Blog - LiveKeyboardist

30Oct 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

How to Quantize Midi In Ableton

1UsingAbleton, Blog, Program Features, Recording

Being able to quantize my recorded midi has saved me from many a kerfuffle. The uses for quantization, however, go way beyond manipulating poorly entered data to line up perfectly with a grid. Quantization can be used to pull a heavily swung passage of recorded midi to a place of slightly less swing. It can be used to apply swing altogether. And by manipulating how much your inputted midi is quantized, you can bring a drum passage closer to grid perfect time, without losing the human performance of what you originally played in. I like to think of the quantize function as more of a time massager than a time corrector. If used tastefully it can pull an almost perfectly recorded passage into alignment with the rest of a track. The…

27Oct 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Quickly Copy Envelopes In Ableton Live

1UsingAbleton, Blog, Program Features, Recording

In music, patterns repeat themselves. You may notice that your favorite song has several nearly identical sections. Or perhaps you've heard the phrase, " Don't bore us, take us to the chorus". Since patterns in music repeat so regularly, even as far back as the sonata form, it only follows that you may desire to have near exact duplicates of your envelope shapes throughout the timeline of your song. Thankfully, Ableton makes this exceptionally easy. Note View/Envelope View Ableton keeps notes and automation separate, which means copying and pasting notes and automation must be done separately as well. The one exception to this rule is when you copy and paste a clip in its entirety. If the clip stays on one track, then the automation will be copied along…

23Oct 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

How To Overdub in Arrangement View

1UsingAbleton, Blog, Program Features, Recording

Overdubbing is not just a tool for correction, but a tool for addition. When used in conjunction with the looping feature of Ableton Live, you are able to build parts step by step, allowing you to get into the airwaves, what started in the brain waves. For those of you that work predominantly in session view, you can check out my blog on overdubbing in session view here. For those the rest of you, let's talk about arrangement view, and how to overdub. https://youtu.be/YjC5_UD8G0U Arrangement View Features Arrangement view is 100% linear. It functions the way most other DAW's function. When I first started using Ableton, I refused to use it at all because it seemed to be less authentically Ableton than session view. Now, however, I tend to use it…

20Oct 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Using Automation In Session View

1UsingAbleton, Blog, Midi, Program Features, Recording

Using Automation in session view is a great way to add life to your currently playing clips. Also, making use of the ability to link and unlink notes and envelopes, you can create interesting and non-standard patterns that don't necessarily sound like a loop. Also, using the IAC bus, automation can act as a way to "store" your timeline based effects. No matter what the reason, mastering session view automation is going to bring your ideas to life. It can take something that sounds okay, and make it sound awesome. What Can Be Automated? Almost anything can be automated in Ableton Live. As a rule of thumb, if you are able to map a parameter to a midi controller, you are able to automate that parameter. There is only one limitation, and…

16Oct 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Overdubbing In Session View

1UsingAbleton, Blog, Program Features, Recording

Overdubbing is a wonderful tool for editing or building new ideas into previously recorded ideas. Ableton lends itself especially well to this in session view because of its design. Clips in session view are designed to be looped (okay, maybe not entirely, but looping is well integrated). Ideas can start as simple as a four on the floor kick drum. Overdubbing allows us to record additional drum parts to that original kick loop while the clip is playing back. It's an awesome feature to be comfortable with. What can be overdubbed? Midi notes, Midi Automation, and Audio Automation can be overdubbed in session view. Unfortunately, Audio can't be overdubbed. You can always combat this by creating an additional audio channel strip if you wish to overdub. Overdubbing Midi Notes As…

13Oct 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Hidden Show/Hide Menu’s On Your Master Channel

1UsingAbleton, Blog, Program Features

Today we are talking about Ableton's hidden menus. It's a special part of Ableton. Once you find them all, you will come to love and adore how they are set up. As you all well know, screen space is limited. I actually went through a phase of time where I was using Ableton on a big screen TV so I could see everything I was doing. Those days have since passed and I've upgraded to a cleaner and more reasonable monitor. But what we came here to talk about is the 6 hidden menus on your master channel. Ableton often hides things away a little bit by keeping different layers of controls in separate menus. At first, this can be frustrating as you are trying to find things, but ultimately, this…

09Oct 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Follow Actions For Groups

1UsingAbleton, Blog, Live Playback, Program Features

My first introduction a group follow action came from being a part of the band Fate Of Fools. We managed to create a ton of awesome stuff as just two people, but it required the triggering of some of the parts we weren't able to physically reproduce during a live show. My guitarist and closest friend, Jeff, would fire the first clip of our songs using a foot controller, and he would program follow actions to take us all the way through to the end of the song. Since we were using multiple different audio parts, and also some midi control tracks, there were times when we would be firing 8 or 9 different channels of clips per scene. That's a lot of work if you need to do that…

06Oct 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Two Ways Reverse Audio In Ableton

1Sound Design, 1UsingAbleton, Blog, Program Features

It's extremely simple to reverse audio in Ableton. It can literally be done with the push of a button. Now, it wouldn't be much of a blog post if I just told you right in the second sentence of this post that all you need to do is select what you want to reverse and press, "R" on your keyboard, so travel with me as I stretch this out for at least 400 words. 2 Ways To Reverse Audio Method 1: Using the R key Step 1: Select a piece of audio that you would like to reverse Step 2: Press R to reverse it You have now created reverse audio Method 2: The Clip View Step 1: Double-click the audio you wish to reverse to reveal the clip view box on the…

02Oct 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Sends Vs Inserts: When and How In Ableton Live

1Sound Design, 1UsingAbleton, Blog, Recording

Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, all audio was processed without DAW's. ::GASP:: It's true. There was a time before Logic Pro and Ableton and the likes were so easily accessible. Much of what is done in the digital realm of audio is paying homage to the analog world. This is where we get sends vs inserts. Certain audio effects were entirely separate units that audio needed to be "sent" to. See what I did there? A General Rule of Thumb Sends are to be used when you are adding to the original sound Insert effects are to be used when you are shaping and transforming the original signal. Simple enough, right? Now let's look at this in a bit of context. The most typical audio effect used as a…

29Sep 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

3 Ways To Zoom In Ableton

1UsingAbleton, Blog, Program Features, Recording

Those of you that know me, know that there are few things in the computer world I love more than good keyboard shortcuts. I collect them like absolute treasures, and you should too. It's actually what inspired me to write this whole post on how to zoom in Ableton. Why? Because they are major time savers. When working with programs like Ableton, keyboard shortcuts cut down your work time immensely. Think about this, you are working on editing a keyboard track. Every single time you need to find the next note you want to edit it you need to... Zoom out Find the note Zoom back in Edit the note zoom back out If each zoom takes 4 seconds, then every time you need to edit a note, you have…

Category: Blog