Tutorial: Dummy clips for audio modulation

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 6:44 pm

The following lesson will explain how dummy clips work.
Dummy clips are empty audiofiles with automation.
This tutorial will only work in Live 5.

Before you start playing with the audio tracks. Read the lesson and the warning. If not you do not...... You may cause speaker damage.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE TUTORIAL

Enjoy and stay tuned.

-Bjorn Vayner

funk313 · Post by **funk313** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:31 am

nice one

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 12:29 pm

Practical use for dummy clips in production or Live-set's

Lets say you made a nice impulse kit. And you want to apply an effect to 1 sound.
You would add an audio-track. And let it receive the sound you want. (Creative routing tutorial)

But how would you automate an effect for that single sound?
You guessed it.... Dummy clips

I have made an example for you. In my set, I want a sound (the "ride" on IMPulse1, track 2) with a phaser on it. But i also want it without the phaser.

Track 4 has 4 Dummy clips on it. Clip 1 and 3 are "wet". Clip 2 and 4 are "dry".

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE EXAMPLE

Enjoy.
In the next tutorial, I will show you how to build an audio modulation matrix.
It may not be as spectacular as it sounds. But it's the last chapter on dummy clips.

-Bjorn

ejectorset · Post by **ejectorset** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 2:08 pm

i didnt download the tutorial, but you can use dummy (empty) audio clips in live 4 to be able to get clip envlopes and the like applied to live input or anything you want to route to them.

is this all you are talking about.

old old trick. posted like a year ago right here.

anyways, if that is what you are talking about it is a very useful thing and deserves to be repeated.

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 2:21 pm

ejectorset wrote:i didnt download the tutorial, but you can use dummy (empty) audio clips in live 4 to be able to get clip envlopes and the like applied to live input or anything you want to route to them.

is this all you are talking about.

old old trick. posted like a year ago right here.

anyways, if that is what you are talking about it is a very useful thing and deserves to be repeated.

Yep an old trick. But most Live users i come across. Are not aware of this.
And in addition to the method in Live 4. In 5 you can export tracks with the automation saved. Definitely worth repeating

I'll post some dummy "tracks" soon.
The audio modulation matrix i mentioned. Is a bunch of premade tracks with dummy clips on effects. You can achieve endless results by switching the position of the tracks.

mike holiday · Post by **mike holiday** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 7:17 pm

it would be cool if we could just make a dummy clip without having to use an audio clip!!

yup, i'v been using them for a while...especially since im bussing out through external fx units

*edit..wow i must have been drunk for that post...P

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 7:54 pm

mike holiday wrote:would be coo if we culd just make a dummy clip witout having to use an audio clip!!

yup been using them for a while....especially sicne im bussing out through external fx units

Just put 1 empty audiofile in your Ableton library. And use that one over and over.
I use one of the waveforms that are always included with Live. So it never "misses" the file.

Cheers

mike holiday · Post by **mike holiday** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:22 am

hoffman2k wrote:Just put 1 empty audiofile in your Ableton library. And use that one over and over.
I use one of the waveforms that are always included with Live. So it never "misses" the file.

Cheers

im lazy (because i work my ass off so much no joke)
what if you could dubble click a empty cell and create a ghost clip

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:28 am

mike holiday wrote:
hoffman2k wrote:Just put 1 empty audiofile in your Ableton library. And use that one over and over.
I use one of the waveforms that are always included with Live. So it never "misses" the file.

Cheers
im lazy (because i work my ass off so much no joke)
what if you could dubble click a empty cell and create a ghost clip

That would be cool too

ejectorset · Post by **ejectorset** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 2:07 pm

well you can already make midi clips that way (double clicking empty cell).

however the way audio files work (.wav and aif for the moment) a file that is 2 seconds long with no audio data at all (silenece) is just as big in filesize as a file that is 2 seconds of digital clipped distorted squarewave noise.

the only thing that matters with those formats is bit depth and sample rate.

anyways, just make a silent clip once.

i am sure ableton didn't put in the double click and make an empty clip because then you would have empty clips taking up HD space everytime you do it.

with the new liveclip format though, they could probably implement something like that in the future without it being based on audio data.

anti-banausic · Post by **anti-banausic** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 5:50 pm

Okay, I am one of those old (well, since 3) live users.

Hoffman2k I just wanted to thank you because I actually posted something recently in the wishlist that is similar to this, but to me makes more sense in general; I am speaking of MIDI in for the Ableton FX.

This however, is a wonderful workaround. I am going to start using it, and perhaps abusing it.

Many thanks.

I still think it would be easier and make more sense to have the Ableton FX have MIDI in so that you could create MIDI control tracks for automation, but until then.....this is the way to go, and very easy to pick up.

Thanks again,
Cheers,
AB

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:50 am

The audio modulation matrix

What is the audio modulation matrix?

It's a collection of "dummy tracks" for various effects.
It's pretty self-explanatory. You insert a song or loop in Track 1.
The audio goes trough the matrix. You can rearrange the order of the tracks (effects) to get different results.

If you want to store a track for later use. Select the first clip of a track. Hold the shift-key. Select the last clip on that track. And drag it to your browser.

This was the last part of the dummy clips tutorial. I hope you enjoyed it.
It's pretty basic stuff. Although it may not be that obvious to find out.

Cheers

-Bjorn

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE AUDIO MODULATION MATRIX EXAMPLE

Bumblebeeman · Post by **Bumblebeeman** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 7:30 pm

Cheers for this, i've dabbled with this trick before but never really explored it fully ,your examples really help illustrate the potential.

thats the beauty of the new clip import/group devices in L5

supose what we need now is a user preset area for all this type of thing

Zilch · Post by **Zilch** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 8:08 pm

[quote="hoffman2k"]
Yep an old trick. But most Live users i come across. Are not aware of this.
And in addition to the method in Live 4. In 5 you can export tracks with the automation saved. Definitely worth repeating :wink:
[quote]

could you clarify this? export them to where? other live sets?

what we really need to be able to do is bring live recorded automation from the arrangement view into the session view so that clips could have more "natural" sounding automation. or is there a way to do this and i'm just not seeing it

starving student · Post by **starving student** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 2:46 am

Zilch wrote:[what we really need to be able to do is bring live recorded automation from the arrangement view into the session view so that clips could have more "natural" sounding automation. or is there a way to do this and i'm just not seeing it

I'd like to know the answer to this too