Automatic Clip Chopping with Follow Actions
August 17, 2011 2:42 pmHere’s a way to randomly chop up drum samples (while making them stay in beat) in Live.
From the manual: Follow Actions allow creating chains of clips that can trigger each other in an orderly or random way (or both).
1) Drag a bunch of warped drum samples into Live onto one track, and select them all (Command-A)
2) Down below, in the Clip View (you may have to press Shift-Tab to get there if you are currently looking at Effects/Devices) make sure the Launch settings view is open by pressing the L button.
3) Now let’s set the Follow Action time to 1/16th note (which means something will happen every 16th note)
4) Now we’ll the Follow Action for all clips to “Other” — this means that, after 1/16th note, any other clip on the track will be launched (Note that Follow Actions only work on Clips on a track touching each other).
5) If you triggered a clip above (don’t yet), you’d hear the first 16th of each clip randomly played back. But we don’t want just the first beat, we want each clip to take over the play position from whatever clip was played in that track before. To do this we press the Legato button.
You also want to set the samples to RAM (meaning they are loaded in your computers RAM so you don’t get dropouts).
Here’s a track that uses this technique:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
If you want to record this into arrangement view, just press the Global Record button up top.
Jethroe
iTunes Tips: Automatically Add to iTunes
August 3, 2011 2:55 pmAutomatically Add to iTunes
If you’re like most musicians, you probably have duplicate copies of many of your MP3s, because you dragged them from your desktop or downloads folder into iTunes, and iTunes made a copy for you.
The Automatically Add to iTunes folder is the key to eliminating a bunch of duplicates all over your computer. Go to Users/YOU/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Automatically Add to iTunes.
Right click on this folder to create an alias that you can keep on your desktop or your downloads folder,
…or just drag the folder up to your finder window header.
You can drag Mp3s into this folder and it will correctly move them to your iTunes library – and iTunes doesn’t need to be open when you do it.
You can set up another alias for the iTunes libraries you keep on your external drive. To have a second library, you’ll need to learn how to make multiple libraries…
iTunes tips: Multiple Libraries
2:52 pmA little known trick for iTunes is to hold Option as you launch iTunes, and you get this dialogue:
This is great for a few uses:
- Keep one library for your external hard drive, with your ‘big’ collection of music (I’ve got a terabyte of music that obviously doesn’t fit on my laptop).
- Keep one library for your laptop of the things you keep on your laptop.
- Keep a separate library for your Serato Scratch Live music (the stuff you DJ with).
Multiple libraries can be tricky when you have an iPhone or iPad that you sync to iTunes. Make sure to either select the correct library with all your apps before syncing.
I got tired of worrying about this, and copied the XML file from my Laptop to my external drive, along with all my Mobile Applications.
It works for me (though I have to make sure the Apps are the same on both libraries manually). But I don’t recommend doing this part, as I have no clue what I’m doing…
How to warp Multitrack audio files in Ableton Live
July 4, 2011 9:30 amUPDATE 7/5/11.
J Period schooled me on this one after only using Live for a few months! Here’s the faster way to warp multitracks. Thanks J…
[Note: Your stems need to be exactly the the same length, or this won't work. If they aren't the same length, read the old lesson below to show you how to consolidate them to the same length...]
1) In your record/warp/launch preferences, make sure that Auto Warp Long Samples is turned off.
2) In Live’s Browser, navigate to the multitracks you want to warp.
3) Drag in the drum track. Warp as you normally would (tutorial here.)
4) Click on the track name and right click to Duplicate the drum track (or press command-D)
5) Double click on the newly duplicated audio file, to make sure you see the Clip view below).
6) Drag the next multitrack stem directly from your Library onto the clip waveform down below. It will now take on the drum part’s warp markers.
7) Repeat for the rest of your stems…
[Old method below (there are some good tips for editing/fine tuning warp markers...]
By popular demand. Remember, this is probably too difficult and you’re a busy musician, so you really should just give me the multi-tracks so I can do it for you… ;)
1) In your record/warp/launch preferences, make sure that Auto Warp Long Samples is turned off.
2) In Live’s Browser, navigate to the multitracks you want to warp.
3) Click on the first audio file, hold the shift button and click on the last audio file.
4) Drag them onto an audio track in Live’s arrangement view (don’t let go of the mouse yet!)
5) Press the Command button, so that the audio files will go to parallel tracks, and release the mouse button.
6) At this point, when you press play, the multitrack should sound normal/aligned. You may want to lower the master volume a bit if it’s clipping. If they are not aligned…well you need to align them manually with the grid off, but that’s out of the scope of this lesson.
7) Select all (Command-A). If the files are the same length, you’ll see a message that says ‘X Audio Clips in X tracks Are Selected. Move on to step 8 if this is the case.
If the audio files are not the same length, you’ll see a message saying the clips have different lengths.
If this is the case, press Command-J to consolidate the tracks (and create new audio files the exact same length. Reason: Multitrack warping only works for files of the same length.
8) Press the Warp Button. You’ll see a hatch mark indicating that you will be editing multiple files at once.
9) Now you need to find one of the tracks with a good drum part to work on (it’s easier to warp this way). Once you’ve found that track, move it to the top of the screen.
10) Scroll down to the track on the bottom and click on it to select it (track 26 in this case).
11) Scroll up, hold Shift and click on the drum track you found before at the top of your screen. The last clip you select is the one you will warp, but the warping will apply to all tracks.
12) Now you have to manually warp that track. Unfortunately, “Warp from here” doesn’t work for multitrack warping, so you’ll need to adjust it manually, bar by bar, like back in the Live 4 days ;). You’ll want your metronome on while you do this.
13) It’s a good idea to rename (Command-R) all your tracks, so that once you’ve warped a multitrack file, you can always navigate to that Live Set in Live’s browser, and drag in individual tracks from other projects into the one you’re working on.
Scene Launching at Set BPM…
June 22, 2011 8:07 pmHey yall,
been awhile since a new tip. Here’s a quick one:
If you want a Scene to launch at a specific BPM or time signature, just rename the scene (command-r) and type in what you want, i.e. “100 BPM” or “5/4.” When you launch the scene, the BPM and/or time signature will change upon launch.
More stuff soon…
7×7: Free Music: Pulp Chamber/Michael & Suge Knight
January 30, 2011 8:41 pmBack in the early 00s my brother the Urban Yetti and I released a few CDs on our label Culebra Cuts. Here’s a few tracks from those albums (more to come soon)
A side: Pulp Chamber (mp3)
This is a live 3 piece track, with Gabe Rhodes on drums (he’s a filmaker and went on to play with The Big Sleep) me on guitar/Moog Opus 3, and Urban Yetti on bass.
B-Side: Michael & Suge Knight (mp3)
These two were made with a Sequential Circuits Pro One, Moog Opus 3, Electro Harmonix Memory man, MPC2000XL Cubase 4 VST and a Apple G4.
7×7: Free Tracks: Adult Situations feat. Motion Man
January 18, 2011 10:03 pmSide a: Porno Mustache (mp3, LivePack) (Right-click and save-as to download)
This track is from Adult Situations, featuring Motion Man and Lyrical C. If you haven’t see the video, trust me, check it out (and you probably should buy the album too). I’ve included the multitrack as an Ableton LivePack. Bass originally done with Arturia’s Minimoog plugin, and the bells with Applied Acoustic’s Tassman. No samples were harmed in the making of this track…Jethroe: bass, guitar, guitar, keys drum programming.
Side B: Porno Mustache Remix (mp3) (Right-click and save-as to download)
The remix also features production from Unagi, and was closer to what we wanted, but Motion and LC convinced us to stick with the nasty simplicity of the original.
We’ll have a few remixes coming soon…let me know if you’d like to submit a remix too.
Got a question about how to do house music style stutter edits in Ableton Live. There area few different ways to do this, here’s two:
Arrangement View Editing
This gives you the most precision
Zoom in in Arrangement view, select a 16th or 32nd length slice:
Duplicate it a few times (command-D to duplicate). You can select shorter-duration slices, etc.
Effect Stutters
There are a lot of different plugins that do this stuff and get really in depth, I’m doing it here with a simple Beat Repeat preset. Make sure to check the other Beat Repeat presets, and also the DJ/Performance presets in the Audio Effect Rack section of Live’s Library.
To install the preset, right click and save as to download, navigate to where it’s located on your hard drive from Live’s browser, drag it into your set.
You can save it
so you’ll always have it in your Library after that (you could also drag it directly to Live’s Library Presets folder if you know where that is, I keep an alias to this on my desktop).
Turn the Repeat knob up to start chopping, and then you can set the level of repeating you want with the other knob.
You can automate this in arrangement view:
…or play it in session view, and record your tweaking with the Global Record button (this will record the automation into Arrangement view).
7×7: Side A: “Roomates”/Side B: “Ginger Why”
January 8, 2011 9:13 pmFirst up in my free virtual 7 inch series, a couple of (primarily) instrumental hip-hop beats.
Side A: “Roomates” (mp3) (right-click and save-as to download)
This was a potential beat for Adult Situations with Motion Man (and might be used if we do a sequel). Some production help from my man Unagi. I’m on bass, guitar, guitar, keys, drum programming, sampling.
Side B: “Ginger Why” (mp3, LivePack) (right-click and save-as to download)
I used this slicing technique in Ableton Live on this one, and some funky techniques with Sampler @ 1:24 (looping the end of a sample and crossfading for a weird end of a sample). Also used Melodyne to extract the MIDI harmony from a sample, and replayed the instruments around 2:10…and a little before 4:00 I use that old Metallica-ish reverse reverb trick (dubject for a future tutorial…)
These beats are for educational purposes, please contact me if you believe this is in copyright violation and you’d like me to take it down.
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial Share Alike.
Hey there peoples,
I’ve got a big backlibrary of unreleased music, and I want to get it out there for free. My goal is to get as much out as possible in 2011.
- When possible, I’ll upload the multitrack stems as an Ableton Live pack. Remix please. I use Live Suite, but I can freeze tracks if you want it for the standard Ableton Live.
- MCs, Producers, Remixers, Record Labels, Collaborators, hit me up, I’d love to feature you on a virtual 7 inch.
- Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial Share Alike.
(ask me about waivers I’m flexible)
- I reserve the right to take a song down if I can actually make money on it somewhere… ;)
- I’ll try to include Ableton Tips/Presets when possible.
Contact me with questions (I travel non-stop so apologies for slow responses…)
Jethroe
