4 things I need help with in Live.

[vince1440]

Hello, I really like Ableton Live and use it alot, but I need help with these 4 things.

1. When mixing, each track fader adjusts the volume in increments of 0.3db when moved up or down, it goes from 0db to -0.3 to -0.7 to -1.2 etc, what if I want the volume of a track to be in between those ranges? how do you get the volume to adjust in 0.1db increments like you can in other DAW's?

2. In Fl studio, if I wanted to make a drum pattern and wanted the kick to change pitch throughout one pattern, I could load one drum sample and use the piano roll to change the pitch throughout one pattern without having to load multiple instances of the sample. In live with the drum rack it seems that if I want to change the pitch of one sample throughout one drum clip, I would have to load multiple instances of the same sample into the drum rack and manually change the pitch of each using the "transpose" feature. If I want the kick to hit in 4 different pitches, then I would have to load the kick sample 4 times into the drum rack. It makes doing hip hop type snare rolls where the pitch is changing numerous times hard because I would need to load like 10 of the same snare samples into the drum rack. Is there a way to accomplish this without having to load multiple samples?

3. In a drum rack clip, a sample note that plays to the end of the clip will abruptly stop playing when the clip ends. But some drum samples have a tail on them and should fade out instead of just cutting off at the end of the clip. In fl studio the sample would keep playing past the end of the pattern. I am including a screencap in case you're not understanding what I mean. Is there a way to stop the note from abruptly cutting off at the end of the clip?

http://s8.postimg.org/siidnq0sl/abletonscreencap.jpg

4. Regarding note velocity in a drum rack clip. Is there a way to randomize the note volume in a clip? what if you are using a piano sound and you don't want the notes to all be at 100 volume because you want some natural sounding variation, you could adjust the notes to different volumes manually one by one but is there a way to randomize it? this is possible in FL studio.

Besides these things, Live is a very well made program.
thank you to anyone who knows the answer to any of these.

[dewaldo]

1. Hold down command/ctrl while you drag the fader, that will slow it down to .1db increments.

2. You need to use the envelopes feature within the clip view. hit the little 'E' at the bottom left to bring up the envelopes editor, hit the arrow next to the envelopes section to edit envelopes, select the drum hit from the first drop down menu, select 'Transpose' from the second drop down menu, and draw in the transposition you want off to the right in the clip editor.

3. I just tried to replicate your issue with a snare that has a long tail, and it kept going after the clip was over. Not sure what the problem is here.

4. Use the device within the midi effects folder called 'Velocity', there's even a preset called 'Piano' that should give you some more natural dynamics, but you can edit this device to your liking to add randomized velocity

[H20nly]

2. You need to use the envelopes feature within the clip view. hit the little 'E' at the bottom left to bring up the envelopes editor, hit the arrow next to the envelopes section to edit envelopes, select the drum hit from the first drop down menu, select 'Transpose' from the second drop down menu, and draw in the transposition you want off to the right in the clip editor.

interesting.

*bookmark*

[TomViolenz]

3. In a drum rack clip, a sample note that plays to the end of the clip will abruptly stop playing when the clip ends. But some drum samples have a tail on them and should fade out instead of just cutting off at the end of the clip. In fl studio the sample would keep playing past the end of the pattern. I am including a screencap in case you're not understanding what I mean. Is there a way to stop the note from abruptly cutting off at the end of the clip?

Dewaldo answered the others.
The answer to this one is the volume ADSR envelope on your instrument (Simpler or Sampler). Adjust the release.

[vince1440]

All my issues are now resolved thanks alot for the knowledge, very helpful.

[vince1440]

I'm getting familiar with using clip envelopes but I'm having some issues. I read the manual but it doesn't seem to show a solution.

1. When creating a drum rack clip envelope, I want the dot's to snap to the beginning of notes. I'm creating "transpose" clip envelopes. As it seems, you can move the dots anywhere but they don't lock to notes, you have to line it up manually and it's frustrating trying to line it up perfectly. Actually its very hard because when zoomed out it may look like the dots are lined up to the beginning of a note, but when you zoom in further, you see that it's actually off by a little bit. I'm including a screencap in case you don't understand what I'm saying.

2. Also I want the pitch to not slide up and down between dots, but to stay constant between two dots and only change when it arrives at a new dot. Is this possible?

screencap:http://s15.postimg.org/yjd6dqpq3/abletonscreencap1.jpg

3. When a drum rack clip note has had it's pitch altered by a clip envelope and ends at the end of the clip, I am able to get the sample to keep playing past the end of the clip by adjusting the release, but it continues to play in it's default pitch and not the pitch the clip envelope was set to. How do you get the drum sample to play past the end of the clip with it's pitch still altered by the clip envelope? I'm including a screencap in case you don't understand what I'm saying.

screencap:http://s27.postimg.org/9ek6qf1oz/abletonscreencap2.jpg

Thanks to anyone who can help.

[H20nly]

for No 1, right click on the on the clip in clip view (down at the bottom). you should get some envelope options... and Adaptive Grid, Fixed Grid, Triplet Grid... Change the Adaptive Grid to Narrow or Narrowest, but make sure your Fixed Grid is set to something (not off).

[vince1440]

for No 1, right click on the on the clip in clip view (down at the bottom). you should get some envelope options... and Adaptive Grid, Fixed Grid, Triplet Grid... Change the Adaptive Grid to Narrow or Narrowest, but make sure your Fixed Grid is set to something (not off).

That didn't work at all, unless I'm not understanding you correctly which I think I am.

[H20nly]

if your notes line up with the grid it should work.

if you're playing them in, then my apologies... i assumed based on the multiple FL references that you were drawing them in on the grid.

[vince1440]

anyone else?

[yur2die4]

Two tips:

1. For automations, if you are using the selection tool, not the draw tool, you can highlight a portion of time. You simply click not near the line itself, and drag left or right. It'll be yellow or green or something. Once that portion is highlighted, you let go and move the pointer close to the line within the highlighted section. Grab it and drag up or down. Now it'll create break points on both sides of the selection area. This is great for a lot of things. You can highlight a note region and adjust. Or after you adjust, it creates very right spots where the points are drawn. If you have a step, it means there are two points, one defining where the change happens, and the next defining what the new change is. So as you move that change one up and down you can easily keep it snug against the time one. Make sure that immediately after you make the first change, you unselect that region. Finally, to make a ramp using this technique, you do the same thing, and after, you simply remove one of the corner dots and it becomes an angle instead of being straight.


2. If you don't want to play around with automation, a separate option is to create an empty midi channel and route it into a specific slot of your sum rack. The downside is that you require an entirely new clip to trigger that device. The upside is that you get more dedicated flexibility and the option to do note changes. Similarly, I am pretty sure it is possible to drag a device Out of the drum rack and it'll create a new channel with clips of all the original patterns. But once you do this you can't UNDO it.

3. Yet a third option would be to just have a bunch of slots BE for chromatic bass drum. You can do this without requiring multiple instances of a bass drum instrument. You expand the drum rack and choose for that chain to 'Receive all notes'. After that you'll sort of have a mess involving choosing a Root note, and the instrument playing on every single perceivable slot. To limit that part part, make sure you place the bass drum instrument within a Rack and limit the Notes input chain to a smaller range.

[vince1440]

I'm getting familiar with using clip envelopes but I'm having some issues. I read the manual but it doesn't seem to show a solution.

1. When creating a drum rack clip envelope, I want the dot's to snap to the beginning of notes. I'm creating "transpose" clip envelopes. As it seems, you can move the dots anywhere but they don't lock to notes, you have to line it up manually and it's frustrating trying to line it up perfectly. Actually its very hard because when zoomed out it may look like the dots are lined up to the beginning of a note, but when you zoom in further, you see that it's actually off by a little bit. I'm including a screencap in case you don't understand what I'm saying.

2. Also I want the pitch to not slide up and down between dots, but to stay constant between two dots and only change when it arrives at a new dot. Is this possible?

screencap:http://s15.postimg.org/yjd6dqpq3/abletonscreencap1.jpg

3. When a drum rack clip note has had it's pitch altered by a clip envelope and ends at the end of the clip, I am able to get the sample to keep playing past the end of the clip by adjusting the release, but it continues to play in it's default pitch and not the pitch the clip envelope was set to. How do you get the drum sample to play past the end of the clip with it's pitch still altered by the clip envelope? I'm including a screencap in case you don't understand what I'm saying.

screencap:http://s27.postimg.org/9ek6qf1oz/abletonscreencap2.jpg

Thanks to anyone who can help.

Old thread but I'm bumping to see if anyone has the answers to these 3 issues as I have still not found a solution.

[mothergarage]

if you hit the "B" key on your keyboard you should enter edit-mode and the cursor changes to a pencil. does this solve your first two problems?

[vince1440]

if you hit the "B" key on your keyboard you should enter edit-mode and the cursor changes to a pencil. does this solve your first two problems?

I just figured out the solution to number 2 of those 3 issues. Now my only remaining issue with using clip envelopes is how to get the dots to snap to each note instead of having to line it up manually.

[Stromkraft]

1. When creating a drum rack clip envelope, I want the dot's to snap to the beginning of notes. I'm creating "transpose" clip envelopes. As it seems, you can move the dots anywhere but they don't lock to notes, you have to line it up manually and it's frustrating trying to line it up perfectly.

Do it in draw mode as mothergarage suggested:
Switch to the grid resolution that you prefer, in your case that may be the same as your notes are in, but think trough if you have PDC issues. Then toggle draw mode, by pressing the "b" key. You can now quickly paint in automation that snaps to the current grid by clicking at the relevant vertical position. You can also hold the button down and move the line up and down. If you do that you see the current value.

The limitation here is of course that you're not snapping to the notes themselves, but rather to the grid the notes are possibly snapped to. This might still get you close enough quickly. If you need to adjust things later, that might be easier to do with draw mode off.

You must remember here that automation is limited by the effects of PDC, plug-in delay compensation, as automation is not compensated.

Another alternative is to freeze and flatten the track and slice it. Then you can change the pitch of each individual slice, in other words in the note itself. No need for automation.