Tips Tricks Tutorials
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Using Live's Looper to Create Unique Beats Step 1 – How to Use the Looper Looper can be used to create ideas on the fly in a live context or even in a production setting where you wish to try out some ideas. Sometimes, you feel your beats are not that inspiring, or you wish to get a beat idea down quickly which is in your head. These are all scenarios where the Looper can come in real handy. First, I want to look at how you can use your voice, like a beat boxer to easily and quickly create new beats through the use of the Looper. You can build up and layer voiced drum elements until you have a full sounding vocal drum kit. Set up an audio track (create a new track with Command-T) where you will be recording your vocals. Next add the Looper plug-in to the channel. Enable the metronome in Ableton. This will help you keep in time to your project tempo. Start playback and try out some beats ideas. Get comfortable with some Kick, Snare and Hats sounds. When you are ready you can launch the Looper plug-in, and start the looping process. Make sure the following is set on the Looper first:
• Set the Son Song g Contr Control ol to to None. None. • Set the Tempo Control Control to Follow Follow song tempo. (In (In a live context you you may want to choose choose None, as tempo tempo can drift in in a live situation).
Record enable the Looper. Then press the big + when you wish to start your overdub.
Step 2 – Drag the Ideas to an Audio Track. Looper also has a very handy feature called Drag Me. This allows you at any time to drag an idea from the Looper onto an audio track. Instantly an audio file/loop will be created on the audio track. Once you are happy with your loop creation, simply drag it onto an audio track, and Voila! It is there for you to edit and process as you will at a later stage.
Step 3 – MIDI Map the t he Parameters A good idea is to map the big + to a button on your controller, or better yet a foot controller. This moves the loop function away from being so mouse-driven to a more performance driven task. Press Command-M to enable the MIDI Map. Select the big + sign on Looper, then select a button on your control. Now it is mapped to this button for easier use for overdubs.
Step 4 – Other Uses for the Looper Looper You can try the same thing with other instruments, instruments, such as using using a synth. Whilst Whilst recording your your loops you can change change presets with your overdubs and in the process build up a unique sounding synth loop. I have created a MIDI track. I have loaded up an instance of one of my favorite synths, Sylenth1. It’s a great sounding synth for some ‘analog-style’ sounds. sounds. Go through the same process of setting up the Looper on the track. Record a bit with a preset. Change to a different preset on Sylenth1. Then press the big + to create an overdub, and record a new part with the new preset. Create further overdub layers with different presets. Now you have created a layered synth in the space of a few minutes. You can drag this newly created layered synth onto an audio track. Or better yet, right-click the file and choose Slice To New MIDI Track. A Simpler Intrument is created with the audio file mapped across the MIDI notes. Now you have a great new sounding Sampled Synth.
Try fiddling with the Speed setting. Changing the Speed settings gives you that classic-tap classic-tape e style effect. When you slow down the
time, the pitch is also altered. This could also be used in a live context to create variance in your performances. The Reverse button is also a nice feature. This will flip your audio around and create a different swing on your looped ideas. In a performance, you could build up a loop, quickly reverse it for something different. Then flip it around again to carry on with the performance.
Archiving Projects in Ableton Live This article is a step-by-step guide on what to do with your finished projects in order to get them into a state where they can be archived. There are 4 steps involved: 1. Na Nami ming ng track trackss 2. Fr Freez eezing ing instrume instruments nts 3. Col Collec lectin ting g files files 4. Ba Back ckin ing g up
Step 1 - Naming If you’re anything like me, your track naming may not be the best. I like to work quickly and don’t always take the time to rename tracks from t heir unhelpful defaults. The first job is to go through and rename every track in the project to something useful.
Step 2 - Freezing Freezing a track is the process of turning that track into an audio track. I highly recommend this step for any tracks which use virtual instruments. It’s not out of the realms of possibility that, in 6 months or a year when you reopen your project, some of the vir tual instruments within have been updated or no longer work due to a system update. Your perfectly programmed track is now gone. Luckily freezing tracks in Live is a piece of cake: 1. Right-click on a MIDI track and select “Freeze “Freeze Track”. Track”. 2. Wait whilst whilst live rende renders rs the audio. audio. 3. Right Right-click -click on the track track again and select select “Flatten”. “Flatten”. The last step will complete the transformation from virtual instrument to audio track. All insert effects are also rendered down. If you repeat this process for every MIDI track , you will end up with a project made entirely from audio tracks, which hugely reduces the possibility of compatibility problems with plug-ins further down the road.
The same bass track. At the top it is a MIDI track playing a virtual instrument. In the middle, it has been “frozen”, and at the bottom it has been “flattened” into an audio track.
Step 3 - Collecting files This step will collect all the t he files used in your project into one place so you can archive the folder safe in the knowledge that everything you need to re-open that project is in one folder: 1. Go to the file menu and select select “Collect “Collect All All and Save”. Save”. 2. From the dialog box, box, select “Yes” “Yes” to all options. You You may not need them all, but it’s the safest way.
Live’s “Collect All and Save” function ensures that all audio and video files referenced by the project are copied into the project folder.
Live will copy any audio and video files it needs into the project folder and save the project so that it references only the files within that folder. Any references references to audio files anywhere else on your hard drive are replaced.
Step 4 - Backing up The last step that remains is to backup your project folder. My personal method is simply to copy the project folder from my hard drive to an external bac kup drive. I have hard drives full of projects from the last 20 years. Some of them will never be opened again, but it’s good to know that they are there and available a vailable if the need ever arises.
MTF Technique Vocal tracking
Ableton Live Step-by-Step
Vocal tracking &
compili compi ling ng in Live 9
Of all the tasks Live can perform, recording and editing editing vocals takes an approach that may feel less than intuitive. Liam O’Mullane shares his approach...
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bleton Live 9 is much like its predecessors in terms of recording and editing vocals, as very little has changed in this area of music production. Sure, there’s a fantastic new set of processing options such as Audio To Midi that can be used for all sorts of creative, vocal-sourced ideas. And the new Glue compressor is another handy addition – great for achieving that smooth, commercial compression sound that is part of how a vocal should sound to most people’s ears. Last but not least, automation has also improved – it’s now available for clips in Session View, and you can also now work with linear or logarithmic shapes, making the smoothing-out of a vocal part much easier to implement. However, there’s still no classic DAW way to record multiple lanes of takes for immediate access afterwards, or a simple click-and-mute function for auditioning multiple parallel takes in a heavily edited compiling session – all of which is frustrating for anyone who’s used Pro Tools, Cubase or pretty much any other DAW. On the
MTF MT F Navigation
Vocal audio essentials
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plus side, though, Live 9 does have basic functionality for compiling audio, and when you’ve explored it, you are actually reminded of the need to strive for better vocal performances in the first place rather than automatically assuming you’ll be editing the hell out of it later... And although there’s plenty of software-based audio trickery that can be performed in Live (much of which outshines all other DAWS), it’s nice to be pushed into a more traditional approach approach for achieving a good vocal take in a track. However, as this relies more on the
It’s nice to be pushed into a more tradition trad itional al approach for achieving achieving a good vocal take in a track performance itself, we’ll start by looking at a few Live-based issues you should check out before inviting any performers around.
Tune machine Although Live is quite economical in its use of computer resources, its ability to let you do a lot of creative processing in real time often leads to some very
FADES When editing out unwanted sounds from around your vocal parts, activate Live’s fade by pressing [Ctrl]/[Cmd]+[Shift]+[F] on an expanded track to smooth out changes in volume.
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CROSSFADING When you’re performing edits in the middle of a continuous vocal part, enable Show Fades and drag one edit over the other. You can then shape the fades as required.
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LEVEL CHANGING The easiest way to create level changes is to highlight the area in question then click and grab the volume automation line while holding down [Shift].
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LOCATORS Locator markers are useful for dividing your song into clearsections. Right/[Ctrl]Right/[Ctrl]-click click to add them; name them so they make sense at a glance.
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Vocal tracking Technique MTF
MTF MT F Step-by-Step
Recording and editing vocal takes
For recording in Arrangement View, set the loop brace to the desired area you want to focus on. With Loop enabled, hit record and continue capturing takes until you think you have a few good ones to work with.
The audio clip will have an internal loop brace set to the duration of the last take. After enabling Loop, move this brace to the first take. A quick way to do this is to press the up or down d own arrow keys after it’s highlighted.
Unless your vocal part falls completely in line with Live’s grid you’ll want to disable Snap To Grid from the Options menu. Now split the vocal into as many sections as needed for compiling by clicking on the audio clip and selecting Split from the Edit menu.
Now you can audition each take for these newly split sections by moving the loop brace forwards or backwards. Pressing up and down on the loop brace will move each clip’s content forwards and backwards from one take t ake to another.
If you need to improve on the timing of parts, try moving the start marker within an audio clip. This moves the clip’s content rather than the clip itself, so it is much quicker to work with.
Warp markers are another option for editing timing and are especially useful within a busy section. Double-click around the area of focus so neighbouring content is unaffected, then move the audio between it as required.
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strugglestto If your computer struggles perform, look into into di direct rect monitoring monitoring options on your audio interface plug-in-heavy project work. If you’re already near to maxing out your CPU or hard drive performance limit, then, before you get started on vocals, export audio out of your project and import it in a specific project for vocal recording. There are a few ways to do this – see the Setting Up a Monitor Mix step-by-step for details. If your computer struggles to perform at low latency irrespective of what you do to improve performance, look into any direct monitoring options your audio interface may have. Unless it has onboard DSP processing – like CueMix FX on MOTU’s devices – your artist will have to work with a completely dry foldback of their vocals. In this situation we recommend them having one side of their headphones off, so make sure that you pan their signal accordingly to avoid unnecessary spill. They will then have some room acoustics to hear, which can help them hit their pitch correctly. Another option is to use direct monitoring for a dry vocal and add a Reverb device to the vocal track in Live at 100% wet. This won’t be recorded to the track; it helps the vocalist to perform and the delay from the latency will be perceived as pre-delay, which is a happy compromise.
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Other aspects such as shared processing with other applications should also be minimised; you really don’t want unexpected update requests, pop-up notifications or other erratic behaviour causing you grief in the heat of a session. Tips on performance-optimising for Windows and OSX are best left to a Google search as they are too numerous to be listed here. Before any session starts, you should consider room vibe. This is controlled by how you manage the session in terms of lighting, a good monitor mix and setting a pleasant room temperature. Live can help in the visual realm too, as its usual options of skin templates has been enhanced with control over Brightness, Color Intensity and Color Hue. These are available from the Look Feel tab in Preferences and do impact on the mood in the room, as well as being handy for your own eyes when working in low or zero light conditions.
Get set... When you’re setting up input gain, recording at 24-bit depth or higher (which can be set in Record Warp Launch tab in Preferences) allows you the luxury of leaving a large amount of headroom. Click the decibel reading to the upper left of the fader to reset it; this lets you see the
PRO TIP In Session View you can drag the top of the level meters on Live’s mixer to get a much more detailed picture of your input levels.
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MTF Technique Vocal tracking
highest peak encountered, so it’ll need a few clicks as you’re getting your input levels right. Aim for a good clearance of at least 10/20dB or more; it’s only if you’re working in 16-bit that you may have to get a bit closer to 0dB in order to capture a better dynamic range. On the topic of audio settings, it’s worth seeing if your computer can cope with higher sample rates. As latency is measured in samples, if you run at a higher sampling frequency (rate) per second, samples will pass at a faster rate – ie, 128 samples at 44.1kHz takes around twice the time to happen than when running at 96kHz. It increases the load on your CPU and hard drive, however, so doing this needs to be thoroughly tested before your session. A quick time-saver when preparing to record vocals is arming multiple duplicates of the same vocal track. This minimises the fuss of lining up different takes after you’re done recording (as long as you have the same number of tracks as takes). You then just need to move the loop brace around on each track rather than copying audio when working from one initial vocal track.
Working in Session View is a fluid way to get vocals alongside song ideas as they develop MTF MT F Step-by-Step
PRO TIP It’s no surprise that Live offers a more performance-orientated way to compile vocals than conventional sequencers. In Session View you can assign each vocal take to a Key or MIDI note using the relevant Map mode from the Options menu. Set each clip’s Launch Quantization to zero and enable Legato mode. You can now move between your takes at any point and record it all to Arrangement View.
We’re not ignoring recording in Session View here, by the way – indeed, this approach is a very fluid way to get vocals alongside song ideas as they develop. The only potential issue with working in this way is that a large amount of vocal phrases will often run before or after a point when you might want to move from one Scene to another. This results in all sorts of issues while still in Session View in order to have smooth transitions from one Scene to the next. Another option, of course, is to cue Scenes in Session View but remove clip recording from your vocal track(s). This will enable you to continuously record your vocals to Arrangementt View irrespective of any Scenes you might Arrangemen choose to launch in Session View. It’s also considerably easier to subsequently edit the vocals so they’ll work as expected in Session View. To remove all clip slots from your vocal track, first highlight them, then right/ [Ctrl]-click (PC/Mac) them and select Remove Stop
Optimising a vocal take
you have a large number of 01 Whether audio takes in front of you or a clear
there’s no movement, rumble and 02 Now other unwanted sounds to interfere with
single take with all the timing and pitch you’re after, you will want to remove certain non-performance-related sounds. To start, highlight and delete the areas between each vocal performance for true silence.
a mixdown you’ll need to smooth out the fade in and out points to your edits. Select Show Fades from the Create menu and start to drag their anchor point to smooth out your clip’s start and end points.
can also be edited in Live and 04 Pitch there are two main ways to implement
pitch-control option is to enable 05 Another one of Live’s Warp modes – like Complex
this. The first is by using a clip’s pitch control. For vari-speed pitch change (when duration is also affected), disable Warp mode and change the Transpose and Detune amounts. This is the most natural-sounding approach.
Pro – then adjust Transpose and Detune. This will keep the timing of parts in place, so is best to use for multiple events that create a rhythm.
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listener’s perceived level of 03 The breathing in a vocal can add energy when increased in volume, or sound clinically perfect when set quite low or even removed. Highlight each breath and separate them using Split. Use Clip Gain to control levels.
second way of editing pitch is to 06 The use Envelope automation. This allows you to alter pitch over the course of time without having to perform micro edits on your vocal. Select the E symbol from the lower left of Clip View, then edit the automation line to smooth out unwanted pitch changes.
Vocal tracking Technique MTF
We strongly recommend th the e practice of making a note of good takes before you start Button. This track will now record just to Arrangement View as long as you use Live’s Arrangement Record Button to get started.
Go! There are two ways to cue a performance: with a count-in or by utilising a part of the music before the section you’re going to focus on. If you intend to loop for continuous passes over the same section, make sure you set the loop brace in Arrangement View to a position and length that makes sense – even just an extra bar at the start and end is OK; just think of rounded measurements so a vocalist isn’t thinking too much about where they are in the song. If you’d prefer to use a count-in and drop in cold, the duration of the count-in can be set from a dropdown menu on Live’s Metronome icon.
MTF MT F Step-by-Step
Using a MIDI controller to launch Scenes as you record to Arrangement View offers a lot of flexibility for jammi jam ming. ng. It alsoobvi obviates ates the need to use your keyboard and mouse when performing on your own.
The only thing left to say is that we strongly recommend the practice of making a note of good takes before you start. We like to jot down the last bar number (shown on Arrangement View’s timeline or under your clips in Session View) after a good take. This enables you to quickly edit and delete audio that doesn’t cut the mustard. It also helps you judge if you have sufficient good material before closing down a session. MTF
Setting up a monitor mix
you start recording, the stability 01 Before of your setup can be compromised if
your computer can’t deliver at a sample 02 If value of 256 of less it is best to work on a
the Master output may be the 03 Exporting quickest approach but it will limit how
you’re running a big project with a lot of CPU consumption. Try a low latency setting by Opening Preferences>Audio and reduce the latency buffer size as much as possible.
vocal-specific version of your project. First you need to export the project as a backing track to use in your vocal project. The simplest method is to use Export from the File menu.
customised your monitor mix can be later on. We like to group our main instrumental sections like drums, bass and melody and export each group. They can then be imported into a new vocal project.
your music is imported and you’ve 04 After set up your audio track to record, insert
your soundcard uses only the main 05 If stereo output (1+2) for headphones you
use sends on your vocal track you 06 To need to make sure it’s set to In or Auto
a return track (if required) from the Create menu and name it Monitor Mix. Set its output to match the channel(s) your audio interface uses for headphones, then use the Sends to create a mix for your vocalist.
can work around it by feeding your studio’s monitors from another stereo out. You’ll need to change the Master output in Live as well or you’ll be feeding the vocalist the master mix and the monitor mix.
with Arm enabled. Now add whatever processing you need, such as compression or reverb. Processing can be sent back to the singer to help them perform to a professional-sounding mix.
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MT Technique Bass design with Operator
On the disc
Ableton Live Tutorial
Ableton Live project file included on the DVD
Bass design with Operator Operator offers a great deal more than just FM leads and pads. Liam O’Mullane has the low-down.
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ith the topic of this month’s lead feature being synths, we thought we’d show you around Live’s very own hybrid synth, Operator. Although its name comes from the FM synthesis-based term for an oscillator, Operator can function both as an additive and subtractive synth. In fact, given the less than predictable nature of the alternative Analog synth (which is, of course, part of an analogue synth’s charm), we tend to reach for Operator to create any synth-like sounds when we want 100% predictability. On that note, we’ll look at it as a subtractive synth first to keep things simple while investigating its features.
Subtractive and additive synthesis can usually benefit from some modulated filtering from the filter’s own envelope or the LFO (when assigned). For FM work, try using it as an EQ to hold back excessive top end with a low-pass filter.
Got ’rithm The four divided sections to either e ither side of Operator’s central display are called Shells. After clicking the bottom right-hand Shell this Global Shell will reveal 11 colourful algorithm symbols across the top of the central display. Although they look like the puzzle pieces from Tetris, they are in fact routing diagrams flowing from top to bottom. 1
We tend to reach for Operator to create synth-like sounds when we want 100% predictability
All of the algorithms apart from the very last one on the right are either FM-based or a mixture of FM and subtractive synthesis, so we need to click the horizontal shape on the far right. This This represents each oscillator running in parallel to each other (ie, not modulating each other like an FM synth). Operator’s four oscillators are the four Shells to the left-hand side. The Coarse parameter sets ratios of the input MIDI note, so if you’re playing a concert-pitch A3 and the first oscillator is set to a ratio of 1/1 you will hear A3 being played back. The technique of layering up a second oscillator oscillator an octave above the first can therefore be achieved by turning up oscillator B and setting it to 2/1. As some ratios are odd, like 3/1, there’s also a predefined selection of harmonics on offer. To tune an oscillator to a specific note, use Coarse to find the nearest note below the one you’re after, then use Fine to sweep up to the desired semitone. Although it’s named Fine, it offers a full octave range and isn’t limited to semitone adjustments as it’s calibrated in cents, making it useful for detuning oscillators to thicken a sound. You can view either oscillator or envelope info at the top of the central display; oscillator type is available to the lower right. Let’s go through the layout by making a Reese bass. Select a Saw D waveform for oscillators A and B from the dropdown waveform list (see Image 6, bottom right). Set their Level parameter to 0dB and raise the Fine control for oscillator B up towards 25 cents. As long as you’re playing MIDI notes between C1 and C2 this should already be quite nasty-sounding. To give it more bottom end, raise the level of oscillator C but leave it set to its default sine wave as this pure wave is perfect for reinforcing your existing sound. Need even more weight? Raise the level of oscillator D and set its Ratio to 0.5 for a lower octave of sine power. Now re-balance the sounds using the Level control on each oscillator. 2 The LFO Shell to the upper right is set up by default to control the pitch for all oscillators via its Dest.A section. To give this Reese more of a Hoover-esque ‘rave’ stab tone, set the LFO waveform to SwDown (Saw Down) from the first pop-down menu. Choose Sync from the next menu (LFO Range) and set a Rate of 1 bar. Now Now raise the Amount while pressing keys higher than C2 to get that familiar descending Hoover bass. 3
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The central display is key to seeing more detail for each Shell when you click on them. This is also where you select MIDI and modulation assignments.
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Bass design with Operator Technique MT
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6 7 Modulation can be used for subtle or dramatic effects – like most audio parameter settings, use the most extreme settings to fine-tune parameters before backing off to a suitable amount.
4 The LFO can be assigned to many other modulation destinations via Dest.B. In most cases you’ll want to disable its default assignment in Dest.B by clicking the A, B, C and D buttons. Although the filter cutoff can be assigned here, setting its Depth to 100% won’t move the cutoff from its minimum to full. A workaround to achieve a full-range cutoff sweep is to assign Dest.B to filter cutoff. With With both assignments set to 100% and the LFO set to SwDown, you can achieve that tight and defined rhythmic modulation sound that has been recently made famous by the t he artist Datsik. 4 Returning to the Hoover-esque sound for a moment, you can get a more authentic upwards and downwards pitch change over time by using the Pitch Envelope in the next Shell down from Filter. With a positive setting between 10–50%, shape the envelope to create a medium attack slope and longer decay time. 5
two oscillators alone – with a little vibrato from the LFO – can create a nice, organ-style organ-style bass that gains a harder 9 edge over time. Envelopes can also be looped for creating rhythmic modulation shapes. The bottom right of the oscillator’s central display has a Loop pop-up menu: select Sync, then set Repeat to 1/12 for a triplet feel. 10 As long as Live’s main transport is playing, the envelope will now begin to repeat. Just make sure that the envelope’s shape is short enough so it can be heard changing before it loops around again. Experiment with the Time
Additive approaches
Frequency modulation
If you move the mouse over the central display when an oscillator Shell is in focus you can draw in harmonic partials on the Waveform Editor. This is where Operator behaves like an additive synth, letting you decide which harmonics are present and at what volume. Try Try setting the harmonic amount to 16 (the uppermost block to the right of the Editor) and draw in a combination of harmonics. We’ve gone for just a few lower harmonics as this will be our bottom-end oscillator. 6 We’ve then edited oscillator B and right/[Ctrl]-clicked on the waveform display to set it to odd harmonics only. We can now create an upper frequency layer that has the odd harmonic characteristic of a square wave. 7 As we’re still using the subtractive synthesis algorithm – meaning that oscillators aren’t modulating each other – you can choose to feed back oscillators on themselves. Explore the Feedback amount below the oscillator-type menu. Harmonically rich oscillators are sensitive to this control so small amounts will make a big difference between distortion and noise. We’ve gone for 6% before the sound breaks up too much. This is now a sonically interesting layer that we can modulate. 8
Of all the available algorithms, the backwards-shaped ‘L’ is the most relevant for getting started with FM for creating bass parts. 12 The bottom part of the L holds the two oscillators you hear directly. The block colours correlate to the oscillator colour, so here, oscillator A in yellow is on its own, without any other oscillators above it. This means that no oscillators above are there to modulate it, so it’s a subtractive oscillator. We’ll use this for a bottom-end sine wave.
PRO TIP Many sounds can be given an extra dimension through octave-based pitch-bending. Just set Pitch to +12 or +24 semitones from the central display for the Global Shell.
Perfect harmony Each oscillator has an envelope that modulates its level like any normal synth, letting us slowly introduce this higher harmonic layer with a slow attack stage. These MAGAZINE
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MT Technique Bass design with Operator
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Assigning modulators to velocity enables you to easily program in variation within your General MIDI Editor page.
Oscillator B, however, has two other oscillators wired into it in series. The pitch of oscillator D at the top will modulate oscillator C, then the resulting sound will be used to modulate oscillator B. In simple terms, oscillators D and C are acting like an LFO to the pitch of oscillator B, but the rates are very fast (in the audible musical range) so the rate is fast enough to add new, audible pitch changes to oscillator B. With oscillator A remaining at a Coarse ratio of 1, raise the Level to full for oscillator B after setting its Coarse ratio to 2. You’ll now have two sine waves an octave apart. Next, increase the Level of oscillator C and you’ll start to hear a dramatic change to oscillator B’s output. Change the Coarse ratio to be lower and you’ll hear a watery watery,, super-fast tremolo effect; move it upwards and the sound will become increasingly metallic in tone. Now explore the Level control to hear how this acts more like a timbre control than a simple fade-in and out. Using this oscillator’s envelope for Level control or the LFO suddenly opens up a lot of drastic tonal change. Welcome to the wonderful world of FM synthesis!
particularly musically tuneful. For bass, try copying these settings with only sine waves to shape the aliasing effect into a vowel-like sound. 13
Down and dirty FM synthesis can also generate some really nasty bass tones if you carefully tune each modulator by ear to create a non-harmonic that has a slightly discernible pitch. This time we’ll use the very left algorithm to create a layer for higher frequencies that we can run in parallel with a sine wave from another instance of Operator for the low end. The first thing to do is to choose an interesting waveform for oscillator oscillator A as this is where your sound begins. We’ve gone for the SW8 wave (saw wave) to provide a bright sound, then we’ve chosen an oddharmonics-based sound for oscillator B with the Sq8 wave. This creates a very demonic beehive-type of sound when detuned a little and applied with a low Level. We’ve We’ve then added a sine very high up in the register with a ratio of 39 to create a very high, buzzy tone. Finally, to lose a little definition we’ve added a noise oscillator for D and applied it very lightly. 14 Of all the options here, FM needs to be approached with some restraint, adding one oscillator at a time as it’s very easy to go from a solid, desirable sound to something that’s just fatiguing to the ear. So take the time to switch oscillators on and off as you go, checking that you’re not going too far. Then, when you’ve made a sound, explore switching algorithms algorithms as this can often yield some very surprising results. MT
Know your limitations FM can create some incredibly high frequencies – so high, in fact, that they reach the limitations of the device’s sample rate. These are pushed back into the audible spectrum in a non-harmonicall n on-harmonicallyy related way – this is called aliasing. When set up correctly this can create dense clusters of information, which is great for cymbal sounds, bells and anything else that isn’t
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The Algorithm menu lets you choose from various oscillator routing options. Just click the different shape and immediately hear a difference in your patch.
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Understanding MIDI EFFECTS "Chord" + "Scale" Lets start with the chord effect. First of all, drop in a new midi track. Then, put in an instrument of your liking, preferable something with less resonation for the purpose of understanding this tutorial. In the future, you can use nice long voilins or even pads to make spacy chorded sounds. After you have put in the sound, just before it in your rack, toss in a CHORD midi effect.
Now you will see options for up to 6 extra notes to create chords off of the one you are pressing on your midi keyboard. This is pretty simple to understand, and not very useful unless you have an understanding of chords. When you turn on one of the shift options, it adds another note depending on how far your shifted that note. A shift of +1 semi tones will add another note one half note above the one you are pressing (example white key to the nearest black key). You can play around within this to find some nice chords on your own. The little box below each shift button determines how loud you will hear that note when compared to the original note you are pressing, incase you want less dramatic chord. Also be sure to play around with the built in presets that come within this midi effect to find nicely made chords with excellent velocities already there for your disposal. Now, lets go on to the next step. If you dont understand chords, this next step can be SO useful. Even if you do understand chords, it is impossible for you to know ALL of them, so you can build your knowledge chords by using this. Start by SHUTTING OFF THE CHORD effect for now, we will get back to it. Go into midi effects, and drop in a SCALE effect in between your CHORD & INSTRUMENT, like this -
It looks like a small sequencer right? Think of it a little bit like that, where as from left to right are keys within ONE OCTAVE of your midi keyboard (ex. C to C). For some reason there are 13 squares ( not 12) up and down. I dont know why this is, but the top one does not get used. Lets look at the options now within this. The BASE knob is for the BASE of your grid. It will not change sound, only the VIEW that you see the grid. If you are making a track in C, its good to leave it in C to see the whole range of C-C. The transpose will transpose the actual SOUND in semitones up or down based on how far you move it. If you have a midi keyboard, the range and lowest note options are not really useful. Now, what you are telling your controller to do, is to CHANGE what note is actually being played. You can only have 1 square activated per vertical column. So now, if you were to select note C in column 1, 2, & 3...then press keys C, C sharp, & D....they will now all play C. This makes it so, if you were to build a chord, you cannot press a WRONG button. This can be nice for improv jamming. Now the key to this feature is to use the built in presets that come with ableton. Just click the little arrow below the SCALE midi effect within your browser to see th e options. You will see options like MAJORS, MINORS, PENTATONIC, etc etc. Just drag on of those on top of the scale effect within your effects rack, and i t will be preset to that chord. Start touching all over your keyboard, and you will notice that ANY note you hit will be in that correct progression. Now, go back to your chord effect and turn it on. Toss in a nice preset for the time being. Now play your midi keyboard. You will hear AMAZING chord sounds in a perfect chord progression based off of what your are playing on your keyboard. Just play around with all the parameters until you get something you like! If you want, you can even put an arpeggio before all of this.
MT Technique Mastering for club & radio play
Ableton Live Tutorial
Mastering music for club and radio play Getting your tracks ready for playi playing ng to the publi public c is somethi something ng we all need to do from time to time. Liam O’Mullane shares his tips on making the best-soundi best-sounding ng master possible.
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ove it or hate it, but in the world of club music it’s a necessity to give tracks a certain degree of loudness. For many, professional mastering isn’t an option as you may not be signed to a label yet, but if you want to get exposure, you still need to get your tracks to club and radio DJs for a possible lucky break. This month we’ll show you how to use specific mastering techniques on your mix buss to get a polished, loud track for promotional use. You can also apply these to pre-mixed audio files, but working while the mix is still live can be an education in how your mix changes when mastered and how it can be shaped to work better with your mastering chain. But before any processing begins, let’s look at using reference material to help keep you on track.
Reference material A/B referencing between released material and your own work is useful both at the mastering stage and during the song-creation process. It provides you with constant goals to aim for and helps you stay on course for completing your track. We’ve all lost perspective on a
PRO TIP For more det deta ail w with EQ Eight, do the th e ana analy lyse serr to to s larg la rger er vi view ew.. Th This is a frequency and musical pitch info box to the lower left, which helps when you need to focus n certain notes.
Working while the mix is still live can be an education in how it changes chang es when mastered mastered
mix after listening to a hi-hat in solo mode for too long, so alongside regular breaks, reference material is essential. Drag two or more reference tracks into Live on their own audio tracks, Warp them to fit Live’s tempo, then highlightt the tracks and select Group from the Edit highligh menu. Mute the tracks in this group so nothing but your own track can be heard. 1 You need to route these tracks directly to your audio interface so that any master buss processing isn’t affecting them. In Session View, select your soundcard
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Live can be set up for real-time use of reference material at any given moment by hitting assigned keys for each reference track.
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Mastering for club & radio play Technique MT
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Surgical EQ is the best place to start for getting a more professional-sounding mix before moving onto other types of processing.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that your changes are better simply because they are louder output from the Audio To menu after first selecting Ext Out. 2 Finally, assigning key commands to each solo button lets you jump from your work to any reference point for immediate feedback. Use Edit Key Map from the Options menu to assign these keys. 3
as bass eats up headroom, which which in turn makes it hard to get a tight, loud mix. Try both the normal and the x4 filters to determine which suits the content best. 8 You should audition all treatments to your mix buss by turning the processing chain on and off at regular intervals. This also makes it easier to set your output level by ear so you’re auditioning changes evenhandedly. The simplest way to set this up is by Grouping devices via the Edit menu and assigning the newly created Audio Rack’s Activator button to a key for immediate auditioning at any point. 9
Dynamic shaping EQ work Before applying any dynamic processing, start with an EQ Eight for surgical work to knock things into better shape. As a general rule, select Oversampling by right/ [Ctrl]-clicking (PC/Mac) on the device’s title bar. This allows for a higher internal sampling rate and reduces the chance of aliasing being introduced as you work. 4 The first task with surgical EQ work is to reduce/ remove any non-musical resonances. These These may not be immediately obvious, so an additive sweeping technique is usually required. EQ bands 3–6 are parametric by default, so start with one of these. Increase the gain to around 10dB, the Q (width) to 2–3 for a narrow band, and sweep the Freq dial until a specific frequency starts to sing out in a nasty manner when boosted. 5 Now explore either direction for the Q amount so only the nasty area is being boosted. The The Q needs to be as narrow as it can be without being so narrow that it doesn’t boost the whole problem area. 6 To reset your ears, click on the Gain control and hit backspace to return it to zero. Apply sufficient gain reduction to reduce the problem area as much as possible without leaving a hole in the overall sound. 7 You can repeat this process as required, but if you’re applying more than three or so cuts it may be worth looking at your mix elements to find the sound that is responsible for the problem and apply this technique to that sound directly so the whole mix isn’t EQ’ed as much. Bracketing your song’s frequency range with lowand high-cut filtering is the next step with EQ Eight. Sit a filter just below and above the visible energy of the track to remove any content that doesn’t aid the sound of the track. This is especially especially important in the low end
PRO TIP If you need more frequency content in the 2–5kHz area of your mix but are pushed for time to tweak this during the mixing stage, Live’s Overdrive can help fill in the gap, with careful use of Drive and Tone along with a narrow band-pass filter. Use a very low dry/ wet balance – from 1% upwards.
The next step is to process the dynamic range of your track to firm it up and give it more impact. The first device can be used for average signal level-based compression, pulling the level of the track’s body and the higher peaks closer together. A second device can then be used for more rhythm-based peak compression to add punch to the drums as the whole track is compressed in response to them. Either a Compressor or Glue device can be used for average-based work, and it pays to try them both as they do sound different. This technique requires a fairly deep threshold setting but light ratio from 1.01 1.01:1 :1 upwards. Compressorr needs to Compresso be set to RMS for an averaging behaviour and Makeup Gain should be disabled so you can use the Out fader for manual level matching. This prevents you from being fooled into thinking your changes are better simply because they are louder! There’s no MAGAZINE
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MT Technique Mastering for club & radio play
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If your drums don’t stick out in the mix sufficiently to trigger Compressor, use the EQ so it reacts to the specific frequencies of certain drums and not others.
rule for the amount of gain reduction to apply here and the attack and release settings are also contentspecific – explore them until you can hear backing sounds coming further forwards in the mix while avoiding any pumping artefacts. 10 For peak-based compression, Compressor Compressor set to Peak mode is your best bet. To have only the main, louder drums trigger the compression, set the ratio quite high, with the threshold low enough to let only the highest drum peaks trigger the compressor. compressor. Dial in fast attack and release times so the track gets slightly squashed with each louder drum hit. This will give the drums a feeling of being heavier as the mix gets slightly squashed in response to them. If necessary, mix your drums a little too loud to take this effect a bit further. Alternatively, if the drums aren’t loud enough use the EQ on the left-hand side to help Compressor ‘hear’ the frequencies specific to the kick and snare. 11
After working on the sides, try an additive sweeping technique on the mid to find and then reduce any muddy lower-mid frequencies. This can be anywhere between 250–800Hz and you’ll generally need a broad Q setting as the area can be quite wide. If you haven’t removed too much bottom-to-mid frequency information on your side signal, try this on the sides as well. 13
Peak limiting Peak limiting is the final element in the processing chain. This limits the range of any momentary peaks, which enables more volume to be squeezed out of your master. Although the Limiter might be the most obvious choice for this task, we often opt for Saturator or Glue instead. These often have a more musical sound than the Limiter, which can pump when pushed hard. For both Glue and Saturator you need to enable soft clipping and increase Drive until the signal starts to break up. Once there, simply back off a little (or a lot, depending on how ‘in your face’ you want the mix to sound). 14 Saturator’s Saturato r’s output level can be set to keep everything in check, but Glue needs a Utility device adding afterwards as it can be quite loud at its output. 15 At this point you should have a polished-sounding track that you can export and distribute. If you have time, though, come back to it with fresh ears and apply any minor tweaks that perhaps didn’t seem so obvious during the previous session. MT
Mid and side Another way to tighten tighten up a mix is to EQ the mid and side elements separately. High-passing the side from around 200Hz or higher will help focus the bottom end as you’re forcing it to be mono through the mid signal only. Boosting the top end on the sides at this point can also give a wider sense of stereo (don’t overdo it or it may become less mono-compatible). To do this, switch an instance of EQ Eight from stereo mode to M/S via the Mode menu. 12 Use the Edit toggle button to change the EQ controls from adjusting the mid or side signal.
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EQ’ing the middle and side signals separately is a very effective effe ctive way of tightening the bass end and widening existing stereo elements. When it comes to peak limiting, Saturator and Glue are justt as jus as worthy worthyas Live Live’s ’s Lim Limiter iterdevic device. e.
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Programming & workflow Technique MT
MT Step-by-Step
Fast, creative MIDI editing
you’re inputting MIDI by hand, try to double-click and hold 01 If down your mouse/trackpad button to create a note and set its length in one movement. A highlighted note can then be moved from left to right with the arrow keys; pitch can be altered using up/down.
you’re struggling to get an idea started or just want to explore a 03 If different approach from usual, try inputting successive notes by holding down the [B] key to momentarily engage Draw mode. This starts you off in a step sequencer-like way. Now use the key commands already covered to change a note’s pitch and press [0] to mute any unwanted notes.
Invert (Inv) and Reverse (Rev) buttons to the left of the MIDI 05 The Note Editor will flip all highlighted MIDI notes upside down or back to front respectively. Both are easy ways to create variation in your parts. A reverse of a beat or half/a full-bar’s worth of notes is useful for creating variation at the end of a phrase. Alternatively, highlight random sections to alter for a less predictable outcome.
move from one note to the next using the arrow keys, hold 02 To down [Alt] at the same time. You can be looping around while editing to hear your changes, or use the MIDI Editor preview button (the headphone icon above the vertical piano) so you hear each change in pitch as you make it.
matter how your MIDI part has been created, there are some 04 No great editing tools available in Live, but you’ll first need to highlight two or more notes. The mouse is the obvious choice for this task, but for quick keyboard work, hold down [Shift]+[Alt] while using the arrow keys. You can alter this section or duplicate your work and alter the second to extend the phrase.
other useful functions for creative editing are the half- and 06 Two double-tempo functions (these are the :2 and *2 buttons above Inverse and Reverse). These let you change your MIDI, and doubletempo is especially useful for creating small flourishes within a piece. You can stretch highlighted content for more control over this type of change – just drag the stretch marker above the notes.
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MT Technique Programming & workflow
MT Step-by-Step
Audio sequencing and editing
are three ways to manipulate audio: using smaller, 01 There sequenced individual events, manipulating from within a loop or
first few variables for an audio file can be discovered quite 02 The easily with single sounds. Starting with Warp mode disabled,
recording of a performance, or by using Live’s Slice To To New MIDI Track function (from right-click menu) to get audio into a MIDI-controllable form. The latter can utilise techniques from the previous set of steps here, but our recommendation is to fully explore the presets available.
Transpose will let you pitch the audio up and down with vari-speed. Extreme settings of an octave or more in either direction will cause great sonic changes which can generate very interesting textures and sounds to start an idea with.
soon as Warp mode is enabled you open up a whole new world 03 As of possibilities, the first being an overall time-stretch effect
time-stretching and pitch change are easily applied 04 Warp-based to loops or recordings, but in order for single sounds to benefit
which, like vari-speed transpose, can create dramatic tonal changes at more extreme settings. Hit the half-time button a few times for an immediate granular-type effect.
from this you first need to turn them from a sequence into a new single audio file. To do this, highlight all parts on a track and select Consolidate from the Edit menu.
quickly explore the effects of warp markers, use the half- and 05 To double-time buttons. Warp modes can be chosen from the
is another useful tool for broad variation. First open 06 Transpose the Envelope box by pressing the small E button underneath the
dropdown menu below the :2 & *2 buttons and all but re-pitch modes will generate a unique, stretched timbre. Warp markers themselves can be moved around for an in-loop variation of time-stretch and compress effects.
Clip box, then select Transposition Modulation and alter the envelope over time. All stretch modes can have their other parameters changed as well, so explore the new tones these can offer you.
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How to produce authenti authentic c house Technique MT
MT Step-by-Step
How to produce authentic house
A good house track depends on a kick-ass lead. We’re going to
01 build one using Ableton Live’s Operator synth. Drag it onto a track,
First things first: pick a wave. The current Sin wave isn’t really
02 strong enough, so select Oscillator A (by clicking in the grey box
then double-click the Clip Slot to open a new MIDI track. Lay down a four-bar sequence – doesn’t have to be anything fancy, as you can always change it later. When you’re done, press [Shift]+[Tab] to switch back to Instrument View.
surrounding it) and then open the pop-up menu in the main instrument window. Pick one of the Saw waves – this will give you a much grittier, more interesting tone. Dial down Osc A’s Coarse knob a little, too.
03 Right now, if you introduce more oscillators – and you’ll certainly
04 Push up the level of Osc B, set the wave to the shape you picked
want to – each will be modulating the other, which will give a very odd sound. Click the bottom-right grey box (the one with Time, Tone and Volume in it) and you’ll see a bunch of colourful patterns appear. Select the right-most one, with the boxes – each representing an oscillator – lined up.
Filter time. You’ll automate this later when you’re building your
05 track, but for now, play around with the various values to see how it affects your sound (remember to click the square button to activate it). We suggest playing with the envelope value in the main display – a setting of 60–70% can give some real character.
for Osc A, and use the Coarse knob to detune it to your liking. Already, you’re getting something more interesting. Play around with Already, the Fine knobs on each Osc to get just the tone you like. This part of the process all comes down to personal taste.
06 There are a couple of other things you can do to give your lead
more life. Adjust the Spread control to maximum – you’ll instantly hear the stereo spread widen – then activate the LFO. The lowfrequency oscillator is going to give your sound a bit of wobble, which will really make it stand out.
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MT Technique How to produce authentic house
MT Step-by-Step
How to produce authentic house, cont’d
the loop playing, pick the shape of your LFO. You’ll be able to 07 With hear how each shape affects the sound differently – a triangle
and Amount will determine how much LFO actually gets 08 Rate injected into your sound. For something subtle, try turning
will make it rise and fall evenly, while a square will be choppy choppy.. You can probably leave the Range and Retrigger controls alone for the time being, although feel free to experiment.
Amount up to almost completely full and set the Rate very low (no higher than 10%). You’ll instantly hear that another element has been injected into the sound.
That’s the lead sorted – time for some drums. Actually, getting a
10 own track – you can then create a sub-group, allowing you finer
09 basic drum pattern going is pretty straightforward: put a Drum
Rack into a track, open a MIDI clip, then use the Browser to start auditioning kicks, snares, hats and cymbals. For house beginners, we’d we’d recommend a 707 kick for that classic vibe.
11 Sidechain compression is something you’ll use again and again. It
lowers the volume of a chosen sound every time a drum (or whatever you specify) hits. Load a compressor onto your lead track, click Sidechain, select your drum sub-mix, then adjust the compression values with the main loop playing. This will create loads of room in your mix.
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You may want to think about putting each drum element into its
control over the mix. Lay down your drum pattern as you like (we’ve gone four-to-the-floor here) and spend a little time processing and mixing your drums with EQ and some light compression.
12 After adding a bass line (Operator again, just tweaked differently)
it’s time to mix it all together and actually lay down your track. Once you’ve got a balance you’re happy with, start recording it to Arrangement View. The beauty of Ableton is that everything stays in time, no matter when you fire off your clips.
CONSOLIDATING TIME TO NEW SCENE
One of the most underrated new features of Ableton Live 9, is a very simple technique called “Consolidate Time to New Scene.” This allows you to select an amount of time from a finished track’s Arrangement and turn all of the song elements in said selection into a playable, loopable series of clips set up in a brand new Session View scene. Most Ableton users are aware of Live’s two different views, so I won’t go into too much detail about them. First, we have the more “traditional” linear sequencing view known as the Arrangement View. Vi ew. Second, Ablet on has it’s trad emark, less linear, lin ear, more “sandbox” style s tyle view called the Session View. This is where we see musical ideas set up in simple block-like Clips, that we can play around with, mix-and-match, and rearrange in various ways without committing them to a particular sequence. The Session View has become the main live performance tool for several of the most popular DJs and producers as of late. Why? Because instead of just finishing a track, creating a stereo bounce, and pressing the “play” button to play their music out, producers and DJs can take the pieces of music from their tracks (the kick drum, the bass, the snare, the vocals, etc.), and play around with them live. As a DJ, I am no longer bound to just “play” a track that I finished up yesterday. I can take the stems, add more effects to them, or even re-edit or remix my song on the fly during my live set! With Live 9, it really couldn’t be easier to get your own tracks “live performance ready.” So, for this quick example, I’m using a very simple four-stem song I’m working on (see image 1). I have four different instrument parts featured this track – kick drum, percussion, bass, and arpeggio. arpeggio. The song is currently contained all in the Arrangement View, and my Session View is completely blank.
CONSOLIDATING TIME TO NEW SCENE
One of the most underrated new features of Ableton Live 9, is a very simple technique called “Consolidate Time to New Scene.” This allows you to select an amount of time from a finished track’s Arrangement and turn all of the song elements in said selection into a playable, loopable series of clips set up in a brand new Session View scene. Most Ableton users are aware of Live’s two different views, so I won’t go into too much detail about them. First, we have the more “traditional” linear sequencing view known as the Arrangement View. Vi ew. Second, Ablet on has it’s trad emark, less linear, lin ear, more “sandbox” style s tyle view called the Session View. This is where we see musical ideas set up in simple block-like Clips, that we can play around with, mix-and-match, and rearrange in various ways without committing them to a particular sequence. The Session View has become the main live performance tool for several of the most popular DJs and producers as of late. Why? Because instead of just finishing a track, creating a stereo bounce, and pressing the “play” button to play their music out, producers and DJs can take the pieces of music from their tracks (the kick drum, the bass, the snare, the vocals, etc.), and play around with them live. As a DJ, I am no longer bound to just “play” a track that I finished up yesterday. I can take the stems, add more effects to them, or even re-edit or remix my song on the fly during my live set! With Live 9, it really couldn’t be easier to get your own tracks “live performance ready.” So, for this quick example, I’m using a very simple four-stem song I’m working on (see image 1). I have four different instrument parts featured this track – kick drum, percussion, bass, and arpeggio. arpeggio. The song is currently contained all in the Arrangement View, and my Session View is completely blank.
Image 1
What I’m going to do next is create a Scene (or a series of clips lined up horizontally) in the Session View that corresponds to all of the instrument parts I have playing during the INTRO of my song (which I have set up as the first eight bars). In order to achieve this, I am going to use my mouse to select those eight bars of time in my Arrangement (see image 1 – the selection is highlighted in blue).
Once I have selected this amount of time (and note that you can select time from ANY ONE of the tracks in your Arrangement, no need to highlight all of them), I am going to click the “CREATE” drop-down menu from the task bar at the top of my screen. Then, I am going to select the option to “Consolidate Time to New Scene” (see image 2). Image 2
Ableton takes a second to do it ’s thing, and then viola, you’re d one! But wait a minute, minut e, why does it look like nothing happened!? Well, let’s flip back over to the Session View (press the Tab key). As you can see, a new Scene, or group of Clips arranged HORIZONTALLY, has been created (see image 3). I can now use the Scene launch button to play back all of these clips simultaneously, or I can launch them one at a time.
Image 3
Notice two things: 1) Only the clips that were playing in the eight bars of time that I selected are present in the Scene (there is no Clip for the ARP track, because it was not playing in the Arrangement during the Intro). 2) All of the clips have been set up to play back for eight bars (the duration that I previously selected) AND they are all set up to loop (see the bottom Clip View window in image 3). All I have to do now is go though my s ong’s Arrangement and select diff erent sections of time – maybe highlight my verses, choruses (drops), and outro – where different elements of my track are playing. Every time you select an amount of time and choose “Consolidate Time to New Scene,” you will have a brand new Scene created that you can work with in Session View! As a final tip, it’ s always good practice to rename r ename your Scenes so you know k now what part of your song you intend to play back when launching them (see image 4).
Image 4
Technique | Ableton Live
Ableton Liv Live e Noise, Sleaze and and Dirt Dirt For some genres, you can’t have everything everything clean and shiny – it’s plain wrong. So this month shows you how to corrupt and Martin Delaney shows degrade your precious compositions
T
he time has come to have a talk about sound abuse. I’m not talking about blasting your neighbours with loud music all night, I mean
trashing your samples and programmed sounds, adding the necessary dirt and sleaze to make them sound more like they belong in the real world. A good way to start is with sample manipulation, and in our walkthrough we take a single, not very interesting, sample, and use it to build a drum rack with four different percussion sounds. Hopefully this will give you some ideas about recording, squeezing, and stretching, samples of your own, to make percussion or instrument sounds. This will give you a source instrument to play with while you’re thinking about the effects processing we’re interested in as well. Programmed music, with software instruments, tends to sound very clean, to the point of being sterile. Sometimes this is a good thing, and for some instrument parts within a mix, it’s exactly what you want. But personally, for an entire track, for an entire mix, I find it boring.
Dirt is good The good news is that there are a lot of tools we can use, inside and outside of Live, to add dirt and grit to our otherwise highly polished tunes 1 . A lot of people reading this probably do these kind of things routinely anyway, but as a Live trainer, I know for sure there are also people who are working with exclusively programmed music, and they are concerned that their mixes end up sounding too clean. This applies more to some genres than others, especially some so-called ‘urban’ styles, but you can improve the texture of any mix by dirtying the water a bit. In the old days, this would be less of a problem because people were recording onto tape, with analogue gear, and there would be plenty of dirt introduced along the way naturally. Now we have to do it ourselves! You can get texture by using different sounds, from different sources, recorded in different ways (and by not using presets... but don’t get me started on that one today). There’s no reason why a tune can’t contain really nasty lo-fi noise as well as flashy state of the art synths! All you really need to make this happen is Ableton Live, some software instruments (the ones inside Live are great), a microphone (even your computer’s built-in mic will do), 2 and anything with a speaker.
(Almost) any sound will do Let’s start with that beat. It’s an old-school sampling technique to take one sample and manipulate it to create an entire drum kit or instrument, and I’ve
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The Expert Martin Delaney, Performer, Producer Artist and instructor Martin, aka mindlobster, has produced Live training material and was one of the UK’s first certified Ableton Live trainers.
talked about it here before, but it usually gets cool results; at the very worst it’s a good exercise in using Live’s sampling tools. Our example Live set contains a sample that’s ready to go, as well as the finished drum rack that was made with it, so you have something to compare to and keep you on track. Sure, you have to go off and use your own sample as well, but stick to ours while you’re following the steps, or it’ll sound all wrong! Our sample was recorded in a coffee shop, with the mic on my MacBook Pro, straight into Live, capturing some ambient sound. It’s a ‘good’ sound, as much as it’s useable as-is, and it doesn’t need too much processing to make it work. There’s not much point in working with collected samples if you need to change and process them so far that they could’ve been anything. I try to restrict myself to using the basic sampling controls inside Simpler, and only add a couple of ‘feature’ effects if necessary. What I will do, is use a lot of EQ and compression – these are the most important sampling tools of all. EQ is used mostly for filtering out the low end of samples that have too much low ‘rumble’, and compression is applied to each sound in the kit separately, to maximise volume, but also clip and contain the levels. Compression can also change the tone of a sample, bringing out different textures that weren’t so obvious beforehand. For the kit in the tutorial I used Live’s Glue Compressor, because it’s widely available 3 , although usually I go to PSP’s Vintage Warmer 4 . You can put another compressor in the track after the rack, so it applies to the entire kit.
Getting Destructive Live has the worst guitar amp simulations of any DAW – it’s like they’re not even trying! Seriously. But there is an upside to the downside – these same lousy guitar amp models are great for downgrading beats, synths, and vocals. There are the Amp Simulations in the Audio Effect Rack section of the Browser, Browser, but you can also find the separate Cabinet and Amp devices in the Audio Effects section, so you can get a little bit more specific with your destructive tendencies. I have used the 1x12 Cab preset a few times... but never, never, with guitars! Live’s dirt devices So now we’ve built our kit, and we’ve got other sounds in a track, let’s think about how we can dirty things up. As far as that kit goes, we can add bitcrushers like Redux 5 , and distortions to specific sounds in the kit; the Dynamic Tube/ Tube Trash preset should sound good on the ‘snare’ we’ve made iin n our drum kit 6 . Live has Dynamic Tube, Redux, Erosion, and Saturator. It also has the guitar amp and speaker cabinet models – so you should be good for distortion!
Ableton Live | Technique
Dirt is Good
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Technique | Ableton Live
You can make a really nasty sound by using EQ, distortion, and then compression. The good thing about compressors that limit is that you can boost them really hard, into overdrive, but the signal is still limited at the end. Live’s Operator synth has a role to play, as I mention elsewhere on these pages. Operator’s cool because you can dial up white noise as a waveform, then use a rack to layer that noise under an instrument or drum track. You can use the chain’s volume control to mix the noise volume level, and adjust Operator’s release time to fit in what’s happening in your main instrument part. Max For Live’s Convolution Reverb effect is a monster noise tool because you can load any type of sample into it, including noises that you’ve just generated in Operator, or, well, all kinds of things – machine sounds, voices, guitar chords – whatever, it all sounds good. I like putting vocal samples in there; you can use words, but long breathy sounds work – put the reverb on a return track and solo it, so that all you can hear is the ghostly noise imprint of whatever tracks are being fed to the return 7 . Sometimes I resample a section of a song into a new audio track, and use that short loop instead of the original separate tracks. This gives your mixing process a different vibe, and gets further away from your original parts – it feels more like working with a loop you’ve cut from another record. The easiest way to do this is with Live’s Resampling audio input option in the In/Out View. Select Resampling, arm the track, and play back the tracks you want to resample from, then record them into a new clip 8 . Now you can treat this sample in new ways – apply different warp modes to it, use Beats warp mode to gate the transients, transpose the clip, reverse it; it’s all good. You can even then load your new resampled clip into Simpler, so you can play it back off a keyboard or arpeggiator, and apply even more processing to it. Very often I convert these samples to mono, which adds to the old-school sampling vibe. Because resampling happens after the returns and master, you could use this method to capture the solo’d reverbs I talked about earlier. A non-standard plug-in that’s effective for lo-fi sounds is Izotope’s free Vinyl. I use this to bind resampled sections together and make them sound different again from the original parts.
Convolution Reverb If you have Max For Live, which is included in the Live 9 Suite as well as being available separately, separately, you have a Convolution Reverb in the Max Audio Effect section of your Live Library. The Convolution Reverb is great for applying samples of real-world spaces to your reverb palette, but it’s important to realise that you can put any kind of sound in 74
Real Speaker Beat Beatss Fake ake Speaker Plug-ins are okay, but nothing equals the sound of running beats through a real speaker, and mic’ing it up, then routing it to another track in Live. After that, mix the clean and dirty signals for maximum impact. EQs and compressors are your best friends.
there. Noises of all kinds work really well; you can treat them like any other source sound – the reverb’s reverb’s controls make a lot of difference to how they behave – subtle or more obvious. Get some outside dirt You can reach another level of degradation by sending your sounds outside the computer, and bringing them back in. Anything with a speaker, a line-in, or a microphone, can work. If you’ve got nothing else, you probably have a voice memo type application on your phone. Just play a sound through your studio monitors and record it onto your phone; then sync that recording across and load it into your set. You can do the same thing with those little digital dictation recorders, if your phone doesn’t do it. I’ve also used toy voice recorders – I have a little thing that records a few seconds; I’ll record into that, then hold that up against a microphone to record it back into Live. I like dynamic microphones better for these activities. The reissued Stylophone is one of the best things around for these projects – not only does it have a horrible little speaker, it has a convenient ‘MP3’ input, which you can use to connect your computer, or synth, or guitar, and then mic it up to get the resulting grungy sound back into your computer. If the sound is too thin or just too nasty, double it up with the original, and mix them together. Put Some Like I said before, EQ and Nois Noisee In compression are very useful! Small There guitar amps are also good for If you have a track with a resampling; the good thing about software instrument or them, compared to toys like the drums, rack it, then add a chain with Operator. Stylophone, is that you can Create a noise patch experiment more with mic placement using Operator’s White Noise waveform, and mix around the larger speakers – even a it in with your original slight change in position will affect sound, so you get a nasty lurking noise behind the resulting tone. I don’t personally your track. like using guitar amps and effects on synths, because they come out sounding too... guitary... but I do love to use them on drums and vocals. It’s like I said – you don’t want to use these techniques on every sound, but they’re great for adding more texture and glue to your mix!
Ableton Live | Technique
Build a Drum Kit Kit with Sample Sample Manipulation Let’s take this poor little audio sample around the back and beat it around for a while
03 > Transpose Transpose the sample to -12 semitones. Go to the volume envelope controls and set decay to 60ms, sustain to -22dB, and release to 200ms. Set Length to 4%. Raise the Simpler volume to 18dB. Compressors are useful to add to each of our kit sounds – see the body text for suggested settings. Now we have a reasonable kick drum sound, quite soft, with a little bit of a tail on it.
01 > Start with our example clip called ‘source’. We only want the beginning of this. Turn off loop, and make sure the start marker is at 1.3, the beginning of the waveform, and move the end marker to 3.3. Now right-click in the waveform, in-between those markers, and choose ‘crop sample’. This will discard the unwanted sections of the sample.
04
02> Create an empty drum rack in a new MIDI track. Drag the cropped sample into into the rack’s C1 pad. This automatically loads an instance of Simpler, with the sample’s sample’s waveform displayed. Let’s Let’s make a kick drum. Inside Simpler, turn on the filter and set it to low pass. Set the Freq to 150Hz and the Res to 2.00. Keep testing the sounds by triggering them from your keyboard.
Snare time. Drag the sample onto the D1 pad. Set volume to 8dB, filter to HP12, and Freq 800Hz, Res 2.50. Set Start: 11.9%, Length 10%. Transpose +5. Set Decay 300ms, Sustain -8.6, Release 7.00s, Spread 10%. Rename the chains as you go. Now add two percussion sounds, on E1 and F1. For Perc 1, set filter to LP12, Freq 22.0kHz, Res 0.70...
05 > Set Start to 28.6%, Length to 10%. Set Decay to 300ms, Sustain -8.0dB, Release 267ms. Transpose Transpose +12, and Pan 15R. Volume to 6.00dB. Duplicate this chain to create Perc 2. Change Transpose to +24, Sustain to -5.4dB, Release to 8.00ms, and Pan to 15L. Refer to our body text for more about compression, and our example set for ‘before/after’ versions of the sample.
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If you would like to import a large number of audio samples in Ableton Live and keymap them to individual keys , do these things.
1. Open up an instance of the Sampler instrument 2. Select all the audio files you would like to keymap at one time and drag them to the sampler.You can either do this by dragging samples from Lives session or arrange view or from a directory on your computer.
3. Select Zone and
then select every zone by using Command A for Mac or CTRL A for Windows
4. Move the ends of the keymap display so the number of spanned keys is equal to the number of samples.
5. Right 5. Right click and choose Distribute Ranges Equally
The result should be each sample keymapped to it's own individual note.
mixer basics / make music now <
Signal paths, routing and grouping Much of the mixer’s power lies in its ability to interrupt, route and re-route signals for practical or creative purposes. Each channel strip has a pan control, pan control, allowing a sound to be ‘positioned’ between the left and right speakers, replicating instruments’ locations on a (virtual) soundstage. To achieve this, each channel’s output is divided into two ‘left’ and ‘right’ outputs behind the scenes. If a pan control is set fully left, the right side’s gain will be reduced, and output of the left side will be raised by a certain amount to compensate for the overall drop in level (usually +3dB). This means a stereo sound isn’t truly moved across the stereo ield, so an external plugin (eg, Logic’s Directional Mixer) must be used if you want to t ruly ‘reposition’ a stereo sound without just turning down one side of it.
PRE-FADER SEND
RETURNS
POST-FADER SEND
Insert pun
GROUP
Insert slots Insert slots allow you to place a plugin e fect at a certain point in the channel’s signal low to alter the audio’s characteristics characteristics at that point. When positioned pre-fader, pre-fader, the efect will occur before the channel’s volume fader in the signal path, so level changes will not a fect the inserted device’s efect. This is the most common insert type and is useful for level-dependent plugins such as compressors, noise gates or distortion. When a plugin is inserted post-fader, post-fader, changes to the volume slider’s position afect the input level of that efect. This can be useful, say, if you want a frequency analyser’s display to alter when that channel’s volume is changed. Be aware of this diference, otherwise you may painstakingly tweak a compressor post-fader, then turn up the fader, fader, causing it to be compressed much harder and ruining the efect you carefully dialled in. By default, each of a mixer’s channels will travel directly to the master output fader, but sometimes it may be more practical to take a group of similar tracks for processing together using one channel strip. Drum elements, for
> Step by step
1
MASTER The signal low of a virtual mixer is practically the same as that of a physical mixing desk, but it’s more customisable
example, are often processed as a whole. Some DAWs can now create a group channel at channel at the click of a mouse, but a more hands-on method is to create a new channel and set its input as the outputs of the tracks you wish to group. The exact method varies from DAW to DAW, so again, break out that manual and read up on it. Grouping tracks becomes even more lexible when routing groups to other groups. Route ten vocal channels as appropriate to two groups named ‘Lead Vocals’ and ‘Backing Vocals’, then send those two groups to a inal ‘Vocals’ group.
Sends and returns Another feature of a mixing desk is t he auxiliary
send. send. This creates a ‘copy’ of your signal either pre- or post-fader, routing as much or as little of it as you wish (controlled by the send knob) send knob) to a return channel. return channel. This routing can be sent from multiple channels and is commonly used to apply reverb, delay, etc, to a mix. We could, say, send vocals, guitar and snare to Buss 1 in varying amounts, and set Buss 1 as the input to a new return channel. This channel will play the three elements balanced in relation to the send levels we set. If we add a reverb insert efect to the return channel, and set that reverb to 100% wet, the return channel enables us to adjust the reverb signal for the vocals, guitar and snare using a single channel strip.
2. Exploring the difference between pre and post-fader sends
Let’s look at the diference between using sends and returns in pre-fader and post-fader mode – a concept featured in most DAWs. We’ve imported a loop onto a new track in Ableton Live 9 and set up a Reverb on a new Return track. The reverb’s Dry/Wet is set to 100% so that only its efected signal can be heard coming out of the return, as is standard practice for efects on a return channel.
2
Let’s now send our loop’s signal in parallel to the return track using the track’s Send amount. By default , Live’s returns are set up in Post Fader mode, shown by the yellow Post button on the master channel. If we pull down our loop’s channel fader, we can hear the reverb drop in level with it. This is because the loop’s signal is sent after the level fader in the signal path.
3
We now switch our send mode to Pre-Fader. As we pull down the loop’s Volume fader, this time the volume of our return track remains at a high level, unafected by the position of our channel’s fader. This is because the send signal is sent to the return before the volume fader, ie, pre-fader.
November 2013 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 69
Composition on & Experimentati Experimentation on in Live MT Technique Compositi
Ableton Live Become a Live Power User
Compo Com pose se & experiment New Ne w Series Part 3
What do you do when you run out of ideas and hit that brick wall in composition? Experiment! Liam O’Mullane guides you through Live’s tools for experimental work…
T
here are many moments in music composition when you might feel the need for experimenting, or using tools you might not normally turn to. You You could be suffering from writer’s block and not know where to take your work next, or perhaps you’re stuck on the first idea and need something to kick start it all off. Or maybe you are nearing the end of your song writing and feel the track still needs something better within it. There’s There’s always the option to step away from your work and think about new ideas, but the only problem with
On the disc Accompanying project file included on the DVD
You should see this as a challenge: how far can you take an idea to create a new one this is that it might not take you into any new territories – it is still you and probably the same thought processes you always use, after all! Experimenting is a much better way and opens up many new possibilities and could result in some of your most unique u nique work yet. This doesn’t doesn’t mean that your musical m usical integrity is compromised in any way. You’re simply leaving an interpretation of your work in the hands of somewhere else, just just as you would if you collaborated with another person. The
FOCUS ON… MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR EFFORTS Live has one of the simplest ways of dealing with the individual contents of a project. At any given time you can search the contents of another project in the Live browser and drag any tracks or individual clips out and into your currently loaded session. This also works in reverse, so if you have a good idea but it may not suit the current project you’re working on, grab the top of the track or a clip respectively, then drag it to a sensible place for easy access in the future. I have a folder called song ideas which I drag every unused idea into. Live also lets you preview these ideas in tempo with your project, meaning you can audition your own ideas in the same context as you would with audio loops.
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main different is that you’re collaborating with your computer, but like working with other people, you still get to approve, dismiss dismiss or amend any ideas put on the table. There are many times I’ve completely re-worked an idea to see where it could go and I’ve rarely found the efforts to be worthless. These changes might transform a lifeless idea into something much more upbeat, or create various other instances of an idea I can use for variations or fills at the end of a phrase. So try not to be too precious when going through the techniques covered in this workshop. You should instead see this as a challenge: how far can you take an idea to create a completely new one? The process can be quite inspirational and potentially give you a new key part to your latest work. MT
Composition Compositi on & Experimentati Experimentation on in Live Technique MT
MT Step-by-Step
Experimental MIDI
01 We’ll start with some of the most musical forms of manipulation,
for when you don’t want to move too far away from a musical structure you may have already created. Under the MIDI effects tab you will find many tools to play with. We’re starting with the Arpeggiator which is useful for quickly transforming simple ideas into something more animated.
03 We then placed a second arpeggiator device and tweaked this to
We’ve e gone from an incredibly simple melody with a single note 02 We’v
per beat to a flourish of notes using two arpeggiators. This arpeggiator began its life from the C Major Walk 16th Grooved preset which we then modified through changing the rate for faster runs and transpose was changed from major to minor to suit the existing melody more.
04 Another way to explore new possibilities is to use a Random
produce more movement to the melody. For further changes to this set-up you can feed the arpeggiator more notes using a chord device. You then just move the Pitch dials for each note you add and tweak until you like the results.
device which, as you’d you’d expect, creates random events from your existing MIDI material. Tweak Tweak its settings so the Chance amount is high for less repetition, then experiment with other parameters.
05 To record the results of any experimentation with MIDI effects,
06 Don’t think that this type of experimentation is only reserved for
add a new MIDI Track, select the output of the track you want to record from the top MIDI From menu, then select Post FX so all your processing is captured. New MIDI clips will be created when you record with all the new content as notes, meaning you can manually edit these parts to perfection.
melodic work. Try dragging these effects to your drum ideas. Because drum kit layouts rarely use all of the MIDI notes available, you’ll need to bare this in mind when you tweak parameters otherwise the majority of the notes being created could be triggering nothing.
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MT Technique Composition & Experimentation in Live
MT Step-by-Step
Creative audio processing
aspects of audio processing are considered mixing aids, 01 Certain like compression, EQ and so on. But other effects can become part of your creative process. process. For instance an immediate and drastic way to change your ideas into something rhythmic is to add an Auto Pan device.
Pan works best on sounds with a constant output whereas 03 Auto delays can be useful for the opposite situation when you have more sporadic notes. Try adding a Simple Delay device and exploring the Delay Time values, press Link if you don’t want a stereo effect and, of course, explore automation too.
musical pitch changes to an audio file over time you need 05 For to automate the clip’s Tranpose control. But for sound-design styles of pitch change, try Frequency Shifter as this doesn’t keep the harmonic relationships intact which adds a nastier tone to your sounds.
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can take this a step further by automating its sync value so 02 You rhythmic changes become an integral part of your idea. For quick automation either hit the Arrangement Record Button in arrangement view or the Session Record Button for session view. Then tweak away to record your movement.
time aspect of your ideas can also be manipulated through through 04 The the use of Live’s Beat Repeat device. This can add a mash-up/edit like aspect to your work so it saves the need for you to get heavily into editing for a quick re-work. Explore the library presets, especially Decontruct which will heavily change your current sound.
turning any audio processed into a new, rendered clip 06 Thankfully is much simpler than working with MIDI effects. Just Right [PC] / Ctrl [Mac] + Click the top of a track in session view or its header to the right in arrangement view. Select Freeze Track from the menu, then right click again and select Flatten.
MT Technique Composition & Experimentation in Live
MT Step-by-Step
Max For Live devices
01 For those who own Live Suite, you can use many of the Max for
Live devices for experimental work as well. A good starting point is Mono Sequencer if you don’t have anything created already. It’s It’s a monophonic step sequencer but its Random button is the real winner for unexpected results.
03 Drunk Again is an interesting device as it adds Random’s rapid
repeats of notes within the playback of your MIDI clip. It’s best recorded for a while to capture the magic moments. We like this on percussion parts to help them get the glitch treatment.
05 When it comes to adjusting parameters over time there are a few
tools with Max that allow you to do this, with an added twist of being able to use another sound as the trigger for the sound you’re focussing on. Alongside your melody idea, set up a drum source. Here we’re we’ re using a simple drum loop.
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02 The Random button randomizes whichever of the five tabs are
selected at anytime - Pitch, Velocity, Velocity, Octave, Duration and Repeat. If you’re close to getting something you like, keep Random set to a lower percentage, but if you want complete change with each click, set this to 100%.
04 Instant Haus is another interesting device as it’s designed to
drive kick, snare/clap, hi-hat hi-hat and percussion parts for immediate imm ediate house music. Run this into an instrument and you might get results similar to Mono Sequencer, but the random section includes groove if you want to explore timing.
folder, grab an Envelope 06 Under Audio Effects in the Max for Live folder,
Follower and drag this to the drum track. This will follow the rhythmic amplitude changes of the drum sound. You can then click Map followed by clicking the parameter you wish to control to connect them together.
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You can cho choose oseto to reco record rd in bot both h Ses Sessio sion n and Arr Arrang angemen ementt 01 You View Vi ews.Th s.This is ca can n be wh when en Li Live ve is al alre read adyy in th the e mi midd ddle le of pl play ayba back ck or yo you u ca can n us use e a pr pre-c e-cou ount nt to co countin untin th the e st startof artof bo both th rec recor ordi ding ng and play pl aybac back k at th the e sa same me ti time me.The .The met metro ronom nome e bu butto tton n ha has s a men menu u fo forr tailor tai loring ingthe the dur durati ation on of pre pre-co -count unt for forthe the perf performe ormers rs’’ need needs. s.
youwan wantt to reco record rd mul multipl tiple e tak takes es wit with h thi this s nonnon-loo loopin ping g 03 If you
approach,it’ approa ch,it’s s bes bestt to rec record ordeac each h new newtak take e to a dif differ ferent ent tra track. ck. You Yo u can thenaccura thenaccuratel telyy spl split it eac each h part partby by dis disabl abling ingSna Snap p To Gri Grid d fro from m the th e Op Opti tionsmenuand onsmenuand us usin ing g Sp Spli litt fr from om theEditmenu theEditmenu.The .The [0 [0]] ke keyy ca can n be use used d to dis disabl able e tak takes es whe when n dete determin rmining ingthe the bes bestt one ones. s.
Anotherapproach ch is to tra track ck mul multip tiple le rec record ording ings s by cyc cyclin ling g ove overr a 05 Anotherapproa small sma ll sec sectio tion n rep repeat eatedl edlyy.This is use useful fulif if you youwan wantt to adad-liband liband try out mul multip tiple le dif differ ferent ent ide ideas as.. Sta Start rt by loo loopingaroun pingaround d the theare area a of focus,then foc us,then reco record rd var variou ious s tim times es unti untill you youthi think nk ther there e are suf suffici ficient ent decent dece nt part parts s to wor work k wit with. h.
o cap capturea turea nat naturalperfor uralperformanc mance,it’sbest e,it’sbest not to foc focus us on 02 Tsma smalle llerr sec sectio tions ns and loo loop p aro around und the them. m.Ins Instea tead,use d,use Liv Live e in a purely lin purely linear ear modeby mak making ingsur sure e tha thatt Loo Loop p Swi Switch tchis is dis disabl abled,then ed,then recor rec ord d th the e per perfo forma rmancefromstar ncefromstartt to fin finis ish.Thi h.This s wi willresu llresult lt in a muc much h more mor e natu natural ral-so -soundi unding ng reco recordi rding ng tha than n wor workin king g in sma small ll sect section ions. s.
perf rform ormer er ca can n’t qui quite te nai naill a fu full ll ta take ke or di did d a go good od jo job b but 04 If a pe
small sma ll sec sectio tions ns mig might ht bene benefit fit fro from m a rere-tak take,you e,you can use useLiv Live e’s punch-in/punch-i n/-out out func functio tion. n.Cli Click ck and andhig highli hlight ghtthe theareato areato foc focus us on and select sel ect Loo Loop p Sel Selecti ection on to mov move e the theLoo Loop p Bra Brace.Pres ce.Press s the Pun Punchch-In/In/Outt Sw Ou Swit itch ch (i (in n ye yell llow ow)) to ma map p to th the e Lo Loop op Br Brace aces s’ st startand artand endpoin endpoints ts.. Recordi Reco rding ng wil willl now nowtak take e pla place ce onl onlyy betw between een the these se two twopoi points nts..
clip cli p thatyou’ thatyou’ve ve reco recorde rded d wil willl hav have e an int interna ernall Loo Loop p 06 Theaudio Brace Bra ce tha that’ t’s s the leng length th of you yourr cli clip.T p.To o audi auditio tion n the theoth other er tak takes, es, simplymove simp lymove th the e Lo Loop op Br Brac ace e ar arou ound nd to ch chang ange e th the e co cont ntentof entof th the e cl clip ip.. This Thi s avo avoidsthe idsthe alt alterna ernativ tive,length e,lengthyy app approa roach ch of mov moving ingand and ext extendi ending ng the th e cl clip ip to ga gain in ac acces cess s to th the e ot othe herr ta take kes. s.
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December 201 2013 3 | 65
MT Technique Au Audi dio o rec recor ordi ding ng& & edi editi ting ngin inLiv Live e
MT Step-by-Step
Recording Recordi ngin inSessi Session onView View
Session n Vie View w can be use usefulfor fulfor Arr Arrang angem ementViewentView-lik like e cyc cycle le 01 Sessio record rec ording ing,, ex excep ceptt tha thatt cli clips ps are rec record orded ed to sep separa arate te slo slots,whic ts,which h keeps thi keeps thingseasie ngseasierr to dea deall wit with h vis visual ually ly.. If youinten youintend d to wor work k in a line li near ar wa way y yo you u cansim cansimpl ply y hi hitt re reco cordin rdin anempt anempty y cl clip ip sl slot ot an and d re recor cord d contin con tinuou uously sly,, the then n dra drag g thefile int into o Arr Arrang angeme ement nt Vie View w foreditin forediting. g.
yourr rec record ording ings,you s,you can eit either herdra drag g the them m int into o 03 Nowthat youhave you
Arrangeme Arrang ement nt Vie View w for edi editin ting,or g,or usean ex exclu clusiv sive e met method hod wit within hin Sessio Ses sion n Vie View.Thi w.This s tec techni hniqueis queis mu much ch mor more e han handsds-on on andless graphi gra phical callyly-bas based.Once ed.Once you you’veset ’veset up you yourr Loo Loop p Bra Braces ces to rep repres resent ent each ea ch ta take ke,, dr drag ag th the e re reco cord rdin ingsto gsto on one e tr trac ack k soyou ca can n pl play ay ba back ck on only ly one on e ta takeat keat a tim time. e.
Next,assig xt,assign n com comput puter er ke keys ys or MID MIDII not notes es to eac each h cli clip p usi using ng 05 Ne
either eith er Ke Key y Ma Map p mo mode de or MI MIDI DI Ma Map p mo modefromthe defromthe to top p ri righ ghtt ofthe screen scr een.. Nowyou canlaunc canlaunch h thetakes wit with h you yourr fing fingersand ersand jam out poten pot entia tiall edi edits ts of the rec record ording ings.We s.We findthat thi this s hel helps ps youliste youlisten n to howthe edi edits ts alt alter er theperfor theperforman mance ce,, and youcan pra practi ctice ce unt until il you think thi nk it sou sounds nds rig right. ht.
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Multiple le tak takes es can be rec record orded ed sep separa aratel tely y by cre creati ating ng mul multip tiple le 02 Multip tracks tra cks with with the their ir Arm but button tons s ena enable bled.Then d.Then,, as lon long g as Sta Start rt Recordingon Record ingon Sce Scene ne Lau Launch nch is ena enable bled d fro from m thePrefer thePreferenc ences es men menu, u, youjust trig trigger ger a sce scene ne to sta start rt pla playba yback ck and rec record ordingof ingof you yourr multipl mul tiple e tak takes es.. Alt Alter er eac each h cli clip p’s Loo Loop p Bra Brace ce pos positi ition on as in Ste Step p 6 of the previo pre vious us wal walkth kthrou rough gh so tha thatt the they y rep repres resent ent eac each h tak take. e.
Highlighti ighting ng your recor recordings dings,, open the Laun Launch ch Box,enable Lega Legato to 04 Highl
mode mod e andset Qua Quanti ntizat zationto ionto non none.Lega e.Legato to all allowsyou owsyou to mov move e from pla from playin ying g oneclip to ano anothe therr wit withou houtt los losingthe ingthe pla playba yback ck pos positi ition. on. This Th is le lets ts yo you u ju jump mp be betw twee een n on one e ta takeand keand th the e ot othe herr li likea kea ma manu nual al ed edit. it. Thelack of Qua Quanti ntizat zationmeanslaunc ionmeanslaunchin hing g of cli clips ps wil willl be imm immedi ediate ate..
When n you you’r ’re e rea ready dy to com commi mitt you yourr com compil pilingto ingto Liv Live,hit e,hit the 06 Whe
Arrang Arr angeme ement nt Rec Record ord Bu Buttonto ttonto cap captur ture e you yourr per perfor forman mance ce in Arrangeme Arrang ement nt Vie View.Fromhere w.Fromhere youcan fine fine-tu -tune ne andedit bet betwee ween n parts.Drag part s.Drag thetakes bac back k to Ses Sessio sion n Vie View w if nec necess essary ary aft after er cons co nsol olid idat atin ing g it to a ne new w au audi dio o fil file e vi via a th the e Ed Edit it me menu nu..
Audi Au dio o rec recor ordi ding ng& & edi editi ting ngin inLiv Live e Technique MT
MT Step-by-Step Editingtechnique Editing techniques s
There are sev severa erall key keytoo tools ls you you’ll ’llneedto needto wor work k wit with h whe when n edi editin ting g 01 There a perf perform ormance ance.. If you you’v ’ve e alr alreadycomped eadycomped fro from m var variou ious s tak takes es you you’ll ’ll have mult have multipl iple e cli clips ps seq sequenc uenced ed one aft after er anot another her.. Liv Live e wil willl automa aut omatic ticall allyy smo smooth oth-ou -outt the edi edits ts you you’v ’ve e mad made e wit with h a cro crossf ssfade ade.. To view vie w and edi editt the these,sele se,select ct Sho Show w Fad Fades es fro from m the theCre Create ate menu menu.. Fade-i Fad e-ins/ ns/-ou -outs ts can als also o be cont control rolled led in thi this s way.
Disabl abling ingWar Warp p mod mode e fro from m the Sam Sample pleVie View w all allowsyou owsyou to 03 Dis
re-pitch re-pit ch you yourr aud audio io cli clips ps forcorrect forcorrection ionpurp purpose oses s usi using ng var variispeed.Thismeans spe ed.Thismeans tha thatt the theaudi audio o’s dur durati ation on wil willl exp expand and or cont contrac ractt as yougo you go dow down n or up in pit pitch ch res respect pective ively ly.. Use theTra theTransp nspose oseand and Detu Detune ne amountsto amo untsto cor correctyour rectyour audi audio o’spitch ’spitch..
Like tuni tuning ng a nonnon-war warped ped cli clip,Tr p,Transp anspose oseand andDetu Detune ne can be 05 Like used us ed with with Wa Warp rp mo mode de ena enabl bled ed as lo long ng asit’ asit’s s se sett to an anyt ythi hing ng but Re-Pitch Re-Pit ch mod mode.Finer e.Finer tuni tuning ng thr throug ough h Detu Detune ne is bes bestt forminor correct cor rection ions,but s,but thi this s can hav have e onl onlyy a sta static tic set settingper tingper cli clip,so p,so Spl Split it each ea ch ar area ea to be co corr rrect ected ed an and d se sett th the e De Detun tune e on a pa partrt-by by-p -partbasi artbasis. s.
When try trying ing to imp improv rove e the thetim timing ing of sma smalle llerr edi edits,rathe ts,ratherr tha than n 02 When tryi tr ying ng tomovethe cl clip ips,mov s,move e th thei eirr co cont ntentinst entinstead– ead– ju just st gr grab ab the St the StartMark artMarker er in th the e Sa Samp mple le Ed Edit itor or wi windo ndow w tomove th the e co conte ntent nt and disabl dis able e Sna Snap p To Gridfor mor more e accu accurac racyy. ReRe-siz size e the thecli clip p to avo avoid id abruptl abr uptlyy cho choppi pping ng off the thesou sound’ nd’s s sta start rt or end poi points nts..
Live’s Wa Warp rp mo mode de canbe us used ed wh when en yo you u wa want nt to ed edit it th the e ti timi ming ng 04 Live
within wit hinan an aud audio io cli clip p but lea leave ve the pit pitch ch inf inform ormati ation on int intact. act. Pseudo War Pseudo Warp p Mar Marker kers s wil willl app appear earabo above ve the wav wavefo eform rm in the Sam Sample ple Editor Edi tor.. The These se can be doub doublele-cli clicke cked d and anddra dragge gged d to cond condenseor enseor expand expa nd the cli clip p’s cont content. ent.
you yo u pl plan an on wa warp rpinga inga mu mult ltii-au audi dio o re reco cord rdin ing g li like ke dr drum um mi mics cs or 06 If variou var ious s ins instrum trumentsfrom entsfrom a liv live e perf perform ormance ance,, firs firstt ens ensure ure tha thatt all audioto be ed audioto edit ited ed isthe sa same me le lengt ngth h (C (Con onso soli lida date te al alll pi piece eces s to a new length leng th fro from m the theEdi Editt menu menuif if need needed) ed).. Hig Highli hlightthe ghtthe part parts,edit s,edit one clip cli p’s War Warp p Mark Markers ersand and the oth others erswil willl fol follow low.The .The str stripedpatter ipedpattern n acros acr oss s th the e to top p of th the e cl clip ip co confi nfirmsyou rmsyou ar are e in a gr group ouped ed Wa Warp rp mo mode de..
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December 201 2013 3 | 67
Produ Pro duci cing ngau authe thent ntic icdr drum um& & bas bass s Tutorial MT
Powered Powe red by
Genre foc focus us Technique Genre
Authentic and original drum & bass Part1 Arguab Argu ably lyon one e of ofth the e mo most stdi difficu fficult ltel elect ectro roni nic c ge genr nres esto toma mast ster er,, D& D&B B ve vete tera ran n Liam LiamO’Mu O’Mullane llane expla exp lain ins s the thecor core e tec techn hniq iques uesfor forach achie ievi ving ngan anau authe thenti ntic c pro produ ducti ction onsou sound nd..
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longside longsi de gen genres res suc such h as tec technoand hnoand tra trance nce,, drum dr um & ba bassis ssis on one e of th the e mo more re ma matu ture re st styl yles es thatt ha tha has s con consta stantl ntlyy pus pushed hed the bou bounda ndarie ries s of electronic electr onic musi music c prod productio uction. n. And altho although ugh manyy peo man people ple reg regar ard d dub dubste step p to be the mos mostt innova inn ovativ tive e and per perhap haps s les less s rul ruleses-dri driven ven gen genresof resof mod modern ern times,D&B tim es,D&B sta starte rted d itslife in muc much h the sa same me wa wayy. Duri Du ring ng th the e fir firsthal sthalff ofthe 90s 90s,, a la larg rge e pa part rt ofthe ra rave ve scene sce ne wa was s sp splin linter teringoff ingoff to bec become ome ha hardc rdcore ore,, andas another anoth er offs offshoo hoott of this thisdevel developme opment, nt, jungl jungle e was born.From jungle jungl e thro through ugh to its evolu evolution tion into D&B in the earl early-toy-to-midmid90s,the gen genre re hasalwa hasalways ys pus pushedthe hedthe bou bounda ndarie ries s in ter terms ms of ho how w tec techno hnolo logy gy canbe use used d cre creati ativel velyy.
Accompanying projectfileincluded ontheDVD
eyfoc focus us sho Your key hou uld be betto exper ex perim imen entt un unti till yo you u stu stumb mblle somethi hing nguni unique que on somet In thi this s tw two-p o-part art se serie ries s we wi will ll be lo looki oking ng at thefour cor core e elemen ele ments ts th that at ap appl plyy to al alll th the e su sub-g b-genr enres es tha thatt ha have ve eme emerg rged ed over the yea years rs – bassdesign,drum pro producti duction,decorat on,decorative ive sounds/ soun ds/melo melodiesand diesand arra arrangem ngement ent dyna dynamics mics.. Unle Unless ss you are ar e pl plann anningto ingto pr produ oduce ce ye yett ano anoth ther er fo forr to com compet pete e wi with th th the e ex exis istin ting g bi big g com comme me
you wi you will ll be ai aimi ming ng to cre creat ate e mus music ic tha thatt wi will ll ha have ve the necess nec essaryprod aryproduct uctionvalue ionvalues s to si sitt hap happi pily ly in yo your ur li list st of respec res pecte ted d art artis ists ts.. Bu Butt in a ge genre nre th this is mat mature ure,, ma many ny st style yles s andideas andidea s ha have ve al alrea ready dy bee been n do done ne to dea death,so th,so yo you u wi will ll als also o need nee d to str strivefor ivefor ori origi ginal nalityin ityin yo your ur wo work. rk. Yourkey fo focusshou cusshould ld be to exp experi erimen mentt unt until il yo you u stu stumbl mble e on so somet methi hing ng uni unique que,, so thebass anddrum tec techn hniqu iques es we’r we ’re e abou aboutt to dis discuss cusswil willl give giveyou you the bas baselin eline e know knowledg ledge e needed neede d to succ successf essfull ullyy take takean an expl explorat oration ion intosound,then packag pac kage e tha thatt int into o a bal balanc anced ed mus musica icall pr prod oduct uction ion.. It cantake an art artis istt ye yearsto arsto cra craft ft andperfe andperfect ct th the e sou sound nd tha thatt end ends s up definin defi ning g the them,so m,so do don n’t exp expectto ectto ban bang g outdeep outdeep,, det detai ailed led trackswhic tra ckswhich h con conjur jure e up viv vivid id im imag agery ery to th the e li liste stener ner aft after er justread just reading ing this this.. But do note notethat thatalth althoughthere oughthere are many tutor tut orial ials s outtherethat ai aim m to te teachyou achyou ho how w to so sound und li like ke big-na big -name me art artis ists ts – wh who o alr alread eadyy ow own n therigh therights ts to th the e so sound und they’ the y’ve ve car carved ved in th the e gen genre re – if yo you u sti stick ck wi with th th the e funda fun damen mental tals s we cov cover er he here re yo you’ u’ll ll findit muc much h eas easierto ierto tak take e experi exp erimen mentat tatio ion n andmake it wo work rk as a fini finish shed ed tra track.So ck.So set yoursequ your sequencer’ encer’s temp tempo o to betw between een 170–180BP 180BPM M (depen (de pendi ding ng on yo your ur mo mood! od!)) andlet’ andlet’s s getstart getstarted. ed.MT This tuto This tutorialhasbeenendorse rialhasbeenendorsed d byACM,TheAcadem byACM,TheAcademyy ofContem ofContempora porary ry Music,, worldleaders in Music inmusicindustryeducation.ACM’sAudioProduction musicindustryeducation.ACM’sAudioProduction SchoolprovidesDiploma(one-year)and Degree(two-year)courses in Contemporary Contemp oraryMusicProductio MusicProduction, n,Electroni Electronic c MusicProductio MusicProduction, n,Creative Creative SoundDesign andTourProduction& Manage Management. ment. www acm ac ukT:0148 ukT:01483 3 5008 500800 00
FOCUS ON… FOCUS PROGRAMMING DET DETAILS AILS Althoughcopy andpasteare func Althoughcopy function tions s that areembeddedin moder modern n compu computinglife, tinglife, using usin g themor a dupli duplicate cate-partfunct -partfunctionas ionas a gener general al writ writingand ingand arra arrangingtechn ngingtechnique ique isn’t isn ’t thekey toachievin toachieving g trac tracks ks witha deep sense sens e of deta detail.Howeve il.Howeverr, we we’renot ’renot say saying ing thatt youcan’tstarta gene tha generalidea ralidea asa loop loop,, butyou shou should ld defini definitelykeep telykeep theloop minima min imall lly y sh short– ort– 1,2 or4 bar bars s – bef before ore extendin ext ending g theidea.Anythinglonge theidea.Anythinglongerr will invit in vite e yo you u tobe laz lazy y whe when n itcome itcomes s to adding addi ng vari variatio ation n anddetailto yourwork ata later lat er sta stage.Inst ge.Instead,tryto ead,tryto expan expand d anidea by writingnew writ ingnew partsone aft after er anot another her.Youcan .Youcan copysmaller copysmall er sect sectionsfromthe ionsfromthe cont contentof entof previousparts,justtry previ ousparts,justtry toavoid globa globall copyingof copy ingof allpartsand thei theirr cont content.A ent.A better bett er appr approachis oachis topinch andborrow little litt le bitshere andthere,thenvary themas you progress.
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December 201 2013 3 | 69
Produ Pr oduci cing ngaut authen henti tic c dru drum m & bas bass s Technique MT
MT Step-by-Step Drumwor Drum work k
The Th e on onlyrequ lyrequir irem emen entt fo forr themai themain n dr drumsou umsound nds s inD&B is th that at
From Fr om her here e we we’r ’re e goi going ng to exp explor lore e lay layeri ering ng pos possib sibili ilitie ties s to len lend d an
01 the they y nee need d eno enoughprese ughpresence nce to sou sound nd str strongenoug ongenough h on the their ir own
02 ind indivi ividua duall ton tone e to ourdrums ourdrums.. Dueto the fas faster tertem tempo po in D&Bthan
beforeyou add dec beforeyou decora orativ tive e sou sounds nds.. Forthe kic kick k and sna snare re we we’r ’re e sta startin rting g with wit h two sam sample ples s cho chosenfor senfor the their ir wei weight ght and goo good d tra transi nsientsnap. entsnap. We’ve We ’vethen then progr programme ammed d four bars with varia variation. tion.
other genre genres, s, it’ it’s s import important ant to keep the lower lower-freq -frequenc uency y elem elements ents quit qu ite e sh shortin ortin du dura rati tion on.. Ke Keep ep a ke keenear enear onthisby us usin ing g fad fadesor esor AD ADSR SR amplit amp litudecontro udecontrol.Thes l.These e can be use used d to car carefu efull lly y tig tighte hten n eac each h new soun so und d asyou ad add d it.
When n add adding ing ne new w dru drum m lay layers ers,, uti utilis lise e hig high-p h-pass ass,, ban band-p d-pass ass or an 03 Whe
Anythi ything ng fro from m hihi-hat hats s to sli sliced ced bre breakbe akbeats ats can be use used d to add 04 An
EQ filt filter er to rem removeany oveany unn unnece ecessa ssary ry fre freque quenci ncies es tha thatt mayclash with wit h oth other er dru drum m sou soundsand ndsand mixeleme mixelementsas ntsas the son song g pro progre gresse sses. s. We’v We ’ve e ach achiev ieved ed a woo woodydy-sou soundi nding ng kic kick k and pic piccol colo o sna snare re ton tone e we we’r ’re e happy hap py wit with h by cre creati ating ng a fewlayer fewlayers,but s,but don don’t ’t be opp oppose osed d to cha changi nging ng soundsas sou ndsas you yourr son song g and mixdeman mixdemand. d.
more mor e rhy rhythm thmic ic inf inform ormati ation on to you yourr cor core e sou sounds nds.. A filt filtere ered d bre break ak slice slic e is of ofte ten n us usedas edas a te text xtur ural al la laye yerr tothe ki kick ck an and d sn snar are,butwe e,butwe’v ’ve e used us ed it be betw twee een n th the e ma mainhitsin inhitsin a sp spar arin ing g fa fash shio ion n an and d fil filte tere red d th themso emso they don don’t ’t soun sound d too domin dominating ating.. Also try highhigh-passpass-filter filtering ing long soun so unds ds togivea se sens nse e of sp spac ace e to yo your ur dr drumsou umsound nd as a wh whol ole. e.
have e gu guess essed,laye ed,layerin ring g is goi going ng to pla play y a pre pretty tty lar large ge 05 As youmay hav
Althou hough gh thecomme thecommerci rcial al sid side e of D&Bbecam D&Bbecame e ver very y lou loud d ove overr the 06 Alt
part her here e too too.. We We’vedupli ’veduplicat cated ed our lea lead d tra track,whic ck,which h giv gives es us six sawwavesto pla play y wit with.It’ssound h.It’ssoundingreall ingreally y nic nice e and buz buzzy zy now now,, so we diall in a lit dia littlerever tlereverb b to giv give e it eve even n mor more e spa space ce andcharac andcharacter ter. We don don’t ’t actuall actu ally y hav have e our lea lead d pla playin ying g allthe tim time e – rat rather her, it kic kicks ks in eve every ry seco se cond nd ba barr or so so..
lastt dec las decade ade,, mod modernunder ernundergro groun und d rel releas eases es all allow ow mor more e roo room m fora mix to breath breathe.So e.So don don’t ’t over overdo do proce processin ssing g like limi limiting,hard-cli ting,hard-clipping pping or an any y oth other er eff effectsdesig ectsdesignedto nedto max max-ou -outt a sig signal nal.. Try ach achiev ieving ing mor more e power pow er by sid sidech echain ainingsound ingsounds s oth other er tha than n you yourr kic kick k andsnare – hav having ing thes th ese e dr drop op byjust2–4 byjust2–4dB dB is en enou oughfor ghfor a so soli lid d ye yett dy dyna nami mic c so soun und. d.
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MT Technique Pr Produ oduci cing ngau authe thent ntic icdr drum um& & bas bass s
MT Step-by-Step
Bassdesign Bassdesig n and andre-s re-samp amplin ling g
Whether youplan to kee keep p an ins instru trument mentliv live e thr throug oughou houtt the 01 Whether produc pro ductio tion n pro processor cessor int intend end to rere-sam sample pleit it (wh (whichtends ichtends to be the ca the case se in D& D&B) B),, bo both th ap appr proa oach ches es st startwitha artwitha so soundsour undsource ce of discern dis cernibl ible e pit pitch ch or mor more e noi noisese-lik like e and andpit pitchl chless esscha charac racter ter.. The Thelat latter ter can be ach achiev ieved ed wit with h dra drasti stic c pit pitch ch var variat iation ions s or hea heavy vy use of FM, ring-modulati ring-m odulation on or any other otherheavi heavily ly disco discordant rdant proces processing. sing.
to ad add d mo move vemen mentt to yo your ur so sound und.The .The bes bestt 03 Thenextstepis start st artin ing g po poin intt isto pl playwithany aywithany co contr ntrol ols s as yo you u li list sten en fo forr something someth ingint interes erestin ting.Use g.Use the themor more e coa coarse rse-so -soundi unding ng cha changesto ngesto develo dev elop p a uniq unique ue cha charac racter ter.. At thi this s sta stage,try ge,try to ass assign ignan an env envelo elope pe or LFO LF O to th thes ese e pa para ramet meter ers s sotheycan be tri trigg gger ered ed as yo you u pl play ay..
Re-sam sampli pling ng is the themos mostt pra practic ctical al wayto dea deall wit with h thes these e lar large ge 05 Reeffectschains effects chainsand and automa automation tion record recordings ings.. Befor Before e sampli sampling, ng, explor expl ore e th the e be best st not note e to re reco cord rd assome wi willhavea llhavea ce certa rtain in so soni nic c sweetne swe etness ss ove overr oth others ers.. Aft After er reco recordi rding ng theminto you yourr DAW DAW,, dra drag g the audio aud io int into o a sam sample plerr and andexpl explore ore the thepos possib sibili ilitie ties s wit with h thi this s (andany other re-sa re-sampled mpled bass basssounds soundsyou’ you’ve ve created created). ).
December201 2013 3 72 | | December
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There e’s no se sett rul rules es fo forr th the e ty type pe of wa wave vefo formsyou rmsyou ca can n se sele lect ct he here re,, 02 Ther but you’ll you’llgen genera erally llyfind findtha thatt a big bigger ger sou sound nd is ach achiev ieved ed by usi using ng square squa re wa wave ves s wi with thin in yo your ur mi mixx of sy synthlay nthlayers ers.. Sa Saw w wa wave ves s of offe ferr a lo lott of edgethat cutsacros cutsacross s a mix;hig mix;highly hlypit pitche ched d sin sine e or tria triangl ngle e wav waves es are useful usef ul forachiev forachieving ingsof softer ter ton tones.Make es.Makesur sure e tha thatt you youals also o exp explor lore e the bestt octa bes octave ve for foreac each h lay layer er as you yousta stack ck syn synths thsor or osc oscill illato ators. rs.
you yo u pl plan an on rere-sa samp mpli ling ng yo your ur so sound und,, th thisis isis th the e po pointat intat wh whic ich h 04 If youcan pil pile e on pro proces cessin sing g effe effects cts wit withou houtt wor worryi rying ng abo about ut gett getting ing in a tan tangle glewit with h aut automa omatio tion n lat later er on.Explo on.Explore re par paramet ameter er cha changeswith ngeswith effect eff ects s as yo you u di did d in th the e la last st st step ep an and d rec recor ord d th them em as au auto toma mati tion. on. Common Com moneffe effect ct cho choice ices s are pha phaser ser,, not notchch-filt filteri ering ng and ste stereo reowid width/ th/ wideni wid ening ng too tools.But ls.But her here,anyth e,anything ing goe goes. s.
designa desi gnated ted sub sub-la -layer yer is ess essenti ential al forthe low low-en -end d wei weight ght 06 Aneed needed ed in D&B D&B.These .These are areoft often en sta stacke cked d sin sine e wav waves es wit with h octave- or harmoni octaveharmonic-bas c-based ed interv intervals.Alternativ als.Alternatively ely,, triang triangle le wave waves s can be qui quite te usef useful ul whe when n low low-pa -passss-filt filteredfor eredfor a thi thicke ckerr sou sound.Keep nd.Keep the sub su b as a se sepa para rate te in inst stru rumen mentt ra rath ther er th than an a la laye yerr wi with th ot othe herr so sound unds s so it caneith caneither er pl playin ayin un unis ison on or be va vari ried ed fr from om th the e oth other er pa parts rts..
Orbital Chime Deconstruction MT
MT Step-by-Step
Keyeleme Key elements nts
Lookin Loo king g at the elem elementsof entsof the ori origin ginal,we’ al,we’re re bac back k in cla classi ssicc-
01 gea gear-l r-land.Orbi and.Orbital talfam famous ously ly tri trigge ggered red har hardwa dware re suc such h as the
RolandTB-303 RolandTB-30 3 andTR-909live viaAlesi viaAlesis s MMT MMT8 8 sequ sequence encers rs.. The These se sequenc seq uences es wer were e thentrigge thentriggered redaro around und part particu icular larbar bar leng lengths ths,, and thi this s approa app roach ch can qui quite te eas easilybe ilybe repl replica icated ted in sof softwa tware re lik like… e…
it’’s a go good od id idea ea toloadin an mp3of th the e or orig igin inal al 03 To findthisout it
… Ab Ablet leton on Liv Live.Here e.Here,, th the e va vario rious us tra tracksof cksof thesong arebrok arebroken en
02 dow down n fr from om lef leftt to rig right ht (dr (drums ums,, ch chor ords ds,, tw two o ba bass ss li lines nes)) wh whil ile e the aforementio aforeme ntioned ned sequ sequencessit encessit as cli clips ps with within in each eachone one.. The trac track’ k’s s bass bas s li line ne fo foll llow ows s thechor thechord d pr progr ogres essi sion on th thro rough ughout out,, so we nee need d to work wo rk outwhat tha thatt is is,, but fir first,let’ st,let’s getthe ke keyy of th the e tun tune. e.
The e op openi ening ng se seque quenceis nceis a se sett of ch chor orda dall st stab abs.Th s.The e ea easi sies estt wa wayy 04 Th
and si and simp mply ly pl playalon ayalong,but g,but we we’v ’ve e do done ne th the e ha hard rd wo work rk andcan reve re vealtha althatt itis E fla flatt ma majo jorr (n (not otesE esE fla flat,F t,F,G, ,G, A fla flat,B t,B fla flat,C,D,E t,C,D,E fla flat) t).. Now No w to lo look ok at th the e so song ng’’s st stru ruct cturein urein a li littl ttle e mo more re dep depth th.. ....
to re re-c -crea reate te th this is isto sa samp mple le th the e se seque quenceand nceand lo loop op it as it pl play ays s solo at the sta solo start. rt.But Buttha that’ t’s s che cheati ating,so ng,so you youcou could ld sam sample ple an indi individ vidual ual stab sta b and tri trigge ggerr it in Liv Live’ e’s sam sampleras pleras sho shown wn her here e (thepatternrepeat (thepatternrepeats s over ov er a cou coupl ple e of ba bars rs).If ).If yo you u wa want nt tore-c tore-cre reat ate e th the e or orig igina inall ch chor ords ds,, go forr a st fo stri ring ng-l -lik ike e so soundwitha undwitha sh shortatta ortattack ck ba base sed d ar arou ound nd E fla flatt ma majo jorr.
The ma main in ba bass ss so soundwas undwas cr crea eate ted d wi with th a cl clas assi sic c Yama amahaFM haFM 05 The module mod ule,, theTX81Z,using theTX81Z,usinga a pre preset set cal called ledthe the Lat Lately elyBas Bass.If s.If you
The sou The sound nd is ava availa ilable blein in sof softwa tware re ins instrum trumentslike entslike NI NI’’s FM8 06 (s (sho hown wn an and d fr from om th the e FM FM7 7 ba bank)or nk)or a fr freew eewar are e sy synthfor nthfor Wi Windo ndows ws
want to re want re-c -cre reat ate e th thisit isit so sound unds s ra rath ther er li like ke a pl pluc ucke ked d ba bass ss so soundwith undwith richand ri chand mel mello low w to tones– nes– a so soun und d th that at und underp erpin innedmanya nedmanya da dancetrac ncetrack k back ba ck in th the e da dayy.
calledOXEFM called OXEFM (fr (from om www www.o .oxes xesoft. oft.com) com).. Any Anybas bass s sou sound nd wit with ha pluc pl ucke ked d at attac tack k an and d mi midd ddli ling ng de deca cayy wi will ll do do.. Ov Over er th the e fir first st pa part rt of th the e trac tr ack k th the e on only ly no note tes s th the e ba bass ss pl play ays s ar are e E fla flatt andB fla flat,whi t,which ch fo foll llow ow the cho chord rd pro progre gressi ssion on ove overr two twocha changes nges..
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December 201 2013 3 | 77
Orbital Chime Deconstruction MT
MT Step-by-Step
Key Key eleme elements... nts...cont’ cont’d d
Thesec The second ond sec sectio tion n of the theson song g fol follow lows s a lon longer ger pro progre gressi ssion on of
07 the thecho chords rds,, how howeve everr.These six sixcho chordsare: rdsare:G,B G,B flat,E flat flat;; D,F D,F,, B
As bef before ore,, theTX bas bass s lin line e fol follow lows s the these se cho chordsas rdsas the fol follow lowing ing
08 se seque quenceof nceof si sing ngle le no notes tes:: E fla flat,B t,B fla flat,A t,A fla flat,F t,F,, G,E fla flatt (o (one ne
flat;C,E flat flat;C,E flat,, A fla flat;A, t;A, C,F;B,D, G;and G,B flat flat,, E fla flat.Rhyt t.Rhythm hmic ical ally ly,, thin th ink k of eac each h of th the e si sixx ch chor ords ds in th the e ab abov ove e or orde derr asnumbe asnumbere red d 1–6 and playandrec pl ayandrecor ord d th themas emas 1,1,1 ,1,1,2, ,2, 2,3,2,4,4,5, 6.
octavedow octave down).You n).You’ll ’llnoti notice ce thi this s is the top topnot note e of eachchordabove eachchordabove.. Rhythmi Rhy thmical cally ly,, aga again in thi think nk of eac each h bas bass s notenumbere notenumbered d 1– 1–6 6 and pla playy and an d re reco cord rd th them em ag agai ain n asthe 1, 1, 1, 2,2, 3,2, 4,4, 5,6 co comb mbina inati tion on..
That’s s the themai main n cho chord rd seq sequenc uence e and bas bass s lin line e sort sorted.Ther ed.There’ e’s als also o 09 That’
This s squ squelc elchy hy lin line e ini initia tiallyfollo llyfollows ws the firs firstt bas bass s lin line e ove overr E flat 10 Thi
a sq sque uelc lchy hy 30 303 3 ba bassin ssin th ther ere e – as th ther ere e wa was s on ju just st ab aboutever outeveryy trac tr ack k ba back ck th then.Th en.Ther ere e ar are e ma many ny fr free ee sy synth nths s th that at wi will ll gi give ve yo you u th this is soundand so undand yo you’ u’ll ll pr prob obab ably ly fin find d it in th the e ar arse senalof nalof sy synth nths s tha thatt co come me with wi th yo your ur DA DAW,butherewe’ W,butherewe’ve ve us used ed th the e An Anal alogsynt ogsynth h in Li Live ve..
More on th More the e so sound unds.Th s.The e bea beats ts in a lo lott of cl clas assi sic c da dance(and nce(and 11 ind indeed eed mod modern ern danc dance!) e!) com come e viaTR-80 viaTR-808 8 and 909 909dru drum m sam samples ples,, and we’’d be verysurpri andwe verysurprised sedif if you youdon don’t ’t hav have e thes these e kic kickin king g (so (sorry) rry) around aro und in you yourr sam sample plelib librar raryy or wit within hina a druminstru druminstrument. ment.
andB fla flat,but t,but in inst stea ead d of fal falli ling ng ju just st go goes es up tonote C.T C.To o be honest,thisis hones t,thisis wh wher ere e yo you u ca can n fr frees eesty tyle le a li littl ttle,and e,and asyou re reco cord rd,, fee feell free fre e to rec record ordaut automa omatin ting g the freq frequenc uencyy on wha whatev tever er syn synth th you youare are using usi ng for forext extra ra aci acid d sque squelch lchines iness. s.
Finallyy, the mai main n cho chorda rdall sou sound nd com comes es by wayof an ana analog logue ue 12 Finall lead lea d andLiv and Live e’s Cho Chord rd dev device ice,, whi which ch fatt fattens ens it out int into o cho chords rds following follow ingthe the E flat flatmajo majorr. And Andtha that’ t’s s it.The gre great at thi thing ng abo about ut usi using ng Liv Live e isthat yo you u ca can n nowtrig nowtrigge gerr th thesesequ esesequenc ences es in pr prett ettyy muc much h th the e sa same me wayy as Or wa Orbi bita tall di did d or orig igin inal ally ly – th the e pe perfe rfect ct ma marri rriag age e of ol old d an and d new new..
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December 201 2013 3 | 79
