Make every track a hit

You‘re live on stage, switching back and forth between presets and hoping that they‘re roughly the same volume. However, at the latest when the sound is blasting out of the speakers, the audience‘s good mood is dampened.

If the sound is barely audible, it also diminishes the listening experience immensely. Discover how your presets are perceived as being equally loud in the following workshop.

1

Multi-Instrument rack

For example, you‘ve created a MIDI track with an Instrument Rack for your Live performance, which contains various instrument presets that you select using the Chain Selector. To create such a rack, load a MIDI instrument preset, for example a synth key from Operator, into a track. Group the MIDI instrument and open the Chain List. 1

2

Assign areas

Drag additional instrument presets into a separate chain. As not all instruments should sound at the same time, distribute them to different areas in the Chain Selection Zone Editor: Open Chain and select all chains. Then, drag the small blue bar in the Zone Editor all the way to the right so that it covers the entire area. 1

3

Assign a macro

Right-click on one of the bars and select Distribute Areas Evenly from the context menu. Select the Chain Selector with the right mouse button and select Assign to Macro 1.

If you now move the assigned macro controller while a MIDI clip is playing, you can scroll through the various synths. 1

4

Load loudness meter

To avoid having to rely on your hearing when adjusting the volume, use a loudness meter. Ableton Live does not have one by default; therefore, download and install the free Youlean Loudness Meter, for example. You can use it to measure the LUFS levels of the presets and compare them with each other. 1

5

Measure volumes

LUFS stands for Loudness Units relative to Full Scale. It is a standardized measurement of audio loudness that combines the human perception and intensity of the electrical signal. This means that sounds can be compared in terms of their perceived loudness. Equal LUFS values mean equal perceived loudness. 1

6

Align volumes

You can use this for presets with different volumes in your rack. Load the Youlean Loudness Meter into the Master, play the clip and adjust the volume in the chain for each preset so that they all have the same Integrated LUFS value. After each change to the volume value, restart the sequencer so that you can see the actual value.