Before I get into talking about custom skins, there are two other OS X video tricks that every mac performer should know. 1) Control-Option-Command-8 This one inverts all of the colors on your display. Some people like the way this makes everything pop out. Others like it just because it’s SO SPOOKY. With a nice […]
THE SKINNY
Each skin that appears in Live’s skins menu is just a file on your hard drive. in Windows, you’ll find the skins located here: Program Files\Ableton\Live\Resources\Skins. Under OS X, the files are contained within the Live application bundle.To access them, go to your Applications folder, right-click on the Live icon, and select Show Package Contents […]
SKIN IT YERSELF
To make your own skin for Live, you’ll first want to head over and download the skin editor by SonicTransfer. Once you’ve got that fired up on your computer, you’re ready to start skinning. The editor consists of two sections: a preview on the left that shows you changes to your skin as you make […]
UTILITY TEMPLATES
When I’m not using templates to put together a performance, I’m generally using them to import a premade set of tracks into a production Set. For example, when I want to record the output of my Machinedrum, I first locate my Drums set in the Templates folder: …and then drag it into whatever Set I’m […]
MO TRACKS MO PROBLEMS
It seems that almost everyone’s first instinct when faced with idea of creating a live electronic set (as opposed to a DJ set), is to use a large number of tracks. After all, performing with 8 tracks obviously offers much greater opportunity for improvisation than a two track set. In practice however, working with too […]
A FEW GOOD TRACKS
Once I’ve got my basic production done and I’m ready to try out a new beat in a performance situation, I’ll first lay out a basic arrangement. This helps me figure out what I might want to do with the piece. Then I’ll print a few stems from the arrangement. In the following example, I’ve […]
DANGEROUS BUTTONS
Sometimes a feature is a liability. For example, on the APC40 you might find it handy to have the Stop button located conveniently at the front of the controller, right above the crossfader. On the gig? Not so much – it’s just plain dangerous. On the VCM-600, the scene navigation knob can be pushed down […]
THE DO NOTHING BUTTON
When you’ve got a controller that needs to be set up as a control surface (like the Launchpad or APC40), disabling dangerous controls (or any sort of control customization) is done by enabling the device as both a control surface…. …and a standard MIDI Remote. When set up in this way, any custom mappings created […]
COLOR THE RECTANGLE
One thing I found frustrating when tooling around with skins recently is that you can’t change the color of the rectangle that appears around the clip grid when you’ve got a Launchpad or APC device connected. By default, it shows up red: While changing skins doesn’t change the color of the rectangle, there are a […]
UNWARPED TRANSITION CLIP
Live’s ability to match the tempo of all clips to the master tempo is obviously a wonderful thing that enables us to do all sorts of things that weren’t possible before. But conversely, it makes some things that are really simple with a traditional DJ setup slightly more complicated. I’m speaking here of big tempo […]
