Here’s another concept to check out if you’re using Live as a DJ platform: use a set of tracks as your virtual record crates for a gig. Take a look: The tracks on the right are set up for Cueing only while the two Deck tracks are used to send a track into the sound […]
RUN THE BETA
If you’ve been having problems with Live being stable lately, there’s a good chance you’re running Live 8.1 (or 8.1.1) The folks at Ableton have been hard at work on a major bugfix update which looks like it will be available very soon. In the meantime, there’s a beta version of this release available to […]
SHAKEY VARIATIONS
So, the main reason I took the time to explain how the Auto Filter’s envelope section works was so I could move into talking about the Auto Filter’s sidechain capabilities as I did yesterday. If you’re new to this, the important thing to understand is that the sidechain section of the Auto Filter works with […]
KICK THE LOWS
OK, this tip is for all of you who are already up on sidechain techniques – particularly using sidechain compression on your bass track, keyed to the kick drum. What I’ve discovered is that, at times it’s useful to use sidechained filtering instead. Take a look at the following setup: If this Auto filter is […]
UNDERSTAND THE ENVELOPE
One of the most misunderstood features of the Auto Filter is the Envelope section. I’m gonna show you a couple of fun things to do with it, but first you’ve gotta know how it works. The Envelope section is used to detect the volume of the incoming signal and use it to control the filter’s […]
WHY SCRUB?
In my case, the reason to use the Clip Scrub control as described yesterday is to save space in the Session view. In an earlier tip, I talked about breaking a song into 4 clips to have unique launch points for performance. The problem with having every song broken down into 4 clips is my […]
THE OTHER NUDGE
A number of weeks back, I wrote a couple of tips about using the Clip Nudge controls to navigate within your clips during a gig. (see: The Big Nudge and The Little Nudge) What I didn’t mention is the extra mappable area that appears in between the nudge controls when you’re in the MIDI map (see […]
DRAG AND SWAP
If you’ve gotten into using a Sounds Project or a non-library location for storing your presets, you may have found that using hot-swap is not entirely smooth because Live directs the browser to the default preset location, leaving you to locate your custom preset folder manually. That’s why I drag and drop instead. To replace a […]
RACK SWAP
It never totally made sense to me that Live lets you “swap” a rack using the hot-swap button. Since racks contain other devices, it always seemed a bit odd. I thought of swapping as traditional preset loading: once you’ve picked the device, you can try out some presets for it. Swapping out a rack means […]
GO WITH WHAT YOU KNOW
At the end of my workshop today, the question came up – what’s the best way to get started DJing with Live? If you’re experienced as a DJ, but you’re just getting started using Live as a DJ platform, the answer is clear: use as much of your existing skills as possible, and get Live […]
