Return Tracks in Ableton

[almostskate100]

I have a situation that I can't seem to figure out in Ableton --

What I have right now is a bass sound from Massive on a MIDI track. I then made 3 different return tracks called "High," "Mid," and "Low." On each return track, I put a multiband dynamics unit so that I could solo the highs, mids, and lows respectively on each return track.

Next, I set up the output of the MIDI track to be "Sends Only." I moved the dials for each send to %100 (so essentially I'm frequency splitting the sound). I then processed each band of the sound individually.

My problem is this -- how do I record the output of all three of the return tracks at once into one complete, processed, and finished bass sound? I tried adding another audio track and changing all of the outputs of the return tracks to this audio track, but the recorded sound did not match that of the combined return tracks at all...

[bassinine]

select all three of your busses, high mid and low, then right click on one and select group tracks. Now they'll all be together outputting to master, so put a compressor (or not) on the group and route that to another, separate audio channel. Then record on the channel you routed to the group to.

oh, make sure the channel you're routing to is set to "in," the is right above the faders on each channel.

[bassinine]

oh, and if this doesn't sound like it did before, it's probably your levels or a reverb somewhere that you forgot to add to the bounced sound.

[almostskate100]

select all three of your busses, high mid and low, then right click on one and select group tracks. Now they'll all be together outputting to master, so put a compressor (or not) on the group and route that to another, separate audio channel. Then record on the channel you routed to the group to.

oh, make sure the channel you're routing to is set to "in," the is right above the faders on each channel.

Thanks! I'll try this when I get home...Don't know why I couldn't figure this out haha

[krimson]

This doesn't really answer your specific question, but I think it would be a lot less convoluted to use an audio effects rack to do this kind of processing. 3 chains, frequency split each chain, and process away. Then you just have a single channel when you want to bounce out your finished product.

[the dub lemon]

This doesn't really answer your specific question, but I think it would be a lot less convoluted to use an audio effects rack to do this kind of processing. 3 chains, frequency split each chain, and process away. Then you just have a single channel when you want to bounce out your finished product.

agreed

[Aphile]

As an Ableton user who has done exactly what you are doing, DON'T!

You should use one audio track with 3 parrallel chains. Apply your freq splits on these chains. Return tracks can never be frozen, they're not the best place for lots of heavy processing.

[almostskate100]

This doesn't really answer your specific question, but I think it would be a lot less convoluted to use an audio effects rack to do this kind of processing. 3 chains, frequency split each chain, and process away. Then you just have a single channel when you want to bounce out your finished product.

Ok word -- this is how I usually do it. I just wanted to try out a different method of frequency splitting, but as you all have pointed out, it doesn't really work as well as an audio effects rack at all haha. I guess I was just trying to avoid having 3 instances of Massive up at once, which using an audio rack prevents, so thanks a ton for the help!

[stevemac]

Someone on another forum posted a 3 band phase cancellation tool for transparent splitting - which is more accurate than just using a multiband comp:

http://glitchhopforum.com/glitch-hop-pr ... 29-25.html

top of the 2nd page, which this should link to...

[RandoRando]

nice