> Step by step

1. How to record into the timeline

1 Let’s assume you have a Force project ready – even one of the demos. Open the project and familiarise yourself with the various sections and parts. Decide if you want to play any instrument sounds over the top. You could trigger clips and scenes from the display while you play on the pads (or you could connect an external MIDI keyboard). 2 As usual with grid-based music, there are judgements to be made about launching individual clips or scenes (horizontal rows of clips). It depends on what’s in your music and how you like to divide your song sections. In the real world, the answer is often to use both! Clip and scene launches will be recorded into the arrangement. 3 Maybe you should have a little mindmap of where you’ll go with your jam, before you start recording; all of your control moves will be recorded as automation. You have the display to think about, as it contains the mixer and x-y fx, the macros, and the pads themselves. Recording the control moves is a big part of the capture-the-moment experience. 4 Hold the Shift button and press the Rec button to begin recording. From then on, everything you do is recorded, including clip launches, mixer changes, effect parameter moves. Everything. Whether you listen on headphones or speakers is up to you, we prefer headphones for more detailed listening. 5 Done? Stop recording, and save your project immediately. Then start editing the recorded arrangement. Navigation tools include pinch open/close to zoom in/out. Editing tools include delete clip, time, etc. View and move, or delete, automation, and you can add more clips or even tracks after recording. 6 Once all that is done, save it again, just to be sure. You now have the option of exporting your piece as a stereo mix, or an Ableton Live .als file. Either way, move the finished result to your computer via the SD card slot, or through USB, the Force will show up on the desktop as an external drive when it’s in computer mode.