Reference Manual Ableton Live 7 Sampler - Operator - Analog - Tension - Electric Session Drums - Drum Machines Orchestral Strings - Orchestral Brass Orchestral Percussion - Orchestral Woodwinds Essential Instrument Collection
Live Version 7.0.
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 What's New in Live 7? 1.2.1 Multiple Time Signatures 2 Work with multiple time signatures in both Arrangement and Session view 1.2.2 Movie Export Export video to a new le 1.2.3 Slicing and REX Support REX les can be loaded and played in sync with other audio les Audio les can be sliced to a new MIDI track 1.2.4 Multiple Automation Editor Lanes View and edit multiple automation envelopes for a track simultaneously in the Arrangement View 1.2.
CHAPTER 1. WELCOME TO LIVE 1.2.6 3 Ableton Effects and Instruments Drum Racks expand the Rack family with integrated return chains, choke groups, and other functions optimized for building drum kits Tension optional add-on instrument Electric optional add-on instrument Analog optional add-on instrument Compressor replaces the former Compressor I and II devices with three compression models, feedback, sidechaining and more.
4 Chapter 2 First Steps When you install Live and run it for the rst time, you will be presented with a dialog asking for your Live serial number. Please see the chapter on unlocking 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.
CHAPTER 2. FIRST STEPS 5 experienced users. The remaining chapters of this manual serve as in-depth reference for the material introduced in Live Concepts. 2.1.1 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.
6 CHAPTER 2. FIRST STEPS is available in the Live menu. Preferences can also be accessed with the , (Mac) shortcut. Ctrl , (PC) / Live's Preferences are distributed over several tabs: In the Look/Feel tab, you can make various settings, including the language used for text display and the color scheme, or skin, for the Live user interface. 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 7 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 8 Adjusting the Main Window Split.
9 Chapter 3 Unlocking 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. 3.
CHAPTER 3. UNLOCKING LIVE 10 Please note that products such as Operator and Sampler are sold separately from Live but are unlocked using the same procedure described here. You can always enter any new serial numbers and unlock additional products in the Authorizations/Trial tab in the Preferences window. Live's Preferences are available via the Options menu (or the Live menu in Mac OS X). The serial number identi es your ownership of Live.
CHAPTER 3. UNLOCKING LIVE 11 For details, please see the corresponding section. 3.2.3 Unlocking Online If the computer you want to unlock Live for is connected to the Internet, the only thing you need to do is press the Unlock Online button. Live will then create a connection to the Ableton server, send your serial number and challenge code, and receive the unlock key from the server. No information other than this is exchanged between your computer and the Ableton server. 3.2.
CHAPTER 3. UNLOCKING LIVE 3.3 3.3.1 12 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 webshop3 . This site contains information about Ableton's distributor and dealer network. It also offers you the opportunity to buy Ableton products online. 3.
CHAPTER 3. UNLOCKING LIVE 13 They can be reached by: E-mail5 ; Telephone: +49 (0)30 - 288 763 151 (available Monday to Friday 11 to 15hrs CET); Fax: +49 (0)30 - 288 763 11. To speed up the process, please: Register your copy of Live6 ; Include a brief explanation of the circumstances. To use Live on more than one computer at a time, you require a secondary license or a site license. Ableton offers these licenses at special rates. Please contact the sales team7 for details. 3.3.
14 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 15 Selecting the Library bookmark in Live's File Browser will take you to the Live Library of creative tools. There are a number of Demo Sets here, and double-clicking a Live Set's name in the Browser will open that Live Set. 4.2 Arrangement and Session The basic musical building blocks of Live are called clips. A clip is a piece of musical material: a melody, a drum pattern, a bassline or a complete song.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 16 The Arrangement View and the Session View interact in useful (though potentially confusing) 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. 4.3 Tracks Tracks host clips and also manage the ow of signals, as well as the creation of new clips through recording, sound synthesis, effects processing and mixing.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 17 The exclusivity of clips in a track also implies that, at any on 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 18 Audio signals are recorded and played back using audio tracks, and MIDI signals are recorded and played back using MIDI tracks. The two track types have their own corresponding clip types. Audio clips cannot live on MIDI tracks and vice versa. Information about inserting, reordering and deleting audio and MIDI tracks is found here. 4.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 19 An Audio Clip's Properties as Displayed in the Clip View. Many powerful manipulations arise from Live's warping capabilities. Warping means changing the speed of sample playback independently from the pitch so as to match the song tempo. The tempo can be adjusted on the y in the Control Bar's Tempo eld. The Control Bar's Tempo Field. The most elementary use of this technique, and one that usually requires no manual setup, is synchronizing sample loops to the chosen tempo.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 20 MIDI Files Are Dragged in from Live's File Browsers. As you'd expect, a MIDI clip's contents can be accessed and edited via the Clip View, for instance to change a melody or paint a drum pattern. A MIDI Clip's Properties as Displayed in the Clip View. 4.7 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.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 21 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. 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.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 22 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. The number of devices per track is theoretically unlimited.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 23 each track makes to the input of any return tracks. Return tracks only host effects, and not clips. Via their sends, all tracks can feed a part of their signal into a return track and share its effects. The mixer also includes a crossfader, which can create smooth transitions between clips playing on different tracks. Live's crossfader works like a typical DJ mixer crossfader, except that it allows crossfading not only two but any number of tracks including the returns.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 24 The Mixer for a MIDI Track without an Instrument. 4.8 Presets and Racks Every Live device can store and retrieve particular sets of parameter values as presets. As presets are stored independently from Live Sets, new presets become part of a library that any project can draw from. Live's Instrument, Drum and Effect Racks allow saving combinations of devices and their settings as a single preset.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 25 Track Routing Is Set up Using the In/Out Section in the Arrangement (Left) or Session View (Right). Signals from the tracks can be sent to the outside world via the computer's audio and MIDI interfaces, to other programs that are connected to Live via ReWire or to other tracks or devices within Live. Likewise, a track can be set up to receive an input signal to be played through the track's devices.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 26 It is also possible to record into Session View slots on the y. This technique is very useful for the jamming musician, as Session recording does not require stopping the music. When a track is armed, its Session slots exhibit Clip Record buttons, and clicking one of these commences recording. Clicking the Clip Record button again de nes the end of the recording and launches the new clip.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 27 favor of the new control setting). The control will stop tracking its automation and rest with the new value until the Back to Arrangement button is pressed, which will resume Arrangement playback. 4.12 Clip Envelopes Envelopes are found not only in tracks but also in clips. Clip envelopes are used to modulate device and mixer controls.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 28 control box). Your assignments take effect immediately after you leave MIDI Map Mode. Session clips can be mapped to a MIDI key or even a keyboard range for chromatic playing. MIDI keys and controllers that have been mapped to Live's controls are not available for recording via MIDI tracks. These messages are ltered out before the incoming MIDI is passed on to the MIDI tracks. The Key/MIDI Map Controls.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 29 Browsers, and thereby exported to disk as Live Clips. A Live Clip in the File Browser. Live Clips are a very powerful way of storing ideas, as they save not only the clip's Clip View settings, but also the corresponding track's instruments and effects chain. Live Clips in the Browser can be previewed and added to any open Live Set just like sample les. In the Live Set, they restore the original clip's creative options.
CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 30 Choosing the Library Bookmark. The rst time you run Live, it will automatically install its Library to your standard user folder. You can, of course, move it to a new location. After installation the Library will already contain a few sound ideas, courtesy of Ableton. We encourage you to experiment with this material to get a sense of what the program can do, but we do not recommend removing or changing the contents of the factory Library.
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, 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 then select the Close All Folders option to show only top-level folders. Double-clicking a 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.
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 The Rescan Button. 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 indicate this via a small rotating ring on the Browser button. 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 Click on the les (or use and ) to select and listen to them. If the transport is running, Live tries to preview les in sync with the current Live Set, so that you can better judge which samples will work for you. If the transport is stopped, les will preview at their original tempo. The previewing volume can be adjusted using the mixer's Preview Volume knob. The Preview Volume Knob.
39 CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS Dropping a Clip to Create a New Track. In the Session View, double-clicking or pressing Return on a le in the Browser will automatically create a new track to the right of the other tracks and load it with the clip. Files can be dropped directly into Live from the Explorer (Windows)/Finder (Mac). 5.1.6 File Maintenance in the Browser You can use Live's File Browsers for all of the le maintenance activities that you are familiar with on your operating system.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 5.1.7 40 Hot-Swap Mode In addition to the drag-and-drop method of loading les from the Browser, Live offers a Hot-Swap Mode to save you mouse travel. Hot-Swap Mode establishes a temporary link between the Browser and, for example, a virtual instrument. While in Hot-Swap Mode, you can step through samples or presets to audition them in place, that is, within the instrument. Hot-swapping for presets is covered in the Live Device Presets section.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 41 is selected, or if the Hot-Swap button is pressed again. Hot-swapping can also be cancelled with a press of the Esc key. When Hot-Swap Mode is re-entered, the Hot-Swap Browser will try to reconstruct what you saw when you loaded the current le into the Impulse slot. If, for instance, the current le was found by searching for gretsch kick, the Hot-Swap Browser will come up with that search string in the search eld.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 5.2.1 42 The Decoding Cache To save computational resources, Live keeps the decoded sample les of compressed samples in the decoding cache. Maintenance of the cache is normally not required, as Live automatically deletes older les to make room for those that are new. You can, however, impose limits on the cache size using the File/Folder Preferences' Decoding Cache section.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 43 Storing default clip settings with the analysis le is different from saving the clip as a Live Clip. While analysis les are a handy way to store default information about a particular sample's settings, keep in mind that you can use different settings for each clip within a Live Set even if those clips refer to the same sample on disk.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 44 a data CD, which could serve as a backup of your work or be used with other digital audio applications. If your set includes video, you can also use the Export Audio/Video command to export this to a new video le, which will be created in the same directory as the rendered audio les. Which Signal Will Be Rendered? The Rendered Track Chooser.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 45 where you can type in the desired length. Live will capture audio starting at the current play start position for whichever duration you have speci ed. Remember a rendered audio le contains only what you heard prior to rendering. So, for example, if you're playing back some combination of Session View clips and Arrangement material, then that is what will be captured in your rendered le regardless of which view is active when you render.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 46 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. If Render as Loop is on, Live will go through the rendering process twice: The rst pass will not actually write samples to disk, but add the speci ed delay effect.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 47 in real time. If you render individual tracks, all tracks that don't route to an external device anywhere in their signal paths will be rendered of ine. Then, any tracks that do access these devices will be rendered in real time. Live will automatically trace each track's signal ow and detect if real-time rendering is necessary. You'll then be presented with several options when you start to render: Waiting for External Devices to Become Silent.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 48 The number of rendering attempts (if there has been more than one) will also be listed in the dialog box. If you nd that dropouts and restarts keep happening, you should close other running applications to allow more processing power for rendering. Please see the chapter on computer audio resources for more tips on improving performance. Rendering Video Video Rendering Options.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 49 Note that, depending on the encoder used, video rendering may occur in more than one pass. Live will display a progress bar that will indicate the status of the process. Unless you've speci ed a special window size or aspect ratio in the encoder settings, the rendered video le will play back exactly as it appeared during real time playback in Live. The video le will also contain the rendered audio.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 5.3.1 50 Exporting MIDI Files Live MIDI clips can be exported as Standard MIDI les. To export a MIDI clip, use the File menu's Export Selected MIDI Clip command. This command will open a le-save dialog, allowing you to choose the location for your new MIDI le. Exporting a MIDI le is different from saving the clip as a Live Clip. 5.4 Live Clips Individual clips can be exported to disk in the Live Clip format for easy retrieval and reuse in any project.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 51 instance, drop a bassline Live Clip on an existing track that drives a bass instrument, rather than creating a new track. Clips belonging to any Live Sets already on disk are also Live Clips. Please see the section on merging Sets for more on this topic. Note that storing default clip settings with a sample's analysis le is different from saving a Live Clip. The default clip in the .
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 5.5.2 52 Merging Sets Live makes it easy to merge Sets, which can come in handy when combining work from different versions or pieces. To add all tracks (except the return tracks) from one Live Set into another, drag the Set from the File Browser into the current Set, and drop it onto any track title bar or into the drop area next to or below the tracks.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 53 You can now drag the individual tracks and drop them as described at the beginning of this section. Of the three tracks contained in the Tango 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.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 54 Computer key mappings. 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. 5.5.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 55 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. The Sample Reference List's Edit Switch.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 56 We have recorded some audio into a new Live Set. We now save the Live Set under the name Tango on the Desktop. Here is the result as displayed by the Live Browser: A Live Set and its Recordings in a Live Project Folder. The project folder ( Tango Project ) contains the Live Set ( Tango.als ) and a Samples folder, which in turn contains a Recorded folder with two samples in it.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 57 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. Live creates a new project folder named Samba Project next to Tango Project. A New Project Was Added Next to Tango Project. So far we have seen how to create Live Projects and save versions of Live Sets into them.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 58 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. There is nothing wrong with this except for when the Tango Project is moved away or deleted; then Tango with Piano.als will be missing samples. You can prevent this by collecting samples.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 5.6.2 59 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 60 listing unused samples in the Project; packing a Project in Live Pack format; exporting the Project's contents to the Library. 5.7 The Live Library The Live Library acts as a repository of commonly used les, such as samples, clips and Live Device Presets, that are available to all Live Projects. In Live's File Browsers, the Library is accessible through a bookmark: Choosing the Library Bookmark.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 61 By default, the Live 7 Library contains the following sub-folders: Ableton Project Info contains les that Live uses to identify the Library as a Project, which allows it to be manageable using the File Manager. It also contains logs that keep track of what Live Packs have been installed. Clips contains the Live Clips that are installed as part of the Live 7 Basics pack.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 62 The Library Location Chooser. If any of these previous Library locations are now unavailable (perhaps because of an unattached external drive, a moved or renamed folder, or an angry roommate) these will appear greyed-out in the list. If you know that these unavailable locations are gone for good, you can remove them by using the Clear Unavailable Locations option at the bottom of the chooser: Unavailable Library Locations can be Cleared from the List.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 63 contents. In all three of these cases, you may also choose to create a new Library, without copying 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.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 64 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 65 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 66 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.
67 CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 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.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 68 Any selection of Live Sets, Live Clips, Live Presets (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) on the respective items in the File Browser, and choose the Manage Files command. Remember to click the Collect and Save button at the bottom of the File Manager when you are nished. Otherwise your changes will be discarded. 5.11 Finding Unused Samples Live's File Manager can nd the unused samples in a Project for you.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 5.12 69 Packing Projects into Live Packs Live's File Manager provides the option of packing a Live Project in Live Pack format for convenient archiving and transfer. To do this, choose the Manage Files command from the File menu, click the Manage Project button, and then click on the triangular-shaped fold button next to Packing. Click the Create Live Pack button to bring up a le-select dialog where you can specify the name and location of a new Live Pack le.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 70 the device's title bar and dropping into the Current Project. You can then use the File Management tools, collect any referenced samples, etc. 5.13.3 Can I Work On Multiple Versions of a Set? If you'd like to work on different versions of the same Live Set, save them into the same Project. This will usually be the Project that was created when you saved the rst version of the Live Set.
CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 71 2) Navigate to the Project folder in the Browser and choose Manage Project via the (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu. 3) If you've changed the original location of any samples used in the Project, the Missing Samples section of the File Manager will indicate this. Click the Locate button to search for the samples. 4) Since you know that your samples are all in the Project folder, unfold Automatic Search. Then enable the Search Project and Fully Rescan Folders options.
72 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.
73 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 74 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. 6.2 Transport There are a number of ways to control Live's transport with the computer keyboard and mouse: 1.
75 CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 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. Scrubbing Arrangement Playback. 4. The song position can be adjusted numerically using the Control Bar's Arrangement Position elds. The Arrangement Position elds show the song position in bars-beats-sixteenths. To change the values: Click and drag up or down in any of these elds.
CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 6.3 76 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 77 To name a locator, select it by clicking its triangular marker, and choose the Rename Edit 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 Insert menu, or the Delete Locator button.
CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 78 select the area up to the next time signature marker. 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 79 Please note that these resolution options affect all tracks - deleting and inserting time 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.
80 CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW and nudge the loop brace to the left/right by the current grid setting. 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.
CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 6.7 81 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.
82 CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW Clicking the Loop Brace to Select the Loop for Editing. 6.8 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. You can set the width of both zoom-adaptive and xed grid lines using the (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu available in either the Arrangement View track area or the Clip View display.
CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 6.9 83 Using the ...Time Commands Whereas the standard commands like Cut, Copy and Paste only affect the current selection, their ... Time counterparts act upon all tracks by inserting and deleting time. Any time signature markers within the selected region will also be affected. Cut Time cuts a selection of time from the Arrangement, thereby moving any audio or MIDI on either side of the cut area closer together in the timeline.
CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 6.10 84 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. In the waveform or MIDI display, drag a selection over the part of the clip you want to isolate; 3.
CHAPTER 6. ARRANGEMENT VIEW 85 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.
86 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 87 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 88 The Arrangement Position Fields and the Stop Button. 7.2 Tracks and Scenes Each vertical column, or track, can play only one clip at a time. It therefore makes sense to put a set of clips that are supposed to be played alternatively in the same columns: parts of a song, variations of a drum loop, etc. Resized Session View Tracks. For convenient access to more clips at once, you can resize Session View tracks by clicking and dragging at the edges of their title bars.
CHAPTER 7. SESSION VIEW 89 The scene below a launched scene will automatically be selected as the next to be launched unless the Select Next Scene on Launch option in the Launch Preferences is set to Off. This allows you to trigger scenes from top to bottom without having to select them rst. Computer keys or a MIDI controller can be used to launch scenes and scroll between them. Scenes can be renamed using the Rename command in the Edit menu or the (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu.
CHAPTER 7. SESSION VIEW 7.3 90 The Track Status Fields You can tell a track's status by looking at the Track Status eld just above the active track's mixer controls: A Track Playing a Looping Session Clip... The pie-chart icon represents a looping Session clip. The number to the right of the circle is the loop length in beats, and the number at the left represents how many times the loop has been played since its launch. ... A One-shot Session Clip...
CHAPTER 7. SESSION VIEW 7.4 91 Setting Up the Session View Grid Clips arrive in the Session View by being imported from the File Browsers or through recording. Dropping Multiple Clips Into the Session View. If you are dragging multiple clips into the Session View, Live defaults to arrange them vertically, in one track. Hold down Ctrl (PC) / (Mac) prior to dropping them so as to lay the clips out in one scene. Clips can be moved around the Session grid by drag-and-drop.
CHAPTER 7. SESSION VIEW 7.4.2 92 Removing Clip Stop Buttons Slots Without Clip Stop Buttons. You can add and remove Clip Stop buttons from the grid using the Edit menu's Add/Remove Stop Button command. This is useful for pre-con guring the scene launch behavior: If, for instance, you don't want scene 3 to affect track 4, remove the scene 3/track 4 Stop button. 7.4.
CHAPTER 7. SESSION VIEW 93 When the Record button is on, Live logs all of your actions into the Arrangement: the clips launched; changes of those clips' properties; changes of the mixer and the devices' controls, also known as automation; tempos and time signature changes, if they are included in the names of launched scenes. To nish recording, press the Record button again, or stop playback. The Arrangement Selector. To view the results of your recording, bring up the Arrangement View.
CHAPTER 7. SESSION VIEW 94 The Stop All Clips Button. To disable all Arrangement clips simultaneously, click on the Stop All Clips button in the Master Track Status eld. The clips in the Arrangement and in the Session View exist independently from one another, which makes it easy to improvise into the Arrangement over and over again until it's right.
95 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 96 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 97 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 98 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 99 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.
100 CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW The Clip Color chooser allows choosing a clip color. 8.1.3 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.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 101 Groove can be applied to both MIDI clips and audio clips. Applying groove to audio clips does require that the Warp switch be activated and a Warp Mode other than Re-Pitch selected. If an audio clip is in Beats Mode, the Transients setting must be greater than or equal to the Clip Groove chooser's swing setting (e.g., with a Transients setting of 1/16, Swing 8 and Swing 16 can be used, but not Swing 32).
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 102 The Scrub Control in MIDI Map Mode. With quantization set to values less than one bar, it is easy to offset clip playback from Live's master clock by launching clips, using the Nudge buttons or scrubbing within the clip. 8.2 8.2.1 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.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 103 To verify this, note that a warped sample's speed follows the tempo as you change the Control Bar's Tempo control. Live offers a number of controls to adjust the time-warping engine for optimal stretching quality. For accurate warping, Live needs to know the sample's metrical structure. For properly prepared loops, tempo and duration are calculated automatically; most of the time this is accurate enough that the sample is immediately ready for use in Live.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 104 The Clip Overview. The Clip Overview provides additional zoom/scrolling functionality. It always shows the complete clip, from start to end. The black rectangular outline represents the part of the clip that is currently displayed. You can click within the outline and drag horizontally or vertically to scroll or zoom. 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.
105 CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW and end markers), select the start marker, hold down , and use the arrow keys. Using Clip Start and End Controls to Change Clip Length. 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.
106 CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW the mouse is held down over the scrub area, a portion of the clip 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. Looping Clips To have the clip play as a (potentially in nite) loop, turn on the Loop switch. Note that the Warp switch must be activated before the Loop switch is accessible, as unwarped clips cannot be looped.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 107 Regardless of the position of the loop brace, clip play upon launch will begin at the position marked by the start marker, which means you can set up the clip to run into a loop. Setting the Clip to Run Into a Loop.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 8.2.3 108 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 8.2.5 109 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. 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 110 Live 7. For 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.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 111 out. Live can handle disk overloads more gracefully than swapped-out audio arriving late: Disk overloads result in unwanted mutes, whereas RAM overload results in both mutes and rhythmical hiccups. 8.2.9 Reversing Samples The Reverse Button. This function creates a new sample by reversing the sample referenced by the current clip.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 8.2.10 112 Cropping Samples The Sample Display's (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu includes the Crop Sample command. This function creates, similarly to the Reverse function, a new sample by copying the sample currently in use - but only the excerpt that is actually used plus a 50 millisecond safety margin on both ends. The new sample can be found, after saving the Live Set, in the Set's Project folder, under Samples/Processed/Crop.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 8.3 113 The Notes Box The Notes Box. 8.3.1 Tempo Controls The Orig. BPM eld displays Live's interpretation of the tempo at which the clip's MIDI was recorded. When dragging up or down in the Original BPM eld, or clicking the :2 and *2 buttons, you will see that the notes in the MIDI Editor are correspondingly stretched or compressed. This is useful for aligning notes that you have recorded without a tempo reference, like Live's metronome. 8.3.
CHAPTER 8. CLIP VIEW 8.3.3 114 MIDI Loop/Region These controls manage how the contents of a MIDI clip are played and shown in the MIDI Editor. They work the same way as those for audio clips. In the MIDI Editor, the zoom/scroll area is located above the beat-time ruler, the scrub area just below. 8.4 Clip Defaults and Update Rate You can change the rate at which Live applies your Clip View settings to a running clip.
115 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 116 point. Setting one knob to control coarse tempo in BPM and another to control ne tempo 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.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 9.1.3 117 Nudging the Tempo The Nudge Buttons. 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 118 When the Warp switch is off, Live plays the sample at its original, normal tempo, irrespective of the current Live Set's 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.) in sync with the current song tempo.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 9.2.2 119 Warp Markers Think of a sample as a rubber-band that you want to pin to a (musical time) ruler. In Live, the pins are called Warp Markers. A Warp Marker forces the software to arrive at a speci c point in the sample at a speci c musical time. You can use any number of Warp Markers to create an arbitrary mapping of the piece's inherent rhythm to a musical meter.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 120 Note that if a sample has a saved set of Warp Markers, Auto-Warp will have no effect. When this is the case, you can use any of the (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu commands described in this section to initiate auto-warping. 9.2.3 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.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 121 Syncing Uncut Loops When importing a loop that has not been edited into a well-cut loop, Live will play it out of sync. Suppose there is a portion of silence at the sample beginning, prior to the rst beat. You can easily correct this by moving the Warp Marker labeled with a 1 to the rst beat's onset. Likewise, you can eliminate silence after the actual loop end by moving the Warp Marker at the sample's right edge. Setting the Warp Markers for a Poorly Cut Loop.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 122 is because the loop is tied to the meter grid and therefore moves with the Warp Markers, which de ne the meter grid. Live makes sure the loop ts in the sample, and therefore has to change its length if required by a Warp Marker change. Manipulating Grooves You can now create any number of Warp Markers by double-clicking on one of the numeric grid markers. Drag in a straight looped sample, set a few Warp Markers, and move them around to see what happens.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 123 Syncing Longer Pieces Live's Auto-Warp algorithm makes longer samples and entire songs readily available for integration into your project. You can use the Browser to import long samples or MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, Ogg FLAC and FLAC les. When you drag a le into Live that is too long to justify the assumption that it is a loop or a one-shot, Live will auto-warp the clip by default (though this can be changed in the Record/Warp/Launch Preferences).
124 CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING It might happen that Auto-Warp guesses the tempo correctly but gets the downbeat wrong. To remedy this, you can do the following: Zoom in and drag the 1.1.1 marker to the desired position; Use the start marker's Here command. (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu to select the Set 1.1.1 Using the Context Menu to Direct Auto-Warp. Directing Auto-Warp is also relatively simple when you have imported a perfectly cut loop.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 125 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. The strategy here is as follows: 1. Deactivate the Warp switch for the clip so that it plays unwarped; 2. Use the Control Bar's Tap Tempo button to tap along, thereby setting the Live Set's tempo to match that of the clip; 3.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 126 Three Selected Warp Markers. Here are the steps: 1. Select the Warp Markers that you wish to copy by clicking on them with the mouse. After the rst Warp Marker has been selected, hold while clicking another to select the range of Warp Markers in between, or Ctrl (PC) / (Mac)-click to add individual Warp Markers to your selection. 2. Once your selection is complete, choose the Copy command from the Edit menu. 3.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 127 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. It's also fun to misuse these controls to achieve interesting artifacts instead of accurate stretching. 9.3.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 128 The Grain Size control determines the grain size used, but unlike in Tones Mode, this is a setting that Live will use unaltered, without considering the signal's characteristics. Fluctuation introduces randomness into the process. Larger values give more randomness. 9.3.4 Re-Pitch Mode In Re-Pitch Mode, Live doesn't really time-stretch or compress the music; instead, it adjusts the playback rate to create the desired amount of stretching.
CHAPTER 9. TEMPO CONTROL AND WARPING 129 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 Insert 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.
130 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 10.2 131 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 comprised of two editing windows: the upper Note Editor and the lower Velocity Editor.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 132 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. Note velocity is adjusted in the Velocity Editor, by clicking and dragging on the associated markers. You can also use Draw Mode in the Velocity Editor: It will draw identical velocities for all notes within a grid tile.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 133 a time ruler, which shows note position along a musical timeline. The vertical axis contains both 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. 1. To smoothly change the time-zoom level, click and drag vertically in the time ruler.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 134 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. To quickly change what is shown in the Editor, click on a section that you want to examine in the Clip Overview, then drag downwards to zoom in, or scroll by dragging left and right. 8. The Page Up and Page Down keys on your computer keyboard scroll the Note Editor vertically.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 135 Enlarge the MIDI Editor by Dragging the Window Split Between Session and Clip Views. 10.4 Editing MIDI 10.4.1 Non-Destructive Editing 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 136 When editing MIDI, you might nd that you want to change which part of the clip you are listening to, or loop the clip in order to listen to it repeatedly. You can use the loop/region markers for this. 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.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 137 or downward to enclose the notes in the dotted line that appears. You can use the modi er to click and add individual notes or additional rubberband selections to your current selection. You can also remove a single note from your selection by holding down and clicking on it. Holding and clicking on the piano roll selects all notes in a single key track. There are two options for quantizing MIDI notes in Live.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 138 The Edit menu's Select Loop command selects all notes that begin within the loop brace. The Select Loop command can also be executed without the menu by simply clicking the loop brace. This command can speed up editing when coupled with the loop brace's shortcuts. Let's say you have arranged a nice 1-bar loop in the Note editor, and you want to duplicate it a couple of times.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 10.4.6 139 Changing Note Length Clicking and dragging on a note's left or right edges changes its length. Note length can only be changed when Draw Mode is inactive, and will be quantized unless the Alt (PC) / (Mac) modi er is held down while dragging. Changing Note Length. Tip: To set a group of notes to the same length, select them all, grab the end of the longest one, drag them all down to zero length and then extend them.
140 CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES lines unless the grid is not shown, or the dragging. Alt (PC) / (Mac) modi er is held while If one marker is dragged beyond the boundary of the other, then the order of the stretched notes will be re ected in relation to their initial sequence; this is sometimes referred to as retrograde behavior. Any changes occurring to the notes included in the Note Stretch before the mouse button is released will cancel the stretch operation.
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 141 modi er is held. To draw markers individually (as you would want to with a crescendo, 4 (PC) / 4 (Mac) shortcut, or for instance) deactivate grid snapping with the Ctrl simply hold down the Alt (PC) / (Mac) modi er. Drawing Identical Velocities (Left) and a Crescendo (Right).
CHAPTER 10. EDITING MIDI NOTES AND VELOCITIES 142 The Velocity Editor Showing Note-Off Velocities. Please note that note-off (or release ) velocity is a somewhat esoteric parameter, and is only supported by certain devices. Ableton's Sampler instrument, for example, provides note-off velocity as a controller for a variety of parameters. 10.4.8 Deactivating Notes (PC) / Ctrl To deactivate, or mute, a note (or notes) in the MIDI Editor, select it and (Mac) to access the context menu.
143 Chapter 11 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. 11.
CHAPTER 11. LAUNCHING CLIPS 144 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. 11.2 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 11. LAUNCHING CLIPS 11.3 145 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 11. LAUNCHING CLIPS 146 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. 11.5 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 11. LAUNCHING CLIPS 147 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 11. LAUNCHING CLIPS 148 in a group, this Follow Action triggers the rst clip. 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 11. LAUNCHING CLIPS 149 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 11. LAUNCHING CLIPS 150 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 11. LAUNCHING CLIPS 11.6.5 151 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.
152 Chapter 12 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 12. ROUTING AND I/O 153 The Mixer's In/Out Section and Mixer Section Selectors. For every track (except the Master), 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.
CHAPTER 12. ROUTING AND I/O 154 track's output, via the track's device chain. If the track's output is set to Master, you can hear the guitar signal, processed by whatever effects are used (and delayed by whatever latency the audio hardware interface incurs), over your speakers.
CHAPTER 12. ROUTING AND I/O 12.2 155 External Audio In/Out An audio interface's inputs are selected by choosing Ext. In from the Input Type chooser of an audio track. The Input Channel chooser then offers the individual input channels. Entries in this chooser each have meters next to their names to help you identify signal presence and overload (when the meter ashes red). Setting up the audio interface's outputs works the same way via the output chooser pair.
CHAPTER 12. ROUTING AND I/O 156 the case with audio inputs, the Input Channel chooser also has meters next to every entry to represent activity on the respective input channel. 12.3.1 The MIDI Ports List in the Preferences The MIDI Ports List in the Preferences. 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.
CHAPTER 12. ROUTING AND I/O 157 the Impulse percussion sampler's sample slots. This means that you can play and record drum patterns right off the computer keyboard. Note that when the computer MIDI keyboard is activated, it will steal keys that may have 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. 12.3.
CHAPTER 12. ROUTING AND I/O 158 1. MIDI Clock and Timecode signals that are used for synchronizing Live with other sequencers. Note that this set of indicators is only visible when an external sync source has been enabled in the MIDI Ports List in the Preferences; 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.
CHAPTER 12. ROUTING AND I/O 159 2. Then, start Reason and set up the Reason rack as desired. 3. Select Reason from the MIDI track's Output Type chooser. 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.
CHAPTER 12. ROUTING AND I/O 12.5 160 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 12. ROUTING AND I/O 161 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 12. ROUTING AND I/O 162 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 12. ROUTING AND I/O 163 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 12. ROUTING AND I/O 12.6.2 164 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 12. ROUTING AND I/O 165 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 12. ROUTING AND I/O 166 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 12. ROUTING AND I/O 167 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 12. ROUTING AND I/O 168 switch) also mutes the other MIDI track. To be precise, the other track keeps playing, but its 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 12. ROUTING AND I/O 169 Notice that routing an individual output from Impulse into another track automatically takes this signal out of Impulse's own internal mix. This convenience is not standard behavior of 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.
CHAPTER 12. ROUTING AND I/O 170 an additional audio track for each tapped output: 1. Insert the multi-timbral instrument on a MIDI track. 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.
CHAPTER 12. ROUTING AND I/O 171 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 12. ROUTING AND I/O 172 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.
173 Chapter 13 Mixing 13.1 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.
CHAPTER 13. MIXING 174 its name, and adjust its height accordingly. 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.
175 CHAPTER 13. MIXING The Mixer Section Selectors. Let's look at the mixer controls: 5 6 4 3 1 2 4 5 1 6 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. 3. The Pan control positions the track's output in the stereo eld. To reset the Pan control to center, click on its associated triangle. 4.
CHAPTER 13. MIXING 176 option enabled, inserting an instrument into a new or empty MIDI track will automatically arm the track. 13.1.1 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.
CHAPTER 13. MIXING 177 Nevertheless, Live provides this optional visual feedback for signals that travel beyond 0 dB in any track. 13.2 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 Insert menu commands.
CHAPTER 13. MIXING 13.3 178 Return Tracks and the Master Track In addition to tracks that play clips, a Live Set has a Master track and up to twelve return tracks; these cannot play clips, but allow for more exible signal processing and routing. The return tracks and the Master track occupy the right-hand side of the Session mixer view and the bottom end of the Arrangement View. Note that you can hide and show the return tracks using the Returns command in the View menu.
CHAPTER 13. MIXING 179 can be used to set up a separate monitor mix for an individual musician in a band. The Master track is the default destination for the signals from all other tracks. Drag effects here to process the mixed signal before it goes to the master output. Effects in the Master track usually provide mastering-related functions, such as compression and/or EQ.
180 CHAPTER 13. MIXING Choose from Seven Crossfader Curves. The chart below details the power level and response of each crossfader curve. A+B Power Level Crossfader Response Transition Dipped Intermediate Constant Power Slow Fade Slow Cut Fast Cut 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 13. MIXING 181 right) will toggle the crossfader's absolute left and right positions. Mapping to two of the three elds allows for a snapping back behavior when one of the assigned keys is held down and the other is pressed and released. Crossfade Assign Buttons. 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.
182 CHAPTER 13. MIXING 13.5 Soloing and Cueing By default, soloing a track simply mutes all other tracks (except in some cases where tracks are feeding other tracks). The signal from the soloed tracks is heard through their respective outputs, with the pan setting of each track preserved. Soloing a clip track leaves any return tracks audible, provided that the Solo in Place option is enabled in the Solo button's context menu ( (PC) / Ctrl (Mac)).
183 CHAPTER 13. MIXING 2. The Cue Out chooser selects the output on your hardware interface to be used for cueing. This has to be set to an output other than that selected for the Master. If the desired outputs don't show up in these choosers, please check the Audio Preferences. 3. Activate cueing by setting the Solo/Cue Mode switch to Cue. 4. The tracks' Solo switches are now replaced by Cue switches with headphone icons.
CHAPTER 13. MIXING 184 Note that delay compensation for plug-ins and Live devices is a separate feature, and is automatic by default. Unusually high Track Delay settings or reported latencies from plugins may cause noticeable sluggishness in the software. If you are having latency-related dif culties while recording and playing back instruments, you may want to try turning off device delay compensation, however this is not normally recommended.
185 Chapter 14 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 14. RECORDING NEW CLIPS 186 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.
187 CHAPTER 14. RECORDING NEW CLIPS behavior is called auto-monitoring and you can change it to t your needs. Clicking one track's Arm button unarms all other tracks unless the Ctrl (PC) / (Mac) modi er is held. Arming a track selects the track so you can readily access its devices in the Track View. 14.3 Recording Recording can be done in both the Session and the Arrangement Views.
CHAPTER 14. RECORDING NEW CLIPS 188 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.
189 CHAPTER 14. 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 14. RECORDING NEW CLIPS 14.3.3 190 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 14. RECORDING NEW CLIPS 14.4 191 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 14. RECORDING NEW CLIPS 14.5 192 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 14. RECORDING NEW CLIPS 14.7 193 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 14. RECORDING NEW CLIPS 194 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.
195 Chapter 15 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 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 196 Devices in the Track View. To save space in the Track View, a device can be collapsed by double-clicking on its title bar or by choosing Fold from its (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu. 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 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 15.1 197 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 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 198 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 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 199 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 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 200 The Level Meters Between Devices in a Chain. Note that no clipping can occur between devices because there is practically unlimited headroom. Clipping can occur when an overly strong signal is sent to a physical output or written to a sample le. Further information about track types in Live can be found in the Routing and I/O chapter, including information on using return tracks to distribute the effect of a single device amongst several tracks.
201 CHAPTER 15. 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.
202 CHAPTER 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 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 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 203 (Mac) context menu on the device's header and select Save as Default Preset. This works 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 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 204 will receive MIDI and output audio signals. Plug-in audio effects can only be placed in audio 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.
CHAPTER 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 205 program. Use the Rescan button in the File/Folder Preferences to rescan your plug-ins while 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. 15.2.
CHAPTER 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 206 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.
CHAPTER 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 207 Using the Auto-Hide Plug-In Windows preference, you can choose to have Live display only those plug-in windows belonging to the track that is currently selected. Alt P You can use the View menu's Show/Hide Plug-In Windows command or the Ctrl Alt P (PC) / (Mac) shortcut to hide and show your open plug-in windows. Notice that the name of the track to which the plug-in belongs is displayed in the title bar of the plug-in editor window.
CHAPTER 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 15.3 VST Plug-Ins 15.3.1 The VST Plug-In Folder 208 When you start Live for the rst time, you will need to activate your VST Plug-in sources before working with VST Plug-ins. Depending on your computer platform, you may also have to tell Live about the location of the VST Plug-in folder containing the devices you want to use.
CHAPTER 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 209 Setting up VST Plug-In Sources for Mac OS X. Set up your VST Plug-ins under Mac OS X by doing the following: 1. Your VST Plug-ins will normally be installed in the following folder in your home and local directories: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST. You can turn Live's use of these plug-ins on or off with the Use VST Plug-ins in System Folders option. 2.
CHAPTER 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 210 making the problematic plug-in unavailable. If you choose to rescan and they crash the program a second time, Live will automatically make them unavailable, meaning that they will not appear in the Plug-In Device Browser and will not be rescanned again until they are reinstalled. 15.3.2 VST Programs and Banks Every VST Plug-in instance owns a bank of programs. A program is meant to contain one complete set of values for the plug-in's controls.
CHAPTER 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 211 Windows only: Please select from the File Type menu whether you want to locate VST Device Program les or VST Device Bank les. To save the currently selected program as a le, click the VST Program/Bank Save button to bring up a standard le-save dialog; select VST Device Program from the Format menu (Macintosh)/from the File Type menu (Windows); select a folder and name.
CHAPTER 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 212 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. Choosers for these device modes can only be accessed through the original plug-in panel, which is opened using the Plug-In Edit button. Opening an Audio Units Plug-In Window.
CHAPTER 15. WORKING WITH INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS 213 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. If you are having latency-related dif culties while recording and playing back instruments, you may want to try turning off device delay compensation, however this is not normally recommended.
214 Chapter 16 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 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 16.1 An Overview of Racks 16.1.1 Signal Flow and Parallel Device Chains 215 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 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 216 One unique property of Racks are their Macro Controls. The Macro Controls are a bank of eight knobs, each capable of addressing any number of parameters from any devices in a Rack.
217 CHAPTER 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS If a track already has one or more devices that you would like to group into a Rack, then simply select the title bars of those devices in the Track View, and (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) 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.
CHAPTER 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 218 every Rack has a view column on its far left side that holds the corresponding view selectors. The actual view selectors available differ depending on whether 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.
CHAPTER 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 219 Navigate Racks Quickly Via a Context Menu. 16.4 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 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 220 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 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 221 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. 16.
CHAPTER 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 16.5.1 222 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 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 16.5.2 223 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 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 224 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. 16.5.4 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 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 225 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 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 226 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.
227 CHAPTER 16. 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 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 228 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. 16.6.1 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 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 229 alone). Alt (PC) / Alt (Mac)-dragging a multi-selection layers all of the samples to 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.
CHAPTER 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 230 pads that are visible on your screen. If you scroll the pad overview to show a different set of pads, your controller will update automatically. 16.6.2 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.
CHAPTER 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 231 1. A new MIDI track will be created, containing a MIDI clip. The clip will contain one note for each slice, arranged in a chromatic sequence. 2. A Drum Rack will be added to the newly created track, containing one chain per slice. Each chain will be triggered by one of the notes from the clip, and will contain a Simpler with the corresponding audio slice loaded. 3.
CHAPTER 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 232 By default, your sliced MIDI data will form a chromatically-ascending staircase pattern in order to trigger the correct chains in their original order. But you can create new patterns by simply editing the MIDI notes. You can achieve a similar effect by dragging the Drum Rack's pads onto each other to swap their note mappings.
CHAPTER 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 233 With the potential for developing complex device chains, Macro Controls keep things manageable by taking over the most essential parameters of a Rack (as determined by you, of course). Once you have set up your ideal mapping, the rest of the Rack can be hidden away. The Macro Control view's dedicated Map Mode button opens the door to this behavior.
CHAPTER 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 16.8 234 Mixing With Racks Any Instrument or Drum Rack that contains more than one chain can be viewed and mixed alongside the tracks in the Session View's mixer. A track that contains these Racks will have 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.
CHAPTER 16. INSTRUMENT, DRUM AND EFFECT RACKS 16.8.1 235 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.
236 Chapter 17 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. 17.
CHAPTER 17. AUTOMATION AND EDITING ENVELOPES 237 Volume, Pan and the Track Activator Switch Have Been Automated. 17.2 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. 17.
238 CHAPTER 17. 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. 17.4 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 Automation Envelopes in the Arrangement View. 7 1. To show a track's envelopes, unfold the track by clicking the to the track name. button next 2.
CHAPTER 17. AUTOMATION AND EDITING ENVELOPES 239 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 Automation Device chooser. The labels of automated controls have an LED. Once an envelope has been selected on the track, several new buttons appear: 6.
CHAPTER 17. AUTOMATION AND EDITING ENVELOPES 240 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. 17.4.
CHAPTER 17. AUTOMATION AND EDITING ENVELOPES 241 the modi er while dragging, which will eliminate breakpoints as you wipe over them. Holding down the Ctrl (PC) / (Mac) modi er while dragging switches to a ner resolution. 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 17. AUTOMATION AND EDITING ENVELOPES 17.4.4 242 Edit Menu Commands When working with automation data, the Edit menu commands behave differently depending on whether or not your selection is within the clip track or its automation lanes. 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.
243 Chapter 18 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.
CHAPTER 18. CLIP ENVELOPES 18.1 244 The Clip Envelope Editor Use the Clip View Box Selector to Bring up the Envelopes Box. 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.
245 CHAPTER 18. CLIP ENVELOPES The bottom menu, the Control chooser, selects among the controls of the item chosen in the top menu. In both choosers, parameters with altered clip envelopes appear with LEDs next to their names. You can simplify the appearance of these choosers by selecting Show Modulated Parameters Only from either of them. The quick-chooser buttons below the menus select commonly edited controls.
CHAPTER 18. CLIP ENVELOPES 246 clips, you can create an abundance of interesting variations from the same clip in real time anything from subtle corrections to entirely new and unrelated sounds. 18.2.1 Clip Envelopes are Non-Destructive Using clip envelopes, you can create new sounds from a sample without actually affecting the sample on disk. Because Live calculates the envelope modulations in real time, you can have hundreds of clips in a Live Set that all sound different, but use the same sample.
247 CHAPTER 18. CLIP ENVELOPES The Transposition Envelope with Steps (Top) and Ramps (Bottom). Note that the warp settings determine how accurately Live's time-warping engine tracks the envelope shape. To obtain a more immediate response, reduce the Grain Size value in Tones and Texture Mode or choose a smaller value for the Transients control in Beats Mode.
CHAPTER 18. CLIP ENVELOPES 18.2.3 248 Muting or Attenuating Notes in a Sample Click on the Volume quick-chooser to access an audio clip's volume envelope. By drawing steps in Draw Mode or creating shapes with breakpoints, you can impose an arbitrary volume shape onto the sample. Imposing a Volume Envelope on a Sample. The volume envelope's output is interpreted as a relative percentage of the clip volume slider's current value.
CHAPTER 18. CLIP ENVELOPES 249 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.
CHAPTER 18. CLIP ENVELOPES 18.3 250 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. However, clip envelopes differ from automation envelopes in one important way: Whereas automation envelopes de ne the value of a control at any given point in time, clip envelopes can only in uence this de ned value.
CHAPTER 18. CLIP ENVELOPES 251 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. 18.3.2 Modulating Pan The Pan envelope affects the mixer pan stage in a relative way: The pan knob's position determines the intensity of the modulation.
CHAPTER 18. CLIP ENVELOPES 252 while recording new clips: Names of controllers that already have clip envelopes appear with an adjacent LED in the Control chooser. Live supports most MIDI controller numbers up to 119, accessible via the scroll bar on the right side of the menu.
253 CHAPTER 18. CLIP ENVELOPES 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. The loop/region controls in the Envelopes box come to life. 2. Make sure the clip envelope's Loop switch is off. Notice the Sample box's Loop switch is not affected. The sample will keep looping although the envelope is now playing as a one-shot. 3.
CHAPTER 18. CLIP ENVELOPES 18.5.2 254 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. Activate the clip volume envelope's Loop switch. Now, as you play the clip, you can hear the eight-bar fade-out repeating.
CHAPTER 18. CLIP ENVELOPES 18.5.3 255 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. The volume envelope loop now works as a pattern that is repeatedly punching holes into the music so as to, perhaps, remove every third beat.
256 Chapter 19 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 19. WORKING WITH VIDEO 19.2 The Appearance of Video in Live 19.2.1 Video Clips in the Arrangement View 257 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 19. WORKING WITH VIDEO 19.2.2 258 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 19. WORKING WITH VIDEO 19.2.3 259 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 19. WORKING WITH VIDEO 19.3 260 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 19. WORKING WITH VIDEO 19.4 261 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 19. WORKING WITH VIDEO 262 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.
263 Chapter 20 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. 20.1 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.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 264 track either the ltered signal or an external sidechain source. 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.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 265 envelope follower and is never actually heard. The Auto Filter also contains a Low Frequency Oscillator to modulate lter frequency in a 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 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 20.2 266 Auto Pan The Auto Pan Effect. 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 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 20.3 267 Beat Repeat The Beat Repeat Effect. Beat Repeat allows for the creation of controlled or randomized repetitions of an incoming signal. 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.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 268 create sonic artifacts. The No Triplets button sets grid division as binary. Grid size can be changed randomly using the Variation control. If Variation is set to 0 , grid size is xed. But when Variation is set to higher values, the grid uctuates considerably around the set Grid value.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 20.4 269 Chorus The Chorus Effect. The Chorus effect uses two parallel time-modulated delays to create chorus (thickening) and anging effects. Each delay has its own delay time control, calibrated in milliseconds. Delay 1 has a highpass lter that can remove low frequencies from the delayed signal. Greater highpass values let only very high frequencies pass through to Delay 1. Delay 2 can switch among three different modes. When off, only Delay 1 is audible.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 270 while the Polarity switch sets (surprise!) the polarity. Polarity changes have the most effect with high amounts of feedback and short delay times. The Dry/Wet control adjusts the balance between the processed and dry signals. Set it to 100 percent when using Chorus in a return track. Enabling the Crisp option via the (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu can improve the sound quality, particularly at higher frequencies.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 271 Ratio: The Threshold slider sets where compression begins. Signals above the threshold are attenuated by an amount speci ed by the Ratio parameter, which sets the ratio between the input and output signal. For example, with a compression ratio of 3, if a signal above the threshold increases by 3 dB, the compressor output will increase by only 1 dB. If a signal above the threshold increases by 6 dB, then the output will increase by only 2 dB.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 272 operation after the signal falls below the threshold. A slight amount of attack time (10 50 ms) allows peaks to come through unprocessed, which helps preserve dynamics by accentuating the initial portion of the signal. If these peaks cause overloads, you can try shortening the attack time, but extremely short times take the life out of the signal, and may lead to a slight buzziness caused by distortion.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 273 model, which analyzes the output of the device and then self-adjusts its compression behavior. Because feedback compressors analyze signals that have already been compressed, their Attack and Release parameters are a bit less precise, and act more like suggestions to the compressor. But feedback compression generally results in a much smoother sound, with less overall gain reduction but also less potential for distortion artifacts.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 274 With Dry/Wet at 100%, the compressor is triggered entirely by the sidechain source. At 0%, the sidechain is effectively bypassed. Note that increasing the gain does not increase the volume of the source signal in the mix. The sidechain audio is only a trigger for the compressor and is never actually heard. Note that FB mode and automatic Makeup are not available when using external sidechain.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 275 Sidechaining in Dance Music Sidechaining/ducking is a dance music producer's secret weapon because it can help to ensure that basslines (or even whole mixes) always make room for the kick drum. By inserting a compressor on the bass (or master) track and using the kick drum's track as the sidechain input, you can help to control problematic low frequencies that might interfere with the kick drum's attack.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 276 Three tube models, A, B and C, provide a range of distortion characteristics known from real ampli er tubes. Tube A does not produce distortions if Bias is set low, but will kick in whenever the input signal exceeds a certain threshold, creating bright harmonics. Tube C is a very poor tube amp that produces distortions all the time. The qualities of Tube B lie somewhere between these two extremes.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 20.7 277 EQ Eight The EQ Eight Effect. The EQ Eight effect is an equalizer featuring up to eight parametric lters per input channel, useful for changing a sound's timbre. It extends the functionality of the former EQ Four device, and is fully backward-compatible with EQ Four presets. The input signal can be processed using one of three modes: Stereo, L/R and M/S. Stereo mode uses a single curve to lter both channels of a stereo input equally.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 278 Each lter band can be turned on or off independently. Turn off bands that are not in use to save CPU power. To edit the lter curve, click and drag on the lter dots in the display. Horizontal movement changes the lter frequency, while vertical movement adjusts the lter band's gain. To adjust the lter Q (also called resonance or bandwidth), hold down the Alt (PC) / Alt (Mac) modi er while dragging the mouse.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 279 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 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 20.9 280 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. To change the sine wave frequency or noise band center frequency, click and drag along the X-axis in the X-Y eld. The Y-axis controls the modulation amount.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 20.10 281 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 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 282 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 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 283 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 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 20.12 284 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 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 285 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. 20.13 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.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 286 sharp clicking sounds, while long times soften the sound's attack. When the signal goes from above to below the threshold, the Hold time kicks in. (Note to tech heads: the gate has hysteresis, so the release occurs about 3 dB lower than the threshold.) After the hold time expires, the gate closes over a period of time set by the Release parameter. Normally, the signal being gated and the input source that triggers the gate are the same signal.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 20.14 287 Grain Delay The Grain Delay Effect. The Grain Delay effect slices the input signal into tiny particles (called grains ) that are then individually delayed and can also have different pitches compared to the original signal source. Randomizing pitch and delay time can create complex masses of sound and rhythm that seem to bear little relationship to the source.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 288 ears and speakers if you decide to check out extreme feedback settings! You can transpose the grain pitch with the Pitch parameter, which acts much like a crude pitch shifter. The Spray control adds random delay time changes. Low values smear the signal across time, which adds noisiness to the sound. High Spray values completely break down the structure of the source signal, introducing varying degrees of rhythmic chaos.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 289 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. The device has two modes, Space and Earth, for changing the spacing of notches along the spectrum, and hence the color of the sound.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 20.16 290 Ping Pong Delay The Ping Pong Delay Effect. The Ping Pong Delay effect uses a single tapped delay line to create a delay that jumps from the left to the right output. The delay is preceded by a lowpass and highpass lter that can be controlled with an X-Y controller. To de ne the lter bandwidth, click and drag on the vertical axis. To set the position of the frequency band, click and drag on the horizontal axis.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 291 The Dry/Wet control adjusts the balance between the processed and dry signals. Set it to 100 percent if using Ping Pong Delay in a return track. 20.17 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.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 292 (8 bit resolution). If set to 1, the result is pretty brutal: Each sample contains either a full positive or full negative signal, with nothing in between. Bit Reduction de nes an input signal of 0dB as 16 bit. Signals above 0dB are clipped, and the red overload LED will light up. Turning off Bit Reduction results in modest CPU savings. 20.18 Resonators The Resonators Effect.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 293 adjust the amount of time it takes for the resonators to be silent after getting an input signal. The longer the decay time, the more tonal the result will be, similar to the behavior of an undamped piano string. As with a real string, the decay time depends on the pitch, so low notes will last longer than higher ones. The Const switch holds the decay time constant regardless of the actual pitch. Resonators provides two different resonation modes.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 20.19.1 294 Input Processing The input signal passes rst through high and low cut lters, whose X-Y controller allows changing the band's center frequency (X-axis) and bandwidth (Y-axis). Either lter may be switched off when not needed to save CPU power. 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.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 295 The Size parameter controls the room's volume. At one extreme, a very large size will lend a shifting, diffused delay effect to the reverb. The other extreme a very small value will give it a highly colored, metallic feel. The Stereo Image control determines the width of the output's stereo image.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 20.19.5 296 Output At the reverb output, you can adjust the effect's overall Dry/Wet mix, and vary the amplitude of re ections and diffusion with the Re ect Level and Diffuse Level controls. 20.20 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.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 297 Soft Sine, Medium Curve and Hard Curve modes soften signal clipping to varying degrees. Sinoid Fold mode can be good for special effects. The most dramatic effects can be created by selecting the Waveshaper curve, which has its own dedicated set of controls. To access these six parameter elds, unfold the Saturator window by toggling the button in its title bar. The Waveshaper mode's six additional parameters are: Drive, Lin, Curve, Damp, Depth and Period.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 20.21 298 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 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 20.22 299 Spectrum The Spectrum Device. Spectrum performs realtime frequency analysis of incoming audio signals. The results are represented in a graph, with dB along the vertical axis and frequency/pitch along the horizontal. Note that Spectrum is not an audio effect, but rather a measurement tool - it does not alter the incoming signal in any way. The Block chooser selects the number of samples that will be analyzed in each measurement.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 300 scaling, but switch the legending at the top of the display between Hertz and note names. Linear scaling is particularly useful for detailed analysis of high frequencies. As you move your mouse over Spectrum's display, a box appears that shows the amplitude, frequency and note name at the pointer's position. You can zoom and scroll the amplitude by moving your mouse over the amplitude legending on the display's left side.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 301 appears on both outputs. This is especially useful if you have a stereo le that contains different information on both channels and you want to use only one. The Panorama chooser pans the signal anywhere in the stereo eld. The Width control acts as a continuous mono to stereo controller when set from 0 to 100 percent. However, beyond 100 percent the output starts to fold in on itself.
CHAPTER 20. LIVE AUDIO EFFECT REFERENCE 302 Alt (Mac) modi er while dragging vertically in the X-Y display changes the frequency band's Q (bandwidth). The Pinch Effect section adds odd harmonics to the input signal. These distortions typically occur 180 degrees out of phase, creating a richer stereo image. The Pinch Effect has the same controls as the Tracing Model, but generates a rather different sound.
303 Chapter 21 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. 21.1 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 21. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 304 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. 21.1.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 305 Con & Diverge . 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. In addition to the Arpeggiator styles above, there are a number of random styles. Random randomly selects incoming MIDI notes for playback.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 306 pressed. When Hold is active and any of the original keys also remain physically held, notes 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.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 307 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 21. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 308 semitone shift added with the Shift 6 control. 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. 21.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 309 On/Off Balance This determines the velocity of the output note. It is a balance between the incoming note's Note On and Note Off velocities. If your MIDI keyboard does not support MIDI Note Off velocity, you can just set this to zero. 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.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 21.5 310 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 21. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 311 For example, with Chance set to 100 percent, Choices set to 12 and Scale set to 1, playing 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.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 312 The Range and Lowest controls work together to de ne the note range within which scale 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. 21.7 Velocity The Velocity Effect. Velocity re-maps the 127 MIDI note velocity values.
CHAPTER 21. LIVE MIDI EFFECT REFERENCE 313 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. The Drive and Compand controls can be combined to create more complex curves. Compand is a simultaneous expanding and compressing tool.
314 Chapter 22 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 7 ships with the Essential Instrument Collection 2, 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.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.1 315 Analog 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.
316 CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE Filter 1 Oscillator 1 Amp 1 L R Oscillator 2 LFO 2 Pre Filter Mix LFO 1 Filter Env 1 Amp Env 1 Filter 2 Amp 2 Filter Env 2 Amp Env 2 Output LFO 1 L R L R LFO 2 Noise The primary sound sources of the synthesizer are two oscillators and a noise generator. These sources can be independently routed to two different multi-mode lters, which are each connected to an ampli er.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.1.2 317 Oscillators Display and Shell Parameters for the two Oscillators. Analog's two oscillators use physical modelling to capture the character of vintage hardware oscillators. Because they use modelling instead of wavetables, they avoid aliasing. Each oscillator can be turned on or off independently via the switch labelled Osc 1 or Osc 2 in the shell, and the oscillator's output level is adjusted by the slider to the right of this activator.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 318 parameters in the display. The LFO slider sets the amount that the LFO modulates pitch. Again, this parameter is only enabled if the LFO is on. The Key slider controls how much the oscillator tuning is adjusted by changes in MIDI note pitch. The default value of 100% means that the oscillator will conform to a conventional equal tempered scale. Higher or lower values change the amount of space between the notes on the keyboard.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.1.3 319 Noise Generator Analog's Noise Generator. The Noise generator produces white noise and includes its own -6db/octave low-pass lter. The generator can be turned on or off via the Noise switch in the shell. Its output level is adjusted by the slider to the right of this activator. The F1/F2 slider controls the balance of the noise generator's output to each of the two lters.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.1.4 320 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 321 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. 22.1.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.1.6 322 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 323 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 324 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 325 as controls for performance parameters such as vibrato and glide. 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.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 326 new notes that are higher than currently sustained notes will have priority, and notes will be cut off starting from the lowest pitch. Low is the opposite. A Priority setting of Last gives 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.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 327 editing and performance possibilities. The full version of Drum Machines is not included with the standard version of Live, but is a special feature available for purchase separately. 22.2.1 Drum Machines Installation Drum Machines is installed separately from the main Live installation. To install, drag the Drum Machines Live Pack into the Live application window, either from your operating system or from Live's Browser.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.3 328 Electric The Electric Instrument. Electric is a software electric piano based on the classic instruments of the seventies, and developed in collaboration with Applied Acoustics Systems. Each component of these instruments has been modeled using cutting edge physical modeling technology to provide realistic and lively sounds. Physical modeling uses the laws of physics to reproduce the behavior of an object.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 329 releasing the key applies a damper to the fork, which mutes it more quickly. The Electric interface is divided into ve main sections, some of which are further divided into related subsections. The rst four main sections (Mallet, Fork, Damper and Pickup) correspond to the sound producing components mentioned above. The Global section contains parameters that affect overall behavior and performance, such as pitch bend and polyphony. 22.3.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 330 higher harmonics. The amplitude of the tine is adjusted with the Level knob. This level can be further modulated by note pitch via the Key scaling control. The Tone subsection controls the secondary resonance of the fork. Decay and Level parameters here work in the same way as their Tine counterparts. The Release knob applies to both the Tine and Tone areas and controls the decay time of the fork's sound after a key is released. 22.3.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 331 The Input knob is used to adjust the amount of the fork's signal that is fed to the pickup, which in turn affects the amount of distortion applied to the overall signal. The Output knob controls the amount of signal output by the pickup section. Different combinations of these two knobs can yield very different results. For example, a low amount of input with a high amount of output will produce a cleaner sound than a high input with a low output.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 332 of lower ones. The result is a more brilliant sound. Negative values simulate negative stretch tuning; upper notes become atter while lower notes become sharper. P Bend sets the range in semitones of pitch bend modulation. 22.4 External Instrument The External Instrument.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 333 ReWire Options Shown in the Routing Choosers. If another track in your set contains a multitimbral plug-in, you can select this track in the top chooser. In this case, the second chooser allows you to select a speci c MIDI channel in the plug-in. The Audio From chooser provides options for returning the audio from the hardware synth, plug-in, or ReWire device.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 334 working with analog devices, you may want to ne tune your latency in samples in order to achieve the lowest possible latency. In this case, be sure to switch back to milliseconds before changing your sample rate. Any latency introduced by devices within Live will be compensated for automatically, so the latency slider will be disabled when using the External Instrument Device to route internally.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.5.1 335 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. Loaded samples can be deleted with your computer keyboard's or Delete key. Imported samples are automatically mapped onto your MIDI keyboard, providing that it is plugged in and acknowledged by Live.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 336 The Stretch control has values from -100 to 100 percent. Negative values will shorten the sample, and positive values will stretch it. Two different stretching algorithms are available: Mode A is ideal for low sounds, such as toms or bass, while Mode B is better for high sounds, such as cymbals. The Stretch value can also be modulated by MIDI note velocity. 22.5.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.5.6 337 Global Controls The parameters located to the right of the sample slots are global controls that apply to all samples within Impulse's domain. Volume adjusts the overall level of the instrument, and Pitch adjusts the transposition of all samples. The Time control governs the time-stretching and decay of all samples, allowing you to morph between short and stretched drum sounds. 22.5.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 338 The full version of Operator is not included with the standard version of Live, but is a special feature available for purchase separately. 22.6.1 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.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 339 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 noise. The instrument is made complete with an LFO, a pitch envelope and a lter section.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.6.2 340 Oscillator Section and Aliasing Oscillator D's Display and Shell Parameters. The oscillators can basically play back ve waveform types sine, square, sawtooth, triangle and noise as chosen 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 341 with lots of high harmonics. This also means that more complex oscillator waveforms, such as Saw 32, tend to be more sensitive to aliasing than pure sine waves. Aliasing is a two-fold beast: A bit of it can be exactly what is needed to create a cool sound, yet a bit too much can make the timbre unplayable, as the perception of pitch is lost when high notes suddenly fold back into arbitrary pitches.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 342 The phase of each oscillator can be adjusted using the Phase control in its display. As explained earlier oscillators can modulate each other when set up to do so with the global display's algorithms. Oscillator D can also modulate itself, via the Feedback parameter available in its display.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 343 note pitch, be xed or be set to something in between. This is de ned by the Rate
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 344 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. Note that Sync Mode only works if the song is playing, and otherwise it will behave like Beat Mode.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.6.5 345 Filter Section Operator's Filter Section. As mentioned earlier, the lters are not the main focus of this instrument. However, they 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.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 346 means that the envelopes will not be retriggered from voice to voice, and only pitch will change. Global Volume and Transpose controls for the instrument can be found in the global section of the shell, and a Pan control is located in the global section's display. Pan can be modulated by a random factor or by note pitch, using the adjacent Rnd and Key controls, respectively.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.6.8 347 Strategies for Saving CPU Power If you want to save CPU power, turn off features that you do not need or reduce the number of voices. Speci cally, turning off the lter or the LFO if they do not contribute to the sound will save CPU power. For the sake of saving CPU resources, you will also usually want to reduce the number of voices to something between 6 and 12, and carefully use the Spread feature.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 348 Global Shell and Display Time This is a global control for all envelope rates. Tone Operator is capable of producing timbres with very high frequencies, which can sometimes lead to aliasing artifacts. The Tone setting controls the high frequency content of sounds. Higher settings are typically brighter but also more likely to produce aliasing. Volume This sets the overall volume of the instrument.
349 CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 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 Bend Range (PB Range) This de nes the effect of MIDI pitch bend messages.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE Filter Frequency
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 351 LFO Rate
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 352 Osc Frequency
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 353 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. (Filter and pitch envelopes only) This is the level reached at the Envelope Mode (Mode) If this is set to Loop, the envelope will start again after the end of the decay segment.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.7 354 Orchestral Strings, Brass, Woodwinds and Percussion Orchestral Strings, Brass, Woodwinds and Percussion are high-quality orchestral sample libraries created in collaboration with SONiVOX. These multi-gigabyte collections are carefully multisampled at a variety of velocities and with a number of articulations. These products are not included with the standard version of Live, but are special features available for purchase separately. 22.7.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 355 There are also LE Packs available for each library which contain very ef cient versions of the instruments suitable for sketching out ideas. The LE instruments are all composed of 16-bit sample les. All of the orchestral presets are conveniently mapped to Macro Controls for greater expression. Each instrument is available in Solo and Section presets which contain all available articulations.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 356 imported from third-party sample libraries are listed here, too, in the Imports folder. Once you have loaded a Sampler preset into a track, remember to arm the track for recording (which also enables you to hear any MIDI notes you might want to play), and then start playing! 22.8.1 Multisampling Before going on, let's introduce the concept of multisampling.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 357 Samples/Imported). This means the new Sampler presets will work regardless of whether the original multisample le is still around. To import Apple EXS24/GarageBand and Kontakt multisamples, Live will create new Sampler presets that reference the original WAV or AIF les. This means that removing the original WAV or AIF les will render the new Sampler presets useless. Live's File Manager offers the option to collect and save these external samples into the Library.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 358 Sampler's Tabs in the Title Bar. 22.8.3 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 359 The rest of the view is occupied by one of three editors that correspond to the sample layers: the Key Zone Editor, the Velocity Zone Editor and the Sample Select Editor. These editors can be horizontally zoomed by pressing (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) within them to bring up a context menu with sizing options. Auto Select (Auto) As MIDI notes arrive at Sampler, they are ltered by each sample layer's key, velocity and sample select zones.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 360 By default, the key zones of newly imported samples cover the full MIDI note range. Zones can be moved and resized like clips in the Arrangement View, by dragging their right or left edges to resize them, then dragging them into position. Zones can also be faded over a number of semitones at either end by dragging their top right or left corners. This makes it easy to smoothly crossfade between adjacent samples as the length of the keyboard is traversed.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 361 Sample Select Zones The Sample Select Editor. Each sample also has a Sample Select zone, which is a data lter that is not tied to any particular kind of MIDI input. Sample Select zones are very similar to the Chain Select Zones 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.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 362 The playback characteristics of individual samples are set within the Sample tab. Most of this tab is dedicated to displaying the waveform of the currently selected sample. Mousing over the waveform will display relevant information about the sample in the status bar. It is important to keep in mind that most of the values in this tab re ect the state of the currently selected sample only.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 363 All time-based values in this tab are displayed in either samples or hours:seconds:milliseconds, which can be toggled using the (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu on any of their parameter boxes. Samples in this context refer to the smallest measurable unit in digital audio, and not to the audio les themselves, which we more commonly refer to as samples. Sample Start The time value where playback will begin.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 364 proceed linearly towards Sample End. Release Loop Enabled When the volume envelope reaches its release stage, playback will proceed linearly until reaching Sample End, when it jumps immediately to Release Loop and continues looping until the volume envelope has completed its release stage.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.8.5 365 The Pitch/Osc Tab The Pitch/Osc Tab. The Modulation Oscillator Sampler features one dedicated modulation oscillator per voice, which can perform frequency or amplitude modulation (FM or AM) on the multisample. The oscillator is fully featured, with 21 waveforms, plus its own loopable amplitude envelope for dynamic waveshaping. Note that this oscillator performs modulation only its output is never heard directly.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.8.6 366 The Filter/Global Tab The Filter/Global Tab. The Filter Sampler features a polyphonic lter with an optional integrated waveshaper. The Morph lter types can morph continuously from lowpass to bandpass to highpass to notch and back to lowpass. Naturally, lter morphs can be automated. Classic 24 dB lowpass, bandpass and highpass modes supplement the morphable lter's 12 dB and 24 dB modes.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 367 The Filter/Shaper Order Button. The Volume Envelope The volume envelope is global, and de nes the articulation of Sampler's voices. Up to 32 voices are available simultaneously from each instance of the device. Voice retriggering can optionally be enabled by activating the Retrigger button to the right of the Voices chooser. 22.8.7 The Modulation Tab The Modulation Tab.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 368 LFO Retrigger (Retrig) Enabling Retrigger for an LFO will cause it to reset to its starting point, or initial phase, on each new MIDI note. This can create hybrid LFO shapes if the LFO is retriggered before completing a cycle. LFO Offset (Offset) This changes the starting point, or initial phase of an LFO, so that it begins at a different point in its cycle. This can create hybrid LFO shapes if the LFO is retriggered before completing a cycle.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.9 369 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.9.2 370 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 371 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.10 372 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.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.10.2 373 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 374 vertically to zoom, and drag horizontally to pan different areas of the sample into view. 22.10.4 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 375 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 376 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.11 377 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 378 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 379 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 380 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 381 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 382 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 383 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 384 Velocity control has no effect. 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%.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 385 a physical instrument, this interaction is used to change the effective length of the string, which in turn sets the pitch of the note played. The physical parameters of the nger are 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.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 386 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 22.11.3 387 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 388 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 389 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 390 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 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 391 perhaps excite an undamped string. But if that string is constricted by an enormous damper, the bow will need to increase its velocity to have any effect. 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. 22.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 392 within the Instrument Rack folder. EIC instruments are therefore loaded just like any other device, by dragging a preset from the Browser into an empty MIDI track. 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.
CHAPTER 22. LIVE INSTRUMENT REFERENCE 393 Acoustic Drum Kit one stereo multisampled drum kit, selected from the Session Drums add-on product 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.
394 Chapter 23 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 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 23.1 395 MIDI Remote Control Live can be controlled remotely by external MIDI control surfaces, such as MIDI keyboards or controller boxes. Live also supports the Mackie Control, a topic that is covered in its own section, for completely mouse-free program operation.
CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL listed here, don't fret Surface Support. 396 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 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 397 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 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 23.1.2 398 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. De ning Control Surfaces Manually. The MIDI Ports table lists all available MIDI input and output ports. To use an input port for remote control of Live, make sure the corresponding switch in its Remote column is set to On.
CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 23.1.3 399 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 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 23.2 400 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 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 23.2.1 401 Assigning MIDI Remote Control The MIDI Map Mode Switch. 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.
CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 402 note is assigned a discrete value, equally spaced over the parameter's range of values. Hint: Session View slots can be assigned to a MIDI note range for chromatic playing: First play the root key (this is the key that will play the clip at its default transposition), and then, while holding down the root key, hold one key below the root and one above it to de ne the limits of the range. 23.2.
403 CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 23.2.4 Mapping to Relative MIDI Controllers Some MIDI controllers can send value increment and value decrement messages instead of absolute values. These controls prevent parameter jumps when the state of a control in Live and the corresponding control on the hardware MIDI controller differ. For example, imagine that you have assigned the pan knob on your control surface to the pan parameter of a track in Live.
404 CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL available option. Decrement messages make it jump backward. Continuous Controls Each type of relative MIDI controller uses a different interpretation of the 0...127 MIDI controller value range to identify value increments and decrements: Please consult the documentation that came with your MIDI controller if you need further information on relative MIDI controllers.
CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 405 Relative Session mapping is useful for navigating a large Live Set, as Live always keeps the highlighted scene at the Session View's center. Mapping to Clip View Controls The Clip View displays the settings for whichever clip happens to be currently selected, but it will also display the settings of multi-selected clips.
CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 406 Keyboard assignments can produce the following effects in Live: Clips in Session View slots will be affected by mapped keys according to their Launch Mode settings. Keys assigned to switches will toggle switch states. Keys assigned to radio buttons will toggle through the available options.
CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 23.3.1 407 Channel Strips The Eight Channel Strips and the Master Strip. The Mackie Control's eight channel strips and master strip are automatically assigned to tracks in Live. Each of these strips has a set of track controls, including a motorized fader and a V-Pot, for controlling any number of track parameters. The Mackie Control's bank/channel controls allow reassigning the channel strips to access an unlimited number of Live tracks.
CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 1. Arm By default, this arms the track for recording in exclusion of all other tracks. To arm the track nonexclusively (i.e., in addition to other tracks), hold down the Mackie Control's Control button while pressing this. Note that a Misc Preference setting in Live allows deactivating exclusive track arming. When this setting is deactivated, the behavior of this knob with respect to exclusive and nonexclusive arming is reversed. 2.
CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 23.3.2 409 V-Pots and Assignment Switches The V-Pots and Assignment Switches. The Mackie Control's V-Pots have dual functionality in many cases, as they can be both rotated and pressed. When being used to adjust single parameters (those belonging to track devices, for example), pressing a V-Pot returns a control to its default value.
CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 410 switch) pressing a V-Pot toggles the options. There are six assignment switches to the right of the channel strips on the Mackie Control. These select which parameters are displayed in the main display, and set these parameters to be available for control with the V-Pots. The two-character display above the assignment switches shows the currently selected assignment mode. 1. I/O Switches the V-Pot and main display to I/O mode.
CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 23.3.3 411 Bank/Channel and Flip/Return Bank, Channel, Flip and Return Buttons. 1. Bank If more than eight tracks are being used in Live, these buttons can be used to page through the additional tracks and set them to the Mackie Control's eight channel strips. The bank + and - buttons page the channel strips in increments of eight (or more, if a fader extension is installed) to the right or left, respectively.
CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL button while pressing these. 2. Channel You can use the channel + and - buttons to scroll through the additional tracks singly, setting them to the Mackie Control's eight channel strips. To go to the rst/last track, hold down the Mackie Control's Shift button while pressing these. 3. Flip When ip mode is enabled (as shown by the illuminated LED above the button), the functionality of the V-Pots and faders is switched.
CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 23.3.4 413 Transport The Transport Controls. 1. Previous/Next Locator Using these buttons, you can skip forward or backward through the Arrangement from locator to locator. Note that the Arrangement start and end are also marked with invisible locators to which you can navigate using these buttons. The LEDs above these buttons are illuminated when a previous/next locator is available in the respective direction.
CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 2. Loop On/Off Toggles the Arrangement Loop switch on/off. 3. Punch-In/Punch-Out 4. Home 5. End Toggles Live's Punch-In/Punch-Out switches on/off. Jumps to the Arrangement start, 1.1.1. Jumps to the Arrangement end. 6. Rew/Forw When pressed once, these buttons will move the play position one beat backward/forward. When held down, the buttons move forward/backward in increments of one bar during Arrangement playback, one beat if the Arrangement is stopped.
CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL Control's Options button while pressing this. 12. Jog Wheel In the Session View, the jog wheel scrolls through the scenes. In the Arrangement View, the jog wheel moves the play position. To change global quantization, hold down the Mackie Control's Control button while turning the jog wheel. You can also use the Mackie Control's Alt button in the Arrangement View to move the play position in smaller increments.
CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL 23.3.5 416 Software-Speci c Controls The Software-Speci c Controls. 1. Shift, Option, Control, Alt Used to access additional Mackie Control options. 2. SMPTE/Beats display. Toggles between displaying beats/bars and SMPTE in the time 3. Name/Value Switches the meters in the main display on/off.
CHAPTER 23. MIDI AND KEY REMOTE CONTROL meters appear only when pan assignment mode is active. 4. F-Keys These keys can be mapped freely to controls in Live. 5. ViewArr (On) Toggles Arrangement View and Session View. When the Mackie Control's Shift key is held down, this sets the program focus to the Arrangement View or Session View, whichever is currently on screen. 6. ToggleDetail (Rec/Rdy) Toggles Clip View and Track View.
418 Chapter 24 Synchronization and ReWire 24.1 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 24. SYNCHRONIZATION AND REWIRE 419 are explained later in this chapter. With respect to MIDI Timecode, Live can only act as a MIDI sync slave, not a master. 24.1.1 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 24. SYNCHRONIZATION AND REWIRE 420 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. 24.1.
CHAPTER 24. SYNCHRONIZATION AND REWIRE 421 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. 24.2 Connecting via ReWire Live supports the ReWire interface for connecting with another ReWire-compatible audio program running on the same computer.
CHAPTER 24. SYNCHRONIZATION AND REWIRE 422 resources than running a single program. 24.2.1 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. 24.2.2 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 24. SYNCHRONIZATION AND REWIRE 423 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. 24.2.3 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.
424 Chapter 25 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. 25.
CHAPTER 25. COMPUTER AUDIO RESOURCES AND STRATEGIES 425 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 25. COMPUTER AUDIO RESOURCES AND STRATEGIES 25.1.2 426 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 25. COMPUTER AUDIO RESOURCES AND STRATEGIES 427 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 25. COMPUTER AUDIO RESOURCES AND STRATEGIES 428 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 25. COMPUTER AUDIO RESOURCES AND STRATEGIES 429 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.
430 Chapter 26 Live 7 Audio Fact Sheet Much of Ableton's recent development effort has been 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 26. LIVE 7 AUDIO FACT SHEET 431 we will never release an update unless it passes every test. 26.2 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 26. LIVE 7 AUDIO FACT SHEET 432 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. 26.2.
CHAPTER 26. LIVE 7 AUDIO FACT SHEET 26.2.4 433 Summing at Single Mix Points Live 7 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 26. LIVE 7 AUDIO FACT SHEET 26.2.7 434 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 26. LIVE 7 AUDIO FACT SHEET 26.2.8 435 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 26. LIVE 7 AUDIO FACT SHEET 436 splitting warped but unstretched clips with loop on and off; 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. 26.3 Non-Neutral Operations Procedures in Live that will cause a change in audio quality are referred to as non-neutral operations.
CHAPTER 26. LIVE 7 AUDIO FACT SHEET 437 To minimize potential negative results, it is recommended to do sample rate conversion as an of ine process in another application. Once the samples have been converted to the 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 26. LIVE 7 AUDIO FACT SHEET 438 mastering and nalizing in Live, it is best to always render at 32-bit and avoid dithering altogether. 26.3.5 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. 26.3.
CHAPTER 26. LIVE 7 AUDIO FACT SHEET 26.3.9 439 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. 26.3.
CHAPTER 26. LIVE 7 AUDIO FACT SHEET 440 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. 26.5 Summary and Conclusions Ableton wrote this paper in order to help users understand exactly how audio is affected when performing various procedures in Live.
441 Chapter 27 Live 7 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 27. LIVE 7 MIDI FACT SHEET 442 ware device (such as a MIDI keyboard) into a DAW for storage. An ideal recording 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 27. LIVE 7 MIDI FACT SHEET 443 needs to be moved from one such process to another when converting MIDI 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.
CHAPTER 27. LIVE 7 MIDI FACT SHEET makes it possible to record events to the clip at the time you hear them play them. 444 not the time you 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.
445 CHAPTER 27. LIVE 7 MIDI FACT SHEET timestamps attached to incoming MIDI events are accurate, and that outgoing events will be dealt with appropriately by any external hardware. But both situations are impossible for Live to verify. 27.
CHAPTER 27. LIVE 7 MIDI FACT SHEET 446 Windows: Interface A: The maximum jitter was +/- 4 ms, with the majority of the jitter occurring at +/- 1 ms. Interface B: For most of the tests, the maximum jitter was +/- 3 or 4 ms. At 96 kHz and 1024 sample buffer, there were a small number of events with +/- 5 ms of jitter. 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.
447 CHAPTER 27. LIVE 7 MIDI FACT SHEET Live MIDI Clip MIDI-to-Audio Converter Audio Recording (another instance of Live) Audio Clip In all cases, the output tests showed comparable results to the input tests. 27.6 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.
CHAPTER 27. LIVE 7 MIDI FACT SHEET 448 you experience timing issues, we recommend switching to the other mode. This is set in the MIDI Ports list in the MIDI/Sync Preferences. Selecting the MIDI Port Type (Windows). 27.7 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.
449 Chapter 28 Live Keyboard Shortcuts 28.
450 CHAPTER 28. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS Windows Hide/Show Crossfader Open the Preferences Close Window/Dialog 28.2 Ctrl Alt Ctrl , Esc Macintosh Alt F F , Esc Accessing Menus Under Windows, you can access each menu by pressing Alt and the rst letter of the 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 28.3 to choose a menu item.
451 CHAPTER 28. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 28.4 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 28.
452 CHAPTER 28. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 28.
453 CHAPTER 28. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 28.7 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 28.8 Session View Commands See also the editing commands.
454 CHAPTER 28. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 28.9 Arrangement View Commands The shortcuts for zooming, snapping/drawing and loop/region settings also work in the Arrangement View. See also the editing commands. Windows Split Clip at Selection Consolidate Selection into Clip Loop Selection Insert Silence Pan Left/Right of Selection Unfold all Tracks Scroll Display to Follow Playback 28.
455 CHAPTER 28. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 28.11 Commands for Breakpoint Envelopes The shortcuts for zooming, snapping/drawing and loop/region settings also work in the Envelope Editor and Arrangement View. See also the editing commands. Windows Finer Resolution for Dragging Enable Dragging Over Breakpoints 28.12 Macintosh Ctrl Key/MIDI Map Mode and the Computer MIDI Keyboard Windows Toggle MIDI Map Mode Toggle Key Map Mode Computer MIDI Keyboard 28.
456 CHAPTER 28. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 28.14 Clip View Sample Display The shortcuts for zooming and loop/region settings also work in the Sample Display. Windows Move Selected Warp Marker Select Warp Marker Scroll Display to Follow Playback Move Clip Region with Start Marker 28.15 Macintosh Ctrl Ctrl F F Clip View MIDI Editor The shortcuts for zooming, snapping/drawing and loop/region settings also work in the MIDI Editor.
457 CHAPTER 28. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 28.16 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 28.
458 CHAPTER 28. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 28.18 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 28.
CHAPTER 28. LIVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 28.20 459 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.
460 Index A Ableton e-mail addresses sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 technical support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 web addresses FAQs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423 registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423 unlocking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 webshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Adaptive Grid options . . .
461 INDEX tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 audio les . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . see samples audio interface setup . . . . . . . . . . . . see Audio Preferences, see routing Audio Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 audio tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . see tracks Audio Units Plug-ins, using . . . . . see devices authorization . . . . . . . . . . see copy protection Authorizations/Trial Preferences . . . . . .
INDEX Clip Gain slider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Clip Groove chooser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Clip Launch button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Clip Name eld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Clip Nudge buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Clip Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 for zooming/scrolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Clip Quantization chooser . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
INDEX 463 cueing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 dither . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Cut Time command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Double/Halve Original BPM buttons . . . 113, 120 D Draw Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 and drawing MIDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Decoding Cache preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 with clip envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
464 INDEX Envelope Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97, 244 envelopes . . . . . . . . .see automation, see clip envelopes Envelopes box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97, 244 EQ Eight effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 EQ Three effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278 Erosion effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Essential Instrument Collection . . . . . . . . . 391 Exclusive Arm/Solo preference . . . . . . . . .
INDEX 465 and device presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 K and Impulse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 and Simpler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372 Key Map Mode switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405 Key/MIDI In Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 I Key/MIDI Out Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .449 I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
INDEX in the Arrangement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 with clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Loop Selection command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Loop Start/Punch-In Position elds . . . . . . 79 Loop switch Clip View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106, 253, 254 Control Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 with MIDI clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Loop To Next Locator command . . . . . . . . 77 Loop/Punch Region Length elds . . .
467 INDEX modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . see clip envelopes monitor mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 monitoring through Live . . . . . . . . . see Audio Preferences MP3 les . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . see samples Multicore/Multiprocessor Support . . . . . . 424 Multiple Plug-In Windows preference . . 206 Multisampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .356 muting .
INDEX and recording clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200 Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 for speci c Live Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Preview switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37, 132 Preview Volume knob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 previewing in the Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 in the MIDI Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
INDEX Reverse button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 ReWire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .421 Live as master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Live as slave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422 recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .see recording tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . see Ableton REX Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
470 INDEX Search In Path option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 searching in the File Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 rescan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Select Loop command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 and clip envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 and editing MIDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 and exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Select Next Scene on Launch option . . . .
471 INDEX tempo and scene names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89, 92 automating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 MIDI mapping ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 nudging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 tapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Tempo eld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102, 115 Tempo Nudge buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
472 INDEX unlocking Live . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 more than once . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 of ine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 unlocking the program see copy protection updates . . see Check for Updates command Use Audio Units preference . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Use Plug-In Custom Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Use VST Plug-In System Folders .
