WHY SCRUB?

In my case, the reason to use the Clip Scrub control as described yesterday is to save space in the Session view. In an earlier tip, I talked about breaking a song into 4 clips to have unique launch points for performance. The problem with having every song broken down into 4 clips is my […]

THE OTHER NUDGE

A number of weeks back, I wrote a couple of tips about using the Clip Nudge controls to navigate within your clips during a gig. (see: The Big Nudge and The Little Nudge)   What I didn’t mention is the extra mappable area that appears in between the nudge controls when you’re in the MIDI map (see […]

DRAG AND SWAP

If you’ve gotten into using a Sounds Project or a non-library location for storing your presets, you may have found that using hot-swap is not entirely smooth because Live directs the browser to the default preset location, leaving you to locate your custom preset folder manually.  That’s why I drag and drop instead. To replace a […]

RACK SWAP

It never totally made sense to me that Live lets you “swap” a rack using the hot-swap button. Since racks contain other devices, it always seemed a bit odd. I thought of swapping as traditional preset loading: once you’ve picked the device, you can try out some presets for it. Swapping out a rack means […]

GO WITH WHAT YOU KNOW

At the end of my workshop today, the question came up – what’s the best way to get started DJing with Live? If you’re experienced as a DJ, but you’re just getting started using Live as a DJ platform, the answer is clear: use as much of your existing skills as possible, and get Live […]

INTERFACE REFLECTIONS

So, I wanted to know who feels strongly enough about their portable audio interface to say that they love it. My experience is that most peoples feelings on this subject could be summed up with “meh.” For the most part, this is how I’ve felt about it as well. I’ve owned a few of the […]

INTERFACE POLL RESULTS

We pause from our regularly scheduled tips to bring you the results of a highly unscientific audio interface poll! Question: “Who LOVES their portable audio interface? What kind is it?” The winner is a tie, with the Native Instruments Audio Kontrol 1 and the Motu Ultralite both receiving 5 votes. Here’s the full rundown of […]

FLIP IT, DUB IT

So far, we’ve just been looking at ways to use the crossfader-effects trick with pre-fader sends. You can also have some fun crossfading to return tracks when using a default post-fader send. Remember, the difference between using pre-fader (Send A) and post-fader (Send B), is that when using the post-fader send, the source signal will […]

SHIFT THE BEAT, KILL THE KICK

The beat juggle trick described yesterday works well for all sorts of music, but not all types – it’s often problematic for house, techno, or any sort of groove based around a straight quarter note kick drum. The straight kick rhythm is so dominant, that turning it around even briefly can really upset the flow […]

INSTANT BEAT JUGGLE

One simple and incredibly fun way to use return tracks with the crossfader is for simple beat juggling. To do this, throw a Simple Delay on the return track set up like this: All you’re doing is using the delay as an 1/8 note offset, so every time you flip the crossfader, the signal is […]