> Step by step

1. Recording your first MIDI clip using a factory Drum Rack

1

Using the View switcher buttons (or your computer’s Tab key), switch to the Session View if not already open. Live launches with an empty set loaded, containing whatever track layout is saved as your default. Out of the box, this is usually two MIDI tracks and two Audio tracks. In the Session View, these are represented vertically.

2

To begin creating a beat, go to the Categories section of the Collections pane and click the Drums tab. This brings up a list of the factory default drum kits that are installed with Live. Make sure the small blue headphones icon is enabled in the lower left corner – this will play a preview of each kit when you click it.

3

Click the first kit in the list to audition the sounds. Once a kit is highlighted, you can scroll through the list using the down arrow key on your computer keyboard to quickly audition through the list. Alternatively, just scroll down with the trackpad or mouse wheel as normal and click any kit that you like the look of.

4

When you find a kit that you want to use, there are a couple of ways to load it. You can drag and drop it from the browser onto a MIDI track, or double-click its name in the list to load it into the next available empty MIDI track. The buttons in the clip slots will change to circles once the kit has loaded.

5

You should now be able to play notes on your MIDI keyboard (or pads on your controller) to trigger the drum sounds in the rack. The layout of the sounds in the kit, along with the waveform of the last played sample and a set of parameters with which to edit its playback, is displayed in the Devices View.

6

The track should be record-armed automatically, as indicated by the red icon at the bottom of the channel strip. If not, click the button to turn it red. Before recording anything however, go to Edit » Record Quantization and select Sixteenth-note Quantization. Now, the notes you play line up in time with a 16th-note grid as they’re recorded.

7

Click the button shown here to enable the metronome. The default count-in is one bar, and you can select which sound you’d prefer for the click – choose from Classic, Click or Wood. Choosing the Enable While Recording Only option will avoid you having to keep turning the metronome on and off again as you record and play back new parts.

8

To record your first clip, click the round button in the first clip slot on the MIDI track. Play some notes on your keyboard to program a beat, then click the round button again to exit record mode. The recording will begin looping automatically, but if you want to stop playback, hit the Spacebar when done.

9

Click the Clip View selector and the notes you played will appear in the piano roll editor, nicely quantised to the grid. From here, you can add extra notes, delete them or move them around. If you need to overdub more notes, click the Session Record button – this will drop into record and allow you to play new notes over the top of the existing ones.