2

Tips
Tricks
Tutorials
Using Live's Looper to Create
Unique Beats
Step 1 – How to Use the Looper
Looper can be used to create ideas on the fly in a live context or even in a production setting where you wish to try out some
ideas. Sometimes, you feel your beats are not that inspiring, or you wish to get a beat idea down quickly which is in your head.
These are all scenarios where the Looper can come in real handy. First, I want to look at how you can use your voice, like a beat
boxer to easily and quickly create new beats through the use of the Looper. You can build up and layer voiced drum elements
until you have a full sounding vocal drum kit.

Set up an audio track (create a new track with Command-T) where you will be recording your vocals. Next add the Looper plug-in
to the channel. Enable the metronome in Ableton. This will help you keep in time to your project tempo. Start playback and try out
some beats ideas. Get comfortable with some Kick, Snare and Hats sounds. When you are ready you can launch the Looper
plug-in, and start the looping process.

Make sure the following is set on the Looper first:

• Set the Song Control to None.

• Set the Tempo Control to Follow song tempo. (In a live context you may want to choose None, as tempo can drift in a live
situation).

Record enable the Looper. Then press the big + when you wish to start your overdub.
Step 2 – Drag the Ideas to an Audio Track.
Looper also has a very handy feature called Drag Me. This allows you at any time to drag an idea from the Looper onto an audio
track. Instantly an audio file/loop will be created on the audio track. Once you are happy with your loop creation, simply drag it
onto an audio track, and Voila! It is there for you to edit and process as you will at a later stage.

Step 3 – MIDI Map the Parameters

A good idea is to map the big + to a button on your controller, or better yet a foot controller. This moves the loop function away
from being so mouse-driven to a more performance driven task. Press Command-M to enable the MIDI Map. Select the big + sign
on Looper, then select a button on your control. Now it is mapped to this button for easier use for overdubs.
Step 4 – !Other Uses for the Looper
You can try the same thing with other instruments, such as using a synth. Whilst recording your loops you can change presets
with your overdubs and in the process build up a unique sounding synth loop. I have created a MIDI track. I have loaded up an
instance of one of my favorite synths, Sylenth1. It’s a great sounding synth for some ‘analog-style’ sounds. Go through the same
process of setting up the Looper on the track. Record a bit with a preset.!Change to a different preset on Sylenth1. Then press the
big + to create an overdub, and record a new part with the new preset. Create further overdub layers with different presets. Now
you have created a layered synth in the space of a few minutes. You can drag this newly created layered synth onto an audio
track. Or better yet, right-click the file and choose Slice To New MIDI Track. A Simpler Intrument is created with the audio file
mapped across the MIDI notes. Now you have a great new sounding Sampled Synth.

Try fiddling with the Speed setting. Changing the Speed settings gives you that classic-tape style effect. When you slow down the
time, the pitch is also altered. This could also be used in a live context to create variance in your performances.

The Reverse button is also a nice feature. This will flip your audio around and create a different swing on your looped ideas. In a
performance, you could build up a loop, quickly reverse it for something different. Then flip it around again to carry on with the
performance.
Archiving Projects in Ableton Live

This article is a step-by-step guide on what to do with your finished projects in order to get them
into a state where they can be archived.

There are 4 steps involved:

1. Naming tracks
2. Freezing instruments!
3. Collecting files
4. Backing up

Step 1 - Naming

If you’re anything like me, your track naming may not be the best. I like to work quickly and
don’t always take the time to rename tracks from their unhelpful defaults. The first job is to go
through and rename every track in the project to something useful.

Step 2 - Freezing
Freezing a track is the process of turning that track into an audio track. I highly recommend this
step for any tracks which use virtual instruments. It’s not out of the realms of possibility that, in 6
months or a year when you reopen your project, some of the virtual instruments within have been
updated or no longer work due to a system update. Your perfectly programmed track is now
gone. Luckily freezing tracks in Live is a piece of cake:
1. Right-click on a MIDI track and select “Freeze Track”.
2. Wait whilst live renders the audio.
3. Right-click on the track again and select “Flatten”.

The last step will complete the transformation from virtual instrument to audio track. All insert
effects are also rendered down. If you repeat this process for every MIDI track, you will end up
with a project made entirely from audio tracks, which hugely reduces the possibility of
compatibility problems with plug-ins further down the road.
The same bass track. At the top it is a MIDI track playing a virtual instrument. In the middle, it has been “frozen”,
and at the bottom it has been “flattened” into an audio track.

Step 3 - Collecting files

This step will collect all the files used in your project into one place so you can archive the folder
safe in the knowledge that everything you need to re-open that project is in one folder:

1. Go to the file menu and select “Collect All and Save”.

2. From the dialog box, select “Yes” to all options. You may not need them all, but it’s the
safest way.

Live’s “Collect All and Save” function ensures that all audio and video files referenced by the project are copied into
the project folder.

Live will copy any audio and video files it needs into the project folder and save the project so
that it references only the files within that folder. Any references to audio files anywhere else on
your hard drive are replaced.

Step 4 - Backing up

The last step that remains is to backup your project folder. My personal method is simply to copy
the project folder from my hard drive to an external backup drive. I have hard drives full of
projects from the last 20 years. Some of them will never be opened again, but it’s good to know
that they are there and available if the need ever arises.
MTF Technique Vocal tracking
Ableton Live Step-by-Step
Vocal tracking &
compiling in Live 9
Of all the tasks Live can perform, recording and editing
vocals takes an approach that may feel less than
intuitive. Liam O’Mullane shares his approach...
A
bleton Live 9 is much like its predecessors in
terms of recording and editing vocals, as
very little has changed in this area of music
production. Sure, there’s a fantastic new set
of processing options such as Audio To Midi
that can be used for all sorts of creative, vocal-sourced
ideas. And the new Glue compressor is another handy
addition – great for achieving that smooth, commercial
compression sound that is part of how a vocal should
sound to most people’s ears. Last but not least,
automation has also improved – it’s now available for
clips in Session View, and you can also now work with
linear or logarithmic shapes, making the smoothing-out
of a vocal part much easier to implement.
However, there’s still no classic DAW way to record
multiple lanes of takes for immediate access afterwards,
or a simple click-and-mute function for auditioning
multiple parallel takes in a heavily edited compiling
session – all of which is frustrating for anyone who’s used
Pro Tools, Cubase or pretty much any other DAW. On the
MTF Navigation Vocal audio essentials
c When editing out unwanted sounds from around your vocal parts, activate Live’s fade by pressing
[Ctrl]/[Cmd]+[Shift]+[F] on an expanded track to smooth out changes in volume.
a b
CROSSFADING
a When you’re performing
edits in the middle of a
continuous vocal part, enable
Show Fades and drag one edit
over the other. You can then
shape the fades as required.
LOCATORS
b Locator markers are
useful for dividing your song into
clear sections. Right/[Ctrl]-click
to add them; name them so they
make sense at a glance.
88 | Recording 2013 FOCUS
plus side, though, Live 9 does have basic functionality for
compiling audio, and when you’ve explored it, you are
actually reminded of the need to strive for better vocal
performances in the first place rather than automatically
assuming you’ll be editing the hell out of it later...
And although there’s plenty of software-based audio
trickery that can be performed in Live (much of which
outshines all other DAWS), it’s nice to be pushed into a
more traditional approach for achieving a good vocal take
in a track. However, as this relies more on the
It’s nice to be pushed into a more
traditional approach for achieving
a good vocal take in a track
performance itself, we’ll start by looking at a few
Live-based issues you should check out before inviting
any performers around.
Tune machine
Although Live is quite economical in its use of computer
resources, its ability to let you do a lot of creative
processing in real time often leads to some very
FADES
c
d
LEVEL
d CHANGING
The easiest way to
create level changes is
to highlight the area in
question then click
and grab the volume
automation line while
holding down [Shift].
 Vocal tracking Technique MTF

MTF Step-by-Step Recording and editing vocal takes

For recording in Arrangement View, set
01 the loop brace to the desired area you
want to focus on. With Loop enabled, hit
record and continue capturing takes until you
think you have a few good ones to work with.
The audio clip will have an internal loop
02 brace set to the duration of the last take.
After enabling Loop, move this brace to the
first take. A quick way to do this is to press the
up or down arrow keys after it’s highlighted.
Unless your vocal part falls completely
03 in line with Live’s grid you’ll want to
disable Snap To Grid from the Options menu.
Now split the vocal into as many sections as
needed for compiling by clicking on the audio
clip and selecting Split from the Edit menu.

Now you can audition each take for
04 these newly split sections by moving
the loop brace forwards or backwards.
Pressing up and down on the loop brace will
move each clip’s content forwards and
backwards from one take to another.
If you need to improve on the timing of
05 parts, try moving the start marker within
an audio clip. This moves the clip’s content
rather than the clip itself, so it is much quicker
to work with.
Warp markers are another option for
06 editing timing and are especially useful
within a busy section. Double-click around
the area of focus so neighbouring content is
unaffected, then move the audio between it
as required.

If your computer struggles to Other aspects such as shared processing with other
applications should also be minimised; you really don’t

perform, look into direct monitoring want unexpected update requests, pop-up notifications
or other erratic behaviour causing you grief in the heat of

options on your audio interface a session. Tips on performance-optimising for Windows

plug-in-heavy project work. If you’re already near to
maxing out your CPU or hard drive performance limit,
then, before you get started on vocals, export audio out of
your project and import it in a specific project for vocal
recording. There are a few ways to do this – see the
Setting Up a Monitor Mix step-by-step for details.
If your computer struggles to perform at low latency
irrespective of what you do to improve performance, look
into any direct monitoring options your audio interface
may have. Unless it has onboard DSP processing – like
CueMix FX on MOTU’s devices – your artist will have to
work with a completely dry foldback of their vocals. In
this situation we recommend them having one side of
their headphones off, so make sure that you pan their
signal accordingly to avoid unnecessary spill. They will
then have some room acoustics to hear, which can help
them hit their pitch correctly.
Another option is to use direct monitoring for a dry
vocal and add a Reverb device to the vocal track in Live at
100% wet. This won’t be recorded to the track; it helps
the vocalist to perform and the delay from the latency will
be perceived as pre-delay, which is a happy compromise.
and OSX are best left to a Google search as they are too
numerous to be listed here.
Before any session starts, you should consider room
vibe. This is controlled by how you manage the session in
terms of lighting, a good monitor mix and setting a
pleasant room temperature. Live can help in the visual
realm too, as its usual options of skin templates has
been enhanced with control over Brightness, Color
Intensity and Color Hue. These are available from the
Look Feel tab in Preferences and do impact on the mood
in the room, as well as being handy for your own eyes
when working in low or zero light conditions.
Get set...
When you’re setting up input gain, recording at 24-bit
depth or higher (which can be set in Record Warp Launch
tab in Preferences) allows you the luxury of leaving a
large amount of headroom. Click the decibel reading to
the upper left of the fader to reset it; this lets you see the
PRO TIP
In Session View you can drag the top of the level meters on Live’s mixer
to get a much more detailed picture of your input levels.

FOCUS Recording 2013 | 89

MTF Technique Vocal tracking

highest peak encountered, so it’ll need a few clicks as

you’re getting your input levels right. Aim for a good
clearance of at least 10/20dB or more; it’s only if you’re
working in 16-bit that you may have to get a bit closer to
0dB in order to capture a better dynamic range.
On the topic of audio settings, it’s worth seeing if your
computer can cope with higher sample rates. As latency
is measured in samples, if you run at a higher sampling
frequency (rate) per second, samples will pass at a faster
rate – ie, 128 samples at 44.1kHz takes around twice the
time to happen than when running at 96kHz. It increases
the load on your CPU and hard drive, however, so doing
this needs to be thoroughly tested before your session.
A quick time-saver when preparing to record vocals is
arming multiple duplicates of the same vocal track. This
minimises the fuss of lining up different takes after
you’re done recording (as long as you have the same
number of tracks as takes). You then just need to move
the loop brace around on each track rather than copying
audio when working from one initial vocal track.
PRO TIP
It’s no surprise that Live offers a more performance-orientated way to
compile vocals than conventional sequencers. In Session View you can
assign each vocal take to a Key or MIDI note using the relevant Map
mode from the Options menu. Set each clip’s Launch Quantization to
zero and enable Legato mode. You can now move between your takes at
any point and record it all to Arrangement View.
We’re not ignoring recording in Session View here, by
the way – indeed, this approach is a very fluid way to get
vocals alongside song ideas as they develop. The only
potential issue with working in this way is that a large
amount of vocal phrases will often run before or after a
point when you might want to move from one Scene to
another. This results in all sorts of issues while still in
Session View in order to have smooth transitions from
one Scene to the next.
Another option, of course, is to cue Scenes in Session
View but remove clip recording from your vocal track(s).
This will enable you to continuously record your vocals to

Working in Session View is a Arrangement View irrespective of any Scenes you might
choose to launch in Session View. It’s also considerably

fluid way to get vocals alongside easier to subsequently edit the vocals so they’ll work as
expected in Session View. To remove all clip slots from

song ideas as they develop your vocal track, first highlight them, then right/
[Ctrl]-click (PC/Mac) them and select Remove Stop

MTF Step-by-Step Optimising a vocal take

Whether you have a large number of
01 audio takes in front of you or a clear
single take with all the timing and pitch
you’re after, you will want to remove certain
non-performance-related sounds. To start,
highlight and delete the areas between each
vocal performance for true silence.
Now there’s no movement, rumble and
02 other unwanted sounds to interfere with
a mixdown you’ll need to smooth out the fade
in and out points to your edits. Select Show
Fades from the Create menu and start to drag
their anchor point to smooth out your clip’s
start and end points.
The listener’s perceived level of
03 breathing in a vocal can add energy
when increased in volume, or sound clinically
perfect when set quite low or even removed.
Highlight each breath and separate them
using Split. Use Clip Gain to control levels.

Pitch can also be edited in Live and
04 there are two main ways to implement
this. The first is by using a clip’s pitch control.
For vari-speed pitch change (when duration
is also affected), disable Warp mode and
change the Transpose and Detune amounts.
This is the most natural-sounding approach.
Another pitch-control option is to enable
05 one of Live’s Warp modes – like Complex
Pro – then adjust Transpose and Detune. This
will keep the timing of parts in place, so is best
to use for multiple events that create a rhythm.
The second way of editing pitch is to
06 use Envelope automation. This allows
you to alter pitch over the course of time
without having to perform micro edits on your
vocal. Select the E symbol from the lower left
of Clip View, then edit the automation line to
smooth out unwanted pitch changes.

90 | Recording 2013 FOCUS

 Vocal tracking Technique MTF

We strongly
recommend the
practice of making a
note of good takes
before you start
Button. This track will now record just to Arrangement
View as long as you use Live’s Arrangement Record
Button to get started.

Go!
There are two ways to cue a performance: with a count-in
or by utilising a part of the music before the section
you’re going to focus on. If you intend to loop for
continuous passes over the same section, make sure you
set the loop brace in Arrangement View to a position and
length that makes sense – even just an extra bar at the
start and end is OK; just think of rounded measurements
so a vocalist isn’t thinking too much about where they are
in the song. If you’d prefer to use a count-in and drop in
cold, the duration of the count-in can be set from a
dropdown menu on Live’s Metronome icon.
Using a MIDI controller to
launch Scenes as you record
to Arrangement View offers
a lot of flexibility for
jamming. It also obviates the
need to use your keyboard
The only thing left to say is that we strongly
and mouse when performing recommend the practice of making a note of good takes
on your own. before you start. We like to jot down the last bar number
(shown on Arrangement View’s timeline or under your
clips in Session View) after a good take. This enables you
to quickly edit and delete audio that doesn’t cut the
mustard. It also helps you judge if you have sufficient
good material before closing down a session. MTF

MTF Step-by-Step Setting up a monitor mix

Before you start recording, the stability
01 of your setup can be compromised if
you’re running a big project with a lot of CPU
consumption. Try a low latency setting by
Opening Preferences>Audio and reduce the
latency buffer size as much as possible.
If your computer can’t deliver at a sample
02 value of 256 of less it is best to work on a
vocal-specific version of your project. First you
need to export the project as a backing track to
use in your vocal project. The simplest method
is to use Export from the File menu.
Exporting the Master output may be the
03 quickest approach but it will limit how
customised your monitor mix can be later on.
We like to group our main instrumental
sections like drums, bass and melody and
export each group. They can then be
imported into a new vocal project.

After your music is imported and you’ve
04 set up your audio track to record, insert
a return track (if required) from the Create
menu and name it Monitor Mix. Set its output
to match the channel(s) your audio interface
uses for headphones, then use the Sends to
create a mix for your vocalist.
If your soundcard uses only the main
05 stereo output (1+2) for headphones you
can work around it by feeding your studio’s
monitors from another stereo out. You’ll need
to change the Master output in Live as well or
you’ll be feeding the vocalist the master mix
and the monitor mix.
To use sends on your vocal track you
06 need to make sure it’s set to In or Auto
with Arm enabled. Now add whatever
processing you need, such as compression or
reverb. Processing can be sent back to the
singer to help them perform to a
professional-sounding mix.

FOCUS Recording 2013 | 91

MT Technique Bass design with Operator
Ableton Live Tutorial
Bass design
with Operator
Operator offers a great deal more
than just FM leads and pads.
Liam O’Mullane has the low-down.
W
ith the topic of this month’s lead
feature being synths, we thought we’d
show you around Live’s very own hybrid
synth, Operator. Although its name
comes from the FM synthesis-based
term for an oscillator, Operator can function both as an
additive and subtractive synth. In fact, given the less
than predictable nature of the alternative Analog synth
(which is, of course, part of an analogue synth’s charm),
we tend to reach for Operator to create any synth-like
sounds when we want 100% predictability. On that note,
we’ll look at it as a subtractive synth first to keep things
simple while investigating its features.
Got ’rithm
The four divided sections to either side of Operator’s
central display are called Shells. After clicking the
bottom right-hand Shell this Global Shell will reveal 11
colourful algorithm symbols across the top of the
central display. Although they look like the puzzle
pieces from Tetris, they are in fact routing diagrams
flowing from top to bottom. 1
We tend to reach for Operator to
create synth-like sounds when we
want 100% predictability
The central display is key to seeing more detail for each
Shell when you click on them. This is also where you
select MIDI and modulation assignments.
48 | July 2013 MAGAZINE
On the disc
Ableton Live
project file included
on the DVD
PRO TIP
Subtractive and additive
synthesis can usually benefit
from some modulated filtering
from the filter’s own envelope
or the LFO (when assigned).
For FM work, try using it as an
EQ to hold back excessive top
end with a low-pass filter.
All of the algorithms apart from the very last one on
the right are either FM-based or a mixture of FM and
subtractive synthesis, so we need to click the horizontal
shape on the far right. This represents each oscillator
running in parallel to each other (ie, not modulating
each other like an FM synth).
Operator’s four oscillators are the four Shells to the
left-hand side. The Coarse parameter sets ratios of the
input MIDI note, so if you’re playing a concert-pitch A3
and the first oscillator is set to a ratio of 1/1 you will hear
A3 being played back. The technique of layering up a
second oscillator an octave above the first can therefore
be achieved by turning up oscillator B and setting it to
2/1. As some ratios are odd, like 3/1, there’s also a
predefined selection of harmonics on offer. To tune an
oscillator to a specific note, use Coarse to find the
nearest note below the one you’re after, then use Fine to
sweep up to the desired semitone. Although it’s named
Fine, it offers a full octave range and isn’t limited to
semitone adjustments as it’s calibrated in cents, making
it useful for detuning oscillators to thicken a sound.
You can view either oscillator or envelope info at the
top of the central display; oscillator type is available to
the lower right. Let’s go through the layout by making a
Reese bass. Select a Saw D waveform for oscillators A
and B from the dropdown waveform list (see Image 6,
bottom right). Set their Level parameter to 0dB and raise
the Fine control for oscillator B up towards 25 cents. As
long as you’re playing MIDI notes between C1 and C2
this should already be quite nasty-sounding. To give it
more bottom end, raise the level of oscillator C but leave
it set to its default sine wave as this pure wave is perfect
for reinforcing your existing sound. Need even more
weight? Raise the level of oscillator D and set its Ratio to
0.5 for a lower octave of sine power. Now re-balance the
sounds using the Level control on each oscillator. 2
The LFO Shell to the upper right is set up by default
to control the pitch for all oscillators via its Dest.A
section. To give this Reese more of a Hoover-esque ‘rave’
stab tone, set the LFO waveform to SwDown (Saw
Down) from the first pop-down menu. Choose Sync from
the next menu (LFO Range) and set a Rate of 1 bar. Now
raise the Amount while pressing keys higher than C2 to
get that familiar descending Hoover bass. 3
2

4 before backing off to a suitable amount.
The LFO can be assigned to many other modulation
destinations via Dest.B. In most cases you’ll want to
disable its default assignment in Dest.B by clicking the
A, B, C and D buttons. Although the filter cutoff can be
assigned here, setting its Depth to 100% won’t move the
cutoff from its minimum to full. A workaround to
achieve a full-range cutoff sweep is to assign Dest.B to
filter cutoff. With both assignments set to 100% and the
LFO set to SwDown, you can achieve that tight and
defined rhythmic modulation sound that has been
recently made famous by the artist Datsik. 4
Returning to the Hoover-esque sound for a moment,
you can get a more authentic upwards and downwards
pitch change over time by using the Pitch Envelope in
the next Shell down from Filter. With a positive setting
between 10–50%, shape the envelope to create a
medium attack slope and longer decay time. 5
Additive approaches
If you move the mouse over the central display when an
oscillator Shell is in focus you can draw in harmonic
partials on the Waveform Editor. This is where Operator
behaves like an additive synth, letting you decide which
harmonics are present and at what volume. Try setting
the harmonic amount to 16 (the uppermost block to the
right of the Editor) and draw in a combination of
harmonics. We’ve gone for just a few lower harmonics
as this will be our bottom-end oscillator. 6
We’ve then edited oscillator B and right/[Ctrl]-clicked
on the waveform display to set it to odd harmonics only.
We can now create an upper frequency layer that has
the odd harmonic characteristic of a square wave. 7
As we’re still using the subtractive synthesis
algorithm – meaning that oscillators aren’t modulating
each other – you can choose to feed back oscillators on
themselves. Explore the Feedback amount below the
oscillator-type menu. Harmonically rich oscillators are
sensitive to this control so small amounts will make a
big difference between distortion and noise. We’ve gone
for 6% before the sound breaks up too much. This is now
a sonically interesting layer that we can modulate. 8
Perfect harmony
Each oscillator has an envelope that modulates its level
like any normal synth, letting us slowly introduce this
higher harmonic layer with a slow attack stage. These
Bass design with Operator Technique MT
6
7
Modulation can be used for subtle or dramatic
effects – like most audio parameter settings, use the
most extreme settings to fine-tune parameters
two oscillators alone – with a little vibrato from the LFO
– can create a nice, organ-style bass that gains a harder
edge over time. 9
Envelopes can also be looped for creating rhythmic
modulation shapes. The bottom right of the oscillator’s
central display has a Loop pop-up menu: select Sync,
then set Repeat to 1/12 for a triplet feel. 10
As long as Live’s main transport is playing, the
envelope will now begin to repeat. Just make sure that
the envelope’s shape is short enough so it can be heard
changing before it loops around again. Experiment with
the Time<Vel amount to the right of the envelope’s
Release amount as this will shorten or lengthen the
envelope duration via MIDI note velocity. A negative
value will shorten the duration with lower velocities,
which makes sense to us when playing expressively
from a MIDI controller. 11
Frequency modulation
Of all the available algorithms, the backwards-shaped
‘L’ is the most relevant for getting started with FM for
creating bass parts. 12 The bottom part of the L holds
the two oscillators you hear directly. The block colours
correlate to the oscillator colour, so here, oscillator A in
yellow is on its own, without any other oscillators above
it. This means that no oscillators above are there to
PRO TIP modulate it, so it’s a subtractive oscillator. We’ll use this
Many sounds can be given an for a bottom-end sine wave.
extra dimension through
octave-based pitch-bending.
Just set Pitch to
+12 or +24
semitones from
the central
display for the
Global Shell.
MAGAZINE July 2013 | 49
MT Technique Bass design with Operator
8 9
10
Assigning modulators to velocity enables you
to easily program in variation within your
General MIDI Editor page.
Oscillator B, however, has two other oscillators wired
into it in series. The pitch of oscillator D at the top will
modulate oscillator C, then the resulting sound will be
used to modulate oscillator B. In simple terms,
oscillators D and C are acting like an LFO to the pitch of
oscillator B, but the rates are very fast (in the audible
musical range) so the rate is fast enough to add new,
audible pitch changes to oscillator B.
With oscillator A remaining at a Coarse ratio of 1,
raise the Level to full for oscillator B after setting its
Coarse ratio to 2. You’ll now have two sine waves an
octave apart. Next, increase the Level of oscillator C
and you’ll start to hear a dramatic change to oscillator
B’s output. Change the Coarse ratio to be lower and
you’ll hear a watery, super-fast tremolo effect; move it
upwards and the sound will become increasingly
metallic in tone. Now explore the Level control to hear
how this acts more like a timbre control than a simple
fade-in and out. Using this oscillator’s envelope for
Level control or the LFO suddenly opens up a lot of
drastic tonal change. Welcome to the wonderful world
of FM synthesis!
Know your limitations
FM can create some incredibly high frequencies – so
high, in fact, that they reach the limitations of the
device’s sample rate. These are pushed back into the
audible spectrum in a non-harmonically related way –
this is called aliasing. When set up correctly this can
create dense clusters of information, which is great for
cymbal sounds, bells and anything else that isn’t
12
13
The Algorithm menu
lets you choose from
various oscillator
routing options. Just
click the different shape
and immediately hear a
difference in your patch.
50 | July 2013 MAGAZINE
11
particularly musically tuneful. For bass, try copying
these settings with only sine waves to shape the
aliasing effect into a vowel-like sound. 13
Down and dirty
FM synthesis can also generate some really nasty bass
tones if you carefully tune each modulator by ear to
create a non-harmonic that has a slightly discernible
pitch. This time we’ll use the very left algorithm to
create a layer for higher frequencies that we can run in
parallel with a sine wave from another instance of
Operator for the low end.
The first thing to do is to choose an interesting
waveform for oscillator A as this is where your sound
begins. We’ve gone for the SW8 wave (saw wave) to
provide a bright sound, then we’ve chosen an odd-
harmonics-based sound for oscillator B with the Sq8
wave. This creates a very demonic beehive-type of
sound when detuned a little and applied with a low
Level. We’ve then added a sine very high up in the
register with a ratio of 39 to create a very high, buzzy
tone. Finally, to lose a little definition we’ve added a
noise oscillator for D and applied it very lightly. 14
Of all the options here, FM needs to be approached
with some restraint, adding one oscillator at a time as
it’s very easy to go from a solid, desirable sound to
something that’s just fatiguing to the ear. So take the
time to switch oscillators on and off as you go, checking
that you’re not going too far. Then, when you’ve made a
sound, explore switching algorithms as this can often
yield some very surprising results. MT
14
Understanding MIDI EFFECTS "Chord" + "Scale"

Lets start with the chord effect. First of all, drop in a new midi track. Then, put in an instrument of your liking, preferable
something with less resonation for the purpose of understanding this tutorial. In the future, you can use nice long voilins or
even pads to make spacy chorded sounds. After you have put in the sound, just before it in your rack, toss in a CHORD midi
effect.

Now you will see options for up to 6 extra notes to create chords off of the one you are pressing on your midi keyboard.
This is pretty simple to understand, and not very useful unless you have an understanding of chords. When you turn on one
of the shift options, it adds another note depending on how far your shifted that note. A shift of +1 semi tones will add
another note one half note above the one you are pressing (example white key to the nearest black key). You can play
around within this to find some nice chords on your own. The little box below each shift button determines how loud you
will hear that note when compared to the original note you are pressing, incase you want less dramatic chord. Also be sure
to play around with the built in presets that come within this midi effect to find nicely made chords with excellent
velocities already there for your disposal.
Now, lets go on to the next step. If you dont understand chords, this next step can be SO useful. Even if you do understand
chords, it is impossible for you to know ALL of them, so you can build your knowledge chords by using this. Start by
SHUTTING OFF THE CHORD effect for now, we will get back to it. Go into midi effects, and drop in a SCALE effect in
between your CHORD & INSTRUMENT, like this -

It looks like a small sequencer right? Think of it a little bit like that, where as from left to right are keys within ONE
OCTAVE of your midi keyboard (ex. C to C). For some reason there are 13 squares (not 12) up and down. I dont know why
this is, but the top one does not get used. Lets look at the options now within this. The BASE knob is for the BASE of your
grid. It will not change sound, only the VIEW that you see the grid. If you are making a track in C, its good to leave it in C
to see the whole range of C-C. The transpose will transpose the actual SOUND in semitones up or down based on how far
you move it. If you have a midi keyboard, the range and lowest note options are not really useful. Now, what you are
telling your controller to do, is to CHANGE what note is actually being played. You can only have 1 square activated per
vertical column. So now, if you were to select note C in column 1, 2, & 3...then press keys C, C sharp, & D....they will now
all play C. This makes it so, if you were to build a chord, you cannot press a WRONG button. This can be nice for improv
jamming. Now the key to this feature is to use the built in presets that come with ableton. Just click the little arrow below
the SCALE midi effect within your browser to see the options. You will see options like MAJORS, MINORS, PENTATONIC, etc
etc. Just drag on of those on top of the scale effect within your effects rack, and it will be preset to that chord. Start
touching all over your keyboard, and you will notice that ANY note you hit will be in that correct progression.
Now, go back to your chord effect and turn it on. Toss in a nice preset for the time being. Now play your midi keyboard.
You will hear AMAZING chord sounds in a perfect chord progression based off of what your are playing on your keyboard.
Just play around with all the parameters until you get something you like! If you want, you can even put an arpeggio before
all of this.
MT Technique Mastering for club & radio play

Ableton Live Tutorial

Mastering music
for club and radio play
Getting your tracks ready for playing to the public is something
we all need to do from time to time. Liam O’Mullane shares
his tips on making the best-sounding master possible.

L
ove it or hate it, but in the world of club music
it’s a necessity to give tracks a certain degree
of loudness. For many, professional mastering
isn’t an option as you may not be signed to a
label yet, but if you want to get exposure, you
still need to get your tracks to club and radio DJs for a
possible lucky break. This month we’ll show you how to
use specific mastering techniques on your mix buss to
get a polished, loud track for promotional use. You can
also apply these to pre-mixed audio files, but working
while the mix is still live can be an education in how
your mix changes when mastered and how it can be
shaped to work better with your mastering chain. But
before any processing begins, let’s look at using
reference material to help keep you on track. PRO TIP
For more detail when working
Reference material with EQ Eight, double-click on mix after listening to a hi-hat in
the analyser to see a much
A/B referencing between released material and your larger view. This also adds a solo mode for too long, so alongside
own work is useful both at the mastering stage and frequency and musical pitch regular breaks, reference material is essential.
during the song-creation process. It provides you with info box to the lower left, which Drag two or more reference tracks into Live on their
helps when you need to focus
constant goals to aim for and helps you stay on course on certain notes. own audio tracks, Warp them to fit Live’s tempo, then
for completing your track. We’ve all lost perspective on a highlight the tracks and select Group from the Edit
menu. Mute the tracks in this group so nothing but your

Working while the mix is still live own track can be heard. 1
You need to route these tracks directly to your audio

can be an education in how it interface so that any master buss processing isn’t
affecting them. In Session View, select your soundcard

changes when mastered

1
3
2

Live can be set up for real-time use of reference

material at any given moment by hitting assigned
keys for each reference track.

40 | August 2013 MAGAZINE

 Mastering for club & radio play Technique MT

8
5

7
6
9

Surgical EQ is the best place to

start for getting a more
professional-sounding mix
before moving onto other
types of processing.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that as bass eats up headroom, which in turn makes it hard
to get a tight, loud mix. Try both the normal and the x4

your changes are better simply filters to determine which suits the content best. 8
You should audition all treatments to your mix buss

because they are louder by turning the processing chain on and off at regular
intervals. This also makes it easier to set your output
level by ear so you’re auditioning changes even-
output from the Audio To menu after first selecting Ext handedly. The simplest way to set this up is by Grouping
Out. 2 Finally, assigning key commands to each solo devices via the Edit menu and assigning the newly
button lets you jump from your work to any reference created Audio Rack’s Activator button to a key for
point for immediate feedback. Use Edit Key Map from immediate auditioning at any point. 9
the Options menu to assign these keys. 3
Dynamic shaping
EQ work The next step is to process the dynamic range of your
Before applying any dynamic processing, start with an track to firm it up and give it more impact. The first
EQ Eight for surgical work to knock things into better
PRO TIP device can be used for average signal level-based
If you need more frequency
shape. As a general rule, select Oversampling by right/ content in the 2–5kHz area of compression, pulling the level of the track’s body and
[Ctrl]-clicking (PC/Mac) on the device’s title bar. This your mix but are pushed for the higher peaks closer together. A second device can
allows for a higher internal sampling rate and reduces time to tweak this during the then be used for more rhythm-based peak compression
mixing stage, Live’s Overdrive
the chance of aliasing being introduced as you work. 4 can help fill in the to add punch to the
The first task with surgical EQ work is to reduce/ gap, with careful use drums as the whole
of Drive and Tone
remove any non-musical resonances. These may not be along with a narrow
track is compressed in
immediately obvious, so an additive sweeping band-pass filter. response to them.
technique is usually required. EQ bands 3–6 are Use a very low dry/ Either a Compressor or
wet balance – from
parametric by default, so start with one of these. 1% upwards. Glue device can be used
Increase the gain to around 10dB, the Q (width) to 2–3 for average-based
for a narrow band, and sweep the Freq dial until a work, and it pays to try
specific frequency starts to sing out in a nasty manner them both as they do
when boosted. 5 Now explore either direction for the Q sound different. This
amount so only the nasty area is being boosted. The Q technique requires a
needs to be as narrow as it can be without being so fairly deep threshold
narrow that it doesn’t boost the whole problem area. 6 setting but light ratio
To reset your ears, click on the Gain control and hit from 1.01:1 upwards.
backspace to return it to zero. Apply sufficient gain Compressor needs to
reduction to reduce the problem area as much as be set to RMS for an
possible without leaving a hole in the overall sound. 7 averaging behaviour
You can repeat this process as required, but if you’re and Makeup Gain
applying more than three or so cuts it may be worth should be disabled so
looking at your mix elements to find the sound that is you can use the Out
responsible for the problem and apply this technique to fader for manual level
that sound directly so the whole mix isn’t EQ’ed as much. matching. This prevents
Bracketing your song’s frequency range with low- you from being fooled
and high-cut filtering is the next step with EQ Eight. Sit into thinking your
a filter just below and above the visible energy of the changes are better
track to remove any content that doesn’t aid the sound simply because they
of the track. This is especially important in the low end are louder! There’s no

MAGAZINE August 2013 | 41

MT Technique Mastering for club & radio play

11 12

10

If your drums don’t stick out in the mix sufficiently to trigger Compressor, use the EQ so it
reacts to the specific frequencies of certain drums and not others.

rule for the amount of gain reduction to apply here and After working on the sides, try an additive sweeping
the attack and release settings are also content- technique on the mid to find and then reduce any muddy
specific – explore them until you can hear backing lower-mid frequencies. This can be anywhere between
sounds coming further forwards in the mix while 250–800Hz and you’ll generally need a broad Q setting
avoiding any pumping artefacts. 10 as the area can be quite wide. If you haven’t removed too
For peak-based compression, Compressor set to much bottom-to-mid frequency information on your
Peak mode is your best bet. To have only the main, side signal, try this on the sides as well. 13
louder drums trigger the compression, set the ratio
quite high, with the threshold low enough to let only the Peak limiting
highest drum peaks trigger the compressor. Dial in fast Peak limiting is the final element in the processing
attack and release times so the track gets slightly chain. This limits the range of any momentary peaks,
squashed with each louder drum hit. This will give the which enables more volume to be squeezed out of your
drums a feeling of being heavier as the mix gets slightly master. Although the Limiter might be the most obvious
squashed in response to them. If necessary, mix your choice for this task, we often opt for Saturator or Glue
drums a little too loud to take this effect a bit further. instead. These often have a more musical sound than
Alternatively, if the drums aren’t loud enough use the EQ the Limiter, which can pump when pushed hard. For
on the left-hand side to help Compressor ‘hear’ the both Glue and Saturator you need to enable soft clipping
frequencies specific to the kick and snare. 11 and increase Drive until the signal starts to break up.
Once there, simply back off a little (or a lot, depending
Mid and side on how ‘in your face’ you want the mix to sound). 14
Another way to tighten up a mix is to EQ the mid and Saturator’s output level can be set to keep everything in
side elements separately. High-passing the side from check, but Glue needs a Utility device adding afterwards
around 200Hz or higher will help focus the bottom end as it can be quite loud at its output. 15
as you’re forcing it to be mono through the mid signal At this point you should have a polished-sounding
only. Boosting the top end on the sides at this point can track that you can export and distribute. If you have
also give a wider sense of stereo (don’t overdo it or it time, though, come back to it with fresh ears and apply
may become less mono-compatible). To do this, switch any minor tweaks that perhaps didn’t seem so obvious
an instance of EQ Eight from stereo mode to M/S via the during the previous session. MT
Mode menu. 12 Use the Edit toggle button to change the
EQ controls from adjusting the mid or side signal.

13

14

EQ’ing the middle and side signals separately is a very effective

way of tightening the bass end and widening existing stereo
elements. When it comes to peak limiting, Saturator and Glue are
just as worthy as Live’s Limiter device. 15

42 | August 2013 MAGAZINE

MT Technique Programming & workflow

Ableton Live Become a Live Power User

Programming
New
Series

technique & workflow

Both audio and MIDI can trigger that creative spark and get the ball rolling when it comes to
composition. Liam O’Mullane sets you off on the right track.

W
hen it comes to starting any kind of work in
Live, there has always been a variety of
ways to kick things off. Live can be used for
traditional songwriting with a traditional
sequencing approach in Arrangement View,
or used as an interactive jamming tool for experimental
work in Session View. Live is also capable of being a ‘live’
performance tool, too, so there’s no wonder many people
struggle to find a good workflow with this deceptively
simple yet incredibly open-format tool.
In this series we’ll take a thorough look at the various
aspects of Live 9, Live 9 Suite and Push. Although these all
present different options for creating music, we will have a
Although we’re catering for all ability levels, we’ll assume
On the disc that you at least understand the very basics of Live. And
remember that there are some extremely useful built-in
lesson packs that integrate very well into the program, so if
Accompanying you find yourself out of your comfort zone at any point in
project file included
on the DVD this series, just go to the View menu and select Help View.
The selection of lessons will then appear to the right-hand
side of everything else in Live.
To begin, this month we’re looking at various ways to
create and manipulate an initial idea through the use of
MIDI or audio. Your audio can be single sounds, loops or
something you’ve recorded yourself. MIDI can be used to
control a huge variety of instruments, but at this stage it
doesn’t matter whether it’s bass, pads, drums or lead lines

Irrespective of the investment as we’ll start by focusing on MIDI note data. If you can
competently manipulate sounds at this level, you’ll have

you’ve made in your Live setup, very tight control over how the sound can then be varied
throughout your work before getting tangled in a web of

we’ve got you covered automation, layering effects and so on.

Although a power user needs good ideas and an ear to
produce, workflow is also important, so with audio, MIDI and
single aim in a bid to accommodate them all – to make workflow in mind, let’s get started. MT
music that is creative, unique and well produced. Numerous
new tools have been introduced in Live 9, and the inclusion
of Max for Live within Live 9 Suite opens up
an expansive creative playground to all.
And although Push is still in its infancy,
we’re already finding some very enjoyable
ways of using it to interact with music. So
irrespective of the level of investment
you’ve made in your Live 9 setup, we’ve got
you covered.

FOCUS ON… RECORDING

Many of you will want to record your own sounds – a
single event to treat like a sample, a short sequence
to turn into a loop, or a full musical passage which
may or may not be edited subsequent to recording.
Recording to either Session or Arrangement Views
starts in the same way: select the correct input on an
audio track that’s armed to record, expand the level
indicator by dragging it upwards with your mouse in
Session View for a more detailed look at your input
levels, then hit record. If you want to set up effects to
help the performer, be sure to get the lowest possible
latency time so that the effects aren’t delayed too
much, which will throw off the performance. This is
done in Preferences by adjusting the latency buffer
size so you have low latency without any break-up in
the audio signal.

38 | September 2013 MAGAZINE


MT Step-by-Step Fast, creative MIDI editing
If you’re inputting MIDI by hand, try to double-click and hold
01 down your mouse/trackpad button to create a note and set its
length in one movement. A highlighted note can then be moved from
left to right with the arrow keys; pitch can be altered using up/down.
If you’re struggling to get an idea started or just want to explore a
03 different approach from usual, try inputting successive notes by
holding down the [B] key to momentarily engage Draw mode. This
starts you off in a step sequencer-like way. Now use the key
commands already covered to change a note’s pitch and press [0] to
mute any unwanted notes.
The Invert (Inv) and Reverse (Rev) buttons to the left of the MIDI
05 Note Editor will flip all highlighted MIDI notes upside down or
back to front respectively. Both are easy ways to create variation in
your parts. A reverse of a beat or half/a full-bar’s worth of notes is
useful for creating variation at the end of a phrase. Alternatively,
highlight random sections to alter for a less predictable outcome.
Programming & workflow Technique MT
To move from one note to the next using the arrow keys, hold
02 down [Alt] at the same time. You can be looping around while
editing to hear your changes, or use the MIDI Editor preview button
(the headphone icon above the vertical piano) so you hear each change
in pitch as you make it.
No matter how your MIDI part has been created, there are some
04 great editing tools available in Live, but you’ll first need to
highlight two or more notes. The mouse is the obvious choice for this
task, but for quick keyboard work, hold down [Shift]+[Alt] while using
the arrow keys. You can alter this section or duplicate your work and
alter the second to extend the phrase.
Two other useful functions for creative editing are the half- and
06 double-tempo functions (these are the :2 and *2 buttons above
Inverse and Reverse). These let you change your MIDI, and double-
tempo is especially useful for creating small flourishes within a piece.
You can stretch highlighted content for more control over this type of
change – just drag the stretch marker above the notes.
MAGAZINE September 2013 | 39
MT Technique Programming & workflow
MT Step-by-Step Audio sequencing and editing
There are three ways to manipulate audio: using smaller,
01 sequenced individual events, manipulating from within a loop or
recording of a performance, or by using Live’s Slice To New MIDI Track
function (from right-click menu) to get audio into a MIDI-controllable
form. The latter can utilise techniques from the previous set of steps
here, but our recommendation is to fully explore the presets available.
As soon as Warp mode is enabled you open up a whole new world
03 of possibilities, the first being an overall time-stretch effect
which, like vari-speed transpose, can create dramatic tonal changes at
more extreme settings. Hit the half-time button a few times for an
immediate granular-type effect.
To quickly explore the effects of warp markers, use the half- and
05 double-time buttons. Warp modes can be chosen from the
dropdown menu below the :2 & *2 buttons and all but re-pitch modes
will generate a unique, stretched timbre. Warp markers themselves
can be moved around for an in-loop variation of time-stretch and
compress effects.
40 | September 2013 MAGAZINE
The first few variables for an audio file can be discovered quite
02 easily with single sounds. Starting with Warp mode disabled,
Transpose will let you pitch the audio up and down with vari-speed.
Extreme settings of an octave or more in either direction will cause
great sonic changes which can generate very interesting textures and
sounds to start an idea with.
Warp-based time-stretching and pitch change are easily applied
04 to loops or recordings, but in order for single sounds to benefit
from this you first need to turn them from a sequence into a new single
audio file. To do this, highlight all parts on a track and select
Consolidate from the Edit menu.
Transpose is another useful tool for broad variation. First open
06 the Envelope box by pressing the small E button underneath the
Clip box, then select Transposition Modulation and alter the envelope
over time. All stretch modes can have their other parameters changed
as well, so explore the new tones these can offer you.
 How to produce authentic house Technique MT

Powered by
Technique Genre focus

How to produce
New
Series

authentic house
Welcome to a new series that focusses on different genres of music production across every
DAW. We kick off with house, the simplest of dance genres. ‘Or is it?’ asks Rob Boffard…

H
ouse music is a perfect candidate to start with
if you’re just beginning to get to grips with the
key concepts of music-making. While any piece
of music can be complicated, it’s house, more
than perhaps any other genre, that can sound
superb despite comprising only a few very simple elements.
As long as you have a great lead, a fat bass line and a good
collection of rhythmic percussion – and as long as you’re
willing to spend a little time getting your mix right – you’ll
have a winner.
Much of producing house is actually about sound design
– specifically, sound design using synths. An understanding
of the fundamental concepts of synthesis – how oscillators
An understanding of the
fundamental concepts of
synthesis is absolutely crucial
line and percussion, as well as covering a couple of mixing
On the disc principles such as sidechaining. We’re using Ableton Live to
do this, but the principles we discuss can easily be
transferred to other DAWs. Live is ideal for this job mainly
Accompanying because of its Session View, which enables you to create
project file included
on the DVD Clips, each containing a loop or a selection of audio. You can
fire off the loops at any time, and when you bring in others,
Ableton keeps things perfectly in time. Session View is a
giant sketchpad for your track, letting you add in and
remove things on-the-fly and craft the perfect beat. Once
you’ve mastered it, it’s just as good for live performances as
it is in the studio.
But if you want to produce house music, the most
important thing you can learn is something not covered in
this guide: listening. You need to hear as much house as you
possibly can – pour as much of it into your ears as you can
handle. Try to isolate the individual sounds and, if possible,
reverse-engineer them. Not only will this help you get a
deeper understanding of your synths, but also a deeper
understanding of the music itself. MT

This tutorial has been endorsed by The Academy of Contemporary Music.

ACM delivers programmes for serious students looking to become music
make sound, how you can modulate them, what filters do industry professionals. Its faculty includes lecturers who have performed
and so on – is absolutely crucial. You’ll also need to have a and recorded alongside some of the biggest names in music and worked
in every area of the industry. See more at: www.acm.ac.uk
good understanding of how MIDI data works and how it’s
different from audio (put simply, a MIDI note is just a signal
to the instrument it’s attached to in order to play a
sound; unlike audio, it doesn’t
actually contain any sound itself).
We’re going to produce a house
track in 12 steps, using various
techniques to create our lead, bass

FOCUS ON… ORIGINALITY

A couple of months ago, Swedish DJ duo
Daleri did something interesting. They took
the top 100 tracks on dance music site
Beatport, isolated the drop from each one,
then blended the drops into a one-minute
mix. It was scary just how similar most of
them were, using the same leads,
percussion and techniques. Bottom line? It’s
very easy to get caught up in mimicking
what everyone else is doing and create a
track that doesn’t sound all that creative or
unique. Once you’ve nailed the basics of
Operator (or whatever synth you use), spend
a good deal of time delving into its inner
workings – come up with something no one
has heard before and you’ll have a winner.

MAGAZINE September 2013 | 67


MT Step-by-Step How to produce authentic house
A good house track depends on a kick-ass lead. We’re going to
01 build one using Ableton Live’s Operator synth. Drag it onto a track,
then double-click the Clip Slot to open a new MIDI track. Lay down a
four-bar sequence – doesn’t have to be anything fancy, as you can
always change it later. When you’re done, press [Shift]+[Tab] to switch
back to Instrument View.
Right now, if you introduce more oscillators – and you’ll certainly
03 want to – each will be modulating the other, which will give a very
odd sound. Click the bottom-right grey box (the one with Time, Tone
and Volume in it) and you’ll see a bunch of colourful patterns appear.
Select the right-most one, with the boxes – each representing an
oscillator – lined up.
Filter time. You’ll automate this later when you’re building your
05 track, but for now, play around with the various values to see how
it affects your sound (remember to click the square button to activate
it). We suggest playing with the envelope value in the main display – a
setting of 60–70% can give some real character.
How to produce authentic house Technique MT
First things first: pick a wave. The current Sin wave isn’t really
02 strong enough, so select Oscillator A (by clicking in the grey box
surrounding it) and then open the pop-up menu in the main instrument
window. Pick one of the Saw waves – this will give you a much grittier,
more interesting tone. Dial down Osc A’s Coarse knob a little, too.
Push up the level of Osc B, set the wave to the shape you picked
04 for Osc A, and use the Coarse knob to detune it to your liking.
Already, you’re getting something more interesting. Play around with
the Fine knobs on each Osc to get just the tone you like. This part of the
process all comes down to personal taste.
There are a couple of other things you can do to give your lead
06 more life. Adjust the Spread control to maximum – you’ll instantly
hear the stereo spread widen – then activate the LFO. The low-
frequency oscillator is going to give your sound a bit of wobble, which
will really make it stand out.
MAGAZINE September 2013 | 69
MT Technique How to produce authentic house
MT Step-by-Step How to produce authentic house, cont’d
With the loop playing, pick the shape of your LFO. You’ll be able to
07 hear how each shape affects the sound differently – a triangle
will make it rise and fall evenly, while a square will be choppy. You can
probably leave the Range and Retrigger controls alone for the time
being, although feel free to experiment.
That’s the lead sorted – time for some drums. Actually, getting a
09 basic drum pattern going is pretty straightforward: put a Drum
Rack into a track, open a MIDI clip, then use the Browser to start
auditioning kicks, snares, hats and cymbals. For house beginners, we’d
recommend a 707 kick for that classic vibe.
Sidechain compression is something you’ll use again and again. It
11 lowers the volume of a chosen sound every time a drum (or
whatever you specify) hits. Load a compressor onto your lead track,
click Sidechain, select your drum sub-mix, then adjust the
compression values with the main loop playing. This will create loads
of room in your mix.
70 | September 2013 MAGAZINE
Rate and Amount will determine how much LFO actually gets
08 injected into your sound. For something subtle, try turning
Amount up to almost completely full and set the Rate very low (no
higher than 10%). You’ll instantly hear that another element has been
injected into the sound.
You may want to think about putting each drum element into its
10 own track – you can then create a sub-group, allowing you finer
control over the mix. Lay down your drum pattern as you like (we’ve
gone four-to-the-floor here) and spend a little time processing and
mixing your drums with EQ and some light compression.
After adding a bass line (Operator again, just tweaked differently)
12 it’s time to mix it all together and actually lay down your track.
Once you’ve got a balance you’re happy with, start recording it to
Arrangement View. The beauty of Ableton is that everything stays in
time, no matter when you fire off your clips.
 CONSOLIDATING TIME TO NEW SCENE

One of the most underrated new features of Ableton Live 9, is a very simple technique called
“Consolidate Time to New Scene.” This allows you to select an amount of time from a finished
track’s Arrangement and turn all of the song elements in said selection into a playable, loopable
series of clips set up in a brand new Session View scene.

Most Ableton users are aware of Live’s two different views, so I won’t go into too much detail
about them. First, we have the more “traditional” linear sequencing view known as the
Arrangement View. Second, Ableton has it’s trademark, less linear, more “sandbox” style view
called the Session View. This is where we see musical ideas set up in simple block-like Clips,
that we can play around with, mix-and-match, and rearrange in various ways without
committing them to a particular sequence.

The Session View has become the main live performance tool for several of the most popular
DJs and producers as of late. Why? Because instead of just finishing a track, creating a stereo
bounce, and pressing the “play” button to play their music out, producers and DJs can take the
pieces of music from their tracks (the kick drum, the bass, the snare, the vocals, etc.), and play
around with them live. As a DJ, I am no longer bound to just “play” a track that I finished up
yesterday. I can take the stems, add more effects to them, or even re-edit or remix my song on
the fly during my live set! With Live 9, it really couldn’t be easier to get your own tracks “live
performance ready.”

So, for this quick example, I’m using a very simple four-stem song I’m working on (see image
1). I have four different instrument parts featured this track – kick drum, percussion, bass, and
arpeggio. The song is currently contained all in the Arrangement View, and my Session View is
completely blank.

Image 1

What I’m going to do next is create a Scene (or a series of clips lined up horizontally) in the
Session View that corresponds to all of the instrument parts I have playing during the INTRO of
my song (which I have set up as the first eight bars). In order to achieve this, I am going to use
my mouse to select those eight bars of time in my Arrangement (see image 1 – the selection is
highlighted in blue).
Once I have selected this amount of time (and note that you can select time from ANY ONE of
the tracks in your Arrangement, no need to highlight all of them), I am going to click the
“CREATE” drop-down menu from the task bar at the top of my screen. Then, I am going to
select the option to “Consolidate Time to New Scene” (see image 2).

Image 2

Ableton takes a second to do it’s thing, and then viola, you’re done! But wait a minute, why
does it look like nothing happened!? Well, let’s flip back over to the Session View (press the Tab
key). As you can see, a new Scene, or group of Clips arranged HORIZONTALLY, has been
created (see image 3). I can now use the Scene launch button to play back all of these clips
simultaneously, or I can launch them one at a time.

Image 3
Notice two things:
1) Only the clips that were playing in the eight bars of time that I selected are present in the
Scene (there is no Clip for the ARP track, because it was not playing in the Arrangement during
the Intro).
2) All of the clips have been set up to play back for eight bars (the duration that I previously
selected) AND they are all set up to loop (see the bottom Clip View window in image 3).

All I have to do now is go though my song’s Arrangement and select different sections of time –
maybe highlight my verses, choruses (drops), and outro – where different elements of my track
are playing. Every time you select an amount of time and choose “Consolidate Time to New
Scene,” you will have a brand new Scene created that you can work with in Session View!

As a final tip, it’s always good practice to rename your Scenes so you know what part of your
song you intend to play back when launching them (see image 4).

Image 4
Technique | Ableton Live

Ableton Live
talked about it here before, but it usually
gets cool results; at the very worst it’s a
good exercise in using Live’s sampling tools.
Our example Live set contains a sample
that’s ready to go, as well as the finished
drum rack that was made with it, so you

Noise, Sleaze
have something to compare to and keep you
on track. Sure, you have to go off and use
your own sample as well, but stick to ours
while you’re following the steps, or it’ll
sound all wrong! Our sample was recorded
in a coffee shop, with the mic on my

and Dirt
MacBook Pro, straight into Live, capturing
some ambient sound. It’s a ‘good’ sound, as
much as it’s useable as-is, and it doesn’t
need too much processing to make it work.
There’s not much point in working with
collected samples if you need to change
and process them so far that they could’ve

For some genres, you can’t have everything clean been anything. I try to restrict myself to
using the basic sampling controls inside

and shiny – it’s plain wrong. So this month Simpler, and only add a couple of ‘feature’
effects if necessary. What I will do, is use a
Martin Delaney shows you how to corrupt and lot of EQ and compression – these are the

degrade your precious compositions

most important sampling tools of all. EQ is
used mostly for filtering out the low end of
samples that have too much low ‘rumble’,

T
and compression is applied to each sound
he time has come to have a talk about sound abuse. I’m not talking The Expert in the kit separately, to maximise volume,
about blasting your neighbours with loud music all night, I mean Martin Delaney, but also clip and contain the levels.
trashing your samples and programmed sounds, adding the Performer, Producer Compression can also change the tone of a
necessary dirt and sleaze to make them sound more like they belong Artist and sample, bringing out different textures that
instructor
in the real world. A good way to start is with sample manipulation, Martin, aka
weren’t so obvious beforehand.
and in our walkthrough we take a single, not very interesting, sample, mindlobster, For the kit in the tutorial I used Live’s
has produced Live
and use it to build a drum rack with four different percussion sounds. Hopefully Glue Compressor, because it’s widely
training material and
this will give you some ideas about recording, squeezing, and stretching, was one of the UK’s available 3 , although usually I go to PSP’s
samples of your own, to make percussion or instrument sounds. This will give first certified Ableton Vintage Warmer 4 . You can put another
Live trainers.
you a source instrument to play with while you’re thinking about the effects compressor in the track after the rack, so it
processing we’re interested in as well. Programmed music, with software applies to the entire kit.
instruments, tends to sound very clean, to the point of being sterile. Sometimes
this is a good thing, and for some instrument parts within a mix, it’s exactly what Getting Destructive
you want. But personally, for an entire track, for an entire mix, I find it boring.
Live has the worst guitar amp simulations of any
Dirt is good DAW – it’s like they’re not even trying! Seriously.
The good news is that there are a lot of tools we can use, inside and outside of But there is an upside to the downside – these
Live, to add dirt and grit to our otherwise highly polished tunes 1 . A lot of
people reading this probably do these kind of things routinely anyway, but as a
same lousy guitar amp models are great for
Live trainer, I know for sure there are also people who are working with downgrading beats, synths, and vocals. There are
exclusively programmed music, and they are concerned that their mixes end up the Amp Simulations in the Audio Effect Rack
sounding too clean. This applies more to some genres than others, especially section of the Browser, but you can also find the
some so-called ‘urban’ styles, but you can improve the texture of any mix by
dirtying the water a bit. In the old days, this would be less of a problem because
separate Cabinet and Amp devices in the Audio
people were recording onto tape, with analogue gear, and there would be plenty Effects section, so you can get a little bit more
of dirt introduced along the way naturally. Now we have to do it ourselves! specific with your destructive tendencies. I have
You can get texture by using different sounds, from different sources,
recorded in different ways (and by not using presets... but don’t get me started
used the 1x12 Cab preset a few times... but
on that one today). There’s no reason why a tune can’t contain really nasty lo-fi never, never, with guitars!
noise as well as flashy state of the art synths! All you really need to make this
happen is Ableton Live, some software instruments (the ones inside Live are Live’s dirt devices
great), a microphone (even your computer’s built-in mic will do), 2 and So now we’ve built our kit, and we’ve got other sounds in a track, let’s think
anything with a speaker. about how we can dirty things up. As far as that kit goes, we can add bitcrushers
like Redux 5 , and distortions to specific sounds in the kit; the Dynamic Tube/
(Almost) any sound will do Tube Trash preset should sound good on the ‘snare’ we’ve made in our drum
Let’s start with that beat. It’s an old-school sampling technique to take one kit 6 . Live has Dynamic Tube, Redux, Erosion, and Saturator. It also has the
sample and manipulate it to create an entire drum kit or instrument, and I’ve guitar amp and speaker cabinet models – so you should be good for distortion!

72
 Ableton Live | Technique

1 2

>
Dirt is Good

(Almost) Any Sound 3

VIDEO ON

>
Will Do
THE DVD
Watch the tutorial
movie on the DVD

4 5

>
Live’s Dirt Devices

7 8

73
Technique | Ableton Live

You can make a really nasty sound by

Real Speaker
using EQ, distortion, and then compression.
Beats Fake
The good thing about compressors that
Speaker
limit is that you can boost them really hard,
Plug-ins are okay, but
into overdrive, but the signal is still limited nothing equals the sound
at the end. of running beats through
a real speaker, and
Live’s Operator synth has a role to play, mic’ing it up, then routing
as I mention elsewhere on these pages. it to another track in Live.
After that, mix the clean
Operator’s cool because you can dial up and dirty signals for
white noise as a waveform, then use a maximum impact. EQs
and compressors are your
rack to layer that noise under an instrument best friends.
or drum track. You can use the chain’s
volume control to mix the noise volume
level, and adjust Operator’s release time
to fit in what’s happening in your main
instrument part.
Max For Live’s Convolution Reverb effect
is a monster noise tool because you can
load any type of sample into it, including
noises that you’ve just generated in
Operator, or, well, all kinds of things –
machine sounds, voices, guitar chords –
whatever, it all sounds good. I like putting vocal samples in there; you can there. Noises of all kinds work really well; you
use words, but long breathy sounds work – put the reverb on a return track and can treat them like any other source sound – the
solo it, so that all you can hear is the ghostly noise imprint of whatever tracks
are being fed to the return 7 .
reverb’s controls make a lot of difference to how
Sometimes I resample a section of a song into a new audio track, and use they behave – subtle or more obvious.
that short loop instead of the original separate tracks. This gives your mixing
process a different vibe, and gets further away from your original parts – it feels Get some outside dirt
more like working with a loop you’ve cut from another record. The easiest way to You can reach another level of degradation by sending your sounds outside the
do this is with Live’s Resampling audio input option in the In/Out View. Select computer, and bringing them back in. Anything with a speaker, a line-in, or a
Resampling, arm the track, and play back the tracks you want to resample from, microphone, can work. If you’ve got nothing else, you probably have a voice
then record them into a new clip 8 . Now you can treat this sample in new ways memo type application on your phone. Just play a sound through your studio
– apply different warp modes to it, use Beats warp mode to gate the transients, monitors and record it onto your phone; then sync that recording across and
transpose the clip, reverse it; it’s all good. load it into your set.
You can even then load your new resampled clip into Simpler, so you can You can do the same thing with those little digital dictation recorders, if your
play it back off a keyboard or arpeggiator, and apply even more processing to it. phone doesn’t do it. I’ve also used toy voice recorders – I have a little thing that
Very often I convert these samples to mono, which adds to the old-school records a few seconds; I’ll record into that, then hold that up against a
sampling vibe. Because resampling happens after the returns and master, you microphone to record it back into Live. I like dynamic microphones better for
could use this method to capture the solo’d reverbs I talked about earlier. these activities. The reissued Stylophone is one of the best things around for
A non-standard plug-in that’s effective for lo-fi sounds is Izotope’s free Vinyl. these projects – not only does it have a horrible little speaker, it has a convenient
I use this to bind resampled sections together and make them sound different ‘MP3’ input, which you can use to connect your computer, or synth, or guitar,
again from the original parts. and then mic it up to get the resulting
grungy sound back into your
Convolution Reverb computer. If the sound is too thin or
just too nasty, double it up with the
If you have Max For Live, original, and mix them together.
which is included in the Put Some Like I said before, EQ and
Live 9 Suite as well as Noise In compression are very useful! Small
There guitar amps are also good for
being available If you have a track with a resampling; the good thing about
separately, you have a software instrument or
drums, rack it, then add a them, compared to toys like the
Convolution Reverb in the chain with Operator.
Create a noise patch
Stylophone, is that you can
Max Audio Effect section using Operator’s White experiment more with mic placement
Noise waveform, and mix around the larger speakers – even a
of your Live Library. The it in with your original
slight change in position will affect
sound, so you get a nasty
Convolution Reverb is lurking noise behind the resulting tone. I don’t personally
great for applying your track.
like using guitar amps and effects on
synths, because they come out
samples of real-world sounding too... guitary... but I do love
spaces to your reverb to use them on drums and vocals.
palette, but it’s important It’s like I said – you don’t want to
to realise that you can use these techniques on every sound,
but they’re great for adding more
put any kind of sound in texture and glue to your mix!

74
 Ableton Live | Technique

Build a Drum Kit

with Sample
Manipulation
Let’s take this poor little audio
03 >
Transpose the sample to -12 semitones. Go
to the volume envelope controls and set
decay to 60ms, sustain to -22dB, and

sample around the back and release to 200ms. Set Length to 4%. Raise
the Simpler volume to 18dB. Compressors
are useful to add to each of our kit sounds

beat it around for a while – see the body text for suggested settings.
Now we have a reasonable kick drum sound,
quite soft, with a little bit of a tail on it.

01 >
Start with our example clip called ‘source’.
We only want the beginning of this. Turn off
loop, and make sure the start marker is at
1.3, the beginning of the waveform, and
move the end marker to 3.3. Now right-click
in the waveform, in-between those markers,
and choose ‘crop sample’. This will discard
the unwanted sections of the sample.

04
Snare time. Drag the sample onto the D1 pad.
Set volume to 8dB, filter to HP12, and Freq
800Hz, Res 2.50. Set Start: 11.9%, Length
10%. Transpose +5. Set Decay 300ms,
Sustain -8.6, Release 7.00s, Spread 10%.
Rename the chains as you go. Now add two

02>
percussion sounds, on E1 and F1. For Perc 1,
set filter to LP12, Freq 22.0kHz, Res 0.70...

Create an empty drum rack in a new MIDI

track. Drag the cropped sample into the rack’s
C1 pad. This automatically loads an instance
of Simpler, with the sample’s waveform
displayed. Let’s make a kick drum. Inside
Simpler, turn on the filter and set it to low

05 >
pass. Set the Freq to 150Hz and the Res to
2.00. Keep testing the sounds by triggering
them from your keyboard.
Set Start to 28.6%, Length to 10%. Set
Decay to 300ms, Sustain -8.0dB, Release
267ms. Transpose +12, and Pan 15R.
Volume to 6.00dB. Duplicate this chain to
create Perc 2. Change Transpose to +24,
Sustain to -5.4dB, Release to 8.00ms, and
Pan to 15L. Refer to our body text for more
about compression, and our example set for
‘before/after’ versions of the sample.

75
If you would like to import a large number of audio samples in Ableton Live and keymap them to
individual keys , do these things.

1. Open up an instance of the Sampler instrument

2. Select all the audio files you would like to keymap at one time and drag them to the sampler.You can
either do this by dragging samples from Lives session or arrange view or from a directory on your
computer.

3. Select Zone and then select every zone by using Command A for Mac or CTRL A for Windows

4. Move the ends of the keymap display so the number of spanned keys is equal to the number of
samples.
5. Right click and choose Distribute Ranges Equally

The result should be each sample keymapped to it's own individual note.

Signal paths, routing and grouping
Much of the mixer’s power lies in its ability to
interrupt, route and re-route signals for practical
or creative purposes. Each channel strip has a
pan control, allowing a sound to be ‘positioned’
between the left and right speakers, replicating
instruments’ locations on a (virtual) soundstage.
To achieve this, each channel’s output is
divided into two ‘left’ and ‘right’ outputs behind
the scenes. If a pan control is set fully left, the
right side’s gain will be reduced, and output of
the left side will be raised by a certain amount to
compensate for the overall drop in level (usually
+3dB). This means a stereo sound isn’t truly
moved across the stereo field, so an external
plugin (eg, Logic’s Directional Mixer) must be
used if you want to truly ‘reposition’ a stereo
sound without just turning down one side of it.
Insert pun
Insert slots allow you to place a plugin effect at
a certain point in the channel’s signal flow to
alter the audio’s characteristics at that point.
When positioned pre-fader, the effect will occur
before the channel’s volume fader in the signal
path, so level changes will not affect the inserted
device’s effect. This is the most common insert
type and is useful for level-dependent plugins
such as compressors, noise gates or distortion.
When a plugin is inserted post-fader,
changes to the volume slider’s position affect
the input level of that effect. This can be useful,
say, if you want a frequency analyser’s display to
alter when that channel’s volume is changed. Be
aware of this difference, otherwise you may
painstakingly tweak a compressor post-fader,
then turn up the fader, causing it to be
compressed much harder and ruining the effect
you carefully dialled in.
By default, each of a mixer’s channels will
travel directly to the master output fader, but
sometimes it may be more practical to take a
group of similar tracks for processing together
using one channel strip. Drum elements, for
> Step by step 2. Exploring the difference between pre and post-fader sends
1 2
Let’s look at the difference between
using sends and returns in pre-fader
and post-fader mode – a concept featured
in most DAWs. We’ve imported a loop onto
a new track in Ableton Live 9 and set up a
Reverb on a new Return track. The
reverb’s Dry/Wet is set to 100% so that
only its effected signal can be heard
coming out of the return, as is standard
practice for effects on a return channel.
mixer basics / make music now <
PRE-FADER
SEND
POST-FADER
SEND
GROUP
The signal flow of a virtual mixer is practically the same as that of a physical mixing desk, but it’s more customisable
example, are often processed as a whole. Some
DAWs can now create a group channel at the
click of a mouse, but a more hands-on method
is to create a new channel and set its input as
the outputs of the tracks you wish to group. The
exact method varies from DAW to DAW, so
again, break out that manual and read up on it.
Grouping tracks becomes even more flexible
when routing groups to other groups. Route ten
vocal channels as appropriate to two groups
named ‘Lead Vocals’ and ‘Backing Vocals’, then
send those two groups to a final ‘Vocals’ group.
Sends and returns
Another feature of a mixing desk is the auxiliary
Let’s now send our loop’s signal in
parallel to the return track using the
track’s Send amount. By default, Live’s
returns are set up in Post Fader mode,
shown by the yellow Post button on the
master channel. If we pull down our loop’s
channel fader, we can hear the reverb
drop in level with it. This is because the
loop’s signal is sent after the level fader in
the signal path.
November 2013 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 69
RETURNS
MASTER
send. This creates a ‘copy’ of your signal either
pre- or post-fader, routing as much or as little of
it as you wish (controlled by the send knob) to a
return channel. This routing can be sent from
multiple channels and is commonly used to
apply reverb, delay, etc, to a mix.
We could, say, send vocals, guitar and snare
to Buss 1 in varying amounts, and set Buss 1 as
the input to a new return channel. This channel
will play the three elements balanced in relation
to the send levels we set. If we add a reverb
insert effect to the return channel, and set that
reverb to 100% wet, the return channel enables
us to adjust the reverb signal for the vocals,
guitar and snare using a single channel strip.
3
We now switch our send mode to
Pre-Fader. As we pull down the loop’s
Volume fader, this time the volume of our
return track remains at a high level,
unaffected by the position of our channel’s
fader. This is because the send signal is
sent to the return before the volume fader,
ie, pre-fader.
MT Technique Composition & Experimentation in Live

Ableton Live Become a Live Power User

Compose &
New
Series
Part 3

experiment
What do you do when you run out of ideas and hit that brick wall in composition? Experiment!
Liam O’Mullane guides you through Live’s tools for experimental work…

T
here are many moments in music composition
when you might feel the need for experimenting,
or using tools you might not normally turn to. You
could be suffering from writer’s block and not
know where to take your work next, or perhaps
you’re stuck on the first idea and need something to kick
start it all off. Or maybe you are nearing the end of your song
writing and feel the track still needs something better
within it. There’s always the option to step away from your
work and think about new ideas, but the only problem with
main different is that you’re collaborating with your
On the disc computer, but like working with other people, you still get to
approve, dismiss or amend any ideas put on the table.
There are many times I’ve completely re-worked an idea
Accompanying to see where it could go and I’ve rarely found the efforts to
project file included
on the DVD be worthless. These changes might transform a lifeless idea
into something much more upbeat, or create various other
instances of an idea I can use for variations or fills at the
end of a phrase. So try not to be too precious when going
through the techniques covered in this workshop. You
should instead see this as a challenge: how far can you take
an idea to create a completely new one? The process can be

You should see this as a quite inspirational and potentially give you a new key part to
your latest work. MT

challenge: how far can you take

an idea to create a new one
this is that it might not take you into any
new territories – it is still you and
probably the same thought processes
you always use, after all! Experimenting
is a much better way and opens up
many new possibilities and could result
in some of your most unique work yet.
This doesn’t mean that your musical
integrity is compromised in any way.
You’re simply leaving an interpretation
of your work in the hands of somewhere
else, just as you would if you
collaborated with another person. The

FOCUS ON… MAKING THE

MOST OF YOUR EFFORTS
Live has one of the simplest ways of dealing with
the individual contents of a project. At any given
time you can search the contents of another
project in the Live browser and drag any tracks or
individual clips out and into your currently loaded
session. This also works in reverse, so if you have
a good idea but it may not suit the current project
you’re working on, grab the top of the track or a
clip respectively, then drag it to a sensible place
for easy access in the future. I have a folder called
song ideas which I drag every unused idea into.
Live also lets you preview these ideas in tempo
with your project, meaning you can audition your
own ideas in the same context as you would with
audio loops.

44 | November 2013 MAGAZINE


MT Step-by-Step Experimental MIDI
We’ll start with some of the most musical forms of manipulation,
01 for when you don’t want to move too far away from a musical
structure you may have already created. Under the MIDI effects tab
you will find many tools to play with. We’re starting with the
Arpeggiator which is useful for quickly transforming simple ideas into
something more animated.
We then placed a second arpeggiator device and tweaked this to
03 produce more movement to the melody. For further changes to
this set-up you can feed the arpeggiator more notes using a chord
device. You then just move the Pitch dials for each note you add and
tweak until you like the results.
To record the results of any experimentation with MIDI effects,
05 add a new MIDI Track, select the output of the track you want to
record from the top MIDI From menu, then select Post FX so all your
processing is captured. New MIDI clips will be created when you record
with all the new content as notes, meaning you can manually edit
these parts to perfection.
Composition & Experimentation in Live Technique MT
We’ve gone from an incredibly simple melody with a single note
02 per beat to a flourish of notes using two arpeggiators. This
arpeggiator began its life from the C Major Walk 16th Grooved preset
which we then modified through changing the rate for faster runs and
transpose was changed from major to minor to suit the existing
melody more.
Another way to explore new possibilities is to use a Random
04 device which, as you’d expect, creates random events from your
existing MIDI material. Tweak its settings so the Chance amount is high
for less repetition, then experiment with other parameters.
Don’t think that this type of experimentation is only reserved for
06 melodic work. Try dragging these effects to your drum ideas.
Because drum kit layouts rarely use all of the MIDI notes available,
you’ll need to bare this in mind when you tweak parameters otherwise
the majority of the notes being created could be triggering nothing.
MAGAZINE November 2013 | 45
MT Technique Composition & Experimentation in Live
MT Step-by-Step Creative audio processing
Certain aspects of audio processing are considered mixing aids,
01 like compression, EQ and so on. But other effects can become
part of your creative process. For instance an immediate and drastic
way to change your ideas into something rhythmic is to add an Auto
Pan device.
Auto Pan works best on sounds with a constant output whereas
03 delays can be useful for the opposite situation when you have
more sporadic notes. Try adding a Simple Delay device and exploring
the Delay Time values, press Link if you don’t want a stereo effect and,
of course, explore automation too.
For musical pitch changes to an audio file over time you need
05 to automate the clip’s Tranpose control. But for sound-design
styles of pitch change, try Frequency Shifter as this doesn’t keep
the harmonic relationships intact which adds a nastier tone to
your sounds.
46 | November 2013 MAGAZINE
You can take this a step further by automating its sync value so
02 rhythmic changes become an integral part of your idea. For quick
automation either hit the Arrangement Record Button in arrangement
view or the Session Record Button for session view. Then tweak away
to record your movement.
The time aspect of your ideas can also be manipulated through
04 the use of Live’s Beat Repeat device. This can add a mash-up/edit
like aspect to your work so it saves the need for you to get heavily into
editing for a quick re-work. Explore the library presets, especially
Decontruct which will heavily change your current sound.
Thankfully turning any audio processed into a new, rendered clip
06 is much simpler than working with MIDI effects. Just Right [PC] /
Ctrl [Mac] + Click the top of a track in session view or its header to the
right in arrangement view. Select Freeze Track from the menu, then
right click again and select Flatten.
MT Technique Composition & Experimentation in Live
MT Step-by-Step Max For Live devices
For those who own Live Suite, you can use many of the Max for
01 Live devices for experimental work as well. A good starting point
is Mono Sequencer if you don’t have anything created already. It’s a
monophonic step sequencer but its Random button is the real winner
for unexpected results.
Drunk Again is an interesting device as it adds Random’s rapid
03 repeats of notes within the playback of your MIDI clip. It’s best
recorded for a while to capture the magic moments. We like this on
percussion parts to help them get the glitch treatment.
When it comes to adjusting parameters over time there are a few
05 tools with Max that allow you to do this, with an added twist of
being able to use another sound as the trigger for the sound you’re
focussing on. Alongside your melody idea, set up a drum source. Here
we’re using a simple drum loop.
48 | November 2013 MAGAZINE
The Random button randomizes whichever of the five tabs are
02 selected at anytime - Pitch, Velocity, Octave, Duration and
Repeat. If you’re close to getting something you like, keep Random set
to a lower percentage, but if you want complete change with each
click, set this to 100%.
Instant Haus is another interesting device as it’s designed to
04 drive kick, snare/clap, hi-hat and percussion parts for immediate
house music. Run this into an instrument and you might get results
similar to Mono Sequencer, but the random section includes groove if
you want to explore timing.
Under Audio Effects in the Max for Live folder, grab an Envelope
06 Follower and drag this to the drum track. This will follow the
rhythmic amplitude changes of the drum sound. You can then click
Map followed by clicking the parameter you wish to control to connect
them together.
MT Technique Audio recording & editing in Live

Ableton Live Become a Live Power User

Audio recording
New
Series
Part 4

and editing in Live

Whether you intend to record a multi-mic’ed performance or just the odd found sound, you’ll
need to understand how recording and editing works in Live. Liam O’Mullane explains...

S
ince part one of this Become a Power User
series, we’ve covered programming techniques,
getting the most out of Push and composition
and experimentation. But although we covered
the ins and outs of setting up low-latency
project file included
performance in Live in part one, it’s not until now that
we’ve focused specifically on the recording process itself.
Like many aspects of Live, there’s more than one way to
skin a cat, and when it comes to recording audio, the main
option is whether to record in Arrangement or Session
View. The first two walkthroughs will guide you through
audio to keep it in-time after re-pitching. You can minimise
this by using different Warp modes on either a global or
edit-by-edit basis as required, but the good, old-fashioned
vari-speed approach can also come in handy when you
Accompanying want to completely avoid any time-stretch-based
on the DVD artefacts. But this isn’t artefact-free, either, as the sound
will suffer from timing distortions as you alter pitch. So
after hearing the differences between the two, you’ll have a
better idea of which approach is the most appropriate for
the task at hand.
Before hitting record, also make sure that you’re set up
for the desired bit-depth and sample rate. Bit-depth

It’s notuntilnowthatwe’ve dictates the available dynamic range in your recordings,

with 24-bit being a typical choice. Sample rates represent

focusedspecificallyonthe the highest frequency limit (once halved) of your

recordings, and there are all sorts of arguments as to

recordingprocessitself which setting is best. In general, the higher the fidelity you
want, the higher the sample rate needs to be. Orchestral
recordings tend to be recorded at 88.2kHz or above. Most
both approaches, but like the different approaches to electronic music can be set to anywhere from 44.1kHz and
editing described in the third step-by-step, one size does above. Sample rate can be altered after opening
not fit all. So take the techniques discussed onboard, but Preferences from the Options/Live (PC/Mac) menu and
it’s only through repeated use that you’ll gain a personal selecting Audio from the left-hand tab. For bit-depth, click
context for their use. This time is needed to decide which the Record Launch Warp tab. MT
approach best suits your own preferences for workflow
and the tasks you will typically undertake. For instance,
pitch-correction (covered in the third walkthrough) can be
applied by using many of the excellent Warp modes
available. While these will allow you to preserve the timing
of your recordings, a side effect can be that the sound
quality is compromised as it stretches or condenses your

FOCUS ON… CUE MIXING

When recording,you may need to create a custom headphone mix for a
performer that differs from the mix you want to listen to as you record.This
headphone mix could include lots of reverb for a vocalist,helping them to feel
comfortable while performing,and perhaps a loud melodic instrument to help
them stay in-tune.A drummer may want everything but themselves in their
headphones as their drums are already loud enough.Whatever your
requirements,you will most likely need to route the Cue output of Live to the
relevant output on your interface to feed the headphones.This needs to be a
different output from that used for the Master output of Live,otherwise it will
merely copy the main mix.The Cue output will play back any pre-count and the
metronome,if required,but it can also send other audio from your project to the
performer’s headphones.A Cue option appears above the Cue level control after
selecting its separate audio output settings.When enabled,this will turn all
solo buttons into a headphone icon.For quick set-up you can simply enable the
relevant icon to send those channels to the headphones.For an independent
mix of tracks,send only a single return track to the Cue out and instead use the
other tracks’ send controls to blend the desired balance of instruments to the
headphones via this return track.

64 | December 2013 MAGAZINE


MT Step-by-Step Recording in Arrangement View
You can choose to record in both Session and Arrangement
01 Views.This can be when Live is already in the middle of playback
or you can use a pre-count to count in the start of both recording and
playback at the same time.The metronome button has a menu for
tailoring the duration of pre-count for the performers’ needs.
If you want to record multiple takes with this non-looping
03 approach, it’s best to record each new take to a different track.
You can then accurately split each part by disabling Snap To Grid from
the Options menu and using Split from the Edit menu.The [0] key can
be used to disable takes when determining the best ones.
Another approach is to track multiple recordings by cycling over a
05 small section repeatedly.This is useful if you want to ad-lib and
try out multiple different ideas. Start by looping around the area of
focus, then record various times until you think there are sufficient
decent parts to work with.
Audio recording & editing in Live Technique MT
To capture a natural performance, it’s best not to focus on
02 smaller sections and loop around them. Instead, use Live in a
purely linear mode by making sure that Loop Switch is disabled, then
record the performance from start to finish.This will result in a much
more natural-sounding recording than working in small sections.
If a performer can’t quite nail a full take or did a good job but
04 small sections might benefit from a re-take, you can use Live’s
punch-in/-out function. Click and highlight the area to focus on and
select Loop Selection to move the Loop Brace. Press the Punch-In/-
Out Switch (in yellow) to map to the Loop Braces’ start and end points.
Recording will now take place only between these two points.
The audio clip that you’ve recorded will have an internal Loop
06 Brace that’s the length of your clip.To audition the other takes,
simply move the Loop Brace around to change the content of the clip.
This avoids the alternative, lengthy approach of moving and extending
the clip to gain access to the other takes.
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MT Technique Audio recording & editing in Live
MT Step-by-Step Recording in Session View
Session View can be useful for Arrangement View-like cycle
01 recording, except that clips are recorded to separate slots, which
keeps things easier to deal with visually. If you intend to work in a
linear way you can simply hit record in an empty clip slot and record
continuously, then drag the file into Arrangement View for editing.
Now that you have your recordings, you can either drag them into
03 Arrangement View for editing, or use an exclusive method within
Session View.This technique is much more hands-on and less
graphically-based. Once you’ve set up your Loop Braces to represent
each take, drag the recordings to one track so you can play back only
one take at a time.
Next, assign computer keys or MIDI notes to each clip using
05 either Key Map mode or MIDI Map mode from the top right of the
screen. Now you can launch the takes with your fingers and jam out
potential edits of the recordings. We find that this helps you listen to
how the edits alter the performance, and you can practice until you
think it sounds right.
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Multiple takes can be recorded separately by creating multiple
02 tracks with their Arm buttons enabled.Then, as long as Start
Recording on Scene Launch is enabled from the Preferences menu,
you just trigger a scene to start playback and recording of your
multiple takes. Alter each clip’s Loop Brace position as in Step 6 of the
previous walkthrough so that they represent each take.
Highlighting your recordings, open the Launch Box, enable Legato
04 mode and set Quantization to none. Legato allows you to move
from playing one clip to another without losing the playback position.
This lets you jump between one take and the other like a manual edit.
The lack of Quantization means launching of clips will be immediate.
When you’re ready to commit your compiling to Live, hit the
06 Arrangement Record Button to capture your performance in
Arrangement View. From here you can fine-tune and edit between
parts. Drag the takes back to Session View if necessary after
consolidating it to a new audio file via the Edit menu.

MT Step-by-Step Editing techniques
There are several key tools you’ll need to work with when editing
01 a performance. If you’ve already comped from various takes you’ll
have multiple clips sequenced one after another. Live will
automatically smooth-out the edits you’ve made with a crossfade.To
view and edit these, select Show Fades from the Create menu.
Fade-ins/-outs can also be controlled in this way.
Disabling Warp mode from the Sample View allows you to
03 re-pitch your audio clips for correction purposes using vari-
speed.This means that the audio’s duration will expand or contract as
you go down or up in pitch respectively. Use the Transpose and Detune
amounts to correct your audio’s pitch.
Like tuning a non-warped clip,Transpose and Detune can be
05 used with Warp mode enabled as long as it’s set to anything but
Re-Pitch mode. Finer tuning through Detune is best for minor
corrections, but this can have only a static setting per clip, so Split
each area to be corrected and set the Detune on a part-by-part basis.
Audio recording & editing in Live Technique MT
When trying to improve the timing of smaller edits, rather than
02 trying to move the clips, move their content instead – just grab
the Start Marker in the Sample Editor window to move the content and
disable Snap To Grid for more accuracy. Re-size the clip to avoid
abruptly chopping off the sound’s start or end points.
Live’s Warp mode can be used when you want to edit the timing
04 within an audio clip but leave the pitch information intact.
Pseudo Warp Markers will appear above the waveform in the Sample
Editor.These can be double-clicked and dragged to condense or
expand the clip’s content.
If you plan on warping a multi-audio recording like drum mics or
06 various instruments from a live performance, first ensure that all
audio to be edited is the same length (Consolidate all pieces to a new
length from the Edit menu if needed). Highlight the parts, edit one
clip’s Warp Markers and the others will follow.The striped pattern
across the top of the clip confirms you are in a grouped Warp mode.
MAGAZINE December 2013 | 67
 Producing authentic drum & bass Tutorial MT

Powered by
Technique Genre focus

Authentic and original

drum & bass Part1
Arguably one of the most difficult electronic genres to master, D&B veteran Liam O’Mullane
explains the core techniques for achieving an authentic production sound.

A
longside genres such as techno and trance,
drum & bass is one of the more mature styles
that has constantly pushed the boundaries of
electronic music production. And although
many people regard dubstep to be the most
project file included
innovative and perhaps less rules-driven genres of modern
times, D&B started its life in much the same way.
During the first half of the 90s, a large part of the rave
scene was splintering off to become hardcore, and as
another offshoot of this development, jungle was born. From
jungle through to its evolution into D&B in the early-to-mid-
90s, the genre has always pushed the boundaries in terms
of how technology can be used creatively.
Yourkeyfocusshouldbeto
experimentuntilyoustumble
onsomethingunique
In this two-part series we will be looking at the four core
elements that apply to all the sub-genres that have emerged
over the years – bass design, drum production, decorative
sounds/melodies and arrangement dynamics. Unless you
are planning to produce yet another for
to compete with the existing big comme
you will be aiming to create music that will have the
necessary production values to sit happily in your list of
respected artists. But in a genre this mature, many styles
and ideas have already been done to death, so you will also
Accompanying need to strive for originality in your work.
on the DVD Your key focus should be to experiment until you stumble
on something unique, so the bass and drum techniques
we’re about to discuss will give you the baseline knowledge
needed to successfully take an exploration into sound, then
package that into a balanced musical production. It can take
an artist years to craft and perfect the sound that ends up
defining them, so don’t expect to bang out deep, detailed
tracks which conjure up vivid imagery to the listener after
just reading this. But do note that although there are many
tutorials out there that aim to teach you how to sound like
big-name artists – who already own the rights to the sound
they’ve carved in the genre – if you stick with the
fundamentals we cover here you’ll find it much easier to take
experimentation and make it work as a finished track. So set
your sequencer’s tempo to between 170–180BPM
(depending on your mood!) and let’s get started. MT
This tutorial has been endorsed by ACM, The Academy of Contemporary
Music, world leaders in music industry education. ACM’s Audio Production
School provides Diploma (one-year) and Degree (two-year) courses in
Contemporary Music Production, Electronic Music Production, Creative
Sound Design and Tour Production & Management.
www acm ac uk T: 01483 500800

FOCUS ON…
PROGRAMMING DETAILS
Although copy and paste are functions that
are embedded in modern computing life,
using them or a duplicate-part function as
a general writing and arranging technique
isn’t the key to achieving tracks with a deep
sense of detail.However,we’re not saying
that you can’t start a general idea as a loop,
but you should definitely keep the loop
minimally short – 1,2 or 4 bars – before
extending the idea.Anything longer will
invite you to be lazy when it comes to
adding variation and detail to your work at a
later stage.Instead,try to expand an idea by
writing new parts one after another.You can
copy smaller sections from the content of
previous parts,just try to avoid global
copying of all parts and their content.A
better approach is to pinch and borrow
little bits here and there,then vary them as
you progress.

MAGAZINE December 2013 | 69


MT Step-by-Step Drum work
The only requirement for the main drum sounds in D&B is that
01 they need enough presence to sound strong enough on their own
before you add decorative sounds. For the kick and snare we’re starting
with two samples chosen for their weight and good transient snap.
We’ve then programmed four bars with variation.
When adding new drum layers, utilise high-pass, band-pass or an
03 EQ filter to remove any unnecessary frequencies that may clash
with other drum sounds and mix elements as the song progresses.
We’ve achieved a woody-sounding kick and piccolo snare tone we’re
happy with by creating a few layers, but don’t be opposed to changing
sounds as your song and mix demand.
As you may have guessed, layering is going to play a pretty large
05 part here too. We’ve duplicated our lead track, which gives us six
saw waves to play with. It’s sounding really nice and buzzy now, so we
dial in a little reverb to give it even more space and character. We don’t
actually have our lead playing all the time – rather, it kicks in every
second bar or so.
Producing authentic drum & bass Technique MT
From here we’re going to explore layering possibilities to lend an
02 individual tone to our drums. Due to the faster tempo in D&B than
other genres, it’s important to keep the lower-frequency elements
quite short in duration. Keep a keen ear on this by using fades or ADSR
amplitude control.These can be used to carefully tighten each new
sound as you add it.
Anything from hi-hats to sliced breakbeats can be used to add
04 more rhythmic information to your core sounds. A filtered break
slice is often used as a textural layer to the kick and snare, but we’ve
used it between the main hits in a sparing fashion and filtered them so
they don’t sound too dominating. Also try high-pass-filtering long
sounds to give a sense of space to your drum sound as a whole.
Although the commercial side of D&B became very loud over the
06 last decade, modern underground releases allow more room for a
mix to breathe. So don’t overdo processing like limiting, hard-clipping
or any other effects designed to max-out a signal.Try achieving more
power by sidechaining sounds other than your kick and snare – having
these drop by just 2–4dB is enough for a solid yet dynamic sound.
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MT Technique Producing authentic drum & bass
MT Step-by-Step Bass design and re-sampling
Whether you plan to keep an instrument live throughout the
01 production process or intend to re-sample it (which tends to be
the case in D&B), both approaches start with a sound source of
discernible pitch or more noise-like and pitchless character.The latter
can be achieved with drastic pitch variations or heavy use of FM,
ring-modulation or any other heavily discordant processing.
The next step is to add movement to your sound.The best
03 starting point is to play with any controls as you listen for
something interesting. Use the more coarse-sounding changes to
develop a unique character. At this stage, try to assign an envelope or
LFO to these parameters so they can be triggered as you play.
Re-sampling is the most practical way to deal with these large
05 effects chains and automation recordings. Before sampling,
explore the best note to record as some will have a certain sonic
sweetness over others. After recording them into your DAW, drag the
audio into a sampler and explore the possibilities with this (and any
other re-sampled bass sounds you’ve created).
72 | December 2013 MAGAZINE
There’s no set rules for the type of waveforms you can select here,
02 but you’ll generally find that a bigger sound is achieved by using
square waves within your mix of synth layers. Saw waves offer a lot of
edge that cuts across a mix; highly pitched sine or triangle waves are
useful for achieving softer tones. Make sure that you also explore the
best octave for each layer as you stack synths or oscillators.
If you plan on re-sampling your sound, this is the point at which
04 you can pile on processing effects without worrying about getting
in a tangle with automation later on. Explore parameter changes with
effects as you did in the last step and record them as automation.
Common effect choices are phaser, notch-filtering and stereo width/
widening tools. But here, anything goes.
A designated sub-layer is essential for the low-end weight
06 needed in D&B.These are often stacked sine waves with
octave- or harmonic-based intervals. Alternatively, triangle waves can
be quite useful when low-pass-filtered for a thicker sound. Keep the
sub as a separate instrument rather than a layer with other sounds so
it can either play in unison or be varied from the other parts.

MT Step-by-Step Key elements
Looking at the elements of the original, we’re back in classic-
01 gear-land. Orbital famously triggered hardware such as the
Roland TB-303 and TR-909 live via Alesis MMT8 sequencers.These
sequences were then triggered around particular bar lengths, and this
approach can quite easily be replicated in software like…
To find this out it’s a good idea to load in an mp3 of the original
03 and simply play along, but we’ve done the hard work and can
reveal that it is E flat major (notes E flat, F, G, A flat, B flat, C, D, E flat).
Now to look at the song’s structure in a little more depth...
The main bass sound was created with a classic Yamaha FM
05 module, the TX81Z, using a preset called the LatelyBass. If you
want to re-create this it sounds rather like a plucked bass sound with
rich and mellow tones – a sound that underpinned many a dance track
back in the day.
Orbital Chime Deconstruction MT
… Ableton Live. Here, the various tracks of the song are broken
02 down from left to right (drums, chords, two bass lines) while the
aforementioned sequences sit as clips within each one. The track’s
bass line follows the chord progression throughout, so we need to
work out what that is, but first, let’s get the key of the tune.
The opening sequence is a set of chordal stabs.The easiest way
04 to re-create this is to sample the sequence and loop it as it plays
solo at the start. But that’s cheating, so you could sample an individual
stab and trigger it in Live’s sampler as shown here (the pattern repeats
over a couple of bars). If you want to re-create the original chords, go
for a string-like sound with a short attack based around E flat major.
The sound is available in software instruments like NI’s FM8
06 (shown and from the FM7 bank) or a freeware synth for Windows
called OXE FM (from www.oxesoft.com). Any bass sound with a
plucked attack and middling decay will do. Over the first part of the
track the only notes the bass plays are E flat and B flat, which follow
the chord progression over two changes.
MAGAZINE December 2013 | 77

MT Step-by-Step Key elements... cont’d
The second section of the song follows a longer progression of
07 the chords, however.These six chords are: G, B flat, E flat; D, F, B
flat; C, E flat, A flat; A, C, F; B, D, G; and G, B flat, E flat. Rhythmically,
think of each of the six chords in the above order as numbered 1–6 and
play and record them as 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 2, 4, 4, 5, 6.
That’s the main chord sequence and bass line sorted.There’s also
09 a squelchy 303 bass in there – as there was on just about every
track back then.There are many free synths that will give you this
sound and you’ll probably find it in the arsenal of synths that come
with your DAW, but here we’ve used the Analog synth in Live.
More on the sounds.The beats in a lot of classic dance (and
11 indeed modern dance!) come via TR-808 and 909 drum samples,
and we’d be very surprised if you don’t have these kicking (sorry)
around in your sample library or within a drum instrument.
Orbital Chime Deconstruction MT
As before, the TX bass line follows these chords as the following
08 sequence of single notes: E flat, B flat, A flat, F, G, E flat (one
octave down).You’ll notice this is the top note of each chord above.
Rhythmically, again think of each bass note numbered 1–6 and play
and record them again as the 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 2, 4, 4, 5, 6 combination.
This squelchy line initially follows the first bass line over E flat
10 and B flat, but instead of falling just goes up to note C.To be
honest, this is where you can freestyle a little, and as you record, feel
free to record automating the frequency on whatever synth you are
using for extra acid squelchiness.
Finally, the main chordal sound comes by way of an analogue
12 lead and Live’s Chord device, which fattens it out into chords
following the E flat major. And that’s it.The great thing about using Live
is that you can now trigger these sequences in pretty much the same
way as Orbital did originally – the perfect marriage of old and new.
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