The Ableton Q&A Thread

[zosomagik]

Thanks man, I feel stupid for not thinking of this *facepalm* I wish you could just bring the levels down and keep the automation though, but I still love you Ableton.

[RmoniK]

utility is a bit of a bitch cause you can't use it to completely mute a channel. I made a really simple audio effect rack which consists of another effect rack in it, and mapped a macro to its volume so i can automate from -infinity to 0.

[titchbit]

holy fuck i just found out something new about ableton that i never knew. this does not happen very often anymore. if you highlight multiple tracks, and then adjust the volume of one track by say, -3 dB, all of the tracks you highlighted will also go down by 3 dB

[RmoniK]

That's actually a really useful feature, it allows you to take down the overall volume so you can raise one particular channel without it clipping or having to turn down the master.

Anyway, quick question, anyone know of a way to translate certain midi messages to other midi messages? Like so you can map a launchpad to a premade drum rack or something.

[mks]

holy fuck i just found out something new about ableton that i never knew. this does not happen very often anymore. if you highlight multiple tracks, and then adjust the volume of one track by say, -3 dB, all of the tracks you highlighted will also go down by 3 dB

I use this all of the time. I'm glad you found it.

[mks]

Anyway, quick question, anyone know of a way to translate certain midi messages to other midi messages? Like so you can map a launchpad to a premade drum rack or something.

It should be pretty easy with Ableton midi mapper. It will just take you a bit to map all of the buttons. One thing that might possibly give you trouble is Novation's Automap, which I am not really a fan of.

[RmoniK]

But can i save mappings and import them in another project?

[mks]

Apparently User Mode 1 on the Launchpad is already mapped out for drum racks. I would then just save your setup as a template in Live and open that up for other projects.

[TheAudioMedium]

utility is a bit of a bitch cause you can't use it to completely mute a channel. I made a really simple audio effect rack which consists of another effect rack in it, and mapped a macro to its volume so i can automate from -infinity to 0.

I don't see the need for all that because if you want the track completely muted, just change the volume automation at that part to go to 0 dB.... You can still use utility to easily raise or lower the volume of the automated parts while you're mixing, just have the automation set to zero when you want it muted.

[RmoniK]

utility is a bit of a bitch cause you can't use it to completely mute a channel. I made a really simple audio effect rack which consists of another effect rack in it, and mapped a macro to its volume so i can automate from -infinity to 0.

I don't see the need for all that because if you want the track completely muted, just change the volume automation at that part to go to 0 dB.... You can still use utility to easily raise or lower the volume of the automated parts while you're mixing, just have the automation set to zero when you want it muted.

And mix with utility devices on different tracks? Why would i wanna do that? I just made an easy effect rack to automate. It has some other useful utilities macro'd to it too.

[shakas]

I've dropped a vocal clip into ableton and changed it to 'complex-pro' mode ... I drag down the formants box to achieve that androgynous tone to the voice, but it doesnt affect it at all. If I transpose the clip to a different pitch that i dont wanna use and then pull the formants down, it works. Why only then ?

[RmoniK]

Because it's a warp mode? If it's not being warped, it's not gonna affect the sound. What the formant does is not some magic effect. It just compensates for the shift of frequency spectrum when you pitch something up or down. If it's at zero, the spectrum will be shifted entirely. If it's at max, it'll be EQ'd in a fashion so that the spectrum resembles the one from the original, unwarped track.

[zosomagik]

Quick question about Ableton 9, does anybody know if you still have to refresh your midi? I have live 8 and have recently been using my apc40 as production tool, and it's pretty obnoxious to have to sit there and jiggle a knob or fader a couple time before it works.

[RmoniK]

Not sure what you mean by "refreshing", but the reason you need to do that is because you need to "catch" the value it's on at that moment. Your midi fader can be at 0 and the value it's automating in your daw at 127, and then it'll only start working as soon as you pass that point with your fader.

[mks]

Yeah, that is actually a good thing and a feature. You don't want to turn a knob and all of a sudden be at max.

[zosomagik]

Yeah I didn't really think about that, but it's still a bit obnoxious. I have to move that shit up and down like 5 or 6 times before it actually starts working. And that sucks because who wouldn't rather turn knobs and slide fade instead of clicking a bunch of shit?

[RmoniK]

Normally it should work the first time, just make sure you go to the actual value it's at.

[cyclopian]

Pretty nice little "secret" feature in Ableton:

http://www.resoundsound.com/ableton-liv ... on-tracks/

[topmo3]

nvm

[zosomagik]

So one thing that has been pestering me lately is that I have a lot of drum rack presets with drum samples or whatever in them, and I'll program or play a pattern in really quickly, but then later when I'm sidechaining things to my drums I have to look through that looooonnnnnnnnnnnnng ass list on the compressor or gate of which drums I want to sidechain something to. I feel like that's a lot of time wasted. Do you guys just deal with this, or do you have any tips?