When you’re changing the tempo of a song and you need to keep the pitch the same, your best bet is to pick the warp mode on a case by case basis. If you’re going to be both slowing down and speeding up a song, make sure to listen to it faster and slower. In […]
SELECTING THE RIGHT WARP MODE
People sometimes ask me what warp mode I use for warping entire songs. My answer: all of them. A little bit frustrating if you’re looking for an easy answer, but over time I’ve found it to be the only right one. The problem with answering this question is that there are, of course, many different […]
CROP AND COLLECT
A lot of the preparation for my upcoming Austin gig is happening remotely, so there’s a lot of sending files back and forth. In particular, we’re sending Live projects containing audio loops. Sometimes these loops are short and homemade, and sometimes they are loops taken from entire songs. Unfortunately, this remote collaboration sometimes has to […]
A LITTLE MORE BUZZED
The interesting thing about setting loops in Simpler is that the Loop parameter is specified as a percentage of the sample’s Length. In other words, if Loop is set to 20%, you’ll always be looping the last 20% of the sample regardless of what Length is set to. This means that adjusting Length adjusts both […]
A LITTLE BUZZED
Here’s a simple trick to get a little glitch into your sampled drums. Set up Simpler like this: What you’re seeing here is a snare hit with a short loop at the end. Instead of having a natural decay, the hit will buzz at the end. First, make sure that the Loop switch is turned […]
GRAIN DELAY: PRETTY GLITCHER
Hey folks! There’s a new Hobotech EP available today for FREE download. Just because we love you. It’s got a crazy accordion-fueled lady gaga remix, some midtempo west coast hobofunk, a serious fiddle/laptop cagematch and some old tyme sexual confusion. Dig it! You can grab it on the facebook fan page (and “Like” us while […]
SLICE THE INSANITY
Another way to start having fun with some audio madness is to slice it into a Drum Rack using the Slice to New MIDI Track command: When you’re using this command to slice up a drum loop, you can often use Transient as your slicing mode (see below), but with longer samples this will usually […]
RE-RESAMPLE IT
If you use one of the many techniques that introduce randomness into your productions (such as in the previous tip), you’ll find that it’s generally a mixed bag. One moment you’re getting great results, the next not so much. My solution to this is another round of resampling – recording the output of the randomness […]
WHO’S GOT TIME TO TURN THE START KNOB?
I’ll admit it: I’m just too lazy to turn the start knob to search for my favorite sample snippet. Instead, I make Live do it for me. The advantage is that I get loads of variations with very little work. The first step is to switch over to Sampler (included with Live Suite, or available […]
DROP IT IN A DRUM RACK
Once you’ve sampled a mess of audio insanity, one of the simplest things you can do with it is drop the whole thing into a Drum Rack, along with your standard drum sounds. Once you’ve got a basic drum part programmed, program a couple of notes that trigger your new sample and listen back to […]
