1 Reference Manual Ableton Live 7 Sampler - Operator - Analog - Tension - Electric Session Drums - Drum Machines Orchestral Strings - Orchestral Brass Orchestral Percussion - Orchestral Woodwinds Essential Instrument Collection Live Version 7.0.1 for Windows and Mac OS November, 2007 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 Büttner, Alex Koch, Henrik Hahn, Simon Frontzek, Torsten Wendland, Torsten Slama, Eduard Müller, Jeremy Bernstein, Bernard Chavonnet, Carl Seleborg, Claes Johanson, Bernhard Bockelbrink, Nico Starke, Jörg Kluÿmann. Reference Manual by Dennis DeSantis, Kevin Haywood, Rose Knudsen, Gerhard Behles, Jakob Rang, Robert Henke, Torsten Slama. Content provided by: SONiVOX www.sonivoxrocks.com Big Fish Audio www.big shaudio.com Chocolate Audio www.chocolateaudio.com Puremagnetik www.puremagnetik.com Physical Modeling technology provided by: Applied Acoustics Systems www.applied-acoustics.com 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. Every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this manual is accurate. 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, edited, 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, Live and Live Pack are trademarks of Ableton AG. Apple, the Apple Logo, Mac, the Universal Logo, Mac OS, the Audio Units Logo, the QuickTime Logo and QuickTime are trademarks of Apple, Inc. Windows, Windows XP and Windows Vista are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. SONiVOX is the brand name trademark of Sonic Network, Inc. VST and ASIO are trademarks and software of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. ReWire, ReCycle, REX and REX2 are trademarks of Propellerhead Software AB. AAS is a trademark of Applied Acoustics Systems DVM Inc. Mackie Control is a trademark of LOUD Technologies, Inc. OggVorbis 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 CHAPTER 1. WELCOME TO LIVE 2 1.2 1.2.1 What's New in Live 7? Multiple Time Signatures Work with multiple time signatures in both Arrangement and Session view 1.2.2 Movie Export Export video to a new le 1.2.3 Slicing and REX Support REX les can be loaded and played in sync with other audio les Audio les can be sliced to a new MIDI track 1.2.4 Multiple Automation Editor Lanes View and edit multiple automation envelopes for a track simultaneously in the Arrangement View 1.2.5 Better Tempo Control Temporarily change playback speed to match the tempo of unsynchronized sources like DJs or live musicians. Map song tempo to multiple controllers for coarse and ne adjustments CHAPTER 1. WELCOME TO LIVE 3 1.2.6 Ableton Effects and Instruments Drum Racks expand the Rack family with integrated return chains, choke groups, and other functions optimized for building drum kits Tension optional add-on instrument Electric optional add-on instrument Analog optional add-on instrument Compressor replaces the former Compressor I and II devices with three compression models, feedback, sidechaining and more. Spectrum performs realtime frequency analysis of incoming audio signals. Easier integration of external hardware effects and synthesizers with the External Audio Effect and External Instrument devices 1.2.7 Device Improvements Sidechaining is available in the new Compressor effect, as well as the Gate and Auto Filter EQ Eight is updated with a larger display, a new notch lter, larger parameter ranges and an optional 64-bit hi-quality mode Hi-Quality modes have also been added to the Operator instrument and Dynamic Tube and Saturator effects 4 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 5 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. For certain items, you can create your own text and it will appear in this window. 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 Preferences command, which in Windows is available in the Options menu and in OS X CHAPTER 2. FIRST STEPS 6 Ctrl , is available in the Live menu. Preferences can also be accessed with the , (Mac) shortcut. Live's Preferences are distributed over several tabs: (PC) / 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 three 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. Syncing the program with an external sequencer or drum machine, either as a master or a slave. Please see the Synchronizing via MIDI chapter for details. 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. CHAPTER 2. FIRST STEPS 7 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, which is the type of document that you create and work on in Live. Since screen space is usually limited, the Live views can't all be displayed at the same time. Each one of the selector buttons at the screen borders calls up a speci c view; clicking this one, for instance, opens Live's Device Browser: 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.) If one of the browser views is open, you can adjust the main window's horizontal split by dragging. CHAPTER 2. FIRST STEPS 8 Adjusting the Main Window Split. 9 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, such as the Operator and Sampler instruments. Please note that products such as Operator and Sampler 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 10 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 11 Selecting the Unlock Button in the Products Tab. 3.1 Step 1: Entering Your Serial Number As an owner of Live, you have received a serial number from Ableton, either via e-mail (if you ordered Live directly from Ableton), or on a card as part of the Live 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 ...