximum
| | 02:29 | velocity of 127, and a minimum of 0.
| | 02:33 | Now another way that I can use the computer
keyboard to trigger is to use Key Map mode.
| | 02:38 | I'm going to disable Computer MIDI
Keyboard mode here for a second. And when I
| | 02:43 | click on Key Map mode, you'll notice
that everything that I can map on the
| | 02:48 | screen turns orange.
| | 02:50 | So a couple of obvious choices
are going to be clips or scenes.
| | 02:54 | So if I select, for instance, this clip
right here, and then press a key on the
| | 02:59 | computer keyboard, I'll assign that.
| | 03:01 | So in this case, I've signed the letter
Q. We see that in the upper right-hand
| | 03:05 | corner of the clip. And then you'll
notice that also over in the browser area,
| | 03:10 | I have a special browser called the
Key Mappings browser, and it lists
| | 03:14 | anything that I've assigned.
| | 03:15 | So I'm seeing that I've got that
clip assigned: slot 1 on the 6th track
| | 03:20 | Pad-eMotional. And if I hit the Escape
key to get out of Key Map mode, I can now
| | 03:26 | trigger that by pressing my letter Q,
(Music playing.)
| | 03:31 | And I'll go back into Key Map mode.
| | 03:34 | This time I'll go Command+K to do that--
| | 03:36 | that would be Ctrl+K on a PC.
| | 03:38 | I'm not going to assign
other letters to do things.
| | 03:41 | So I'm going to come over
here and grab this first clip.
| | 03:45 | I'll assign that to A and then
the intro to S and verse to D.
| | 03:51 | Now I should warn you that if the
Computer MIDI Keyboard button is enabled, I'm
| | 03:57 | going to set up a situation where those
assignments are going to override my key
| | 04:01 | mapping assignments.
| | 04:03 | If the button is not
enabled, I'll be okay. All right.
| | 04:06 | So I'm going to hit Escape.
| | 04:07 | I'll hit the Stop All Clips button, and
now I'll hit the letter A to trigger that
| | 04:13 | first scene and so on and so forth.
| | 04:15 | Now I'm going to warn you here that
triggering the scenes is still impacted by
| | 04:20 | your global quantization setting.
| | 04:22 | So I've got that set at the default of
1 Bar, which means that when I press my
| | 04:27 | letter A, it will wait until the
next bar to actually trigger that scene.
| | 04:32 | So here is the letter A,
and I'll trigger the intro A.
| | 04:34 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:46 | And as you watch that, you saw me
triggering the other two scenes.
| | 04:50 | So very simple and very effective, and
a great way to get away from using the
| | 04:54 | mouse to try and trigger these events.
| | 04:57 | Now in some cases you can also use the
Key Map mode to assign keys to controls
| | 05:02 | that are variable in nature.
| | 05:04 | So let me go to this Pad-eMotional track,
and on that I've got a synth here.
| | 05:09 | And I'm going to choose in this
case the octave parameter.
| | 05:12 | Let me turn on Key Map mode--
| | 05:14 | remember, that's Command+K or Ctrl+K
on a PC--and I'll select that parameter,
| | 05:20 | and I'm going to assign that to the
letter Z. We see it there. And I'll hit Escape.
| | 05:26 | Now as I press the letter Z, you'll notice
that that's advancing one level at a time.
| | 05:33 | So I do get control over this
variable nature here in this particular case.
| | 05:37 | Let me go back into Key Map mode again.
| | 05:40 | This time I'm going to select the Volume.
I'll assign that to the letter X. Escape to
| | 05:46 | get back out of Key Map mode, and now
when I press the letter X notice that I'm
| | 05:51 | just going to two states: on and off.
| | 05:53 | No volume at all.
| | 05:54 | If I press it again, I'll be all the way on.
| | 05:58 | So the nature of assigning these
keys is really best when it's launching
| | 06:02 | clips and scenes, or using this to trigger
parameters that are either on or off in nature.
| | 06:08 | Some cases we can use it to do variable
controls, but not really dependable in that matter.
| | 06:13 | Now if I need to delete a key map
assignment I can bring back up the Key Map
| | 06:18 | mode and simply select this in the Key
Map browser, and hit your Delete key, and
| | 06:24 | you can easily delete those
and reassign them if necessary.
| | 06:30 | So now that you see how easy it is to
use key mapping, try using it to launch
| | 06:34 | scenes when recording from
Session to Arrangement view, or to record
| | 06:37 | automation in real time.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Mapping device controls to the MIDI keyboard| 00:00 | Live is an incredibly powerful MIDI
production environment, which can be
| | 00:03 | controlled by a variety of
different external MIDI devices.
| | 00:06 | Let's take a look at how you can map
control of Live to a MIDI keyboard or
| | 00:09 | MIDI control surface.
| | 00:11 | So MIDI Map mode in Live allows you
to assign a button or knob on a MIDI
| | 00:15 | keyboard or MIDI controller
to control a parameter in Live.
| | 00:19 | Now first I am going to double
check and make sure things are set up
| | 00:21 | correctly in Preferences.
| | 00:23 | So that's Command+Comma on
a Mac, or Ctrl+Comma on a PC.
| | 00:27 | So I see my E-MU keyboard is
here, and under Tracking, it's on.
| | 00:31 | That's going to allow me to trigger
notes from the keyboard. But to be able
| | 00:34 | to trigger control changes, I need to make
sure that the Remote button is also enabled.
| | 00:39 | Hit Escape to get out of there, and
now I can enter a MIDI Map mode by simply
| | 00:44 | clicking on the MIDI button in the
control bar or by using the keyboard shortcut
| | 00:49 | Command+M, which would you Ctrl+M on a PC.
| | 00:52 | And now all I need to do is click a
parameter to select it and then turn the
| | 00:57 | knob I want to assign to that on
the controller or MIDI keyboard.
| | 01:01 | Now I've done that, and you'll see that
it's assigned number 10 on the keyboard.
| | 01:06 | And if I look up under the MIDI
Mappings browser, I can also see more details.
| | 01:10 | So it shows Control Change number 10--
| | 01:12 | that's the actual knob on the keyboard--
is assigned to track number 2, and the
| | 01:16 | device is Pad-eMotional.
| | 01:18 | You can see that down here. And the
Parameter is the cutoff frequency for
| | 01:23 | oscillator 2, which I see down
here. And I am going to hit Escape.
| | 01:27 | Now I should be able to turn that knob,
and you'll see that it's now controlling
| | 01:32 | that parameter on that instrument device.
| | 01:35 | Now one of the really useful things
about MIDI mapping is I can assign it to
| | 01:39 | multiple knobs if I want.
| | 01:41 | So I am going to go back into the
Mapping feature, so Command+M, Ctrl+M on a PC.
| | 01:46 | And this time I'm going to in the click
the resonance parameter and also assign
| | 01:50 | that to the same knob.
| | 01:51 | Now I am going to want these to do two
different things, so I am going to be
| | 01:55 | using the Minimum and Maximum values
to define the range that I'll be able to
| | 01:59 | move that particular knob.
| | 02:01 | I've already experimented with this a
little bit, so I am going to set the
| | 02:04 | Minimum on the cutoff
frequency to around 600 Hz.
| | 02:09 | Now just remember that as you get
close you may want to move in smaller
| | 02:12 | increments. And if you hold your Command key
down and drag, it will allow you to do that.
| | 02:17 | And I'm going to go to the maximum here,
and I am going to set that around 7K.
| | 02:24 | And then with the Resonance, I am going to set
that about 40 to 60, so let me do that quickly.
| | 02:28 | Okay now I am going to hit Escape, and
as I turn this knob, we should see both of those moving.
| | 02:40 | There we go.
| | 02:42 | It took just a second. And I will turn
that down to kind of their lowest value,
| | 02:46 | which is around 600 Hz,
remember, and 40% resonance.
| | 02:49 | Now if I turn it all the way the other way,
| | 02:51 | so I have defined that range.
| | 02:53 | Now the real power of using these
Control Change knobs is to record automation.
| | 02:58 | So I am going to tab over to Arrangement view.
| | 03:00 | I have already got my track in Record.
| | 03:02 | Let me put my cursor over here at
the beginning where I want to start.
| | 03:06 | The Overdub switch is enabled, which
I am going to need because I want to
| | 03:09 | overdub these control changes and not actually
wipe out the MIDI notes that are already recorded.
| | 03:14 | I will put the system in Record by
clicking on the Global Record Button, and
| | 03:20 | then I'm going to actually enable a
count-in for this by right-clicking on the
| | 03:24 | Metronome button and making sure
that I have got a one-bar count in.
| | 03:27 | Now I am doing that because I need
to have my hand over here on the knob
| | 03:32 | previous to actually starting to record.
But if you have got your hands on your
| | 03:35 | computer keyboard or doing something
else, it takes a second to get there.
| | 03:39 | So let me put the count-
in on and the metronome on.
| | 03:42 | Now all I need to do is hit
the Spacebar to start playback.
| | 03:45 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:05 | So you can see how easy it is to record
automation using a Control knob. Now if
| | 04:10 | you need to delete an
assignment, that's pretty easy as well.
| | 04:13 | Just need to go back to the MIDI Map
mode by clicking on the button, and now if
| | 04:17 | I just select something here in the
Mappings browser and hit my Delete key,
| | 04:22 | they are gone, and I can reassign them.
| | 04:25 | So in the past, mapping MIDI controls
was a painful process. As you can see, the
| | 04:29 | designers at Ableton had made this
easy, and being able to set ranges helps to
| | 04:33 | achieve consistent and musical results.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using Live's instant mapping feature| 00:00 | Setting up custom MIDI mapping
assignments can be time consuming,
| | 00:03 | so the program designers at Ableton
Live have worked with their counterparts at
| | 00:07 | companies that produce MIDI
controllers to enable instant mapping of device
| | 00:10 | parameters in Live to MIDI control surfaces.
| | 00:12 | Those controllers that are
specifically designed to work with Live are
| | 00:15 | designated in the software with the term "Native."
| | 00:18 | If we go into Preferences, which is
Command+Comma or Ctrl+Comma on a PC, and click
| | 00:23 | on the Control Surface dropdown menu,
we will see a list of those devices.
| | 00:29 | Now the devices that support instant
mapping, depending upon the functionality
| | 00:33 | that's available in the control surface,
will allow control of device parameters,
| | 00:37 | transport controls, and even mixer controls.
| | 00:39 | MIDI controllers offer a number of
rotary knob encoders, often a total of eight,
| | 00:45 | in addition to the more
conventional pitch and mod wheels.
| | 00:47 | These knobs can be used for continuous
control of synth and effect parameters,
| | 00:51 | and they are way easier to use than the mouse,
and they automatically map to the controls.
| | 00:56 | For example, on this drum track here,
I've got a macro that's down in the Device
| | 01:01 | view. And if I Click+Select that and I
go to one of the knobs on my controller,
| | 01:05 | we can see it's automatically mapping.
| | 01:08 | There's number two, number three moves
HiHat, number four moves the Open HiHat,
| | 01:13 | number five moves the
Tom, and so on and so forth.
| | 01:17 | Now if I go to another track--let's go
to the bass track here--and I will move
| | 01:22 | that same number one knob, you'll notice
that it's now assigned and working with
| | 01:27 | the oscillator. And if I go to Pad on
the track three here, and I first need to
| | 01:32 | select the device there, and now I
will move the knob. There we go.
| | 01:37 | Number one is now controlling Oscillator.
| | 01:40 | So as I move from device to device, all
I need to do is select the device and
| | 01:44 | then the knobs automatically map.
| | 01:46 | For example, on the same track if I
move from the Pad device over to this audio
| | 01:52 | effect and move number one again, look at that.
| | 01:55 | It's controlling the Amount. And if I
move over to the Warm Tube audio effect and
| | 02:01 | move number one, now it's
moving the DryWet control.
| | 02:05 | So that same Control knob can be used to
control a number of things all in the same session.
| | 02:11 | Now depending upon the device you're
using, the knobs that are available are
| | 02:16 | either absolute knobs, or they might
be rotary encoders that are relative.
| | 02:20 | Now an absolute knob will have fixed
values, meaning that as I turn it all the
| | 02:25 | way to one side it will get to a place
where it won't turn anymore, and that
| | 02:28 | will be either your high or low value.
And then if I turn it the other way, it
| | 02:32 | will get to its highest value.
| | 02:33 | For example, if I move this knob on my
keyboard controller, you will notice that
| | 02:38 | when it gets down to the lowest point,
I can't turn it anymore; it's done.
| | 02:42 | And if I turn it now to the right, I
will get up to the highest point, and
| | 02:46 | that's as far as it can go.
| | 02:48 | Now that can cause some problems when
you're using instant mapping, and you're
| | 02:51 | moving from device to device to device.
| | 02:53 | For example, if I'm using knob number
one and I move to a second device and
| | 02:59 | click it to select it and now start
moving that knob, it is going to be at a
| | 03:03 | different value, and it may
cause a sudden jump in the value.
| | 03:07 | With more modern rotary encoders, as I
move the knob, when I get to the highest
| | 03:12 | point--for instance, with Slow & Steady
chosen and if I move my knob number one--
| | 03:17 | I will get to its highest value.
| | 03:19 | I can continue to turn that knob.
| | 03:21 | And if I go the other direction, I get
to the bottom, I can still continue to
| | 03:24 | turn that knob; it's relative to its
setting. And when I switch over here to
| | 03:29 | DryWet and move it, it's
immediately on the right value.
| | 03:33 | So it immediately assumes the
setting of the new device. But with these
| | 03:37 | fixed encoders you get these sudden
jumps, and there are a couple different
| | 03:40 | ways to manage that.
| | 03:41 | I am going to go back into Preferences--
that's Command+Comma--and on the MIDI Sync
| | 03:47 | tab we will see this parameter that's
called Takeover mode, and there's three
| | 03:51 | settings that you can choose there.
| | 03:53 | None, which when you move the knob
after you have moved to a new device,
| | 03:58 | you'll get sudden jumps.
| | 03:59 | I can also choose Pickup, and when I
choose that no change will result until the
| | 04:05 | encoder is moved to the previous
setting. After that, turning the encoder will
| | 04:10 | result in changes or updates.
| | 04:12 | And the last choice here, Value Scaling,
as I move to a new device and move that
| | 04:17 | knob, Live will calculate a gradual
convergence of the original hardware
| | 04:22 | setting and the software setting. And then
when they are equal, changes will occur as normal.
| | 04:27 | So in addition to being able to change
device settings with instant mapping,
| | 04:31 | depending upon the controller
you will get other functions.
| | 04:34 | Now I've got the Akai APC40 here,
and in addition to being able to set
| | 04:38 | device changes, I can also do things
like control mixer by using the faders
| | 04:43 | that are available.
| | 04:44 | I have got a bunch of other buttons
like I could activate the track, or I can
| | 04:49 | solo a track, and I can use the
Transport controls, and I can even trigger and
| | 04:54 | launch things like clips and scenes.
| | 04:57 | Now if you are wondering about
controllers that have extended functionality, you
| | 05:00 | can go to be Ableton web site. And at
ableton.com/controllers, there is a list
| | 05:07 | of controllers that use instant mapping
and are even dedicated to working with Live.
| | 05:12 | For example, we have got to Akai APC40
and the Novation Launch Pad, which are
| | 05:17 | probably the two best-known, and
then there's other controllers that are
| | 05:20 | available for specific
functionality, like for DJs.
| | 05:24 | So if we click there, we will see some
recommended controllers. And as it says
| | 05:28 | here, they all provide instant mapping.
| | 05:31 | So if you want to make a custom
assignment with a device that does instant
| | 05:35 | mapping, you will need to go into
Preferences--that's Command+Comma again, or
| | 05:39 | Ctrl+Comma on a PC--and you will need
to make sure that the Remote column is
| | 05:44 | enabled for that device.
| | 05:45 | Now you don't need to do that just
for instant mapping. Having it listed, and
| | 05:49 | having inputs and outputs listed here
will do that. But the second that you
| | 05:53 | want to do any custom setting, you'll need to
make sure that the Remote switch is enabled.
| | 05:58 | So now, I can go to, for instance, this
Resonance knob. And if I go into MIDI Map
| | 06:03 | mode, which is Command+M--or Ctrl+M on a
PC--select a device and move a knob, it
| | 06:10 | assigns it. Hit Escape and now I've got
control over that parameter in a custom fashion.
| | 06:17 | Now just beware that that knob is now
assigned for that parameter, and you may run
| | 06:22 | into problems where that
conflicts with instant mapping.
| | 06:24 | So hopefully you have a MIDI device
that allows you to take advantage of Live's
| | 06:28 | Instant Mapping future.
| | 06:29 | If not, it's something to
consider for the future.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
15. Exporting AudioExporting audio| 00:00 | The final step in producing a song is
to convert the multi-track live set into a
| | 00:03 | stereo audio file
appropriate for burning to an audio CD.
| | 00:07 | The audio export procedure is fairly
simple, but there are a number of important
| | 00:11 | decisions to make as part of the process.
| | 00:13 | So audio can be exported from one
or more tracks, in either Session
| | 00:16 | or Arrangement views.
| | 00:17 | Let's start by exporting the
entire mix from Arrangement view.
| | 00:21 | First, we need to set the export
duration using the Arrangement view loop, move
| | 00:25 | the cursor to the edges of the
arrangement loop and then click and drag to set
| | 00:28 | the loop's start and end points.
| | 00:29 | So let me just make
this just pass the end there.
| | 00:32 | Now I need to select the loop by
either going into the Edit menu and
| | 00:38 | choosing Select Loop or by clicking
on the loop. But I need to make sure
| | 00:43 | that that is selected.
| | 00:44 | Then we can go to the File menu and
choose Export Audio/Video. Or you can use
| | 00:50 | the key command Shift+Command+R, or on
a PC, Shift+Ctrl+R. Now, of our choices
| | 00:56 | here, starting with Rendered Track, I can
either export the entire mix by choosing Master.
| | 01:03 | If I choose All Tracks, Live will
render a post-effects audio file for each
| | 01:07 | track, including MIDI and return tracks.
| | 01:10 | All the files will be the same length,
so that the files are easy to sync in
| | 01:14 | whatever program that I am going to
move these to to do any further mixing and
| | 01:17 | editing. Or I can choose a single track.
| | 01:20 | In this case, let's do Master.
| | 01:22 | The Normalize function will raise the
level of the resulting audio file so that
| | 01:26 | the highest peaks end up
just below the clip point.
| | 01:29 | If you enable Render as Loop, the track
will include ambience that you want to
| | 01:33 | include in the rendered audio file, such
as the reverb or delay tails. And those
| | 01:37 | will be wrapped to the beginning of the loop.
| | 01:39 | Under the Audio File type, your choices
are Wave and AIF. And if you remember from
| | 01:45 | earlier videos, those are both
uncompressed audio file types, full bandwidth, and
| | 01:50 | they're both Redbook CD standard.
| | 01:53 | If you're going to be using the file
back in another Live set, and you want it
| | 01:56 | to be mono, then we will convert to
mono by enabling the switch there.
| | 02:01 | The Sample Rate and Bit Depth on an
export are probably going to be set at the
| | 02:04 | consumer standard for CDs, which is 44100, 16.
| | 02:08 | If you're coming from a higher sample
rate or bit rate, you will need to change
| | 02:12 | those to get down, but we are already there.
| | 02:14 | Under Dither, we have several options.
| | 02:17 | Now if you're not changing the bit
depth you do not need to use Dither, but if
| | 02:22 | you are moving from 24-bit down to 16-
bit, or some other option like that, you're
| | 02:27 | going to want to use Dither.
| | 02:29 | Now the folks at Ableton suggest that
Triangular is the best option; it's the most
| | 02:33 | transparent. But you might also
check out these power dither options.
| | 02:38 | They use something called noise shaping
that attempts to take any noise that's
| | 02:41 | part of the file and move
it out of our hearing range.
| | 02:44 | But in any case, it's a good idea to do
several bounces using different Dither
| | 02:48 | options and then listen and choose the best one.
| | 02:52 | The Analysis File option here, you are
going to want to turn that on if you're
| | 02:55 | going to be bringing the audio back
into Ableton Live. Remember that the
| | 02:59 | analysis file is there so that
Live knows how to warp the audio.
| | 03:03 | So now I will click OK, and I'm
going to put this out on the Desktop.
| | 03:08 | Let's call this "Export Test," and I will
click Save, and it will take just a minute here.
| | 03:16 | Okay, let's hide Ableton, and now
here on the Desktop, I'm going to
| | 03:21 | right-click on this.
| | 03:22 | Let's open this up in iTunes and
make sure that we got a good bounce.
| | 03:25 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:30 | So we can see that that worked.
| | 03:32 | Let's go back to Ableton, and before we
finish up, I want to show that you can
| | 03:37 | also export out of Session view.
| | 03:39 | So I am going to export this clip
here from Session view, and first I need
| | 03:43 | the clip to have focus.
| | 03:45 | Now this has been recently played, so
the green Play button is lit, and that
| | 03:49 | shows me that that clip has focus.
| | 03:51 | So I am going to use the key command,
Command+Shift+R, or Ctrl+Shift+R on a PC.
| | 03:56 | When we come back into the Export dialog box,
| | 04:00 | we will see that there is a new
field here, and that gives me a length.
| | 04:03 | So when I go to export this particular
clip I can say, I want this to be 8 or
| | 04:07 | 16 bars long, no matter what the actual
clip is, whether it's two or four bars
| | 04:11 | long. But it will actually loop it that many
times to render whatever length that I choose.
| | 04:17 | Now let's go ahead and I will choose 8
bars long in this case. The track that I
| | 04:21 | want to render is going to be the
Pad-eMotional, so I will choose that.
| | 04:25 | I am going to normalize this, just to
make sure that I don't have any overs, and
| | 04:29 | yes, I am going to want to render this
as a loop because I'm exporting this
| | 04:32 | probably because I want to use an
audio file instead of the MIDI track.
| | 04:37 | That might help me to
alleviate some CPU resources.
| | 04:40 | So I will turn that on. WAV file.
| | 04:43 | I am going to reuse this as a stereo
file in the session, so I don't want
| | 04:46 | to convert it to Mono.
| | 04:47 | I will leave the Sample Rate and
Bit Depth settings where they are.
| | 04:51 | I don't need to dither it
because I'm already at 16-bit.
| | 04:55 | But I am going to create an analysis
file because I am going to bring this back
| | 04:57 | into the session, and I will need
Live to warp it if I change the tempo,
| | 05:01 | so let me turn that on.
| | 05:02 | I will click OK, and I'll
call this "Export Test #2."
| | 05:11 | Okay, we will hide that.
| | 05:12 | You will notice now that I do have the
ASD file, which is the analysis file, and
| | 05:17 | I've got the second audio file, and
we can also go to iTunes and open that.
| | 05:21 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:24 | We will see that that's playing.
| | 05:26 | Great!
| | 05:28 | Okay, so you can see the number of
options available when exporting audio from
| | 05:31 | Live can seem daunting at first, but
as you see, it's really a simple process.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Freezing tracks| 00:00 | As the production of a song progresses,
the number of tracks and devices being
| | 00:03 | used can reach a point where they
choke the audio program in use, due to the
| | 00:07 | overconsumption of CPU resources.
| | 00:10 | Ableton Live offers several
options to alleviate this problem.
| | 00:13 | So one old-school method that you can
use to help is to bounce existing tracks
| | 00:17 | to new audio tracks. And this might
help by converting a MIDI track to an
| | 00:21 | audio track or rendering audio effects or
even rendering warped audio files to a new tempo.
| | 00:26 | So I am in Arrangement view, and I'm
going to record the audio from the Synth
| | 00:31 | Brass track to this Audio track here.
And to set that up I am going to set the
| | 00:36 | Synth track output to the Audio track,
and then on the Audio track, I'll set the
| | 00:42 | Input to the Synth =rack.
| | 00:44 | I am going to put the track in Record,
I am going to put the system in Record,
| | 00:48 | and I'm also going to enable
the punch-in and punch-out points.
| | 00:52 | So I've got the punch-in point set at
bar one, beat one, and the punch-out point
| | 00:57 | set at bar 21, beat one.
| | 00:58 | Now I have done that because I wanted to
define the length of the recording I am
| | 01:02 | going to make, and even though the MIDI
that I have here that I want to render
| | 01:06 | to audio is only 16 bars long, I want to
make sure that catch any reverb tails or
| | 01:11 | delay tails as part of that recording.
| | 01:13 | Now all I need to do to record
this is to press my Spacebar.
| | 01:16 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:00 | And you can see it stopped recording
there at the end of my selection.
| | 02:04 | Another way I can bounce this
track is to use the File > Export option.
| | 02:09 | So let's do the Synth track here again,
and I'm going to go to the File menu and
| | 02:14 | choose Export Audio/Video.
| | 02:16 | You can use the key command Shift+
Command+R, or on a Pc that would be
| | 02:20 | Shift+Ctrl+R. And now I am going to set
the rendered track that I want from the
| | 02:25 | Master down to that Synth track,
and then I'll make the decisions here.
| | 02:30 | Normalize, remember, will set
it so that there will be no overs.
| | 02:34 | Render as Loop will wrap around any
reverb tails or delay to the front end
| | 02:39 | of the file, so that if you use that as a
loop you also get any of your reverb tails.
| | 02:43 | Under my Audio options, I am going to
leave that at the current options that are
| | 02:47 | in use in the session, which are Wav 441 16.
| | 02:51 | I am not going to render this to a
mono file because I actually have a stereo
| | 02:55 | part that I want to keep stereo.
| | 02:56 | If you have a bass track or something
like that, you might actually want to
| | 03:00 | convert that to mono.
| | 03:01 | Under Dither, I am not going to use
any dither because I'm already at 16 bit,
| | 03:05 | and I'm not changing the bit
rate, so no dither necessary.
| | 03:09 | I am to going to create an analysis
file here because that'll help Live warp
| | 03:13 | this if I'd decide to change the
tempo at a later time. I'll click OK.
| | 03:17 | I'll give that a name. We'll call
that "Export Test." And I am going to drop
| | 03:22 | that on the Desktop.
| | 03:23 | Click the Save button, and it
takes just a second. Okay, it's done.
| | 03:30 | Now, there's yet a third way to do
this in Live that's really, really handy.
| | 03:35 | I'm going to deactivate these two
tracks, and then I am going to click and
| | 03:39 | select the track title bar here on
the third track. And I am going to the
| | 03:43 | right-click on that, and I am
going to choose the Freeze option.
| | 03:45 | Now, what's happening right now is that
Live is creating a temporary audio file
| | 03:51 | for the track. Now, if that was a MIDI
track I'll an audio file, but I'll also do
| | 03:55 | the same thing for a warped audio
track, so that relieves Live from having to
| | 03:59 | warp the track in real time.
| | 04:01 | It also includes any automation or effects.
| | 04:04 | Now at this point, if I need to make
changes to this track, I can't do it.
| | 04:08 | If I were to try and transpose this, or
if I was going to change the tempo in
| | 04:11 | the session, this track would not
react to that. But if I do need to make
| | 04:15 | changes, I can just right-click on
the track title bar and choose Unfreeze
| | 04:20 | Track, and I'm back to where I was
before. And then when I've made the
| | 04:24 | necessary changes, I can then right-
click on that, choose Freeze Track again,
| | 04:29 | and I've just relieved the session from
the CPU resources required to play this
| | 04:34 | MIDI file and any effects that are on there.
| | 04:37 | Now, if I'm all done with this and I
really like the way this is working, I can
| | 04:41 | also change this to an audio file by
simply right-clicking on the title bar
| | 04:45 | again and now choosing Flatten.
| | 04:48 | By flattening the track, Live takes
the frozen track and replaces it with a
| | 04:52 | bounced audio track, and it renders any
of the MIDI or warped audio or effects.
| | 04:56 | So it's really handy, very quick.
| | 04:58 | So now that you know how to freeze and
flatten tracks in Live, you'll be able to
| | 05:02 | manage those times when your Live sets
get large enough to cause CPU problems.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
16. Virtual Instrument OverviewBuilding with the Impulse virtual instrument| 00:00 | One of the benefits of owning and using
Ableton Live is the instrument devices
| | 00:03 | that come packaged with the
various versions of the program.
| | 00:06 | Let's take a look at Impulse, a simple,
yet surprisingly powerful drum machine
| | 00:10 | that is included in all versions of Live 8.
| | 00:13 | So on this first track, I've got an
Impulse preset loaded, and down here in Device
| | 00:17 | view, you can see the actual device.
| | 00:19 | Now the way this works is that there
are eight sample slots across here, and
| | 00:23 | each hold a sample for different drum.
And those are, by default, mapped to C3
| | 00:28 | through C4 on your keyboard.
| | 00:30 | So if I press C3, we will get this
first slot, D the next one, E the next one--
| | 00:37 | the white keys only on your keyboard.
| | 00:40 | Over to the right, we have three
parameters that the global, and then underneath
| | 00:45 | that all of these parameters can be
set independently for each sample.
| | 00:49 | So as I clicked the Snare slot,
you'll see these parameters change.
| | 00:54 | Percussion change again.
| | 00:56 | The slots themselves have a Preview button.
| | 00:59 | If I click on that, we will hear that kick.
| | 01:01 | (Drum playing.)
| | 01:04 | We've also got a Mute button
for the slot, and a Solo button.
| | 01:09 | On the lower right-hand corner, we have
a Hot-Swap button that allow us to swap
| | 01:13 | out a different sample
for the one that's in use.
| | 01:16 | So if click on that, it goes to the Hot-
Swap browser, and it will gradually fill
| | 01:21 | with available alternate samples that I can use.
| | 01:23 | For instance, I can double-click on
this E-kick 10, and that will exchange that
| | 01:27 | sample for the one that was in use.
| | 01:30 | (Drum playing.)
So I have got that sound now.
| | 01:34 | Let's go back and I'll choose the other one.
| | 01:35 | (Drum playing.)
You can hear the sound change.
| | 01:40 | So we can load an Impulse preset by
going into the Live Devices browser, into
| | 01:46 | the Impulse category, and then in either
the Acoustic or Electronic subcategory, you
| | 01:52 | can grab a preset and drag and drop that
or double-click it to add it to the session.
| | 01:58 | I can also create a preset from
scratch by dragging the Impulse instruments
| | 02:02 | straight in to the session without
choosing either a clip or a preset.
| | 02:06 | So now when I click on this track, we
will notice that the slots are empty.
| | 02:11 | Now there are individual drum samples
available down in our library, and those
| | 02:16 | are located in the Samples area,
so let me take you through that.
| | 02:20 | So we've got Samples and then Waveforms
and in this case the Drum category, and
| | 02:26 | then there is a subfolder
for each area of the drum set.
| | 02:30 | So if I go into the Kick category, I can
scroll down very quickly, and I'll grab
| | 02:36 | the E-Kick 14, and I'll
drop that on the first slot.
| | 02:42 | Then I'll go back up and go into the
Snare subfolder. Again, scroll down and find
| | 02:47 | one that I want to use.
| | 02:48 | I will drop that on the second slot,
and I will just grab a couple of others.
| | 02:57 | Grab a couple HiHats.
| | 03:02 | So I will grab the E-HiHat 10 Closed.
I am going to drop that on B, or the seventh
| | 03:07 | slot, and I'll grab the Open HiHat,
and I will drop that on the last slot.
| | 03:13 | Now I chose to put those four in that
order because this is the conventions that
| | 03:17 | Ableton Live follows with
all of their Impulse presets.
| | 03:21 | So typically you have kicks on C, and
you've got snares on D, and then over here
| | 03:27 | on the last two slots you've got
Closed HiHat on B and the Open HiHat on C4.
| | 03:34 | So let's take a look at some of these
individual parameters that are available below.
| | 03:38 | So I'll choose the Kick slot first,
and below that I've got first the start
| | 03:43 | parameter, and that allows me to
control at which point in the audio file that
| | 03:48 | will actually trigger that.
| | 03:50 | So I can delay this start
point up to 100 milliseconds.
| | 03:54 | I can also transpose a sample.
| | 03:57 | So if I move this up--by the way, this
is in half steps, and I can go either +48
| | 04:02 | half steps or -48 half steps.
| | 04:04 | So if I move that up a couple, and we
will click on the Preview button--
| | 04:06 | (Drums playing.)
| | 04:08 | Let me move that down, so you can hear it changing.
(Drums playing.)
| | 04:13 | Now these values can be modulated by
velocity. So the harder I strike the
| | 04:18 | keyboard, the more that you are
actually going to hear that pitch change.
| | 04:23 | So I move this up and I trigger that--
| | 04:25 | (Drums playing.)
| | 04:30 | So you can hear the pitch changing
depending upon how hard I hit the key.
| | 04:34 | I can also do that
randomly by setting a percentage.
| | 04:36 | So each time I hit the key, it's just
going to change the pitch based upon
| | 04:40 | some random factor.
| | 04:41 | (Drums playing.)
| | 04:46 | I can also stretch the sample
so that the decay lasts longer.
| | 04:49 | I will do this on the Snare track.
| | 04:53 | So if I dial that out--
| | 04:54 | (Drums playing.)
| | 04:58 | Now, if you dial that a little bit
too long, you can actually hear the samples
| | 05:00 | start to kind of break apart.
Back that off a little bit.
| | 05:04 | And I can also do that
based upon velocity again.
| | 05:09 | So the harder I hit the key, the more
I'll get that stretch feature happening.
| | 05:14 | Again, that's one that you got
to be a little bit careful with.
| | 05:18 | Now the Stretch feature can be further
enhanced by using the mode A or mode B.
| | 05:24 | Mode A is good for low-frequency sounds
like kick drums and maybe the tom toms,
| | 05:29 | and mode B is a better mode for your
higher pitched things, like hi-hats or symbols,
| | 05:34 | or even perhaps the snare in this case.
| | 05:36 | In the middle here, I have got a
Saturation feature. Now this is going to add a
| | 05:42 | little amplitude and a little
drive, or distortion, to the sound.
| | 05:45 | So I am actually going to come over
here and pull the volume down on the snare,
| | 05:49 | so as I pull this up I
don't get too much volume.
| | 05:52 | (Drums playing.)
| | 05:58 | In that case, you can really kind
of hear it amplifying and kind of
| | 06:01 | distorting the decay.
| | 06:02 | Now next thing I have in the center
here is I have a Filter section that can be
| | 06:07 | enabled by clicking on this Filter button.
| | 06:09 | I have a number of different
filters that I can choose from.
| | 06:12 | I've got low-pass filters,
band-pass, high-pass and notch Filters.
| | 06:17 | So I am going to put a low-pass filter
on. And as I tap the snare, I am going to
| | 06:21 | pull the cutoff frequency down,
and you should hear a lot of the high
| | 06:24 | frequencies being attenuated as I do that.
| | 06:27 | (Drums playing.)
| | 06:33 | And that can be further enhanced by
dialing in some resonance, and the Resonance
| | 06:38 | features amplify frequencies around the
cutoff frequency, so you get a little bit
| | 06:42 | more aggressive results with
whatever cutoff frequency you choose.
| | 06:46 | I will dial that down a little bit,
put a little more resonance on.
| | 06:49 | (Drums playing.)
| | 06:55 | Now this can also be modulated by
velocity. So the harder I hit, the more I get
| | 07:01 | based upon how much
velocity percentage I dial in.
| | 07:03 | (Drums playing.)
| | 07:07 | And that can also work randomly
just like we saw on the transposition
| | 07:12 | and stretch parameters.
| | 07:13 | (Drums playing.)
| | 07:18 | And that's nice because one of the
things that you want to avoid is that
| | 07:21 | typewriter effect when you repeatedly
trigger the same sample, and any change in
| | 07:26 | the timbre or the velocity can make
it a much more musical experience.
| | 07:31 | Over here on the right-hand side, we can
also do a number of these same things in
| | 07:35 | regards to the pan or
volume of a particular sample.
| | 07:39 | So if I choose the HiHat sound, I can
actually modulate the Pan placement from
| | 07:44 | left to right by setting a Velocity amount.
| | 07:49 | So the lighter I hit the key, the
more this will pan it to the left, and the
| | 07:52 | harder the more it will pan it to the right.
| | 07:54 | (Drums playing.)
| | 07:59 | And that can also be done by a random factor.
| | 08:01 | Now one thing that's different about
this last slot is that it can be linked to
| | 08:06 | the seventh slot, by clicking on
this button over on the far left.
| | 08:11 | Now that allows one sample
to cut off the other sample.
| | 08:14 | As you can imagine, you wouldn't have
decay happening each time you hit the
| | 08:18 | instrument. It's going to renew the envelope.
| | 08:20 | So we don't want the open hi-hat
ringing while the closed hi-hat is actually
| | 08:25 | happening. And by linking those two
together, triggering one will actually
| | 08:30 | choke the other one.
| | 08:32 | And last over here, we've got Global
parameters that can either raise or lower
| | 08:37 | the volume of the entire drum set.
Or, we can actually transpose the entire drum
| | 08:42 | set by a half step again: either higher or lower.
| | 08:45 | I am going to choose this first track
again. And the last thing I would like to
| | 08:49 | show you about Impulse is a very
powerful feature, in that I can map the
| | 08:53 | outputs of the different drums to
different tracks, and that will allow us to
| | 08:57 | place differing amounts of signal
processing on individual tracks.
| | 09:02 | So, for example, I'm to create
several audio tracks after that first track.
| | 09:07 | And I will use the key command Command+T or
Ctrl+T on a PC to create several audio tracks.
| | 09:15 | Now on this first audio track, I am
going to go to the Input of that, and I'm to
| | 09:18 | choose the first track, which is this 1-
Impulse. And then on the second chooser,
| | 09:24 | I will come in and choose the actual
specific drum that I want flowing through there.
| | 09:28 | So on this track I might put the
Kick, and on the next track I will choose
| | 09:33 | Impulse again and I'll choose the
Snare, and let's just get a couple more here.
| | 09:39 | I am going to choose Impulse again, and
let's grab the Closed HiHat, and on the
| | 09:45 | next one I will grab the Open HiHat.
| | 09:49 | Now I am going to trigger this clip,
and we should see signal flowing out
| | 09:56 | these different tracks.
| | 09:57 | (Drums playing.)
| | 10:00 | Okay, so that did not work, and the
reason it didn't work is because there is
| | 10:04 | not actual audio on these tracks.
| | 10:07 | So to get the audio to flow through
them and act more like a return track, I
| | 10:11 | actually need to put the tracks into
Input Monitoring, so that we are monitoring
| | 10:15 | the audio that's actually input into the track.
| | 10:17 | So let's try that again.
| | 10:19 | (Drums playing.)
| | 10:24 | Okay, so I see the kick flowing through the
Kick and the snare through the Snare and
| | 10:28 | the hi-hat through the two HiHat tracks.
| | 10:31 | So at this point, I want to have a little
bit different signal processing on the snare.
| | 10:35 | So I'm going to choose the snare
track, and then I go back to my Device
| | 10:39 | browser, and I am going to go down
into the audio effects and the compressor,
| | 10:45 | and I am going to look for something
that might be appropriate. Lo and behold,
| | 10:48 | I've got a Snare Compressor preset,
and I am going to drop that on this track
| | 10:52 | where my snare is at.
| | 10:54 | Then additionally, I might want some reverb.
| | 10:57 | Now I've already loaded a reverb on
this return track. You can see it there. And I
| | 11:02 | can now send and get reverb returned
by simply lifting the Send amount on
| | 11:07 | that particular track.
| | 11:08 | So I don't want it on the kick, but I
probably want some on the snare and on the hi-hat.
| | 11:12 | So let me send a little bit from those
tracks, and now let's listen to this preset.
| | 11:16 | (Drums playing.)
| | 11:21 | Okay, so very obviously, I
have got reverb on that track.
| | 11:24 | In addition to drum samples,
Impulse can trigger any audio file.
| | 11:28 | So when you're working with Impulse
presets and clips, don't forget to experiment
| | 11:32 | and see what else you can come up with.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with the Simpler virtual instrument| 00:00 | Simpler is another instrument devices
that is included in all versions of Live 8.
| | 00:04 | It's a sample player that incorporates
the filter, LFO, and pitch parameters of
| | 00:08 | a simple synthesizer.
| | 00:09 | Let's take a look and see how it works.
| | 00:11 | Now, I can load a Simpler preset by
going into the Live Devices browser, finding
| | 00:17 | the Simpler folder, and then from one
of the subfolders, choose a preset.
| | 00:21 | So let me choose the E Piano Mk1.
| | 00:24 | I'll drag and drop that on the MIDI track.
(Music playing.)
| | 00:29 | We can hear the patch.
| | 00:30 | Now I can also load Simpler by
dragging the folder itself, which is an empty
| | 00:35 | Simpler preset, and dropping that out
here in the Drop Files and Devices area.
| | 00:39 | Now the cool thing about that is that I can
load any sample that I have into the sample player.
| | 00:45 | So let me go down to the Library,
I'll go to the Samples folders, and in
| | 00:51 | the Loopmasters subfolder,
| | 00:53 | I am going to grab one of those.
| | 00:54 | Let's grab this one, and I'll drop that
in this Drop Sample area here. Now I
| | 00:59 | can trigger that by pressing
one of the keys on my keyboard.
| | 01:02 | Now this particular sample
is by default loaded on C3.
| | 01:06 | (Drums playing.)
| | 01:09 | I can also trigger that pressing other
keys. But as I go up the keyboard, it will
| | 01:14 | actually play it faster, and
therefore it will actually be pitched higher.
| | 01:17 | (Drums playing.)
| | 01:21 | If I go down, you will get the same
corresponding change, where it plays it
| | 01:25 | slower and the pitch is dropped.
| | 01:27 | In this upper area in the Sample window
I can set the start and stop points for
| | 01:31 | the sample that I am triggering, and I
can do that by dragging these flags that
| | 01:35 | are on the right and left.
| | 01:36 | So let grab the sample end, and I am
going to try and lop off about one bar of
| | 01:41 | that, and I'll drop that.
| | 01:43 | Now let me hit play. I'll hit C3.
(Drums playing.)
| | 01:47 | Okay, that's not too bad.
| | 01:48 | Sometimes you get a little click or a
pop at the end, and you need to zoom in.
| | 01:52 | Now, I can do that just the same way
that we do in the Clip window or in the
| | 01:56 | Arrange window, by actually
dragging down here, or up to zoom back out.
| | 02:02 | In this case, we are going to try and
move that sample end point over here right
| | 02:06 | before that next transient.
| | 02:09 | And I want to do that without
triggering any part of the next thing, because
| | 02:12 | that'll probably end up
giving me a pop or a click.
| | 02:14 | Let's see what that sounds like.
(Drums playing.)
| | 02:18 | It sounds like we are okay.
| | 02:19 | Now when I am zoomed out, if I want to
move around in this window, I can also hold
| | 02:23 | down Option and Command, and when my
cursor turns into a hand, I actually drag
| | 02:28 | right or left to get the different area.
| | 02:31 | Again, I can drag straight
back up to zoom back out.
| | 02:34 | Now another way that I can set the
end point of this is using the Snap
| | 02:38 | feature, and that will try and snap
the loop end point to the closest zero
| | 02:43 | crossing in that waveform.
| | 02:44 | Now the bad part about that is as that
might give me a nice end without a pop or
| | 02:49 | a click, but that might not
actually work out rhythmically.
| | 02:52 | It's probably going to be too
short to actually loop correctly.
| | 02:56 | So I am going to take the Snap feature back off,
and I am going to turn the Loop feature on.
| | 03:02 | Now when I hit Play this will actually
Loop that sample. And I can work with the
| | 03:06 | pops the clicks by dialing in a
little bit of a Fade percentage on that.
| | 03:10 | These other three parameters over
here--Start, Loop, and Length--help me to
| | 03:14 | fine-tune the length of the
portion of the sample I am using.
| | 03:17 | So Start will delay the
start of that on both sides.
| | 03:22 | Loop will actually, by percentage, set a
different beginning and ending point, as
| | 03:27 | well as Length, which will dial from the back end.
| | 03:31 | Now in this case, I have already set
what I want just by dragging the loop
| | 03:34 | start and end points. So I'm okay there.
| | 03:36 | Let's take a look at another area of this.
| | 03:39 | So, I can also control what's
happening here by using the effect areas of
| | 03:44 | the Simpler interface.
| | 03:45 | The first one I am going
to look at is this Filter.
| | 03:47 | So I'll turn that on, and then I can
set the type of filter that I am going to
| | 03:51 | be using from this category.
| | 03:53 | As you might expect, there are some
typical filter shapes there, so I have got
| | 03:57 | low-pass, band-pass,
high-pass, and notch filters.
| | 04:00 | I am going to choose the Low Pass12, which
means a low pass with a 12 Db per octave slope.
| | 04:05 | I can set the cutoff frequency for
that filter by dialing the Frequency knob,
| | 04:10 | and as I trigger the sample or the loop,
I'll pull that Frequency knob back, so
| | 04:14 | you can hear what it does.
(Drums playing.)
| | 04:20 | So as you might expect, it's passing
low frequencies, and then above a certain
| | 04:24 | frequency--which in this case I've
got it at 1.45 kHz--it's chopping off, or
| | 04:29 | attenuating, the higher frequencies.
| | 04:30 | So in this case, I'm getting a darker sound.
| | 04:33 | The Resonance feature is going to
enhance, or lift, the frequencies around the
| | 04:38 | cutoff frequency, which will give me a
little more of an aggressive effect out of that.
| | 04:42 | So let's hear what that sounds like.
| | 04:43 | (Drums playing.)
| | 04:48 | So we can hear that.
| | 04:50 | In addition, I can modulate that
or change the effect by velocity.
| | 04:55 | So the harder I hit the key, the more
I'll get, and the lighter I hit the key, the
| | 04:59 | less I'll get--and that's by
dialing up this Velocity percentage.
| | 05:02 | (Drums playing.)
| | 05:06 | So you can hear that changing the
actual timbre based upon the velocity.
| | 05:10 | The Key setting here makes changes
based upon what key you are triggering.
| | 05:14 | So C3, being the default placement,
won't be affected by that, but keys above
| | 05:19 | C3 will be affected greater by the Frequency
setting, and keys below C3 will be affected less.
| | 05:27 | In addition, I can affect things by
using this Low Frequency Oscillator section.
| | 05:32 | I am going to switch back to the
Electric Piano Track for that part.
| | 05:36 | Let me record-enable so we can hear that.
| | 05:38 | By the way, notice up here in the
Sample area that we don't see an actually
| | 05:42 | sample, and that's because this
particular preset is made up of multi-samples,
| | 05:47 | and we actually can't do that
in this particular instrument.
| | 05:51 | You'd have to actually open this up in
something like Live Sampler to be able to
| | 05:55 | make any changes to that.
| | 05:57 | So, the interface in Simpler only
allows us to modify the loop start points and
| | 06:02 | things like that for single samples.
| | 06:05 | But I am going to turn of filter on
again here, and I am going to put this at
| | 06:08 | about 650 Hz, and I will dial a little
resonance in there. And again, I've got
| | 06:15 | this on a low-pass filter shape, and
this time I want to dial in the LFO.
| | 06:19 | Now the LFO, is a low frequency
oscillator that's so low that we actually can't
| | 06:24 | hear it, and that also means that the
speed of that low frequency is going to
| | 06:28 | be relatively slow.
| | 06:30 | Now this LFO offers us the
frequency of about .1 Hz up to about 30 Hz.
| | 06:35 | So I am going to turn that on, and if
I want the LFO to actually work on the
| | 06:40 | Filter section, I need to dial up
a little bit of a percentage here
| | 06:44 | so that will actually work. And again, I
can set this by shape. My actual shapes
| | 06:50 | I have here are related to WAV shapes.
| | 06:53 | You'll notice that I have got a sine wave shape,
but that's going to give me a smooth effect.
| | 06:56 | The square wave shape will give me more
of an on/off effect and so on and down
| | 07:01 | here to the random one that will
actually give me a random effect.
| | 07:05 | I am going to stay with the sine
wave here, and I'll set a speed.
| | 07:09 | Now I can either do that by locking
it to the tempo by clicking on this
| | 07:12 | little 16th note and then making a
change there, or you can do that by the
| | 07:17 | number of hertz, by clicking that button.
And I am going to dial that back so it's fairly slow.
| | 07:22 | So maybe .5 Hz.
| | 07:24 | Let me play a note and let's see what that sounds like.
(Music playing.)
| | 07:26 | So you can hear it slowly
opening and closing this filter.
| | 07:32 | This time I'll do that again, and I'll speed
the frequency up, so you can hear what happens.
| | 07:36 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:41 | Pretty cool!
| | 07:43 | So, in addition to being able to
modulate this by the LFO, I can further shape
| | 07:47 | this by turning on the ADSR
that's included in Simpler.
| | 07:52 | I can turn that on for multiple things,
but in this case I am going to enable
| | 07:56 | that for the filter, and then I'll
get these four settings here for Attack,
| | 08:00 | Decay, Sustain, and Release.
| | 08:02 | Now the Attack will set how long it
takes for the effect to reach its peak value.
| | 08:07 | The Decay will set the time it
takes to reach the sustain level.
| | 08:10 | The Sustain will set the level at the
end of the decay stage, and the Release
| | 08:14 | will set the time needed to release the
note after you actually release the key,
| | 08:18 | or you send a MIDI end note message.
| | 08:20 | So I am going to dial back just the
attack just a little bit and set the decay
| | 08:24 | just a little longer, and
let's hear what that sounds like.
| | 08:27 | (Music playing.)
| | 08:30 | The frequency down here might be
just a little fast for my taste,
| | 08:33 | so let me pull that back just a little.
(Music playing.)
| | 08:37 | Little more of a subtle effect.
| | 08:39 | Here's what it sounds like with the ADSR turned off.
(Music playing.)
| | 08:46 | So it's subtle in this case,
but it's a useful thing.
| | 08:48 | Now, in addition, I can set the LFO
to modulate the Pan by lifting up a
| | 08:54 | percentage here, so that will
actually set it to move between speakers.
| | 08:59 | I can also do the same thing
over here on the Volume area.
| | 09:02 | So now that you're more familiar with
how Simpler works, you'll be able to modify
| | 09:06 | Simpler's presets to work more
effectively with your own music.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
17. RacksOverview of Live racks| 00:00 | One of Ableton Live's most powerful
and innovative features is Live racks.
| | 00:04 | Racks allow you to save multiple effect
and/or instrument devices as a single preset.
| | 00:08 | Let's take a look at how they work.
| | 00:10 | So, racks can include audio effects,
MIDI effects, instrument devices, or any
| | 00:15 | combination of the above.
| | 00:16 | Let's try creating an audio effects
rack on this first track, by dragging a
| | 00:21 | couple of effects down into this Kick track.
| | 00:24 | So, I am going to drag this is Kick
Compressor preset here, and let me also grab an EQ.
| | 00:32 | I'll put that actually before the compressor.
| | 00:34 | I'll make a bit of a change here.
| | 00:36 | Oftentimes, I'll take a dip out of it about
225 Hz, and I'll tighten the Q just a little bit.
| | 00:42 | So, we've got two affects
here now on this first track.
| | 00:45 | Let's see what that sounds like.
| | 00:47 | (Drums playing.)
| | 00:51 | So that's tightened that kick up a little bit.
| | 00:53 | Now, what I want to do
is turn those into a rack.
| | 00:56 | So I am going to select the two title
bars of those affects, and I am going to
| | 01:00 | right-click, and from the
contextual menu, I am going to choose Group.
| | 01:04 | You could also use the key command
Command+G, or on a PC, Ctrl+G. Now, those have
| | 01:10 | been put in a rack, and I know that
because I see these brackets that are on the
| | 01:13 | left and the far right-hand
side of these two effects.
| | 01:17 | We also get some other show/hide
switches that we've never had before, and
| | 01:20 | that includes the macro, which allows
me to take any parameter that I have on
| | 01:26 | these two devices and map that over to these
other knobs, so I can change them from there.
| | 01:32 | We'll talk about this more in a later video,
but for right now, we're going to move on.
| | 01:37 | Additionally, I can also show the chain
list that's part of this, and we'll take
| | 01:41 | a look at that in a second. And I can
show/hide the devices in the rack by
| | 01:45 | clicking on that button.
| | 01:47 | Now, once you get this all dialed in,
one of the things you might want to do is
| | 01:50 | save this for use in a different session.
| | 01:52 | You can do that by simply right-clicking
on the title bar and dragging that into
| | 01:57 | the area you are saving your effects.
| | 01:59 | So, I might go up to the Audio Effect rack
folder there, for example, drag that up,
| | 02:05 | drop that in that area, and
then it allows me to name that.
| | 02:08 | I might call this "Kick EQ and Comp."
| | 02:14 | Now one of the great things about
this is I can use this on another track
| | 02:17 | immediately by just switching to that
track and either dropping this on the
| | 02:21 | truck itself, or down here in the drop
Audio Affects area on the track. Bingo!
| | 02:27 | I've got those same settings.
| | 02:28 | Now as you are going to see, these
racks can get very, very, very complicated.
| | 02:33 | Here we've just got two affects,
but imagine multiple effects here--
| | 02:36 | I will say maybe in different signal
routing and so on--all as one preset.
| | 02:41 | It's really powerful.
| | 02:43 | So, another way that I can create a rack is
to drag the empty rack preset onto a track.
| | 02:49 | So, in this case, I am going to drag
Audio Rack folder, which is actually the
| | 02:53 | empty rack preset and drop that
over in this Drop Audio Affects area.
| | 02:58 | We see the brackets, but
we don't see any effects.
| | 03:00 | Now, all I need to do is drop
the effects into the rack itself.
| | 03:04 | I am going to go into the chain list to do that,
| | 03:06 | so let me bring that up.
| | 03:09 | Let's add a Chorus effect and then
maybe some kind of a delay. Let's grab the
| | 03:16 | Ping Pong Delay, and I can
drop those on to that track.
| | 03:20 | Now, for a little bit better visual
identification, let me click on that, and
| | 03:24 | I'll rename that first chain.
| | 03:27 | Let's call that "Chorus" and
the second one, I'll call "Delay."
| | 03:35 | Now, one of the differences in the
way I've set this up is that as the signal
| | 03:39 | passes from this virtual instrument
device into the rack, it's going to be split,
| | 03:44 | or copied, so that I have two signals,
and then it's going to go into both of
| | 03:47 | these simultaneously.
| | 03:49 | It will be processed in a series and
then added back together at the end.
| | 03:52 | Now, if we go back to this Kick track
where we put these other two effects, this
| | 03:57 | is a classic example of processing in
series, where the signal passes through this
| | 04:01 | EQ first and then is passed on
after processing into the compressor.
| | 04:06 | So, let's take a look at what we've got here.
| | 04:10 | Now I am going to close this down, so
that we have a little bit more room.
| | 04:12 | I'll double-click on the title bar of
that precept to get it to minimize, and
| | 04:17 | now I see the Effect rack.
| | 04:18 | Since I've got the list open, I can
see the two effects that are available.
| | 04:23 | Because I have the Device button showing,
| | 04:26 | when I click on these, we'll actually see
the devices that are part of those chains.
| | 04:31 | Now I've got another version of this.
| | 04:32 | It's a little more dialed in.
| | 04:33 | So I am going to switch to this last
track over here that shows kind of the same
| | 04:38 | thing set up with five different effects.
| | 04:40 | So, let me minimize the virtual
instrument by double-clicking on that header,
| | 04:45 | and now we see the five affects.
| | 04:47 | So, the mix of these five effects can
be changed by changing this column right
| | 04:52 | here, where I have got
control over their total levels.
| | 04:55 | So, each one of those can be adjusted.
Now if we listen to the whole thing--
| | 04:59 | let's put that track into
Record Enable so we can hear it.
| | 05:03 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:04 | You hear what's happening. And if I
bring the Flanger down here, a little bit
| | 05:08 | less of that effect.
| | 05:09 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:13 | I can adjust the other ones in the same manner.
| | 05:16 | Now, you will notice in this next
column that I've got the ability to pan
| | 05:19 | effects to different
parts of the stereo spectrum.
| | 05:22 | So, I have got the Flanger panned to the
left side and the EQ hard-panned right.
| | 05:27 | We can do that individually with
each effect that's part of this rack.
| | 05:31 | I can also mute individual members.
| | 05:34 | For instance, let's just hear the Flanger
portion, and I'll bring that level back up.
| | 05:39 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:43 | Or I can show just the EQ.
| | 05:45 | Let's see what that looks like.
| | 05:46 | You can notice that I have eliminated
almost everything on the bottom and on the
| | 05:51 | top to get that kind of telephone booth effect.
| | 05:54 | Let's hear what the Chorus sounds like.
| | 05:56 | (Music playing.)
Okay. So we kind of get a fat chorus-thing happening.
| | 06:02 | Now notice that this is
actually a nested Audio Effect rack.
| | 06:06 | So inside this particular effect rack,
I dropped an empty rack again, and inside
| | 06:13 | that effect rack, I've actually got
three chorus effects, and each one has
| | 06:17 | slightly different settings that's
help us to get a fatter, more rich sound.
| | 06:22 | In addition to these mute buttons, I
can solo the individual effects that are
| | 06:28 | being used, and again, I can do that by
just clicking a Solo button, and now we
| | 06:32 | are just hearing the Erosion effect.
(Music playing.)
| | 06:36 | If you don't like that, you can
actually swap out for a different effect by
| | 06:39 | clicking the Hot-Swap button, and that
takes me back to the Erosion category and
| | 06:44 | allows me to choose a different effect
within that category. Or I can switch
| | 06:47 | down and choose anything else.
| | 06:49 | I can disable that hot-swap by clicking
on that button again, and we are back to
| | 06:53 | where we were before.
| | 06:54 | Another powerful thing that's
available as part of audio effects racks is
| | 06:59 | these different views.
| | 07:00 | Now this Chain view allows me to set ranges
where these effects will work or not work.
| | 07:06 | For instance, I can move my
cursor over the edge of this first one--
| | 07:10 | move that's out a little bit--and I can
draw that bar graph out to say, in this
| | 07:15 | area the Flanger is going to work.
| | 07:18 | Then maybe in another area you can drag
the EQ, and then on the edge drag that out.
| | 07:24 | So, at that that point, the EQ will work.
| | 07:27 | Now, simply by dragging this, or
automating this chain parameter, I can go to
| | 07:32 | one effect at a time.
| | 07:33 | So, here is the Flange, and I've got
that soloed, so we are not hearing it.
| | 07:36 | So let me disable that.
| | 07:37 | Now we should hear it.
| | 07:38 | (Music playing.)
So, there is the flange. Now here is this EQ setting.
| | 07:42 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:45 | Now, one handy thing that you might
want to try is if you make one of these bar
| | 07:49 | graphs the entire range and then right-
click on it, you can use this feature in
| | 07:54 | the contextual menu. That will
distribute the ranges equally.
| | 07:57 | So, now all five have their own range.
| | 08:00 | Another handy thing that
you can do is to overlap them.
| | 08:03 | So, I am going to choose the
bottom four over here in the chain list.
| | 08:07 | Now, when I move my edge over that
and drag that, you will notice that I'm
| | 08:10 | actually changing the four that are selected.
| | 08:13 | In addition to that, you might want to
gradually move from one effect to the
| | 08:16 | other, by fading one out
while the other is fading in.
| | 08:20 | So, I am going to go grab this little
light bar graph that's on top of this, and
| | 08:23 | that controls that fade amount.
And I'll drag that across.
| | 08:27 | You can see that little fade
indication there on the bar graph.
| | 08:31 | Then I'll grab the top four and do it
on the end of the other ranges, so that
| | 08:38 | I've got one fading out
while the other one fades in.
| | 08:41 | So again, down here I should get Flange.
(Music playing.)
| | 08:46 | As I get in this area, I should
get a little bit of Flange and EQ.
| | 08:48 | (Music playing.)
| | 08:50 | As I do that, notice in the meters
here that you see signal passing through
| | 08:55 | those two effects, but none of the others--
(Music playing.)
| | 08:59 | --and so on as I move over to the Chorus.
(Music playing.)
| | 09:02 | Now, we see the effect down there.
| | 09:04 | Now one of the ways that we can actually make
use of this in our music is to add automation.
| | 09:10 | So I flip over to Arrange view, I am
going to draw automation in that will
| | 09:14 | actually automate the change from
those various devices in the rack.
| | 09:18 | So let me bring up the Pencil tool.
| | 09:20 | I am going to draw some automation in here.
| | 09:23 | Now, the range on this is 0 to 127.
| | 09:26 | When you look down on the rack, we'll see
that the first effect is on 0 to about 24.
| | 09:32 | I pick up somewhere there just below 24.
| | 09:34 | So, I'll draw automation that will get
me into the first two of those devices.
| | 09:39 | So, in the first one, and then in the
second bar let's take this up to my 20s,
| | 09:45 | and I'll pull across.
| | 09:46 | So now when I hit Play on this, we'll hear
it played first with the Flange effect, and
| | 09:51 | then we'll hear a change over to the EQ effect.
| | 09:54 | (Music playing.)
| | 09:59 | You saw the corresponding change
happening down here within the rack in
| | 10:03 | the Chain View list.
| | 10:04 | So I'm guessing that like my first
experience with racks, this overview of
| | 10:07 | racks got your attention.
| | 10:09 | Join me for the next video, where we'll
take a deeper look at instrument racks.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Combining instruments and effects into a single device| 00:00 | Layering synth and sampler parts in
most DAWs requires multiple tracks.
| | 00:04 | Let's take a look at how Live
racks can be used to combine multiple
| | 00:06 | instruments and effects into a single
device capable of delivering complex
| | 00:11 | sounds on a single track.
| | 00:13 | So there are existing
presets that are instrument racks.
| | 00:16 | If I go up into the Instruments
category here in the Live Devices browser, you
| | 00:21 | will see that there's an Instrument
rack folder right here at the top.
| | 00:24 | I'll go into one of these subfolders,
and I will grab one of these presets
| | 00:28 | and drop it out here.
| | 00:30 | And I know that this is a rack because
I see the macro that's part of this, and
| | 00:34 | we'll talk about macros in a later video.
| | 00:37 | And if I click on the Show/Hide Chain
List--actually in this one, there is only
| | 00:41 | one virtual Instrument;
| | 00:43 | there are probably more effects that
are part of this if I drag this over.
| | 00:46 | Yeah, we can see that there is a Reverb
and Chorus. But these Instrument racks
| | 00:51 | can also include multiple virtual instruments.
| | 00:54 | So let's go to this first MIDI track,
and I'm going to drag an empty rack into
| | 00:59 | the Drop MIDI Effects area on that track,
and then from there, I can go down and
| | 01:05 | choose some presets.
| | 01:06 | So I'm going to go into the Electric
category, and let's grab this Keys 4-AM.
| | 01:13 | Let me show the list again. So I see
the Keys 4-AM, and now I can add multiple
| | 01:18 | virtual instruments or effects down
here by dropping in them in that area.
| | 01:22 | So let me scroll down. Let's see.
| | 01:25 | I will go into Operator and into Synth
Pad and click on Snow Pad preset and drag
| | 01:31 | and drop that into the instrument rack.
| | 01:33 | So now, I've got two virtual
instruments happening simultaneously. And if I hold
| | 01:38 | down some keys, we should hear the sounds.
(Music playing.)
| | 01:43 | I see signal coming out both of those,
so I know that they're both working.
| | 01:47 | Now I can mix these together by using
this Volume feature here, and I am going
| | 01:51 | to bring the pad down in level so that
I hear more of the Key-Roads sounds and
| | 01:55 | less of that overall pad.
| | 01:57 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:00 | Now if I want, I can hear those
individually by either muting one of those,
| | 02:05 | so there's just the Keys part now.
(Music playing.)
| | 02:09 | Or I can solo them as well by
clicking on this button over here.
| | 02:13 | So now I should just hear the Snow Pad sound,
(Music playing.)
| | 02:18 | which is much softer because I mixed it down.
| | 02:21 | I can also pan those right, by
dragging up, and left, by dragging down, so you
| | 02:26 | should now hear one on one
side and one on the other.
| | 02:29 | (Music playing.)
Actually let me take that solo off.
| | 02:32 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:35 | There you go, and you can see in the meters,
it's only coming out one side on both of those.
| | 02:39 | I am going to move over to this
instrument track that I have got here.
| | 02:42 | Let me record-enable that one. And I
have got actually three parts loaded on
| | 02:46 | this one, so we're a little bit further in here.
| | 02:49 | So I have got the Roads part again,
and I've got an Operator patch, kind of
| | 02:58 | mellow, and I have got a kind
of Strings thing that's mixed in.
| | 03:03 | Now one of the things that's different
about instrument racks is I get these two
| | 03:06 | other areas that we didn't see in
the video on audio effect racks.
| | 03:11 | So, one of those is for a Key Zone Editor.
| | 03:15 | Now I get these bar graphs that define
which notes on the keyboard are going to
| | 03:19 | trigger these sounds.
| | 03:21 | So I, for instance, could locate the
Road so that it's down here, just up to C2,
| | 03:26 | and then this next patch could
take over at C2 and go to C3.
| | 03:31 | I am just moving my cursor to the edge
of those bar graphs and dragging. And I
| | 03:38 | could grab this last one and make that
at about C3, all the rest of the way up.
| | 03:42 | So now if I play down here on the bottle
of my keyboard, I'm triggering only the
| | 03:48 | Road sound, and you see signal
only in the Roads meter here.
| | 03:51 | If I go up on octave, I am in the
next patch, and up another octave.
| | 03:59 | Since I have got both of those a
little bit overlapping, it's actually
| | 04:02 | triggering both of those sounds.
| | 04:04 | Again, this narrower graph that's
on top will allow me to set fades.
| | 04:09 | So these are a little bit
overlapped, more like this,
| | 04:13 | I could set a crossfade by dragging on
that narrower bar graph on top, then on
| | 04:18 | the one below, dragging that over to the
right, so that you can see that those are
| | 04:22 | now crossfading between each other.
| | 04:24 | So when I get right there on that C2,
down below that, you can see that I am
| | 04:31 | triggering both parts.
| | 04:34 | Okay, let me make those--
| | 04:36 | all back over here.
| | 04:37 | I need to drag that. This way we can go on,
and we can check out the Velocity settings.
| | 04:44 | So a similar area is this Velocity Zone Editor.
| | 04:48 | Now I can set what patches are
triggered out of these three sounds here by how
| | 04:53 | hard I hit the keyboard.
| | 04:55 | Let's make the Roads go up to about 80.
| | 04:57 | Then I will take these other two,
| | 04:59 | I will select their names so that I can do
them together, and I'll drag those over to 81.
| | 05:05 | Okay, so now that I have the velocity
zone set, I should be able to hear just
| | 05:09 | the Roads part when I play softly, and
when I play the keyboard harder, I should
| | 05:13 | trigger these other two presets.
| | 05:15 | Let's give that a shot.
| | 05:16 | (Music playing.)
So I play it lightly.
| | 05:21 | Then I will play a little harder.
| | 05:21 | I will get the other two presets.
(Music playing.)
| | 05:28 | Now that might be a really good thing
to use, for instance, when you have got a
| | 05:31 | bass preset, and you want
| | 05:32 | to only have that in the low range of
the keyboard. And then if you have got more
| | 05:36 | of a piano sound or pad sound or string
sound, you might want that only in the
| | 05:39 | upper part of the keyboard.
| | 05:41 | But let's take a look at how we can
add effects to an instrument rack as well.
| | 05:47 | Now, let me hide that by clicking on
the Hide button, and I'm going to hide the
| | 05:51 | devices as well, because I
want to see this area over here.
| | 05:55 | So let me click over here in the Live
Devices browser, and I am going to close
| | 05:58 | these by pressing my Left Arrow key,
because I want to get down here, and I want
| | 06:02 | to see the audio effects.
| | 06:04 | So if I open that up and scroll down,
you can find something like a reverb that
| | 06:09 | I might add to all three of these effects.
| | 06:12 | So if I grab, for instance, the Concert
Hall and drag it over here, what happens
| | 06:17 | is a signal will pass through the track,
the MIDI signal, and then it will hit
| | 06:21 | these three presets and trigger the
sound, and then the audio will flow out of
| | 06:25 | all three of these and
then through the Concert Hall.
| | 06:28 | Now whenever you use something like a
Delay or Reverb where you've got a DryWet
| | 06:32 | setting and use it on a rack, in this
case, you need to make sure that you
| | 06:36 | dial in the amount of the effect that you want;
otherwise, you are just going to get all reverb.
| | 06:41 | So let's play a little bit and let me dial that in.
(Music playing.)
| | 06:47 | Okay, that's okay.
| | 06:49 | And in other cases, you may want to
add an effect that only affects a single
| | 06:54 | member of the group.
| | 06:56 | So I am going to go into my Audio
Effects again. Now let me find a Chorus
| | 07:00 | preset, and I am going to drag
and drop that only on the Roads.
| | 07:06 | So in this case, what's happening is we
see that I've got the Roads patch here,
| | 07:11 | and then next to that, I see the Chorus effect.
| | 07:14 | And if I drag that over, we can see
that that's where the rack ends, meaning
| | 07:19 | that this effect is only on that
particular preset as part of this rack.
| | 07:24 | It's not affecting the other two presets.
| | 07:26 | Let me close that by double-clicking on
the title bar, and let's drag that over
| | 07:31 | so we can see a little bit more.
| | 07:33 | So we can see that I have got the Key-
Roads preset selected, and that's in here.
| | 07:38 | That's been minimized.
| | 07:40 | And then I see that effect,
and then the rack closes.
| | 07:43 | And then over in this other area, I
still see the Concert Hall, but that's
| | 07:47 | situated so that as the signal passes out
of the rack, then it hits the Concert Hall.
| | 07:52 | So I should be able to solo the Roads
part, and we should hear that with Chorus.
| | 07:57 | (Music playing.)
Let me turn off the reverb, so we don't hear that.
| | 08:02 | (Music playing.)
| | 08:05 | And now if I solo the operator and
undo the Roads, you can hear that there's
| | 08:10 | no Chorus on there.
| | 08:14 | So creating interesting combinations
of sounds and effects using Live racks
| | 08:17 | seems simple, and the possibilities are endless.
| | 08:20 | Experiment and have fun!
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding effects with Drum Rack| 00:00 | Drum loops often have a limited use
because there's no way to add effects to a
| | 00:03 | single drum that's part of the loop.
| | 00:05 | Let's take a look at how Live drum
racks can solve that problem and more.
| | 00:08 | So in this first track, I
have an Impulse drum device--
| | 00:11 | let me switch to Device view, so we can see
that--and I've got an effect here as well.
| | 00:17 | Each one of the elements of the drum
set in this example are actually flowing
| | 00:21 | through that compressor.
| | 00:22 | If you don't want to work that way, one
of the things that we can do--and I am
| | 00:26 | just going to delete this compressor
by selecting it and hitting the Delete
| | 00:29 | key--and I can pull the audio outputs from these
individual drum elements onto different tracks.
| | 00:34 | To do that, I am going to
create some additional audio tracks.
| | 00:38 | So that's Command+T, or
that would be Ctrl+T on a PC.
| | 00:44 | Now, I need to set the input to that to
the track, so that Impulse drum machine
| | 00:49 | is sitting on Impulse track.
| | 00:50 | So I'll make that Impulse, and then
from the second chooser, I can choose
| | 00:54 | individual elements.
| | 00:55 | So I am going to choose the Kick here,
and then on the second track, I'll choose
| | 01:01 | Impulse again, and I'll choose the Snare.
| | 01:04 | I am going to put these tracks into
input monitoring, because there actually
| | 01:08 | isn't any audio on the track;
| | 01:10 | I'm trying to monitor the audio
that's flowing through the track.
| | 01:13 | So now when I click Play, I should hear
the Kick and Snare coming through these
| | 01:18 | tracks, and we should see the signal
from them flowing through those meters.
| | 01:21 | (Drums playing.)
| | 01:25 | Okay. So that's working.
| | 01:27 | Now, one of the big benefits of this is I can
now drop effects onto these tracks separately.
| | 01:32 | So let's say I wanted to put a
compressor on the Kick track to make it a little
| | 01:36 | punchier. Come down here and find a
Drum Compressor preset, and I'll do that.
| | 01:42 | So we've got the compressor there, and
then perhaps maybe I want to add a little
| | 01:45 | more snap on the snare. Let me find an EQ.
| | 01:49 | So we've got the 8-band EQ.
| | 01:51 | I can drop that over there, and I can
add just a little bit of highs here at
| | 01:57 | around 4 K, and get a
little more snap out of that.
| | 02:00 | Let's hear what that sounds like.
| | 02:02 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:06 | Okay. So that's working.
| | 02:08 | Now if wanted to group this, I can.
| | 02:10 | Right-click on the Device header, choose Group.
| | 02:14 | I've got a group. And if I want to add
any effects to this, I can. But remember,
| | 02:18 | all of these signals will be
flowing through those effects.
| | 02:22 | So if I save this as a group, I
can pull it back and use it again,
| | 02:26 | but the one thing I won't get out of
that is these tracks that go with this and
| | 02:29 | where I've got the individual outputs set.
| | 02:32 | So there is a better way to go about doing that.
| | 02:34 | So let's start off by creating a MIDI track.
| | 02:37 | I am going to go Command+Shift+T
on a Mac, or Ctrl+Shift+T on a PC.
| | 02:41 | Then I am going to go up to the
Instrument folder, up in the Live Device browser,
| | 02:46 | and I'm going to grab the Drum Rack.
And remember that if I grab the folder here
| | 02:51 | at the top of the level, that's
actually going to create an empty device.
| | 02:56 | So when I drag that onto the track,
the first thing I see down here in Device
| | 02:59 | view on that track is this Pad view, and
that's something that is unique to drum
| | 03:04 | racks, and we'll come back
and talk about that in a minute.
| | 03:06 | I am going to open up the chain list.
| | 03:10 | And then next, I am going to go down,
and I am going to find the individual
| | 03:13 | samples for each of the different drums.
| | 03:15 | So if I go down into the Library folder,
and into Samples, into Waveforms, and
| | 03:20 | into Drums, I've got one-shot
samples of each element of the drum set.
| | 03:25 | So I am going to grab the Kick folder
here first, navigate down, and find one of
| | 03:31 | the kick samples, and I am going to
drag that directly into the chain list.
| | 03:36 | So in this case, the kick is
going to be a separate instrument.
| | 03:40 | Now, you notice that when I dropped that,
it mapped it automatically down here
| | 03:43 | on C1. And these little pads here that
are part of this area of the drum rack
| | 03:49 | are essentially shortcuts
to the individual MIDI notes.
| | 03:52 | Now, if I open up the I/O view of this
drum rack, one of the columns I get is
| | 03:58 | what MIDI note that that particular
element is going to receive on, and I want
| | 04:02 | to change that to C3. Let's do that.
| | 04:05 | I'll drag up here, find C3, and reassign that.
| | 04:10 | Now, the reason I did that is because
most of the drum clips that we have in
| | 04:15 | Live that are associated with Impulse
all map their notes, starting on C3 with
| | 04:20 | kick drum, up to C4, which is
usually something like an open hi-hat.
| | 04:24 | So now, if I press C3 on my
keyboard, we should hear that kick.
| | 04:29 | Yeah, that's working. Okay.
| | 04:32 | So I am going to go back into the
folder here and load some additional samples.
| | 04:36 | So let me close that Kick folder.
And I'll go into the Snare folder, and
| | 04:40 | let's navigate down.
| | 04:43 | I'll choose a sample here, and this time, I'm
going to drag it directly onto the Drum Pad part.
| | 04:49 | So let me move up there.
| | 04:50 | Now, one way you can navigate on this
Drum Pad area is to simply choose that
| | 04:55 | selector by clicking on it, and then
you can use your up and down arrows to
| | 04:58 | actually navigate through that.
| | 05:00 | So now that I can see where I want to go,
I am going to grab that snare sample,
| | 05:04 | and I'll drop it right there on D3.
| | 05:07 | Then I am going to use my
left arrow to close that folder.
| | 05:09 | Then I'll navigate up, and let's grab
some percussion down here at the bottom.
| | 05:17 | So I am going to put the E9 right
there on G and E14, we'll put on A.
| | 05:24 | Now if I actually only put that on the
wrong slot, I can just grab that and drag
| | 05:28 | it and put it on the intended slot.
| | 05:31 | Again, my left arrow to close that
folder up, and let's go up to Symbols, and my
| | 05:36 | right arrow, I can navigate down through
that, and the down arrow as well. Okay.
| | 05:43 | I am going to put number 10 there on
the closed hi-hat and 11 on the Open.
| | 05:48 | So I am going to drag this drum clip
that's on the first track over here onto
| | 05:53 | the drum rack, and I am going to hold my
Option key, and drag that, and make a copy of that.
| | 05:58 | So let me stop that clip. And now if I
trigger this one on this Drum Rack Track,
| | 06:02 | we should see and hear all of
the elements that we just assigned.
| | 06:06 | (Drums playing.)
| | 06:10 | Okay. So that looks like it's working, and you
can see signal flowing through this and
| | 06:15 | on the meters as well over here.
| | 06:18 | Like the past example, I might
want to add some signal processing.
| | 06:22 | This is different now, because I can
actually do this within the rack on the
| | 06:26 | individual elements.
| | 06:28 | So I am going to go back and grab that
same compressor that I was using for the
| | 06:31 | kick, and I am going to drag and drop
that right on the Kick element itself.
| | 06:38 | Now, when I did that, that's basically
creating a little chain or rack within the rack,
| | 06:43 | so the signal that comes to trigger
the Kick sample will then cause the Kick
| | 06:47 | sample to trigger, and the audio will
flow then through this drum compressor,
| | 06:51 | but none of the other drums will do that.
| | 06:54 | I can do the same thing, for instance, by
coming back over here to the chain list
| | 06:59 | and dragging, let's say this Compressor
here for the snare, right onto the Snare
| | 07:03 | track, and now do the same thing.
| | 07:05 | I'm holding down Command+Option--
| | 07:07 | that would be Ctrl+Option on
a PC--to actually drag that over.
| | 07:11 | Now, we can see that I've got a
different compressor on that.
| | 07:14 | So that's really handy.
| | 07:16 | Now one of the other things that's
really great about drum racks is that I can
| | 07:19 | have parallel processing for things
like delay or reverb right within the rack.
| | 07:24 | So I am going to open up the Return
area by clicking on the Show/Hide button
| | 07:28 | down in the lower left-hand corner,
and I am going to go up into my Effects
| | 07:32 | area, and let's find a reverb.
| | 07:35 | So I'm going to go in here. Let's see.
| | 07:36 | I think there is a nice drum
reverb sound within the room area.
| | 07:40 | Yeah, there's a Drums Room.
| | 07:42 | Just to select and add little ambience onto
the snare and maybe the symbol parts here.
| | 07:47 | So once I've actually added this effect
down in this Drop Audio Effects area, I
| | 07:52 | can also open up the Sends area by
clicking on the Show/Hide button.
| | 07:57 | Notice that when I did that, it opened
up this additional column right here.
| | 08:01 | Now, this is much like the sends that
are on the track here will allow me to
| | 08:06 | copy some signal onto the send and
then route it over here to a return track.
| | 08:12 | In this case though, I can
do this all within the rack.
| | 08:15 | So I am going to go on the send itself,
and I'm going to copy some signal onto
| | 08:20 | that send, which is now going to
go down into this reverb here.
| | 08:25 | And I can do the same
thing with the hi-hat tracks.
| | 08:28 | If I want a little bit less reverb, I
just won't copy as much onto the send.
| | 08:32 | Now, if I play this drum clip on the
Drum Rack track, we should hear the snare
| | 08:39 | with some reverb on it.
| | 08:40 | (Drums playing.)
| | 08:44 | That's great because the kick is still dry.
| | 08:47 | One last thing that we should take a
look at here on the Drum Rack portion is
| | 08:52 | this thing called choke.
| | 08:54 | This is a great feature, in that there
are some samples where when you trigger
| | 08:58 | that, you want it to choke one of the
other samples that are part of the rack.
| | 09:02 | And in this case, I've got these two
hi-hats, and since you wouldn't hit the
| | 09:06 | closed and open hi-hat simultaneously,
you'll want one to choke the other.
| | 09:10 | So I'll click that column, and
I'll put that on one of the groups.
| | 09:14 | None of them are being used right
now, so any of them will suffice.
| | 09:16 | So I'll put that on 1, and I'll put
the open hi-hat on the same Choke group.
| | 09:21 | So now triggering the closed hi-hat
will mute the open hi-hat.
| | 09:26 | And then if I want, I can set levels
for the different drums here in the
| | 09:29 | Volume column, and I can change Pan settings.
I can mute or unmute or solo tracks as well.
| | 09:37 | Now, I can also do that up
here on the tracks themselves.
| | 09:40 | Now, while I was actually adding these
different elements into the drum rack,
| | 09:45 | Live was actually adding additional
tracks that it was routing the audios
| | 09:50 | through. And if I click the Unfold
button, we can see these additional tracks.
| | 09:54 | So for instance, if I go over to the
Hi-Hat track and change the level on that
| | 09:58 | track, we should see the volume change
correspondingly right there, and we do.
| | 10:04 | Same thing with our Pan positions.
| | 10:06 | So I can pan the hi-hat hard right,
| | 10:09 | if that's what I want to do.
And we see that in both places.
| | 10:12 | So I can make the change up here,
or I can make the change down here.
| | 10:16 | But often times, it's a lot easier to do
that within the mixer without having to
| | 10:19 | dig through the rack.
| | 10:21 | When you're ready, if you're finished,
we can actually save this drum rack as a
| | 10:25 | preset that we can use at a later time.
| | 10:27 | So if I go up to the Drum Rack area
that's up here at the top, if I want to
| | 10:32 | save it there, all I need to do is
click on the rack itself and drag and drop
| | 10:37 | that into that folder.
| | 10:39 | It's going to ask me if I want to copy
any of the elements that are part of that
| | 10:44 | from the Library, including samples or
additional assets from the library that
| | 10:48 | are being used. And if you are just
going to use it on the same computer, you
| | 10:52 | don't need to do that. But if you might
move that preset to another place later
| | 10:55 | on, you might want to go ahead and copy that.
| | 10:58 | So I'll do that, and it gives
me an opportunity to name that.
| | 11:01 | I'll call that "My Drum Rack."
| | 11:05 | That's saved for later use.
| | 11:06 | If I want to use that again in another
session, all I need to do is grab that
| | 11:11 | from the drum rack and drop
that on the track. We've got it.
| | 11:16 | Okay. So now you know two ways to set up drum
racks, both of which can be used to open
| | 11:19 | up how effects can be added to drum loops.
| | 11:22 | Remember to use drum racks to save
complicated drum setups for use in other
| | 11:25 | songs and live sets.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Assigning rack parameters to macros| 00:00 | With each instrument or effect device,
there are often a few parameters that
| | 00:03 | need repeated adjustment.
| | 00:05 | Finding those parameters can be a pain,
| | 00:06 | so let's take a look at how frequently
accessed parameters can be mapped to a live macro.
| | 00:10 | So I am going to take this Impulse
instrument preset on this first track
| | 00:15 | and I am going to add that to a rack by
right-clicking on it and choosing Group
| | 00:18 | from the contextual menu.
| | 00:19 | Now one of the things we gain by grouping
this device is a macro, which is part of the rack.
| | 00:27 | I can show that by clicking on the
Show/Hide button over here on the
| | 00:31 | left-hand side of the rack.
| | 00:32 | Now if I click the Map mode button, all
of the parameters that are available for
| | 00:36 | mapping show up green.
| | 00:38 | In this case, I am going
to click the Volume there.
| | 00:41 | Now I have already selected the Kick here,
| | 00:43 | so this volume is in reference to
that particular part of the Impulse Drum
| | 00:48 | preset, and now notice that this
Map button is available for mapping.
| | 00:52 | So if I click that, I've now mapped to the
Kick volume to the number 1 slot on this Macro.
| | 01:00 | And now if I choose the Snare and then
click Volume again, I can map that to
| | 01:05 | Macro 2, and quickly I can go through
this whole drum set and map those knobs
| | 01:12 | that I want over here to the macro.
| | 01:14 | So I'll go over to the HiHat here on the end.
| | 01:17 | Let me map that one to
number 7, and the last one 8.
| | 01:21 | I'll do the same thing:
map the Volume to Macro 8.
| | 01:24 | Once I've done that, I can name
these so I know what they are by simply
| | 01:29 | selecting one of the macros and then
pressing Command+R or that would be Ctrl+R
| | 01:34 | on a PC to rename, and I'll call that
"Kick Volume," and I'll quickly go over to
| | 01:41 | the Snare and do the same thing, and
let me grab these HiHats to finish out.
| | 01:58 | Okay, and when I leave Map mode by
clicking the Map mode button, I now
| | 02:02 | have control over those.
| | 02:04 | Now if you have a device like the
APC-40 or another controller that offers
| | 02:09 | instant mapping, if I select this
rack, those macros that I just assigned
| | 02:14 | instantly map to that device.
| | 02:17 | So you can see that I've
already got control over those.
| | 02:19 | Let me turn those down just a little bit.
| | 02:22 | I'll bring the HiHats up.
| | 02:26 | So it makes a really quick way to
be able to control those parameters.
| | 02:30 | And the great thing is if I go over
here and select the compressor, instant
| | 02:34 | mapping is still available for the
devices over there, and doesn't affect
| | 02:38 | anything that I just set.
| | 02:39 | It only affects those parameters that I
have mapped to the rack, and I only can
| | 02:44 | adjust those when the rack itself is selected.
| | 02:47 | Let's take a look at another example.
| | 02:49 | So if I go to the second track here
where I have the Motion Pad preset, I can
| | 02:53 | map again by setting these into a
group and going to my Group function by
| | 03:00 | right-clicking on the Title bar, and
now I've actually grouped all three of
| | 03:05 | these devices inside the rack.
| | 03:08 | So at this point, I'm going to bring up
the macro again, and I'm going to click
| | 03:13 | the Map mode button to enable that.
And in this case, I am going to grab the
| | 03:17 | frequency knob, and I'll map that to
Macro 1. And I'm also going to click the
| | 03:23 | Resonance feature, and I am
going to map that to the same button.
| | 03:26 | So I have got two of
those set to the same thing.
| | 03:30 | Now I want to set the minimum and
maximum value, so this will actually work;
| | 03:34 | otherwise I might get some
results that are less than desirable.
| | 03:37 | So for the frequency setting, I am
going to set that at about 650 Hz,
| | 03:42 | somewhere in there, and I'll set the
upper end around 7K. And on the Resonance
| | 03:49 | I'll set that around 40%,
and the top end around 60%.
| | 03:57 | And then I'll disable Map mode by
clicking the Map mode button. And now I can
| | 04:02 | click that and rename that, Command+R
again, or Ctrl+ R in the PC. And I am going
| | 04:06 | to call that "Filter Sweep," and now
when I move that number 1 knob on my
| | 04:14 | controller, we'll see that I have got
control of that, but it's constrained to
| | 04:19 | those minimum-maximum values.
| | 04:21 | Now because these other devices are
part of this rack, I can also choose a
| | 04:25 | parameter from there that I might find useful.
| | 04:28 | So some other things that you might
do here is the overall volume of this
| | 04:33 | pad might be useful.
| | 04:35 | So let me go back into Map mode.
| | 04:37 | I'll select Volume.
| | 04:38 | I am going to click Macro 2. Set that there.
| | 04:41 | I'm going to go out of Map mode, so I can move
over here, and I'm going to minimize this
| | 04:45 | pad by double-clicking on the title bar.
| | 04:47 | That way I can see a little bit more
detail here. And I am going to go back
| | 04:52 | into Map mode, and let's set the total
Amount here, and I'll map that to Macro 3.
| | 05:00 | And then on to Warm Tube setting, I'll
set the Dry/Wet Amount to Macro 4, and
| | 05:06 | I'll leave Map mode.
| | 05:07 | Then I'll rename those, so I know what they are.
| | 05:10 | It already says Dry/Wet. That makes
sense to me. But now if I go up to my
| | 05:19 | controller, I can move too.
| | 05:20 | I get the Volume of that particular
preset, and the Slow Amount is controlling
| | 05:25 | how wide that panning is going on, and
Dry/Wet controlling this Warm Tube.
| | 05:31 | So I am actually controlling three
different devices from the same macro.
| | 05:35 | Let's check that out, and I'll do that
while this is playing, so we can hear
| | 05:37 | what it sounds like.
| | 05:38 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:03 | Once you get an instrument drum or
effect rack set up and adjusted, assign the
| | 06:07 | most frequently used parameters to a macro.
| | 06:10 | Then when you need to record
automation in your Live projects, or use Live in
| | 06:13 | performance, those parameters will
be immediately available to your MIDI
| | 06:16 | controllers through instant mapping.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
18. Live and ReWireSetting up ReWire with Pro Tools | 00:00 | Because of its innovative
time-stretching capabilities and collection of virtual
| | 00:03 | instruments and audio effects, it's only
natural that Pro Tools users will want
| | 00:06 | to use Ableton Live in
conjunction with their Pro Tools sessions.
| | 00:10 | In this video we'll learn how to use
ReWire to slave Live to Pro Tools.
| | 00:13 | So anytime that you're using two audio
applications simultaneously, one is going
| | 00:17 | to have to act as the host
and the other as the slave.
| | 00:20 | In this example, we'll be slaving
Ableton to Pro Tools via ReWire.
| | 00:23 | So I'm going to create an
instrument track in Pro Tools to start off.
| | 00:27 | Let's go up to the track menu. I'll choose New.
| | 00:31 | Let's go on stereo, instrument track,
and I'm going to use the command
| | 00:35 | Command+Equals--that would be Ctrl+Equals on a PC--to
move from the Edit window to the Mix window.
| | 00:42 | And let's go to the first track insert
here, and I'm going to add Ableton as a
| | 00:46 | multi-channel instrument plug-in.
| | 00:50 | Note that when this opens up, it doesn't
actually open Ableton Live, but it opens
| | 00:54 | the ReWire plug-in that's going to
allow us to communicate back and forth
| | 00:58 | between the two programs.
| | 00:59 | I'm going to launch Live.
| | 01:01 | Notice that it's saying Running
as a ReWire Slave as it opens.
| | 01:07 | Now I'm going to go to the Clips
folder here, and into the Drums, and let's go
| | 01:12 | into Electronic, and I'm going to
choose one of these Eckhose clips, and I'm
| | 01:17 | going to drop that on the MIDI track.
| | 01:19 | But let me first tab over to
arrangement view, because this only works
| | 01:23 | in arrangement view.
| | 01:24 | I'm going to drag that to
this default MIDI track here.
| | 01:27 | Just so that we have enough here to
listen to, I'm going to duplicate that a few
| | 01:32 | times using the duplicate command,
which is Command+D or Ctrl+D on PC.
| | 01:37 | I'm going to tab back to the session
view, because it's a little easier to use
| | 01:44 | the mixer on this side.
| | 01:45 | I am going to take that out of record,
and I'm going to set the output on
| | 01:49 | the track to ReWire Out, and I'll use
the default outputs, which in this case
| | 01:54 | are left and right.
| | 01:55 | Notice that we have several others
that we'll be able to use as well.
| | 01:59 | Now I'm going to go back to Pro Tools.
| | 02:00 | I need to do a couple of things here.
| | 02:03 | First of all, in this instrument track I
need to set the MIDI out to that MIDI
| | 02:07 | track that we have in Ableton,
which is the Eckhose track.
| | 02:11 | And then, since this is the first
track we're using, I don't need to reset the
| | 02:15 | audio inputs that are coming back from Ableton.
| | 02:18 | We're just on mix left and
right, because that's the default.
| | 02:21 | So I should be able to hit play and
hear sound coming back from Ableton.
| | 02:24 | Let's give that a shot.
| | 02:26 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:29 | Okay. So it's working.
| | 02:31 | Now currently the MIDI clip is
actually sitting on a track in Ableton, but I
| | 02:36 | can also put the MIDI on a track in
Pro Tools and send MIDI over to Ableton
| | 02:41 | and get audio back.
| | 02:43 | So let's go over to Ableton.
| | 02:44 | Let me tab to the Arrangement view,
and I'm going to select one of those MIDI
| | 02:49 | clips and go to the File menu,
and choose export MIDI clip.
| | 02:54 | There's the name, and let
me put that on the Desktop.
| | 02:59 | Now I'm going to delete these
clips from the track in Live,
| | 03:03 | switch back to Pro Tools,
| | 03:04 | I'm going to close that plug-in--we
don't need to look at that now--
| | 03:07 | I will go back to the edit window, and
I will bring the Finder window on top,
| | 03:12 | and I see the Desktop,
and there is that .mid file.
| | 03:15 | Let me select that, drag and
drop that on the track in Pro Tools.
| | 03:20 | Again, I'm going to
select that and duplicate it.
| | 03:23 | In this case, the command is the same thing:
| | 03:25 | Command+D or Ctrl+D on a PC.
| | 03:28 | I'll put that out a few times,
| | 03:29 | hit my Return key to put the
cursor at the beginning of this session.
| | 03:33 | So now when I hit play I'll send MIDI
to Ableton, which will trigger their
| | 03:37 | virtual instrument device,
and I'll get audio back.
| | 03:40 | (Drums playing.)
| | 03:44 | Awesome!
| | 03:46 | In addition to MIDI, I can also use the
audio clips that are available in Ableton.
| | 03:50 | So let me create an Aux track
for this example in Pro Tools.
| | 03:54 | Again, I'll go back up to Track menu,
choose New, choose Stereo, Aux, Input track,
| | 04:01 | Create, and I am going to
Command+Equals or Ctrl+Equals over to the Mix window.
| | 04:07 | And again I'm going to add Live as
a multi-channel instrument plug-in.
| | 04:12 | Again, ReWire opens. Back over to the Live.
| | 04:14 | Let me close that up a bit. And now
I'm going to go down into the Samples
| | 04:19 | folder, into the Loopmasters,
and let's go into Electro.
| | 04:23 | I'm going to grab one of these audio clips.
| | 04:27 | Let me drop that on this default audio track.
| | 04:30 | Again, I'm going to duplicate that a
few times: Command+D or Ctrl+D on a PC.
| | 04:36 | Tab back to the session view
window so I can see the mixer.
| | 04:40 | I'm going to go to Audio out, ReWire,
and on the subchooser, this time I'm
| | 04:44 | going to choose 3/4. Back to Pro Tools.
| | 04:49 | And let me set the audio inputs that are
coming back from Ableton to bus 3 and 4 as well.
| | 04:55 | Now from experience I've found that
sometimes the clips in Ableton can play
| | 04:59 | a little bit loudly.
| | 05:00 | I'm going to actually go
back over there briefly.
| | 05:03 | I'm going to pull that
level down just a little bit.
| | 05:07 | Back to Pro Tools, and let's hit
play and see if we've got signal.
| | 05:11 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:17 | Okay, so that's working.
| | 05:19 | Now one of the nice things is that I
can actually change tempo in Pro Tools and
| | 05:23 | have that effect what's going on in
Ableton--get a corresponding tempo change.
| | 05:28 | So I'm going to bring up the transport, which
in Pro Tools is Command+1, or Ctrl+1 on a PC.
| | 05:34 | I'm currently in Manual Tempo mode
because the conductor is disabled, which is
| | 05:38 | going to allow me to go into
this field and change the tempo.
| | 05:42 | So as I play the session back, I can
actually scroll up and down and change this tempo.
| | 05:46 | We should hear a corresponding change to
the tempo that's coming back from Ableton.
| | 05:51 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:59 | So you can here that those MIDI clips and
the audio clip are staying synced to tempo.
| | 06:04 | Now before we quit, there is a
couple of things we need to talk about.
| | 06:07 | First, because Live is not a plug-in
that actually resides in Pro Tools--it's a
| | 06:12 | separate application--I need to save
that Ableton session if we're going to
| | 06:16 | reopen this at a later date.
| | 06:18 | So I'm going to go back over to Ableton,
then go to the File menu and choose
| | 06:23 | Save Live Set. And I'm going to navigate
to the Pro Tools folder that I'm using.
| | 06:30 | So let's go into Pro Tools ReWire, and
let me give that a title, go ahead and hit Save.
| | 06:41 | I've got that.
| | 06:44 | Then if I'm quitting for the day, I
need to make sure that I quit the slave
| | 06:48 | device first, or the ReWire device, which
is Ableton in this case, and we're done.
| | 06:54 | The ReWire routing can seem a bit
confusing at first, but the advantages as of
| | 06:57 | adding Ableton Live via ReWire to
your Pro Tools sessions are worth it.
| | 07:01 | Give it a shot!
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up ReWire with Logic| 00:00 | Using ReWire, Ableton Live can
be used in conjunction with other
| | 00:02 | audio applications.
| | 00:04 | Let's take a look at how you can
use Live with Apple's Logic Pro.
| | 00:08 | So first, you need to make
sure that you open Logic first.
| | 00:11 | Whenever we use Ableton Live as a
ReWire slave, you've got to open the
| | 00:15 | host program first.
| | 00:17 | So now that Logic is open, and I've
created a session here, I am going to
| | 00:22 | open up Ableton Live.
| | 00:23 | Now, as Ableton Live boots, notice
that in the information here it's saying,
| | 00:27 | "Running as a ReWire Slave." That's good!
| | 00:30 | So now that I'm in Ableton, I am going
to go ahead and I'm going to load a clip
| | 00:34 | onto a track, and I am going
to do that in Arrangement view.
| | 00:37 | So let's go down here.
| | 00:39 | I am going to pick a drum clip here real quick.
| | 00:41 | I am going to drag and drop that on
this MIDI Track here. It takes a second.
| | 00:47 | Now it's loaded.
| | 00:48 | Then I flip over to Session view, and
I am going to go on that track, and I'm
| | 00:51 | going to set the output of that to
ReWire, and then the sub-channel will go to
| | 00:57 | the specific ReWire Outputs.
| | 00:59 | I'll leave that at Left and Right.
| | 01:02 | Now, I'm going back over to Logic, and
I am going to go up to the Track menu,
| | 01:06 | and I am going to choose New Track.
| | 01:08 | I need to choose and set
up an external MIDI track.
| | 01:12 | Go ahead and click Create.
| | 01:14 | In this case, it's already found it.
| | 01:16 | Oftentimes, you will have to come
over here, and you will have to choose
| | 01:19 | Ableton over in the Library and then
actually choose the particular track that
| | 01:23 | you're looking for.
| | 01:24 | So it looks like we're good to go there.
| | 01:27 | Then next thing I'll need to do
is drop down and open up the mixer.
| | 01:30 | I need to create a track where
I can capture the audio there.
| | 01:33 | So I am going to go up to Options and
choose Create New Auxiliary Channel Strip.
| | 01:37 | I want that to be stereo, and I want
the input to be from Ableton Live, and I
| | 01:43 | want it to be the ReWire: Mix L/R Inputs.
| | 01:47 | Go ahead and click Create.
| | 01:50 | I'll close the mixer and put my
cursor back over here at the beginning.
| | 01:56 | Let's click Play and hear what we get.
| | 01:58 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:02 | So we can hear that I've got signal
coming back from Ableton into Logic.
| | 02:07 | Now if I make a tempo change here in
Logic, I should be able to reflect that in
| | 02:11 | what we hear coming back from Ableton Live.
| | 02:14 | Let's give that a shot.
| | 02:14 | (Drums playing.)
| | 02:21 | So we can see that Logic is
commanding what's going on in Live.
| | 02:25 | Now, another thing I can do here is I
can actually put the MIDI on the Logic
| | 02:30 | side and have it just sent back over
to Ableton and trigger the instrument
| | 02:35 | device that's sitting on that track.
| | 02:36 | I am going to go back over to Live,
flip over to the Arrangement View window,
| | 02:41 | and I'm going to choose that MIDI Clip
there. And I am going to go up to the
| | 02:45 | File menu, and I am going
to say Export MIDI Clip.
| | 02:49 | For right now, I am going to go ahead
and I am just going to put that on the
| | 02:52 | desktop where I can find it
really easily, and click Save.
| | 02:56 | With that done, I'm going to actually
select the clip on the track in Ableton, and
| | 03:00 | I'm going to hit my Delete key. Get rid of that.
| | 03:03 | Now you will notice that the
instrument device is still down here.
| | 03:06 | I just got rid of the clip.
| | 03:07 | So now I can go back over to Logic, and
I'm going to bring the Finder window up
| | 03:12 | on top of Logic, and I'll move
that a little bit out of the way.
| | 03:16 | Now, I'm going to grab that .mid file
that I exported from Ableton and drag and
| | 03:21 | drop that on the track.
| | 03:23 | So now I have got the MIDI that was
originally in Ableton sitting in Logic, and
| | 03:28 | if I bring playback here to the
beginning and hit Play, we should hear the MIDI
| | 03:32 | go through ReWire, trigger the
instrument that's over in Live, and then send
| | 03:38 | audio back into Logic.
| | 03:40 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:43 | If I want to speed that up, I can do that again.
| | 03:45 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:48 | So that's working pretty cool.
| | 03:50 | Now I can also put audio on a track in
Ableton and stream that through ReWire
| | 03:55 | back into Live as well.
| | 03:57 | So in this case, I am going to go over
to Live, and I'm going to look a little
| | 04:01 | bit further down in this folder of clips.
| | 04:06 | Here we go.
| | 04:08 | I am going to go in down into the
samples, and then into the Loopmasters
| | 04:11 | folder and then into my Bass Loops,
and I am just going to grab one of these
| | 04:14 | Hip-Hop loops, and I am going to drag
and drop that on this audio track that
| | 04:18 | we've got already here.
| | 04:20 | And just so I have got enough, I am
going to duplicate that a couple of times.
| | 04:23 | That's Command+D. Then I'll use my Tab key to
move back over to the Session View window.
| | 04:30 | Again, I am going to set my outputs to ReWire.
| | 04:33 | This time, I am going to set the
outputs to a second pair: 3 and 4 this time.
| | 04:38 | I'll go back over to Logic, and then
I am going to go back to the mixer and
| | 04:44 | create yet another auxiliary channel strip.
| | 04:46 | I will make that Stereo, and I will
make the Input come from Ableton Live, but
| | 04:52 | this time I'll choose buses
03 and 04, and click Create.
| | 04:58 | Now, when I hit Play, I should get
both the drums playing, and this new
| | 05:02 | bass audio coming back.
| | 05:04 | Let me make sure that my
cursor is here at the beginning.
| | 05:07 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:14 | Okay, that's working.
| | 05:16 | Now, if I change the tempo here in Logic,
that should force the audio file that's
| | 05:20 | on that bass track in Ableton to
warp and play at a different tempo.
| | 05:23 | Okay. Let me play that, and let's see if
we've got both that bass track and the drums
| | 05:28 | playing, and I will change the tempo.
| | 05:30 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:40 | Before you wind this up, one of the
things you want to make sure that you do is
| | 05:44 | we have got to save the Ableton Live
set as part of our Logic setup here.
| | 05:50 | So what I am going to do is I am going
to go back to Ableton, and I am going to
| | 05:53 | click File > Save Live Set As, and then
I am going to go into the Exercise Files
| | 06:00 | area, down to number 18.
| | 06:04 | Here's my Logic, ReWire session.
| | 06:06 | I am going to go ahead, and I am going to
save this as AL, Ableton Live, for Logic.
| | 06:12 | Now, the reason I'm doing that is
because the virtual instruments and audio that
| | 06:18 | I'm using in Ableton Live are in
no way part of the Logic session.
| | 06:23 | So when I reboot the Logic session at
a later date, I'm going to need to have
| | 06:27 | the Ableton Live set that I can
reopen, so that I can relink all of that.
| | 06:32 | So back to Logic, and I will save what
we've done here so far. Now, we are done.
| | 06:39 | So the ReWire routing can seem a bit
confusing at first, but now that you see
| | 06:43 | how it works, you can use your
Ableton Live clips, virtual instruments, and
| | 06:46 | effects as part of your Logic sessions.
| | 06:48 | Give it a shot.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
19. Using Ableton Live in Live PerformancePreparing audio clips with the Warp tool| 00:00 | Warping audio is one of Live's
strengths, and it's especially for useful
| | 00:02 | preparing files that are going to
be use as part of a live performance.
| | 00:06 | Let's take a look at some of the
issues involved in this process.
| | 00:09 | So I've got a Live set here, and I
have already imported two clips here
| | 00:13 | that are actually full songs.
| | 00:15 | As you might remember, we can just
navigate through one of the browsers and drag
| | 00:19 | and drop the files onto the tracks.
| | 00:21 | So I am going to start off
with this song on the first track.
| | 00:25 | It's currently visible
down here in the Clip view.
| | 00:30 | What I want to do is I want to make
sure that this is going to lock to tempo.
| | 00:33 | Now when I look at the Segment BPM
marking here, it tells me that the song or
| | 00:38 | the file that we are looking
at is originally at 117 BPM.
| | 00:43 | The actual tempo in the session
is slightly different right now.
| | 00:47 | I want to make sure that
this song lines up rhythmically.
| | 00:51 | One of the reasons that we do that is
so that if I'm using any effects that are
| | 00:55 | time based that they'll
actually work in time with the music.
| | 00:59 | If want to switch to any of the clips
within this set, I also want the rhythmic
| | 01:03 | transition to be seamless.
| | 01:05 | So to do that, we actually need to
dial in a little bit and set up our warp
| | 01:10 | markers and make sure that things are lining up.
| | 01:12 | So if I take a look at the beginning of
part of the song--and I'm just here in
| | 01:16 | the beat time ruler, and
I'm dragging up or down--
| | 01:19 | we will notice that it looks like the
first warp marker, by default, has been
| | 01:23 | placed here, and there's actually
some audio out in front of that.
| | 01:27 | So I'm going to move that first warp marker
by holding down my Command and Shift keys.
| | 01:33 | When I do it that way, the warp marker
actually stays in the same place, but you
| | 01:37 | will see that the
underlying audio is actually moving.
| | 01:40 | I am going to line that up with what
looks like that first transient right there.
| | 01:44 | Now before I start kind of lining up
the interior parts of the song, one of
| | 01:48 | the things that you want to do is go
over to the very end and find kind of a
| | 01:52 | last transient, or the last rhythmic hit
that you can find, where you can lock that down.
| | 01:58 | That way, as we start working with the
stuff that's in the middle of a file, we
| | 02:02 | have kind of got the outside
edges pinned, so that they don't move.
| | 02:05 | So I am going to come over here to the
end of this, and again I'm just clicking
| | 02:09 | in the beat time ruler and dragging up
and down to zoom in, and dragging right
| | 02:14 | and left to move over to the end of the file.
| | 02:17 | So, one of these last two items ought to
be something that I can depend upon placing.
| | 02:21 | So I am going to go back up just a
little bit, and I am going to hold my Shift
| | 02:25 | key down, which will allow me to
temporarily play it from a starting point that's
| | 02:29 | closer to where we are at.
| | 02:30 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:32 | I notice that that hit right there is actually a
snare hit, and since snare hits usually
| | 02:38 | happen on 2 and 4, and I am right
here by beat 4 here in bar 72, what I am
| | 02:44 | going to do is I am going to turn
this transient marker into warp marker by
| | 02:47 | double-clicking on the pseudo-warp marker.
| | 02:51 | Now I can just click and drag
that and snap that onto bar 72.
| | 02:57 | Now as I did that, you can start to
see that some of these other things are
| | 03:00 | starting to line up and make more sense.
| | 03:02 | That doesn't mean that it's going to be
that way throughout, but that at least
| | 03:05 | tells me that we are getting a good start.
| | 03:08 | At this point, what I want to do is work
my way through the song, kind of phrase
| | 03:12 | by phrase, and make sure
that I'm still lining up.
| | 03:15 | So looking at the waveform, I can
see that something different starts to
| | 03:18 | happen here around bar 9 and then around bar
13 and at bar 29 and 33 and so on and so forth.
| | 03:27 | The first thing I am going to do is I
am going to take a closer look right here
| | 03:30 | around bar 9 and see what's going on,
and see if things are lining up.
| | 03:35 | As I look there, I can see that it
looks like that's a little bit off,
| | 03:39 | so I'm going to dial in a little deeper there,
| | 03:43 | look at where that transient marker is.
| | 03:45 | That looks like it's in a okay place,
| | 03:47 | so I am going to turn that into a warp marker,
and I am going to snap that over to bar 9.
| | 03:54 | Now one of the things that I can do
from here to try and make everything in
| | 03:58 | between bar 9 and bar 72, where I put
other warp marker, is to right-click and
| | 04:04 | choose one of the Warp From commands.
| | 04:06 | The two that I like to use are Warp
From Here and Warp From Here (Straight).
| | 04:11 | So Warp From Here just means that it's
only going to warp to the right of the
| | 04:15 | warp marker that I right-
clicked to start this process.
| | 04:19 | The difference between that and Warp
From Here (Straight) is that when you
| | 04:22 | choose Warp From Here (Straight)
you're telling Live that you think that the
| | 04:26 | tempo to the right of that
warp marker is consistent.
| | 04:29 | It's the same tempo.
| | 04:30 | So I am going to choose that one. We saw that
| | 04:33 | that makes some subtle changes in the alignment.
| | 04:37 | Now as I look over here to the right,
I can continue to look, and that's
| | 04:40 | looking pretty good.
| | 04:43 | Now one way you can check this is to
turn on your metronome and start playing
| | 04:48 | the track from the point
where you dropped that warp marker.
| | 04:51 | You've done some work and listen to
see how the click is lining up with the
| | 04:55 | rest of the track there.
| | 04:57 | So let me Shift+Click over here, about bar 8.
| | 04:59 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:10 | So that's starting to line up pretty well.
| | 05:12 | One of the things that you're going to
want to do is make sure that you're using
| | 05:15 | the correct warp mode as you do this.
| | 05:17 | Now as I was playing and listening
to that, I was hearing a little bit of
| | 05:21 | wobbling in the audio file.
| | 05:23 | The reason that's happening is because
I'm currently using Beats Warp mode, which
| | 05:28 | is good for transients that are
related to percussion or drum elements.
| | 05:32 | So I want to click on the Warp Mode
dropdown menu, and I want to choose
| | 05:36 | something different.
| | 05:37 | Now Complex and Complex Pro are designed to
work with long files, like we are working here.
| | 05:43 | So I am going to use Pro, and I am
going to play that again and just that a
| | 05:47 | listen and make sure that
| | 05:49 | that's sounding better.
| | 05:50 | So Shift+Clicking here around bar 8,
and I will start playback there.
| | 05:53 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:59 | That's especially apparent there in the
bass part of that file. That's much, much
| | 06:03 | smoother at this point.
| | 06:05 | So again, I am going to continue to
check around the points where there are
| | 06:10 | divisions in the form.
| | 06:11 | So the next place I would look is right here.
| | 06:13 | It looks like bar 11 is looking good.
| | 06:15 | Let me go over here to bar 13.
| | 06:18 | It looks like that's maybe where the verse starts.
| | 06:22 | As I look at that, boy,
that's lining up pretty nicely.
| | 06:26 | I'll come over here to bar 29 next.
| | 06:28 | If I look at the right side of the Stereo file,
that looks like that's lining up pretty well.
| | 06:35 | Again, I can just back up a little bit
and play the track, and just make sure
| | 06:40 | that the click is still aligning with the music.
| | 06:43 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:50 | Okay. Sounds pretty good.
| | 06:51 | So as you work through a file doing
this, you are going to want to make sure
| | 06:55 | that you work slowly and
carefully, moving from left to right.
| | 06:59 | That way you can consistently
keep things in line with the tempo.
| | 07:04 | Another thing that you are going to
want to do as you prepare these files for
| | 07:07 | use is determine what key they're in.
| | 07:10 | So I've also set up this track in the
session here with a simple keyboard sound on it.
| | 07:15 | Let me play that.
(Music playing.)
| | 07:17 | So I get a little bit of Road sound
going on there, and I chosen one that
| | 07:21 | doesn't have any vibrato or anything like that.
| | 07:25 | I'm going to give that a listen as
I play this track, because I want to
| | 07:28 | determine what key this is in.
| | 07:30 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:40 | So as I was doing that, I played a
chromatic scale, and I'm just listening for
| | 07:45 | notes that sound like they are
kind the center of the tonality.
| | 07:49 | The two notes that sound good to me
here are C and the note A. Since they are
| | 07:54 | related being C major is related to A minor,
I know that I'm in one of those two keys.
| | 07:59 | If I put this a little deeper into
the song where I've got some bass notes
| | 08:02 | ringing out, it's probably going
to be little bit easier to hear.
| | 08:04 | So let me start it at about bar 13 here.
| | 08:07 | (Music playing.)
| | 08:18 | It sounds like that section
of the tune is in A minor.
| | 08:21 | A part of it, since I wrote it, I know
it is also in C. Now one of the reasons
| | 08:25 | that I do that is because when I save
the songs for later use, what I want to do
| | 08:30 | is make sure that I've saved that information.
| | 08:33 | So I am going to go to
one of file browsers here.
| | 08:36 | Let me go up to the top level.
And I want to create a new folder here,
| | 08:40 | so let me right-click, and I am going
to choose Create Folder, and I am going
| | 08:45 | to call this "Songs."
| | 08:48 | As I get these files prepared, what
I'm going to do is I'm going to drag them
| | 08:52 | into this folder for later use.
And since I'm going to be using these in
| | 08:56 | different sets and projects
later on, I am going to say "Copy."
| | 08:59 | So I will go ahead, and then I am
going to rename this particular file.
| | 09:04 | I leave the name of the song in there.
But I'm also going to append some
| | 09:08 | information about the tempo and the key of that.
| | 09:12 | So I will put in here
117bpm, and I'll put in Cmajor.
| | 09:22 | The reason that I put that
information there is that when I am going to be
| | 09:25 | putting a set together, if I am using
multiple songs here, if I'm going to be
| | 09:29 | transitioning from one song to the other,
it can be quite jarring if you go from
| | 09:33 | a song that is of one key to a song
that is in a really distantly related key.
| | 09:38 | Now the two that I've set up
are in a pretty closely related key.
| | 09:41 | So this first Song in C major,
and the second song is in G major.
| | 09:47 | That differs by one accidental. C doesn't
have any sharps or flats. G Major has one sharp.
| | 09:53 | So you are going to find that if
you move to keys that are within one
| | 09:57 | accidental, you're going to be okay,
because they're very, very closely related.
| | 10:01 | So if I was going to name this one--I
would go through the same process by the
| | 10:04 | way and work out the warping and tempo
and all the elements that I am going to
| | 10:10 | be working with this particular song--
| | 10:11 | but when I am ready to name it, I will
just drag that over into the folder as well.
| | 10:16 | Say Copy and in this case, this one
is at about 120 bpm, and it's in G major.
| | 10:26 | That way when I look in the list,
I'll see these songs that are close in
| | 10:29 | tempo, show up next to each other, and I will
also be able to see the closely related keys.
| | 10:35 | Now another thing that you might be
doing as part of preparing audio files is to
| | 10:40 | create sections of the songs for use.
| | 10:43 | So I'm going to copy the clip on this
first track by selecting that and then
| | 10:47 | holding down my Option key and dragging.
| | 10:50 | Now what I can do is start
to set loop points on this.
| | 10:54 | So, if I come down here and I drag
out the loop brace on that track for the
| | 10:59 | first nine bars, which is the first part
of the intro, I can set that point to loop.
| | 11:04 | You will also want to go into the
Sample box here and click on the Loop button.
| | 11:11 | If I click and fire this off over here
towards the end, we should hear that loop.
| | 11:15 | (Music playing.)
| | 11:21 | That's working pretty smoothly.
| | 11:23 | Now once I've got that down, I can copy
that again. Holding down my Option key,
| | 11:27 | click and drag that.
| | 11:28 | I have got a second copy.
| | 11:30 | I am going to go back to the first one,
and I am going to go Command+R-- that
| | 11:33 | would be Control+R on a PC--so I can
rename that, and I'll call that "Intro."
| | 11:39 | Then I will go down to the second
clip, and I can move the braces over.
| | 11:44 | By the way, when I do this, I
usually work in bar increments.
| | 11:47 | So you can see that right now I'm not at that.
| | 11:50 | So if I right-click in this area and I
go into the Grid, I can set that to 1 bar.
| | 11:55 | So as I move things, they'll
snap to one bar in length.
| | 11:59 | I've got that loop set.
| | 12:01 | Now it looks like this audio
material is telling me that this is actually
| | 12:05 | something that I might only want to be
four bars long, because I can see a big
| | 12:09 | difference in the waveform below.
| | 12:11 | So I will drag that over
and snap that to bar 13.
| | 12:13 | If I hold down Command+Shift, or Ctrl+
Shift on a PC, I can move the play end of
| | 12:20 | loop to that point as well. I can zoom in.
| | 12:23 | Let me just play the end of that by
Shift+Clicking up here, and I just want to
| | 12:27 | hear that wrap around.
| | 12:28 | (Music playing.)
| | 12:32 | That's nice and smooth.
| | 12:33 | That's a big part of setting these sections of
tunes to be able to trigger at a later point.
| | 12:38 | You want to make sure
that they really loop nicely.
| | 12:41 | So in this case, I am going to rename that
one again, and I am going to call that "Intro B."
| | 12:47 | So you would go through both of
these songs and set your sections up.
| | 12:51 | I've already done that over
here on the 4th and 5th tracks,
| | 12:55 | so let me scroll down there. And you can
see that I have both of those songs set up.
| | 13:00 | Now in this case, I have them on the
same scene, and that's going to allow me
| | 13:05 | to transition immediately from any part of one
scene into the other, to go into the other song.
| | 13:11 | A lot of times, you'll stagger them a bit;
| | 13:13 | you won't actually put them next
to each other like I've done here.
| | 13:15 | Now the way that I can transition from one
to the other is by opening up the crossfader.
| | 13:20 | If I click on this X button down
here on the right of the Master track,
| | 13:25 | you'll see that I open up this bottom
row along the Mixer area and over here
| | 13:30 | on the Master track.
| | 13:32 | Now I'm able to cross-fade between two
different audio files, and I can do that
| | 13:37 | by putting a track on A or B. So I will
put this track on A, that track on B,
| | 13:44 | and now I can grab this triangle here,
and I can move that right or left to move
| | 13:49 | between output from those two tracks.
| | 13:52 | If it's in the middle, you are
going to hear a blend of both.
| | 13:55 | So for instance, if I start this scene number 6 to play,
(Music playing.)
| | 14:01 | we are hearing Lynda's song.
(Music playing.)
| | 14:13 | You can hear how I am
transitioning from one song to the other.
| | 14:16 | That's working again because these two
songs are in very closely related keys.
| | 14:21 | So using audio clips in live
performance requires careful preparation.
| | 14:26 | Take your time as you create and warp clips:
| | 14:28 | it will save you a lot of time later on.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Triggering clips using follow actions| 00:00 | When using Ableton Live in live
performance, it's a good idea to have a
| | 00:02 | strategy in place for how you're
going to trigger clips and scenes.
| | 00:06 | In this video, we'll learn how to
trigger clips and scenes using follow actions.
| | 00:10 | Now there is a few different
ways we can trigger clips or scenes.
| | 00:13 | Let's take a look at all three of them.
| | 00:15 | So first of all, I have got a track
here set up where I have sectioned a song
| | 00:19 | into the different intros, verses, and choruses.
| | 00:21 | Now one way I can trigger these is
to use my computer mouse, but in Live
| | 00:25 | performance that can get very awkward.
| | 00:27 | Some alternative ways are to click your Key
Mapping button and assign keys on your keyboard.
| | 00:33 | So I have got the first one selected.
| | 00:35 | Let me press the letter A
on my computer keyboard.
| | 00:38 | I'll go to the next one and press the
letter S, and I'll hit my Escape key to get
| | 00:43 | out of the Key Map mode, and now I can
trigger that scene by pressing the letter A--
| | 00:47 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:53 | --and the second scene
by pressing the letter B.
| | 00:56 | Another way I can do that is to use
MIDI Map mode, and before I do that I am
| | 01:00 | going to go back into Key Map
mode here and delete those two,
| | 01:04 | hit my Escape Key to get out of there,
and now I'll go into MIDI Map mode.
| | 01:08 | And notice everything turns purple
that I can map using MIDI Map mode.
| | 01:12 | I'll again select that first slot, and
I am going to press a key low-down on
| | 01:16 | my keyboard that I'm unlikely to use.
And I have assigned that to C1, and let me
| | 01:20 | press the next one, and I'll assign that to D1.
| | 01:24 | Again, I can escape MIDI Map mode by
pressing Escape, and now I can trigger that
| | 01:28 | first scene by pressing C1
on my keyboard controller.
| | 01:30 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:38 | And D1 triggered the intro B clip.
| | 01:41 | Okay. I am going to get rid of
those two before we move on.
| | 01:48 | Now in both cases, if I'm actually
playing an instrument, taking my hands off the
| | 01:53 | instrument to trigger clip might get tricky.
| | 01:55 | So another way to do this
is to use follow actions.
| | 01:59 | So if I click on this clip and come down
here into my Clip View area, you'll see
| | 02:04 | that I have a box called the Launch box.
| | 02:07 | Now I can show and hide that by
clicking on this L that's down here in
| | 02:10 | the Show/Hide buttons.
| | 02:12 | So one of the things that I can do
here is set on amount of time that I want
| | 02:16 | this clip to play before the next
action happens, and I do that by typing
| | 02:20 | values in this first row.
| | 02:22 | So for instance, if I want that first
clip to play four bars before moving on,
| | 02:27 | I'll type that in. And after setting
that length, I can choose a follow action
| | 02:31 | from this menu here.
| | 02:33 | So a couple that are obvious would be
Next, meaning that after this clip goes
| | 02:37 | through its four-bar length,
it will go to the next clip.
| | 02:41 | If I choose Previous, it
would go to the previous clip.
| | 02:43 | So let me choose Next in this
case, and we'll see what happens.
| | 02:47 | So if I fire off Intro A--
| | 02:48 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:59 | --it went on to Intro B, and we
immediately saw that that was going to happen
| | 03:03 | because the Launch button on Intro B
started flashing green to say, "Hey I am the
| | 03:08 | next thing that's going to happen."
| | 03:09 | So we can set a variety of time,
and we can also use a number of these
| | 03:13 | different follow actions.
| | 03:15 | So, some of the others are First,
which means that as a clip goes through its
| | 03:20 | length, it will trigger the
first in a group of clips on a track.
| | 03:24 | Now note that those clips need to be
grouped in such a way that there aren't any
| | 03:28 | empty clip slots between any of the clips.
| | 03:31 | Same thing with Last; in that case I
would go to the last clip in a group. Or if
| | 03:36 | you want to be a little bit more
random, you can choose Any or Other.
| | 03:40 | Now sometimes, you don't want the
same thing to happen every time you go
| | 03:44 | through a song. And we can do that
because Live offers us to set two follow
| | 03:49 | actions against a clip.
| | 03:51 | So if I say 4 bars, and then I say
follow action 1 might be to go to Next, but I
| | 03:58 | can set up another one to say, "Hey,
let's go to any clip in the group," and then
| | 04:02 | I can set a ratio of how that's going to happen.
| | 04:05 | So for instance, if I put a 3 here and
1 over in the second one, I'm setting
| | 04:11 | a 3:1 ratio that the next follow action
will be this Next option versus the Any action.
| | 04:18 | And by the way, if there is a 0 in
any one of these fields, that action
| | 04:21 | won't happen at all.
| | 04:23 | So let's see what happens here.
| | 04:24 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:43 | So I don't know if you caught that,
but the follow action that happened, it
| | 04:46 | actually did the Any that time, and
what it did was it replayed itself.
| | 04:51 | So it chose itself out of the group of
clips before then on the second pass it
| | 04:55 | triggered and went into Intro B.
| | 04:57 | Okay let's take a look at another
example. And I am going to open up another
| | 05:01 | Live set to do that. And in this case,
I've got clips on several tracks, and
| | 05:08 | I want to trigger them
all using follow actions.
| | 05:11 | So on this first track on the drums here,
I have got a follow action set there
| | 05:16 | to go the next clip, and
I have got that set at 8.
| | 05:18 | Let's change it to 4.
I am going to the same thing on this Pad track.
| | 05:23 | And so if I fire off Intro A, because
these clips have the same follow actions,
| | 05:29 | we should see them
trigger clips on the next scene.
| | 05:32 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:43 | Okay, and that worked.
| | 05:44 | Now on the next scene, I've got clips
going across the entire set of tracks.
| | 05:50 | Let's see what happens in that case.
| | 05:52 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:03 | So that worked, and in each case, you'll
notice that it dropped down and played a
| | 06:07 | clip on the next scene.
| | 06:09 | But in the cases where there wasn't
another clip to play on the next clip slot,
| | 06:14 | nothing happen there.
| | 06:15 | So that causes a problem in
this whole sequence of events.
| | 06:18 | Now what I did here on this second scene
was I put a bunch of empty clips there,
| | 06:24 | so that even though there isn't
actually anything on this Bass track,
| | 06:27 | when we went to the next
scene it triggered the next clip.
| | 06:30 | So in this case, if you're trying
to set things up to work this way, we
| | 06:34 | actually need to either put a blank
clip in place so that we can go through
| | 06:39 | this sequence of follow actions, or we need
to remove the Stop button that's on a track.
| | 06:46 | So, for example, if I want the first
scene to trigger every clip on the next
| | 06:50 | scene, I am going to need to
put those blank clips in there.
| | 06:53 | I have already got this set up with a
blank four-bar clip, so let me copy that one.
| | 06:58 | That's Option+Click and drag. And then I'm
going to copy that across to these other slots.
| | 07:11 | Now I'll stop those, and we should
see this first row all fire off, and you
| | 07:16 | should see the lights blinking on
the Launch buttons of the second scene.
| | 07:20 | (Music playing.)
| | 07:31 | Okay, so that worked.
| | 07:33 | Now in the next case, I may not want
to put a blank clip slot, and I actually
| | 07:37 | may want something to continue playing.
| | 07:39 | For example, if I wanted this Brass
patch to continue playing during the scene,
| | 07:44 | one of the things that I could do would
just be to remove the Stop button here
| | 07:49 | so that that's blank and then make
sure that I set the follow action on this
| | 07:53 | particular clip to be the length that
will then play until it gets down to
| | 07:57 | this next clip slot.
| | 07:59 | As you can see, follow actions are a very
powerful feature of Live. Using them can
| | 08:03 | get a bit complicated at times, but
they can make performing with tracks a real
| | 08:07 | performance experience.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using Live as a sound source| 00:00 | With all the great virtual instruments
and effects available in Ableton Live,
| | 00:03 | it's natural that you would want
to use them in live performance.
| | 00:06 | So let's talk about some of the
issues involved in using Ableton as a sound
| | 00:10 | module and some of Live's
functionality that you can take advantage of to
| | 00:13 | create a powerful Live setup.
| | 00:15 | So, on this first track, I want to
demonstrate that you need to be aware of your
| | 00:19 | Buffer setting in your Preferences.
| | 00:21 | Right now, I have got it set rather
long, and what that leads to is, when I
| | 00:25 | actually press a key on my keyboard
controller, there is a pretty big delay
| | 00:30 | before that note actually sounds, and in live
performance that's not going to be a good thing.
| | 00:34 | So I am going to open up Preferences
using the Command+Comma--that would be
| | 00:38 | Ctrl+Comma on a PC--and go to the
Audio tab and find my Buffer Size setting.
| | 00:45 | I am going to bump that down.
| | 00:47 | I would probably go to somewhere
around 128 samples as an average.
| | 00:53 | You might be able to go down lower
than that, but just beware that as you
| | 00:56 | get smaller and smaller buffer sizes, you
might actually start to hear some audio artifacts.
| | 01:01 | So as you work on this, make sure you
actually listen to the sound that you are getting.
| | 01:05 | I am going to escape to get out of there.
| | 01:07 | Now another thing we need to think
about is how I am actually going to be able
| | 01:10 | to monitor these different tracks.
| | 01:12 | So I've got five different
keyboard sounds set up here.
| | 01:16 | And right now, I'm hearing the Rhodes
track because I've got it record-enabled,
| | 01:19 | but that isn't necessarily a way
to do this when you're playing live.
| | 01:22 | Another way around this is to take the Record
button off and put that in input monitoring.
| | 01:28 | Again, I'll be able to hear the sound there,
with Live not actually in play. So that works.
| | 01:36 | And I will be able to switch
between these tracks by simply using the
| | 01:39 | Track Activator button.
| | 01:41 | So let me put these all in Input mode.
| | 01:44 | Then if I take the Track Activator
buttons off on these other four tracks, I'll
| | 01:49 | still only hear this first track.
| | 01:52 | So at this point, you'll want to be
able to switch between those, and you can
| | 01:56 | either use the F keys on your computer keyboard--
| | 01:59 | notice that when I press the F2 key,
I'm actually reactivating track number 2
| | 02:05 | and F3 for the third track--or you'll
want to assign those somehow to a key on
| | 02:11 | your keyboard controller.
| | 02:12 | Now in this case, I have got the APC40
here, and I've got dedicated buttons
| | 02:17 | already for those Track Activator buttons.
| | 02:19 | So let me put one back on, and now
I could take the rest of those off.
| | 02:24 | So I have only got that track.
| | 02:26 | Now if I need to move from patch to
patch, all I need to do is activate the
| | 02:30 | track I want and deactivate the other one.
| | 02:32 | So it's very, very quick.
| | 02:34 | That also allows me to have
tracks playing simultaneously.
| | 02:37 | So now I've got the Rhodes and
the Strings patch playing together.
| | 02:40 | Let's hear what that sounds like,
(Music playing.)
| | 02:44 | sounds pretty good.
| | 02:46 | Now one thing you might want to think
about is if something is in the right octave.
| | 02:50 | Let me bring up the actual patch here
on the String Orchestra. And sometimes you
| | 02:55 | will get into a situation where
that might be in the wrong octave.
| | 02:58 | Now this is actually working pretty well,
but if it wasn't, I could move it up
| | 03:02 | an octave by finding the proper
parameter on the device and transposing that
| | 03:07 | to the right octave.
| | 03:08 | Now let's say I am in a situation
where I have a device that doesn't actually
| | 03:12 | have a Transpose knob on it.
| | 03:15 | The other way around that is to go
into your Live Devices and into the MIDI
| | 03:19 | Effects folder and find the Pitch
plug-in and drag that on to the track.
| | 03:25 | Now I can counter activate what's
happening with my transposition here by
| | 03:29 | actually pulling it down
with my Transpose MIDI effect.
| | 03:32 | So I am right back into the same octave.
| | 03:35 | But this is a handy way to fix that one
and be able to balance your two sounds,
| | 03:39 | so that they are in the right octaves.
| | 03:41 | The other thing that you might want to
do is actually balance the Volume levels.
| | 03:44 | So if the strings are too loud, I'll be
able to pull that back and get kind of
| | 03:49 | the right amount of decay that I'm looking
for between these two tracks.
| | 03:52 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:58 | There we go. So it's a little bit more subtle.
| | 04:00 | Okay, let's go over and take
a look at this third track.
| | 04:04 | Now this is a single instrument device.
| | 04:07 | And I want to demonstrate the fact that
a lot of times the patches by themselves
| | 04:11 | are a little thin sounding.
| | 04:12 | So let's hear what that sounds like.
| | 04:14 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:18 | So now one of the things that I can do is
add some effects right into this device chain.
| | 04:23 | So over here on the right-hand side,
I've got both the Chorus and it looks
| | 04:27 | like a saturated preset.
| | 04:28 | So let me minimize the pad itself by
double-clicking on it, and then I'll
| | 04:33 | open up the Chorus and the other patch here,
so that we can hear what that sounds like.
| | 04:38 | So I'll reactivate that by
clicking on the Device Activator button.
| | 04:42 | And here is the sound now with a little bit of Chorus added.
(Music playing.)
| | 04:47 | Okay, that's a lot better.
| | 04:49 | This other one will add a little bit
of drive and a little bit of volume.
| | 04:53 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:57 | Now I also have control over the Dry/Wet
setting, and remember that is the amount
| | 05:02 | of unprocessed to process signal.
| | 05:05 | When you're processing a sound in a series like
we're doing here, you need to set that manually.
| | 05:11 | This is not like a return track where
you might set the reverb on a return track
| | 05:15 | up here like on the A return track and
leave that at 100%, because you have got
| | 05:20 | control over the total amount of
reverb on the fader down here, and your
| | 05:23 | unprocessed signal is
coming out the track over there.
| | 05:26 | So you have the ability to balance that.
| | 05:28 | When they are being processed in a
series like this, you've actually got to do
| | 05:32 | that on the plug-in itself.
| | 05:34 | So if I want a little more Chorus
to dry sound, I'll just dial up the
| | 05:38 | Dry/Wet percentage here.
(Music playing.)
| | 05:43 | Now the other thing that you can do is
you can actually set the session to be
| | 05:48 | using the sends in return, so that we
can get a little reverb and maybe even
| | 05:51 | some delay on a return track.
| | 05:53 | So those are not active.
| | 05:54 | Let me put those back on.
| | 05:56 | Let's hear what that sounds
like with a little reverb
| | 05:58 | (Music playing.)
| | 06:02 | So I have got some nice ambience there.
| | 06:04 | And I've also got the delay happening.
| | 06:06 | If I click on that, we can see that
I've got that currently set to 8th notes.
| | 06:11 | Now if I want that to happen in time
with the music, I'm actually going to
| | 06:14 | have to set the tempo of the session in time
with whatever music is happening around me.
| | 06:19 | Luckily enough, Live has a really great
feature over here with the Tap button.
| | 06:23 | Now if I've got a mouse handy, I can
simply tap that Tap button as the music is
| | 06:28 | happening, and it will reset the session tempo.
| | 06:30 | The other thing I can do is I can assign
that via MIDI mapping to a switch on my
| | 06:38 | controller, or the APC40 here I am
using has an actual dedicated Tap button.
| | 06:45 | So I can do the same thing by simply
repeatedly tapping that until the tempo is
| | 06:52 | in line with the music that's happening.
| | 06:54 | So that's really fast and really useful.
| | 06:58 | Okay, on this next track, I've got a patch here.
| | 07:02 | I have got a single preset, and that's
Analog, and I've also, again, got a couple
| | 07:07 | of effects over here.
| | 07:10 | I have got a Chorus effect in this case.
| | 07:12 | And what I wanted to show you here is
that, one of the things that you can take
| | 07:15 | advantage of in live performance, kind
of on the fly, is the ability to change
| | 07:19 | parameters in your devices.
| | 07:21 | Now if you've got a controller that is
native to Live, you can use the Instant
| | 07:26 | Mapping feature to do that.
| | 07:27 | So if I just click on the title bar
of my device here, I can then go up and
| | 07:33 | move one of the knobs, and it's immediately
already mapped to that particular parameter.
| | 07:38 | If I go over here to the Chorus effect
and click on that header and move a knob,
| | 07:43 | then I've immediately got
control of that parameter.
| | 07:46 | But sometimes it's hard to figure out
which knob is assigned to what thing.
| | 07:50 | And since these are already grouped, one
of the things that I can take advantage
| | 07:54 | of is the macro that comes along with this.
| | 07:58 | So in this case, I have already
set up a few of these parameters to
| | 08:02 | this particular macro.
| | 08:03 | So if I click on the macro header, and
now move my first knob, you'll see that
| | 08:07 | it is controlling this Filter Sweep function.
| | 08:10 | And if I look over here on my Analog
patch here, you'll see that it's actually
| | 08:14 | controlling all four of these
Frequency and Resonance knobs.
| | 08:19 | Let me minimize this, so we
can see the Chorus effect.
| | 08:22 | So I'll double-click again on the title bar.
| | 08:25 | Now notice that while I am working with
the rack, if I move another knob, it's
| | 08:29 | controlling the Dry/Wet here, and
that's assigned down on another device.
| | 08:34 | So the macro can actually be
assigned to multiple devices.
| | 08:37 | Now the way we do that, just to review,
is to go into Map mode and choose the
| | 08:43 | parameter that you want to assign and
then click the Map button on the specific
| | 08:48 | Macro knob that you want to assign it to.
| | 08:50 | So now Feedback is assigned to that one.
| | 08:53 | Now if I leave Map mode by clicking on
that button again, now you'll notice that
| | 08:57 | my Feedback setting is
assigned to that particular knob.
| | 09:01 | As you do this, you may want to develop
kind of a typical way that you would use
| | 09:05 | that, so that when you move to a
different track, that your instant mapping is
| | 09:09 | set to the macro kind of in the same way.
| | 09:11 | That will make it a lot easier to use
if there's a little bit of consistency.
| | 09:15 | Now on this last track, let's take a
look at some of the parameters that are
| | 09:20 | available on an instrument rack that you might
want to take advantage of in live performance.
| | 09:25 | Remember, in the chain list on an
instrument rack we get this Key Zone Editor
| | 09:30 | and Velocity Editor.
| | 09:32 | If I click on the Key Zone Editor,
remember that we can actually set an area of
| | 09:36 | the keyboard that is going to
respond to a particular patch.
| | 09:40 | So I can actually set it here so that
the AM8000 Pad only reacts to MIDI notes
| | 09:46 | that are below C2, and then go to my
Purse Strings and Planet Winds patches and
| | 09:53 | set those so that they are active
in a different area of the keyboard.
| | 09:58 | Just to demonstrate, now when I play
low on the keyboard, I'm only triggering
| | 10:05 | the AM8000. And if I go up the keyboard, we
can see I am triggering these other two patches.
| | 10:11 | Now the other way around that one is to
set these to be triggered by velocity.
| | 10:18 | So I'll go to the Velocity Zone Editor,
so I can make it, so that only the
| | 10:22 | AM8000 Pad response to high
velocities. And let me Shift+Click these two, and I'll
| | 10:29 | change both at the same time.
| | 10:31 | You can click and drag on that bar
graph to assign only those two to
| | 10:36 | lighter velocities.
| | 10:37 | So now, when I lightly touch the keyboard,
we should get Purse Strings and Planet Winds.
| | 10:41 | When I hit it a little bit harder,
I am going to get the AM8000 Pad.
| | 10:48 | So once you've got this all tweaked
out, you are going to want to save
| | 10:50 | this setup as a project.
| | 10:53 | And that way it'll be available to
use in a song, or even for a whole set.
| | 10:57 | So for your next live performance,
try using a laptop running Live and a
| | 11:01 | keyboard controller.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
20. VideoWorking with video files| 00:00 | In this day and age it's increasingly
necessary that composers of all musical
| | 00:03 | genres be able to provide
music for video and film.
| | 00:06 | Let's take a look at how you can
import video into an Ableton Live set and
| | 00:10 | export a video that includes your music.
| | 00:12 | So the first thing that's important
about video in Ableton Live is that you can
| | 00:16 | only use QuickTime video, and you
can only use it in Arrangement view.
| | 00:20 | Now, video files go on an audio track.
| | 00:23 | I've already got one here.
| | 00:25 | So I can import the video by
dragging it from the browser or dragging it
| | 00:30 | from the Finder window.
| | 00:31 | So let me grab this first video clip
from the browser, and I'll put that on the
| | 00:35 | track, and notice that when it
opens it also opens a video window.
| | 00:40 | I can open and close that using the key command,
| | 00:42 | Command+Option+V. Now, we can tell the
difference between an audio clip and a
| | 00:48 | video clip by these little sprocket
edges that go along the clip box itself.
| | 00:53 | You can move the clip around on the track
by simply clicking on it and dragging it.
| | 00:59 | If you want to do that without it
snapping to grid, you can click and then hold
| | 01:04 | down your Command key on a Mac-- that
would be Ctrl on a PC--and then move it.
| | 01:08 | And notice that I can now move it
freely rather than having it snap to grid.
| | 01:13 | When you import the video into an
Ableton Live session, if there's any audio
| | 01:17 | attached to the video,
that comes in with the video.
| | 01:20 | Let's play just that track,
and hear what that sounds like.
| | 01:24 | (Clip playing.)
| | 01:27 | If I need to, I can either
inactivate the track by clicking on the Track
| | 01:32 | Activator button, make that a little
bit taller, and I can inactivate that by
| | 01:37 | clicking on the Activator button. Or I
can simply just pull the level down if I
| | 01:41 | still want to include that
audio as part of the final output.
| | 01:46 | Now one other consideration when
you're writing music to video is what frame
| | 01:50 | rate that this video is at.
| | 01:52 | Now, I can check that by going to QuickTime.
| | 01:55 | So if I go to the Finder window in this
case and select that video and open that
| | 02:01 | with QuickTime, the video opens, and
I've also got the Inspector window open.
| | 02:07 | By the way, that can be opened from the
Window menu. And in this case, it shows
| | 02:13 | me that the frame rate of
this is 23.98 frames a second.
| | 02:18 | So that's important to remember, because
as you write music, it's going to sync
| | 02:22 | to the video at this particular frame rate.
| | 02:25 | If they want you to deliver audio
that's going to work with a version of this
| | 02:28 | clip that's at a different frame rate,
| | 02:30 | they need to provide you with that clip.
| | 02:32 | I'm going to go ahead and close that.
| | 02:35 | Now in addition to being able to import
from the browser, as I said, we can also
| | 02:39 | pull it in from the Finder, and I
can also pull in a second video clip.
| | 02:44 | So I'm going to pull in this B-roll_train video.
| | 02:47 | I can either put it on a track of its
own, or I can put it on the same track.
| | 02:52 | If I put it on a different track,
just be aware that you can only play one of
| | 02:56 | these or see one of
these video tracks at a time.
| | 02:59 | And since I might be able to want to
have two clips as part of the video I'm
| | 03:02 | outputting or writing music to,
I'll put that on the same track.
| | 03:07 | And again, I can move that around by clicking
and then Command+Dragging it to line it up.
| | 03:12 | If I want to trim this so that I don't
have quite as much video, I can actually
| | 03:16 | move my cursor to the edge of that clip,
and I notice that I can now trim it.
| | 03:21 | Again, it is snapping to grid.
| | 03:24 | So if I want to override that, hold
down your Command key, and now I can trim
| | 03:28 | that smoothly. And I can drag and
move that over up against the other clip.
| | 03:34 | And we should be able to see a
transition where as I play this, I'll move from
| | 03:39 | one clip to the next.
| | 03:40 | (Clip playing.)
| | 03:49 | Okay. We've got music on a track here already,
so we might just set some quick levels.
| | 03:56 | Let's go to the beginning here.
| | 03:57 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:07 | Okay. I'll bring that video back up.
| | 04:10 | Now, once we've got the music dialed in,
you've got the video lined up where you
| | 04:13 | want it, and we want to export a
new video, or a new audio file,
| | 04:18 | we'll go back to the File menu, and
we'll choose Export Audio and Video. Or you
| | 04:23 | can use the key command
| | 04:24 | Shift+Command+R or Shift+Ctrl+R on a PC.
| | 04:28 | That brings up the same Export Audio/
Video dialog box that we saw when we
| | 04:33 | looked at exporting audio.
| | 04:35 | Again, we can choose the
audio track that we're rendering.
| | 04:39 | So in this case, we've got Master
chosen by default, and that means that I'll
| | 04:42 | pick up the audio from both the video track
as well as the track that has the song on it.
| | 04:48 | If I want to just get the song itself,
then I would choose just 2-Audio.
| | 04:51 | But let's get both of them in this case.
| | 04:54 | Remember, the Normalize function will
analyze the resulting audio file for the
| | 04:59 | loudest peak, and it will render
that just below the clipping point.
| | 05:04 | If you're going to bring back this
audio into Ableton Live at another time, you
| | 05:08 | might want to choose Render as Loop.
| | 05:10 | That will take any ambience and wrap it
around back to the beginning of the clip itself.
| | 05:15 | Also, we'll want to choose our audio parameters.
| | 05:18 | Now these should be whatever is
necessary for delivery, which is usually either
| | 05:23 | a WAV or AIF file--either one is fine--
but at a sample rate of 48 kilohertz
| | 05:29 | and a bit depth of 24.
| | 05:31 | Again, if you're not changing the bit
depth on export, you wouldn't use any dither.
| | 05:37 | If we're not going to be using this in
Ableton Live again as a loop, then we
| | 05:41 | don't need to create an analysis file.
| | 05:43 | Under the Video section, we can either
render this with video or without video.
| | 05:48 | So if I disable that,
we'll only get the audio file.
| | 05:52 | If I enable this, we're going to get
both a video file with the audio as part
| | 05:57 | of the video file, and we'll get a
separate audio file that just contains the audio.
| | 06:02 | We can also choose a video encoder that
is appropriate for whatever device we're
| | 06:07 | going to be playing the song.
| | 06:08 | So if we're going to be sending
it to an iPod, we can choose that.
| | 06:10 | But let's just leave this at QuickTime Movie.
| | 06:14 | If you need to make finer adjustments
to any of the encoder settings, you can
| | 06:18 | click the Edit button, and this will
take you into your QuickTime encoder, and
| | 06:22 | we can go into these various
categories and make further changes.
| | 06:27 | When we're ready, go ahead and
click OK, and give this a name.
| | 06:31 | Let's call this "Video test," and I'll
put that out on the Desktop, and we'll
| | 06:36 | click Save, and then it's going to take
a few passes here as it's rendering the
| | 06:42 | audio and rendering the video.
| | 06:45 | Okay, let's hide Ableton Live.
| | 06:48 | Here on the desktop, I do see that I've got
both a .mov file, and I've got a .wav file.
| | 06:54 | Let's open up the movie, and
make sure that we've got both clips.
| | 06:57 | So if I click around here, I can see,
yeah, we've got both clips as part of
| | 07:01 | that. And now let's check
and see if we've got the audio.
| | 07:04 | (Clip playing.)
| | 07:09 | So our song is part of that video.
| | 07:12 | So as you can see, importing and exporting
audio with Ableton Live is a simple process.
| | 07:17 | Now, you're ready to add video as a
part of your future live projects.
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ConclusionFurther Recommendations| 00:00 | Thanks for watching Ableton
Live 8 Essential Training.
| | 00:03 | I hope you enjoyed the work we've done
together and learned a lot along the way.
| | 00:07 | If you're interested in learning more
about Ableton, or want to keep up with
| | 00:10 | the changes to the program, as well as new
plug-ins, check out ableton.com for the latest news.
| | 00:15 | If you've got a hankering to learn
more about Pro Tools or Logic, check out
| | 00:19 | the essential training courses for those
applications on the lynda.com Online Training Library.
| | 00:24 | And if you've got more questions
on setting up a system for live
| | 00:27 | performance, check out Reason and
Record for Live Performance with G.W.
| | 00:31 | Childs for some universal tips.
| | 00:33 | Thanks for watching and good luck
with your own musical creations.
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