Archive for the 'Ableton' category
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
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 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.
Mackie Emulation for your MIDI Footboard for Ableton Live
December 27, 2010 2:48 pmHere’s a cool/quick way to map a MIDI Footboard for Live Looping using Mackie Control emulation (basically we are tricking Live into thinking your Footboard is a Mackie Controller, which has lots of MIDI functions).
1) Set your footboard pedals to send these MIDI notes:
96: Up
97: Down
98: Left
99: Right
100: Launch/Record Selected Clip
76: Undo
101: Launch Selected Scene
2) Select "Mackie Control" in Live’s Preferences. You’ll want to make sure the In and Out sections are set to your footboard (in my case here, I have a Behringer FCB1010 Plugged into my RME Fireface 400 Audio/MIDI Interface).
Now you can move up down left right in Session View, and record/loop on whichever track you want. You can assign a button for Record Arm, or leave all tracks armed.
You can do a lot more than that with Control Aid or Selected Track Control for Ableton Live.
Jethroe Dub DJ FX
November 21, 2010 10:29 amRight click and save to download here. Ableton FX rack gives you some dirty dub sounds:
Hi-Pass: Takes some of the high frequencies out
Delay Time: Changes time of the delay. Note that this will act differently depending on the Fade/Repitch setting.
Feedback: how long the delay will continue to echo Delay
Wet/Dry: The mix between the original and delayed signal.
Fade/Repitch: This will switch between repitch: old school dub delay sound, i.e. when you change the delay time the pitch also changes, or fade, where the pitch remains the same.
Mono/Stereo: How wide or narrow the stereo field is
Pioneer Knob: A single knob filter similar to Pioneer mixers, turn to the right for low pass, to the left for high pass.
Gain: Volume
Enjoy. Add your DJ FX requests in the comments field, I’ll be making a bunch more soon. Jethroe
Edit: as my man Dennis Fischer points out, it is a lo-pass, not a high pass – doh!
Variphrasing in Ableton Live
November 18, 2010 4:45 pmThis lesson shows you how to change the relative pitch of a clip in Ableton Live with your MIDI keyboard in realtime, something for which you used to need a lot of
and a
for.
1. Go into Live’s MIDI Preferences (Command-,) and make sure Remote is enabled for your MIDI keyboard of choice.
2. Bring a clip into Session View in Ableton Live and press the MIDI Map Mode Switch.
3. Click on the clip you want to pitch.
4. Press and hold a key on your MIDI keyboard, don’t let go (in this case I pressed C2)
5. Press another key on your MIDI Keyboard (I pressed a C3) and let go.
6. Exit MIDI Map Mode
7. Go down and press the L button to show Live’s Launch box
8. Press Legato (so that the notes you play will affect the clip mid-loop, and not re-trigger the clip)
9. Select ‘None’ from the launch quantization menu, so that your keyboard presses will happen immediately, instead of waiting for the global quantization.
10. Select Complex Pro, as this is the best warp mode for Pitched Warping.
11. Sell your VP-9000 on E-bay
12. If you want to get tricky, you can press a high note first (i.e. C2) and then a low note (C1). Or you can mess with the Transpose of the clip to make the changes relative to some other pitch.
13. Press Global Record to record your experiments for future editing.
14. Or you can just edit the transpose Clip Automation and forget all this madness.
MPC Beatmaking in Ableton Live (Slicing Preset)
September 5, 2010 1:40 amThese slicing files let you chop beats like you’re used to on an Akai Professional MPC2000 in Ableton Live 8.
- you hit a pad, it plays to the end without having to keep the pad depressed.
- each pad chokes (cuts off the sustain of) the next pad you hit.
1) Right click and save to download the MPC Slicing files here if you own the add on Sampler instrument or here for Simpler (which comes with all versions of Live).
2) Put them into your Live Library:Defaults:Slicing
3) When you want to slice a beat, control (right) click a drum beat/audio clip in Session view in Live and select “Slice to MIDI.”
4) Choose MPCDrumRackSimpler or Sampler. You can select “Slice to 1/4″ to start with, but you may want to try Slice to Warp Marker, the way Ski Beatz does it in this video I worked on with the always hilarious filmaker Chandler Kauffman
5) Bang away with your beatpad, Launchpad/APC20 in Note mode, keyboard, etc.
