TIP: making Live work in SONG strucure
Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2004 12:48 am
how to use live with multiple signatures, and song structures
info@songcarver.com
if you're like me, you like to work in a 'song' type structure - ie VERSE VERSE CHORUS etc.
Live is not really setup to handle this sort of thing when writing, so this is a simple and powerful hack.
It allows you to
-Make scenes follow one another
-Move, copy and rehearse with structure like VERSE, CHORUS, BREAKDOWN etc
-Allows each section to be in a different TIME SIGNATURE, and TEMPO
How to do it:
1)
Preferences
select on launch
select next scene on launch OFF
2)
now load up some midi routing utility, in OS X i use the excellent midipipe
to simply echo the midi in to midi out
3)
load live
make sure that your midi utility is selected in the active MIDI devices.
create a midi track. dont put any instruments in it
label it 'structure' or something similar
4)
The next steps basically setup a clip which triggers 'Next scene' then 'trigger selected scene' in Lives remote control.
then make a midi clip 1 bar long by double clicking
on the 1st beat, put in a midi note 1/16 long
now, move the loop offset marker to just AFTER that note
now make the length 4 bars
hit play on the clip
now quickly go into MIDI map mode
select the 'select next scene' button that appears when you are in this mode
select it, and wait for your track to send a midi note to that button
turn off midi map mode
delete that note, and add a different one, and go through the same MIDI map mode process, but this time for 'trigger current scene'
5)
the result will be this:
Structure clip:
MIDI Map settings:
So now when a strcuture clip plays, it will get to almost the end, select the next scene, and trigger that scene. The reason for moving the offset marker is that you can now put in any bar length and time signature and not need to muck with the offset marker to make sure the MIDI notes play at the very last second.
Now go and copy a bunch of these clips. Colour them something bright so you remember.
HOW TO USE:
• Remember to always trigger the scene, not the structure clip
• You can type in any bar length, and time signature in the structure clip. for time signatures that have divisions of 1/8 notes (eg 6/8, 9/8 etc), remember to set Launch quantization on the structure clips to 1/8 notes.
• If you type a tempo followed by 'BPM' in the master scene, that scene will change to the new tempo
• If you have preferences Scene Triggers Record ON, you can do nice things like starting from the previous VERSE, in order to record the CHORUS clip.
• To keep looping a section just turn off the structure track
• When you are finished, just enable arrange record, and you will have the structure laid out for you in the Arrange view.
This is the sort of thing I do
It's from a track I did a while ago while changes from 4/4 to 9/8 to 6/8 etc.
It's called "Giving Time". The singer was Anita Goldsworthy
http://homepage.mac.com/songcarver/Song ... g_Time.mp3
And no, I didn't do this in Live, but now i can :-D
If you found this tip helpful, let me know
SongCarver
info@songcarver.com