How to change the pitch of notes in ableton midi editor

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Darkstar2010
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How to change the pitch of notes in ableton midi editor

Post by Darkstar2010 » Sun Jun 24, 2012 8:06 pm

I've set up a drum rack and I have 2 midi notes that I'm layering.

In the Midi note editor the notes are right beside each other on the piano roll (exactly the way I want it)

I want to transpose 1 row of my kicks up an octave but I don't know how to do that. I don't want to drag them up an Octave, I can't anyways since there are only these 2 keys on the Piano Roll available because they're in drum racks. I just want them staying where they are and changing the pitch somehow.

Can someone let me know how to do that?

thanks!!!!

Darkstar2010
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Re: How to change the pitch of notes in ableton midi editor

Post by Darkstar2010 » Mon Jun 25, 2012 12:02 am

I just tried to do it manually by holding shift and pressing the up arrow...but since I'm using drum racks all that does is move the midi note to another octave which doesn't trigger the drum sound anymore.

Does anyone know how I change the pitch of a midi note when using drum racks & the midi editor?

telekom
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Re: How to change the pitch of notes in ableton midi editor

Post by telekom » Mon Jun 25, 2012 11:52 am

Changing the note in the midi editor won't pitch up your drum hit unless you have a sample mapped to that note which has the pitch you want.

There are pitch controls within impulse and simpler to change the pitch of a sample. I think the reason you can only see two notes in the midi editor might be the Fold button - click it and the editor should expand to show all notes.

HTH.
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andydes
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Re: How to change the pitch of notes in ableton midi editor

Post by andydes » Mon Jun 25, 2012 5:00 pm

The piano roll in drum rack is what keys each sound responds to. Nothing to do with it's pitch.

As mentioned before, you could open the instrument and pitch it up or down. Or look at the chain properties and change the note each pad plays. This makes most sense to me, but can get messy with nested drum racks (like the kits in suite).

Darkstar2010
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Re: How to change the pitch of notes in ableton midi editor

Post by Darkstar2010 » Mon Jun 25, 2012 5:08 pm

telekom wrote:Changing the note in the midi editor won't pitch up your drum hit unless you have a sample mapped to that note which has the pitch you want.

There are pitch controls within impulse and simpler to change the pitch of a sample. I think the reason you can only see two notes in the midi editor might be the Fold button - click it and the editor should expand to show all notes.

HTH.
The reason I can only see 2 notes in the Midi Editor is because I've only dragged 2 909 Kicks into the Drum Pads in Drum Racks. Seeing 2 notes isnt the problem, I mentioned that I prefer it being that way. And I'm glad Ableton thought this function out well and got rid of all the notes you aren't using.

This is what I'm doing...

I drag an empty Drum Rack into the clip area or whatever its called.

Then I drag 1 909 kick onto C1 in the drum pad.

Then I drag 1 909 kick onto D1 on the drum pad.

Then I right click in the clip area thing and insert a midi clip.

Then I draw my kicks in.

Then on the Drum Pad I choose show hide devices and a Macro control thing opens up.


Then I choose show hide devices on that and I think it's Simpler that shows up but it looks different. Where there's a waveform window it instead says "Multisample Mode"

And there's transpose in there so I guess this is the right place to transpose things. But I thought Ableton had really good workflow...This is about as tedious as it gets just to simply change the pitch of a Kick Note. I find this entire process extremely unintuitive and frustrating to have to click on ambiguous icons over and over just to reveal such a simple function like Transpose. And once I'm in there and using the Transpose function I have zero confidence that it's working correctly because there are millions of other options surrounding it I'm not sure if I'm supposed to click a button and activate it's section or not. Who knows. And I don't know why when I watch tutorials of people using Simpler that they can see a waveform and on my screen it says Multisample mode where the waveform is supposed to be.

andydes
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Re: How to change the pitch of notes in ableton midi editor

Post by andydes » Mon Jun 25, 2012 5:24 pm

Well people want options. As you add options and functionally, things get more complicated. It's not that bad, once you get your head round how it works.

The good thing about drum racks is you can put any instrument in there. By default, it's simpler. Multisample mode means it has several samples for that hit. This is something you only get with stock ableton sounds.

Yeah, transpose will work. So would changing the root note.

Darkstar2010
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Re: How to change the pitch of notes in ableton midi editor

Post by Darkstar2010 » Mon Jun 25, 2012 5:56 pm

andydes wrote:Well people want options. As you add options and functionally, things get more complicated.
It's the lack of options in this instance. I can think of so many different ways to add a Transpose function for notes in organically. Velocity is right there and you can change it in so many different ways all in the same screen. Transpose should be the same way.

Vios
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Re: How to change the pitch of notes in ableton midi editor

Post by Vios » Mon Jun 25, 2012 10:03 pm

A drum rack is designed for drum hits, not notes. I would drag a duplicate kick drum in and then transpose it up 12 semitones. How long does that take? 10 seconds?

telekom
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Re: How to change the pitch of notes in ableton midi editor

Post by telekom » Mon Jun 25, 2012 11:53 pm

Darkstar2010 wrote:
andydes wrote:Well people want options. As you add options and functionally, things get more complicated.
It's the lack of options in this instance. I can think of so many different ways to add a Transpose function for notes in organically. Velocity is right there and you can change it in so many different ways all in the same screen. Transpose should be the same way.
Honestly mate, for varying the pitch of a sample, Live presents a multitude of different ways to do this. That may present some complications, but it also presents really varied opportunities. Read the manual, watch some tutorials, maybe come back with some fully developed questions when you're more sure about the fact that Live "literally" can't do something. I guarantee that Live can do what you want. Just play with the software and find out what it can do, then ask questions. Most people here are helpful unless baited. :) Take it easy, enjoy.

Darkstar2010
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Re: How to change the pitch of notes in ableton midi editor

Post by Darkstar2010 » Tue Jun 26, 2012 12:44 am

telekom wrote: That may present some complications
That was exactly what I was saying the entire time. Not that it couldn't do it in multiple ways. I was saying it should be more immediate to Transponse in Drum Racks than having to go into different screens to do it. Just like changing the Velocity has multiple ways to do it in the EXACT same screen in the Midi Editor. You dont have to go to another device to change the Velocity.

I have no idea how you came up with that I said Live literally cant do certain things.

If you don't understand the point I was making it was this....

You can change the Velocity in the same Midi Editor window using multiple different options. When I said options I meant that it gives you a choice to change the Velocity in the same Midi Editor window in different ways. How many different ways can you Transpose a Kick Drum in the Midi Editor in Drum Racks? Not even 1 apparently let alone having a bunch of different ways to do it with other things like Velocity.

telekom
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Re: How to change the pitch of notes in ableton midi editor

Post by telekom » Tue Jun 26, 2012 8:43 am

OK, maybe I misunderstood that you felt your task couldn't be achieved Darkstar. I think Live's whole principle is to minimise windows - compare with Cubase or other DAWs of 5-10 years ago when tens of instrument windows and effects might be open at any one time. Live's design philosophy seemed to be the opposite of that. I suppose that means the many layers of functions associated with a good DAW will be set out in Live in a way that might not be immediately familiar. I don't have Live in front of me right now so I can't point to what you're looking for. Another method of doing what you want:

Drag the sample into a clip slot, transpose the sample, then drag it into your drum rack

HTH

pencilrocket
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Re: How to change the pitch of notes in ableton midi editor

Post by pencilrocket » Tue Jun 26, 2012 12:47 pm

Why didn't you make simple Simpler channel? You can write your desired melody in it.

UncleAge
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Re: How to change the pitch of notes in ableton midi editor

Post by UncleAge » Tue Jun 26, 2012 5:51 pm

First off take a deep breath. Its all just a learning process. Next do this;
telekom wrote:Drag the sample into a clip slot...
You will be able to access everything quickly in this context. Now imagine what you might have to do if you want to encapsulate what you have in that one clip into a giant rack, a drum rack. Those many-to-many relationships start defining what can and can't be done for each option. And once you know it well you may come to agree that its a pretty clever layout and workflow.

Look, I can't speak for everybody else but instrument/drum racks to me a while to navigate. I understood the idea but it took me a while to really know my way around and leverage that tech for my workflow. At this point, I can say that drum/instrument racks are one of the top 3 features that keep me firmly in the Live camp. I do think they could improve things a bit, imo, by adding a routing matrix that would allow midi/plugin data routing as one sees fit. However, that would add another level of complexity so it may not be what you would call an improvement :P

Good luck!

danwade
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Re: How to change the pitch of notes in ableton midi editor

Post by danwade » Wed Jun 12, 2019 1:33 am

Yes Live can do many things regarding transpose, but one limitation I am finding is that if you want to tune a drum note in a pattern - Let's use a kick in this example - 1 bar - where beat 1 is regular note, but Beat 3 you want a lower pitch. It's not really a seamless process with Ableton (can use automation, or you'd have to use an effect or use Simpler, ect). With Maschine - you can do this on the fly. Just use a midi keyboard with a Maschine - works flawlessly. BUT - it's also not a DAW. I'm looking to see if Ableton has that kind of functionality.
|danwade/

danwade
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Re: How to change the pitch of notes in ableton midi editor

Post by danwade » Wed Jun 12, 2019 5:54 pm

Darkstar2010 wrote:
Mon Jun 25, 2012 5:56 pm
andydes wrote:Well people want options. As you add options and functionally, things get more complicated.
It's the lack of options in this instance. I can think of so many different ways to add a Transpose function for notes in organically. Velocity is right there and you can change it in so many different ways all in the same screen. Transpose should be the same way.
This would be so cool if you could do this (like velocity), but with your keyboard also for a drum note in a pattern.
|danwade/

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