IntroductionWelcome| 00:00 |
(music playing).
| | 00:04 |
Hi, I'm Rick Schmunk and I'm very happy
to present you Ableton Live 9 Essential Training.
| | 00:09 |
Ableton Live is a digital audio work
station designed to help take your
| | 00:12 |
musical ideas whether they are beats,
baselines or melodies, from thoughts just
| | 00:15 |
floating in your head to a finished song
ready to share with your friends and fans.
| | 00:20 |
I'll be teaching you live from the ground
up.
| | 00:22 |
From setting up your audio and midi
hardware, to creating your first live set.
| | 00:27 |
I'll show you how to record and edit both
midi and audio.
| | 00:30 |
Then how to apply effect to you tracks
to mix and shape the sound for your needs.
| | 00:38 |
(music playing) And I'll walk you through all the
steps you'll need to warp audio,
| | 00:41 |
adjusting it to the tempo of your song
and the groove that you're looking for.
| | 00:47 |
Finally, I'll show you how to combine
effects and layer software instruments
| | 00:50 |
using Live racks, and then map their
parameters to knobs and switches on your
| | 00:53 |
controller so that you can adjust them in
Live performance or use them as you
| | 00:56 |
record automation.
So let me show you how to produce amazing
| | 01:02 |
music with Ableton Live 9 essential
training.
| | 01:06 |
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| Using the exercise files| 00:00 |
If you are a premium member of lynda.com,
you have access to the exercise files
| | 00:04 |
used throughout this title.
The exercise files are organized in
| | 00:08 |
folders for each chapter and within each
chapter there's a Live project for each video.
| | 00:14 |
Inside the Live project folder, you'll
find an Ableton Live Set and any samples
| | 00:18 |
needed to follow along with the video.
In some cases, there are additional
| | 00:24 |
assets, like in this project where there
are additional video and audio clips.
| | 00:30 |
If you are monthly member or an annual
member of lynda.com, you don't have
| | 00:33 |
access to the exercise files, but you can
follow along from scratch with your own assets.
| | 00:39 |
Now let's get started with Ableton Live 9
Essential Training.
| | 00:43 |
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| What you need to know| 00:00 |
There are a couple of things you should
know before starting this course.
| | 00:03 |
In order to demonstrate all of Live's
features, we've build this course using
| | 00:07 |
Ableton Live 9 suite.
As such some of the features that I
| | 00:11 |
mentioned in this course may not be
available on the intro or standard
| | 00:14 |
versions of Ableton live 9.
If you don't own Live Suite, you can
| | 00:19 |
download a fully functional 30-day trial
version, of Live Suite, from the Ableton website.
| | 00:25 |
In addition to the base library that
comes with all versions of Ableton Live
| | 00:29 |
9, I've also downloaded Designer Drums,
Digicushin 1, Loop Master's Mixtape, and
| | 00:33 |
Unnatural Selection Live Packs.
These live packs are available on the
| | 00:39 |
Ableton website in the your pack section
of your user account.
| | 00:43 |
Now, let's get started with Ableton Live
9 essential training.
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|
|
1. System SetupWhat is a digital audio workstation?| 00:01 |
Computer based audio recording and
editing systems are often referred to as
| | 00:04 |
digital audio work stations or DAS.
DAS are made up of the following components.
| | 00:10 |
A computer running a music production
program like Ableton Live.
| | 00:13 |
An external hard drive to store your
library and audio files.
| | 00:17 |
A microphone, which can capture the sound
from a singer or instrument, and convert
| | 00:20 |
it into an electrical signal.
An audio interface, which converts the
| | 00:24 |
audio from an electrical signal to a
digital signal.
| | 00:28 |
And then so we can listen to the audio
signal coming out of the computer,
| | 00:31 |
converts it from a digital signal back to
an electrical signal.
| | 00:35 |
A MIDI keyboard controller, which will
allow you to send MIDI signals that
| | 00:39 |
represents the notes and chords that you
play to Ableton Live.
| | 00:43 |
And headphones or speakers which convert
the electrical signal back to sound
| | 00:46 |
pressure waves, so that you can hear and
evaluate your music.
| | 00:51 |
If you don't currently own some of these
components and are considering purchasing
| | 00:54 |
one or more of them to complement your
home setup, here are some things you
| | 00:57 |
should consider.
Most of the processing required by a
| | 01:01 |
music production program like Ableton
Live is handled by the computer, so the
| | 01:04 |
experience will be more enjoyable if you
use a fast computer with at least 8 GB of RAM.
| | 01:10 |
Also, your system will run more
efficiently if you store your live
| | 01:13 |
projects and sets on a different hard
drive than the drive that contains your
| | 01:16 |
operating system and programs.
This additional drive could be an
| | 01:21 |
internal drive but you'll probably find
it more convenient to use an external
| | 01:24 |
drive and I'd suggest using a drive that
has at least a 7200 rpm spin rate.
| | 01:30 |
Ableton Live will run without an external
audio interface instead using the
| | 01:33 |
computers built in converters.
However, these converters are not nearly
| | 01:38 |
as good as those found on an audio
interface and as a result your recordings
| | 01:41 |
will not be as good.
The available interfaces have many options.
| | 01:46 |
For example, some interfaces connect to
the computer using a USB cable.
| | 01:51 |
Until recently, these devices connected
via USB 1.0, which has a transfer rate of
| | 01:55 |
around 10 megabits per second.
This is slow for audio, so most of these
| | 01:59 |
devices only allow for two simultaneous
inputs and a maximum of a 48 kilohertz
| | 02:03 |
sampling rate.
Both a USB 2 and Firewire interfaces are
| | 02:08 |
a better option in my opinion, and both
offer sampling rates of up to 96
| | 02:11 |
kilohertz, two to eight simultaneous
inputs, and an overall more robust performance.
| | 02:18 |
Also, look for an interface that offers
instrument and line inputs in addition to
| | 02:21 |
microphone inputs.
And you'll probably appreciate options
| | 02:25 |
like multiple headphone outputs, built-in
MIDI interface, guitar tuner and effects.
| | 02:31 |
If you're looking to purchase a new MIDI
controller, there are several controllers
| | 02:34 |
that are designed to work specifically
with Ableton Live.
| | 02:37 |
A list is available on the Ableton
website.
| | 02:40 |
These native controllers offer remote
control to launch scenes and clips,
| | 02:43 |
instruments and effects as well as mixer
controls.
| | 02:48 |
Most of the devices have knobs that map
to Live Macros using instant mapping
| | 02:50 |
which will greatly enhance our automation
and live performances.
| | 02:54 |
And you'll also want to take a look at
Abletons' new controller Push.
| | 02:58 |
Which is an innovative new controller
designed specifically to work with Live.
| | 03:03 |
Purchasing a microphone can be a
confusing experience.
| | 03:05 |
So it's best to focus on purchasing one
for a specific need.
| | 03:09 |
For example, a small diaphragm condenser
microphone is often the mike of choice
| | 03:13 |
for recording acoustic guitars or drum
overheads.
| | 03:16 |
Dynamic microphones are typically used to
record guitar amps.
| | 03:19 |
And large diaphragm condenser microphones
are best for recording vocals.
| | 03:24 |
Before you purchase a microphone do some
research, and if possible borrow or rent
| | 03:27 |
before buying.
And if you're recording vocals, I'd
| | 03:31 |
suggest purchasing a pop filter.
They help to knock down those nasty
| | 03:34 |
plosive consonants, and help protect the
microphone.
| | 03:38 |
Selecting speakers and headphones is very
similar to selecting microphones.
| | 03:42 |
There are so many to choose from.
In either case, you'll want to use
| | 03:45 |
reference headphones or speakers.
They accurately reproduce sound without
| | 03:49 |
the coloration that you typically get
from consumer devices.
| | 03:53 |
And again, research is important.
And auditioning speakers with recordings
| | 03:56 |
you know well is critical.
In the end, you want to be able to record
| | 04:00 |
and mix your projects knowing that what
you're hearing will translate to other
| | 04:03 |
playback systems.
Now that you understand the important
| | 04:07 |
issues in choosing equipment for a home
recording studio, you can begin
| | 04:09 |
assembling the necessary devices.
| | 04:11 |
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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
| | 00:03 |
essential to working effectively and
enjoying making music with a computer.
| | 00:07 |
Let's talk about setting up your system
and the best way to power your system on
| | 00:10 |
and off.
If you're setting up your system for the
| | 00:14 |
first time, you'll want to start by
installing Ableton Live on your computer.
| | 00:17 |
You'll also want to check Ableton.com to
make sure that you have the latest
| | 00:20 |
version of the program.
The first time you start the program,
| | 00:25 |
you'll be asked to authorize the program
through Ableton's website where you can
| | 00:28 |
create an account and register your
serial number.
| | 00:31 |
In addition to program updates, you
should also download any Live Packs that
| | 00:34 |
are available for your version of Live.
Live Packs include additional Device
| | 00:40 |
Presets, Clips and Samples.
After turning your computer off, you can
| | 00:45 |
begin connecting the various devices in
your system.
| | 00:48 |
If you're using an audio interface,
connect the device to the computer.
| | 00:53 |
Next, connect any external hard drives
you're using to the computer.
| | 01:00 |
Next, most MIDI controllers connect to
the computer using a USB cable.
| | 01:04 |
If you're using an older MIDI keyboard
that only has MIDI ports, check to see if
| | 01:07 |
your audio interface has an integrated
MIDI interface.
| | 01:11 |
It it does, connect the MIDI out port on
the keyboard to the MIDI in port on the interface.
| | 01:15 |
If the audio interface doesn't have an
integrated MIDI interface, you'll need to
| | 01:19 |
purchase a stand alone USB MIDI
interface.
| | 01:22 |
If you're going to record vocals or
instruments into Live, you'll need to
| | 01:25 |
connect a microphone to one of the inputs
on your audio interface.
| | 01:29 |
You'll need a microphone or XLR cable.
And I'd suggest that a mic cable is one
| | 01:32 |
place where you don't want to economize.
Properly cared for, a good microphone
| | 01:37 |
cable will last a long time and will
noticeably improve your recordings.
| | 01:41 |
Mogami and Kynar cables are both
excellent products.
| | 01:45 |
Plug the female end of the mic cable into
the microphone output, being careful not
| | 01:49 |
to squeeze the grill on the mic.
Plug the male end of the cable into the
| | 01:53 |
preamp input on the interface.
If you're using a condenser microphone,
| | 01:57 |
remember that you'll need to power the
microphone.
| | 02:00 |
Find the phantom power button on the
interface, usually labeled +48 V, and
| | 02:04 |
enable it.
You can record instruments like guitar or
| | 02:07 |
bass by connecting them directly to the
interface.
| | 02:10 |
Connect them to an instrument input using
a quarter inch cable.
| | 02:14 |
If the device has a balanced output,
connect them using a quarter inch TRS cable.
| | 02:20 |
Last connect your headphones to the
headphone output on the interface.
| | 02:24 |
And connect your speakers to the monitor
outputs on the back of the interface.
| | 02:28 |
If you're using power speakers, you can
connect them to the interface using XLR,
| | 02:32 |
TRS quarter-inch, or RCA cables,
depending upon the connections.
| | 02:36 |
If available, I'd recommend using one of
the balance cable options.
| | 02:40 |
If you have passive speakers, you'll need
to first route the monitor outputs on the
| | 02:43 |
interface to a power amp and then to the
speakers.
| | 02:47 |
Now that you have everything connected,
you're ready to boot your system.
| | 02:50 |
In order for your computer to recognize
your devices, and so that you don't
| | 02:53 |
damage anything, it's recommended that
you turn things on in the following order.
| | 02:57 |
First boot your external hard drive.
Turn on your audio interface if necessary.
| | 03:02 |
Then turn on your MIDI controllers.
Turn on your computer, and last turn on
| | 03:06 |
your speakers.
Shutdown your system in the opposite
| | 03:10 |
order, speakers first, computer,
controllers, interface if necessary, then
| | 03:15 |
hard drives.
If you need to remove a hard drive while
| | 03:18 |
your computer's still running, first
eject the drive, turn if off, and then
| | 03:22 |
unplug the drive from your computer.
Now that you have your system connected
| | 03:27 |
and powered up you're ready to begin
making music using Ableton Live.
| | 03:30 |
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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 |
Let's take a look at how to configure
Ableton Live to work with an external
| | 00:11 |
audio interface, and learn how to
activate the interface Inputs and Outputs.
| | 00:16 |
While we're at it, we'll also take a look
at how to set the audio sample rate, bit
| | 00:19 |
rate and file type for the audio that
you'll be recording into your Live Sets.
| | 00:24 |
So, you can go into Live Preferences by
going up to the Live menu and that's on a
| | 00:27 |
Mac, you do that on the Options menu on a
PC.
| | 00:31 |
Or you can use the key command, command
comma or control comma on a PC.
| | 00:37 |
Once you get there, there are several
tabs here.
| | 00:39 |
For example, on the Look and Feel tab you
can change the background in Ableton Live
| | 00:43 |
here by clicking on the Skin option and
choosing one of the options and you'll
| | 00:46 |
notice that it immediately changes the
color.
| | 00:50 |
I'm going to go back to the default.
I kind of like that.
| | 00:53 |
But we're going to take a look at how to
set your audio interface up, so I'm
| | 00:56 |
going to chose the Audio tab to begin
with.
| | 00:58 |
So, under Driver type, you can chose your
driver.
| | 01:01 |
Now, on a Mac, you're going to use Core
audio in most cases.
| | 01:03 |
On a PC, you're going to use ASIO.
So I'll choose that.
| | 01:08 |
And then when I click on the Input Device
chooser below that.
| | 01:12 |
If you don't see the interface that
you're using here, then you probably need
| | 01:15 |
to load the specific driver that came
with your interface.
| | 01:20 |
And it's a good idea to download the
latest driver from the manufacturer's website.
| | 01:25 |
So, we've just setup a device here called
Audio Interface for both the Input and
| | 01:29 |
the Output.
So, I'll choose those and then I'm
| | 01:31 |
going to move on and I'm going to click
the Channel Config buttons.
| | 01:35 |
Now, here is where you can actually
activate any Inputs or Outputs that you
| | 01:39 |
have available for your interface.
The one I'm using only has two Inputs.
| | 01:44 |
So, I've got both the mono, one and two,
and the stereo options configured.
| | 01:49 |
I'll click OK.
And next, I'll choose the Output Config button.
| | 01:54 |
And here, you'll notice that I have
actually more than two.
| | 01:57 |
I've actually got six.
And currently, one through four are activated.
| | 02:01 |
That's all I need to use.
So, as it says up here.
| | 02:04 |
You can see that it says.
Deactivating Output reduces the CPU load.
| | 02:08 |
So, since I'm not using five and six, I
haven't activated those.
| | 02:11 |
But if you need to, you just click on it,
and it's active.
| | 02:15 |
Okay, I'll click the OK button to get out
of there.
| | 02:17 |
And next I want to set the sample rate,
bit depth and file type for the audio
| | 02:21 |
that we're going to core into the
session.
| | 02:25 |
So, I'll first start here on the same tab
by clicking the Sample Rate chooser.
| | 02:30 |
And the options that you see here depend
upon your interface.
| | 02:33 |
If you've only got a USB 1 interface,
you'll probably only see 44.1 and 48 available.
| | 02:38 |
But I'm using a USB 2 interface which
allows me up to 96 kilohertz.
| | 02:43 |
And I'm going to choose 48 for right now.
But just remember that if you want to
| | 02:47 |
export an audio file that's compatible
with an audio CD, you'll need to down
| | 02:51 |
sample to 44.1 on the audio export.
Now, the other preferences are located on
| | 02:57 |
the Record Warp Launch tab.
So, I'll click that and I can choose the
| | 03:01 |
file type by clicking the chooser here.
And my choices are wave or aiff.
| | 03:07 |
And just note that these file types are
similar and that they're both uncompressed.
| | 03:11 |
They're both compatible with red book
standards for audio CD, and they're both
| | 03:15 |
cross platform.
So, I'll choose wave, and I'll finish by
| | 03:18 |
choosing the bit depth, which I can do on
this chooser.
| | 03:22 |
And my options here are 16, 24, and 32
bit.
| | 03:26 |
I remember that this affects your
available dynamic range and higher
| | 03:29 |
settings yield better sounding audio.
So, I'm going to choose 24, and again if
| | 03:34 |
I later need to export this for an audio
CD, I'll need to change the bit rate to
| | 03:39 |
16 bit on that audio export.
So, in this movie we learned how to
| | 03:44 |
configure Live Audio Preferences so that
you can use an external audio interface
| | 03:47 |
in order to record and monitor audio.
We also learned to configure Lives Inputs
| | 03:53 |
and Outputs, and to set the audio file
type, sample rate and bit depth for any
| | 03:56 |
audio that you record into a Live Set.
| | 03:59 |
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| Setting up MIDI preferences| 00:00 |
If you've chosen Ableton Live as your
computer music production software, it's
| | 00:03 |
likely that you're looking to create
music using your MIDI keyboard an Live
| | 00:06 |
software instruments.
Let's take a look at how to setup your
| | 00:10 |
MIDI controllers to work with Live.
So you can do this in Live preferences,
| | 00:14 |
which you can get to by going, Cmd +
comma on a Mac, or Ctrl + comma, on a PC.
| | 00:19 |
An once you're there you're going to
want to click the MIDI sync tab.
| | 00:22 |
So, in the upper half of the window, you
can select a controller that would be
| | 00:25 |
considered a native controller under
Ableton Live.
| | 00:29 |
So, I'm going to click the chooser here,
and here we can see a list of the all the
| | 00:31 |
native controllers that are available to
work with Live.
| | 00:35 |
So the manufacturers here have worked
closely with Ableton 5 to build devices
| | 00:38 |
that take advantage of Live's features,
like instant mapping, which allows for
| | 00:41 |
control of Live device parameters.
And in the next two columns, you can
| | 00:46 |
choose the input and output for that
device for the MIDI inputs and outputs.
| | 00:51 |
And you can see that, I hooked this
keyboard up this morning before we got
| | 00:54 |
started, and these automatically actually
populated without me doing a thing.
| | 00:59 |
Now, the last button over here on the
right is called the dump button, and this
| | 01:03 |
is available to upload presets from
selected devices.
| | 01:08 |
Now in most cases, this isn't necessary
and the parameter is actually inactive.
| | 01:12 |
If active, you're going to want to check
the manufacturer of the controller's
| | 01:15 |
information on how to set up the device.
So we can actually do up to six of these
| | 01:20 |
different native devices.
Now, in the bottom half of the window, we
| | 01:23 |
see this area called Midi Ports.
And you'll see both native controllers,
| | 01:27 |
and any non-native controllers listed
down here.
| | 01:30 |
So the column next to your device where
it says track, you're going to want to
| | 01:34 |
make sure that you click the on button,
so that you can actually transmit notes
| | 01:37 |
and Ableton Live will receive them.
So mine's enabled right now, and I'm
| | 01:42 |
going to move my cursor over here to the
upper right-hand corner and point at this
| | 01:45 |
button right there.
And when I press a key on my keyboard
| | 01:48 |
controller, we should see this light up.
Okay.
| | 01:53 |
So we know that my keyboard is ready to
send notes, and able to live is ready to
| | 01:56 |
receive it.
The other two columns here that we should
| | 02:00 |
take a look at are the sync and remote
columns.
| | 02:02 |
Now, if you have an external device like
a drum machine that has its own built in
| | 02:06 |
sequencer, and you want it to sync with
Live when you start something playing back.
| | 02:12 |
Then you're going to want to click the
sync button.
| | 02:13 |
So that way, when you click the play
button in Live, it will also actually
| | 02:16 |
start you drum machine.
On the far right the remote button is if
| | 02:20 |
you're trying to use any of those other
knobs like the continuous controllers on
| | 02:24 |
your controller or your midi keyboard.
To actually control device parameters in
| | 02:29 |
Live, you'll need to have the remote
button enabled for that to work.
| | 02:33 |
So, this is all set up and now I can
close that window by hitting the Escape key.
| | 02:38 |
So, now that your external MIDI devices
are configured to work with Live, you're
| | 02:41 |
ready to start creating music.
| | 02:43 |
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| Optimizing performance| 00:00 |
Adjusting preferences like buffer size
can have a big impact on how your
| | 00:03 |
computer reacts when you're recording and
mixing.
| | 00:06 |
Let's take a look at how to configure
Preferences that affect computer
| | 00:08 |
performance, so that your system will
work at maximum efficiency when running
| | 00:11 |
Ableton Live.
So I'm going to go into Preferences using
| | 00:15 |
the key command, Cmd comma for a Mac or
Ctrl comma on a PC.
| | 00:20 |
And you're going to want to select the
audio tab.
| | 00:22 |
Now under the latency area, you'll see an
option for buffer size.
| | 00:26 |
So, just a little background here,
computers work more efficiently, when
| | 00:29 |
there is a chunk of data waiting for it
at the instant that the computer is ready
| | 00:32 |
for the next piece of data.
The larger that chunk, the more efficient
| | 00:36 |
the computer works.
But in an audio program like Ableton Live
| | 00:40 |
there's a payback.
The larger the buffer or chunk of data
| | 00:43 |
the more latency that you encounter.
Meaning that when you're recording, you
| | 00:47 |
get the I played a note, and then you
heard the note.
| | 00:50 |
And there's enough delay that it's really
disturbing.
| | 00:53 |
So the idea here is that when you're
recording you're going to want to set
| | 00:56 |
this buffer as low as you can.
And then, higher when you're mixing and
| | 01:00 |
editing, because at that point, you
really don't care, whether or not that
| | 01:03 |
there's a few milliseconds of delay.
So I would suggest setting the buffer at
| | 01:08 |
around 128 samples when you're recording.
And then maybe upwards of 1024 samples
| | 01:13 |
when you're, mixing and editing.
So note that Ableton will allow you to
| | 01:17 |
set this value to anything.
But many interfaces actually have presets
| | 01:21 |
that they will work with and those are
usually multiples of 32.
| | 01:25 |
Like 32, 64, 128, 256 and so on.
So, I'm going to click into this field
| | 01:32 |
and I'm going to go ahead, you'll notice
that I can scroll up or down, and I can
| | 01:35 |
apply that to a different level or you
can just click in here and type in the
| | 01:38 |
value that you want.
So I'll click 128, and then I'll click
| | 01:44 |
the Apply button to set that.
So you'll notice that now my input
| | 01:48 |
latency is a little bit more than four or
around four and a half milliseconds.
| | 01:53 |
The output is almost four for a total of
around eight milliseconds of latency.
| | 01:57 |
Now that's going to be small enough that
it's not going to bother you.
| | 02:00 |
But we can test how Live is going to be
able to work with this by using this area
| | 02:03 |
at the bottom.
Now if I click this button right here
| | 02:07 |
that says Off, it's going to start a test
tone and then I can simulate kind of the
| | 02:11 |
load on the computer by pushing up this
CPU usage simulator based upon what your
| | 02:15 |
current buffer size setting is.
And the reason we want to know this is
| | 02:21 |
because if the buffer is set at too small
a size, you may experience some
| | 02:24 |
distortion or dropouts in the audio.
And this is one of those things that you
| | 02:29 |
often forget about, and you'll encounter
some problems and you'll wonder what's
| | 02:32 |
wrong with your setup, and you'll just
have to remember to come back in here and
| | 02:35 |
adjust the buffer size, okay?
So, just to demonstrate this, I'm
| | 02:40 |
going to set this at a very low buffer
size, and I'm going to push the CPU usage
| | 02:43 |
simulator up pretty high here, and then
I'm going to click the button to turn
| | 02:47 |
this on so that we could hear that.
So as I'm playing this, I'll actually
| | 02:54 |
push the CPU usage up, until we can hear
what those dropouts or distortions sound like.
| | 02:59 |
(audio playing) So you heard that crackling and
popping and that's a really great
| | 03:05 |
indication that your buffer size is way
too small.
| | 03:13 |
So again, I would suggest setting this
around 128 samples or so when you're
| | 03:16 |
recording and that's for audio or MIDI by
the way.
| | 03:21 |
And then when you are ready to mix and
edit, bump that up to 512 or 1024 or
| | 03:24 |
something like that.
I'll Enter to apply that and then I'm
| | 03:29 |
going to hit my Escape key to get out of
this window.
| | 03:33 |
Now, in the future, you can look up here
in upper right-hand corner at this button
| | 03:36 |
on the control bar, where it says,
currently says 4%.
| | 03:40 |
And this is the CPU usage indicator.
And if you're getting upwards of 75, 80,
| | 03:45 |
85% up here, that might be contributing
to the problems.
| | 03:49 |
And so, either adjusting the buffer size,
or taking a look at how many tracks you
| | 03:52 |
have running in the session, you may need
to reduce that.
| | 03:56 |
But those two things will help balance
the performance of your system and then
| | 04:00 |
I'll just point out one last button over
here to the right of the CPU usage.
| | 04:05 |
We actually see the disc indicator and
that will show us if there's any problems
| | 04:08 |
actually pulling audio off your hard
drive if that starts to light up.
| | 04:13 |
Okay.
So now that you know how to configure the
| | 04:15 |
Preferences in Live that effects system
performance.
| | 04:18 |
You'll be able to adjust the auto
parameter, so that your system will work
| | 04:20 |
efficiently, whether you're recording or
mixing.
| | 04:23 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Session ViewNonlinear sequencing with Session view| 00:00 |
Ableton Live is unique and that it offers
two work flows for creating music.
| | 00:04 |
A Live user can choose to use one
workflow exclusively or the two can be combined.
| | 00:08 |
Let's take a closer look.
So, right now we're in Session view and
| | 00:12 |
if you go up here and click this button
right here, it will flip you over to
| | 00:15 |
Arrange view.
Now when you moved to this window, notice
| | 00:19 |
that the outside edges remain the same in
both views.
| | 00:22 |
And while we're at it, the first quick
key that we'll learn is the Tab key which
| | 00:25 |
moves us between the two windows.
So, Arrange view is like many other DAW
| | 00:30 |
programs, like Pro Tools or Logic, or
Digital Performer, in that you arrange
| | 00:34 |
things on a timeline that moves from left
to right in a linear manner.
| | 00:39 |
So, here I'm looking at clips on some of
the tracks.
| | 00:43 |
You notice that there is gaps, and as the
time moves from right to left, we'll play
| | 00:46 |
each one of those in it's turn.
Now, above there we see that there is a
| | 00:50 |
bars and beats ruler, and down at the
bottom we see that there is a time ruler
| | 00:53 |
that's in minutes and seconds.
The tracks in this are over here on the
| | 00:58 |
right, and we see the Track Controls.
But what I really want to talk about here
| | 01:01 |
is Session view.
This is a little bit different, so I'll
| | 01:04 |
Tab back over.
And in some ways, this looks like a mix
| | 01:07 |
window in other programs.
We've got tracks that go vertically, and
| | 01:11 |
we see that I've got things like Mixer
Controls, like your Fader and your Pan
| | 01:15 |
Knob, and things like that.
And then another program's up here, this
| | 01:20 |
is where you'd put maybe plugins on a
track.
| | 01:23 |
But these little boxes that looks like
cells in a spreadsheet, these actually
| | 01:26 |
hold little bits of Audio and MIDI, and
they can be of different lengths.
| | 01:30 |
For example, you might have a kick clip
that's two beats long, and snare clip
| | 01:35 |
that's a bar long, and a base part that
is eight bars long so son, so forth.
| | 01:41 |
But what Live will do is it will sync all
of these to play together, so a couple rules.
| | 01:47 |
Only one clip can play on a track at a
time for example, if I click the Play
| | 01:50 |
button or Launch button here on this clip
on the base track we'll hear that clip play.
| | 01:55 |
(music playing).
And I clicked the little square up there
| | 02:01 |
which is one of the Stop buttons to
actually have that stop on that track.
| | 02:05 |
So, I can play one clip or track at a
time, and those clips can be located
| | 02:08 |
anywhere on the track.
So, I can make this Base clip play with
| | 02:12 |
this High Hat clip that we've got over
here with this Filter clip all the way
| | 02:15 |
over here.
And so what this allows you to do, is
| | 02:19 |
kind of work with your ideas in a messy
way.
| | 02:22 |
And then as you start to get ideas that
work together, you can form those on a
| | 02:25 |
row, and you can click a button over here
on the master track to launch the entire row.
| | 02:31 |
Let's do that.
(music playing).
| | 02:34 |
So, that row might form an introduction
to a song or the verse section or
| | 02:44 |
something else.
Now you might have noticed there was a
| | 02:50 |
lot of sound going on there and that's
because there are actually multiple
| | 02:52 |
tracks playing, and if I take the scroll
bar over you'll see that there's several
| | 02:55 |
more tracks.
So, what I really like about Session view
| | 03:00 |
is you get to work without being
constrained to a timeline.
| | 03:04 |
Your ideas can be of any length and they
can work together and Live will sync them.
| | 03:09 |
As they start to form kind of sections of
songs.
| | 03:12 |
You can then arrange them on the rows, as
we call in Live Speak Scenes, and you can
| | 03:16 |
trigger those independently.
And then as we get the song worked out,
| | 03:21 |
we can then actually record that material
from Session View into Arrange View where
| | 03:24 |
it might be easier to finish some of the
final details, like adding automation and
| | 03:28 |
things like that.
So, if your using Live for the first time
| | 03:33 |
session view may seem a bit odd, it did
to me at first.
| | 03:36 |
But once you get familiar with Session
view you may find it a liberating way to
| | 03:39 |
work with your ideas.
| | 03:41 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding the Session view window| 00:00 |
A large part of successfully using an
application is being familiar and
| | 00:03 |
comfortable with the software interface.
So before we dig deeper into the program,
| | 00:07 |
let's take a look at the main components
of Live Session View window.
| | 00:10 |
So let's start with over here on the left
hand side.
| | 00:14 |
This first area here that I'm pointing
out.
| | 00:16 |
This is called Lives' browser.
And this is the area where you can choose
| | 00:19 |
your devices.
Or samples, or sounds, or loops.
| | 00:23 |
You can also navigate your hard drive to
find things.
| | 00:25 |
Now you'll notice that as I've been
moving my mouse, down the lower left-hand
| | 00:29 |
corner you see words appear here.
Now this is called, Info View and this is
| | 00:33 |
really helpful.
Anything you point your mouse at, will
| | 00:36 |
have some kind of material down here in
Info View that tells you what it actually is.
| | 00:41 |
As we're doing this I just want to show
you, also, that you can close and hide things.
| | 00:45 |
So I can close Info View by clicking on
that triangle.
| | 00:48 |
And I can close the browser and reopen it
by clicking on that triangle.
| | 00:51 |
Now across the top we have what's
referred to as the Control Bar in Live.
| | 00:56 |
So this area over here has a lot to do
with the tempo and meter of a song and
| | 00:59 |
whether you want to count off things like
that.
| | 01:03 |
In the middle here we have transport
controls like play, stop and record.
| | 01:08 |
As I move to the right there's controls
for over dubbing, for example if you want
| | 01:12 |
to punch in and fix an area for
performance and then punch back out
| | 01:15 |
without recording over other things and
then over on the right to have controls for.
| | 01:22 |
Mapping for example, if I want to map my
keyboard on my computer or my MIDI
| | 01:26 |
control to control some device in Live, I
can do that through these buttons, and
| | 01:29 |
then over here I've got indicators for
system performance like your CPU
| | 01:33 |
overload, and your disc overload and MIDI
input and output indicator.
| | 01:40 |
Now here on the right-hand side.
We have what's called the Help View, and
| | 01:44 |
this can be opened and closed from the
View menu, but this is also very helpful
| | 01:47 |
in that if you click on any one of these
areas, there are tutorials or information
| | 01:51 |
about that.
For example if I scroll all the way down
| | 01:57 |
to the bottom, we'll see that there are
tutorials on how to set up your audio
| | 02:00 |
interfaces and your MIDI controllers And
then there's also just a bunch of
| | 02:04 |
built-in lessons, so if I click that,
you'll go into menu.
| | 02:09 |
Let's say we want to learn how to create
beats.
| | 02:11 |
So I'll click that one.
And you can read this.
| | 02:15 |
You'll notice that there's a scroll bar
that you can pull down to see the rest of that.
| | 02:19 |
And then this actually has nine pages in
this one, so I can click the next page button.
| | 02:23 |
To go through this lesson.
In some cases there will even be a
| | 02:26 |
session or Live set to download that you
can work with along with the lesson.
| | 02:31 |
So, this is really helpful.
Across the bottom here, we have what's
| | 02:34 |
called Details view and this shows
information related to whatever clip is selected.
| | 02:40 |
So for example, if I come up and click
this on this track here.
| | 02:43 |
That clip.
I'll see the MIDI notes that are actually
| | 02:46 |
recorded on that track as part of that
clip and then if I click this little
| | 02:49 |
button here, this will actually show me
the device that's actually taking those
| | 02:52 |
MIDI signals and turning them into sound.
And you can flip back and forth between
| | 02:58 |
those two views by clicking these buttons
or if you want to close that entirely,
| | 03:01 |
again you can click this little triangle
to get that out of the way.
| | 03:07 |
So you can see more information on the
track.
| | 03:09 |
Now, this area in the middle.
This is the heart of Session view.
| | 03:13 |
So vertically, we have tracks.
And down at the bottom, we have mixer
| | 03:17 |
controls, like your fader and pan nob.
And your track activator or mute button.
| | 03:23 |
Over on the right-hand side, we actually
have the master track where all the audio
| | 03:26 |
flows through.
And then most importantly over here on
| | 03:29 |
the lower right corner of the master
track.
| | 03:31 |
We have Show Hide buttons.
That will actually reveal or hide areas
| | 03:34 |
of this part of the window.
So if I click on the aisle button.
| | 03:38 |
We now see the track inputs and outputs.
I can hide that if I click on the S button.
| | 03:44 |
I'm actually going to see the sends and
on.
| | 03:47 |
We would have the buttons for return, the
mixer, delay settings and the cross fader
| | 03:51 |
as part of that.
So, above the mixture area on the tracks,
| | 03:55 |
we see these little rectangles, that are
actually called clips.
| | 03:59 |
And a clip can hold a bit of MIDI or
audio, and I can play those individually
| | 04:02 |
by clicking the Clip Launch Button on the
left-hand side of the clip.
| | 04:07 |
Let me just do this one, I want to show
you.
| | 04:09 |
(music playing) And I stop that by clicking on
the Clip Stop Button on another clip slot
| | 04:16 |
on that track.
Now, I can fire off an entire row, by
| | 04:21 |
going over here on the master track and
clicking a scene launch button.
| | 04:26 |
Let's do that.
(music playing) So that time I stopped playback
| | 04:35 |
by hitting the spacebar on my keyboard.
Now note when I did that, you'll notice
| | 04:39 |
that all of these clips still have focus,
and I know that because of the launch
| | 04:42 |
buttons that are lit in green.
So if I click the spacebar again, I'm
| | 04:47 |
actually going to launch those clips, and
actually, the whole scene.
| | 04:51 |
Now, I can lose focus on those scenes by
clicking the all clip stop button down
| | 04:54 |
here at the bottom on the master track.
So now that we're familiar with the
| | 04:59 |
different areas of the Session View
window.
| | 05:02 |
And where some of the most frequently
used buttons are located, we're ready to
| | 05:05 |
begin working with live clips and scenes.
| | 05:07 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring the Live browser| 00:00 |
Live's virtual instruments, effects and
clips are most easily accessed through
| | 00:03 |
Live's browser.
Let's take a first look at how to
| | 00:06 |
navigate the browser and then preview and
load clips in presets.
| | 00:10 |
So, the Browser is located in the left
hand side of the window here in Live.
| | 00:14 |
And we can open and close the browser by
clicking this triangle that's in the
| | 00:17 |
upper left-hand corner of the browser.
You can also do that by key command which
| | 00:21 |
would be Option Cmd+B on a Mac.
Or Ctrl+Alt+B on a PC.
| | 00:28 |
Now the browser is divided into two
general areas.
| | 00:30 |
At the top, we have Categories, and at
the bottom, Places.
| | 00:34 |
In Categories, we have access to things
like Sounds, and Drums sounds.
| | 00:39 |
The various Virtual Instruments, Audio
Effects like EQs and Compressors and
| | 00:43 |
Reverbs, MIDI effects like the
Arpeggiator or the Scale plug-in.
| | 00:48 |
There's a special category for Max for
Live and we've got Max Audio Effects,
| | 00:52 |
Instrument Effects and MIDI Effects
there.
| | 00:55 |
Plugins gives you access to third party
plugins like those from Apple, Celemony,
| | 00:59 |
Spectrasonics or Waves or some other
third party plugin manufacturer.
| | 01:05 |
And in the Clips area, we have access to
clips, which we'll talk about more in
| | 01:09 |
just a second.
And then in the Samples area, we have
| | 01:13 |
access to one-shot samples like kick hits
and snare hits and other things of that nature.
| | 01:18 |
In the Places area, we have access to
your User Library, and you can also set
| | 01:22 |
up custom libraries.
And you can also access any packs that
| | 01:26 |
you've downloaded from Ableton Live and
installed in the system.
| | 01:29 |
So, a clip, is a recording of an audio
signal or a MIDI performance.
| | 01:34 |
These clips represent a musical building
block that can be used to build a song,
| | 01:36 |
or a section of a song.
An though they can be of any length, most
| | 01:40 |
Live clips are two, four or eight bars
long, an are edited so that they can be
| | 01:44 |
repeated or looped.
So we can audition and load clips from
| | 01:48 |
the browser.
So I'm going to go down to the Clips
| | 01:50 |
category, and I can choose a clip over
here, and I can audition that if I've got
| | 01:53 |
the Preview button selected.
And you can click this button here at the
| | 01:58 |
bottom of the list to preview it, or
press the Right Arrow on your computer keyboard.
| | 02:03 |
(music playing).
You could press your Spacebar to stop playback.
| | 02:09 |
And when it's a little bit too loud, you
can adjust the preview listening level
| | 02:12 |
with this Preview cue volume control over
here at the bottom of the master track.
| | 02:17 |
Now if you want to load a clip to one of
the clip slots here in Session view, you
| | 02:21 |
can select it, choose this working beat
here.
| | 02:24 |
And I can either double-click on that,
hit my return key, or I can simply click
| | 02:28 |
it and drag it and drop it on the clip
slot on the track where I want to place it.
| | 02:33 |
And I can tell this is an Audio clip,
because when I look down here in Clip
| | 02:36 |
view, I actually see the audio waveform,
among other things.
| | 02:40 |
Now, if I want to hear that clip, I can
launch that by clicking on the clip
| | 02:43 |
launch button here on the left edge of
the clip.
| | 02:47 |
Let's try that.
(music playing).
| | 02:48 |
Now, I can stop that several ways, and
it's important to know the significance.
| | 02:56 |
So that time, I stopped it with the
Spacebar, and that left the clip in focus.
| | 03:00 |
And I know that because I see the Play or
Launch button here on the left-hand side
| | 03:04 |
is still lit in green.
And that means that if I press the
| | 03:08 |
spacebar again, any clips that have
focus, are going to immediately start playing.
| | 03:13 |
(music playing).
And that time, I stopped the clip from
| | 03:15 |
playing by pressing the Stop button on an
empty clip slot on that track.
| | 03:21 |
So, we've seen an audio clip.
Let's take a look at a MIDI clip, and I
| | 03:25 |
have one loaded on the next track.
So, if I select that, in the Clip view
| | 03:28 |
down here at the bottom of the window, we
can see that I no longer have an audio
| | 03:31 |
waveform view.
I can actually see MIDI notes.
| | 03:35 |
So let's check that out.
(audio playing).
| | 03:38 |
Now playing and stopping starts the same
way.
| | 03:46 |
I can either click the Launch button on
the clip and if it remains in focus I can
| | 03:49 |
press the spacebar again.
And I can stop the clip by pressing the spacebar.
| | 03:55 |
Or I can stop it by clicking a Stop
button on any one of the empty clip slots
| | 03:58 |
that are on that track or at the bottom
of the track.
| | 04:03 |
Or I can go over and I can click the Stop
All Clips button set at the bottom of the
| | 04:06 |
master track.
I'll do that and I'll clear everything.
| | 04:11 |
Now lets take a look at Presets.
So I'm going to go into the instrument
| | 04:14 |
category and again I'll look for some
drums.
| | 04:17 |
So I'm going to go into the drum
instrument in Ableton Live which is
| | 04:19 |
called impulse.
And lets just grab one and lets check out
| | 04:24 |
the grinder kit.
So I'll choose that.
| | 04:26 |
(audio playing).
Now that immediately started playing back
| | 04:30 |
because the Preview button was loaded.
And there's just a few samples loaded in
| | 04:36 |
the drum instruments that's playing this.
And there's very, very short queue that
| | 04:40 |
they load for all of the presets now.
So I can hear that very quickly.
| | 04:45 |
Now if I want to load that preset.
Again I can double-click on it.
| | 04:48 |
I can drag it over to the Drop Files and
Devices area and this time let's
| | 04:51 |
double-click it and see what it does.
So, this time let's create a new MIDI track.
| | 04:59 |
So, I'll come up here to the top and
insert MIDI track and now I can Click and
| | 05:03 |
Drag that.
And drop that at the top of the track, on
| | 05:07 |
a clip slot anywhere on the track or down
in the drop and instrument area.
| | 05:12 |
And notice that I didn't get a clip on
any of the clip slots here.
| | 05:17 |
The track instead was placed in record
and it looks like I have record buttons
| | 05:20 |
on any of the clip slots.
So, when you load a device you don't get
| | 05:24 |
a clip.
You get the device and you're going to
| | 05:26 |
create a clip.
Now because it's in record, I can quickly
| | 05:29 |
audition what I got.
So I'll press middle C here.
| | 05:32 |
(audio playing).
Which is mapped to this first slot on
| | 05:35 |
impulse slot.
And now I'm ready to record a clip.
| | 05:40 |
So now we know how to preview and load
clips, and software instrument device presets.
| | 05:45 |
We've also learned the important
difference between clips and presets.
| | 05:49 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Loading and playing clips| 00:00 |
Audio and MIDI clips are an essential
part of using Live.
| | 00:02 |
Let's take a look at how you play and
stop clips in Session view.
| | 00:06 |
So the colomns that we see here, in
Session View are tracks.
| | 00:10 |
And on each track there are several
places to put little pieces of Audio MIDI
| | 00:13 |
that we call clips.
And we can see that by these little
| | 00:16 |
colored rectangles we see here.
Now on the left edge of each of these
| | 00:20 |
clips there is a Play button that's
referred to as a Launch button in Live speak.
| | 00:24 |
And we can hear that clip by clicking the
Launch button.
| | 00:27 |
So let's check out this bass part.
(audio playing) Now there's multiple ways to stop
| | 00:33 |
that clip.
And that time I did it by pressing on the
| | 00:37 |
spacebar.
And I want you to notice that the Launch
| | 00:40 |
button remained green, we knew that the
clip has focus and what that means is the
| | 00:43 |
next time I hit the spacebar to start
playback, any clips that have green
| | 00:47 |
Launch buttons will immediately stop
playing.
| | 00:51 |
Let's check that out and this time I'll
stop playback a different way.
| | 00:55 |
(music playing) So that time I stopped the clip
playing by clicking on one of the empty
| | 01:01 |
clip slots, and these little squares
there are Stop buttons.
| | 01:08 |
Now I could've done that also by clicking
on the Stop button here at the bottom of
| | 01:11 |
the track, or if I had several clips
playing, I could click the Stop All Clips
| | 01:15 |
button over here at the bottom of the
master track.
| | 01:19 |
So this time I'll go ahead start that
same base clip playing.
| | 01:22 |
And then I'll launch some other clips
(music playing).
| | 01:33 |
So, as I do that you might notice that
the clips sometimes wait just a second
| | 01:47 |
before they start playing.
And that's because of the setting that's
| | 01:59 |
over here on the Control bar next to the
metronome.
| | 02:02 |
And this is called the global quantize
setting and what it does is set the
| | 02:06 |
amount of time that a clip will take to
start playing after you click the Launch button.
| | 02:12 |
And at this point if there are any other
clips already playing in the session,
| | 02:15 |
it's going to wait one bar before it
launches that clip so that we can play
| | 02:19 |
the clips in sync with each other.
Now, if you click on the little triangle
| | 02:24 |
here, you can see that there are other
values that we can set this to.
| | 02:28 |
But most the time I'll tell you that I'll
leave that set at one bar.
| | 02:31 |
Now, you noticed that I was playing
multiple clips.
| | 02:34 |
The one rule that we have to follow here
is that we can only actually play one
| | 02:38 |
clip per track.
And again that's these vertical columns
| | 02:41 |
but I can play any clip anywhere else in
this set on any of the other tracks
| | 02:45 |
whether it is on the same row or not.
Now the clips that are on the same row or
| | 02:51 |
I should say as you start to work and
develop your ideas and you find ideas
| | 02:55 |
that work together.
You'll want to put them on the same row,
| | 02:59 |
because over on the right-hand side of
Session view, on the Master track, we
| | 03:03 |
also have Launch buttons.
And those will allow us to launch all the
| | 03:08 |
clips on one row.
So to stop playback again, I'm going to
| | 03:12 |
press the Stop All Clips button here.
And then I'm going to go ahead, and I'm
| | 03:16 |
going to trigger this first scene to
play, this synth-pad.
| | 03:20 |
And then I'll wait a bit and I'll launch
this scene called Piano Brig, let's check
| | 03:23 |
this out.
(music playing).
| | 03:43 |
And again, each time I click a see Launch
button, you'll notice that it waited just
| | 03:47 |
a second, and it waited til the next bar
start.
| | 03:50 |
Before it started to play that scene
based upon the global quantize amount.
| | 03:55 |
Now I also pressed the spacebar to stop
playback that time.
| | 03:58 |
And I want you to notice that all the
clips that were playing retained focus.
| | 04:02 |
So if I want to start playback again and
hear that same scene, all I need to do is
| | 04:06 |
press spacebar.
(music playing) At that time I stopped those
| | 04:11 |
clips and that scene from playing back by
clicking on the Stop All Clips button.
| | 04:21 |
So knowing how to start and stop playback
is an important part of feeling confident
| | 04:24 |
and control of an audio program.
As you can see Live Session view is a bit
| | 04:28 |
different than that from other
programs, but offers greater flexibility
| | 04:32 |
in the song creation workflow.
| | 04:35 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Moving and copying clips| 00:00 |
As you begin to build the sections of the
song in Session View, it's likely that
| | 00:03 |
you'll want to work with the order of the
clips that you're using.
| | 00:06 |
Let's take a look at how you can move
clips and how you can copy and paste clips.
| | 00:11 |
So, moving clips on a track is very easy.
You can just click it and drag it toward
| | 00:14 |
where ever you want it to go.
You can also move a clip from one track
| | 00:19 |
to another track.
So for example, I've got, looks like a
| | 00:22 |
MIDI track here, so I'm going to create
another midi track, and that is
| | 00:26 |
Cmd+shift+t, or Ctrl+shift+t on a PC.
And now I can just click that clip and
| | 00:30 |
drag it and drop it over on this other
track.
| | 00:35 |
Same thing with an audio clip.
I can move that one as well.
| | 00:38 |
Now, I can either drag that on this extra
MIDI track I have here, and if I drop it
| | 00:42 |
there, you'll notice that it actually
converted it into an audio track.
| | 00:46 |
Let me Undo that.
Or, I can drop that on another audio track.
| | 00:50 |
And let me just create one to do that.
That is Cmd+T on a Mac, or Ctrl+T on a PC
| | 00:54 |
to create that.
And you'll notice that that was actually
| | 00:58 |
flashing up here in the Create menu, and
we can see that we've got Insert Audio
| | 01:02 |
track and Insert MIDI track there on that
menu.
| | 01:06 |
So, now I can click this and I can drag
that over on the audio track and let it go.
| | 01:11 |
Or, I can grab this MIDI clip and
actually drop that on the audio track,
| | 01:15 |
and when I do that, notice that it
converts that now into MIDI track.
| | 01:21 |
So Live's very flexible in that it allows
you to move things around and it tries to
| | 01:24 |
help you and do things automatically.
Now that I'm working on this song here,
| | 01:30 |
I'm going to want this bass clip on
multiple tracks.
| | 01:34 |
So I can copy and paste that clip by
click selecting it and then pressing
| | 01:38 |
Cmd+C to copy, that would be Ctrl+C on a
PC, and then clicking where I want it to
| | 01:43 |
go and pressing Cmd+V or Ctrl+V on a PC
to copy that.
| | 01:49 |
Not that takes several moves to do that
and an easier way to do that might be to
| | 01:53 |
hold down your Option key.
So I'll click Select that clip slot, hold
| | 01:57 |
down my Option key and click and drag
that clip and now I've copied that to
| | 02:00 |
another clip slot.
So, as you're working you might want to
| | 02:05 |
rename things to better organize what's
going on.
| | 02:08 |
So, I can rename the track by going
Cmd+R.
| | 02:11 |
Now, I can call this my Drums track and
then Cmd+R over here on that track and I
| | 02:16 |
can call that Bass.
And I can even rename the clips if I want
| | 02:22 |
so that I can see, maybe what part of the
song they're in.
| | 02:26 |
So I might, go Cmd+R on that clip slot,
and now I might call that Bass Intro.
| | 02:31 |
And then the second one, Cmd+R or Ctrl+R
on a PC and call that Bass Verse.
| | 02:38 |
So, now as I'm looking at the song here
in Session View, I can already get a
| | 02:41 |
sense of what the organization is.
As you can see, moving, copying, and
| | 02:45 |
rearranging clips is intuitive and easy.
Using these techniques allows you to
| | 02:49 |
experiment with different clips, or
parts, as you work to create your beats,
| | 02:52 |
and even sections of songs
| | 02:54 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with clip properties| 00:00 |
As we've been discussing, clips are an
integral part of using Ableton Live.
| | 00:04 |
Let's take a deeper look at audio and
MIDI clips and see how those differences
| | 00:07 |
are reflected in the clip properties.
We'll also learn how to adjust the
| | 00:10 |
proeprties that effect how a clip plays
back.
| | 00:14 |
If I select a clip, we'll actually see
the area done in details view pop up.
| | 00:19 |
And there are two views that we can look
at.
| | 00:20 |
Right now, we're looking at the Midi
editor and clip properties related to that.
| | 00:25 |
You can also see the devices that are
available by clicking on this other button.
| | 00:30 |
For right now, we actually want to see
both the clip properties overview and
| | 00:33 |
then on an audio track, which if I click
the next track, we'll see.
| | 00:38 |
The audio waveform here.
So the properties are this area over here
| | 00:42 |
on the left-hand side, and there are
several buttons here that we can show and
| | 00:45 |
hide different elements.
So if I click on the L, I'll actually
| | 00:50 |
open up the Launch box, and we can see
that the Clip and Launch on an audio
| | 00:53 |
track are exactly the same as on a MIDI
track.
| | 00:58 |
So what are the things we can change
here?
| | 01:01 |
Well first of all, I can change the clip
name.
| | 01:03 |
Or I can change the color of the clip.
By clicking there, choosing a different
| | 01:08 |
color, and you'll see that that's
reflected here at the top of each one of
| | 01:11 |
these boxes and on the clip itself up
here on the track.
| | 01:16 |
The next parameter shows me the time
signature for the clip.
| | 01:19 |
And then in this area at the bottom we
can actually apply a groove file which
| | 01:23 |
will quantize or change the velocity and
impart a sense of groove or feel to the
| | 01:27 |
way the clip plays back.
In the next area, the Launch Box, we can
| | 01:33 |
actually set some randomization for how
the clips play back, so instead of
| | 01:37 |
launching the clips by clicking their
play buttons here.
| | 01:42 |
Or clicking Seen Launch buttons, or I can
actually set up a scenario where Live
| | 01:45 |
chooses which clips to play and in what
order.
| | 01:48 |
So right now, if I fire off a clip, it's
going to trigger that.
| | 01:51 |
And when I release the mouse, it's not
going to do anything but let it continue
| | 01:54 |
to play.
Then down here at the bottom, I can set
| | 01:58 |
follow actions, by clicking on the little
drop down here and choosing a different action.
| | 02:03 |
So, for example, I might choose next in
this one, and let's have it go to the
| | 02:07 |
last one and this one.
And then I'm going to set up a ratio for
| | 02:12 |
how that happens.
So each time it plays there's a two to
| | 02:15 |
one chance that it's going to play the
first one or the last one in that row.
| | 02:21 |
So now if I go up and click this one off,
it's going to play and then based upon
| | 02:24 |
that ratio, it's either going to play the
second one or the last one in that row.
| | 02:30 |
And it's going to play that and start it
based upon whatever the global
| | 02:33 |
quantization is.
So if I look up here it's currently set
| | 02:38 |
at 1 bar.
Now I can specifically set this for this
| | 02:40 |
group of clips by clicking here and
choosing 8 bars or 4 bars or whatever
| | 02:44 |
length of time that I want it to wait
before it starts the next clip.
| | 02:50 |
For right now let's leave that at the
global of one bar and I'll play the first
| | 02:53 |
clip and then whichever one is going to
play next you'll see the launch button on
| | 02:56 |
that turn green.
(music playing) So that time, it chose to play
| | 03:00 |
the next one.
Let me stop and try that again.
| | 03:09 |
(music playing) 'Kay, it did the same thing
again.
| | 03:10 |
I'll try that one more time.
(music playing) Okay, hooray!
| | 03:16 |
It chose the last one, so you could
actually see that it will randomize that.
| | 03:20 |
So, this is a neat thing to use if you're
playing live or if you are doing some
| | 03:24 |
kind of music that really has maybe, only
one chord and you have different sounds
| | 03:28 |
and parts that you want to flow out in
some kind of a random fashion.
| | 03:35 |
So, on a Midi clip, in the next area.
We have the notes box, which is only for
| | 03:40 |
MIDI clips.
And some of the things we can do here is
| | 03:43 |
we can transpose it, using this value
here.
| | 03:46 |
So if I click in that box and type
something like plus 12, I can transpose
| | 03:49 |
that up an octave.
Let me undo that.
| | 03:53 |
The other buttons here that we see.
I can have it play back twice as fast or
| | 03:57 |
twice as slow.
I could actually reverse the clip, or
| | 04:01 |
invert it.
Or if I want to make sure that the notes
| | 04:04 |
in the clip playback without any gap
between the notes, I can click the Legato button.
| | 04:09 |
Over here, on the far right, I can set
how the clip plays back, or how it loops.
| | 04:14 |
So for example, right now, I can actually
click and drag these to set the loop.
| | 04:18 |
Start and end points.
Or I can type values in these.
| | 04:22 |
Or if you're not quite sure you can
actually start play back and you can
| | 04:24 |
click the set buttons.
To set those values.
| | 04:29 |
So on the next track over, this is an
audio track.
| | 04:31 |
And when I click that we see that this
box is different and I get the sample box.
| | 04:35 |
So if I click the edit button, it will
actually open this clip in another
| | 04:39 |
program for editing.
Now you can set which program that it
| | 04:43 |
chooses by going up into Preferences,
which on a Mac is under the Live menu and
| | 04:46 |
that would be under the Options menu on a
PC.
| | 04:51 |
And choosing your File folder tab, and
then going to where is says sample editor
| | 04:55 |
and clicking the browse button.
Now right now you can see that I've
| | 05:00 |
actually gone through this and I've
chosen pro tools to be the audio editor.
| | 05:05 |
OK, so if I make changes to that in
another program and I want to save those,
| | 05:08 |
I can click the Save button.
And that will actually only save it for
| | 05:13 |
this use of this clip in this set and not
in other sets.
| | 05:17 |
Something else I can do here is I can
click the reverse button and it will
| | 05:20 |
actually take this clip and reverse it so
that the clip's playing backwards and now
| | 05:24 |
you'll notice that the release or decay
is happening here at the beginning.
| | 05:30 |
Ramping up to the attacks on that.
Other important buttons here are the high
| | 05:34 |
quality button, which actually uses a
different process to play back the clip
| | 05:37 |
with much higher resolution.
The next button here, the fade button,
| | 05:42 |
which is already enabled, actually drops
a short fade on the beginning and end of
| | 05:46 |
the clip, so if there was problems due to
editing, any pops or clicks, that those
| | 05:49 |
are avoided.
So, the next parameter here the Ramp
| | 05:54 |
button, actually we'll put this clip into
RAM mode which means that Live will
| | 05:57 |
actually load this clip into RAM and play
it back from RAM instead of streaming in
| | 06:01 |
off the hard drive and that's useful when
you have got a large session and you are
| | 06:04 |
getting drop out.
I am down here at the bottom we can
| | 06:10 |
actually transpose the clips, so that it
plays at a different pitch level.
| | 06:14 |
And this is a global setting, so if I
turn this knob, I can actually transpose
| | 06:18 |
this up a total of 48 half-step or down
48 half-steps.
| | 06:23 |
That's four octaves.
And I would just suggest that, depending
| | 06:26 |
on the clip, that's a little bit
unrealistic, but something on the order
| | 06:29 |
of a minor third up to a perfect fifth
you can probably get away with.
| | 06:34 |
An I can reset that by just clicking on
the little triangle up at the top.
| | 06:38 |
I can also change the pitch by fine
increment by using the detune setting
| | 06:41 |
down here.
An this is in steps of a 100 cents up or
| | 06:44 |
down one half step.
An this is useful when you want to tune a
| | 06:49 |
clip, or you might want to do some kind
of a chorusing effect by duplicating the clip.
| | 06:55 |
And turning one up a little bit and then
detuning the other one down a little bit.
| | 07:00 |
I can also adjust the volume playback of
the clip by using the volume setting
| | 07:04 |
right here.
And it's actually displaying over in the
| | 07:08 |
clip overview there.
And this is useful if you've got a clip
| | 07:11 |
that's got a very low level or one that's
got too much level for normalizing in a
| | 07:15 |
way so that you've got enough head room
when it plays back.
| | 07:19 |
And lastly, over here in the warp area,
these are the controls that Live uses to
| | 07:24 |
automatically adjust the playback of this
clip to fit the tempo of this session.
| | 07:31 |
So, this shows the original tempo of the
clip.
| | 07:34 |
Now this was actually recorded as part of
this set, so it's already at the tempo of
| | 07:38 |
the session which I can see up here in
the control bar but if I was using this
| | 07:41 |
clip in a set that had a different tempo
by enabling the warp button Live would
| | 07:45 |
adjust the tempo so that it plays back at
the tempo of the set.
| | 07:52 |
And its doing that based upon the warp
mode setting here and if I click on that
| | 07:55 |
you can see that we've got nodes that are
optimized for different kinds of music.
| | 08:00 |
So beats is good for drums and tones is
good for things like bass lines and
| | 08:04 |
vocals and so on.
So as you can see, the clip properties in
| | 08:08 |
Live are extensive and allow you to not
only control how the clips play and
| | 08:11 |
synchronize, but also contain some very
useful editing functions.
| | 08:15 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with scenes| 00:00 |
Most music production applications force
you to work in a linear manner.
| | 00:04 |
Live's Session view is a great scratch
pad, which allows you work without the
| | 00:06 |
constraints of a linear work flow.
Let's take a look at how you work with
| | 00:10 |
live clips to form scenes, and then put
scenes together to form a song.
| | 00:13 |
So just to review a bit.
These vertical columns represent rows and
| | 00:17 |
we have these little boxes where we can
put bits of MIDI audio that we refer to
| | 00:21 |
as clips, and we can fire off one clip
per track.
| | 00:25 |
And if we have clips arranged in a row,
we can play them by clicking on the
| | 00:28 |
Assosiated Play button, over here on the
master track.
| | 00:32 |
We've referred to that as a Scene Launch
button.
| | 00:35 |
So right now, I have three scenes here in
the session, and it might be helpful to
| | 00:39 |
have a little bit of organization.
So I'm just going to name these so I know
| | 00:43 |
what I've got.
So, I'm going to choose the first scene
| | 00:45 |
that I have here and I'm going to
right-click on that, and I'm going to
| | 00:48 |
choose Rename.
You'll notice that we could also us a key
| | 00:52 |
command, Cmd+R on a Mac, or Ctrl+R on a
PC.
| | 00:55 |
I'm going to call this one intro, and I
can hit my Return key to enter that.
| | 01:00 |
But if I want to the rename the next
scene, I can press my Tab key to move
| | 01:03 |
that scene.
So I'll call this one verse and I'll call
| | 01:07 |
the last one break, and then I will hit
my Enter key to finish this.
| | 01:11 |
Now I can also color these scenes as well
to help a few organization, so if I
| | 01:15 |
right-click on the first one down at the
bottom of the Contextural menu, I can
| | 01:19 |
choose a color.
So I can choose light blue for that one
| | 01:23 |
and maybe brown for that one, and red for
the next one and so on and so forth.
| | 01:30 |
Now I've also seen this color function
used differently in live performance.
| | 01:35 |
I've seen several artists that might have
multiple songs in the same set.
| | 01:39 |
And what they would do would be to color
the scenes for one song the same color,
| | 01:42 |
and the scenes for the next song a
different color.
| | 01:46 |
So let's go ahead and lets play these
scenes that I have now.
| | 01:49 |
So remember, I can go ahead and click the
Launch button, and I'll see all the clips
| | 01:53 |
start on this row.
(music playing) So that time I pressed the Space
| | 02:02 |
bar to stop playback, and I just want to
point out that the clips in that row
| | 02:05 |
retained their focus.
Meaning that if I press the spacebar
| | 02:09 |
again those same clips are going to start
playing.
| | 02:12 |
Where I also could have stopped this by
pressing the Stop All Clips button down
| | 02:15 |
here, and those clips would've lost
focus.
| | 02:19 |
So, what I want to do now, is I want to
start playback on the scene, and then I'm
| | 02:22 |
going to launch the next scene.
The amount of time that it takes that
| | 02:26 |
second scene to start is based upon the
global quantize value, which for some odd
| | 02:30 |
reason in my set right now is set on an
8th note.
| | 02:34 |
And it's much more common to leave this
at one bar or two bars, depending upon
| | 02:37 |
the tempo.
So let me put that back at one bar.
| | 02:41 |
So I'll fire off the first scene, and
when I click the Launch button on the
| | 02:44 |
second scene, it's going to wait till the
beginning of the next bar to start
| | 02:47 |
playing that scene.
(music playing) So I waited until that fourth bar
| | 02:53 |
started and then I pressed the Launch
button for the next scene, and it started
| | 03:01 |
at the beginning of the next bar.
You know, while we're here I want to
| | 03:09 |
point out something to you.
When as I launched the verse scene, I
| | 03:12 |
didn't hear any drums because I don't
have a clip on the clip slot there.
| | 03:17 |
If I want the same drum pattern to keep
playing.
| | 03:20 |
What I can do is I can remove this Stop
button on that, and when I fire the
| | 03:23 |
second scene off, it'll continue to play
that particular clip.
| | 03:27 |
So right-click and I'll choose Remove
Stop button.
| | 03:30 |
I've also could have used the key
command, Cmd+E on a ac or Ctrl+E on a PC
| | 03:33 |
to do the same thing.
So now that's gone.
| | 03:36 |
So again I'll click the Stop All Clips
button to take away the focus of any
| | 03:40 |
tracks here.
And now again, I'll fire off the intro scene.
| | 03:45 |
And then, this time when I start the
verse scene, notice that we're still
| | 03:48 |
going to see this first clip on the drum
track play.
| | 03:51 |
(music playing) As you're working, you may want
to experiment with clips on any of these tracks.
| | 04:09 |
So let me stop the clips from playing
back, and now I'm going to start off by
| | 04:12 |
playing this drum pattern.
Let's see what I've got there.
| | 04:16 |
(music playing) So I've got clips from two
different rows playing now, and I'm
| | 04:27 |
going to play them from the beginning so
I hear how that sounds.
| | 04:42 |
And so I make sure that all the clips are
starting at the beginning of their cycle.
| | 04:58 |
Let's check that out.
(music playing) Okay, if you arrive at a point
| | 05:07 |
where you like the clips that you have
playing together, you can go ahead and
| | 05:13 |
capture those clips as a new scene.
And I can do that by going over on the
| | 05:20 |
master track and right-clicking on a
scene, and choosing the Capture and
| | 05:24 |
Insert option.
And if I want to give that another name,
| | 05:28 |
again I can Cmd+R an rename that.
An I'll call this, verse two.
| | 05:33 |
So once you've finished all the scenes
that you're going to use in your song,
| | 05:37 |
you can reuse them in a variety of ways.
First of all, I can select a scene, and I
| | 05:43 |
can Cmd+C.
I can move down on an empty scene area
| | 05:48 |
and Cmd+V to paste that, and that would
be Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V on a PC.
| | 05:54 |
Once I get it there, I can rename it,
like maybe this is going to be my interlude.
| | 06:00 |
You could also click a scene and drag it
to a new location.
| | 06:04 |
Or you can select a scene, and you can
use the key command.
| | 06:08 |
Cmd+Up or Aown arrow, that would be
Ctrl+Up or Down arrow on a PC, and I can
| | 06:11 |
move it that way.
Now another thing that we can do with
| | 06:16 |
scenes is that we can set tempo changes.
So for example, when I go from the intro
| | 06:20 |
to the verse, and I'm going to move that
back in order so this makes a little more
| | 06:23 |
sense to me.
And now what I'm going to do is I'm
| | 06:27 |
going to set a tempo change that starts
when we hit the verse.
| | 06:30 |
So I'm going to right-click on that scene
name, and I'm going to choose Edit Launch
| | 06:34 |
Tempo from the Contextual menu.
So, it's added a semicolon, the cursor's
| | 06:39 |
blinking and waiting for me to type the
new tempo.
| | 06:42 |
So, I'm going to set a drastically slower
tempo and I'll type in let's say a 100
| | 06:48 |
bpm, and that will be thirty clicks
slower than we have for the song.
| | 06:56 |
So I will launch the first intro, and
then I will launch the second scene here.
| | 07:04 |
Let's here it that sounds like.
(music playing) So, obviously that worked.
| | 07:10 |
But I want to point out that if you're
going to start adding tempo changes to
| | 07:14 |
scenes, you're going to need to type the
tempo into each and every scene.
| | 07:19 |
Because if I go back now and play the
intro, since the last tempo we were at
| | 07:22 |
was 100, it's going to keep playing at
that same tempo.
| | 07:26 |
Let's check it out.
(music playing) So, I could fix that by
| | 07:30 |
right-clicking on this one, choosing Edit
Launch Tempo.
| | 07:38 |
I'll type in 131, original tempo and
you'll do this again.
| | 07:45 |
And now I can fire off the verse one at
100 and go back and play the intro, and
| | 07:50 |
you'll hear the tempo increase (music playing).
So we can do the same thing and add a
| | 07:58 |
time signature change as well.
So I right-clicked on the seen and I
| | 08:03 |
chose Edit Launch Tempo from the
Contextual menu.
| | 08:07 |
And now I could type in, let's say if I
wanted this to be in 3/4 I could do that.
| | 08:12 |
Now the syntax that they're using when
you do that is to add a semi colon
| | 08:14 |
between it.
But all you really need to have is one
| | 08:18 |
character, that could be a space a comma
a semi-colon or anything.
| | 08:22 |
So now that your familar with how scenes
work, you can experiment with the form
| | 08:25 |
and even tempo of your songs while you
work out your ideas.
| | 08:28 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Files, Clips, Presets, and the Live BrowserUsing the browser| 00:00 |
The Live browser provides access to
clips, presets, software instruments and
| | 00:04 |
effects devices.
And is the most efficient way to locate,
| | 00:07 |
audition and load devices and clips into
your live sets.
| | 00:10 |
Let's start by taking a look at how the
browser is organized and how to set the
| | 00:13 |
default location of your user library and
any live packs that you download from Ableton.com.
| | 00:18 |
So, in Live 9, the browser has been
redesigned.
| | 00:22 |
And we have a side bar that's divided
into categories and places.
| | 00:27 |
And then, a content pane that shows the
content of those areas.
| | 00:30 |
Now, I can navigate by clicking onto one
of the categories.
| | 00:34 |
And I can also use my arrows to go up or
down through the categories.
| | 00:39 |
And then once I find a place that I want
to work, I can actually go into the
| | 00:42 |
content area by using my right arrow.
And then again, with the right arrow to
| | 00:47 |
actually enter that sub-folder.
Now, at this point, I can't see much, so
| | 00:50 |
I'm actually going to move my cursor over
here onto the edge and drag that bar
| | 00:53 |
over, and create a little extra room.
And I'm also going to Right-click up at
| | 00:58 |
the top here and choose one of the other
items.
| | 01:01 |
So, I can have a second column up here.
So, I can either choose Type, Date, Size,
| | 01:05 |
so on and so forth, and you can have one
additional column.
| | 01:09 |
And that way, as I look at these things,
I know what they are.
| | 01:11 |
Whether it's a device preset or a rack or
an audio file.
| | 01:16 |
So, if the category area offers you
access to the content that you can use
| | 01:19 |
within Live, the places area allows you
access to kind of the larger items.
| | 01:24 |
Where your user library is stored and
Live packs and any additional folders
| | 01:28 |
that you want to make available in this
area.
| | 01:32 |
Now, you can set the default locations
for where those are stored in Preferences.
| | 01:36 |
So, I'm going to go to the Live menu, and
that would be the Options menu on a PC,
| | 01:40 |
and choose Preferences.
And I'm going to go into the Library tab,
| | 01:45 |
and you'll notice we have three options
here that are important.
| | 01:50 |
First of all, the location of your user
library can be customized by clicking on
| | 01:53 |
the Browser button, then navigating your
drives and deciding where you might want
| | 01:56 |
to put that.
Now, I'm not going to change that at this
| | 01:59 |
point, but I would suggest that you might
want to put your user library on an
| | 02:02 |
additional hard drive from the one where
you have the program and your operating
| | 02:05 |
system stored.
So, let me cancel out of there.
| | 02:10 |
If you also own Live 8, you can set the
location of where that Live 8 library is.
| | 02:15 |
So that you can use all the content that
you've already collected in Ableton Live 9.
| | 02:21 |
I can also choose the Installation Folder
for any Live packs that I download from Ableton.com.
| | 02:27 |
And this is an important thing to discuss
here because the Library that comes with
| | 02:30 |
Live 9 is quite different from how they
did it in Live 8.
| | 02:34 |
So, the installation of Live 9 includes a
very, very small basic library, and it's
| | 02:37 |
the same library for all the different
versions of the program.
| | 02:42 |
Now, we can get more packs at
Ableton.com, so let me click that.
| | 02:48 |
And that's going to open up my browser
and take me into the website.
| | 02:52 |
Looks like I need to sign on, so let me
do that real quick.
| | 02:55 |
And once we're there and into your
account, it takes me straight to the Your
| | 03:00 |
Packs area.
And I can see all of the content that is
| | 03:03 |
available from my version of Ableton
Live, I've got live suite here.
| | 03:09 |
So, if you're on a different version of
the program, there might be actual less
| | 03:12 |
content available, so let me cancel out
of there.
| | 03:16 |
So, you can set the location for where
Live will install those packs by clicking
| | 03:19 |
on the Browse button, and browsing to a
drive or a folder.
| | 03:22 |
In any case, I would suggest that you put
this on a different drive than your
| | 03:25 |
operating system and where Live is
installed.
| | 03:29 |
Now, I actually have one of these out on
the Desktop, and I'm going to install it
| | 03:32 |
so you can see what that looks like.
So let me close this, I'm going to hide Live.
| | 03:37 |
And so, this in a .alp file which is a
Live pack, and let me Double-click that.
| | 03:43 |
And you'll notice it brings Live back to
the top, and it installs that.
| | 03:47 |
And once that finishes, we can actually
go over here and look in the places area
| | 03:50 |
at the packs.
And it took us there automatically.
| | 03:55 |
So, we can see that we've got the core
library here that was part of the Live
| | 03:58 |
install this Live pack Designer Drums
which we just installed.
| | 04:02 |
And then, we've got Digicussion, Loop
Master, and Unnatural Selection, which
| | 04:06 |
are other Live packs that we downloaded.
Let me close that.
| | 04:10 |
And lastly, let's take a look at how you
can add a custom folder here.
| | 04:14 |
So, I'm going to click the Add Folder
button.
| | 04:16 |
And I'm going to navigate out to my
Desktop.
| | 04:20 |
And I'm going to choose the My Sounds
folder that I've already created there
| | 04:23 |
and click Open.
So, now in My Places area, if I need to,
| | 04:27 |
I can come down and look at all my packs.
I can store or look at things in the user
| | 04:33 |
library or in my custom folder that I
just created, My Sounds.
| | 04:37 |
So now that you understand how Live's
browser works, you can use it to organize
| | 04:40 |
your Live library and your audio files,
loops, and Live projects effectively.
| | 04:44 |
Take a minute to look through the
materials that are available on the
| | 04:47 |
Ableton website.
And download and install the Live packs
| | 04:51 |
to increase the device presets, samples,
and clips available in your library.
| | 04:55 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Searching for and auditioning clips and devices| 00:00 |
In the last movie, we began an in-depth
look at Live's browser.
| | 00:03 |
Let's continue and take a look at how to
search the browser, and audition clips
| | 00:06 |
and devices.
So the search area is found at the top of
| | 00:09 |
the browser, and you can either click in
that field to start a search, or you can
| | 00:12 |
use the key command, Cmd+F or Ctrl+F on a
PC to move your cursor into the search area.
| | 00:19 |
So I'll click in there.
And let's try something simple to start
| | 00:22 |
so I'll try Snare.
And I don't see any returns there.
| | 00:25 |
And that's because of the category that
I've selected.
| | 00:28 |
So I might find something in the Drums
area.
| | 00:31 |
Yeah, it looks like it's taken me in
there and there's a folder in there
| | 00:33 |
called Drum Hits with another folder
called Snare in there.
| | 00:37 |
And I know if I come down in the All
Results area that I'll see results.
| | 00:42 |
So the All Results option only shows up
when you're making a search.
| | 00:46 |
And you're seeing anything that is
located in any one of the categories.
| | 00:49 |
And if I look over here I can see that
I've got a .AIF file.
| | 00:53 |
That's an audio file.
And I'm also seeing that information in
| | 00:56 |
the type column.
Now remember you can change columns,
| | 00:59 |
what's available here, by simply right
clicking up here in the bar at the top.
| | 01:04 |
And choosing one of the extra columns
that are available.
| | 01:07 |
And you can have one extra column in
addition to the name column at a time.
| | 01:11 |
I'm going to leave the type back up
there.
| | 01:14 |
And let's try some other searches.
So, for example, I might try something
| | 01:18 |
like Beat or Drums.
Let's try Beat.
| | 01:22 |
And again, I've got a lot of different
kinds of results here.
| | 01:25 |
First of all, I've got audio files,
denoted by the .AIF.
| | 01:29 |
I've also got clips, that's by the .ALC,
and the type clip here.
| | 01:33 |
And I can also see the icon that's over
here on the left side.
| | 01:37 |
I've got some kind of a device here, and
I know that by the icon that's on the
| | 01:40 |
left-hand side.
Let's see what else we have here.
| | 01:46 |
Looks like that's about it.
Oh, I've got a Rack Preset down here.
| | 01:50 |
So, in this case, I've got multiple
devices.
| | 01:53 |
And that would be a couple of audio
effects.
| | 01:56 |
Or a MIDI effect and an audio effect
included with the Softsynth, but it's
| | 01:59 |
some kind of collection of devices that
have been grouped together to form what's
| | 02:02 |
called a Rack in Ableton Live.
Let's try another search, let's go Pad,
| | 02:08 |
and again, that shows me a lot of
different things.
| | 02:11 |
I can limit that by going to the sounds
category, or the instruments category.
| | 02:17 |
Let's try that.
So, this is showing me folders where
| | 02:20 |
there is either a sub-folder or a device
or Preset that's in that folder.
| | 02:26 |
So, obviously we got Pad because that
folder's named Pad.
| | 02:30 |
But if I go inside that, then again, we
see that there are a bunch of Presets in
| | 02:33 |
this case that have Pad as part of the
name.
| | 02:37 |
So, what else do we see here?
Well, we see that we've got .adv and that
| | 02:40 |
is a Ableton device.
Let me see if I can bring that up again
| | 02:44 |
by bringing the type column back.
So, we can see that that's a device
| | 02:49 |
Preset and that's a single device.
So, that could be a Softsynth or a single
| | 02:54 |
audio effect or single MIDI effect.
Down here a little bit lower, I see a
| | 02:59 |
similar icon but now it's got a line down
the middle and that's got a .adg and
| | 03:03 |
again that's a Rack Preset that includes
at least one Softsynth.
| | 03:08 |
And a audio effect or a MIDI effect or
something else.
| | 03:12 |
So, when you want to audition these
things, you can simply click them.
| | 03:15 |
And if the Audition button is enabled, we
should hear that immediately.
| | 03:19 |
(audio playing) Now you can stop that from
playing back by pressing your spacebar.
| | 03:26 |
And we can control the level of preview,
by dialing the level over here on this button.
| | 03:31 |
And this has got a couple of different
uses.
| | 03:33 |
It can be used as Headphone Cue level
adjustment.
| | 03:36 |
And it can be used as your Preview
adjustment.
| | 03:38 |
And right now it's set for Preview.
So if we do a search on something like
| | 03:42 |
beat or drums again.
I just want to show you that any of the
| | 03:45 |
results that we get, let me click All
Results.
| | 03:48 |
Now if I play this back, it's actually
going to play at the tempo of the session.
| | 03:53 |
Okay, so Ableton made several changes to
the browser with Ableton Live 9.
| | 04:03 |
And it's helped to make finding an
auditioning clips and devices an
| | 04:05 |
intuitive process.
Understanding the difference between the
| | 04:08 |
different file types that you'll see in
the browser is important.
| | 04:11 |
So, take a minute to review the items
that we've discussed here including
| | 04:14 |
clips, audio files, devices and device
groups.
| | 04:17 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with Live sets and projects| 00:00 |
Because audio applications work with a
complex set of resources, audio files,
| | 00:03 |
software instruments, video files and
samples to name just a few.
| | 00:07 |
Understanding the file structure in
Ableton Live is important.
| | 00:10 |
So I'm currently in a live set, and I
want to create a new one.
| | 00:14 |
So I'm going to go up to the File menu
and choose New Live Set.
| | 00:18 |
Now that opens a default set, and I know
that because I'm seeing the 2 default
| | 00:21 |
MIDI tracks, and the 2 default Audio
tracks.
| | 00:24 |
And you'll notice that currently, my set
doesn't have a name.
| | 00:27 |
So Ableton will actually allow you to
work for a while, without ever having to
| | 00:30 |
save anything, and that's not a great
idea.
| | 00:33 |
So when you get ready to work, I would
suggest that you go ahead and name your
| | 00:36 |
Live Sets.
So lets go up to the file menu, we'll
| | 00:39 |
choose Save, we can do that by key
command which would be Command S or
| | 00:42 |
Control S on a PC.
And I'll go ahead and give that a name,
| | 00:47 |
let's call this test set and I'm goinna
put that on the desktop, so I'll click
| | 00:50 |
there and go ahead and click Save.
I'm going to hide life so we can go out
| | 00:56 |
there and take a look at that.
So when you save a live set, Live
| | 01:01 |
actually puts that document, or file,
inside a folder that's called a project folder.
| | 01:06 |
And we know that you can see how its
appended the word project.
| | 01:09 |
So if I double-click on that, and go
inside, we'll see that there's the
| | 01:13 |
testset.als, that's the actual live set,
and we have one folder named Ableton
| | 01:17 |
project info.
And that contains meta data about the
| | 01:22 |
actual set.
Now, if we were to record audio, or
| | 01:25 |
import audio, or video, or other assets,
we would actually see other folders
| | 01:29 |
populate this.
I'm going to go back into Live, command +
| | 01:33 |
tab over, and so, just consider that
we've continued to work and now I want to
| | 01:37 |
go ahead and save this again.
So I can go ahead and choose Save Live
| | 01:42 |
Set As, and I can add an extension on
there like v2 for version 2, and that's
| | 01:46 |
going to go ahead and save that inside
the same live set, or live project folder.
| | 01:53 |
So at some point, I may want to create
yet another new set, so I'll go up and go
| | 01:56 |
File, New Live Set.
And I'm ready to do some great stuff, so
| | 02:01 |
I'm going to immediately save that.
So I go File > Save Live Set, and I'll
| | 02:05 |
call this Test Set 2, or Test 2, I'll
leave the word set out this time, and go
| | 02:09 |
ahead and save that.
And I'm going to go hide Live again.
| | 02:16 |
And go back to that.
I just want you to notice that we started
| | 02:19 |
off with test set.
And then we had test set version 2..
| | 02:22 |
Those related to the same set.
But then I created another new set and I
| | 02:26 |
saved it in here.
So this time when I saved that I was
| | 02:30 |
inside a Live project folder.
So Live did not differentiate that this
| | 02:35 |
was a new set.
And that it should be saved in its own
| | 02:38 |
Live Set folder or Live Project folder.
So when you create new sets, you should
| | 02:43 |
make sure that you're not inside a
previous set before you save that.
| | 02:47 |
Otherwise you won't get the surrounding
folder that will then nicely organize all
| | 02:51 |
the sub folders that are part of this one
particular set.
| | 02:55 |
Let's go back into Live and while we're
there let's just talk about a couple more things.
| | 02:59 |
So, if you want to open preexisting sets,
we can go back into the File menu and we
| | 03:03 |
can use the Open Recent Set option and
anything that's there on the list, we can open.
| | 03:09 |
Or, you can do the Open Live Set and we
can navigate the drive to the earlier set.
| | 03:15 |
And we can open that, for example, I'll
choose that original test set.
| | 03:18 |
And click Open.
And now we're back in that particular set.
| | 03:22 |
At some point, you may want to have a
default set that has more than empty midi
| | 03:25 |
tracks than audio tracks.
You may actually want to have something
| | 03:29 |
that has soft synths, and drum machines,
and devices already on the tracks.
| | 03:33 |
So we can do that by going into Live's
preferences.
| | 03:36 |
I'll go up to the Live menu and choose
Preferences.
| | 03:38 |
That'd be the options menu on a PC.
And let's go down to the file folder tab,
| | 03:42 |
and at the top, you can see that we have
an option for save current set as default.
| | 03:49 |
So if I click the save button, it's
going to save the current set as the new default.
| | 03:53 |
Now at some point in the future, if you
want to go back to using the, default set
| | 03:55 |
that comes with live.
You can click the clear button and start
| | 03:59 |
over again.
So there's nothing more annoying than
| | 04:02 |
losing files due to forgetfulness or
sloppy file management.
| | 04:05 |
Especially when it's something as
important as a song that you've written.
| | 04:08 |
Now that you understand the folder and
file structure in Live, and how to save a
| | 04:11 |
set, you can work in Live knowing that
your songs are saved and organized.
| | 04:15 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Managing files in Live| 00:00 |
An important part of using any audio or
video application is File Management.
| | 00:04 |
In this video, we'll discuss how to
manage projects and sets to ensure that
| | 00:07 |
they continue to work at later date, or
even on a different computer.
| | 00:11 |
Without encountering any missing audio,
or MIDI clip.
| | 00:13 |
So, if you record audio into a set that
hasn't been saved, Live will store those
| | 00:17 |
audio files in a temp folder.
Let's take a look at Preferences.
| | 00:22 |
I'm go up to the Live menu, choose
Preferences and click the File Folder
| | 00:25 |
tab, and we'll notice that there's a
temporary folder here that you can set.
| | 00:31 |
By default, it's in your user folder, and
in the Ableton Live, Live Recordings area.
| | 00:35 |
So let me escape out of there.
Now, once you actually save the set, that
| | 00:40 |
audio that's located in that temp folder
will be moved into the project folder.
| | 00:45 |
So as you continue to work, you'll go up
to the File menu, and you'll use options
| | 00:49 |
like Save Live Set As.
You might even use Save a Copy, which
| | 00:53 |
allows you to save a copy of this to a
new location.
| | 00:57 |
But the one I really want to point out
here is this option for Collect All and Save.
| | 01:01 |
Any set that you might be working in will
be referencing audio from a number of locations.
| | 01:06 |
Many of those are not actually inside the
set project, itself.
| | 01:10 |
They could be, actually, in the browser.
So, if you're going to be taking your set
| | 01:13 |
to another location, or you want to
ensure that this set will open in the
| | 01:16 |
future, and you will have all the assets
that it needs, you'll want to choose this
| | 01:20 |
Collect All And Save.
And what will happen there is Live will
| | 01:25 |
give the option to choose any resources
that are being used to make sure that
| | 01:28 |
they're actually in the project folder.
So let's give that a shot and let's click
| | 01:33 |
Collect All And Save.
So the dialog that appears says,
| | 01:36 |
specify which used media files are to be
copied into the project.
| | 01:41 |
So files from elsewhere, that's anything
on your hard drives, files from other
| | 01:45 |
projects, files from the user library and
files from factory packs.
| | 01:50 |
So depending upon what you're doing, this
could actually pull a lot of material
| | 01:53 |
into your Live project.
Let's go ahead and give it a shot.
| | 01:57 |
So I'll click Ok, and it takes second and
now all those materials are copied into
| | 02:02 |
the set.
Now, at a later point you may want to
| | 02:05 |
actually check and make sure that you've
got all these assets, and you can do that
| | 02:09 |
by going into the File menu, and choosing
Manage Files.
| | 02:13 |
Now that opens up the File Management
area over here in the Help view, and our
| | 02:17 |
options here are Manage Set, Manage the
Project, or Manage the User Library.
| | 02:24 |
Let's go ahead and click Manage Project
and it does a quick analysis and it shows
| | 02:28 |
that this project contains 15.3 megabytes
of data.
| | 02:32 |
It's got one live set.
So, if we hadn't done this Collect All
| | 02:36 |
And Save, the only thing that we would've
had in here would have been this one Live
| | 02:39 |
set at 284 kilobytes, but we've got 13
media files that looks like it pulled out
| | 02:43 |
of the browser.
And it's put into this particular set.
| | 02:50 |
So, if anything's missing you'll get a
little button that appears here that you
| | 02:53 |
can click and you can actually relink
your audio files.
| | 02:56 |
So as you work on a Live project, it's
likely that you'll want to go to a
| | 02:59 |
friend's house or a studio and continue
working.
| | 03:03 |
Using Collect All And Save and the other
File Management options in Live will help
| | 03:06 |
you to avoid missing files, broken links
and other nasty file management problems.
| | 03:11 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exporting clips and devices| 00:00 |
As you work with clips in Live, it's
likely that you'll want to save changes
| | 00:03 |
that you've made to clips and presets for
use in other projects.
| | 00:06 |
Let's take a look at how you can export
clips and presets to Live's library, so
| | 00:09 |
that you can access the change content
from the Live browser.
| | 00:14 |
So, exporting clips is fairly easy, now,
I'm going to want to create a place to
| | 00:17 |
put these, so I'm organized.
So, I've got my User Library selected
| | 00:20 |
here, and I'm going to go ahead and
right+click in that area and I'm going to
| | 00:23 |
choose New Folder.
I'm going to call this My Clips, and to
| | 00:27 |
export a clip there, all I need to do is
select a clip and drag and drop it into
| | 00:31 |
that folder.
When I do that, I get a dialog that
| | 00:35 |
asks me if I want to copy any of the
content related to that clip with it into
| | 00:39 |
the folder.
Now I'm getting this dialog box because
| | 00:43 |
of a preference.
So, I'm going to cancel briefly, and I'm
| | 00:46 |
going to go up to the Live menu and
choose Preferences.
| | 00:50 |
And I'm on the Library tab, and up at the
very top you'll see this option for
| | 00:54 |
clicked files on export, and right now
this is Set to Ask.
| | 00:58 |
So, I'm going to click that, and I'm
going to say Always, and this way if I'm
| | 01:02 |
not thinking about what I'm doing and I
export something the content will be
| | 01:05 |
there with a clip.
So,let me close that, and now I'm
| | 01:09 |
going to go ahead and drag that same clip
back into that folder and let go.
| | 01:13 |
And notice that it didn't give me that
option, its just gone ahead and saved
| | 01:16 |
that, I'll moved that over a little bit.
And I can go ahead and give that a name,
| | 01:21 |
if I want it to call that something
different, but I'll go ahead and just
| | 01:24 |
call that Drum Beat and hit my return
key.
| | 01:28 |
And now that can be used in future sets.
Now I can do the same thing with the
| | 01:32 |
whole group of clips that are on this
track by Shift + clicking them and
| | 01:36 |
dragging them, again, over into the
browser.
| | 01:40 |
So, I'll put those in the My Clips area,
let go, and I'll call this Drum Beats.
| | 01:47 |
My Return key, again it saved all that
content with it, but it looks a little
| | 01:50 |
different this time.
Instead of getting 5 clips listed over
| | 01:54 |
here in the folder, it looks like I've
got an actual Live project folder.
| | 01:59 |
And if I click and open that I can see
that I've got a group of things.
| | 02:03 |
And then finally if I drill down all the
way, I can see that I've got the 5 clips
| | 02:06 |
that were there.
Now if I want to reuse one of those, I
| | 02:10 |
can just grab it and drag it back onto
the Drop Files and Devices Area and let go.
| | 02:16 |
And notice that I've got the clip, and if
I select that, notice that I not only got
| | 02:20 |
the clip, but I also got the devices that
we're playing that.
| | 02:25 |
So, I can also export devices, to do
that, it's drag and drop as well.
| | 02:30 |
All I need to do is drag this up into my
User Library, and this time there's
| | 02:33 |
already a folder here called Presets.
So I'll use that one, so I'll drag that
| | 02:38 |
up, drop it.
And I can see that what I actually got
| | 02:43 |
there was a Drum group.
And I know that I'm actually in a group
| | 02:46 |
or a rack, because I've got brackets on
the outside edges of all this stuff I've
| | 02:49 |
got down here.
So, I'll go ahead and save that one.
| | 02:53 |
Just to show you that I can export just a
device, I'm going to select the group
| | 02:57 |
over here and right+click, and I'm
going to choose Ungroup.
| | 03:03 |
And now I can see just the impulse
instrument that's being used to play this
| | 03:07 |
clip, and I'm going to drag that one up
into the Presets area.
| | 03:12 |
And I get a drumgroove.adv, I'll hit
Return, and we can see the difference
| | 03:16 |
there, again, between a single device,
which is a .adv type device, and a group
| | 03:21 |
of devices.
Which in this case included both the Soft
| | 03:26 |
Synth that was playing that, and also
this Saturater and Reverb audio effect devices.
| | 03:33 |
Now I can export this whole project that
we're looking at, by going up to the File
| | 03:37 |
menu and clicking Manage Files.
Then clicking Manage Project, and the
| | 03:42 |
bottom option down here where it says
packing, if I open up that disclosure
| | 03:46 |
triangle, you can see that it allows me
to create something called a Live Pack.
| | 03:51 |
So, let's go ahead and do that, this
opens up a dialog.
| | 03:55 |
Let me go ahead and let's just put this
on the desktop, so I'll click there.
| | 03:59 |
And I'm going to call this Test, and go
ahead and click Save.
| | 04:04 |
Said that was successfully created, I'll
close that, and I'm going to hide Live.
| | 04:11 |
So, out on the desktop, I've got a
test.alp file.
| | 04:14 |
Now what's happened is Live has taken the
contents that were in that project, it's
| | 04:18 |
compressed them using lossless
compression, and combined that into one file.
| | 04:23 |
If I go ahead and double+click that, it
will open it up, and it's asking me where
| | 04:27 |
I want to save the destination for this
Live Pack when I open it.
| | 04:32 |
Now often times what we'll do is we'll
actually put those in the Live Packs Folder.
| | 04:36 |
I'm going to go ahead and just leave it
on the desktop and click Open.
| | 04:42 |
And again, I'll Hide Live, then I can go
back, and we can see we simply got a Live
| | 04:47 |
Project Folder.
If I open that up, there's the Project
| | 04:51 |
and I see some sub folders there.
The Project Info folder that has
| | 04:56 |
metadata, and I also see the Samples
folder that contains all of the different
| | 05:01 |
samples that were part of this.
And while we're here, this is
| | 05:06 |
interesting, we see the audio files.
And this is the first time that we've
| | 05:09 |
seen these .asd files.
But what that is.
| | 05:12 |
is an Analysis file, that allows Live to
time stretch, the actual audio files,
| | 05:15 |
when it actually warps them to fit
whatever the session tempo that we're
| | 05:18 |
looking at.
Okay, so let's go back into Live, on the
| | 05:22 |
Cmd+tab to get back in there.
And the last thing I want to show you
| | 05:26 |
here is that we can import and export
MIDI files as well.
| | 05:31 |
So, I'm going to Cmd+tab to get the
finder on top, and let me close that one.
| | 05:36 |
And right now I'm actually looking in the
Exercise Files Folder, so there you see
| | 05:40 |
the chapters, and I'm in 4 5 which we're
working on.
| | 05:44 |
And contained in that folder there's also
a dot mid file So, I'm going to click
| | 05:48 |
this file and drag that up into the
session, and let that go.
| | 05:53 |
And when I did that, notice that not only
did I get a MIDI file, but I actually got
| | 05:56 |
2 of them.
And that's because I actually imported
| | 06:00 |
something that's called a Standard MIDI
File Type 1.
| | 06:03 |
So, there are actually 2 types, there's a
Type 0 and a Type 1.
| | 06:07 |
A Type 0 file takes all of the content
that you have in a session or it can be
| | 06:11 |
something that you're exporting from a
program like Finale or Sibelius.
| | 06:17 |
And it takes all the staves or all the
tracks, and it combines those into one file.
| | 06:23 |
And when you put it into a new program,
it's all on 1 track.
| | 06:26 |
You don't get separate clips the way we
did here.
| | 06:29 |
So, if you export as a standard MIDI File
Type 1, it takes each track or stave and
| | 06:33 |
saves that.
But when you open it in the next program,
| | 06:37 |
you'll get a different MIDI clip for each
stave or track that you had, so that's
| | 06:41 |
what we had here.
Now, conversely in live when we go to
| | 06:45 |
Export MIDI, you can do that by selecting
a clip.
| | 06:49 |
And then right+clicking on it and we have
this option for Export MIDI clip.
| | 06:54 |
So, in this case the only option that we
have is to export these one by one.
| | 06:59 |
We don't actually get the option to
select them all and export them as a
| | 07:03 |
standard MIDI File Type 0, or Type 1.
We just get the option to save each clip
| | 07:08 |
one at a time as its own standard MIDI
file.
| | 07:11 |
So, I'll go ahead and lick the desktop
and click Save.
| | 07:15 |
Again, I'll hide Live briefly, and now
when we look out here on the desktop, we
| | 07:20 |
can see this beatwithfill.mid.
So, Live contains a number of useful
| | 07:25 |
utilities to manage your library content,
and makes it easy to import and export
| | 07:28 |
your clips, devices, and projects.
| | 07:31 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
5. Recording MIDIWhat is a software instrument?| 00:01 |
Ableton Live Suite comes with a great
software instrument that cover the basic
| | 00:04 |
need of any computer music enthusiast.
Let's take a closer look at some of these
| | 00:07 |
devices and their key parameters to get
you going.
| | 00:10 |
So if a new to program like Ableton Live,
a virtual instrument or software
| | 00:14 |
instrument is a software version of real
Synth like a Minimoog or a DX7 or a Drum
| | 00:18 |
machine or a Sampler.
And we have versions of all of thos here
| | 00:24 |
in Live.
So for example, Analogue is a software
| | 00:27 |
version of a Minimoog or Oberheim style
synth.
| | 00:30 |
Collision is a device that physical
models mallet-type instruments.
| | 00:32 |
Electric is an electric piano simulator
to create sounds like a Fender Rhodes or
| | 00:39 |
a Wurlitzer.
Impulse is a drum machine.
| | 00:45 |
Operator is an FM style synth like a DX7.
Sampler is a, a full on sample device
| | 00:51 |
where you can either sample or play
samples.
| | 00:54 |
And Simpler is a very simple sampler
that's a one sample player.
| | 00:58 |
And Tension is another physical modeling
device that models string style instruments.
| | 01:05 |
Now Simpler and Impulse are included in
all versions of Live and the others are
| | 01:09 |
additional purchases or included only in
Ableton Live Suite.
| | 01:15 |
In addition to that we've got things like
Instrument Racks and Drum Racks which
| | 01:19 |
allow you to combine multiple instruments
or multiple devices into one preset.
| | 01:24 |
So we're going to take a look at just a
couple of these.
| | 01:26 |
Let's start off by taking a look at
impluse and I've already got one loaded
| | 01:29 |
on this first track, so that I can
audition and I want to go ahead and
| | 01:31 |
record and enable that track.
Impulse is a drum machine that allows you
| | 01:36 |
to have eight samples of different drum
instruments loaded.
| | 01:40 |
And I can see this indicated by these
eight little squares that go across the
| | 01:43 |
top here.
So I can select one of these slots, and
| | 01:47 |
then the parameters across the bottom
relate to that slot.
| | 01:50 |
For example, if I choose the tom here,
we'll see these parameters change, and as
| | 01:54 |
I go across, we'll see that change as
well.
| | 01:57 |
So, on your keyboard you can find these
because they're mapped starting at middle
| | 02:02 |
C, which is C3 (audio playing) up to C4 on all
the white keys.
| | 02:07 |
Additionally we've got global settings
over here on the right side where I've
| | 02:11 |
got Volume and Transposition, and those
effect the entire virtual instrument.
| | 02:18 |
Now in the next track, I want to go ahead
and load Simpler.
| | 02:21 |
Now I can do that one or two ways.
If I just grab the folder at the top and
| | 02:25 |
Drag and Drop it, that's going to load a
default version.
| | 02:28 |
If I click the little disclosure triangle
and go into one of these other
| | 02:32 |
sub-folders, I can eventually get down to
a preset and load that.
| | 02:37 |
But just to really give you an idea of
what Simpler's capable of, I'm going to
| | 02:40 |
go ahead and load a default device.
And I drag that either on the track, or
| | 02:44 |
down here in the drop devices area.
And in this case, I've loaded an empty simpler.
| | 02:50 |
Now what I want to do here, is I want to
load a sample into that.
| | 02:53 |
So I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to
do a little search here for something
| | 02:56 |
like Snare, and then I'm going to go down
into the All results or Samples area.
| | 03:01 |
And this is going to allow me to see
samples that are available that have
| | 03:04 |
Snare contained in the name.
And if I pull down here a little bit,
| | 03:08 |
I'll see something like the Ludwig snare.
And I believe this one's contained in the
| | 03:12 |
base library, so we should all be able to
load that.
| | 03:15 |
If not, just grab any snare that's
available in your library.
| | 03:18 |
And I can drop that down in the sampler,
and again that is now record enabled
| | 03:22 |
because I loaded that preset.
And if I hit C3 (audio playing), that's where
| | 03:28 |
that sample is mapped to in its native
format.
| | 03:33 |
If I play above that or below that,
(audio playing), you're going to actually hear
| | 03:36 |
the pitch change as it plays that.
So C3 is where you're going to get the
| | 03:40 |
sound unaffected.
Now across the bottom of this, we have a
| | 03:43 |
lot of the typical things that you're
going to find in any synth like device or
| | 03:46 |
sampler like device.
So I've got a filter that I can turn on
| | 03:50 |
and I can choose a filter type there.
And then as I dial the frequency on that,
| | 03:54 |
I can actually open and close that filter
and change the tone.
| | 03:58 |
So just for example, (music playing).
So in that case, I have a low pass filter.
| | 04:06 |
And as I dial that lower, you're actually
hearing it cut off the higher frequencies.
| | 04:10 |
Now you can run the signal through this
middle area which modulates either the
| | 04:14 |
filter or the pitch.
And then over on the right-hand side
| | 04:18 |
here, we can set the Pan and the Volume
output on this.
| | 04:23 |
Last, we've got over on this third track,
I've got analogue, which is one of those
| | 04:26 |
synths that is an extra purchase or is
only included in Live Suite.
| | 04:31 |
And this is that Analog Subtractive Synth
style, virtual instrument.
| | 04:35 |
So this one is a two Oscillator device.
Right now, oscillator 1 is enabled,
| | 04:40 |
oscillator 2 and then this 3rd noise
oscillator are not enabled.
| | 04:45 |
So the signal from this oscillator
outputs in this case triangle wave and if
| | 04:49 |
I want to change that I can go to assign
or a square or a random wave.
| | 04:54 |
Let's leave it on that triangle wave and
then that output it through this filter.
| | 04:58 |
If I click that I can see the parameters
that affect the filter.
| | 05:02 |
And let me play another one, let's hear
what we get (audio playing), okay?
| | 05:07 |
So, the filter is closing rather quickly
because of the shape of that, the
| | 05:11 |
envelope settings that are here.
That then goes through an amplifier
| | 05:15 |
section, and then over here, on the
right, we have a low-frequency
| | 05:18 |
oscillator, or LFO that I can use to
control either the amp or the filter area.
| | 05:23 |
So I'm going to turn that LFO on, and
it's set to 0.9 hertz, and I can go in
| | 05:28 |
and I can see that the LFO has been
turned on here.
| | 05:34 |
And if I click on this (audio playing), and hold
the key down, you can hear that filter
| | 05:40 |
opening and closing as the oscillator in
the LFO modulates.
| | 05:47 |
Now the other interesting thing we can do
with this is I can actually turn this on
| | 05:50 |
to Sync mode and now it's going to sync
at a rate of an eighth note.
| | 05:54 |
(audio playing).
So, we hear that open and closing very rapidly.
| | 05:59 |
Now, if I hold this key down and turn
that parameter, we can hear that change
| | 06:05 |
from eighth to different rhythmic values.
(audio playing).
| | 06:11 |
And there you hear your kind of classic
Wobble Bass effect.
| | 06:18 |
So as you see Ableton Lives Suite comes
with several software instruments.
| | 06:22 |
Hopefully our discussion here gives you a
place to start.
| | 06:24 |
You can start by using the presets
available in Live and then modify them to
| | 06:27 |
meet your needs.
| | 06:28 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Preparing to record MIDI| 00:00 |
Before recording midi, you'll want to
check the midi connections with your
| | 00:03 |
keyboard, load a sound and set a tempo.
So let's walk through those steps.
| | 00:07 |
I want to make sure that I've got signal
from my midi keyboard.
| | 00:10 |
If I press a key on my midi keyboard, I
should see this button in the upper right
| | 00:13 |
hand corner of Ableton light up.
So let me press a key here.
| | 00:17 |
That's looking good.
Now if yours is not responding as mine
| | 00:20 |
is, you'll want to go into preferences
which on a Mac, is in the Live menu.
| | 00:24 |
Preferences, that'd be on the Options
menu on a PC.
| | 00:29 |
And select the Midi Sync tab.
And make sure that the button under the
| | 00:32 |
track column is enabled for your device.
That allows you to send and receive midi messages.
| | 00:38 |
Okay let's close out of there.
Now we can load a preset or device to
| | 00:42 |
this track, by going over into our
browser.
| | 00:45 |
I've got the sound category chosen.
And I'm going to go into the pad category
| | 00:49 |
and come down here and just grab
something like, the snow-pad.
| | 00:53 |
And I'm going to drop that on an, an
available midi track.
| | 00:57 |
I can also drop it over here in the drop
files area, or if I've got a midi track
| | 01:00 |
selected, I can also drop it down here in
the instrument area.
| | 01:05 |
And that will load that, and if I press a
key on my keyboard I should hear sound.
| | 01:10 |
(audio playing).
So that's working.
| | 01:14 |
Now, let me just point out a couple of
things, Live automatically defaults to
| | 01:18 |
having all inputs set here, in the Midi
Input Choser.
| | 01:22 |
So, the first button here is actually for
the device that midi signal is coming through.
| | 01:27 |
And if you choose All Devices or All
Instruments, it will allow any midi
| | 01:30 |
signal that's reaching the system to come
on to this track.
| | 01:35 |
If I click on that, you can see that
there are some other options here.
| | 01:38 |
It looks like I've got an external midi
input on my keyboard that I could of chosen.
| | 01:43 |
And there's some other options here.
But the only reason that you would really
| | 01:47 |
worry about this is if you were trying to
record two midi tracks at the same time.
| | 01:51 |
And you were trying to use two different
midi controllers.
| | 01:54 |
For example a drum machine and a
keyboard.
| | 01:57 |
In this case, I'm only trying to record
on to one track, so I don't really care
| | 02:00 |
where the midi signal's coming from, as
long as it gets there.
| | 02:05 |
The second chooser here, allows us to
choose a specific midi channel and if I
| | 02:08 |
click that, you can see that I've got
channels 1 through 16.
| | 02:12 |
Again, I'm only trying to record one
signal.
| | 02:17 |
So I really don't care what channel it's
arriving on, any channel is good enough.
| | 02:21 |
So, I'll choose All Channels.
Now, in monitoring this particular set,
| | 02:25 |
as soon as I drop the preset on the
track, you'll notice that the track was
| | 02:28 |
record enabled, and we were able to hear
sound.
| | 02:32 |
Now at a later point, the track might be
disabled.
| | 02:36 |
And if I play the keyboard, I don't hear
anything.
| | 02:40 |
I saw the midi signal, but I didn't hear
anything.
| | 02:42 |
So I can either re-enable the record
button on the track or I can go up into
| | 02:46 |
the monitor section and I can change the
option there.
| | 02:49 |
So currently, we're in auto-monitoring,
which is going to allow me to monitor
| | 02:53 |
signal from any clips that are on the
track.
| | 02:56 |
So if I click a launch button and play a
clip, we'll hear sound.
| | 02:59 |
If I want to hear the input of a synth
without being in record enable, I need to
| | 03:03 |
click the In button to go into input
monitoring, which is going to allow me to
| | 03:06 |
hear signal from a midi controller, that
is sending midi signal onto the track and
| | 03:10 |
through the virtual instrument that's
loaded on the track.
| | 03:16 |
On an audio track, if we go into input
monitoring, we'll be able to hear audio
| | 03:19 |
signal from a microphone that's plugged
into your interface, without being in
| | 03:22 |
record enable.
And then off allows us to just turn, the
| | 03:27 |
track off for monitoring and not here
anything.
| | 03:30 |
In most cases though, you just need to be
in auto, and make sure that you're record enabled.
| | 03:34 |
I'll go ahead and check that real quick.
(music playing) Okay I've got sound again.
| | 03:39 |
And as your working, if you were not
seeing the midi inputs and outputs in the
| | 03:42 |
monitor section as I was showing you
that, remember that you can enable that
| | 03:45 |
area by clicking on the Show Hide button
for the I/O over there.
| | 03:50 |
And you can see that that closes and
opens that particular area of the session view.
| | 03:55 |
So at this point I might want to set a
tempo that I'm going to record at.
| | 03:59 |
Maybe the song is going to be at 145.47.
That's an exact tempo, but I might not be
| | 04:04 |
able to play that fast, so I'm going to
click up in that area and I can either
| | 04:07 |
scroll up or down to set the tempo.
Or, I can type a value.
| | 04:13 |
I'm going to go all the way down to a 100
bpm, because I'm kind of a mediocre
| | 04:15 |
keyboard player.
Another way you could set that tempo
| | 04:19 |
would be to click on the Tab button over
here.
| | 04:21 |
And as you click it successively, Live
will measure the distance between your
| | 04:25 |
tabs and set the temple accordingly.
So for example, see that adjusting the tempo.
| | 04:34 |
I can also set the meter by clicking in
this field.
| | 04:37 |
But I'm also going to want to set the
metronome to play.
| | 04:40 |
So I'll enable the metronome button.
And then I'm going to want to enable a
| | 04:43 |
count off.
So let me click here, and looks like it's
| | 04:46 |
currently set at one bar and that can
also be set at two or four bars or at nothing.
| | 04:52 |
So, as you can see there are several
steps to preparing to record midi and if
| | 04:55 |
you encounter problems you can
troubleshoot through the steps we just discussed.
| | 04:59 |
| | 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 the process, let's make a
| | 00:06 |
video recording and learn how to use
Live's MIDI Overdub function.
| | 00:11 |
So, I'm going to start by loading an
instrument onto this first default MIDI track.
| | 00:13 |
So, let me click the Instruments
category, and I'll just drop down to
| | 00:16 |
Impulse and grab this first preset, and
I'll load that by dragging it onto the track.
| | 00:21 |
Or down into this drop instrument or
sample area.
| | 00:24 |
So, as soon as I loaded that, notice that
the track became record enabled, and the
| | 00:28 |
clip Stop buttons turned into Record
buttons.
| | 00:32 |
So, let me check to see if I've got
signal by pressing a key on my keyboard.
| | 00:37 |
And if you'll remember, that first slot
on the impulse drum machine there is
| | 00:41 |
mapped to c3 or middle c, okay?
So, I've got sound.
| | 00:46 |
Next, I'll go up and enable the Metronome
button so that I've got a time reference.
| | 00:52 |
I'm going to check to make sure that I've
got a count in enabled by clicking on
| | 00:55 |
that little drop down menu.
And it looks like I've got that set to
| | 00:59 |
one bar, which should be enough.
So, I'll click out of there.
| | 01:03 |
Now, all I need to do to go into Record
is click the Record button on one of
| | 01:06 |
these clip slots.
I'll just choose the first one.
| | 01:10 |
We should hear a four beat count in and
then I'll start playing.
| | 01:14 |
(audio playing)
| | 01:21 |
Okay?
So, if we look down here on the Clip
| | 01:29 |
Overlay button.
You'll notice that it looks like I've got
| | 01:32 |
some MIDI, so I'll choose that.
I can see some of the MIDI notes there.
| | 01:37 |
And it's a little bit off the screen, so
I'm going to come over here on the left
| | 01:40 |
and I'm going to pull up so I can see
that the kick across the bottom.
| | 01:45 |
And I also noticed that I didn't stop
record.
| | 01:47 |
And by the way, I did that by pressing
the spacebar.
| | 01:50 |
But the clip is actually almost six bars
long, and I only played four bars.
| | 01:55 |
So, I'm going to grab the clip inpoints
here and I'm going to drag those over and
| | 01:58 |
snap those on the grid, at the end of bar
four.
| | 02:02 |
So, I've just got a kick and snare part.
And it's likely that you're going to want
| | 02:06 |
to have more than that.
So, I'm going to overdub an additional
| | 02:09 |
part on top of this.
I can do that by selecting a clip, track
| | 02:13 |
is in record, and then coming up here and
clicking the Session Record button.
| | 02:19 |
So, that's going to allow me to add notes
to an existing clip without wiping out
| | 02:22 |
what was there before.
So, here we go.
| | 02:25 |
(music playing) So, you can see how you can build
a part up one instrument at a time.
| | 02:43 |
Now, we can also do this on the fly
without actually having to start and stop.
| | 02:47 |
So, let me do that on the second track.
So, I'm going to grab the same preset.
| | 02:52 |
I'm going to load that onto a clip over
here in the second track.
| | 02:55 |
And to make sure that I don't hear
playback on the first track, I'm actually
| | 02:58 |
going to disable the playback by clicking
on the Track Activator or Mute button.
| | 03:04 |
I'm going to insert an empty MIDI clip on
one of the clip slots here, so I'll
| | 03:07 |
choose that, and then I'm going to
Right-click and choose Insert MIDI Clip.
| | 03:12 |
You can also use the key command
Shift+Cmd+M or Shift+Ctrl+M on a PC.
| | 03:18 |
And when this comes in, notice that it's
just one bar in length.
| | 03:21 |
I actually want to record into two bars,
so I'm going to clip the loop brace up
| | 03:25 |
here at the top, select that, and go
Cmd+D to duplicate that.
| | 03:29 |
And it'll just duplicate whatever the
current length is.
| | 03:32 |
So, now I've got a two bar MIDI clip to
record into.
| | 03:37 |
So, what I'm going to do here then is
click the Session Record button.
| | 03:41 |
And then, I'm going to play this in one
part at a time.
| | 03:44 |
And I know that if you make a mistake
while you do this, while it's running,
| | 03:47 |
you can use the undo function, Cmd+Z or
Ctrl+Z on a PC.
| | 03:52 |
And undo the last thing, and then just
wait for it to loop back around.
| | 03:55 |
Play it in again.
So, let's give this a shot.
| | 03:58 |
(music playing)
| | 04:03 |
Okay, so I stop that by pressing the
spacebar again.
| | 04:35 |
And now I can take that track out of
record, and I'm ready to move onto the
| | 04:38 |
next thing.
So, now that you know how to record an
| | 04:41 |
overdub record MIDI in Session view,
you're ready to begin recording different
| | 04:44 |
parts of your songs.
| | 04:46 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using a computer keyboard to enter MIDI| 00:00 |
At times you may not have a MIDI keyboard
available but still want to record some
| | 00:03 |
of your ideas.
Let's take a look at how you can use your
| | 00:06 |
computer keyboard as a controller.
So use your computer keyboards
| | 00:10 |
controller, you need to make sure that
the Keyboard button up here in the
| | 00:13 |
Control bar is enabled and it is right
now.
| | 00:16 |
So I've already got a drum clip on the
track.
| | 00:19 |
I want to add a base part.
So, I'm going to go into the sound over
| | 00:22 |
here and into the base category and let
me just check a couple these out and I'll
| | 00:26 |
choose one.
| | 00:27 |
(audio playing).
| | 00:31 |
All right.
I'll just grab the first one and I'll
| | 00:37 |
load that onto the track.
Once you've activated the keyboard
| | 00:41 |
switch, there are several keys on your
computer keyboard that will serve to
| | 00:44 |
trigger notes.
For the white keys, you can use letters A
| | 00:48 |
through L, let me give that a shot
(audio playing).
| | 00:53 |
Okay, so we hear that.
And for the black keynotes, if you think
| | 00:57 |
of the A key as being your middle C.
And S being the note D, then the key
| | 01:02 |
that's between those two, up above it
would be the black key in between, or W,
| | 01:06 |
for C sharp or D flat (audio playing) So, lets
just give this a shot.
| | 01:12 |
So A is C.
(audio playing) W is C sharp.
| | 01:16 |
(audio playing) S is D.
(audio playing) E is going to be D sharp.
| | 01:20 |
(audio playing) The D key will be E (audio playing).
The F key in this case which is great
| | 01:24 |
will actually be F (audio playing) and so on and
so fourth.
| | 01:28 |
So you've got one octave between A up to
L and you get 1 extra note going from C
| | 01:32 |
up to the D an octave higher.
So, as I'm playing this, I really want to
| | 01:37 |
play a bass line, right.
And as I play these keys, you'll notice
| | 01:41 |
that I'm actually pretty high in pitch.
(audio playing) So I want to transpose my
| | 01:45 |
keyboard down.
So, by default, the keyboard starts at
| | 01:48 |
C3, but if you press your Z key, you'll
notice that it will drop an octave.
| | 01:52 |
And I'll actually see that happen if you
look down on the little bar down here at
| | 01:55 |
the bottom.
As I press Z, it says your current octave
| | 02:00 |
is now C2 to D3.
So I'll press letter A to hear what C
| | 02:04 |
sounds like now.
(audio playing) Okay, that might be okay, but let
| | 02:07 |
me try just one octave lower.
So I press Z again.
| | 02:11 |
(audio playing) Okay, that might me okay and I'll
try it one more time down in octave.
| | 02:17 |
(audio playing) Okay, now that's to low.
So I'm going to press my X key to take it
| | 02:20 |
up an octave.
(audio playing) And I'm back on C1 there and that
| | 02:24 |
sounds pretty good.
As I press that, I'm not sure about the
| | 02:29 |
level so next to Z and X the transpose
keys I've got C and V.
| | 02:35 |
And those serve to decrease the velocity
or increase it.
| | 02:38 |
So I'll play A.
(audio playing) Sounds that loud.
| | 02:42 |
Let me press my C key.
Now it takes me down 20 in velocity.
| | 02:47 |
(audio playing) That's getting soft.
So I'll Press the V key to take me up 20
| | 02:51 |
in velocity.
(audio playing) Let me try one higher.
| | 02:55 |
(audio playing) Okay, so I think I'm going to
start there.
| | 02:58 |
So just to review there, I pressed the Z
and X keys to take the keyboard up or
| | 03:03 |
down an octave.
And I press the C or V keys to decrease
| | 03:08 |
or increase the velocity by 20.
Now I can record just as normal.
| | 03:13 |
All I need to do is just make sure that
the track is record enabled I've got the
| | 03:16 |
metronome enabled.
Let me double check my count in.
| | 03:20 |
Yeah, it's still set at one bar and I'm
going to do one more thing this time
| | 03:23 |
because playing on the keyboard might be
a little bit more difficult than playing
| | 03:26 |
on a actual keyboard.
I'm going to go up to the edit menu and
| | 03:31 |
I'm going to drop down and make sure that
Record Quantization is turned on.
| | 03:35 |
Now this will actually take any notes
that you play and rhythm error correct
| | 03:39 |
them to the nearest value of whatever you
set in this menu.
| | 03:44 |
Now right here I have it set at 16th
notes.
| | 03:45 |
So I think that's okay for right now, but
the general rule of thumb is that you set
| | 03:49 |
this value to the smallest rhythmic value
that you're going to play in whatever
| | 03:53 |
Part that you're going to record.
So I've got my bass part there.
| | 03:59 |
Let me see if I've got this figured out.
(music playing).
| | 04:01 |
Okay, those are the notes that I want to
play.
| | 04:05 |
So I'm ready to go.
Let me click the Record button on this
| | 04:09 |
clip slot.
And I'll get a 4 beat count in.
| | 04:12 |
Away we go.
(music playing) And I noticed that because I was
| | 04:17 |
playing a descending base line I was
actually in the wrong octave.
| | 04:28 |
So I'm going to undo that.
I'm going to transpose my keyboard down
| | 04:31 |
one octave again, that's what the Z key.
(music playing) Okay, that's what I want to play.
| | 04:37 |
So, here we go again.
(music playing) Okay, let me stop that and again
| | 04:43 |
I'm going to click the clip overlay
button so I can see my MIDI.
| | 04:55 |
And down a little bit lower.
So I'm going to go over here on the left
| | 04:57 |
and drag that up so I can see my notes.
And looks like everything is lining up well.
| | 05:03 |
And this time it looks like my clip is
the right length, looks like I'm exactly
| | 05:06 |
4 bars long.
Let me just double check.
| | 05:09 |
I'll drag that over and then drag that
back, let that snap to the beginning of
| | 05:12 |
bar five.
So I have a four bar clip.
| | 05:16 |
So the next time you're sitting in a
coffee shop, or on an airplane and you
| | 05:19 |
get an idea, you can capture it before
you lose it by using your computer
| | 05:21 |
keyboard to enter notes into your live
projects.
| | 05:24 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Utilizing the pencil to enter MIDI notes| 00:00 |
For those of us who are not proficient
keyboard players, recording MIDI parts
| | 00:03 |
using a keyboard controller is often time
consuming.
| | 00:06 |
An doesn't always yield the results that
we would like.
| | 00:08 |
Let's take a look at a couple of
alternative ways to enter MIDI notes.
| | 00:12 |
So, Live offers 2 ways to record MIDI in
non real time, meaning that we can enter
| | 00:15 |
the notes out of time, taking as much
time as we need to enter each note.
| | 00:20 |
But when Live plays it back, it will play
it back in time.
| | 00:23 |
So, one of these methods is called Step
Record.
| | 00:26 |
Now, I've got sounds loaded on these
first 2 tracks.
| | 00:29 |
So, I'm going to get started by adding an
empty clip on this first clip slot on the drums.
| | 00:34 |
So, I'll choose that Clip Slot and
right-click and choose Insert MIDI Clip.
| | 00:38 |
going to put the track in Record.
And then when I come down into the MIDI
| | 00:42 |
Editor area, I want to check and make
sure that the Preview button is enabled.
| | 00:45 |
And that's going to do 2 things.
It will allow us to hear notes as I play
| | 00:49 |
them, let's check that out.
(audio playing).
| | 00:52 |
But it also enables step record.
So, I'll click into the MIDI editor.
| | 00:57 |
And I can use my Arrow keys to move my
cursor around and place the notes where I
| | 01:01 |
want to place them.
Now the length of the notes is going to
| | 01:04 |
be determined by the grid, and I can
change that, by right-clicking in this
| | 01:08 |
area, and choosing the Note Value.
Now usually what you'll do is set this to
| | 01:13 |
the smallest note value that you might
enter as part of the part that you're
| | 01:16 |
going to create.
And I'm going to stay with sixteenth notes.
| | 01:20 |
So the process now, is just to hold a key
down on your MIDI keyboard that
| | 01:23 |
represents the note that you want to add,
and then press the right arrow key on
| | 01:26 |
your computer keyboard to enter the note.
So I'm going to hold down a C to trigger
| | 01:32 |
the kick (audio playing), and then press my right
arrow to enter that note.
| | 01:36 |
And then I'll arrow over to beat 2 so I
can add a snare, I'll press down D,
| | 01:40 |
(audio playing).
And press the right arrow to enter that one.
| | 01:45 |
If you get over here, and you make a
mistake, for example, I'm going to add
| | 01:48 |
this kick in just a little bit early.
So I'll press the key down and then press
| | 01:52 |
my right arrow to enter the note.
But if I'm still holding the note down, I
| | 01:57 |
can press my left arrow to delete it,
(audio playing), and it's gone.
| | 02:02 |
And now I can arrow over, and I can hold
down my C there, press my right arrow, so
| | 02:06 |
that's good.
And go over.
| | 02:09 |
This time I'll put the snare in the wrong
place, so hold down D, press my right
| | 02:13 |
arrow, it's entered.
I realized that it was the wrong place,
| | 02:17 |
so I'll just click it with my mouse.
An press my Delete key to get rid of it,
| | 02:21 |
and now I can arrow over, and hold down
D, (audio playing), and put the snare in the
| | 02:24 |
right place.
So the next thing I want to do, is I
| | 02:28 |
want to add in, a Hi hat part.
So I'm going to arrow back over to where
| | 02:32 |
I want to start to do that.
And I just want to add, Hi-Hats on every
| | 02:36 |
other sixteenth.
So held, hold down my note A (audio playing),
| | 02:41 |
arrow, arrow again, (audio playing) A.
(audio playing).
| | 02:44 |
It's a little bit time consuming, but I'm
not making any mistakes as I do it.
| | 02:52 |
(audio playing).
So I've got a basic drum part entered there.
| | 02:59 |
And now what I want to do is enter some
chords into the pad part.
| | 03:03 |
So again, I'll click the First Clip Slot
here, and I'm going to add an empty clip
| | 03:07 |
by using the key command this time, which
is Cmd+Shift+M on a Mac or Ctrl+Shift+M
| | 03:12 |
on a PC.
I'm going to activate the Preview button
| | 03:16 |
so I can hear what I play.
And I'm also going to activate the Record button.
| | 03:21 |
Now hold down my Chord.
Okay, I've got signal.
| | 03:25 |
(music playing).
And I want to add this chord in here, but
| | 03:27 |
I don't want it to be the same value as
the default grid value.
| | 03:32 |
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to
hold the notes down and then I'm going to
| | 03:35 |
continue to hold them down as I press the
right arrow button successively.
| | 03:40 |
And that will allow me to add a sixteenth
note length each time I press that to the chord.
| | 03:47 |
I'll click in the MIDI Editor and I'll
move the cursor over to where I need to
| | 03:52 |
be, now I'll hold the chord down, (music playing)
and press the right arrow, (music playing).
| | 04:01 |
And that time I was able to add in a half
note length on that chord.
| | 04:05 |
So another way that we can do this, is we
can do this by using the pencil method.
| | 04:10 |
Again, I'm going to go up on the Drum
track and I'm going to right-click and
| | 04:13 |
I'm going to add an Empty clip.
And I'm going to activate Pencil Mode by
| | 04:17 |
clicking on the Pencil button up here in
the Control bar.
| | 04:21 |
And now, I can add in notes at the
default length by just simply clicking
| | 04:24 |
where I want to add them.
So quickly I can add kick, snare, kick,
| | 04:31 |
and snare.
And I want to add some successive Hi-Hat
| | 04:35 |
on all the sixteenth notes.
So I'm just going to Click and Drag all
| | 04:39 |
the way across here.
Now as I'm doing that, I'm adding notes
| | 04:43 |
at the velocity of, it looks like, 80.
And if you want to add in something at a
| | 04:48 |
higher velocity, we can use those same
keys that we used, in our discussion on
| | 04:52 |
using the keyboard to add MIDI notes.
And those would be C and V.
| | 04:59 |
So C is going to decrease the velocity,
20.
| | 05:01 |
And V is going to increase it, 20.
And it looks like I started at 60.
| | 05:06 |
So those notes might be a little bit
soft.
| | 05:08 |
So I'm actually going to Undo that last
little path there.
| | 05:10 |
And I'm going to add those in a little
bit louder.
| | 05:13 |
So let me press the V key again.
So now I'm at 80.
| | 05:16 |
Press it one more time.
Now I'm at a 100.
| | 05:19 |
So I can click, and add those notes in.
I noticed that the velocity information
| | 05:23 |
actually displays in the saturation of
the color of the MIDI notes.
| | 05:28 |
A lot of times, the Hi-Hats are kind of
quiet, so I find it useful to put them in
| | 05:31 |
a little bit louder.
So as you can see, step input and draw
| | 05:35 |
mode are a great help to those of us
whose keyboard skills need work.
| | 05:39 |
These methods can be tricky, so practice
a bit with at least one of these methods
| | 05:42 |
and you'll find that you can add a note
very quickly.
| | 05:45 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Taking advantage of third-party and multi-output MIDI devices| 00:00 |
It's likely that you'll find third party
software instruments that you'll want to
| | 00:04 |
use in your Ableton Live projects.
Let's take a look at how you can enable
| | 00:07 |
Live to use third party devices.
And where these devices allow you to mold
| | 00:11 |
multiple sounds or presets in one
instance of the plugin.
| | 00:14 |
How you can route their audio outputs to
multiple tracks in Live.
| | 00:17 |
So, we can activate third party or non
Ableton plugins in the preferences area.
| | 00:22 |
So, lets go up to the Live menu.
And that would be the Options menu on a
| | 00:26 |
PC, and let's select Preferences.
On file folder tab, down at the bottom,
| | 00:31 |
you'll find this area called Plugin
Sources.
| | 00:34 |
And this is where we can enable things
like AU plugins on a Mac or VST plugins,
| | 00:38 |
also on a Mac.
But those would be primarily on a PC.
| | 00:42 |
All you need to do to enable them is
actually click the button next to the
| | 00:45 |
category of plugins you want to use.
And if you've added some additional third
| | 00:50 |
party plugins to your system while live
is open, you can enable them by clicking
| | 00:53 |
the Rescan button.
Okay, I'm ready to get out of here, so
| | 00:57 |
I'll hit my Escape key.
Now the third party plugins are found in
| | 01:00 |
the plugins category here in the browser.
And when I go in there, it looks like
| | 01:04 |
I've got some Apple AU plugins and I've
got a Selenium plugin.
| | 01:08 |
But I'm looking for the Spectrasonics
category here, because I loaded on this
| | 01:11 |
sphere so that we could try this out.
So, I'm going to click and drag that onto
| | 01:16 |
this first default MIDI track.
Take a second and it loads.
| | 01:20 |
I'm going to go ahead and close that so I
can demonstrate, that third party plugins
| | 01:24 |
have this kind of blank window that we
see.
| | 01:28 |
And if you want to bring up the actual
plugin to load presets or make some
| | 01:32 |
changes to any parameters.
You can click the little wrench knob
| | 01:36 |
there, that's on the top of the plugin
header.
| | 01:39 |
That brings that back.
So, I'm going to go into the multi-mode
| | 01:42 |
in Omnisphere so that I could load two or
three sounds here.
| | 01:46 |
So, on the first slot here, I'll click
the File Folder.
| | 01:49 |
And the glorious guitar sounds good, so
I'll load that one.
| | 01:53 |
I close that and then I'll do the same
thing on the second slot.
| | 01:58 |
Electro reduction sounds like fun.
I'll load one more.
| | 02:02 |
How about backwards studio piano?
That sounds fun.
| | 02:08 |
Over here on the left-hand side, I can
set the MIDI channels that these will
| | 02:11 |
respond to, and I can also set their
outputs.
| | 02:15 |
So by default, they're set to successive
MIDI channels.
| | 02:18 |
So, the first one is set to channel 1,
next one is set to channel 2, and the
| | 02:21 |
next one is set to channel 3.
But currently they're all set to the same outputs.
| | 02:27 |
So I'm going to drop down here, I'm
going to set the first one to A, then
| | 02:31 |
I'll set the second one to output B, and
the third one to output C.
| | 02:36 |
So now what'll happen is the only sound
that we should hear on the first default
| | 02:40 |
midi track that we used, will be the
glorious guitars.
| | 02:44 |
So I'm going to close this, and I'll play
some notes on my keyboard.
| | 02:48 |
(audio playing) Okay so I'm only hearing a single
sound.
| | 02:51 |
Now, what I want to do is I want to route
the returns from the other two sounds
| | 02:55 |
onto two more MIDI tracks.
I've got one default track to use, so let
| | 03:01 |
me add one more additional MIDI track.
And I'll do that by using the key command
| | 03:06 |
which is Cmd+Shif+t or Ctrl+Shift+t on a
PC.
| | 03:11 |
So I've got two additional tracks there.
And then I'm going to go into the
| | 03:14 |
Instruments category, and I'm looking for
the external instrument device.
| | 03:20 |
And I'm just going to click and drag one
on each of these two additional tracks.
| | 03:26 |
Now I'll go back to the second channel,
and down here in the device area, I can
| | 03:29 |
see the external instrument device.
And what this allows me to do is route
| | 03:35 |
the MIDI to some external place.
In this case, it's actually still on the
| | 03:39 |
computer, and it's just this Omnisphere
plugin.
| | 03:42 |
but this could also be out of the
computer through your interface to an
| | 03:45 |
external synthesizer.
So let me click that.
| | 03:49 |
I'm going to choose Omnisphere.
And then in the second chooser, I'm
| | 03:52 |
going to to choose the channel that I
want to send to.
| | 03:55 |
Now remember I've already got the first
sound on track one.
| | 03:58 |
So I want to send to the second
Omnisphere preset.
| | 04:01 |
And I'll do that.
And then I can bring this back on
| | 04:04 |
different audio inputs onto this track.
So output A on Omnisphere would be
| | 04:10 |
channels 1 and 2.
And that's already routed to the first
| | 04:13 |
Omnisphere channel.
So I want to bring this one in on 3 and
| | 04:17 |
4, and you can see that I've got up to
16.
| | 04:20 |
But 1 and 2 is not available, because
that's being used on track 1.
| | 04:24 |
So that's already set.
Let me move over to the second additional
| | 04:27 |
track here, and again I'll choose
Omnisphere as the device.
| | 04:32 |
And this time I'll choose mini-channel 3
to send to Omnisphere on.
| | 04:37 |
And then I'll drop down to the Audio From
Chooser, and I'll select 5 and 6.
| | 04:42 |
So I've got outputs from Omnisphere 1 and
2 on track 1, 3 and 4 on track 2, and 5
| | 04:47 |
and 6 on track 3.
So when I press the Record buttons on
| | 04:52 |
each of them, I should hear 3 different
sounds.
| | 04:55 |
So again to start, I'll do channel 1.
(music playing) There's that sound.
| | 05:01 |
The next channel.
(music playing) Got that sa base sound.
| | 05:07 |
And on the third track.
(music playing) Yet a third sound.
| | 05:13 |
So now I can record different clips on
these 3 and actually trigger different
| | 05:16 |
signs for each track in Omnisphere.
So now that you know how to activate and
| | 05:21 |
use third party devices in Ableton Live.
And if you prefer how to setup a
| | 05:26 |
multi-output instrument.
You can add your favorite third party
| | 05:29 |
virtual instruments to your next Ableton
Live project.
| | 05:33 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
6. Editing MIDINavigating and zooming in the MIDI Editor| 00:00 |
The MIDI Editor in Live is like a small
application unto itself.
| | 00:03 |
So, let's take a look at the components
that make up the Editor and learn how to
| | 00:06 |
configure and navigate the MIDI Editor.
I can see a clip down here in MIDI Editor
| | 00:10 |
by just simply selecting one.
And I'm going to choose the bass clip,
| | 00:13 |
because I know that's a MIDI clip.
And so, I'm seeing the clip view here.
| | 00:18 |
Just remember that you can also see the
devices that are playing this clip.
| | 00:21 |
And I can do that a couple of different
ways.
| | 00:23 |
I can click on the Device View button
here.
| | 00:26 |
I can move back to the clip by clicking
on that button.
| | 00:28 |
I can also switch between them using the
key command, Shift+Tab.
| | 00:33 |
And just to remind you, I'm going to Open
and Close the Details View by clicking on
| | 00:36 |
this button in the lower right-hand
corner.
| | 00:39 |
Okay, so the MIDI Editor, and that's this
area that I'm circling with my mouse, has
| | 00:43 |
several components.
So, across the top we have a Ruler.
| | 00:47 |
Over here on the left-hand side, we've
got the Note Ruler.
| | 00:50 |
And then in between, we have the Piano
Roll.
| | 00:52 |
Across the bottom we have the Velocity
Editor area.
| | 00:55 |
If you want to hear a note, we can do
that a couple of different ways.
| | 00:59 |
If the Preview button is enabled, which
it is right now, you can click on a note
| | 01:02 |
(audio playing) and you'll hear it played.
Or you can also click on another note
| | 01:07 |
over in the Piano Roll (audio playing).
Now you'll notice, as I move my mouse
| | 01:11 |
around, you're actually seeing a read out
of what note that it's above over in the
| | 01:15 |
Note Ruler.
So, across the top, we have this Beat
| | 01:19 |
Time Ruler which offers us a time
reference to the clip.
| | 01:23 |
So I can see that it's actually 8 bars
long and if I want to Zoom In and Zoom
| | 01:26 |
Out on that I can click in the Ruler and
Drag up or down.
| | 01:32 |
There's a couple of other ways to do
that.
| | 01:33 |
So, let me show you that.
So, if you move your cursor down here
| | 01:36 |
over the clip overview area, I can click
and Drag there.
| | 01:40 |
I can also move my cursor over to the
edge and click and Drag on either the
| | 01:43 |
front or the back edge.
But the one I like is to actually click
| | 01:47 |
into the MIDI Editor and then press the
Plus and Minus keys on the Num Pad area
| | 01:51 |
of your computer keyboard.
Now, if the notes that you're looking at
| | 01:58 |
are too tall or too short I can actually
move my cursor over into the Note Ruler
| | 02:03 |
Editor and then click and Drag right or
left to make those taller, or shorter.
| | 02:10 |
Now, sometimes you'll be working with
devices where you're only using very,
| | 02:13 |
very few notes and you don't need to see
the whole keyboard.
| | 02:16 |
And let me show you the percussion clip
I've got over here.
| | 02:19 |
This uses Impulse to play these
particular MIDI notes.
| | 02:23 |
And Impulse, as you remember, only has
eight slots for eight different samples.
| | 02:27 |
So we don't need to see the entire 88 Key
Keyboard.
| | 02:30 |
So we can actually hide most of those
keys by enabling the Fold button which is
| | 02:33 |
currently enabled.
So let me disable that and notice that we
| | 02:36 |
go back to the more conventional view
with the Note Ruler and the Piano Roll.
| | 02:41 |
But as soon as I re-enable the Fold
button.
| | 02:44 |
I'm looking at just the eight slots and
the notes that are related to what's
| | 02:47 |
being used in that drum instrument.
So, let me go back to this bass clip.
| | 02:52 |
Now, sometimes you'll click in here and
you won't actually see the notes because
| | 02:55 |
they're actually out of view.
They're either too low or too high.
| | 02:59 |
So, if that happens to you, just note
that you can click and Drag over here in
| | 03:03 |
the Note Ruler.
Click and Drag and then go up or down or
| | 03:07 |
you can also scroll over here with your
mouse in the MIDI Editor area.
| | 03:13 |
Or if your cursor is actually clicked
into that area, you can use the page up
| | 03:16 |
and page down buttons on your keyboard.
So if you're zoomed in, and I'll just
| | 03:22 |
Zoom In a little bit so I can demonstrate
this, so I'm going to use the Plus key,
| | 03:24 |
and the note that you want to look at is
actually now out of view.
| | 03:28 |
You can pan right and left two different
ways.
| | 03:31 |
First of all, you can move your cursor
back up into the Ruler and click and Drag
| | 03:36 |
right and left.
Or you can move your cursor down into the
| | 03:40 |
Editor area and if you hold down the keys
Option+Cmd on a Mac, or Alt+Ctrl on a PC,
| | 03:44 |
you'll see that your cursor turns into
the Hand, and you can Drag right or left
| | 03:49 |
that way as well.
Let me zoom back out so I can see the
| | 03:55 |
entire clip.
Now let's play this.
| | 03:57 |
Right now the clip that we're looking at
doesn't have focus.
| | 04:00 |
That means that the Play button or the
Launch button on the clip is not green.
| | 04:04 |
So let me start that by clicking on that,
and then I'll stop it using my spacebar.
| | 04:08 |
(audio playing) Once I've actually played the
clip and it's still in focus, I can
| | 04:13 |
actually start and stop the clip using
the spacebar.
| | 04:18 |
(audio playing) Now, when I stop it, if I want to
start playback from where my cursor is
| | 04:23 |
located I can do that by holding down
Shift and pressing spacebar
| | 04:27 |
(audio playing).
| | 04:30 |
You can also start playback from a
different point than the beginning of the
| | 04:34 |
clip by moving your cursor into the
Ruler, and holding your Shift key down,
| | 04:39 |
and you notice that it turns into a
speaker icon.
| | 04:45 |
And now when I click, it'll start playing
(audio playing) and if you noticed, it didn't
| | 04:49 |
start playing exactly where my cursor
was.
| | 04:53 |
It moved to the nearest bar start and
that's because the global quantization is
| | 04:57 |
currently set at one bar.
So, anywhere you click it's going to
| | 05:02 |
start playback from the current bar.
So, if I move a little bit closer than
| | 05:05 |
half to where bar two starts, hold down
my Shift key and click, it should start
| | 05:09 |
at bar two.
Which we see it did.
| | 05:13 |
(audio playing).
Now we didn't hear that MIDI note play
| | 05:14 |
because the start of that MIDI note must
have been slightly before bar two.
| | 05:18 |
So, until you're familiar with the MIDI
Editor, working in there can be a bit awkward.
| | 05:22 |
Spend some time practicing the things
that we just talked about, and you'll be
| | 05:24 |
much more comfortable when you start to
edit your MIDI performances.
| | 05:27 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Configuring the MIDI Editor grid| 00:00 |
Understanding how to adjust the grid at
loop length are a big help when you are
| | 00:03 |
recording and editing MIDI data in
session view.
| | 00:06 |
And knowing how to find and use the most
useful keyboard shortcuts will really
| | 00:08 |
speed up your work flow.
So I'm going to select the repeating
| | 00:12 |
chord clip on this track here.
And just to get started I want to remind
| | 00:15 |
you that the grid has a big effect when
you're working down in the MIDI Editor.
| | 00:20 |
So I'm going to turn on the Pencil tool,
just to demonstrate that when you click
| | 00:23 |
notes in using the Pencil tool, they are
constrained to the grid.
| | 00:28 |
Let me undo that.
Also, when you're doing some MIDI
| | 00:31 |
editing, you're also constrained to the
grid.
| | 00:33 |
For example, if I click on this note and
trim it out, it's going to snap on to the
| | 00:37 |
grid point.
So its very useful to know how to size
| | 00:40 |
the grid to whatever you're trying to do.
So the current grid I'm looking at here
| | 00:46 |
is an 8th note, and I know that because
down in the lower right-hand corner of
| | 00:48 |
the MIDI Editor I see this value, which
we call the marker snap value.
| | 00:53 |
Now I can change the grid amount by right
clicking anywhere in the MIDI Editor and
| | 00:57 |
choosing a very different value from the
contextual menu.
| | 01:01 |
For example, I can go to one bar, and we
can see that we've lost a lot of the lines.
| | 01:05 |
Now, right now if I zoom in, I want you
to notice that the grid is not going to
| | 01:08 |
change, and that's because I'm in a fixed
grid mode.
| | 01:12 |
If I go back out and right-click again,
and choose Adaptive, I can choose a basic
| | 01:17 |
size instead of an exact size.
Let's try Medium to start.
| | 01:22 |
And now if I zoom in and zoom out, notice
that they're going to get more lines as I
| | 01:26 |
get more zoomed in or more zoomed out.
Now, for whatever reason I very often
| | 01:30 |
work in fixed grids.
So let me switch back into that.
| | 01:34 |
And what I'll do is I'll change the grid
using the shortcuts.
| | 01:36 |
Now remember you can see a lot of
information over here in the info view.
| | 01:46 |
So if I take my mouse and move it over
the marker snap area, and then look over
| | 01:50 |
to the left in the info view, you'll
actually see the key commands that you
| | 01:54 |
can use for narrowing and widening the
grid.
| | 01:59 |
For example, if I want to have a finer
grid I can go Cmd+1 to have a narrower grid.
| | 02:06 |
That would be Ctrl+1 on a PC, and if I
want to go to a wider grid, I can go
| | 02:11 |
Cmd+2 or Ctrl+2 on a PC, and gradually
move that out.
| | 02:17 |
And let me put that back on an eighth
note.
| | 02:20 |
In addition to that I can actually toggle
on and off a triplet value.
| | 02:23 |
So right now I'm at straight eighth
notes, and if I go Cmd+3, you'll notice
| | 02:27 |
that the marker snap value will change to
a triplet.
| | 02:31 |
And a Cmd+3 will toggle that off.
Cmd+4 or Ctrl+4 will actually toggle the
| | 02:37 |
grid on or off.
And that's handy, because if you want to
| | 02:41 |
move a note or edit a note.
Now I can do that, and I'm not actually
| | 02:44 |
going to be constrained by the grid.
And you can see that as I'm moving that note.
| | 02:48 |
Let me zoom in just a little bit to show
you that more clearly.
| | 02:52 |
So, I can click and drag a note, and now
as I do that, I'm not constrained by the grid.
| | 02:56 |
I'm going to Cmd+Z to undo that, that'd
be Ctrl+Z on a PC.
| | 03:00 |
And lastly, I can toggle between fixed
grid and adaptive grid by going Cmd+5, or
| | 03:06 |
Ctrl+5 on a PC.
As I zoom in now the grid is changing
| | 03:12 |
because I'm in adaptive grid, and if I
Cmd+5 again to toggle back I'm in fix
| | 03:16 |
grid, and as I zoom in zoom out, the grid
doesn't change.
| | 03:22 |
I'm going to re-enable the grid.
I was only seeing the dotted lines there,
| | 03:25 |
because I actually had the grid disabled.
Let's go Cmd+4 to re-enable that.
| | 03:31 |
See the grid is back.
Okay, so, let me zoom all the way back out.
| | 03:34 |
So, I am going to use my minus key to do
that, and I'm doing that because I just
| | 03:38 |
wanted to show you that I had noticed
that the end of this particular clip was
| | 03:41 |
not right at the start of bar nine, so
that I have an exactly eight bar long clip.
| | 03:49 |
And so I'm going to move my cursor over
here on the right edge and over the loop
| | 03:53 |
brace and stop clip buttons.
And move those over, not to do that one
| | 03:58 |
at a time because they weren't at the
same place.
| | 04:01 |
And this is a good time to just discuss
what we actually see here with the loops.
| | 04:05 |
So, the top triangles on the top left and
top right.
| | 04:08 |
Those actually define how the clip's
going to loop.
| | 04:12 |
The buttons underneath that are the start
and stop clip buttons.
| | 04:15 |
So for example, if I drag the Loop Race
over to bar two.
| | 04:21 |
And then drag the start point back to bar
one.
| | 04:24 |
If I launch the clip, it's actually going
to start playing at bar one.
| | 04:27 |
It'll then play to the end of the loop,
and then it will loop back to bar two and
| | 04:31 |
continue playing.
Now, the stop clip triangle here, that's
| | 04:36 |
only relevant if the loop button is
disabled.
| | 04:39 |
Resize that.
Put that back, yeah, that was on bar nine.
| | 04:46 |
The grid is a useful tool that you can
use to see how notes line up
| | 04:49 |
rhythmically, to fix rhythmic errors, and
to even enter MIDI notes using the pencil tool.
| | 04:54 |
Take some time to get familiar with how
to access grid settings, and the related
| | 04:57 |
shortcuts, and your workflow will get
much faster.
| | 05:00 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Selecting and quantizing MIDI| 00:00 |
After recording a MIDI clip, it's likely
that you'll want to edit or fix some
| | 00:03 |
aspect of the performance.
Let's start by using quantization to fix
| | 00:07 |
rhythmic errors and improve the groove.
So I've got a drum clip already recorded here.
| | 00:11 |
And I'm just going to play it so that you
can hear it.
| | 00:14 |
And I'll do that with the metronome
enabled, so that you can hear the actual
| | 00:17 |
specific time against what I recorded.
(music playing) Okay, so you can hear that I've
| | 00:25 |
got some small and large issues there.
I'm going to go down and do some work
| | 00:36 |
here in the MIDI Editor.
And it looks like everything's a little
| | 00:39 |
crowded right now.
So I'm going to do a couple of things.
| | 00:42 |
So, I'm going to move my cursor up here
to the edge that's between the track area
| | 00:45 |
and the Details View.
I'm just going to drag up to create a
| | 00:48 |
little bit more room and I'm also going
to close the Info View area by hitting
| | 00:51 |
the little Close button down here on the
lower left-hand side.
| | 00:56 |
And now hopefully I can zoom those all
into view.
| | 00:59 |
That's looking a little better.
Let me move that up just a little bit up.
| | 01:02 |
Okay.
So now I can see all the notes and if you
| | 01:05 |
look a little closer, you can notice,
like, right where I'm pointing here,
| | 01:08 |
that, that hit is quite a bit before the
beat.
| | 01:12 |
So I want to fix these errors that I've
got here.
| | 01:15 |
At the simplest level I can just select a
note and click and move it onto the grid.
| | 01:20 |
So, right now my grid is at a sixteenth
note.
| | 01:22 |
So, if I click in the middle of a note
(audio playing) and drag to the right it's
| | 01:25 |
going to snap that right onto grid.
But if I do that to all of these notes
| | 01:29 |
it's, they're actually going to end up
sounding very mechanical.
| | 01:33 |
Now, that might be what you want.
But usually I'm going for something that
| | 01:36 |
retains a little bit more of the human
performance.
| | 01:38 |
So I can quantize one note or I can
quantize a selection of notes.
| | 01:43 |
So for example, I can drag and close
these notes.
| | 01:46 |
But in this case, I want to have this
apply to the whole clip.
| | 01:50 |
So by clicking the background and go
Cmd+A, it selects all the notes in the clip.
| | 01:55 |
And I can start this quantize process by
going up to the Edit menu and choosing
| | 01:59 |
either Quantize or Quantize Settings.
Now if you chose Quantize it's just going
| | 02:04 |
to quantize with the current setting.
So in this case I really want to see what
| | 02:08 |
I've got set before I do anything.
So, I'll open that up and it looks like
| | 02:13 |
it's quantized to current grid.
Let me click on that.
| | 02:16 |
So below that we'll see that I've got
different note values.
| | 02:20 |
The general rule here is to quantize to
the smallest rhythmic value contained in
| | 02:24 |
your selection.
And it looks like this is going to be
| | 02:27 |
sixteenth notes in this case.
So I'll choose that, and I then I can
| | 02:31 |
either choose to quantize or adjust the
start of the note.
| | 02:36 |
Or the end of the note, or both.
Now, most often, you're going to use start.
| | 02:40 |
And that's actually going to fix the
rhythmic errors.
| | 02:42 |
N's going to mix the note lengths.
Below that, I actually have a percentage setting.
| | 02:46 |
And I really like this.
Because I want to retain some of the
| | 02:49 |
human imperfection here.
But I want to get it a lot closer to the
| | 02:52 |
actual grid lines of where the time is.
So, I'll click in that area, and I can
| | 02:57 |
just drag that down.
And a lot of times, I'll do this between
| | 03:01 |
about 85 or maybe 80 to 90%.
And then to actually quantize this, I'll
| | 03:05 |
just click Okay.
So, you saw everything move, and line up
| | 03:10 |
closer to the grid.
If we zoom in a little bit at some point,
| | 03:13 |
we'll probably see that things are not
perfect.
| | 03:16 |
Like look at this.
This is still a little bit before the
| | 03:18 |
grid, and that one is as well.
So I'll zoom back out.
| | 03:22 |
And now I'm going to hit my spacebar to
hear what we've got.
| | 03:33 |
(music playing) So that's way, way, way better.
Now, just to demonstrate, I want to
| | 03:37 |
quantize the end as well.
So I've still got all these notes
| | 03:41 |
selected, so I'm going to use the key
command to open up the quantize settings
| | 03:44 |
dialog, and remember that that is Cmd +
Shift+U on a Mac or Ctrl + Shift+UU on a PC.
| | 03:50 |
And so this time what I'll do is I'll
quantize the end of the notes and what
| | 03:53 |
it's gonig to do is extend those out to
the next grid point or whatever my
| | 03:57 |
quantize two value is.
So I'll click OK, and you'll notice that
| | 04:02 |
all of the notes are relatively the same
length, except a couple of these kicks,
| | 04:06 |
which must have been longer than a
sixteenth note, so it actually extended
| | 04:09 |
it out to the next sixteenth note.
This is not particularly useful when
| | 04:14 |
quantizing the note ends with drums, but
this is actually really useful like in a
| | 04:18 |
keyboard part where you want all the
notes to extend out to a certain length.
| | 04:23 |
So, I'll use Cmd+Z, here to undo that,
and that would be Ctrl+Z on a PC.
| | 04:28 |
So, when do you quantize?
I would always start by trying to
| | 04:31 |
re-record, until you actually like the
performance, until you're close to what
| | 04:34 |
you want.
Then I would quantize judiciously, maybe
| | 04:37 |
only the notes that are particularly
offensive.
| | 04:40 |
And I would always use the percentage
parameter to move those closer by
| | 04:43 |
percentage, instead of just absolutely on
to the grid.
| | 04:46 |
So in the end, I'm only going to quantize
what's necessary for the musical purposes.
| | 04:50 |
So knowing when and how to apply
quantization to a MIDI clip, can make the
| | 04:53 |
difference between a project that feels
awkward or one that feels good.
| | 04:57 |
Now that we've discussed how to quantize
MIDI data in Live.
| | 05:00 |
We're ready to create music that grooves.
| | 05:02 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Quantizing with grooves| 00:00 |
Quantization is great for fixing rhythmic
errors, but it's often time consuming to
| | 00:03 |
use to impart a sense of groove to an
entire live project.
| | 00:07 |
Let's take a look at how you can use
Live's Grooves to apply a rhythmic feel
| | 00:10 |
to both audio and MIDI clips.
So, Groove files are a collection of
| | 00:13 |
timing and velocity attributes, derived
from a human performance, or from
| | 00:16 |
patterns in a legendary drum machine like
the Roland TR808.
| | 00:21 |
Or even from other programs like Logic
audio.
| | 00:24 |
So I've already got a drum preset loaded
on the drum track here.
| | 00:27 |
And I'm just going to add some MIDI by
inserting an empty clip and then getting
| | 00:31 |
my Pencil tool and just dragging some
16th notes in here.
| | 00:36 |
And I'm doing this because I want some
perfectly straight 16th notes that would
| | 00:39 |
represent something you might end up if
you're clicking notes into create patterns.
| | 00:44 |
Get out the Pencil tool by using the
command key, Cmd +B, Ctrl+B on a PC.
| | 00:50 |
You can find our Grooves through the
browser by using the search function.
| | 00:54 |
And you can do that by either typing the
word groove, because that word is usually
| | 00:57 |
contained in a Groove file.
Or by using the file extension for
| | 01:01 |
Grooves, which is .AGR and I'm going to
do that.
| | 01:04 |
I'm already in the all results area.
So, as soon as I type that, stuff started
| | 01:08 |
to populate the content part of the
browser.
| | 01:12 |
I'm going to scroll down a little bit.
And we can see that we've got a bunch of
| | 01:14 |
different things here.
And there are some logic style Grooves.
| | 01:18 |
And let me choose this Logic 8 swing
groove.
| | 01:22 |
(audio playing) Now I click it, and you can hear
it play.
| | 01:25 |
Let me stop that by pressing the Space
bar, and to apply this, I'm going to
| | 01:28 |
start by dragging this into the Groove
Pool.
| | 01:31 |
Now I can open the Groove Pool by
clicking on the little button here that's
| | 01:34 |
just below the browser on the left.
And then I'm going to scroll, find that
| | 01:39 |
again and drag that into the Groove Pool.
So, from here I can apply this by going
| | 01:44 |
down to the clip box and clicking on the
Drop Down menu under the word groove and
| | 01:47 |
you'll see that any Groove files that
we've dragged into the Groove Pool will
| | 01:50 |
appear there.
And I can go ahead and click that.
| | 01:55 |
Now, before I add that, let me play this
just one time, so you hear how straight
| | 02:00 |
these 16th notes are.
(music playing) All right, nothing going on there,
| | 02:06 |
no feel whatsoever.
So, I'll go back to the chooser here and
| | 02:11 |
click that.
And now let's hear what it sounds like.
| | 02:19 |
(music playing) So quite a bit different.
I actually intended to use a 16th note
| | 02:22 |
swing file, on this and it looks like I
grabbed an 8th note one.
| | 02:26 |
So I'm going to undo what I just did
there.
| | 02:28 |
Let me go back in there and grab one of
the 16th note files.
| | 02:32 |
Yeah, I'll get this one right here,
(audio playing) that's a little better.
| | 02:36 |
So I'll drag that one in and this time
I'll select the 16th note one and this
| | 02:39 |
should give me the results that I was
looking for.
| | 02:43 |
Let's hear this, (audio playing).
So, now that you can hear it it's moved
| | 02:49 |
over or delayed every other note.
Now, notice that it's doing this in real
| | 02:54 |
time and the notes that I have on the
track they haven't moved at all.
| | 02:57 |
If I want to see what it's actually
doing, can go over here and I can click
| | 03:00 |
the Commit button.
It's underneath the groove and that will
| | 03:04 |
actually quantize and show us exactly
what it's doing.
| | 03:07 |
So, now you can see that every other
note's been moved over.
| | 03:10 |
And in addition to that, if you look at
the velocity markers below each note,
| | 03:13 |
you'll note they're not all the same
velocity anymore.
| | 03:17 |
And it looks like the ones that are on
the offbeat have a little bit more volume
| | 03:20 |
or velocity and the ones that are more on
the bit are a little bit softer.
| | 03:26 |
So, you can also grab these Groove files
and drag them right onto a clip.
| | 03:30 |
Let's do that.
Now when they come in notice that their
| | 03:34 |
all mapped to c1, so if I want to
actually hear this I'm going to have to
| | 03:37 |
move it up to one of the places where I
actually have notes loaded and remember
| | 03:40 |
in impulse these are maps starting at c3.
So I'm going to select this and I can
| | 03:47 |
drag this up by just clicking on the
first one, (audio playing).
| | 03:52 |
But you notice as I was doing that it
actually was moving things around, so I'm
| | 03:55 |
going to undo that and this time I'm
going to move them up using key command.
| | 04:01 |
So I can do that using my arrow key to go
up a half step or Shift up arrow to move
| | 04:04 |
an octave at times.
So let me do that.
| | 04:07 |
(audio playing) And now that I'm at where the
samples are mapped.
| | 04:11 |
I can use my up arrow to just move that,
by half step, and I'll get that on the hi-hat.
| | 04:16 |
So, I'm showing you this because this is
a great way to start creating those
| | 04:19 |
little percussion parts that we often see
in electronic music.
| | 04:23 |
And from here, we can edit this and turn
it into something more we want.
| | 04:27 |
But the other thing we can do is if, you
want to create your own groove file, we
| | 04:30 |
can do that as well.
So what I'm going to do here is edit this
| | 04:33 |
just a little bit, and I'm going to
select some of these notes that are every
| | 04:36 |
other 16th, and I'm going to Shift click
them to do that.
| | 04:41 |
(audio playing) And now, I'm going to move those
over so that I'm not constrained by the grid.
| | 04:49 |
I'm going to click that first note, and
then I'm going to press the command key
| | 04:52 |
down to temporarily disable the grid.
(audio playing) And as I do this, note that I can
| | 05:00 |
move that freely.
But I'm going to let that go before I
| | 05:03 |
release the, the command key.
That would be the Ctrl key on a PC.
| | 05:07 |
So that it will actually let me leave it
there.
| | 05:08 |
Okay, so now I've changed that.
And what I'm going to do now is I'm
| | 05:12 |
going to go up, and I'm going to drag
what I've changed into the Groove Pool.
| | 05:19 |
From there, I can go ahead and I can give
that a new name by selecting the title
| | 05:22 |
and then Cmd+R.
I'll call this my groove, and now what
| | 05:25 |
I'm going to do is I'm actually going to
drag this and put this over on this audio
| | 05:29 |
file that I've already got loaded.
Before I do that though, I'm going to
| | 05:33 |
play it, so let me stop these clips from
playing.
| | 05:37 |
This is what this groove sounds like
right now.
| | 05:39 |
(music playing) 'Kay so very straight.
And now I'll take this groove that we
| | 05:47 |
extracted, drag and drop that right on
top of that audio file.
| | 05:52 |
Let's hear what it sounds like now.
(music playing) So it's definitely in part, that
| | 05:56 |
sense of swing groove to this audio file.
Now if I want to see what that's done I
| | 06:03 |
can also commit that as well.
So let me go ahead and click that Commit
| | 06:06 |
button down here.
And notice that it's added these work
| | 06:09 |
markers to all of this and again, with
that swing field, it's moved over every
| | 06:13 |
other note.
So before we get out here, let me just
| | 06:16 |
tell you a little more about the
parameters that we can use to adjust
| | 06:19 |
these grooves.
So first of all, the bass column shows us
| | 06:22 |
the rhythmic value that that groove is
applied to.
| | 06:26 |
The quantize percentage we see in this
column, if we set a percentage here,
| | 06:29 |
we'll actually pre-quantize the clip that
you're using this on before it applies
| | 06:32 |
the groove to it.
The value in the Timing column, allows us
| | 06:37 |
to adjust how much this actual groove
will effect an eclipse we apply it to.
| | 06:42 |
The Randomization column allow us to
randomize a little bit, how that Groove
| | 06:45 |
file effects the clip.
And the Velocity column allows us to
| | 06:49 |
control how much any of the velocity
parameters effect the clip.
| | 06:53 |
And lastly, the Global Amount percentage
allows us to set a global amount for any
| | 06:57 |
of the grooves that are used on any of
the clips in set.
| | 07:00 |
And you can actually over accentuate
those grooves by clicking in here and
| | 07:04 |
dragging the percentage higher if you
want to go all the way up to 130%.
| | 07:09 |
Or you can click in there and type a
value and reset that back down to 100%.
| | 07:14 |
So, using Live Groove files turns groove
quantization into a very simple process.
| | 07:18 |
And is a very powerful tool that you can
use to improve the feel of your projects.
| | 07:22 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Editing pitch and note duration| 00:00 |
When editing MIDI, we often focus on
quantizing and forget to use the other
| | 00:02 |
MIDI editing tools that are available to
improve a MIDI performance.
| | 00:06 |
Let's take a look at how you transpose
notes and edit note duration.
| | 00:10 |
So, let me select this clip that's on the
repeating chord track, and let's go down
| | 00:13 |
in the MIDI editor.
So, I can transpose a note, or fix a
| | 00:16 |
pitch problem by click selecting a note
and using my Up or Down Arrows to move
| | 00:20 |
that pitch up a half step or down a half
step.
| | 00:25 |
(audio playing) I can do that to a, a whole chord
by drag selecting the entire chord.
| | 00:30 |
Or I can move that up or down an octave,
by using the Shift key in combination
| | 00:35 |
with the Up Arrow, to go up an octave
| | 00:37 |
(audio playing).
| | 00:39 |
Or Shift + Down Arrow to move it back
down an octave.
| | 00:43 |
(audio playing) Now, if you find hearing that
sound as you're editing annoying, you can
| | 00:47 |
come over here and disable the Preview
switch.
| | 00:52 |
I can do the same technique to transpose
the entire clip a couple of different ways.
| | 00:56 |
By clicking the MIDI editor and then use
the key command, Cmd+A, that would be
| | 01:00 |
Ctrl+A on a PC.
I can select the entire contents of the
| | 01:04 |
clip and now I can move it up a step with
the Up Arrow, down a step with the Down
| | 01:08 |
Arrow or Shift + Up Arrow to go up an
octave, Shift + Down Arrow to go down an octave.
| | 01:16 |
I can also do a similar move over here in
the New Transpose box that's in the Notes area.
| | 01:22 |
So if I click in there, I can transpose
this by typing in a plus or minus value.
| | 01:27 |
If I go plus one, that'll move it up a
half step.
| | 01:29 |
If I go plus 12, it'll move it up an
octave.
| | 01:32 |
Plus 12.
And I'm up an octave.
| | 01:36 |
If I go back in there and type minus 12.
That'll move it back down to the original
| | 01:41 |
starting point.
Now I can also transpose this by setting
| | 01:45 |
the high or low note.
So right now, the range of the notes that
| | 01:49 |
are in this clip go from A1 up to A2.
So if I click in that box and type A2,
| | 01:54 |
that will set the new low note.
Now, if you want to set this instead by
| | 01:59 |
the highest note.
You type in a minus value, and then
| | 02:02 |
whatever the top note that you want it to
be.
| | 02:05 |
Let's hear this played back now, let me
click that clip.
| | 02:08 |
(music playing).
Okay, I think that's the octave I want it in.
| | 02:11 |
Let me play the scene just to check that
though.
| | 02:13 |
(music playing).
Okay, before it was a little bit too low.
| | 02:23 |
And now it's in the right octave.
But one of the things that I, I don't
| | 02:26 |
like about this yet, is I think the note
values are all too long.
| | 02:29 |
So, let's take a look at how you edit
note duration.
| | 02:32 |
So, again I'm going to click back down
here in the MIDI editor, and if I want to
| | 02:35 |
change the duration of a single note, I
can move my cursor over the end of that
| | 02:38 |
note, and then click and Drag.
And note if the grid is active, this move
| | 02:43 |
is going to be affected by the grid.
So as I start to move it, I can release
| | 02:47 |
it until I pass one of the grid points,
at which point it's going to snap to grid
| | 02:50 |
as I move from there.
And I'm set at a 32nd note, let me change
| | 02:54 |
that to a 16th note.
So I'll right-click in the background
| | 02:58 |
here, and I'll choose 16th note from
there.
| | 03:01 |
So, I can apply this to an entire chord
by drag selecting the chord, and then
| | 03:06 |
clicking and dragging.
I can do that down to the 16th note if I want.
| | 03:12 |
Or, if I want, I can do that so it's not
constrained by grid.
| | 03:14 |
Let me undo that.
And now I'll click the note to start.
| | 03:19 |
And then I'm going to add the Cmd key to
temporarily disable the grid.
| | 03:24 |
Then I'll drag that over, I'll release
the mouse and then I'll release the Cmd key.
| | 03:28 |
That particular method is just a little
bit touchy.
| | 03:31 |
So, I can do that to the whole clip as
well.
| | 03:33 |
Let me undo what I just did, and now I
can click on the background, Cmd+A or
| | 03:37 |
Ctrl+A on a PC to select the entire
contents of the clip.
| | 03:42 |
Move my cursor over the edge of the note,
click and hold, add the Cmd key and now I
| | 03:46 |
can shorten the notes in the entire clip.
So, let's listen to the playback on that
| | 03:53 |
and see how that fits with the other
clip.
| | 03:55 |
(music playing) So that's getting in the range of
where I want it.
| | 04:03 |
Now let's take a brief look at the other
clip.
| | 04:04 |
I think there's a problem there as well.
So I'm going to stop the clips from
| | 04:07 |
playing back and let me click select that
other one.
| | 04:11 |
And I've got a big gap between the notes
and I actually want this to be a very
| | 04:14 |
sustained part.
So, one of the new features that we have
| | 04:18 |
in Live is this Legato button over here.
Now, if you've got a selection in the
| | 04:22 |
Editor window, it will extend whatever is
selected to the start of the next MIDI notes.
| | 04:28 |
So if I drag select this first chord.
(audio playing) And now, click the Legato button.
| | 04:35 |
It's going to extend the length of those
notes over to beat two.
| | 04:39 |
Let me Undo that and let's do it to the
entire clip.
| | 04:41 |
So, I could either do the Cmd+A and
select the entire clip, that would be
| | 04:45 |
Ctrl+A on a PC, or I can just click the
Legato button if nothing is selected.
| | 04:52 |
You can see that that's extended to
length of all the notes in the clip to
| | 04:55 |
the start point of the next set of notes.
So, let's give that a listen.
| | 04:59 |
(music playing) Okay, so that's getting really
close to what I want.
| | 05:08 |
But the only thing I don't like about
that is that the sustain that's in the
| | 05:11 |
actual preset is blurring the line
between the end of one chord and the
| | 05:14 |
start of the next one.
So, I'll click in the background, select
| | 05:19 |
all those notes.
Key command, Cmd+A.
| | 05:22 |
And then I'm going to move my cursor over
the end of one of those notes, click and
| | 05:25 |
hold, press down the Cmd key so that I
can temporarily disable the grid.
| | 05:30 |
Now then I'm just going to drag the
length or duration of these notes just a
| | 05:32 |
little bit less.
Okay, so let's hear that now, but there's
| | 05:36 |
a little bit of a gap between each chord.
(music playing) Okay, I like that.
| | 05:40 |
I've got the first clip in the right
octave, and now the second clip I've got
| | 05:45 |
the right duration and I don't have that
blurring between the end of one and the
| | 05:50 |
start of the next.
Now that we've discussed these advance
| | 05:56 |
MIDI editing techniques, you're ready to
fine tune your MIDI projects.
| | 06:00 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Editing MIDI velocities| 00:00 |
From experience, I can tell you that what
you think are rhythmic errors in a mini
| | 00:03 |
recording are just as often velocity
errors.
| | 00:07 |
Let's take a look at how you can edit
velocity in session views mini editor.
| | 00:10 |
So let me select this drum clip here, and
I'm going to go down here into the mini
| | 00:14 |
editor, and it looks like we're a little
crowded, so I'm going to drag this up so
| | 00:17 |
that we've got a little more room.
And then it looks like my pencil tool's
| | 00:23 |
on, so I'm going to disable that by
clicking on the pencil button up here.
| | 00:27 |
Velocity messages represent volume in
midi data.
| | 00:31 |
And we can see that a couple places down
here in our midi clip.
| | 00:35 |
So at the the bottom, I see these little
lines with a circle on top, which we call
| | 00:38 |
velocity markers.
And we see one of those under each note.
| | 00:43 |
The taller they are, the louder or more
velocity that's represented.
| | 00:47 |
I can also see that in the actual MIDI
notes that we see here too, by their
| | 00:50 |
color saturation.
So, I know that these notes on the high
| | 00:54 |
hat line are all softer than the notes
that I'm looking at, and seeing down here
| | 00:57 |
on the Snare 606 line.
So, I can change velocity on an
| | 01:02 |
individual note a couple of different
ways.
| | 01:05 |
First of all I can just find that note
and then move down into the velocity
| | 01:08 |
editing area, and clicking on clicking on
one of these velocity markers and
| | 01:11 |
dragging it up or down.
(audio playing) I can also do that by clicking a
| | 01:16 |
note and then holding down the Cmd Key
and dragging up or down and you notice
| | 01:20 |
that the corresponding velocity marker
will go up and down with my move.
| | 01:27 |
So, that's great for editing those single
notes and then if I look here I can see
| | 01:32 |
that I have got one of my snares here on
the second snare 606 line.
| | 01:39 |
I've got a couple of those that look
really soft.
| | 01:41 |
So, let me Click Select those and now,
I'll Command (audio playing) Up and Down on that,
| | 01:45 |
bring that Volume Up SOUND and on the
same one on this one over here.
| | 01:51 |
(audio playing) Command, Click and Drag.
But I also see that all of the notes on
| | 01:54 |
this Hi-Hat Line look like they're too
soft.
| | 01:58 |
So I can select the notes on an entire
line here in the MIDI editor by clicking
| | 02:01 |
the corresponding note on the piano role.
So, let me click this one.
| | 02:06 |
They're all highlighted now and I can
either grab one of the velocity markers
| | 02:10 |
down here in the velocity editing area or
I can Cmd, click and drag on one of the
| | 02:13 |
notes and my note is so small and heavy.
Trouble getting to that cursor.
| | 02:20 |
So let me just widen that.
And now I'll come in, click on top of
| | 02:24 |
that, and drag that up.
Okay?
| | 02:28 |
And then I'll just zoom back out using
the minus key so I can see the entire clip.
| | 02:32 |
Okay, so, as I'm looking at this, I've
got a clip that I'm happy with, but I
| | 02:36 |
actually want it to be twice as long.
And I want to have a little bit of a feel
| | 02:41 |
at the end of it.
So before we finish this, I'm going to
| | 02:44 |
actually double the length of this.
And I can do this two ways.
| | 02:49 |
I can go up into the, Ruler area.
And click > Select the Loop Race.
| | 02:54 |
And then go CMD + D on a Mac.
Or CTRL + D on a PC to duplicate that.
| | 02:58 |
Or, there's a new button again over here
in the notes area, and I can just click
| | 03:02 |
the duplicate loop button, and now I've
got everything that I just had duplicated
| | 03:07 |
to twice at long.
So at this point what I can do, is I'm
| | 03:11 |
just going to erase a bunch of stuff here
at the end.
| | 03:15 |
Cause what I want to do, is enter in a
bunch of snare notes.
| | 03:21 |
So I'll turn on my pencil tool.
And I'm just going to drag some notes in here.
| | 03:27 |
So I've got a little fill there
at the end.
| | 03:29 |
And notice that when I did that, it put
the notes in all at the same velocity.
| | 03:34 |
So, I'm going to go out of my pencil
tool.
| | 03:36 |
Let me just go up and click that on the
control bar to disable that.
| | 03:40 |
And now, with those notes.
May loose my selection, I'm just going to
| | 03:44 |
hold my command key and that control key
on a PC and I'm just going to drag across
| | 03:48 |
these notes, create little bit of a
velocity ramp.
| | 03:53 |
So now you can see both from the velocity
markers here and from the color
| | 03:57 |
saturation in the middy notes.
But I've got a crescendo happening on
| | 04:02 |
that snare fill at the end.
Now, let me just start playback, here,
| | 04:05 |
from bar eight, so we hear what that
sounds like.
| | 04:08 |
(music playing) Whether you enter midi notes by
playing them or by using the pencil tool,
| | 04:13 |
it's likely that you'll want to fine tune
the velocities.
| | 04:20 |
It's an overlooked but important part of
adding life to a midi performance.
| | 04:23 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
7. Recording AudioPreparing to record audio| 00:00 |
While a lot could be done with just MIDI
clips and software instruments, it's
| | 00:03 |
likely that at some point you'll also
want to record audio into an Ableton Live set.
| | 00:08 |
In this video we'll discuss the signal
path through a computer based recording
| | 00:11 |
system, how to set the resolution for the
audio you want to record and the basic
| | 00:14 |
considerations in preparing to record.
So, the components of the computer base
| | 00:19 |
recording system include, the sound
source, a microphone which converts to
| | 00:23 |
sound pressure wave to an electrical
signal.
| | 00:26 |
An audio interface whose primary
components are audio converters.
| | 00:30 |
First analog to digital which converts
the audio from an electrical signal to a
| | 00:33 |
digital signal.
And so we can listen to the audio signal
| | 00:37 |
coming out of the computer, digital to
analog, which convert the digital signal
| | 00:40 |
back to an electrical signal.
Now, please note that Ableton Live will
| | 00:44 |
run without an external audio interface,
instead using the computer's built in converters.
| | 00:49 |
But these converters are not nearly as
good as those found in an audio
| | 00:52 |
interface, and the resulting recordings
will not be as good.
| | 00:56 |
Next, you'll need a computer running
Ableton Live, and lastly, headphones or
| | 00:59 |
speakers which convert the electrical
signal back to sound pressure waves, so
| | 01:02 |
you can actually hear the audio.
In preparation for recording, check the
| | 01:07 |
connections for the components of your
system.
| | 01:10 |
Make sure that you leave enough room for
the cables to firmly connect, and avoid
| | 01:13 |
bending cables where they attach.
When preparing to start a recording
| | 01:17 |
system, it's best to connect the audio
interface to the computer before turning
| | 01:21 |
the computer on.
Also remember the rule of last on, first
| | 01:24 |
off in regards to speakers.
This will avert any damage to the
| | 01:28 |
speakers due to pops that might occur
from turning any of the other components
| | 01:31 |
on or off.
Okay, so now that we have our system set
| | 01:35 |
up and we've got Ableton open, we're
ready to start recording audio.
| | 01:41 |
Now before I do anything, I want to make
sure I save my set.
| | 01:45 |
Live will actually allow you to work
without saving and that's probably not a
| | 01:48 |
good idea.
So, let's go up to the File menu and
| | 01:51 |
let's choose Save Live Set.
I'm going to call this 'Test Record, and
| | 01:56 |
I'll put this out on the desktop and
click Save button.
| | 02:02 |
Okay, now that I got that ready I'm going
to set the Preferences that will
| | 02:05 |
determine the audio resolution that will
be recorded into this set.
| | 02:10 |
So, let's go up to the Live menu, that
would be the Options menu on a PC, and
| | 02:13 |
I'm going to choose Preferences.
And I'm going to start with the Audio
| | 02:18 |
tab, and I'm going to come down and I'm
going to check my sample rate.
| | 02:23 |
And currently I'm at 48k, so our options
are 441 or 48 then multiples of those,
| | 02:28 |
and as you move to higher sampling rates,
you're going to get both higher audio
| | 02:33 |
resolution and larger file sizes.
Since we're recording today at 48, I'll
| | 02:40 |
just leave that there.
I'm going to check my buffer size which
| | 02:43 |
is currently fairly small at the 128
samples.
| | 02:46 |
And that will keep the amount of delay or
latency down, and that shouldn't cause
| | 02:49 |
any problems here, because I don't have
anything in this set.
| | 02:54 |
I was just about to record one track,
before I move on I will click the Record
| | 02:57 |
Warp launch tab, I am going to go up and
check the file type.
| | 03:01 |
My choice here are Wave and AIFF which
are both uncompressed.
| | 03:05 |
So, I'll just choose Wave, and then the
bit depth is either 16, 24 or 32, and I
| | 03:09 |
am going to choose 24 because it gives me
a little bit better signal to noise ratio.
| | 03:16 |
Once we've got this ready, I'll go ahead
and hit the Escape key.
| | 03:19 |
And now I'm back out into the set, and
I'm going to check my inputs and outputs
| | 03:22 |
on the track.
So, let me bring up the IO by clicking on
| | 03:26 |
the IO Show Hide button on the right
here, and so I can see my inputs and outputs.
| | 03:32 |
So, the first one of these audio from
drop down choosers, allows us to choose
| | 03:36 |
the interface.
An external in represents your external
| | 03:41 |
audio interface.
The other things we see here are, we
| | 03:44 |
could actually take in signal from other
tracks.
| | 03:46 |
So, let me go ahead and choose External
In, and then I'll click the actual
| | 03:49 |
Channel Chooser.
And it looks like we have a choice of
| | 03:53 |
either one and two, which would be stereo
or one, or two.
| | 03:57 |
And as you can see, there's a little bit
of movement there next to channel one.
| | 04:02 |
So, I know that, that's where my mics
plugged in, so, let me choose that.
| | 04:05 |
Now to actually see signal on the track,
I need to do one of two things.
| | 04:09 |
I need to either click the Record Enable
button, or I need to click the Input
| | 04:13 |
Monitoring button.
And let me start there, so I'll click that.
| | 04:17 |
And I immediately see some signal here.
Now we are seeing this scale on the right
| | 04:20 |
hand side of this track, because I've
actually increased the width of the track
| | 04:24 |
by going up here next to the track name
and moving that over.
| | 04:29 |
If you get that smaller you notice that
disappears.
| | 04:31 |
So, let me bring that back, and because
any of the audio clips that I record will
| | 04:35 |
be based upon the track name, I also want
to make sure I name the tracks.
| | 04:40 |
So, let me select the top which I have
done and then go Cmd+R, and I'll call
| | 04:43 |
this VO for voice over.
Okay, so the last thing I need to do here
| | 04:47 |
is just check my recording levels.
The accepted standard here is around
| | 04:52 |
minus six DBSF average.
And so, that's marked here, on the side
| | 04:57 |
here, minus six, and so, I'm going to
talk into the microphone, and then I'm
| | 05:00 |
going to turn the gain knob on the preamp
one on the interface.
| | 05:06 |
So, let me start to do that, test, test,
test, testing one, two, testing, one,
| | 05:12 |
two, test, testing, testing, testing,
one, two, test.
| | 05:20 |
Okay, so that looks like we're getting a
good amount of signal there on the track now.
| | 05:25 |
So, sometimes you can't use minus six as
an average, because you might have peaks
| | 05:28 |
that go over zero, and if that happens,
you'll just have to lower the average
| | 05:31 |
recording level.
So, now that we've discussed system set
| | 05:36 |
up, audio file parameters and prepping to
record, we're ready to begin recording
| | 05:39 |
audio into Ableton Live.
| | 05:41 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Recording audio| 00:00 |
Producing a song that sounds good starts
with recording good sounding audio.
| | 00:03 |
Let's discuss how gain structure and
recording levels affect audio quality.
| | 00:08 |
As the signal passes through a recording
system, there are multiple places to
| | 00:11 |
adjust the signal level.
The general rule is to raise the signal
| | 00:14 |
to the desired level at the beginning of
the signal path, and maintain that level
| | 00:18 |
to output.
The first place in the signal path that
| | 00:21 |
the level can be adjusted is at the
preamp on the audio interface.
| | 00:24 |
The preamp is necessary because the
output level on most microphones is
| | 00:27 |
generally low.
Use the preamp gain knob to adjust level
| | 00:31 |
as necessary.
While setting levels in preparation for
| | 00:33 |
recording, it's best to keep your
headphone or speaker monitor levels at a
| | 00:37 |
moderate or reasonable level.
This will protect your ears and speakers,
| | 00:41 |
in case there is a sudden increase in the
volume level.
| | 00:44 |
The monitor level is typically controlled
from the monitor output control on the
| | 00:47 |
audio interface.
When setting monitor levels, it's a good
| | 00:51 |
idea to use a sound pressure meter.
Listening levels should average in the 80
| | 00:55 |
to 85 decibel range and anything higher
than that will cause ear fatigue and
| | 00:58 |
eventually ear damage.
To start, turn the preamp up until the
| | 01:03 |
signals averaging around minus 6 dB on
the level meter in Live.
| | 01:07 |
This should leave enough head room for
the peaks and signal to stay below 0 dB.
| | 01:11 |
If you still encounter peaks in the
signal above 0 dB, lower the average
| | 01:15 |
level until those peaks are just below 0
dB.
| | 01:18 |
Following these guidelines should result
in accordance that feature a good signal
| | 01:21 |
to noise ratio.
Okay, so I'm going to put the track into
| | 01:24 |
input monitoring so I can check those
levels very quick.
| | 01:28 |
And as I test those, I can see that I'm
approaching the level that I need to be at.
| | 01:31 |
Let me just bump that just a little bit.
Okay.
| | 01:34 |
And I'm right there around minus 6 dB.
I'll put this back into Auto Monitoring
| | 01:38 |
and I'm going to record enable the track.
To start recording, all I need to do is
| | 01:42 |
click one of the Record buttons in an
available clip slot on that track.
| | 01:47 |
Let me do that.
(audio playing).
| | 01:49 |
Now as I talk here, you can see signal on
the meter.
| | 01:55 |
I'm averaging around minus 6 dB and down
in the hot spot here.
| | 01:59 |
I can see the audio waveform drawing.
If I click on that, you can see the wave
| | 02:04 |
form in the overview area.
To stop recording, click the Stop button
| | 02:08 |
on the track, or press the Spacebar.
(audio playing).
| | 02:12 |
So to synchronize the recording to the
groove, you may want to enable the
| | 02:16 |
metronome, which we heard as I played.
You can do that by clicking the Metronome button.
| | 02:22 |
And you may also want to set the count
in, this one was set at one bar.
| | 02:26 |
Before, during, and after recording, you
want to be able to monitor the input signal.
| | 02:32 |
Live allows three monitoring options.
Let me disable the record button here.
| | 02:38 |
First of all and I'll bring up the IO so
we can see that.
| | 02:46 |
(audio playing).
So Live allows three monitor options.
| | 02:49 |
Auto, when a track is record-enabled, the
track input is monitored.
| | 02:52 |
When not record-enabled, Live
automatically switches to monitoring
| | 02:56 |
clips that are playing view of the track.
Input monitoring, the track input is
| | 03:01 |
monitored regardless of the track
recording status.
| | 03:05 |
This is useful when you want to practice
with the part or the rest of the set
| | 03:08 |
plays back.
The in button and track activator button
| | 03:12 |
turn orange when the track is set to in.
And last, off switches, off monitoring a
| | 03:17 |
track through Live.
This is useful when using an audio
| | 03:22 |
interface that allows you to monitor
record-enable tracks at the input to the interface.
| | 03:26 |
So after you finish recording, you should
evaluate the recording.
| | 03:29 |
What is the difference in signal between
the sound source and any noise, that
| | 03:33 |
could include computer drives or fans?
If the signal's loud enough, then it
| | 03:37 |
masks any noise present.
Are there any pops or distortion from
| | 03:40 |
plosive consonants, B's, D's, and P's?
If there are, we record using a pop
| | 03:44 |
filter if one is available.
If not try turning the microphone 45
| | 03:48 |
degrees off-axis, and talk across the
microphone's diaphragm.
| | 03:53 |
Is the sound clearer and undistorted?
If not, try backing off the microphone a
| | 03:57 |
few inches.
How's the tone quality of the recording?
| | 04:01 |
Is it warm and full, muddy or brittle?
If you don't like the tone quality, try
| | 04:05 |
turning the microphone off-axis or try
using a different microphone.
| | 04:09 |
If both dynamic and condenser microphones
are available, make several recordings
| | 04:12 |
and compare the differences.
Recording audio into a program like
| | 04:16 |
Ableton Live can yield great results if
you're aware of how gain structure and
| | 04:19 |
audio levels can affect audio quality.
Now that you understand these issues,
| | 04:23 |
you're ready to make great sounding
recordings.
| | 04:26 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
8. Arrangement ViewUnderstanding Arrangement view| 00:00 |
Working in session view is a unique way
to begin building a song.
| | 00:04 |
There comes a point in creating a song
where you'll likely want to work in a
| | 00:06 |
more conventional linear manner, like in
Live's arrangement view.
| | 00:10 |
Let's take a look at the primary
components of arrangement view, and get
| | 00:13 |
accustomed to the interface.
So we can switch between arrangement and
| | 00:16 |
session view, using the session and
arrange buttons that are to the right of
| | 00:20 |
the tracks here in session view.
Or you can use your tab key to move
| | 00:25 |
between the two views.
Now there are several similarities in
| | 00:30 |
arrange view.
You'll notice that we have the help view
| | 00:33 |
over on the right, detail view at the
bottom, info view in the lower lefthand corner.
| | 00:39 |
The browser over on the far left-hand
side.
| | 00:42 |
And then across the top, we have the
control bar.
| | 00:44 |
All those things are the same.
Here in the middle, though, things are a
| | 00:48 |
little bit different.
Arrangement view is laid out like a
| | 00:51 |
multi-track tape machine where time moves
from left to right.
| | 00:55 |
So you notice that we have a ruler that
goes across the top, and that's in bars
| | 00:57 |
and beats.
And we start with bar one over on the left.
| | 01:01 |
And as we move to the right, time is
moving forward.
| | 01:04 |
Now, above that we have something that's
a little bit different.
| | 01:07 |
And this is the overview area and if you
want to zoom in or zoom out you can do
| | 01:11 |
that by clicking and dragging there or
down in the ruler itself.
| | 01:16 |
Now I'm going to go ahead and close help
view so we have just a little bit more
| | 01:19 |
room to see what we're doing here.
And now if I want to size this for the
| | 01:24 |
session, I can click and drag that out,
and that looks a little bit better.
| | 01:30 |
So, on the right of the clips that we're
seeing here, we actually have the track
| | 01:34 |
headers, and right now these are all
minimized.
| | 01:38 |
Now, if we want to see them a little bit
bigger, you can choose one, and I'll
| | 01:40 |
choose the (INAUDIBLE) track here.
And I click the track unfold button so
| | 01:45 |
that I can see the activator button and
the solo button and the volume here.
| | 01:51 |
If I click in here, you can see that as I
click and drag up and down we actually
| | 01:54 |
see the automation line that corresponds
to that moving up and down.
| | 02:00 |
The next area over here is the pan area.
If I click here, I can change the tracks
| | 02:04 |
location in the left to right mix.
Below that, I have controls for
| | 02:08 |
controlling how much is sending out each
send.
| | 02:12 |
So, I've got send A, B,C,D and E.
I've got actually in use in this set.
| | 02:18 |
And then under the track name, I've got
choosers that allow me to choose what
| | 02:21 |
automatiion or envelope element that I'm
looking at.
| | 02:25 |
And we can do that for the mixer and we
can do that for any devices that are
| | 02:29 |
actually on this track.
And if I choose mixer, I could choose the
| | 02:33 |
track volume or any of the other aspects
that are part of that.
| | 02:37 |
Now some of these have a liitle bit of an
interesting name, the speaker on button.
| | 02:41 |
Is actually the mute on or off button.
Down on the lower right-hand side of the
| | 02:46 |
tracks I've got show hide buttons that
allow me to show and hide elements of the mixer.
| | 02:51 |
So if I want to see the I/O I can open
that up or close that, if I want to see
| | 02:54 |
the return tracks I can do that, and
clicking the mixer button will minimize
| | 02:58 |
this down to just the track names.
Or bring back those mixture controls.
| | 03:04 |
So on and so forth.
Across the bottom, I have a second ruler
| | 03:07 |
that's currently showing in minutes and
seconds.
| | 03:10 |
But if you right-click on that, you can
change that to a time code format, and
| | 03:13 |
you'd do that if you were working in
conjunction with film.
| | 03:18 |
Now, if I click a clip up here on the
timeline, the clip will show down here in clipview.
| | 03:24 |
And this must be A MIDI clip, and if I
want to see the related devices that are
| | 03:28 |
playing that clip, I can once again click
on the device view button or I can use
| | 03:32 |
the command shift tab to move between the
two views.
| | 03:38 |
So please notice up here on the track
that I unfolded that we can either click
| | 03:42 |
on the clip or you can click below that
In the track display area to set your
| | 03:45 |
cursor location.
If you click on a clip you're going to
| | 03:50 |
select the entire clip.
Notice that if I click over here it
| | 03:53 |
selects that but, if I click down in the
track area I can actually set my cursor
| | 03:57 |
to a single location and we can start and
stop playback by using the spacebar.
| | 04:03 |
So now that you know the layout and where
the most important parameters are
| | 04:06 |
located, we're ready to start working in
arrangement view.
| | 04:09 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Zooming in and out and playing in Arrangement view| 00:00 |
A big part of feeling comfortable in
music production program, is knowing how
| | 00:03 |
to navigate and start and stop playback.
Most of what we've learned in Session
| | 00:07 |
view, can be used in Arrangement view.
But there are a couple of differences.
| | 00:11 |
So let's take a look at Zooming and
Playback in Arrangement view.
| | 00:15 |
We can zoom in and out using the B time
ruler.
| | 00:17 |
So I can move up to the top.
I can click and drag up or down.
| | 00:22 |
I can also click and drag right or left,
to pan.
| | 00:26 |
I can also do both the same things up
here in the overview area.
| | 00:29 |
So I can zoom in and out, and I can also
drag right or left to pan.
| | 00:33 |
You can also hold down the Cmd and Option
keys, that would be Ctrl and Alt on a PC.
| | 00:39 |
And pan down here in the track area.
Now, to set your cursor position, we
| | 00:44 |
could just click here, anywhere in the
track display area.
| | 00:49 |
Now, just note that if you click on a
clip itself, you're going to select that clip.
| | 00:53 |
There's no way to actually choose in the
middle of o a clip unless you click the
| | 00:56 |
Track unfold button, which will give you
a view of both the clip and what's in it,
| | 01:00 |
and you can click below that and set your
insert position.
| | 01:06 |
Once you're there you can also Zoom In
and Out using the Plus and Minus keys on
| | 01:09 |
your keyboard.
I find that really fast and useful.
| | 01:14 |
Now you may want to be able to move your
cursor to the beginning of the set or to
| | 01:18 |
the end.
To go to the beginning, we can do that by
| | 01:21 |
double-clicking the Stop button.
Or, let me zoom back in a little bit more again.
| | 01:28 |
I'll click down here.
If your keyboard also has a Home key we
| | 01:31 |
can do it that way.
And then if your keyboard has an End key,
| | 01:35 |
you can press your End key to get to the
end of the set.
| | 01:38 |
It looks like I have a few additional
bars beyond last clip so that's why we're
| | 01:42 |
seeing the blank, gray area here.
Let me zoom that box so we can see everything.
| | 01:48 |
Okay, lets start playback in Session
view.
| | 01:52 |
You can just choose a point and press our
spacebar to start.
| | 01:56 |
(music playing) And our spacebar to stop or you
can click the Play button, its up in the
| | 02:02 |
Control bar.
If you zoomed in and you want the screen
| | 02:07 |
to scroll as you play back you can turn
on the Follow button, must check that out.
| | 02:12 |
(music playing).
And how that works can be set up in Preferences.
| | 02:17 |
So, if we go to the Live menu that will
be the Options menu on a PC and choose Preferences.
| | 02:26 |
And then in the Look and Feel tab, you
can check the follow behavior and right
| | 02:30 |
now it's set to scroll, we can also set
that to page.
| | 02:34 |
Let me escape out of there.
Another way we can use Playback in the
| | 02:38 |
Arrange view, is to Loop.
And we can do that by turning on the Loop
| | 02:41 |
switch, and then grabbing the Loop brace
and moving that to where we want it to playback.
| | 02:48 |
Once we've got a spot, you can click on
the edge of that to get the trim cursor,
| | 02:51 |
and then you can increase or decrease the
length of the loop.
| | 02:57 |
Now, once that's selected you can move it
around by clicking and dragging on it, or
| | 03:00 |
you can use the arrow keys to move it by
whatever the current Grid setting is.
| | 03:06 |
You can also set the loop play back if
that off, by clicking and dragging in the
| | 03:10 |
area where you want to loop and then
using the key command.
| | 03:14 |
Cmd+L which would be Ctrl+L on a PC.
If you need to set the grid its much the
| | 03:20 |
same a session view you can right-click
anywhere on the track that you display.
| | 03:25 |
And on the Contextual menu, I can choose
either Fixed grid or Adaptive grid, and
| | 03:29 |
whatever value you want.
And the key commands are the same.
| | 03:33 |
So for example, Cmd+1 will narrow the
grid.
| | 03:37 |
Cmd+2 will widen the grid.
And that would be the Ctrl with a number
| | 03:41 |
with both of those on a PC.
We can also scrub to playback, and we can
| | 03:46 |
do that using the lower half of the ruler
here.
| | 03:50 |
And if hold down my Shift key and click
up there, we'll get the scrub.
| | 03:55 |
(music playing) And playback will start from the
point I click.
| | 03:59 |
Now you can also go into Preferences into
the Live menu, Options on a PC.
| | 04:05 |
And we can turn on permanent scrub areas
by clicking on this button.
| | 04:10 |
And the nice thing about that is, we now
playback we'll start on just a click and
| | 04:13 |
not on Shift + Click.
(music playing) Additionally, if you want to
| | 04:18 |
start playback from the point you stopped
playback, you can use the command Shift +
| | 04:23 |
spacebar.
(music playing) So, hopefully some of what we
| | 04:35 |
discussed here was already familiar.
But in any case, practicing these
| | 04:39 |
techniques will greatly speed up your
work.
| | 04:41 |
So take a few minutes and practice
navigating, zooming, and playback in
| | 04:44 |
Arrangement view.
| | 04:45 |
| | 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 the recording
process, learn how to record with
| | 00:06 |
pre-roll, and learn how to use punch
record in Arrangement view.
| | 00:11 |
So, in most cases you're going to need to
set up a track, by creating the track and
| | 00:14 |
putting your preset on it.
But I've already got that set up for us here.
| | 00:19 |
First, I want to check to make sure that
I've got signal for my MIDI keyboard.
| | 00:22 |
So I'm going to come up and check the
MIDI indicator here in the upper right
| | 00:24 |
hand corner of the control bar.
I'll press a key on my keyboard (audio playing), okay.
| | 00:29 |
I see it lighting up.
Now I'll record on the track, so I can
| | 00:32 |
hear signal (audio playing).
Okay I've got that.
| | 00:36 |
And I'm going to come up and make sure
that my metronome is enabled.
| | 00:40 |
And I've got a count in, let's set at one
bar, that'll be enough.
| | 00:45 |
And one big difference of recording in
Arrangement view than Session view, is
| | 00:48 |
you actually have to place the cursor
where you want to start recording.
| | 00:52 |
So I've got this gap here starting at bar
49 and that's where I'm going to record.
| | 00:55 |
So let me click there, get that right on
49.
| | 00:59 |
And I'm going to record with Record
Quantization turned on.
| | 01:02 |
So let's go up to the Edit menu, and come
down to Record Quantization.
| | 01:05 |
And I'm going to choose 16th Note
Quantization.
| | 01:09 |
That should be enough to get me where I
want to be.
| | 01:12 |
So the last thing I need to do before I
go into record is just click the
| | 01:15 |
Arrangement Record button up here in the
Control bar.
| | 01:19 |
Let's give this a shot.
| | 01:20 |
(music playing).
| | 01:23 |
Okay, and I pressed my Spacebar to stop
recording.
| | 01:42 |
You'll notice that it took me just a
little bit of time to actually get that
| | 01:44 |
done after I finished playing.
And so, if I wanted to, I could just
| | 01:49 |
trim the end of this clip to get that to
exactly eight bars.
| | 01:52 |
But there's also a way to record, to end
with a recording that's exactly the
| | 01:56 |
length that you want.
So, I'm going to select this clip, by
| | 01:59 |
clicking on it and hitting my Delete key.
And let's start this over again.
| | 02:04 |
So this time I'm going to do a couple
things different.
| | 02:07 |
I'm actually going to grab a loop race up
here and the ruler, I'm going to drag
| | 02:10 |
that over to bar 49, and I'll extend that
out to 57 because I want to record
| | 02:14 |
exactly eight bars.
So, I'm going to turn on the punch in
| | 02:20 |
switch and the punch out switch in
combination with that.
| | 02:24 |
So now what will happen is I'll drop into
record at 49 and I'll drop out of record
| | 02:28 |
exactly at 57.
Now, instead of listening to a count-in,
| | 02:33 |
when you enable the punch in switch, all
I need to do is click on the track where
| | 02:36 |
I want to hear playback start.
And I'll hear what's on the track in
| | 02:41 |
preparation to start recording.
I'm going to put this a couple bars out
| | 02:45 |
front, and so when I click the
Arrange/Record button, I'll hear playback
| | 02:50 |
from 47 up to 49.
And then I'll record from 49 to 57.
| | 02:56 |
It will drop out of record, and then it
will stop when I hit the spacebar.
| | 02:59 |
Let's give it a shot.
| | 03:08 |
(music playing).
| | 03:11 |
Okay, so that worked as planned.
Now one of the nice things about this is
| | 03:27 |
now that I've got this in here and I've
got an exact eight bar clip, I can go
| | 03:31 |
ahead and select that clip.
And I can duplicate that by pressing
| | 03:36 |
Cmd+D on a Mac or Ctrl+D on a PC and it
fits in there perfectly for me.
| | 03:42 |
So, this idea of Punch recording is
really when you want to record in a spot
| | 03:45 |
where you don't want to record over
anything that's previous to your punch in
| | 03:49 |
point or after your punch out point.
So, recording in Arrangement view is very
| | 03:54 |
similar to recording a Session view and
now we know how to use live's punch
| | 03:57 |
record function.
So now you can record an either Session
| | 04:01 |
or arrangement view, which ever you
prefer.
| | 04:03 |
| | 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
| | 00:03 |
a song.
But it's often easier to mix an
| | 00:05 |
automation and fine-tune a project in
Arrangement view.
| | 00:09 |
Let's take a look at one of Live's truly
innovative features, and learn how to
| | 00:12 |
record clips and scenes from Session view
into Arrangement view.
| | 00:16 |
So the process is fairly simple, once I
click the Arrangement Record button.
| | 00:20 |
Any clips or scenes I launch, or any
parameter changes that I make on devices
| | 00:24 |
will actually all record from Session
view into Arrangement view.
| | 00:29 |
There's a couple of things we should look
at before we do this.
| | 00:32 |
So first of all, I'm going to Tab over
into Arrangement view and make sure that
| | 00:35 |
my cursor is at the beginning of the set
over here at bar one.
| | 00:39 |
So let me click over there and reset
that.
| | 00:42 |
And now I'll tab back to Session view and
I'm going to enable my Metronome button.
| | 00:48 |
I'm also going to check the global
quantize amount.
| | 00:51 |
Now, remember, anything I trigger here in
Session view is going to wait till the
| | 00:55 |
next bar, before it starts playing.
And if one bar isn't enough or it's too
| | 00:59 |
much, I can simply click this, and I can
choose a different value.
| | 01:03 |
Now I could launch the scenes as I do
this by just clicking with my mouse.
| | 01:06 |
But a lot of times I find that awkward to
do.
| | 01:09 |
And so I'm going to go ahead and I'm
going to map these using the key map
| | 01:12 |
function, that allows me to map scenes or
clip launch buttons or device parameters
| | 01:16 |
to keys on my computer keyboard.
So, let's click the Key Map button up here.
| | 01:23 |
And that would be Cmd+K on a Mac or
Ctrl+K on a PC if I wanted to do that by
| | 01:26 |
a keyboard shortcut.
Now it looks like I already have a couple
| | 01:30 |
of these set up.
Let me delete some of these and we'll do
| | 01:32 |
it again just to show you how it works.
So I'll select those, hit my Delete key.
| | 01:37 |
They're gone.
Now all I need to do is select something.
| | 01:41 |
And then press a key on my computer
keyboard to assign that key to what I've
| | 01:44 |
got selected.
So, I'll press the number 1, and you'll
| | 01:48 |
see that appear here in the right upper
corner of that scene slot.
| | 01:52 |
And also see it over here in key mappings
browser to see that it's assigned.
| | 01:57 |
And let me click the next scene, I'm
going to assign that to 2, the next one
| | 02:00 |
to 3 and the next one to 4.
I will leave the key map area, all I need
| | 02:05 |
to do is disable the key button.
I'm just going to point out that I have
| | 02:10 |
got the computer mini keyboard button
disabled.
| | 02:14 |
And I have done that because there are
certain keys on the computer keyboard
| | 02:18 |
that are already assigned to act as a
mini keyboard.
| | 02:22 |
And I want to make sure that those dont
conflict with anything that I've set.
| | 02:26 |
So by just disabling this button I
disable those mappings.
| | 02:30 |
And now anything that I have in the key
map area is sure to work.
| | 02:34 |
So I'm going to click the Arrange Record
button to go into record.
| | 02:38 |
I'll hear a count off and then I'm going
to press the numbers to launch these
| | 02:41 |
scenes, and then they will start
recording into Arrangement view.
| | 02:46 |
So let's just record a couple of these to
see how it works.
| | 02:49 |
(music playing)
| | 02:54 |
And I'll press my Spacebar to stop that.
And let's go into Arrangement view and
| | 03:29 |
take a look at what happens.
So, I'll press my Tab key to move there.
| | 03:33 |
And we can see that I've recorded
starting at bar one, over here to, looks
| | 03:37 |
like bar 18.
And you'll notice that I actually pressed
| | 03:41 |
the Assign key to trigger that last
scene.
| | 03:45 |
And I did it a tiny bit too early.
I should have waited one more beat.
| | 03:48 |
And that's why we're actually off by just
a little bit right there at bar 17.
| | 03:53 |
So what happens.
We could Cmd+Z and go back and redo that.
| | 03:57 |
Not too hard to do.
So, while we're here, I want to show you
| | 04:00 |
the Back to Arrangement button.
Live has to manage this relationship
| | 04:05 |
between Session view and Arrange view,
especially when you have clips in both views.
| | 04:10 |
After finishing recording, you'll need to
click the Back to Arrange View button so
| | 04:14 |
that it actually finished the process and
shows you the clips here.
| | 04:18 |
Now at this point, if I press Spacebar,
I'm going to hear play back in Arrange view.
| | 04:22 |
Let's just do that once.
(music playing) And I press the Spacebar to stop playback.
| | 04:28 |
And so, we can see that we've got the
clips on a timeline here in Arrange view.
| | 04:32 |
But if I want I can press Tab key and I
can go back and continue to work and make
| | 04:36 |
changes here in Session view.
But as soon as I launch anything, we're
| | 04:41 |
actually going to see the Back to
Arrangement View button light up again.
| | 04:45 |
Let me do this.
I'll just start a scene (music playing) and I
| | 04:48 |
stop that by pressing the Spacebar.
And so at this point I can continue to
| | 04:53 |
work and make changes here.
But any point that I want to go back and
| | 04:58 |
hear what's actually in Arrange view, all
I need to do is click the Back to
| | 05:02 |
Arrangement button.
After using Session view to work out the
| | 05:07 |
sections of a song, you can experiment
with the order of those sections, or the
| | 05:10 |
form of the song by launching scenes.
And then, when you are ready, you can
| | 05:15 |
record those scenes into Arrangement
view, where you can have automation and
| | 05:18 |
work out the final details of the song.
| | 05:21 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding and using locators| 00:00 |
When you're working in Arrangement View
in a long set, or a set with lots of
| | 00:03 |
tracks, it can get hard to see the
different sections of a song.
| | 00:07 |
Live allows you to add markers called
Locators in Arrangement View to solve
| | 00:09 |
this problem.
Creating locators is a pretty simple process.
| | 00:14 |
All you need to do is click in the Track
Display where you want to create that
| | 00:17 |
locator, and then click the Set button up
here on the upper right-hand corner.
| | 00:23 |
So, I'm going to create the first one
here at bar one.
| | 00:25 |
So, I'm going to click anywhere on any
track over here at bar one and I'm
| | 00:28 |
going to go ahead and click the set
button.
| | 00:31 |
Before I do that I'm just going to point
out that I've already set the grid in the
| | 00:34 |
background at four bars.
It makes it very easy to click and select things.
| | 00:39 |
If I had set that at a smaller value.
Gets a little bit harder to exactly click
| | 00:43 |
and set where you want to be.
And again, all you have to do is
| | 00:47 |
right-click anywhere on the track display
area and choose that value from the
| | 00:50 |
Contextual menu.
Let me click out of there.
| | 00:54 |
And again, I'll click at bar one, go
ahead and click the Set button, and we
| | 00:57 |
see this little flag appear up here in
the ruler.
| | 01:02 |
So let me click, Select that Flag.
And then press Cmd+ R.
| | 01:06 |
That would be Ctrl R on a PC.
And I can rename that.
| | 01:10 |
I'll call this one Intro.
Let me come over here to bar 25 and
| | 01:13 |
create another one.
Now this time I'm going to choose my
| | 01:16 |
location by click selecting one of the
clips.
| | 01:19 |
And when I click the Set button, it's
going to mark the beginning of that clip
| | 01:22 |
as where I want that locator.
Here we go.
| | 01:26 |
So Set.
And now, I'll go ahead and select that by
| | 01:30 |
clicking it, and then Cmd+R.
And I'm going to call this, Piano Break.
| | 01:35 |
Now, I notice that I put that at the
wrong place, so I'm going to click Select
| | 01:39 |
that and I'm going to drag it over here
to bar 33 so that it's in the right place.
| | 01:45 |
Now, let's do one more.
So, I'll click here at 49 and go up and
| | 01:49 |
click the Set button and rename that one.
And let's call this one Verse One.
| | 01:56 |
So, a few things that I can do with those
locators now that I have them in the set.
| | 02:01 |
I can set my location here in the
Arrangement View Window by clicking one
| | 02:04 |
of these.
I can also do the same thing by using the
| | 02:09 |
Previous Locator and Next Locator
buttons.
| | 02:12 |
So, I'm at the last one.
Let me click the Previous Locator twice
| | 02:16 |
to move me to the beginning.
I can also key map those by going into
| | 02:20 |
key map mode.
That's that button up here on the control
| | 02:24 |
bar, so I'll click that and then I'll
click Select the Intro One and I'll press
| | 02:28 |
the number 1 to assign that key to that
locator.
| | 02:34 |
And then I'll press the number 2 and
assign that to Piano Break and then
| | 02:37 |
number 3 to assign that to Verse One and
I see those mappings listed over here in
| | 02:41 |
the key mapping browser and then I'll
disable key mapping by clicking on the
| | 02:45 |
key button and now if I want to locate my
cursor in the set to those places.
| | 02:53 |
I'll press one, to go to Intro.
Two to go to the Piano Break Locator.
| | 02:58 |
And three to go to the Verse One Locator.
Now I can also start playback using the
| | 03:02 |
locators by double-clicking on any
locator button.
| | 03:05 |
Let's check that out.
(audio playing) And lastly, I can actually set
| | 03:10 |
the loop raise by right-clicking on one
of the locators, and choosing loop to
| | 03:18 |
Next Locator.
So, locators are very useful when you're
| | 03:25 |
working with long arrangements.
Not only their visual ques is a big help,
| | 03:28 |
but making selections and starting
playback is useful, too.
| | 03:31 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Copying, duplicating, and editing clips in Arrangement view| 00:00 |
Some dial users prefer to work out their
arrangements in a linear manner.
| | 00:03 |
If that's the case, you'll want to know
how to edit in Live's Arrangement view.
| | 00:08 |
So editing the contents of the clip in
Arrangement view is no different than
| | 00:10 |
that in Session view.
If you select the clip to show it down
| | 00:14 |
here in Clip view and then if you need to
transpose a note or move a note around
| | 00:17 |
you just click it, and use your arrow
keys to move it or trim it.
| | 00:22 |
And as I said there's really no
differences than in Session View.
| | 00:27 |
But working with the clips on the
timeline is a little bit different.
| | 00:30 |
So I'll go ahead and close out Details
View here.
| | 00:32 |
By clicking this button in the lower
right-hand corner.
| | 00:34 |
And now we can just concentrate on moving
or editing the whole clips.
| | 00:38 |
So, first if you want to move a clip you
can just click to select it and then drag it.
| | 00:44 |
And it will snap into place if you've got
the grid active.
| | 00:47 |
And in this case, by the way, I've got
this set at one bar.
| | 00:51 |
And we can change that setting by
right-clicking in the background of the
| | 00:54 |
track display and choosing another value
from the Contextual menu.
| | 00:58 |
Now, when I'm working, kind of arranging
and editing clips like we're doing here.
| | 01:03 |
I do like to set this around one bar or
perhaps, a half a bar, in case I'm
| | 01:06 |
working with any shorter drum fills, but
let's leave this at one bar.
| | 01:12 |
So, if I want to move several clips, all
I need to do is drag select them and
| | 01:15 |
again, I'm going to do that by kind of
clicking in the track, display
| | 01:19 |
backgroound, selectign a group and then
clicking one.
| | 01:24 |
And grabbing that.
And moving that, lifting that snap to
| | 01:27 |
where I want it to go.
Now I can also trim clips.
| | 01:31 |
We can do that by moving your cursor over
the end of a clip.
| | 01:34 |
And when you see the trim cursor appear.
You can click and drag, to shorten the length.
| | 01:39 |
Now I can also lengthen the length.
And it work as a loop trimmer.
| | 01:43 |
And it will just add another loop of that
clip as I drag out.
| | 01:47 |
An again I can do that to a group of
clips by drag selecting, and then moving
| | 01:51 |
my cursor over one of the, selected
clips, an dragging out, an it will do it
| | 01:54 |
to, all of them.
Now, in this case what I want to do is I
| | 01:59 |
want to take the, whole section that I
have here, an I want to copy an paste
| | 02:03 |
that to fill bars nine to 17.
So let me click down here and drag all
| | 02:09 |
the way up and select all of that.
I will go Cmd+C to copy that will be
| | 02:13 |
Ctrl+C on a PC and then click at bar nine
at one of these tracks and go Cmd+V and
| | 02:18 |
paste the whole thing.
I could have done that in other manner
| | 02:23 |
let me undo that so I will go Cmd+z,
Ctrl+Z on a PC.
| | 02:28 |
And again I'll click in the Track View
background.
| | 02:31 |
And drag all the way up and select all of
these.
| | 02:33 |
And this time I'm going to hold down my
option key.
| | 02:36 |
And then just click and drag.
And as I do that it makes a copy.
| | 02:39 |
And when I get to bar nine I can drop
that and I've filled in that part of the arraignment.
| | 02:45 |
Now sometimes before you copy or edit a
clip in some ways, you may actually want
| | 02:49 |
to separate it.
So to do that I'm actually going to click
| | 02:52 |
the Track Unfold button here, on the base
track.
| | 02:56 |
That's going to be a little easier to
show you.
| | 02:58 |
So I'll click That Down, and what I just
want to show you here is that if I want
| | 03:02 |
to actually separate this clip in half.
If I go to click on top of the clip where
| | 03:07 |
I want to separate it I actually end up
selecting the entire clip.
| | 03:11 |
So what I need to do instead is unfold
the track like I did by clicking the
| | 03:15 |
Track Unfold button and then click in the
Background of the track you display below
| | 03:19 |
the clip on that track.
And now I can go ahead and I can go up to
| | 03:24 |
the Edit menu and I can choose Split or
Separate and that's Cmd+E to do that
| | 03:28 |
would be Ctrl+E on a PC.
And now notice that, that clip has been
| | 03:35 |
split in half and now I'm free to edit
just this back half.
| | 03:39 |
For example, I can copy that and move my
cursor over and paste it.
| | 03:43 |
Now, another way that I can reuse the
elements that I'm working with here, is I
| | 03:47 |
can duplicate them.
So, let me click that Track Fold button
| | 03:51 |
and close that back up.
And I want to grab this.
| | 03:55 |
Section here from 25 up to 17, and
instead of using the copy and paste
| | 04:00 |
command, I want to go ahead and just go
Cmd+D, or that'd be Ctrl+D on PC, and
| | 04:04 |
just duplicate that on the back end of
that.
| | 04:10 |
I'm going to undo that, and show you one
more way to do that.
| | 04:13 |
One of my options is to actually go up in
the ruler and right-click, and I can
| | 04:17 |
choose Duplicate time.
And the difference here is that it copied
| | 04:22 |
and pasted this on the end, but it
actually moved over the empty space that
| | 04:26 |
I had here between the end of the clip
that went from 17 to 25.
| | 04:32 |
And the one that was at one point was
actually at 25 over to 41, and what it
| | 04:36 |
did was inserted that eight bars and
moved that 16 bars of space over.
| | 04:41 |
So if I didn't want that 16 bars of space
I can actually select that whole area.
| | 04:47 |
And another option that's available to me
up in the Contextual menu by right
| | 04:51 |
clicking on the Ruler ss delete time.
And now it just removed that amount of
| | 04:56 |
time from the timeline.
And moved any clips that were on the
| | 04:59 |
timeline to the right of that.
Over so that they are now bumped up
| | 05:04 |
against the other clips.
One of the last things that you might
| | 05:07 |
want to do.
When you've really gotten to a final
| | 05:09 |
version of a song is you may want to take
the clips on the track and join them into
| | 05:13 |
one single clip.
And we can do that using the consolidate function.
| | 05:19 |
So for example, I could select these four
clips here on the Drum Rack track by
| | 05:23 |
shift selecting them and then going up to
the Edit menu.
| | 05:29 |
And choosing consolidate or using the key
command, Cmd+J on a Mac or Ctrl+J on a PC.
| | 05:36 |
So I'll click that.
And you notice that it just joined those
| | 05:40 |
clips all together.
So, I really love the Session view work
| | 05:43 |
flow in live.
But sometimes it's just easier to edit or
| | 05:46 |
build your arrangements in a linear
manner.
| | 05:48 |
And as you can see that's easy to do in
Lives Arangement view.
| | 05:52 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Reworking clips| 00:00 |
One of the disadvantages of using loop
and sample libraries is that everyone's
| | 00:03 |
projects start to sound similar.
Let's take a look at how you can use Live
| | 00:07 |
session to arrange record feature.
To rework preexisting material to create
| | 00:11 |
custom clips that we can use in our live
projects.
| | 00:15 |
So I've got a clip on this first audio
track and I'm going to start by copying
| | 00:18 |
this to several clip slots.
So, I'll select that and I'm going to
| | 00:22 |
hold down my Option key and just drag
this.
| | 00:24 |
I'm going to edit these four copies that
I have just put out there.
| | 00:29 |
I won't actually work with the first one
because if I need to go back at a later
| | 00:32 |
point to the source clip, I've still got
it.
| | 00:36 |
So, let me select this first clip and I'm
going to use the Cmd+Shift+Tab to show
| | 00:40 |
this down here, in the clip view.
And I'm going to use the start and end
| | 00:45 |
selectors to limit the different clips to
just a small portion.
| | 00:50 |
So, let me just play this once so that we
hear what it sounds like and then I'm
| | 00:56 |
going to go in and start working on this.
(music playing) Okay.
| | 01:02 |
So I've just listened to identify kind of
where the kick sounds and the snare
| | 01:05 |
sounds and where some of the other cool
stuff are at.
| | 01:09 |
So on the first one, I'm going to grab
about a bar, that's mostly kick, and then
| | 01:13 |
I'll drop down to the second one.
And I'm going to get a single kick hit
| | 01:18 |
and I'm also going to turn the loop off
because sometimes it's nice to just hit
| | 01:21 |
one and have a stop portion happen.
On the next one I'm going to grab a snare
| | 01:27 |
and I notice that I've got a nice snare
part happening there on beat two.
| | 01:33 |
So, I'll grab that and then down here on
the last one.
| | 01:36 |
I like this bit that's just right over in
here where we've got that kind of reverse
| | 01:40 |
thing going on, or that ramp-up snare.
So let me grab about half a beat there.
| | 01:46 |
And I'm going to copy this one more time,
Option-click and drag that down and
| | 01:49 |
select that because I like this little
piece that's about right here.
| | 01:54 |
Let me play and find that real quick.
(music playing) It's this piece right there.
| | 02:02 |
Now if you want, you can rename these
clips so that you can identify what
| | 02:05 |
you've got in each clip.
So for example I might, select that first
| | 02:09 |
one an go Cmd+R, that would be Ctrl+R on
a PC.
| | 02:12 |
An now I could call this kick.
An maybe the next one I could call that,
| | 02:16 |
kick two, and so on an so forth.
The next thing I want to be able to do is
| | 02:20 |
I want to be able to trigger these really
easily.
| | 02:22 |
So I'm going to go into Key Map mode by
clicking the Key button here on the
| | 02:25 |
control bar.
And anything that turns orange, I can
| | 02:28 |
assign to be controlled by one of the
keys on the computer keyboard.
| | 02:33 |
So I'll choose this kick clip, and I'll
press one and the next one 2, next one 3,
| | 02:39 |
4 and 5.
And then I'll leave key map mode, by
| | 02:43 |
clicking on the key button again.
And when I trigger these, it's going to
| | 02:47 |
be affected by the global quantization.
So right now, it would play each one of
| | 02:51 |
these atleast a bar, before it would go
on into the next clip.
| | 02:54 |
And I want to be able to trigger them
much more quickly than that.
| | 02:57 |
So I'm going to click on the Global
Quantization and change that from the
| | 03:01 |
default one bar to a smaller value.
And I would suggest trying this at around
| | 03:06 |
an eighth or a 16th note, to start off
with.
| | 03:08 |
I'm going to do it at a 16th note on this
one.
| | 03:11 |
And before I get started with this, I
want to be able to hear a count off, so
| | 03:14 |
I'm going to make sure that I've go the
Count off turned on.
| | 03:18 |
I've got that at one bar.
So now I'll set the start point by
| | 03:21 |
clicking on the Stop button to reset that
to bar one, beat one.
| | 03:27 |
And now all I need to do is click the
Arrange Record button and I can begin
| | 03:30 |
triggering these clips and recording them
from session into a range view.
| | 03:36 |
Here we go.
(music playing) So I've got some stuff out there,
| | 03:44 |
and we can go check that out and see if
there's something that we can use.
| | 04:01 |
So let me click the Stop Clips button.
I'm going to press my Tab key to move to
| | 04:05 |
the Arrange window.
We can see what I did there, and to get
| | 04:08 |
access to that, I'll click the Back To
Arrangement button here.
| | 04:11 |
And now we can zoom in, and the idea here
is maybe to find two or four bars that's
| | 04:15 |
a little bit interesting an different
than, things that you've used in the past.
| | 04:20 |
So let me, start playback here around bar
three.
| | 04:23 |
There might be something there.
(music playing) Okay, so I'm going to grab this
| | 04:27 |
bit that starts right there that has a
little bit of a break in the middle.
| | 04:35 |
And over to the end, and I'm going to
slide that so that lines up now with the
| | 04:42 |
middle of bar five there.
And I'm going to trim this last little
| | 04:49 |
bit over so that I get right here to the
middle of bar seven, so I've got a two
| | 04:55 |
bar clip in the end.
So, at this point, I might start taking
| | 05:01 |
pieces of this and editing them using the
clip properties.
| | 05:05 |
So, for example, I might choose this
little kick piece in the middle and come
| | 05:08 |
down here and hit the Reverse button.
And I might take this second piece right
| | 05:14 |
here and click the Times Two button to
double it up and make it a little bit faster.
| | 05:19 |
And let's hear what that sounds like when
I play that.
| | 05:22 |
(music playing) Okay, so what I'm going to do now
is I'm going to select that material.
| | 05:29 |
And so that it's easier to reuse in
another session or in Session view, I'm
| | 05:34 |
going to go ahead and I'm going to
consolidate that.
| | 05:39 |
So, let's go up to the Edit menu.
And I'll go down and I'll choose Consolidate.
| | 05:45 |
It's written a new file there and then
I'm going to go into my user library.
| | 05:50 |
And I'm going to drag and drop that into
the clips area there and I'm going to
| | 05:54 |
call that drum loop for lack of anything
more imaginative.
| | 06:00 |
And now I'm going to go back into session
view and I'm going to drag that loop onto
| | 06:05 |
a new track and let's hear what that
sounds like.
| | 06:09 |
Going to turn on the loop button down
here so that the loop's on itself.
| | 06:17 |
(music playing) So, as you see Live session to
arrange record feature brings a whole new
| | 06:23 |
level of creativity and fun to making
music with a computer.
| | 06:29 |
It takes a bit of practice to learn to
use effectively but can yield some
| | 06:32 |
interesting and new material.
| | 06:34 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
9. The Live MixerUnderstanding the mixer| 00:00 |
The mixing console is the heart of any
music production system, and
| | 00:03 |
understanding the function of the
different devices is an important part of
| | 00:05 |
being in control of the music making
process.
| | 00:09 |
So I'll start by reminding you that down
in the lower right-hand corner, next to
| | 00:12 |
the master track, we have show, hide
buttons that allow us to, show and hide
| | 00:15 |
sections of the mixer.
So I've got the I O button that opens and
| | 00:21 |
closes the inputs and outputs area and
the sense, returns and the actual mixer section.
| | 00:28 |
Right now this is a little bit small down
here in the mixture area.
| | 00:32 |
So I'm going to grab that by moving my
cursor on that dividing line and I can
| | 00:35 |
bring this up a little bit, can see a
little bit more detail.
| | 00:39 |
I could also see a little bit more detail
by widening a track or tracks.
| | 00:44 |
Now, if I move my cursor on the edge of a
track and click and drag, I can change
| | 00:47 |
the width of that track and now I can see
that there is a numeric read out there as well.
| | 00:53 |
Now, if I want to change the width of
several tracks at a time.
| | 00:58 |
I can just click select the names of two
or more tracks and now when I go to
| | 01:01 |
change the track width by clicking on the
edge of this, the DX track, I can drag
| | 01:05 |
that down until they all get to be the
same size and then pull it back out and
| | 01:09 |
you'll notice they're all changing to the
same width.
| | 01:17 |
That's useful and we can do that when
we're also changing parameters down here
| | 01:20 |
in the mixer section.
So I'm going to cilck out of there and
| | 01:23 |
lose that selection.
And let's talk about some of the areas
| | 01:26 |
that we see.
So this first thing I'm pointing out,
| | 01:29 |
this is a peak indicator on the track.
So while the meter is bouncing up and
| | 01:33 |
down and you hit the loudest peak.
You'll actually see a readout of that.
| | 01:38 |
Now below this I can set the level on the
track output by clicking in here and
| | 01:42 |
dragging up or down.
Or typing a value and as I do that.
| | 01:46 |
You'll notice that the little triangle is
moving next to the meter as well.
| | 01:51 |
So either one of those allows you.
To set the level.
| | 01:54 |
Now if you want to reset that parameter
to its original value, you can click
| | 01:58 |
select the triangle or click in this
numeric readout and hit your delete key
| | 02:02 |
and that resets that to the default
value.
| | 02:07 |
Let me move that back down.
So some of the other functions that we
| | 02:11 |
see here.
I've got the pan knob.
| | 02:14 |
And if I click select that and push up, I
pan to the right.
| | 02:18 |
And if I drag down, I pan left.
Again, I can reset that by clicking the
| | 02:22 |
triangle at the top.
Below that, I have what is in Live as the
| | 02:26 |
Track Activator button.
In other programs, this would be called
| | 02:30 |
the Mute button.
So if I disable that, there's no output
| | 02:33 |
from that track that's contributed to the
mix.
| | 02:36 |
And I'll click that back on.
And if you want to mute several tracks
| | 02:40 |
simultaneously, again, you can Shift,
Select their names and then click the
| | 02:44 |
Track Activator Button.
And you'll notice that it's muting or
| | 02:49 |
inactivating all three tracks
simultaneously.
| | 02:53 |
Below that, I've got the solo button, and
if I click the solo button on, you'll
| | 02:56 |
notice that it mutes all the other
tracks.
| | 03:00 |
If I want to solo another track, I can
click, Its solo button.
| | 03:04 |
You'll notice that when I did that, it
disabled the first track that I had soloed.
| | 03:08 |
Now this is because of a behavior that
set in Live Preferences.
| | 03:12 |
So let's go up to the Live menu, chose
Preferences, and then on the record warp
| | 03:16 |
launch tab look for the exclusive
setting.
| | 03:21 |
Notice that there's one for both the solo
button and for the record arm button.
| | 03:26 |
So right now when you click a solo or
record enable button.
| | 03:30 |
It's exclusive and that it will solo or
record arm that one track and if you do
| | 03:33 |
that to another track, it will disable
the one that you did it to previously.
| | 03:39 |
If I disable these two items, when I go
back up, notice that I can now click
| | 03:44 |
another solo button and it adds that to
the one that's already soloed.
| | 03:51 |
That behavior is often referred to as,
Latch Solo.
| | 03:54 |
Meaning that when you click a solo button
it latches on until you click it again to
| | 03:58 |
disable it.
Now if I had that preference I will go
| | 04:02 |
back into the Live menu, that would be
the Options menu on a PC and I will re
| | 04:06 |
enable those two buttons and I get back
out of there.
| | 04:11 |
If I want to solo multiple tracks again,
I can shift select their names.
| | 04:17 |
And now when I click on this solo buttons
those will all solo together and if I
| | 04:20 |
click on the record enable buttons,
they'll all record enable together.
| | 04:25 |
If I disable that and click on the record
enable button, it'll be one at a time and
| | 04:29 |
you'll notice that's disabling the one
that I have record enabled as I record
| | 04:32 |
enable another track.
So there's a few differences over here on
| | 04:38 |
the master track.
For example notice that the input section
| | 04:42 |
that we see here on the MIDI and audio
tracks.
| | 04:45 |
Over in the master tracks.
There are no inputs.
| | 04:48 |
There's only outputs.
And that's because the master track takes
| | 04:51 |
its input from any tracks that are set to
master.
| | 04:54 |
Also you know that there are no sin knobs
on the master track.
| | 04:58 |
Other than that, we do have our peak
indicator, and the ability to set the
| | 05:01 |
level by clicking in this field and
dragging up or down.
| | 05:04 |
Or clicking on the little triangle next
to the meter and moving that.
| | 05:09 |
But while I'm here, let me just
re-emphasize that the level that you set
| | 05:13 |
on the meter has a big impact on the
signal-to-noise ratio.
| | 05:17 |
Of the, signal that's output from Live.
And the rule of thumb is, is that you do
| | 05:22 |
not want to change the level on the
master track, unless you're seeing
| | 05:25 |
overages here, and having the meter turn
red, above zero.
| | 05:30 |
If you do that, it's okay to pull that
down, to a lower level until you're not
| | 05:34 |
peaking above zero.
So if you want to change the level and
| | 05:38 |
your headphones or in the speakers that
you're listening to, find the adjustment
| | 05:42 |
knob on your interface for the headphones
or speakers but don't lower the level
| | 05:45 |
here on the master fader to accommodate
how loud you want to monitor or listen to
| | 05:49 |
the audio coming out of Live.
Otherwise you're actually going to change
| | 05:56 |
the signal to noise ratio, and in the end
you'll end up with a signal output from
| | 05:59 |
Live, that may be closer to the noise
floor.
| | 06:02 |
Okay, so I'm going to tab over into the,
arrange window, because I just want to
| | 06:05 |
tell you that the controls that we see
here over on the track header are the
| | 06:09 |
same as what we see at the bottom of the
next part of the session view.
| | 06:15 |
So, for example, I have got the volume
setting and I have got my pen setting and
| | 06:20 |
if I click the Show, Hide buttons I can
add the inputs and outputs and returns
| | 06:24 |
and so on and so forth.
But I just want to point out that any
| | 06:30 |
changes that you make in session view in
the mix area also affect what's happening
| | 06:34 |
in the arrange view.
So, if I Tab back over and I go to this
| | 06:39 |
DX track, and I tick the volume adjuster,
and I pull that all the way down, and
| | 06:43 |
then tab back over to the arrange window,
and pull down until I see the DX track,
| | 06:47 |
notice that the volume level, it says
minus infinite.
| | 06:54 |
Which means that the volume is all the
way down.
| | 06:56 |
And if I click and drag here, and pull
that back up, and let's say I'll just put
| | 07:00 |
this at like, minus 36.
And now I tab back over, and I look at
| | 07:05 |
the volume level on the DX track.
It's again, minus 36.
| | 07:10 |
So you have the opportunity to work in
the mix section of whichever window that
| | 07:14 |
you like.
And I would say that most of the time I
| | 07:17 |
actually do it in the session view
because it looks a little bit more like a
| | 07:19 |
mixer, and I've got a little bit more
room to operate.
| | 07:23 |
Whatever I do here actually affects
what's going on in arrange view.
| | 07:27 |
So now that you understand how the
different parameters in Live's mixer
| | 07:30 |
section works, they'll be able to work
effectively when mixing your projects and
| | 07:33 |
songs in Live
| | 07:35 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using sends and returns| 00:00 |
No song is complete without creating a
sense of depth or space in the mix.
| | 00:03 |
Let's take a look at how you can use
sense in return tracks with Reverbs or
| | 00:06 |
delays to create that sense of depth.
So, effects can be added into a set in
| | 00:11 |
one of two different ways.
Effects like EQ and Compressors are often
| | 00:15 |
put directly on the track, and they only
affect the track that they're on.
| | 00:20 |
Effects like Reverb though, are very
processor intensive, and its much more
| | 00:23 |
efficient to share that device with
multiple tracks.
| | 00:27 |
So, take a look at how that works.
So, as the signal comes down a track, and
| | 00:31 |
it hits the send, you can raise the send
amount using the send knob here.
| | 00:36 |
To copy signal on to a virtual wire
that's then routed to a corresponding to
| | 00:40 |
a return track.
Now you should note that use of the term
| | 00:43 |
copy means that the signal as it passes
through the track is not effected.
| | 00:48 |
But when it hits the send we're just able
to duplicate a user defined amount on to
| | 00:52 |
that virtual wire without effecting
what's going through the track.
| | 00:57 |
So, I'm going to go over into my Audio
Effects category, and scroll down to the
| | 01:00 |
Reverb category.
And I'm going to go into the special
| | 01:03 |
folder, and I'm going to grab one that I
know is, is a pretty wet Reverb.
| | 01:08 |
And I'm going to, grab that, and drag,
and drop that on this return track A.
| | 01:12 |
And when I do that the bottom opens up
into vice view, and I can see the Reverb.
| | 01:18 |
So, I'm going to go up on the filter pad
track here again, and I'm going to, send
| | 01:22 |
a fairly large amount, on A, so that we
can hear what it sounds like Reverb.
| | 01:27 |
So, it looks like I've got a little here
on the percussion now, so I'm going to
| | 01:30 |
pull that down temporarily.
And let's fire off this clip, and let's
| | 01:34 |
hear that with Reverb.
(music playing).
| | 01:36 |
And when I hit the spacebar to stop
playback, you heard quite a bit of ring
| | 01:43 |
out on that, that's indicative of the
Reverb.
| | 01:50 |
Now just for a comparison sake, I'll pull
that send level down, so we can hear what
| | 01:54 |
that sounds like with no Reverb.
(music playing).
| | 01:59 |
And when I hit stop, you don't hear any
ringing continue.
| | 02:06 |
And that sounded fairly kind of mid rangy
and dry, so I like that with some Reverb.
| | 02:11 |
I'm going to push that up, and if I
want to to add Reverb to any other
| | 02:14 |
tracks, I just raise the corresponding
send.
| | 02:17 |
For example, if I bring it up on this
percussion hat track, I might want that
| | 02:20 |
to be a little wetter, so I'll raise the
level more than I've done it on the
| | 02:23 |
filter pad track.
So, in essence, this A send knob control
| | 02:29 |
is a little Reverb mix.
For whatever is being sent over to this
| | 02:34 |
first A return track.
I'm going to do one more thing before I
| | 02:37 |
play this back.
I'm going to click the Return Track, so
| | 02:39 |
that I can see the Reverb plugin.
Because I just want to show you the
| | 02:43 |
setting that's done in the lower right
hand corner, this dry-wet setting.
| | 02:48 |
If I would don't want any reverb to come
out of this processor, I pull it down to
| | 02:52 |
zero and I would only send through
unprocessed signal.
| | 02:57 |
In this case, what we actually want,
because I have the dry signal on the
| | 03:00 |
tracks, is I only want to return Reverb.
So, I'm actually going to turn that all
| | 03:05 |
the way up to 100%.
And because I notice that, that was set
| | 03:08 |
pretty low, I'm actually going to reduce
the amount that I'm sending from on the
| | 03:11 |
filter pad rack a little bit, and on the
percussion hats.
| | 03:16 |
Otherwise, it might get, kind of
ridiculously wet.
| | 03:18 |
So, let's hear what we've got.
I'm going to click the Launch button on
| | 03:20 |
the perk hats track here, so I can hear
both of them together.
| | 03:23 |
(music playing).
So, you can hear how the percussion is
| | 03:30 |
really stimulating that Reverb.
Now, other signals like from the base
| | 03:38 |
track, it's very unlikely that I would
send very much or any at all to them,
| | 03:41 |
because lower frequency signals really
don't need Reverb.
| | 03:46 |
It's much more your mid range and
especially the higher frequencies that
| | 03:50 |
are really greatly enhanced by the
Reverb.
| | 03:52 |
Now we can do the same thing, using a
Delay.
| | 03:55 |
So, let me close this up, and I'll scroll
up, actually down, to the Simple Delay.
| | 04:01 |
And I'm just going to grab a default
one, so I'm going to grab the, actual
| | 04:03 |
Simple Delay folder at the top, and I'm
going to drag and drop that on the B
| | 04:06 |
return track.
And if I want delay here, I can set this
| | 04:12 |
in either milliseconds or 16th notes.
And the default here, it looks like it's
| | 04:17 |
set to 4, 16th notes or a quarter.
And with the Sync button in, that means
| | 04:21 |
that this is going to sync to the tempo
of the session, that's a good place to start.
| | 04:26 |
So, for example, I'm going to stop these
from playing.
| | 04:31 |
And let me go over to the, take the
scroll bar and pull over, and I'm going
| | 04:34 |
to demonstrate this on this repeating
cords.
| | 04:38 |
So, I'll pull out the send B for this
one, and again, I'm going to check out.
| | 04:45 |
Looks like this is set at 50% wet, so
really when I put this on a return track,
| | 04:49 |
you always want to set your Reverbs and
Delays at 100%.
| | 04:54 |
And now I can trigger this.
(music playing).
| | 04:56 |
And I can hear a little bit of delay
there, and we notice some signal that was
| | 05:00 |
coming into the Simple Delay track.
I'm going to click that again, and I'm
| | 05:07 |
going to check the feedback amount,
because I need to bring that up a little
| | 05:13 |
bit more.
This actually takes the delayed signal
| | 05:19 |
and feeds it right back in, so that we
can get additional repeats.
| | 05:23 |
Let's try that one more time.
(music playing).
| | 05:25 |
And when I hit the spacebar to stop
that, we ended up getting eight or nine
| | 05:30 |
repeats because of that.
So, there's one more thing that I should
| | 05:36 |
point out on the return tracks themselves
is that you notice that there are sends
| | 05:39 |
there but they're grayed out.
You can actually enable that Send, I can
| | 05:44 |
go to the B Send on the B return track
and right+click on it, and choose Enable Send.
| | 05:50 |
And now I can turn this up and what's
going to happen, It's going to take the
| | 05:53 |
signal that's passing through the track,
which is the Delay, and it's going to
| | 05:57 |
feed it right back into track again for a
second pass through.
| | 06:03 |
And this is a technique that a lot of
people use to kind of create those delay buildups.
| | 06:07 |
So, you've gotta be really careful with
this, because you can actually turn this
| | 06:10 |
up far enough that it'll create a
feedback loop much like you might
| | 06:13 |
experience, at a concert or somebody
standing with a microphone in front of a speaker.
| | 06:19 |
So, be careful with it but, experiment
with it because it can create some
| | 06:22 |
interesting effects.
Now if I want to add a third return track
| | 06:26 |
in here, I'll go up to the Create menu,
and choose Insert Return Track.
| | 06:32 |
And now, I've got a third return track,
and I've got a corresponding Send on each
| | 06:36 |
one of the tracks in the live set.
So, I might add maybe a second Reverb
| | 06:40 |
that I'm only going to use for the drums,
or for the vocals.
| | 06:44 |
So, now that you know how to set up a
send and return track for use with
| | 06:47 |
effects, experiment with adding Reverb
and Delay to your live sets.
| | 06:51 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Building headphone cues| 00:00 |
What a musician hears when they record
has a big impact on the success of the performance.
| | 00:04 |
In this video, we'll learn how to set up
a headphone cue in Ableton Live.
| | 00:08 |
So it's often advantageous to create a
separate mix for the musicians, to
| | 00:10 |
monitor while recording.
You as the engineer, may want to hear
| | 00:14 |
different things.
The musicians may want to hear only the
| | 00:17 |
drums, or they might want more vocals.
But then I want a different balance than
| | 00:21 |
you want coming through your speakers or
headphones.
| | 00:24 |
So, we can setup headphone cues two
different ways in Live.
| | 00:27 |
So, in method one, we'll come down to the
Cue Out setting here on the master track
| | 00:30 |
and we'll click that and we'll want to
set this output to a different pair of outputs.
| | 00:36 |
So, I click that and currently I only
have two active.
| | 00:40 |
So, I'm going to click the Configure
button.
| | 00:42 |
Which will take me right into
preferences, where I can click the output config.
| | 00:47 |
And notice that I do have some
additional outputs available, so I'll
| | 00:50 |
just click these to enable three and
four, and I'll click OK.
| | 00:54 |
Come out of preferences, and now, notice
that when I set this to a different pair
| | 00:59 |
of outputs, what says solo down here
above the Preview button is going to change.
| | 01:08 |
So I'll click that, set that to three and
four.
| | 01:11 |
Now, notice that the Solo button has
turned into the Cue button.
| | 01:14 |
I can select what tracks are going to be
sent to the cue by clicking on what's now
| | 01:17 |
the little Headphone button on each of
the tracks.
| | 01:21 |
So, if you want to send everything just
click the first track, Shift click the
| | 01:24 |
last track, and then go down and click
one of the Headphone buttons.
| | 01:29 |
And if you want to add the reverb that's
here on the B return track, I can Cmd
| | 01:33 |
click that Headphone button and now I'll
get all of those signals sent into the
| | 01:37 |
headphone cue.
Now the total level is being controlled
| | 01:42 |
by this knob.
The head band being used as a Preview knob.
| | 01:46 |
But when the cue is active.
It's now acting as the cue amount.
| | 01:49 |
So, this is a really fast way to set up a
Headphone cue.
| | 01:54 |
But the one disadvantage to it is that
the mix that we're sending is exactly the
| | 01:57 |
same mix that we have in the set here.
And the one that's being sent to the
| | 02:01 |
master outputs.
So let me disable this, and lets talk
| | 02:04 |
about a different way to do this.
I'm not going to be actually using this
| | 02:08 |
cue output.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to go
| | 02:10 |
to the return track, and I'm going to
click the output on that.
| | 02:14 |
And I'm going to choose external out,
instead of feeding this the master outputs.
| | 02:19 |
And once I do that a second chooser opens
up.
| | 02:22 |
And I can choose that, and route that to
three and four.
| | 02:25 |
Now, the nice thing about this is, the,
send selectors here that right now say
| | 02:29 |
minus infinite, and that's because these
tracks are kind of narrow.
| | 02:35 |
I can now set a custom level for each
track as it feeds the A return, and
| | 02:38 |
that's going to go to the headphones.
So if I want some of the filter track,
| | 02:43 |
and by the way, they're all selected.
So as I do this, I can raise all their
| | 02:48 |
levels maybe to kind of a starting point
and then I'll need to lose this selection
| | 02:52 |
by clicking anywhere up here so that the
track names aren't selected.
| | 02:57 |
And now I can move, you know, the
individual amounts and set the basic
| | 03:00 |
levels where I want to start for the
headphone cue.
| | 03:04 |
So, I'm just going to go ahead and hit
play, because I want to show you that we
| | 03:08 |
can get a signal onto this return track.
Here we go, I'll just play one of these scenes.
| | 03:14 |
(music playing) Okay, so we see signal on the
return track that's feeding that cue.
| | 03:21 |
A couple other things that we should
check.
| | 03:24 |
So, first of all, sends can be pre or
post fader.
| | 03:28 |
And currently I've got the A send being
set post fader.
| | 03:33 |
Now the bad thing about that is if the
engineer actually changes the level on a
| | 03:36 |
track, it's going to change the amount
that's available for this end.
| | 03:41 |
And it's going to actually change the
level that's feeding that send, at which
| | 03:44 |
point the musician will probably stop
playing and wonder what's going on.
| | 03:49 |
So, whenever you create headphone cues,
it's a good idea to click this button
| | 03:53 |
where is it says post for that send and
make it a pre-fader send.
| | 03:57 |
So, at this point it is picking up the
signal before it hits the fader and if
| | 04:01 |
the engineer makes a change there it's
not going to affect the amount of signal
| | 04:04 |
that's available for the headphone cue.
Now secondly, I don't have any reverb
| | 04:10 |
that's feeding the headphone cue because
this is just being sent to the master.
| | 04:15 |
So what I can do here, is I can right
click on the A send on the B return
| | 04:19 |
track, and I can enable, that send knob.
And I can turn that up, so some of the
| | 04:25 |
signal from this track, is actually then
being routed over to this second return
| | 04:28 |
track, and now the headphone cue will get
reverb.
| | 04:32 |
And lastly, I'm going to go up here and
I'm going to name that track for what it is.
| | 04:36 |
So, let's click the name up at the top
and I'll go, Cmd+R on a Mac, that will be
| | 04:39 |
Ctrl+R on a PC.
I'm going to call that Q, hit my return
| | 04:44 |
key and enter that.
Setting up a cue for recording is a
| | 04:47 |
crucial but often overlooked part of
making a recording.
| | 04:50 |
Now you know two ways to create a cue in
Live, and should be able to make the
| | 04:53 |
crankiest of musicians comfortable, in
your next live recording session.
| | 04:57 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Grouping tracks| 00:00 |
This is all like Ableton Live, we're not
really limited by the number of tracks
| | 00:02 |
and so our projects and sets get big and
become difficult to manage.
| | 00:07 |
Let's take a look at how to group tracks
together for both organizational and
| | 00:10 |
musical purposes.
So, it's more convenient at times to
| | 00:12 |
combine the outputs of two or more tracks
to organize the session.
| | 00:17 |
So, that you have fewer faders to manage
when mixing or you may want to treat
| | 00:20 |
multiple tracks with identical effects.
So grouping tracks is fairly easy, just
| | 00:25 |
click a track and then shift-click the
last track that you want to include in
| | 00:28 |
the group.
And then right-click on any one of the
| | 00:32 |
tracks, and choose group tracks from the
Contextual menu.
| | 00:36 |
Or if you want you can use the key
Command which on a Mac is Cmd+G or on a
| | 00:40 |
PC would be Ctrl+G.
And you'll notice now that our tracks are
| | 00:44 |
hidden inside this other track that's now
called Group.
| | 00:48 |
Let me rename that.
I'll go Cmd+R.
| | 00:50 |
I'm going to call that drums.
And if I look at the audio output on my
| | 00:54 |
drum tracks, they're now assigned to the
group, and the group itself is assigned
| | 00:59 |
to the master.
So in effect what we're doing here is
| | 01:04 |
we're sub mixing these tracks, so that
the outputs of these tracks are then are
| | 01:08 |
added to this other track.
And then sent over to the master, this is
| | 01:13 |
great for organizational purposes.
| | 01:16 |
Because if I have the level set that I
want for the various trump tracks, I can
| | 01:20 |
just go up and click this little triangle
here to hide the member tracks of that group.
| | 01:27 |
And now if I need to make a volume change
on the drums, I can simply do that by
| | 01:30 |
grabbing the fader on that track and that
will control the total amount of drums.
| | 01:36 |
Now, let me fire off this scene here.
I'll click the Master button to do that.
| | 01:42 |
(music playing) And you notice that as I pull the
Fader down the volume goes away and as I
| | 01:47 |
bring it back up, we'll hear the drums,
all the drums.
| | 01:52 |
In fact, come back up.
(music playing) Now, I should point out also that
| | 01:57 |
even though there's not a clip on the
group track itself.
| | 02:03 |
I do get launch buttons that will allow
me to launch the clips on the respective
| | 02:07 |
clip slot, for just the members of the
group.
| | 02:11 |
So for example, if I want to hear the
second clip within that group, I'll click
| | 02:14 |
the Group Launch button.
(music playing) And there we go.
| | 02:21 |
So let me open that group back up by
clicking on the triangle.
| | 02:24 |
And one of the things that's nice about
this is even though I've got these tracks
| | 02:28 |
sub mixed.
I do still have independent control over
| | 02:32 |
the effects that I would use on any of
these tracks.
| | 02:36 |
For example if I click the kick track.
You'll notice that on this track I do
| | 02:39 |
have an EQ and a compressor.
And if I click the Snare Track, there's
| | 02:44 |
just an EQ and if I do the high hat,
there's nothing.
| | 02:48 |
Each track is being output and routed
through any effects that are on that
| | 02:51 |
track, then being sent to the group, and
the group to the master.
| | 02:56 |
In addition, if I want to add any reverb
or any other kind of bus effects.
| | 03:02 |
I can just raise the send amount, for
example, on the send to bring that up,
| | 03:06 |
and maybe I'll want a little on the high
hat and some on the overhead left and right.
| | 03:14 |
But I don't have to put any on the kick
track.
| | 03:16 |
And again, we often don't put reverb on
low frequency type signals because it
| | 03:20 |
just makes them sound muddy.
So now I'll get reverb on the snare and
| | 03:25 |
the hi hat and the two overheads but not
on the kick.
| | 03:29 |
Let's check that out.
(music playing) And you can clearly hear that
| | 03:34 |
there was a fair amount of reverb on that
snare.
| | 03:42 |
Now at some point, you might decide that,
I no longer want to have the overheads
| | 03:46 |
going through this group.
But I do like them bring inside the group
| | 03:50 |
organizationally, so that when I fold
them down, they actually hide.
| | 03:55 |
But I actually want to output their
signals directly to the master fader, so
| | 03:59 |
I'll click the audio output on that
track.
| | 04:02 |
And I'll choose master on the two
overheads, and they're no longer actually
| | 04:07 |
being routed through the group track.
They're going straight over to the master
| | 04:12 |
track, but they're still within the kind
of organizational group here.
| | 04:16 |
Now, I might do that because I'm going to
add an effect onto the group track that I
| | 04:19 |
don't want to have affect these two.
So, for example, I've got, maybe, some
| | 04:24 |
level problems on the snare or on the
kick.
| | 04:27 |
I might go into my audio effects category
and grab a limiter and drop that on the
| | 04:31 |
group track.
And so now, I can kind of control some of
| | 04:35 |
these louder signals for the kick and the
snare.
| | 04:38 |
Without actually having to do the same
thing to my overhead tracks, because
| | 04:42 |
they're going right to the master.
You know another point, you may just want
| | 04:47 |
to get these tracks out of the group.
And we can do that by just clicking on
| | 04:52 |
their name, and dragging them outside the
group.
| | 04:56 |
And now these two tracks, are being sent
to the master.
| | 04:59 |
They're not inside the group.
So if I fold that down, we can see that I
| | 05:03 |
can see the drum group.
But overhead right and left are outside
| | 05:07 |
the group.
I can also delete the group by simply
| | 05:11 |
right-clicking on the group track header,
and choosing un-group tracks that opens
| | 05:15 |
them all back up.
Let me put the left on the left side, and
| | 05:20 |
right on the right.
Let's take a look at what this looks like
| | 05:24 |
in the Arrange view.
So, I'll press Tab to move over there and
| | 05:27 |
I can see my drum tracks here.
So, I'm going to shift+select the track
| | 05:33 |
name again and then right-click and
choose Group Tracks from the Contextual menu.
| | 05:39 |
And again we can see where I've got a
group bracket and track.
| | 05:43 |
With the members inside that and if I
click this Fold button, we'll see that I
| | 05:47 |
can only now see the group and if I want
to reopen that, I'll see the members of
| | 05:51 |
the group.
So, you can see the grouping tracks is
| | 05:55 |
easy and it solves both organizational
and signal routing problems.
| | 06:00 |
The next time you need to reduce the
number of tracks you're working with or
| | 06:03 |
if you want to add an effect to all your
drum or guitar parts.
| | 06:07 |
Remember to try grouping the tracks.
| | 06:08 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
10. Signal ProcessingWorking with effect devices| 00:00 |
Individual tracks often need a bit of
help to fit in the mix with the other tracks.
| | 00:04 |
Something that's often resolved by adding
a signal processor, or an effect to the track.
| | 00:08 |
Let's take a look at how you can add
effect devices to both audio and MIDI
| | 00:11 |
tracks in Ableton Live.
So audio signal processors are devices
| | 00:15 |
that can be used to change some
characteristic of an audio signal.
| | 00:18 |
For example, EQ or filters are used to
change the tone of the signal.
| | 00:23 |
Compressors are used to control the
dynamic range of a signal.
| | 00:26 |
Reverbs or delays are used to create a
sense of space and then all these signal
| | 00:30 |
processors can be used in combination.
So Audio Effect devices can be located in
| | 00:35 |
the Audio Effects category in the
browser.
| | 00:38 |
Perhaps, even in the plugins folder if
you have any third party plugins.
| | 00:42 |
So let's go back up to the Audio Effects
folder and I'm going to find the EQ eight
| | 00:47 |
and I'm going to add that on to the
filter pad track.
| | 00:52 |
Now, you can add either the default
device which is basically the folder at
| | 00:55 |
the top of the heirachy or you can open
the folder by clicking on the triangle.
| | 01:01 |
And choosing an Effect preset from one of
the sub categories in this case.
| | 01:05 |
So I'm just going to grab the Default
preset itself and I'm going to drag that
| | 01:09 |
on to the track.
Now notice that this particular track is
| | 01:13 |
a MIDI track with a MIDI device on it and
the signal on these tracks flows from
| | 01:16 |
left to right and the Audio Effect is
going to process the signal that's coming
| | 01:20 |
out of the instrument.
So I can only place this EQ to the right
| | 01:26 |
of this instrument rack that we see here.
I can't drag it over and put it on the
| | 01:31 |
left-hand side, in fact, if you look down
there, in the status bar at the bottom,
| | 01:34 |
it's yelling at us and telling us,
"Insert audio effects after the instruments."
| | 01:41 |
So, I come back over here and drop that.
And now we've got our EQ that is going to
| | 01:46 |
then change the tone of the signal coming
from the device that's previous to it.
| | 01:51 |
So let's say we make some changes, we do
something like this.
| | 01:56 |
And we listen to that, and maybe we're
not satisfied with that and we want to
| | 01:59 |
check out some of the other presets that
are available.
| | 02:03 |
If you go up here on the title bar of the
device, this button is on the second from
| | 02:07 |
the right here is called the Hot Swap
button.
| | 02:11 |
Now if I click that it's going to take me
right back into the browser and allow me
| | 02:16 |
to scroll down into the available presets
on that EQ device and then choose
| | 02:20 |
something else like, let's say I want
this piano EQ2.
| | 02:26 |
So I'll select that and double-click.
And what's happened is it's just replaced
| | 02:31 |
the previous default preset with this
piano Q2.
| | 02:35 |
And because the Hot Swap button is still
active, if I don't like that one, I can
| | 02:38 |
double-click another one and exchange
that.
| | 02:41 |
Once, I'm satisfied with what I have, I
can go ahead and close that by clicking
| | 02:44 |
on the X button.
Now if I many any changes to this, may be
| | 02:48 |
I de-extentuate that a little bit, pull
this up and now I've got a custom preset
| | 02:52 |
and I want to use this fill later.
Well I can click the Save button over
| | 02:57 |
here on the far right and that will take
me into the user library into my presets
| | 03:02 |
into the Audio Effects category EQ8
instrument.
| | 03:09 |
And now its allowing me to give this a
new name so let's call this My Best EQ.
| | 03:14 |
So that's been saved now someother things
we see up top here are I've got an
| | 03:18 |
activated button on this EQ so, if I
want to bring it in and out of use I can
| | 03:22 |
just disable it for parts of the song
where I don't want it.
| | 03:29 |
And when I want it back, I can re-enable
that.
| | 03:32 |
This next button here is the Unfold
button, and this is only available on
| | 03:35 |
certain plugins, but in this case it's
actually going to open that up so I can
| | 03:38 |
see more detail as I work with that.
So if you decide you don't want the
| | 03:44 |
effect after all, you can just click on
it and then hit your Delete key and it's gone.
| | 03:48 |
So let me click the bass track over here,
this bass clip.
| | 03:52 |
Currently, there is no effects in use.
So, I'm going to close that up.
| | 03:56 |
I'm going to go back into the Audio
Effects category and again, I might want
| | 04:00 |
to add an EQ.
So, let me grab the bass venice here and
| | 04:05 |
drop that on the track.
And then, I might want a little bit of compression.
| | 04:10 |
So I'll close that up.
Let me scroll and close the category.
| | 04:14 |
And I'll find the compressor, dip in
there.
| | 04:18 |
Do we have anything for bass?
Looks like we don't have a specific bass preset.
| | 04:24 |
So, I'm just going to click and drag
that.
| | 04:26 |
Now, in this case, this is an audio
track.
| | 04:28 |
And I don't have any midi instruments on
it, just have this one effect.
| | 04:32 |
So, I can either drop this compressor
before the EQ.
| | 04:35 |
Notice I can drag it over the right and
you'll see the blue line or I can put it
| | 04:39 |
after the EQ.
So, with any of these signal processors
| | 04:42 |
we can order them in any order that we
want to and they'll achieve different
| | 04:46 |
results when we do that.
One of the things that you want to pay
| | 04:50 |
attention to as you're working with these
effective devices is we've actually got
| | 04:53 |
meters that are showing us the signal
level as it's going from entering the
| | 04:56 |
device chain through the processor.
Then there's another meter, and then
| | 05:02 |
through the next processor and then
another meter, and you can always use any
| | 05:05 |
gain settings.
Like here on the EQ, it's down here in
| | 05:09 |
the lower right-hand corner, and if I go
up into the compressor and disable this
| | 05:13 |
automatic make-up gain, I can take this
Gain knob on the output and I can raise
| | 05:17 |
or lower that so that I can balance the
signal levels as they're going through.
| | 05:25 |
Often times the goal is not to change the
level, it's to change how the signal
| | 05:29 |
itself sounds.
And if you want to follow kind of the
| | 05:32 |
good process of gain structure, you'll
actually watch these meters and make sure
| | 05:35 |
that these levels are kind of consistant
as the signal passes through the track.
| | 05:40 |
Now if you want to minimize these devices
so that they're not taking up so much
| | 05:43 |
space, you can just double-click on the
title bar and hide them.
| | 05:47 |
And then at any point where you want to
bring them back, just double-click on it
| | 05:50 |
again, and that will reopen.
So, now that you know how to add effects
| | 05:54 |
to a track, experiment adding effects and
adjusting their parameters.
| | 05:58 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding EQ and filters| 00:00 |
As with many effect devices, eqs or
equalizers are often over or misused.
| | 00:05 |
Let's take a closer look at EQs and
filters, learn about their basic
| | 00:08 |
parameters, and discuss a method for
deciding why and when to use EQ-type devices.
| | 00:13 |
So, in general, EQs are used to change
the frequency response of a signal.
| | 00:17 |
And that might be because you want to
help a track fit in the mix.
| | 00:21 |
Or make it sound interesting.
So there are two types of EQ.
| | 00:24 |
There's a graphic EQ and a parametric EQ.
Graphic EQs are what we see kind of on
| | 00:29 |
bum boxes.
Those five sliders that you can move up
| | 00:31 |
and down to change the tone.
Or in a professional world we use those
| | 00:36 |
to tune a room for like a concert or
maybe a room we're going to be evaluating
| | 00:39 |
music critically.
On a council or in a doll like live.
| | 00:44 |
We use parametric eqs primarily.
So, I'm going to grab a default eq out of
| | 00:48 |
the Audio Effects category.
And I'll grab the eq of eight, and I'm
| | 00:53 |
going to drag and drop this on kick
track.
| | 00:55 |
Let me go ahead and solo that so we can
hear that one signal being played through
| | 01:00 |
this effect device.
This is an eight band EQ.
| | 01:04 |
Meaning that there's eight areas that we
can affect the signal.
| | 01:07 |
And we can count them across the bottom.
There's eight of them.
| | 01:10 |
And right now the middle four are active.
If you find yourself needing more than four.
| | 01:16 |
Then you can just click one of the
Activator buttons here on the bottom to
| | 01:19 |
make that band active as well.
Now if you select one of these bands.
| | 01:24 |
You get three knobs over on the left-hand
side.
| | 01:26 |
You get a frequency knob which sets the
center of frequency of a band of
| | 01:29 |
frequency that you're going to work on.
So if I grab that and pull that back and
| | 01:34 |
forth, you can see it moving at number
three.
| | 01:38 |
I get a gain knob which allows me to
boost or cut the frequencies in that band.
| | 01:44 |
And I get a cue knob, which allows me to
widen the range around the center
| | 01:47 |
frequency that we're affecting, or if
dial to the right, it tightens that.
| | 01:53 |
Now, I can also change some of these
parameters, specifically the frequency
| | 01:57 |
and gain, by just grabbing on the number
three, and dragging it up or down.
| | 02:01 |
Now, in this case, having worked with
kick drums a lot in the past, often times
| | 02:04 |
there's a little bit of mid range horn.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to
| | 02:09 |
use this to this kind of clear that up a
little bit.
| | 02:13 |
So lets click Play here, I can listen to
that and one of the nice things they've
| | 02:19 |
done in this version of Ableton live 9.
Is it they have added the spectrograph
| | 02:27 |
analysis into this equeue so I kind of
see where the predominant frequencies
| | 02:31 |
like and where things are may be missing.
I can also click this little Unfold
| | 02:36 |
button and if I do that it expands that
spectra analysis theory and frequency of
| | 02:41 |
respond to diagram we are looking at.
Up here into that area and now its giving
| | 02:47 |
me all the controls for each one of the
bands down in this area.
| | 02:51 |
So again I'm going to play this track I'm
going to grab the number three and I'm
| | 02:54 |
just going to accentuate that area to
kind of find where that mid range problem is.
| | 03:12 |
(music playing) Okay, so right there, around 200,
220 hertz.
| | 03:16 |
I'm hearing that.
I want to have sound that.
| | 03:19 |
I'm actually going to pull this down and
subtract that area.
| | 03:22 |
And that's going to kind of clear that
up.
| | 03:25 |
(music playing) Lastly I might take the Cue knob
and Open and Close this so that I only
| | 03:31 |
affect the kind of narrowest band that I
need to.
| | 03:36 |
(music playing) I like that about right there.
Last, I'm going to come over here and I'm
| | 03:47 |
going to grab number five and just from
experience I know that I like a little
| | 03:50 |
bit of 2k to bring up the snap.
And there is another feature on the EQ
| | 03:54 |
that will allow me to audition just the
band that I'm working with.
| | 03:58 |
So I'll click the Headphone on, then I'll
click Play and then I'm going to click on
| | 04:01 |
the Number five, the band that I'm
working with.
| | 04:05 |
(music playing) And that allowed me to hear the
frequencies that I was trying to find so
| | 04:15 |
that I could then boost or cut them.
And last button always at probably tight
| | 04:26 |
in the queue down a little bit on that
spot, so that I'm not so wide with that e
| | 04:30 |
more like that.
Okay, lets quit that Fold button and I'm
| | 04:35 |
going to go over to the base track, let
me take that.
| | 04:39 |
I'm going to click the Clip Stop button
there and so that I can just audition the
| | 04:42 |
base track.
And again, I'm going to go back into the
| | 04:45 |
Sudio Fix category, grab my EQ eight,
drop that after the compressor and now I
| | 04:49 |
can, just shave a little bit of the
bottom off here.
| | 04:53 |
Remember that each one of these bends has
a filter shape to determine what its doing.
| | 04:59 |
Now if I click the Third Band here I
could see the list of them.
| | 05:04 |
So, I have got a couple of kind of High
pass filters, then a Shelving filter and
| | 05:07 |
a Band Pass filter, a Notch filter, a
High Shelving filter and a couple of
| | 05:10 |
different low pass filters.
This case, I am just going to grab a high
| | 05:15 |
pass and now I can just shave a little
bit of the bottom of this base track so
| | 05:19 |
that it's not interfering with Kick drum.
So real quickly
| | 05:27 |
(audio playing)
| | 05:29 |
I'm going to solve that.
And so I'm just going to use that one
| | 05:39 |
filter to shape the low end.
And this is something that we do with a
| | 05:45 |
lot of tracks in kind of a pop rock mix
type of thing, where you are trying to
| | 05:47 |
create space for the Kick drum.
Now last I want to show you one more
| | 05:52 |
feature that's new to this EQ.
So, I'm going to stop that one and go
| | 05:55 |
over here to the Verse Pad track.
Grab that same EQA and drop this down in
| | 05:59 |
the device view here.
want to show you that one of the new
| | 06:03 |
things we have here is a Mode button that
allows us to put this EQ in either a
| | 06:06 |
stereo or left drive which will allow us
to set separate settings for left and right.
| | 06:13 |
Or in this case what I want to do is I
want to use the mid side setting.
| | 06:17 |
So it actually splits the way the EQ
works so that I can EQ just the middle,
| | 06:21 |
or and then I can EQ the sides.
So for example, if I've got something
| | 06:26 |
that's really important in the middle,
like a vocal or, something that I want to
| | 06:29 |
get through the middle and not fight
through other tracks that might have some
| | 06:32 |
signal contributing to the middle image.
Well then I can EQ, or maybe reduce those
| | 06:38 |
frequencies in the middle, like for
example, if it was a vocal, I might just
| | 06:41 |
pull a little bit out here, you know,
around five, 600 hertz or so.
| | 06:46 |
I'll click where it says M for Mid, and
go to the sides, and now if I want to
| | 06:49 |
accentuate that part of the signal that's
on the side so that it stands out a
| | 06:53 |
little bit.
I can just grab one of these upper
| | 06:57 |
frequency bands and I can raise that so
that it's just a little air or a liitle
| | 07:00 |
bite on the top end.
And the yellow line then, is representing
| | 07:05 |
the sides and the blue line is
representing the EQ that's being done to
| | 07:08 |
the mid section of this part, it's
really, really handy.
| | 07:14 |
As you start to learn how to use EQ its
very helpful to learn about the different
| | 07:17 |
instruments because each instrument has
what we refer to as the magic frequencies.
| | 07:23 |
So remember that using EQs is not always
about making a track sound better more
| | 07:26 |
often is about helping it fit in the mix.
| | 07:29 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using compressors and dynamic processors| 00:00 |
In this movie we'll learn about
Compressors and other dynamic processors.
| | 00:03 |
Become familiar with their parameters and
discuss when and how to use them.
| | 00:07 |
So as a group, dynamic processors are
devices that change the dynamic range of
| | 00:10 |
the signal.
And they include Compressors, Limiters,
| | 00:14 |
Expanders and Gates.
It can be used to reduce the dynamic
| | 00:17 |
range of the signal that would otherwise
be too big to capture.
| | 00:20 |
Or we can narrow the dynamic range of a
signal, so that it sits in a mix, that be
| | 00:23 |
like a vocal.
Or we can even out the attacks of a
| | 00:26 |
rhythm guitarist or a bassist.
I've got a drum rack set up here, and
| | 00:30 |
I've selected the Kick.
And we can see the preset that's playing
| | 00:34 |
the kick.
And you can see that I've also got an EQ8
| | 00:37 |
in line there.
And I'm going to go over to the Audio
| | 00:39 |
Effects category, and I'm going to grab
the Compressor.
| | 00:42 |
Let's grab the default one.
And I'm going to drag that and drop that
| | 00:46 |
in the device chain right after the EQ8.
So, the version of Compressor that comes
| | 00:51 |
with Ableton live 9, has got a few
changes to do it.
| | 00:55 |
First of all we've got different views.
So, right now I'm in Collapse view, I can
| | 00:58 |
also show this on the more conventional
XY plot.
| | 01:02 |
And we can also see in Activity view.
But in Collapsed view, we see the most
| | 01:06 |
important parameters on a Compressor.
And that would include threshold, ratio,
| | 01:11 |
attack and release times, and makeup
gain.
| | 01:14 |
So, let's start with threshold.
That sets the volume at which above the
| | 01:17 |
compressor is going to start working.
So, I'll play the kick here, and I've got
| | 01:23 |
that kick soloed and I'll set the
threshold.
| | 01:26 |
(audio playing) Now as I got the threshold
beneath where the kick was peaking, we
| | 01:33 |
started to hear the compressor work.
And also started to see this meter in the
| | 01:40 |
middle light up, and that showing the
amount of gain reduction that's happening.
| | 01:44 |
So the amount of compression that's
happening is determined by the ratio, and
| | 01:48 |
right now I'm at two to one ratio.
This shows the input to the output.
| | 01:53 |
For example, if I've got a threshold set
at minus 10 dB, and I have a peak that
| | 01:57 |
hits 0 dB or 10 decibels over the
threshold at a two to one ratio.
| | 02:03 |
I'd end up with five additional dB of
output, to minus five, because two to one
| | 02:07 |
would be the same as ten to five.
Now, a ratio of two to one would be
| | 02:12 |
considered fairly light compression, five
or six to one would be kind of a medium
| | 02:16 |
amount, and when we get to eight, nine or
ten to one.
| | 02:21 |
You're starting to talk about a lot of
compression, in fact ten to one, and more
| | 02:24 |
is often referred to as limiting.
The next perimeter, the attack time, sets
| | 02:29 |
the amount of time it takes the
compressor to start working after the
| | 02:32 |
signal has crossed the threshold.
And this is important because a lot of
| | 02:37 |
the high frequencies in the signal are
contained within the attack and not in
| | 02:40 |
the case sustain release.
If we dial the attack time to fast, we
| | 02:45 |
can end up with a very muffled sounding
signal.
| | 02:48 |
So, I'll play the kick again and I'll set
the attack time.
| | 02:51 |
(music playing).
So, as you heard as I approached zero,
| | 02:55 |
that I was really losing the attack and
it was a little bit less distinct.
| | 03:03 |
And as I passed about 1.5 milliseconds,
as I was moving higher, we really started
| | 03:09 |
to hear the snap on the front end of that
kick again.
| | 03:16 |
Different instruments have different
attack times, and you really just have to
| | 03:19 |
listen and tune this by ear.
Now the release time sets the amount of
| | 03:23 |
time it takes the compressor to stop
working after you've gone back below the threshold.
| | 03:29 |
Now, you can set this by just clicking
the Auto button.
| | 03:32 |
And the compressor will actually
automatically adjust that.
| | 03:35 |
And I would suggest starting with longer
attack and release times, and tuning them
| | 03:38 |
by ear.
Now once we've started to compress the
| | 03:41 |
signal, we don't actually want to make it
softer, we actually just want to control
| | 03:45 |
the dynamic range of that signal.
And in the end, typically, how much gain
| | 03:50 |
reduction's happening, we're going to
actually make that up using the makeup
| | 03:53 |
gain or gain knob.
Now, right now on this compressor, I've
| | 03:58 |
actually got the Automatic Makeup on.
But typically what I'll do is I'll
| | 04:02 |
disable that and I'll tune that by ear
using this slider right here.
| | 04:06 |
So let's hear what that sounds like.
(music playing) And I'll stop this and I'll
| | 04:10 |
actually disable the compressor, so I can
hear so, I can hear the signal without
| | 04:14 |
the compressor.
(music playing) And now I'll put it back in, so I
| | 04:19 |
can start to match that level.
(music playing) Okay, so you can see the dry wet
| | 04:27 |
percentage with this parameter down in
the lower right-hand corner.
| | 04:37 |
Typically when I use a compressor, I'll
set it at a 100%.
| | 04:41 |
So we're outputting 100% process signal.
But again, you can dial this parameter to taste.
| | 04:46 |
Now, another dynamic device is a Limiter.
And we've got one here in Live.
| | 04:53 |
Now limiters are usually used to set a
maximum amount of volume that you want to
| | 04:56 |
have coming out of a particular track or
even a mix.
| | 04:59 |
And in this case, I'm going to grab the
default Limiter, and drop this on to the
| | 05:03 |
master track.
So, with the ceiling parameter, we can
| | 05:07 |
set the maximum amount of volume that
were going to allow out of this mix.
| | 05:13 |
And this is great if you are concerned
about the any overgious of distortion,
| | 05:16 |
and lot of times we use Limiters in live
performance to protect speakers.
| | 05:21 |
To make sure we that don't have any loud
signals that might occur, actually
| | 05:24 |
hitting the speakers and damaging them.
The other parameter that's interesting
| | 05:29 |
here is that you can also kind of of push
up the level before it limits.
| | 05:33 |
And in the end what this does is that it
takes a dynamic range and it really
| | 05:36 |
squishes it so that you've really got not
a lot of dynamic range, especially on the
| | 05:39 |
top end.
And we'll end up adding volume.
| | 05:44 |
So a lot of people use this on the Master
Fader to increase the overall loudness of
| | 05:48 |
their mix.
Let's give that a listen, I'll turn this
| | 05:51 |
up a little bit and let me stop that and
then we'll launch the scene.
| | 05:56 |
(music playing)
| | 05:58 |
Let me un-solo the kick.
(music playing) So you can see that there's
| | 06:08 |
compression happening, but you can also
see in the meter here, that it's never
| | 06:12 |
allowing it to get over 0 bB.
So, devices like compressors and limiters
| | 06:17 |
are complicated devices, and take time to
learn how to use effectively.
| | 06:20 |
Practice using them so that you
understand how they work and know what
| | 06:23 |
the result will sound like.
| | 06:25 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Building interesting effects with delay effect processing| 00:00 |
Unlike equalizers and compressors which
are often used to make small and subtle
| | 00:03 |
changes, delay effect are easy here and
fun to use.
| | 00:07 |
More importantly they can turn still mix
into a much more interesting song.
| | 00:10 |
I've got a track set up here called Off
Chords and I've got a couple of Live
| | 00:13 |
Delay devices here.
I've got the Simple Delay and the Ping
| | 00:17 |
Pong delay and I'll start by activating
Simple Delay, so we can hear what that does.
| | 00:21 |
So I've got a clip here, let me go to
Clip View, that I've just got some short
| | 00:26 |
chords on here.
So we should be able to hear the delay
| | 00:30 |
very clearly.
Shift+Tab+Back so that I can see the device.
| | 00:34 |
And I can set the delay in time, either
by syncing it to the tempo that we see up
| | 00:38 |
here in the Control bar or if you
disabled Sync.
| | 00:42 |
We could actually set it in terms of
milliseconds.
| | 00:44 |
But I'l leave this Sync to the Tempo and
then I'll be able to set the delay time
| | 00:48 |
in 16th notes.
So two 16th notes would be an 8th.
| | 00:53 |
Four would be a quarter note, so on and
so forth.
| | 00:56 |
And since my part that I've written is
actually encoders, so that I can actually
| | 01:00 |
hear the delay, I'll press 2 here.
Now I can either do a different delay
| | 01:04 |
time on the left than the right, or I can
press the linking button up here so that
| | 01:07 |
I just get one delay time.
And I'll start off by doing that.
| | 01:13 |
Here is this with 8th note delay.
(audio playing).
| | 01:15 |
And if I disable the delay you'll be able
to hear the original part.
| | 01:21 |
(audio playing).
Just quarter notes.
| | 01:26 |
Now the number of delays that we hear is
controlled by this Feedback Parameter
| | 01:29 |
that we see at the bottom.
If I turn this up, I'm actually going to
| | 01:33 |
take the delayed signal and feed it back
into the delay to be delayed again.
| | 01:38 |
So you'll get the repeat of the repeat
and if I turn that up more I'll get the
| | 01:41 |
repeat of the repeat of the repeat and so
on.
| | 01:44 |
So, let's check that out.
I'll turn that up a little bit, start
| | 01:47 |
playback and then I'll change that
parameter.
| | 01:50 |
(audio playing).
Now after I stopped playback that
| | 01:53 |
actually delayed about an extra ten times
because of the fairly high feedback
| | 02:01 |
setting that I have here.
So probably a little more modest would be
| | 02:07 |
best in this particular example.
Next to that I have the Dry Wet percentage.
| | 02:13 |
And that allows me to balance the amount
of process signal that I have versus the
| | 02:17 |
unprocessed signal.
So I dial this all the way to the left,
| | 02:21 |
I'm just going to hear the dry signal
I'll be back to quarter notes.
| | 02:25 |
And as I dial this to the right, I'll
just hear the wet signal.
| | 02:28 |
So somewhere in the middle I'll actually
hear a balance between the two so I can
| | 02:31 |
hear both dry and wet.
Let's check that out.
| | 02:35 |
(audio playing).
You heard as I got over to zero, it was
| | 02:39 |
just quarter notes again.
And then as I went over closer to 100
| | 02:45 |
percent it also started to lose that
sense of it being a delay because I no
| | 02:50 |
longer had the dry signal as being part
of the mix.
| | 02:58 |
Let's disable that one and lets take a
look at the Ping Pong delay.
| | 03:01 |
So I'll enable that by clicking on its
Activator button.
| | 03:04 |
And this again is a stereo delay but it's
going to take each repeat and it's going
| | 03:07 |
to move it from the right to the left
speaker and bounce it back and forth.
| | 03:12 |
Again, I can sync this one to the tempo,
I'll try out 8th note delay again.
| | 03:18 |
And I've got a fairly high feedback
setting, so I'll dial that back a little bit.
| | 03:21 |
And let's hit play and let's hear what
that sounds like.
| | 03:24 |
(music playing).
So if you've got headphones on you should
| | 03:27 |
be able to clearly hear that going from
left to right and back and forth between
| | 03:31 |
your headphones.
Now additional, I have a filter in this
| | 03:37 |
circuit that allows me to change the
timbre of the repeats.
| | 03:41 |
The area where the circle is, is the area
where the signals are being allowed to
| | 03:45 |
pass through and below that and above
that they're being attenuated.
| | 03:50 |
So I'll play this back and I'm going to
move that around so that you can hear how
| | 03:53 |
that it changes the sound.
(music playing).
| | 03:55 |
When you go lower, that allows you to
simulate those early delay stomp boxes
| | 04:03 |
that actually degraded the signal on the
repeat and we've come to like that.
| | 04:14 |
Sound of the repeats degrading each time
the repeat, instead of staying exactly
| | 04:17 |
the same.
So that's a nice feature.
| | 04:20 |
All right, let's take a look at the next
track, and here I've got another short,
| | 04:24 |
repeating chord example.
And this time what I want to do is I'm
| | 04:28 |
going to take a delay, but I'm going to
add it onto a return track.
| | 04:32 |
Because a lot of times we don't actually
place the delays exactly on the track.
| | 04:36 |
So there's a third delay in Live called
the Filter Delay.
| | 04:39 |
I'll grab that, and I'm going to drab and
drop that on the return.
| | 04:45 |
And now, to actually add the delay, I'm
going to need to copy some of the signal
| | 04:48 |
from that track onto the Send that's
feeding this return track.
| | 04:53 |
So I'll pull that up, and before I play
this, I'll just point out that this delay
| | 04:58 |
has three delay lines.
So it takes the signal and splits it into
| | 05:03 |
three signals, each one that's run
through its own delay line.
| | 05:08 |
And we can pan those things, in this
case, hard left, center, and hard right.
| | 05:13 |
I can use the filter section to change
the timbre of the repeat differently, and
| | 05:16 |
I can also set different delay times for
each one.
| | 05:20 |
So, I might set this one to 2.
And maybe this one to 5.
| | 05:24 |
And I'll set another one out here to,
let's try 3.
| | 05:28 |
We can get quite a complex delay pattern
out of this.
| | 05:31 |
And I'll make one a little bit darker and
maybe a little bit one, a little bit brighter.
| | 05:36 |
So this is what we get.
(music playing).
| | 05:38 |
And now you notice that as I turned up
the send, the delayed signal being
| | 05:43 |
started to be more prominent.
Because the more signal I feed it from
| | 05:50 |
the send, the more delayed we're going to
get.
| | 05:54 |
And then I can control the overall effect
with this fader on the track.
| | 05:59 |
Now one other thing that we can do with a
delay that's on a return track, is we can
| | 06:02 |
actually take the signal on the delay and
feed it back to itself.
| | 06:07 |
I can do that by right-clicking on the
Send, which is by default, disabled on
| | 06:10 |
the return track, and I can enable it.
And I can take the delay signal that's
| | 06:15 |
passing through there and feed it right
back around into the return track.
| | 06:19 |
And this is a technique that they often
use in electronic music to create those builds.
| | 06:24 |
Where the sound at the end of the section
gets really, really complex and they
| | 06:27 |
raise the level, and then they suddenly
release it when they hit the next section.
| | 06:32 |
I will say that you want to be careful
with this.
| | 06:35 |
And it's a really good idea when you do
this, also to drop a limiter at the back
| | 06:39 |
end of this to protect you from getting
any crazy feedback loops.
| | 06:44 |
So let's hear what this sounds like
| | 06:54 |
(music playing).
| | 06:59 |
So that was a pretty example as I got
that send on the actual return track
| | 07:03 |
pretty high.
You could really start to hear the
| | 07:06 |
delayed signal just being fed back and
fed back and fed back and really starting
| | 07:10 |
to build and build.
Hopefully you're as excited about delay
| | 07:14 |
effects as I am.
In any case, try adding delay effects to
| | 07:17 |
your mixes and experiment with what they
can do.
| | 07:20 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using reverb effectively| 00:00 |
Reverb is a critical part of creating a
successful mix.
| | 00:04 |
Because recreating in an acoustical
environment is a complicated task, reverb
| | 00:06 |
plug-ins are often filled with hard to
understand parameters.
| | 00:10 |
Let's take a look at what those
parameters represent and discuss the
| | 00:13 |
guidelines for using reverb devices
effectively.
| | 00:15 |
So, reverb is the effect that gives a
sense of spatial dimension to a recording.
| | 00:19 |
Where delay effect are fairly simple
devices which create a few echos or
| | 00:23 |
reflections at a time.
A reverb creates thousands of tightly
| | 00:26 |
spaced reflections that are perceived as
a single entity.
| | 00:30 |
Because reverb devices are so processor
intensive the most efficient way to use
| | 00:33 |
them is to place them on a return track
where they can be shared with multiple tracks.
| | 00:38 |
So I'm going to go into the audio effects
category over here and scroll down to the reverb.
| | 00:45 |
And notice that the actual presets are
separated into three different categories.
| | 00:49 |
So haul is going to be for those presets
that simulate larger rooms.
| | 00:54 |
Room would be for smaller rooms.
And special would be for special effects.
| | 00:58 |
So I'm going to go into the room category
because I'm looking for a shorter reverb
| | 01:02 |
for my drum kit that we're using here.
We typically use shorter, smaller reverbs
| | 01:07 |
for drums, and I notice that there's a
preset here for drums itself.
| | 01:12 |
So, let me grab that, and I'm going to
drop that on the return track A over on
| | 01:15 |
the right-hand side here.
And now all I need to do to add reverb to
| | 01:19 |
the session is turn up any sends that I
want to feed that return track.
| | 01:25 |
And remember that a send is a device that
allows you to copy signal from a track
| | 01:29 |
onto a virtual wire that's going to
terminate at one of these return tracks.
| | 01:35 |
So A goes to the A return, B goes to the
B return and so on.
| | 01:38 |
Now I'm going to add a little reverb to
this snap track which is like a clap sound.
| | 01:43 |
And maybe some to the snare but typically
we wouldn't add much or any at all to the
| | 01:47 |
kick drum because that's a low frequency
type of a sound.
| | 01:51 |
And adding reverb to low frequency sounds
just really ends up in a muddy mix.
| | 01:56 |
So, I'll lift the send on the snap track
and let me solo that so we can hear what
| | 02:00 |
it sounds like.
And I'll launch that clip.
| | 02:11 |
(music playing) So I'm setting that so the decay
really ends right before the next clap hits.
| | 02:20 |
Now, let's go back and let's take a look
at the parameters in that reverb.
| | 02:23 |
So the pre-delay and shape parameters
help us with the early reflections.
| | 02:29 |
So, the very first part of reverb is the
amount of time that it takes the direct
| | 02:33 |
signal to travel to an object and then
reflect off that object and come back to
| | 02:37 |
the listener.
And those first reflections are called
| | 02:42 |
the early reflections.
And if there's anything that sounds like
| | 02:45 |
echo, it's early reflections.
So the pre-delay sets the amount of time
| | 02:49 |
that it takes for those early reflections
to start and we can gauge the size of a
| | 02:53 |
room roughly at 1 foot per millisecond.
So a pre-delay of 8 milliseconds is going
| | 02:59 |
to create a fairly small room.
Now I'm going to play back and we'll
| | 03:02 |
listen to this as I increase the
pre-delay amount.
| | 03:05 |
(music playing) And as I got it higher setting
there, you could really almost hear an
| | 03:14 |
echo happening, fairly distinct, right?
So let me dial that back down to close to
| | 03:25 |
its original setting.
Now the shape parameter here allows us to
| | 03:28 |
control the intensity of those early
reflection.
| | 03:32 |
So lower values are going to be less
intense, higher values going to be more intense.
| | 03:37 |
Over in the middle area here, we can
control the size of this virtual room
| | 03:41 |
that we're in.
So a setting of two is going to be a
| | 03:44 |
smaller room and setting higher than that
would gradually increase the size.
| | 03:49 |
And I should point out that we also have
a quality setting here.
| | 03:53 |
Now at high the resolution of the signal
that's output from the reverb, is
| | 03:56 |
going to be at a higher resolution.
And your going to hear that especially in
| | 04:01 |
the higher frequencies.
But that's at expense of the CPU overhead.
| | 04:05 |
And so you might need to reduce that down
into a MIDI or economy quality.
| | 04:10 |
Below that, the stereo parameter sets the
stereo spread of the stereo signal that's
| | 04:14 |
output from this device.
So, a setting of zero would output a mono
| | 04:19 |
signal, and a setting of 120 we would end
up with a discreet left and right image.
| | 04:25 |
Let me put that back down here at 100.
And the decay time here controls the
| | 04:31 |
overall length of the delayed
reflections, which would be that third
| | 04:35 |
important part of a reverb.
Let's hear what that sounds like as I
| | 04:39 |
increase that.
(audio playing).
| | 04:46 |
(music playing) So you can really start to hear
that ring as if you're in a very, very
| | 04:51 |
large room.
So just to demonstrate this, I'm gonig to
| | 04:55 |
adjust that a little bit longer, and then
I'm going to go up into this area called
| | 04:58 |
the diffusion network.
And this allows me to control the timbre
| | 05:02 |
or sound of the delayed reflection.
So imagine yourself being in a room with
| | 05:07 |
really hard surfaces, like glass and
cement and marble.
| | 05:11 |
You would immediately get a picture of a
very bright-sounding room, and if you
| | 05:15 |
were to think of yourself in a theater,
or a room that has carpet and a lot of
| | 05:18 |
furniture and people with clothes on and
maybe curtains.
| | 05:24 |
You would think of a much warmer or
darker sounding room, because rooms that
| | 05:28 |
have absorptive materials will really
impact the high frequencies more than the
| | 05:32 |
low frequencies.
So, I'm going to take this one setting
| | 05:38 |
and I'll dial it back and forth and you
can listen to it how it changes the
| | 05:44 |
timbre of the reverb.
(music playing) (NOISE) And how it's really
| | 05:50 |
controlling the high end in that case.
So over on the far right-hand side we
| | 05:56 |
have controls that allow us to balance
the output of all those aspects of the reverb.
| | 06:01 |
So the reflection knob allows us to
control the volume of the early reflection.
| | 06:06 |
The diffuse parameter allows us to
control the volume of the delayed reflections.
| | 06:11 |
And the dry wet parameter allows us to
control the amount of dry signal to wet signal.
| | 06:17 |
Now remember when you place an effect on
the return track, the dry signal is
| | 06:21 |
actually on the track itself.
And what you really want to have coming
| | 06:26 |
back on the return track is just the
process signal.
| | 06:30 |
So as a general rule of thumb, you want
to put a dry wet setting on a reverb
| | 06:34 |
that's being used on a return track at
100%.
| | 06:38 |
If you put that same reverb directly on a
track, then you're going to need to set
| | 06:41 |
that dry wet parameter to taste.
So let's grab one more reverb, and I'm
| | 06:46 |
going to go into the Special Category.
There's one there that I like because
| | 06:51 |
it's a complex sounding reverb.
It's one called Megaflexion.
| | 06:54 |
And I'm going to grab that one and drop
that one on the long verb track.
| | 07:01 |
Let's hear something like the filter pads
playback through that.
| | 07:05 |
I'll solo that (music playing).
Now as I'm doing this, I'm noticing that
| | 07:12 |
the default setting for this has the
derived wet at 30%.
| | 07:20 |
So I'm going to boost that to a 100, and
now I can go back to my device, and I can
| | 07:24 |
increase the B send that's feeding that
return track.
| | 07:28 |
(audio playing) And as I stop there, you can
really hear the ambiance ring out on that
| | 07:34 |
but in this case it's got much more of a
diffused sound to it.
| | 07:41 |
It's not quite as bright as that drum
reverb that we were looking at.
| | 07:48 |
And it really helps connect the chords
that are in that part.
| | 07:51 |
So now you know how to setup a reverb and
how to adjust the device parameters.
| | 07:56 |
Listen to some of your favorite
recordings and you'll notice that some
| | 07:58 |
engineers use a lot of reverb and others
seem to use it very sparingly.
| | 08:02 |
Experiment and decide what you like.
| | 08:03 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up side chain effects easily| 00:00 |
Side chain processing can be used to
create interesting and useful effects.
| | 00:04 |
It's often perceived as hard to set up.
Let's take a look at a couple of classic
| | 00:07 |
side chain effects, and discuss how you
can use them in Ableton Live.
| | 00:11 |
First thing I'm going to do, is I'm going
to use a Gate effect on this pad track here.
| | 00:15 |
So, let's go into the Audio Effects
folder.
| | 00:18 |
I'll scroll down and let's find the Gate.
I'm just going to grab the default Gate
| | 00:23 |
and drop it here at the end of this
device chain.
| | 00:27 |
So, there's an additional parameter on
some of the dynamic devices and it's this
| | 00:31 |
little triangle here that you see at the
top and if you click on that it opens up
| | 00:34 |
this side chain area.
When you place a side chain effect on a
| | 00:38 |
track, it doesn't actually operate based
upon the signal that's passing through
| | 00:42 |
that track.
It takes it's trigger signal from a
| | 00:46 |
different track.
So I'll enable the side chain.
| | 00:49 |
And then I'm going to go down choose the
side chain kick that I have set up.
| | 00:55 |
And what that means is, is that the
signal just passing through this track is
| | 00:58 |
going to trigger the effect that is
sitting on this track.
| | 01:02 |
And in this case.
The side chain kick that I've set up, I'm
| | 01:05 |
just using this as a trigger for the side
chains that I'm going to use in this example.
| | 01:10 |
The signal on that track is not
contributing to the actual mix in any way
| | 01:13 |
because I've got the track turned off.
So, now that I've got this set up, let me
| | 01:18 |
disable this for just one second because
I'm going to play the track so that you
| | 01:20 |
can hear what it sounds like without the
effect.
| | 01:24 |
(music playing) So just to stay in chords.
So let me re-enable that and then I'm
| | 01:30 |
going to show you the clip that I've set
up on this track so I'll Shift + Tab to
| | 01:33 |
do that.
And what I've done here is I've got a
| | 01:38 |
clip that's one beat long and it's got
four sixteenth notes on it.
| | 01:43 |
So each time the kick hits the signal's
going to go over to the side chain and
| | 01:46 |
it's going to open the gate and it's
going to let the signal on the track pass through.
| | 01:50 |
But in the absence of signal the gate
will shut down and stop the signal from
| | 01:54 |
going through.
So what started off as a sustained chord
| | 01:59 |
should now have this stuttering effect.
Let me play that scene and let's hear
| | 02:03 |
what it sounds like.
(music playing) So now I can tune the sharpness
| | 02:12 |
of those stutters.
By taking the threshold and lowering and
| | 02:20 |
raising it.
Let's see what that does.
| | 02:22 |
(music playing).
So you can tune that by here to get the
| | 02:28 |
effect on that which you're looking for.
Okay.
| | 02:37 |
So, let's take a look at a second side
chain effect that works the opposite way.
| | 02:41 |
So let me delete this gate and let's take
a look at a second side chain effect.
| | 02:46 |
So, I'm going to take the outputs of the
base, omni base, filter pad, pad and I'm
| | 02:50 |
going to route their outputs into this
compression submix.
| | 02:55 |
So I'll select their title bars.
And now all I need to do is come down and
| | 02:59 |
click the output on one of those.
And I'll send this over to this extra
| | 03:04 |
track here.
And then I'm going to put that track in
| | 03:06 |
input monitoring so that it will act much
like an OGG's track.
| | 03:10 |
Where it allows you to route signal and
process signal.
| | 03:13 |
Then I'm going to go over to the audio
effects area.
| | 03:17 |
And I'm going to grab Compressor, and
drop that on the compression submix track.
| | 03:23 |
It has that same Unfold button so I can
enable the side chain and again, I'm
| | 03:27 |
going to go over to the side chain kick,
and choose that.
| | 03:32 |
And this time, if we look at what I have
on that track.
| | 03:35 |
I've got another 1 beat long clip that's
just gotta quarter note on the downbeat.
| | 03:40 |
So, the effect that I'm looking to create
here, is that each time the kick hits,
| | 03:43 |
it's actually going to cause the
compressor to compress.
| | 03:47 |
And then when there's no kick, it's
going to release the sound and let the
| | 03:49 |
sound pass through.
And this was a technique that was
| | 03:53 |
originally used to try and create space
in electronic dance music for the kick to
| | 03:56 |
poke through nice and clearly.
But it causes this kind of pumping and
| | 04:01 |
breathing effect on the tracks that you
apply it to and that effect has become so
| | 04:05 |
popular that now we use this effect more
for what it does to the other tracks that
| | 04:08 |
actually to help create room for the kick
drum.
| | 04:13 |
So let's go back to the compression
submix track, and let me Shift + Tab so I
| | 04:17 |
can see the device.
There we go, and I'll fire off that scene.
| | 04:21 |
(music playing) So as I was playing that I
adjusted the threshold low enough that
| | 04:33 |
the compressor could actually start
grabbing that signal.
| | 04:48 |
And then I advanced the ratio so that I
actually got a more dynamic effect out of that.
| | 04:54 |
And then as I continued, I lengthened the
release time just a little bit to let the
| | 04:57 |
sound hang on a little bit.
Now we can set the release time so that
| | 05:01 |
in the end you get this feeling of the
kick happening.
| | 05:04 |
And then the sound of the other
instruments.
| | 05:07 |
And then the kick and the sound.
And you get that really in time.
| | 05:11 |
But the other thing you can do is just
set the release time just a little bit
| | 05:13 |
longer and in the end, it creates this
effect like it's just about to trip a
| | 05:16 |
little bit.
But the kick in the rest of the rhythm is
| | 05:20 |
so strong that that really keeps the
rhythmic coherency.
| | 05:23 |
So, let's hear this with the drums now.
And hear what that sounds like.
| | 05:26 |
(music playing) So you can really hear that
volume of those other tracks decreasing
| | 05:35 |
and increasing.
So side chain processing can be used in
| | 05:41 |
so many ways to shape sounds and effects
so experiment with the technique and see
| | 05:44 |
what you can create.
| | 05:46 |
| | 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 software instrument.
Let's discuss how you can add a midi
| | 00:07 |
effect to a MIDI track and learn to use
Live's Midi Arpeggiator Effect device.
| | 00:11 |
So there are several MIDI effects in the
midi effects folder and we're going to
| | 00:14 |
take a look at arpeggiator.
I'm just going to grab the default
| | 00:18 |
arpeggiator and drag that down onto this
device chain.
| | 00:21 |
And I'm going to first start by trying to
put it at the end of the chain.
| | 00:25 |
Just to remind you, only audio effects go
at the end of the chain MIDI effects have
| | 00:28 |
to go at the beginning of the chain.
So I can drop it over here.
| | 00:33 |
So as I play a note on my keyboard, it
will enter the device chain on the left
| | 00:37 |
hand side.
It will go through this MIDI effect which
| | 00:41 |
will somehow alter that MIDI data.
And then pass that on to the software
| | 00:46 |
instrument that will turn that MIDI data
into sound.
| | 00:51 |
So, in the case of this arpeggiator
device.
| | 00:53 |
If I hold down a chord, it's going to
take those notes and it's going to break
| | 00:56 |
those apart into a broken chord or what
we've referred to as an arpeggial.
| | 01:01 |
So for example, if I l leave this on the
style up.
| | 01:05 |
Any notes that I hold down, it will
arpeggiate them from the bottom up.
| | 01:09 |
Let's give that a listen.
And I'm going to go into input
| | 01:11 |
monitoring, so that I can audition what
we're doing here.
| | 01:15 |
(music playing)
| | 01:17 |
.
So I was holding down a C chord.
| | 01:20 |
And you could hear that arpeggiating from
the bottom up.
| | 01:22 |
So, there's several styles here.
For example, we can have it arpeggiate
| | 01:25 |
down, or a combination of up and down, or
these converge and diverge.
| | 01:30 |
It'll actually play the middle notes that
you're holding down, and then go to the
| | 01:32 |
outer notes.
So, there's all kinds of different styles here.
| | 01:36 |
I kind of like the converge and diverge.
That would sound like this.
| | 01:40 |
(music playing) Tune up, I'm still holding down
just three notes.
| | 01:46 |
It's arpeggiating this at array, it's in
sync with the tempo and right now it's
| | 01:50 |
set to an eighth note.
I can also diable sync and I can do this
| | 01:54 |
based upon the length of miliseconds.
Let's leave this in sync for right now and
| | 01:59 |
I'm going to advance this to a 16th note.
Just to show you that we can do that
| | 02:03 |
twice as fast (music playing).
Now, right now it's arpeggiating that in
| | 02:08 |
a straight groove.
But I could also have that do more of a
| | 02:11 |
swing feel.
And since we are on 16th notes there,
| | 02:14 |
I'll change this to swing 16th, and it's
going to move every other 16th note over.
| | 02:19 |
I'll see what that sounds like.
(audio playing) Okay?
| | 02:26 |
Right now that's fairly staccato as it
does that.
| | 02:28 |
I'm going to go back into Straight and I
can adjust the gap between the notes
| | 02:32 |
using this Gate function.
Lower values are going to make it more
| | 02:37 |
staccato, higher values are going to make
it more legato.
| | 02:41 |
So if I pull that down all the way, it
should be very very short.
| | 02:46 |
(audio playing) Now if I push that up, over here
into the 100% range, we'll actually get,
| | 02:49 |
the notes starting to blur together.
(music playing) Very smooth there.
| | 02:54 |
Pull that back down to about 60 70%.
So now lets take a look at the Transpose area.
| | 03:02 |
When I'm in Shift mode, I can actually
have the arpeggiator transpose anything
| | 03:05 |
I'm playing.
And I can have it do it both by distance,
| | 03:08 |
which is set to half steps, with this
parameter at the bottom.
| | 03:13 |
Then I can also set how many times its
going to transpose it.
| | 03:16 |
So if I put this up to one and then hold
that one note.
| | 03:19 |
We should hear it play, the note that I'm
holding down, and then transpose it up an
| | 03:23 |
octave, one time.
(audio playing) So we hear that vacillating
| | 03:28 |
between the, you know, I'm holding an
octave up.
| | 03:32 |
If I put the steps on two, it will
actually play the note that I'm playing,
| | 03:35 |
and then transpose it twice.
(audio playing) I could also do this in a key, by
| | 03:40 |
changing the mode from Shift to either
Major or Minor.
| | 03:47 |
Now the changes that happen here is, is
that now the distance parameter is not
| | 03:50 |
transposing by half step, it's doing it
by diatonic step.
| | 03:55 |
So, if I hold down a C in the key of C,
and I transpose this one.
| | 04:00 |
Let me put that on one.
It should play a D, and I'll put the step
| | 04:03 |
back on one so it should just do that one
time.
| | 04:06 |
So we should hear it go between C and D
very rapidly.
| | 04:12 |
(audio playing) Now, if I hold down an E and I do
that, it's only going to transpose that a
| | 04:16 |
half step up to F (audio playing) because it's
doing it diatonically.
| | 04:21 |
So I like to set this in shift mode, and
often like to do this by fifth so that
| | 04:26 |
when I hold down a chord I get an effect
like this.
| | 04:31 |
(audio playing) And that's something that you can
play behind a lot of chords in particular key.
| | 04:40 |
Now let's go over here to the velocity
area and check that out.
| | 04:42 |
So if I turn that on I can actually have
the pattern that I am creating decay over time.
| | 04:48 |
So I might set this to decay, let's say,
by two seconds.
| | 04:52 |
And then I'm going to set a target
velocity so that as I hold the notes down
| | 04:55 |
it'll actually get softer.
Let's hear what that sounds like.
| | 05:00 |
(audio playing) So you can hear that fading out.
And I can also have that be re-triggered
| | 05:08 |
after a particular length of time.
So, I'll click on the re-trigger mode.
| | 05:12 |
I'm going to go into the beat version of
re-trigger, and I'm going to set this to
| | 05:16 |
re-trigger after two bars.
You can see that I'm setting lengths, here.
| | 05:21 |
Below one would give you, you know, like
a half note, now one bar and then up to,
| | 05:25 |
let's try two bars.
So, we should hear this decay over 2 bars
| | 05:30 |
and then have it retrigger.
And you'll actually see this light pulse
| | 05:33 |
when it retriggers, here we go (audio playing).
So, that can be really useful.
| | 05:44 |
You're trying to create a musical effect,
where this thing re-triggers, but each
| | 05:47 |
time it does, the notes decay and you get
that change in time.
| | 05:51 |
So, Live's arpreggiator effect can be
used to create parts that dominate or add
| | 05:54 |
interesting detail to a project.
Give arpreggiator a spin, and try it in
| | 06:00 |
combination with other MIDI and audio
effects.
| | 06:02 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Building background parts with the Chord and Scale effects| 00:00 |
Often, you need additional background
parts to add depth or character to a project.
| | 00:04 |
Let's take a look Live's Chord and Scale
Effects and see how they can be quickly
| | 00:07 |
used to create simple background parts,.
And also see how they can be combined
| | 00:11 |
with other devices.
So, I've got 3 of the MIDI Effects down here.
| | 00:15 |
The Chord, Scale, and Arpeggio MIDI
Effect devices.
| | 00:18 |
And I've got 2 of those disabled and
minimized.
| | 00:21 |
An I've just got the Chord active right
now.
| | 00:23 |
So remember, that as the MIDI signal
enters a device chain, and goes through
| | 00:27 |
these devices.
They'll alter them in some, way and then
| | 00:30 |
pass those on to this preset over here,
which will then turn that MIDI signal
| | 00:34 |
into sound.
So let's start off by taking a look at
| | 00:37 |
the Chord MIDI effect.
So any note that you hold down that
| | 00:41 |
enters the chord device,we'll actually
take that note and shift it up or down a
| | 00:45 |
number of half steps.
Now, I'll still hear the note that I'm
| | 00:49 |
playing, but I'm going to get that
transposed and added on to the note that
| | 00:51 |
I'm playing.
So, for example, if I take this Shift 1,
| | 00:55 |
and dial to the right plus 4, I'll add a
note 4 half-steps or a major third above
| | 00:59 |
the note I'm playing.
So I'll hold down a C.
| | 01:04 |
So I need to put that track in record, so
that I can audition what I'm doing.
| | 01:08 |
And now I'll hold down C.
(audio playing).
| | 01:10 |
And I'm hearing both C and E.
Let's do that again, and I'll take the
| | 01:14 |
second shift parameter and I'll move that
up to plus 7, which would give me a
| | 01:18 |
perfect fifth.
So now I should get C, E, and G.
| | 01:23 |
(audio playing).
There's a major triad, I'll take this
| | 01:26 |
last one and I'll actually transpose this
down.
| | 01:29 |
Let's pull it down minus 5, and I'll
double the fifth down below the note I'm playing.
| | 01:37 |
(audio playing).
Now I just want to point out that you can
| | 01:39 |
actually balance a chord using these
Velocity editors underneath the shift parameter.
| | 01:44 |
And so that one was already set down a
little bit lower.
| | 01:47 |
And that's helping me balance that fifth,
which would have been a little bit loud
| | 01:50 |
in the balance of the chord.
All right, so I'm going to disable this for
| | 01:54 |
a moment, by clicking on the Device
Activator button.
| | 01:57 |
And I'll double-click the Scale Plugin to
bring that up and I'll enable that by
| | 02:01 |
clicking on its Activator button.
So, I'm looking at a C major preset for
| | 02:07 |
the scale plugin and this is showing me a
matrix.
| | 02:11 |
And you'll notice that I get these blank
boxes and dark boxes, blank dark, then I
| | 02:15 |
get 2 blanks in a row.
And if you take a good look at that,
| | 02:19 |
you'll notice that its in the pattern of
a keyboard.
| | 02:22 |
So what this is showing me is that if I
play a C, I'm going to get a C.
| | 02:26 |
But if I play a C Sharp, I'm actually
going to get a C, D I'll get D, D Sharp
| | 02:30 |
I'll actually get D.
So what's happening here is that no
| | 02:34 |
matter what note that I'm going to play,
this plugin is going to force those notes
| | 02:37 |
into the key of C.
Just for example, (audio playing), I play C you
| | 02:42 |
see the C light up, if I play C Sharp,
(audio playing), I'm actually still getting C,
| | 02:47 |
it's the same note.
(audio playing), D, I get D, (audio playing) D Sharp, I
| | 02:51 |
still get D.
So that could be really handy.
| | 02:54 |
Now if I re-enable the Chord plugin, and
hold down my C, I'll still get C major.
| | 02:59 |
(audio playing).
But check it out when I play D, I'm not
| | 03:02 |
going to get the D major chord that the
chord plugin is creating, it's going to
| | 03:06 |
take the F Sharp that would be created.
And because of the scale plugin, it's
| | 03:13 |
going to turn that F Sharp into an F, and
I'll get D minor.
| | 03:18 |
(audio playing).
So, I can actually generate the diatonic
| | 03:20 |
triads in the key of C.
C major, (audio playing), D minor, (audio playing), E
| | 03:23 |
minor, (audio playing), F major, (audio playing), G
major, (audio playing), A minor SOUND, B
| | 03:26 |
diminish (audio playing) and C (audio playing), very
cool.
| | 03:31 |
So, I can also then take the effect
that's happening with these plugins and
| | 03:35 |
then run this through the Arpeggiator
plugin.
| | 03:39 |
So if I reactivate that and bring that
up, I'm going to put that up on sixteenth
| | 03:43 |
notes again.
And I could so something as simple as
| | 03:48 |
putting that on Chord Trigger.
As I hold down a note, it will create a
| | 03:52 |
chord, in this case C major.
And then it will run it through the scale
| | 03:57 |
plugin, which will force any of the notes
that I'm playing to make sure that
| | 04:00 |
they're in the key of C.
And then when it hits the Arpeggiator
| | 04:05 |
with the Chord Trigger style, it'll make
the chord pulse.
| | 04:11 |
(audio playing).
And it's doing that, at the rate that
| | 04:13 |
I've got set.
Now, lets do something that I might
| | 04:16 |
actually do if I was, working on a song.
So I might do something more in this in
| | 04:20 |
ninth over here.
And so I've now got this set at a ninth
| | 04:24 |
and a fifth.
Still want to see major plugin.
| | 04:27 |
Let me put this back on something like
converge and diverge.
| | 04:32 |
And I'll set the rate at sixteenth note
this time.
| | 04:35 |
And I'm going to turn on the transpose
that, so that I'm transposing this one step.
| | 04:41 |
And let me transpose that again up a
fifth.
| | 04:44 |
And then I'll turn the velocity on, and
set it to K and for on a couple seconds
| | 04:47 |
and then I will set the target velocity
so that it decreases the volume as the
| | 04:51 |
pattern plays out.
And this is what that will sound like,
| | 04:55 |
(audio playing).
(audio playing) So you can create some really
| | 05:03 |
interesting patterns.
So by themselves, the Chord and Scale
| | 05:06 |
plugin seems simple.
But when combined together with the
| | 05:08 |
Arpeggiator plugin, the possibilities are
endless.
| | 05:11 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
12. ControllersMapping keys with Keymap mode| 00:00 |
MIDI controllers offer straightforward
control of mixer and device parameters in
| | 00:03 |
Ableton Live.
If you can't afford a MIDI controller
| | 00:06 |
yet, don't worry, because in Live, the
computer keyboard can also be configured
| | 00:09 |
to work as an effective MIDI controller.
So before we go into key map mode, I want
| | 00:14 |
to remind you that if the computer
keyboard MIDI keyboard switch is enabled,
| | 00:17 |
several keys on your computer keyboard
are assigned to trigger notes.
| | 00:22 |
And we don't want those to conflict with
anything we're going to do in key map mode.
| | 00:26 |
So just remember that the a through l are
assigned and the q through I or o are
| | 00:30 |
assigned to trigger notes.
And if we just disable that.
| | 00:35 |
Then we can use any keys on the computer
keyboard in Key Map mode.
| | 00:39 |
So I can enter Key Map mode, by clicking
key button, here on the control bar.
| | 00:43 |
You can also do that with Key Command,
using Cmd+K on a Mac.
| | 00:47 |
Or Ctrl+K on a PC.
Now, when I enabled that.
| | 00:51 |
A lot of things turned orange, on the
interface.
| | 00:53 |
And so I can click anything that I want
to assign I could say this on off button
| | 00:57 |
for oscillator A and I will press the
number 1 on my computer keyboard.
| | 01:03 |
And you see this little white box that
shows up in the corner, so now that's
| | 01:06 |
assigned to toggle on and off that
oscillator.
| | 01:10 |
So I leave key map mode by hitting my
escape key and now I am going to press
| | 01:14 |
the number 1.
An you'll see that enabling and
| | 01:18 |
disabling, that oscillator.
Just by the nature of the way keys are
| | 01:22 |
either on or off, key map mode is
especially good for, turning things off
| | 01:25 |
an on.
It's not quite as good at doing,
| | 01:29 |
variable, assignments.
Just for example, I'll go back into key
| | 01:33 |
map mode, and I'll select the course
setting, an I'll press the number two,
| | 01:36 |
the escape key to get out of there.
And now I'll press the number 2 and let's
| | 01:41 |
see what it does.
Let me escape that.
| | 01:44 |
I'll just select the device so I'm not
changing the parameter and now I'll press
| | 01:49 |
the number 2 and you'll see that it's
advancing that.
| | 01:54 |
It's hard to go backwards though I think
I'll have to go all the way around before
| | 01:56 |
I can get back down.
So you can really only use that to
| | 02:00 |
advance maybe once or twice otherwise
it's not really that useful.
| | 02:05 |
So I'm going to go back in to key map
mode, Cmd+K this time, Ctrl+K on a PC,
| | 02:08 |
and I'm going to select that second
assignment.
| | 02:12 |
I'm just going to delete it.
I'll escape, and I'll reset that back
| | 02:16 |
down to the original setting, by clicking
and dragging.
| | 02:20 |
An again, I'll demonstrate how, this is
not that great for variable settings by,
| | 02:24 |
assigning the cutoff frequency on this
filter.
| | 02:29 |
So, back into key map mode.
And I'll select frequency.
| | 02:33 |
I'll press number 2 again.
That's assigned.
| | 02:37 |
I'll go back out of key map mode.
And now watch happens when I press the
| | 02:41 |
number two.
It goes all the way up, or all the way down.
| | 02:45 |
And again, it's going back to that kind
of on, off nature.
| | 02:49 |
Let me reassign that.
So, I'll go back into key map mode, I'll
| | 02:52 |
select that, get rid of it.
So the place that this really shines
| | 02:56 |
then, is in anything that is on or off,
or triggering something to start.
| | 03:01 |
So, we could use this for solo buttons or
record enable buttons.
| | 03:05 |
For launch buttons on clips, probably the
most common place we use this is to
| | 03:09 |
trigger scenes.
So, if I go over to the intro scene here
| | 03:12 |
and select that.
I press the number two, and then the
| | 03:16 |
synth side chain start.
I'll press three, and I'll press four on
| | 03:21 |
the synth pad scene.
And so those are now all assigned and
| | 03:24 |
I'll hit the escape key.
So now if I press those numbers I'll
| | 03:28 |
launch those scenes.
Based upon again, the global quantization
| | 03:32 |
value that is set at one bar.
So let me press two that'll start the intro.
| | 03:37 |
In then I'll wait a bar or two and then
I'll start the next scene.
| | 03:44 |
(music playing) Okay here goes the scene.
(music playing) And now the last one that I assigned.
| | 03:56 |
So you can see how that could be
effective in both Live performance or any
| | 03:59 |
time you're trying to record your scenes
from Session View into Arrangement View.
| | 04:04 |
So now that you've seen how easy it is to
use key map mode.
| | 04:07 |
You can use your computer keyboard as a
controller when you don't have the MIDI
| | 04:09 |
keyboard available.
| | 04:11 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Mapping device controls to the MIDI keyboard| 00:00 |
Assigning control of device or mixer
parameters in a music production program
| | 00:03 |
used to be a difficult thing to do.
In Ableton Live it's easy.
| | 00:06 |
So, lets take a look at how you can map
control of Live to a MIDI keyboard
| | 00:09 |
controller or Control Surface.
So, before I demonstrate using MIDI map
| | 00:13 |
mode, I want to double check and make
sure that my controller is set up properly.
| | 00:18 |
So, I'm going to go up to the Live menu
and choose Preferences.
| | 00:21 |
That would be the Options menu on a PC.
Now I'm just going to double check that
| | 00:25 |
I've got the remote buttons enabled for
any devices that I want to be sending
| | 00:28 |
continuous control messages.
And those would be the messages you would
| | 00:33 |
send from your pitch and mod wheel and
any knobs that you have there that are continuous.
| | 00:37 |
So, let me get out of there, I'll do that
by hitting the Escape key.
| | 00:40 |
And now I'm going to go into MIDI map
mode by pressing the MIDI button up here
| | 00:43 |
in the Control Bar.
Now, I'll just simply choose anything
| | 00:47 |
that's purple.
Like the cut-off frequency knob on
| | 00:50 |
oscillator one here.
And I'll turn a knob on my keyboard
| | 00:54 |
controller, and I've assigned number 16
there, and the control chain's message is 21.
| | 01:01 |
By the way, those are, are messages that
were sent by the controller to Ableton.
| | 01:05 |
And now they're assigned to the pad
smooth device that analog is playing here.
| | 01:10 |
And to the cutoff frequency on the first
filter.
| | 01:14 |
Now another cool thing about this, is
that I can actually assign a second
| | 01:17 |
parameter to the same knob.
So, I'll click the residence on that,
| | 01:21 |
turn the same knob, It's assigned.
And now what I can do is I can set Min
| | 01:25 |
and Max values for both of these, so that
as I do a filter sweep when I go on the
| | 01:29 |
low end I get the starting cut off
frequency and the starting resonance
| | 01:32 |
value that I want.
And on the other end I get the maximum
| | 01:37 |
values that I want.
So, lets set around 1.6k, to start off,
| | 01:42 |
so I'm going to set that just a little
bit lower than that, around, maybe 1.2, 1.3.
| | 01:48 |
And I'll set the top value and I'm
guessing here, somewhere maybe around 4k
| | 01:53 |
and the residence percentage is around
10, 11, 12 there so.
| | 01:59 |
I'll set maybe a maximum value of around
40, yeah around 40%.
| | 02:04 |
And then I'll get out of MIDI map mode by
hitting the Escape key, and I'll play a
| | 02:09 |
chord here, and so we can hear it I'm
going to put the track into record, and
| | 02:14 |
now I'll hold a chord down and I'll dial
that filter.
| | 02:21 |
(audio playing).
And if you wanted to adjust the Min and
| | 02:24 |
Max values if those needed a little bit
more detailing, you could go back in the
| | 02:28 |
MIDI map mode.
Maybe I want to go a little lower on
| | 02:31 |
that, and just a little bit higher on
that so it gets a little bit brighter on
| | 02:35 |
the max end.
But I can dial these in until I get that
| | 02:40 |
knob movement to be perfect and each time
I do a filter sweep, I'll get a very
| | 02:43 |
consistent result.
Now, after recording the control change
| | 02:48 |
information from this knob, I'm turning,
as automation on the track, you may want
| | 02:51 |
to reassign this knob to use it somewhere
else.
| | 02:56 |
So, to do that, all I need to do is
delete these MIDI mappings, so you just
| | 02:59 |
select one in the MIDI mappings browser,
hit your Delete key.
| | 03:04 |
And now I'm ready to go and assign this
to something else.
| | 03:06 |
So, now that you see how easy it is to
use MIDI mapping, you can use controllers
| | 03:10 |
to change device parameters in Live, and
add the extra details that make a mix interesting.
| | 03:15 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the instant mapping feature| 00:00 |
Setting up custom midi mapping
assignments can be time consuming.
| | 00:03 |
So the program designers at Ableton have
worked with their counterparts at
| | 00:06 |
companies that produce midi controllers
to enable instant mapping of device
| | 00:09 |
parameters in Live.
Those controllers that are specifically
| | 00:13 |
designed to work with Live are designated
with the term native.
| | 00:16 |
Now, if you have a native controller, you
want to go ahead and make sure that's set
| | 00:19 |
up properly.
And if I go up to the Live menu or the
| | 00:22 |
Options menu on a PC, I can access
Preferences, and once there, I'll select
| | 00:26 |
the mini Sync tab.
And this area at the top of the window is
| | 00:30 |
where you activate your native
controllers.
| | 00:34 |
Now I've just hooked up the APC40.
Live Action immediately sensed it, and it
| | 00:38 |
looks like it's ready to go.
I'm also going to drop down here into the
| | 00:42 |
midi ports area.
And I'm just going to make sure that the
| | 00:45 |
Remote button is also enabled.
Now I don't need to have that on for
| | 00:48 |
instant mapping, but I am going to need
it on if I want to make any custom
| | 00:51 |
assignments, to use any of the knobs on
the APC40.
| | 00:55 |
Okay, so that looks like it's ready to
go, so I'm going to hit my Escape key to
| | 00:57 |
get out of Preferences.
And now to check it to see if this is
| | 01:01 |
working, all I need to do is select a
device.
| | 01:03 |
So I'll click the title bar on this
analog instrument down here.
| | 01:07 |
And now I'll turn one of the knobs on my
instant mapping section of my controller
| | 01:11 |
and I can see right now, it looks like
it's a sign to this oscillator balance
| | 01:15 |
between oscillator one and two.
And let me turn number two and let's see
| | 01:21 |
what that does.
Okay so it looks like that's assigned
| | 01:24 |
over here, to the cutoff frequency.
I don't only have access to eight
| | 01:29 |
parameters on this device.
Live has actually got several banks of
| | 01:33 |
eight setup.
And how you access those banks, is
| | 01:36 |
different on different devices.
On the one that I'm using, I just hold
| | 01:39 |
down the Shift key.
And hit one of the numbers to choose the bank.
| | 01:43 |
And now if I go back first knob and turn
it, now sure enough, it's assigned to a
| | 01:47 |
different parameter.
It looks like now it's assigned to the
| | 01:50 |
oscillator one level.
Now, you can learn more about this in the
| | 01:53 |
lessons that are over in the Help view in
Live.
| | 01:56 |
And you can scroll down at the bottom and
you'll see this option for show all built
| | 02:00 |
in lessons.
And if I scroll down a little bit further
| | 02:05 |
you'll see the control surface reference
and now I see a list of the various
| | 02:09 |
controllers and I can also click this
detailed list and it will show me a bank
| | 02:13 |
list of all of the instant mappings that
are available.
| | 02:20 |
So just for analog alone, it looks like
there's about 8 banks that are available.
| | 02:26 |
Now, in addition to device parameters, I
can also instantly control anything on a macro.
| | 02:31 |
So I'm going to go over here and choose
the Drum track.
| | 02:35 |
And this has got a drum rack on it, and
all racks come with this set of eight knobs.
| | 02:40 |
And if I click and select the top of that
device, my first knob immediately starts
| | 02:44 |
controlling, the kick volume level there
that's mapped to that macro.
| | 02:49 |
There's the snare level, and there's the
one for the snap track.
| | 02:53 |
So in addition to that, you may want to
lock a device to your eight instant
| | 02:57 |
mapping controls.
And you can do that again by clicking the
| | 03:01 |
title bar at the top of the device, and
then right-clicking on it, and choosing
| | 03:05 |
Lock to control surface.
And I'll choose that's a lock to my APC40.
| | 03:11 |
And now no matter where I am and what
device I choose, I'm going to have the
| | 03:15 |
eight knobs controlling that one devices.
Now, if I go back and disable that, now
| | 03:21 |
as I move from track to track, and device
to device, my eight knobs that I have
| | 03:25 |
here in the device area on the APC 40 are
going to instantly map to the parameters
| | 03:28 |
on that device.
Just for example, if I scroll over here,
| | 03:34 |
on the same device chain.
Let's go over to the compressor and I'll
| | 03:39 |
turn that first knob again.
And notice that it is immediately
| | 03:44 |
controlling threshold.
Now, if you need to make any custom
| | 03:46 |
assignments, you can do that as normal.
You just click your MIDI Map button,
| | 03:51 |
choose the knob that you want to map,
turn the knob, and now that assignment
| | 03:55 |
will override any instant mapping.
If I want to get rid of that I can just
| | 04:00 |
highlight that, delete it, and exit MIDI
mapping, and now I'm back to instant mapping.
| | 04:07 |
So hopefully you have a device that will
allow you to take advantage of Live's
| | 04:10 |
instant mapping feature.
If not, it's something to consider when
| | 04:13 |
making a future purchase.
| | 04:14 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
13. Automation EnvelopesRecording real-time automation| 00:00 |
The ability to change mixer an device
effect settings in real-time, is one of
| | 00:03 |
the most powerful features in computer
based music production systems.
| | 00:07 |
Let's take a look at how to record
real-time automation to tracks in Live's
| | 00:10 |
arrangement view.
So I'm going to start by, looking at this
| | 00:13 |
base track, an I'm going to click on the
Track Unfold button to increase the track height.
| | 00:18 |
Now I can also do that by moving my
cursor to the bottom edge of the track
| | 00:21 |
and clicking, and dragging up or down.
Now, when I did that, you'll notice that
| | 00:25 |
I had several parameters over here in the
mixer area that appeared.
| | 00:29 |
And this send right here, you'll notice
has a little red square in the upper left
| | 00:32 |
hand corner.
Now that indicates that there's currently
| | 00:35 |
automation written against that
parameter, and the easiest way to view
| | 00:38 |
that is just simply to click in the
field.
| | 00:42 |
And now we see that I've increased the
send level and a couple places on this
| | 00:45 |
base track and that's a little bit of an
unusual thing to do but, in those two
| | 00:48 |
areas I really wanted the base to get a
little bit ambient and large.
| | 00:54 |
So, it's a little bit awkward at times to
try and edit these clips on the tracks
| | 00:57 |
while we have this automation overlayed.
And so the easiest thing to do is click
| | 01:02 |
this Plus button and move that into its
own lane.
| | 01:06 |
And I can also view automation by using
these two choosers that are right under
| | 01:09 |
the track name.
The first one allows me to choose at the
| | 01:13 |
higher level, for example, if I click on
that, I can choose the virtual instrument
| | 01:16 |
that's on the track, this compressor
audio effect that's on the track or any
| | 01:20 |
of the mixer parameters.
So, for example if I want to choose the
| | 01:25 |
volume I can go to mixer and then choose
the lower chooser to actually choose the
| | 01:29 |
specific parameter.
And also I'll just explain that the
| | 01:33 |
speaker on parameter is actually the
track activator button or mute button.
| | 01:38 |
And then we've got the more traditional
track panning and track volume which I'll choose.
| | 01:44 |
And we'll notice that there is a dotted
line that appears here, and that shows
| | 01:47 |
that there's currently no volume
automation written on the track.
| | 01:52 |
If I want to move that into it's own
automation lane again I can click the
| | 01:54 |
Plus button.
So now I've got the clips in one lane,
| | 01:58 |
volume in one land and this send amount
in another lane.
| | 02:02 |
Now if I want to close one of these
automation lanes.
| | 02:05 |
I can click the Minus button to do that
and let me make that volume reappear.
| | 02:10 |
So again I'll click in the field and once
it's overlayed on top of the track here,
| | 02:13 |
I'll click the Plus button to move it
into its own lane.
| | 02:18 |
And then if I want to close both of these
simultaneously, I'll go ahead and hold
| | 02:21 |
down my Option key, that'll be Alt on a
PC.
| | 02:25 |
And click the Minus button and that
closed both of those automation lanes.
| | 02:29 |
So, let's actually write some automation
in real time.
| | 02:32 |
So, I'm going to drop down to this filter
pad track where I want to add some volume
| | 02:36 |
and some filter automation.
And so that I can hear what I'm doing I'm
| | 02:40 |
going to solo that track and I want to
hear how that automation's going to work
| | 02:43 |
against this pad track below that.
So, I'm going to Cmd+Click this other
| | 02:48 |
Solo button.
That'll be Ctrl on a PC.
| | 02:50 |
So, I've got them both soloed
simultaneously.
| | 02:53 |
Now the procedures for recording
automation are to enable the automation
| | 02:57 |
arm button which is already active.
And then clicking the arrangement record
| | 03:02 |
button and then moving a parameter which
I can either do with a mouse or with a
| | 03:06 |
knob on a controller.
I'm going to start by enabling the
| | 03:10 |
metronome, and making sure that I've got
a count in.
| | 03:13 |
I've got one bar up there.
And I'm doing that so I've got four
| | 03:16 |
clicks to get my hand on the control that
I'm going to use.
| | 03:19 |
Now, I've got an APC 40 hooked up here,
and I'm going to use one of the faders on
| | 03:22 |
that rather than the mouse, because it's
just going to be easier to do this.
| | 03:27 |
So, let me double-click the stop button
to make sure that I'm at bar one and I'll
| | 03:31 |
click the automation record button and
we'll begin recording.
| | 03:35 |
(music playing)
| | 03:37 |
So I've got the fade in that I wanted to
get at the beginning of that track and
| | 03:55 |
now that I've got the levels set.
I'm ready to move on and add some filter automation.
| | 04:13 |
So let me click down here in the track
just so I can display the instrument rack
| | 04:16 |
down here.
And I've already got two of the elements
| | 04:20 |
in this EQ mapped to this macro, and I'm
going to map both those to a single nob
| | 04:23 |
in my controller.
So, I'm going to go up and click the MIDI button.
| | 04:29 |
And then I'll select that frequency knob,
and now I'm going to move one of the
| | 04:32 |
controls on my controller here.
And then I'll do the same thing for the
| | 04:37 |
que here, and I'm going to actually sign
that to the same knob.
| | 04:40 |
And once I've got that, I'm going to set
min and max values, so I get exactly the
| | 04:43 |
movement that I want.
So I've already experimented with this,
| | 04:48 |
so let me set this to about 1k, set this
one to about 2k and then I'll leave the
| | 04:51 |
minimum on the queue set there.
And then I'm going to drop this down to
| | 04:55 |
about 3.
Then once I've got that set, I'll go
| | 04:59 |
ahead and click the MIDI Map button.
To exit there and now I'm ready to record
| | 05:07 |
these filter sweeps.
So, let me click there at the beginning
| | 05:11 |
to reset my cursor.
Again I've got the Automation Arm button
| | 05:14 |
enabled and now all I need to do is click
the arrangement record button to go back
| | 05:18 |
in to record.
| | 05:20 |
(audio playing)
| | 05:22 |
(music playing)
| | 05:24 |
So I've got some automation written there
that I'm satisfied with, and I'm going to
| | 05:43 |
go ahead and I'm going to select some of
that.
| | 06:00 |
Let me grab about the first little bit of
that.
| | 06:04 |
And I'm going to press Cmd+C to copy
that.
| | 06:06 |
That would be Ctrl+C on a PC.
and then move my cursor over to where I
| | 06:11 |
want to paste that and go Cmd+v or Ctrl+V
on a PC.
| | 06:14 |
And I can do the same thing, over here,
and add it to that part.
| | 06:19 |
So now that you know how to record
autamation in Live, you can add mixer and
| | 06:21 |
device parameter changes to your mixes.
| | 06:23 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Drawing automation manually| 00:00 |
Not everyone has a MIDI controller with
knobs and faders to record automation in
| | 00:03 |
real time.
And sometimes it's just easier to add
| | 00:06 |
automation by clicking or drawing it.
Let's take a look at how you can add
| | 00:10 |
graphic automation to control device and
mixer parameters.
| | 00:12 |
So to add graphic automation, I first
need to display the actual automation line.
| | 00:17 |
And I can either do that by going to
these choosers that are under the track name.
| | 00:21 |
And choosing either the Device or a Mixer
and then choosing the specific parameter.
| | 00:28 |
And I could also do that by simply
clicking the parameter itself.
| | 00:32 |
If I click the Pan here, the Pan
Automation is showing.
| | 00:35 |
And if I click the Volume, the Volume
Automation is showing.
| | 00:39 |
So, one of the ways we can add graphic
automation is just to click on the line
| | 00:41 |
itself and that will add a break point.
You'll notice as I hover my mouse over
| | 00:45 |
that dotted line, it turns into a solid
line.
| | 00:49 |
If I click and take my mouse away, you'll
see that there's a break point there.
| | 00:52 |
Now to get rid of that break point, I can
go back and just click on it again, and
| | 00:56 |
it's gone.
Now, let's start off by adding a little
| | 00:59 |
volume swell into the first part of this
filter pad track.
| | 01:04 |
So, I'm going to zoom in a litle bit by
going up into the ruler there and
| | 01:07 |
dragging down.
And I;m going to add a break point to
| | 01:10 |
leave the volume level where it's at
before I actually pull down on that line.
| | 01:15 |
So, I wnat to swell up to about that
point, so I'll add a break point there.
| | 01:19 |
And now I'm going to go to the beginning
of the track and I'll add another break point.
| | 01:24 |
And I'll pull down now to set where I
want to start with the volume.
| | 01:28 |
Normally with volume changes, they're not
a straight linear change like we see there.
| | 01:33 |
They're normally curved so that there's
less of a change in the beginning and
| | 01:35 |
more of a change at the end.
Now we can do that in Live by holding
| | 01:40 |
down the Option key, and clicking
anywhere between two break points.
| | 01:44 |
And then dragging up or down to add that
curve.
| | 01:48 |
So now we've got more of a non linear
volume change and that's a little bit
| | 01:51 |
more realistic to what we would like.
But I could also add animation to a range.
| | 01:57 |
So for example I might want this next
section of the filter pad track to go up
| | 02:00 |
a little bit in volume.
So I will move my mouse away from the
| | 02:05 |
line, click and drag to make a selection.
And now when I move my mouse down towards
| | 02:10 |
the line if I hold my Shift key, you'll
notice that it turns blue.
| | 02:14 |
And I can now click on that line and drag
upper down to make a static voulume change.
| | 02:20 |
Now I might want to do this same thing to
mute the track in a place.
| | 02:24 |
So, the next section here are click and
drag over here to make a selection.
| | 02:29 |
And then I'm going to go choose the Track
Activator button so that I display that automation.
| | 02:34 |
And I clicked it again just to reactivate
it.
| | 02:37 |
And now I'll click and drag across it
here.
| | 02:40 |
And again a hold down my Shift key and
click an drag on the line to pull it down.
| | 02:44 |
Now note that the Track Activator or Mute
button is either off or on.
| | 02:50 |
So now if I click over here, you'll
notice that the Track Activator button is
| | 02:53 |
on, an when I click in this area, it's
off.
| | 02:57 |
An then over in this area again, it goes
back on.
| | 03:01 |
Now let me zoom back out.
I want to move over here to the next area
| | 03:04 |
of the filter pad track and let's take a
look at adding automation using the
| | 03:08 |
Pencil tool.
So again, I'll do that to the volume
| | 03:13 |
area, so I'll click in there to display
that line.
| | 03:16 |
And I'll activate the Pencil tool by
clicking on it up here in the Control Bar.
| | 03:21 |
So if I move my mouse down into this
area, and click and hold and drag, I can
| | 03:25 |
add automation.
Which you'll notice that it's being
| | 03:28 |
constrained by the grid, which is
currently at a quarter note.
| | 03:32 |
And when I use the Pencil tool to add
automation, I like to do this without the
| | 03:36 |
grid active.
So I can deactivate the grid by going,
| | 03:39 |
Cmd+4, that'll be Ctrl+4 on a PC.
Now you can see that there are dotted
| | 03:45 |
lines and now I can click and add that
automation smoothly the same way.
| | 03:52 |
I could also do that with the grid active
and I'll reactivate that again by going,
| | 03:56 |
Cmd+4, Ctrl+4 on a PC.
This time I'll hold down my Option key as
| | 04:01 |
I click and drag, and that will
temporarily disable the grid as I do the move.
| | 04:06 |
Okay, another interesting way that I can
use the Pencil tool to add automation,
| | 04:11 |
I'll do on this wobble bass track.
That's a little bit above that, so I'll
| | 04:17 |
scroll up.
And go to click on the track area where I
| | 04:20 |
want to work.
And then I'm going to click on the
| | 04:24 |
parameter here that's actually on this
virtual instrument.
| | 04:27 |
I want to work with the rate here, so,
I'll click that to display that.
| | 04:31 |
Then I'll go up in the ruler so that I
can zoom in a little bit.
| | 04:34 |
So, this is the key parameter in creating
that Wobble Bass effect that you often
| | 04:39 |
hear in dubstep music.
And what their doing is their using an
| | 04:43 |
LFO to control the filter opening and
closing and their doing that sync to
| | 04:48 |
tempo at some rhythmic value.
So as I hover my mouse here and click and
| | 04:53 |
drag across here, you'll actually see it
displayed in the rhythmic value that I'm
| | 04:56 |
working at.
So right now, I'm at a half note, and I'm
| | 05:01 |
going to move that up so I'm at a quarter
note.
| | 05:05 |
And then in the next area, I'll advance
that to a eighth note.
| | 05:09 |
And then in the next area, I'll do that
to an eighth note triplet.
| | 05:16 |
And then I'll go one step further up to a
16th note so that we can see that.
| | 05:20 |
And let me just solo that so we can
listen and hear what it's doing.
| | 05:23 |
I'll disable the Pencil tool by using the
key command which is Cmd+B on mac or
| | 05:27 |
Ctrl+B on a pc.
Now we see the break points that I've written.
| | 05:32 |
And I'll hit play here so we can see what
that sounds like
| | 05:41 |
(music playing).
| | 05:45 |
So you can clearly hear it changing the
value at which that filter is opening and closing.
| | 05:49 |
Here I've just advanced the rhythmic
value so we could hear that.
| | 05:52 |
But normally you do that more randomly as
you see over here to the left in the
| | 05:55 |
first part of this track.
So I want to end by showing you some
| | 05:59 |
interesting automation that we can do on
the master track.
| | 06:03 |
So in the Mixer area, one of the options
here is for Song Tempo.
| | 06:07 |
Now when you choose Song Tempo, you
actually get these Min and Max values
| | 06:09 |
that you can set.
So you can constrain the tempo changes
| | 06:13 |
between two values.
And through experience I can tell you
| | 06:17 |
that you want to set it just a little bit
higher and a little bit lower than your
| | 06:19 |
target values.
So that the automation line is easy to grab.
| | 06:24 |
So, I'm at 131, that's my max tempo, so
I'm going to click in this field and I'm
| | 06:28 |
going to type 140.
Just to give me a little bit of room to
| | 06:32 |
maneuver above my temp.
Let me hit enter, to log that.
| | 06:36 |
And then the tempo that I'm aiming for is
around 120, so I'm going to go into the
| | 06:41 |
minimum value and type 115, and hit
enter.
| | 06:45 |
And now I can go to the end of the song
here where I want to slow the tempo.
| | 06:50 |
So I'm going to cilck and add a break
point here around 119, and then I'm
| | 06:54 |
going to pull that down at this last
section, down to about 120, and let that go.
| | 07:00 |
And then again, I'm going to add a little
bit of a curve on that by holding down my
| | 07:03 |
Option key and clicking and dragging on
the line so I've got just a bit of a curve.
| | 07:09 |
And then I'll disable the Solo button on
this wobble base track so I can actually
| | 07:14 |
hear what we're doing.
And I'll click right before that tempo
| | 07:19 |
change and I'll hit play so we can hear
what's happening.
| | 07:24 |
(music playing) We can clearly hear the tempo
change there.
| | 07:31 |
And the ability to actually create the
tempo change really dramatize that effect
| | 07:35 |
where we went from one style to more of
the dub step style there at the very end
| | 07:38 |
of the song.
So as you can see adding graphical
| | 07:43 |
automation is not difficult and it could
really bring out the details in a mix.
| | 07:47 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Automating clips in Session view| 00:00 |
Both graphic and real time automation are
available in session view.
| | 00:04 |
Let's take a look at how you ad
automation to a clip, and while we're at
| | 00:06 |
it, we'll experiment with a couple types
of automation that are unique to Live.
| | 00:10 |
So I'm going to choose this MIDI clip
here that's on this impulse track.
| | 00:15 |
And to view automation in the clip
overview down here, you actually need to
| | 00:19 |
show the envelope box, and you can do
that by clicking on this Show Hide button
| | 00:23 |
for envelopes.
And once you've clicked that, you'll
| | 00:29 |
actually see automation displayed for
whatever parameter that's up.
| | 00:33 |
That will display above the actual MIDI
data.
| | 00:36 |
Now, what types of automation do we have
in Session view?
| | 00:39 |
Well, if we click on the top chooser in
the envelope box, we can see that we have
| | 00:42 |
access to MIDI controllers.
So, if I choose that and then click the
| | 00:47 |
bottom chooser you will see that I have
access to all the typical controllers
| | 00:51 |
like modulation, pitch bend, and
portamento and volume and so on.
| | 00:56 |
I also have access any device parameter
so on this track right now all I have is
| | 01:01 |
an impose software instrument.
If I had an audio effect or a MIDI
| | 01:07 |
effect, I'd see those as well and when
you click on the bottom chooser you can
| | 01:10 |
see that there is a lot of parameters.
So, let me just warn you that it's a lot
| | 01:16 |
easier to actually flip over to the
device and I can do that by holding down shift+tab.
| | 01:22 |
And then clicking on a parameter and then
going back to the other view, Shift+ tab again.
| | 01:28 |
And now we can see that I've got that
parameter showing as available to automate.
| | 01:34 |
I also have access to mixer controls.
And that's going to include things like
| | 01:38 |
track volume and then panning and then
the Mute button or the Speaker on off button.
| | 01:42 |
And that brings up an interesting point.
If you remember we also saw MIDI volume
| | 01:46 |
and now we have track volume.
So, which one should you use?
| | 01:51 |
Well the resolution of the Fader in
Ableton Live is much greater than the
| | 01:55 |
zero to 127 that we have with MIDI
volume.
| | 01:59 |
So I would suggest that if you want a set
a general level, you can do that using
| | 02:02 |
MIDI volume basically setting a base
line.
| | 02:06 |
And then if you want any volume changes,
I will defenitly do that using the track
| | 02:10 |
volume setting.
To record automation to a clip the clip
| | 02:14 |
should have focus.
So let me click the Large button on this
| | 02:17 |
clip then I will hit my spacebar to stop
it (music playing).
| | 02:22 |
Now we can see the Launch button is green
meaning that the clip has focused.
| | 02:26 |
So let's record enable the track.
Let's enable the Automation Arm button.
| | 02:32 |
I'm going to make sure that I've got a
count in.
| | 02:33 |
So I've just got enough time to grab the
control that I want to change.
| | 02:36 |
So I've got a one bar count in.
And now to go into record all I need to
| | 02:40 |
do is click the Session Record button.
Let's do that, and then I'm going to grab
| | 02:49 |
the Fader on this track to record some
automation
| | 02:56 |
(music playing).
| | 03:01 |
Now I let that go for two passes through
that clip, because I just wanted to show
| | 03:04 |
you that as I continued to record, I was
actually recording over the automation
| | 03:08 |
that I had recorded on the first pass.
So I'm going to undo that.
| | 03:14 |
Because we can also add automation
graphically.
| | 03:17 |
So, disable the Record button there and
now I'll come down into the MIDI note editor.
| | 03:23 |
And I can add brick points to this line
by simply hovering my mouse on the line
| | 03:27 |
and then clicking.
I'll usually start by adding one at the
| | 03:30 |
beginning and then one on the other side
of where I want to work.
| | 03:34 |
And now I can click and drag in between
there.
| | 03:36 |
And add any automation that I might want
to add without affecting any settings
| | 03:40 |
beyond or outside of the range that I'm
working on.
| | 03:44 |
You can set ramps if you want by adding a
break point and then clicking and
| | 03:48 |
dragging down and then if you want to
curve that you can hold down your Option key.
| | 03:53 |
And then click the line in between two
break points and pull down or push up for
| | 03:56 |
that matter to set a curve either
direction.
| | 04:01 |
Now we can also do this using the Pencil
tool.
| | 04:03 |
So, let me activate that up in the
control bar.
| | 04:06 |
And now I'll click and drag to add
automation.
| | 04:10 |
Now notice that that is constrained by
the grid.
| | 04:13 |
If you don't want that, we can disable
the grid by using the key command, Cmd+4.
| | 04:18 |
Now I'm going to first Undo what I wrote
there, and now Cmd+4.
| | 04:24 |
To disable the grid that would be control
four on a PC.
| | 04:27 |
And now I can click and drag.
And I'm not constraint by the grid.
| | 04:32 |
I can also do that with the grid active.
And so I'll undo that again, Cmd + Z or
| | 04:37 |
Ctrl + Z on a PC.
And Cmd +4 to re enable the grid.
| | 04:43 |
And now I'll option, click and drag with
the Pencil tool.
| | 04:46 |
And you'll notice that the grid is
temporarily disabled.
| | 04:49 |
So, I've got volume changes there as
well.
| | 04:53 |
Let's take a look and see how an audio
clip might be different than a MIDI clip.
| | 04:57 |
So, I will click the Stop button on that
one, and then let me click this audio
| | 05:00 |
clip on the next track.
So if I click the top chooser here, we'll
| | 05:04 |
notice that I've got devices like I had
on the last one, with impulse, now I've
| | 05:08 |
got an EQ on this track.
I've also got mixer parameters, but the
| | 05:14 |
one thing that's different is now I have
clip automation and when I click on that,
| | 05:17 |
and I click the bottom chooser I'll see
that I have some different options.
| | 05:23 |
So, volume modulation actually sets and
offset to the clip gain setting.
| | 05:29 |
So, let me just click here and I'm
going to drag that level down because I
| | 05:33 |
simply want you to see what's going to
happen here when I play this clip.
| | 05:39 |
So let me click the Launch button.
(music playing) So, you saw that little red dot
| | 05:43 |
appear there, and essentially what that's
showing us is the percentage of volume
| | 05:49 |
in respect to the current clip gain
setting.
| | 05:54 |
So, if I raise the clip gain setting up a
little bit and play that again, we'll see
| | 05:57 |
the red dot appear at exactly the same
place, and will be the same percentage of
| | 06:01 |
the current clip gain setting.
(music playing) Okay, let me undo that one, and
| | 06:10 |
let's take a look at transposition
modulation.
| | 06:15 |
So this will actually allow me to pitch
shift anything where I draw automatons.
| | 06:19 |
So, I'm going to do this on two and four
because that's where my snare is at,
| | 06:21 |
actually I'm going to do this one with
the Pencil tool.
| | 06:25 |
So now I can click and drag.
| | 06:26 |
(audio playing)
| | 06:29 |
Let's see what that sounds like.
(music playing) So you can clearly hear that
| | 06:41 |
change in the pitch on the claps that are
on two and four.
| | 06:45 |
So, this would be great for transposing
notes on the bass line to fit a different chord.
| | 06:49 |
For adjusting a vocal and also, as you
can see here, we can do some interesting
| | 06:53 |
things by actually transposing elements
of the drum set.
| | 06:57 |
And let me undo that one.
And I'm going to change to the sample
| | 07:01 |
offset modulation.
This is actually my favorite here.
| | 07:05 |
And this allows me to actually scramble
the clip by moving sections of the clip
| | 07:09 |
forwards and backwards anywhere I draw
modulation.
| | 07:13 |
So I'm just going to click and drag here,
pull across/g.
| | 07:17 |
Let's hear what that sounds like.
(music playing) So I've made some dramatic
| | 07:26 |
changes there, but let me undo that and
let's play the clip so you can hear what
| | 07:30 |
it sounds like without any of that
modulation.
| | 07:35 |
(music playing) So very straight forward.
One of the things I really love about
| | 07:38 |
this is because we can unlink the actual
automation from the clip, and we can have
| | 07:42 |
automation that's a different length than
the clip.
| | 07:46 |
So, let me unlink this by clicking on the
Link button.
| | 07:50 |
And now I'm just looking at the click
sample offset off modulation, and I'm
| | 07:53 |
going to lengthen that clip by dragging
the end locator out to bar five.
| | 07:59 |
So that I've got four bars of sample
offset modulation to go against the two
| | 08:03 |
bar clip.
And again, I'll use my Pencil tool to
| | 08:07 |
draw in some changes.
That should actually fire off the same
| | 08:12 |
part of the clip there in bar four.
So here we go.
| | 08:14 |
Let's hear what it sounds like.
(music playing) Very cool.
| | 08:27 |
So if this is the first time you've seen
Clip Envelopes, you'll probably agree
| | 08:30 |
that it's a fantastic way to alter the
way clips play back.
| | 08:34 |
Give it a try and see what you can come
up with.
| | 08:35 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Editing existing automation information| 00:00 |
As you work on finishing a project,
you'll often find that you want to make
| | 00:03 |
changes to existing automation.
Let's take a look at how you can edit
| | 00:07 |
automation in Live.
So, I'm going to zoom in a little bit
| | 00:09 |
right here on this piano track, I've got
a little automation that looks like it's
| | 00:13 |
on a delayed synth, but it'll serve our
purposes.
| | 00:17 |
I can delete existing automation couple
different ways.
| | 00:20 |
First of all, if you hover your mouse
over break points and click on them, you
| | 00:24 |
delete them, if you want to readd them
click again.
| | 00:27 |
If you want to delete a range, we can
select a range and hit the Delete key.
| | 00:32 |
And I want you to notice that it will
also gets rid of the underlying audio in
| | 00:36 |
that case or MIDI.
I'm going to undo that.
| | 00:41 |
And I'm going to move that automation to
it's own lane.
| | 00:44 |
Click the Plus button over here.
And now I can make an selection that's
| | 00:48 |
only on that automation lane and when I
hit Delete, it just gets rid of that automation.
| | 00:55 |
Undo that to bring that back.
So if I want to change the any location
| | 00:59 |
of any break point, I can do that as
well.
| | 01:02 |
I can select a break point and drag up or
down to change the value, or I can drag
| | 01:06 |
right or left to change its position.
I can also do that with range, and this
| | 01:12 |
would going to be handy in this case.
So, if I make a selection and then click
| | 01:18 |
on any one of the break points that are
contained within that selection.
| | 01:22 |
I can click that, carefully move that
over towards where I want it to go.
| | 01:27 |
Now I can also trim the automation as
well.
| | 01:29 |
And what I mean there is, often times you
have the over all contour that you want,
| | 01:33 |
but it's either not enough or to much of
whatever parameter that you're working with.
| | 01:39 |
Now in this case, make a selection like
we see that I've already got on screen.
| | 01:44 |
And then hold down your Shift key and
notice that the automation inside the
| | 01:47 |
selection turns blue.
At this point, I can move my mouse
| | 01:51 |
anywhere near that line, and click and
drag that and notice that I can pull that
| | 01:55 |
up or down, and still retain the overall
shape of that automation.
| | 02:01 |
That's really handy especially with
volume automation, if you like what
| | 02:04 |
you've got but you just need to increase
the level or decrease the level by small amounts.
| | 02:09 |
Other times you've used the Pencil tool
to add automation and you end up with a
| | 02:12 |
lot of break points, and you may not want
or need all of them.
| | 02:16 |
So in this case, I'm going to use the
Wipe Automation feature.
| | 02:19 |
I'll get rid of that selection, and I'm
going to hold down my Shift key and
| | 02:22 |
choose one of these break points.
And then I'm just going to click and drag
| | 02:26 |
up to the point where I want to get to,
and notice that it's wiping out all the
| | 02:30 |
automation in between there.
And once I've got that linear line there,
| | 02:35 |
if I want to add a curve to that again,
you could hold down your Option key and
| | 02:38 |
click and drag between the two break
points, and you can curve that automation.
| | 02:44 |
As we saw a second ago, the clip
automation and the underline clip are
| | 02:48 |
affected when you do copy and paste
moves.
| | 02:53 |
So one of the things we can do to
alleviate that is actually to unlock the
| | 02:56 |
automation from the clip.
So for example, if I come up and click on
| | 03:01 |
this Lock Envelopes button.
It turns orange, it's actually disabled
| | 03:06 |
that feature.
And now if I want to, for example, grab
| | 03:09 |
these two clips there and cut them, I can
do that without losing the underlying automation.
| | 03:17 |
Let me undo that.
I can also grab those and copy it, and
| | 03:21 |
move it to the next point here and paste
that in, and I get that without the automation.
| | 03:29 |
Now if you want the automation to follow,
just re-enable the Lock Envelops button.
| | 03:35 |
And now when I make a selection there
Cmd+C, you can go to the next point Cmd+V
| | 03:40 |
and I paste that in including the
automation.
| | 03:44 |
So sometimes after you've written
automation and your listening to a track,
| | 03:47 |
and you want to make changes to that
automation.
| | 03:50 |
And you're not quite sure what you
want to do, but you just want to audition
| | 03:52 |
and try different things.
You can temporarily disable automation
| | 03:56 |
written on a track, by selecting the
associated parameter and moving it.
| | 04:01 |
Let me come over here and I'll grab this.
And notice that when I move it up the
| | 04:05 |
automation turns brown.
And so it's currently disabled.
| | 04:10 |
If I want to go back to the previous
automation after I've auditioned that, I
| | 04:14 |
can do that by going up and clicking on
the Re-enable Automation button that's at
| | 04:17 |
the top of the window.
So we notice that its now gone back to
| | 04:22 |
red, and it's now active again.
So just repeat, all you need to do is
| | 04:27 |
click in the field of that parameter and
then move it.
| | 04:31 |
It turns that gray brown.
Now the dotted line represents the level
| | 04:35 |
that particular parameter.
And when you're ready to go back and edit
| | 04:39 |
that automation or record new automation,
just click the Re-enable Automation
| | 04:43 |
button, and we're back to the original
settings.
| | 04:47 |
So, as you can see, editing automation in
Live is a simple process, and it allows
| | 04:51 |
you to fine-tune and shape a mix, as you
work towards finishing a project.
| | 04:56 |
| | 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
| | 00:03 |
end points of audio clips.
Let's take a look at how you can use
| | 00:07 |
fades in Ableton Live to mask or mute
those problems.
| | 00:10 |
So, fades in Live are real time and
they're done using automation envelopes.
| | 00:15 |
We can see them by going to the
automation chooser here just below the
| | 00:18 |
track name and clicking on that.
I notice that fades is available in that list.
| | 00:24 |
As we can see I've got regular looking
fades here.
| | 00:26 |
And that's because these were
auto-created because of our preference.
| | 00:29 |
So lets go up to the Live menu, that
would be the Options menu on our PC.
| | 00:33 |
And lets choose Preferences.
And then choose your Record Word Launch tab.
| | 00:39 |
And under Warp fades area you'll see that
there is an option for Create fades on
| | 00:43 |
clip edges, now on mine it's currently
off.
| | 00:47 |
And that a good thing because if you want
to delete fades it actually has to be off.
| | 00:51 |
In most cases, I'm going to work with the
auto fades and I'm going to leave this on.
| | 00:55 |
But just so I can demonstrate how we can
add Custom fades.
| | 00:58 |
I'm going to leave that off and let's go
back out into our window here and I'm
| | 01:02 |
going to zoom in on the tail end of this
last clip there on the OmniBase track.
| | 01:08 |
And we can see that we've got a fade here
and there are two handles on that.
| | 01:13 |
The top handle allows me to control the
length.
| | 01:16 |
And the middle handle or bottom handle
here allows me to choose the curve or the
| | 01:20 |
shape of that fade.
Now, if I click the Top chooser there and
| | 01:25 |
hit my Delete key, I can actually delete
that fade.
| | 01:29 |
Now, if I want to add a fade-out to that
clip, all I need to do is make a
| | 01:32 |
selection across the end of that fade.
And I notice that I'm being constrained
| | 01:37 |
by the grid, so I'm actually going to
right-click on this and I'm going to turn
| | 01:40 |
the grid Off.
So that I can make a selection that's not
| | 01:44 |
constrained by the grid and make my
custom fade exactly the length that I
| | 01:48 |
want it to be.
So, now that I have a selection, I'll go
| | 01:51 |
up to the Create menu and I'll choose
Create Fade Out, which is the bottom
| | 01:55 |
option on that menu.
And notice that it didn't make the fade
| | 02:00 |
the entire length of my selection, but it
made it from the end of that clip to the
| | 02:04 |
end of my selection.
So, it left off this part that was out
| | 02:08 |
side of the clip.
But you actually have to drag across the
| | 02:11 |
clip edge so that it know that you
want to do that fade.
| | 02:15 |
So, I'm going to zoom back out a little
bit.
| | 02:17 |
And you can make a fade in on a clip the
same way that we did that fade out.
| | 02:21 |
But in this case what I want to do is I
want to go ahead and I want to make a
| | 02:25 |
cross fade between these last two
OmniBased clips.
| | 02:29 |
So I'll make a selection, and this time
I'm going to right-click Inside My
| | 02:32 |
Selection, and I'm going to choose Create
Crossfade.
| | 02:37 |
If you were looking, you'll notice that
it's the same command which would be
| | 02:41 |
option, Cmd+F on a Mac or Alt+Ctrl+F on a
PC.
| | 02:45 |
I'll go ahead and choose that option, and
it made the cross fade.
| | 02:50 |
But I want you to notice that it actually
shifted over, and actually put it at the
| | 02:54 |
beginning of that last clip.
Now I did that because there aren't any
| | 02:58 |
handles or extra audio after the end of
the outgoing clip or before the incoming clip.
| | 03:04 |
So let me undo that, I'm just going to
move my cursor over into the middle of
| | 03:08 |
this last clip and I'm going to separate
that.
| | 03:11 |
So lets go Edit and Split is the actual
command, that's Cmd+E on a mac or Ctrl+E
| | 03:16 |
on a PC.
And so I've just split that clip into two pieces.
| | 03:21 |
And now I can go ahead and make that
cross fade because there's actually audio
| | 03:25 |
before the beginning of this clip and I
can show you that by just dragging it out.
| | 03:32 |
And there's audio after the end of this
clip because I can drag that out to the
| | 03:35 |
whole clip.
So I'll make that selection.
| | 03:39 |
Now I'll use the key command which is
option Cmd+F or Alt+Ctrl+F on a PC.
| | 03:45 |
And it made that cross fade and I put it
exactly where my selection was.
| | 03:50 |
So, in some cases, reduced audio quality
is a desired effect.
| | 03:55 |
But with today's Audio Editing tools,
pops and clicks at the end of clips that
| | 03:58 |
are the result of poor or hurried audio
editing are inexcusable.
| | 04:03 |
So don't forget to add fades to your
audio clips.
| | 04:05 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
14. Warping AudioUnderstanding the basics of warping| 00:00 |
Time stretch in audio is one of Live's
best known features.
| | 00:04 |
Let's take a look at how Live analyzes,
and processes audio in order to time
| | 00:07 |
stretch clips, and learn to choose a warp
mode that matches the musical situation.
| | 00:12 |
So, changing the tempo of an audio clip
or an audio file was not a really useful
| | 00:15 |
thing until we could do that without
actually changing the pitch of the
| | 00:19 |
contained audio.
So, let's see how that works in Live.
| | 00:23 |
So, I'm going to choose this first clip
that I've got here on this audio track.
| | 00:27 |
And for Live to time stretch the audio
contained there, we actually need to have
| | 00:31 |
the Warp button enabled.
Now, if this audio clip was brought into
| | 00:35 |
the session and that Warp button hadn't
been on.
| | 00:39 |
The audio will just play at its original
tempo, which we can see in this case is 110.
| | 00:45 |
What Live will do as soon as that warp
button is enabled, is that it will
| | 00:47 |
analyse the clip and it will look for
transients.
| | 00:51 |
And from that, it will calculate tempo
and length information.
| | 00:54 |
Then it actually saves that as an
additional file.
| | 00:59 |
Now I'm going to Cmd+tab out to the
finder, just so I can show you that
| | 01:03 |
inside this project file, there is an
audio file called demosong.aif.
| | 01:09 |
And then just below that, there is
another file that ends with a .asd distinction.
| | 01:15 |
And that's that analysis file that
contains that analysis of the transients
| | 01:19 |
and their location.
And in the end, the tempo and the length
| | 01:23 |
information that Live has guessed from
analyzing the file.
| | 01:27 |
So, again, we've got the Warp button
enabled, and I should be able to play
| | 01:31 |
this clip, and then change the tempo.
And we should be able to hear that as I
| | 01:35 |
speed up and slow down the clip.
Let's try it.
| | 01:38 |
(music playing) And so we, we learned a lot from
hearing that, because as I moved it a lot
| | 01:46 |
slower we actually started to hear some
funkiness intrude there.
| | 01:55 |
As the sample started to get so far apart
that Live was having trouble kind of
| | 01:58 |
maintaining the integrity of the sound of
that clip.
| | 02:02 |
When I move faster we didn't hear any
problems at all because the actual pieces
| | 02:05 |
of audio that are contained for each
transient actually get moved closer together.
| | 02:11 |
So, how does Live handle that?
Well first of all, Live uses different
| | 02:14 |
algorithms for different kinds of audio.
So anything that you're doing with a drum
| | 02:18 |
clip or, that has sharp transients to it,
you're going to want to use what's called
| | 02:22 |
Beats Mode.
An if I click on that you can see that
| | 02:25 |
we've actually got about six different
modes.
| | 02:28 |
As you choose a mode, you'll actually get
different parameters that appear just
| | 02:32 |
below that.
So, in this case the preserve option
| | 02:35 |
gives us two different modes.
We have transient, which uses the
| | 02:39 |
transients in the audio clip to determine
how it's going to warp it.
| | 02:44 |
Or, we can switch to a different rhythmic
value, and in that case, Live will try
| | 02:48 |
and preserve the specific beat divisions
that are contained within that file.
| | 02:54 |
I actually like Transient modes, I think
it works the best, so I'll choose that.
| | 02:58 |
And then I'm going to drop down to this
next chooser, which allows us to see the
| | 03:01 |
loop mode.
The first one if called off, and what
| | 03:05 |
that means is that when you play it, it's
going to play each segment or each
| | 03:08 |
transient, any decay.
And then it's going to stop when it gets
| | 03:13 |
to the end of that, and it's going to
wait until the proper time to play the
| | 03:16 |
next segment.
So, this is a great example of showing
| | 03:21 |
you what happens when you slow down a
clip.
| | 03:24 |
So, again I'll play this and I'm going to
slow it down, you know 30 or 40 BPM.
| | 03:35 |
(music playing) So you can actually hear it play
that piece and then wait for the next one
| | 03:44 |
before it moves on.
Now the other two options that we have
| | 03:51 |
here are called Loop Forward and Loop
Back and Forth.
| | 03:55 |
So what Loop Forward does, that's the
second one here.
| | 03:58 |
Is it will, play each segment, and then
when it gets to the end, it will jump
| | 04:01 |
back to the middle.
And then it'll play it to the end again,
| | 04:05 |
jump back to the middle, until it's time
for the next segment to play.
| | 04:09 |
The loop back and forth which is the last
one.
| | 04:12 |
It will actually play to the end of this
segment, and then play backwards towards
| | 04:15 |
a point, near the middle.
And then it will play it forwards again
| | 04:19 |
until it's time to play the next segment,
and to me that's about the most natural one.
| | 04:24 |
So I'll choose that, and then this last
setting here is a transit envelope sets a
| | 04:28 |
fade length.
Now longer times are going to give you a
| | 04:32 |
much smoother transition between one
segment and another one.
| | 04:36 |
And shorter times will result in a gating
like an effect.
| | 04:39 |
So, if I set this all way about 100 there
is no fade, and down at zero I'll get
| | 04:44 |
each segment decaying very quickly.
All right, for different kinds of audio
| | 04:50 |
you're going to want to use a different
mode.
| | 04:53 |
So, the next clip is a base clip and on
this one I would use Tones mode, which is
| | 04:57 |
good for monophonic type material which
would be like a base line, maybe a guitar
| | 05:02 |
solo or perhaps a vocal.
And the only option that we get with that
| | 05:08 |
particular mode is this green size.
And what the people at Live tell us is
| | 05:13 |
that as it time stretches the audio it
divides it into short segments that are
| | 05:18 |
referred to as grains as if the whole
audio clip was a big pile of sand.
| | 05:25 |
In some cases, you're going to want to
choose a very small granular size.
| | 05:28 |
And in others, you're going to want to
choose a larger grain size.
| | 05:32 |
And using their guidelines, they say
that, use smaller grain size for content
| | 05:36 |
where the pitch is really clear.
And larger grain size when it's not.
| | 05:42 |
So, let's give a shot at this, and just
hear what it sounds like.
| | 05:44 |
(audio playing).
Now I've dropped the tempo so slow, that
| | 05:48 |
I'm going to stop and I'm going to boost
that backup, the original BPM is around a 100.
| | 05:53 |
So, lets do that about 90, and lets here
it stretch at that point.
| | 06:01 |
(music playing) You can see that when I got the
grain size down to a smaller grain size
| | 06:09 |
it actually started to clear up and it
sounded better.
| | 06:18 |
Some of the other modes that we have here
would be Texture.
| | 06:22 |
That's good for polyphonic material like
pads of synth parts or maybe strumming
| | 06:26 |
guitar parts.
With the Repitch mode, there is actually
| | 06:29 |
no time stretching.
Instead, it fits the clip to the tempo by
| | 06:32 |
changing the play speed.
So, let's try that one on the third clip
| | 06:36 |
here, and hear what that sounds like.
(music playing) So you could actually hear the
| | 06:45 |
pitch of the clip changing as I was
changing the tempo.
| | 06:58 |
The last two options here, we have our
Complex and Complex Pro.
| | 07:03 |
And these are really good for warping or
time stretching really long pieces of
| | 07:07 |
audio, like you're trying to do a whole
song.
| | 07:10 |
Or something where you really want to pay
attention to the real detail with the clip.
| | 07:16 |
In most cases I would suggest using the
newest option which is Complex Pro.
| | 07:20 |
So, let's take a look at the last clip,
which is a piece of the demo song that we
| | 07:23 |
have as part of this course.
And I'll switch that to Pro, and one of
| | 07:29 |
the options that we get here is for
formants.
| | 07:33 |
Now, formant frequencies are that part of
a sound, for example with a, a sax the
| | 07:37 |
formant frequencies would be derived from
the actual length of the tube and the
| | 07:41 |
shape of the tube.
And when you time stretch or transpose a
| | 07:46 |
file, those format frequencies can get
transposed with that, and it's what gives
| | 07:50 |
us that chipmunk effect.
So, Ableton actually gives us the ability
| | 07:55 |
to kind of lock those formants in place.
Or at least adjust them so that as we
| | 07:59 |
time stretch or change the pitch.
We actually don't get nearly as much of
| | 08:03 |
that chipmunk effect as you might
otherwise get.
| | 08:07 |
So, let's go ahead and play this, and
I'll change the tempo on this one, and
| | 08:10 |
let's hear how it works with this entire
song.
| | 08:13 |
(music playing) And you hear it's pretty
successful at that.
| | 08:25 |
I actually started that about 40 BPM
lower than the original tempo, and it
| | 08:29 |
still had the, the integrity to it.
While this time stretching process is not
| | 08:34 |
perfect, Live's audio time stretching is
so effective that it makes using clips of
| | 08:38 |
different tempos in the same song easy.
| | 08:42 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating clips that loop smoothly| 00:00 |
Audio warping is a tool that allows us to
change the tempo of a clip without
| | 00:03 |
changing the pitch.
But it's also an extremely useful tool
| | 00:06 |
for editing clips.
Let's take a look at how you can work
| | 00:09 |
with Transient and Warp markers in order
to create loops that smoothly loop and groove.
| | 00:14 |
So, Live analyses all audio files and
clips to determine where any transients
| | 00:17 |
and their tabs are located.
If the Warp button on the sample box in
| | 00:22 |
an audio clip is enabled.
We can see where Live thinks those
| | 00:26 |
transients are located by these little
white lines that appear above each attack
| | 00:30 |
or transient in the clip.
Now, I've got a clip here that's part of
| | 00:35 |
a longer section of audio.
And I want to work with this, so that
| | 00:39 |
this clip accurately loops.
And then we can deal with any groove
| | 00:42 |
problems that might be contained within
this.
| | 00:45 |
So, I'm going to zoom in near the front
of that by clicking and dragging in the ruler.
| | 00:51 |
And the first thing I can see is that the
actual attack for this first hit in this
| | 00:55 |
section of audio is coming before bar
five.
| | 00:59 |
So, I want to move this over, and to do
that, I'm going to need to take this
| | 01:03 |
Transient marker and turn that into a
Warp marker.
| | 01:07 |
So, when I move my cursor over the top of
that, you'll see a little rectangle
| | 01:10 |
appears above that.
And then when I double-click on that,
| | 01:14 |
you'll see that, that turns yellow.
An that yellow marker is actually a Warp marker.
| | 01:19 |
So I'm going to grab that an drag it, an
I am in grid mode so it should snap right
| | 01:22 |
to bar five as I get close.
And you'll see it popped right there.
| | 01:27 |
It also time stretched the audio that
came before that, an moved the audio
| | 01:30 |
after that later.
But we're going to work with fixing the
| | 01:33 |
end of this, so that we get this right
inside the four bars that we want.
| | 01:38 |
So I'll zoom back out and now I'm
going to zoom on the other end of the
| | 01:41 |
clip, on the end.
And what I want to do is I want to snap
| | 01:49 |
this Transient marker on to bar 9 so that
I end up with 4-bar loop.
| | 01:55 |
But as I'm looking at this, the first
thing I'm noticing is that this Transient
| | 02:00 |
marker is not at the beginning of the
hit.
| | 02:05 |
So, just for example, if I zoom back out,
let me play the last bar of this clip and
| | 02:09 |
listen to what it does when it repeats
back to the front end.
| | 02:15 |
(music playing) So hopefully you heard a little
bit of a flam right there as it looped
| | 02:20 |
back around.
And I want to avoid that.
| | 02:23 |
So I'm going to zoom in and I want to
move that transit marker without moving
| | 02:29 |
the underline audio.
So what I'm going to do is hover my mouse
| | 02:34 |
until I see the pseudo warp marker.
And then hold down my Shift key.
| | 02:38 |
And now I can click and drag that freely.
And I'm going to put that right over
| | 02:42 |
here, right before that next transit
begins.
| | 02:46 |
So that that is right at the zero
crossing.
| | 02:49 |
And hopefully will give me the ability to
avoid any click or pop there that might
| | 02:52 |
occur there at the end as I adjust this
over to bar nine.
| | 02:56 |
So now all I need to do again is double
click that Transient marker, turn that
| | 03:00 |
into a work marker and I'll click and
drag and snap that over at bar 9.
| | 03:06 |
Now I should be able to play this and I'm
going to turn up on the level of that
| | 03:09 |
clip a little so we hear a little bit
better.
| | 03:12 |
And let me boost the tempo just a little
bit so it's a little faster.
| | 03:16 |
I'll click on the ruler here at bar
eight, so that will loop the last bar,
| | 03:19 |
and I can hear the beginning.
(music playing) Okay, great, that was good.
| | 03:28 |
So, we hear that, that really cleanly
made the transition back around to the
| | 03:31 |
front end of the loop.
So, some other things that you're
| | 03:34 |
going to want to do, as you're working on
this Is just make sure that there are
| | 03:37 |
Transient markers at each place that
there's a transient.
| | 03:41 |
And that there aren't any extras.
So, I'm going to zoom in here, kind of
| | 03:44 |
towards the end of bar four.
As I'm looking at five three, I'm
| | 03:49 |
noticing that there is, what looks like
an extra transient there.
| | 03:54 |
Now normally I would just go ahead and
play this and test it out but I'm looking
| | 03:58 |
at the tail of this piece of audio here
and I don't see another peak there.
| | 04:04 |
So for whatever reason it looks like Live
has miscalculated there and I've got an
| | 04:07 |
extra transient.
So I'm going to click that transient to
| | 04:11 |
select it and when that triangle turns
black.
| | 04:13 |
I can go ahead and hit my Delete key, and
now when I move my cursor over, you can
| | 04:16 |
see that there is no longer a Transient
marker there.
| | 04:20 |
So Live will not mistakenly warp that
because it believes that there is some
| | 04:23 |
element there that isn't there.
But as I move over It looks like I can
| | 04:28 |
see that there is a transient, albeit
small.
| | 04:33 |
And there's no Transient marker there, so
I want to add one.
| | 04:35 |
So I'm going to briefly turn off my, grid
by right-clicking an choosing Off.
| | 04:41 |
And now I can move my cursor, right to
where that transient is.
| | 04:44 |
Let me do that.
I'm going to zoom in a little bit more carefully.
| | 04:48 |
And get that right where that starts.
Now I can add a Transient marker by using
| | 04:54 |
the command, Cmd+Shift+I, which would be
Ctrl+Shift+I on a PC.
| | 04:59 |
And now I've got the transient marker
that I need there.
| | 05:02 |
Now that I've got all the markers set and
I've got the loop end and loop beginning
| | 05:06 |
set correctly.
I'll take a look at this.
| | 05:10 |
I'm going to go back into an eight note
grid.
| | 05:12 |
Because that's mostly what's contained
here.
| | 05:14 |
And I can see that it looks like there
are several transients that aren't lining
| | 05:18 |
up with the grid.
One of the things I can do as I look at
| | 05:21 |
this and I see that this snare hit on bar
six b two which is really off.
| | 05:26 |
Is I can snap that onto the grid.
So if I zoom in.
| | 05:30 |
See my Transient marker, hover over
there, double-click it, and then move
| | 05:34 |
that over.
Oh!
| | 05:35 |
It looks like it moved everything else,
so it's telescoping things back and forth
| | 05:39 |
as I move these individual markers.
So before I do that, what I need to do is
| | 05:44 |
pin the Transient markers either side of
that by turning them into Warp markers,
| | 05:48 |
which will basically pin them in place.
Then I can move the one between them
| | 05:54 |
freely without moving anything else.
I can simply double-click turn all three
| | 05:59 |
of these into Warp markers.
Or I could use the command, Cmd hover and
| | 06:03 |
you can see that I now have pseudo Warp
markers over the one that I am hovering
| | 06:07 |
over and the two adjacent ones.
And once you see that you can go ahead
| | 06:12 |
and double-click.
And I've added Warp markers to all three
| | 06:15 |
Transient markers.
Now I can grab the one in the middle and
| | 06:19 |
snap that onto grid.
And the other ones didn't move.
| | 06:22 |
So now that I've fixed this one snare
head.
| | 06:24 |
We can go transient by transient and make
an evaluation and fix anything else that
| | 06:28 |
needs fixing.
So while there's no substitute for a good performance.
| | 06:33 |
Warping is a great way to fix rhythmic
errors and create clips that smoothly loop.
| | 06:36 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using warp features to quantize audio| 00:00 |
Working with Audio files the same way we
work with MIDI data.
| | 00:03 |
Was a dream in the not so distant past.
Let's take a look at how you can use
| | 00:06 |
Live's warping features to quantize audio
and discuss the best method to apply
| | 00:10 |
quantization to multitrack audio clips.
Adding, editing, and moving warp markers
| | 00:15 |
and transient markers can get very
tedious.
| | 00:18 |
Especially when you're working with a
clip that needs a lot of rhythm air correction.
| | 00:23 |
So audio can be quantized just like MIDI.
The first thing we'll need to do is make
| | 00:26 |
a selection.
Now I've already edited the start and end
| | 00:29 |
point of this clip so that it's very
clean so that it loops correctly.
| | 00:33 |
So I'm just going to make a selection
from bar five over to bar nine.
| | 00:38 |
And I could bring up the quantization
window by going to my Edit > Quantize, or
| | 00:42 |
Quantize Settings.
And I always like to use Quantize
| | 00:45 |
Settings because I, I want to know what
I'm quantizing to.
| | 00:50 |
And if I just choose Quantize, its going
to assume whatever the last settings were.
| | 00:55 |
So let's go into Quantize Settings.
I need to make a choice here based upon
| | 00:59 |
the rhythmic material that's contained
within this clip and there are some 16th notes.
| | 01:04 |
So I need to quantize to 16th and I need
to set an amount and I'll set this to 85,
| | 01:08 |
90% is usually a good amount.
And it will retain some of the human
| | 01:13 |
imperfection that actually is giving us
the groove.
| | 01:17 |
So I'll go ahead and click OK.
And we saw warp markers added on every transient.
| | 01:24 |
And we also saw all of the associated
transients looked like they snapped much
| | 01:28 |
closer to the grid.
Now, if we zoom in, we'll see that some
| | 01:32 |
things like, that's a little bit late,
still.
| | 01:35 |
And that's a tiny bit late, that one's
right on.
| | 01:38 |
So everything's a lot closer than it was
to begin with.
| | 01:42 |
Now, if I turn on the click, and we play
this clip.
| | 01:45 |
And I'll do that without a count in.
We should hear that there aren't any
| | 01:50 |
phlegms between the metronome and the
kick.
| | 01:53 |
Let's give that a listen
| | 02:00 |
(music playing).
| | 02:04 |
So of the most part, that's really tight
now.
| | 02:09 |
I'm going to undo what I just did because
there's also another way to do that.
| | 02:18 |
And that is to use Groove, so I'm
going to go up in the search field here
| | 02:22 |
and just type, .AGR.
I remember that's the extension for a
| | 02:25 |
Groove and let me drag to see a little
bit more.
| | 02:28 |
Now, most of the grooves that we see here
in the results are really all for some
| | 02:31 |
kind of a swing field.
So there's not a lot of options here for
| | 02:34 |
straight eighth notes.
And so I'm just going to choose this
| | 02:37 |
eighth quantize that we have here at the
top.
| | 02:40 |
And I'm going to drag that down onto the
groove chooser there and it popups here
| | 02:44 |
and the group pulls well.
And we can make any changes there but I'm
| | 02:48 |
going to give this a listen again and
just check out what's going on with the
| | 02:52 |
overall feel of this.
(music playing).
| | 03:03 |
A couple of the kick hits still seem late
to me but overall, this is much better.
| | 03:06 |
So you can choose one of these two
options as you're working to quantize clips.
| | 03:11 |
If we look on the other clips that I have
here that are stretched across these tracks.
| | 03:16 |
I've got a little bit of a different
situation happening.
| | 03:19 |
I've got a multi track version of what we
hear on the basic rock track here.
| | 03:23 |
And I've got the kick and the snare and
the snare bottom and the hi hat all
| | 03:25 |
separated out on individual tracks.
If I go through and quantize these one by
| | 03:29 |
one, I might end up with something that
grooves a lot harder.
| | 03:33 |
But what's going to happen is that the
bleed from the snare into the kick track
| | 03:36 |
Is going to move out of phase.
And that's going to happen with each one
| | 03:40 |
of these tracks because all these drum
instruments were recorded at the same
| | 03:44 |
time in the same room.
So there is bleed on every one of this tracks.
| | 03:48 |
The option that we're given with Live is
to actually do this in you range window
| | 03:51 |
and this is how we would do this so let
me stop that clip from playing.
| | 03:56 |
And I'll Tab over to the arrange window,
click the Back to Arrange.
| | 04:00 |
I'll zoom in so that we can see this.
Yeah, I want to just take a look at the beginning.
| | 04:05 |
So, what I'm going to do is, I'm going to
select all these clips by holding down my
| | 04:09 |
Shift key and Shift selecting them all.
Let me go down and make sure I've got
| | 04:14 |
that one.
Yeah there we go, that's all of them.
| | 04:17 |
I can make an adjustment transient by
transient or attack by attack here.
| | 04:21 |
I can't actually quantize all these
together.
| | 04:24 |
I can only do it on a single clip.
So I'm going to choose the clip that I
| | 04:27 |
want to work with and that's going to be
the snare top track.
| | 04:31 |
So I'm going to Cmd+ Click that to bring
that to the front.
| | 04:34 |
And then I'll Cmd+ Click it again to make
sure that it's selected with the rest of them.
| | 04:38 |
But now we can see down here in the
Sample editor, I can see that first snare
| | 04:42 |
hit that is actually associated with bar
9 beat 2.
| | 04:47 |
Now, to fix that, I'm going to hold down
my Cmd key and hover it over the
| | 04:50 |
transient marker that is associated with
that snare hit.
| | 04:53 |
And I'm doing that because, what I want
to do is I also want to add transient
| | 04:57 |
markers to the transient either side of
that.
| | 05:00 |
Because I want to move this snare hit, I
don't want to move the ones on the side
| | 05:04 |
of that.
So, again, I'm holding down my Cmd key
| | 05:07 |
and that would be the Ctrl key in the PC.
And now I can click that and snap that to grid.
| | 05:14 |
And now if you'll look each one of those
snapped on the other tracks.
| | 05:18 |
And I'm going to undo that so you can
watch that.
| | 05:20 |
So again, notice that they're all a
little bit off here.
| | 05:24 |
And I'll go back down in the Sample
Editor and click that.
| | 05:28 |
Move it over and we saw all of them snap
onto beat 2.
| | 05:33 |
So now you know how to quantize audio
clips and fix errors in multi track audio files.
| | 05:38 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
15. Exporting AudioExporting audio from Live| 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.
| | 00:08 |
The audio export procedure is fairly
simple, but there are a number of
| | 00:10 |
important decisions to make as part of
the process.
| | 00:14 |
So let's start by exporting the entire
set from the Arrangement view, and this
| | 00:17 |
will result in a stereo audio file
appropriate for burning to an audio CD.
| | 00:23 |
I need to start by making the selection
the length or duration of the intended balance.
| | 00:27 |
So, I can go on a single track and make a
selection that's that length or I could
| | 00:31 |
use the Loop Raise and I'll click the
edge of that and drag that out.
| | 00:37 |
Make that just a little bit longer than
the last clip and let go, and then I'll
| | 00:41 |
select the Loop Raise.
Next, I'll go up to the File menu and
| | 00:44 |
I'll choose Export > Audio and Video.
So my choices for this bounce are to
| | 00:50 |
bounce from the Master track, which will
give us that entire mix, or I can click
| | 00:54 |
that and I can choose to Export all the
tracks separately as independent tracks.
| | 01:01 |
And that would include the Return tracks,
or I can choose Individual tracks.
| | 01:05 |
So if I just wanted to do the Drum Rack
or their Percussion Hat track or the
| | 01:09 |
Shaker track, so on and so forth,
Individual tracks.
| | 01:14 |
Let's choose the master.
And the next option here is to normalize
| | 01:17 |
this, and what Live will do in this case
is it will analyze the resulting audio
| | 01:20 |
file for where the peaks are at.
And when it finds the highest peak it
| | 01:26 |
will raise or lower the level of the
entire resulting file so that, that peak
| | 01:30 |
is just below the clipping point.
Next I'll drop down here to the audio
| | 01:35 |
area and I'll take a look at the file
type and I've got two choices here.
| | 01:40 |
I've got WAV and AIFF and remember that
these are both uncompressed and suitable
| | 01:45 |
for burning to and audio CD.
So, I'll choose WAV.
| | 01:50 |
My sample rate if I want to burn this to
an audio CD, I'll need to reduce this
| | 01:54 |
from 48 down to 44 or 1.
I'm already at the audio CD standard of
| | 02:00 |
16 bit.
But if I was at 24 or 32 and I want to
| | 02:04 |
burn this to CD I would reduce this to
16.
| | 02:08 |
Now in the case that I do that, I would
also want to dither anytime you reduce
| | 02:12 |
the bit rate you want to add dither and
we have several options here.
| | 02:17 |
We have rectangular, triangular and then
these three power dither options.
| | 02:22 |
And if you read the live manual, they
suggest that triangular is the most transparent.
| | 02:27 |
Now I would suggest that you do several
bounces, and you choose the bounce that
| | 02:31 |
you, like the best.
In any case, dither will result in a
| | 02:35 |
little bit of pink or white noise, that's
only apparent when the, signal is really
| | 02:39 |
really soft.
And it will help alleviate any of those
| | 02:43 |
other problems that might result from
quantization error.
| | 02:47 |
So, I am not actually reducing the bit
rate, so I'm not going to use any dither.
| | 02:51 |
And then lastly, if you want to upload
this to your SoundCloud account, you can
| | 02:55 |
do that by enabling this switch here.
But let's go ahead and let's click OK and
| | 03:01 |
let's do the bounce.
I'm going to put this out on the desktop
| | 03:05 |
and I will click Save and here we go.
Okay, lets go check that file.
| | 03:11 |
Let's click that, and there is my file,
let's just play this real quick to make
| | 03:17 |
sure that works.
(music playing).
| | 03:21 |
Looks like we got it.
We can also export audio from Session
| | 03:26 |
view, so let's take a look at that.
I'm going to click my Stop All Clips
| | 03:31 |
button here, just to make sure that
everything is set.
| | 03:35 |
And before I can export anything from
Session view I need to make sure that the
| | 03:40 |
clip or the scene has focus.
So I'm just going to click the Launch
| | 03:45 |
button on this filter pad, and then I'll
press my Spacebar to stop it.
| | 03:50 |
(audio playing).
So that clip now has focus because I see
| | 03:53 |
the Launch button has turned green.
Now I can back up to the File menu and
| | 03:58 |
choose Export > Audio and Video.
And this time it's a little bit different.
| | 04:04 |
It shows me that I can set the duration
here.
| | 04:06 |
So I've got an eight bar clip.
Let's just set that at eight bars.
| | 04:10 |
The rendered track I can pull off the
master or I can pull off a specific track.
| | 04:15 |
And I'll drop down and I'll choose filter
pad.
| | 04:19 |
Again, I can choose to normalize this.
Normally when you bounce something like
| | 04:22 |
I'm doing here, it's very likely that
you're going to want to bring it back
| | 04:25 |
into Live to work with it further.
So, there's no need to normalize it at
| | 04:29 |
this point.
But I am going to enable the Render as
| | 04:32 |
Loop and what this does is it takes any
reverb tails or delay tails and it wraps
| | 04:36 |
them back around to the front end of the
clip, so if you loop it, you'll actually
| | 04:40 |
get those reverb tails.
Now if you intend to use this as a model
| | 04:47 |
file you can enable this.
I've got a stereo clip here and if I was
| | 04:50 |
going to bring it back and into live I
would want it to be in stereo.
| | 04:54 |
But it's possible if you were doing this
to a base clip or something like that,
| | 04:56 |
you actually might want to convert it
into mono.
| | 04:59 |
Again, the file type, I'm going to leave
it WAV., the sample rate, since my set is
| | 05:04 |
at 48, I'm going to put that and leave
that at 48, 16.
| | 05:09 |
And I'm not changing the bit depth, so I
don't need to dither that.
| | 05:13 |
Now in this case, I am going to want to
create an Analysis file, because if I'm
| | 05:16 |
going to bring this right into Live, I'm
going to want Live to be able to warp it.
| | 05:21 |
So I'll go ahead and Enable that button.
Agian, I don't need to upload to my
| | 05:24 |
Soundcloud account, so I won't enable
that.
| | 05:27 |
I'll go ahead and click OK and I'll call
this Test Bounce number two.
| | 05:33 |
And again it's going to go the desktop
and I'll click Save.
| | 05:38 |
Okay, so now that the bounce is done,
I'll go back out to the Finder.
| | 05:42 |
And here we can see the Test Bounce 2
WAV that we created.
| | 05:47 |
And we could also see the .asv file that
Live will use if we bring this audio file
| | 05:50 |
back in to use as a clip.
And this will allow us to warp that, and
| | 05:55 |
use it at different tempos.
So, if I click on the test bounce to
| | 05:59 |
WAV., again, I can audition that real
quickly.
| | 06:02 |
And listen to the beginning of this to
see if we actually hear that tail wrap
| | 06:05 |
back around to the front edge of the
clip.
| | 06:08 |
(music playing).
So, we got the file that we wanted and I
| | 06:11 |
did hear a little bit of that tail
wrapped around, that was the liitle bit
| | 06:15 |
of that confusion that we heard right at
the very beginning of that.
| | 06:22 |
So the number of audio export options
available, enable to live can seem
| | 06:25 |
daunting at first but it's really a
simple process.
| | 06:28 |
| | 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 program in use due to the
| | 00:06 |
overconsumption of CPU resources.
Ableton Live offers several solutions to
| | 00:11 |
this problem.
So I'm going to start off by showing you
| | 00:14 |
kind of an old-school way of doing that,
and that is to actually internally bounce
| | 00:18 |
a midi track to an audio track.
So I will start by setting the upward of
| | 00:23 |
this filter pad midi track from the
master to the audio track that's the
| | 00:26 |
second track here in the set.
And I will go ahead and I will record
| | 00:31 |
enable that track.
And then I'm going to make a selection
| | 00:34 |
the length of what I want to balance and
I will do that using a Loop Race.
| | 00:40 |
And then I'm going to enable the punch in
and punch out points so that I get just
| | 00:44 |
what I'm looking for.
And let's get both those clips in about
| | 00:48 |
two additional beats.
And then to put this into record I'll go
| | 00:51 |
ahead and I'll click the Arrangement
Record button and before I do that I'm
| | 00:54 |
going to solo this track so we can hear
just that track.
| | 00:58 |
As it's doing this.
| | 01:00 |
(music playing).
| | 01:34 |
So, I got exactly what I wanted and now
if I was to delete this filter pad track,
| | 01:38 |
I would not only get rid of these clips
here.
| | 01:41 |
But I would get rid of any devices that
are being used and any automation that's
| | 01:44 |
on that track.
And I notice that there was a bunch of
| | 01:48 |
automation there because we got this big
swell here at the beginning.
| | 01:51 |
And then I heard some filter movement in
there.
| | 01:53 |
So in the end we can reduce quite a bit
of activity by bouncing that internally.
| | 01:58 |
That takes a little bit of know how how
to do that one and its a good option to
| | 02:01 |
know but there is also a newer way of
doing that, its very quick and very easy.
| | 02:07 |
So let me take this track out of record
and take that out of solo and I'm going
| | 02:10 |
to disable that track so that we've just
got the 2nd audio track playing that's
| | 02:14 |
got that audio 1.
And now then other way I'm going to show
| | 02:18 |
you is I'm going to come down to this Pad
Track.
| | 02:22 |
And I'm going to right-click on the track
name, and from the Contextual menu, I'm
| | 02:25 |
going to choose Freeze Track.
Now, what it does is it takes the midi
| | 02:31 |
data and all the devices that are being
used on this, and it renders them as a
| | 02:35 |
temp audio file.
And any time I hit Play, it will actually
| | 02:40 |
play that audio file.
And by the way, at this point I can't
| | 02:44 |
make any changes to this particular
track, it's frozen.
| | 02:49 |
So I'll hit Play just so we can hear what
happened.
| | 02:51 |
(audio playing).
So we hear both those clips playing.
| | 02:59 |
Now the new audio clip and now this one
that's been frozen.
| | 03:02 |
And if I need to make any changes at a
later point, I can right-click on that
| | 03:06 |
Pad Track name again.
And I can choose Unfreeze Track.
| | 03:12 |
Come back in make any changes that I
want to make.
| | 03:14 |
And then I can go back over there and
right-click on that again, choose Freeze Track.
| | 03:19 |
And then when I am ready to finalize this
if I don't need that midi track anymore,
| | 03:23 |
I can go ahead and right-click on there
again and I can choose Flatten, at which
| | 03:27 |
point it's going to render all of that as
an audio file.
| | 03:32 |
Let me go ahead and do that.
Now that you know how to freeze and
| | 03:36 |
flatten tracks in Live, you'll be better
able to manage those times when your Live
| | 03:39 |
sets get large enough to cause CPU
problems.
| | 03:42 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
16. Software InstrumentsExploring Impulse| 00:00 |
One of the benefits of using Ableton Live
is the software instruments that come
| | 00:03 |
packaged with the various versions of the
program.
| | 00:06 |
Let's take a look at Impulse, a simple
but surprisingly powerful drum machine
| | 00:10 |
that's included with every version of
Live 9.
| | 00:12 |
So I've already got an Impulse preset
loaded on this first track.
| | 00:17 |
And if we look at the instrument across
the top, you'll notice that we have eight
| | 00:21 |
squares, and those each hold a sample.
If I click on the little Launch button or
| | 00:25 |
Preview button I can hear the sample
that's loaded in that slot.
| | 00:29 |
(audio playing) Now, these samples are mapped to
the keyboard starting at C3.
| | 00:34 |
So, let me record-enable this track and
I'll play middle C or C3.
| | 00:39 |
(audio playing) And then D, (audio playing) E, (audio playing)
and so on and so forth.
| | 00:46 |
(audio playing) So those are mapped from C3 to
C4, only using the white keys.
| | 00:50 |
Now, as I hover my mouse over one of the
slots, there are a couple of extra
| | 00:53 |
buttons in addition to the Preview
button.
| | 00:56 |
The one on the left is the mute button,
and the one on the right is the solo button.
| | 01:02 |
Now as I select each of these slots
you'll notice that the parameters below change.
| | 01:08 |
So, I have individual settings for start
time and transpose.
| | 01:12 |
I can use a filter and I can use pan and
different volume assignments for each one
| | 01:16 |
of the eight slots.
The last three controls over on the far
| | 01:20 |
right are global for volume and
transposition.
| | 01:23 |
Now if I want to audition and load an
impulse preset, I'll need to go into the
| | 01:26 |
Instrument category in the browser down
the Impulse.
| | 01:30 |
And if I click the triangle there I can
come in and I can see the various presets
| | 01:33 |
that are available.
So I'll chose the first one, and then
| | 01:38 |
I'll click the Preview button to hear
that.
| | 01:40 |
(music playing) Now, if that's the preset that
you want, you can load that onto a track
| | 01:45 |
by clicking and dragging it onto the
track into the drop files and devices area.
| | 01:51 |
Or you can simply just hit your Return
key and that loaded it on this second
| | 01:55 |
Midi track that was available her because
there was nothing on the track.
| | 02:02 |
You can also create a custom drum
instrument, so let me undo that and this
| | 02:05 |
time what I'll do is I'll drag and drop.
The default impulse instrument and when
| | 02:10 |
that loads you'll notice that there are
eight empty slots.
| | 02:14 |
So, let's go find some samples.
So, I'm going to go into the search area
| | 02:18 |
and I'm going to type 808 and lets go
down into the samples category and I see
| | 02:21 |
a bunch of samples that all have 808 as
part of the name.
| | 02:26 |
So, let's grab a kick.
I like the claps, I'll put that on the
| | 02:32 |
third slot and like the hi-hats as well,
so let me get the closed hi-hats and put
| | 02:37 |
that on the second to last slot and the
open hi-hat, I'll put on the last slot.
| | 02:45 |
And then let's do a different search,
let's go 707.
| | 02:50 |
I like this snare.
And then we'll grab a couple noises
| | 02:53 |
here's one that I found earlier.
And I'll finish with this last one.
| | 03:02 |
Now you may wonder why I chose those.
If you end up using any of the MIDI drum
| | 03:10 |
clips that are part of Live's library,
it's likely that the notes are going to
| | 03:13 |
be mapped to certain keys based upon the
conventions that they've used.
| | 03:18 |
And with Impulse, that typically means
that, the kick will typically be loaded
| | 03:22 |
on C and the snare and alternate snare
will be loaded on D and E.
| | 03:27 |
Then the next three slots are usually
used for tom-toms or noise types of
| | 03:31 |
sounds, so that's why I chose this two
sounds here.
| | 03:36 |
And then last, they'll put hi-hats type
sounds on the last two slots.
| | 03:41 |
Now, if I click the last slot, you'll
notice that this link button appears in
| | 03:45 |
the lower left-hand corner and that
allows us to link the last two slots
| | 03:48 |
because you wouldn't want your open
hi-hat and your closed hi-hat ringing at
| | 03:51 |
the same time.
So, if I trigger number eight here or the
| | 03:57 |
open high hat and then follow that
immediately by triggering the closed high
| | 04:01 |
hat, as soon as I do that it will
actually choke or terminate the sound
| | 04:05 |
from the slot eight.
Now, if I decide I don't like any of
| | 04:10 |
these particular sounds or I want to swap
them out for something, I can click a
| | 04:14 |
slot, and then, click the hot swap
button, which will take me back into the
| | 04:17 |
browser, and allow me to search and find
other kick sounds.
| | 04:23 |
Same thing here if I want to change the
snare, I can go into the snare area and
| | 04:26 |
maybe I want this snare 707.
So (audio playing) if I double-click on that it
| | 04:31 |
exchanges that sound.
Now, last 'm going to right-click on this
| | 04:35 |
first empty clip slot and I'm going to
insert a MIDI clip.
| | 04:39 |
I'm just doing that because I want to
show you in the sample editor that when
| | 04:42 |
the fold button is engaged we actually
can see the names of the eight samples
| | 04:46 |
that are loaded into Impulse.
If I disable that you can see just the
| | 04:52 |
normal piano role and the notes.
So in addition to drum sounds, Impulse
| | 04:57 |
can play back any audio file.
When you're working with impulse presets
| | 05:00 |
and clips don't forget to experiment and
see what else you can come up with.
| | 05:04 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using Impulse as a multi-output instrument| 00:00 |
The output from drum loops and some
software instruments results in a single
| | 00:03 |
stereo signal.
Which does not allow the independent
| | 00:06 |
signal processing that's almost always
required to dial in a good drum sound.
| | 00:11 |
Let's take a look at how you can set up
Impulse as a multi-output device and add
| | 00:14 |
signal processing to the members of the
drum set.
| | 00:18 |
So I've got an impulse preset loaded on
this first track, and to set up multiple
| | 00:22 |
outputs, I need to create several audio
tracks.
| | 00:27 |
So I'm going to use the key command
Cmd+T, that would be Ctrl+T on a PC, and
| | 00:30 |
I'm going to select those tracks that I
just created by shift-selecting their names.
| | 00:37 |
And I'm going to go down to the audio
from chooser, and I'm going to click on that.
| | 00:42 |
And I'm going to set the input to come
from the impulse track.
| | 00:46 |
Then I'm going to go to the individual
chooser, the second one.
| | 00:50 |
And I'm going to set that to the
individual instruments.
| | 00:53 |
So, I'll set the first one to kick, and
then snare.
| | 00:56 |
And as I did that, I was making a
mistake.
| | 00:59 |
I still have the track name selected.
So you'll see that they're all set to snare.
| | 01:04 |
So I need to deselect that.
So I've only got one track.
| | 01:07 |
And now I can go back to do this
correctly.
| | 01:09 |
So let's go kick snare there already.
And I'll make that one Clap and then Tom,
| | 01:15 |
then that Clock noise, and that Synth
section, and so I can see a few more of
| | 01:19 |
these tracks.
I'm going to hover my cursor in the right
| | 01:24 |
edge of one of these tracks, then hold
down my Option key and then I'll drag to
| | 01:29 |
the right, and that will change the track
width of all these tracks on this side here.
| | 01:37 |
So let me set the next one to Synth
section and then I need two more tracks,
| | 01:42 |
so again, I'll use the key command,
Cmd+T, or Ctrl+T on PC to add those last
| | 01:47 |
two tracks.
Again, I'll set that to impulse and then
| | 01:56 |
I'll hit closed Impulse and high hat
open.
| | 02:02 |
Now in order to hear these tracks, I need
to set them all to input monitoring
| | 02:05 |
because there isn't any audio on the clip
slots on these tracks.
| | 02:10 |
I need to monitor the audio that's
flowing out of impulse through the tracks.
| | 02:14 |
I'll put that in and now as I press the
keys on my key board.
| | 02:24 |
I should be able to hear that and let me
just make sure that this, first track is
| | 02:28 |
Record Enabled to do that.
Here we go.
| | 02:31 |
(music playing) So you see the individual
elements coming on to their separate tracks.
| | 02:38 |
Now, to keep organized here, I'm going to
go up on that first track and I'm
| | 02:42 |
going to rename that using the key
Command, Cmd+R, that'll be Ctrl+R on a PC.
| | 02:48 |
And we'll call this first one kick and
now I'm going to hit my Tab key that then
| | 02:52 |
moves to the next one.
And I'll call this Snare, Claps, Tom,
| | 02:58 |
Clock, Synth, closed high hat, and open
high hat.
| | 03:02 |
Hit my return key to finish there.
And again, I'm going to make those track
| | 03:09 |
widths, just a little bit narrower.
So I'm going to grab that, pull that over.
| | 03:18 |
That makes it a little bit easier to look
at.
| | 03:19 |
What are some of the additional benefits
that we get here?
| | 03:21 |
I'll just start off with instead of
having to go down onto the software
| | 03:25 |
instrument and set the pan and volume for
each slot there, I can now actually do it
| | 03:29 |
on the individual tracks.
So, let's just say that the kick is a
| | 03:35 |
little bit too loud, the snare, that's
just fine.
| | 03:38 |
Claps are okay.
This one term I want to pan that to the
| | 03:42 |
left so I click in there and then drag
down and the high hats, I want to pan
| | 03:46 |
those over onto the right side.
These two sounds are little bit loud so I
| | 03:56 |
will pull those back so I can make
individual settings.
| | 04:00 |
Also, I can use independent signal
processing.
| | 04:03 |
So, I'm going to go into my audio effects
area and let me get rid of that search
| | 04:07 |
that was up there.
So I can see my different devices and
| | 04:11 |
I'll go into the compressor section.
And let me pull down, I think there is a
| | 04:16 |
kick compress.
There is, so let me drag and drop that on
| | 04:18 |
the kick track.
And on the snare track I can grab this
| | 04:22 |
snare preset for compression, and then
let me go to the EQ.
| | 04:28 |
So there's EQ 8, and I'm going to drop a
EQ on the kick track and I'm going to
| | 04:32 |
move that over before the compressor.
And often times, I'll suck a little bit
| | 04:38 |
out right around about 2-, 225 Hz, 250,
somewhere in that range.
| | 04:44 |
Tighten the cue just a little bit, pull
that down, and maybe pull up, just to get
| | 04:49 |
a little bit of snap, around 2K, and
again I'll tighten the cue just a little bit.
| | 04:57 |
So I've got signal processing set
independently for the kick and the snare.
| | 05:01 |
And I can work on each one of these
individually.
| | 05:04 |
Now as a group, I can add reverb so on
this return track A.
| | 05:09 |
I'm going to go down and go into the
reverb category.
| | 05:14 |
And there's a sub folder there for room
sounds.
| | 05:18 |
And I just happen to know that there is a
drum reverb preset.
| | 05:22 |
And I'll drag and drop that onto the
first return track.
| | 05:25 |
So now I can add independent reverb.
So, if I don't want any on the kick, I
| | 05:29 |
just won't add any, if I want more on the
snare.
| | 05:32 |
I'll pull up the synd a little bit,
collapse I'm going to want maybe the same
| | 05:36 |
thing, and maybe just a little bit to
warm up the high hats, and maybe these
| | 05:39 |
sounds need just a little bit.
So now as I play this clip that I have
| | 05:46 |
here on this first track, we should hear
all of this with a little bit of signal
| | 05:49 |
processing and reverb.
Let's check it out.
| | 06:00 |
(music playing) And you can hear reverb
especially on the snare and claps.
| | 06:03 |
And we can see that I had some return
signal on the track because of the signal
| | 06:06 |
that I had copied from this first scene.
Now one of the trick that I often like to
| | 06:12 |
do is to use parallel compression on
another return track.
| | 06:17 |
So I'm going to go back into the
compressor area and I'm going to drop a
| | 06:21 |
default compressor on to the return track
B and lets hold the threshold down on
| | 06:26 |
that often times.
I'll really step on that one.
| | 06:32 |
Let me put that around nine or ten to
one.
| | 06:35 |
And I'll often also EQ this.
So let me grab an EQ 8.
| | 06:41 |
And I'll drop that on a track before the
compressor.
| | 06:44 |
And I'm going to change this bottom onto
this active here into a low shelving filter.
| | 06:51 |
So that as I add a little gain on that,
flatten the queue out, move the frequency
| | 06:55 |
over, and I'll do the opposite over here
on the other side, turn that into a high
| | 07:00 |
shelving filter.
And let me add a little gain, and again
| | 07:06 |
flatten the queue there.
So I'm just going to boost the lows and
| | 07:10 |
the highs a little bit.
So in the end, the sound that I'm
| | 07:13 |
going to create over here is going to be
very compressed, and the low and the high
| | 07:17 |
end are going to be hyped.
But I can use the fader to just mix that
| | 07:22 |
back in subtly.
So, I'm going to pull this back a little
| | 07:26 |
bit, and then I'm going to add just a
little bit of everything here.
| | 07:35 |
And then so that I can hear what we've
got here without having to listen to the
| | 07:38 |
rest of the tracks.
I'm going to go ahead and set this up as
| | 07:42 |
a pre fader send then I can mute this
first track and I should just hear what's
| | 07:46 |
coming through the return track.
Let's check it out.
| | 07:58 |
(music playing) And now I can put the whole thing
together.
| | 08:03 |
(music playing) And as I pulled that down, you
could hear that it was not as dramatic a
| | 08:09 |
drum sound and as I lifted up you could
hear that the low end and the kick was emphasized.
| | 08:19 |
Over here on the master fader, we did see
that there was a little bit of red
| | 08:22 |
showing, so I'd have to either be careful
of my levels on the individual tracks.
| | 08:28 |
Or pull back the parallel compression
that I've set up here on this last return
| | 08:31 |
track or you might want to drop a limiter
onto your master track.
| | 08:36 |
The last thing you might do just to keep
organized would be to select all of these
| | 08:40 |
tracks and group them.
So, let me go ahead and shift-click there
| | 08:44 |
and then right-click on any one of these
and choose group tracks from the
| | 08:47 |
Contextual menu.
And now, I get this drum group which I'll
| | 08:52 |
rename Drums, so that, as I get too many
tracks out here, I can just click the
| | 08:55 |
fold buttton.
And when I don't need to work with the
| | 09:00 |
individual drums, I've got this overall
drum track to work with.
| | 09:04 |
So, setting up impulse, as a multi output
device, is not hard to do and it offers a
| | 09:08 |
great deal of flexibilty and control on
how the signals are routed and the
| | 09:11 |
effects that can be used.
| | 09:14 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Getting the most out of Impulse instrument parameters| 00:00 |
Raw samples can sound impressive by
themselves, but when combined to create a
| | 00:03 |
drum set, they often need additional work
to fit.
| | 00:06 |
Let's take a look at the independent
device parameters in Impulse, an how they
| | 00:09 |
can be used to help fine tune the
individual drum set instruments.
| | 00:13 |
All right, so, I've got the custom drum set
that we created in the last movie.
| | 00:17 |
I'm going to take a look at the
parameters that we have here below the,
| | 00:20 |
individual samples.
And remember, as we click any, or select
| | 00:24 |
any one of these, they switch to the,
settings for that particular slot.
| | 00:29 |
So, just starting off with a kick, the
first couple things we see here.
| | 00:33 |
The start parameter allows you to
determine, where in the sample that it
| | 00:37 |
actually starts playing.
So if you want to roll off the attack and
| | 00:40 |
start it late, you can dial that
parameter.
| | 00:44 |
The transpose feature, will allow us to
transpose a sample up or down, 48 half steps.
| | 00:51 |
And for example, you might use that on
the kick, to transpose that up, or
| | 00:54 |
transpose it down a little bit, so that
it works better with the key of the song.
| | 00:59 |
Now I'm going to select the, snare slot
here, and let's, record enable the track.
| | 01:05 |
And I can tune that snare by pushing this
up or down, so let's check out what this
| | 01:11 |
sounds like
| | 01:11 |
(audio playing).
| | 01:14 |
Okay, I'm going to set that back on zero.
And what I actually want to do here, is
| | 01:18 |
I'm going to dial up a little bit of
velocity.
| | 01:22 |
Now, I'll put it all the way up just so
we can hear what it does.
| | 01:25 |
If I turn up the Velocity parameter,
there underneath the Transpose knob, as I
| | 01:29 |
Press my key lighter or harder.
It will actually modulate the pitch of
| | 01:34 |
that, based upon the velocity that I
Strike the key at.
| | 01:39 |
(audio playing) And that can be a handy thing to
use, when you've got several snare hits
| | 01:44 |
in a row, and you don't want them all to
sound the same.
| | 01:49 |
But it's much more likely that you would
probably dial a more modest percentage of that.
| | 01:54 |
If yiou don't want it to be straight by
velocity, you can also set that to be random.
| | 01:59 |
So I'll push that up.
And now it doesn't matter how hard I
| | 02:03 |
strike the key, it's just going to
randomly modulate the pitch aspect
| | 02:07 |
(audio playing).
Okay, let me put that back down to zero.
| | 02:12 |
It's much more likely that I would use
the velocity perimeter and I'll just dial
| | 02:15 |
in a little bit.
And you could also stretch the sample,
| | 02:19 |
using this perimeter here.
And you could also control that by velocity.
| | 02:24 |
The Mode button below that is optimized
for different frequency sounds.
| | 02:30 |
So Abelton suggest that mode A would be
good for low frequencies like the kick drum.
| | 02:35 |
And then mode B would be good for things
like snare and high-hats, other high
| | 02:39 |
frequency type sounds.
So let's just dial a little bit of that
| | 02:42 |
up, and let's check what that sounds
like.
| | 02:44 |
(audio playing) So the harder I was striking
that, the more it was stretching it.
| | 02:52 |
Okay, I'll reset that.
Pull that down.
| | 02:56 |
See I'm going to type a zero and hit my
Return key.
| | 03:00 |
You can also over drive or add a little
saturation to a slot.
| | 03:03 |
So if I click on the Saturation button, I
can dial up an amount here to fatten that up.
| | 03:10 |
Now, as I do that you might want to
consider pulling back your overall volume
| | 03:13 |
on that particular instrument so that
doesn't get too loud.
| | 03:17 |
So I'll pull that back.
Now I'll push up the drive.
| | 03:19 |
(audio playing) And you can hear just a little
bit more fuzz on the overall sound of that.
| | 03:27 |
(audio playing) And as I'm working with that, I'm
going to pop over here to the Decay real quickly.
| | 03:33 |
And I'm going to pull that back.
Got just a little bit too long a decay
| | 03:36 |
for me.
(audio playing) Just tighten that up a little bit.
| | 03:42 |
In the middle area, we have a filter that
we can use so I'll turn that on.
| | 03:46 |
And if you click on the Mode, we'll see
that we have the typical Low Pass, Band
| | 03:49 |
Pass, High Pass, and Notch Filters.
I'll leave that on Low Pass.
| | 03:54 |
And as I lower the cutoff frequency,
you'll hear the high end on this start to disappear.
| | 03:59 |
(audio playing) So it got a little bit darker.
(audio playing) Now if I want to accentuate
| | 04:06 |
what's happening there, I can dial up
some resonance.
| | 04:09 |
(audio playing) An what the resonance does Is it
extenuates those frequencies that are
| | 04:15 |
right around the cutoff frequency.
Again I can modulate that by velocity.
| | 04:22 |
So if I turn this up, let's go all the
way up to 100% (audio playing).
| | 04:30 |
As I strike the harder and softer you're
actually hearing the filter close and
| | 04:34 |
change its position.
Right, let me dial that down little bit
| | 04:39 |
more modestly.
And over here in this third section, I
| | 04:42 |
can set the decay of this sample, we
already looked at that.
| | 04:47 |
And you can also set your pan and volume
separately.
| | 04:50 |
Now I typically won't do that here
because I've already got this routed to
| | 04:55 |
multi outputs.
And so I have the pan and the volume set
| | 04:59 |
up here in the track.
But if you do want to modulate the pan
| | 05:03 |
setting so that a particular sound is
moving from right to left.
| | 05:07 |
You can actually do that by raising the
velocity amount here.
| | 05:11 |
And as you strike the key harder or
softer, you'll actually move left to right.
| | 05:16 |
Last but not least over here on the right
side we've got global parameters for the
| | 05:20 |
overall volume of the drum set and
transposition.
| | 05:23 |
So if you want to move the whole drum set
up or down, we can move that parameter.
| | 05:28 |
And then there's this interesting
paramater here called time.
| | 05:31 |
And if I dial that up, what it will do
will either accentuate and make samples
| | 05:35 |
shorter or longer.
So let me just play the clip that I've
| | 05:39 |
got on the track, and then I'm going to
change the time parameter.
| | 05:44 |
(music playing) So you could actually hear a time
stretching the samples that were on two
| | 06:00 |
and four there.
So while Impulse only has slots for eight
| | 06:09 |
samples, it does allow a great deal of
control over shaping their sound.
| | 06:13 |
So, if you find a preset or sample that
is close, but not exactly what you are
| | 06:16 |
looking for.
Remember to use the sample parameters to
| | 06:19 |
adjust the sounds to your needs.
| | 06:21 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring Simpler| 00:00 |
Simpler is another software instrument
included in all versions of Live 9.
| | 00:05 |
It's a sample player that incorporate the
filter, LFO, and pitch parameters of a
| | 00:08 |
basic synthesizer.
Let's take a look and see how it works.
| | 00:11 |
So let's start by loading a preset.
I'm going to go into the instrument
| | 00:15 |
category and choose Simpler and open that
up.
| | 00:18 |
And let's go down to the pad category.
And I've got a couple presets in there,
| | 00:22 |
so I'm going to drag and drop this first
one onto the first MIDI track.
| | 00:26 |
and when that opens up, I can see that
I'm actually inside a rack.
| | 00:30 |
But if I look over to the right, I can
actually see the sample player.
| | 00:34 |
I'll start by saying that Simpler is a
single sample player, and the first
| | 00:37 |
preset that I show you actually has this
thing that says multi-sample mode.
| | 00:43 |
Many of the presets that come with Live
have been tricked out by the designers at Ableton.
| | 00:48 |
And they are actually multi sample
presets.
| | 00:51 |
And when you look at the player you'll
notice that we don't see the sample
| | 00:54 |
displaying where it normally does.
So what they have done here is they have
| | 00:59 |
actually locked that particular part of
the preset.
| | 01:03 |
And we can't get in and adjust those
particular parameters.
| | 01:06 |
Now if you own Live suite, you also own
Sampler, which is a multi-sample player device.
| | 01:12 |
And if you go up onto the title bar of
Simpler, and right-click, you can
| | 01:16 |
actually send the preset from Simpler to
Sampler.
| | 01:20 |
Let's do that.
So now we actually see the sample that's
| | 01:24 |
part of this particular preset.
And we have access to all of the
| | 01:27 |
different presets that are available in
Sampler.
| | 01:30 |
And this is a fully functional Sampler.
We're actually going to talk about
| | 01:35 |
Simpler, so I'm going to go ahead and
let's scroll over here.
| | 01:39 |
And select the rack preset, and then I'm
going to hit my delete key to get rid of that.
| | 01:43 |
Instead let's grab an empty Simpler and
I'm drag that onto this first MIDI track.
| | 01:49 |
We'll notice here that there's no sample
loaded.
| | 01:51 |
So, I'm going to do a search and let's
look for a piano.
| | 01:54 |
So, type that in here and I'll go down to
the samples area and you'll notice that
| | 01:58 |
we've got a bunch of different grand
piano samples.
| | 02:04 |
So let me just grab middle C, one of the
C threes.
| | 02:07 |
And I'm going to drag and drop that down
into the drop sample area of Simpler.
| | 02:11 |
So I chose C3 because the default mapping
location for a sample when you drop it
| | 02:16 |
into Simpler, is actually middle C or C3.
So I've got the track record enabled.
| | 02:24 |
Let me play C3 on my piano here, (audio playing)
and we can hear the sample.
| | 02:29 |
Now as I play up the keyboard, Simpler is
going to transpose the pitch up, and if I
| | 02:33 |
go down, it will transpose it down.
Now let's just check out what happens as
| | 02:39 |
I go up the keyboard (music playing).
Now you'll notice that that sample
| | 02:43 |
sounded pretty good for about the first
third or fourth.
| | 02:48 |
But as I started to get beyond that, as
it transposed and stretched that sample,
| | 02:51 |
it started to sound less and less like a
piano.
| | 02:54 |
And more and more like a harpsichord, for
example.
| | 02:58 |
The strength of Simpler is not really in
transposing a single sample across the
| | 03:02 |
entire keyboard.
Let's take another look at a use of this.
| | 03:05 |
So let me select that and delete that.
And I'm going to go back into my
| | 03:08 |
instruments area, and I'll get rid of
that piano search.
| | 03:12 |
And I'm going to grab another empty
Simpler and this time but let's do a
| | 03:17 |
search for let's say 808.
And again I'll go down to my samples area.
| | 03:23 |
And I'm going to grab this kick 808 and
I'm going to drop that on this track, and
| | 03:28 |
then, let me find a snare, 808, here's
one.
| | 03:32 |
And I'm going to ignore this MIDI track,
I'll hover it there for a second so that
| | 03:35 |
the device view opens up.
And then I'm going to go down here and
| | 03:38 |
I'm going to drop that sample in the Drop
Instrument of Sample area.
| | 03:42 |
And notice that only doesn't load that
sample but it actually put it inside of a Simpler.
| | 03:47 |
And I'll do this one more time.
I'm first going to grab another Simpler
| | 03:51 |
and let me just drag and drop that out
here in the drop files area.
| | 03:58 |
And then I'll go back into my search and
do 808 one more time.
| | 04:03 |
And I'm going to grab a closed high hat.
Here we go, there's one.
| | 04:10 |
Then I'll drop that down here.
So now now I've got three tracks with
| | 04:13 |
three Simplers playing different drum
samples, and I'm going to create just a
| | 04:16 |
very, very simple pattern.
So I'm going to go on the first track
| | 04:20 |
here, the kick track, I'll right-click on
the first slot and I'm going to insert a
| | 04:23 |
MIDI clip.
And I'm going to trim that down so that
| | 04:28 |
it's only a one beat clip.
I'll turn on my Pencil tool.
| | 04:32 |
And I'm going to click in a C3.
(audio playing) So I can just loop this kick
| | 04:36 |
playing on all beats.
Then I'll go to the snare track.
| | 04:40 |
I'll right-click > Insert MIDI Clip.
I'll trim that one down to two beats long.
| | 04:46 |
And again, I'll click in a C3, but only
on B2 for the snare.
| | 04:50 |
And for the hi hat, I'm going to go ahead
and do a different search here.
| | 04:55 |
I'm going to look for the groove file.
So .agr will get me all of the different
| | 04:58 |
groove files.
Let me pull down, and let's get a 16th
| | 05:03 |
note one.
And I'm going to just grab one of these.
| | 05:08 |
Now remember that these groove files are
actually MIDI files.
| | 05:11 |
And I don't have to use it as a groove
template, I can actually click and drag
| | 05:14 |
that and put it on right on a clip slot
and use it as MIDI.
| | 05:19 |
So let me drag and drop that on the first
hi hat slot.
| | 05:22 |
So we'll see that I've got that there as
a MIDI clip and if I go out of my Pencil
| | 05:26 |
tool, you'll notice that we've got the
MIDI notes.
| | 05:30 |
And looks like this particular one, all
of the velocities are about the same.
| | 05:36 |
Let me delete that, I'm going to try a
different one.
| | 05:38 |
Let's listen to this.
(audio playing).
| | 05:43 |
Okay, I'll try this one.
Yeah, there's a little bit of variety in
| | 05:49 |
this one.
So, I'll stay with that.
| | 05:50 |
So let's check out and see what this
sounds like.
| | 05:53 |
(music playing).
So right off the bat, I'm not really
| | 05:56 |
particularly in love with what my hi hat
sounds like.
| | 06:00 |
So I'm going to shift-tab, so I can see
the various devices and one of the things
| | 06:05 |
that I'm going to work with is the
release and sustain on that, so.
| | 06:12 |
Let's stop all the clips, I just want to
listen to the hi hat real quick.
| | 06:16 |
And I'm going to play this hi hat as I
work with the envelope of that particular sound.
| | 06:33 |
(audio playing) So you can see how you can use
the envelope detect a case sustain and
| | 06:36 |
release to actually shape that particular
sound.
| | 06:39 |
So let me stop that one.
Last but not least I want to show you
| | 06:42 |
that on this kick track, one of the
things that you can also do with the
| | 06:45 |
Simpler is to layer the sounds.
So I'm going to right-click the device
| | 06:50 |
and I'm going to choose Group.
And what I've done is just create a rack
| | 06:55 |
here, and if I go to the chain list I can
see the kick 808 there but, I also gives
| | 06:58 |
me the ability to add a different kick
in.
| | 07:02 |
So now if I do a search for kick, and I
go into my samples area, I can see all
| | 07:06 |
the different kicks that are available.
And I can go ahead and just grab one of these.
| | 07:12 |
Let me preview one just to hear what it
sounds like.
| | 07:17 |
(audio playing) Okay, let's just say that's good
enough.
| | 07:19 |
And I'll click and drag that down into
the chain lift.
| | 07:23 |
And now I've got two Simplers that are
going to make a composite kick sound.
| | 07:28 |
And I can set the parameters of each one
of these to shape the sound.
| | 07:33 |
In the end, I can create a very complex
sound using two or more samples for a
| | 07:36 |
single kick.
And they'll all trigger when I hit C3.
| | 07:41 |
Simpler is a simple device, but at the
same time, it can be very useful, and
| | 07:44 |
with a bit of imagination, it can solve
many musical problems.
| | 07:49 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Smoothing sample start and end points in Simpler| 00:00 |
Any time you work with samples, It's
important to adjust the start and end
| | 00:03 |
point so that on playback, listeners
can't hear when the samples loop.
| | 00:07 |
Let's take a look at how you can
manipulate sample start and end points,
| | 00:10 |
and loop parameters in Simpler.
I've already loaded a couple of samples
| | 00:14 |
onto Simpler instruments on these two
tracks that you see.
| | 00:18 |
And if I go down in my packs areas.
I just want to show you that I have
| | 00:22 |
downloaded, a Live pack called Unnatural
Selection, from the Live website.
| | 00:28 |
This particular Live pack is available
for users of all the different versions
| | 00:32 |
of Ableton Live 9.
So, going back to this first track, I've
| | 00:36 |
actually got a Drum loop in here, and let
me, record enable that.
| | 00:40 |
So, if I play C3, we'll actually hear the
Default loop playback.
| | 00:44 |
Let's check that out.
(music playing) As you can hear, we've got more
| | 00:53 |
than a one bar loop here.
So, if you want to truncate this, and
| | 00:56 |
just use a part of this loop, there's a
couple different ways that you can set
| | 00:58 |
the start and end points.
One way is to use these play and end
| | 01:03 |
start point markers, and just drag them
to where you want to go.
| | 01:09 |
So, for example lets just figure out
where one bar of this ends, and I'll set
| | 01:12 |
the end point, so that we have a One Bar
loop.
| | 01:15 |
So, again I'm going to play this,
(music playing).
| | 01:19 |
Actually, let me grab half of this, and
that would be two bars, so I can see
| | 01:24 |
that, this is about a Four Bar loop.
And right here where my cursor is is
| | 01:30 |
where the second bar would end, so I'm
going to grab the end marker here and
| | 01:33 |
drag that over near that point.
And then I'm just going to zoom in a
| | 01:37 |
little bit, so I can see more detail.
Now this works much like you're working
| | 01:42 |
in any Window in Live, and when you put
your cursor in the ruler you can drag up
| | 01:45 |
or down to zoom in.
So, one of things that I could do here is
| | 01:52 |
get way in there, and go ahead and try
and drag that onto a zero crossing either
| | 01:55 |
here or maybe over there.
But I just want to point out that we also
| | 02:01 |
have this Snap button right here that
will automatically snap the start and end
| | 02:04 |
points to zero crossings.
So, let me click that, and you can see
| | 02:08 |
that it moved it over.
And now I'm going to move back out, and
| | 02:12 |
let's play this just to see how this
loops.
| | 02:15 |
And I'm going to turn on the loop
parameter here.
| | 02:17 |
(music playing) So we can see that, that loop
smoothly, and that the rhythm is coherent.
| | 02:26 |
All right lets take a look at the next
track, and lets work with a little bit
| | 02:31 |
different kind of situation.
I've got sync pad here and it's playing
| | 02:37 |
several chords.
And I actually want to get this down to
| | 02:40 |
one cord that I can then trigger and play
using different keys to get the chords
| | 02:43 |
that I want.
So, I'll record enable this track, and
| | 02:49 |
let's hear what this sounds like.
(music playing) Okay, so we can see that we've
| | 02:57 |
just got a sequence of, it looks like
four chords repeated.
| | 03:05 |
I kind of like when it comes back to the
one chord here on the 5th chord, so I'm
| | 03:08 |
going to isolate and use that.
Now this time, instead of using the
| | 03:13 |
markers up here, I'm going to move down
just below the sample area, and I'm
| | 03:16 |
going to use the start and length
parameters to set the part that I want to
| | 03:19 |
use here.
So, let me pull the sample, start and
| | 03:23 |
let's get that kind of over in this area.
And then I'll bring the length, now the
| | 03:28 |
length is a percentage of what is left.
And in the end I'm going to want to grab
| | 03:33 |
just that sustain of that one chord, so
I'll dial that back.
| | 03:38 |
And once I've got that close to where I
want it, I'm going to go ahead and zoom in.
| | 03:42 |
And I'm going to hit play just to hear
what I, how it's starting, because this
| | 03:45 |
is going to be just a little bit tricky
as the one chord ends and the next one begins.
| | 03:50 |
(audio playing) You could actually hear that I'm
a little bit early here.
| | 03:54 |
So, I'm going to move the start
percentage over a little bit and by the
| | 03:57 |
way this can get really touchy as you try
and do this.
| | 04:01 |
So, another way to set that start point
is actually to type a value here, and I'm
| | 04:07 |
just going to guess around 51.5%.
From the beginning, and now let me hit
| | 04:13 |
the start and make sure that I've got
this starting right on the new chord.
| | 04:16 |
(music playing) I'm still just hearing a tad bit
of the old chord, so I'm going to move
| | 04:23 |
that over just a little bit more, let's
try 52%.
| | 04:29 |
(music playing) There, I don't hear the other
chords.
| | 04:31 |
Now, if I want to move around after I'm
zoomed in, I can pan back and forth by
| | 04:35 |
holding my Command and Option keys, that
would be Ctrl and Alt on a PC.
| | 04:41 |
And now I can pull over if that's the
easiest way to move to the end of this,
| | 04:45 |
and then again, I'll pull the length
portion, I think I can actually work with that.
| | 04:51 |
So, now let's hear how this loops.
(music playing) Okay, so we can hear that there's
| | 04:57 |
a little bit of a bobble at the end of
that.
| | 05:03 |
I'll go ahead and click the Snap setting
to snap that to zero crossings.
| | 05:08 |
That in itself may help us with any pop
or click that's at the beginning or end
| | 05:11 |
of my selection points, but it's not
going to help me with the actual looping
| | 05:15 |
of this.
So, I'm going to set the loop length,
| | 05:19 |
which is that portion of my selection
that I actually want to loop after this
| | 05:22 |
thing placed once.
So, I'll pull this over and I'll say you
| | 05:27 |
know I want this this still start looping
about right in here.
| | 05:32 |
And then I can pull the fade value up, so
that I start to cross fade around the
| | 05:38 |
loop point.
So, let's hear, I'll do that without
| | 05:42 |
that, so you can hear what it sounds
like.
| | 05:44 |
(music playing) So, you can actually hear a
looping now, and I don't want to actually
| | 05:49 |
have that apparent so, I'm going to pull
this cross fade up.
| | 05:56 |
And now let's hear what it sounds like.
(music playing) So, now at that point, as I'm
| | 06:00 |
holding out the chord, you actually can't
hear when it's looping.
| | 06:08 |
And now that I've got that one chord
isolated, I can actually trigger that
| | 06:12 |
with different notes and get different
chords based upon the chord structure of
| | 06:16 |
what I've selected.
(music playing) Adjusting the sample section
| | 06:22 |
parameters in simpler and straight
forward.
| | 06:27 |
But as you can see, they make a big
diffeence in how the sample plays back.
| | 06:31 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Tweaking the parameters of Simpler| 00:00 |
Setting the sample start in at loop
points of the sample and simpler is just
| | 00:03 |
the first step in preparing the sample
for sequencing.
| | 00:06 |
Let's take a look at how the filter in
LFO parameters can be used to modify the
| | 00:09 |
sample in Real Time to create a more
interesting sound.
| | 00:12 |
I've got a very plain base sound setup on
this first track, let me Record Enable that.
| | 00:18 |
Let me just hit a key so you can hear
what that sounds like.
| | 00:20 |
(audio playing).
Just a Sawtooth wave, very basic, an
| | 00:24 |
nothing has been done to shape that.
So I'm going to start off by coming down
| | 00:29 |
here and, clicking on the filter, an when
I did that you saw a number of parameters
| | 00:33 |
light up.
One of the things that I can set here is
| | 00:36 |
the filter type.
So if I click on that, you'll see that we
| | 00:39 |
have the typical Low-pass, Band-pass,
High-pass and Notch filters.
| | 00:44 |
I'm going to leave that on the low pass
12 and that means that the slope set past
| | 00:48 |
the cut off frequency is sloping at 12db
per octave.
| | 00:52 |
Now I'm going to hold the note down and
I'm going to dial the cut off frequency.
| | 00:56 |
And as I dial that lower you'll hear it
actually start to carve in and eliminate
| | 00:59 |
kind of the high end.
(audio playing).
| | 01:01 |
I'll leave that around 2 kilohertz.
Then I'm going to dial in some resonance.
| | 01:12 |
Now that is going to accentuate or
amplify those frequencies around the
| | 01:15 |
cutoff frequency.
And it'll give us a little bit more of an
| | 01:18 |
interesting dynamic effect.
(audio playing).
| | 01:21 |
I kind of like the hollowness that I get
around around about 2 on that setting.
| | 01:30 |
Now, by itself, you might say, well, all
you've done so far is kind of make it
| | 01:33 |
sound a little bit darker.
But what I want it to do is I actually
| | 01:36 |
want that filter to open and close a
little bit as we play notes.
| | 01:40 |
One of the ways that I can do that is by
dialing in some velocity.
| | 01:44 |
Meaning that how hard I strike the key is
actually going to modulate that cut off
| | 01:47 |
frequency to open up and shut down a but.
Let's try that, I'm going to set that all
| | 01:51 |
the way up to 100% so we can hear what it
sounds like.
| | 01:53 |
(audio playing).
So you can hear that opening more and
| | 01:58 |
more and more as I strike the key harder.
Let me pull that back a bit and, I'm also
| | 02:05 |
going to modulate this using the LFO.
So I'm going to dial up the LFO, and then
| | 02:10 |
actually go to the next section and turn
it on.
| | 02:14 |
Now if you're not familiar with LFO's, an
LFO is a Low Frequency Oscillator.
| | 02:18 |
An that's an oscillator that outputs a
pitch that's so low that we can't hear it.
| | 02:23 |
But we can use the fact that low
frequencies oscillate very slowly, to
| | 02:26 |
actually change other parameters in real
time.
| | 02:30 |
I've got the LFO turned on here for the
filter, and right now, it's set to open
| | 02:34 |
and close by a rate, and that rate is set
at one hertz.
| | 02:39 |
So, let me hold down a key and let's just
hear what that sounds like.
| | 02:43 |
(audio playing).
Okay, now that's starting to get interesting.
| | 02:48 |
So we can actually hear that opening and
closing.
| | 02:50 |
Now I could set this to be a shorter or
longer time, or I can actually sink this
| | 02:54 |
to the tempo of the song by clicking on
this little 16th note.
| | 02:59 |
And when I do that it opens up this Beats
Field, and now I can actually sync that
| | 03:02 |
or have the filter open and closed based
upon a rhythmic value.
| | 03:07 |
So I'm going to hold down a note and
change that value so we can hear what it
| | 03:09 |
sounds like.
(audio playing).
| | 03:12 |
You can hear were getting that kind of
classic wobble base sound.
| | 03:25 |
Now, next to that I've got the type, and
that allows me to choose different kind
| | 03:28 |
of wave shapes.
And shaped on how that filter is opening
| | 03:31 |
and closing, so I had that set to sine
wave to start off with, but let's hear
| | 03:34 |
what that sounds like with a square pulse
wave.
| | 03:38 |
(audio playing).
Much more of an On, Off sound.
| | 03:42 |
And if I switch to triangle, I'm going to
get kind of softer edges but a sharper point.
| | 03:47 |
And let me make that just a little bit
longer.
| | 03:50 |
(audio playing).
That's a little bit better indication of
| | 03:52 |
what that does.
And I'll set that on random last.
| | 03:56 |
You can just hear that it's going to
randomly open and close the filter.
| | 04:00 |
(audio playing).
So let's set this back on the sine wave.
| | 04:07 |
And I'm going to point out one more
parameter here on the LFO and that's the attack.
| | 04:11 |
So, we can actually set it so it actually
builds into the effect that we're looking for.
| | 04:15 |
So, let me put this back on rate, I'm
going to dial that just a little bit
| | 04:19 |
longer rate, and then I'll dial up some
attack.
| | 04:24 |
So that this actually takes three or four
milliseconds to open up.
| | 04:27 |
(audio playing).
So, you heard that the first one or the
| | 04:29 |
first two of those was a little bit
softer and then it built into the overall
| | 04:33 |
effect, so one more time.
(audio playing).
| | 04:37 |
Gradually building in to the overall
desired effect.
| | 04:43 |
I'm going to briefly turn the LFO off
here and then I'm going to open and close
| | 04:47 |
the filter using the envelope instead.
So let me dial up some envelope and then
| | 04:53 |
I'm going to go up here and I'm going to
click the box next to Filter to turn on
| | 04:56 |
the Filter Envelope.
So, at this point I can set some attack
| | 05:02 |
on this, so that the, cutoff frequency,
gradually opens up.
| | 05:06 |
And then I can control how it closes
again with the decay parameter.
| | 05:10 |
So let's hear what this sounds like.
(audio playing).
| | 05:13 |
So now I have got that set to open a
little bit more slowly and then close, it
| | 05:24 |
takes almost six seconds to close.
All right, lets move on and lets take a
| | 05:35 |
look at the couple other ideas and I am
going to switch over to this hi hat track
| | 05:39 |
and let me take that back out of Record
Enable.
| | 05:42 |
Let me start by saying that the sound
I've chosen, the length of the hi hat is
| | 05:46 |
a little bit long to my taste.
So I want to set this a little bit
| | 05:50 |
tighter, and then I want to set it so
that the sound of this actually modulates
| | 05:53 |
a little bit.
One of the things I don't like about
| | 05:57 |
Single Sample Player is that when you
have a repeated part the note sounds the
| | 06:00 |
same every time you hit it.
So I wanted to be just a little bit different.
| | 06:05 |
So I'll play this, to start off with.
I'm going to work with the length of this
| | 06:08 |
overall sound.
(audio playing).
| | 06:11 |
Okay, so I use the K feature here in the
volume envelope to just tighten out a
| | 06:18 |
little bit.
And next what I'm going to do is I'm
| | 06:23 |
going to use the LFO to actually modulate
the pitch.
| | 06:26 |
So, let me turn on the LFO and I'm going
to set just a little bit of Detune on that.
| | 06:34 |
And then I'll turn up the LFO.
Let's do it quite a bit to start off with.
| | 06:38 |
And then my favorite one here is to
actually use the Random shape.
| | 06:41 |
So let's check out what that sounds like.
(audio playing).
| | 06:44 |
So that's changing a whole lot.
So I'm actually going to dial back the
| | 06:51 |
LFO percentage.
So it's a little bit more subtle.
| | 06:57 |
(audio playing).
So now you can hear, that there are just
| | 07:02 |
slight pitch changes each time that that
hi hat is hit.
| | 07:10 |
So now that you're familiar with how
Simpler works, you'll be able to modify
| | 07:13 |
Simpler Presets to work more effectively
with your music.
| | 07:16 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
17. Live RacksUnlocking the power of FX racks| 00:00 |
One of Live's most powerful and
innovative features is Live Racks.
| | 00:04 |
Which allows you to save multiple effects
or instrument devices as a single preset.
| | 00:08 |
Let's take a look at how they work.
So a Live Rack can contain an audio
| | 00:12 |
effect, MIDI effect, instrument devices,
or any combination of the above.
| | 00:17 |
Now let's start by taking a look at audio
effects racks.
| | 00:20 |
So I've got a kick clip on this first
track and I want to add some EQ in compression.
| | 00:26 |
So let's go into the audio effects area
and I'm going to drop down and grab a EQ8.
| | 00:32 |
Put that in the device chain and let me
get a compressor to and I'm going to go
| | 00:36 |
in and get the preset this for kick, and
I'll drop that down there as well.
| | 00:44 |
Now if I shift-click the Title bar on the
EQ, I get them both selected, I can
| | 00:48 |
create a group or a rack by
right-clicking on either of the devices.
| | 00:53 |
And choosing Groove from the Contextual
menu.
| | 00:56 |
Now once I do that I want you to notice
that we get these brackets on either side.
| | 01:02 |
So we see it here on the left.
If I hold down Cmd+Option, that would be
| | 01:06 |
Ctrl+Alt on a PC, I can pan this over.
And I can see the rounded edges on the
| | 01:12 |
bracket on the right-hand side.
Let's go back over to the beginning.
| | 01:17 |
In addition to the brackets, I also get
some additional buttons.
| | 01:21 |
And if I click on this first one, this
show and hides the macro, and this is a
| | 01:25 |
device where I can map controls from any
of the devices onto these knobs for adjustment.
| | 01:32 |
We'll talk about that in an upcoming
movie.
| | 01:35 |
I also get a chain list which shows me
how many chains I've got, and right now
| | 01:38 |
I've only got one.
And that means that these two effects
| | 01:42 |
that I've added here are actually being
processed in series.
| | 01:46 |
Meaning that the signal is going to come
through the EQ, and then go into the kick compressor.
| | 01:51 |
Let me close that for the time being.
And I'm just going to make some basic
| | 01:55 |
settings that I might make on any old
kick.
| | 01:58 |
Which would be probably to reduce a
little bit of the lower mid range around
| | 02:03 |
maybe 200 to 250 hertz.
Tighten the queue a little bit, add a
| | 02:08 |
little bit of a bump to get the snap on
the kick there around 2K.
| | 02:13 |
Once I've got the settings made, if I
don't want to actually see the entire
| | 02:16 |
device, I can double-click on its Title
bar to minimize it.
| | 02:21 |
And that's all the space it takes up.
Now, let's hear what that sounds like.
| | 02:24 |
(music playing) So, I might go back in and make
some more changes, but if I'm happy with
| | 02:30 |
the way that sounds, I might want to save
this for use in a later session.
| | 02:39 |
So, let me open up my user library.
And one of the things that I can do is
| | 02:43 |
just grab the Title bar on the rack,
which at this minimized state is going to
| | 02:46 |
be the bracket on the left-hand side.
And drag it up into the presets folder.
| | 02:52 |
And now I can call this something like
Drum EQ and Compression, and save that.
| | 03:00 |
So for example, if I come back to another
set and want to use that, I can just grab
| | 03:03 |
the preset and drag and drop that on
another track as I'm doing here.
| | 03:09 |
On this kick two track which is a similar
track.
| | 03:12 |
And then I can double-click the title
bars of any of these effects to open them
| | 03:14 |
back up.
If I need to make any more changes I can
| | 03:18 |
do that.
But otherwise, I'm ready to go.
| | 03:22 |
We can also start with an empty rack and
add devices into the rack itself.
| | 03:27 |
So let's move over to the roads track.
Let's do that.
| | 03:30 |
So here we can see that I've got a MIDI
instrument and this is preset of electric.
| | 03:35 |
The electric piano software instrument
that's available in Live Suite and I want
| | 03:39 |
to add a couple of audio effects to that.
So, I'm going to up into the audio
| | 03:44 |
effects category and let me close all
these, I'm going to press my left arrow
| | 03:48 |
and move up.
And let's go up to the top now, and I'm
| | 03:52 |
going to grab this blank preset where it
says Audio Effect Rack.
| | 03:57 |
I'm going to drop that over here after
the virtual instrument.
| | 04:02 |
We can see the rounded edges of the rack,
and what I'm going to do now is open up
| | 04:06 |
the Chain List, and I'm going to drop an
effect there.
| | 04:10 |
So, let's just grab the default chorus
and drop that one.
| | 04:15 |
And then, I'm going to create a second
chain here, and let's put default flanger
| | 04:19 |
on that one.
I'm doing this because I want to
| | 04:25 |
demonstrate that not only can we run
effects in series, but we can also run
| | 04:28 |
them in parallel.
So, let me minimize this software
| | 04:31 |
instrument here by double-clicking on its
Title bar.
| | 04:34 |
Or we can just look at the rack.
So, now if I click the first chain we see
| | 04:38 |
the chorus and if I click the second
chain we see the flanger and if I want I
| | 04:42 |
can add multiple effects in each one of
these chains.
| | 04:48 |
Now, let's start off, I'm going to rename
these so I know what I'm looking at.
| | 04:50 |
So, I'll select the first chain and go
Cmd+R.
| | 04:53 |
And I'm going to call that chorus.
And let me choose the second one.
| | 04:57 |
And I'll call that flanger.
And if I want I can set differing levels
| | 05:01 |
for the two presets.
And I can also set different panning for that.
| | 05:06 |
So maybe if I wanted to pan one of these
right and one of these left.
| | 05:09 |
I can do that.
And let me play a cord and let's hear
| | 05:11 |
what that sounds like.
Looks like I need to record enable a track.
| | 05:15 |
(music playing) So, you can hear the two
different effects.
| | 05:20 |
If you want to hear them separately, you
can press the Solo button, and now I
| | 05:24 |
should just hear the chorus.
(music playing) Just on the right side.
| | 05:29 |
Now let's check out the flanger.
(music playing) And that one is just on the left side.
| | 05:35 |
And as I said, if we want to balance that
a little bit, we can do that.
| | 05:39 |
Now, I'm going to get out of that track
and go to the next one and I'll record
| | 05:42 |
enable that, because I've tricked this
one out a little bit.
| | 05:45 |
I've actually got five effects on here,
and I've named them phaser, eq, and so
| | 05:50 |
and so forth.
And then the last one, I want to show you
| | 05:54 |
that I actually took a second audio
effect rack and I dropped it in the chain
| | 05:58 |
list which gave me a nested rack.
And then inside that rack I actually put
| | 06:04 |
three chorus devices and then I set up
slightly different settings for each one
| | 06:08 |
of those.
And then I pan those right center and left.
| | 06:13 |
So let me solo that just to start off, so
you can hear how rich the sound I was
| | 06:16 |
able to create there.
(audio playing) Subtle, but yet I got differing
| | 06:22 |
things going on, on left and right.
So it's a really nice way to work.
| | 06:28 |
So I did this because I wanted to show
you one more thing that we get in an
| | 06:31 |
audio effect rack.
And that's this little button up here
| | 06:34 |
that says chain.
So I'm going to click on that.
| | 06:37 |
And this opens up this little area here.
And this shows me MIDI values from zero
| | 06:42 |
to 127.
And what I can do is I can set up
| | 06:45 |
different areas where the different
effects will be active.
| | 06:49 |
So I'm going to start by grabbing this
little bar graph, it's really hard to see
| | 06:52 |
there on the left-hand side, and I'm
going to move my cursor until I see the trim.
| | 06:57 |
And I'm going to pull that all the way
across.
| | 06:59 |
Now I'm doing that because when you have
one of those bar graphs going all the way
| | 07:03 |
across, you can actually right-click on
it.
| | 07:06 |
And you can choose this option,
Distribute Ranges Equally, from the
| | 07:09 |
Contextual menu.
And so now I see that I've got an area
| | 07:12 |
from zero to 24 that is going to be the
phaser, and from 24 up to 48 the EQ, and
| | 07:16 |
so on and so forth.
So now, I'll grab this little marker up
| | 07:22 |
here at the top, and if it's anywhere in
this range we'll hear the phaser.
| | 07:27 |
(music playing) If I pull it over here, we're
going to hear the EQ that I set up
| | 07:32 |
(music playing).
| | 07:35 |
Over here, I'm going to hear the auto-pan
(music playing), and over here the delay (music playing)
| | 07:40 |
, and last, I'll hear the chorus (music playing)
.
| | 07:45 |
Now, if you want, you could overlap these
areas, and then add a cross fade.
| | 07:49 |
So, what I'm going to start off by doing,
is I'm going to shift-click the top four
| | 07:52 |
devices there.
And then, I'm going to move my cursor to
| | 07:56 |
the edge of one of those bar graphs and
click and drag, and you'll notice that
| | 07:59 |
the selected items are all increasing
their range.
| | 08:04 |
And then I'll go to the little bar graph
that's on the top and I'm going to pull
| | 08:08 |
that over so that I can actually cross
fade that.
| | 08:14 |
Then I'll select the bottom four and I'm
going to grab the little cross fade bar
| | 08:18 |
graph on the left-hand side and pull that
over.
| | 08:23 |
And as you can see, I've set up
crossfades between the different devices.
| | 08:29 |
So, now if I grab the little chain
activator, and put it over here on the
| | 08:33 |
bottom, I should just hear phaser.
And if I put it here in between those two
| | 08:39 |
where the crossfade is, I should hear
both of those.
| | 08:42 |
(audio playing) Again if I move it over there.
(audio playing) I'm hearing multiple effects.
| | 08:48 |
That's kind of cool but you might ask,
well how would you actually use that?
| | 08:54 |
I'm going to go up here onto the clip
that I've got.
| | 08:58 |
And let me double-click that so I can
move over and actually see that.
| | 09:02 |
And I'm going to activate the show or
hide envelope button and because I had
| | 09:07 |
clicked that chain selector, it's
actually showing here in the envelope chooser.
| | 09:14 |
And now if I scroll up and down we will
see that I have got from zero to a 127.
| | 09:21 |
And now if I draw in any clip automation
I could actually set it to change from
| | 09:25 |
effect to effect as this clip plays.
So let me activate my Pencil tool, and
| | 09:31 |
and I'll draw in a little bit that's
going to activate just the phaser, and
| | 09:35 |
then let's pull this up.
I want to make sure that I get into the
| | 09:40 |
next one for the next chord.
And move that over, and then I'll go to
| | 09:45 |
the next chord and move that even higher.
And then on the last one, I'll move that
| | 09:52 |
way up.
Now, let's just play the clip and let's
| | 09:55 |
see what that sounds like as it changes
effects.
| | 10:14 |
(audio playing) As you can see, that might be
really useful as you're trying to change
| | 10:17 |
effects in the middle of a set.
And also in Live performance if you've
| | 10:21 |
got a roads patch that you want to use
and you want to have several different effects.
| | 10:25 |
You can assign that chain selector to one
of your knobs and you'll be able to
| | 10:28 |
change effects by simply dialing that in
the middle of playing.
| | 10:32 |
I'm guessing that like my first
experience with racks, this discussion
| | 10:35 |
got your attention.
Not only can you save multiple effects as
| | 10:38 |
a rack for use in another set.
But you can set them up in series, in
| | 10:41 |
parallel, or a combination of the two.
All which allows you to shape a track
| | 10:45 |
exactly the way you want.
| | 10:47 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Utilizing instrument racks| 00:00 |
Layering synth and sampler parts requires
multiple tracks in (INAUDIBLE).
| | 00:04 |
Let's take a look at how Live racks can
be used to combine multiple instruments
| | 00:08 |
and effects capable of delivering complex
sounds on a single track.
| | 00:12 |
So let's start by just taking a look at
an existing preset instrument rack.
| | 00:16 |
So, let's go in the Instrument category.
And down to Instrument rack now open that
| | 00:21 |
up, lets go down to Pad I will just
choose the first one and put that on the
| | 00:24 |
first track.
So I see the marker here the beginning
| | 00:28 |
and I see the rounded edges so that I
know I am in a rack.
| | 00:32 |
When I click over here I can see the two
chains that are set up and when I choose
| | 00:36 |
the first one and go over here to the
right I see the bracket of another rack.
| | 00:43 |
So let me click the Show High Chain list
there, so I've got something called Snow Pad.
| | 00:48 |
And when I actually go inside that I've
got another rack.
| | 00:52 |
And when I look at what's there, pull
that over.
| | 00:55 |
I can see that there's a chord plug-in.
It looks like we're transposing the pitch
| | 01:00 |
that you play up a fifth and down a
fifth, and then I finally see the actual
| | 01:04 |
virtual instrument.
Looks like we've got an operator here,
| | 01:08 |
and then over on the right edge of that,
well, I can see outside this rack it
| | 01:12 |
looks like there is a reverb and a Ping
Pong delay, that all of these chains are
| | 01:16 |
passing through.
So let's go back over here a little bit,
| | 01:22 |
an I'm going to solo, the, first side
just so we can hear what's going on there.
| | 01:29 |
(audio playing) So I'm playing one pitch.
(audio playing) And I can hear the transposition
| | 01:35 |
up and down the fifth.
Now lets take a look at the next one.
| | 01:38 |
So I'll select that, and when I select
that, I can see that.
| | 01:42 |
There's also a nested rack inside of this
one.
| | 01:45 |
And it looks like we've got two things
going on.
| | 01:48 |
I've got this star shower.
And I see another operator virtual instrument.
| | 01:52 |
And if I click the bottom one.
I can see that there's another preset an
| | 01:56 |
a different virtual instrument there.
Now inside each one of these, I can see
| | 02:01 |
it looks like there is an arpeggiator
effect.
| | 02:04 |
An so I've soloed that chain, an now I'm
going to solo the first instrument that's
| | 02:08 |
inside that.
And I'm going to hold down the note, I'm
| | 02:12 |
going to hear what that's doing.
(music playing) So again, I held down a single
| | 02:16 |
note it's being arpeggiated at 16th note.
I can see that it's being shifted one
| | 02:24 |
time up an octive.
Now when I click the lower one there's
| | 02:28 |
another arpeggiator.
This one set at an eighth note.
| | 02:32 |
And it's also set to shift and transpose
up one time an octave.
| | 02:37 |
And lets hear what that sounds like.
(audio playing) And when I turn all of that on.
| | 02:47 |
And hold down a note.
What do we get?
| | 02:50 |
(audio playing) So a really beautiful complex
sound.
| | 02:55 |
Let's see how we can do this from
scratch.
| | 02:58 |
So let me disable that.
And I'm going to go back up in here to
| | 03:01 |
the instrument rack, and I'm going to
drag and empty rack on top of this second
| | 03:04 |
midi track.
So we see the outside edges of this, and
| | 03:09 |
I'm going to go back into my instruments
now and I'm going to add a couple of
| | 03:12 |
virtual instruments.
So lets grab electric and I'm going to go
| | 03:17 |
in there and lets get just a simple
electric piano sound.
| | 03:22 |
So I'll drop that in.
And then so that I could add a second one
| | 03:25 |
inside this rack.
I'm going to show hide the chain list by
| | 03:28 |
clicking on the button.
So I can see that I got one chain there.
| | 03:33 |
And while I'm at it, I'm going to go
ahead, I'm going to go into the Audio
| | 03:36 |
Effects category, and I'm going to add a
chorus to that.
| | 03:39 |
So I'll just grab the default chorus and
I'm going to drag and drop it.
| | 03:43 |
Now notice that I can put it right inside
that bracket next to the virtual instrument.
| | 03:48 |
So let me just play a chord, and let's
hear what we got.
| | 03:53 |
(music playing) So a single virtual instrument
playing through a single effect.
| | 03:57 |
Now, let's go back over and I'm going to
go back into my instruments and let's
| | 04:01 |
close this one up.
So.
| | 04:03 |
I'm going to press my left arrow.
Close that category, and let's go into
| | 04:08 |
Operator, and into the Pads Area.
And I've already searched out and found
| | 04:15 |
one that is called Slow Sweep so I'm
going to click and drag that preset.
| | 04:20 |
Now I'm not going to drag it on top of
the existing chain.
| | 04:23 |
I'm going to drag it in the area below
that and that will add a second chain.
| | 04:28 |
So if I solo that one and play a chord,
(audio playing).
| | 04:34 |
We can hear that sound.
And that's detuned just a little bit too
| | 04:37 |
much to my taste and I can see its
probably on the second oscillator so I'm
| | 04:40 |
going to pull that down a little bit so
its not quite so drastic.
| | 04:44 |
(audio playing) And I'm doing that because I want
it to be more in tune with the rhodes patch.
| | 04:52 |
So let me unsolo that, and let's hear
both of them together.
| | 04:55 |
(music playing) So you can here the rhodes has
the attack and then this pad actually
| | 05:00 |
kind of sweeps in and fills in the back
end.
| | 05:05 |
Again within the chain itself I've got
the ability to set the levels differently.
| | 05:10 |
So, if I want the rhodes a little louder
and the other pad to be a little bit
| | 05:13 |
softer I can pull that down and do that.
I can pan them to different speakers.
| | 05:18 |
I can go one left or one right.
Right now, I actually kind of like them
| | 05:21 |
together so I'm going to leave that
alone.
| | 05:23 |
If I want I can deactivate one of the
chains from playing by clicking on that button.
| | 05:28 |
I can solo the two of them separately if
I want and if I am unhappy with one of
| | 05:32 |
the presets that I'm using, I can
actually click this Hot Swap button.
| | 05:37 |
And that'll take me right back up into
the instrument area where I can
| | 05:40 |
double-click another instrument or a
different instrument preset and exchange
| | 05:44 |
that for the preset that's currently
here.
| | 05:48 |
Now I'm happy with that, so I'm going to
go ahead and close that out and get out
| | 05:51 |
of there.
In the last movie when we talked about
| | 05:55 |
Audio Effects racks, we saw the Chain
View where we could set up separate
| | 05:58 |
ranges that would activate the different
chains to play, or make sound.
| | 06:03 |
Now in this one I'm going to click one of
the other areas.
| | 06:06 |
Let's take a look at the Key Zone editor.
So again we get these bar graphs.
| | 06:11 |
But this time I can actually see the
keyboard above here.
| | 06:14 |
And what I can actually do is very
quickly set up zones.
| | 06:17 |
So that in one area of the keyboard I'm
actually going to the rhodes.
| | 06:21 |
And in the other are I'm going to trigger
the pad.
| | 06:24 |
So for example, I'll move my cursor on
the edge of the bar graph for the road
| | 06:28 |
sound and I'm going to drag that over and
let's put that right around middle C.
| | 06:33 |
And then, I'll drag the pad and I'm not
going to go all the way to middle C.
| | 06:38 |
I'll just go a little bit lower than
that.
| | 06:39 |
Then I'm going to move my cursor up on
the skinnier bar graph, which will allow
| | 06:42 |
me across way that and I'll pull that one
that way and then I'll do that same thing
| | 06:46 |
on the one below that.
So now when I play down in this zone as I
| | 06:52 |
approach C3 I'll actually move from the
road sound up into the pad sound.
| | 06:59 |
So let's check that out.
(music playing).
| | 07:01 |
So there I'm on c2, now E, and I'm just
getting road sound.
| | 07:06 |
And now when I move up a little higher,
(music playing), can hear the road start and the
| | 07:10 |
other finish.
And if I move up another octave, (music playing)
| | 07:15 |
, I'm just getting the pad sound.
All right.
| | 07:20 |
Let me get rid of all of that real
quickly cause I want all that stuff to
| | 07:25 |
sound and let's take a look at the
velocity zone editor.
| | 07:30 |
Again, we get the bar graphs but now I
can set ranges in terms of velocity and
| | 07:33 |
that will be how hard I hit the keys.
I can actually trigger one or the other
| | 07:39 |
sound or both.
So again I'll set the roads to be on the
| | 07:42 |
soft end.
Let's make that to about 80 and I move the Crossfade.
| | 07:47 |
So I'm going to have to grab that and
pull that back over.
| | 07:51 |
And again I'll try and Crossfade those.
As I play very softly, I should hear just
| | 07:59 |
the roads.
(audio playing) And as I hit a little bit harder,
| | 08:04 |
hear both and then when I really hit it,
I only get the pad.
| | 08:13 |
Okay so all that can be really useful
specially if you gotta base sound that
| | 08:17 |
kind of been a one hand and a keyboard
sound may be in your other hand and
| | 08:20 |
you're trying to play both parts
simultaneously on the same track.
| | 08:27 |
So I'm going to hide that and now we can
see the instruments again and before we
| | 08:30 |
finish I want to do one more thing.
I want to add a reverb, this is actually
| | 08:35 |
going to effect both of these.
Now if you remember I added a chorus
| | 08:38 |
before that was only on the rhodes part
and lets just check that out.
| | 08:42 |
So, I've got the rhodes plugin.
I see the chorus.
| | 08:45 |
When I drop down to the pad, I only see
the pad plugin and I don't see any effect
| | 08:49 |
over there.
Now, if I double-click on the title bar
| | 08:53 |
of this pad I can close that down so I
can see this area out here, which is
| | 08:57 |
outside the rack.
So I'm going to go back into my Audio
| | 09:01 |
Effects area and I'm going to drag down
and grab a default Reverb and stick this
| | 09:06 |
out to the right.
And so, at this point when the media
| | 09:10 |
signal hit's this rack, it goes in and it
hits both of these devices, in paralell.
| | 09:16 |
On the rhodes side, it's going to go
through the rhodes plug in.
| | 09:19 |
And then it's going to go through this
chorus.
| | 09:22 |
I'll minimize those.
And when it goes through the pad, it's
| | 09:26 |
only going to go through pad plugin, but
as both signals leave the rack, they'll
| | 09:31 |
go through this reverb.
The only time you put a reverb directly
| | 09:35 |
in line the way I've done it here, you're
going to want to make sure that you set
| | 09:38 |
your dry/wet percentage so that we get a
combination of both the dry sound and the
| | 09:41 |
wet sound.
And so let's check out what that sounds like.
| | 09:46 |
(music playing) We can actually probably drop
that so we get a little bit more dry
| | 09:53 |
sound with the wet sound.
So creating interesting combinations of
| | 10:04 |
sounds and effects using live (INAUDIBLE)
is not only possible in live, its
| | 10:08 |
intuitive and its easy to use.
Experiment have some fun.
| | 10:12 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating drum racks| 00:00 |
Drum loops often have limited uses
because there's no way to add effects to
| | 00:03 |
a single drum instrument that's part of
the loop.
| | 00:06 |
Let's take a look at how drum racks can
solve that problem and more.
| | 00:10 |
So I've got a MIDI clip on this first
MIDI track and as yet I don't have an instrument.
| | 00:15 |
So, this time I'm going to go into the
Instruments category and I'm going to
| | 00:18 |
start with Drum Rack and I'm going to
grab the default empty drum rack and drop
| | 00:22 |
that on to this first Track.
Now it's a little bit different this time
| | 00:26 |
and I want you to notice that I get these
Pads.
| | 00:29 |
Now I can drop samples directly on to
those Pads.
| | 00:31 |
So let's do that.
You can choose the area of the keyboard
| | 00:34 |
that you're going to work in by clicking
this little box and dragging that up and down.
| | 00:38 |
And then once you get near the area you
want to be.
| | 00:40 |
If you want to move by smaller increment,
you can hold down the command key and
| | 00:43 |
then drag that.
And now I can just get that C3 row right
| | 00:47 |
here so I can see the next octave above
that.
| | 00:51 |
Now I'm going to go into my search area.
And I'm going to do a search for some
| | 00:55 |
samples, so let's look for 808, and I'll
go down to the Samples category and I'll
| | 01:00 |
grab the kick 808 and I'm going to drag
and drop that on C3.
| | 01:06 |
And I'm also going to use the open and
closed hi-hats, so let me grab the 808
| | 01:11 |
closed hi-hat and I'll drop that, there
and I'll drop the open on A# and I notice
| | 01:16 |
that I just dropped the first one on the
wrong slot.
| | 01:22 |
So, let me just click that and drag it
over and put it on the pad where I want
| | 01:25 |
it to be.
I need a couple of other things so, let
| | 01:29 |
me go up here and search for a snare,
ambient and I want one of those.
| | 01:34 |
Let's see the rest of that.
Let's get the stick hard and I'm going to
| | 01:39 |
drag and drop that on D and then I'm
going to look for woodblock.
| | 01:44 |
And I'll drag the woodblock high and put
that on E.
| | 01:50 |
Now as I click each one of these, you'll
note that it's loaded a Simpler and put
| | 01:54 |
that sample into the Simpler player.
Let's drag this back out of the way a
| | 01:59 |
little bit, and I can lose that search.
And I'll shift tabs a little bit so I can
| | 02:03 |
see the MIDI notes that have been
assigned to that, and now let's just hear
| | 02:05 |
what we've got going.
(music playing) This is pretty cool.
| | 02:14 |
I've already assigned sounds.
And I've got this set up really nicely.
| | 02:18 |
And if I want, I can go back over to the
rack, and I can show the Chain list and I
| | 02:22 |
can see the parameters here that I have
available to set.
| | 02:27 |
So I can set volume and pan right here.
But I want you to know that as I created
| | 02:32 |
this drum rack.
The track that that's on automatically
| | 02:36 |
got this Unfold button and if I click
that, it shows that there are several
| | 02:39 |
return tracks already created within this
rack.
| | 02:44 |
And the outputs of each one of these
elements of the chain are automatically
| | 02:47 |
routed onto those tracks.
So now if I want to set some panning for
| | 02:52 |
example for the hi-hats, I can pan those
to the right.
| | 02:58 |
All simple and very easy to do.
If the kit gets a little loud I can pull
| | 03:01 |
that down there and the snare maybe a
little bit.
| | 03:05 |
Now, if I want to add any signal
processing to any one of these particular
| | 03:08 |
instruments, I can just select that
instrument, and I'm going to double-click
| | 03:13 |
the title bar of that simpler virtual
instrument just to minimize that.
| | 03:19 |
And now I can go into my audio effects
and I can grab a kick conpressor and
| | 03:22 |
again I am going to drag and drop that
inside the rack right after the virtual instrument.
| | 03:29 |
So, that compressor is only affecting
this kick chain if I click the snare
| | 03:33 |
chain, I can see there's the player I
double-click that to minimize it and
| | 03:36 |
there's no effect there that is effecting
the signal that's passing through the snare.
| | 03:43 |
We get some extra choosers that we
haven't seen yet and I'm going to start
| | 03:47 |
off by clicking on this return chooser.
Now once that opens up in the bottom
| | 03:53 |
here, one of the things that I can do is
right-click that.
| | 03:56 |
And I can create a return chain within
this rack.
| | 04:00 |
So, we see that that's there and I'm
going to also go over here and click on
| | 04:05 |
this synth show/hide button.
And I get another column that opens up
| | 04:10 |
here, and one of the things that I can do
within the rack is set differing amounts
| | 04:13 |
of level that are copied on to the send.
So if I only want reverb on the snare I
| | 04:19 |
can do that and not have any reverb on
the kick.
| | 04:22 |
Now, with that return selected I can go
into my Audio Effects and, going to press
| | 04:26 |
my Left arrow to close that category.
And then I am going to drop down and
| | 04:33 |
going to the reverb area and down into
the room category and grab this drum's
| | 04:38 |
room and I can drop that effect over
there.
| | 04:43 |
So what's happening now, is any signal
that I copy on to the send with in the
| | 04:47 |
rack, will then be sent into this chain
through this drum room reverb.
| | 04:53 |
Now I'm going to delete that because
that's not the only way to set this up.
| | 04:56 |
So, highlight that and click Delete to
get rid of it.
| | 04:59 |
And then I'm going to open up that last
chooser, which is this I/O chooser and
| | 05:02 |
that opens up one more column over here
on the right.
| | 05:06 |
And you'll notice that it's greyed out on
the individual elements of the drum group
| | 05:10 |
but in the return chain, it's active and
I can click on that and I can actually
| | 05:13 |
select that to route to one of the return
tracks that's actually already on the
| | 05:17 |
session here.
Now, if I click on that return track,
| | 05:22 |
you'll see that I've already put a reverb
with a drum room preset on that.
| | 05:27 |
And I've also got the Send chain that
opened up here on these tracks when I
| | 05:32 |
created this Return chain.
So, I can either set those send levels
| | 05:37 |
here within the rack or my easier, I can
come up here and do that on these return
| | 05:41 |
tracks that are of the group.
So let me pull that up quite a bit so I
| | 05:48 |
can play this clip and we can hear that I
have got reverb only on the snare
| | 05:53 |
(music playing).
| | 05:56 |
And that's a little bit soft I will pull
that up a little bit so I can hear that
| | 05:59 |
snare just a little bit more
| | 06:01 |
(music playing).
| | 06:03 |
And you can hear that there's reverb on
that track but on nothing else.
| | 06:06 |
Another thing that I can do is, I can
actually nest another rack within this rack.
| | 06:11 |
And the reason I want to do that is
because I'm not really satisfied with
| | 06:14 |
this single sample on this kick, so I'm
going to go back up into the instruments category.
| | 06:20 |
And I'm going to grab the default
instrument rack, and I'm going to drop
| | 06:24 |
that on to the kick pad.
And now when I come over here on the kick
| | 06:28 |
pad I can see that I've got another rack.
So if I click on that, it opens up the
| | 06:33 |
rack over here on the right.
And now I can go back and do that search again.
| | 06:38 |
I'll go kick 808.
And go into my samples area, there's that
| | 06:43 |
sample again.
I'll drop that, in the sample area, and
| | 06:47 |
let me open up that chain list.
An I'm going to go back in there, an I'm
| | 06:51 |
going to choose one more that I've
already kind of looked for, an that one's
| | 06:54 |
called C78.
So let me do a search on that, grab that,
| | 06:58 |
an I'll drop that, in that track as well.
So, let's review what I've just done.
| | 07:04 |
I've got the strum rack, and I've got
individual chains for each one of the
| | 07:07 |
instruments there, but I dropped an
instrument rack on the note C3.
| | 07:12 |
And so now, when I click that, I actually
see the nested rack that's inside there.
| | 07:18 |
And I've loaded two samples.
Now, if I look at the elements here that
| | 07:22 |
are within the chain of this instrument
rack.
| | 07:25 |
I can see the note that's assigned to
trigger that.
| | 07:29 |
So when I play C3, it's going to activate
this chain and both of the samples that
| | 07:34 |
are inside that in this nested rack.
And that's just going to allow me to
| | 07:39 |
create a fatter sounding kick sound.
Now if I drag over here a little bit
| | 07:43 |
further and look at this.
If I choose the C78 I can go back into my
| | 07:47 |
audio affects area, let me get rid of
that search, and I can go back again to
| | 07:52 |
my compressor and I can find that drum
kick compressor.
| | 07:58 |
And I'll add that inside the chain or
inside the rack for that particular
| | 08:02 |
instrument and then I'll double-click
that to shut that down.
| | 08:07 |
And let me drag back over and I will
choose the first sample and again, I'm
| | 08:12 |
going to double-click the simpler to
minimize that.
| | 08:17 |
And let's grab an EQ, inside EQ eight and
I'll go in there and grab a preset, looks
| | 08:22 |
like I've got a kick EQ.
And on this one, I'll put it to that one,
| | 08:29 |
and I'm going to put it right after the
preset.
| | 08:32 |
So, now when I choose the first one we
see I've got the 808, and then the EQ.
| | 08:37 |
And then when I choose the second one
I've got the C78, and I've got the compressor.
| | 08:44 |
Now last but not least I want to show you
that, we've got an additional column here
| | 08:48 |
that 's called choke.
And I am going to hide the return chain
| | 08:52 |
here just for a second so I can see that
more clearly and I can assign multiple
| | 08:56 |
samples to a choke group and that will
allow me to choke a sample when one of
| | 09:00 |
the other members of that group is
triggered via the pad.
| | 09:06 |
So, for example I've got these two
hi-hats and I don't want the open and the
| | 09:09 |
closed hi-hats samples ringing at the
same time.
| | 09:13 |
So, I'm going to click one of those and
assign that to one of the 16 available
| | 09:16 |
groups and then I'll assign the other one
to the same group.
| | 09:21 |
So, if I trigger the F# on the hi-hat
(audio playing) I hear the closed one (audio playing),
| | 09:24 |
and then the open one, so if I trigger
that (audio playing) and then quickly trigger the
| | 09:28 |
other one.
It'll actually choke the open hi-hat from sounding.
| | 09:34 |
So, now you know how to set up a drum
rack, which will allow you to both layer
| | 09:37 |
samples and add effects to individual
elements of the drum set.
| | 09:42 |
Remember to use drum rack to save complex
combinations, of drum set instruments and
| | 09:46 |
effect devices, for use in your other
live sets.
| | 09:49 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with rack macros| 00:00 |
With each effect or instrument device,
there's often a few parameters that need
| | 00:03 |
repeated adjustment.
Finding those parameters can be a pain.
| | 00:07 |
So let's take a look at how frequently
accessed parameters can be mapped to a
| | 00:10 |
live macro for easy access via your
controller.
| | 00:13 |
So I've got an impulse instrument set up
on this first MIDI track, and I'm going
| | 00:18 |
to select the Title bar on that and right
click and choose Group which puts that
| | 00:22 |
inside of a rack.
Now, I'm doing that because I want to get
| | 00:27 |
access to the macro.
So, I'll click the Show/hide button here
| | 00:30 |
just below the group activator button and
that opens that up.
| | 00:33 |
Now, I can map these macros to any
parameter on the device over here.
| | 00:38 |
So, let's go ahead and click the Map
button.
| | 00:40 |
And I'll chose the kick parameter and
anything that's green can be mapped.
| | 00:45 |
So, I am going to select the volume for
that kick.
| | 00:48 |
And then I'll click the Map button over
here to map that on to that macro.
| | 00:51 |
And when I did that you notice that there
is a little green square that appeared in
| | 00:55 |
the upper left-hand corner of that
parameter.
| | 00:58 |
And if I go out of Map mode, you'll
notice that I can no longer adjust that.
| | 01:03 |
I have to go over to the macro to do
that.
| | 01:06 |
Now if that's not what you want, you can
go ahead and click the Map button and I
| | 01:09 |
can select that parameter, and I can
click Unmap.
| | 01:13 |
And I'm back where I started and I can
continue mapping other parameters.
| | 01:17 |
But let's go ahead and remap that, I'll
select that, click Map.
| | 01:21 |
Then I'll click the second slot so I can
get at its parameters and I'll choose
| | 01:25 |
Volume again and map that one.
The next one, I'll map that and the
| | 01:30 |
fourth one, I'll do that.
And then for number eight I'll go ahead
| | 01:34 |
and I'll get the global volume for that
and map that down onto the last macro.
| | 01:41 |
Now I'm going to go back out of Map mode,
and as I did that, you'll notice that all
| | 01:44 |
of those dip down to their minimum
setting.
| | 01:47 |
So I'm going to go ahead and raise those
back up.
| | 01:51 |
Now I was doing that by mouse, but I
should have gone to my controller.
| | 01:54 |
Now if the rack is selected and you're
using a device that has instant mapping.
| | 01:58 |
Those instantly map onto the eight
control knobs.
| | 02:01 |
So as I go to knob number one, you can
see that I haven't had to do any
| | 02:03 |
additional mapping and it's already being
controlled by my controller.
| | 02:08 |
So I'll go to knob three and pull that
up, knob four and get that, and knob
| | 02:11 |
number eight, and I've immediately got
control of that.
| | 02:16 |
So, that's only using a single device.
Now, let's go over to the second track here.
| | 02:20 |
And I've got a chain of devices here that
includes a MIDI arpeggiator Plug in, and
| | 02:24 |
then a virtual instrument.
And then, a couple of audio effects.
| | 02:29 |
So I'm going to click your Arpeggiator.
And then I'm going to Shift click the
| | 02:32 |
last device so that I can select all of
them.
| | 02:35 |
And then I'm going to right-click on the
title bar of any of these and choose Group.
| | 02:40 |
And now if I look at this over on the
left edge, I can see that I've got the
| | 02:43 |
rack bracket.
And if I pan over to the right, I'll see
| | 02:46 |
that I've got a rack bracket on the
outside on the last device.
| | 02:50 |
Now I want to start by mapping the
frequency and residence knobs here on
| | 02:54 |
this device over to the macros.
So let's click the Show/hide button
| | 02:59 |
again, to show that macro.
I'll go into Map mode.
| | 03:03 |
I'm going to click the Frequency knob on
that oscillator.
| | 03:06 |
And then click the Map button and macro
one.
| | 03:09 |
But I'm also going to map the resonance
to the same knob on that macro.
| | 03:13 |
Now when I did that, you'll notice that
I've got minimum and maximum values that
| | 03:16 |
I can set up here for that.
So I'm going to go ahead and do that.
| | 03:20 |
I've already messed around with this a
little bit, so I know what I want.
| | 03:23 |
So let's set that one to around 350, and
I'll set the upper range to about 5k.
| | 03:29 |
And let's set the resonance on the low
end to 20% and on the high end to around 50%.
| | 03:36 |
And just so I can check that, I'm
going to go out of Map mode.
| | 03:39 |
Let me grab that first knob all right, it's
assigned and working correctly.
| | 03:43 |
And if I look over here on the actual
virtual instrument, I can see that it's
| | 03:46 |
actually moving both of those.
And let's play that clip and just see
| | 03:54 |
what it sounds like.
(music playing) Okay I can see that I've got the
| | 04:00 |
range set that I was looking for.
Now lets go back down to the macro and
| | 04:04 |
I'm going to double-click that to close
that up.
| | 04:08 |
And I want to name that macro so that I
know what that's being used for.
| | 04:11 |
So I'm going to click that button and
then I'll go Cmd+R ,that would be Ctrl+R
| | 04:16 |
on a PC.
Now, I can name that filter sweep.
| | 04:20 |
And let's also, map some more stuff to
that.
| | 04:24 |
So, let me reopen this synth up, and I'm
going to go into Map mode again, and I'm
| | 04:29 |
going to map the global volume on that to
the macro number two.
| | 04:35 |
And then, I'll double-click that to
minimize that again.
| | 04:38 |
And let me grab the shape on the auto-pan
and map that to macro three, and the
| | 04:43 |
dry/wet and map that to macro four.
Then I'll go back out of Map mode and let
| | 04:49 |
me choose the Rack real quick.
Gotta do that so I can access these via
| | 04:53 |
instant mapping.
And let me move the knob number three,
| | 04:57 |
you'll see the auto pan shape changing.
And when I go to knob number four, you
| | 05:02 |
can see that the dry wet parameter is
changing as I do that one.
| | 05:08 |
Now, a very important part of this, is
selecting the actual rack itself, to be
| | 05:11 |
able to use instant mapping.
So, if I come over and just select the
| | 05:15 |
Auto pan.
And start moving knobs, you'll notice
| | 05:19 |
that those knobs are reassigned via
instant mapping and I'm now changing
| | 05:21 |
other parameters.
I go over to chorus, I can see that knob
| | 05:25 |
number two is now moving the rate there
for the modulation.
| | 05:29 |
And if I go back to the instrument rack,
I move knob number two.
| | 05:33 |
You can see that that's set on the volume
output on the polysynth.
| | 05:38 |
So, as you move from track to track and
device to device.
| | 05:41 |
The mapping assignments and instant
mapping will automatically remap and
| | 05:44 |
allow you to make those adjustments.
So, one you get an effect, instrument or
| | 05:48 |
drum rack set up and adjusted, assign the
most often used parameters to the racks macro.
| | 05:54 |
Then when you need to record automation
in your live set or use live in performance.
| | 05:58 |
Those parameters will automatically be
available on your MIDI controller via
| | 06:01 |
instant mapping.
| | 06:03 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
18. Max for LiveIntroducing Max for Live| 00:00 |
For the last two decades, the program Max
has been used by composers, software
| | 00:03 |
developers, and advanced computer music
enthusiasts, as a tool to create devices
| | 00:06 |
for multimedia production, and live
performance.
| | 00:11 |
Starting with Live 8, Abelton and Cycling
74, the developers of Max, collaborated
| | 00:14 |
to create Max for Live, an app that
allows Live users to create and use Max
| | 00:17 |
devices in their live sets.
Let's take a look at how you set up Live
| | 00:22 |
9 to work with Max.
So Max for Live is included with Live
| | 00:26 |
Suite 9, and it can be purchased as an
add-on to Live Standard 9.
| | 00:30 |
You can download Max for Live from your
Ableton user account.
| | 00:32 |
Let's go out there, you're on your
account and can go to the software tab.
| | 00:36 |
You'll end up here where you can download
both Live 9 and Max for Live.
| | 00:41 |
And once you've downloaded that and
installed that you'll need to go to the
| | 00:44 |
Cycling 74 page, and purchase download
and install Max.
| | 00:49 |
Next you'll need to set the path to Max
in Live.
| | 00:51 |
So, I'm going to go up to Live,
Preferences and that's under the Live
| | 00:54 |
menu on a Mac or the Options menu on a
PC.
| | 00:57 |
Then select the File Folder tab, and then
in the Max application area, there's a
| | 01:01 |
Browse button where you can browse your
hard drive, and find your Max folder, and
| | 01:05 |
then click the Open button to establish
that path.
| | 01:10 |
Once you've done that, it will show here
under the Max application title.
| | 01:14 |
The actual Max devices don't come with
the basic install of Live, so you'll
| | 01:17 |
actually need to go and download those as
well.
| | 01:20 |
So, I'm going to go back to the Ableton
website, and if you click the packs tab
| | 01:24 |
and then choose Max for Live under the
category.
| | 01:28 |
It will show you all the different Max
for Live Ableton Live packs that are available.
| | 01:32 |
And you can download and install those.
And once you've done that they'll show up
| | 01:36 |
in the Max for Live category in the
browser.
| | 01:39 |
And there are audio effects, media
effects and instrument devices.
| | 01:42 |
Let me go into the media effect category,
and I'm just going to drag and drop one
| | 01:45 |
of these onto the track.
Let me get the note echo, and I'll put
| | 01:49 |
that before the software instrument that
I've already preloaded here.
| | 01:54 |
And notice that it's allowing me to put
that before the device, but not after it
| | 01:57 |
because that's a MIDI device.
So I'll release that, and if you've just
| | 02:02 |
opened Live, the first time that you use
a Max device, you'll actually see the Max
| | 02:06 |
for Live application open up.
Now, with Live 9 all the Max devices have
| | 02:11 |
kind of the same general look, with this
kind of grey and blue look.
| | 02:16 |
Now the one that I've chosen, this note
echo is like the audio effect that Live
| | 02:20 |
has for simple delay, in this case, it's
MIDI.
| | 02:24 |
So, as you play a MIDI note it's going to
come into this device and it's going to
| | 02:27 |
delay or add delays to that based upon
16th notes.
| | 02:31 |
So, I can do this one,16th, two, three
and four, and that's going to give you
| | 02:34 |
for example if I choose two and eighth
note delay for a quarter note delay.
| | 02:39 |
So, let me record enable the track.
I've pulled the level down a little bit,
| | 02:43 |
because this is actually a little bit
loud, and I'll trigger a note here, and
| | 02:46 |
we should hear several delays.
(audio playing) Now, the number of delays that
| | 02:51 |
we're getting is controlled by this
feedback.
| | 02:56 |
So, if I pull that down, I'll get a few
less.
| | 02:59 |
(music playing) And there's some other
interesting features here.
| | 03:00 |
For example, I can actually have Live
transpose the delay.
| | 03:01 |
So, if I pull that up, let's say, plus
seven, so that I get that a 5th above and
| | 03:08 |
trigger that again, each delay will
actually transpose up a 5th.
| | 03:18 |
(music playing) Now one additional thing that you
get on Max for Live devices is an edit
| | 03:22 |
button that's up here in the title bar.
So, if I go ahead and click that, it'll
| | 03:28 |
actually see that grey out.
And then the Max application will open
| | 03:34 |
and we'll actually see the device in Max.
Now, if you go up to the View menu and
| | 03:39 |
choose Status Bar.
You get some controls along the bottom here.
| | 03:44 |
And one of the things that you can do is
switch into patching mode which actually
| | 03:47 |
shows you how this has been laid out with
the objects that are available in Max to
| | 03:51 |
edit and create these kinds of devices.
So, at this point you can edit and save
| | 03:57 |
your changes to the device.
And when you're done with that you can go
| | 04:01 |
back up to the File menu, and choose
Close, and at that point when you come
| | 04:04 |
back into Live, the device is ready to
use again.
| | 04:08 |
So, if you're interested in learning how
to edit and build these Max devices you
| | 04:11 |
can go to a couple places.
First of all you can go to the Ableton
| | 04:15 |
page and look for the, How to get started
with Max for Live.
| | 04:19 |
And if you scroll downways here you'll
see that there are some tutorials for
| | 04:23 |
programming with Max for Live.
You can also go to the Cycling 74 web
| | 04:27 |
page and click Support, then Tutorials,
and there's a lot of information here.
| | 04:33 |
You can also go to the Cycling 74,
YouTube channel for more tutorials.
| | 04:39 |
So, as you can see, Max for Live has
opened up the whole Max community to Live users.
| | 04:43 |
Maybe you just want to take advantage of
the many devices that max users have
| | 04:45 |
created for Live, but if you're up to the
challenge, try editing and building a max
| | 04:48 |
device yourself.
| | 04:50 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring the Mono Sequencer in Max for Live| 00:00 |
Of the mini max devices that became
available with Live Suite 9, I was
| | 00:03 |
excited to find Mono Sequencer, because
I've always found step sequencers useful
| | 00:06 |
and fun to use.
Its also a great example of the kinds of
| | 00:10 |
max devices that are available.
Let's take a look and see how Mono
| | 00:13 |
Sequencer works.
Let's go into the max for live category
| | 00:16 |
in the browser, and let's go into the
MIDI Effect subfolder, and I'm going to
| | 00:19 |
grab Mono Sequencer and drag and drop
that before this software instrument that
| | 00:22 |
have already preloaded here.
So, to start out with, you won't actually
| | 00:27 |
hear what Mono Sequencer does, until you
actually start playback.
| | 00:31 |
And you can do that by hitting the space
bar.
| | 00:32 |
Let's check that out.
(music playing) So, you hear a pulsing.
| | 00:38 |
That's actually doing that out of 16th
note at the current tempo of the set,
| | 00:42 |
which is on 117 bpm.
Now, if you want that to pulse at a
| | 00:45 |
different rhythmic value, you can click
that drop down menu.
| | 00:48 |
You could choose.
Another rhythmic value like a Quarter
| | 00:51 |
Note or a Half Note, let's just try a
Quarter Note, listen to what that sounds
| | 00:55 |
like, (audio playing).
So you can hear that it's pulsing slower
| | 00:59 |
at a Quarter Note, let's go back to a
16th Note.
| | 01:02 |
If you want you can change the number of
steps here but I'm going to leave it at
| | 01:05 |
16, you can also enable swing value, so
if I click the Swing On it's going to
| | 01:08 |
delay every other note.
Let's listen to what that sounds like.
| | 01:13 |
(audio playing) I'm going to turn that off.
I'm going to, do this one at a straight feel.
| | 01:21 |
Now if we go over into this area, we
actually have several different sequencer
| | 01:24 |
lanes, the first one is pitch.
This will actually transpose based upon
| | 01:28 |
whatever MIDI notes are coming in.
So, let me just set a few of these.
| | 01:32 |
So, let me go to beat two, which will
start on five here.
| | 01:35 |
I'll drag that up to let's say a fifth,
and I'm going to go over here after beat
| | 01:38 |
three and I'm going to pull a couple of
these down.
| | 01:42 |
I like to use flat sevens.
And then I'm going to go down in this
| | 01:50 |
bottom lane and I'm going to turn a few
of these steps off by clicking on these
| | 01:54 |
areas right here.
So we pull that off.
| | 01:58 |
So let me play that so you can hear what
that sounds like.
| | 02:01 |
(music playing) So, that sounds a little bit more
like a bass line.
| | 02:08 |
I'm actually going to go over here in the
transpose field, and I'm going to pull
| | 02:11 |
that down a couple octaves.
So, that's by half steps.
| | 02:15 |
So, I've set that down 24 half steps.
Let's check it out now.
| | 02:18 |
(music playing).
And you can hear the gaps where I've
| | 02:20 |
actually turned off these steps.
Now, let's go to the velocity lane, and
| | 02:26 |
I'm just going to draw in a random
velocity change on some of this.
| | 02:31 |
So, I'm just clicking and dragging.
And let's check that out.
| | 02:39 |
(music playing) So there must be some kind of a
velocity modulation happening in the
| | 02:42 |
virtual instrument that I loaded, and we
can hear that.
| | 02:46 |
Now I want to show you that you can
actually change the length of the
| | 02:48 |
sequence by clicking and dragging up here
on the bar at the top.
| | 02:51 |
And that's independent for each one of
these lanes.
| | 02:54 |
So I'm going to pull this velocity lane
down, and let's do that in odd values, so
| | 02:57 |
that as it repeats, it's doing that,
almost randomly.
| | 03:01 |
And if I go back to the pitch lane, you
notice it's still at 16, so that will
| | 03:05 |
repeat at 16 steps, the velocity will
repeat at 11.
| | 03:09 |
Let's check that out.
(audio playing) So you can see that, that's doing
| | 03:16 |
that at a different rate.
Now each time I hit my spacebar.
| | 03:21 |
You'll notice that it's starting from the
place that I last stopped.
| | 03:24 |
Let's check that out.
(audio playing) If you don't want that to happen
| | 03:27 |
you can actually sync it to the transport
by going over here in the transport
| | 03:30 |
category, and right now where it says
furry click that, and it will turn to sync.
| | 03:36 |
And now each time you start it will
actually start at the beginning of the
| | 03:41 |
sequence (audio playing).
Okay, let's do a couple more here.
| | 03:45 |
Let's go to the Octave category, and
let's set an octave offset.
| | 03:48 |
Now, this will go up or down three
octaves, and I'm just going to randomly
| | 03:52 |
pull up an octave here and maybe an
octave down over there.
| | 03:57 |
And again, I'm going to set the sequence
at a different value.
| | 04:00 |
Let's set that at seven.
(music playing) Okay, so you can hear it randomly
| | 04:04 |
offsetting things an octave up or an
octave down.
| | 04:08 |
I'm also going to go into duration, an
I'm going to change the length of some of
| | 04:13 |
these notes by clicking an dragging
across here.
| | 04:18 |
Let's check that out.
(music playing) And I'm going to make these just
| | 04:29 |
a little bit shorter.
(music playing) And again, I'll change the length
| | 04:36 |
of that sequence.
And let's make that one, again, another
| | 04:39 |
odd value.
I'll put that at 13.
| | 04:41 |
Now I've got a clip up here on the track,
and if I Shift+Tab, we can see that I've
| | 04:45 |
just got a whole note C and a whole note
B flat set there.
| | 04:49 |
Now that's going to cause this pitch
sequence to transpose, because I've got
| | 04:52 |
the MIDI input settings set to transpose.
And we'll actually see that change here.
| | 04:57 |
As we play the sequence, now let's hear
that with the drum kit that I've already
| | 05:00 |
got in the set, and I'm going to fire off
this scene.
| | 05:04 |
(music playing) So we saw that actually go from
24, to minus 26, as the clip played on
| | 05:11 |
that track an it went from the C down to
the B-flat.
| | 05:20 |
So as you can see, Mono Sequencer is
really a useful device.
| | 05:24 |
Next time you need to create a base line,
or you want to randomize a repeating
| | 05:27 |
part, try using Mono Sequencer.
| | 05:30 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
19. Working with VideoWorking with video files| 00:00 |
In this day and age, it's increasingly
important to composers of musical genres
| | 00:03 |
be able to provide music for video and
film.
| | 00:06 |
Let's take a look at how you can import
video into a live set and export a video
| | 00:09 |
that includes your music.
So, I'm in the arrangement view in Live
| | 00:13 |
because we can only use video in
arrangement view.
| | 00:16 |
So to import video into a live set all we
need to do is drag or drop that from a
| | 00:20 |
finder or an explorer window.
So, let me go out to my Finder Window and
| | 00:24 |
I'm going to go into the Exercise folder
and there's a videos file folder in there
| | 00:28 |
and I've got two clips for us to use.
Let me grab that first one here, and I'll
| | 00:33 |
drag and drop that on the timeline there
and the second one, drop that one there.
| | 00:39 |
Now back in Live we can see that there is
a video window and you can move that around.
| | 00:44 |
If you want to open and close that, you
can go up to the View menu and disable
| | 00:48 |
the video window or if you want to use a
key command that would be Option Cmd+V on
| | 00:52 |
a Mac and Alt Control+V on a PC.
Open and close that.
| | 00:58 |
You'll notice that the clips are actually
on an audio track.
| | 01:02 |
And I can tell these are video clips
because they have these little sprocket
| | 01:05 |
edges on them.
And then below that I can see the audio
| | 01:08 |
wave forms.
So one clip doesn't have any audio, and
| | 01:11 |
the second one does.
Now when we do the balance later on, if
| | 01:14 |
we don't want the audio on that second
clip to be included.
| | 01:18 |
We can just come over here and disable
the track activator button and now we
| | 01:21 |
won't get any audio there.
I'm going to put that chooser back on
| | 01:25 |
none so I don't have to look at that
automation line.
| | 01:28 |
So we have the rudimentary ability to
edit these video clips by moving them
| | 01:32 |
around on the timeline or by trimming
their edges.
| | 01:35 |
Now you'll notice that I have both these
clips on the same track, you can actually
| | 01:38 |
have multiple video clips in a Live set
and they can be on different tracks.
| | 01:42 |
But only one can play at a time.
So I'll typically put multiple clips on
| | 01:45 |
the same track.
Now, let me grab this first one, and I'll
| | 01:49 |
move that over to the beginning of the
set.
| | 01:51 |
And you'll notice that it's snapping to
grid as I work.
| | 01:53 |
And if you don't want that, you can
disable the grid by going Cmd+4 on a Mac
| | 01:57 |
or Ctrrl+4 on a PC.
And now I can click this second one, and
| | 02:01 |
I can move that freely.
And you'll notice that I can actually
| | 02:03 |
drag that on top of the first clip to
overlap them.
| | 02:06 |
And the one that's on top will actually
play.
| | 02:08 |
And again if I move my cursor to the clip
edge, I can trim that shorter.
| | 02:12 |
But in this case not longer because there
isn't any video past the end of that clip endpoint.
| | 02:17 |
Now let me, drop down here an I'm going
to, trim the, length of my, demo song
| | 02:21 |
that we've got here.
An I'll make that just a little bit
| | 02:24 |
longer than the end of that video.
An I'm going to zoom in there, an I'm
| | 02:28 |
going to go over to the automation
chooser and I'm going to choose fades.
| | 02:32 |
So I can change the length of this fade
as we get to the end of the video clip.
| | 02:38 |
So, if there's any hits that we need to
line up the music to in the video you may
| | 02:41 |
want to be able see time code in the live
set.
| | 02:45 |
So I'm going to drop down here to the
time ruler and I'm going to right-click
| | 02:48 |
on that.
And you'll notice we have the typical
| | 02:51 |
options here for U.S film, European frame
rates and then doctor my video and color video.
| | 02:58 |
And I should probably set that to
whatever the frame rate of this video is.
| | 03:01 |
So let me go back to the finder and I'm
going to double-click one of these to
| | 03:04 |
open it up in QuickTime.
So that I can open the inspector, which
| | 03:08 |
will show me what the frame rate is.
And it looks like that is 29.979 drop frame.
| | 03:12 |
So I can close that and let's go back
here and I'll right-click again on the
| | 03:18 |
time ruler and I'll choose 29.979 drop.
Okay, so, before we bounce this, let's
| | 03:24 |
check at this out real quick and see if
we like it.
| | 03:27 |
So set this back to the beginning and hit
play.
| | 03:30 |
(music playing)
| | 03:32 |
I'd like just a little bit more of a fade
out on the music.
| | 03:55 |
So let me check that real quick.
(music playing) There, that's better.
| | 04:00 |
Okay, so now I'm ready to export this.
So, I'm going to set the export length by
| | 04:04 |
using my loop brace so, I'll click and
drag that out.
| | 04:09 |
And then select it.
And now I'll go up to the File menu and
| | 04:11 |
choose Export Audio and Video, and once
this is all said and done.
| | 04:15 |
I'm actually going to end up with both a
video file with audio, and a separate
| | 04:18 |
audio file.
So, I'll set my audio bounce rate in this
| | 04:21 |
area, so I'm going to come from the
master.
| | 04:24 |
I don't need to normalize this or render
it as a loop.
| | 04:27 |
Let's see, I'll bounce this as an A I F F
file at 44116.
| | 04:31 |
I'm not changing the bit rate so I don't
need to use dither.
| | 04:34 |
And I've already got the create video
button enabled.
| | 04:37 |
From there I can come down and I can
choose the type of video encoder that I'm using.
| | 04:41 |
So I'm at QuickTime.
If you're exporting something for an
| | 04:44 |
iPhone, you might want to choose a
different Encoder.
| | 04:47 |
But I'll stay at QuickTime and then if
you need to edit the encoder settings,
| | 04:50 |
you can click the edit button here and we
can see what we've got here.
| | 04:54 |
So, I'm doing this as forty four one.
So let me click that, click OK, click OK.
| | 05:01 |
And now I can click OK here in the Export
dialog.
| | 05:05 |
I'll give this the name test bounce, and
I'm going to save this on the desktop, so
| | 05:08 |
let's go ahead and click Save.
All right, we're done.
| | 05:17 |
Let's check the resulting video.
I'm going to go back out to my Finder and
| | 05:21 |
let's go on the desktop and we can see
both the test bounce audio file and the
| | 05:25 |
test bounce movie.
I'm going to double-click that and open
| | 05:32 |
that up in QuickTime, and let's give that
a quick play just to check it out.
| | 05:44 |
(music playing) Okay, looks like that all worked.
So importing and exporting video from
| | 05:49 |
Ableton is a simple process.
Now you're ready to add video to your
| | 05:52 |
future live projects.
| | 05:53 |
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ConclusionNext steps| 00:00 |
Thank you for joining me for Ableton Live
9 Essential Training.
| | 00:03 |
I hope you enjoyed this course as much as
I enjoyed creating it.
| | 00:07 |
If you're interested in learning more
about Ableton Live, check out Ableton
| | 00:10 |
Live 9 for Live Performance by Yeuda
Ben-Atar.
| | 00:13 |
If you want to learn more about music
production, check out Audio Mixing Boot
| | 00:16 |
Camp with Bobby Owsinski, or Foundations
of Audio: Reverb with Alex Case.
| | 00:21 |
Thanks for watching, and see you soon.
| | 00:23 |
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