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What you are trying to achieve is not a trivial task. If you want a good master it'll take more than some tips. I'll try to do some quick observations on some possibilities. There's nothing specific to Ableton Live, because there's nothing exclusive to Ableton Live in this subject.
You want more loudness in your track. As you might know we can't just turn ...
15
Drums have pitches, but by the time they are in the track, then unless it is for very specific purposes, to complement a melodic line etc, then those actual pitches should not be truly apparent to the end-listener.
Let the listener just get the 'vibe' of what you intend.
They shouldn't really be hearing a 'tune' from the drum pitches, only the apparent ...
13
The most important difference between passive and active DIs is that the latter have a much higher input impedance: usually something like 200 kΩ, whereas a passive DI "inherits" the low impedance of the mic input you're feeding (around 2kΩ), or transforms it up a bit to something in the 20 kΩ range. That makes hardly a difference for instruments with low ...
11
A DI ("Direct Input") box converts a signal on an unbalanced lead into a signal on a balanced lead (that is, usually a lead with XLR connectors).
The advantage of a balanced lead, of course, is that you can run it for long distances without hearing interference.
With a passive DI, the signal on the XLR lead is at the same level as the input signal. So, if ...
7
If you are making music as an artist, you may pitch the drums however you feel compliments the rest of the sound. Don't be afraid to pitch them down or up even a whole octave to get some weird effects...
Here are a few tricks I use on drums to experiment with the pitch:
Pitch layering - Often times I will clone a drum or even a whole kit, then pitch adjust ...
7
If it is in your price range (about 130 euros for the cheapest "stage" version) consider Pianoteq.
All the versions have the same basic sounds, the difference is the amount of customization you can do (and at the top end, that means about 30 parameters you can change separately for each of the 88 notes!). You can select two "piano packs" with the cheapest ...
6
Nevermind guys, I figured it out.
So basically Ableton has a feature where you can map tasks like arming or disarming a track onto a MIDI event (CTRL+M). But it needs to receive that event from an external source. So I set up a dummy track containing the MIDI events that would trigger the required action at the right time.
Now all I had to do was figure ...
6
I've sometimes used Addictive Keys Studio Grand. It has a jangly 'pub piano' preset you might like. Also an 'aged strings' one, and others, with the mikes in a variety of arrangements. The presets are radically different from each other. There are about 35 of them and they're very easy and enjoyable to edit. They also do a 'Modern Upright' which might suit ...
5
You can use ReWire to essentially turn the basic version of Ableton Live into a plug-in that runs inside Logic. This is a very common way to use Live inside Logic or Pro Tools. Typically it is done for exactly the reason you describe: to add the Session View to an existing studio.
If you have Logic, you don’t need Live Suite, because you already have “Logic ...
4
Right click the audio passage -> convert -> convert to new sampler track. You can also go to the audio menu and select convert to new sampler track directly.
Select create zones from transient markers, and select the sampler's range. Click ok.
And you are done.
4
It looks like the missing piece in your case is an audio interface. That's a device that has audio inputs and outputs and also some kind of computer connection, like a USB, Firewire, or Thunderbolt interface. You should look at interfaces that have at least two analog inputs and two analog outputs.
There are a couple ways you could set this up, depending on ...
4
This is a very long topic - there are entire university degrees on it - but key things to look at:
input quality - a good mic, sound deadening in your recording room, a decent mixer etc. are essential, as the better your input sound quality the better you can build your track. A decent noise floor helps a lot
understanding the frequency spectrum - work out ...
4
The only way to do this is to bounce all your tracks down, one way or another.
You can export all your MIDI tracks as MIDI files which will include automated controller data. You can import these MIDI files into logic and the automation will be visible in the hyperdraw - however, for that to work you'll need to have the same AU plugins installed for logic ...
4
You certainly can do this, in fact it's a very common industry practice, and is often called "sampling."
When sampling, you create a sample (smaller audio clip) of the clip, which you can then load into a sampler instrument in Ableton and play back by triggering the instrument.
The samplers included in Ableton (Sampler and Simpler) offer the ability to ...
4
The biggest thing here is going to be the buffer size and latency settings in the Preferences pane, under the Audio tab, in the Latency section:
By reducing the size of your buffer, you're essentially telling your computer to process the audio faster, rather than allowing it to have an output delay to provide smoother output.
If you set this buffer size ...
3
You use MIDI mapping. It's the same for any MIDI device.
Go to MIDI options and make sure your device or MIDI port is enabled as Remote device.
Press the MIDI mapping button, it is in the upper right corner, to the right of the key mapping button (which does the same as the MIDI mapping button, but for your computer keyboard buttons) and to the left of the ...
3
Not sure which version of Logic you are on but this video is for Logic 8 and is a very good tutorial on a quick way to do this. Creating samples for EXS24. I'm not familiar with Logic X but I'm fairly certain that this functionality will translate with maybe minor differences, as it does translate directly to Logic 9, which I use. This guy, SFLogicNinja, ...
3
There is no solution that does audio and video and light.
It's very, very expensive and time-consuming to pre-produce an entire show. Aside from preparation cost, you also have to factor in that all the needed equipment should be brought on tour as well. Most touring DJs cannot afford this and also cannot permit to lock down their playlist. There are a few ...
3
There are three reasons I can think of why things might not be gelling:
First, are your tracks adequately synchronised? If your timing is out when you record, or your system is introducing timing discrepancies, then notes that are supposed to sound together, won't.
The "cheat" for this is quantisation, or to program the notes in rather than record yourself ...
3
As other answers have said, drums used in a drum kit are essentially treated as unpitched. Certainly, they wouldn't usually be retuned for songs/pieces in different keys, as you would do with timpani (kettle drums), for instance.
However, a drummer colleague of mine told me some time ago that he tunes his kit differently depending upon what style if music ...
3
I like using a vocal processor to add various effects to my vocals when performing live on stage. The type vocal processors I have used are like "pedals" or stomp boxes that can be controlled with footswitches but similar vocal effects processors can be mounted to a microphone stand or rack mounted.
The vocal processors (some also include guitar effects ...
3
Of course the only way to actually make a professional sounding recording is to have it made by a team of professionals using high end equipment. But you can get fairly close without all that stuff and you can definitely make recordings that sound great.
A great master relies on a great mix, and a great mix relies on great recording. So you really want to ...
3
You can map the amplitude of one track to the control parameter of another (e.g., LFO rate) using the "Envelope Follower" Max for Live device. See: https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/max-for-live-devices/#26-2-1-envelope-follower
Drag the "Envelope Follower" effect onto the source track, click on the effect's "Map" button, and then hop over to your ...
2
Open Preferences->Midi Sync. In the bottom half you have your input ports, with buttons for track, sync, and remote. To control Ableton midi maps, remote must be selected. You probably want to make sure the same device is not selected for a control surface in the top half of that screen as it's possible for them to both respond to the same message.
If you'...
2
While the specific pitches of drums could certainly have a some impact on the music — small consonance changes with the other instruments, "feel" — tuning real drums is more about tension than pitch to my understanding. Since you're working digitally, you can adjust the pitch a bit without needing to over-loosen or over-tighten a real drum, ...
2
In addition to the other answers regarding the creative implications of pitch-shifting drum sounds, you can also choose the pitch of a drum to stop phase issues in the track.
For example, if you layer different kicks on top of each other, you may find that it loses its punch. Changing the pitch of one of the samples can get the kicks complementing each ...
2
With @eyam 's help, i found out a solution for this, and i think this is available just for m-audio oxygen v4 series.
Create a midi channel and add just 1 instrument on it,
Create another midi channel and add drums on it,
For your first channel's instrument, in MIDI From seciton, change All channels to Ch. 1
For your second channel's drums, in MIDI From ...
2
I guess you want to use your keyboard keys to play one sample at different pitches, right?
For that purpose, you might want to use Live's "Simpler" instrument, instead of the "Drum Rack" you're probably using with your pad section. All you need to do is create a new MIDI track with a Simpler, and drag'n drop your sample onto it.
Then if you arm both ...
2
I think what's making it sound "tropical" is that the main sound is a lot like a steel drum, which is a popular instrument in Caribbean music.
You can look for a steel drum sample or preset, or you can synthesize a similar sound.
For background reading, see here.
The most straightforward way to build a steel drum sound is with an additive synth. Build up ...
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