Ableton Live 8 Help

Partcik

Hey Guys,

First post so be gentle

I'm a complete n00b at ableton only been using it for a week or so but i'm starting to get a grip of it, I've basically only been using to trigger samples and stuff like that but, there's one thing that's really frustrating me and i can't seem to get the hang of it.

What i'm trying to do is assign the pads of an Akai Mpd32 (16 pads in a square) into a grid to control a wobble bass. so for example:

The top row(first four pads) will be the note E and then the first pad would sweep the filter 1/8th of the time the second would sweep the filter 1/12th of the time, third one out of 1/16 and so on.

Then the next row it would be the note A and the other pads would do the same as the first row(same note different filter sweep rate)

What I'm trying to say is that horizontally each pad would trigger the same note but vertically the rows would trigger a different filter sweep rate. I hope that makes sense /=

If anyone could help me out I'd be super grateful .

thanks ,

Partcik

Neurojazz

Just had a quick look over this and i'm not sure the pads can be assigned in that way easily.

Someone may come up with a better solution, but the only way i can see to set up the filters like that would be to make the presets for the different filtered levels and see if you can change the presets via a program change from the pads... You'd probably even get 'clicking' as these were changed... so probably rubbish.

Another way might to simply apply a velocity sensitive filter to a pad below... so dependent on how hard you hit it will set the level.

You could also set the pads (this does work) to mute/unmute different filter units - but does mean they'd be latching so you'd have to turn one off after finishing with it.

If you dig hard enough in the help manual you'll probably find 30 other ways of doing it.

Partcik

thanks for the ideas

well i found the way to trigger notes on the mpd i had to go through it's menu rather than the ableton menu however i'm sure there must be an easier way to do this cause it's rather long winded and I'm not sure if this works properly yet.

thinking about this logically I'm thinking the easiest way to do this would to have 4 "keyboards" each with a different velocity speed on the filter rate.give mpd pads the same notes but different midi numbers and after this bit i get stuck and i'm not sure what to do next. Maybe that will nudge some of you more expierienced guys along a bit on the right track

It'd be easier to explain using a keyboard I guess, say if i wanted to assign notes to a keyboard but I didn't want them to be the actual notes so say if i pressed D3 on a keyboard could I make it so the midi message sent actually triggers E4? if you could answer that then I could probably figure out the rest myself i think.

again any help at all would be appreciated

Neurojazz

The problem revolves around what midi messages are sent.

you get 'note on', 'note off' etc... but your asking ableton to expect 'filter value at 50' and 'filter value at 75' etc... the midi device won't send that information in a static way so you'll have to look at ableton and ways to do this.

You could (with time) sample each bass note you want, filter it how you want into an individual sampler and trigger each one of those with your pads... this would give you a way of jamming with it, but not as you'd like.

If i had the same problem in front of me i'd probably just enable/disable filter units via the pads over the notes i want... or even better just program it in and move on to other problems

Partcik

aha! now that could work, if I preprogram the notes I want to play or sample them or what ever and then just control the speed on each note ;p. Thanks a bunch but how would I go about that controlling the filter rate as in the edit mode there's only one filter availible in the simpler device so how could I switch between them?

Neurojazz

Partcik wrote: »

aha! now that could work, if I preprogram the notes I want to play or sample them or what ever and then just control the speed on each note ;p. Thanks a bunch but how would I go about that controlling the filter rate as in the edit mode there's only one filter availible in the simpler device so how could I switch between them?

Why not... have a sampler for each pad, for each note you need, with each filter setting required?

Will look into midi sysex and see if it's possible to change the filter preset - but i doubt it!

Partcik

another way i could do it is just have the pads assigned to notes i guess and control the filter rate 1/8 -> 1/32 with a knob but that wouldn't work half as well as the original idea.

As i stated at the start this whole Abelton is really large and confusing and previously the only expierience I had with electronic music production was the Korg EMX.

I'm not sure if i was doing it right but i was trying to trigger the samples with that impulse device but the decay was much too quick, I'm assuming that this device is used mostly for drums or one shots or something?

I'd try and do it with samples but Im not really sure in what direction to take like do you mean I should prerecord each sample playing through simpler and then take that like an audio track and assign it to a pad?How would I make so that only one piece of audio is playing at a time so pressing a pad would cancel the other pads with a similar function so that there's only one bass sound playing at a time?

Sorry if I'm taking up too much time with this /=

Neurojazz

The 'short' or 'gated' samples would be down to a low release value on the ableton instrument (Check out A D S R [R being the release)

I'd hit the manual and start learning some of the basics that will get you through - it's a deep application, but very friendly - so stick with it and just try to do simple things and move on from there.

If you hit an instrument/effect that you don't understand, then read the manual until *everything* makes sense - or it never will, so would be wise to go through each one in ableton until you've nailed them all (they do all share some common ground and will get easier as you go along)

ADSR stands for Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release and are used for shaping the volume envelope of sounds - the (R) will determine how long a sound plays back when the key is released.