Ableton Live 9

Ableton Live 9

by Keith Robinson
Released January 2014
Publisher(s): Routledge
ISBN: 9781136111495

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Book description

Never has there been music production software that so closely emulates the human mind and the demand for delivering music through a computer than Live. With an imaginative design and a forward-thinking mission, Ableton continues their legacy with Live 9, a software package that drives music production to the cutting edge while squarely meeting the needs of the composer, producer, perform, songwriter, DJ, and beyond. With such a progressive approach to its development, some of you may feel a bit disoriented or even intimidated at first sight of Live’s unconventional design, especially those of you coming from a traditional Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) background. If you are new to DAWs, DJ style programs, or software music production in general, then you’ll soon be right at home with the "parallel concept" of Live’s Session and Arrangement Views. For the rest of you, you’ll have to rethink your approach to composing, arranging and producing music just a bit; but it will be a worthwhile adjustment. That is why this book has been written: to help reinvent the experienced software-based music producer and to unleash the new user. The goal here is to build and cultivate a strong understanding of Live 9’s concepts and to provide material that will engage all DAW users alike. With this goal in mind, at the end of each reading you should feel that your current skills and knowledge base have been elevated to the next level. For the current Ableton Love user – yes, you - there is plenty here to unlock! After all, there is still a little "new user" inside us all.

Now it is time to learn how to Create, Produce and Perform with Live 9 – all you have to do is decide what your needs are, because it’s all here.

First published in 2013. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Table of Contents
  6. About the Author
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Scene 1 Live 9: Create, Produce, Perform
    1. 1.1 Introduction
    2. 1.2 Approaching Ableton Live in Three Intuitive Ways
    3. 1.3 Immersing Yourself in Live
      1. 1.3.1 How the Book Has Been Constructed
      2. 1.3.2 General Scene Layout
    4. 1.4 How to Use This Book
    5. 1.5 Summing It All Up
    6. 1.6 Taking Advantage of “Hot Tips”
  9. Scene 2 Overview: Live 9
    1. 2.1 Introduction
    2. 2.2 The Concept
    3. 2.3 Important Preference Tweaks
      1. 2.3.1 CPU Load
      2. 2.3.2 Disk Load
      3. 2.3.3 Track Freeze
      4. 2.3.4 Audio Preferences
      5. 2.3.5 MIDI Preferences
      6. 2.3.6 Record, Warp, and Launch Preferences
    4. 2.4 The Live Browser
      1. 2.4.1 Browser Layout
      2. 2.4.2 The Browser Concept
  10. Scene 3 The Quick Way to Start Making Music!
    1. 3.1 Introduction
    2. 3.2 Starting a Project
    3. 3.3 Audio in Live
      1. 3.3.1 Importing Audio
      2. 3.3.2 Recording Audio
    4. 3.4 MIDI in Live
      1. 3.4.1 Importing MIDI
      2. 3.4.2 Recording MIDI
    5. 3.5 Essential Operations and Tasks
      1. 3.5.1 Looping Your Loops
      2. 3.5.2 Adding Effects
    6. 3.6 Performance to Arrangement
    7. 3.7 Finishing Your Work
      1. 3.7.1 Exporting Your Audio
      2. 3.7.2 Set versus Project
      3. 3.7.3 Managing Files
  11. Scene 4 Global Recording: Arrangements “On-the-Fly”
    1. 4.1 Introduction
    2. 4.2 The Global Recording Concept
    3. 4.3 Music On-the-Fly
    4. 4.4 User Interfacing: Two Parallel Worlds
      1. 4.4.1 Arrangement View
      2. 4.4.2 Session View
      3. 4.4.3 Clips
      4. 4.4.4 Scenes
      5. 4.4.5 Session View as a Mixer
    5. 4.5 The Linear Approach
      1. 4.5.1 Create
      2. 4.5.2 Produce
      3. 4.5.3 Perform
    6. 4.6 The Non-linear Approach
      1. 4.6.1 Create
      2. 4.6.2 Produce
      3. 4.6.3 Perform
  12. Scene 5 Session View Concepts
    1. 5.1 Real-time Launching Base
    2. 5.2 Layout
      1. 5.2.1 Tracks
      2. 5.2.2 Session View Mixer
      3. 5.2.3 Drop Areas
    3. 5.3 Clips
      1. 5.3.1 Clip Slots/Session Grid
      2. 5.3.2 Launching Clips
      3. 5.3.3 Basic Editing
    4. 5.4 Tracks versus Scenes
      1. 5.4.1 Launching Scenes
      2. 5.4.2 Select on Launch
    5. 5.5 Track Status Display
    6. 5.6 Working in Session View
      1. 5.6.1 Audio Clips
      2. 5.6.2 MIDI Clips
      3. 5.6.3 Crossfader Section
    7. 5.7 Sessions into Arrangements
      1. 5.7.1 Capturing a Session Performance
      2. 5.7.2 Playing Back a Performance
    8. 5.8 Musical Concepts
      1. 5.8.1 Produce: Submixing with Return Tracks
  13. Scene 6 Arrangement View Concepts
    1. 6.1 Musical Timeline
    2. 6.2 Layout
    3. 6.3 Navigating
      1. 6.3.1 Scroll and Zoom
      2. 6.3.2 Transport
      3. 6.3.3 Locators
    4. 6.4 Working in the Arrangement View
      1. 6.4.1 Launching
      2. 6.4.2 Looping
      3. 6.4.3 Selecting
      4. 6.4.4 Editing
      5. 6.4.5 Fades and Crossfades
    5. 6.5 Arranging Concepts
      1. 6.5.1 Create
      2. 6.5.2 Produce
      3. 6.5.3 Perform
  14. Scene 7 Clips
    1. 7.1 Musical Building Blocks
    2. 7.2 Clip View
      1. 7.2.1 Sample Display (Editor) and MIDI Note Editor
      2. 7.2.2 Clip Overview and Device View Selector
      3. 7.2.3 Audio versus MIDI Clips
    3. 7.3 Clip Box
      1. 7.3.1 Clip Properties
      2. 7.3.2 Groove Settings
    4. 7.4 Launch Box
      1. 7.4.1 Clip Quantization
      2. 7.4.2 Launch Modes
      3. 7.4.3 Legato Mode
      4. 7.4.4 Velocity Amount
      5. 7.4.5 Follow Action
    5. 7.5 Sample Box
      1. 7.5.1 Sample Properties
      2. 7.5.2 Edit, Save, Reverse
      3. 7.5.3 High-quality Mode (HiQ)
      4. 7.5.4 Fade
      5. 7.5.5 Clip RAM Mode
      6. 7.5.6 Transpose
      7. 7.5.7 Detune
      8. 7.5.8 Clip Gain
      9. 7.5.9 Warp, Master/Slave
      10. 7.5.10 Original Tempo
      11. 7.5.11 Warp Mode Chooser
      12. 7.5.12 Sample Start/End
      13. 7.5.13 Loop Switch, Loop Position, and Loop Length
    6. 7.6 Notes Box
      1. 7.6.1 Transpose
      2. 7.6.2 Play at Half or Double
      3. 7.6.3 Reverse/Invert Notes
      4. 7.6.4 Force Legato
      5. 7.6.5 Duplicate Loop
      6. 7.6.6 Program Change
      7. 7.6.7 Start/End, Loop Switch, and Position/Length
    7. 7.7 MIDI Note Editor
      1. 7.7.1 Basic Commands, Navigation, and Zooming
      2. 7.7.2 MIDI Note Ruler
      3. 7.7.3 MIDI Velocity Editor
      4. 7.7.4 Insert/Edit MIDI Notes
      5. 7.7.5 MIDI Step Recording
    8. 7.8 Envelope Box
      1. 7.8.1 Device and Control Chooser
    9. 7.9 Envelope Editor
      1. 7.9.1 Drawing and Editing Envelopes
      2. 7.9.2 Link/Unlink Envelope, Start/End, and Loop Position/Length
    10. 7.10 Musical Concepts
      1. 7.10.1 Create: Rhythmic Loops with Follow Actions
      2. 7.10.2 Produce: Dummy Clips
  15. Scene 8 Recording
    1. 8.1 Recording MIDI Clips
      1. 8.1.1 Clip Slots and Clips
    2. 8.2 MIDI Overdub Recording
      1. 8.2.1 Session View Loop Recording
      2. 8.2.2 Arrangement View Loop Recording
      3. 8.2.3 Takes
    3. 8.3 Converting Clips
      1. 8.3.1 MIDI to Audio
      2. 8.3.2 Audio to MIDI
      3. 8.3.3 Convert Harmony, Melody, and Drums to New MIDI Track
    4. 8.4 Recording Audio Clips
      1. 8.4.1 Session Clip Slots
      2. 8.4.2 Arrangement Clips
      3. 8.4.3 Comping
      4. 8.4.4 Punch Record
    5. 8.5 Exporting and Printing
      1. 8.5.1 Rendering/Exporting Audio
      2. 8.5.2 Printing
    6. 8.6 Musical Concepts
      1. 8.6.1 Produce: Real-time “Stack Tracks”
  16. Scene 9 Working with Scenes
    1. 9.1 Musical Foundation and Structure
    2. 9.2 Scene Launch Preferences
      1. 9.2.1 Select Next Scene on Launch
      2. 9.2.2 Record on Launch
      3. 9.2.3 Prepare New Scene for Recording
    3. 9.3 Capture and Insert Scenes
    4. 9.4 Tempo and Time
    5. 9.5 Musical Concepts
      1. 9.5.1 Create: Multi-track Instruments and Recording
      2. 9.5.2 Perform: Mapping Scenes
  17. Scene 10 Automation
    1. 10.1 Automation in the Arrangement View
      1. 10.1.1 Recording Arrangement Automation
      2. 10.1.2 Automation Lanes
    2. 10.2 Automation in the Session View
      1. 10.2.1 Recording Session Automation
    3. 10.3 Working with Envelopes
      1. 10.3.1 Draw Mode
      2. 10.3.2 Editing
      3. 10.3.3 Commands
    4. 10.4 Song Tempo Automation
  18. Scene 11 Grouping Tracks
    1. 11.1 Group Tracks
      1. 11.1.1 Group Tracks in Session View
      2. 11.1.2 Audio Routing
      3. 11.1.3 Group Tracks in Arrangement View
    2. 11.2 Launching Group Clips
      1. 11.2.1 Groups versus Scenes
    3. 11.3 Mixing Concepts
      1. 11.3.1 Sub-mixes
    4. 11.4 Musical Concepts
      1. 11.4.1 Create:Printing Group Tracks
  19. Scene 12 Groove
    1. 12.1 Introduction to Groove
    2. 12.2 Grooves
    3. 12.3 Groove Pool
      1. 12.3.1 Groove Pool Parameters
    4. 12.4 Commit Groove
    5. 12.5 Extract Groove
    6. 12.6 Musical Concepts
      1. 12.6.1 Create: Grooving Your Backing Tracks
  20. Scene 13 Warping Your Mind!
    1. 13.1 Elastic Time
      1. 13.1.1 Warping
      2. 13.1.2 Transients
      3. 13.1.3 Warp Markers
      4. 13.1.4 Master versus Slave
    2. 13.2 Warp Modes
      1. 13.2.1 Beats Mode
      2. 13.2.2 Tones Mode
      3. 13.2.3 Texture Mode
      4. 13.2.4 Re-Pitch Mode
      5. 13.2.5 Complex Mode
      6. 13.2.6 Complex Pro
    3. 13.3 Warping Samples
      1. 13.3.1 Loops
      2. 13.3.2 Contextual Warp Commands
      3. 13.3.3 How to Fix “Out of Sync” Audio Files
      4. 13.3.4 Songs/Tracks
      5. 13.3.5 Adjusting Timing and Quantizing
    4. 13.4 Musical Concepts
      1. 13.4.1 Produce: Quantize Audio in Real-Time
  21. Scene 14 Loops, Slicing, and More Looping
    1. 14.1 Loops Demystified
    2. 14.2 REX Loops
      1. 14.2.1 REX Mode
    3. 14.3 Slice to New MIDI Track
      1. 14.3.1 Audio Loop Slicing
      2. 14.3.2 REX Loop Slicing
      3. 14.3.3 Re-sequencing
    4. 14.4 Working with Loops
    5. 14.5 Looping in the Arrangement View
    6. 14.6 Loops with Unlinked Clip Envelopes
    7. 14.7 Looping Concepts
      1. 14.7.1 Create: Custom Loop Library
  22. Scene 15 Instruments and Effects
    1. 15.1 Introduction to Live Devices
    2. 15.2 Working with Live Devices
      1. 15.2.1 Overview of Devices
      2. 15.2.2 Device View
      3. 15.2.3 Device Presets
      4. 15.2.4 Customizing Presets
    3. 15.3 Instrument Basics
      1. 15.3.1 Impulse
      2. 15.3.2 Simpler
      3. 15.3.3 Sampler
    4. 15.4 MIDI Effects
    5. 15.5 Audio Effects
      1. 15.5.1 Corpus
      2. 15.5.2 Frequency Shifter
      3. 15.5.3 Glue Compressor
      4. 15.5.4 Limiter
      5. 15.5.5 Looper
      6. 15.5.6 Multiband Dynamics
      7. 15.5.7 Overdrive
      8. 15.5.8 Vocoder
    6. 15.6 Max for Live
      1. 15.6.1 LFO
      2. 15.6.2 Envelope Follower
      3. 15.6.3 Mono Sequencer
    7. 15.7 Device Chains
      1. 15.7.1 Chaining Effects
      2. 15.7.2 Interfacing with Device Chains
      3. 15.7.3 Sidechaining
    8. 15.8 Plug-in Devices
      1. 15.8.1 Plug-ins Browser
      2. 15.8.2 Third-party Instruments
      3. 15.8.3 Third-party Effects
      4. 15.8.4 User Interfacing and Layout
    9. 15.9 External (MIDI) Instruments
      1. 15.9.1 Routing
      2. 15.9.2 Rendering External MIDI
    10. 15.10 Working with Devices
      1. 15.10.1 Produce: Multi-instrument Plug-in
  23. Scene 16 Device Racks
    1. 16.1 What Are Racks?
    2. 16.2 Interface and Layout
      1. 16.2.1 Macros
      2. 16.2.2 Chain List
      3. 16.2.3 Macro Mapping
    3. 16.3 Drum Racks
      1. 16.3.1 Pad View
      2. 16.3.2 Internal Routing
    4. 16.4 Creating Device Racks
      1. 16.4.1 Instrument Racks
      2. 16.4.2 Effect Racks
      3. 16.4.3 Drum Racks
      4. 16.4.4 Drum Racks and Audio Effects
    5. 16.5 Racks in Session View
    6. 16.6 Working with Racks
      1. 16.6.1 Produce: Convert Chains into MIDI Tracks
  24. Scene 17 Controlling Your Universe
    1. 17.1 Remote Control
      1. 17.1.1 Setting up Control
    2. 17.2 MIDI Mapping
      1. 17.2.1 Control Behaviors
    3. 17.3 Key Mapping
    4. 17.4 The Relative Session Mapping Strip
    5. 17.5 Mapping Browser
    6. 17.6 Dedicated Live Hardware Controllers
      1. 17.6.1 The APC
      2. 17.6.2 Push
    7. 17.7 Musical Control
      1. 17.7.1 Perform: Mapping Locators
  25. Scene 18 ReWiring the Digital World
    1. 18.1 Overview of ReWire
    2. 18.2 ReWire Modes
      1. 18.2.1 Master Mode: Host (Mixer) Application
      2. 18.2.2 Slave Mode: Synth Application
    3. 18.3 Live ReWired
      1. 18.3.1 ReWire Master
      2. 18.3.2 ReWire Slave
  26. Index

Product information

  • Title: Ableton Live 9
  • Author(s): Keith Robinson
  • Release date: January 2014
  • Publisher(s): Routledge
  • ISBN: 9781136111495