Using Ableton Live software package to produce music 2.5

2.5 Review and evaluate the finished project against the original brief.

With just over a week to go before the project is due to be performed, it’s possibly a bit presumptuous to be evaluating the finished project. Not least because my project isn’t what I would call finished. Neither is it what I set out to do originally. But hey, when you have a deadline to get it done, you have to get that blog blogged.

First up then is to record that the original brief I gave myself was abandoned fairly early on due to technical difficulties that I chose not to overcome. Having elected to perform, record and play back loops of a live performance using guitars, vocals and some pre-recorded Abelton arrangements through a foot effects pedal, I was always going to be dependent upon the pedal having enough flexibility and capacity to remotely trigger events and actions in Ableton.

This transpired not to be the case and rather than spend a lot of time, energy and resources in finding a pedal that would meet my requirements, I chose the route of least resistance and started to look for different options.

At least I can claim to have identified this potential problem in advance of it arriving.

My initial alternative plan was to carry on with the same performance (which in itself was a cover version of someone else’s tune), but with all the instrument parts pre-recorded and arranged. I would still bring a vocalist with me to perform live. This plan drew little enthusiasm from the course tutor. It seemed that this option would not come up to scratch in meeting the originality and strength of ideas targets that this particular project requires. Although it wasn’t said as such, I think we were both thinking ‘karaoke’.

Not all was lost though. In preparing for the project I had already got to grips with sampling and cropping drum patterns, then creating multiple variations on the same sample. I also successfully used Ableton to set up and record the bass part for the tune. In addition, I had explored in depth the potential for assigning internal controls in Ableton to external MIDI controllers and keyboards.

Having arrived at the decision to abandon my original plan on 8 February, I was unable to immediately consider much in the way of a substitute project given that I had to unavoidably miss the following week’s sessions due to child care commitments for the half term period.

Given this delay, I opted to create a project that was simple in structure and premise. I experimented first with a MIDI based arrangement of Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber. This was a lot of fun and I leant quickly how to use MIDI arrangements in Ableton to play instruments in Reason. I also learnt how to use Ableton’s own instruments, particularly Operator and Impulse. However, given the slow tempo (73 BPM) of the track arrangement I had designed and perhaps concerned that my creative originality may be questioned yet again, I opted to abandon this as a project for this course.

Eventually though I chose to create a project that exclusively used audio samples, primarily beat based samples, using samba and latin rhythms and at a tempo of 130 BPM. I decided that I would use a small array of clips, with variations, and that to create tonal and melodic texture within the project, I would use an Ableton audio device called Resonator. To complement these basic elements I would also add in some atmospheric audio samples from a library of specially recorded guitar effects.

Once I began to experiment with a couple of clips, I quickly discovered that I would easily be able to use a MIDI keyboard to trigger various assigned settings and controls during the live performance of the project.

It was a relatively straight forward exercise to string together clips and scenes into a basic arrangement that would last for something in the region of five minutes.

Having done that, I’ve spent most of the time experimenting with Resonator and making sure that the atmospheric samples match the tuning that is created by rhythms running through Resonator.

I’ve also concentrated on pre-programming variations of some clips in advance of the performance. This will leave me to manipulate assigned control changes using a range of knobs, sliders and keys on the M-Audio Radium 49 keyboard that will be available for the performance.

I still have a small number of arrangement questions and queries to resolve in advance of the performance. I will need to go through these with the course tutor by 29 February.

I am still hoping to work with a live vocalist, but I will also prepare for a performance without a vocalist.

Critically though, I have an unavoidable prior commitment on the day of the performance and I will not be able to attend the final course session until approximately 4.00 pm. I need to understand what impact this will have.

Using Ableton Live software package to produce music 1.8

1.8 create default sections of a performance by collecting clips into scenes

The screenshot below shows the session view window of the project that I am preparing as a performance piece.

The master channel indicated by the red arrow on the right hand side of the page shows the names of four different scenes that have been created for this project.

The first scene named ‘intro 16’ for example, has been created to play for the opening 16 bars of the project.

When this scene is triggered, the four while coloured clips along the top row will all begin to play together, in time and at the tempo of 130 beats per minute (BPM), as shown by the green arrow.

Triggering the second scene called ’16 to 80’ would result in all the blue coloured clips on the second row beginning to play on the next upcoming bar. Once again, the clips will all play together, in time and at the tempo of 130 BPM.

The option to begin playing a new scene at the end of the bar currently playing has been set in the control bar option shown by the blue arrow. This could be varied by selecting alternative options as shown in the drop down menu visible in the screenshot.

There are also a collection of orange coloured clips, indicated by the white arrow, that have not been arranged into named scenes in the master track. The clips have been positioned to be triggered when chosen at various points during the live performance. The controls for each individual clip have been set so that the clip will play once when triggered, then stop. Once again, when triggered, these clips will begin playing in time and matching the tempo of the track.

The clips that have been arranged together into scene arrangements mainly tend to loop again and again while the scene is being played.

If you take a look at the track named ‘short clip’ indicated by the yellow arrow, you will see that the track contains a number of clips all called ‘short clip’.

These particular clips, although they contain exactly the same audio waveform, have different control settings and will sound and play differently at different times in the performance. This variation plays an important part in retaining the listener’s attention as the track develops.

The screenshot below shows some of the control variations for the white ‘short clip’ that will play in scene ’intro 16’.

The drop down menu indicated by the red arrow shows three controls that have had variations applied to them. They are all mixer controls. The first controls the volume of the clip. The second and third controls when the output from the clip is sent to a resonator effect loaded into a send and return track on the mixer.

The yellow bar in the drop down menu is currently highlighting the mixer track volume. The pink shaded area to the bottom right of the screenshot shows the volume being adjusted over the sixteen bar length of the scene.

The green arrows indicate the volume level gradually increasing from zero at the opening bar, until full track volume at the beginning of bar nine. Slowly rising and falling volumes are an important factor in this ambient based project. They can create a sense of appearing as if from nowhere. You can’t always be sure when they started, but eventually they can become a central part of the overall sound. Similarly as they fade away again, you can be left listening to remaining sounds in a different way.

This next screenshot shows the contrasting control variations for the blue ‘short clip’ that will play in scene ’16 to 80’. The drop down menu again indicated by the red arrow shows three controls that have had variations applied to them.

This time though, the green arrows can be seen to indicate the volume levels rising and falling over a sixty four bar period. In this case gradually increasing from zero at the opening bar, until full track volume is reached at the beginning of bar nine. This remains until bar nineteen where it begins to fall again down to zero by bar thirty two, rising again to full track volume at bar forty one.

Introduction About Me

Hi,

My name is Dave and I’ve been a musician for over twenty years now.

My first introduction to music was at the age of around four when I would sit down at my mum’s piano and tinkle the ivories of little tunes that I was hearing on the radio or television. Later on around the age of eight I went for music lessons on the piano but found there to be a problem with the reading of the music as I got my left and right hands in a muddle when I was learning how to play. This was later I found out to be due to dyslexia. As a young teenager I went back into learning how to play the piano being influenced by many musical genres. I started to teach myself Ragtime piano music by composers such as Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb. And also played by ear from records on piano and bass guitar by bands that had a big influence on me such as The Stranglers.
 Later on I became interested in jazz music and wanted to learn about this subject in more depth so I went back to college to study so that I could have the key to unlock the doors into other musical worlds and have a greater understanding into modal harmony. I have worked with many different musicians and bands from all different styles of music including jazz, indie rock, ambient dance music, techno, house an r n b and seen many changes in technology .This both in hard and computer software. When I began to learn how to use music technology in the early nineties most of the music was written using hardware i.e., outboard gear such as samplers which was limited to around 15 seconds sampling time [recording time]. That was the mid nineties now into the twenty first century music is mainly being written and produced by software programs such as Ableton  Live 7 and music being composed on either PCs or Macs. Ableton Live program is far more powerful than any software program that was around in the mid nineties. Hence we are venturing into a world of the computer age an Ableton Live gives us the tools to free an extend our own imaginations within soundscapes.

Let me introduce you to Ableton. Live 7.

Using Ableton Live software package to produce music

Recording into Ableton Live using the arrangement view – part one of my area of expertise

In the screenshot below, we can see an audio track being recorded in Ableton Live’s arrangement window.

The window can be accessed by clicking on the yellow icon in the top right hand corner of the screen indicated by the red arrow. Toggling between the arrangement view and alternative session view can also be performed by pressing the tab key on the keyboard.

This audio track called ‘new’ is recording a bass guitar that has been plugged into the computers soundcard. The track includes an input/output box indicated by the blue arrow. The box can be toggled in and out of view by clicking on the yellow I/O button shown by the purple arrow. The bass being played here is plugged directly into an external soundcard connected to the computer. The soundcard can be selected as the input source from the drop down menu of options in the input/output box.

The track has been prepared for recording, or ‘armed’ by clicking on the button indicated by the green arrow. When the track is armed to record, this button is red. The global record function indicated by the yellow arrow is also turned on.

The black arrow indicates the monitor box which shows that the signal being produced by the bass guitar is not exceeding safe limits. While the bar remains green, the signal is not creating digital distortion. The levels being recorded can also be measured numerically in decibel ratings.

The bass guitar can be seen recording into the track as shown by the white arrow.

Impulse

 This is my area of expertise I have chosen overall for the project.

 

The impulse allows the user to load samples into a bank of 8 slots

 

For my example I will look at what I have loaded into the slots for my piece.

 

Slot 1: Bass drum

Slot 2: Snare

Slot 3: Snare rim(shot)

Slot 4: Ride (bell sound)

Slot 5: ride (mellow edge)

Slot 6: Tom 1

Slot 7: Tom 2

Slot 8: Splash cymbal

All these samples are real drum samples, cropped & ready to use, clicking into the file browser of ablteton I have located the samples & dragged them from the file browser into the desired slot (1,2,3 & so on).

Once these samples are loaded in, changes can be affected upon the samples with the many features within impulse.

Using Ableton Live software package to produce music 1.5

1.5 Record, quantise and edit MIDI clips

In the screenshot below, we can see a MIDI track being recorded.

In the light grey midi track called ‘bass section’ on the left hand side of the screen, the blue arrow indicates that the MIDI track has been armed to record. The red arrow shows the MIDI note registering on the volume control of the track as notes are being played on a computer keyboard.

Meanwhile, down in the clip window, the green arrow shows the notes being captured as they are played.

   

After recording, and if necessary, the MIDI notes can be adjusted to fit perfectly in time with the tempo of the track by using the quantise function.

In the screenshot below, the MIDI notes have all been selected and clicking on the right hand button on the mouse reveal a drop down menu with the yellow highlighted quantize option shown by the red arrow.

The blue and green arrows show that two MIDI notes have moved to the nearest bar beats in the track. The blue arrow indicates a note that last longer than the green arrow. The yellow arrow indicates the volume at which this note was recorded.

   

All these parameters can be adjusted if necessary. There are alternative ways to input MIDI notes into Ableton Live. The screenshot below shows that the pencil tool indicated by the blue arrow, has been used to draw in a series of notes indicated by the green arrow. The red arrow shows where the volume of the notes being played has been adjusted to be quieter at the end of the series of notes, than the beginning.

 

Creating variations on clips

1 First i will make 5 copies of the origional clip (so i can have 5 variations) (Clips ready for Variation)

2 Now i will start to make variations of clips (Warp,Loop,Transpose,alter BPM etc..)

(Variation 1)

In variation 1 i have looped just a certain part of the clip and slowed down the BPM

(Variation 2)

In variation 2 i have looped the full clip, added Markers so that the loop plays in time and speeded up the BPM

(Variation 3)

In variation 3 i have left the BPM at the origional tempo and changed the Transpose to make the Pitch of the clip sound higher than the origional

1.5 – - 1.7 BY MUJ

1.5

Recording, quantising and editing MIDI clips:

 

There are two ways to record MIDI in to Ableton, through the standard QWERTY keyboard and through a USB MIDI controller keyboard.

 

An impulse and operator uses both methods to recording/ playback of MIDI, the only difference of using your computer keyboard to an external MIDI, is that there is touch sensitivity. This is because a computer keyboard is just buttons that turn on/off, and dose not have the versatility and velocity of a proper midi keyboard.

 

 

A impulse is often used with an external MIDI keyboard, as it allows the user to have a varied pitch range across the keyboard, deeper to high pitch.

 

 

Load a MIDI instrument from the file browser, in my case it will be an operator as I will be using it in my final project, you can either double click in the instrument or drag and drop it in to the session view.

 

 

The operator is a synthesiser, which you use to create a variety of sounds from baselines to synthesis.

 

To use this instrument you will have to select different mini wave samples and tweak them around with the use of the four times oscillators.

 

 

Once you have achieve a sound that you will want to record, go to the MIDI track and make sure that the record button is armed, but this should be set as default once you load the instrument.

 

 

To start recording just press record on the track then start to play the sound that you will want, once you have finished recording press the play button on the clip then it will loop the sample.

 

 

Once you have recorded the MIDI clip it will appear at the bottom of the window in the clip view section, the recording will appear in standard MIDI note format.

 

If you drag a box around the entire MIDI notes and pres control ‘U’ on your computer keyboard it will bring up a dialog box that will allow you to quantise.

 

 

The dialog box will have a variety setting tat allows you to keep the recording as original as you may what or to change the notes all together, bring the beginning and ends to fall in to time.

 

 

You can use the mouse to quantise manually by dragging the start and end of each note, this is only possible when this symbol appears neat the note( ] )

 

 

You can also use the pencil tool located at the top of the window to draw MIDI notes in to the time line.

 

 

1.6

 

Adding appropriate processor in insert mode:

 

Processors and effects are all stored in to the audio effects file.

 

A processor like a compressor or a gate, is dragged from the file browser straight on to the audio track so that it will dramatically alter the sound, hence insert mode.

 

A processor, like a gate will take a signal, gate it and then allow loud sounds through to be played out, not the original sample only the gated sound.

 

A processor is like a switch, when it is on it will effect the sound, and whaen it is off it will play the original sound.

 

 

The way that you can tell the difference between a processor and effects unit is that a processor will not have a dry and wet knob but an effects unit will.

 

An advantage of using a processor unit is that you do not have to mix the sample between the original and a processed one, you can just send it straight to the amplifier and play it out to speakers.

 

Disadvantage is that the sound is non adjustable.

 

1.7

 

Adding effects in send and return mode:

The way to add an effects unit in send and return mode, is to add it to the send cannel.

 

 

 

The return/ send channels are located to the right of the screen, near the screen; if they are not there then you can bring them up by right clicking in the session view and selecting a new send channel.

 

 

Once a return/ send channel has appeared go to the file browser, the same place the processor was located, processors and effects are all stored in to the audio effects file. the effect pannel is located at the left hand side of Ableton, this is where all the instroments and effects are kept.

 

To add an effect in return/ send and return mode, you will have to get an effect like a delay then drag it over to the send channel, do not double click as it will load it to the track that you may have selected.

 

Once the effect has been added to the return/ send channel, go back to the track that you may want to add the effect to and turn the appropriate knob up i.e. return A or return B.

 

Area of expertise (editing audio)

Extracted Audio1 First i will extract audio from a CD using Sony Soundforge

This will extract the music into Waveform

2 Now i will find the extracted audio in the designated folder and load it into Ableton (Audio extracted in soundforge)

(audio clip in Ableton) Extracted audio loaded into Ableton

3 Now i have the audio in Ableton(as a waveform) i can set the BPM(beats per minute) and the Metronome to play so that i can get the Extracted audio to play in time with the Metronome Metronome and BPM

4 To get the audio to play in time with the Metronome i needed to add Markers to the Waveform so that the audio is playing from one marker to the other in time with the Metronome Markers

5 Once i have set the Markers and made sure that the Extracted audio is playing in time with the Metronome then i can start to manipulate the sound, and the way the sound is played by using theWarp or Reverse functions(Warp and Reverse functions)

6 Here is how i will use only part of the Audio and edit the Audio so that is has the required aspect i need for the track

Edited Audio

7 Here is an example of different techniques you can use on your edited sample to alter the sound and how the sample is played

(Different funtions for sound and play of sample)

8 In this example i have used the warp feature to alter how the sample is played.

I have made it so that the sample is being played at slower the speed, and also change the Transpose and volume of the sound to make the audio sound deeper than the original Audio

1.3 Irene: Creating variations on clips

The way to change the start and end points on a clip is shown below by moving the handles accordingly.

In the screen grab you can see where I have moved them to. They are the bottom gray triangles above the time line. This establishes where the clip starts and ends. It is not the loop start and end, as this is done using the (triangles) arrows on the top row.

To make a variation on a clip I decided that by reversing a clip is an easy way to get an interesting sound. The clip plays the sounds backwards. On my piece I have reversed one clip of the piano in the 6th scene and it works well in combination with the drum and the ‘dreadzone’ vocals. It creates a kind of sweeping sound that is similar to the airy vocals in the choir on Dreadzone so it almost sounds as though it is linked together. This was a welcome coincidence!

This was easily done by clicking on the ‘Rev’ setting in the clip box where Edit, Save, Rev Hi-Q fade and RAM is found together with the transpose dial. I didn’t need to make any other change to it as I liked it as it was.

Here you can see the piano clip and reverse piano clip.