Making sexy synth edits in Ableton Live

Johannes gets his beats and bass grooving, then cuts up and processes synth samples

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Johannes auditions samples until he finds something with a texture he finds appealing, and settles on a synth loop. He plays just the first note of this back as a one-shot, jamming a simple lick to accompany the bassline, then fine-tuning the sample start point to make it tight.

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To avoid clicks at the start of the sample Johannes adds a little touch of attack on the amplitude envelope, and uses Simpler’s Spread parameter to give it more width. He then adds Live’s Delay effect, which he sets to a 2/16 note setting to create a groovy interplay with the synth lick.

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So that the delay only affects the first note of the lick, Johannes automates the Delay’s Dry/Wet parameter. He then adds the Standard Room Reverb preset and turns the Dry/Wet signal down to give it a natural-sounding vibe.

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With that sound done and dusted, Johannes auditions more synth loops, and finds one that fits nicely into the track. He experiments with different sample start points to hear how it interacts differently with the first synth part, and once he’s happy turns down the audio clip’s level so that it’s not too prominent in the mix.

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The next sound added is a pad, and

Johannes adjusts the sample start point so that the sound begins at full volume. He then adds an Auto Filter effect set to band-pass mode, and uses the effect’s LFO to modulate the filter cutoff rhythmically.

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Johannes finds another airy pad to add further atmosphere, looping out a one-bar section, and hi-pass filtering it with EQ Eight so that its low-end doesn’t muddy up the mix. The hi-pass filter used has a little touch of Q on it to give it a little pop in the mid-range.