THE SIDECHAIN FREEZE: STUCK IN THE MIDDLE

The prior tips for freezing a track containing a sidechain device assume that you’re fine with the device being at the very end of the effect chain. For example, what if you’ve got a sidechained Compressor sitting before EQ and distortion? If you move the compressor out of the track, then add it back after […]

THE SIDECHAIN FREEZE, pt. 2

Once you’ve frozen a track that requires a sidechained effect, you’re faced with a decision. Do you need to keep the track frozen, or can it be flattened? If you’re prepared to flatten the track, it’s very simple. Flatten the track, then drag the sidechain device from the track you temporarily parked it in back […]

THE SIDECHAIN FREEZE

Special thanks to Francis Preve for suggesting this tip many months ago…if you’re not familiar with Francis, make sure to check him out. He makes great music and is a terrific educator – he’s the author of the Remixer’s Bible and countless articles for Keyboard magazine. If you’ve ever tried to freeze a track that […]

AUTOMATION THINNING

You might have noticed at some point that automation that looks like this while you are recording it… …ends up looking like this after the recording stops: This is because Live automatically “thins” the automation data. In other words, it removes breakpoints that are deemed unecessary and creates a simpler shape with more straight lines. […]

PLUG-IN AUTO CONFIGURATION OPTION

As you may already know, Live only auto-configures plug-in devices with fewer than 32 parameters. The number 32, however is just a default value that you can modify via Options.txt. For example, on my system I’ve changed it so any device with 48 parameters or less is auto-configured. Why? Because that’s about how many can […]

KNOW YOUR “OPTIONS”

For quite some time, Live has had a special configuration file that lets you set additional preferences that aren’t accessible through Live’s interface. These preferences were originally created for internal use at Ableton as part of the development and testing process, and therefore aren’t thoroughly documented. Many of them probably won’t have a huge impact […]

ROUND NUMBER TEMPO MACRO MADNESS – ON ICE!

OK, here I go again getting neck-deep into some nerdy minutae. I hope it’s clear by this point that I dig into this stuff partly to demonstrate the broad array of simple solutions there are to all sorts of problems. More than anything, I hope to share with you a bit of my though process […]

ROUND NUMBER TEMPO MACRO MADNESS

I’ve you’ve been digging in and trying out the tempo change macro, you may have bumped into the problem of getting the tempo exactly right. In other words, you may find that instead of the tempo landing at 95bpm, it ends up at 95.31. From a strict tempo perspective, this isn’t usually a huge deal. […]

TEMPO CHANGE MACRO

In my current version of my live set, I’m using macro clips to change Live’s master tempo. Unlike the previous example which uses a note message to toggle the metronome on and off, this technique is going to involve using a clip to send CC data via a clip envelope. Let’s take a look at […]

MIDI MACRO CLIPS, pt. 2

Alright, so what’s all this about sending MIDI out through IAC and then back into Live? Let’s dig in. We’ll start off with a trick that’s admittedly completely pointless, but very simple: create a MIDI clip that turns the metronome on or off. Don’t worry, from pointless beginnings come great things. The first step happens […]