Add a Process in Insert Mode

A processor is different from an effect because it has no wet/dry dial on the interface. This means the audio that comes out of the processor is changed, where as with an effect the wet/dry dial determines the amount of effect added to the original audio. Example of a processor is compression.

An insert is what you would use if you wanted to add a processor as this changes the audio directly rather than adding something to the sound. A send/return is what you would use if you wanted to add an effect, this allows you to add an effect like reverb to multiple channels by turning up the correct send knob.

The way I did this was to choose the processor I want to use and drag it into the gray box under the session for that channel.

Creating Scenes

A Scene is a result of you dropping audio into clip slots the the session view. I needed to create scenes to move to different sections of my track.

To trigger the scenes you use the small triangle icon on the right hand side of the screen. This will play all the clips you have arranged horizontally in that scene.

Setting up a controller Keyboard

A controller keyboard can be used to allow the user to assign parts of Ableton to the keyboards keys, knobs, sliders and trigger pads.

The reason why I needed to use this is so that could trigger off different scenes and clips live without the use of a mouse.

The beauty of setting up a controller keyboard is its simplicity. You take the USB cable, plug it into the back of the keyboard and connect it to you computers USB slot. Your computer then does the rest by recognizing the hardware and is ready to use.

Review Final Project

The Final Project as a Whole

First of all I have to say this whole project was a lot harder than first thought. When we got told what we had to do, I had so many ideas and to be honest I think I got far too ambitious on what I was going to do. Although I was very happy with my performance I do feel there were a few things I could of done better. Firstly, the amount of time I gave myself, even though I thought I had planned out my project very well, I could of done with an extra week. The reason being that I felt I couldn’t become 100% confident with my project for the performance, and me being me, wanted to change everything at the last minute, which left me a bit all over the place come performance time.

Another thing that I think effected my performance was trying to go too technical with a program I wasn’t familiar with. I did have a lot of clips and effects that I didn’t use in the final performance and it was simply because it was too much to think about.

On the whole I was impressed with how I handled things going wrong. There were times when I pressed the wrong scene, so I had to improvise by going back, then jumping forward which did work a lot better than I first thought. Things going wrong did nothing for my nerves either, normally I have no problem with preforming in front of a crowd but I think not being 100% happy with my project didn’t help from the start.

All in all I do feel my project satisfied the brief, but if given more time I would of liked to of explored and experimented with the software and taken the track further.

2.5 Review and evaluate the finished project against the original brief

I did many variations of the same tune Sunset before I arrived at the final tune that I performed. I was happy with how the arrangement of the tune progressed but there would still be things that I would alter if I was to do the piece again.

I feel that the scenes could of run a lot smoother  i .e. between one transition and the next. The scene 13 to 14A could have been a lot smoother .The sub bass was good to add texture to the music and also to lift the music up and give it a bouncy feel especially as this worked well as a transition from the intro into the other sections of the music or scenes.

The Vibra Slap at scene 5 added another texture and reminded me of a rattle snake coming into the mix again adding another texture to the music.

The classical guitar played very simple at scene 6 lifted the tune up and moved it away from the Intro into another place in sound the triangle at this scene also drove the music along in a forward direction.

At scene 7 more percussion is added including a crash cymbal still with the guitar latin riff and a sub bass to drive the tune along.

Scene 8 there was another guitar riff added followed shortly by another guitar riff at scene 9.The transition between scene 8 an 9 could have been a lot smoother I felt some what.

I’ve added the sub bass at scene 10 so to lift the melody up and added another melody as a transition into the A section on scene 11.

The melody played on the guitar drops out at scene 12 and here I put only percussion and a guitar that is strummed. Congas and a vibra slap feature more at this scene. This was my breakdown section in the music to give the piece light and shade.

At scene 13 I build the music back up again and added a guitar figure playing a arpeggio section and also a sub bass line to lift the music up again this I used to build the music into the A section and lift the feel of the music up.

The A section is at scene 14 A and the melody on the guitar is the main subject here.

15 A Trem at this scenen the melody of the guitar of the A section is heared again but played on a tremolo with the fingers so to add texture to the music.

Scene 16 is the lead out or the Outtro

1.8 Creating Scenes

How I created the scenes was by adding individual clips to the arrangement of the tune by starting with an introduction which I recorded a guitar part just playing chords i.e. double stops and then I added some drums an percussion i.e. congas, triangle an guiro,darabouka,shakers and a vibra slap to add flavour to the tune. The percussion which I used as individual clips worked very well as a Latin transition into the A section to the tune and I dropped a sub bass line in to lift the tune up also adding reverb and ping pong delay on the effects in insert mode to add a deeper atmosphere to the tune and bring more live into it  so as to make it seem like it was being played in real time by musicians.

I then added a melody that I created on the guitar in to the arrangement to give it a variation and then added various other melodies on the guitar so to keep the music moving.

The ending I placed a clip with the guitar on it’s own and added delay [ping pong and also reverb] so to create a feeling of an ending in the music.

2.4 Area of Expertise

Impulse what is this instrument and how do you use it within the program Ableton Live 7. This is a blank sampling instrument that works with MIDI clips.You load samples into Impulse by using the drag an drop method with the left mouse button. By using this method i.e. drag an drop to load samples into Impulse gives you the luxury of creating a collage of sounds of all types. Short transistents such as percussion and drum hits.

Impulse is mainly used as a drum machine or a drum sampler and can store 8 individual sounds. Each sound is assigned to a box within the instrument and there are 8 boxes in total for storing and editing samples. You will find that the parameters that are used within the instrument Impulse are very similar to that of a synthesizer.

Parameters such as Resonance, Decay, Pan, Volume, Transpose, Frequency and Time are but a few of the parameters that are very similar to the ADSR envelope of a tradition analogue synthesizer of old. The parameters used in Impulse can be applied to the individual samples within the instrument i.e. slot level or they can also be applied on a global level i.e. across the scope of the entire sampling instrument. Impulse is a great tool for loading samples into such as field recordings and noise factor of all kinds. I used Impulse to trigger percussion sounds within my piece.

3.1 Setting up a controller keyboard

When you are connecting a midi controller keyboard you need to go to the options menu in live and then go to preferences and then the section on midi.
In the Input section within preferences you click Input Track ON and then look for the keyboard that you will be using to trigger the sounds that you have recorded within your tune. Connect the USB cable from the computer to the midi controller keyboard.

1.2 Load, edit, warp and save audio clips

You use the Warping method to put a sound into time using a process called Time Stretching.

How I used the Warping process within my piece of music within ableton I broke down into four easy stages.

I imported a guitar wave into the session view as a clip in the introduction of the piece. When I played the guitar wave I found that it was not played in time on the second part of the piece that I had recorded. I double clicked on the guitar part within the clip view and the wave that I had recorded appeared at the bottom of the screen.

I edited it by placing the loop markers and end markers on the first part of the wave as this was played more in time with the music. I highlighted the loop mode so the piece could be repeated.

To bring the guitar part more into time I placed warp markers at various points on the guitar wave so to emphasize various accents on the chords that I played on the guitar.

The parameters that I used to enhance the guitar part were the warp mode and the transpose sections. As I wanted the nuance of the guitar to flow I used the complex warp mode as this mode treats the whole sound of the wave. I transposed it by two semitones so that it was in key with the other pieces of music.

When I was happy with the waveform to use with my piece Sunset and I had warped the guitar intro and looped it I then decided to cut off the part that I did not want to use as the guitar intro so I cropped it.

1.6 Adding a processor in Insert Mode

To add a processor in insert mode you go to the Live Device Browser and then to the folder Audio Effects and then to the effect that you want to insert into the arrangement view.

When you have chosen the audio effect that you want then you drag an drop the effect on to the channel of the sound which you want to alter i.e. strumming classical guitar spainishy of which I placed a compressor on as there was a bass boom in the sound when it was recorded.

I used the effect i.e. compressor by lowing the threshold of the sound on the guitar thus taking the boom out of it. This I did by highlighting the envelope peak which limits the signal going beyond zero Db.I also increased the attack and release on the compressor and the ratio which I set to 2 .

The attack time is how long the signal takes before themaximum compression kicks in on the sound being processed and the release time is the time it takes before the signal stops below the peak of the sound. Both of these I set to 1 ms for the Attack and 20 ms for the Release. I also highlighted the Makeup mode so to change the values of the compressor.