Once you’ve got IAC (or windows equivalent) set up, you’ll need to open up Live’s preferences window, and head over to the MIDI/Sync tab. Under MIDI Ports, you’ll now see a virtual input and output port for the IAC driver. This means that you now have a new source and destination for MIDI data in […]
MIDI MACRO CLIPS
One of the nice things about Live is powerful and simple to configure remote control. Manipulating Live’s interface using MIDI controllers or the computer keyboard is incredibly simple once you get started. However, you occasionally run into things that aren’t possible, or you want to automate a remote control action for live performance. For example, […]
MID-SIDE WITH UTILITY
Another way to get some Mid-Side processing into your life is with Live’s Utility device. Have a look at theWidth control: When Width is set to 0%, Utility will eliminate the sides of a stereo signal and pass through only the mono information. At 200%, the middle is discarded and only the purely stereo information […]
BEWARE THE MAKEUP!
Unless you’re already a master of compression, beware of the Makeup switch. What it does is automatically apply “makeup gain” to the signal. As the Threshold and Ratio are adjusted, the compressor determines how much gain reduction it is applying and then raises the output signal up by that amount. This may seem totally counter-intuitive, […]
GET THE GAIN RIGHT (ALL THE TIME!)
Whenever you’re processing a signal in a way that changes it’s gain (whether you’re doing it with EQ, compression, distortion, etc.) the only way to really hear what the processor is doing is to match the volumes of the processed and unprocessed signals. The reason for this is a principle well known to any experienced […]
SEE THE REAL FREEZE
Sometimes when editing a frozen track, it can be tricky to get the editing just right because you can’t really see what you’re editing. What you need to see is the actual waveform generated when the track is frozen, rather than the original audio or MIDI. The trick here is to display an automation lane, […]
EDIT GROUPS
Did you know that you can edit the clips inside Group tracks from the Group track itself? This is a feature that’s easy to miss because earlier versions of Live 8 (prior to 8.1, I think) didn’t work this way. Group tracks display colored bars to represent the Clips within: Selecting any portion of […]
TRANSPOSE VS. BASE
If you take a look at the Scale device, you’ll notice that right below the Base knob, there’s a Transpose control. And yet, I said you should use Base when changing the key of a preset scale… The difference is that Base simply transposes the scale, while Transpose will transpose each incoming note. Er, or […]
ONE SCALE, MANY MODES
Someone just asked me a question about creating custom Scale presets. Scale is used to force all incoming notes to conform to a particular scale. While the Scale’s interface is perfectly logical, it’s pretty tricky to wrap one’s head around. I’m not really going to get into explaining it except to say that it’s […]
PLACE THE CLIP, SWITCH THE SAMPLE
A few months back, I did a little series on creating audio files full of strange sounds, then getting them into your productions via Drum Racks. Today I was reminded of another way to work with glitchy goodness. Above you’ll see a sample placed directly into the timeline in a couple of spots. It’s from […]
