Ableton Reference Manual Version 8
Live Version 8.0.
1 Chapter 1 Welcome to Live 1.1 The Ableton Team Says: Thank You Live is the result of musicians wanting a better way to create, produce and perform music using a computer. A great deal of effort has been put into making Live easy and fun to use, yet at the same time capable of helping you create music with unlimited depth and sophistication. This effort continues even as you read these lines...
CHAPTER 1. WELCOME TO LIVE 1.2 1.2.1 2 What's New in Live 8? New Warping Engine Live's warping engine has been dramatically overhauled, with more accurate transient detection and a redesigned interface that allows you to drag the waveform along a xed timeline. New transient loop and envelope controls in Beats Mode allow for higher quality warping, especially at slower tempos. New Complex Pro Mode for even higher quality warping.
CHAPTER 1. WELCOME TO LIVE 3 Live's interface can be magni ed to maximize visibility via the Zoom Display slider. A Preview Tab in the Browser provides a visual overview of the previewed le's contents, and allows you to scrub in the waveform or MIDI display. When multiple tracks are selected, adjusting one of their mixer or routing parameters will adjust the same parameter in the other selected tracks. 1.2.
CHAPTER 1. WELCOME TO LIVE 1.2.6 4 Online Collaboration Tools Share Live Sets with other users via a shared web area at ableton.com. 1.2.7 Controllers Support for the APC40 (Ableton Performance Controller), a dedicated controller for Ableton Live. 1.2.8 More Improvements Macro Controls now automatically show the name and units of their mapped parameter whenever possible. a High-Quality mode has been added to the Flanger effect.
5 Chapter 2 First Steps When you install Live and run it for the rst time, you will be presented with an authorization dialog. Please see the chapter on authorizing Live should you have questions or concerns during the authorization process. If you do not (yet) own Live, you can still try out all of Live's features, but you will not be able to save or export your work. 2.1 Learn About Live Live comes with a set of interactive lessons to take you step by step through the key features of the program.
CHAPTER 2. FIRST STEPS 2.1.1 6 Using the Info View and Index Live's Info View tells you the name and function of whatever you place the mouse over. For certain items, you can create your own text and it will appear in this window. The Info View and its Show/Hide Button. If you require more information on a speci c user interface element or topic, please consult this reference manual.
CHAPTER 2. FIRST STEPS 7 text display and the color scheme, or skin, for the Live user interface. This is also where you can adjust the size of objects displayed on the screen: the Zoom Display slider allows you to zoom Live's screen to any percentage between 50% and 200% of the standard interface size. The Audio Preferences are used to set up Live's audio connections with the outside world via an audio interface.
CHAPTER 2. FIRST STEPS 2.3 8 The Main Live Screen Most of your work in Live happens in the main Live screen. This screen consists of a number of views, and each view manages a speci c aspect of your Live Set, which is the type of document that you create and work on in Live. Since screen space is usually limited, the Live views can't all be displayed at the same time.
CHAPTER 2. FIRST STEPS 9 Adjusting the Main Window Split.
10 Chapter 3 Authorizing Live Live is protected against illegal use by a copy protection scheme. This scheme has been designed to meet the highest security standards while avoiding hassles for our customers. If you nd this procedure to be an inconvenience, please understand that the copy protection secures your investment: It allows Ableton to provide you with support and to continue developing Live.
CHAPTER 3. AUTHORIZING LIVE 3.1 3.1.1 11 Copy Protection FAQs Can I Use Live or Other Ableton Products Without a Serial Number? If you do not (yet) own Live or its add-on products, you can still try them out, but saving and exporting will be disabled. If trying Live or another product raises your interest in purchasing it, please visit the Ableton webshop1 . This site contains information about Ableton's distributor and dealer network. It also offers you the opportunity to buy Ableton products online.
CHAPTER 3. AUTHORIZING LIVE 12 To use Live on more than one computer at a time, you may require a secondary license or a site license. Ableton offers these licenses at special rates. 3.1.4 Can I Play my Set from a Computer That Is Not Authorized? Even if Live is not authorized, you can still load and perform a Live Set with no time limitation. You cannot, however, save or export your work. When you go on tour, consider taking along your Live program CD and a CD with the last state of your Live Set(s).
13 Chapter 4 Live Concepts This chapter introduces the essential concepts of Live. We advise you to read this chapter early in your Live career, as a solid understanding of the program's basic principles will help you fully exploit Live's potential for your music-making. 4.1 Live Sets The type of document that you create and work on in Live is called a Live Set.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 14 Selecting the Library bookmark in Live's File Browser will take you to the Live Library of creative tools. Depending on what content you have installed, there may be a number of demo Sets here, and double-clicking a Live Set's name in the Browser will open that Live Set. You can also nd Live Sets made by others at the Ableton website, as well as upload your own. This makes it easy to collaborate with other Live users. 4.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 15 The Arrangement and Session View Selectors. The Arrangement View and the Session View interact in useful ways. One can, for instance, improvise with Session clips and record a log of the improvisation into the Arrangement for further re nement. This works because Arrangement and Session are connected via tracks. 4.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 16 A Scene in the Session View. The exclusivity of clips in a track also implies that, at any one time, a track will either play a Session clip or an Arrangement clip, but never both. So, who wins? When a Session clip is launched, the respective track stops whatever it is doing to play that clip. In particular, if the track was playing an Arrangement clip, it will stop it in favor of the Session clip even as the other tracks continue to play what is in the Arrangement.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 17 signals are generated by input devices such as MIDI or USB keyboards1 . It takes an instrument to convert MIDI signals into audio signals that can actually be heard. Some instruments, such as Live's Simpler, are for chromatic playing of one sound via the keyboard. Other instruments, such as Live's Impulse, have a different percussion sound assigned to each keyboard key.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 18 Samples Are Dragged in from Live's File Browsers. Live offers many options for playing samples in exciting new ways, allowing you to create an abundance of new sounds without actually changing the original sample all the changes are computed in real time, while the sample is played. The respective settings are made in the Clip View, which appears on screen when a clip is double-clicked. An Audio Clip's Properties as Displayed in the Clip View.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 19 sound using extreme warp settings. 4.6 MIDI Clips and MIDI Files A MIDI clip contains musical material in the form of MIDI notes and controller envelopes. When MIDI is imported from a MIDI le, the data gets incorporated into the Live Set, and the original le is not referenced thereafter. In the Live File Browsers, a MIDI le appears as a folder that can be opened to reveal its individual component tracks, which can be selectively dragged into the Live Set.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 4.7 20 Devices and the Mixer A track can have not only clips but also a chain of devices for processing signals. Doubleclicking a track's title bar brings up the Track View, which shows the track's device chain. The Track View Displaying a MIDI Track's Device Chain. Live's built-in audio effects, MIDI effects and instruments are available from the Device Browser and can be added to tracks by dragging them from there into the Track View, or into a Session or Arrangement track.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 21 Live's Built-in Devices Are Available from the Device Browser. You can also use plug-in devices in Live. VST and Audio Units (Mac OS X only) Plug-ins are available from the Plug-In Device Browser. Plug-In Devices Are Available from the Plug-In Device Browser. Consider an audio clip playing in an audio track. The audio signal from the clip reaches the leftmost device in the chain. This device processes (changes) the signal and feeds the result into the next device, and so on.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 22 you can use at the same time, a topic that deserves separate discussion. Note that the signal connections between audio devices are always stereo, but the software's inputs and outputs can be con gured to be mono in the Audio Preferences. When the signal has passed through the device chain, it ends up in Live's mixer. As the Session and Arrangement share the same set of tracks, they also share the mixer. The mixer can be shown in both views for convenience.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 23 Consider a MIDI track playing a clip. The MIDI signal from the clip is fed into the track's device chain. There, it is rst processed by any number of MIDI effects. A MIDI effect receives and delivers MIDI signals. One example is the Scale effect, which maps the incoming notes onto a user-de ned musical scale. The last MIDI effect in the chain is followed by an instrument. Instruments, for instance Live's Simpler and Impulse, receive MIDI and deliver audio.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 24 settings as a single preset. This feature allows for the creation of powerful multi-device creations and effectively adds all the capabilities of Live's MIDI and audio effects to the built-in instruments. 4.9 Routing As we have seen, all tracks deliver signals, either audio or MIDI. Where do these signals go? This is set up in the mixer's In/Out section, which offers, for every track, choosers to select a signal source and destination.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 4.10 25 Recording New Clips Audio tracks and MIDI tracks can record their input signal and thereby create new clips. Recording is enabled on a track by pressing its Arm button. With multiple tracks selected, pressing any of their Arm buttons will arm all of them. You can also hold down the Ctrl (PC) / (Mac) modi er when clicking the Arm buttons to arm several tracks at once.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 4.11 26 Automation Envelopes Often, when working with Live's mixer and effects, you will want the controls' movements to become part of the Arrangement. The movement of a control across the Arrangement timeline is called automation; a control whose value changes in the course of this timeline is automated. Automation is represented in the Arrangement View by breakpoint envelopes, which can be edited and drawn. The Automated Pan Control and its Envelope.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 27 An Envelope for Clip Transposition. 4.13 MIDI and Key Remote To liberate the musician from the mouse, most of Live's controls can be remote-controlled via an external MIDI controller. Remote mappings are established in MIDI Map Mode, which is engaged by pressing the MIDI switch in the Control Bar.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 4.14 28 Saving and Exporting Saving a Live Set saves everything it contains, including all clips, their positions and settings, and settings for devices and controls. An audio clip can, however, lose the reference to its corresponding sample if it is moved or deleted from disk. The links between samples and their clips can be preserved with a special command, Collect and Save, which makes a copy of each sample and stores it in a project folder along with the Live Set.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 29 MIDI sequences with matching instruments and effects, e.g., a MIDI drum pattern with the associated Impulse and effects settings; Different regions or loops referencing the same source le; Variations of a sample loop created by applying Warp Markers, clip envelopes and effects; Ideas that may not t your current project but could be useful in the future. 4.15 The Library The Live Library acts as a repository of sounds that are available to all projects.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 30 enjoy the Essential Instrument Collection, a multi-gigabyte library of meticulously sampled and selected instruments.
31 Chapter 5 Managing Files and Sets Various types of les are used in making music with Live, from those containing MIDI and audio, to more program-speci c les such as Live Clips and Live Sets. This chapter will explain everything you need to know about working with each of these le types in Live. However, we should rst take a look at Live's File Browsers, through which most les arrive in the program. 5.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 32 The File Browser Selector Buttons. Each Browser can point to a different disk location, which Live will remember across sessions. The Browser display is divided into columns corresponding to Name , Date, Live Pack, etc., which you can show and hide using the (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu options. Showing/Hiding Browser Columns. Columns can be reordered by drag and drop. To resize the columns, drag their divider lines horizontally. Resizing Browser Columns. 5.1.
33 CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS Library Is this Browser's Root. The Browser root can easily be changed: The topmost Browser item, called Parent Folder, will move the Browser root up one step up in the disk hierarchy when double-clicked. The File Browser's Parent Folder Item. You can also set the Browser root to any folder in the Browser via the (PC) / (Mac) context menu, by double-clicking the folder, or by selecting it and pressing Ctrl Return . A Folder in the Browser.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 34 File Browser's selector button will do the same. 5.1.2 Browser Bookmarks Using bookmarks, you can quickly save and recall frequently used folder locations in the Browser. Clicking in the Browser's title bar will open the Bookmark menu. The Bookmark Menu. The Bookmark menu lists a number of preset bookmarks such as Desktop and Library. Selecting the latter will bring you to the Live Library.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 35 Activating Browser Search Mode. After entering your search terms, begin the search by clicking the Go button or pressing Return on your computer keyboard. The Search Field and Go Button. Live will search the entire Browser root for your search terms. The results will include les that match all search terms, as opposed to any. For example, if you search for acoustic bass, the search will yield all acoustic bass sounds not all acoustic sounds and all bass sounds.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 36 Automatic rescanning for new searches can be activated and deactivated in the File/Folder Preferences. While a search/rescan is going on, the adjacent search button is labeled Stop. Rescanning happens in the background, and you can keep making music while Live does its work, but you can also abort the search with this button if the disk traf c is bothering you. You can go back to the Browser's folder view at any time by closing the search eld.
37 CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS The Rotating Ring Means That a Search is in Progress. For mouse-free searching, we suggest the following sequence of shortcuts: 1) Ctrl F (PC) / F (Mac) to open the search eld; 2) Type your search terms; 3) Return to Go ; 4) to jump to the search results; 5) and 6) to scroll the search results; Ctrl F (PC) / back to the folder view. 5.1.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 38 The Preview Switch. Hint: You can preview les even when the Preview switch is not activated by pressing Return or . Click on a sample le (or use and ) to select it. Click in the Tab's scrub area to make playback jump to that point. (Note that it is not possible to scrub clips that have been saved with Warp turned off.) You can also select Live Clips in the Browser to load them into the Preview Tab, but they will not play automatically.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 39 To learn how to set up Live for cueing, please refer to the relevant section of the Mixing chapter. 5.1.5 Adding Clips from the Browser There are several ways to add clips to a Live Set: Files can be dragged and dropped from the File Browsers into tracks in the Session or Arrangement View.
40 CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS Rename les and folders using the Edit menu's Rename command or the R (Mac) shortcut. Cancel renaming with the Esc (PC) / key. Create folders by opening the context menu with selecting the Create Folder command. (PC) / Ctrl Ctrl R (Mac), and then Delete les and folders using the Edit menu's Delete command or your computer's or Delete key.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 41 The Hot-Swap Browser. While in Hot-Swap Mode, pressing the Return key loads that le into the Impulse slot (presumably while Impulse is playing incoming MIDI notes); pressing , then Return loads the next sample, and so on. Instead of using the keys, we can also click on the le's HotSwap icon to load it. The link between the Browser and the instrument will be broken if a different view is selected, or if the Hot-Swap button is pressed again.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 5.2 42 Sample Files A sample is a le that contains audio data. Live can play both uncompressed le formats (WAV, AIF, REX and Sound Designer II for Mac) and compressed le formats (MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, Ogg FLAC and FLAC). A note on using Variable Bit Rate (VBR) les: Please install QuickTime for decoding purposes if you do not already have it on your system. It can be downloaded from the Apple website1 .
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 43 Preferences for the Decoding and Web Cache. 5.2.2 Analysis Files (.asd) An analysis le is a little le that Live creates when a sample le is brought into the program for the rst time. The analysis le contains data gathered by Live to help optimize the stretching quality, speed up the waveform display and automatically detect the tempo of long samples.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 44 The analysis le's name is the same as that of the associated sample, with an added .asd extension. Live puts this analysis le in the same folder as the sample. Samples that have an .asd le are displayed like this in the Browser. Samples without an .asd le look like this. The analysis les themselves do not appear in Live's Browsers. Note that you can suppress the creation of .asd les by turning off the Create Analysis Files option in the File/Folder Preferences.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 45 Which Signal Will Be Rendered? The Rendered Track Chooser. The Export dialog's Rendered Track chooser offers several options for which audio signal to render: Master the post-fader signal at Live's Master output. If you are monitoring the Master output, you can be sure that the rendered le will contain exactly what you hear. All tracks the post-fader signal at the output of each individual track, including return tracks and MIDI tracks with instruments.
46 CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS Audio Rendering Options Audio Rendering Options. The Export dialog offers several audio rendering options: Normalize If this is activated, the sample resulting from the render process will be normalized (i.e., the le will be ampli ed so that the highest peak attains the maximum available headroom). Render as Loop If this is activated, Live will create a sample that can be used as a loop. For example, suppose your Live Set uses a delay effect.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 47 created. Convert to Mono le. If this is activated, Live will create a mono le instead of a stereo Dither Options If you are rendering at a bit depth lower than 32-bit, choose one of the dither modes. Dithering adds a small amount of noise to rendered audio, but minimizes artifacts when reducing the bit depth. By default, Triangular is selected, which is the safest mode to use if there is any possibility of doing additional processing on your le.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 48 Waiting for External Devices to Become Silent. Skip By default, Live will wait for ten seconds before starting a real-time render. This should allow any sound from external devices to fade out, but if you need more time (for example, if you're waiting for a long reverb tail), you can increase the wait time by typing a new number in the number box.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 49 Rendering Video Video Rendering Options. In addition to settings for audio rendering, the Export dialog provides additional options for rendering video: Create Video File If this is activated, a video le will be created in the same directory as your rendered audio. Note that this option is only enabled if you have video clips in the Arrangement View.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 50 For more information about working with video in Live, see the chapter on video. 5.3 MIDI Files A MIDI le contains commands that prompt MIDI compatible synthesizers or instruments, such as Live's Simpler, to create speci c musical output. MIDI les are exported by hardware and software MIDI sequencers.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 5.4 51 Live Clips Individual clips can be exported to disk in the Live Clip format for easy retrieval and reuse in any project. Because they only contain references to samples on disk (rather than the audio data itself), Live Clips are very small, which makes it easy to develop and maintain your own collection. To save a clip from the open Live Set to disk, simply drag it to the File Browser and drop it into any folder.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 52 could create a number of variations from the same audio clip by using different warp, pitch, envelope and effect settings, and store them all as separate Live Clips. In the Browser, you could then independently sort and preview these clips, even though they are all referring to the same source sample. 5.5 Live Sets The type of document that you create and work on in Live is called a Live Set. Think of this as a single song.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 53 Set will be completely reconstructed, including their clips in the Session and Arrangement View, their devices, and their automation. Session View Drop Area for Importing Live Sets. Arrangement View Drop Area for Importing Live Sets. If you prefer to import individual tracks from a Set, you can unfold the Live Set in the File Browser just as if it were a folder. Unfolding a Set to Reveal its Contents.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 54 unfolded Set. Of the three tracks contained in the Set shown in the following gure, two contain Session View clips. These can be accessed by unfolding the tracks: Revealing the Session View Clips Contained in a Set. You can browse, preview and import Session View clips from the Set as if they had been stored as individual Live Clips. This, basically, means that any Live Set can serve as a pool of sounds for any other, suggesting creative reuse and crossover. 5.5.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 55 MIDI mappings. The template Live Set, Template.als, is located in Live's Preferences folder and can be copied or deleted from there. The easiest way to locate this folder is to search your disk for Template.als. In addition to the template Set that loads by default, the Live Library contains a folder called Templates. This is a collection of Sets with pre-con gured tracks and routing con gurations for a variety of common recording scenarios. 5.5.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 56 The Sample Reference List's Hot-Swap Button. Edit a referenced sample using an external application (which can be chosen in the Preferences' File/Folder tab). Clicking the Edit button will open the referenced sample in the external application. The sample will remain of ine as long as the Edit switch is engaged. For samples used in audio clips, the current set of Warp Markers is retained only if the sample length remains the same as before.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 5.6.1 57 Projects and Live Sets You can manually create a Project by clicking (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) in the Browser and selecting Create Project from the context menu. Usually, Live takes care of this automatically. When you save a Live Set under a new name or in a new folder location, Live will create a new project folder and store the Live Set there unless you are saving the Live Set into an existing Live Project.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 58 A Second Version of the Live Set Has Been Added to the Project. The Tango Project now contains two Live Sets, and its Samples/Recorded folder contains the samples used by both of them. And now for something completely different: We choose the File menu's New command and record a samba tune. As this has nothing to do with our tango dabblings, we decide to save it outside the Tango Project folder, say on the Desktop.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 59 The piece evolves towards something entirely different, and we feel that it should live in a Project of its own. So, we Save As... under a new name and in some location outside the current Project, say the Desktop: A New Project Was Added by Saving a Live Set Outside its Original Project. Note that the new project folder has no Samples folder (yet). Electro with Piano.als is still referencing the piano sample from the original Tango Project.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 5.6.2 60 Projects and Presets By default, new instrument and effect presets are stored in the Live Library, making them available to any project. At times however, it may make more sense to save a preset with the current Project. You might, for example, want to keep a number of alternative master EQ settings for a given piece. These EQ presets are speci c to the piece and of little use to other Projects.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 61 command from the File menu, and then click the Manage Project button. The File Manager will present you with an overview of the Project's contents and tools for: locating samples that the Project is missing; collecting external samples into the Project; listing unused samples in the Project; packing a Project in Live Pack format; exporting the Project's contents to the Library. 5.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 62 double-click the Live Pack le (.alp), drag it into the Live main window, or locate it via the File menu's Install Live Pack command. A list of the currently installed Factory Live Packs is available from the Preferences' Library tab. Here you can select Live Packs from the list and click the Uninstall button to remove them. Multiple Live Packs can be selected and uninstalled at once.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 5.7.1 63 Changing the Library Location, Upgrading an Old Library The Library can reside in the hard drive location of your choice. In the Preferences' Library tab, you will nd the Library Location chooser, which contains a list of Library locations that you've used in the past: The Library Location Chooser.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 64 or moving any content from the previous location. Live will then offer to install any default packages to the new location. If the target location is a Library that was made with an older version of Live, you will be warned about possible compatibility issues. It is generally not a good idea to try to share a single Library between two different versions of Live. Note: Live will not allow you to create a Library inside an existing Project. 5.7.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 65 The File Manager's List of Missing Samples. 5.8.1 Manual Repair To manually x a broken sample reference, locate the missing sample in the File Browser, drag it over to the File Manager and drop it on the respective line in the list of missing les. Note that Live will not care if the sample you offer is really the sample that was missing. 5.8.2 Automatic Repair Live offers a convenient automatic search function for repairing sample references.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 66 Automatic Repair Options in the File Manager. Search Folder includes a user-de ned folder, as well as any sub-folders, in the search. To select the folder, click the associated Set Folder button. Search Project includes this Set's project folder in the search. Search Library includes the Live Library in the search. For each missing sample, the automatic search function may nd any number of candidates.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 5.9 67 Collecting External Samples To prevent a Live Set from containing broken sample references, Live provides the option of collecting (i.e., copying) them into the Set's project folder. This is accomplished via the File Manager: Choose the Manage Files command from the File menu Click the Manage Set button Unfold the triangular-shaped fold button in the External Samples section. Options for Collecting External Samples.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 68 Separated by location (the Library, installed by factory Live Packs, other Projects and elsewhere sample collections from external drives, for example), the File Manager provides: A sample count and the associated disk space used; A Show button that will list the samples in the File Browser; A Yes/No toggle for engaging or disengaging collection.
69 CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS Live's File Manager, you can nd missing samples and collect external samples not only for the current Live Set but also for: The Library choose the Manage Files command from the File menu; then click the Manage Library button. The current Live Project choose the Manage Files command from the File menu; then click the Manage Project button. Any Live Project (PC) / Ctrl choose the Manage Project option.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 70 Last but not least, you can nd the unused samples for all Projects found in a speci c folder (and its sub-folders): (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) on a folder in the File Browser and choose the Manage Projects command, then see the Unused Samples section. Live inspects each Project individually and labels a sample unused even if another Projects in the same folder does use that sample.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 5.13.2 71 How Can I Save Presets Into My Current Project? As long as you're working in a Project (meaning that you've saved your current Live Set), every device in the Device Browser will show a Current Project sub-folder. You can copy presets from other Browser locations to the current project by Ctrl (PC) / Alt (Mac)dragging them. You can also save presets directly to the current project by dragging from the device's title bar and dropping into the Current Project.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 5.13.6 72 Can I Use My Own Folder Structure Within a Project Folder? You can organize your les any way you want within a Project, but you'll need to use the File Manager to relink the les that you've moved around: 1) In Live's Browser or via your operating system, reorganize the les and folders within your Project folder. 2) Navigate to the Project folder in the Browser and choose Manage Project via the (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu.
73 Chapter 6 Arrangement View The Arrangement View displays the Arrangement, which contains music laid out along a song timeline, like a multitrack tape. A Piece of Music in the Arrangement View. The Arrangement View is a powerful editing tool that easily lets you combine and arrange MIDI, loops, sound effects, video and complete pieces of music.
74 CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 6.1 Navigation Live offers several fast methods for zooming and scrolling the Arrangement display: 6 1 2 3 4 5 Navigating the Arrangement View. 1. To smoothly change the zoom level, click and drag vertically in the beat-time ruler at the top of the Arrangement View (you can also drag horizontally to scroll the display). 2. To zoom in and out around the current selection, use the computer keyboard's + Alt and - keys.
CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 75 and drag downwards to zoom in around that part. Note that you can also drag horizontally to scroll the display. Using this method, you can zoom and scroll to focus around any part of the Arrangement with just one mouse motion. 6. To have the Arrangement display follow the song position and scroll automatically, turn on the Follow switch, or use the Follow command from the Options menu. 6.
76 CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW menu setting. While the mouse is held down over the scrub area, a portion of the Arrangement the size of the chosen quantization setting will be repeatedly played. With small quantization settings, or a setting of None, this allows you to scrub through the music. When the Permanent Scrub Areas preference is off, you can still scrub by clicking anywhere in the scrub area or in the beat time ruler. - Scrubbing Arrangement Playback. 4.
CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 6.3 77 Launching the Arrangement with Locators Using Locators to Launch Play in the Arrangement. Locators can be set at any point in the Arrangement. This can be done in real time during playback or recording with the Set Locator button, and will be quantized according to the global quantization value set in the Control Bar. Clicking the Set Locator button when the Arrangement is not playing will create a locator at the insert marker or selection start.
CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 78 R (PC) / R (Mac) shortcut). You can also enter menu command (or use the Ctrl your own info text for a locator via the Edit Info Text command in the Edit menu or in the locator's (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu. Locators can be removed with your computer's or Delete key, the Create menu, or the Delete Locator button. Note that the locator (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu offers a quick way of looping playback between two locators with its Loop To Next Locator command.
CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 79 Any time signature with a one- or two-digit numerator and a denominator of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 can be used as a time signature marker value. The numbers must be separated by a delimiter such as a slash, comma, period, or any number of spaces. These marker values can also be set by adjusting the time signature elds in the Control Bar, either by typing in values or dragging the numerator and denominator sliders.
CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 80 changes the length of the entire Arrangement. If you import a MIDI le into the Arrangement, you'll be given an option to import any time signature information that was saved with the le. If you choose to do this, Live will automatically create time signature markers in the correct places. This makes it very easy to work with complex music created in other sequencer or notation software. 6.5 The Arrangement Loop The Control Bar's Loop Switch.
81 CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW and shift the loop brace left/right in steps the size of its length. The Ctrl (PC) / (Mac) modi er used with the arrow left and right keys shortens or lengthens the loop by the current grid setting. The Ctrl (PC) / halves the loop length.
82 CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 6.7 Audio Clip Fades and Crossfades The beginning and end of audio clips in the Arrangement View have adjustable volume fades. Additionally, adjacent clips on the same audio track can be crossfaded. To access the fades for an audio track's clips: 1. Unfold the track by clicking the button next to the track name. 2. Select Fades in the Fades/Device chooser. 3. Click and drag the fade handle to change the length of the fade. 4.
CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 83 menu. Crossfaded Clips. Selecting a fade handle and pressing the Delete key deletes the fade, unless the Create Fades on Clip Edges option is enabled in the Record/Warp/Launch Preferences. In this case, pressing Delete returns the fade handle to a default length of 4 ms. With this option enabled, new clips in the Arrangement View will have these short declicking fades by default. Automatically Create Short Fades At Clip Edges.
CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 6.8 84 Selecting Clips and Time With the exception of moving and resizing clips, Arrangement editing in Live is selectionbased: You select something using the mouse, then execute a menu command (e.g., Cut, Copy, Paste, Duplicate) on the selection. This editing method lends itself to an ef cient division of labor between the two hands: One hand operates the mouse or trackpad, while the other hand issues the keyboard shortcuts for the menu commands.
85 CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW Holding while clicking extends an existing selection in the same track or across tracks. You can also hold and use the arrow keys to manipulate the selection. Clicking the Loop Brace to Select the Loop for Editing. 6.9 Using the Editing Grid To ease editing, the cursor will snap to grid lines that represent the meter subdivisions of the song tempo. The grid can be set to be either zoom-adaptive or xed.
CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 86 The current spacing between adjacent grid lines is displayed in the lower right corner of the Arrangement View or Clip View. You can hold down the Alt (PC) / (Mac) modi er while performing an action to bypass grid snapping. If the grid is already disabled, this modi er will temporarily enable it. 6.10 Using the ...Time Commands Whereas the standard commands like Cut, Copy and Paste only affect the current selection, their ...
CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 87 Insert Silence inserts as much empty time as is currently selected into the Arrangement, before the selection. 6.11 Splitting Clips The Split command can divide a clip or isolate part of it. To split a clip in two halves, do the following: 1. Unfold the track; 2. In the waveform or MIDI display, click at the position where you want the clip to be split; 3. Execute the Split command. To isolate a part of a clip, do the following: 1. Unfold the track; 2.
CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 88 Consolidating Several Clips Into a New Clip. Suppose you have, by editing or improvising, come up with a layout of clips that sound good in Arrangement Loop mode. Selecting that part of the Arrangement, for instance by using the Edit menu's Select Loop command, and then executing the Consolidate command creates a new clip that can be treated as a loop. You can now, for instance, drag the clip edges to create more repetitions.
89 Chapter 7 Session View In Live's Arrangement View, as in all traditional sequencing programs, everything happens along a xed song timeline. For a number of applications, this is a limiting paradigm: When playing live, or when DJing, the order of pieces, the length of each piece and the order of parts within each piece is generally not known in advance. In the theatre, sound has to react to what happens on stage.
CHAPTER 7. SESSION VIEW 7.1 90 Session View Clips The Controls for a Session View Clip. 1. Each clip in the Session View has a triangular button at the left edge. Click the button with the mouse to launch clip playback at any time, or pre-select a clip by clicking on its name, and launch it using the computer's Return key. You can then move on to the neighboring clips using the arrow keys. Please refer the manual section on clip launch settings for details on how to customize this behavior. 2.
CHAPTER 7. SESSION VIEW 91 Slots in Group Tracks show a shaded area to indicate that at least one of the contained tracks contains a clip at that location. The color of the shading is the color of the left-most clip in the group. These group slots also contain launch buttons which will launch all of the respective clips. Group slots which have no corresponding clips contain stop buttons. Clicking in any group slot selects all of the clips it refers to. The Arrangement Position Fields and the Stop Button.
CHAPTER 7. SESSION VIEW 92 A Scene in the Session View. The horizontal rows are called scenes. The Scene Launch buttons are located in the rightmost column, which represents the Master track. To launch every clip in a row simultaneously, click on the associated Scene Launch button. This can be very useful in organizing the live performance of a song with multiple parts.
CHAPTER 7. SESSION VIEW 93 Tempo and time signature changes can coexist within a single scene name, and can appear in any position as long as they are separated from each other by at least one character. For example, 2/4+108 BPM , 72 BPM;7/8 and 60 BPM Chorus 3/4 are all scene names that will cause simultaneous meter and tempo changes. These Scenes Will Change the Tempo and Time Signature. Scenes with tempo and/or time signature changes in their names will have a colored Scene Launch button. 7.
CHAPTER 7. SESSION VIEW 94 ... Monitoring the Input... A microphone icon appears in an audio track that is set to monitor its input. A keyboard icon appears in a MIDI track under these same circumstances. ... Playing the Arrangement. If the track is playing clips from the Arrangement, a miniature display representing the Arrangement clips being played appears. 7.4 Setting Up the Session View Grid Clips arrive in the Session View by being imported from the File Browsers or through recording.
CHAPTER 7. SESSION VIEW 7.4.1 95 Select on Launch By default, clicking a Session View clip's Launch button also selects the clip, since you will typically want the Clip View to show the newly launched clip. However, some power-users don't want the current focus (e.g., a return track's devices) to disappear just because a clip has been launched, especially when starting a clip in order to try it with the return track device settings.
CHAPTER 7. SESSION VIEW 7.5 96 Recording Sessions into the Arrangement Your Session View playing can be recorded into the Arrangement, allowing for an improvisational approach to composing songs and scores. The Control Bar's Record Button.
CHAPTER 7. SESSION VIEW 97 Arrangement playback does not resume until you explicitly tell Live to resume by clicking the Back to Arrangement button, which lights up to remind you that what you hear differs from the Arrangement. The Stop All Clips Button. To disable all Arrangement clips simultaneously, click on the Stop All Clips button in the Master Track Status eld.
98 Chapter 8 Clip View The Clip View is where clip properties can be set and adjusted. The Clip View. The Clip View is opened by clicking on the Clip Overview or double-clicking a clip in the Session or Arrangement View.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 99 Clicking the Clip Overview Opens the Clip View. In the Session View, clicking on a Track Status Field opens the Clip View for editing the clip that is currently running in the track. Clicking a Session View Track Status Field Opens the Clip View. The properties of more than one clip can be edited collectively in the Clip View as a multiselection.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 100 in common: The Clip box contains basic clip settings. The Envelopes box and the Envelope Editor manage the clip's envelopes, which are used to modulate the effects, mixer, and clip or MIDI controls. Clip envelopes and their associated Clip View components are covered in detail in a separate manual chapter. The Launch box controls clip launch behavior and, as such, only appears for Session View clips.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 101 The Clip View for a MIDI Clip. To make best use of the screen real estate, you can show or hide the Launch, Envelopes, and Sample or MIDI boxes using the Clip View Box selector in the Clips box. You can also toggle between the Sample Display/MIDI Editor and the Envelope Editor by clicking in the title bars of the Sample/Notes box and the Envelopes box, respectively. The Clip View Box Selector Shows and Hides Various Clip View Components.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 8.1 102 The Clip Box The Clip Box. 8.1.1 Clip Activator Switch Using this switch, you can deactivate a clip so that it does not play when launched in the Session View or during Arrangement playback. Clips can also be activated/deactivated (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context directly from the Session or Arrangement View with their menus. 8.1.2 Clip Name and Color The Clip Name eld allows naming the clip.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 8.1.3 103 Clip Signature Using the Clip Signature elds, you can specify the time signature of a MIDI or audio clip. This setting is relevant only for display; it does not affect playback. Please note that Clip Signature is completely separate from the project's time signature, and can be set independently for each clip. This makes it easy to create complex polymetric textures by simultaneously triggering clips with different meters and/or loop lengths. 8.1.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 8.1.5 104 Clip Offset and Nudging To jump within a playing clip in increments the size of the global quantization period, you can use the Nudge buttons in the Clip box. Using the Nudge Buttons to Jump Through a Clip. These buttons can also be mapped to keys or MIDI controllers. In MIDI Map Mode, a scrub control will appear between the Nudge buttons and can be assigned to a rotary encoder wheel for continuous scrubbing. The Scrub Control in MIDI Map Mode.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 8.2 8.2.1 105 The Sample Box Warp Controls The Sample Box Warp Controls. When the Warp switch is off, Live plays the sample at its original, normal tempo, irrespective of the current Live Set tempo. This is useful for samples that have no inherent rhythmic structure: percussion hits, atmospheres, sound effects, spoken word and the like. Turn the Warp switch on to play rhythmically structured samples (such as sample loops, music recordings, complete music pieces, etc.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 8.2.2 106 Sample Loop/Region and Display Zooming and Scrolling The Clip Zoom/Scroll Area. Zooming and scrolling in the Sample Display work much like they do in the Arrangement View. When Warp is disabled, zooming and scrolling can be done anywhere in the Sample Display. When Warp is enabled, however, scrolling only happens in the beat-time ruler and the bottom half of the waveform.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 107 To have the Sample Display follow the play position and scroll automatically, turn on the Follow switch, or use the Follow command from the Options menu. The Follow Switch. Playing and Scrubbing Clips The section of the sample that plays when a clip is launched is set with the clip's region and loop controls. An unlooped clip will play from its start marker to its end marker or until it is stopped. The Clip Start and End Markers.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 108 You can also adjust the clip start and end numerically using the respective value elds to the left of the Sample Display. For warped clips, these elds display values as bars-beatssixteenths; for unwarped clips, the display is in minutes-seconds-milliseconds. Notice that you can use the Set buttons here to place the markers during playback. Setting markers this way is quantized according to global quantization.
109 CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW cannot be looped. You can click and drag to change the position and length of the loop brace in the Sample Display, or you can type exact values into the Loop Length and Position elds to the left of the display. The Clip Loop Controls. The loop brace can be selected with the mouse and its position changed with commands from the computer keyboard: and nudge the loop brace to the left/right by the current grid setting.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 110 Setting the Clip to Run Into a Loop. The Loop Length and Position elds are equipped with Set buttons, which can be used to create loops spontaneously during playback: Playing the clip and then clicking the Set Loop Position button moves the beginning of loop to the current playback position (rounded to the global quantization setting) and engages the loop. Then, clicking the Set Loop Length button moves the end of the loop to the current playback position.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 8.2.3 111 Clip Pitch and Gain The Clip Pitch and Gain Controls. The Transpose control shifts the clip pitch in semitones. The Detune eld ne-tunes the clip in cents (100 cents = one semitone). The Clip Gain slider, calibrated in dB, changes the clip gain. 8.2.4 Destructive Sample Editing The Launch Sample Editor Button. The Edit button opens the sample in an external sample editing application, which you can specify in the File/Folder Preferences.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 8.2.5 112 Saving Default Clip Settings with the Sample The Save Default Clip Button. The Save Default Clip button saves the current clip's settings with the sample. With multiple clips selected, this button will save them all simultaneously. Once saved, Live will restore the current clip settings whenever you drop the sample into a Live Set. This is especially useful with regards to the Warp Markers, which have to be set correctly for Live to play long les in sync.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 113 this reason, we have provided a Legacy Hi-Q Mode option, which is enabled by default in the Options menu whenever you load an old Set that has Hi-Q enabled for any clips. Simply disable this option if you wish to use the new mode. 8.2.7 Clip Start and End Fades The Clip Fade Switch. The Clip Fade switch, when enabled, applies a short fade to the clip start and end to avoid clicks at the clip edges. The length of the fade is signal-dependent and ranges from 0-4 milliseconds.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 8.2.8 114 Clip RAM Mode The RAM Mode Switch. If the RAM Mode switch is on, Live is loading the audio referenced by the clip into the computer's memory rather than reading it from disk in real time. RAM Mode can help with these problems: Your computer's hard disk is too slow to deliver audio for as many tracks as desired in real time. For more information on disk-related problems, please refer to Managing the Disk Load .
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 115 Processed/Reverse. Until the Set is saved, new samples remain at the location speci ed by the Temporary Folder. There are a few rules for the reversing process. First, any Warp Markers will remain xed to their positions in the sample. This means that a Warp Marker on the downbeat of the second bar of a clip will end up on the downbeat of the second-to-last bar after reversal. Clip loop/region settings are similarly ipped.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 116 be retained. The Warp Markers will be retained only if the new sample has the exact same length as the old sample. The Sample Display's (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu includes the Manage Sample File command. This opens the File Manager for the current Set with the sample referenced by the clip selected. From there, you can replace and destructively edit the sample, in such a way that all clips and instruments referencing the sample will be affected.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 8.3.2 117 Bank and Program Change Live can send MIDI bank/program change messages to external devices and plug-ins that support MIDI program change messages. According to the settings in these controls, launching a clip also sends its bank/program change message. If you are using Live to send MIDI to your synth, this means that each MIDI clip in your Live Set can play a different sound on your synth.
118 Chapter 9 Tempo Control and Warping Unlike music stored on tape or in a traditional digital audio workstation, the music in Live remains elastic at all times. Live is capable of time-warping samples while streaming them from disk so as to synchronize them to the current Live Set's tempo. This happens without affecting the pitch, which can be changed independently. Mixing and matching audio from different origins is therefore extremely easy. 9.1 9.1.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 119 in hundredths of a BPM allows for enough precision to adjust to live performers or other unsynchronized sources. You can have an external sequencer (or drum machine) play along with Live or have Live play along with the sequencer. The respective settings are made in the MIDI/Sync Preferences, and the EXT switch next to the tempo control is activated to have Live follow an external MIDI clock source. Please refer to the section on synchronization for details. 9.1.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 120 Although Live can be easily synchronized to external MIDI devices, you may nd yourself in situations in which you need to adjust to sources that aren't locked to one tempo, such as live musicians or turntables. As long as your Set's tempo is basically the same as that of the unsynchronized material, you can use the Nudge buttons to temporarily speed up or slow down Live's playback to match what you hear.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 121 Preferences. If the Auto-Warp Long Samples preference is on, Live assumes that long samples contain music that should be played in sync with the Live Set's tempo. If you would rather have Live default to playing long samples as they are, disengage this preference. 9.2.1 Tempo Master/Slave All warped clips in the Arrangement View have one further option: They can be de ned as tempo masters by toggling their Master/Slave switches.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 122 Warp Markers are set in the Clip View's Sample Display by double-clicking within the sample. They can then be dragged or moved with the arrow keys to different points in time. Warp Markers can also be deleted by double-clicking them, or by pressing the computer keyboard's or Delete key after selecting them. Double-Clicking In the Sample Creates a Warp Marker. When working with your sample, you can have Live scroll the Sample Display to follow playback.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 123 Transient Markers. As you mouse over transients, temporary pseudo Warp Markers appear. These have the same shape as regular Warp Markers, but they're grey. Double-clicking or dragging a pseudo Warp Marker creates an actual Warp Marker or, if there are no Warp Markers later in the clip, changes the tempo for the clip segment. Holding the Ctrl (PC) / (Mac) modi er while creating a Warp Marker on a transient also creates Warp Markers at the adjacent transients.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 9.2.3 124 Using Warp Markers In the following sections, we will look at a couple of applications for time-warping samples. Warping is, of course, an optional property of clips. Syncing Straight Loops When you import a sample that represents a well-cut musical loop of 1,2,4 or 8 bars in length, Live usually makes the correct assumptions to play the loop in sync with the chosen tempo. It creates two Warp Markers, one at the sample's beginning and one at the end.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 125 you can eliminate silence after the actual loop end by placing a Warp Marker at the sample's right edge. Setting the Warp Markers for a Poorly Cut Loop. Syncing Odd-Length Loops If you import a sample that contains a seven-bar loop, Live initially assumes the loop is eight bars long (or four, depending on its length) and plays it out of sync. For correct playback, the marker at the end of the sample needs to be at the beginning of bar eight, not bar nine.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 126 If a single event in a percussion loop comes late, just pin a Warp Marker to it and drag the marker to the correct beat position. You may want to pin the adjacent events as well, to avoid affecting neighboring regions in the sample. Using Warp Markers to Manipulate the Groove.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 127 Auto-Warp's Results in the Clip View. As long as Auto-Warp made the correct set of informed guesses, the clip will be ready to play in perfect sync with the Live Set's tempo. However, if Auto-Warp does not quite do what you want, you can control its results. The remainder of this section will focus on various ways of guiding Live's auto-warping. Remember that the metronome in the Control Bar will probably come in handy as you warp longer pieces.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 128 Using the Context Menu to Direct Auto-Warp. Directing Auto-Warp is also relatively simple when you have imported a perfectly cut loop. You can tell Auto-Warp to work accordingly using the Warp As ...-Bar Loop command. Live will propose a loop length that makes the most sense given the current Live Set's tempo. Decreasing the Live Set's tempo can, for instance, lead Live to assume the loop is 8 bars at 90 BPM instead of 16 bars at 180 BPM.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 129 The four Warp From Here commands provide various ways of resetting Warp Markers to the right of the selected grid marker or Warp Marker, leaving Warp Markers to the left untouched. These commands are also available from the start marker. Warp From Here runs the Auto-Warp algorithm on the material to the right of the selected marker. Warp From Here (Start At ...) directs Auto-Warp to use the current Live Set's tempo as a starting point for tempo tracking.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 9.2.4 130 Quantizing Audio In the previous section, you learned how to adjust the timing of events in audio les by manually dragging Warp Markers along the timeline. But it is also possible to automatically snap the entire sample to the grid at once by using the Quantize command. To do this, click in the background of the sample editor and choose the Quantize command from the Edit U (PC) / U (Mac) hotkey.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 131 The warp modes are different varieties of granular resynthesis techniques. Granular resynthesis achieves time compression and expansion by repeating and skipping over parts of the sample (the grains ). The warp modes differ in the selection of grains, as well as in the details of overlapping and crossfading between grains. Let's investigate which warp modes work best for different types of signals and how to adjust the warping controls for clean stretching.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 132 The Transient Envelope slider applies a volume fade to each segment of audio. At 100, there is no fade. At 0, each segment decays very quickly. Long envelope times can help to smooth clicks at the end of segments, while short times can be used to apply rhythmic gating effects. 9.3.2 Tones Mode Tones Mode serves well for stretching material with a more or less clear pitch structure, such as vocals, monophonic instruments and basslines.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 9.3.5 133 Complex Mode Complex Mode is a warping method speci cally designed to accommodate composite signals that combine the characteristics covered by other Warp Modes; it works well for warping entire songs, which usually contain beats, tones and textures. Complex Mode is a rather CPU-intensive function, using approximately ten times the CPU resources required by the other Warp Modes.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 134 Although REX les are audio les, they can quickly be transformed into playable instruments via the Slice to New MIDI Track command, which is available in the Create Menu or the (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu for the Clip. Warp Markers/parameters, Clip Envelopes that affect warping properties, and the Clip Nudge controls are not available for REX les.
135 Chapter 10 Editing MIDI Notes and Velocities A MIDI clip in Live contains notes and controller data for playing a MIDI instrument. This instrument can be a virtual instrument in a MIDI track's device chain or an external synth fed via the track's output routing. The MIDI clip provides the device with a musical score to play, specifying note pitch, length, position and dynamics (referred to as velocity in the MIDI lexicon). MIDI is composed and edited in Live's MIDI Editor. 10.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 10.2 136 The MIDI Editor To bring up the MIDI Editor, double-click a MIDI clip to open the Clip View. You can use the Clip View Box selector to make sure the Notes box is showing, then click in the title bar of the Notes box to bring up the MIDI Editor on the right-hand side of the screen. The MIDI Editor. The MIDI Editor is divided into two editing windows: the upper Note Editor and the lower Velocity Editor.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 137 Previewing MIDI Notes. Provided your MIDI track's device chain contains an instrument, activating the Preview switch in the MIDI Editor allows you to hear notes as you select and move them. If the MIDI track is armed, activating Preview also allows you to step record new notes into the clip. Note velocity is adjusted in the Velocity Editor, by clicking and dragging on the associated markers.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 138 The MIDI Editor has both vertical and horizontal navigation. Along the horizontal axis lies a time ruler, which shows note position along a musical timeline. The vertical axis contains the note ruler, displaying octaves C0 C10, and a representation of a piano keyboard (the piano roll). Note that if the Preview switch at the top of the piano roll is activated, you can listen to the results of your piano roll playing. 2 1 3 5 6 MIDI Editor Navigation.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 139 It always shows the complete contents of the selected MIDI clip. The black rectangular outline represents the part of the clip that is currently displayed in the Editor above. To scroll, click within the outline and drag left or right; to zoom in and out, drag up and down. 6. Change the length of what is shown in the Editor by dragging the left or right edges of the outline in the Clip Overview. 7.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 10.4 Editing MIDI 10.4.1 Non-Destructive Editing 140 You can always return your MIDI clip to its previous state by using the Edit menu's Undo command. Furthermore, if the MIDI clip being edited originated in a MIDI le on your hard drive, none of your editing will alter the original MIDI le, as Live incorporates its contents into your Live Set when importing. 10.4.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 141 Use the Loop/Region Markers to Select a Speci c Region of the Clip to Play. 10.4.3 Grid Snapping Most functions in the MIDI Editor are subject to grid snapping. You can hold down the Alt (PC) / (Mac) modi er while performing an action to bypass grid snapping. Note movements will also snap to an offset, which is based on the original placement of the note relative to the grid.
142 CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES Clicking and dragging in the background selects a timespan. To select all of the notes that begin during the timespan, press Return . After placing the insert mark, you can manipulate it using your computer keyboard. Press or settings. Ctrl boundary.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 143 You can also use the Ctrl (PC) / Alt (Mac) modi er to click and drag copies of notes to a new location. If you click and drag to move notes but then decide that you would like to copy them instead, you can press the Ctrl (PC) / Alt (Mac) modi er even after starting the drag. When editing or drawing, you may sometimes place a new note on top of one that already exists.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 144 Cut Time cuts a selection of time from the MIDI clip, thereby moving any notes on either side of the cut area closer together in the timeline. A Gap Between MIDI Notes Has Been Cut by First Selecting It, Then Executing the Cut Time Command. Paste Time places copied time into the MIDI clip, along with any notes that were in the copied time. Duplicate Time places a copy of the selected timespan into the clip, along with any contained notes.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 145 Quantizing MIDI Notes. Using the options presented here, you can select either the current grid size or a speci c meter value for quantization and set either the note start or end (or both) to be quantized. Quantizing the note end will stretch the note so that it ends at the chosen meter subdivision.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 146 As in the Note Editor, you can select multiple velocity markers to change by clicking with the modi er held down. Tip: To set a group of notes so that they all have the same velocity, select their markers in the Velocity Editor, drag them up or down to either maximum or minimum velocity, and then adjust velocity to the desired value. As we saw earlier, Draw Mode allows drawing identical velocities for all notes within a grid tile.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 147 movement, Live will remember the change and use your new velocity on any notes that you draw afterward. Note-Off Velocity By default, the Velocity Editor allows you to adjust note-on velocities. But you can toggle the editor to show note-off velocities via options in the editor's (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu. The Velocity Editor Showing Note-Off Velocities.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 148 When multiple notes are selected in the Note Editor, the Stretch Notes command becomes available from the context menu, if you invoke it with (PC) / Ctrl (Mac). Note Stretch markers will then appear in the Note Editor, allowing notes to be scaled proportionally in time. The markers are a pair of downward-pointing indicators that snap to the beginning of the rst and last notes in the selection.
149 Chapter 11 Using Grooves The timing and feel of each clip in your Set can be modi ed through the use of grooves. Live's Library includes a large selection of grooves, which appear as .agr les in the Browser. Groove Files in the Browser. The easiest way to work with Library grooves is to drag and drop them from the Browser directly onto clips in your Set. This immediately applies the timing characteristics of the groove le to the clip.
CHAPTER 11. USING GROOVES 150 the Browser while the clip plays. The Hot-Swap Groove Button. Grooves can be applied to both audio and MIDI clips. In audio clips, grooves work by adjusting the clip's warping behavior, and thus only works on clips with Warp enabled. 11.1 Groove Pool Once you've applied a groove le, you can modify its behavior by adjusting its parameters in the Groove Pool, which can be opened or closed via its selector button at the bottom of Browser. The Groove Pool Selector Button.
CHAPTER 11. USING GROOVES 151 The Groove Pool. 11.1.1 Adjusting Groove Parameters Grooves in the Groove Pool appear in a list, and offer a variety of parameters that can be modi ed in real time to adjust the behavior of any clips that are using them. You can also save and hot-swap grooves via the buttons next to the Groove's name. The Groove Pool's controls work as follows: Base The Base chooser determines the timing resolution against which the notes in the groove will be measured.
CHAPTER 11. USING GROOVES 152 to every voice in your clip, so notes that originally occurred together will now be randomly offset both from the grid and from each other. Velocity adjusts how much the velocity of the notes in clips will be affected by the velocity information stored in the groove le. Note that this slider goes from -100 to +100. At negative values, the effect of the groove's velocity will be reversed; loud notes will play quietly and vice versa.
CHAPTER 11. USING GROOVES 153 or Groove Pool into a MIDI track. This will create a new MIDI clip, which you can then edit, as you would with any other MIDI clip. You can then convert the edited clip back into a groove, via the process below. 11.2.1 Extracting Grooves The timing and volume information from any audio or MIDI clip can be extracted to create a new groove. You can do this by dragging the clip to the Groove Pool or via the Extract Groove command in the clip's (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu.
CHAPTER 11. USING GROOVES 154 the voice that you want to independently groove. In this example, we'd extract the snare chain, creating a new clip and track that contained only the snare notes. Then we could apply a different groove to this new clip. 11.3.2 Non-Destructive Quantization Grooves can be used to apply real-time, non-destructive quantization to clips. To do this, simply set the groove's Timing, Random and Velocity amounts to 0% and adjust its Quantize and Base parameters to taste.
155 Chapter 12 Launching Clips The Live Session View is set apart by the fact that it gives you, the musician, a spontaneous environment that encourages performance and improvisation. An important part of how you take advantage of the Session View lies within how you con gure your various Session View clips. This chapter explains the group of settings used to de ne how each Session View clip behaves when triggered, or launched. 12.
CHAPTER 12. LAUNCHING CLIPS 156 Use the Clip View Box Selector to Bring up the Launch Box. Note that you can edit the launch settings of more than one clip at the same time by rst selecting the clips and then opening the Clip View. 12.2 Launch Modes The Clip Launch Mode Chooser. The Launch Mode chooser offers a number of options for how clips behave with respect to mouse clicks, computer keyboard actions or MIDI notes: Trigger: down starts the clip; up is ignored.
CHAPTER 12. LAUNCHING CLIPS 12.3 157 Clip-Level Quantization The Clip Quantization Chooser. The Clip Quantization chooser lets you adjust an onset timing correction for clip triggering. To disable clip quantization, choose None. To use the Control Bar's Global Quantization setting, choose Global. Global quantization 6 (PC) / 6 (Mac), 7 , 8 , 9 and 0 can be quickly changed using the Ctrl shortcuts.
CHAPTER 12. LAUNCHING CLIPS 158 The Velocity Amount control allows you to adjust the effect of MIDI note velocity on the clip's volume: If set to zero, there is no in uence; at 100 percent, the softest notes play the clip silently. For more on playing clips via MIDI, see the respective section. 12.5 Legato Mode The Legato Mode Switch. Suppose you have gathered, in one track, a number of looping clips, and you now want to toggle among them without losing the sync.
CHAPTER 12. LAUNCHING CLIPS 159 same group after the clip plays. A group is de ned by clips arranged in successive slots of the same track. Tracks can have an unlimited number of groups, separated by empty slots. 1 2 The Follow Action Controls. 3 1. The Follow Action Time control de nes when the Follow Action takes place in bars-beats-sixteenths from the point in the clip where play starts. The default for this setting is one bar. 2.
CHAPTER 12. LAUNCHING CLIPS 160 Play First Clip launches the rst (top) clip in a group. Play Last Clip launches the last (bottom) clip in a group. Play Any Clip plays any clip in the group. Play Other Clip is similar to Play Any Clip, but as long as the current clip is not alone in the group, no clip will play consecutively. There is also the possibility to have no Follow Action by selecting No Action, or leaving the chooser blank.
CHAPTER 12. LAUNCHING CLIPS 161 2 3 Creating a Group With the Two Clips. 3. Set up Follow Actions for the rst clip. You will want to make Follow Action Time equal to the clip's length. Set the Follow Action A chooser to Play Next Clip, with a Chance setting of 1, leaving Follow Action B alone. Now this clip is set up to advance to the looping clip after it plays. 4. Activate the Loop switch for the second clip.
CHAPTER 12. LAUNCHING CLIPS 162 The default setting for Follow Action is actually a 1:0 chance that Nothing happens after the Follow Action Time, which means that there is effectively no Follow Action. But now, imagine a group consisting of one single clip. Follow Action A is set to Play Clip Again, with a Chance of 8. Follow Action B is set to None, with a Chance of 1. The clip uses a long sample, and Follow Time is set to one bar.
CHAPTER 12. LAUNCHING CLIPS 12.6.5 163 Mixing up Melodies and Beats You can let Follow Actions perform unpredictable remixes and solos for you: Use a clip containing a beat or melody, and copy it so that there are several instances of it forming a group. Alternatively, you can use several different beats or melodies that you want to mix together. The start and end for each clip can be set differently, as can clip envelopes and other clip settings.
164 Chapter 13 Routing and I/O In the context of Live, routing is the setup of the tracks' signal sources and destinations (i.e., their inputs and outputs). Most routing happens in the mixer's track In/Out section, which offers, for every track, choosers to select a signal source and destination. The mixer's In/Out section is Live's patchbay. The In/Out section can be independently shown or hidden from the Session and Arrangement Views.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 165 For every track that can play clips, the In/Out section has the same layout: The upper chooser pair ( Audio/MIDI From ) selects the track's input. Audio tracks have an audio input, and MIDI tracks have a MIDI input. Return tracks receive their input from the respective sends. The Monitor radio button selects the monitor mode: the conditions under which the track's input is heard through the track. The lower chooser pair ( Audio/MIDI To ) selects the track's output.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 166 Audio and MIDI Track Arm Buttons. To permanently monitor the track's input, regardless of whether the track is armed or clips are playing, choose In. This setting effectively turns the track into what is called an Aux on some systems: the track is not used for recording but for bringing in a signal from elsewhere (for instance, a ReWire slave program). With this setting, output from the clips is suppressed.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 167 reached via the Input and Output Channel choosers' Con gure... option. Note that the Audio Preferences also provide access to the Channel Con guration dialogs, which determine which inputs and outputs are used, and whether they are available to Live as mono or stereo pairs. Essentially, the Channel Con guration dialog tells Live what it needs to know about how the computer is connected to the other audio components in your studio. 13.2.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 168 You can con gure which MIDI ports are made available to Live using the MIDI Ports section of the MIDI/Sync Preferences. All available input and output ports are listed here. For Live's tracks to receive/send MIDI from/to a speci c MIDI port, the corresponding switch in the Track column must be set to On. You can use any number of MIDI ports for track input and output; the mixer's In/Out choosers allow them to be addressed individually. 13.3.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 169 otherwise been assigned to remote-control elements of the Live interface. To prevent this, you can turn the computer MIDI keyboard off when it is not needed. 13.3.3 Connecting External Synthesizers Routing MIDI to an external synthesizer is straightforward: The Output Type chooser is set to whatever MIDI port the synthesizer is connected to; the Output Channel chooser is used to select which MIDI channel to send on.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 170 2. MIDI messages that are used for remote-controlling Live's user-interface elements; 3. MIDI messages coming from and going to Live's MIDI tracks. MIDI messages that are mapped to remote-control Live's user-interface elements are eaten up by the remote control assignment and will not be passed on to the MIDI tracks. This is a common cause of confusion that can be easily resolved by looking at the indicators. 13.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 171 4. The Output Channel chooser presents you with a list of the instruments that you currently have in your Reason rack; select the instrument you want to address. 5. Select Reason from the audio track's Input Type chooser. 6. From the audio track's Input Channel chooser, select the audio channel that corresponds to the instrument to which you are sending MIDI. 7. Set the audio track's Monitor radio button to In. 8. Select All Ins from the MIDI track's Input Type chooser. 9.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 13.5 172 Resampling Live's Master output can be routed into an individual audio track and recorded, or resampled. Resampling can be a fun and useful tool, as it lets you create samples from what is currently happening in a Live Set that can then be immediately integrated. It can be used to record tracks that include processor-intensive devices, so as to delete the devices, or for quickly previewing before rendering to disk.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 173 Two Ways to Route Track A into Track B. Both approaches result in Track A's output being fed into Track B. Approach 1 leaves Track B's in/out settings alone, and we can, at any time, add more tracks that feed their output into Track B. This is the method of choice for many-to-one routings such as submixes or several MIDI tracks playing the same instrument. In this scenario, soloing Track B will still allow you to hear the output of the tracks that are feeding it.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 174 Tap Points for Track Routing. Pre FX taps the signal that is coming directly from a track, before it has been passed on to the track's device chains (FX) or mixer. Therefore, changes that are made to the tapped track's devices or mixer have no effect on the tapped signal. Soloing a track that taps another track Pre FX will allow you to hear the tapped track.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 175 Routing Points in Racks Tap Points for Every Chain in a Track. If a track has one or more Instrument or Effect Racks in its device chain, internal routing points (Pre FX, Post FX and Post Mixer) will also be available for every chain within the Rack. If a track contains one or more Drum Racks, internal routing points will be available for any of the Rack's return chains.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 13.6.2 176 Making Use of Internal Routing This section presents several internal routing examples in more detail. Post-Effects Recording Let's say that you are feeding a guitar into Live, building up a song track by track, overlaying take onto take. It is certainly powerful to have a separate effects chain per track for applying different effects to different takes after the fact.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 177 Recording MIDI as Audio When working with MIDI and complex software instruments, it is sometimes more useful to record the resulting audio than the incoming MIDI. A single MIDI note can prompt, for example, Native Instruments' Absynth to produce something that sounds more like a piece of music than a single tone. This output lends itself more to representation as an audio waveform than a single note in a MIDI clip, particularly when comparing the editing options.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 178 Creating Submixes Submixing the Individual Drums of a Drum Kit. Suppose we have the individual drums of a drum kit coming in on separate tracks for multitrack recording. In the mix, we can easily change the volumes of the individual drums, but adjusting the volume of the entire drum kit against the rest of the music is less convenient. Therefore, we add a new audio track to submix the individual drums.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 179 Feeding an Additional MIDI Track Into an Existing MIDI Track to Reuse its Instrument. This is accomplished by setting the new MIDI track's Output Type chooser to Pad. Note that the Output Channel chooser now offers a selection of destinations: We can either feed the new track's output into the input of the pad track, or we can directly address the Simpler.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 180 MIDI is played by an instrument that is out of the mix. This can be easily remedied by cutting the clips from the pad track and pasting them into a third track that can be independently muted (and that can hold its own MIDI effects). The original pad track now acts as a mere instrument container.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 181 most plug-in instruments, however. Soloing a track that taps one of Impulse's sample slots will still allow you to hear the output of that slot. Using Multi-Timbral Plug-In Instruments Many plug-in instruments support multi-timbral operation. A multi-timbral instrument is like several instruments in one, with each component part (or whatever term the manufacturer uses) receiving MIDI on a separate MIDI channel.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 182 2. Insert an External Instrument device on another MIDI track. 3. Select the track that contains the instrument in the rst MIDI To chooser on the External Instrument device. 4. Select the MIDI channel to route to in the second chooser on the External Instrument device. 5. From the External Instrument's Audio From chooser, select a secondary output on the instrument to which you are sending MIDI.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 183 Routing a Speech Signal Into a Vocoder's Sidechain Input. Some vocoder plug-ins include a built-in synthesizer to generate the carrier signal. In this case, the only difference from the above procedure is that the vocoder instrument is dragged into a MIDI track. Feeding the side-chain audio input works as described above.
CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O 184 Using an Auxiliary MIDI Track to Layer Instruments. Perhaps you wonder why this works, given that the string track's output is audio and not MIDI. When routing MIDI in from another track, we are tapping the MIDI at the latest possible stage, which is after any MIDI Effects, and just before the instrument.
185 Chapter 14 Mixing 14.1 The Live Mixer Live includes a mixer section that is accessible from two views: The Arrangement View Mixer. In the Arrangement View, the mixer appears as a horizontal strip to the right of the track button next to area. To display all mixer controls for a track, unfold the track using the its name, and adjust its height accordingly.
CHAPTER 14. MIXING 186 The Session View Mixer. The Session View is a standard vertical mixer layout. You'll likely nd the Session View mixer more intuitive than the Arrangement mixer, which comes in handy when you work with automation. Note that the Tab key toggles between the Arrangement and Session Views. The View menu options listed below show or hide mixer components.
187 CHAPTER 14. MIXING Let's look at the mixer controls: 5 6 4 3 1 2 4 5 6 1 2 3 The Mixer Controls. 1. The Meter shows the track's RMS (average) and peak output level. While monitoring, however, it shows the input level. 2. The Volume control adjusts the track's output level. With multiple tracks selected, adjusting the volume of one of them will adjust the others as well. 3. The Pan control positions the track's output in the stereo eld.
CHAPTER 14. MIXING 14.1.1 188 Session Mixer Features The Session Mixer's Possibilities. The Mixer section of the Session Mixer has several additional features that are not visible by default. The mixer is resizable, and dragging upwards on the top of the mixer will extend the height of the track meters, adding tick marks, a numeric volume eld and resettable peak level indicators. Increasing a track's width in this state will add a decibel scale alongside the meter's tick marks.
CHAPTER 14. MIXING 14.2 189 Audio and MIDI Tracks Audio and MIDI tracks in Live are for hosting and playing clips, as explained earlier. You can add new audio and MIDI tracks to your Live Set's mixer at any time using the appropriate Create menu commands. Tracks can also be created by double-clicking or pressing Return on les in the Browser to load them, or by dragging objects from the Browser into the space to the right of Session View tracks or below Arrangement View tracks.
CHAPTER 14. MIXING 190 particular knob or slider parameter (volume, for example), this difference will be maintained as you adjust the parameter. If you drag a track's title bar to the Browser it will be saved as a new Set. If a track contains audio clips, Live will manage the copying of the referenced sampled into this new location based on the selection in the Collect Samples on Export chooser. You can then type in a name for the newly created Set or con rm the one suggested by Live with Return .
CHAPTER 14. MIXING 191 than Master. ) You can also use a Group Track purely as a folder track by rerouting the outputs of the contained tracks to some other destination. ...and in Arrangement View. Once a Group Track has been created, tracks can be dragged into or out of the group. Deleting a Group Track deletes all of its contents, but a group can be dissolved back into individual tracks by executing the Edit Menu's Ungroup Tracks command.
CHAPTER 14. MIXING 192 in a return track lets it receive audio from any number of tracks and add echoes to them. The Send Controls and Pre/Post Toggle. A clip or group track's Send control regulates how much of the track's output feeds the associated return track's input. What's more, even the return track's own output can be routed to its input, allowing you to create feedback.
CHAPTER 14. MIXING 193 The Crossfader and Selector. The crossfader is accessed via the Session View's mixer selectors. It features seven different crossfade curves so that you can choose the one that ts your style the best. To change the curve, (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) on the crossfader, then select an entry from the context menu. Choose from Seven Crossfader Curves. The chart below details the power level and response of each crossfader curve.
194 CHAPTER 14. MIXING A+B Power Level Crossfader Response Transition Dipped Intermediate Constant Power Slow Fade Slow Cut Fast Cut Crossfader Curve Properties. The crossfader can be mapped to any continuous MIDI controller (absolute or incremental). In addition to the crossfader's central slider, its absolute left and right positions are separately available for MIDI or keyboard mapping.
CHAPTER 14. MIXING 195 Each track has two Crossfade Assign buttons, A and B. The track can have three states with respect to the crossfader: If neither Assign button is on, the crossfader does not affect the track at all. If A is on, the track will be played unattenuated as long as the crossfader is in the left half of its value range. As the crossfader moves toward the right across the center position, the track fades out. At the crossfader's rightmost position, the track is muted.
196 CHAPTER 14. MIXING In order to set Live up for cueing, you must be using an audio interface with at least four dedicated outputs (or two dedicated stereo outputs). The respective settings are accessible in the Session View mixer. Make sure you have the Mixer and In/Out options checked in the View menu. 4 5 3 2 1 The Cueing-Related Session Mixer Controls. 1. The Master Out chooser selects the output on your interface to be used as the main output. 2.
CHAPTER 14. MIXING 14.7 197 Track Delays A Track Delay control is available for every track in Live. The control allows delaying or predelaying the output of tracks in milliseconds in order to compensate for human, acoustic, hardware and other real-world delays. This section of the interface can be shown or hidden using its respective Mixer Section selector. The Track Delay Control and Selector.
198 Chapter 15 Recording New Clips This chapter is about recording new clips from audio and MIDI input signals. Note that this is a different kind of recording than the capturing of Session clips into the Arrangement. For successful audio recording, please make sure the audio preferences are set up properly. For more on this, please see the built-in program lesson on setting up Audio Preferences.
CHAPTER 15. RECORDING NEW CLIPS 199 The Track In/Out Section in the Arrangement (Left) and Session View (Right). Audio tracks default to recording a stereo signal from the external input pair 1/2. MIDI tracks default to recording all MIDI that is coming in through the active external input devices. The computer keyboard is, by default, activated as a pseudo-MIDI input device, allowing you to record MIDI even if no MIDI controller hardware is currently available.
200 CHAPTER 15. RECORDING NEW CLIPS If you are using a natively supported control surface, arming a MIDI track will automatically lock this control surface to the instrument in the track. Clicking one track's Arm button unarms all other tracks unless the Ctrl (PC) / (Mac) modi er is held. If multiple tracks are selected, clicking one of their Arm buttons will arm the other tracks as well. Arming a track selects the track so you can readily access its devices in the Track View. 15.
CHAPTER 15. RECORDING NEW CLIPS 201 1. Recording commences when the Control Bar's Record button is activated and the Play button is pressed. 2. Recording creates new clips in all tracks that have their Arm button on. 3. When the Overdub switch is on, the new clips contain a mix of the signal already in the track and the new input signal. The Overdub option only applies to MIDI tracks. 4. To prevent recording prior to a punch-in point, activate the Punch-In switch.
202 CHAPTER 15. RECORDING NEW CLIPS 4 3 2 1 Recording a New Clip Into the Session View. 1. Set the Global Quantization chooser to any value other than None to obtain correctly cut clips. 2. Activate the Arm button for the tracks onto which you want to record. Clip Record buttons will appear in the empty slots of the armed tracks. 3. Click on any of the Clip Record buttons to commence recording. A new clip will appear in the slot with a red Clip Launch button that shows it is currently recording.
CHAPTER 15. RECORDING NEW CLIPS 15.3.3 203 Overdub Recording MIDI Patterns Live makes pattern-oriented recording of drums and the like quite easy. Using Live's Impulse instrument and the following technique, you can successively build up drum patterns while listening to the result. Or, using an instrument such as Simpler, which allows for chromatic playing, you can build up melodies or harmonies, note by note. 1. Set the Global Quantization chooser to one bar. 2.
CHAPTER 15. RECORDING NEW CLIPS 15.3.4 204 MIDI Step Recording The MIDI Editor allows you to record notes with the transport stopped by holding down keys on your controller or computer MIDI keyboard and advancing the insert mark according to the grid settings. This process, known as step recording, allows you to enter notes at your own pace, without needing to listen to a metronome or guide track. 2 1 3 Step Recording in the MIDI Editor. 1.
CHAPTER 15. RECORDING NEW CLIPS 15.4 205 Recording in Sync Live keeps the audio and MIDI you have recorded in sync, even when you later decide on a different song tempo. In fact, Live allows you to change the tempo at any time before, after and even during recording. You could, for instance, cheat a bit by turning down the tempo to record a technically dif cult part, and pull it up again afterwards. It is important to record in sync to make sure everything will later play in sync. The Metronome Switch.
CHAPTER 15. RECORDING NEW CLIPS 15.5 206 Recording Quantized MIDI Notes If you will be recording MIDI, you have the option of automatically quantizing MIDI notes while recording. The Record Quantization chooser in the Edit menu allows selecting the meter subdivisions with which your recorded notes will align. When recording into Session slots or into the Arrangement, record quantization is an independent step in Live's Undo history.
CHAPTER 15. RECORDING NEW CLIPS 15.7 207 Setting up File Types The following Preferences from the Record/Warp/Launch tab are relevant to the sample les that are created by recording: The sample le type you would like Live to create can be chosen from the File Type chooser in the Record/Warp/Launch Preferences. The bit depth of the sample le you will create by recording can be chosen from the Bit Depth chooser in the Record/Warp/Launch Preferences.
CHAPTER 15. RECORDING NEW CLIPS 208 The Scene Up/Down Buttons. One key is used to jump to the next scene... A Track Launch Button. ... and another key to start and end recording in the respective track. You can also map the step recording navigators. The Step Recording Arrows. This allows you to, for example, use MIDI foot pedals to move the clip's insert mark, thereby keeping both hands free for playing a keyboard.
209 Chapter 16 Working with Instruments and Effects Every track in Live can host a number of devices. These devices can be of three different sorts: MIDI effects act upon MIDI signals and can only be placed in MIDI tracks. Audio effects act upon audio signals and can be placed in audio tracks. They can also be placed in MIDI tracks as long as they are downstream from an instrument. Instruments are devices that reside in MIDI tracks, receive MIDI and output audio.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 210 Devices in the Track View. To save space in the Track View, a device can be collapsed by double-clicking on its title bar (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu. or by choosing Fold from its Devices Can Be Folded. To learn about a particular device and how to operate it, consult the Live Audio Effect Reference, Live MIDI Effect Reference or the Live Instrument Reference.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 16.1 211 Using the Live Devices The Live Device Browser. Click on the Device Browser selector to access the palette of Live's built-in devices. You will notice that MIDI effects, audio effects and instruments each have their own folders in the Browser. The easiest way to place a device in a track is to double-click on it in the Browser, which creates a new track to hold the device.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 212 MIDI and Audio Track Arm Buttons This is how you would play live instruments through effects on a track, for example, or use a MIDI keyboard's input to play a track's instrument. Note that you can easily move from this setup into recording new clips for further use in Live. If you have alternative monitoring preferences, please see the Monitoring section to learn how to make these settings.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 213 A MIDI Track's Device Chain Can Contain All Three Device Types. To remove a device from the chain, click on its title bar and press your computer's or Delete key, or select Delete from the Edit menu. To change the order of devices, drag a device by its title bar and drop it next to any of the other devices in the Track View. Devices can be moved to other tracks entirely by dragging them from the Track View into the Session or Arrangement Views.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 214 Devices in Live's tracks have input and output level meters. These meters are helpful in nding problematic devices in the device chain: Low or absent signals will be revealed by the level meters, and relevant device settings can then be adjusted, or the device can be turned off or removed. The Level Meters Between Devices in a Chain. Note that no clipping can occur between devices because there is practically unlimited headroom.
215 CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS Presets in the Device Browser. You can browse and load presets quickly with the computer keyboard: Scroll up and down using the and Close and open device folders using the Press Return keys. and keys. to load a device or preset. The Hot-Swap Presets Button. Clicking a device's Hot-Swap Presets button will temporarily link the Browser to a device, calling up its presets in the Device Browser.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 216 Saving Presets You can create and save any number of your own presets in the Device Browser. The Save Preset Button. Click the Save Preset button to save a device's current settings (including any custom info text) as a new preset. You will be redirected to the Browser, where you can press Return to use Live's suggested name, or you can type one of your own.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 217 for all of Live's instruments, MIDI effects and audio effects (including the various types of Racks). If you have already saved a default preset for a particular device, Live will ask you before overwriting it.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 218 tracks or following instruments. Please see the previous section, Using the Live Devices, for details. The Plug-In Device Browser. Audio Units and VST Plug-ins are browsed and imported using the Plug-In Device Browser, which is accessed via its selector. Plug-in instruments can be differentiated from plug-in effects in the Browser, as they appear with a keyboard icon.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 219 Live is running, so that newly installed devices become immediately available in the Plug-In Device Browser. You can also rescan if you believe that your plug-in database has somehow become corrupted. Holding down the Alt (PC) / Alt (Mac) modi er while pressing Rescan will delete your plug-in database altogether and run a clean scan of your plug-ins. 16.2.1 Plug-Ins in the Track View A VST Plug-In in the Track View.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 220 The X-Y control eld can be used to control two plug-in parameters at once and is therefore especially well-suited for live control. To assign any two plug-in parameters to the Live panel X-Y eld, use the drop-down menus directly beneath it. Showing Plug-In Panels in Separate Windows The Plug-In Edit Button. The Plug-In Edit button opens a oating window that shows the original VST or Audio Units Plug-in panel.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 221 Plug-In Con gure Mode The Con gure Button. Con gure Mode allows you to customize Live's panel to show only the plug-in parameters that you need to access. To do this: Enter Con gure Mode by pressing the Con gure button in the device's header. Click on a parameter in the plug-in edit window to add it to Live's panel. (For some plug-ins, it may be necessary to actually change the parameter's value.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 222 Adjusting a parameter in the plug-in's oating window creates temporary entries for that parameter in the clip envelope and automation choosers, as well as the choosers in the panel's X-Y eld. These entries are removed when you adjust another parameter.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 16.2.2 223 Plug-In Performance Options The CPU Preferences contain a Plug-In Buffer Size setting for balancing plug-in latency and performance. Here you can set the number of samples processed at any one time by the plug-in. Higher settings may result in a noticeable performance increase but will also result in higher latencies.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 224 2. Once you have selected a VST Custom Folder and Live has scanned it, the path will be displayed. Note that, on Windows, Live may have found a path in the registry without the need for browsing. 3. Make sure that the Use VST Plug-In Custom Folder option is set to On, so that your selected folder is an active source for VST Plug-ins in Live.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 225 System folder on Mac OS X) selected in Live's File/Folder Preferences. The alias can point to a different partition or hard drive on your computer. Live will scan the set VST Plug-in folder as well as any alias folders contained therein. Some VST Plug-ins contain errors or are incompatible with Live. During the scanning process, these may cause the program to crash.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 226 The VST Program/Bank Load Button (Left) and Save Button (Right). VST programs and banks can be imported from les. Clicking the VST Program Load button brings up a standard le-open dialog for locating the desired le. Windows only: Please select from the File Type menu whether you want to locate VST Device Program les or VST Device Bank les.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 227 on the Use Audio Units option activates Audio Units Plug-ins so that they appear in Live's Plug-In Device Browser. Note that you can always turn this option off later if you decide not to use Audio Units. Activating Audio Units Plug-Ins. Audio Units Plug-ins sometimes have a feature that allows choosing between different modes for the device. You might be able to choose, for example, between different levels of quality in the rendering of a reverb.
CHAPTER 16. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 228 Device delay compensation is on by default and does not normally have to be adjusted in any way. However, Live Sets that were created with Live 4 or earlier will open without device delay compensation. To manually turn latency compensation on (or off), use the Delay Compensation option in the Options menu. Unusually high individual track delays or reported latencies from plug-ins may cause noticeable sluggishness in the software.
229 Chapter 17 Instrument, Drum and Effect Racks An Audio Effect Rack. A Rack is a exible tool for working with effects, plug-ins and instruments in a track's device chain. Racks can be used to build complex signal processors, dynamic performance instruments, stacked synthesizers and more. Yet they also streamline your device chain by bringing together your most essential controls.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 17.1 An Overview of Racks 17.1.1 Signal Flow and Parallel Device Chains 230 In any of Live's tracks, devices are connected serially in a device chain, passing their signals from one device to the next, left to right. By default, the Track View displays only a single chain, but there is actually no limit to the number of chains contained within a track. Racks allow (among other things) additional device chains to be added to any track.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 231 The Macro Controls are a bank of eight knobs, each capable of addressing any number of parameters from any devices in a Rack. How you use them is up to you whether it be for convenience, by making an important device parameter more accessible; for de ning exotic, multi-parameter morphs of rhythm and timbre; or for constructing a mega-synth, and hiding it away behind a single customized interface.
232 CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS on one of the title bars to reveal the Group and Group to Drum Rack commands in the context menu. Note that if you repeat one of these commands again on the same device, you will create a Rack within a Rack. You can also group multiple chains within a Rack using the same procedure. Doing this also creates a Rack within a Rack.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 233 an Instrument, Drum or Effect Rack is being used. 2. Macro Controls 3. Chain List. In Drum Racks, this view can include both drum chains and return chains. 4. Devices 5. Racks are also identi able by their round corners, which bracket and enclose their content. When the Devices view is shown, the end bracket visually detaches itself to keep the Rack hierarchy clear. 6. Pad View. This is unique to Drum Racks.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 234 Navigate Racks Quickly Via a Context Menu. 17.4 Chain List The Chain List in an Audio Effect Rack. As signals enter a Rack, they are rst greeted by the Chain List. We will therefore also choose this point for our own introduction. The Chain List represents the branching point for incoming signals: Each parallel device chain starts here, as an entry in the list.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 235 or Arrangement View track will give that track focus; its Track View will open, allowing you to drop your chain into place. Since the Track View can show only one device chain at a time, the Chain List also serves as a navigational aid: The list selection determines what will be shown in the adjacent Devices view (when enabled).
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 236 Auto Select in a Drum Rack. When the Auto Select switch is activated, every chain that is currently processing signals becomes selected in the Chain List. In Drum Racks, this feature will select a chain if it receives its assigned MIDI input note. In Instrument and Effect Racks, Auto Select works in conjunction with zones, which are discussed next, and is quite helpful when troubleshooting complex con gurations. 17.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 17.5.1 237 Signal Flow through Zones To understand how zones work, let's examine the signal ow in a MIDI Effect Rack. Our MIDI Effect Rack resides in the device chain of a MIDI track, and therefore processes MIDI signals. We will assume that it contains four parallel device chains, each containing one MIDI effect. 1. All MIDI data in the track is passed to its device chain, and therefore into the input of the MIDI Effect Rack. 2.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 17.5.2 238 Key Zones The Key Zone Editor. When the Key button is selected, the Key Zone Editor appears to the right of the Chain List, illustrating how each chain maps to the full MIDI note range (nearly 11 octaves). Chains will only respond to MIDI notes that lie within their key zone. The zones of individual chains may occupy any number of keys, allowing for exible keyboard split setups.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 239 spans the top of the editor. Otherwise, the functionality here is identical to that of the Key Zone Editor. Velocity zone fade ranges attenuate the velocities of notes entering a chain. 17.5.4 Chain Select Zones The Chain Select Editor. Activating the Chain button in an Instrument or Effect Rack displays the Chain Select Editor. These Racks have chain select zones, which allow you to lter chains spontaneously via a single parameter.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 240 is not attenuated, allowing the chain's effects (like long reverb tails or delays) to fade out according to their own settings. Let's consider how we can make use of chain select zones in a performance situation: Making Preset Banks Using Chain Select Using Chain Select Zones to Create Effects Presets. Unlike the other zone types, the default length of a chain select zone is 1, and the default value is 0.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 241 Crossfading Preset Banks Using Fade Ranges Crossfading Between Effects Presets Using Chain Select Zones. Taking the previous example one step further, we can tweak our chain select zones to produce a smooth transition between our presets. To accomplish this, we will make use of our zones' fade ranges. To create some room for fading, let's extend the length of our zones a bit.
242 CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 2 3 4 1 1. In addition to the standard selectors found on all Racks, Drum Racks have four additional controls in the view column. From top to bottom, these are the Auto Select button and toggles for the Input/Output, Send, and Return sections. 2. Input/Output Section. The Receive chooser sets the incoming MIDI note to which the drum chain will respond. The list shows note names, MIDI note numbers and standard GM drum equivalents.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 243 Drum Racks that are nested within other Drum Racks, both drum chains and return chains can route upwards to the returns of any of the Drum Racks that contain them. 17.6.1 Pad View Pad View. The Pad View is unique to Drum Racks and offers an easy way to map and manipulate samples and devices. Each pad represents one of the 128 available MIDI notes.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 244 a single pad, by creating a nested Drum Rack with all of its chains set to receive that pad's note. Dragging a pad to another pad swaps the note mapping between the pads. This means that any MIDI clips triggering the affected notes will now play the wrong sounds although this might be exactly what you want. Alt (PC) / (Mac)-dragging one pad to another will layer any chains from both pads in a nested Drum Rack.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 17.6.2 245 Slicing Although Live automatically warps audio les to match your Set's tempo, you can get even more exibility out of your loops via a process called slicing. Slicing involves dividing the audio into small chunks and assigning each chunk to a single MIDI note, leaving your original audio le unaffected. The Drum Rack provides an ideal environment for working with sliced les, and most of the setup happens automatically.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 246 3. The Drum Rack's Macro Controls will be pre-assigned to useful parameters for the Simplers, as determined by the settings in the selected slicing preset. In the factory Slicing presets, these include basic envelope controls and parameters to adjust the loop and crossfade properties of each slice. Adjusting one of these Macros will adjust the mapped parameter in each Simpler simultaneously.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 247 Using Effects on Slices Because each slice lives in its own chain in the Drum Rack, you can easily process individual slices with their own audio effects. To process several slices with the same set of effects, multi-select their chains in the Drum Rack's chain list and press Ctrl -G to group them to their own nested Rack. Then insert the effects after this new sub-Rack. For even more creative possibilities, try inserting MIDI effects before the Drum Rack.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 248 Map buttons will appear beneath each Macro Control dial; The Mapping Browser will open. The following steps will get you started mapping: 1. Enable Macro Map Mode by clicking the Map Mode button; 2. Select a device parameter for mapping by clicking it once; 3. Map the parameter by clicking on any Macro Control's Map button. The details will be added to the Mapping Browser.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 249 a button in its title bar, which will fold the Rack's mixer in or out. Likewise, any nested chains within the Rack will also have this button. This makes it easy to get an overview of your Rack's hierarchy or hide it when you just want to work on your mix. Mixing Rack Chains in the Session View. Chains in the Session View mixer look similar to tracks, but they have no clip slots.
CHAPTER 17. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 17.8.1 250 Extracting Chains All chains can be dragged from their parent Racks and placed into other tracks or Racks, either from the chain list or from the Session View mixer. A Drum Rack's return chains can also be extracted, and will create new return tracks if dragged to the mixer. Drum chains have an additional feature: when dragged from the mixer to a new track, they take their MIDI notes with them.
251 Chapter 18 Automation and Editing Envelopes Often, when working with Live's mixer and devices, you will want the controls' movements to become part of the music. The movement of a control across the song timeline is called automation; a control whose value changes in the course of this timeline is automated. Practically all mixer and device controls in Live can be automated, including the song tempo. 18.
CHAPTER 18. AUTOMATION AND EDITING ENVELOPES 252 Volume, Pan and the Track Activator Switch Have Been Automated. 18.2 Deleting Automation To delete automation data, (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) on an automated control to open its context menu and select Delete Automation. The automation LED disappears, and the control's value stays constant across the entire song. You can also delete automation by editing breakpoint envelopes. 18.
253 CHAPTER 18. AUTOMATION AND EDITING ENVELOPES 2. You can click on it to reactivate all automation and thereby return to the automation state as it is written on tape. 18.4 Drawing and Editing Automation In the Arrangement View, automation curves can be viewed and edited as breakpoint envelopes. 3 5 8 1 4 6 2 7 1. To show a track's envelopes, unfold the track by clicking the button next to the track name.
CHAPTER 18. AUTOMATION AND EDITING ENVELOPES 254 of the track's devices or None to hide the envelope. It also provides you with an overview of which devices actually have automation by showing an LED next to their labels. You can make things clearer still by selecting Show Automated Parameters Only from the bottom of the chooser. 5. The Automation Control chooser selects a control from the device chosen in the Fades/Device chooser. The labels of automated controls have an LED.
CHAPTER 18. AUTOMATION AND EDITING ENVELOPES 255 Drawing an Envelope. Drawing creates steps as wide as the visible grid, which you can modify using a number of handy shortcuts. For freehand drawing, you can hide the grid using the Snap to Grid 4 (PC) / 4 (Mac) shortcut. To temporarily enable Options menu entry or the Ctrl freehand drawing while the grid is shown, hold down Alt (PC) / Alt (Mac) while drawing. 18.4.
256 CHAPTER 18. AUTOMATION AND EDITING ENVELOPES them. Holding down the to a ner resolution. Ctrl (PC) / (Mac) modi er while dragging switches Click and drag a line segment between two breakpoints to move it vertically, without affecting the breakpoint's horizontal position. If the line segment is in the current selection, the envelope is moved vertically across the selected timespan.
CHAPTER 18. AUTOMATION AND EDITING ENVELOPES 257 To copy, cut, delete or duplicate automation from a track, independent of the associated clip, make sure the parameter you want to work with is in its own lane. Any edit commands applied to an envelope selection within a single lane will only apply to this envelope. The clip itself will be unaffected. You can also work with envelopes in multiple lanes simultaneously.
258 Chapter 19 Clip Envelopes Every clip in Live can have its own clip envelopes. The aspects of a clip that are in uenced by clip envelopes change depending upon clip type and setup; clip envelopes can do anything from representing MIDI controller data to modulating device parameters. In this chapter, we will rst look at how all clip envelopes are drawn and edited, and then get into the details of their various applications. 19.
CHAPTER 19. CLIP ENVELOPES 259 To work with clip envelopes, bring up the Clip View's Envelopes box by activating the rightmost Clip View Box selector panel. The Envelopes box contains two choosers for selecting an envelope to view and edit. The Clip View's Envelopes Box. The top menu is the Device chooser, which selects a general category of controls with which to work.
260 CHAPTER 19. CLIP ENVELOPES 1. Enclose the desired selection in the loop brace, and click the brace so that it is selected. This will execute the Edit menu's Select Loop command, which selects all material in the loop. 2. Copy the envelope with Ctrl C (PC) / C (Mac). 3. Shift the loop brace to the right by one loop length with 4. Paste the envelope with Ctrl V (PC) / V . (Mac).
CHAPTER 19. CLIP ENVELOPES 19.2.2 261 Changing Pitch and Tuning per Note Drop a sample loop from the Browser into Live and play it. Click on the Transpose quickchooser button. You can now alter the pitch transposition of individual notes in the sample as you listen to it. The fast way to do this is by enabling Draw Mode and drawing steps along the grid. Deactivate Draw Mode to edit breakpoints and line segments. This is useful for smoothing the coarse steps by horizontally displacing breakpoints.
262 CHAPTER 19. CLIP ENVELOPES To scroll the display, hold down the dragging. Ctrl Alt (PC) / Alt (Mac) modi er while Pitch is modulated in an additive way. The output of the transposition envelope is simply added to the Transpose control's value. The result of the modulation is clipped to stay in the available range (-48..48 semitones in this case). 19.2.3 Muting or Attenuating Notes in a Sample Click on the Volume quick-chooser to access an audio clip's volume envelope.
CHAPTER 19. CLIP ENVELOPES 263 the Control chooser. The Envelope Editor appears with a vertical grid overlay. In envelope Draw Mode, set steps to non-zero values to hear the loop scrambled. What is going on? Imagine the audio is read out by a tape head, the position of which is modulated by the envelope. The higher a value the envelope delivers, the farther away the tape head is from its center position. Positive envelope values move the head towards the future, negative values move it towards the past.
CHAPTER 19. CLIP ENVELOPES 264 File Browsers, or the Session or Arrangement View, onto the Clip View. All clip settings, including the envelopes, will remain unaltered; only the sample will be replaced. 19.3 Mixer and Device Clip Envelopes Clip envelopes can be used to modulate mixer and device controls. Since mixer and device controls can also be controlled by the Arrangement's automation envelopes, this is a potential source of confusion.
CHAPTER 19. CLIP ENVELOPES 265 As you raise and lower the Volume slider, you can observe the dot following your movement in a relative fashion. Modulating the track's Send controls is just as easy. Again, the modulation is a relative percentage: The clip envelope cannot open the send further than the Send knob, but it can reduce the actual send value to minus in nite dB. 19.3.
CHAPTER 19. CLIP ENVELOPES 266 Choose MIDI Ctrl from a MIDI clip's Device chooser and use the Control chooser below it to select a speci c MIDI controller. You can create new clip envelopes for any of the listed controllers by drawing steps or using breakpoints.
267 CHAPTER 19. CLIP ENVELOPES 19.5.1 Programming a Fade-Out for a Live Set Let us start with a straightforward example. Suppose you are setting up a Live Set and wish to program a fade-out over eight bars to occur when a speci c clip is launched but all you have is a one-bar loop. 2 1 4 3 1. Choose the Clip Volume envelope, and unlink it from the sample. The clip envelope's loop braces now appear colored to indicate this envelope now has its own local loop/region settings.
CHAPTER 19. CLIP ENVELOPES 268 effectively deletes the envelope data. To return to the previous state, please use the Edit menu's Undo command. 19.5.2 Creating Long Loops from Short Loops Let us take this a step further. For a different part of your set, you would like to use the same one-bar loop because it sounds great but its repetition bores you. You would like to somehow turn it into a longer loop. We depart from the clip we just set up to fade out over eight bars.
CHAPTER 19. CLIP ENVELOPES 269 Note that the start/end markers and loop brace are subject to quantization by the zoomadaptive grid, as is envelope drawing. 19.5.3 Imposing Rhythm Patterns onto Samples So far, we have been talking about imposing long envelopes onto small loops. You can also think of interesting applications that work the other way around. Consider a sample of a song that is several minutes long. This sample could be played by a clip with a onebar volume envelope loop.
270 Chapter 20 Working with Video Live's exible architecture makes it the perfect choice for scoring to video. You can trim video clips to select parts of them and use Warp Markers to visually align music in the Arrangement View with the video. You can then render your edited video le along with your audio. Before diving in, you will want to be familiar with the concepts presented in the Tempo Control and Warping chapter.
CHAPTER 20. WORKING WITH VIDEO 20.2 The Appearance of Video in Live 20.2.1 Video Clips in the Arrangement View 271 A video clip in the Arrangement View looks just like an audio clip, except for the sprocket holes in its title bar. A Video Clip with a QuickTime Marker. Live also displays a movie le's QuickTime markers, if present, in the Arrangement View and Clip View.
CHAPTER 20. WORKING WITH VIDEO 20.2.2 272 The Video Window The Video Window is a separate, oating window that always remains above Live's main window. It can be dragged to any location you like, and it will never get covered up by Live. You can toggle its visibility with a command in the View menu. The Video Window can be resized by dragging its bottom right-hand corner. The size and location of this window are not speci c to the Set, and will be restored when you open a video again.
CHAPTER 20. WORKING WITH VIDEO 20.2.3 273 Clip View Soundtrack composers will want to note the Tempo Master option in Live's Clip View. When scoring to video, video clips are usually set as tempo masters, while audio clips are left as tempo slaves. These are, therefore, the default warp properties of clips in the Arrangement View. In this scenario, adding Warp Markers to a video clip de nes hit points that the music will sync to.
CHAPTER 20. WORKING WITH VIDEO 20.3 274 Matching Sound to Video In Live, it takes just a few steps to get started with video. Let's look at a common scenario matching a piece of music to edits or hit points in a video: 1. Make sure that Live's Arrangement View is visible. Your computer keyboard's key will toggle between the Session View and Arrangement View. 2. Drag a QuickTime movie from Live's File Browser and drop it into an audio track in the Arrangement View.
CHAPTER 20. WORKING WITH VIDEO 20.4 275 Video Trimming Tricks Commonly, composers receive movie les with a few seconds of blank space before the real beginning of the action. This pre-roll ( two-beep ) serves as a sync reference for the mixing engineer, who expects that the composer's audio les will also include the same pre-roll. While working on music, however, the pre-roll is in the composer's way: It would be more natural for the movie action to start at song time 1.1.1 and SMPTE time 00:00:00:00.
CHAPTER 20. WORKING WITH VIDEO 276 In the Arrangement View, we select all materials (Edit menu/Select All), then drag the entire composition a few seconds to the right: The Video Clip and the Final Clip of Music. Now, we click on the video clip's title bar (to deselect everything else), then drag the video clip's left edge to the left as far as possible to reveal the pre-roll again. The Video Clip with Pre-Roll Restored.
277 Chapter 21 Live Audio Effect Reference Live comes with a selection of custom-designed, built-in audio effects. The Working with Instruments and Effects chapter explains the basics of using effects in Live. 21.1 Auto Filter The Auto Filter Effect. The Auto Filter effect provides classic analog lter emulation. It can be modulated by an envelope follower and/or an LFO to create moving lter effects. The envelope follower can track either the ltered signal or an external sidechain source.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 278 There are four different lter types: lowpass, highpass, bandpass and notch. For each type, the X-Y controller adjusts frequency (to adjust, click and drag on the X-axis) and Q (also called resonance; to adjust, click and drag on the Y-axis). You can also click on the Freq and Q numeric displays and type in exact values. Low Q values create a broad lter curve, while higher values introduce a narrow, resonant peak to the sound.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 279 periodic fashion. The respective Amount control sets how much the LFO affects the lter. This can be used in conjunction with or instead of the envelope follower. The Rate control speci es the LFO speed. It can be set in terms of hertz, or synced to the song tempo, allowing for controlled rhythmic ltering.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 280 Auto Pan offers LFO-driven manipulation of amplitude and panning for creating automatic panning, tremolo and amplitude modulation, and beat-synchronized chopping effects. Auto Pan's LFOs modulate the amplitude of the left and right stereo channels with sine, triangle, sawtooth down or random waveforms. The Shape control pushes the waveform to its upper and lower limits, hardening its shape.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 281 The Interval control de nes how often Beat Repeat captures new material and begins repeating it. Interval is synced to and set in terms of the song tempo, with values ranging from 1/32 to 4 Bars. The Offset control shifts the point de ned by Interval forward in time. If Interval is set to 1 Bar, for example, and Offset to 8/16 , material will be captured for repetition once per bar on the third beat (i.e.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 282 Beat Repeat includes a combined lowpass and highpass lter for de ning the passed frequency range of the device. You can turn the lter on and off, and set the center frequency and width of the passed frequency band, using the respective controls.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 283 To set both delay lines to Delay 1's delay time, turn on the link button ( = ). This is especially useful if you want to change both delays with a single gesture. The Modulation X-Y controller can impart motion to the sounds. To change the modulation rate for the delay times, click and drag along the horizontal axis. To change the amount of modulation, click and drag along the vertical axis.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 284 A compressor reduces gain for signals above a user-settable threshold. Compression reduces the levels of peaks, opening up more headroom and allowing the overall signal level to be turned up. This gives the signal a higher average level, resulting in a sound that is subjectively louder and punchier than an uncompressed signal.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 285 maximizing tool in the master channel. Less is often more here. Because compression reduces the volume of loud signals and opens up headroom, you can use the Output slider so that the peaks once again hit the maximum available headroom. The Output meter shows the output signal's level. Enabling the Makeup button below the Output slider automatically compensates the output level if the threshold and ratio settings change.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 286 cise, and so works well for limiting tasks where you need to ensure that there are absolutely no signals over the set threshold. RMS is closer to how people actually perceive loudness and is usually considered more musical. Opto mode, because of its non-linear release time is often considered smooth and natural sounding. Opto compressors are commonly used on vocals, bass and electric guitar.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 287 are the same signal. But by using sidechaining, it is possible to compress a signal based on the level of another signal or a speci c frequency component. To access the Sidechain parameters, unfold the Compressor window by toggling the button in its title bar. The sidechain parameters are divided into two sections. On the left are the external controls.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 288 Mixing a Voiceover Sidechaining is commonly used for so-called ducking effects. For example, imagine that you have one track containing a voiceover and another track containing background music. Since you want the voiceover to always be the loudest source in the mix, the background music must get out of the way every time the narrator is speaking.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 21.6 289 Corpus The Corpus Effect. Corpus is an effect that simulates the acoustic characteristics of seven types of resonant objects. Developed in collaboration with Applied Acoustics Systems, Corpus uses physical modelling technology to provide a wide range of parameters and modulation options.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 290 real-world mallet instruments such as a marimbas and glockenspiels behave. At 100%, the resonance is muted immediately at note off, regardless of the Decay time. You can hide or show the Sidechain parameters by toggling the bar. This button will light up if the sidechain is active. button in Corpus's title Corpus contains a Low Frequency Oscillator to modulate the resonant frequency. The Amount control sets how much the LFO affects the frequency.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 291 Marimba, a specialized variant of the Beam model, reproduces the characteristic tuning of marimba bar overtones which are produced as a result of the deep arch-cut of the bars. String simulates the sound produced by strings of different materials and sizes. Membrane is a model of a rectangular membrane (such as a drum head) with a variable size and construction.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 292 Inharm. (Inharmonics) adjusts the pitch of the resonator's harmonics. At negative values, frequencies are compressed, increasing the amount of lower partials. At positive values, frequencies are stretched, increasing the amount of upper partials. This parameter is not used with the Pipe or Tube resonators. Opening, which is only available for the Pipe resonator, scales between an open and closed pipe.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 21.7 293 Dynamic Tube The Dynamic Tube Effect. The Dynamic Tube effect infuses sounds with the peculiarities of tube saturation. An integrated envelope follower generates dynamic tonal variations related to the level of the input signal. Three tube models, A, B and C, provide a range of distortion characteristics known from real ampli er tubes.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 294 to volume changes in the input signal. Together, they shape the dynamic nature of the distortions. Note that if Envelope is set to zero, they will have no effect. Cut or boost the device's nal signal level with the Output dial. Aliasing can be reduced by enabling Hi-Quality mode, which can be accessed via the (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu. This improves the sound quality, particularly with high frequency signals, but there is a slight increase in CPU usage.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 295 Low cut (cuts frequencies below the speci ed frequency); Low shelf (boosts or cuts frequencies lower than the speci ed frequency); Bell curve (boosts or cuts over a range of frequencies); Notch (sharply cuts frequencies within a narrow range); High shelf (boosts or cuts frequencies higher than the speci ed frequency); High cut (cuts frequencies above the speci ed frequency). Each lter band can be turned on or off independently.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 21.9 296 EQ Three The EQ Three Effect. If you have ever used a good DJ mixer you will know what this is: An EQ that allows you to adjust the level of low, mid and high frequencies independently. Each band can be adjusted from -in nite dB to +6 dB using the gain controls. This means that you can completely remove, for example, the bass drum or bassline of a track, while leaving the other frequencies untouched.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 297 controls are set to 0.00 dB. This is typical behavior for this kind of lter, and is part of EQ Three's unique sound. If you need a more linear behavior choose 24 dB Mode or use the EQ Eight. 21.10 Erosion The Erosion Effect. The Erosion effect degrades the input signal by modulating a short delay with ltered noise or a sine wave. This adds noisy artifacts or aliasing/downsampling-like distortions that sound very digital.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 21.11 298 External Audio Effect The External Audio Effect. The External Audio Effect is a bit different than Live's other effects devices. Instead of processing audio itself, it allows you to use external (hardware) effects processors within a track's device chain.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 299 latency settings in samples, which ensures that the number of samples you specify will be retained even when changing the sample rate. If your external device connects to Live via an analog connection, you will want to adjust your latency settings in milliseconds, which ensures that the amount of time you specify will be retained when changing the sample rate.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 300 delay 3 to the right channel. The Pan controls at the right can override the delay channels' outputs; otherwise each delay outputs on the channel from which it derives its input. Each delay channel's lter has an associated On switch, located to the left of each X-Y controller. The X-Y controllers adjust the lowpass and highpass lters simultaneously for each delay.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 21.13 301 Flanger The Flanger Effect. Flanger uses two parallel time-modulated delays to create anging effects. Flanger's delays can be adjusted with the Delay Time control. The Feedback control sends part of the output signal back through the device input, while the Polarity switch ( + or - ) sets the polarity. Delay Time and Feedback can be changed simultaneously using the effect's X-Y controller.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 302 Adjusting the HiPass control will cut low frequencies from the delayed signal. The Dry/Wet control adjusts the balance between the processed and dry signals. Set it to 100 percent if using Flanger in a return track. Hi-Quality mode can be toggled on or off via a (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu entry. Enabling Hi-Quality results in a brighter sound, but there is a very slight increase in CPU usage. 21.14 Frequency Shifter The Frequency Shifter Effect.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 303 The Drive button enables a distortion effect, while the slider below it controls the level of the distortion. Drive is only available in Ring mode. Enabling the Wide button creates a stereo effect by inverting the polarity of the Spread value for the right channel. This means that increasing the Spread value will shift the frequency down in the right channel while shifting it up in the left. Note that Wide has no effect if the Spread value is set to 0.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 21.14.1 304 Frequency Shifter Tips Frequency shifting and ring modulation can produce some very interesting sounds. Here are some tips for using the Frequency Shifter device. Drum tuning Tuning sampled acoustic drums can be tricky. Using a sampler's transposition controls often changes the character of the sounds in unrealistic ways, resulting in pinched or tubby samples. Frequency shifting can be a useful alternative.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 21.15 305 Gate The Gate Effect. The Gate effect passes only signals whose level exceeds a user-speci ed threshold. A gate can eliminate low-level noise that occurs between sounds (e.g., hiss or hum), or shape a sound by turning up the threshold to where it cuts off reverb or delay tails or truncates an instrument's natural decay. The Threshold slider sets the gate's sensitivity. If the gate is open and passing signal (i.e.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 306 Normally, the signal being gated and the input source that triggers the gate are the same signal. But by using sidechaining, it is possible to gate a signal based on the level of another signal. To access the Sidechain parameters, unfold the Gate window by toggling the button in its title bar. Enabling this section with the Sidechain button allows you to select another track from the choosers below.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 307 source. Randomizing pitch and delay time can create complex masses of sound and rhythm that seem to bear little relationship to the source. This can be very useful in creating new sounds and textures, as well as getting rid of unwelcome house guests, or terrifying small pets (just kidding!). To refer delay time to the song tempo, activate the Sync switch, which allows using the Delay Time beat division chooser.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 308 Grain Delay now also has a dry/wet control; it can be routed to the vertical axis of the X-Y controller. 21.17 Limiter The Limiter Effect. The Limiter effect is a mastering-quality dynamic range processor that ensures that the output does not exceed a speci ed level. Limiter is ideal for use in the Master track, to prevent clipping. A limiter is essentially a compressor with an in nite ratio.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 309 and sets an appropriate release time automatically. The meter gives a visual indication of how much gain reduction is being applied to the signal. Note that any devices or channel faders that appear after Limiter may add gain. To ensure that your nal output will never clip, place Limiter as the last device in the Master track's device chain and keep your Master fader below 0 dB. 21.18 Looper The Looper Effect.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 310 audio that are the length of the originally recorded material. The Play button plays back the current state of Looper's buffer without recording any new material. The Stop button stops playback. The behavior of the transport controls changes depending on whether or not Live's playback is running. With the transport running, Looper behaves like a clip, and is subject to launch quantization as determined by the Quantization chooser.
311 CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE Stopped Clear Record Empty Click Play Overdub Undo/Redo Doubleclick Hold Looper's Multi-Purpose Transport Button is optimized for use with a MIDI footswitch. To assign a footswitch, enter MIDI Map Mode, click the button and then press your attached footswitch. Then exit MIDI Map Mode. The Tempo Control chooser affects how Looper determines the tempo of recorded material: None: Looper's internal tempo is independent of Live's global tempo.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 312 speci ed time and then switch to Play or Overdub, as determined by the button next to this chooser. Song not running: If Looper's Record Length chooser is set to the default x bars, Looper will make a guess about the tempo of the material you've recorded as soon as you press Overdub, Play or Stop. But this might result in a tempo that's twice or half as fast as you'd like.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 313 will then swap this behavior; the original material will play forward again, while the material that was overdubbed while Reverse was enabled will play backwards. Engaging the Reverse button is subject to the Quantization chooser setting. Feedback sets the amount of previously recorded signal that is fed back into Looper when overdubbing. When set to 100%, the previously recorded material will never decrease in volume.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 314 2. Record at least one pass of material into Looper. 3. Create another audio track. 4. In the new track's top Audio From and Audio To choosers, select the track containing the Looper. 5. In the new track's bottom Audio From and Audio To choosers, select Insert-Looper. 6. Switch this track's Monitoring to In. 7. Add additional effects devices to the device chain of the new track. 8. Put Looper into Overdub mode.
315 CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 21.19.1 Dynamics Processing Theory To understand how to use the Multiband Dynamics device, it helps to understand the four different methods of manipulating dynamics. When we use the term compression, we're typically talking about lowering the level of signals that exceed a threshold. This is how Live's Compressor works, and is more accurately called downward compression because it pushes loud signals down, thus reducing the dynamic range.
316 CHAPTER 21.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 317 Hz, the mid band from 500 Hz to 2000 Hz and the high band from 2000 Hz up to whatever your soundcard or sample rate supports. Each band has activator and solo buttons. With the activator button disabled for a given band, its compression/expansion and gain controls are bypassed. Soloing a band mutes the others.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 318 between displaying the Time (attack and release), Below (threshold and ratio) and Above (threshold and ratio) for each band. For the Above thresholds, Attack de nes how long it takes to reach maximum compression or expansion once a signal exceeds the threshold, while Release sets how long it takes for the device to return to normal operation after the signal falls below the threshold.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 319 Basic Multiband Compression By using only the upper thresholds, Multiband Dynamics can be used as a traditional downward compressor. Adjust the crossover points to suit your audio material, then apply downward compression (by dragging down in the upper blocks in the display or by setting the numerical ratios to values greater than 1.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 21.20 320 Overdrive The Overdrive Effect. Overdrive is a distortion effect that pays homage to some classic pedal devices commonly used by guitarists. Unlike many distortion units, it can be driven extremely hard without sacri cing dynamic range. The distortion stage is preceded by a bandpass lter that can be controlled with an X-Y controller. To de ne the lter bandwidth, click and drag on the vertical axis.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 21.21 321 Phaser The Phaser Effect. Phaser uses a series of all-pass lters to create a phase shift in the frequency spectrum of a sound. The Poles control creates notches in the frequency spectrum. The Feedback control can then be used to invert the waveform and convert these notches into peaks (or poles). Filter cutoff frequency is changed with the Frequency control, which can be adjusted in tandem with Feedback using the effect's X-Y controller.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 322 LFOs will be perfectly out of phase (180 degrees apart), so that when one reaches its peak, the other is at its minimum. Spin detunes the two LFO speeds relative to each other. Each lter frequency is then modulated using a different LFO frequency, as determined by the Spin amount. The Dry/Wet control adjusts the balance between the processed and dry signals. Set it to 100 percent if using Phaser in a return track. 21.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 323 time, click and drag up or down in the Delay Time eld, or click in the eld and type in a value. The Feedback parameter controls how much of the right channel output signal returns to the delay line input. The feedback loop also includes a lter that can color the feedback sound, thus producing different timbres with successive echoes.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 21.23 324 Redux The Redux Effect. Nostalgic for the famed low-resolution sound quality of the Ensoniq Mirage, Fairlight CMI or Commodore-64 computer? Redux returns us to the Dark Ages of digital by reducing a signal's sample rate and bit resolution. The Downsample section has two parameters: switch. Downsample and a downsample Mode If the downsample dial is set to 1 , every input sample passes to the output and the signal does not change.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 325 Turning off Bit Reduction results in modest CPU savings. 21.24 Resonators The Resonators Effect. This device consists of ve parallel resonators that superimpose a tonal character on the input source. It can produce sounds resembling anything from plucked strings to vocoderlike effects. The resonators are tuned in semitones, providing a musical way of adjusting them.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 326 Resonators provides two different resonation modes. Mode A provides a more realistic sounding resonation, while Mode B offers an effect that is especially interesting when Resonator I's Note parameter is set to lower pitches. The brightness of the resulting sound can be adjusted using the Color control. All of the resonators have an On/Off switch and a Gain control. A resonator that is turned off does not need CPU.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 327 Predelay controls the delay time, in milliseconds, before the onset of the rst early re ection. This delays the reverberation relative to the input signal. One's impression of the size of a real room depends partly on this delay. Typical values for natural sounds range from 1ms to 25ms. 21.25.2 Early Re ections These are the earliest echoes that you hear after they bounce off a room's walls, before the onset of the diffused reverberation tail.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 328 other (this is also a property of the diffusion in real rooms). The lowest setting mixes the output signal to mono. 21.25.4 Diffusion Network The Diffusion network creates the reverberant tail that follows the early re ections. The decay time control adjusts the time required for this tail to drop to 1/1000th (-60 dB) of its initial amplitude. High and low shelving lters provide frequency-dependent reverberation decay.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 21.26 329 Saturator The Saturator Effect. Saturator is a waveshaping effect that can add that missing dirt, punch or warmth to your sound. It can coat input signals with a soft saturation or drive them into many different avors of distortion. An X-Y grid helps to visualize Saturator's shaping curve. The shaper's input and output values are mapped to the X and Y axes, respectively.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 330 Period. Drive determines how much the input signal will be in uenced by the Waveshaper parameters. Setting Drive to zero will negate the effect entirely. Lin works together with the Curve and Depth parameters to alter the linear portion of the shaping curve. Curve adds mostly third-order harmonics to the input signal. Damp attens any signal near the grid's origin. It behaves like an ultra-fast noise gate.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 21.27 331 Simple Delay The Simple Delay Effect. The Simple Delay provides two independent delay lines, one for each channel (left and right). To refer delay time to the song tempo, activate the Sync switch, which allows using the Delay Time beat division chooser. The numbered switches represent time delay in 16th notes. For example, selecting 4 delays the signal by four 16th notes, which equals one beat (a quarter note) of delay.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 332 Fade creates a crossfade between the old and new delay times. This sounds similar to time stretching if the delay time is gradually changed. Fade mode is the default option. Jump immediately jumps to the new delay time. Note that this will cause an audible click if the delay time is changed while delays are sounding. Jump mode corresponds to the default behavior prior to Live 8.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 333 The Avg slider allows you to specify how many blocks of samples will be averaged for each update of the display. With a setting of one, each block is shown. This results in much more activity in the display, which can be useful for nding the spectrum of short peaks. As you increase the Avg value, the display updates more smoothly, providing an average of the spectrum over time. This is more consistent with the way we actually hear.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 21.29 334 Utility The Utility Effect. Utility can perform some very useful tasks, especially in combination with other devices. The Mute button simply silences the incoming signal when enabled. Note: The active/mute controls of a track are always placed at the very end of the signal chain.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 21.30 335 Vinyl Distortion The Vinyl Distortion Effect. The Vinyl Distortion effect emulates some of the typical distortions that occur on vinyl records during playback. These distortions are caused by the geometric relationships between the needle and the recorded groove. The effect also features a crackle generator for adding noisy artifacts. The Tracing Model section adds even harmonic distortion to the input signal.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 336 The Volume control adjusts the amount of gain applied to the noise. 21.31 Vocoder The Vocoder Effect. A vocoder is an effect that combines the frequency information of one audio signal (called the carrier) with the amplitude contour of another audio signal (called the modulator).
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 337 External allows you to select any available internal routing points from the choosers below. This is the option you'll want for classic robot voice applications. Modulator uses the modulator itself as the carrier. This essentially outputs a resynthesized version of the modulator signal, but allows you to use Vocoder's sound-shaping controls to adjust the sound.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 338 bandwidth, you increase the overlap of the lter bands. A bandwidth of 100% is the most accurate, but higher or lower settings can create interesting effects. The Precise/Retro switch toggles between two types of lter behavior. In Precise mode, all lters have the same gain and bandwidth. In Retro mode, bands become narrower and louder at higher frequencies. Gate sets a threshold for the lterbank. Any bands whose levels are below the threshold will be silent.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 339 1. Insert Vocoder in the track that contains your vocal material. You can either use a clip that contains a prerecorded voice clip or, to process a live vocal signal, connect a microphone to a channel on your audio hardware and choose this as the input source for the track. 2. Insert a synthesizer such as Analog in another track. Again, you can either create a MIDI clip to drive this synthesizer or play it live. 3. Set the vocoder's Carrier chooser to External.
340 Chapter 22 Live MIDI Effect Reference Live comes with a selection of custom-designed, built-in MIDI effects. The Working with Instruments and Effects chapter explains the basics of using effects in Live. 22.1 Arpeggiator The Arpeggiator Effect. Live's Arpeggiator effect takes the individual MIDI notes from a held chord (or single note), and plays them as a rhythmical pattern.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 341 controlled by the device, which also provides a full complement of both classic and original arpeggiator features. Arpeggiators are a classic element in Eighties synth music. The name originates with the musical concept of the arpeggio, in which the notes comprising a chord are played as a series rather than in unison. Arpeggio is derived from the Italian word arpeggiare, which refers to playing notes on a harp. 22.1.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 342 Pinky Up and Pinky UpDown . Thumb Up and Thumb UpDown . Play Order places notes in the pattern according to the order in which they are played. This is therefore only recognizable when more than one chord or note has been played.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 343 can be added to the pattern simply by playing them. Notes can also be removed from the pattern in this scenario by playing them a second time, allowing the gradual buildup and rearrangement of the pattern over time. Tip: If you want the pattern to stop playing, momentarily deactivate Hold. The Offset parameter shifts the sequence of notes in the pattern by the number of places selected with the control.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 344 The dynamics of Arpeggiator are controlled using the velocity section. With Velocity set to On and Target set to 0, for example, the sequence will gradually fade out, eventually reaching 0 velocity. The Decay control sets the amount of time Arpeggiator takes to reach the Target velocity. With Retrigger activated, retriggering of the sequence will also retrigger the velocity slope.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 345 Note that no two notes of the same pitch can contribute to the chord, and that selecting the same shift value twice (e.g., +8 semitones on both Shift 2 and Shift 3) will result in the latter control appearing disabled, indicating that it is a duplicate and therefore not in use. Actually, there is no such thing as two notes with the same pitch playing at the same time within the entire Live universe. 22.3 Note Length The Note Length Effect.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 346 Decay Time This is the time needed for an incoming note's velocity to decay to zero. The decay begins immediately from the moment the device receives a MIDI Note On message. The value at the time of Note Off will become the velocity of the output MIDI note. Key Scale The pitch of incoming notes can be used to alter the length of the output notes. With positive values, notes below C3 will be made progressively longer, and notes above C3 will be made shorter.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 22.5 347 Random The Random Effect. Random adds an element of the unknown to the otherwise commonplace pitch parameter. The Chance control de nes the likelihood that an incoming note's pitch will be changed by a random value. You can think of it as being something like a dry/wet control for randomness.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 348 C3 once will trigger C3, and each successive C3 will trigger the next semitone higher until the device reaches C4, at which point it will start over at C3. But with Chance set to 100 percent, Choices set to 2 and Scale set to 2, incoming C3s will alternate between C3 and D3. This setting is perfect for simulating upbow and downbow alternation with stringed instruments, or alternating right- and left-hand drum samples.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 349 mapping will take effect. Outside of the range de ned by these controls, the Scale effect will be inapplicable, and the LED light will ash to indicate that some notes are not being processed by the effect, but are playing at their unaltered pitch. 22.7 Velocity The Velocity Effect. Velocity re-maps the 127 MIDI note velocity values. It can function on MIDI Note On or Note Off messages, or both, depending on the setting of the Operation chooser.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 350 Gate Mode removes incoming notes altogether if their velocities are outside of the range. You will see the little LED below the X-Y display ash when a note is blocked by gating. In Fixed Mode, the Out Hi velocity de nes all outgoing note velocities, regardless of incoming note velocity. The Random function adds or subtracts a random value to the all velocities, and is represented by a gray area on the display curve.
351 Chapter 23 Live Instrument Reference Live comes with a selection of custom-designed, built-in instruments. The Working with Instruments and Effects chapter explains the basics of using instruments in Live. The boxed version of Live 8 ships with the Essential Instrument Collection, a multi-gigabyte library of meticulously sampled and selected instruments ready for use in either Simpler or Sampler. Learn how to access the EIC sounds at the end of this chapter. 23.
352 CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE Analog is a virtual analog synthesizer, created in collaboration with Applied Acoustics Systems. With this instrument, we have not attempted to emulate a speci c vintage analog synthesizer but rather to combine different features of legendary vintage synthesizers into a modern instrument. Analog generates sound by simulating the different components of the synthesizer through physical modeling.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 353 These sources can be independently routed to two different multi-mode lters, which are each connected to an ampli er. Furthermore, the signal ow can be run through the lters in series or in parallel. Analog also features two low-frequency oscillators (LFOs) which can modulate the oscillators, lters and ampli ers. Additionally, each lter and ampli er has its own envelope generator.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 354 The Shape chooser selects the oscillator's waveform. The choices are sine, sawtooth, rectangular and white noise. When rectangular is selected, the Pulse Width parameter is enabled in the display, which allows you to change the pulse width of the waveform. Low Width values result in a very narrow waveform, which tends to sound tinny or pinched. At 100%, the waveform is a perfect square, resulting in only odd harmonics.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 355 oscillator whose frequency is set by the Ratio slider. At 0%, the frequency of the internal oscillator and the audible oscillator match, so sync has no effect. As you increase the Ratio, the internal oscillator's rate increases, which changes the harmonic content of the audible oscillator. For maximum analog nastiness, try mapping a modulation wheel or other MIDI controller to the Sync ratio. 23.1.3 Noise Generator Analog's Noise Generator.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.1.4 356 Filters Display and Shell Parameters for the two Filters. Analog's two multi-mode lters come equipped with a exible routing architecture, multiple saturation options and a variety of modulation possibilities. As with the oscillators, all parameters can be set independently for each lter. The Fil 1 and Fil 2 switches in the shell toggle the respective lter on and off.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 357 The three Sym options apply symmetrical distortion, which means that the saturation behavior is the same for positive and negative values. The Asym modes result in asymmetrical saturation. For both mode types, higher numbers result in more distortion. Drive can be switched off entirely by selecting Off in the chooser. Experiment with the various options to get a sense of how they affect incoming signals. 23.1.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.1.6 358 Envelopes Analog's Envelope Parameters. In addition to the pitch envelopes in the oscillator sections, Analog is equipped with independent envelopes for each lter and ampli er. All four of these envelopes have identical controls, which are housed entirely within the display. Each envelope is a standard ADSR (attack, decay, sustain, release) design and features velocity modulation and looping capabilities. The attack time is set with the Attack slider.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 359 Normally, each new note triggers its own envelope from the beginning of the attack phase. With Legato enabled, a new note that is played while another note is already depressed will use the rst note's envelope, at its current position. Enabling the Free switch causes the envelope to bypass its sustain phase and move directly from the decay phase to the release phase.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 360 Analog's two LFOs can be used as modulation sources for the oscillators, lters and ampliers. As with the other sections, each LFO has independent parameters. The LFO 1 and LFO 2 switches in the shell toggle the respective LFO on and off, while the Rate knob sets the LFO's speed. The switch next to this knob toggles the Rate between frequency in Hertz and tempo-synced beat divisions. The Wave chooser in the display selects the waveform for the LFO.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 361 The Volume control in the shell adjusts the overall output of the instrument. This is the instrument's master level, and can boost or attenuate the output of the ampli er sections. The Vib switch turns the vibrato effect on or off, while the percentage slider next to it adjusts the amplitude of the vibrato. Analog's vibrato effect is essentially an additional LFO, but is hardwired to the pitch of both oscillators. The Rate slider sets the speed of the vibrato.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 362 priority to the most recently played notes, cutting off the oldest notes as necessary. The Octave, Semi and Tuning controls function as coarse and ne tuners. Octave transposes the entire instrument by octaves, while Semi transposes up or down in semitone increments. The Tuning slider adjusts in increments of one cent (up to a maximum of 50 cents up or down). PB Range sets the range in semitones of pitch bend modulation.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.2 363 Collision The Collision Instrument. Collision is a synthesizer that simulates the characteristics of mallet percussion instruments. Created in collaboration with Applied Acoustics Systems, Collision uses physical modeling technology to model the various sound generating and resonant components of real (or imagined) objects.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 364 In addition to serving as organizational aids, Collision's tabs contain LEDs that light up to indicate that their contained sections are active. Disabling unused sections can save CPU. 23.2.2 Excitator Tab The Excitator tab contains parameters for the Mallet and Noise sections. These model the behavior of a mallet striking a surface, and provide Collision's fundamental sound.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 365 The Color knob sets the frequency of the noise component. At higher values, there are less low frequencies in the noise. This parameter has no effect if Noise is set to 0. The Mallet section can be toggled on or off via the switch next to its name. The Noise Section Collision's Noise Section. The Noise section can be used instead of, or in addition to, the Mallet section. Like the Mallet, the Noise section produces Collision's initial impulse sound.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 366 decay phase to the release of the key. When this slider is set to 0, there is no sustain phase. With it set to 100, there is no decay phase. Finally, the release time is set with the R (Release) slider. This is the time it takes for the envelope to reach zero after the key is released. The Noise section can be toggled on or off via the switch next to its name. 23.2.3 Resonator Tabs Collision's Resonators.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 367 Tuning Section Resonator Tuning Parameters. The Tune and Fine knobs function as coarse and ne tuning controls. Tune moves up or down in semitone increments, while Fine adjusts in increments of one cent (up to a maximum of one quarter tone (50 cents) up or down). The Key slider below the Tune knob controls how much the resonator's tuning is adjusted by changes in MIDI note pitch.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 368 The type chooser allows you to select from seven types of physically modeled resonant objects: Beam simulates the resonance properties of beams of different materials and sizes. Marimba, a specialized variant of the Beam model, reproduces the characteristic tuning of marimba bar overtones which are produced as a result of the deep arch-cut of the bars. String simulates the sound produced by strings of different materials and sizes.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 369 the radius of the pipe or tube. As the radius increases, the decay time and high frequency sustain both increase. At very large sizes, the fundamental pitch of the resonator also changes. The Decay and Material/Radius parameters can also be controlled with the X-Y controller, and modulated by note pitch and velocity via the sliders below the X-Y panel.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 370 Mixer Section Resonator Mixer. Each resonator has its own Volume and Pan controls. Pan can also be modulated by note pitch via the K (Key) slider below the knob. The Bleed control mixes a portion of the original oscillator signal with the resonated signal. At higher values, more of the original signal is applied. This is useful for restoring high frequencies, which can often be damped when the tuning or quality are set to low values. 23.2.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 371 sawtooth down and two types of noise. The rst noise type steps between random values while the second uses smooth ramps. The switch next to the waveform chooser toggles the LFO's rate between frequency in Hertz and tempo-synced beat divisions. Depth sets the overall intensity of the LFO, while Rate adjusts its speed. The sliders below these parameters allow for additional modulations; Depth can be modulated by velocity while Rate can be modulated by note pitch.
372 CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE The Global Section Collision's Global Section. The global section contains the parameters that relate to the overall behavior and performance of Collision. The Volume knob acts as Collision's master output control. Collision contains a built-in limiter that automatically activates when the audio level is too high. This is indicated by the LED above Collision's global Volume control.
373 CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE Mallet Noise Resonator 1 Resonator 2 The Voices chooser sets the available polyphony. Since each voice that's used requires additional CPU, you may need to experiment with this chooser to nd a good balance between playability and performance, particularly on older machines. With Retrig. enabled, notes which are already sounding will be immediately stopped when retriggered, rather than generating an additional voice.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 374 try using the Noise excitator, particularly with long envelope times, to create washy, quasi-granular textures. These parameters can also be used to simulate special acoustic effects such as bowed vibraphones or crystal glasses. experiment with the resonators in parallel (1 + 2) con guration. use the LFOs and MIDI controllers to modulate Collision's parameters. A word of caution: in many ways, Collision's models are idealized versions of real-world objects.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.3.2 375 Accessing the Drum Machines After installation, the Drum Machines presets are accessed through Live's Device Browser, in exactly the same way as Live's other built-in instruments. You will nd them as categorized presets within the Drum Rack folder. Drum Machines presets are therefore loaded just like any other device, by dragging a preset from the Browser into an empty MIDI track.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 376 parameters can be tweaked to values not possible with the real instruments to get some truly amazing new sounds that still retain a warm acoustic quality. The full version of Electric is not included with the standard version of Live, but is a special feature available for purchase separately. 23.4.1 Architecture and Interface The mechanism of the electric piano is actually quite simple. A note played on the keyboard activates a mallet that hits a fork.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 377 The Noise subsection simulates the impact noise caused by the mallet striking the fork. The Decay knob adjusts how long it takes for this noise to fade to silence, while the Pitch control sets the center frequency. Level adjusts the overall volume of the noise component. An additional Key scaling control adjusts how much the noise volume is determined by note pitch. 23.4.3 Fork Section The Fork section is further divided into Tine and Tone subsections.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 378 hardness of the dampers, producing a brighter sound. The overall amount of damper noise is adjusted with the Level control. The Att/Rel knob adjusts whether or not damper noise is present when the dampers are applied to the fork or when they are released. When turned to the left, damper noise is only present during the attack phase of the note. When turned to the right, the noise is present only during the release phase.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 379 The Volume knob sets Electric's overall output level. The Voices chooser sets the available polyphony. Since each voice that's used requires additional CPU, you may need to experiment with this chooser to nd a good balance between playability and performance, particularly on older machines. The Semi and Detune controls function as coarse and ne tuners.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 380 allows you to easily integrate external (hardware) synthesizers, ReWire devices and multitimbral plug-ins into your projects. It sends MIDI out and returns audio. The two MIDI To choosers select the output to which the device will send MIDI data. The top chooser selects either a physical MIDI port, a ReWire slave destination or a multitimbral plug-in.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 381 slider allows you to set your latency compensation amount in either milliseconds or samples. If your external device connects to Live via a digital connection, you will want to adjust your latency settings in samples, which ensures that the number of samples you specify will be retained even when changing the sample rate.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 382 loaded into Impulse's sample slots can be time-stretched, ltered and processed by envelope, saturation, pan and volume components, nearly all of which are subject to random and velocity-based modulation. 23.6.1 Sample Slots Drag and drop samples into any of Impulse's sample slots from the Browser or the Session and Arrangement Views. Alternatively, each sample slot features a Hot-Swap button for hot-swapping samples.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.6.2 383 Start, Tune and Stretch The Start control de nes where Impulse begins playing a sample, and can be set up to 100 ms later than the actual sample beginning. The Transposition control adjusts the transposition of the sample by +/- 48 semitones, and can be modulated by incoming note velocity or a random value, as set in the appropriate elds. The Stretch control has values from -100 to 100 percent.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.6.5 384 Pan and Volume Each sample has Volume and Pan controls that adjust amplitude and stereo positioning, respectively. Both controls can be modulated: Pan by velocity and a random value, and Volume by velocity only. 23.6.6 Global Controls The parameters located to the right of the sample slots are global controls that apply to all samples within Impulse's domain.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.7.1 385 Latin Percussion Installation Latin Percussion is installed separately from the main Live installation. To install, drag the Latin Percussion Live Pack into the Live application window, either from your operating system or from Live's Browser. After you have installed Latin Percussion, you will need to authorize it. Further details can be found at the Ableton website2 . 23.7.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 386 to navigate to the selected conga preset folder. Then drag the entire folder to the Drum Rack's pad view. This will replace all of the currently loaded conga components, leaving all other pads alone. You can also unfold these preset folders to access individual instruments within. Latin Percussion also includes a collection of Live Sets, which are installed to your Library's Clips folder.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.8.1 387 General Overview The interface of Operator consists of two parts: the display surrounded on either side by the shell. The shell offers the most important parameters in a single view and is divided into eight sections. On the left side, you will nd four oscillator sections, and on the right side from top to bottom, the LFO, the lter section, the pitch section and the global parameters.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 388 Operator's Global Display. Typically, FM synthesis makes use of pure sine waves, creating more complex waveforms via modulation. However, in order to simplify sound design and to create a wider range of possible sounds, we designed Operator to produce a variety of other waveforms, including two types of noise. You can also draw your own waveforms via a partial editor. The instrument is made complete with an LFO, a pitch envelope and a lter section.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 389 Built-in Waveforms The oscillators come with a built-in collection of basic waveform types sine, sawtooth, square, triangle and noise which are selected from the Wave chooser in the individual oscillator displays. The rst of these waveforms is a pure, mathematical sine wave, which is usually the rst choice for many FM timbres.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 390 offers an option to toggle Normalize on or off. When enabled, the oscillator's overall output level is maintained as you draw additional harmonics. When disabled, additional harmonics add additional level. Note that the volume can become extremely loud if Normalize is off. You can export your waveform in .ams format to the Library/Samples/Waveforms folder via an option in the (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 391 The phase of each oscillator can be adjusted using the Phase control in its display. With the R (Retrigger) button enabled, the waveform restarts at the same position in its phase each time a note is triggered. With R disabled, the oscillator is free-running. As explained earlier oscillators can modulate each other when set up to do so with the global display's algorithms.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.8.3 392 LFO Section Operator's LFO Parameters. The LFO in Operator can practically be thought of as a fth oscillator. It runs at audio rates, and it modulates the frequency of the other oscillators. It is possible to switch LFO modulation on or off for each individual oscillator (and the lter) using the Dest. A buttons in the LFO's display. The intensity of the LFO's modulation of these targets can be adjusted by the Dest. A slider.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 393 display's Amt
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 394 Mode, an envelope will restart after the beat time selected from the Repeat chooser. In Beat Mode, the repeat time is de ned in fractions of song time, but notes are not quantized. If you play a note a bit out of sync, it will repeat perfectly but stay out of sync. In Sync Mode however, the rst repetition is quantized to the nearest 16th note and, as a result, all following repetitions are synced to the song tempo.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.8.5 395 Filter Section Operator's Filter Section. Operator's lters can be very useful for modifying the sonically rich timbres created by the oscillators. And, since the oscillators also provide you with the classic waveforms of analog synthesizers, you can very easily build a subtractive synthesizer with them. The lter section offers 14 different lter types including multiple varieties of lowpass, bandpass, highpass and notch lters.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 396 adjusted with the Dry/Wet control. With this set to 0%, the shaper and drive parameters are bypassed. 23.8.6 Global Controls The global section contains parameters that affect Operator's overall behavior. Additionally, the global display area provides a comprehensive set of modulation routing controls. The maximum number of Operator voices (notes) playing simultaneously can be adjusted with the Voices parameter in the global display.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.8.7 397 Glide and Spread Operator's Pitch Section. Operator includes a polyphonic glide function. When this function is activated, new notes will start with the pitch of the last note played and then slide gradually to their own played pitch. Glide can be turned on or off and adjusted with the Glide Time control in the pitch display.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 398 Interpolation and Antialias modes in the global display can also be turned off to conserve CPU resources. Note that turning off the oscillators will not save CPU power. 23.8.9 Finally... Operator is the result of an intense preoccupation with FM synthesis and a love and dedication to the old hardware FM synthesizers, such as the Yamaha SY77, the Yamaha TX81Z and the NED Synclavier II.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 399 Algorithm An oscillator can modulate other oscillators, be modulated by other oscillators, or both. The algorithm de nes the connections between the oscillators and therefore has a signi cant impact on the sound that is created. Voices This sets the maximum number of notes that can sound simultaneously. If more notes than available voices are requested, the oldest notes will be cut off.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 400 OSC Crossfade A/C Crossfades the volumes of the A and C oscillators based on the value of the modulation source. OSC Crossfade B/D Crossfades the volumes of the B and D oscillators based on the value of the modulation source. OSC Feedback Modulates the amount of feedback for all oscillators. Note that feedback is only applied to oscillators that are not modulated by other oscillators.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 401 Spread If Spread is turned up, the synthesizer uses two detuned voices per note, one each on the left and right stereo channels, to create chorusing sounds. Spread is a very CPU-intensive effect. Transpose This is the global transposition setting for the instrument. Changing this parameter will affect notes that are already playing. Pitch Envelope Rates
402 CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE with low resonance settings. The 24 dB lter modes attenuate the ltered frequencies to a much greater degree than the 12 dB modes. The Ladder and SVF lters provide additional lter architectures. Filter Frequency (Freq) This de nes the center or cutoff frequency of the lter. Note that the resulting frequency may also be modulated by note velocity and by the lter envelope.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 403 LFO Waveform Select from among several typical LFO waveforms. Sample and Hold creates random steps, and Noise supplies bandpass- ltered noise. All waveforms are bandlimited to avoid unwanted clicks. LFO Range The LFO covers an extreme frequency range. Choose Low for a range from 50 seconds to 30 Hz, or Hi for 8 Hz to 12 kHz. Sync causes the LFO's rate to be synced to your Set's tempo.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 404 Osc Coarse Frequency (Coarse) The relationship between oscillator frequency and note pitch is de ned by the Coarse and Fine parameters. Coarse sets the ratio in whole numbers, creating a harmonic relationship. Osc Fine Frequency (Fine) The relationship between oscillator frequency and note pitch is de ned by the Coarse and Fine parameters. Fine sets the ratio in fractions of whole numbers, creating an inharmonic relationship.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 405 brighter sound, while higher values result in more high-end roll-off and a more prominent fundamental. With Repeat off, partials above the 16th, 32nd or 64th harmonic are truncated. Osc Frequency
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE Envelope Initial Level (Initial) Envelope Peak Level (Peak) 406 This sets the initial value of the envelope. This is the peak level at the end of the note attack. Envelope Sustain Level (Sustain) This is the sustain level at the end of the note decay. The envelope will stay at this level until note release unless it is in Loop, Sync or Beat Mode. Envelope End Level (End) end of the Release stage.
407 CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE Context Menu Parameters Certain operations and parameters in Operator are only available via the (Mac) context menu. These include: (PC) / Ctrl Copy commands for Oscillators The (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu of the oscillator's shell and envelope display provide options for copying parameters between oscillators.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 408 After you have installed the libraries of your choice, you will need to authorize them. Further details can be found at the Ableton website3 . 23.9.2 Using the Orchestral Presets After installation, the orchestral instruments are accessed through Live's Device Browser, in exactly the same way as Live's other built-in instruments. You will nd them as categorized presets within the Instrument Rack folder.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.10 409 Sampler The Sampler Instrument. Sampler is a sleek yet formidable multisampling instrument that takes full advantage of Live's agile audio engine. It has been designed from the start to handle multi-gigabyte instrument libraries with ease, and it imports most common library formats.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 410 captures an instrument at multiple points within its critical sonic range. This typically means capturing the instrument at different pitches as well as different levels of emphasis (played softly, moderately, loudly, etc.). The resulting multisample is a collection of all the individually recorded sample les.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 411 which are mounted automatically upon inserting and can be browsed as usual with Live's File Browser. Here are the steps: 1. Insert the AKAI-formatted sample CD. 2. On a Mac, click on the title bar of Live's File Browser and select All Volumes. On a PC, navigate Live's File Browser to the Workspace by clicking on the Browser's title bar and selecting Workspace. 3. Click on the Browser item found at the bottom named Find Sample CDs... 4.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.10.3 412 The Zone Tab The Key Zone Editor. Clicking on the Zone tab toggles the display of Sampler's Zone Editor, which offers a handson interface for mapping any number of samples across three types of ranges. The Zone Editor opens in its own dedicated view, directly above the Track View. When used in conjunction with Sampler's other tabs, this layout greatly accelerates the creation and editing of multisamples.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 413 Zone Editor View (Key/Vel/Sel) These buttons toggle the display of the Key Zone, Velocity Zone and Sample Select Editors. The Sample Layer List All samples contained in the currently loaded multisample are listed here, with each sample given its own layer. For very large multisamples, this list might be hundreds of layers long! Fortunately, layers can be descriptively named (according to their root key, for example).
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 414 Velocity Zones The Velocity Zone Editor. Velocity zones determine the range of MIDI Note On velocities that each sample will respond to. The timbre of most musical instruments changes greatly with playing intensity. Therefore, the best multisamples capture not only individual notes, but also each of those notes at different velocities. The Velocity Zone Editor, when toggled, appears alongside the sample layer list.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 415 found in Racks, in that only samples with sample select values that overlap the current value of the sample selector will be triggered. The Sample Select Editor, when toggled, appears alongside the sample layer list. The editor has a scale of 0-127, similar to the Velocity Zone Editor. Above the value scale is the draggable indicator known as the sample selector.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 416 Snap Snaps all start and end points to the waveform zero-crossings (points where the amplitude is zero) to avoid clicks. As with Simpler, this snap is based on the left channel of stereo samples, so a small Crossfade value may be necessary in some cases to completely eliminate clicks. Sample Displays the name of the current sample layer, and can be used to quickly select from among the sample layers of the loaded multisample.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 417 No Sustain Loop Playback proceeds linearly until either the Sample End is reached or the volume envelope completes its release stage. Sustain Loop Enabled Playback proceeds linearly until Loop End is reached, when it jumps immediately to Loop Start and continues looping. If Release Mode is OFF, looping will continue inside the Sustain Loop until the volume envelope has completed its release stage.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 418 the pitch of samples may shift within a loop, relative to the loop's duration. With Detune, the pitch of these regions can be matched to the rest of the sample. Interpolation (Interpol) This is a global setting that determines the accuracy of transposed samples. Be aware that raising the quality level above Normal will place signi cant demands on your CPU. RAM Mode (RAM) This is also a global control that loads the entire multisample into RAM.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 419 The Pitch Envelope The pitch envelope modulates the pitch of the sample over time, as well as of the Modulation Oscillator, if it is enabled. This is a multi-stage envelope with Initial, Peak, Sustain and End levels. The time needed to travel between the levels is determined by the Attack, Decay and Release settings. The values of the envelope parameters can be adjusted via the sliders, or by dragging the breakpoints in the envelope's display.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 420 Four different curves can be chosen for the waveshaper, and its overall intensity can be controlled with the Amount slider. In addition, the signal ow direction can be adjusted with the button above the waveshaper area. With the triangle pointing up, the signal passes from the shaper to the lter. With the triangle pointing down, it passes from the lter to the shaper. The Filter/Shaper Order Button.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 421 The Modulation tab offers an additional loopable envelope, plus three LFOs, all capable of modulating multiple parameters, including themselves. Each LFO can be free running, or synced to the Live Set's tempo, and LFOs 2 and 3 can produce stereo modulation effects. LFO Attack (Attack) This is the time needed for the LFO to reach maximum intensity. Use this, for example, to gradually introduce vibrato as a note is held.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.11 422 Session Drums Session Drums is a multisampled library of acoustic drumkits recorded by Chocolate Audio. The collection consists of both stereo and multimic presets, programmed as Drum Racks for easy editing and performance possibilities. The stereo presets are production-ready kits, carefully processed to re ect modern production techniques while keeping CPU and memory usage to a minimum. These kits come in both Full (24-bit) and LE (16-bit) versions.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.11.2 423 Accessing the Session Drums Presets After installation, the Session Drums presets are accessed through Live's Device Browser, in exactly the same way as Live's other built-in instruments. You will nd them as categorized presets within the Drum Rack folder. Session Drums presets are therefore loaded just like any other device, by dragging a preset from the Browser into an empty MIDI track.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 424 Velocity Sensitivity this Macro adjusts the dynamic range of the drumkit. As you turn up this control, the kit will play louder at high velocity and softer at low velocities. In the stereo presets, the additional Macros control tuning and decay times for the individual drums in the kit. In the multimic presets, they control the ambience and room characteristics of the return chains in the Drum Rack.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.12 425 Simpler The Simpler Instrument. Simpler is an instrument that integrates the basic elements of a sampler with a set of classic synthesizer parameters. A Simpler voice plays a user-de ned sample section, which is in turn processed by envelope, lter, LFO, volume and pitch components. Presets created in Simpler can be converted for use in Sampler, and vice-versa. To do (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) on Simpler's title bar and choose the Simpler -> Sampler this, command.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.12.2 426 Sample Controls Simpler plays a speci c region or loop of the sample, as determined by a group of sample controls. The Start and Length controls work together to specify where Simpler begins and ends its sweep of the sample. As the name implies, Start de nes where sample playback starts. The sample will play for the length de ned by the Length parameter.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 427 vertically to zoom, and drag horizontally to pan different areas of the sample into view. 23.12.4 Envelope Simpler contains three classic ADSR envelopes, as seen in most synthesizers, for shaping the dynamic response of the sample. Volume-, lter frequency-, and pitch modulation are all modi able by toggling their respective buttons in the envelope section.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 428 30 Hz, or sync to divisions of the Set's tempo. LFOs are applied individually to each voice, or played note, in Simpler. The Key parameter scales each LFO's Rate in proportion to the pitch of incoming notes. A high Key setting assigns higher notes a higher LFO rate. If Key is set to zero, all voices' LFOs have the same rate and may just differ in their phase.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 429 The Voices parameter sets the maximum number of voices that Simpler can play simultaneously. If more voices are needed than have been allocated by the Voices chooser, voice stealing will take place, in which the oldest voice(s) will be dropped in favor of those that are new. For example, if your Voices parameter is set to 8, and ten voices are all vying to be played, the two oldest voices will be dropped.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.13 430 Tension The Tension Instrument. Tension is a synthesizer dedicated to the emulation of string instruments, and developed in collaboration with Applied Acoustics Systems. The synthesizer is entirely based on physical modeling technology and uses no sampling or wavetables. Instead, it produces sound by solving mathematical equations that model the different components in string instruments and how they interact.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 431 a hammer, a pick or a bow. The frequency of the oscillation is determined by the effective length of the string, which is controlled by the nger/fret interaction or termination. A damper can be applied to the strings in order to reduce the decay time of the oscillation. This is the case on a piano, for example, when felt is applied to the strings by releasing the keys and sustain pedal.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 432 The modelled string can be played using different types of excitators in order to reproduce different types of instruments and playing techniques. The excitator is selected using the Type chooser, and the choices available are Bow, Hammer, Hammer (bouncing) and Plectrum. Bow - this excitator is associated with bowed instruments such as the violin, viola or cello. The bow sets the string in sustained oscillation.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 433 string into motion. The Prot knob (for protrusion ) adjusts how much of the plectrum's surface area is placed under the string. Lower values results in a thinner, smaller sound, as there is less mass setting the string into motion. The Stiffness, Velocity and Damping knobs behave similarly to the Hammer mode. And as with the previous modes, all three of these parameters can be modulated by velocity or note pitch via the Vel and Key sliders.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 434 The String Section Tension's String Section. The vibration of the string is the main component of a stringed instrument's sound. The effective length of the string is also responsible for the pitch of the sound we hear. The theoretical model of a resonating string is harmonic, meaning that the string's partials are all exact multiples of the fundamental frequency.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 435 The Vibrato Section Tension's Vibrato Section. The Vibrato section uses an LFO to modulate the string's pitch. As with all of Tension's parameters, the controls in this section can be used to enhance the realism of a stringed instrument model or to create something never heard before. The two most important parameters in this section are the Rate and Amount sliders.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 436 The Damper Section Tension's Damper Section. All string instruments employ some type of damping mechanism that mutes the resonating string. In pianos, this is a felt pad that is applied to the string when the key is released. In instruments such as guitars and violins, the player damps by stopping the string's vibration with the ngers.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 437 The Mass, Stiffness and Velocity parameters can be further modulated by note pitch, via the sliders below. The stiffness of the damper mechanism is adjusted with the Damping knob, which affects the overall amount of vibration absorbed by the damper. Lower values result in less damping (longer decay times.) But this becomes a bit less predictable as the Damping value goes over 50%. At higher values, the mechanism becomes so stiff that it bounces against the string.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 438 adjusted with the Fing Mass and Fing Stiff knobs, which set the force the nger applies to the string and the nger's stiffness, respectively. The Mass amount can be additionally modulated by velocity or note pitch via the sliders. The stiffness of the fret is modelled with the Fret Stiff parameter. The Pickup Section Tension's Pickup Section. The Pickup section models an electromagnetic pickup, similar to the type found in an electric guitar or electric piano.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 439 The Body Section Tension's Body Section. The role of the body or soundboard of a string instrument is to radiate the vibration energy from the strings. The body also lters these vibrations, based on its size and shape. In some instruments, such as guitars, the body also includes an air cavity which boosts low frequencies. The body type chooser allows you to select from different body types modelled after physical instruments.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 23.13.3 440 Filter/Global Tab The Filter/Global tab contains the lter parameters for the instrument, as well as global controls. The Filter Section Tension's Filter Section. Tension's Filter section features a highly con gurable multi-mode lter that sits between the String and Body sections. In addition, the lter can be modulated by a dedicated envelope generator and low-frequency oscillator (LFO). The lter's chooser allows you to select the lter type.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 441 The time it takes for the envelope to reach the sustain level after the attack phase is set by the Decay knob. The Sustain knob sets the level at which the envelope will remain from the end of the decay phase to the release of the key. When this knob is turned all the way to the left, there is no sustain phase. With it turned all the way to the right, there is no decay phase.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 442 Global and Keyboard Parameters Tension's Global and Keyboard Parameters. The remaining section contain all of the parameters that adjust how Tension responds to MIDI data, as well as controls for performance parameters such as tuning and portamento. The Keyboard section contains all of Tension's polyphony and tuning parameters.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 443 The Error slider increases the amount of random tuning error applied to each note. Try very high values if you would like to relive your experiences from junior high school orchestra. The Unison section allows you to stack multiple voices for each note played. The switch next to the name toggles the section on or off. The Voices switch selects between two or four stacked voices, while Detune adjusts the amount of tuning variation applied to each stacked voice.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 444 To get a sense of what's possible, it may help to study how the presets were made. You'll soon realize that Tension can do far more than just strings. 23.14 The Essential Instrument Collection The boxed version of Live 8 ships with the Essential Instrument Collection, a multi-gigabyte library of meticulously sampled instruments created in cooperation with SONiVOX, Chocolate Audio and Puremagnetik.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 445 The EIC presets are available in Full and Lite versions, allowing you to choose the right balance of delity and polyphony for your needs. The Lite version reduces CPU, RAM and disk requirements by reducing the number of zones and sample layers used. Both the normal and Lite presets use 24-bit multisamples. There is also an EIC LE Pack available which contains very ef cient versions of the EIC instruments suitable for sketching out ideas.
CHAPTER 23. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 446 Special Features of the Guitar and Bass Banks The EIC's guitar instruments have additional banks for single-key chords with strumming, and the PBass instrument has a similar bank for down- and up- strokes played with a pick. In all cases, lower octaves play down strums, while upper octaves play up strums.
447 Chapter 24 Max For Live A Generic Max Audio Effect. Max for Live, an add-on product co-developed with Cycling '741 , allows users to extend and customize Live by creating instruments, controllers, audio effects, and MIDI processors. After installing Max for Live, you will need to point to it in Live's File/Folder Preferences: 1 http://www.cycling74.
CHAPTER 24. MAX FOR LIVE 448 The Max Editor Chooser. Like all other Live devices, Max devices can have their own presets, which can be viewed and loaded by unfolding the device in the Browser. What a Max device actually does is dependent on its patch, which can be accessed by pressing the Edit button in the Max device's title bar. The Edit Button for a Max Device. This launches the Max for Live application, with the current device loaded and ready for editing.
449 Chapter 25 Sharing Live Sets Live provides tools to collaborate with other Live users by uploading and downloading Live Sets from Ableton's web server. Any media les which are needed by your Live Sets are uploaded automatically, unless they are already on Ableton's server. Likewise, any media les which are needed by Sets that you download are only downloaded if you do not already have them. This le management happens automatically. 25.
CHAPTER 25. SHARING LIVE SETS 450 Enter the Set's Name in the Upload Details Window. If you are not already logged in to your ableton.com account, you will then be prompted to enter your username and password. Log In to Upload Your Set. After you have logged in, Live will begin uploading your Set, along with any referenced media les that are not already on Ableton's server. Depending on the size of your Set and media, the upload can take some time.
CHAPTER 25. SHARING LIVE SETS 451 tracks that contain an External Instrument or External Audio Effect. The Non-Portable Tracks Dialog. Note that Freezing is not always possible; Group Tracks, return tracks and the Master track, for example, cannot be frozen. 25.2 Downloading Sets You can download Live Sets that other users have uploaded to ableton.com. You can get more information and nd Sets at the Ableton website1 . 1 http://www.ableton.
CHAPTER 25. SHARING LIVE SETS 25.3 452 The Upload/Download Browser All les that you download from Ableton's server are stored locally on your machine, in your cache. You can view any nished downloads or in-progress transfers via the Upload/ Download Browser, which can be accessed via its selector. Note that this selector is not visible until your cache actually contains something. The Upload/Download Browser. You can load Sets via the Upload/Download Browser once they are nished downloading.
453 Chapter 26 MIDI and Key Remote Control To liberate the musician from the mouse, most of Live's controls can be remote-controlled with an external MIDI controller and the computer keyboard. This chapter describes the details of mapping to the following speci c types of controls in Live's user interface: 1. Session View slots Note that MIDI and computer key assignments are bound to the slots, not to the clips they contain. 2.
CHAPTER 26. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 26.1 454 MIDI Remote Control Live can be controlled remotely by external MIDI control surfaces, such as MIDI keyboards or controller boxes. Live also supports the Akai APC40 , a topic that is covered in its own chapter, for completely mouse-free program operation. Before we explain how remote control assignments are made and implemented, let's rst make the distinction between MIDI remote control and a separate use of MIDI in Live: as the input for our MIDI tracks.
CHAPTER 26. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL listed here, don't fret Surface Support. 455 it can still be enabled manually in the next section, Manual Control Depending on the controller, Live may need to perform a preset dump to complete the setup. If this is the case, the Dump button to the right of your control surface's choosers in the Live Preferences will become enabled. Before pressing it, verify that your control surface is ready to receive preset dumps.
CHAPTER 26. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 456 Control Surfaces Can Follow Device Selection. In addition to following device selection, natively supported control surfaces can be locked to speci c devices, guaranteeing hands-on access no matter where the current focus is in your Live Set. To enable or disable locking, (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) on a device's title bar, and then select your preferred controller from the Lock to... context menu.
CHAPTER 26. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 457 Note: Some control surfaces do not support locking to devices. This capability is indicated for individual controllers in the Control Surface Reference lesson. Select the Lessons option from the View menu to access Live's built-in lessons. 26.1.2 Manual Control Surface Setup If your MIDI control surface is not listed in the MIDI/Sync Preferences' Control Surface chooser, it can still be enabled for manual mapping in the MIDI Ports section of this tab.
CHAPTER 26. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 26.1.3 458 Takeover Mode MIDI Controller Takeover Mode. When MIDI controls that send absolute values (such as faders) are used in a bank-switching setup, where they address a different destination parameter with each controller bank, you will need to decide how Live should handle the sudden jumps in values that will occur when moving a control for the rst time after switching the bank.
CHAPTER 26. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 26.2 459 The Mapping Browser The Mapping Browser and Selector. All manual MIDI, computer keyboard and Macro Control mappings are managed by the Mapping Browser. The Mapping Browser is hidden until one of the three mapping modes is enabled. It will then display all mappings for the current mode. For each mapping, it lists the control element, the path to the mapped parameter, the parameter's name, and the mapping's Min and Max value ranges.
CHAPTER 26. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 460 Once your remote control setup has been de ned in the MIDI/Sync Preferences, giving MIDI controllers and notes remote control assignments is simple: 1. Enter MIDI Map Mode by pressing the MIDI switch in Live's upper right-hand corner. Notice that assignable elements of the interface become highlighted in blue, and that the Mapping Browser becomes available. If your Browser is Alt Alt B (PC) / B (Mac) will open it for you. closed, Ctrl 2.
CHAPTER 26. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 26.2.3 461 Mapping to Absolute MIDI Controllers Absolute MIDI controllers send messages to Live in the form of absolute values ranging from 0 to 127. These values lead to different results depending on the type of Live control to which they are assigned. A value message of 127, for example, might turn the Volume control on a Live track all the way up or play a Session View clip.
462 CHAPTER 26. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL Live to pan right, causing an abrupt jump in the track's panning. A pan knob sending relative messages would prevent this, since its incremental message to Live would simply say, Pan slightly to the left of your current position. There are four types of relative controllers: Signed Bit, Signed Bit 2, Bin Offset and Twos Complement. Convention (Mode) Relative (Signed Bit) Relative (Signed Bit 2) Relative (Bin Offset) Relative (2's Comp.
463 CHAPTER 26. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL Relative Session View Navigation Notice that you can make not only absolute mappings to individual slots and scenes, but also relative mappings to move the highlighted scene and operate on the highlighted clips. In both MIDI Map Mode and Key Map Mode, a strip of assignable controls appears below the Session grid: 4 3 1 2 The Relative Session Mapping Strip. 1. Assign these buttons to keys, notes or controllers to move the highlighted scene up and down. 2.
CHAPTER 26. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 464 Clip View interface could potentially affect any clip in the Live Set. For this reason, we recommend mapping Clip View controls to relative MIDI controllers to prevent undesirable jumps in parameter values. 26.2.5 Computer Keyboard Remote Control The Key Map Mode Switch. Creating control surface assignments for your computer keyboard is straightforward: 1. Enter Key Map Mode by pressing the KEY switch in the upper right-hand corner of the Live screen.
CHAPTER 26. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL computer keystrokes for use with instruments.
466 Chapter 27 Using the APC40 The APC40 (Ableton Performance Controller) is a dedicated controller for Ableton Live, codesigned by Ableton and Akai Professional1 . This chapter will help you set up your APC40, and introduce its capabilities. 27.1 Setup Once the APC40 has been powered on and connected to your computer's USB port, you will need to select the APC40 in Live's Preferences. The APC40 is one of Live's natively supported control surfaces, so setup is quite easy: 1.
CHAPTER 27. USING THE APC40 467 Setting Up The APC40. 27.2 Clip Launch Matrix The APC40's matrix of buttons gives you physical access to the clips in your Session View. The matrix has 40 three-color buttons arranged in a ve-scene-deep-by-eight-track-wide grid. The color-coding system lets you know exactly what is happening in each clip, and directional controls let you move around inside your Session View.
CHAPTER 27. USING THE APC40 468 Session View Clip and Navigation Controls. Pressing a Clip Launch button triggers the clip in the corresponding clip slot in Live. If the track is armed to record, pressing the button records a new clip. The buttons in the matrix light up in different colors so you know what's going on: Amber: this slot contains a clip. Green: this clip is playing. Red: this clip is recording. Many aspects of the Live interface are replicated in the APC40.
CHAPTER 27. USING THE APC40 469 APC's button matrix are shown in Live with a red border. The directional arrows and Shift button increase the scope of the eight-by- ve grid: Pressing Up or Down moves you up or down one scene at a time. Hold the Shift button while hitting Up or Down to move ve scenes up or down. The Left and Right arrow keys move you left or right one track at a time. Hold the Shift button while hitting Left or Right to move eight tracks at a time. 27.
CHAPTER 27. USING THE APC40 27.4 470 Mixer Section The APC40 features eight tracks, each with its own fader, solo/pre-cue, mute and record arm buttons. A Master fader controls the master volume and a Cue Level knob controls cue volume, so you can pre-listen to a clip or the metronome without your audience hearing it. Mixer Controls. You can shift these eight tracks around the Session View using the directional controls. Press the right or left arrows to move incrementally, one track at a time.
CHAPTER 27. USING THE APC40 27.5 471 Device Control The APC40 features eight endless dials and four control buttons that map to your devices automatically for exibility and speed on stage or in the studio. Device Controls. The Track Selection buttons route the eight endless encoders to the rst device or Rack on that track, with LED rings to automatically show you the levels on the selected parameter. Four buttons below the dials give you additional control options.
CHAPTER 27. USING THE APC40 472 controls. For more information, see the Control Surface Reference Lesson. 27.6 Transport and Global Buttons Live's Play, Stop and Global Record buttons are all easily accessible, and four global buttons access Live's functions, cleaning up your screen view onstage and freeing you from the mouse in the studio: Transport and Global Controls. Detail View opens and closes the Clip/Track View, so you can see more of your clips.
CHAPTER 27. USING THE APC40 473 Metronome turns the metronome on and off. 27.7 Track Control The Track Control section covers pan settings or send levels for whichever eight tracks are currently selected. It consists of eight endless dials with LED rings and four buttons: Pan, Send A, Send B and Send C. Track Controls. The buttons let you select what the encoders are controlling, while the encoders control the amount or depth of the pan or send levels.
CHAPTER 27. USING THE APC40 27.8 474 Tempo Control Tap Tempo and Nudge Left/Right buttons are essential for live performance, helping you to stay in sync with turntables, other musicians or a live band, and correct timing issues quickly. Tempo Control. As you hit the Tap Tempo button once every beat, the tempo of the Live Set will follow your tapping. You can also use tapping to count in: If you are working in a 4:4 signature, it takes four taps to start song playback at the tapped tempo.
CHAPTER 27. USING THE APC40 27.9 475 Crossfader The APC40's replaceable crossfader is an essential DJ control, and is also handy for controlling effect, volume and modulation curves. Crossfader. In Live, you can set any track as an A or B destination, and then crossfade between the A and B selections. Normal wear and tear can render a crossfader obsolete. The APC40's crossfader is fully replaceable from the bottom of the device, so you can extend the lifetime of this already durable unit.
CHAPTER 27. USING THE APC40 27.10 476 Customizing the APC40 Controls You can change the assignment of all of the knobs, faders and buttons on the APC40 by enabling the Remote switches in the MIDI/Sync Preferences, as described in the section on manual control surface setup. Setting Up The APC40 For Custom Assignments. Now, by entering Live's MIDI Map Mode, you can override the pre-assigned functions of all of the APC40's knobs, faders and buttons.
477 Chapter 28 Synchronization and ReWire 28.1 Synchronizing via MIDI The MIDI protocol de nes two ways to synchronize sequencers, both of which are supported by Live. Both protocols work with the notion of a sync master, which delivers a sync signal that is tracked by the sync slave(s). MIDI Clock. MIDI Clock works like a metronome ticking at a fast rate. The rate of the incoming ticks is tempo-dependent: Changing the tempo at the sync master (e.g.
CHAPTER 28. SYNCHRONIZATION AND REWIRE 478 are explained later in this chapter. With respect to MIDI Timecode, Live can only act as a MIDI sync slave, not a master. 28.1.1 Synchronizing External MIDI Devices to Live Live can send MIDI Clock messages to an external MIDI sequencer (or drum machine). After connecting the sequencer to Live and setting it up to receive MIDI sync, turn the device on as a sync destination in Live's MIDI/Sync Preferences. Choosing a MIDI Slave for Live.
CHAPTER 28. SYNCHRONIZATION AND REWIRE 479 The External Sync Switch. When Live is synced to an external MIDI device, it can accept song position pointers from this device, syncing it not only in terms of tempo but in terms of its position in the song. If the master jumps to a new position within the song, Live will do the same. However, if the Control Bar's Loop switch is activated, playback will be looped, and song position pointers will simply be wrapped into the length of the loop. 28.1.
CHAPTER 28. SYNCHRONIZATION AND REWIRE 480 pronounced percussive sounds. While listening to the output from both, adjust the Sync Delay control until both sounds are in perfect sync. Adjusting Sync Delay. 28.2 Connecting via ReWire Live supports the ReWire interface for connecting with another ReWire-compatible audio program running on the same computer.
CHAPTER 28. SYNCHRONIZATION AND REWIRE 481 resources than running a single program. 28.2.1 Running Live in ReWire Master Mode The step-by-step procedure for sending MIDI to and receiving audio from a ReWire slave program is presented in the routing chapter. 28.2.2 Running Live in ReWire Slave Mode In ReWire slave mode, Live can both receive MIDI from, but also send audio to the master application.
CHAPTER 28. SYNCHRONIZATION AND REWIRE 482 Time signature and tempo will be determined by the settings in the ReWire master application. If your Live Set contains any tempo or time signature changes, they will be ignored. 28.2.3 More on ReWire You can nd tutorials on connecting Live to speci c ReWire master programs at the Ableton tutorial website1 . The Ableton FAQ website2 is the rst place to go if you encounter ReWire-related problems.
483 Chapter 29 Computer Audio Resources and Strategies Real-time audio processing is a demanding task for general-purpose computers, which are usually designed to run spreadsheets and surf the Internet. An application like Live requires a powerful CPU and a fast hard disk. This section will provide some insight on these issues, and should help you avoid and solve problems with running audio on a computer. 29.
CHAPTER 29. COMPUTER AUDIO RESOURCES AND STRATEGIES 484 Fortunately, Live supports multicore and multiprocessor systems, allowing the processing load from things like instruments, effects and I/O to be distributed among the available resources. Depending on the machine and the Live Set, the available processing power can be several times that of older systems. If you are working on a multicore or multiprocessor system, you will want to enable support for it in the CPU tab of Live's Preferences.
CHAPTER 29. COMPUTER AUDIO RESOURCES AND STRATEGIES 29.1.2 485 CPU Load from Tracks and Devices Generally, every track and device being used in Live incurs some amount of CPU load. However, Live is smart and avoids wasting CPU cycles on tracks and devices that do not contribute anything useful. For example, dragging devices into a Live Set that is not running does not signi cantly increase the CPU load. The load increases only as you start playing clips or feed audio into the effects.
CHAPTER 29. COMPUTER AUDIO RESOURCES AND STRATEGIES 486 device or clip settings. On slower machines, you can unfreeze processor-intensive tracks one at a time to make edits, freezing them again when you are done. Many editing functions remain available to tracks that are frozen. Launching clips can still be done freely, and mixer controls such as volume, pan and the sends are still available.
CHAPTER 29. COMPUTER AUDIO RESOURCES AND STRATEGIES 487 For frozen Session clips, only two loop cycles are included in the frozen clip, which means that clips with unlinked clip envelopes may play back differently after two loop cycles when frozen. The samples generated by the Freeze Track command are stored in your temporary recording folder until you save your Live Set, at which point they are moved to the following project folder sub-directory: Samples/Processed/Freeze.
CHAPTER 29. COMPUTER AUDIO RESOURCES AND STRATEGIES 488 Do the following to avoid disk overload: Reduce the amount of audio channels being written by choosing mono inputs instead of stereo inputs in the Audio Preferences' Channel Con guration dialog. Use RAM Mode for selected clips. Reduce the number of audio channels playing by using mono samples instead of stereo samples when possible.
489 Chapter 30 Audio Fact Sheet Prior to the release of Live 7, much of Ableton's development effort was focused on carefully and objectively testing Live's fundamental audio performance. As a result of this testing, we have implemented a number of low-level improvements to the audio engine.
CHAPTER 30. AUDIO FACT SHEET 490 we will never release an update unless it passes every test. 30.2 Neutral Operations Procedures in Live that will cause absolutely no change in audio quality are referred to as neutral operations. You can be sure that using these functions will never cause any signal degradation. Applying neutral operations to audio that was recorded into Live ensures that the audio will be unchanged from the point of analog-to-digital conversion.
CHAPTER 30. AUDIO FACT SHEET 491 rendering to a le with the same bit depth as the original results in complete phase cancellation. rendering to a le with a higher bit depth than the original results in complete phase cancellation. rendering to a le with a lower bit depth than the original results in the smallest amount of distortion possible within a 32-bit system. 30.2.
CHAPTER 30. AUDIO FACT SHEET 30.2.4 492 Summing at Single Mix Points Since version 7, Live uses double precision (64-bit) summing at all points where signals are mixed, including Clip and return track inputs, the Master track and Racks. Mixing in Live is thus a neutral operation for signals mixed at any single summing point.
CHAPTER 30. AUDIO FACT SHEET 30.2.7 493 Freeze, Flatten When tracks are frozen, the audio les that are created are 32 bit, which ensures that they will not be lower quality than the audio heard prior to freezing. But there are some special cases involving Freeze that result in non-neutral behavior and should be noted: Frozen Arrangement View tracks can include audio material that extends beyond the end of the clip itself, such as reverb tails and delay repetitions.
CHAPTER 30. AUDIO FACT SHEET 30.2.8 494 Bypassed Effects Bypassed effects in Live are removed from the signal ow. This is true for both Live's built-in effects devices and third-party VST and AU plug-ins. Consequently, audio at the output of a bypassed effect is identical to the audio at the input. Please note, however, that effects devices with parameters that inherently require delay (e.g.
CHAPTER 30. AUDIO FACT SHEET 495 In all cases, output is rendered and compared with the output of an unsplit version of the same source. Phase cancellation testing of the two les con rms that they are identical. 30.3 Non-Neutral Operations Procedures in Live that will cause a change in audio quality are referred to as non-neutral operations. Users can be guaranteed that using these operations will cause at least some change to the signal.
CHAPTER 30. AUDIO FACT SHEET 496 sample rate that you plan to use in Live, the les can be imported without any loss of quality. Rendering audio from Live with a sampling rate other than the one that was used while working on the project is also a non-neutral operation, and may result in a loss of sound quality.
CHAPTER 30. AUDIO FACT SHEET 30.3.5 497 Recording external signals (bit depth < A/D converter) Recording audio signals into Live is a non-neutral operation if the bit depth set in Live's Preferences window is lower than that of the A/D converters used for the recording. This is not recommended. 30.3.6 Recording internal sources below 32 bit Audio that is recorded via internal routing will lose quality if the recording is made at a bit depth below 32 bits.
CHAPTER 30. AUDIO FACT SHEET 30.3.9 498 Panning Live uses constant power panning with sinusoidal gain curves. Output is 0 dB at the center position and signals panned fully left or right will be increased by +3 dB. In order to minimize this volume change, it may be helpful to narrow the overall stereo width before doing extreme panning. This can be done via the Width control in the Utility device. 30.3.
CHAPTER 30. AUDIO FACT SHEET 499 convert your rendered les in an of ine application that is optimized for these tasks, rather than in Live. Please note that these practices, while ensuring optimal audio quality, disable some of Live's functionality in particular, stretching and synchronization. 30.5 Summary and Conclusions Ableton wrote this paper in order to help users understand exactly how audio is affected when performing various procedures in Live.
500 Chapter 31 MIDI Fact Sheet In conjunction with our work on the audio engine, Ableton has spent additional effort analyzing Live's MIDI timing and making improvements where necessary. We wrote this fact sheet to help users understand the problems involved in creating a reliable and accurate computer-based MIDI environment, and to explain Live's approach to solving these problems.
CHAPTER 31. MIDI FACT SHEET 501 environment would capture this incoming information with perfect timing accuracy in relation to the timeline of the song as accurately as an audio recording. 2) Playback refers to two related scenarios when dealing with DAWs. The rst involves sending MIDI note and controller information from the DAW to a hardware device such as a synthesizer.
CHAPTER 31. MIDI FACT SHEET 502 data into a plug-in's playback, for example. Jitter-free MIDI timing involves accurate conversion between different clocks within the system's components the MIDI interface, audio interface, and the DAW itself. The accuracy of this conversion depends on a variety of factors, including the operating system and driver architecture used. Jitter, much more so than latency, creates the feeling that MIDI timing is sloppy or loose. 31.
CHAPTER 31. MIDI FACT SHEET 503 For playback of hardware devices, Live also generates timestamps that it attempts to communicate to the MIDI interface drivers for scheduling of outgoing MIDI events. Windows MME drivers cannot process timestamps, however, and for devices that use these drivers, Live schedules outgoing events internally. Even during high system loads that cause audio dropouts, Live will continue to receive incoming MIDI events.
504 CHAPTER 31. MIDI FACT SHEET 31.5 Tests and Results Our procedure for testing the timing of incoming MIDI events is represented in the following diagram: Live MIDI Source MIDI Splitter MIDI Clip MIDI-to-Audio Converter Audio Clip The output of a MIDI Source (a keyboard or other DAW playing long sequences of random MIDI events) is fed to a zero-latency hardware MIDI Splitter. One portion of the splitter's output is recorded into a new MIDI clip in Live.
505 CHAPTER 31. MIDI FACT SHEET At 44.1 kHz and 512 sample buffer, occasional events with +/- 6 ms occurred. In all cases, the majority of the jitter occurred at +/- 1 ms. Interface C: For most of the tests, the maximum jitter was +/- 5 ms. At 96 kHz and 512 sample buffer, there were a small number of events with between +/- 6 and 8 ms of jitter. At 44.1 kHz and 1024 sample buffer, there were a small number of events with jitter as high as +/- 10 ms.
CHAPTER 31. MIDI FACT SHEET 31.6 506 Tips for Achieving Optimal MIDI Performance In order to help users achieve optimal MIDI performance with Live, we have provided a list of recommended practices and program settings. Use the lowest possible buffer sizes available on your audio hardware, thereby keeping latency to a minimum. Audio buffer controls are found in the Audio tab of Live's Preferences, and vary depending on the type of hardware you're using.
CHAPTER 31. MIDI FACT SHEET 31.7 507 Summary and Conclusions Ableton wrote this paper in order to help users understand a variety of related topics: the inherent problems in computer-based MIDI systems; our approach to solving these problems in Live; additional variables that we cannot account for. As mentioned before, the best way to solve MIDI timing issues in your studio is to use the highest-quality hardware components available.
508 Chapter 32 Live Keyboard Shortcuts 32.
509 CHAPTER 32. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS Windows Close Window/Dialog 32.2 Esc Macintosh Esc Accessing Menus and the rst letter of the Under Windows, you can access each menu by pressing Alt F for File, for instance). While a menu is open, you can use: menu ( Alt to navigate the menu items; to open the neighboring menu; Return 32.3 to choose a menu item. Adjusting Values Windows Increment/Decrement Finer Resolution for Dragging Return to Default Type in Value Go to Next Field (Bar.beat.
510 CHAPTER 32. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 32.4 Browsing In addition to the shortcuts shown here, editing shortcuts can also be used in the Browser. Windows Scroll Up/Down Open/Close Folders Set Selected Folder as Browser Root Load Selected Item from Browser Macintosh Return Return or Double- Return Click Preview Selected File Activate Browser Search Mode Jump to Search Results or Double- Return Click Return Ctrl Return F F 32.
511 CHAPTER 32. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 32.
512 CHAPTER 32. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 32.7 Loop Brace and Start/End Markers The loop brace and start/end markers must rst be selected before any of the following commands will apply to them. Move Start Marker to Position Nudge Loop Left/Right Move Loop By Loop Length Double/Halve Loop Length Shorten/Lengthen Loop Select Material in Loop Windows Click Macintosh Click Ctrl Ctrl Click Loop Brace or Ctrl Click Loop Brace or L L 32.8 Session View Commands See also the editing commands.
513 CHAPTER 32. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 32.9 Arrangement View Commands The shortcuts for zooming, snapping/drawing and loop/region settings also work in the Arrangement View. See also the editing commands.
514 CHAPTER 32. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 32.10 Commands for Tracks See also the editing commands. Windows Insert Audio Track Insert MIDI Track Insert Return Track Rename Selected Track While Renaming, Go to next Track Group Selected Tracks Ungroup Tracks Show Grouped Tracks Hide Grouped Tracks Move Nonadjacent Tracks Without Collapsing Arm/Solo Multiple Tracks Add Device from Browser 32.
515 CHAPTER 32. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 32.12 Key/MIDI Map Mode and the Computer MIDI Keyboard Windows Toggle MIDI Map Mode Toggle Key Map Mode Computer MIDI Keyboard 32.
516 CHAPTER 32. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 32.14 Clip View Sample Display The shortcuts for zooming and loop/region settings also work in the Sample Display. Windows Quantize Quantize Settings... Move Selected Warp Marker Select Warp Marker Scroll Display to Follow Playback Move Clip Region with Start Marker 32.15 Ctrl Macintosh U Ctrl U U U Ctrl Ctrl F F Clip View MIDI Editor The shortcuts for zooming, snapping/drawing and loop/region settings also work in the MIDI Editor.
517 CHAPTER 32. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 32.16 Grid Snapping and Drawing Windows Toggle Draw Mode Narrow Grid Widen Grid Triplet Grid Snap to Grid Fixed/Zoom-Adaptive Grid Bypass Snapping While Dragging 32.
518 CHAPTER 32. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 32.18 Working with Sets and the Program Windows New Live Set Open Live Set Close Live Set Save Live Set Save Live Set As... Quit Live Hide Live Export Audio/Video Export MIDI le 32.
CHAPTER 32. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 32.20 519 Using the Context Menu A context menu is available in Live for quick access to many commonly used menu items. To access the context menu, (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) on the part of the interface where you would like to execute a particular command. It is worth noting that Live's context menu may sometimes contain applicable settings from the Preferences.
520 Index A Ableton e-mail addresses sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 technical support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 web addresses FAQs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482 tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482 webshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Adaptive Grid options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Add/Remove Stop Button command . . . . 95 agr les . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
521 INDEX testing and methodology . . . . . . . . . . 489 tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498 audio les . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . see samples audio interface setup . . . . . . . . . . . . see Audio Preferences, see routing Audio Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 audio tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . see tracks Audio Units Plug-ins, using . . . . . see devices authorization . . . . . . . . . .
INDEX Clip Gain slider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Clip Groove chooser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Clip Launch button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Clip Name eld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Clip Nudge buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Clip Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 for zooming/scrolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Clip Quantization chooser . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
INDEX count-in for recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Count-In preference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 CPU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483 CPU Load meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484 CPU Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Create Analysis Files preference . . . . . . . . . 44 Create Folder command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Cropping audio clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
524 INDEX E Edit menu commands and automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252, 256 and exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 and MIDI notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 and return tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 and scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 and tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 in the Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 with Clip Stop buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
INDEX 525 Full Screen Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 importing les . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 importing projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 G Impulse instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381 and individual outputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384 Gate effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .305 and MIDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382 Gate Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
526 INDEX L Language preference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 latency and the External Audio Effect . . . . . .298 Latin Percussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384 Launch box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100, 155 Launch Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Legato Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Library . . . . . . . . . . . .
527 INDEX MIDI exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 quantizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144, 206 sending bank/program changes . . . 117 MIDI clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . see clips MIDI controllers . . . . . . . .see control surfaces MIDI Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100, 135 and drawing MIDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 and drawing velocities . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 and grid lines . . . . . . . .
INDEX envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 lter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395 Glide and Spread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .397 global controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396 layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387 LFO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392 MIDI modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396 oscillators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
INDEX for MIDI notes during recording . . . 206 Quantize menu command . . . . . . . . .130, 144 quick-chooser buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 R Racks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Auto Select option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Chain List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 creating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 Macro Controls . . . . . .
INDEX 530 with external synthesizers . . . . . . . . . . 169 Save command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 Save Current Set as Default button . . . . . . 54 S Save Default Clip button . . . . . . . . . . . 43, 112 Save Live Set to Web command . . . . 52, 449 sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . see Ableton Scale effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348 Sample box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
531 INDEX Set Locator command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Set Song Start Time Here command . . . . . 78 sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . see Live Sets sharing Live Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449 shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . see keyboard shortcuts Show/Hide Plug-In Windows command 220 shuf e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . see groove feature Simple Delay effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 Simpler instrument . . . . . . .
532 INDEX Texture Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Time Ruler Format option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 time signature and scene names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92, 96 time signature changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Toggle Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Tones Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Track Activator switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Track Delay control . . . . . . . . . . . .
533 INDEX in the Arrangement View . . . . . . . . . . 271 matching sound to video . . . . . . . . . . 274 trimming tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 View menu commands Crossfader option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 In/Out option . . . . . . . . . . . . .22, 164, 186 Mixer option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22, 186 Returns option . . . . . . . . . . . .22, 186, 191 Sends option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
