Blog - LiveKeyboardist

06Jul 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Building a Step Bass

For today's post, we are going to use Ableton's built-in "Operator" to create a step bass. I like to think of a step bass as any bass sound that has a repeating pattern on one note. We are going to create our "stepping" sound today by making use of Ableton's arpeggiator. If you don't have Operator, or even if you don't have Ableton, you can still follow along and build this sound in virtually any synthesizer. I highly recommend synth 1 if you are just getting into building sounds and you need a good plugin to start with. https://youtu.be/u_0KUyhz-GA Building Your Step Bass Step 1: Add an instance of Operator to a default midi channel strip. Operator is great for FM synthesis, but for our purposes today we want Operator to…

30Jun 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Monitor, In, And Off

1Creating A Keyboard Set Up, 1Switching From Mainstage To Ableton, 1UsingAbleton, Blog, Transition Essentials

https://youtu.be/b_OhIDyURmk In, Auto, And Off. The three monitoring modes in Ableton. What do they do? What is it for? Why is it important? If I just ignore it, will it go away? Here is a simple break down of what they do, and how to make use of them. Monitor Status Let's start off by saying, these status effect signal entering Ableton from another device only. For example, monitoring status will affect when and how you hear the signal from a guitar plugged into Ableton, but will not affect when and how you hear the audio you recorded from the said guitar. Similarly, monitoring status will affect whether or not you can hear what you are playing on your midi keyboard, but not what you recorded from your midi keyboard, even…

22Jun 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

One Button Keyboard Split For Lead Lines

1Creating A Keyboard Set Up, 1Sound Design, Blog, Live Playback

Creating flexible keyboard splits can be helpful, especially in a live context when you need to cover more than one part at a time. Sometimes lead parts are not quite high enough to be out of the way of your left-hand pads and switching the octave makes them either lose the punch they are supposed to have or have way too much punch and become distracting Having a second keyboard is one way to solve this problem, but for those of us without a second instrument, or who would rather not bring two keyboards to a gig here is my proposed solution Create a keyboard split that has two zones Zone 1 from the lowest key to b3 Zone 2 from c4 to the top with an extra plugin that…

18Jun 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Making A Pulsing Pad Sound

1Sound Design, Blog, Featured, Live Playback, Presets and Sounds

How to make the pulsing synth sound you love Pads are better with a pulse. They add a heartbeat, excitement, and depth to your playing. That’s why so many songs being made now, and honestly for the last long time, incorporate this element. Think about the chorus of “I got a feeling”, or [ Insert accurate song title here ]. There is something intoxicating about the constant rise and fall of the volume: We feel its pulse, and it resonates with us. It gives the impression that the music is alive and moving. If you haven’t noticed this before, now that I’ve pointed it out, you will hear it everywhere. So how do we go about making it? Traditionally, this effect is created using something called sidechained compression. What the…

13Jun 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Setting up your IAC driver

1Creating A Keyboard Set Up, 1UsingAbleton, Blog, Midi

Using the IAC driver is a great way to store "presets" if you will. For example, perhaps you have a piano sound you really like, but for one song you want it super dry, and for another you want it to have an 8th note delay and some reverb. You could create two dummy clips, one that sets the piano to the driest setting, and another that sets it to the delay/reverb setting. The possibilities don't stop here. As a matter of fact, you can use the IAC driver to control programs outside of Ableton Live. Sometimes you may want to send midi to a stand-alone synth that lives outside Ableton live. Or perhaps you are using the IAC to control pro presenter while you are playing. The number one benefit of…

09Jun 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

One Mod wheel – Total Control

1Creating A Keyboard Set Up, Blog, Presets and Sounds

Can we take one knob or fader ( or mod wheel ) and use it to make our whole set run simply? You bet we can. We are going to walk through how we can map our mod wheel to create dynamics and patch changes, all with one knob. Let’s start by thinking of our patch list this time in terms of dynamics: Here is my list top to bottom Piano/Pad Piano/E Piano/Pad semi-open filter E Piano/Pad open filter/Organ Now, our goal is going to be to make certain markers, using the minimum and maximum values in our mapping window to create zones of sound. When the mod wheel is all the way down you will only hear a very soft pad and a piano. As we move the mod wheel…

02Jun 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Amp Up The Juno Organ Wavetable Preset

1Sound Design, Blog, Presets and Sounds

The Juno Organ is one of my favorite Ableton presets for the Wavetable synth. Its great right out of the box, but we're going to take a look at how we can use macros to take it up to a whole new level. All synthesizers are customizable in nature. They exist to "synthesize" or create a sound. A standing difference between Mainstage/Logic and Ableton is that in Ableton your synthesizers are visible while you are playing. In Mainstage, you can be playing a synth and have literally no control over any of its parameters. This is one of the reasons that patch level controls are so important on Mainstage. You can’t see the actual synthesizers parameters while you are playing. So if you want to be able to change the…

26May 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Track, Sync, Remote: Ableton Midi Preferences Simplified

1Creating A Keyboard Set Up, 1Switching From Mainstage To Ableton, 1UsingAbleton, Blog, Transition Essentials

The first time I tried to use Ableton with multiple sounds on a live gig was a nightmare. I was working with the Arturia Keylab 88 and mapped a few on the onboard pads to a dummy clip to change my sounds. After setting everything up, and getting it to work a few times, I thought I was done and ready to play. What I had failed to check was if my MIDI mapping’s worked correctly. This was a glaring oversight for sure. Anyway, I got my stuff all set up for the top of the set and I was doing just fine playing my piano sound. As the set started to progress and get more intense I thought it would be the perfect time to start up my Hammond…

23May 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Adjustable Key Range: Without Suite

1Creating A Keyboard Set Up, Blog, Transition Essentials

You can set up a keyboard split by creating instrument rack and adjusting the key range. That would 100% work. The challenge comes when you need to have a split that can be adjusted. I find that more often than not, my instrument ranges do need to be adjusted throughout the set. I used to use a sort of clunky Max for Live device to accomplish this, however recently I have taken up using Ableton's built-in "Pitch" plug-in to create an adjustable key range split. It's a native, concise, and reliable way to accomplish the task. https://youtu.be/r0Bc1O_xptc Pro's of the "Pitch" Plug-In The Pitch Plug-in is completely automatable. What that means for you is using dummy clips, you can make one pitch plugin set many different ranges. When I've used it…

18May 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

5 Things I Wish I Could Have Found When I Started Using Ableton

1Switching From Mainstage To Ableton, 1UsingAbleton, Blog, Transition Essentials

When switching to Ableton, especially from Mainstage or Logic, I've seen people really struggle with locating the tools they need to accomplish simple tasks. Of course, these are three different programs, all with different strengths. Ableton on a purely geographic level is not set up quite the same way Logic and Mainstage are, and that is exactly what we are going to tackle today. Make sure you grab a copy of the "Fast Track Patch List Guide" as well so that you can start making great live sets in Ableton even faster. WHERE IS EVERYTHING!?! Years ago with my first serious music project, we recorded an album in logic and started performing live using mainstage. The trouble was, with the number of sounds we were using, and the full backing…

Category: Blog