Faster Common Processes in Ableton Live
It's no secret I'm a fan of efficiency. In a robust program like Live, there are often multiple ways to perform the same function. Just think of adding a new track: you can do so via the shortcut (cmd + t), the "create" menu, the context menu, dragging an audio clip into the empty space beside your existing track, & so on. There is a tendency to become complacent with a single way of doing things & not look for alternatives, even if they are potentially better or faster. Here I detail some speedier methods for processes you likely already perform in every production.
Faster Common Processes in Ableton Live
It's no secret I'm a fan of efficiency. In a robust program like Live, there are often multiple ways to perform the same function. Just think of adding a new track: you can do so via the shortcut (cmd + t), the "create" menu, the context menu, dragging an audio clip into the empty space beside your existing track, & so on. There is a tendency to become complacent with a single way of doing things & not look for alternatives, even if they are potentially better or faster. Here I detail some speedier methods for processes you likely already perform in every production.
Faster Common Processes in Ableton Live
It's no secret I'm a fan of efficiency. In a robust program like Live, there are often multiple ways to perform the same function. Just think of adding a new track: you can do so via the shortcut (cmd + t), the "create" menu, the context menu, dragging an audio clip into the empty space beside your existing track, & so on. There is a tendency to become complacent with a single way of doing things & not look for alternatives, even if they are potentially better or faster. Here I detail some speedier methods for processes you likely already perform in every production.
Transfer to New Scenes
There are lots of reasons why you would want to use both Live's arrangement & session views as they each have unique advantages. Moving clips into arrangement mode is a fairly straightforward process, but it can be a drag to cut & drag clips out of arrangement view. You need not fret, however - there's a really fast way to do this via the loop bracket.
Set the loop bracket to the length of the section you want to transfer, right click to open the context menu, & select "consolidate time to new scene." As if by magic, your clips will appear in session view, cropped and in perfect loops, without affecting your composition in arrangement view. this is invaluable for preparing for a live set & a great that you don't need to make a mess in your arrangement to do so.
Transfer to New Scenes
There are lots of reasons why you would want to use both Live's arrangement & session views as they each have unique advantages. Moving clips into arrangement mode is a fairly straightforward process, but it can be a drag to cut & drag clips out of arrangement view. You need not fret, however - there's a really fast way to do this via the loop bracket.
Set the loop bracket to the length of the section you want to transfer, right click to open the context menu, & select "consolidate time to new scene." As if by magic, your clips will appear in session view, cropped and in perfect loops, without affecting your composition in arrangement view. this is invaluable for preparing for a live set & a great that you don't need to make a mess in your arrangement to do so.
Transfer to New Scenes
There are lots of reasons why you would want to use both Live's arrangement & session views as they each have unique advantages. Moving clips into arrangement mode is a fairly straightforward process, but it can be a drag to cut & drag clips out of arrangement view. You need not fret, however - there's a really fast way to do this via the loop bracket.
Set the loop bracket to the length of the section you want to transfer, right click to open the context menu, & select "consolidate time to new scene." As if by magic, your clips will appear in session view, cropped and in perfect loops, without affecting your composition in arrangement view. this is invaluable for preparing for a live set & a great that you don't need to make a mess in your arrangement to do so.
Multi-Clip Warp
Recording with multiple mics & multitracking are essential studio techniques, but it would be far too much a pain to adjust the transients of multiple clips if the timing is a bit off on the whole part. When I first started producing, I would normally wait until the mix of my track was finished before I bounced down my drums to a single track & adjust the timing then. While it was difficult to consider how the mix would sound when the mistakes were corrected, I felt it was worth it to have the freedom to process the individual microphones for as long as possible. As it happens, you don't need to make that compromise with multi-clip warping.
The clips need to be exactly the same length for this to work, so you may have to consolidate them together to start. After that, just select all the clips & adjust the warp markers as normal to affect the the timing in all tracks. I've covered this technique before, & if you want to learn a few more warping tricks check out this post on 5 lesser-known things on warping.
Multi-Clip Warp
Recording with multiple mics & multitracking are essential studio techniques, but it would be far too much a pain to adjust the transients of multiple clips if the timing is a bit off on the whole part. When I first started producing, I would normally wait until the mix of my track was finished before I bounced down my drums to a single track & adjust the timing then. While it was difficult to consider how the mix would sound when the mistakes were corrected, I felt it was worth it to have the freedom to process the individual microphones for as long as possible. As it happens, you don't need to make that compromise with multi-clip warping.
The clips need to be exactly the same length for this to work, so you may have to consolidate them together to start. After that, just select all the clips & adjust the warp markers as normal to affect the the timing in all tracks. I've covered this technique before, & if you want to learn a few more warping tricks check out this post on 5 lesser-known things on warping.
Multi-Clip Warp
Recording with multiple mics & multitracking are essential studio techniques, but it would be far too much a pain to adjust the transients of multiple clips if the timing is a bit off on the whole part. When I first started producing, I would normally wait until the mix of my track was finished before I bounced down my drums to a single track & adjust the timing then. While it was difficult to consider how the mix would sound when the mistakes were corrected, I felt it was worth it to have the freedom to process the individual microphones for as long as possible. As it happens, you don't need to make that compromise with multi-clip warping.
The clips need to be exactly the same length for this to work, so you may have to consolidate them together to start. After that, just select all the clips & adjust the warp markers as normal to affect the the timing in all tracks. I've covered this technique before, & if you want to learn a few more warping tricks check out this post on 5 lesser-known things on warping.
Copy Value to Siblings
There are many, many functions you can key map - device parameters, mutes, track selection, etc. These can be handy in a pinch on a per-track basis, but my focus today will be on ideas for key maps that are useful in all projects that effectively expand Live's functionality & keyboard shortcuts. As such, you may consider saving your favorites into your default template - this way, every time you load up a new project you have all the keyboard shortcuts you find useful without having to map them each time.
You can check out my guide to reference tracks for an example of a useful default template you can build with key maps. Below, you will find 5 ideas to get you started.
Copy Value to Siblings
There are many, many functions you can key map - device parameters, mutes, track selection, etc. These can be handy in a pinch on a per-track basis, but my focus today will be on ideas for key maps that are useful in all projects that effectively expand Live's functionality & keyboard shortcuts. As such, you may consider saving your favorites into your default template - this way, every time you load up a new project you have all the keyboard shortcuts you find useful without having to map them each time.
You can check out my guide to reference tracks for an example of a useful default template you can build with key maps. Below, you will find 5 ideas to get you started.
Copy Value to Siblings
There are many, many functions you can key map - device parameters, mutes, track selection, etc. These can be handy in a pinch on a per-track basis, but my focus today will be on ideas for key maps that are useful in all projects that effectively expand Live's functionality & keyboard shortcuts. As such, you may consider saving your favorites into your default template - this way, every time you load up a new project you have all the keyboard shortcuts you find useful without having to map them each time.
You can check out my guide to reference tracks for an example of a useful default template you can build with key maps. Below, you will find 5 ideas to get you started.
If you're like me, you use a lot of locators to keep your project marked & organized. The ability to jump around to the most important sections of your tracks is fantastic & key mapping can make this process even faster. I prefer < & > as my selectors because they look like their function, & ? for set/delete because of its proximity to those keys.
You can enable this indispensable option by typing "-EnableMapToSiblings" into the options.txt file, which you can find on your machine here:
mac os x: /Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live x.x.x/
windows: \Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live x.x.x\Preferences\
If you're like me, you use a lot of locators to keep your project marked & organized. The ability to jump around to the most important sections of your tracks is fantastic & key mapping can make this process even faster. I prefer < & > as my selectors because they look like their function, & ? for set/delete because of its proximity to those keys.
You can enable this indispensable option by typing "-EnableMapToSiblings" into the options.txt file, which you can find on your machine here:
mac os x: /Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live x.x.x/
windows: \Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live x.x.x\Preferences\
If you're like me, you use a lot of locators to keep your project marked & organized. The ability to jump around to the most important sections of your tracks is fantastic & key mapping can make this process even faster. I prefer < & > as my selectors because they look like their function, & ? for set/delete because of its proximity to those keys.
You can enable this indispensable option by typing "-EnableMapToSiblings" into the options.txt file, which you can find on your machine here:
mac os x: /Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live x.x.x/
windows: \Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live x.x.x\Preferences\
Metronome Count-In
If you're doing any live tracking in your production, the metronome is an important tool to help you or your performer stay on time. depending on your composition, a count-in can prove essential for recording certain sections but when it's unnecessary it can be an annoyance preventing you from jumping right to the track. Given this, you'll probably dig through the preferences to turn on & off this option a few times during a session & this in itself can prove to be an aggravating process. This is how I did it for ages, at any rate, until I learned there's an easy way to change the count-in just below the surface of Live's GUI.
Just click the arrow next to the metronome to quickly turn on & off the count-in as needed without breaking the flow of your session. It's a simple fix for a simple problem but the more you can streamline your workflow the more you can stay focused on the music.
Metronome Count-In
If you're doing any live tracking in your production, the metronome is an important tool to help you or your performer stay on time. depending on your composition, a count-in can prove essential for recording certain sections but when it's unnecessary it can be an annoyance preventing you from jumping right to the track. Given this, you'll probably dig through the preferences to turn on & off this option a few times during a session & this in itself can prove to be an aggravating process. This is how I did it for ages, at any rate, until I learned there's an easy way to change the count-in just below the surface of Live's GUI.
Just click the arrow next to the metronome to quickly turn on & off the count-in as needed without breaking the flow of your session. It's a simple fix for a simple problem but the more you can streamline your workflow the more you can stay focused on the music.
Metronome Count-In
If you're doing any live tracking in your production, the metronome is an important tool to help you or your performer stay on time. depending on your composition, a count-in can prove essential for recording certain sections but when it's unnecessary it can be an annoyance preventing you from jumping right to the track. Given this, you'll probably dig through the preferences to turn on & off this option a few times during a session & this in itself can prove to be an aggravating process. This is how I did it for ages, at any rate, until I learned there's an easy way to change the count-in just below the surface of Live's GUI.
Just click the arrow next to the metronome to quickly turn on & off the count-in as needed without breaking the flow of your session. It's a simple fix for a simple problem but the more you can streamline your workflow the more you can stay focused on the music.
Hot Swap Presets
Presets are a great starting place because they let you preview the approximate sound of a given effect or instrument. Because of this, you probably want to trial multiple settings to see which gets you closest to your desired sound before you start tweaking values.
Conveniently, activating hot swap (via a click of the symbol or press of the q key) will snap the browser to the current device's presets so you can move through & trial them with the arrow keys & enter. Within a few seconds you can listen through the list & hear what the device is capable of for your sound.
Hot Swap Presets
Presets are a great starting place because they let you preview the approximate sound of a given effect or instrument. Because of this, you probably want to trial multiple settings to see which gets you closest to your desired sound before you start tweaking values.
Conveniently, activating hot swap (via a click of the symbol or press of the q key) will snap the browser to the current device's presets so you can move through & trial them with the arrow keys & enter. Within a few seconds you can listen through the list & hear what the device is capable of for your sound.
Hot Swap Presets
Presets are a great starting place because they let you preview the approximate sound of a given effect or instrument. Because of this, you probably want to trial multiple settings to see which gets you closest to your desired sound before you start tweaking values.
Conveniently, activating hot swap (via a click of the symbol or press of the q key) will snap the browser to the current device's presets so you can move through & trial them with the arrow keys & enter. Within a few seconds you can listen through the list & hear what the device is capable of for your sound.
Of course, the traditional way to speed up common & repetitious tasks is through the use of shortcuts. I can go on & on about these, & I have: you can check out my series on the 30 best keyboard shortcuts in live or the complete animated, annotated guide to ableton live shortcuts to learn new ways to take advantage of your keyboard.
Here's hoping you learned some techniques for working faster in Live. I think it's key to remove mundanities & inefficiencies from your workflow in order to stay sharply concentrated on the more creative processes of working in audio.
Here's hoping you learned some techniques for working faster in Live. I think it's key to remove mundanities & inefficiencies from your workflow in order to stay sharply concentrated on the more creative processes of working in audio.
Here's hoping you learned some techniques for working faster in Live. I think it's key to remove mundanities & inefficiencies from your workflow in order to stay sharply concentrated on the more creative processes of working in audio.
pATCHES © 2024
pATCHES © 2024
