Good day everybody
This might sound dumb but no question is a dumb one. I am very new to Live and use the mouse and keyboard to create clips, I recently recorded my first track on Live using some of its built in clips and also using clips that i created in Live. However when I'm done recording, the volume of the end product is lower that that of the set when it was still playing in live. Please is there anyway that I can make the recorded set play louder and also prevent echo from happening when I use a mic to do live vocals as the feedback through my headphone are a couple seconds delayed.
Please feel free to give some input.
Grey Thriller
Volume lowers
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Ableton_David
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Re: Volume lowers
Hi, and welcome to Live! See answers below:
Level of exported track: try normalizing the track on export (enable this in the export window). You might also try raising the volume on the Master track, if it is too low - you'll want to make sure you have a Limiter on the Master track if you're doing this, though, so that you don't end up clipping. It's generally not a bad idea to have a Limiter on your Master track anyway.
Mic latency: are you using an external interface, or the built-in sound card on your computer? Also, are you on Windows or OSX? If you're on Windows, then you'll want to use ASIO - if you don't have an external interface, then you'll want to download ASIO4All. Lastly, you can turn off monitoring on the track - enable In/Out view, and set Monitor to "Off."
Level of exported track: try normalizing the track on export (enable this in the export window). You might also try raising the volume on the Master track, if it is too low - you'll want to make sure you have a Limiter on the Master track if you're doing this, though, so that you don't end up clipping. It's generally not a bad idea to have a Limiter on your Master track anyway.
Mic latency: are you using an external interface, or the built-in sound card on your computer? Also, are you on Windows or OSX? If you're on Windows, then you'll want to use ASIO - if you don't have an external interface, then you'll want to download ASIO4All. Lastly, you can turn off monitoring on the track - enable In/Out view, and set Monitor to "Off."
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Grey Thriller
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- Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2009 6:12 pm
Re: Volume lowers
Hi David
Thank you for the information regarding the volume level.
Mic latency: Well when I'm busy in Live I use a headset with mic and yes I am using Windows on board sound Realtek ALC850 8-channel CODEC.
If I were to download the ASIO4All would that not cause conflict between the two devices?
Thank you for the information regarding the volume level.
Mic latency: Well when I'm busy in Live I use a headset with mic and yes I am using Windows on board sound Realtek ALC850 8-channel CODEC.
If I were to download the ASIO4All would that not cause conflict between the two devices?
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Ableton_David
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- Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:31 pm
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Re: Volume lowers
ASIO4All would help with the latency.
Re: Volume lowers
I have the same sound card (or close relative) that you do and can truthfully say ASIO4All worked wonders on the mic and line-in latency problems I experienced. It's "non-destructive" as far as your operating system & multimedia drivers go, not to mention your Live sets. What I mean is you can turn it off or uninstall it without any adverse effects on your system.
Re: the loudness of your mix, you can use compression on the individual tracks or even across the Main, but it's best to not get carried away with it or you'll end up with a lifeless wall of sound. I sometimes use the "Gentle Squeeze" compressor preset across Main when I'm completely done with my mix. It gives a nice little kick to the loudness without squashing the life out of the mix. I don't do that while mixing though. Better to get all your tracks at levels that work together before trying to make the final output louder, I think.
Re: the loudness of your mix, you can use compression on the individual tracks or even across the Main, but it's best to not get carried away with it or you'll end up with a lifeless wall of sound. I sometimes use the "Gentle Squeeze" compressor preset across Main when I'm completely done with my mix. It gives a nice little kick to the loudness without squashing the life out of the mix. I don't do that while mixing though. Better to get all your tracks at levels that work together before trying to make the final output louder, I think.
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Grey Thriller
- Posts: 28
- Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2009 6:12 pm
Re: Volume lowers
Thanks for your in-put Marc, I really appreciate it. I am relatively new to live only worked on a live 7 demo and even though I read the manually religiously I somehow don't understand all the jargon that goes on in it, hopefully it will all make sense in the near future. 
..I have downloaded the ASIO4All and will be giving it a go tonight. Once again your in-put is gratefully appreciated.
..I have downloaded the ASIO4All and will be giving it a go tonight. Once again your in-put is gratefully appreciated.Re: Volume lowers
I hope my answers help Grey. I'm still a long way from being a Live guru but have received an incredible amount of help from the Ableton forums as I've come along, so I try to pay that forward when I see a question I can answer.
One other tidbit about ASIO4All that I'll mention: after you've installed it, you'll go into Live's preferences and under the Audio tab, select "ASIO" for the driver type. This alone solved all my latency problems. However, if for any reason you decide to go back and change the Driver Type back to whatever it used to be (MMX/DirectX, etc.), don't be surprised if you get some glitchy behavior during playback unless you exit and restart Live. I experienced this, I don't know if others have. I do not believe it is a problem with ASIO4All; rather, a problem with the MMX drivers (I was switching back and forth after installing ASIO4All just to see the differences
Anyway, if you experience any weirdness after changing the Driver Type in prefs, try restarting Live before panicking
One other tidbit about ASIO4All that I'll mention: after you've installed it, you'll go into Live's preferences and under the Audio tab, select "ASIO" for the driver type. This alone solved all my latency problems. However, if for any reason you decide to go back and change the Driver Type back to whatever it used to be (MMX/DirectX, etc.), don't be surprised if you get some glitchy behavior during playback unless you exit and restart Live. I experienced this, I don't know if others have. I do not believe it is a problem with ASIO4All; rather, a problem with the MMX drivers (I was switching back and forth after installing ASIO4All just to see the differences
Anyway, if you experience any weirdness after changing the Driver Type in prefs, try restarting Live before panicking -
Grey Thriller
- Posts: 28
- Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2009 6:12 pm
Re: Volume lowers
Hey Marc. What I experienced last night after I've installed ASIO4All and changed it to my driver type , no sound could be heard , I then saw that the ASIO4All menu then also gave me the option to play my headphones through this driver and it WORKED..
..but then a power cut happened and I was not able to hear what the recording quality was like , but with regards to Live playing sound back through this drive made me happy and thought that only good can come from this. I do on the other hand hope that the power cut did not affect my pc in a negative way though, for now that is my main concern.
Thanks again for your extra cents as every cent helps
..but then a power cut happened and I was not able to hear what the recording quality was like , but with regards to Live playing sound back through this drive made me happy and thought that only good can come from this. I do on the other hand hope that the power cut did not affect my pc in a negative way though, for now that is my main concern.
Thanks again for your extra cents as every cent helps
Re: Volume lowers
Hi Grey,
Ouch... when you mention a power cut, do you mean that your computer crashed and shut down?
I think you are on the right track when you solved the "no audio" problem. I initially had that very same problem. When I went into the ASIO4All control panel I noticed I didn't have some of those little aqua-blue rectangle icons to the left of my audio devices, where each input and output has a separate button. Apparently that is an on/off switch for each of the inputs and outputs of your audio card (yeah, I'm a typical computer geek who never reads the documentation to confirm this).
One last thing regarding the audio output to headphones or speakers: Take look at your operating system's control panel for audio devices. On Windows, it'd be the volume control listed under Sounds, and on a Mac it'd be under Preferences, Audio: Make sure that you don't have any volume levels set to zero for your line and mic output and also that you don't have the device muted. If only hear sound through the headphone output on your computer, it may well be that you have the "line out" volume muted.
Ouch... when you mention a power cut, do you mean that your computer crashed and shut down?
I think you are on the right track when you solved the "no audio" problem. I initially had that very same problem. When I went into the ASIO4All control panel I noticed I didn't have some of those little aqua-blue rectangle icons to the left of my audio devices, where each input and output has a separate button. Apparently that is an on/off switch for each of the inputs and outputs of your audio card (yeah, I'm a typical computer geek who never reads the documentation to confirm this).
One last thing regarding the audio output to headphones or speakers: Take look at your operating system's control panel for audio devices. On Windows, it'd be the volume control listed under Sounds, and on a Mac it'd be under Preferences, Audio: Make sure that you don't have any volume levels set to zero for your line and mic output and also that you don't have the device muted. If only hear sound through the headphone output on your computer, it may well be that you have the "line out" volume muted.
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Grey Thriller
- Posts: 28
- Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2009 6:12 pm
Re: Volume lowers
Hey Marc
The power went down in our house and everything went out, it was an electrical fault and had nothing to do with my computer crashing, thankfully,...after switching on my pc again and going on Live, I received a warning notice which said that I should report this and it also gave me a certain document name , I did not however write this down and would like to know where to access it again if it is that I should really send this report to Ableton.
That is one thing that I did notice, I could only hear the sound through my headphones and if I wanted to hear it through my stereo speakers I had to access the preference and do the correct settings in audio to have it play through there. I cannot hear them both play at the same time, you rite, I should check that out as well.
With regards to the warning notice should I save it and send it to Ableton and how do I access it again?
The power went down in our house and everything went out, it was an electrical fault and had nothing to do with my computer crashing, thankfully,...after switching on my pc again and going on Live, I received a warning notice which said that I should report this and it also gave me a certain document name , I did not however write this down and would like to know where to access it again if it is that I should really send this report to Ableton.
That is one thing that I did notice, I could only hear the sound through my headphones and if I wanted to hear it through my stereo speakers I had to access the preference and do the correct settings in audio to have it play through there. I cannot hear them both play at the same time, you rite, I should check that out as well.
With regards to the warning notice should I save it and send it to Ableton and how do I access it again?
Re: Volume lowers
I'm afraid I don't know the answer to the question about the warning notice, Grey. I can only guess it was related to some type of recovery file or crash dump. You could probably post your question directly to Ableton tech support and get some direction. In my experience they are fabulous -- I've never failed to get a meaningful response from a live person within 24 hours of asking, which is really impressive to me because they're in Europe and I'm in the USA!