Midi - LiveKeyboardist

03Mar 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

Midi Effects For Keyboardists

Playing Keyboard through a computer is an art in itself. You are expected to cover a ton of musical space and given zero extra fingers to do it with; luckily we've got handy Midi effects to help us on our way. Now, there is nothing wrong with coming in and just playing a really awesome and solid piano part. BUT. Since we are playing through Ableton, and because we can, I often ask myself this question. What superhuman effects can I create to add to my playing? This might be a dramatic question, but answering it can lead to dramatic effects. This is where MIDI effects step in to save the day. Here are three Midi effects every single keyboard player should be using in their live sets: Arpeggiator Specifically,…

07May 2019 by Brett Pontecorvo

Most Common Types Of Patch Lists

1Creating A Keyboard Set Up, Blog, Live Playback, Midi

Because of Ableton's innate flexibility, there is more than one way to set up patch lists. Before we jump in, make sure you read through because I am including a starter patch list template in the body of this post that you can grab for free. After hours of research, I believe there are three effective types of patch lists. The Static Patch ListThe Automated Patch ListThe Dynamic Patch List Each of these methods has its own perks and pitfalls, so let's take a look at how each one works so you can pick the best one for you. The Static Patch List This type of patch list is similar to the likes of Sunday Keys for Ableton. The corner stone of this set up is using dummy clips to…

29Jan 2019 by Brett Pontecorvo

How To Quickly Transpose All The Patches In Your Live Set

1Creating A Keyboard Set Up, Blog, Live Playback, Midi

Having a global transpose feature can be helpful in a lot of cases. Mainstage makes this pretty intuitive on a per patch basis. Although it may not be immediately obvious in Ableton, it’s actually pretty straight forward How To Transpose EVERYTHING Ableton has great routing features, so rather than have your patches receive midi from your keyboard, we are going to first run midi from your keyboard through a midi channel strip that will allow us to alter the signal before it reaches your patches. Step 1 Create a midi channel strip by right- mouse-clicking. Rename it Midi Filter Step 2 Rename your new channel strip, "Midi Filter". You can do this by right mouse clicking on the track and choosing rename, or selecting the track and holding Command +…

26Jan 2019 by Brett Pontecorvo

Simple Volunteer Keyboard Set Up

1Creating A Keyboard Set Up, Blog, Featured, Live Playback, Midi

You're ready to make the move to Ableton, but your team is full of volunteers who maybe are not the most tech-savvy, and probably aren't going to spend a ton of time learning how to use Ableton. You need a SIMPLE SET UP. What do you do? Here's My Solution The Bare Necessities I just couldn't resist Let's start small right? Begin to get your volunteers on board with using a DAW as their live instrument to begin with. You probably won't sound like hillsong immediately, but we are taking some steps in the right direction Sounds There are a few things that show up over and over in every single Christian worship song, so lets start there. Piano You will need a good piano patch. If you are looking…

12Jan 2019 by Brett Pontecorvo

Cleaner, More Interesting Chord Triggers

1Sound Design, Blog, Midi, Program Features, Uncategorized

Chord Triggers are a great tool. As a Keyboard player who is constantly playing the parts of several people with just ten fingers, they can be quite indespensible. It's always better to think in terms of artistic value though, as opposed to a necessary aid for covering more ground then physically possible. So the question then has always been, how to I keep more chord triggers sounding, natural, clean, and transparent. Here are three tricks I've come up with over the years that have helped me to use chord triggers in an effective way. I have also built a diatonic chord trigger that works in all 12 keys for you. You can download a free copy of that by clicking here. It's touch sensitive so high velocities produce bass notes,…

22Dec 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Supercharge Your Live Performance With Macros

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

Ever wonder why all of your keyboard sounds feel stagnant, sterile, and computerized? Perhaps you feel comfortable making set lists, but are looking to make your sounds go the extra mile? If you're tired of sounding more like a robot than a musician, read on... https://youtu.be/VB_rngXDS_4 Every instrument has the ability to produce many types of sounds... Ableton is VERY MUCH your instrument, so your approach to creating a variety of dynamics, textures, and tones is pivotal in creating a captivating performance. Unfortunately, just popping a few audio effects after a synthesizer isn't going to give you the ALIVE feeling that you need to have. In order to make your sounds pop you must have the ability to change how, and how much a sound is effected in real time,…

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…

22Sep 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Start, Stop, And Loop: Session View

1UsingAbleton, Blog, Live Playback, Midi, Program Features

When making music in session view, there will be times the grid works to your advantage, and times that you need to work around the grid. Adjusting start, stop, and loop points allow you to create passages of music in a single clip that feel organic. Some Context... I have played an insane amount of musicals. For most of my life, I was always musical directing and conducting. Something that often happens in theatre is a vamp. Its a repeated bar or passage of music that happens over and over until some sort of stage action, or a line, tells you to move on. I like to think about start, stop, and loop markers like a vamp. Ableton allows you to start a clip from the beginning, but start your loop anywhere…

18Sep 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Three Ways To Add Stereo Depth To Your Synths

1Sound Design, Blog, Midi, Presets and Sounds, Program Features

Adding stereo depth to your synth can make the somewhat lame not so bad, and the absolutely awesome, completely incredible. It ups your game. For a while, I really struggled to create interesting sounds with my synths. While there are a ton of possibilities for creating deep, interesting, and evolving sounds without using any effects at all, using some audio effects can really help speed the process along, especially for beginners in synthesis. Here are three really easy ways to add stereo depth to your synths. By the way, if you are new to Ableton, The Complete Transition Course comes with 15 great sounds you can start using immediately. You can check that out in the link above. https://youtu.be/448tBXO2aX0 Method One: Reverb It’s great if you’ve got a reverb setting…

15Sep 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo

Using Capture in Ableton Live 10

1UsingAbleton, Blog, Live Playback, Midi, Program Features

One of the features that I missed when I moved from Logic and Mainstage over to Ableton was the ability Logic has to recall what I played, even if I wasn't recording. In Ableton 10, this has been remedied with the use of the new feature, "Capture". https://youtu.be/ghUQbkwcz0k How does Capture work? Ableton is always aware of what you are playing on a monitored track. That means if your monitor input is set to, "In", or your track is record enabled, Ableton heard what you are doing. If at any point in time you want to recall what you did, you can press the capture button, or if you are working with a Push, you can use the record button + the new button. The Capture button is located to…

Category: Midi