The Ableton Q&A Thread

[symmetricalsounds]

well a multiband compressor isn't going to remove any sounds, compressors control dynamic range of a sound. you can use a multiband compressor to shape the sound differently across the frequency range but that doesn't seem to be what you're after. what are you trying to remove? if you can't use a filter/eq to get rid of a sound then presumibly it's in the same frequency range of the sound you want to keep.

do you have a sample that you're trying to get rid of one part of a sound and keep another? if it's a sample from vinyl then below 300hz-ish is gonna be mono and there's a chance that the sound you want to seperate is in stereo. stick a utility plugin onto the track and stick width to the lowest which means only the mono or mid part of the sound is going to come through, then stick it on the max value which means only the stereo information or side (as in mid/side mostly written m/s processing) is going to come through. that with a combination of filters/eq might help but generally if two sounds are inhabiting the same frequency range then you're gonna have major issues trying to completely getting rid of it. try finding a different place to make the chop.

[Redderious]

I'm working on taking out an unknown 'buzz' thats really bothering me in a mid/high freq bassline ive synthesized. Ive used both filters and eqs to isolate the freqs that the distortions in so i can lower it out, but never a combination of the two. That's because from what i am told, eqs are essentially just multiple filters that can be more specifically customized. So i thought that their wouldn't be a point adding more filters. But once i get back home from work im going to try this out and see how it works! Thanks buddy

[symmetricalsounds]

ahh totally different then, what i said before isn't going to work. i thought you were talking about a sample, if theres a buzzing being created in a sound your synthesizing then i would go back to editing the patch to work out why that was happening and how i could fix it.

[Redderious]

damnnnn, well then looks like i have some detective work to do . I started noticing this after i resampled/cut up and tried processing the audio a little bit. It didn't occur right away though. Even though i could find the source of the buzz in only my bassline, it appeared after i threw in my sub bass which it then became permanent. Confusing stuff, i thought it might of just been my headphones(ATHM50s), but when i could turn down the buzz with an eq i figuered that it was the sound? confuzzling indeed.

[symmetricalsounds]

damnnnn, well then looks like i have some detective work to do . I started noticing this after i resampled/cut up and tried processing the audio a little bit. It didn't occur right away though. Even though i could find the source of the buzz in only my bassline, it appeared after i threw in my sub bass which it then became permanent. Confusing stuff, i thought it might of just been my headphones(ATHM50s), but when i could turn down the buzz with an eq i figuered that it was the sound? confuzzling indeed.

well then if you noticed it after resampling i'm guessing it's one of the effects you put on it before bouncing.

[Redderious]

not right away though, only after the sub was thrown in to the mix. the buzz was completley non-existant before.

[symmetricalsounds]

not right away though, only after the sub was thrown in to the mix. the buzz was completley non-existant before.

have you lowpassed the sub and high passed the other sound?

[Redderious]

not right away though, only after the sub was thrown in to the mix. the buzz was completley non-existant before.

have you lowpassed the sub and high passed the other sound?

One of the first things ive done. The buzz dissapeared/or atleast i didnt notice it once i got home the other day. My guess on whats going on is that it was just my headphones, they are only half a week old. Hopefully, i just needed to wear them in a little more and its not something thats going to make me have to return them.

[symmetricalsounds]

weird

[Redderious]

Very.

Start another topic up now.
What's everyones favorite Live feature? What are some really creative things that you all have come with using these? Just a few days ago i decided to automate my sub filter cutoff, then copy the automation to its compressor's thresh. Can't describe the sound to well but it makes the sub layer alot more visual and helped out alot with my eqing.

[EDN]

I've been getting well into corpus for soundscape-y stuff.
That and playing with grain delay a lot.

[jaimelee]

Started messing about with Analogue and Chorus a bit, never used them much before and getting good results so far.

[Redderious]

Started messing about with Analogue and Chorus a bit, never used them much before and getting good results so far.

Operator>Analogue...

[EDN]

In most ways yes operator>analogue, but I like analogue for certain things, it has some different routing options which I'm quite fond of. As well as having two separate lfo's.

Oh! I've also come to love stacking multiple synths in one instrument rack. Badbwoy layering 'tings a gwan.

[Redderious]

In most ways yes operator>analogue, but I like analogue for certain things, it has some different routing options which I'm quite fond of. As well as having two separate lfo's.

Oh! I've also come to love stacking multiple synths in one instrument rack. Badbwoy layering 'tings a gwan.

sounds like that would use up quite alot of cpu. how many synths we talkin' about here?

The routing is alot simpler thats for sure, you can make some decent sounds pretty quickly because of that. But if you want to experiment and find something thats sounds really cool through that, Operator is where to go to.

[Redderious]

i need help with something:


Im trying somewhat maser one of my sounds. Im not too skilled at this, this is actually my first track im trying to trying to make my sounds higher quality using effects processing and what not.

Im running a synthesized pad i made through a compressor running almost flat at about -6 db, then to an eq8, a bandpass filter i believe (shape of an n) then a limiter. The sound is way too quiet though, and its not standing out well in my mix. I've already eqd and compressed it twice, and there is already reverb attached at a previous track i bounced out. What is a good feature to give my sound a little boost, as well as add a lil more dimension, that i can put in the chain before the limiter?

[jaimelee]

i need help with something:


Im trying somewhat maser one of my sounds. Im not too skilled at this, this is actually my first track im trying to trying to make my sounds higher quality using effects processing and what not.

Im running a synthesized pad i made through a compressor running almost flat at about -6 db, then to an eq8, a bandpass filter i believe (shape of an n) then a limiter. The sound is way too quiet though, and its not standing out well in my mix. I've already eqd and compressed it twice, and there is already reverb attached at a previous track i bounced out. What is a good feature to give my sound a little boost, as well as add a lil more dimension, that i can put in the chain before the limiter?

Be easier if you showed a pic but you could stick it into a return to beefen it up or added some minor phase or delay to spread the frequencies out slightly and make it louder in that aspect.

[Redderious]

i need help with something:


Im trying somewhat maser one of my sounds. Im not too skilled at this, this is actually my first track im trying to trying to make my sounds higher quality using effects processing and what not.

Im running a synthesized pad i made through a compressor running almost flat at about -6 db, then to an eq8, a bandpass filter i believe (shape of an n) then a limiter. The sound is way too quiet though, and its not standing out well in my mix. I've already eqd and compressed it twice, and there is already reverb attached at a previous track i bounced out. What is a good feature to give my sound a little boost, as well as add a lil more dimension, that i can put in the chain before the limiter?

Be easier if you showed a pic but you could stick it into a return to beefen it up or added some minor phase or delay to spread the frequencies out slightly and make it louder in that aspect.

I might try some phase out, i forgot to mention i have delay running through one of the sends to that track.

This is a stupid question but what do the returns do? I've never messed around with them ever, is it something like feedback?

[Redderious]

the distortion is back, and its lurkn in the drums. Its a crackling staticy sound. Its not attached to a track though, it seems to happen when i go over 50% cpu and get my master at about -2db. AHhhhhh????

[jaimelee]

I might try some phase out, i forgot to mention i have delay running through one of the sends to that track.
This is a stupid question but what do the returns do? I've never messed around with them ever, is it something like feedback?

Return tracks are channels that can chain multiple effects that you can send the Noise of your instrument or such into so they can both play or just have the return play with the effects attached. It beefens up the sound generally if done right. Reverb is the most common return channel I use. ( Drum rack has it's own sends and returns on Ableton, trust me it's a lifesaver! )

Onto the distortion thing. It may be due to that your machine cannot buffer the audio fast enough and it causes those crackles and pops. There are ways to fix that in this part of the forum or possibly in this thread.
Also is your drum sounds compressed and limited? ( Could just be down to too much compression/distortion but not likely )