11 indispensable Ableton Live tips
DUAL ASPECT
View both the Session and Arrangement Views at once in a split screen arrangement by selecting View » Second Window. Resize and place both windows side by side and you can mix in the Session View while arranging in the Arrangement View, or display the Clip View and Device View simultaneously – a great workflow enhancement, especially if you have a large monitor or dual displays.
FREEZE & FLATTEN TRACKS
Conserve CPU power and transform complicated sections of your project into audio files with the Freeze and Flatten functions. Select a track, right-click the track header and select Freeze to temporarily free up any processing on that track. Right-click the track header again and choose Flatten to permanently render your selection, including all plugin settings and any automation, to a new audio file.
CAPTURE MIDI
If you’ve ever been jamming along with your song and played something inadvertently awesome, then wished you’d been in record mode so you could have captured it for posterity, this feature is for you. Hit stop followed by the Capture MIDI button in the transport, just to the left of the Session Record button, and a clip will magically appear, containing everything you just played. Simply edit and tidy up the bits you want, then discard the rest – job done!
SIMPLE SIDECHAINING
That offbeat pumping sound so popular in dance tracks is known as sidechaining, and it’s done using compressors. To make a simple sidechained pad, for example, play some pad chords and insert a Compressor into the track ( Audio Effects » Compressor). Hit the small triangle button to the left of the Compressor name to open the Sidechain panel. Click the
Sidechain button to enable it, then choose a 4/4 kick drum track as the source. Lastly, adjust the Threshold and Ratio parameters until the pad starts to duck down in level whenever a kick drum occurs, then adjust the Release parameter to fine tune the timing as the volume rises up again between the kicks.
REVERSE AUDIO
Reversing audio is a great technique for creating builds and risers to increase tension before a drop, and Live makes it simple to do.
Just select the clip you want to reverse and open it in the Clip View, then click the Rev button just below the clip title and properties. This replaces the clip with a new clip containing a reversed version of the audio, that can then be placed wherever you need it on the timeline.
AUTOMATED AUTOFILTER SWEEPS
We all love a filter sweep, and Live’s AutoFilter plugin makes it a breeze to create them. Just go to Audio Effects » AutoFilter and drag an instance of the plugin onto the track you want to process. Click the Frequency control, then hit the A key to reveal that parameter’s automation lane, and plot some control points to define the shape of the sweep.
FREQUENCY SHIFTER FOR RISERS
Similarly, the Frequency Shifter plugin ( Audio
Effects » Frequency Shifter) works great for making your own risers. Just drop it onto a track and automate the Frequency control, drawing in a curve to create a steady, excitement-heightening rise in pitch that works on almost any source material.
SLICE AND DICE
Right-click any audio clip and choose Slice to
New MIDI Track. This will detect the transients in the audio and slice the sample up within a new instance of Simpler, assigning each slice to a key on your MIDI controller and generating a MIDI clip to match. Now you can replay the slices in any order you like. Perfect as a quick way to resequence a drum loop or chop up a vocal sample.
DUPLICATE ANYTHING
Live’s powerful Duplicate command –
Command-D on Mac, Control-D on PC – can be a real timesaver. You can use it to copy and paste almost any selected object in a single click. Select a region or clip, and Duplicate will place a copy directly after it. Select a track, and duplicate will create a copy of the track beneath it. Select a note or part of a bar in the piano roll, and Duplicate will make a contiguous copy of the selection.
LIMIT YOURSELF
If you work a lot in headphones, it’s a good idea to start each new Live set by placing a Limiter plugin across the Master bus, preventing any clipping or potential ear damage caused by unexpectedly loud sounds when flicking through effect presets. Just go to Audio
Effects » Limiter, drag it onto the Master track and consider your lugholes safeguarded.
HOT SWAP
If you decide you’re not happy with the preset or effect you’re using, quickly change presets on the fly with the Hot Swap button in the topright corner of a device’s Detail View. Click it and the browser will be flagged orange, indicating that any new preset you select will be instantly swapped with the existing one.