The Ableton Q&A Thread

[dav.id]

I have a very simple question

is there a way to see in abletons browser to see how long your track is? not in bars but in minutes and seconds?

You can see the duration in minutes and seconds at the bottom of Arrange View

thanks, I seriously never noticed it hahahaha

[contakt321]

Yeah, I don't see how that's any less sophisticated though. At least if you sidechain off the real kick, you don't have to worry about duplicating any changes you make onto your sidechain trigger.

And you're right, certain routing options seem to completely rinse the CPU load. I guess it's because it means in certain situations the output has to be calculated one sample at a time rather than doing the whole buffer at once...

The reason why is I am frequently sidechaining parts when my Audible Kick isn't playing. This way I am just running a sidechain part that can be however I want, independent of how busy or sparse, or whatever my audible kick is doing. Make sense?

[Infinite BC]

Thanks for the advice. From what it sounds like I need a separate kick track in order to sidechain, is this correct?

Your second piece of advice is intriguing. I could probably side chain the noise, keep the kick muted for now, while making the hi hat and snare more prevalent then at a specific point drop in the kick and lose the noise. Let's see... another sleepless night for me.

Yes, what you could even do is put a kick in Simpler, and sidechain that. THEN: automate the stretch parameter of the kick to adjust how long the sidechain is hitting for. You can also set the Kick track to ONLY output into the sidechain, so you don't hear the kick at all in your track, just it's effect on the whitenoise.

I do this fairly often b/c I sidechain bits that don't have drums.

I might be misunderstanding you, but you don't need to have something in its own track in order for it to drive another channel's sidechain. You can even sidechain one Drum Rack channel off another. Hell, you can even sidechain a point in an Instrument Rack off another point on another chain within the same Instrument Rack.

Do you mind explaining how to sidechain a specific channel rather than the whole drum rack? I figure the same logic would allow me to send a specific channel to a return track. I'm trying to filter basically every single sound on my drums.

Thanks everybody for the input and advice!


edit: I didn't know you could just drop effects on to specific channels in the rack. ableton is rocking my world one day at a time.

[Infinite BC]

I still don't know how to sidechain

Tis not hard at all compadre. To get the hang of it,

1. open impulse and start off with a four on the floor kick loop.
2. make a synth loop and drop the compression tool onto it.
3. Click on the triangle in the top left corner of the compression toolbox
4. click the side chain button
5. audio from: impulse
6. lower the threshold bar to your liking (to see the effect, lower all the way down)
7. adjust attack and release to feel the pumping

voila, house pump. not penis pump.

For further suggestions... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQnOQWLURFU

[staticcast]

Yeah, I don't see how that's any less sophisticated though. At least if you sidechain off the real kick, you don't have to worry about duplicating any changes you make onto your sidechain trigger.

And you're right, certain routing options seem to completely rinse the CPU load. I guess it's because it means in certain situations the output has to be calculated one sample at a time rather than doing the whole buffer at once...

The reason why is I am frequently sidechaining parts when my Audible Kick isn't playing. This way I am just running a sidechain part that can be however I want, independent of how busy or sparse, or whatever my audible kick is doing. Make sense?

True dat. Fair point!

[staticcast]

Do you mind explaining how to sidechain a specific channel rather than the whole drum rack? I figure the same logic would allow me to send a specific channel to a return track. I'm trying to filter basically every single sound on my drums.

Thanks everybody for the input and advice!


edit: I didn't know you could just drop effects on to specific channels in the rack. ableton is rocking my world one day at a time.

Well, a Drum Rack is kind of a mixer-within-the-mixer. It's not *quite* as fully featured, but most of the routing options are there. You can stick a compressor pretty much anywhere, and in the sidechain source panel (or whatever it's called - I haven't got Live with me atm) you can just choose the point you want to tap in order to get your sidechain control signal. IIRC, the top menu is the channel, and the bottom menu is the point in that channel. So you select the channel with the drum rack, and in the bottom menu you get a whole shitload of points within that drum rack that you can pick, usually something like:

DRUM RACK :: KICK :: PRE FX
DRUM RACK :: KICK :: POST FX
DRUM RACK :: KICK :: POST FADER
DRUM RACK :: SNARE :: PRE FX
DRUM RACK :: SNARE :: POST FX
DRUM RACK :: SNARE :: POST FADER
DRUM RACK :: HAT1 :: PRE FX
DRUM RACK :: HAT1 :: POST FX
DRUM RACK :: HAT1 :: POST FADER

and so on.

It's really flexible in that not only can you use a drum rack chain on Channel 1 to sidechain your pad on Channel 2 etc, but you can actually sidechain one part of the drum rack on Channel 1 (eg the hats) off another part of the same drum rack (eg the kick). But - as contakt321 pointed out - I'm pretty sure this has the potential bump up CPU load quite a lot (as does any advanced routing/sidechaining stuff).

[dav.id]

my question:

I currently working on a new track and I have a 16 bar intro but I want to make it a little longer

this is the shitty part wich I don't know how to fix:

I have already loads of automations, but if I move my whole track the automations stay in place and they don't move along with the track

so my question is,

HOW CAN I MOVE MY WHOLE TRACK 'INCLUDING ALL MY AUTOMATIONS' ?

thanks in advance:)

[contakt321]

my question:

I currently working on a new track and I have a 16 bar intro but I want to make it a little longer

this is the shitty part wich I don't know how to fix:

I have already loads of automations, but if I move my whole track the automations stay in place and they don't move along with the track

so my question is,

HOW CAN I MOVE MY WHOLE TRACK 'INCLUDING ALL MY AUTOMATIONS' ?

thanks in advance:)

Apple + D = Duplicate

[dav.id]

if I duplicate the whole track I still can't move the track with all the automations, I don't think you know what I mean

if I move the whole track let's say 8 bars further the automations stay in place so I have to copy all the fucking automations and paste on the exact same spot wich can be a pain in the ass if you have more then 100 automations you feel me?

[contakt321]

if I duplicate the whole track I still can't move the track with all the automations, I don't think you know what I mean

if I move the whole track let's say 8 bars further the automations stay in place so I have to copy all the fucking automations and paste on the exact same spot wich can be a pain in the ass if you have more then 100 automations you feel me?

Yes.

If you create 8 bars of blank space via Edit > Insert Silence

Then highlight the section you want to move, and hit Option + D it will duplicate the clip + automation.

You can also open up the automation lanes and copy them if need by FYI

[Disco Nutter]

There's a button called "lock envelopes" next to the main timeline. i think this is what you need.

[MARCHMELLOW]

I'm hoping i've pressed a button by mistake somewhere, i have a problem...

when previewing samples in Ableton 8, it usually does its best to stretch it to your project tempo while previewing, but now for some reason, it doesn't try stretch the samples, it just plays them at there normal tempo...

any idea's how i get back to the wonderful pre-stretched sample magic wonderland i have come to know and love?!?

thanks

[flex vector]

I'm hoping i've pressed a button by mistake somewhere, i have a problem...

when previewing samples in Ableton 8, it usually does its best to stretch it to your project tempo while previewing, but now for some reason, it doesn't try stretch the samples, it just plays them at there normal tempo...

any idea's how i get back to the wonderful pre-stretched sample magic wonderland i have come to know and love?!?

thanks

At the bottom of the file browser next to the little sample preview is a button labeled "raw." Turning it on will preview the sample raw without any stretching. Just click that button again and you should be all set.

[ResetTheAtari]

Now that I've finished this mix of my tunes I'm gonna get wired back into it. I hardly ever use any built in instruments or fx other than reverb and sampler... tell me what I should learn to use next peeps!

[gnome]

Now that I've finished this mix of my tunes I'm gonna get wired back into it. I hardly ever use any built in instruments or fx other than reverb and sampler... tell me what I should learn to use next peeps!

Learn operator! Simple. Use Nicks tutorials I learnt all I need to know from them!

[HALP]

you should at least check out everything there is in ableton,
i hardly use any vst's because of the workflow involved with all the ableton stuff, it just so fast
and abletons analog and operator are powerfull synths!

[xx773xx]

I can't seem to find some of the wavs/mp3s in my collection of albums when I look for them in Ableton. Copyright issues, or something else?

[Infinite BC]

I can't seem to find some of the wavs/mp3s in my collection of albums when I look for them in Ableton. Copyright issues, or something else?

You're talking about personal albums, not samples from Ableton's library?

[Infinite BC]

Anybody know how to quickly queue specific, but multiple clips in session view? For that matter, sometimes I need to end multiple clips and start others in the same interval. This has got to do something with chain linking?

[jaydot]

Now that I've finished this mix of my tunes I'm gonna get wired back into it. I hardly ever use any built in instruments or fx other than reverb and sampler... tell me what I should learn to use next peeps!

Corpus is quite interesting iirc, I must go and look back on that. I don't use many FX at all in Ableton, that is their effects-just reverb, delay, compression etc, the usual suspects. I tend to rely on my VSTs too much. I quite like their Arpegiattor selection though, you can do some crazy things with those.