It's not what you have, it's how you use it

amphibian · Post by **amphibian** » Sun Oct 10, 2010 9:46 pm

Decided to test myself these past 2 weeks (as I've had no internet) and started teaching myself Ableton Live, and apart from a few distortion plugins, have forced myself to use only the plugins and instruments available within the suite. lo and behold I've been working quite a lot with the tools I've limited myself to and learnt a heap in the process - to the point now where I'm starting to create basslines that really are starting to sound "phat", and dirtier than all my previous attempts. The key lesson I've learnt is don't judge a book by it's cover when it comes to the tools at your disposal. Some of them have quite a lot of hidden power

This is also the first time I've been able to successfully eq-split a bassline across 3 send returns and have it produce something rather nice to the ear (rather than a muddled mess). hehe

One thing that annoys me though is... I can't seem to find a plugin in ableton that will allow me to apply a LFO on a bassline AFTER I've applied all the effects.etc. Anyone able to give me a heads up?

tavravlavish · Post by **tavravlavish** » Sun Oct 10, 2010 10:07 pm

that's kinda why I do sample competitions, except I usually only use samples in my songs anyways. I almost never use logic synths for some reason.

amphibian · Post by **amphibian** » Sun Oct 10, 2010 10:16 pm

hmmm... just figured out (lol) how to do the lfo. Simply resampled the bassline and imported it into a sampler, which has LFO capabilities. hehe

OlzaMK · Post by **OlzaMK** » Sun Oct 10, 2010 10:18 pm

Sounds like your achieving more and more. I'm in the same boat, I got an akai mpk25 and some cheap krks. What am I complaining for? I just need to use the shit out of it.

jobbanaught · Post by **jobbanaught** » Sun Oct 10, 2010 10:22 pm

amphibian wrote: One thing that annoys me though is... I can't seem to find a plugin in ableton that will allow me to apply a LFO on a bassline AFTER I've applied all the effects.etc. Anyone able to give me a heads up?

If you mean a filter modulated by an lfo, you could just put an autofilter at the end of the chain and let it be modulated by its own lfo (turn up the lfo amount knob, adjust shape, sync and freq), or draw in some automation on its frequency on the respective clip/track

paravrais · Post by **paravrais** » Sun Oct 10, 2010 10:40 pm

amphibian wrote:Decided to test myself these past 2 weeks (as I've had no internet) and started teaching myself Ableton Live, and apart from a few distortion plugins, have forced myself to use only the plugins and instruments available within the suite. lo and behold I've been working quite a lot with the tools I've limited myself to and learnt a heap in the process - to the point now where I'm starting to create basslines that really are starting to sound "phat", and dirtier than all my previous attempts. The key lesson I've learnt is don't judge a book by it's cover when it comes to the tools at your disposal. Some of them have quite a lot of hidden power

This is also the first time I've been able to successfully eq-split a bassline across 3 send returns and have it produce something rather nice to the ear (rather than a muddled mess). hehe

One thing that annoys me though is... I can't seem to find a plugin in ableton that will allow me to apply a LFO on a bassline AFTER I've applied all the effects.etc. Anyone able to give me a heads up?

Autofilter man

Also ableton is boss. When I first got it I figured I wouldn't need reason anymore because of all the 'great vsts' people always talk about. After about 8 months of experimenting though I now find that my favourite way to work is reason rewired into ableton and then I only ever use a few select vst effects, mostly ableton stock and reason stock. I only work this way though because I know the reason synths so well. I could easily use just ableton on it's own totally stock and make equally good music. Plus I really love reason and don't wanna let it go. Only vst I use synth wise is alchemy because its tight but I don't even use that often. Too many people overcomplicate things with expensive software they think will make them a better producer when really all you need to make 'banging tunes' is your daw, stock plugins and a couple of select freeware effects (jb limiter, dblue glitch, couple of monitoring plugins etc)

Moral of the story, if you split your attention between too many different things you won't master any of them.

amphibian · Post by **amphibian** » Sun Oct 10, 2010 10:46 pm

I tried using autofilter but only ever got a phase effect, even when I set phase to 0 or 360 =\ Just wasn't achieving the LFO -> cutoff that I'm used to.

I totally agree with your sentiment about having "too much". You're right in that it just complicates the process.

rubiconguava · Post by **rubiconguava** » Sun Oct 10, 2010 11:03 pm

Yeh i did pretty much the same thing, got ableton and started learning that, limiting myself to only their native plugins. It is a good way to learn exactly what does what and expand your understanding of the tools you have in your studio. Its not a bad thing to have many tools at your disposal, but i feel like i need to master them one at a time in order to progress properly.

paravrais · Post by **paravrais** » Sun Oct 10, 2010 11:20 pm

amphibian wrote:I tried using autofilter but only ever got a phase effect, even when I set phase to 0 or 360 =\ Just wasn't achieving the LFO -> cutoff that I'm used to.

I totally agree with your sentiment about having "too much". You're right in that it just complicates the process.

Will need to set it to the bandpass setting for it to work right if I remember correctly.

Basic A · Post by **Basic A** » Sun Oct 10, 2010 11:27 pm

Its pretty well known Im broke as... My rig? FL Studio (Only just bought this, demo n stems before...) Set of numark all in one CDJs, gonna be ripping this apart sometime soon to harvest the players and make sort of a hack-rack-mount set because the mixers going fucked after 6 years, had it comin though. Too broke for a fancy ass mixer but Ive schematic'd my own out at 200 bucks...

My monitors are the biggest joke, I took these sony "studio hifi" deals I had, used the boxes and one of the speakers from them (6 inch standard response range) then replaced the other one with 6 inch behringer "subs"... added a bit of tshirt fabric to the boxes to dim the hi end a bit, nailed em shut. Pair 2 of those with a 10" hifi woofer, I guess they sound total shit really but Ive trained my ears to them and they do sound pretty good for what there worth, we've small scale house partyed around them countless times, overamping them haha.

But yeah, fuck a bunch of kit, the best music comes off the cheapest stuff =/

amphibian · Post by **amphibian** » Sun Oct 10, 2010 11:48 pm

paravrais wrote:
amphibian wrote:I tried using autofilter but only ever got a phase effect, even when I set phase to 0 or 360 =\ Just wasn't achieving the LFO -> cutoff that I'm used to.

I totally agree with your sentiment about having "too much". You're right in that it just complicates the process.
Will need to set it to the bandpass setting for it to work right if I remember correctly.

yeah I did that - still sounds super phasey

hehe

Not that I'm complaining - as that effect has given me something by accident that I'm super happy with, but I want an LFO -> cutoff over the top

narcissus · Post by **narcissus** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 12:13 am

hmm, well you should be able to set phase (lower right corner..) to zero and it should do it's thang in mono..

glad to hear you are feeling more accoplished n happy with music.. it gets even better w/ time

Basic A · Post by **Basic A** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 12:26 am

amphibian wrote:
paravrais wrote:
amphibian wrote:I tried using autofilter but only ever got a phase effect, even when I set phase to 0 or 360 =\ Just wasn't achieving the LFO -> cutoff that I'm used to.

I totally agree with your sentiment about having "too much". You're right in that it just complicates the process.
Will need to set it to the bandpass setting for it to work right if I remember correctly.
yeah I did that - still sounds super phasey

hehe

Not that I'm complaining - as that effect has given me something by accident that I'm super happy with, but I want an LFO -> cutoff over the top

Is the resonance up?

amphibian · Post by **amphibian** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 12:38 am

Basic A - not sure, will have to have a look and check it out.

In any case, it sounds like I'm doing something wrong. Will figure it out

abZ · Post by **abZ** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 1:25 am

JFC Basic I am the king of broke, I am quite sure we can do better than that for damn near nothing. At least for monitors. I have a friend that gets all types of vintage audio I am sure he could pull you a set of 70s speakers that would kick the shit out of most of the new stuff out there these days. If you got an amp and can do with out trees for a week or so I can see what's up. Things won't get any easier being a young father.

abZ · Post by **abZ** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 1:30 am

amphibian wrote:hmmm... just figured out (lol) how to do the lfo. Simply resampled the bassline and imported it into a sampler, which has LFO capabilities. hehe

This is the way to go. It's the way I go. I feel more comfortable with a sampler than a synth for whatever reason. That said Ableton sampler is my instrument. So much packed into that little unit.

amphibian · Post by **amphibian** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 1:33 am

abZ wrote:
amphibian wrote:hmmm... just figured out (lol) how to do the lfo. Simply resampled the bassline and imported it into a sampler, which has LFO capabilities. hehe
This is the way to go. It's the way I go. I feel more comfortable with a sampler than a synth for whatever reason. That said Ableton sampler is my instrument. So much packed into that little unit.

As do I - as it gives you a greater level of control. However, I think it's good to have an LFO at-hand for ease-of-use when you want to see how something will sound/fit. I've really come to love ableton's sampler. It's super powerful, something the interface hides very well.

narcissus · Post by **narcissus** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 8:11 am

i've just gotten into sampler's multisampling capabilities.. lot easier then i expected! amazing shit

magnetron_sputtering · Post by **magnetron_sputtering** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 10:34 am

I'm pretty much using just the stuff ableton has and I still feel spoilt for choice. Most of my time these days is spent with Operator and Sampler. I'll make a sound in Operator, duplicate the track, fuck with it some more, duplicate it... and end up with a bunch of sounds that sound well together with a few surprises turning up. For automating stuff you can put everything into an instrument rack and map anything in there to one of the rack controls. Automate that then. I don't speak from experience but I do believe that if you know how your equipment works then you won't be inclined to amass tons of stuff you hardly use or sit looking at all your stuff wondering where to begin.

pandy · Post by **pandy** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 1:33 pm

^
It's so easy to get distracted from learning to use your equipment though. I've spent 6 months churning out shit when I should have been learning.

It's not what you have, it's how you use it

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