If you are using Ableton, then running tracks is something that is easily accessible to you; Either in session view or arrangement view. As a keyboardist, however, it takes a little bit of intentionality to keep your patches, tracks, and controls organized.
It is completely possible to do this successfully, and use only one controller. In the past, I have talked about running tracks in arrangement view using only the Novation Launch Control XL. Today I will focus on running tracks in Session View.
Session View Or Arrangement View?
Over the years I have gone back and forth with running tracks using session view and arrangement view.
What I have come to determine is that they both really do similar things, and it just depends on what feels right to you.
That being said, this post is all about running tracks in session view, so let’s get into it
Running Tracks In Session View
Running tracks in session view happens in three phases (Timestamps to reference the video instructions):
Linked time stamps are above, and some pro tips to optimize the video experience are below.
Track Preparation Tips
Many grid controllers have 8 rows. Because of this, I move tracks from arrangement view to session view in 8 chunks. This allows me to be able to jump to 8 different points in any given song easily. I also opt to use different starting points rather than actually chopping the audio clips. All the credit for that idea goes to Ian McIntosh, who has fantastic resources on running tracks through his website.
Performance Set Integration
If you are a Keyboardist who also runs tracks, your Ableton set will likely start to feel a little messy. You can remedy this slightly by making use of audio busses. I go into this process in this video.
The process for routing your backing tracks will be the same as this, but just slightly compounded. For example, all of your guitar tracks can be sent to a single guitar bus.
In my live set up, I use 5 busses for tracks:
- Click
- Cues
- Synths
- Guitars
- Percussion
Controller Mapping
How you take control of your software, is just as important as the programming itself. This is how I map my controller to run tracks.
It is a manual version, which means I need to do it every time, but since I work to limit myself to 8 punch in points, it takes me less than a minute to map the entire set.
These options can be adjusted to fit your set. I find that I usually keep the first three listed above consistently set.
When I run tracks in Arrangement view, I am able to control the whole thing just using my Launch Control XL.
Here is a link to that video just in case that is helpful.
Final Thoughts
Playing and running tracks can be A LOT. It’s best to keep it as simple as possible. The less you have to think about your computer, the more you can focus on what’s important – Which in most cases goes above and beyond the music.
As a keyboardist, it’s always a good idea to have a handle on sound design.
If you are new to building patches, make sure you grab a copy of the Quick Synth Map It will help you understand all the parts of a synthesizer and will serve as a great quick reference for fast tweaks of presets in the future.