AbletonTweets - The Blog

Our Permanent Follow Friday

Hey everybody, we’ve done a lot of follow friday posts over the weeks and months, but this week I thought we’d do something a bit different. Here is our FollowMonTuesWedsThursFriSatSun post. In other words, these are the accounts and people that are the most influential Live users on Twitter. While I still think that AbletonTweets is the best resource for Live tips, sometimes it’s best to be directly exposed to the people who make music with it.

These are listed in no completely specific order. In the future I might rank them…

•    AbletonTweets
•    AbletonInc
•    AbletonVids
•    AbletonTutor
•    Binaryally
•    Sugarpill
•    MarkMosher
•    Sound_Designer
•    StevenE
•    TogeoStudios
•    CDMBlogs

Whether you’re new to Live or a veteran, following these people will certainly expose you to some best practices while using the software. We will be updating and changing this list every Thursday.


*thanks to http://twitterbiz.co.uk for the image.

Clipping = Stop!

RT @djolmec This just in: Ableton effects amplify your sound ALOT even when on 0% dry/wet…Jus’ say no to clipping/turn ‘em off kids!

AbletonTweets tip:
You can set macro knobs to turn effects on and off! Just program the macro to use the on/off button of the bank you want to control, then set the “on” value to be 1-127, leaving the ‘0’ value of the knob to turn the bank off.

Edit:

Careful with turning effects on/off, you can get some pretty nasty audible clicks in some cases. (via @LeDids)

The above tip should be tested in a non-performance environment with any new instance. Don’t get caught making another click to avoid the clipping click!

Why Midi Sync over IP may not be a good idea

It seems as though there may be better ideas for syncing multiple computers running Ableton Live. It was several weeks ago that we posted a guide on syncing Live and suggested an ethernet connection to each computer running into a router. It turns out that this method is not only laggy, it is crashing Live for some.

Last week I got an email from Justin “Boreta” - Glitch Mob member and producer out of California. Justin uses a very similar setup to mine, making this especially interesting. He, along with Ooah and edIT use (or used) three laptops and three Lemurs all running into a single ethernet switch. Until now, this seemed to be the best and most reliable method as far as syncing is concerned.

From: Justin Boreta

To: Steven Eckelberry <steven.eckelberry@gmail.com>

Hey man,    


Any version before Live 8 had never once crashed on me. So what happened the first time at DEMF is it crashed, I restarted my computer, and sometime during the reboot cycle my computer hopped on the network and then it threw the other computers out of sync. The next night it was fine, then opening for the Prodigy it did this again. So now we are moving to using a MOTU MTP to see what happens. If Ableton stops crashing, I will assume that it was something with the network syncing that was causing the problems. At the very least I need to know that restarting my computer won’t break the MIDI clock for everyone else.

Cheers,
Justin

We emailed back and forth and decided that it was prudent to escalate this to someone at Ableton. A few days later, he got a response.

From: Ableton Inc

To: Justin Boreta

Boreta: Is ethernet MIDI sync known to be unreliable?

Ableton: Midi sync over tcp/ip is a bit problematic in general as it is a package based protocol and not a realtime protocol. You should use [something like the MOTU] to be sure. [This] would be exactly the midi interface I would have suggested if you would have asked me for a good one…

Boreta: Are there any other hints about MIDI syncing in general we should know about?

Ableton: We tested a lot of drivers and the MOTU midi drivers are the best. Watch the cpu usage in the OS X activity monitor as Live only shows the percentage for the audio engine - but not for other tasks. Priority is on the audio, if the cpu is maxed out, sync will suffer first.

So - It looks like the MOTU MTP seems to be the best option for sync - if you don’t mind dropping $500 on it. @reply AbletonTweets with your experiences.

Note: The emails above have been condensed and abridged. For the full emails in context, please get in touch with @stevene on Twitter or email Steven.Eckelberry@gmail.com.

Stuff in Live You Wished You Figured Out a Long Time Ago

From the depths of the Ableton Forums comes this brilliant list. (Post last updated Feb 22, 2008 - no guarantees that all of these are still applicable.)

[PC users substitute ‘COMMAND’ with ‘ALT’ and ‘ALT’ with ‘CTRL’]

Live shortcuts & alternative controls for certain functions.

• Duplicate = COMMAND+D.
• Disable Grid = COMMAND+4 (or hold COMMAND whilst selecting note or note start/end).
• Select Looped = COMMAND+SHIFT+L.
• Resize/Move Loop braces = cursor keys or COMMAND+cursor keys.
• In arrange view loop selected = COMMAND+L.
• In arrange view consolidate multiple selected clips = COMMAND+J.
• Playback from current position = SHIFT+SPACEBAR.
• Trigger selected clip slot = RETURN.
• Switch Clip/Track view = SHIFT+TAB.
• Move clip from session to arrange & vica versa = Click and hold on clip then press TAB.
• Stop focus moving when triggering clips (all clips) = In prefs > Record/Warp/Launch > Select on Launch > select ‘off’.
• Stop focus moving when triggering clips (selected clips) = CTRL+Click desired clip > select ‘Select on Launch (Pref)’.
• Preferences = COMMAND+,.
• Adjust all track widths = hold ALT while adjusting.
• Record Enable Track = F9.
• Slower response while changing track levels = Hold COMMAND while moving fader.
• Show hide plugin windows = COMMAND+ALT+P.
• Stop browser preview = ESC.
• In browser alternate navigation/previewing = left & right cursor keys.
• Zoom to loop = Click on the word “length”.
• Zoom to position = Click on the word “position”.
• Zoom out 100% = Double click the bottom clip overview tab.
• Zoom to specific portion = Use start and end of bottom clip overview like loop braces.
• Alternate scrolling in MIDI clips = COMMAND+ALT+Drag.
• Show/Hide overview in session view = COMMAND+ALT+O.
• Show/Hide Info View = SHIFT+/.
• Mute/Unmute tracks 1-8 = F1-F8.
• Time compress/expand MIDI notes = right-click with all notes selected then select ’stretch notes’.
• Insert silence in arrange view/scene in session view = COMMAND+I.
• Drag multiple files to individual tracks = Hold COMMAND whilst dragging files in.
• Unfold all arrange tracks = ALT+Click a track arrow icon.
• Alternative velocity control in MIDI editor = COMMAND+Click note+drag.
• Duplicate note in MIDI editor = ALT+Click note+drag.
• Render tracks as individual files = In render dialog change “Master” to “All Tracks”.
• Assign twice as many qwerty keys to Live = SHIFT.
• Restrict automation point movement to vertical axis = COMMAND+Drag.
• Scroll drum racks 1 row at a time = COMMAND+Drag.
• View multiple plugin windows = In prefs > Look/Feel > Auto-Hide Plugin Windows > select ‘off’.
• Edit info text for tracks and devices to make notes = CTRL+Click > select ‘Edit Info Text’.
• Create note with draw mode off = Double Click.
• Remove stop buttons to avoid clips stopping when changing scenes = Select clip slot > COMMAND+E (or enable ‘Legato’ launch mode).

General Tips

• Hidden buttons visible when in midi or key assign mode: scene up/down (in master track), per track play button - launches selected clip in track.
• Entering bpm in the scene launch buttons title sets bpm when launched.
• Click the headphone icon in midi editor to enable vertical keyboard to preview related sound.
• While MIDI synced to external machine hosting Live ALT+SPACEBAR on the sync slave causes it to sync to the masters current song position. (remedy for sync drifting without stopping and starting).
• Remember to experiment with the default live rack presets especially the DJ/Performance ones.
• GIGA libraries can be exported to Sampler then deleted (if required), as all samples are copied to the library.
• Mac users check out a free app called Soundsource. It adds an audio prefs selector to the menu-bar.
• OSX Function keys = ALT+F1/F2 opens Display Prefs, ALT+F3/F4/F5 opens Sound Prefs, ALT+F8/F9/F10 opens Keyboard & Mouse Prefs.
• When a new version of Live is released. Open Info Window (SHIFT+/) and hover any new parameters, fields or preferences.
• Multiple tracks can be selected and frozen simultaneously.
• Drag and drop tracks directly from iTunes for DJing.
• Dragging a sample onto a plugin instrument will replace the instrument with an instance of Simpler containing that sample.

It’s official, as of May 14th: Pluggo is dead, as Cycling ‘74 throw their weight into Ableton Live, and migrate their plug-in technology to the forthcoming Max for Live technology to be shipped later this year.

Peter Kirn has already blogged in some detail about what this might mean for the custom plugin ecosystem. Certainly, from a read of the official Cycling ‘74 forums, there has been a fair amount of hostility, partly (and justifiably) from users who have invested time and effort into other DAWs, partly (somewhat less justifiably) from those who regard Ableton Live as some kind of toy production environment for producing DJ loops.

Of most interest is criticisms that Live doesn’t provide feature X, Y or Z that some other sequencer does. True, but in the longer term this ignores one of the two design aims of Max for Live: it is not only an environment for creating instruments and effects within Live, it is also a sophisticated system to allow Live to be controlled and reconfigured programmatically. Pluggo was sandboxed into the restrictive enclosures of VST, AU and RTAS - this alone created huge technical hurdles that Cycling ‘74 decided were not worth overcoming - but Max for Live will be much more tightly integrated into Live as a whole, opening the prospect of Max-driven scripting and configuration of Live itself. (And within Max, this can then mean Java, Javascript, Python or Ruby.) Want a new feature? Here’s a bit of Max code which adjusts and reprograms a bit of Live to do what you need.

We are somewhat in the realm of speculation here, and it’s been made clear that delivery of the Live scripting side of Max for Live is of lower priority than the Pluggo-style hosting, but I’m choosing to be optimistic. There are two readings of the title in www.ableton.com/extend - new plugins for Live, and new methods for extending the features and behaviour of Live itself. Let’s wait and see what happens.

Call for Editors!

Hey everyone -

AbletonTweets is growing at about 50 followers per day and we need bloggers and Tweeters to keep the content flowing. If you feel that you are creative and experienced with Live and can write in a coherent manner, we want to hear from you. We are the best source for Ableton Live tips and tricks, and want to get some fresh ideas and creative uses of the software.

There will be two categories of editors:

Twitter Guru: A twitter guru is someone who posts meaningful or relevant tweets. This means that you don’t like to write long posts and like things like keyboard shortcuts, breaking news, etc.

Blogger: Bloggers are in short supply and are needed more than anyone else. Bloggers find interesting content that is relevant throughout the internet and post it on the Tumblr Blog at www.abletontweets.com. Bloggers are more interested in the detail and get a shiny link to the site of their choosing at the bottom of the blog.

Applications: If one of these sounds interesting to you, let us know! To apply, fill out the following and email it to abletontweets@gmail.com. We know, applications suck so this is pretty easy…

Name:
Current Twitter Username:
Position:
Why do you love Live?:
How do you use Live?:

Update 1: Yes, you can apply for both!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email abletontweets@gmail.com.