Ableton Users: Tips and Tricks

Hey, I just stumbled on this thread in the ableton forum that has a ton of videos and stuff with some interesting ideas from what I've seen.

So how about you guys? Got anything to share that isn't super BoC Top Secret? Basic setups for efficiency? Certain ways you like to do things? Do you meticulously program every single detail of what you do or do you let freedom reign?

Beat Repeat plugin

map the letter R on you keyboard to repeat

put chance at 0

gate at 0

pitch and pitch decay at 0

set the output to Ins

turn the filter off

get some fuckin jungle in there, practice, and enjoy!

good find.

Dummy clips:

Load a sample into a clip slot

set the channel to receive ins only.

Add effects to channel

draw in some effects automation on the clip

send some audio to said channel and hit the clip, Boom! predetermined/dynamic effects automation in clip-form

wet/dry 4 all:

Say there's no wet/dry setting for an effect you want to use

duplicate the channel, one with the max wet you want, and one with none/minimum you want.

Set one channel to crossfade side a, and one to crossfade side b

Adjust crossfade type for taste

Crossfade!

Resample the two channels if you need to do this for more than 2 channels in one project

Man, I just got Ableton.. been using Magix for a while, I think looking at it made my brain wanna explode.

just want to bump this thread for any new peeps

You can reflect light on the back of the install CD from the sun to slowly cook a potato. It'll take a while though ....

both really really simple, but they amazed me and a friend the first time:

option-drag will duplicate things in the arrangement

you can drag clips onto the live/arrangement switch buttons

also, use free time arpeggiators and automate the time for weird beat chopping stuff.

unlink the clip envelope region and set it to a different length and you can make an lfo for anything.

  On 1/25/2010 at 9:49 PM, Hautlle said:

just want to bump this thread for any new peeps

thank you i need this. i am a total live no0b but i love it so far.

  On 1/25/2010 at 10:57 PM, sneaksta303 said:

  On 1/25/2010 at 9:49 PM, Hautlle said:

just want to bump this thread for any new peeps

 

thank you i need this. i am a total live no0b but i love it so far.

Dude, you're using Live now?? I'm excited to see what you come up with. I love it now more than ever. The possibilities are endless

  On 1/25/2010 at 11:25 PM, Hautlle said:

  On 1/25/2010 at 10:57 PM, sneaksta303 said:

  On 1/25/2010 at 9:49 PM, Hautlle said:

just want to bump this thread for any new peeps

 

thank you i need this. i am a total live no0b but i love it so far.

 

Dude, you're using Live now?? I'm excited to see what you come up with. I love it now more than ever. The possibilities are endless

yeah man. the last track i posted in ekt is live.

I wanna keep mine a secret. BUT, I will tell you it has to do with Operator... and glide! har har har!

  On 11/26/2009 at 3:34 AM, 42Orange said:

Dummy clips:

Load a sample into a clip slot

set the channel to receive ins only.

Add effects to channel

draw in some effects automation on the clip

holy shit, i knew this was probably possible in some sort of work around, but this is very useful. I hope you're reading this Kcinsu..

  On 1/25/2010 at 10:15 PM, mcbpete said:

You can reflect light on the back of the install CD from the sun to slowly cook a potato. It'll take a while though ....

holy shit, i knew this was probably possible in some sort of work around, but this is very useful. I hope you're reading this Kcinsu..

can someone explain what a dummy clip is used for practically?

  On 1/26/2010 at 12:48 AM, sneaksta303 said:

can someone explain what a dummy clip is used for practically?

Dummy clip is basically just a blank piece of audio that you put an fx chain on...

Why? It can act like a bus that you can route any midi or audio channel to and automate the fx with.

The possibilities are endless... think about it as launchable fx envelopes that you can trigger whenever you want.

Why not use a regular send? Because with a send you can't create a midi clip.

  On 1/26/2010 at 3:34 AM, acid1 said:

  On 1/26/2010 at 12:48 AM, sneaksta303 said:

can someone explain what a dummy clip is used for practically?

 

Dummy clip is basically just a blank piece of audio that you put an fx chain on...

 

Why? It can act like a bus that you can route any midi or audio channel to and automate the fx with.

 

The possibilities are endless... think about it as launchable fx envelopes that you can trigger whenever you want.

 

Why not use a regular send? Because with a send you can't create a midi clip.

Ahh, nice. Thank you sir.

yup, I am reading! I found that thread on ableton awhile ago, and had a nice long study session! The dummy clips trick is a great one.

Also, check this out: linky a new ableton tip everyday, for all of 2010. from basic, to advanced. very cool. bookmark!

thread gets a

This is hardly a trick but an important tip to anyone that records MIDI-driven gear into Live: After you record a clip, take the time to trim the 'lag' off the front of the wave. It will sharpen your timing and makes glitch edits sound cleaner.

Can someone explain to me how I get Ableton to use Native Instruments Audio 2 DJ soundcard? It works fine in Traktor but it's nowhere to be found in the audio driver menu in Ableton?

i forgot is someone mentioned this already but to get a nice timestretching effect in live, put a sample into the arrange view, turn off warp, pitch it down to the desired length, warp it and pitch it to the desired tuning, mess with warp mode for flavor

  On 1/27/2010 at 12:58 AM, Squee said:

Can someone explain to me how I get Ableton to use Native Instruments Audio 2 DJ soundcard? It works fine in Traktor but it's nowhere to be found in the audio driver menu in Ableton?

Not exactly sure as I've never used this card... What version of Live are you running? Do you have the latest driver for the Audio 2DJ? I would try reinstalling the driver if it won't even show up on the drop-down menu. IDK if it matters, but is it the default device in your OS?

  On 2/25/2010 at 11:19 PM, 42Orange said:

i forgot is someone mentioned this already but to get a nice timestretching effect in live, put a sample into the arrange view, turn off warp, pitch it down to the desired length, warp it and pitch it to the desired tuning, mess with warp mode for flavor

Oh shit, I hadn't thought of that. I use a lot of pitch shifting in my stuff, especially changing pitch, resampling and then changing pitch even more. It can be hard to keep things sounding clean, but you can get some cool shit going with it.

work in multiples, i.e. 45/90/135/180 BPM. while changing the speed and applying different beat quantises, you can cut off or add beats to loops that work in time. (not all quantise settings work though, i cant work out why)

i then started working on a weird theory of 90/180/270/360 bpm, and some sort of circle where i could map out the 4 beats to a bar as you would on a circle, with a beat at each point.

you guys following?

i wrote a 180bpm tripleted jungle song which was actually at 225 (180 + 45) and it worked because of the weird timing and clip quantising.

if anyone gets further with this experiment in other ways, let me know! its quite interesting.

i would mix down different versions at the main multiples, 45,90,135,180,225,270,360 etc and then play them at different speeds with differing quantise settings.

you can use other bpms, but you have to get out your calculator.

p.s. it can get a bit glitchy, (in a wrong way)

  On 2/26/2010 at 11:40 AM, lala said:

work in multiples, i.e. 45/90/135/180 BPM. while changing the speed and applying different beat quantises, you can cut off or add beats to loops that work in time. (not all quantise settings work though, i cant work out why)

....

Speaking of which...

You know in session view you can name scenes (on the far right master column) stuff like "45 bpm" and "5/4" right?

So you could have all your scenes laid out and launch them at different BPM's and time signatures.