User Manual

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. Fortunately, Live performs the modulation in beats rather
than centimeters: A vertical grid line is worth a sixteenth note of offset and the modulation
can reach from plus eight sixteenths to minus eight sixteenths.
Sample offset modulation is the tool of choice for quickly creating interesting variations of
beat loops. We discourage using this technique for analytical cut-and-splice tasks; they
are much easier to perform using Live's Arrangement View, and the results can easily be
consolidated into new clips.
Repeating Steps and
Slowing Time with the
Sample Offset Envelope.
Some sample offset envelope gestures have a characteristic effect: a downward escalator
shape, for instance, effectively repeats the step at the envelope's beginning. Similarly, a
smooth ramp with a downwards slope is slowing time and can create nice slurring effects
when the slope is not quite exactly 45 degrees; try this with a 1/32 Transients setting.
19.2.5 Using Clips as Templates
As you are making creative use of clip envelopes, the clips containing them develop a life
of their own, independent of the original sample. You might wonder at a point: What does
this clip sound like with a different sample? This is easy to nd out by selecting the clip
so that it is displayed in the Clip View and dragging the desired sample from one of the