The Ableton Q&A Thread

[nowaysj]

Oh, and what midi device do you have to turn on and off?

[dickman69]

Thanks!

it's an lpk25 i have to go into preferences everytime i turn on ableton and click off and on

[nowaysj]

Yeah. I was having trouble with my MPK49 and the APC40 at the same time. Akai uses windows midi drivers (I assume you're on windows?), and it seems to fuck a bit with how ableton sees akai devices. When you shut down your system, does the lpk25 shutdown as well? If it is still plugged into the usb, it may not be totally powered down, and windows may not recognize it when you boot up until you unplug it, and plug it back in.

[dickman69]

I think it may stay running like you said, and i have had to unplug/replug it in before

[nowaysj]

Welcome to akai...

[dickman69]

still better than the home keys

[Perej]

Yo,

Having a couple of probs with automation sometimes. I can't always select the thing I want to automate straight away.

I've just put an autofilter on a synth to make it sound muffled before it comes in. I can change the filter, tremolo, pan, attk, decay, release etc, but I just want to change the actual x-y controller thingy. Is that the filter? When I change the x-y thing by itself (move it around the map) it has a drastic effect, but when I automate the filter on it's own even when I put it as high as it can go it's still not 'clear' enough.

Any tips? I'm a noob.

[nowaysj]

I don't understand that question. ^'
=======

So I've got a bunch of synth/pad sounds routed together into a bus. I'd like to put a compressor on that channel, then send the kick into that comp's sidechain, as well as have that kick still go out to the master... Seems like I can't directly route the kick to the master and the comp's sidechain at the same time?

[Gusto]

I don't understand that question. ^'
=======

So I've got a bunch of synth/pad sounds routed together into a bus. I'd like to put a compressor on that channel, then send the kick into that comp's sidechain, as well as have that kick still go out to the master... Seems like I can't directly route the kick to the master and the comp's sidechain at the same time?

The way you set an input to the compressors side-chain is different from normal signal routing. Select the Sidechain input from the kick channel on the compressor settings, you may need to open the sidechain settings by clicking the arrow next to the device activator on the compressor. This means that you can route your sidechain input channel like any other channel independent of the sidechain, so if you want your sidechain input source not routed to the master you can simply mute it and set the sidechain input settings to one of the pre-mixer settings to still get the sidechain effect.

[RandoRando]

Yeah. I was having trouble with my MPK49 and the APC40 at the same time. Akai uses windows midi drivers (I assume you're on windows?), and it seems to fuck a bit with how ableton sees akai devices. When you shut down your system, does the lpk25 shutdown as well? If it is still plugged into the usb, it may not be totally powered down, and windows may not recognize it when you boot up until you unplug it, and plug it back in.

i use the same combo, mpk49 and apc40 on windows 7.

i have a unpowered usb hub, and find my self unpluging and plugging back in also while restarting live everytime i do it to get the 2 to work at the same time

[nowaysj]

I don't understand that question. ^'
=======

So I've got a bunch of synth/pad sounds routed together into a bus. I'd like to put a compressor on that channel, then send the kick into that comp's sidechain, as well as have that kick still go out to the master... Seems like I can't directly route the kick to the master and the comp's sidechain at the same time?

The way you set an input to the compressors side-chain is different from normal signal routing. Select the Sidechain input from the kick channel on the compressor settings, you may need to open the sidechain settings by clicking the arrow next to the device activator on the compressor. This means that you can route your sidechain input channel like any other channel independent of the sidechain, so if you want your sidechain input source not routed to the master you can simply mute it and set the sidechain input settings to one of the pre-mixer settings to still get the sidechain effect.

How do you do this with a non-ableton comp though?

[symmetricalsounds]

Don't want to apply to the whole clip, just selected notes.

you can't apply groove to certain notes inside a clip, you can use the level of groove quantisation applied to try and get there but tbh i think it would be easier to just take the grid off and select note and use alt+ left/right arrow key to nudge it into place manually. alternatively split clip using ctrl+e and apply groove to the new split clip which contains the notes you want to affect.

[symmetricalsounds]

I don't understand that question. ^'
=======

So I've got a bunch of synth/pad sounds routed together into a bus. I'd like to put a compressor on that channel, then send the kick into that comp's sidechain, as well as have that kick still go out to the master... Seems like I can't directly route the kick to the master and the comp's sidechain at the same time?

The way you set an input to the compressors side-chain is different from normal signal routing. Select the Sidechain input from the kick channel on the compressor settings, you may need to open the sidechain settings by clicking the arrow next to the device activator on the compressor. This means that you can route your sidechain input channel like any other channel independent of the sidechain, so if you want your sidechain input source not routed to the master you can simply mute it and set the sidechain input settings to one of the pre-mixer settings to still get the sidechain effect.

How do you do this with a non-ableton comp though?

i've never done it but i'm guessing you'd use the external audio effect, just pipe the audio out the external audio effect module and have a new audio track with the compressor on it and it should show the SC input to the vst.

i use a similar method with the external instrument module to setup multiple tracks running into Miroslav Philharmonik.

[bibbyj]

Yo,

Having a couple of probs with automation sometimes. I can't always select the thing I want to automate straight away.

I've just put an autofilter on a synth to make it sound muffled before it comes in. I can change the filter, tremolo, pan, attk, decay, release etc, but I just want to change the actual x-y controller thingy. Is that the filter? When I change the x-y thing by itself (move it around the map) it has a drastic effect, but when I automate the filter on it's own even when I put it as high as it can go it's still not 'clear' enough.

Any tips? I'm a noob.

the "x-y controller thingy" is just a visual display for frequency and Q (Resonance), with left to right for frequency, from low to high, and up/down for Q width, it can't be automated on its own, but you can automate both values separately to achieve the effect, takes a bit of twiddling though.

[nowaysj]

No question, just wanted to point out that I had to do something in flstudio tonight, was in edison, their audio editor and I tried to click on the waveform and drag up to zoom... what is becoming of me? I'm going abletonian. Still think fl's zooming is quicker with modifiers and the scroll wheel, but still, I'm going to the dark side...

[Disco Nutter]

@ nowaysj You can always duplicate the midi clip, leave only the notes you want, add groove, commit, copy back to original midi clip.

[billy crystal meth]

I was on here previously complaining that there is something wrong with my mixed and that i dont think its me.

anyways... i noticed something else


I am in ableton and I am previewing sample in the browser on the left hand side. I find a nice juicy kik that i like so I drag it into the arrangement view to start making a beat with.... Here's what I noticed.

The kik sample sounds different when I preview it and when I have it playing in the arrangement window. When i drag it into an empty or full project the sample seems more dull and boomy while being less crisp.

there are no effects and I am not routing in to anything.

Any idea why this would happen?

Thanks,

[Disco Nutter]

Maybe there is an automatic fade on samples? You can turn that off in the settings.

To see whether there is a fade on the sample, right-click on it and press "show fades".

[symmetricalsounds]

most probably just the volume difference between previewing a sample and then dropping it in as audio/sample, plus if drop it in as audio check its not warped.

[nowaysj]

@ nowaysj You can always duplicate the midi clip, leave only the notes you want, add groove, commit, copy back to original midi clip.

Totally bro, much better way, thanks!