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Re: Curious about Ableton Live



On Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 11:14 PM, Matt Davignon <mattdavignon@gmail.com> 
wrote:
> -Set an initial loop (or click track)

Can be done.

> --Record additional material either as a loop or not as a loop

You can set a global preference for Live if new recordings shall auto
loop on the fly or not. And the same "launch preferences" can also be
set locally for each individual loop after they have been recorded (or
dragged in from the hard drive, if "going canned").

> --For looped material, pre-determine if the new loop length in number of
> repeats of the first loop. (For example, if my first loop is 2 measures, 
> I
> want to be able to record other tracks of loops that are 1 measure, 3
> measures, 4 measures, etc.)

Not possible. But you can set the length of a loop by how long you
keep on recording it. There is a quantize function for stuff like
going in or out of recording mode so you won't risk to end up with non
synced loops. Quantize can of curse be set on the fly; from No
Quantize to any number of bars or eight notes or whatever. You do that
by hitting two keys on the laptop keyboard (one modifier key and then
one of the f keys, or maybe it is the number? to set the Quantize
value). So it is a no brainer to create three-against-four groove
between two loops recorded on the fly. Very "EDP-ish if you ask me"
;-)


> --For non-looped material, I want to be able to cut portions out of the 
> clip
> and turn those portions into loops.

Can be done ok on the fly. You can even double click an audio clip
(that's the Ableton term for an audio file displayed in a track
channel strip slot) and have it open below inside a graphic sample
editor where you see the wave form and the play-head moving through
the recording. If you hit "loop" you may set the left and right loop
point also on the fly by mouse clicking/dragging. This action can also
be quantized or not... even done by external MIDI if you want to
scratch cut and paste with some little midi mixer/button pad.


> --For individual tracks, include tools for normalization (of volume)

Normalization can be done to the sample in the sample editor. But I
wouldn't recommend it (for fidelity reasons). If you slap a fat
compressor over the track you are recoding on this will even out
levels that might come out too low or too high in the heat of the live
looping/sampling.

> and
> noise reduction.

Well, a noise gate would do that. Live offers such a plugin, named "Gate" 
;-))
BTW, Live comes with many interesting and useful plugins.

> --Turn off the beat matching

Can be done. Live has a function called "Warping" that analyzes audio
based on transients and saves this data as an additional file on the
disk. That's why canned files can be flied in and so smoothly pick up
the tempo. Warping can be turned on or off for any audio file. You can
also set up Live's preferences to auto warp - or not - any new
recording you make. Warping makes hi fi audio sound pretty bad, but
can be used for cool lo fi effects as well.

> --Name the original .wav files of each loop or clip without needing to
> re-link them to the project.

Each recorded file takes on the name of the (mixer) track. You can
type in track names before you start recording if you want to control
what names recorded files shall be given. Then the files get numbered
according to the order you record them in. Track name plus numer on
that track. They all go into the project folder. Quite neat.

> --In "arrangement view", Copy/paste portions of audio files across a
> workspace in an arbitrary manner (where I can decide whether or not they
> sync up with the existing tracks).

Yes. Of course that can be done. You can even copy drag a clip from
the mixer view into the arrange view. To to that you grab it with the
mouse, press the TAB key to switch view, and let go wherever in the
arrangement you want it to play back. Another neat workflow design
details ;-)

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se
www.perboysen.com
www.looproom.com internet music hub