Ableton Reference Manual Version 8 Live Version 8.0.2 for Windows and Mac OS May, 2009 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, Stefan Brunner, Tobias Hahn, Stefan von der Mark, Carsten Henÿinger, Stephan Diehl, David Talbot, Robert Feldbinder, Diez Roggisch, Justine Lera, Dennis DeSantis, Ian Gallagher, Philipp Gries, Marie Hoffmann, Marian Kalus, Stephan Krohn, Michael Dühr, Dennis Fischer. Reference Manual by Dennis DeSantis, Ian Gallagher, Kevin Haywood, Rose Knudsen, Gerhard Behles, Jakob Rang, Robert Henke, Torsten Slama. Content provided by: SONiVOX www.sonivoxrocks.com Chocolate Audio www.chocolateaudio.com Puremagnetik www.puremagnetik.com Cycling '74 www.cycling74.com SonArte www.sonarte.ca e-instruments www.e-instruments.com Zero-G www.zero-g.co.uk Physical Modeling technology provided by: Applied Acoustics Systems www.applied-acoustics.com Copyright 2009 Ableton AG. All rights reserved. Made in Germany. 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, the Ableton Logo, the Live logo are trademarks of Ableton AG. Apple, GarageBand, Mac, Macintosh, Mac OS and QuickTime are trademarks of Apple Inc, registered in the U.S. and other countries. Finder is a trademark of Apple Inc. Windows is a registered trademark 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 and REX2 are trademarks of Propellerhead Software AB. 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 8? New Warping Engine Live's warping engine has been dramatically overhauled, with more accurate transient detection and a redesigned interface that allows you to drag the waveform along a xed timeline. New transient loop and envelope controls in Beats Mode allow for higher quality warping, especially at slower tempos. New Complex Pro Mode for even higher quality warping. You can now quantize audio clips using the Edit menu's Quantize command. 1.2.2 New Groove Functionality Groove patterns can now modify the timing and volume of audio and MIDI clips in real-time. A large library of grooves is provided, and grooves can be extracted from clips and then reapplied to other clips. 1.2.3 Work ow Enhancements Crossfades are now available for adjacent clips in Arrangement View. The MIDI Editor has been reworked, and editing MIDI is now similar to editing in the Arrangement. An insert mark sets the precise location for clipboard operations, allowing notes or time to be copied, pasted, inserted and deleted anywhere in the clip. Enhanced keyboard commands also improve the editing work ow. As a result of the new navigation possibilities in the MIDI Editor, it is now possible to step record MIDI notes. Audio and MIDI tracks can be grouped into a summing Group Track. Group Tracks can be folded or unfolded to help organize your work ow in both Session and Arrangement View. CHAPTER 1. WELCOME TO LIVE 3 Live's interface can be magni ed to maximize visibility via the Zoom Display slider. A Preview Tab in the Browser provides a visual overview of the previewed le's contents, and allows you to scrub in the waveform or MIDI display. When multiple tracks are selected, adjusting one of their mixer or routing parameters will adjust the same parameter in the other selected tracks. 1.2.4 Ableton Effects and Instruments Operator has been dramatically overhauled with a variety of new lter types, an expanded set of modulation routings and additive wavetable synthesis with drawable partials. Collision optional add-on instrument Corpus optional add-on effect Latin Percussion optional add-on sample library Looper provides classic tape-loop style overdubbing, with drag-and-drop export to clips, MIDI-mappable controls optimized for use with foot pedals and more. Vocoder combines the best of classic analog vocoders with powerful new features. Limiter provides a true brickwall limiter, ideal for mastering applications. The Multiband Dynamics device allows for upward or downward compression or expansion of up to three separate frequency bands. Overdrive is a powerful addition to Live's arsenal of distortion tools. Frequency Shifter combines frequency shifting and ring modulation effects in a single device. 1.2.5 New Library Live's Library is now stocked with a large collection of new creative tools including numerous device presets, loops and samples, construction kits and template Sets. CHAPTER 1. WELCOME TO LIVE 4 1.2.6 Online Collaboration Tools Share Live Sets with other users via a shared web area at ableton.com. 1.2.7 Controllers Support for the APC40 (Ableton Performance Controller), a dedicated controller for Ableton Live. 1.2.8 More Improvements Macro Controls now automatically show the name and units of their mapped parameter whenever possible. a High-Quality mode has been added to the Flanger effect. Third-party plug-in support has been improved to allow access to an arbitrary number of parameters. it is now possible to slice based on the transients of the audio le. the Ping Pong Delay and Simple Delay effects now have three user-selectable delay transition modes. Sampler's waveshaper now offers a fourth curve type: 4bit. Multiple Live Packs can be uninstalled simultaneously, and the Browser can now sort content by the Live Pack that installed it. 5 Chapter 2 First Steps When you install Live and run it for the rst time, you will be presented with an authorization dialog. Please see the chapter on authorizing Live should you have questions or concerns during the authorization process. If you do not (yet) own Live, you can still try out all of Live's features, but you will not be able to save or export your work. 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 experienced users. The remaining chapters of this manual serve as in-depth reference for the material introduced in Live Concepts. CHAPTER 2. FIRST STEPS 6 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 , (PC) / is available in the Live menu. Preferences can also be accessed with the Ctrl , (Mac) shortcut. Live's Preferences are distributed over several tabs: In the Look/Feel tab, you can modify various settings, including the language used for CHAPTER 2. FIRST STEPS 7 text display and the color scheme, or skin, for the Live user interface. This is also where you can adjust the size of objects displayed on the screen: the Zoom Display slider allows you to zoom Live's screen to any percentage between 50% and 200% of the standard interface size. 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 User Account/Licenses Preferences are used to manage licensing and installation of the Live platform, and add-on components like the Operator instrument. The Library Preferences allow you to specify the location of Live's Library and manage currently installed Live Packs. CHAPTER 2. FIRST STEPS 8 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 th ...