Here’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

Categories: Ableton, Tutorials
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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.

Categories: Ableton, Tutorials
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Hey 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…

Categories: Ableton, Tutorials
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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 itso 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).

Categories: Ableton, Tutorials
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Here’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.

Categories: Ableton, Tutorials
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This 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.

Categories: Ableton, Tutorials
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These 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.

Categories: Ableton, Tutorials
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Our goal here is to set a ““Master”” clip in Live, so that other files you record or drag in will follow the original tempo of the master audio file.

1) Warp the audio file you’d like follow very tightly. You can follow my fast warping instructions to get started, and use Beats mode for the most transparent sound.

You may want to make other audio files follow the Master clip even tighter by quantizing the audio to 1/4 notes.

To quantize audio: Command-click on the audio file in Clip View:

I choose 1/4 note here, that should be fine enough for my purposes:

Now click Master — this sets this clip as the master tempo for the set, all other clips will be slaved to this clip’s tempo.

Note that if you have multiple clips set to master, the one highest in the set in arrangement will be master (there can be only one master at a time).

If you look at the Arrangement view’s tempo automation, it is following the tempo of this clip.

Next you’ll want to know about multi-track warping, coming soon…
Jethroe

Categories: Ableton, Tutorials
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UPDATE 8/23/11:

There’s an easier way to do this. Follow J. Period’s instructions for multitrack warping (but you’re only warping the beat, then having the acapella follow those warp markers.

Old lesson just in case:

1) In Live’s Browser, navigate to the folder that has your acapella and instrumental (or the original mix). Hold shift to multi-select the instrumental and acapella and drag them into Live’s arrangement view.

Note that holding command/apple when you drag the files in brings the files in in parallel on different tracks.

2) Select both files and turn warping off.

Make sure the Start Marker flag in the clip waveform of both files is set at the very beginning. Press the space bar to listen.

If your acapella and instrumental don’t sync up unwarped, you have little chance of making them sync up warped. If they are out of sync, you can try moving the Start Marker flag of the acapella around to sync them up.

3) Once they are playing in sync unwarped, you need to make sure both files are exactly the same length. You may need to consolidate the files to make them exactly the same length. To do this, drag around both tracks in the arrangement view, with a length longer than the longest of the two tracks and Consolidate (Command-J).

4. Now select both files (select one and hold shift to select the second) and turn warping on again.

5. Mute the Acapella track and warp the Instrumental/Mix file as you normally would. See here for more info on how to do this.

6. Now we need to duplicate the instrumental track. Click on the Track Name

And press Command-D to duplicate the track:

7. Drag the acapella back into your browser to create a Live Clip and press enter:

8. Double click on the duplicated instrumental file to bring it up in the Clip Waveform below:

9. Now drag the Live Clip into the clip waveform of the instrumental track. You can delete the original acapella track.

10. Your acapella should be warped like the instrumental/original.

Categories: Ableton, Remix, Tutorials
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The CheeseteaKalbi is a fusion of two great cultures, Philadelphia and Korea. It’s self explanatory, and is the best thing I’ve ever cooked or eaten.

Kalbi

This is generally done to taste, so I don’t have the exact measurements, but…just wing it and it will taste good.

In a cuisinart or blender, blend:

1 Asian pear, peeled and cored (this tenderizes the meat)
1-2 cloves garlic
1-2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
Sesame seeds
Hot Sauce to taste
1/2 cup Soy Sauce
1 tablespoon Sesame oil

Then add:

4-5 Scallions diced

Meat
Use cross cut Korean ribs found at a korean market, cut about 1/4 inch thin, and well rinsed.

Marinade the meat for 4-5 hours (not too much more, as they get too mealy).

Grill the Kalbi until it just starts to singe/blacken in places and is cooked.

Remove the bones, and add fried onions and Cheeze Whiz.

Serve with Ketchup and enjoy.

Categories: Recipes, Tutorials
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