Using a Trigger Finger with Ableton Live
I’ve been hit up a couple times and it seems I notice on the back end of this blog people who land her are looking for how to set up M-Audio’s Trigger Finger in Ableton Live.
Here are a couple quick tips…
1. The trigger finger ships with its preset of Ableton Live as P10. Access this by pressing Memory/Recall and then p10.
2. Use the Midi map function to map specific pads and faders to ableton clips, effects, etc.
3. The Ctrl/Note Mute Button changes the message sent… if you need it to be note on/off or just controller message… this applies to the rotary and faders mostly.
Once you get it hooked up and your sure that your computer (hopefully a mac, haha) is receiving messages then load up preset P10 and map away.
Happy Triggering.
Control Ableton With Foot Controller (Behringer FC1010 video)
Ok.. huge video file… 50mb… but interesting to see it used live. Still thinking and searching the set on what to use for a foot controller.
WATCH VIDEO
Changing Your Metronome Sound!
I was emailing ableton back and forth recently concerning the built in metronome and how to change its sound. I got an email back from them today (which is weird cause they finally responded to an email I sent them forever ago) saying,
“The Metronome is preset, you can´t take out the downbeat sounds.”
Or can can you????? Ahhhh, yes you can… (from an earlier post, although I thought it was posting as a separate issue)
So how do you change that sound? Here ya go (thanks to some friends on the Ableton forum):
To find them on your Mac…
1. Right-Click (option click) on Live.app
2. Show Package Contents
3. Contents
4. App-Resources
5. Misc
You will see two files of interest… “Metronome.wav” and “MetronomeUp.wav”
Rename your “MetronomeUp.wav” to “MetronomeUpBackup.wav” (so you keep that file if you want to change it back). Next copy the “Metronome.wav” and paste it to your desktop. Change its name to “MetronomeUp.wav” and move it back into “Misc” folder you just copied it from. Whaaa-La. Now your click will be a static sound.
If you want to change it back simply delete the file you created and rename the backup file to its original file name.
Pretty simple eh?
Another Free Live Pack…
Came across this free sample Live pack from Puremagnetik. Pretty cool stuff.
Check it out here.
They have a subscription service for monthly live packs that seem pretty killer. Anyone heard/tried them and have feedback?
Check out their site at http://puremagnetik.com/
Ableton Live in Worship (Part 7 – Changing Time Signatures In A Set!!!)
A problem I have run into during sets is needing to change the time signature between songs. Mainly this is for the click track. Now you could just record your own click and route it just like you would any other track (which still has transition problems of its own), but I still am amazed that Ableton hasnt created a feature similar to the their BPM title function that allows you to change tempos between master slots by simply renaming that master clip 100BPM (or what ever the tempo just replace the number). The only way to accomplish this (that I know of) is to manually reach over and type in the new time signature via you laptop keyboard. This can be pretty annoying! I’ve talked with Ableton and they say this is an issue they are addressing in future releases, but nothing for the time being… well… here is my fix (with its own drawbacks)…
Change the sound of Lives built in metronome. Instead of an accent on the downbeat, have a static click sound (the same tone each click). By doing this you can transition between songs and as long as your BPM is set you wont need to change time sig’s. OK, and now for the DISCLAIMER – this really is only useful with the “play along” method I have mentioned before. If you are triggering clips on the fly in a set (see previous posts on how to do this) your “1 bar” (or how ever many you have your grace period set to) is thinking in terms of that actual time signature you have set. See the problem? So this really, as far as I know, is only useful if you are using live to compliment and existing layout of a song (meaning you dont change the way you play it).
How do you change that sound? Here ya go (thanks to some friends on the Ableton forum):
To find them on your Mac…
1. Right-Click (option click) on Live.app
2. Show Package Contents
3. Contents
4. App-Resources
5. Misc
You will see two files of interest… “Metronome.wav” and “MetronomeUp.wav”
Rename your “MetronomeUp.wav” to “MetronomeUpBackup.wav” (so you keep that file if you want to change it back). Next copy the “Metronome.wav” and paste it to your desktop. Change its name to “MetronomeUp.wav” and move it back into “Misc” folder you just copied it from. Whaaa-La. Now your click will be a static sound.
If you want to change it back simply delete the file you created and rename the backup file to its original file name.
And that is how you change time signatures in a set. Pretty simple eh?
** Check out previous “Ableton Live In Worship” posts for certain techniques mentioned above.
Free Dennis DeSantis Live Pack
Just got an email from Ableton with a link for a new FREE live pack. I downloaded and have to give it two thumbs up. Good sounds to mess with. Also if your interested in tweaking there is a full keyboard preset that would be worth loading up your samples into for better access (rather than impulse).
The Link: http://www.ableton.com/livepacks?i=nl
Ableton Live In Worship (Part 6 – When Your All Alone)
I was thinking this week about my past years journey as a worship leader. For the sake of background, I moved to Texas a year ago and helped plant a church. Prior to that I was a youth pastor and had minimal experience leading worship, although I had played with a touring band for 2 years…. so I had some music/band background. When the church started it was Myself, piano and bass. It was up to me to create a much bigger sound and Ableton was my weapon of choice. So in this installment I wanted to address a couple very practical ideas for using ableton if you fly solo or with just another musician.
Lets assume your rolling solo (maybe from keys or acoustic). Rhythmically a simple drum loop and percussion loop (like a shaker or tambourine) makes all the difference. When it comes to programming loops, be tasteful. This is a tricky one and very subjective, I know. BUT I have a great idea on how to determine if your direction is “cheesy.” Ask the most musically gifted person you know what they think. I am constantly bouncing ideas off team members and even my wife (who has a great musical ear). Typically I have a simple loop for the verse and one for the chorus/bridge.
Next, trendy music (what you hear on the radio) has a couple key elements that I try to implement. Some people get a stick up their who-ha and hold the opinion that trendy music = bad (sell out, not “real creative” music). Im gonna be blunt here, but it works for the larger community for a reason! Musicians are some of the most critical people I know and to write off key elements that work for a good majority of the population should be something we study. OK, off my soapbox. All that said two elements stick out. First, the hook. The hook is that part of a song you hum in the car long after the song is over. For example, Tom Petty’s “Free Falling.” Listen to his Acoustic guitar part. Hook through and through. So when I am programing I recreate that part and implement it throughout the song (just dont overkill it). Another good example is the piano part on the new Tim Hughes song “Highest and Greatest.” Sometimes it takes creating your own…. We did this with You Are The Light (Steve Fee) with a viola part during the second half of the verse. What is important is that something catch the people and help them connect via the music. Most music (worship or not) is written with a hook. Pull that out and set it as a loop that you can trigger in and out of a song. Sometimes its an electric guitar, sometimes a drum patter (ex – fall out boy does this), sometime piano or acoustic. Anyway, you get the idea.
The second element is dynamics. Using ableton I am able to create dynamics in a song that otherwise are pretty tough with just my acoustic. This can be something as simple as adding a tambourine to your loop for the choruses or layering in a thick pad during the high points in a song. Start simple and then experiment. A killer keys player I work with helps me write some dope string/pad arrangements for songs that totally carry the dynamics. One other quick word on dynamics… use your voice! Now this is coming from a guy who is not even close to be a great vocalist, but vocals are one of your best dynamic tools. Layered with the beauty of ableton a one or two person gig can be taken to a whole new level!
The last thing I’ll add is how to implement Ableton in a live worship setting. I have found if I am running solo or with one other person its easiest to use the “set and forget” mode of using ableton. This means layout the song and record the transitions like you normally would play through the song (usually to accomplish this I will spend time throughout the week worshiping through the music myself and feeling out the best flow). Next render (export) each song and the load each of those up into their own Live set. Then all you have to do is stay in time with your backing tracks and trigger the start and stop of each song… which you can do pretty easily from you laptop keyboard if necessary (If I were doing that I would key map the song number to a specific key – i.e. if its the first song in the set to the number 1 button on my keyboard, using the space bar which by default is used to stop the clips). This is much easier than trying to trigger multiple scenes throughout a song… although I am a huge fan of this as well… just more difficult and hard to do if your solo.
Hope that helps someone out there… feel free to ask any questions.
Trigger Finger Set Up / Screen Shots
Here are two screen shots for this weekends first set:
Just so you can see how we lay it out…
And here is mapping for our Trigger Finger. Pretty simple set up. Ill try and shoot a picture of the actual trigger finger cause we have it all labeled… but until then:
Beat Deconstruction… That David Crowder Sound
This week I am going to be scaling things back a bit and leading with just acoustic guitar, piano, and ableton running a simple beat/loop for each song. This is actually one of my favorite ways to lead. It’s simple and usually gives way to a killer atmosphere for worship. The only downside can be that the loop gets stale after a while… well, until… enter “beat deconstruction.” You hear some form of this in David Crowders stuff or in a lot of electronic music today and one of the best ways to mix up and have a loop sound a bit more interesting and not so static is to throw in a little beat deconstruction (between sections or at breakdowns in the song).
Our keys player is gonna run this from a trigger finger. Its a pretty simple set up actually. We route two loops (one for a verse and another for chorus/bridges) to two of the pads, and then use one of the rotary knobs as an on/off switch for the deconstruct effect (mapped via the midi map function).
Seems like I have wanted to do this forever live, but never found a good way to run it or have a good sound come out each time. But today I was tweaking around and stumbled across some settings in beat repeat and wanted to pass it all on to you…. so here are some files that I hope bless you.
The files are for the new Tim Hughes song – Highest And Greatest. Great song for the church. This is our scaled back version (like I mentioned below). I sampled out the piano lick although our keys player would play it live actually. We do reverse that loop for the verses… sounds killer though. Oh, its in the key of A (1/2 step down from the CD)
Highest And Greatest Example *the example starts on the chorus and then there is a little deconstruct breakdown for 2 bars and then the 2nd verse hits right away. Listen to the original CD and you will get the idea for the layout.
Highest And Greatest Project ; *Here is our file. Use the midi route function to map an on/off switch for the beat repeat plugin (on the main loop track) and mess around turning it off and on… You will get the hang real quick.
Beat Deconstruct Setting *Just the setting file.
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