User manual ABLETON LIVE 6 LE

1 Live LE for Windows and Mac OS Created by Bernd Roggendorf, Gerhard Behles, Robert Henke, Awi, Reiner Rudolph, Stefan Haller, Stefan Franke, Frank Hoffmann, Andreas Zapf, Ralf Suckow, Gregor Klinke, Matthias Mayrock, Friedemann Schautz, Ingo Koehne, Jakob Rang, Pablo Sara, Nicholas Allen, Henrik Lafrenz, Jan Buchholz, Kevin Haywood, Dominik Wilms, Christian Kleine, Amaury Groc, Daniel Buettner, Alex Koch, Henrik Hahn, Simon Frontzek, Torsten Wendland, Torsten Slama, Eduard Mueller, Jeremy Bernstein, Bernard Chavonnet. Reference Manual by Kevin Haywood, Rose Knudsen, Gerhard Behles, Jakob Rang, Robert Henke, Torsten Slama. Essential Instrument Collection created by SONiVOX. Web: www.sonivoxrocks.com Drum samples provided by Big Fish Audio. Copyright 2007 Ableton AG. All rights reserved. This manual, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license. The content of this manual is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Ableton. Ableton assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this book. Except as permitted by such license, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Ableton. Ableton is a trademark of Ableton AG. Mac, the Mac logo, Mac OS, Macintosh and QuickTime are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. The Audio Units logo and GarageBand are trademarks of Apple Inc. Windows and DirectX are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. SONiVOX is the brand name trademark of Sonic Network, Inc. VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. ASIO is a trademark and software of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. ReWire is a trademark of Propellerhead Software AB. Mackie Control is a trademark of LOUD Technologies, Inc. Ogg Vorbis and FLAC are trademarks of Xiph.Org. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. 1 Chapter 1 Welcome to Live 1.1 The Ableton Team Says: Thank You Live is the result of musicians wanting a better way to create, produce and perform music using a computer. A great deal of effort has been put into making Live easy and fun to use, yet at the same time capable of helping you create music with unlimited depth and sophistication. This effort continues even as you read these lines... in fact, a new, improved Live version might already be available for download! Please check on our website now1 , or choose the Check for Updates command from the Help menu. We hope you enjoy using Live and that it enhances your creative process. Should you have suggestions about how we can improve Live, please let us know2 . Your Ableton Team. 1 http://www.ableton.com/downloads 2 contact@ableton.com 2 Chapter 2 First Steps When you install Live and run it for the rst time, you will be presented with a dialog asking for your Live serial number. Please see the chapter on unlocking Live should you have questions or concerns during the authorization process. If you do not (yet) own Live, you can close the dialog and proceed, as Live will run in Demo Mode by default. In Demo Mode, you will be able to work with all of Live's features with the exception of saving and exporting. 2.1 Learn About Live Live comes with a set of interactive lessons to take you step by step through the key features of the program. The lessons are organized in a table of contents, which can be opened directly in the program via the Help menu. We highly recommend following the lessons. Many users have told us that the lessons helped them become familiar with the program very quickly. We also recommend that you read the Live Concepts chapter, which encapsulates everything that Live is and can do, and is therefore a worthwhile read for both beginners and CHAPTER 2. FIRST STEPS 3 experienced users. The remaining chapters of this manual serve as in-depth reference for the material introduced in Live Concepts. 2.1.1 Using the Info View and Index Live's Info View tells you the name and function of whatever you place the mouse over. The Info View and its Show/Hide Button. If you require more information on a speci c user interface element or topic, please consult this reference manual. The index, found at the end of the manual, contains the names of all user interface elements and will lead you to the relevant section. 2.2 Setting up Preferences Live's Preferences window is where you can nd various settings that determine how Live looks, behaves and interfaces with the outside world. This window is accessed from the Options menu's (Windows)/Live menu's (Mac OS X) Preferences command, or with the Ctrl , (PC) / , (Mac) shortcut. Live's Preferences are distributed over several tabs: CHAPTER 2. FIRST STEPS 4 In the Look/Feel tab, you can make various settings, including the language used for text display and the color scheme, or skin, for the Live user interface. The Audio Preferences are used to set up Live's audio connections with the outside world via an audio interface. Please take the time to follow the program's built-in Setting up Audio I/O lesson, which will walk you through all the steps required to set up and optimize the settings for any given system. To access the lesson, use the Lessons Table of Contents command from the Help menu. The MIDI/Sync Preferences are used to help Live recognize MIDI devices for two separate and distinct purposes: Playing MIDI notes. To learn how to route an external device into Live for MIDI input, or how to send MIDI to an external device, please see the Routing and I/O chapter. Controlling parts of the interface remotely. This subject is covered in detail in the MIDI and Key Remote Control chapter. The File/Folder Preferences pertain to Live's le management and the location of plug-in devices. The Record/Warp/Launch Preferences allow customizing the default state for new Live Sets and their components, as well as selecting options for new recordings. The CPU Preferences include options for managing the processing load, including multicore/multiprocessor support. The Products Preferences are used to manage licensing and installation of the Live platform, and add-on components like the Operator instrument and Live Packs. 2.3 The Main Live Screen Most of your work in Live happens in the main Live screen. This screen consists of a number of views, and each view manages a speci c aspect of your Live Set. Since screen space is usually limited, the Live views can't all be displayed at the same time. CHAPTER 2. FIRST STEPS 5 Each one of the selector buttons at the screen borders calls up a speci c view; clicking this one, for instance, accesses the Live devices: The Device Browser Selector. To hide one of Live's views and free up screen space, click on the triangle-shaped button next to it. To restore the view, click the button again. A View Show/Hide Button. You can run Live in Full Screen Mode by selecting the Full Screen command from the View menu. To leave Full Screen Mode, click the button that appears in the lower right corner of the screen. Full Screen Mode can also be toggled by pressing F11 . (Note: On Mac OS X, this key is assigned by default to Exposé, and will not toggle Full Screen Mode unless Exposé has been deactivated or assigned to a different key in OS X's System Preferences.) You can adjust the main window's horizontal split by dragging. Adjusting the Main Window Split. 6 Chapter 3 Unlocking Live Live is protected against illegal use by a copy protection scheme. This scheme has been designed to meet the highest security standards while avoiding hassles for our customers. If you nd this procedure to be an inconvenience, please understand that the copy protection secures your investment: It allows Ableton to provide you with support and to continue developing Live. Authorization of Ableton products takes place in the Preferences' Products tab, which will appear when you start Live for the rst time. Here you can choose to authorize ( unlock ) or purchase any Ableton products available to you, for example the Operator instrument. Please note that products such as Operator are sold separately from Live but are unlocked using the same procedure described in the following sections. They can also be individually set to Demo Mode in the Products tab so that you can try them out. CHAPTER 3. UNLOCKING LIVE 7 The Products Tab in the Preferences. Clicking on any product listed in the Products tab will give you the option of unlocking or buying that product. Please click the Unlock button here to complete the unlocking process in two steps. If you have not yet purchased the product, you can do so online by clicking the Buy button. You can always return to the Products Preferences tab later or visit the Ableton webshop1 to make a purchase. Live's Preferences are available via the Options menu (or the Live menu in Mac OS X). 1 http://www.ableton.com/shop CHAPTER 3. UNLOCKING LIVE 8 Selecting the Unlock Button in the Products Tab. 3.1 Step 1: Entering Your Serial Number As an owner of Live LE, you have received a serial number from Ableton, either via e-mail (if you ordered directly from Ableton), or on a card as part of the Live LE package. The Fields for Entering Your Serial Number. After clicking the Unlock button in the Products tab, you will be presented with six elds for typing in your serial number. Each eld holds four characters. The serial number is composed of numbers 0..9 and letters A..F. If you accidentally type the wrong string into a eld, the eld will turn red. When you have successfully entered the serial number, click the Ok button to proceed. The serial number identi es your ownership of Live. Because your serial number is a valuable good, you should keep it in a safe place and out of reach of unauthorized hands. Please be aware that sharing your serial number will render it unusable. The only way for Ableton CHAPTER 3. UNLOCKING LIVE 9 technical support to help you get back your serial number if you lose it is via your registration data. Therefore, please register your product2 , as otherwise you might lose your property! 3.2 Step 2: Unlocking Live The second step of authorizing Live is called unlocking. Unlocking means associating your serial number with a speci c computer. Please be aware that the standard Live license grants you the right to use Live on only one computer at a time. You can, however, unlock Live with your serial number more than once under the legal and technical conditions described later. 3.2.1 The Unlock Key For unlocking, you require an unlock key that can only be created by the Ableton server. Unlocking therefore requires access to the Internet. The computer from which you connect to the Internet does not have to be the same computer for which you wish to unlock Live, but it does make things easier. 3.2.2 The Challenge Code The Ableton server creates the unlock key from your serial number and a so-called challenge code. The challenge code is a ngerprint that Live takes of your computer's components. For details, please see the corresponding section. 2 http://www.ableton.com/register CHAPTER 3. UNLOCKING LIVE 10 3.2.3 Unlocking Online Unlocking Live Online. If the computer you want to unlock Live for is connected to the Internet, the only thing you need to do is press the Unlock Online button. Live will then create a connection to the Ableton server, send your serial number and challenge code, and receive the unlock key from the server. No information other than this is exchanged between your computer and the Ableton server. 3.2.4 Unlocking Of ine Unlocking Live Of ine. If the computer you want to unlock Live for is not connected to the Internet, you can use any other computer to access the Ableton server's web interface3 . This is a website with elds for entering your serial number and the challenge code, which you can copy from Live's Unlock dialog. 3 http://www.ableton.com/unlock CHAPTER 3. UNLOCKING LIVE 11 The Live Unlocking Web Site. If you have entered your serial number and challenge code correctly, another website will appear to provide you with the unlock key. There now are two options for transferring the unlock key to the computer that is to be unlocked: Follow the weblink to download the unlock key as a le. Transfer the le to the target computer via a diskette or CD-ROM. Then, press the Unlock dialog's Load Unlock Key button to load the unlock key le. The Unlock Key Can Be Downloaded as a Text File. OR it might be more convenient to print the webpage with the unlock key on it. On the target computer, press the Enter Unlock Key button to open a dialog with elds for typing in the unlock key. Typing it in is easier than it rst appears, because the elds will turn red if you type the wrong string. Manually Enter Your Unlock Key. CHAPTER 3. UNLOCKING LIVE 12 3.3 3.3.1 Copy Protection FAQs Can I Use Live or Other Ableton Products Without a Serial Number? If you do not (yet) own Live, you can work with Live in Demo Mode. Demo Mode offers Live's complete functionality, but saving and exporting are disabled. Live LE will run in Demo Mode by default if it has not been authorized. You can try out other Ableton products, such as the Operator instrument, by individually switching them to Demo Mode in the Products tab of the Preferences. Demo Mode can also be deactivated on a product-by-product basis in the Product Preferences. If running Live or another product in Demo Mode raises your interest in purchasing it, please select it from the Products Preferences tab and then click the Buy button, or visit the Ableton webshop4 . This site contains information about Ableton's distributor and dealer network. It also offers you the opportunity to buy Ableton products online. Live's Preferences are available via the Options menu (or the Live menu in Mac OS X). Click Here if You Are Interested in Buying Live LE. 4 http://www.ableton.com/shop CHAPTER 3. UNLOCKING LIVE 13 3.3.2 What if I Change My Computer's Components? If the challenge code of your computer changes for some reason, Live will indeed ask you to unlock the software another time. The challenge code does not change, however, when computer peripherals are replaced (audio or MIDI hardware, printers, modems). The challenge code may change if the motherboard, processor or network card is replaced. On some computers, reformatting a hard drive also changes the challenge code. 3.3.3 Can I Unlock Live More than Once? The standard Live license allows you to use Live on only one computer at a time. However, if you have registered your product5 , the Ableton server will provide you with two unlock keys in good faith that you will use Live on only one machine at a time. Just proceed as described in the corresponding section. You can therefore run Live on both a studio desktop computer and a tour laptop, but not at the same time. Should the Ableton server reject your demand for another unlock key, please contact Ableton's technical support. They can be reached by: E-mail6 ; Telephone: +49 (0)30 - 288 763 151 (available Monday to Friday 11 to 15hrs CET); Fax: +49 (0)30 - 288 763 11. To speed up the process, please: Register your copy of Live7 ; Include a brief explanation of the circumstances. 5 http://www.ableton.com/register 6 support@ableton.com 7 http://www.ableton.com/register CHAPTER 3. UNLOCKING LIVE 14 To use Live on more than one computer at a time, you require a secondary license or a site license. Ableton offers these licenses at special rates. Please contact the sales team8 for details. 3.3.4 Can I Play my Set from a Computer That Is Not Unlocked? In Demo Mode, you can load and perform a Live Set with no time limitation. You cannot, however, save or export your work. When you go on tour, consider taking along your Live program CD and a CD with the last state of your Live Set(s). In case of an emergency, you can install and run Live on any computer available and play your backup Live Set(s). 3.3.5 How Can I Turn Demo Mode Off? If Live is unlocked but other products are set to Demo Mode, Live will also run in Demo Mode, and you will not be allowed to save or export your work. To turn Demo Mode off in this case, activate the Hide option for each additional product in its respective Product Preference page. Click Here to Hide a Product's Features. 8 orders@ableton.com CHAPTER 3. UNLOCKING LIVE 15 You can always choose to show a product again later, and then try out its features by using them in Demo Mode. 3.3.6 What Do I Do About Problems or Questions Regarding Copy Protection? Please contact technical support9 . They are happy to help! 9 support@ableton.com 16 Chapter 4 Live Concepts This chapter introduces the essential concepts of Live. We advise you to read this chapter early in your Live career, as a solid understanding of the program's basic principles will help you fully exploit Live's potential for your music-making. 4.1 Live Sets The type of document that you create and work on in Live is called a Live Set. Live Sets reside in a Live Project a folder that collects related materials and can be opened either through the File menu's Open command or via the built-in File Browsers. A Live Set in the File Browser. CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 17 Selecting the Library bookmark in Live's File Browser will take you to the Live Library of creative tools. There are a number of Demo Sets here, and double-clicking a Live Set's name in the Browser will open that Live Set. 4.2 Arrangement and Session The basic musical building blocks of Live are called clips. A clip is a piece of musical material: a melody, a drum pattern, a bassline or a complete song. Live allows you to record and alter clips, and to create larger musical structures from them: songs, scores, remixes, DJ sets or stage shows. A Live Set consists of two environments that can hold clips: The Arrangement is a layout of clips along a musical timeline; the Session is a real-time-oriented launching base for clips. Every Session clip has its own play button that allows launching the clip at any time and in any order. Each clip's behavior upon launch can be precisely speci ed through a number of settings. Clips in the Session View (Left) and in the Arrangement View (Right). The Arrangement is accessed via the Arrangement View and the Session via the Session View; you can toggle between the two views using the computer's Tab key or their respective selectors. Because the two views have distinct applications, they each hold individual collections of clips. However, it is important to understand that ipping the views simply changes the appearance of the Live Set and does not switch modes, alter what you hear or change what is stored. The Arrangement and Session View Selectors. CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 18 The Arrangement View and the Session View interact in useful (though potentially confusing) ways. One can, for instance, improvise with Session clips and record a log of the improvisation into the Arrangement for further re nement. This works because Arrangement and Session are connected via tracks. 4.3 Tracks Tracks host clips and also manage the ow of signals, as well as the creation of new clips through recording, sound synthesis, effects processing and mixing. A Track in the Arrangement View. The Session and Arrangement share the same set of tracks. In the Session View, the tracks are laid out vertically from left to right, while in the Arrangement View they are horizontal from top to bottom. A simple rule governs the cohabitation of clips in a track: A track can only play one clip at a time. Therefore, one usually puts clips that should play alternatively in the same Session View column, and spreads out clips that should play together across tracks in rows, or what we call scenes. A Scene in the Session View. CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 19 The exclusivity of clips in a track also implies that, at any on time, a track will either play a Session clip or an Arrangement clip, but never both. So, who wins? When a Session clip is launched, the respective track stops whatever it is doing to play that clip. In particular, if the track was playing an Arrangement clip, it will stop it in favor of the Session clip even as the other tracks continue to play what is in the Arrangement. The track will not resume Arrangement playback until explicitly told to do so. The Back to Arrangement Button. This is what the Back to Arrangement button, found in the Control Bar at the top of the Live screen, is for. This button lights up to indicate that one or more tracks are currently not playing the Arrangement, but are playing a clip from the Session instead. We can click this button to make all tracks go back to the Arrangement. Or, if we like what we hear, we can capture the current state into the Arrangement by activating the Record button. Disengaging Record Mode or stopping Live using the Stop button leaves us with an altered Arrangement. 4.4 Audio and MIDI Clips represent recorded signals. Live deals with two types of signals: audio and MIDI. In the digital world, an audio signal is a series of numbers that approximates a continuous signal as generated by a microphone or delivered to a loudspeaker. A MIDI signal is a sequence of commands, such as now play a C4 at mezzo piano. MIDI is a symbolic representation of musical material, one that is closer to a written score than to an audio recording. MIDI signals are generated by input devices such as MIDI or USB keyboards1 . It takes an instrument to convert MIDI signals into audio signals that can actually be heard. Some instruments, such as Live's Simpler, are for chromatic playing of one sound via the keyboard. Other instruments, such as Live's Impulse, have a different percussion sound assigned to each keyboard key. 1 For an introduction to digital audio and MIDI, please see http://img.uoregon.edu/emi/emi.php and http://www.midi.org/ CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 20 Audio signals are recorded and played back using audio tracks, and MIDI signals are recorded and played back using MIDI tracks. The two track types have their own corresponding clip types. Audio clips cannot live on MIDI tracks and vice versa. Information about inserting, reordering and deleting audio and MIDI tracks is found here. 4.5 Audio Clips and Samples An audio clip contains a reference to a sample (also known as a sound le or audio le ) or a compressed sample (such as an MP3 le). The clip tells Live where on the computer's drives to nd the sample, what part of the sample to play and how to play it. When a sample is dragged in from one of Live's built-in File Browsers, Live automatically creates a clip to play that sample. Prior to dragging in a sample, one can audition or preview it directly in the Browser; the switch in the Browser with the headphone icon activates previewing. Samples Are Dragged in from Live's File Browsers. Live offers many options for playing samples in exciting new ways, allowing you to create an abundance of new sounds without actually changing the original sample all the changes are computed in real time, while the sample is played. The respective settings are made in the Clip View, which appears on screen when a clip is double-clicked. CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 21 An Audio Clip's Properties as Displayed in the Clip View. Many powerful manipulations arise from Live's warping capabilities. Warping means changing the speed of sample playback independently from the pitch so as to match the song tempo. The tempo can be adjusted on the y in the Control Bar's Tempo eld. The Control Bar's Tempo Field. The most elementary use of this technique, and one that usually requires no manual setup, is synchronizing sample loops to the chosen tempo. Live's Auto-Warp algorithm actually makes it easy to line up any sample with the song tempo, such as a recording of a drunken jazz band's performance. It is also possible to radically change the sonic signature of a sound using extreme warp settings. 4.6 MIDI Clips and MIDI Files A MIDI clip contains musical material in the form of MIDI notes and controller envelopes. When MIDI is imported from a MIDI le, the data gets incorporated into the Live Set, and the original le is not referenced thereafter. In the Live File Browsers, a MIDI le appears as a folder that can be opened to reveal its individual component tracks, which can be selectively dragged into the Live Set. CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 22 MIDI Files Are Dragged in from Live's File Browsers. As you'd expect, a MIDI clip's contents can be accessed and edited via the Clip View, for instance to change a melody or paint a drum pattern. A MIDI Clip's Properties as Displayed in the Clip View. 4.7 Devices and the Mixer A track can have not only clips but also a chain of devices for processing signals. Doubleclicking a track's title bar brings up the Track View, which shows the track's device chain. CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 23 The Track View Displaying a MIDI Track's Device Chain. Live's built-in audio effects, MIDI effects and instruments are available from the Device Browser and can be added to tracks by dragging them from there into the Track View, or into a Session or Arrangement track. Live's Built-in Devices Are Available from the Device Browser. You can also use plug-in devices in Live. VST and Audio Units (Mac OS X only) Plug-ins are available from the Plug-In Device Browser. CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 24 Plug-In Devices Are Available from the Plug-In Device Browser. Consider an audio clip playing in an audio track. The audio signal from the clip reaches the leftmost device in the chain. This device processes (changes) the signal and feeds the result into the next device, and so on. The number of devices per track is theoretically unlimited, (although there is a limit of eight instruments and twelve audio effects within a single set when using Live LE). In practice, the computer's processor speed also imposes a limit on the number of devices you can use at the same time, a topic that deserves separate discussion. Note that the signal connections between audio devices are always stereo, but the software's inputs and outputs can be con gured to be mono in the Audio Preferences. When the signal has passed through the device chain, it ends up in Live's mixer. As the Session and Arrangement share the same set of tracks, they also share the mixer. The mixer can be shown in both views for convenience. To optimize the screen layout, the individual mixer sections can be shown or hidden using the View menu's entries. The Live Mixer in the Arrangement View (Left) and Session View (Right). CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 25 The mixer has controls for volume, pan position and sends, which adjust the contribution each track makes to the input of any return tracks. Return tracks only host effects, and not clips. Via their sends, all tracks can feed a part of their signal into a return track and share its effects. The mixer also includes a crossfader, which can create smooth transitions between clips playing on different tracks. Live's crossfader works like a typical DJ mixer crossfader, except that it allows crossfading not only two but any number of tracks including the returns. Live's Crossfader. Devices that receive and deliver audio signals are called audio effects. Audio effects are the only type of device that t in an audio track or a return track. However, two more types of devices are available for use in MIDI tracks: MIDI effects and instruments. Consider a MIDI track playing a clip. The MIDI signal from the clip is fed into the track's device chain. There, it is rst processed by any number of MIDI effects. A MIDI effect receives and delivers MIDI signals. One example is the Scale effect, which maps the incoming notes onto a user-de ned musical scale. The last MIDI effect in the chain is followed by an instrument. Instruments, for instance Live's Simpler and Impulse, receive MIDI and deliver audio. Following the instrument, the signal can be additionally processed by audio effects as in an audio track. A MIDI Effect, an Instrument and an Audio Effect in a MIDI Track. If a MIDI track has no instrument (and no audio effects), then the track's output is a plain MIDI signal, which has to be sent somewhere else to be converted into audio. In this case, CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 26 the track's mix and Send controls disappear from the mixer. The Mixer for a MIDI Track without an Instrument. 4.8 Presets and Racks Every Live device can store and retrieve particular sets of parameter values as presets. As presets are stored independently from Live Sets, new presets become part of a library that any project can draw from. Live's Instrument and Effect Racks allow saving combinations of devices and their settings as a single preset. This feature allows for the creation of powerful multi-device creations and effectively adds all the capabilities of Live's MIDI and audio effects to the built-in instruments. 4.9 Routing As we have seen, all tracks deliver signals, either audio or MIDI. Where do these signals go? This is set up in the mixer's In/Out section, which offers, for every track, choosers to select a signal source and destination. The In/Out section, accessible through the View menu's In/Out option, is Live's patchbay. Its routing options enable valuable creative and technical methods such as resampling, submixing, layering of synths, complex effects setups and more. CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 27 Track Routing Is Set up Using the In/Out Section in the Arrangement (Left) or Session View (Right). Signals from the tracks can be sent to the outside world via the computer's audio and MIDI interfaces or to other tracks or devices within Live. Likewise, a track can be set up to receive an input signal to be played through the track's devices. Again, tracks can receive their input from the outside or from another track or device in Live. The Monitor controls regulate the conditions under which the input signal is heard through the track. 4.10 Recording New Clips Audio tracks and MIDI tracks can record their input signal and thereby create new clips. Recording is enabled on a track by pressing its Arm button (Hold down the Ctrl (PC) / (Mac) modi er to arm several tracks at once). When the Control Bar's Record button is on, every armed track records its input signal into the Arrangement. Every take yields a new clip per track. Track Arm Buttons, as They Appear in the Session View. It is also possible to record into Session View slots on the y. This technique is very useful for the jamming musician, as Session recording does not require stopping the music. When a track is armed, its Session slots exhibit Clip Record buttons, and clicking one of these commences recording. Clicking the Clip Record button again de nes the end of CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 28 the recording and launches the new clip. As these actions are subject to real-time launch quantization, the resulting clips can be automatically cut to the beat. The Control Bar's Quantization Chooser. Session recording in conjunction with the Overdub option and Record Quantization is the method of choice for creating drum patterns, which are built up by successively adding notes to the pattern while it plays in a loop. It only takes a MIDI keyboard (or the computer keyboard) and a MIDI track with Live's Impulse percussion instrument to do this. 4.11 Automation Envelopes Often, when working with Live's mixer and effects, you will want the controls' movements to become part of the Arrangement. The movement of a control across the Arrangement timeline is called automation; a control whose value changes in the course of this timeline is automated. Automation is represented in the Arrangement View by breakpoint envelopes, which can be edited and drawn. The Automated Pan Control and its Envelope. Practically all mixer and effect controls in Live can be automated, even the song tempo. Creating automation is straightforward: All changes of a control that occur while the Control Bar's Record switch is on become automation. Changing an automated control's value while not in Record Mode is similar to launching a Session clip while the Arrangement is playing: It deactivates the control's automation (in favor of the new control setting). The control will stop tracking its automation and rest with the new value until the Back to Arrangement button is pressed, which will resume Arrangement playback. CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 29 4.12 Clip Envelopes Envelopes are found not only in tracks but also in clips. Clip envelopes are used to modulate the parameters of the clip itself. Audio clips have clip envelopes to in uence the clip's pitch, volume and more; these can be used to change the melody and rhythm of recorded audio. MIDI clips have clip envelopes to represent MIDI controller data. Clip envelopes can be unlinked from the clip to give them independent loop settings, so that larger movements (like fade-outs) or smaller gestures (like an arpeggio) can be superimposed onto the clip's material. An Envelope for Clip Transposition. 4.13 MIDI and Key Remote To liberate the musician from the mouse, most of Live's controls can be remote-controlled via an external MIDI controller. Remote mappings are established in MIDI Map Mode, which is engaged by pressing the MIDI switch in the Control Bar. In this mode, you can click on any mixer or effect control, and then assign it to a controller simply by sending the desired MIDI message (for example, by turning a knob on your MIDI control box). Your assignments take effect immediately after you leave MIDI Map Mode. Session clips can be mapped to a MIDI key or even a keyboard range for chromatic playing. MIDI keys and controllers that have been mapped to Live's controls are not available for recording via MIDI tracks. These messages are ltered out before the incoming MIDI is passed on to the MIDI tracks. CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 30 The Key/MIDI Map Controls. Session clips, switches, buttons and radio buttons can be mapped to computer keyboard keys as well. This happens in Key Map Mode, which works just like MIDI Map Mode. Live offers, in addition to this general purpose mapping technique, dedicated support for Mackie Control-compatible mixer surfaces, which allows for mouse-free operation of the program. 4.14 Saving and Exporting Saving a Live Set saves everything it contains, including all clips, their positions and settings, and settings for devices and controls. An audio clip can, however, lose the reference to its corresponding sample if it is moved or deleted from disk. The links between samples and their clips can be preserved with a special command, Collect and Save, which makes a copy of each sample and stores it in a project folder along with the Live Set. A separate Save button in the Clip View saves a set of default clip settings along with the sample, so that each time the sample is dragged into the program, it will automatically appear with these settings. This is especially useful if you have made warp settings for a clip and want to use it in multiple Live Sets. Exporting audio from Live can be done from both the Session and Arrangement Views. Live will export the audio coming through on the Master output as an audio le of your speci cations via Render to Disk. Live can also export individual MIDI clips as MIDI les. Exporting and saving material for later use in Live can be done very conveniently with the Live Clip format. Session View clips can be dragged back out of a Live Set to the File Browsers, and thereby exported to disk as Live Clips. CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 31 A Live Clip in the File Browser. Live Clips are a very powerful way of storing ideas, as they save not only the clip's Clip View settings, but also the corresponding track's instruments and effects chain. Live Clips in the Browser can be previewed and added to any open Live Set just like sample les. In the Live Set, they restore the original clip's creative options. Using Live Clips, you can build your own personalized library of: MIDI sequences with matching instruments and effects, e.g., a MIDI drum pattern with the associated Impulse and effects settings; Different regions or loops referencing the same source le; Variations of a sample loop created by applying Warp Markers, clip envelopes and effects; Ideas that may not t your current project but could be useful in the future. 4.15 The Library The Live Library acts as a repository of sounds that are available to all projects. In Live's File Browsers, the Library is accessible through a bookmark. Bookmarks can be selected by clicking the Browser's title bar to open the Bookmark menu: CHAPTER 4. LIVE CONCEPTS 32 Choosing the Library Bookmark. After installation the Library will already contain a few sound ideas, courtesy of Ableton. We encourage you to remove, change, augment or replace this content as you like. Ableton provides additional Library content in the form of Live Packs which are available from installation CDs, DVDs or the Ableton website2 . Owners of a boxed version of Live can enjoy the Essential Instrument Collection, a multi-gigabyte library of meticulously sampled and selected instruments. 2 http://www.ableton.com/downloads 33 Chapter 5 Managing Files and Sets Various types of les are used in making music with Live, from those containing MIDI and audio, to more program-speci c les such as Live Clips and Live Sets. This chapter will explain everything you need to know about working with each of these le types in Live. However, we should rst take a look at Live's File Browsers, through which most les arrive in the program. 5.1 Working with the File Browsers Live offers three File Browsers which can be accessed via their selector buttons. CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 34 The File Browser Selector Buttons. Each Browser can point to a different disk location, something that Live will remember across sessions. The Browser display is divided into columns corresponding to Name , Date, etc., which you can show and hide using the (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu options. Showing/Hiding Browser Columns. Columns can be reordered by drag and drop. To resize the columns, drag their divider lines horizontally. Resizing Browser Columns. 5.1.1 Browsing the Folder Hierarchy Each of the three File Browsers has its own root directory, shown at the top of the Browser, the contents of which are available for browsing below. CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 35 Library Is this Browser's Root. The Browser root can easily be changed: The topmost Browser item, called Parent Folder, will move the Browser root up one step up in the disk hierarchy when double-clicked. The File Browser's Parent Folder Item. You can also set the Browser root to any folder in the Browser by double-clicking the folder, or by selecting it and pressing Return . A Folder in the Browser. Moving through the les in Live's Browser can be done with either the mouse or the computer keyboard: Scroll up and down in the Browser with Close and open folders with and . . and Jump to the parent folder of any closed folder using . (Hint: If executed on a top-level folder, this is an alternative to selecting the Parent Folder item, and will move the Browser root up one level.) To clean up the Browser, use (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) to access the context menu, and then select the Close All Folders option to show only top-level folders. Double-clicking a CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 36 File Browser's selector button will do the same. 5.1.2 Browser Bookmarks Using bookmarks, you can quickly save and recall frequently used folder locations in the Browser. Clicking in the Browser's title bar will open the Bookmark menu. The Bookmark Menu. The Bookmark menu lists a number of preset bookmarks such as Desktop and Library. Selecting the latter will bring you to the Live Library. To bookmark the current Browser root, choose the Bookmark menu's topmost item, the Bookmark Current Folder command. Note that if the current Browser root is already bookmarked, the topmost option in the Bookmark menu will remove the bookmark. All File Browsers share the same set of bookmarks; a bookmark stored in one Browser can be retrieved from another. 5.1.3 Searching for Files Live's File Browsers are equipped with a search function for nding les. Clicking the F (PC) / Search button in the upper right corner of the Browser or using the Ctrl F (Mac) shortcut will open the Browser's Search Mode. CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 37 Activating Browser Search Mode. After entering your search terms, begin the search by clicking the Go button or pressing Return on your computer keyboard. The Search Field and Go Button. Live will search the entire Browser root for your search terms. The results will include les that match all search terms, as opposed to any. For example, if you search for acoustic bass, the search will yield all acoustic bass sounds not all acoustic sounds and all bass sounds. By default, the search function matches the entered criteria not only to any part of a le's name and suf x (e.g., .wav ) but also to any part of its le path. This means that a search for bass, for example, will yield not only les with names containing the word bass but also those located in folders with names containing the word bass. Compressed sample metadata tags are also included in the search, making it possible to search for songs from a speci c album or artist, for example. Searching le paths and metadata can be deactivated with the Search In Path and Search In Metadata settings, available in the Preferences' File/Folder tab. The names of MIDI tracks within multitrack MIDI les are also included in searches. Live maintains an index of the hard disk so that it can deliver search results instantly. The index is kept up to date as you create, install, delete, rename and move les within Live it has no way of knowing, however, what you are doing outside of Live. If you have subsequently moved les using programs other than Live, the initial results of a search might be incomplete. The Go button's label will change to Rescan. If you can't nd a le in the search results, or need to be sure that the results are comprehensive, click the Rescan button (or Return once more), and Live will rebuild its index for the current Browser root. CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 38 The Rescan Button. Automatic rescanning for new searches can be activated and deactivated in the File/Folder Preferences. While a search/rescan is going on, the adjacent search button is labeled Stop. Rescanning happens in the background, and you can keep making music while Live does its work, but you can also abort the search with this button if the disk traf c is bothering you. You can go back to the Browser's folder view at any time by closing the search eld: Closing the Search Field... If you select a le from the search results and then close the search eld, Live makes sure that le remains selected in the folder view, opening folders as required: ... Locates the File Last Selected Among the Search Results. For mouse-free searching, we suggest the following sequence of shortcuts: 1) Ctrl F (PC) / F (Mac) to open the search eld; CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 39 2) Type your search terms; 3) 4) 5) 6) Return to Go ; to jump to the search results; and to scroll the search results; F Ctrl F (PC) / back to the folder view. (Mac) to close the search eld and go 5.1.4 Previewing Files The Preview Switch. Live allows you to preview les in the File Browser before they are imported into the program. Previewing is activated using the Browser's Preview switch. Hint: You can preview les even when the Preview switch is not activated by pressing Return . Click on the les (or use and ) to select and listen to them. Live tries to preview les in sync with the current Live Set, so that you can better judge which samples will work for you. The previewing volume can be adjusted using the mixer's Preview Volume knob. The Preview Volume Knob. CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 40 If your audio hardware offers multiple audio outs, you can privately audition, or cue, les via headphones connected to a separate pair of outs while the music continues to play. To learn how to set up Live for cueing, please refer to the relevant section of the Mixing chapter. 5.1.5 Adding Clips from the Browser There are several ways to add clips to a Live Set: Files can be dragged and dropped from the File Browsers into tracks in the Session or Arrangement View. Dragging and dropping material from the Browser into the space to the right of Session View tracks or below Arrangement View tracks will create a new track and place the new clip(s) there. Dropping a Clip to Create a New Track. In the Session View, double-clicking or pressing Return on a le in the Browser will automatically create a new track to the right of the other tracks and load it with the clip. Files can be dropped directly into Live from the Explorer (Windows)/Finder (Mac). 5.1.6 File Maintenance in the Browser You can use Live's File Browsers for all of the le maintenance activities that you are familiar with on your operating system. CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 41 Move les and folders by dragging and dropping, or by copying/cutting and pasting. Copying, cutting and pasting can be done with either Edit menu commands or keyboard shortcuts. A le can be moved from one File Browser to another by dragging it over the target Browser's button. Rename les and folders using the Edit menu's Rename command or the R (Mac) shortcut. Cancel renaming with the Esc (PC) / key. Create folders by opening the context menu with selecting the Create Folder command. Ctrl R (PC) / Ctrl (Mac), and then Delete les and folders using the Edit menu's Delete command or your computer's or Delete key. Deleting items within Live moves them to the system trash; if necessary, you can recover items from the system trash via your computer's operating system. Note that, while you can rename or delete entire MIDI les via the Browser, this is not possible with the individual MIDI tracks contained within them. This is also the case with the individual components of Live Sets. 5.1.7 Hot-Swap Mode In addition to the drag-and-drop method of loading les from the Browser, Live offers a Hot-Swap Mode to save you mouse travel. Hot-Swap Mode establishes a temporary link between the Browser and, for example, a virtual instrument. While in Hot-Swap Mode, you can step through samples or presets to audition them in place, that is, within the instrument. Hot-swapping for presets is covered in the Live Device Presets section. Let's go through an example of hot-swapping samples: Live's built-in Impulse instrument features eight sample-player slots that can be lled by dropping samples into them. Alternatively, we can click the Hot-Swap button that appears as we move the mouse over a slot. The Hot-Swap Button in an Impulse Slot. CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 42 Clicking the Hot-Swap button engages Hot-Swap Mode: Live's Hot-Swap Browser opens, and the Hot-Swap icon appears next to one of the les shown. The Hot-Swap Browser. While in Hot-Swap Mode, pressing the Return key loads that le into the Impulse slot (presumably while Impulse is playing incoming MIDI notes); pressing , then Return loads the next sample, and so on. Instead of using the keys, we can also double-click on a sample to load it. The link between the Browser and the instrument will be broken if a different view is selected, or if the Hot-Swap button is pressed again. Hot-swapping can also be cancelled key. with a press of the Esc When Hot-Swap Mode is re-entered, the Hot-Swap Browser will try to reconstruct what you saw when you loaded the current le into the Impulse slot. If, for instance, the current le was found by searching for gretsch kick, the Hot-Swap Browser will come up with that search string in the search eld. In our example, we were hot-swapping for an empty Impulse slot, so Live came up with something appropriate: a search for Drum Kick in Library/Samples/Waveforms. 5.2 Sample Files A sample is a le that contains audio data. Live can play both uncompressed le formats (WAV, AIF and Sound Designer II for Mac) and compressed le formats (MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, Ogg FLAC and FLAC). CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 43 A note on using Variable Bit Rate (VBR) les: Please install QuickTime for decoding purposes if you do not already have it on your system. It can be downloaded from the Apple website1 . As Live plays the samples directly from disk, you can work with a large number of (large) samples without running into RAM memory limitations. Live can combine uncompressed mono or stereo samples of any length, sample rate or bit depth without prior conversion. To play a compressed sample, Live decodes the sample and writes the result to a temporary, uncompressed sample le. This usually happens quickly enough that you will be able to play the sample right away, without waiting for the decoding process to nish. Note: When adding a long sample to a project, Live might tell you that it cannot play the sample before it has been analyzed. Please see the section on analysis for an explanation. 5.2.1 The Decoding Cache To save computational resources, Live keeps the decoded sample les of compressed samples in the decoding cache, a sub-directory of the Audio Record Folder. Maintenance of the cache is normally not required, as Live automatically deletes older les to make room for those that are new. You can, however, impose limits on the cache size using the File/Folder Preferences' Decoding Cache section. The cache will not grow larger than the Maximum Cache Size setting, and it will always leave the Minimum Free Space on the hard disk. Pressing the nearby Cleanup button will delete all les not being used by the current Live Set. Preferences for the Decoding Cache. 1 http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 44 5.2.2 Analysis Files (.asd) An analysis le is a little le that Live creates when a sample le is brought into the program for the rst time. The analysis le contains data gathered by Live to help optimize the stretching quality, speed up the waveform display and automatically detect the tempo of long samples. When adding a long sample to a project, Live might tell you that it cannot play the sample before it has been analyzed. This will not happen if the sample has already been analyzed (i.e., Live nds an analysis le for this sample), or if the Record/Warp/Launch Preferences' Auto-Warp Long Samples preference has been deactivated. To prevent waiting for analysis of longer samples, you can pre-analyze them via the Browser, as we will see in a moment. An analysis le can also store default clip settings for the sample: Clicking the Clip View's Save button will store the current clip's settings with the sample's analysis le. The next time the sample is dragged into Live, it will appear with all its clip settings intact. This is particularly useful for retaining Warp Marker settings with the sample. Storing default clip settings with the analysis le is different from saving the clip as a Live Clip. The analysis le's name is the same as that of the associated sample, with an added .asd extension. Live puts this analysis le in the same folder as the sample. Samples that have an .asd le are displayed like this in the Browser. Samples without an .asd le look like this. The analysis les themselves do not appear in Live's Browsers. Note that you can suppress the creation of .asd les by turning off the Create Analysis Files option in the File/Folder Preferences. All data (except for the default clip settings) can be recreated by Live if the .asd le is missing, however this will take some time for longer samples. CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 45 5.2.3 File Pre-Analysis To avoid waiting for longer samples to be analyzed the rst time they are imported into Live, you may want to pre-analyze them. To pre-analyze all the les contained in any folder in the Browser, use the (PC) / Ctrl (Mac) context menu's Analyze Audio command. This process can also be cancelled via the context menu. 5.2.4 Exporting Audio The File menu's Render to Disk command allows exporting Live's audio output as new samples. The resulting les can be used to burn an audio CD for listening purposes or a data CD, which could serve as a backup of your work or be used with other digital audio applications. Which Signal Will Be Rendered? When Render to Disk is invoked while the Arrangement View is up, Live will render the Master track's output for the selected time range. If you would like to render the current Arrangement loop, choose the Select Loop command from the Edit menu prior to choosing Render to Disk. If you choose Render to Disk while the Session View is up, Live will ask you to specify the length of the sample to be rendered. The Render to Disk dialog will come up with a bars-beats-sixteenths eld where you can type in the desired length. Live will capture audio starting at the current play start position for whichever duration you have speci ed. CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 46 Rendering Options Rendering Options. The Render dialog offers several rendering options: Normalize If this is activated, the sample resulting from the render process will be normalized (i.e., the le will be ampli ed so that the highest peak attains the maximum available headroom). Render as Loop If this is activated, Live will create a sample that can be used as a loop. For example, suppose your Live Set uses a delay effect. If Render as Loop is on, Live will go through the rendering process twice: The rst pass will not actually write samples to disk, but add the speci ed delay effect. As the second pass starts writing audio to disk, it will include the delay tail resulting from the rst pass. File Type, Bit Depth, Sample Rate created. These options specify the type of sample to be Create Analysis File If this is activated, Live will create an .asd le that contains analysis information about the rendered sample. If you intend to use the new sample in Live, check this option. CHAPTER 5. MANAGING FILES AND SETS 47 Convert to Mono le. If this is activated, Live will create a mono le instead of a stereo 5.3 MIDI Files A MIDI le contains commands that prompt MIDI compatible synthesizers or instruments, such as Live's Simpler, to create speci c musical output. MIDI les are exported by hardware and software MIDI sequencers. Importing MIDI les into Live works differently than with samples: MIDI le data is incorporated into the Live Set, and the resulting MIDI clips lose all reference to the original le. MIDI les appear as folders in the File Browser; opening the folders gives you access to the le's individual tracks (also called voices or instruments ). A MIDI File and its Tracks in the Browser. 5.3.1 Exporting MIDI Files Live MIDI clips can be exported as Standard MIDI les. To export a MIDI clip, use the File menu's Export Selected MIDI Clip command. This command will open a le-save dialog, allowing you to choose the location for your new MIDI le. Exporting a MIDI le is different from saving the clip as a Live Clip.