18 Apr 2012
by madeleinein Ableton Live Tutorials Tags: Ableton, Ableton Live, create, default, Template Set, tutorial
Did you know that you can create your own Template Set that will be opened whenever you start Live?
This can be very useful if you tend to use the same MIDI instruments and effects when trying out new ideas. Then you’d just have to open Live and start getting your ideas or recordings down without further delay. Or maybe you use Live to practise piano on your MIDI keyboard. Or always want to do 8 track audio recordings.
- Add the amount of audio and MIDI tracks you need. Add the Input and Output routings as desired.
- Add your preferred MIDI instrument presets, MIDI and audio effects to your tracks.
- Create manual MIDI mappings or computer Key mappings that you tend to use over and over.
- Once you’ve created the Live Set to your liking, open the Preferences > File/Folder. The shortcut for it is Ctrl + , (Windows) or Cmd + , (Mac). Click on the ‘Save Current Set as Default’ button to save the current Live Set as the default Template.
- If you no longer want to use your own Template Set, hold down the SHIFT key while choosing ‘New Live Set’ from the File menu. This will create a new empty Live Set. Then click on ‘Save Current Set as Default’ in the Preferences > File/Folder once again.
- By the way, if Live always mysteriously opens with an old Set of yours, you can use the above described method to revert back to an empty Set as well.
Let me know if you have any questions, suggestions or other comments.
15 Apr 2012
by madeleinein ramblings Tags: album, CD, ep, making of, music, plans, release, songwriting, vblogs, videos, vinyl, youtube
I meant to write this already a couple of days ago, but we’ve had visitors almost non stop and I simply didn’t get around to it. First my boyfriend’s 4-year-old niece and parents were here, then my extremely hyper 7-year-old nephew stayed with me until yesterday. He jammed on various instruments in our place. Everything with keys was his thing. My boyfriend’s niece was also very impressed with all the musical gadgets. She liked my ukulele best and my little niece discovered snare and drumsticks and had tons of fun banging on them yesterday. Now with everyone gone it’s oddly quiet again. Time to get some work done!
My little niece happily making noise
It turns out, the good thing about being sick is that it invites you to become introspective, retrospective and thus gain perspective. Generally there’s so much going on all the time, all I can do is try to keep up. While I was sick I finally had time to process everything that’s been going on and come up with new ideas and plans. In the last weeks I’ve been formulating and outlining them to actually make them happen.
#1 Releases
I’ve decided to release a first EP in early autumn, another one probably in early 2013, followed by a full album also available on CD and maybe even vinyl.
#2 Videos
I already have video footage of recording the new songs, but then I felt more exhausted each week until I finally got sick. By now it’s a bit late for this footage to go into vblogs. So instead I will make a video for each of these songs explaining and showing how they came about. On top of this I will also record vblogs once I get back into writing and producing. The first video will be up on YouTube on April 27 and then one every two weeks. Not just ‘Making of’ videos, but others as well. What exactly will be revealed in a little while…
#3 Getting organised
Why only at the end of April you might ask. Well, to avoid promising something and not being able to deliver in time. I’m busy preparing things to make sure it will all work out timewise. Working off lists, testing things out, getting back into the swing of it. Additionally, I’ll be writing more blog posts as well.
#4 Most importantly: music
Before I got sick, I felt more and more insecure about the new songs I had written. It was as if I was looking through a pinhole that became increasingly smaller. After not listening to the songs for weeks I feel very excited about them again. Right now, 7 songs only need some final tweakings to make them sound just right. No. 8, ‘Together’ needs some more work. I feel like you can hear the exhaustion in it and I need to remedy that. So before diving into writing yet more new songs I will finish the first 8 to make them shine. The plan is to have them done by the end of May so there’s also time for the fortnightly videos. Then, with summer and hopefully sunny weather approaching, I will take pen, paper and small instruments with me to the park to get inspired.
That’s it for now. Until very soon!
x,
Mads
04 Apr 2012
by madeleinein Ableton Live Tutorials Tags: 32-bit, Ableton, Ableton Live, AU, Audio Unit, plug-in, Preferences, tutorial, VST
If you want to use plug-ins in Live, they need to be set up first whether it’s VSTs or Audio Units (Mac only).
- First they need to be installed correctly. If they’re new(ish) plug-ins, make sure you’ve installed the 32-bit version as Live still runs in 32-bit and cannot detect 64-bit plug-ins. Always check the manufacturer’s website for the most current version as this will help avoid crashes.
- Now start Live and go to the Preferences > File/Folder.
- Turn on ‘Use VST Plug-In System Folders’ if the VSTs are installed in the default location as indicated by the plug-in installer.
- ‘Use VST Plug-In Custom Folder’ if you have installed all or some of the VST plug-ins in a dedicated folder of your own choice, i.e. ‘VST Plug-ins’. Click on the Browse button and navigate to this specific folder. Don’t set it to a big folder, partition or hard drive as this will crash Live.
- On a Mac you can also use Audio Units. Turn on ‘Use Audio Units’ for this.
- You can hit Rescan.
- Now you should see all your plug-ins in the Plug-In Device Browser. You can simply drag and drop them into tracks just like Live’s own devices.
31 Mar 2012
by madeleinein ramblings Tags: ep, Getting Things Done, GTD, music, recording studio
First of all, sorry for being absent everywhere for so long. This was not my intention, but I’ve been going through a string of illnesses and felt it necessary to concentrate on getting better and reflect. Thus, I stayed away from all social media.
As I’m writing this, I’m still recovering from the latest yet unexplained illness. At first I got a very painful intestinal infection, then just as I felt better a common cold which ended in constant vertigo which I still have. So far the doctors haven’t found an explanation. All they know is that my sense of balance on the right side had gone, now it’s better there, but the left side got worse. At least I’m not so dizzy anymore that I walk like the most drunken sailor and I’m no longer nauseous all the time. Thankfully, my hearing is not affected. I still have to take antibiotics and cortisol though.
The week I was in the most pain, my dad had surgery and my grandma died. All this combined really shocked me to the core and made me think about health and life in general. I decided to live extremely healthy, to step it up a few notches (not that I had lived very unhealthily before). I’m eating mostly alkaline foods now (lots of veggies and seeds, no meat, sugar or dairy). I also started doing some light yoga and will integrate it into my daily routine. Once I’m cleared I’ll also go swimming and jogging again. Do everything I can to avoid getting so ill again.
When I first got sick I read Getting Things Done and Making It All Work by David Allen. I have since then started adopting GTD and am making a habit out of it. To make sure nothing slips through the cracks, while working on a relaxed schedule and still getting things done. I think I’ll blog about this some more in a little while as it seems a very useful approach in these hectic times we all live in.
On a positive note, I’ve listened to the rough mixes for the upcoming EP and apart from a few small details I’m very happy with the result. I had planned a late spring release for it… but now it’ll be out in late summer, early autumn. I’m sure you’ll understand that health has to come first and I promise it’ll be worth the wait. I’ve had lots of time to think and I have some really nice ideas that will ease the wait. More about this in time.
Keep your fingers (and possibly also toes) crossed for me that I’ll be back in good shape in no time.
x,
Mads
21 Mar 2012
by madeleinein Ableton Live Tutorials Tags: Ableton, Ableton Live, Arrangement View, audio, bit depth, dither, export, sample rate, Session View, tutorial
In Ableton Live you have Session and Arrangement View from which you can export audio. This can be quite confusing at first and if you don’t understand how it’s done you might end up with rendered silence or too short audio files. So here’s the jist of it.
Exporting from Arrangement View:
- Most often you want to export the whole song you’ve created or its individual tracks. To do this, you need to have it recorded into Arrangement View first. If you don’t know how, here’s the tutorial for it.
- Drag the Loop Start and Loop End so the Loop covers the whole length of the song to be exported. Make sure the Loop is selected.
- Make sure that no tracks are muted that you want to include and no tracks are soloed, because what you hear is what will be exported. You can listen to the song once more to ensure it’s all good.
- Choose ‘Export Audio/Video’ from the File Menu or use the shortcut SHIFT + Ctrl + R (Windows) or SHIFT + Cmd + R (Mac). This will open the Export dialog.
- Choose your preferred rendering options (details below), then click OK.
- You can now choose the location to which the audio file(s) will be saved. Click Save and rendering process will start.
Exporting from Session View:
- When exporting Session View clips, only clips with activated clip launch buttons are rendered. So make sure that all clips you want to export are launched first.
- Choose ‘Export Audio/Video’ from the File Menu or use the shortcut SHIFT + Ctrl + R (Windows) or SHIFT + Cmd + R (Mac). This will open the Export dialog.
- When exporting from Session View you need to enter the desired Length in bars, beats and 16th.
- Choose your preferred rendering options (details below), then click OK.
- You can now choose the location to which the audio file(s) will be saved. Click Save and rendering process will start.
Audio Rendering Options:
- ‘Rendered Track’ options:
- If you want to export the mixdown of the song, choose Master.
- ‘All Tracks’ will render all individual tracks to separate audio files. That includes all MIDI and audio tracks as well as return tracks.
- Or you can choose a specific individual track. You can easily find the one you want since the track numbers and names are listed.
- All options will render the post-fader signals including insert effects.
Turn on Normalize if you want the file to be rendered with maximum volume.
‘Render as Loop’ lets you render the file as a loop including any effect tails.
You have the choice between Wav (Windows format) and Aiff (Mac format) under ‘File Type’. It doesn’t make a difference anymore which one you choose since these days both formats can be read on Windows and Mac.
‘Convert to Mono’ will render the file in mono. Live handles everything in stereo. This option is useful if you want mono files to be used in a different audio software or want to include mono files in your Live Set to keep it small.
‘Sample Rate’: To burn in to an audio CD, choose 44100. For mastering choose the ‘Sample Rate’ you had used throughout your production.
‘Bit Depth’: To burn in to an audio CD, choose 16. For mastering choose the ‘Bit Depth’ you had used in your Live Set.
Dither: Dithering introduces small noise, but helps avoid artifacts when reducing the bit depth. Live handles audio internally in 32-bit. Dithering should only be done at the end when you won’t export the file again. This is generally after mastering the track or when you want to burn it on CD. If you choose to not export in 32-bit and want to keep working with the audio file, Triangular is the safest mode. Rectangular adds less noise, but can add artifacts once the audio file is processed further. The 3 POW-r options introduce even less noise pushed above the audible range. These should never be used when processing audio further.
‘Create Analysis File’: Turn it on if you want to import the rendered file back into a Live Set.
Do you have any questions or comments? Let me know.
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