08Sep 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo
Ableton’s Arpeggiator Device

Ableton’s Arpeggiator Device

1Sound Design, 1UsingAbleton, Blog, Midi, Program Features
Ableton's arpeggiator device is awesome in every way. At first, I found some of these controls to be a little cryptic, so today I am going to break them all down so you have a clear Idea of what they all do. Understanding puts the creative power in your hands. Let's begin! https://youtu.be/x0Quzf8nEew Style Style determines how Ableton will break up the chords that you play. There are 18 different options. The following shows what the arpeggiator would produce when given the input, C-E-G-C   Groove Groove determines if your notes should be played straight, or if they should be swung. You can choose swung 8ths or 16th. Hold Hold will repeat the notes you've played until you play new ones. If you physically hold any notes down with hold…
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04Sep 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo
3 Tips To Keep Ableton Running Smooth

3 Tips To Keep Ableton Running Smooth

1Creating A Keyboard Set Up, 1UsingAbleton, Blog, Midi, Program Features
When I hear people talking about keeping Ableton running smooth, I constantly hear the buzzword, CPU. First of all, what is CPU anyway? Is it different than ram? How does it affect my computer? Ram is storage that your computer uses to hold files that need to be immediately used by a program. It’s sort of a short-term memory. Now, if a program closes and things to no longer need to be held in your RAM, your computer will remove them. CPU is the part of your computer that is responsible for completing actions. They could be simple like knowing when you are using your mouse, or complex like transposing audio in Ableton. CPU also is the part of your computer responsible for moving things to and from your RAM. Simply,…
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01Sep 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo
Why You Must Start Using Collect All And Save

Why You Must Start Using Collect All And Save

1UsingAbleton, Blog, Program Features
Collect all and save is a handy way to take all of the files that you have used to make music in Ableton, And allow Ableton to store those files in its own folder. Ableton naturally references files from outside of the program. What does that even mean? I'm glad you asked. https://youtu.be/OqJQQq6uI3c How Ableton Uses Files Have you ever added an audio file to Ableton from your desktop? If you have, then you've probably noticed that a second file is created with a very similar name, except at the end of it, it uses the suffix ".asd". An ASD file is Ableton's analysis file. Inside that file contains everything the program knows about the song. But you may be wondering, why is it on the desktop, and not in…
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28Aug 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo
Why You Need To Start Deactivating Unused Clips And Notes

Why You Need To Start Deactivating Unused Clips And Notes

1UsingAbleton, Blog, Midi, Program Features
How many times have you made a drum part that is just a little bit too busy for verse 1? How many times have you copied a piano part to a string section and wanted to mute the piano notes, without muting the whole track? It's hard for me to count. This is why it can be so helpful to deactivate clips and notes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecpP1_aNyb0&feature=youtu.be Your Fancy Drum Part Now, you've spent roughly the last 48 hours working on a 4 bar drum loop. You are trying to keep it tame and tasteful, so you've only used a kick, snare, 4 toms, vocal shouting FX, guitar slices, crash cymbal, Chinese cymbal, guiro, and shaker, maraca, bell tree, hi-hat, tambourine, and rain stick. You can tell you've finally arrived at musical perfection.…
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30Jun 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo
Monitor, In, And Off

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…
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13Jun 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo
Setting up your IAC driver

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…
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26May 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo
Track, Sync, Remote: Ableton Midi Preferences Simplified

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…
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18May 2018 by Brett Pontecorvo
5 Things I Wish I Could Have Found When I Started Using Ableton

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…
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