Drummer here, new to mac, and ableton etc

[RonnieLong]

Hi all,

I am new on here. I am a drummer of many years, and am just starting to play around with ableton. I was wanting to expand my tools and knowledge, so I purchased a Macbook Pro for my birthday. Its not brand new but close. Its a 2013 2.6 retina with 8gb and 256 SSD.

I plan to in the future trigger backing tracks and click tracks etc with a drum pad, but for now I wanted to just learn and play, so I purchased a Novation Launchpad. That thing is neat. It came with ableton live lite. I was going to purchase the intro version, but since this came with Lite I decided to hold off.

With that said,

Where can I go to learn how to start using my launchpad? It came with a demo, but doesnt tell you much on how to use it etc. I want to start from the beginning. Talk to me like I am 5. I am techy, but the mac and ableton world are both new to me.


Also, I am kind of sad today. I fell asleep last night on the couch watching youtube vids on ableton / launchpad, and my macbook was on my stomach. I woke up in the middle of the night and my macbook was laying next to the couch on the hardwood floor. face down with the lid closed.

I felt sick to my stomach. I opened it up this morning and it appears all is fine from what I can tell. Any certain things I should look for to be sure? There are also no scuffs or scrapes.


So yeah, School this newb! and thanks!

[bosonHavoc]

welcome to the rest of your life!

as for the drop, it happens and it is good to get it out of the way early
I used to fall asleep with my guitar or bass on my belly
if everything is working fine you should be good to go.

a few things to be aware of.
Laptops cooling is on the bottom so be careful to not block the vents.
I've seen people put their laptops on pillows and things. not a good idea.
keep it on a rigid surface so the bottom gets air flow.

Also, when your laptop is unplugged the CPU may scale back to save power.
you can work unplugged but if the machine starts to glitch, plug it in.

as for learning, you have a massive resource on the internet dig and dig be a sponge.
look for a local Ableton User Group in your city and connect with other people
if you do not have one you could try and get one going. I started one in Austin, TX in 2008 for that reason, which started me on an amazing journey.

Take note when you are ready upgrade to Ableton Live Suite get this patch
https://www.ableton.com/en/packs/beatseeker/
basically you stick a mic in the kick drum and Ableton sync to the drummer.
it is pretty amazing. The drummer I practice with is able to control the tempo of ableton naturally.

[RonnieLong]

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate you taking the time to do that.

I have seen the beatseeker b-keeper etc. That sounds really neat if it works good?

I did not think about performance being more of an issue if the macbook is unplugged. I have yet to plug it up since I got it. But, the battery is getting low so it is about time to do that.

I downloaded a demo file from novation last night that was mentioned in the setup card provided with the launchpad RGB. It was cool to see it do its thing, but it wasnt much fun to me. The fun to me will be me starting from scratch on my own thing and doing it.

I started to try with a blank canvas last night with a new live set, but I did not get far.

I didnt really get the launchpad and ableton to do EDM, or anything like that, but to mainly automate some things and start and stop backing tracks, cues etc. Sounds like Ill be playing a lot in between though. haha.

[bosonHavoc]

that is actually a very popular use for Ableton,
Lots of bands use Ableton to handle backing tracks, samples and virtual synths.
it can also been the command center for a video and lighting rig too
basically telling everything what to do with a scene or clip launce.

main thing launch pad does is trigger clips in session view
main thing you will want to do is set up your songs in session view and do scene or clip launches

as a drummer if you have something you can hit with a stick to trigger scene launch
and "select next scene on launch" enabled in preferences
you can use one button to trigger you backing and then it will auto cue up the next song or section.

Best thing to do is dive in and learn the software, you will not regret it.
Launch pad will make way more sense when you understand Ableton Live better.

[RonnieLong]

that is actually a very popular use for Ableton,
Lots of bands use Ableton to handle backing tracks, samples and virtual synths.
it can also been the command center for a video and lighting rig too
basically telling everything what to do with a scene or clip launce.

main thing launch pad does is trigger clips in session view
main thing you will want to do is set up your songs in session view and do scene or clip launches

as a drummer if you have something you can hit with a stick to trigger scene launch
and "select next scene on launch" enabled in preferences
you can use one button to trigger you backing and then it will auto cue up the next song or section.

Best thing to do is dive in and learn the software, you will not regret it.
Launch pad will make way more sense when you understand Ableton Live better.

Thanks man...I got a book called Ableton Live 9 power. Its got a lot of info in it and it makes my head spin. It would seem what I want to do would be really simple. First I have to create my backing tracks. Then I have to set them up.

I am kind of still lost on how people would set this portion up. Would someone setup individual scenes as a whole song backing track.

I still need to figure out how I map a midi key (or certain pad) to launch a "scene"

Theres lots of videos on youtube, but its hard to find anything really geared toward live band performance or running / creating backing tracks. Most stuff I find is more directed toward creating EDM....which I may look into eventually when I get more knowledge and play time.

[bosonHavoc]

the trick is to keep it simple,
if you are using backing tracks and just playing over them, render it all to one wav file
make sure it is mixed and mastered well.

set up all the backing tracks in one track on separate scenes
then just trigger scene launch, and if you have "Select Next Scene on Launch" enabled
it will cue up the next scene.

you can also set Tempo and Time Sig in the Scene launch by including something like
130 bpm 6/4
in the name of the scene.
this is especially handy if you want a Click track.
check my link in my sig, I'm an online trainer
I specialize in 1 on 1 training with musicians and producers.

[rmedek]

The Launchpad makes a lot more sense once you feel comfortable getting around in Live, mostly because it's sort of laid out like one big Live screen.

The tutorials that are built into Live (View > Help View) are really good, in my opinion. Start with the Tour, then go through the basics til you feel good hopping around and are comfortable with the terminology. After that it's a lot easier to search for solutions to specific issues; I've found doing so can be overwhelming otherwise.

Live is really versatile outside the EDM realm. I'm a drummer as well and use it to record and play loops and backing tracks, cue up click tracks, organize setlists, as a sound module for keyboards, as electronic drums, as an IEM mixer and monitor, for live effects, a rehearsal aid, a live multi-track recorder. Most of my learning was gradual, starting with a question ("I wonder if Live can do…?") and a lot of internet searching.

[RonnieLong]

Thanks,

I have actually just created a backing track, click, cues etc over in the arrangement view. I am only working on the intro version of ableton currently, but once I have all my tracks created I render them down into a single split file. Click / Cue on left channel 1, and backing track on channel 2.

I would love to use ableton's built in metronome as my click. How do you get the built in metronome to stop when a scene stops? Can it be done? or do you have to make your own click track for that to happen?

I did figure out how to program scenes to launch with certain buttons on my launch pad, so that is cool.

Still trying to wrap my head around it all honestly.

[bosonHavoc]

easiest way would be to make your own click track.
or just stop the global clock in between songs.
which you may want try to do for what you are doing anyway

[RonnieLong]

I guess I will make myself a midi click track. That seems like that may be the easier route?

[rmedek]

Here's a little thing I wrote about setting up a click track, perhaps it'll be helpful: link

[bosonHavoc]

I guess I will make myself a midi click track. That seems like that may be the easier route?

probably, but a lot of times when using backing tracks you will want to stop the clock at the end of the songs
so when you trigger the next song it will start right away rather than starting on the 1st beat of the next measure.
but there are many ways to do all this stuff so just have fun and play with it

[RonnieLong]

I guess I will make myself a midi click track. That seems like that may be the easier route?

probably, but a lot of times when using backing tracks you will want to stop the clock at the end of the songs
so when you trigger the next song it will start right away rather than starting on the 1st beat of the next measure.
but there are many ways to do all this stuff so just have fun and play with it

yeah, not only that but at the end of the songs I dont want to hear a click just going on and on etc. Nor do I want to have to stop the click every time. I am guessing I can though now. I took my launchpad back and bought a drum multipad instead so that I can use my sticks to start and stop etc. I think that will work a little better for me.