25 Jan 2012
by madeleinein Ableton Live Tutorials Tags: Ableton, Ableton Live, ASIO, audio, audio interface, audio setup, buffer size, driver, input, output, sample rate, sound card, tutorial, Windows
Let’s dive right in, shall we?
- If you have an audio interface check the manufacturer’s website for the latest ASIO driver (some offer none though) and possibly a control software. Download and install if available.
- If there’s no driver available or you want to use the built-in sound card of your computer, you need to install the ASIO4ALL driver from:
http://asio4all.com/
- Connect your audio interface to your PC (via USB or Firewire most likely) and to a power source if needed (most do). Then switch it on. Check the manual if there are any other setup steps necessary.
- Start Live and go to the Preferences > Audio. The shortcut for it is Ctrl + ,.
- Choose ASIO as the Driver Type. MME/DirectX is not suited for audio software and would give you high latencies.
- Choose either the ASIO4ALL v2 as the Audio Device or the one of your audio interface.
- If there’s Hardware Setup button, click on it. It will open the control panel of the driver. There you should be able to set your active input and output.
Click on the wrench icon on the bottom left to enable making changes. If the Sample Rate is greyed out in the Live Preferences, then you need to set it up in the control panel as well.
- Back in the Live Preferences you can activate the needed mono and/or stereo in- and outputs under Input and Output Config respectively.
- Choose the Sample Rate as needed. It’s not saved with the Live Set, but is set universally so beware if you tend to switch, e.g. between live and studio. You can set the Bit Depth in Preferences > Record/Warp/Launch.
- A Buffer Size of 512 seems to work for most. Or you can try to find a setting that gives you low latency without audio drop outs.
- Now you should be all set. If you’re using an audio interface, don’t forget to plug in headphones or connect it to speakers. If your audio interface is off, Live will show Audio Engine as off. You need to change it back manually in the Preferences after turning it back on. Happy noise making!
11 Jan 2012
by madeleinein Ableton Live Tutorials Tags: Ableton, Ableton Live, audio, audio interface, audio setup, buffer size, driver, input, mac, os x, output, sample rate, sound card, tutorial
If you simply want to use the built-in sound card, the process is pretty straight forward and you can skip the first two steps. If you have an audio interface, read on as there’s a little more to take care of.
- Check the manufacturer’s website for the latest driver (some offer none though) and possibly a control software. Download and install if available.
- Connect your audio interface to the Mac (via USB or Firewire most likely) and to a power source if needed (most do). Then switch it on. Check the manual if there are any other setup steps necessary.
- Start Live and go to the Preferences > Audio. The shortcut for it is Cmd + ,.
- Make sure Core Audio is chosen as the Driver Type.
- Choose either the built-in input or the one of your audio interface as Audio Input Device. You can also choose the built-in microphone, but then do yourself the favour and use headphones. Otherwise arming a track will greet you with some nasty feedback.
- Choose the built-in output or the one of your audio interface as Audio Output Device.
- You can activate the needed mono and/or stereo in- and outputs under Input and Output Config respectively.
- Choose the Sample Rate as needed. It’s not saved with the Live Set, but is set universally so beware if you tend to switch, e.g. between live and studio. You can set the Bit Depth in Preferences > Record/Warp/Launch.
- A Buffer Size of 512 seems to work for most. Or you can try to find a setting that gives you low latency without audio drop outs.
- Now you should be all set. If you’re using an audio interface, don’t forget to plug in headphones or connect it to speakers.
One last tip: If your audio interface is off, Live will default to No Device as Audio Input Device and Built-In Output as Output Device. You need to change it back manually in the Preferences.
30 Dec 2011
by madeleinein Ableton Live Tutorials Tags: Ableton, Ableton Live, control surface, drum pad, instant mapping, keyboard, live, MIDI, MIDI controller, MIDI mapping, MIDI remote script, remote script, tutorial
Before you can start having fun with your MIDI controller, it needs to be configured in Live – this goes for MIDI keyboards and all sorts of other controllers sending MIDI data. If you bought a MIDI controller that is supposed to be plug and play… well, you still need to set it up in Live. Plug and play only means that you don’t need to install any drivers for it.
So here’s how to set it up:
- Check if there are any drivers available at the manufacturer’s website of your MIDI controller. If so, download and install them first. If it said plug and play on the packaging, you shouldn’t have to.
- Connect the controller to your computer. Most controllers use USB connections these days, so plug in the cable on both ends. Don’t connect it through an unpowered USB hub (this might really mess up the MIDI data stream), but either a self-powered hub or directly to the USB port of your computer. Some controllers need to be connected to a power source and turned on.
- Older controllers only use MIDI ports, some offer both options. If you want to send MIDI to and fro, make sure you connect MIDI input and output of your device to the MIDI output and input of either a MIDI interface or an audio interface with those connections available.
- Now open Live and go to the Live Preferences > MIDI/Sync
(Cmd + , on a Mac; Ctrl + , on Windows computers).
- Control Surfaces are available for the most commonly used MIDI controllers. If this is the case for your controller (List of all available Control Surfaces in Live 8 ), choose the Control Surface for it as well its Input and Output. This will enable instant mapping. If it’s a keyboard, also turn on Track for its Input under MIDI Ports. If Input and Output are shown in reddish, Live cannot detect the device (unplugged, off, broken driver).
Control Surfaces
- If there’s no Control Surface available for your controller, ignore the upper part in the MIDI/Sync tab. You’ll have to set it up under MIDI Ports instead. Don’t despair though, it’s not rocket science!
MIDI Ports
- To use your controller to play notes (i.e. keyboard, drum pads), enable the Track button for the device’s input.
- To use your controller to adjust device parameters, enable its input’s Remote button.
- If it sends visual or physical feedback, the Remote button of its output needs to be turned on as well.
- Controllers without a Control Surface for which you’ve enabled the Remote button, need manual mappings to be used.
- Turn on MIDI mapping by clicking on the MIDI button in the upper right hand corner of Live or choose Cmd + M (Mac) or Ctrl + M (Windows).
- Everything that’s mappable will now be displayed in blue.
MIDI Mapping Mode
- Click on the parameter you want to control, then move the knob/fader or hit the key/pad on your device you want to control it with.
MIDI mapped parameter
- Repeat the steps with whatever else you want to map. In the Browser (left) you will see the MIDI mappings you made. You can set the Min and Max for the parameter if available.
MIDI Mapping Browser
- Once finished, click on the MIDI button again.
- You can also manually map controllers that do offer a Control Surface. Then simply set them up as if there was no Control Surface available and map the controls as desired.
Quick tip:
Quite a few nifty users have written their own MIDI remote scripts (a.k.a. Control Surface) for various MIDI controllers. Do a Google search for: *name of the MIDI controller* MIDI remote script. This might save you a lot of time doing manual mappings. Of course, if you know Python or are willing to learn it, you could write your own scripts. The following blog is dedicated to this subject:
http://remotescripts.blogspot.com/
Happy MIDI controlling in Live! And of course, if you have feedback or questions, leave me a comment further down.
20 Dec 2011
by madeleinein In the Studio, ramblings Tags: Ableton, Ableton Live, album, array mbira, bass, deadline, ep, glass harp, instruments, kalimba, metallophone, minimoog, new songs, piano, recording, songs, studio recording, uke, ukulele, video, videos, webcast, work in progress
I’m sitting on my couch, listening to the state of the songs I have so far. This is the second attempt at writing a catch up post, but the last was swallowed by WordPress for iOs. Again. Anyway…
As the year nears its end, I feel like it’s time to take stock, look and listen back of where I got this year. I didn’t quite get as far as I wanted, but I love the new songs. Moving into a new place has been part of that, but it’s taken up some time as well. Right now I have 8 songs in various stages: ‘Audacity’, ‘Live & Learn’, ‘Too Soon’, ‘In Time’ and ‘Patchwork’ more or less roughly mixed, ‘Together’ and ‘Afterglow’ as rough demos and last, but not least ‘Aurelia’ somewhere in between. So about halfway there. Not too shabby!
Compared to ‘Minutia’ there are more live instruments on the new songs that give it a sort of live feel. I got more instruments since finishing the last album and my boyfriend, whose studio is next to mine, has even more. Working in tech support at Ableton has me staring at Live without making music. This made me crave the tactile feel of tines, strings, keys and so on. As an act of deviance against all the MIDI, editing and goggling the screen, I guess.
In the last few days I’ve made a list of all the things that need to be done before a release besides the music. I had set a deadline for mid February ages ago, but it’s dawned on me that it has become pretty much impossible or I’d have to rush things too much. So I’ve decided to instead release an EP in mid May and the album in late August or so. This way the wait is not too long. Sound good?
Webcast
If you want to have a listen to the progress on the songs of my sophomore album… I’m doing a fortnightly webcast and the previous videos are available to watch. Wanna hear the songs emerge? Or watch live from now on? The next one is on New Year’s Day at 9 pm CET, then Sunday every other week.
Bass, Minimoog, mbira, glass harp, kalimba, metallophone, tom
12 Dec 2011
by madeleinein Ableton Live Tutorials Tags: Ableton Live, audio, files, live set, locate, missing samples, save, tutorial
Ever seen this?
When you make music you want to be sure that none of your audio samples are missing. Ableton Live – just as other DAWs – only references those audio files which means they are not included in the als-file of the Live Set, but only linked. If you add samples from a USB stick or elsewhere on your hard drive, Live will only save the information of the file path into your Live Set. So if you delete, rename or move those files or unplug the USB stick you’ll get the following message at the bottom of Live:
This tutorial shows how to avoid the ‘Media files are missing’ message and how to locate missing samples:
- It’s best if you create a dedicated folder in which you want to save all your own musical work, e.g. ‘My own songs’.
- When saving a new song/track for the first time, make sure you choose ‘My own songs’ as the location and not another Live Project folder or even worse, the Live Library. Live will show you the project folder of the last Live Set you had saved so you’ll have to browse to ‘My own songs’.
- Choose ‘Collect All and Save’ from the File Menu.
A pop-up window opens and you can choose which files should be copied into the Samples folder of your Live Project. Generally you don’t need to copy content from the Library unless you used clips you had saved there before yourself.
Do this whenever you have added audio files from elsewhere. When recording audio within Live, the files will automatically be saved in the Samples folder of your Live Project.
Now let’s say you are collaborating on a song with a friend and therefor want to give him/her the Live Set to work on. All you need to do is copy the whole Live Project folder and give it to your mate. Since the Samples folder is contained in it, he/she will have no trouble with missing samples.
So what if you already have a Live Set displaying ‘Media files are missing?’
- Load the Live Set and click on the message shown at the bottom of Live. This will open the File Manager in a panel on the right.
- You can try the Automatic Search. Live might already be able to locate and replace the files automatically.
- You can also choose a custom folder if you already know where the files are located. Click on the little triangle left of Automatic Search. Now click on Set Folder and browse to the files’ location. Activate Search Folder and click on Go. Also choose this option if you get no results with the Automatic Search.
- Unless the files were deleted, renamed or are on a different hard or flash drive, Live should turn up results and even replace the missing files.
- If more than one candidate was found you’ll have to tell Live which one to use. Click on the little question mark next to the missing file.
- This will open the Hot-Swap Mode in the Live Browser on the left. You can prelisten and choose the correct file.
- Once all missing files are located, use the ‘Save Live Set As…’ command from the File menu to save the Set to a new location that is not in an existing Project or the Library. This will create a new Live Project folder for the Set.
- Choose ‘Collect All and Save’ from the File menu to copy the audio files used by the Live Set into the new Project folder.
Not so difficult once you know how it works, is it? Do you have questions or suggestions? Just leave me a comment where it say X Comments right under the date for this post.
Previous Older Entries
