So, here’s one practical use for Random. We begin with a simple MIDI clip: …that’s triggering a Drum Rack with a Random in front of it: The MIDI clip only triggers the first pad (shk1) directly. The other three shakers only get triggered when a random note gets generated. With Chance set to 75%, Random […]
THE GHOST SHAKER
Spooky, I know. Think you can handle it? Here’s a fun tweak to the setup in the prior tip: All I’ve done here is bump up the Choices to 4. This means that when a random note is chosen, it will sometimes trigger an empty pad: This will interrupt the flow with a brief pause […]
AMP & CABINET!
Stop the presses! Ableton 8.2 is out, and Amp & Cabinet have been added to the effects roster: I’m a big fan of guitar amp modelers. Ever since I first owned my Ensoniq ASR-10 (which had a built-in amp emulation effect), I’ve gotten a huge kick out of running just about everything through them – […]
AMP & CABINET ON THE JUNKY BUS
I like the drums I’ve programmed for this remix I’m working on, but they just sound too polite. One of my favorite ways to add some nasty to the drums is with a little amp and cabinet action. In the past, I’ve used actual re-amping and NI Guitar Rig to handle this chore. Today, it’s […]
AMP & CABINET ON THE JUNKY BUS, pt. 2
My junky drum bus already sounds pretty cool, but it needs a little Amp for grit. It’s placed after the Rough Rider (and before Cabinet): I settled on the Rock model by ear and turned the Bass and Treble all the way down – the aggression I’m looking for is all in the midrange. Like […]
THE JUNKY BUS, IN SPACE!
In the prior tips, I mentioned using Dual mode to preserve the stereo image of the drum group. In fact, what I ended up doing was exaggerating the stereo image using a Simple Delay after Cabinet: (tip continues below) ~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Hot Tip: Visiting the Shop supports this website. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~ If you’re not familiar with this […]
PRINT THE RETURN
Now that I’ve added some satisfying junk to my drum sound, I’m going to render the processed signal to an audio file. (I’ll discuss why in a moment.) Remember that all of the processing from the prior tips is happening in Return A: To Print Return A to an audio file, open up the Export […]
ARPEGGIATOR: FUN WITH VELOCITY
Hopefully the last couple of tips have made the point that Arpeggiator is not just a device that eats chords and craps Baba O’Riley. I find that exploring what it can do with one note at a time really helps to demystify some of its more interesting features. The nifty thing about the Velocity section […]
EXTRACT CHAINS
I’m a big fan of Drum Racks. Every track I do has its main beat programmed using one. There are lots of reasons for this, but a big one is the Extract Chains command, which is accessed by right-clicking in the Chain List: In the above example, this command will remove the chain called OB-Hat […]
DRUM EDITING WORKFLOW
In the previous tip I mentioned that I extract the drum rack chains once I’ve got a basic arrangement laid out. There’s another piece to my workflow, though: I usually do one pass of drum editing before extracting the chains. After the arrangement is laid out, I find spots to create additional variations – such […]
