The Ableton Q&A Thread

[Seda]

How do I tell how much headroom I have left on my master channel? I can see the little green level bar peak up and not quite reach 0 dB but how do I read this as a numerical value? All I can tell is that I go about 3/4 of the way up the green...

A nice little trick to optimize your headroom is to put a limiter on the master. Set the limit to 0 db and adjust your mix until there is no clipping what so ever. Then take your limiter off because there is no longer a need for it. It may seem unneeded since you can read off your peak but for some reason I always find myself doing it.

[Chemical FX]

is there anyway to get ableton for free? and if not which one should i buy (i just started). thanks!

[wayoftheworld]

get the demo free for 30 days and then buy that shit

if you can afford it, buy suite 8

[Chemical FX]

yeah im kinda strapped for cash. so the 99$ Ableton live intro would work right?

[wayoftheworld]

personally, i'd pass on the intro version. it's going to be bare and not have many of the features you want with ableton. some midi controllers even come with a free copy of live lite or intro, better off going that route, or saving up for the regular/suite versions imho.

what's your budget? are you a student? if so, you can get the regular version of live 8 for around 300 or so, i'd say it's definetly worth saving your pennies for.

just download the demo until you can buy it. don't fuck with crack(z). just register a new email everytime your live demo expires each month

[cloak and dagger]

Simple question: is there a way to "loop current region" for multiple clips? Or at least a keyboard shortcut for it?

[Seda]

Simple question: is there a way to "loop current region" for multiple clips? Or at least a keyboard shortcut for it?

"Loop current region" ? Do you mean continue to loop a loop for multiple scenes? If so, it as easy as copy and pasting into each scene. If you are intending on avoiding problems with loops that have a high attack or something else of that nature, initiate each loop separately instead of as a scene. You may run into problems doing the latter in the arrangement view, so get the fuck out of that and do it in the session view.... much more effective and much less limiting.

[cloak and dagger]

Simple question: is there a way to "loop current region" for multiple clips? Or at least a keyboard shortcut for it?

"Loop current region" ? Do you mean continue to loop a loop for multiple scenes? If so, it as easy as copy and pasting into each scene. If you are intending on avoiding problems with loops that have a high attack or something else of that nature, initiate each loop separately instead of as a scene. You may run into problems doing the latter in the arrangement view, so get the fuck out of that and do it in the session view.... much more effective and much less limiting.

I'm not using arrangement view at all...what I'm doing is chopping up full tracks into parts (in the arrangement view), dragging them to session view, and I want them to repeat automatically...but for each part I have to click the wave file and select "loop current region" so that the loop points are the same as the start/stop points I chopped. It's not a huge problem, but it's a pain to do it manually for every one.

Another question: Is it possible to make keyboard shortcuts for importing files from the browser into session view, so that I don't have to keep deleting / dragging in new sets / clips? It would make things a bit quicker when doing a live set.

[creeptown]

Just wondering in regards to bpms, what is segment bpm (the one that you get at the bottom of the screen where you can select warp and such. Should segment bpm be 140 also? ive noticed if you change that tho the speed changes a lot...

[wayoftheworld]

Just wondering in regards to bpms, what is segment bpm (the one that you get at the bottom of the screen where you can select warp and such. Should segment bpm be 140 also? ive noticed if you change that tho the speed changes a lot...

what version are you running?

whenever you load a new audio clip, ableton will make a guess at what that clips bpm is, which is the segment bpm. each audio clip has a bpm and is independent of the global tempo. as you've stated, messing about with segment bpm can bring about drastic results, but i find it to be really useful when warping. here's how i used segment bpm in live 8:

say you're doing a set at 140 and you want to throw in some stuff with differing tempos. if you can find the tracks bpm on your own (whether by calculating it out yourself or using detection software) it makes warping in live ridiculously easy. okay, so say my global bpm is 140 and i want to throw in some 130ish beats, as soon as you load the clips you'll see that the waveform doesn't exactly line up. place a warp marker on the first visible transient of the beat and right click ---> start 1.1.1. here. make sure there are no other visible warp markers that live has automatically added (if so, just delete them). so after you set 1.1.1. here just click that first warp marker and you'll see the segment bpm section for that clip activate. if you know the tracks original bpm just enter that value into the seg. bpm box and it's as easy as that, the track will align perfectly if the bpm you provided for the clip is correct.

so thus if the clips you are working with are 140 bpm dubstep, then the segment bpm should be 140. basically it's okay for the segment bpm to be at a different value than the global tempo you're working at, as the segment bpm is relative to each specific clip.

hope that helps!

[krispy]

if you can find the tracks bpm on your own (whether by calculating it out yourself or using detection software) it makes warping in live ridiculously easy.

What is this detection software you speak of?

[wayoftheworld]

mixedinkey, rapid evolution (i think thats the name)

can't really speak for the accuracy of these as i prefer to find the bpm/key manually.

[JJAMUS]

noob problem...

whenever i bring a bassline with a wobble in from my vst to my midi clip it doesn't sound the same... it sounds sort of "digitized" and stretched out. it's not completely distorted, but it's not the intended sound at all. other bass patches without a wobble work... idk what the problem is, maybe it's god telling me not to use wobbles, heh.

anyone know what i'm talking about/know a fix?

[wayoftheworld]

anyway you can post a screen shot of the vst settings and/or clip properties?

did you make sure there's nothing crazy going on in the clip envelope section?

[JJAMUS]

anyway you can post a screen shot of the vst settings and/or clip properties?

did you make sure there's nothing crazy going on in the clip envelope section?

shot of my settings... absolutely nothing fancy. this is literally just the default sound with a daft filter and lfo sync.

but this is the sound i get:
http://www.mediafire.com/?cjyyctlckmk

[wayoftheworld]

so are you saying the synth sound is different when you enter notes into the midi sequencer? if the synth is playing fine before you enter it itno abletons sequencer it's probably something to do with the midi clip settings. but to tell you anymore i'd need to see what the clip properties are that's causing this to happen.

[creeptown]

thanks cloak i understand now! nice explanation...

whenever i bring a bassline with a wobble in from my vst to my midi clip it doesn't sound the same... it sounds sort of "digitized" and stretched out. it's not completely distorted, but it's not the intended sound at all. other bass patches without a wobble work...

Mate just a small idea, make sure in the global setting tab in massive, you have external sync off and it is set to 140bpm (or whatever you are using)....

[krispy]

When I first open Ableton it says at the bottom in orange "Samples are missing. Click here to learn more."

So when I click there and the missing files window comes up on the side there is nothing there!
So what the hell is missing ABLETON!!!!!!!!

Anyone got any ideas?

[Seda]

Are you opening a particular set? Or does it happen no matter the set?

[wayoftheworld]

yeah, if this happens when you open a new live set you may want to report it to ableton. if it happens when you try to load a set it's just referring to files that have been moved since the projects last save. if this is the case it's easy as relocating the file on your hd and dropping it back into live.