Another bit from the Slightly Dull but Incredibly Important category is knowing how to set the audio buffer properly. Take a look in the Audio tab of Live’s Preferences screen: Here are a few things you’ve got to know: The bigger your buffer, the more latency you’ll experience when using MIDI controllers with Live. It’s […]
ONE SONG, MULTIPLE CLIPS
Today’s tip comes directly from my gig last night, which went pretty well. To me this means not just that partygoers were dancing and having a good time, but that I was having fun as well – and feeling that the technology I was using on stage was serving me well. As you may have […]
SIMPLIFY YOUR SETUP
Today, ask yourself a question: How improvisational is your live set? How much do you plan out in advance, and how much is decided on the spot? The answer often lies somewhere on a continuum – some things have to happen as planned, some have a great degree of latitude. Even within the areas of […]
ONE KNOB, MULTIPLE FUNCTIONS
I’m spending today working with my friend Haj (of Sub Swara) on his new Ableton Live setup, and it never ceases to amaze me how quickly you run out of knobs on even the most well equipped controller. One of the advantages of old fashioned hardware mixers and synthesizers is that the interface is already […]
ADDING AUTO-BYPASS
The Auto Filter rack that we started yesterday needs another feature: auto-bypass. In other words, when the knob is rotated hard left, the Auto Filter device should be turned off completely so there’s no low cut at all. To do this, we’re going to map the on/off switch in the upper left hand corner of […]
BI-MODE FILTER
We’re almost done with the design of the filter rack we started two days ago – a few more steps, then we can move on to getting it mapped to a MIDI controller and rocking it on a gig. You see, I’m not happy with a one-knob high pass filter – I want it to […]
BUTTON THAT KNOB!
Hey everyone – occasionally I’m going to ask you for support of some sort to help keep the Live tips coming. Today, I’m asking that people help Haitian earthquake survivors. Even if our donations are small, if everyone helps it really adds up. The link above is to the aid organization started by Wyclef Jean. […]
BEAT REPEAT: 1 BAR LOOPER
For all the crazy and wonderful stuff you can do with the Beat Repeat, one thing I get lots of mileage out of in performance situations is using it as simple looper. Obviously, there are lots of ways to loop on the fly in Live, but this one is just so darn simple to set […]
ABLETON LIVE: GUITAR FX BOX
Since friday night, I’ve gotten a bunch of questions about the live setup that I posted a picture of. So today I figured I’d briefly talk through it and give you a sense of how I’m using Live when I’m playing guitar. Essentially, the setup is based around using Live as an effects box and […]
GRAIN DELAY AS PITCH SHIFTER
I got to play a bit more ambient guitar this weekend, and have some more fun with my Live effects box/looper setup. One effect I get a lot of mileage out of in this setup is the Grain Delay. I use several of them for a few different purposes, one of which is pitch shifting […]
