Composing with Live

Hello all, this is usually where I post cool stuff about Ableton Live, but I have really been getting into the Alchemy sample manipulator by Camel Audio.  It is just an amazing program with a huge range of sonic possibilities.  Once you master all the parameters and possibilities in Live’s Sampler, it will be time to think about moving on to something that offers even more control.

For a traditional sampler, creating true-to-life sampled instruments, Native Instruments Kontakt is the way to go.  While Kontakt has some awesome sound design tools, Alchemy kills it in that regard, and I find the Alchemy interface easier to deal with. The the constant scrolling required in Kontakt gets tiresome fast. Anyway, here is a great video on Alchemy if you are thinking of making a purchase:

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2010/02/02/camel-audio-alchemy-tutorial/

Oh, and because I can’t help put a bit of Live stuff in here as well, check out this cool vid, 20 Ableton tricks in 8 minutes:

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2010/02/02/20-ableton-live-tips-tricks-in-8-minutes/

Both of the links are at synthtopia.com, a great blog for the latest in music tech goodness!

Have fun. Make Music.

-L-Don

Hey all, I have been playing with my new APC40(which I am totally in love with), and thought I would show you some of the ways to navigate the session view with the keyboard and a dedicated controller.

Have Fun. Make Music.

L-Don

In Week 2 of my class every student makes a custom drum rack and posts it to the class. In Week 3 everyone downloads all of the drum racks and makes a “Mega Kit” from all the parts.  It is one of the most fun parts of the class, and each semester the submissions get better and better.  I post a couple video responses each semester, here are a couple that I made this semester, some great tips here, I hope you enjoy!

Have Fun. Make Music.

L-Don

Hello everyone, a student posted in one of my classes asking about this cool warped ambient piano he heard on a recording.  It seemed like a cool challenge so I tried to make an instrument that would give a wide variety of spooky warped piano sounds.  I created a really cool patch and used some of the more advanced features in Sampler and Instrument racks, so here is the video explaining it all:

The coolest feature I have used here is Zone Shift in Sampler.  I explain it in the video, but you need to play with it to really get a feel for how it works.  Say you have Zone Shift at -12, then Live is going to play the sample from an octave up, but transpose it down to the pitch you played.  So, by moving Zone shift you are transposing all the samples, but the instrument still plays at pitch, try this on EVERYTHING, it is awesome.

The next great technique in the video is how I set up a delay. It is an effect rack with two chains, the first is for the delay and the second for the dry signal.  After all the delays a compressor is added, but it is listening to(sidechained to) the dry signal. This way when the dry signal is present, the delays are quiet, but as the dry signal fades away the delays get louder, Very Cool.

If sidechained compressors are confusing you, please see my earlier post on the topic.

Anyway, Here is the Project so you can download and play with it, you will need the Live Suite keys piano patch to use it, I tried to include it in the project, but the patch is just too big.

Have Fun, Make Music,

L-Don

Simple ratios like 2:1 and 3:2 play a very important role in sound an music.  In this video I explore how important they are when creating sounds with Frequency Modulation synthesis.  The techniques are demonstrated here on the Operator synth in Ableton Live, but could be applied on any synth that offers FM.

Have fun. Make music.

L-Don

Hello all.  When writing my Advanced Production in Ableton Live course I thought I would be able to dig really deep into frequency modulation synthesis and the Operator synth.  Well, FM is a deep topic(students at Berklee spend whole semesters on it) and I found that it was just too much to put into the course. But, I had already made 3 videos on the topic, so I will share them here where everyone can benefit!  This first one covers the underlying concept of FM synthesis and Operator, later installments will cover some more applications.

Have fun. Make music.

-L-Don

Hello all, when editing in the Live arrange view you can still take advantage of midi mappings. In this video I map the clip volume, start point, and transpose to create a series of variations, but many other mappings are useful. Pencil on and off, record to put in automation, and follow mode which you have to change all the time when zoomed way in.

Have Fun. Make Music.

Loudon

Well, this is a pretty scattered post, but I think you will dig the concepts.  I am using the Random and Scale devices to create a improvised melody that never exactly repeats, great for adding variation and texture to your pieces(you can view them in youtube for a larger easier to see size):

Next, I have a bunch of delays in a return track, by adding an autofilter to it that is sidechained to the guitars the delays go down in volume whenever the clean guitar plays.  This lets me have a ton of delays, but they never get in the way of the clean guitar, awesome technique and it works great on vocals too.

If you don’t have a firm grasp of sidechaining, check out my previous article on the topic.It describes sidechaining with compressor, but the idea is very similar with autofilter.

You can download the ScaleRandomDuckedDelays Project.

Have Fun. Make Music.

L-Don

Hello again.  In week 5 of my course the assignment is to create an entire piece of music from a single sample, usually a sung vocal phrase.  This is a major challenge and the percussion elements are usually the toughest parts(hence my earlier kick from a vocal phrase post). One section of Sampler that isn’t covered deeply in the course is the OSC section.  In Sampler the OSC is a built in oscillator that can modulate the frequency or amplitude of the sample itself.  This sounds a bit complicated, but the vid here shows how it can be used to add some snap to your sampled drum sounds. Click on the vid to watch it at Youtube and it is much larger.

Oh, and you can download the deepkickpunch Project. It has 3 tracks the first is the operator patch I made to create the initial 50Hz kick sound, the second track is the audio recording of that sound, and the third track is the sampled instrument that is created in the video.

Enjoy!

Loudon

Hello again, Week 2 in the Advanced Music Production in Ableton Live course is all about the groove, so I have it on my mind. This little video will get you start with this awesome and powerful feature.

In Live, groove applies velocity and rhythmic variations. Start with the built in Grooves, then move on to creating your own from audio and MIDI clips. Right Click and choose Extract groove and it will appear in the groove pool.