What's an .adg file?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Post Reply
josefreak
Posts: 66
Joined: Fri Jun 07, 2019 8:16 pm

What's an .adg file?

Post by josefreak » Sat Jun 15, 2019 3:55 am

Ableton supernoob here. I just purchased Ableton standard and I'm trying to create my first song. While fishing around for sounds, I noticed that there are sounds that come in the form of an .adg file. What exactly is it? The documentation says:

"adg = ableton device group files (contains the preset for Instrument Racks, Drum Racks or Audio Effect Racks)"

When I drag one of these sounds (or files) into a session slot (if that's the right term), all I see in the device rack is a box with some basic adjustments (e.g. Filter Cutoff, Filter Reso, Distort, Volume, etc). But where does this sound originate? Can you edit it? Also, what I see doesn't really match with what they describe in the doc. Instrument Rack, Drum Racks, Audio Effects Racks, I don't see any of them.

chrk
Posts: 1728
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2009 5:36 pm

Re: What's an .adg file?

Post by chrk » Sat Jun 15, 2019 4:15 am

josefreak wrote:
Sat Jun 15, 2019 3:55 am
all I see in the device rack is a box with some basic adjustments (e.g. Filter Cutoff, Filter Reso, Distort, Volume, etc).
So you seem to be looking at the macros right now, about expanding the chain list, device view and editing see 18. Instrument, Drum and Effect Racks in the manual.

But, given you've got a standard license, you may be at a dead end with SOME racks from Ableton and partners. You will not be able to expand and edit the device view as soon as the rack contains a single Ableton instrument or effect, that's not licensed for Live Standard - Compare Live editions | Ableton, jump to the instruments and effects sections.

Live will let you use those racks, you may be able to view the chain list but not the device view.

Try different one.

josefreak
Posts: 66
Joined: Fri Jun 07, 2019 8:16 pm

Re: What's an .adg file?

Post by josefreak » Sat Jun 15, 2019 4:42 am

Thanks for the info. Yes, I think the issue is that I have the standard version vs suite. That's ok, I'll most likely use 3rd party vsts anyway.

zsazsa
Posts: 376
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2005 4:31 pm
Location: Deventer

Re: What's an .adg file?

Post by zsazsa » Sat Jun 15, 2019 3:38 pm

The stuff that you install with standard you can use.
To know what it does, look at where you dragged it from.
In the browser you have audio fx and instruments and midi fx.

The instruments do make sound when you feed them midi notes (from a controller, midi clip or midi arrangement track) the audio effects influence already created sound (from a audio clip or track or an instrument before it in the chain)

Figure out how the monitoring section works this is often a big problem when trying to understand why you don't get sound out of live

There is already a lot of sound creation possibilities with standard.

Go through the lessons, you can find them in the menu so the way live works slowly will make sense to you.

Post Reply