Live 3 - The Mad Professor's Groovebox
By Dave Hill Jr.
While Live 2 will be forever cherished for its loop performance prowess, Live 3's new sample animation ability gives producers a fantastic sound design tool, sample re-synthesizer, and dare I say, drum machine? In this month's Tips and Tricks, I'm going to show you how to transform Live into a rhythm-sequencing groovebox (or drum machine). First, we'll zero in on a single drum hit (within a loop). Then we'll "sequence" a new beat with that sound. Once you have a working sequence, we'll discover how to audition new sounds played by the new sequence. Better yet, all of this work will be done non-destructively in the Clip View, so the original sample will remain intact.
Zero In On The Beat
For the following steps, open Live 3 and then load the bass drum loop called "BD" into a clip slot in session view. Note: "BD" is located in your Live 3.0/Content folder. PC users should look in Program Files/Ableton/Live 3.0/Content, while Apple users will find the same files in Applications/Ableton/Live 3.0/Content. If you do not have these files for some reason, then use any one-measure drum loop with a drum hit on the very first beat.
Fig.1 - Here is what the raw loop looks like.
Go ahead and click play to hear what the loop sounds like. Now, let's zero in on the first bass drum rhythm to "grab" a one-shot. To do this, constrain the right side of the loop's Clip/Loop Region to 1.1.2 so that it looks like Fig.2. Also, make sure to activate the Loop switch in the Sample box.
Fig.2 - Constrain loop length to 1/16th note. Right marker should be 1.1.2
Let's Make A Beat
Now it's time to create our sequence. Press play to hear your loop a-thudding bass drum on each sixteenth note. Since this sound can be a little annoying to work with, turn the volume of the loop all the way down in the Envelopes box. To do this, click on the box that says "Envelopes." This will bring up the Envelope Editor window. Then make sure your Device Chooser says, "Clip" and the Modulated Control Chooser says, "Volume" (as seen in the top section of Fig. 3). Now drag the red line at the top of the Envelope Editor all the way to the bottom of the display (like the bottom half of Fig.4). You should hear the repeating bass drum fade out, yet the silenced loop will continue playing.
Fig.3 - Click on Envelopes to bring up envelope editing.
Fig.4 - Drag red volume envelope to zero.
Next, activate Envelope Draw Mode by pressing Ctrl (Apple) + B (or clicking on the Draw Mode switch in Live's Control Bar at the top of your screen). And then set the global Quantization menu to 1/16 (because we are going to sequence a 1/16th note pattern). See Fig.5.
Since the loop we are working with is only one-sixteenth note long, we need to create a longer phrase. To do this, click on the Link/Unlink Envelope switch in the Envelopes box-it should now read Unlinked. Now focus your attention on the box titled Length just to the right of the Unlinked box. Let's specify a one-measure pattern by placing a "1" in the first box and a zero in the second and third boxes (see Fig.6).
Fig.6 - Set the Volume envelope to "Unlinked" and the Length to 1, 0, 0.
Our clip now contains 16 repeating sixteenth notes, which we will now sequence by determining the volume of each repeated note. To do so, use Draw Mode to create a pattern similar to Fig.7. Of course here is where your creativity comes in, so please feel free to get lost in your own experimentation. Hint: By keeping the volume level similar for each 1/16th note, you will create a more machine-like consistency (Fig.7). If you want to infuse feeling and expression into your drum parts, vary the level just a bit (like Fig.8). Depending upon the music you are making, both methods are valid.
Fig.7-An automated clip.
Fig.8-Add dynamic variety to create musical expression.
Congratulations! You have just sequenced a one-bar drum loop using Live 3's sample animation (in this case, a volume envelope). Should you want to create a 2, 4, or more bar loop, simply type in the desired length into the loop length box we saw back in Fig.6, and then animate away.
Multiplying Your Efforts
The key to great sequencing is to be creative, and then multiply your efforts. In Live 3, you can cut, copy, paste, and duplicate clip envelopes just as you would with Arrangement View automation envelopes. Before you do this however, you will need to deactivate Draw Mode by again pressing Ctrl (Apple) + B, and then drag over the part of the envelope you would like to put onto your clipboard. To simply double your efforts, take advantage of Live's duplicate function by pressing Ctrl (Apple) + D -see Fig.9. You have now created a two-bar loop (where bar one and two are the same). Try varying the sequence in the first or second bar by changing the volume envelopes as we did earlier. Hint: make sure you type 2 in the clip's first loop length box to hear the two-bar loop. You've now created a two-measure loop from a single sixteenth note in less than 3 minutes!
Fig.9 - A duplicated envelope.
Groovebox Power Tips
For more creative fun, you can also cut, copy, and paste clip envelopes to other parameters such as Panning or Transpose. Simply select the envelopes that you would like to copy, change the Modulated Control chooser from Volume to another parameter, and then paste your automation into that parameter. You can even copy and paste automation envelopes from completely different clips!
But perhaps Live 3's most exciting groovebox trick is to superimpose one clip's automation onto a fresh sample. Just as you might reroute a MIDI sequence to drive a sound other than was originally intended, Live 3 enables you to swap sounds into an existing sequence with one move of the mouse. To do this, simply drag the loop called "electro" from Live's onto the Clip View settings for BD (as shown in Fig.10).
Fig.10 - Drag loops from Live's Browser to automated clips.
The new (electro) loop will assume the old loop's settings (our modified BD in this instance). Put another way, the old sequence will now be applied to the new loop. Like a groovebox, or MIDI-sequencer, you can audition new sounds with your same sequenced part. You can make multiple copies of your sequence to drive two complimentary bass drums, or create multiple sequences for each instrument you would like to hear. The possibilities are literally endless!